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In Pennsylvania this traffic in white people continued until about 1831, when public sentiment compelled it to be discontinued.
Fifty thousand white people were thus sold in Virginia, and many of them bartered for tobacco.
CHAPTER XVII
PIONEER MONEY
" THE subject of a national mint for the United States was first intro- duced by Robert Morris, the patriot and financier of the Revolution. As head of the finance department, Mr. Morris was instructed by Congress to prepare a report on the foreign coins then in circulation in the United States. On the 15th of January, 1782, he laid before Congress an expo- sition of the whole subject. Accompanying this report was a plan for Ameri- can coinage. But it was mainly through his efforts, in connection with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, that a mint was established in the early history of the Union of the States. On the 15th of April, 1790, Congress instructed the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, to prepare and report a proper plan for the establishment of a national mint, and Mr. Hamilton presented his report at the next session. An act was framed establishing the mint, which finally passed both houses and received President Washington's approval April 2, 1792.
" A lot of ground was purchased on Seventh Street near Arch, and appropriations were made for erecting the requisite buildings. An old still- house, which stood on the lot, had first to be removed. In an account-book of that time we find an entry on the 3Ist of July, 1792, of the sale of some old materials of the still-house for seven shillings and sixpence, which 'Mr. Rittenhouse directed should be laid out for punch in laying the foundation- stone.'
" The first building erected in the United States for public use under the authority of the federal government was a structure for the United States Mint. This was a plain brick edifice, on the east side of Seventh Street near Arch. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the corner-stone of which was laid by David Rittenhouse, director of the mint, on July 31, 1792. In the following October operations of coining commenced. It was occupied for about forty years. On the 19th of May, 1829, an act was passed by Congress locating the United States Mint on its present site.
" The first coinage of the United States was silver half-dimes, in Octo- ber, 1792, of which Washington makes mention in his address to Congress, on November 6, 1792, as follows: 'There has been a small beginning in the coinage of half-dimes, the want of small coins in circulation calling the first attention to them.' The first metal purchased for coinage was six pounds
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
of old copper at one shilling and three pence per pound, which was coined and delivered to the treasurer in 1793. The first deposit of silver bullion was made on July 18, 1794, by the Bank of Maryland. It consisted of ' coins of France,' amounting to eighty thousand seven hundred and fifteen dollars and seventy-three and a half cents. The first returns of silver coins to the treas- urer was made on October, 15, 1794. The first deposit of gold bullion for coinage was made by Moses Brown, merchant, of Boston, on February 12, 1705; it was of gold ingots, worth two thousand two hundred and seventy- six dollars and seventy-two cents, which was paid for in silver coins.
" The first return of gold coinage was on July 31, 1795, and consisted of seven hundred and forty-four half-eagles. The first delivery of eagles was on September 22, same year, and consisted of four hundred pieces.
" Previous to the coinage of silver dollars at the Philadelphia Mint, in 1794, the following amusing incidents occurred in Congress while the em- blems and devices proposed for the reverse field of that coin were being discussed.
" A member of the House from the South bitterly opposed the choice of the eagle, on the ground of its being the 'king of birds,' and hence neither proper nor suitable to represent a nation whose institutions and in- terests were wholly inimical to monarchical forms of government. Judge Thatcher playfully, in reply, suggested that perhaps a goose might suit the gentleman, as it was a rather humble and republican bird, and would also be serviceable in other respects, as the goslings would answer to place upon the dimes. This answer created considerable merriment, and the irate Southerner, conceiving the humorous rejoinder as an insult, sent a challenge to the judge, who promptly declined it. The bearer, rather astonished, asked, 'Will you be branded as a coward?' 'Certainly, if he pleases,' replied Thatcher ; 'I always was one, and he knew it, or he would never have risked a challenge.' The affair occasioned much mirth, and, in due time, former existing cordial relations were restored between the parties, the irritable Southerner concluding there was nothing to be gained in fighting with one who fired nothing but jokes.
" Previous to the passage of the law by the federal government for regu- lating the coins of the United States, much perplexity arose from the use of no less than four different currencies or rates, at which one species of coin was recoined, in the different parts of the Union. Thus, in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Virginia, and Kentucky the dollar was recoined at six shillings; in New York and North Carolina at eight shillings; in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland at seven shillings and six pence; in Georgia and South Carolina at four shillings and eight pence. The subject had engaged the attention of the Congress of the old confederation, and the present system of the coins is formed upon the principles laid down in their resolution of 1786, by which the denominations
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of money of account were required to be dollars (the dollar to be the unit), dimes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and mills or thousandths of a dollar. Nothing can be more simple or convenient than this decimal subdivision. The terms are proper because they express the proportions which they are intended to designate. The dollar was wisely chosen, as it corresponded with the Spanish coin, with which we had been long familiar."-G. G. Evans's History of the United States Mint.
TABLE OF THE DENOMINATIONS OF UNITED STATES MONEY Standard Weight as established by Law
Dwt. Gr.
$, cent
3
12
Io mills make I cent.
7
00
1 dime O
2016
Io cents make I dime
I
1 dollar
1
S
1 dollar S
16
Io dimes make 1 dollar
17
8
14 eagle
2
1 eagle
5
9
Io dollars make 1 eagle
IO
18
The mills were imaginary and never coined. The old cents were made of copper, round, and about one inch in diameter and one-sixth of an inch in thickness. Silver was first coined into money eight hundred and sixty-nine years before Christ.
PIONEER BANKS
The pioneer act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania regulating banks was passed March 21, 1813, but Governor Snyder vetoed the bill. On March 21, 1814, this bill was "log-rolled" through the Legislature and became a law over Governor Snyder's veto. Previous to that time banks were organized under articles of association.
CURRENCY
" The best currency of those times was New York bank-notes, and the poorest those of the Western banks. Pennsylvania bank-notes had only a small circulation in the country, and held a place in popular estimation inter- mediate between the above. There was a discount on all these, ranging from one to twenty per cent. It was for the interest of the private bankers to cir- culate the notes on which there was the largest discount, and as a consequence the county was flooded with the bills of banks the locations of which were hardly known. Every business man had to keep a 'Bank-Note Detector,' revised and published monthly or weekly, on hand, and was not sure then that the notes he accepted would not be pronounced worthless by the next mail.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
There was hardly a week without a bank failure, and nearly every man had bills of broken banks in his possession. To add to the perplexities of the situation, there were innumerable counterfeits which could with difficulty be distinguished from the genuine. Granting that the bank was good, and that the discount was properly figured, there was no assurance that the bill was what it purported to be. All this was a terrible annoyance and loss to the people, but it was a regular bonanza to the 'shaving-shops.' Even of the uncertain bank-notes there was not enough to do the business of the com- munity. Most of the buying and selling was done on long credit, and occa- sionally a manufacturing firm, to ease itself along and relieve the necessities of the public, would issue a mongrel coin, which went by the name of ' pewter- inctum.'"
Up to 1860 the business of the country was greatly carried on by a cur- rency of State banks, orders, and county orders, and the more you had of this money sometimes the poorer you were. We have now (1901) three thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight millionaires in the United States. Up to about 1860 there were not more than six or seven millionaires in the country. Eighty-seven per cent. of our millionaires under our improved conditions, have built their own fortunes, and most of these from extreme poverty.
CHAPTER XVIII
" SCOTCH-IRISHI -ORIGIN OF THE TERM UNDER JAMES I .- LORDS AND LAIRDS -EARLY SETTLERS IN PENNSYLVANIA
SCOTCH-IRISH
THE term " Scotch-Irish" is so frequently used, particularly in Pennsyl- vania, and is so little understood, even by those who claim such relationship, that I consider it appropriate in this place to explain its derivation. In the time of James I. of England, the Irish earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell con- spired against his government, fled from Ireland, were proclaimed outlaws, and their estates, consisting of about five hundred thousand acres of land, were seized by the crown. The king divided these lands into small tracts, and gave tracts to persons from his own country (Scotland), on the sole condition that each individual securing a tract of land should cross over into Ireland within four years and reside upon the land permanently. A second insurrection soon after gave occasion for another large forfeiture, and nearly six counties in the province of Ulster were confiscated and taken possession of by the officers of the crown. King James was a zealous sectarian, and his primary object was to root out the native Irish, who were all Catholics, hostile to his government, and almost continually plotting against it, and to populate Ireland with those from his own country (Scotland), whom he knew would be loyal to him.
The distance from Scotland to County Antrim, in Ireland, was but twenty miles. The lands offered by James free of cost were among the best and most productive in the Emerald Isle, though they had been made barren by the strifes of the times and the indolence of a degraded peasantry. Having the power of the government to encourage and protect them, the inducements offered to the industrious Scotch could not be resisted. Thousands went over. Many of them, though not lords, were lairds, or those who held lands direct from the crown, and all were men of enterprise and energy, and above the average in intelligence. They went to work to restore the land to fruitfulness, and to show the superiority of their habits and belief compared with those of the natives among whom they settled. They soon made to blossom as a rose the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Caven, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Lon- donderry, Monaghan, and Tyrone,-all names familiar to Northwestern Penn- sylvania settlers.
These were the first Protestants to settle in Ireland, and they at once
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
secured the ascendency in the counties in which they settled, and their de- scendants have maintained that ascendency to the present time against the efforts of the Church of England on the one hand and the Roman Catholic Church on the other. These Scots refused to intermarry with the Irish who surrounded them. The Scotch were Saxon in blood and Presbyterian in religion, while the Irish were Celtic in blood and Roman Catholic in religion. These were elements that would not coalesce; hence the races are as distinct in Ireland to-day, after a lapse of more than two hundred and fifty years, as when the Scotch first crossed over. The term Scotch-Irish is purely American. It is not used in Ireland; in the United States it is given to the Protestant emigrants from the north of Ireland, simply because they were descendants of the Scots who had in former times taken up their residence in Ireland.
But few Scotch-Irish emigrants found their way to the Province of Penn- sylvania prior to 1719. Those that came in that year came from the north of Ireland. Subsequently the descendants of the Scots in Ireland were bitterly persecuted by the English government; hence thousands of them migrated to and settled in Pennsylvania. In 1729, thousands of Scotch-Irish arrived in Philadelphia from Ireland, as well as some English, Welsh, and Scotch people, many of whom were sold in servitude for a term of from three to seven years, for about forty dollars each, to pay passage-money or for their goods. For a further description of this form of slavery, see chapter on German Redemptioners, p. 310.
In September, 1736, one thousand Scotch-Irish families sailed from Bel- fast because of an inability to renew their land leases upon satisfactory terms, and the most of these people settled in the eastern and middle counties of Pennsylvania. By a change of residence they hoped to find an unrestrained field for the exercise of industry and skill, and for the enjoyment of religious opinions. They brought with them a hatred of oppression and a love of free- dom that served much to give that independent tone to the sentiments of the people of the province which prevailed in their controversies with the English government years before these Scots entertained a thought of American political independence.
The Scotch-Irish who settled in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania brought its fair lands under cultivation. They fought the savages and stood as a wall of fire against savage forays eastward. It is said that between 1771 and 1773 over twenty-five thousand of these Scotch-Irish were driven from Ireland by the rapacity of Irish lairds or landlords, and located either in that rich valley or west of the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania. This was just before the Revolutionary War, and while the angry controversies that preceded it were taking place between the colonists and the English govern- ment. Hence these Pennsylvanians were in just the right frame of mind to make them espouse to a man the side of the patriots. A Tory was unheard of among them. They were found as military leaders in all times of danger, and
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
were among the most prominent law-makers through and after the seven years' struggle for freedom and human rights. The Scotch-Irish in the United States have furnished Presidents, United States Senators, Congress- men, judges, and many others in civil as well as in all stations of life.
The pioneers of Northwestern Pennsylvania were made up principally of these Scotch-Irish or their descendants. I am indebted to the " History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania," 1876, for the data and facts contained in this article.
CHAPTER XIX
THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM-ITS INCEPTION-INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA -STATE EFFORT-HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE STATE-PROGRESS OF EDUCATION, ETC.
As an introduction to this chapter, I cannot do better than reproduce an extract from a speech delivered by myself before a convention of Jefferson County school directors,-viz. :
" GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION,-I thank you for this honor. I highly appreciate it. As the representatives of thirty-two school districts, two hundred and forty schools, and twelve thousand pupils, we have met this day to consider modes and methods by which we can best advance the cause of education. This is wise and patriotic. Perhaps it might be well as an introduction to our work to review a little history as to the origin and present status of our common schools. Martin Luther, a German, was the first to advocate the public school system. This he did in 1524, ably, vigorously, and boldly. He asserted that the 'government, as the natural guardian of all the young, has the right to compel the people to support schools.' He further said, ' Now, nothing is more necessary than the training of those who are to come after us and bear rule.' The education of the young of all classes in free schools was one of the objects nearest Luther's heart. Scotland is the only other country of Europe that took an early interest in public school edu- cation. In 1560, John Knox urged the necessity of schools for the poor. These grand humane impulses of John Knox and other Scotch fathers have spread abroad, ' wide as the waters be,' only to germinate, bud, and bloom into the grandest social, theological, and political conditions ever attained by man. But it remained for the Puritan fathers of New England (America) to completely develop the common school system of our time. In New England education early made great progress. Under the eaves of their church the Puritans always built a school-house. As early as 1635, Boston had a school for 'the teaching of all children with us.' In 1647, Massachusetts made the support of schools compulsory and education universal and free by the enact- ment of the following law,-viz .: 'It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within the town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general by way of supply, as the major part of those who ordered the prudentials of the town shall appoint, provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns.' In Connecticut, in 1665, every town that did not keep a school for three months in the year was liable to a fine. On April I, A.D. 1834, one hundred and eighty-seven years later than the enactment of the common school law of Massachusetts, the law creating the common school system of Penn- sylvania was approved by George Wolf, governor. Our second State superin-
Thomas H. Burrows
tendent of public instruction was appointed under this law. His name was Thomas H. Burrows.
" The foundation of our common school system was built by the con- vention to form a State constitution in 1790. The article as incorporated in that document reads as follows :
"'SECTION I. The Legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provided by law for the establishment of schools throughout the State, in such a manner that the poor may be taught gratis.
"' SECTION 2. The arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or more seminaries of learning.'
" This educational article was also incorporated into the constitution of 1838. But little effort was made under the first constitution by legislative bodies to establish schools under the first section. Their only aim seemed to
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
be to aid the churches and neighborhood schools to carry on the work they had been doing for a hundred years. The pioneer effort by the Legislature seems to have been in 1794, when, on December 8, 1794, a committee was appointed by the House to report a proper mode of carrying into effect that part of the governor's message in regard to schools. The committee reported as follows :
"' Resolved, That schools may be established throughout the State, in such a manner that the poor may be taught gratis.
"' Resolved, That one-fifth part of the expense necessary to support the masters of said schools be paid out of the general funds of the State.
"' Resolved, That the remaining four-fifths of the said expense be paid in each county, respectively, by means of a county tax.
"' Resolved, That the said schools be put under the direction of trustees in each county, subject to such limitations and regulations, as to the distribu- tion of their funds, the appointment of masters, and their general arrange- ments, as shall be provided by law.
"' Resolved, That the schools thus established shall be free schools, and that at least spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic shall be taught therein.
"' Resolved, That ten thousand dollars a year be appropriated out of the funds of this Commonwealth to encourage the establishment of academies, in which grammar, the elements of mathematics, geography, and history shall be taught.
"' Resolved, That the said sum be apportioned amongst the city and several counties of the State in proportion to their respective population.
"' Resolved, That whenever a sum sufficient, with the addition of the sums proposed to be given by the public, to support an academy for the purpose aforesaid shall have been subscribed, or contributed, the additional sum of one hundred dollars a year shall be given out of the public treasury in aid of such academy.
"' Resolved, That when the number of academies in any county shall be so great that the sum to which such county is entitled becomes insufficient to afford one hundred dollars to each, it shall be divided by the trustees afore- said among the whole of such academies, in proportion to the number of masters employed and scholars taught, and the length of time in each during which each academy is so kept and supported.
"' Resolved, That whenever a sum is subscribed and contributed suf- ficient, if added to the income of any of the inferior schools, to procure the instruction contemplated to be given in the academies, such school shall be- come an academy and receive the additional bounty of one hundred dollars as aforesaid, subject to a reduction in the manner aforesaid.'
" A bill was prepared in accordance with these resolutions and passed both branches, but was lost in conference committee. This was forty years before the enactment of 1834."
35I
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
THE PIONEER ACT
On March 1, 1802, Governor Mckean approved the pioneer law of this State making a provision for the education of the poor, the title being " An Act to provide for the Education of Poor Children gratis."
It was found that the act of 1802 was unsatisfactory, and, in the hope of betterment, an act of 1804 was passed entitled " An Act to provide for the more Effectual Education of the Children of the Poor gratis."
Agitation and discussion over this law resulted in the act of 1809, better drawn, with the same title and aim.
THE LAW OF 1809
" AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR GRATIS
"SECTION I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That it shall be the duty of the Commissioners of the several counties within this Commonwealth, at the time of issuing their precepts to the assessors, annually to direct and require the assessor of each and every township, ward, and district to receive from the parents the names of all the children between the ages of five and twelve years who reside therein, and whose parents are unable to pay for their schooling ; and the Commissioners when they hold appeals shall hear all per- sons who may apply for alterations or additions of names in the said list, and make all such alterations as to them shall appear just and reasonable, and agreeably to the true intent and meaning of this act; and after adjustment they shall transmit a correct copy thereof to the respective assessor, requiring him to inform the parents of the children therein contained that they are at liberty to send them to the most convenient school free of expense; and the said assessor, for any neglect of the above duty, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five dollars, to be sued for by any person, and recovered as debts of that amount are now recoverable, and to be paid into the county treasury, for county purposes : Provided always, That the names of no children whose edu- cation is otherwise provided for shall be received by the assessors of any town- ship or district.
" SECTION 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said assessor shall send a list of the names of the children aforesaid to the teachers of schools within his township, ward, or district, whose duty it shall be to teach all such children as may come to their schools in the same manner as other children are taught, and each teacher shall keep a day-book, in which he shall enter the number of days each child entitled to the provisions of this act shall be taught, and he shall also enter in said book the amount of all stationery furnished for the use of said child, from which book he shall make out his account against the county, on oath or affirmation, agreeably to the
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