USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
There was once far less dependence upon place and office than now. No men were to be found living, as now, by the trade or profession of a politician. When every man's mind was influenced by the moderate things prevailing around him, all seemed contented with their individual callings, as learned from their boyhood; and they rested in the same till death, or increase of goods, changed their position. It is easy now to remember such men as Burd, Biddle, Frebiger, &c., as perpetual Prothonotaries, Clerks of Courts, Regis-
21*
246
Progress and State of Society.
ters, Recorders, &c. Indeed, it was once as common to see official papers, stating a record as done " at Brockdens," as at " the Recorder's office." In short, it was only in the annual elective offices that we ever witnessed any changes. It was only about the time of Governor M'Kean's service, 1799, that the community ever saw the new principle carried out, that "the spoils of office belong to the victors" in the election! Since then, we have often witnessed distribution of offices without regard to merit or to qualifications. "They had served their party," and that constituted their claim to reward ! On this new principle of action, we have been but too often reminded of our Bible declaration-that " it is a sorry sight to see princes walking on foot and servants riding on asses ;" or, like the cave of Adullam, we find places occupied by every one that is in debt or distress, and every one that has been discarded ! There was no such thing as petitioning and urging for office in Governor Mifflin's time, and none in Washington's or Adams' administration. The turning out system began with M'Kean, Governor of Pennsylvania, to a great degree, and Mr. Jefferson, as President, in a lesser degree ; but they were the beginners.
The restrictions set upon our mechanics before the Revolution is in general but very little known now to the mass of the people. The mother country purposed to engross the making and vending of almost all we used. Even our very minds were put under her teaching, and we were scarcely permitted to think, but in such kind of literature as she chose to command and bestow. In this way, we had our Primers and Dilworth's Spelling books and Arithmetics. We made no books for ourselves; and since we have, in more modern times, essayed to form our own literature, we have seen it perpetually abused in foreign reviews, &c., as defective and imbecile. Some of our own people have so far subscribed to this selfish and perverted design, as to give no value to our home productions, until they had previously, by unbecoming subserviency, gained first the foreign passport of approbation !
But to return to the former colonial state of our mechanics, to notice which this article was specially intended, viz :- The state of former restriction had so far passed away that when the fervid debate in Congress occurred in 1833, upon the tariff, there were hardly any individuals then found who could rightly discuss the real foundation upon which the mechanics of the Revolutionary period entertained hopes of free trade and of protective rights and privileges. The debaters, who pretended to remember the past, affected to claim far more for the working class of common tradesmen than they ever desired or expected from their original purpose of self-government and freedom !
Mr. Webster's speech, of February, 1833, against Calhoun, made the case plain, that all who debated at the time of our infancy of government, did admit then that our mechanics should be "pro- tected and encouraged ;" and so, the earliest act for our revenue
247
Progress and State of Society.
spoke also. But mark sundry coincident facts also :- It was the universal expectation and promise of the Revolution, that the former restrictions of the parent country on our domestic industry should be released, and that, therefore, numerous trades (not properly manu- factories) would be allowed free exercise, and have also the help of a duty, such as a necessary revenue could grant. It was upon this principle that the first petitions which came before Congress, coming from Baltimore and New York, claimed protection for some domestic trades. There was at no time, in the early days, any hesitancy to grant such requisite aid to any of the branches, which could reasonably expect to stand. In fact, they were only asked by those branches which had already been exercising in the country.
The tariff advocates now, however, used the foregoing facts, so far as understood by them, to bespeak a gratuity to all kinds of manu- factories, upon large scales, and with a right to tax the community from 50 to 100 per cent., for their own support. Against this indul- , gence to a part of the community, many came forward and demanded protection against the selfishness and taxation, which the others affected to claim as all their own! In the strife which this dilemma of opposing interests created, it came to be discovered, by some, that although the first framers of the Constitution, and the earliest legis- ators acting thereon, had thought themselves warranted to couple protection with revenue, the reading was not to be found in the Constitution itself! From this necessity of providing for others, we had been protected by an overruling Providence, which had made our fathers to overlook such an onerous grant! It is from this cause that the friends of " free trade" feel assured, as they say, that if any revenue act shall now pass, having the words "for protection of domestic manufactures" included, and as a cause of revenue, the act can be nullified by the Supreme Court of the United States!
Under such circumstances, the truest system of tariff is, for each State that has the most interest to encourage any given staples or fabrics, to bestow premiums and bounties at their own costs. The failure of the intended tariff act to take place, was boldly declared to be a general national calamity-such as would shake : ociety to its foundation ! The Connecticut Courant, for instance, deliberately published thus, viz : "Manufactories must stop; mechanics' shops must be shut up; all kinds of business must be reduced. The change of the tariff will destroy tenfold more property, and deprive tenfold more persons of wages and employment, and produce more pecuniary distress, than the burning of every merchant ship in the United States! ! " The Baltimore Gazette, at the same time, asserted in substance the same amount of distress. It said, sugar would be abandoned-so, also, all iron works would cease, and flour would fall to $2 50 cts., and beef and pork be at $4 and $5! Not one of the predicted evils came to pass ; and it is a part of the history of our country and countrymen, that political prophecies are not to be trusted, although vehement and passionate. God, who " careth for
¿48
Progress and State of Society.
men," will still take care for men; society, if virtuous and just, will still live and prosper! God, as a common Father, has equally pro- vided and intended free trade for all mankind ; but such is the pre- vailing selfishness of man, that, until nations can reciprocally agree to free trade, the selfish policy of home protection must be adhered to for necessary self-defence and protection.
In Philadelphia, before the existence of banks, which have been the life and soul of city trade and fortune making-when all the business was engrossed by the men of estate and property, there was a marked difference of respect and feeling towards the rich,-chiefly because they were then of rare occurrence. Now we have become so familiar with the sudden rise of the fortunate poor to wealth, power and pride, that we no longer feel reverence. The swing of the pendulum now goes too far the other way ; for now very little men, with nothing but their self-conceit to sustain them, push intc every post of elevation and rank! "Princes go now on foot, and servants ride aloft on asses !"
"No relics of past time (said the Hon. Jonathan Roberts,) ought to be held more precious or more worthy of preservation, than the samples of apparel of our functionaries, civil and military, of the time of the Revolution, and more especially of our mothers of that day." "At the era of the Revolution, when so many were ex- hausted by the struggle, the people had learned the true value of food and raiment. They then lived frugal in all things. But since then, our money is absorbed by a wanton consumption of imported luxuries; and we are almost perpetually afflicting and scourging ourselves by onerous balances of trade on the wrong side." We are our own tormentors !
[ observe, in 1834-5, that the houses in Philadelphia are then being made too high for comfort, convenience or even interest ; although the last is most manifestly the cause of the four storied elevation of stores. Sad havoc, it is to be feared, will some day occur to those buildings in the way of fire ; and then they will be found too high for extinguishment by our engines, and thus be subjected afterwards to extra premiums for insurance. I notice, as the old houses of the · first erection of the city are receding from use and observation, that, as a general rule, the tops of the windows of the second story exactly agree with the bottom or sills of the windows of the second story in the modern houses of respectable standing. [I wrote this just before the great fire at New York. and in foresight of their inability to put out the fires in such high houses-so fully demonstrated.]
I have been accustomed, for a few years past, to make use of New Year's day, somewhat like a New Yorker, as a special occasion for visiting the city, and there to hunt up my earliest and least familiar acquaintances,-thus to keep alive early recollections, and to preserve their respect and remembrance. In January, 1836, (I mark the time for the sake of the present special record,) I made calls upon as many as twenty families. I pass by the notice of
249
Progress and State of Society.
themselves personally-such as their own waning persons, and their new and growing progenies, just starting into life where I had once begun-as I wish only to notice the wonderful change of their houses in furniture and in amplitude of rooms, &u. The whole is such as to fully convince me, that I can no longer employ my pen to illustrate the changing manners and times of our city. I must be done with that! I can now only say, in general terms, that the change from the olden time is so entire, and the traces of the past are so wholly effaced, that there is now scarcely any vestige left! The former was an age by itself of homely and domestic comfort, without pomp, parade or show; and this is now an entire age of luxury and cumbrous pomp. Now our "merchants are princes," and our tradesmen are " men of fortune :" all dwell in palaces. The former little parlours are gone ; even large parlours now are not enough-but two must be permanently cast into one, by double doors :- this not for family use and comfort, (they are too refined and delicate for use !) but for admiration and show! while the family itself, for the sake of indulgence and freedom, seek other apartments behind, or upstairs, or in the basement story! These big rooms are necessary, because social visits being no longer in vogue, but super- ceded by parties and "routes," they must thus have halls sufficiently large to hold their semi-annual gatherings! It is really astonishing to contemplate the class of citizens who hold such houses, and the annual expenditures they make, even in the same relations in busi- ness wherein their fathers could only live moderately and frugally. One has only to walk along any given fashionable street, and read the names on the costly dwelling houses, and see how generally they comprise the class of fortunate dealers in all manners of mer- chandise and trades! One cannot but wonder how so many fami- lies can find means to sustain their freedom of expense. It is, in fact, so common now to be lavish in show, that riches can scarcely confer distinction ! Surely we have a wonderful country, where the road to wealth is so broad and safe-wherein so many travel and so many " go ahead!" We wonder, indeed, how long it may con- tinue ! The lessons of universal history has been, that luxury always produces its own downfall and ruin. Shall we ever see this? Self love and self-confidence answer, No! Nous verrons.
The increased style of elegance of all public edifices is strikingly manifest since the year 1830. Every thing goes now upon a scale of magnificence. Such is our exchange, our banks, our poor house, our prisons, hotels, theatres, market houses, colleges, churches, mint, water works, Girard college, &c., &c. Every thing is now as mani- festly made for ornament as for use. This is sufficiently proved in the palace-like appearance of the two great asylums provided for the poor upon the banks of the Schuylkill. The one for poor disabled sailors, and the other for paupers of every kind. It may mark, too, the changing state of things, even beyond our most sanguine expec- tations, that when the sailor's "Naval Asylum" was constructing, VOL. I .- 2 G
250
Progress and State of Society.
was strenuously reprobated by several, because it was located where hey could not refresh their eyes and revive their past affections with the sight of sea-vessels. Then there was not one to be seen upon the Schuylkill, and now there is daily a whole fleet of two and three masted vessels, come there for coal and merchandise to be brought from the inland country! Men of the former age never dreamed of a day to come, when that river would become a place of navigation and commerce; and great has been the rise of the value of property upon the banks of that river, near the city, since the discovery of its advantages.
The calamity which scourged the whole country in 1837, by the madness of overtrading and speculation, promoted too, as alleged, by political favours to partizan favourites, intentionally rewarded from the public crib and the public lands-will be long remembered for its destructive ravages in families, by the stoppage of specie pay- ments, and by the many persons thrown out of business and labour Monopoly in all things seems to have been the rage and the mania of the day. Patient labour and cautious economy seem to have been scouted as too tame. Some prudent and well-wishing men have indulged the hope, that the excess of such evils would tend to correct themselves; but, so far, they seem only to be longest and strongest remembered and avoided, in classes,-and when the evil has been stopped in one breach, another has been ready to open. Thus, in 1838-9, succeeded the silk and mulberry enterprise. It was made so plausible to thousands who had never had a passion for speculation, that they became deeply engaged; and when it was likely to fail by its excess of tree cultivators, the deceptive and knowing ones kept up the illusion by alluring promises and pros- pects ahead, until the confiding and innocent were overwhelmed in ruin. In 1840 came to its crisis the terrible explosion of all kinds of stocks, especially of banks, railroads and public enterprises-in- duced by the overdealings of ambitious and greedy men, borrowing and lending beyond measure on stocks, so that the revulsion, when it came, involved in ruin thousands and thousands of women, orphans and aged persons out of trade. On the whole, we are an afflicted and deeply agitated people, self-tormented even in the midst of abounding natural advantages, and continual means of sure and moderate thrift. The fulness of the travelling conveyances have latterly marked our countrymen, as men devoted to the chase after wealth and new enterprises ; thus leaving the repose and comforts of home and family to attain to some sudden elevation by their cherished hopes from speculation. It is the more strange that Americans should thus jeopardise comfort and ease to acquire great wealth, while our laws are so peculiarly unfit for the permanency of family grandeur. They are essentially agrarian, by reason of our statutes of descents and distributions. Those who may live sumptuously and proudly to-day, as one family, fall into littleness when scattered into pluralities. The law of equal distribution, at
251
Progress and State of Society.
he death of the parent stock, operates quietly and silently in dis- solving all the masses heaped up by the toil and diligence of the successful adventurers. How vain, then, is the troublesome ambi- tion of accumulating that which cannot possibly remain long to confer distinction ! Successful speculation, after all, is oftener an evil than a blessing. It upsets all right notions of the value of time, industry and money. It is a moral evil, because it violates nature, which wisely requires an every day employment for the good of body and mind. The man who has made a lucky hit, often cuts off from his future life a natural source of pleasure. If he has de- voted all his time and energies to mammon, then he is sold to him, and can no more live tranquilly even with his money, than the man devoted to his bottle can live without the stimulus of strong drink! It is all unnatural ; and the reward is discontent and petulance.
The great increase of the two diseases of dyspepsia and apoplexy among us, may justly incline us to regard them as diseases of in- creased civilization, and as produced by the enlarged cares of the mass of our citizens to sustain the increased modes of expensive living and display of pomp and show. Dr. M'Culloch, in one of his lectures, says, "a man should undertake nothing requiring great intellectual exertion, or sustained energy, after the age of 65. Apo- plexy is, perhaps, the natural death, the euthanasia of the intellec- tual. Even while their blood remains pure, and the solids firm, a fragile artery gives away within the head, [it being too much exer- cised,] blood escapes, and by a gentle pressure dissolves sensibility at its source forever." On the other hand, tranquillity and a composed and cheerful mind may prolong life to the close of a century. Savages have no dyspepsia, and rarely apoplexy.
The word comfort is a very comfortable word; and it is a pity that the French for their own sake, do not know what it means. But it is a still greater pity that we who have the word, and do know its meaning, should so often sacrifice it for the most unsubstantial reasons. The fact is, we are ashamed to be comfortable, lest we should appear ungenteel. The best chamber in the house must be shut up for company ; the lightest and the handsomest parlour must be kept closed for the same reason. We must have a large house and few domestics, for the sake of appearances, and we sometimes cut ourselves off from intelligent society, because we cannot afford to receive them with quite so much show and ceremony as our neighbours. All this is foolish. If we cannot afford to be elegant, we can, at least, be comfortable ; and if we can procure the elegancies of life, why not enjoy them every day ? Why must spring cushions, and warm carpets, and airy rooms, and handsome walls, be shut up three hundred and fifty days of the year, for the sake of making a grand show off, now and then ? Why do we not consult our comfort by living in smaller houses, and keeping more domestics ? Surely, leisure for intellectual and tasteful pursuits is better than the reputation for lofty rooms and venitian windows
252
Progress and State of Society.
Why should we refrain from seeing cultivated people in a social, cordial way, because another can give them better wine and rarer fruit ? I admire splendour, and where circumstances warrant it, I am even strongly in favour of magnificence; but above all things I do love comfort. I believe few people in the world have such concern for public opinion as the Americans. To a certain extent the check is a salutary one; but our domestic life is a matter of much more concern to us than it is to the public ; and we ought to have sufficient courage to study our own comfort, and gratify our own tastes. Our manner of visiting, and of receiving visiters, is la- borious in the extreme. If friends are staying with us, we feel as if every moment must be devoted to them. We cannot sleep, or ride, or read, or visit, for fear our friends should be left alone. This is making visiting a burden to them, as well as to ourselves. We soon become uneasy at such constraint, and they are restless under a con- viction that they impose it upon us. The fact is, it is a luxury to a visiter sometimes to be left alone-to read, or ramble, or sleep, ac- cording to fancy. Many a time, when I have really admired and loved my hostess, I would have thanked her from my heart for a little relaxation of attention-the privilege of being sometimes left to my own thoughts-the luxury of a little more freedom, for her and for myself. At the South, they manage these things better than we do Their hospitality is unbounded. Visiters may be at home in a mansion, without depriving the inhabitants of the pleasure of home. Every thing is at the service of friends; but if the hostess wishes to visit, where her guest has no particular inclination to go, she does not hesitate to leave her to herself, to dispose of time as best suits her. What a relief not to be obliged to visit, or obliged to stay at home. This perfect freedom is the only thing that can make visiting a real pleasure to all parties. A friend lately told me of a very elegant woman he had seen at the South, who formed the most prominent attraction at the fashionable parties. " I saw her once early in the morning," said he, " buying some fine fruit, at her door. She had on a calico morning dress, and a very neat plain cap. I thought her an uncommonly genteel do- mestic-but never dreamed of its being the brilliant belle I had seen the evening before, until she bowed and spoke to me. We entered into some conversation concerning the fruit she was buying, and simple and commonplace as the remarks must have been, during such an interview, I was absolutely enchanted with the graceful ease of her manner. A New England woman would have escaped into the house, on my approach-or not recognised me; or, if I had spoken first, would have blushed, and fidgeted, and apologized for her morning dress." Which course is the wisest ?- not to ask, which is the most comfortable : An ordinary woman will never get a character for real elegance by decking herself for state occasions ; and a truly tasteful one will lose nothing by being sometimes seen without coronation robes.
253
Progress and State of Society.
As a looker on, I cannot forbear sometimes to augur from the growing corruptions of the present time, what may be the fate of my country in the future-for I know that nothing but virtue and moderation can sustain republicanism. When we shall lack self- government in our passions, we shall need the strong arm of power to keep in check the overbearing and lawless minds, which aim to engross every thing. I make these remarks in the year 1838, upon the occasion of perusing Doctor Channing's letter to Mr. Clay, upon the subject of Texas, to wit :
" We are corrupt enough already. In many respects, our institu- tions have disappointed us all : They have not wrought out for us that elevation of character, which is the most precious, and in truth, the only substantial blessing of liberty. Our progress in prosperity has, indeed, been the wonder of the world; but this prosperity has done much to counteract the ennobling influence of free institutions. Prosperity (with too many) has become dearer than freedom, and government is regarded more as a means of enriching the country, than of securing private rights. It is an undeniable fact, that in consequence of these and other symptoms of corruptions, the confi- dence of many reflecting men in our free institutions is very much impaired : Some despair. A spirit of lawlessness and mob riot and invasions of the rights of other states, (such as Texas and Canada, &c.,) which if not repressed, threatens the dissolution of our present forms of society. Men begin to think that we must seek security for prosperity and life in a stronger government." When I pen this, I do it with much feeling for my country and its future welfare. I think of my sons, and wonder if they, when of my age, will find things as peaceful and happy as in the days of my youth. Was ever nation so blessed, and yet how prone, even now, to abuse our mercies ! I see and feel it !
Sometimes, when filled with hopes and good wishes for my country, I look ahead to the distant future, and say to my imagina- tion what may we not expect to be, in 1888? Then we shall number fifty millions of freemen and be, indeed, "the great nation," Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, now beginning to be, will be the centre of civilization. The Rocky mountains will be then the middle or mountain states, while the great Pacific, will be fronted by the Pacific states. The present " western states" will lose their appel- lation, and be merged into part and parcel of the Atlantic and eastern states, and the then western states, will be those only beyond the Rocky mountains, and bordering on the Pacific ocean. The seat of government itself will be changed, and St. Louis as a place more remote, will be the seat of American empire.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.