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 49
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In September, 1761, just two years after it was begun to be built, it was first opened for public worship. On that occasion all the clergy met at Christ church, and with the wardens and vestry went in procession to the Governor's house, where, being joined by him and some of his council, they proceeded to the new church, where thev heard a sermon from Doctor Smith, the Provost of the college.
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Bingham's Mansion.
from the words "I have surely built thee a house to dwell in," &c The same words were also set to music and sung by the choir.
BINGHAM'S MANSION.
LONG after the peace of 1783, all of the ground in the rear of " the Mansion House" to Fourth street, and all south of it to Spruce street, was a vacant grass ground enclosed by a rail fence, in which the boys resorted to fly their kites. The Mansion House, built and lived in by William Bingham, Esq., about the year 1790, was the admiration of that day for its ornaments and magnificence. He en- closed the whole area with a painted board fence and a close line of Lombardy poplars, the first ever seen in this city,* and from which has probably since come all the numerous poplars which we every where see. The grounds generally he had laid out in beautiful style, and filled the whole with curious and rare clumps and shades of trees; but in the usual selfish style of Philadelphia improved grounds, the whole was surrounded and hid from the public gaze by a high fence. An occasional peep through a knot hole was all the pleasure the public could derive from such a woodland scene. After Mr. Bingham's death, the whole was sold off in lots, and is since filled up with finely finished three-story houses. When the British were in Philadelphia they used this ground as a parade and exercise.
Mr. Bingham being the richest man of his time, and having made a fortune in the West Indies, as agent for American privateers, he was exposed to the shafts of obloquy. In giving a specimen of the pasquinades and detractions, we must add, that we do not mean to endorse them, but merely to show the history of the day. Peter Markoe, in his poem called " the Times," of 1788, was libellously severe upon the senator, saying, among other things :
" Rapax, the muse has slightly touched thy crimes, And dares to wake thee from thy golden dream, In peculation's various arts supreme- Tho' to thy " mansion" wits and fops repair, To game, to feast, to flatter, and to stare. But say, from what bright deeds dost thou derive That wealth which bids thee rival British Clive ? Wrung from the hardy sons of toil and war, By arts, which petty scoundrels would abhor."
Some of his enemies sometimes called him the bloodhound certi- ficate man. Nevertheless, he had his choice of city company, and when he first opened his house, he gave the first masquerade ball ever seen in this city.
· The Athenian poplars have only been introduced here about sixteen or eighteen years William Hamilton, at the Woodlands, first planted the Lombardy poplars there in 1784 'rom England.
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The British Barracks.
THE BRITISH BARRACKS
THESE were built in the Northern Liberties soon after the defeat of Braddock's army ; and arose from the necessity, as it was alleged, of making better permanent provision for troops deemed neces- sary to be among us for our future protection. Many of the people had so petitioned the king-not being then so sensitive of the presence of "standing armies" as their descendants have since become.
The parade and "pomp of war" which their erection produced in the former peaceful city of Penn, gave it an attraction to the town's people, and being located far out of town, it was deemed a pleasant walk to the country and fields, to go out and see the long ranges of houses, the long lines of kilted and bonneted Highlanders, and to hear "the spirit stirring fife and soul inspiring drum!" Before that time, the fields there were a far land, severed from all connexion with the city by the marsh meadows of Pegg. No Second street road before existed ; and for the convenience and use of the army a causeway was formed across those wet. grounds in the line of the present Second street, along the front of what is now called San- som's row.
The ground plot of the barracks extended from Second to Third street, and from St. Tamany street to Green street, having the of- ficers' quarters-a large three-story brick building, on Third street, the same now standing as a Northern Liberty Town Hall. The parade ground fronted upon Second street, shut in by an ornamen- tal palisade fence on the line of that street. The aged John Brown told me the whole area was a field of buckwheat, which was cut off, and the barracks built thereon and tenanted by three thousand men, all in the same year ; the houses were all of brick, two stories high, and a portico around the whole hollow square. These all stood till after the war of Independence, when they were torn down, and the lots sold for the benefit of the public. It was from the location of those buildings that the whole region thereabout was familiarly called Campingtown.
In 1758, I notice the first public mention of "the new barracks in Campingtown ;" the Gazettes stating the arrival there of "Colonel Montgomery's Highlanders," and some arrangement by the City Council to provide them their bedding, &c.
An earlier attempt had been made to construct barracks out Mul- berry street, on the south side, west of Tenth street-there they pro- ceeded so far as to dig a long line of cellars, which having been abandoned, they lay open for many years afterwards.
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The Old Academy.
In the year 1764, the barracks were made a scene of great interest to all the citizens-there the Indians, who fled from the threats of the murderous Paxtang boys, sought their refuge under the protection of the Highlanders; while the approach of the latter was expected, the citizens ran there with their arms to defend them and to throw up intrenchments. Captain Loxley of the city artillery was in full array with his band. In time those Indians became afflicted with the smallpox, and turned their quarters into a very hospital, from which they buried upwards of fifty of their companions.
It may serve to show the former vacant state of the Northern Liberties, to know, that on the king's birthday, as late as June, 1772, "it was celebrated at the British barracks by a discharge of twenty-one cannon." Indeed, the artillery park, and the necessary stores erected along the line of the present Duke street, gave to that street its well-known former name of "Artillery lane."
THE OLD ACADEMY.
THIS building, now in part the Methodist Union church, was originally constructed on subscription moneys raised by the celebrated Whitfield, for the use of itinerant preachers for ever, as well as for his peculiar religious views and tenets, then called "New Light;" and for which cause his former friends, in the first Presbyterian church, no longer held fellowship with his followers.
It was begun in the year 1741, and when the walls were but about four feet high, it was preached in by Whitfield to a great con- gregation. It was finished in 1744, faster than money had been procured to pay off its expenses. From this cause Dr. Franklin procured it to be purchased, in 1749, for £777, to be converted into the first Academy of Philadelphia,* with the condition of partitioning off and reserving, to the use of itinerants, a preaching hall therein for ever. In 1753 it was made "the College" of Philadelphia, and in 1779 " the University." Dr. William Smith was inducted pro- vost in 1754.
This Dr. Smith was a graduate of Aberdeen, and when inducted provost was but 27 years of age. He held his place but a few years, when he fell into an embarrassment which created great pub- lic sensation. As agent for " the Society for promoting Knowledge among the Germans," he published in his German newspaper, in 1758, the defence of a certain Judge Moore of Chester county, who
The subscription fund amounted then to £2600.
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The Old Academy.
nad officially given umbrage to the Legislature. Smith and Moore were arraigned before the house; and Smith, in his speech, resisting their privileges, was greatly cheered by the people in the lobby ! Smith and Moore were imprisoned for contempt, but visited by crowds of their friends. As a writer and speaker he was very popular. He delivered several military sermons in the time of the revolution. The one he delivered in 1775, to Cadwallader's battalion at Christ church, was much eulogized by the whigs, went through several editions in America, and was reprinted in London in an edition of ten thousand, by the chamberlain of London! He died in 1803.
It may serve to show some of the efforts by which the college was got up and sustained, by quoting a MS. letter of Thomas Penn's, of May, 1762, to wit : "Dr. Smith's soliciting here goes on well. Most of the bishops have given; and he is now applying, with their sanction, to the principal people among the laity. He has been at Oxford, and expects some assistance there, and from the Archbishop of York, and many others." In June, 1764, Dr. Smith, who had been commissioned as solicitor in 1761, returned from England. bringing with him £13,000, collected in conjunction with Sir James Jay for the Philadelphia and New York colleges collectively. Those English gifts were certainly very munificent.
A MS. letter of Richard Peters', of 1753, to Thomas Penn, speaks of the Academy as then in great repute, having sixty-five boys from the neighbouring colonies.
A letter of Thomas Penn's, of 1754, states that while we were forming the Academy and College for Pennsylvania under Dr. Smith, then in England, (seeking redress for his short imprisonment at Phi- ladelphia by the Assembly, for an alleged contempt,) the people of New York persuaded Dr. Johnson to be president for their college te. be established, saying, as their " argument, they hope to draw pupils even from Philadelphia, and that they regard the Philadelphia Aca- demy as a school to fit boys for them." This he treats as their boast.
The pomp and circumstance of the " commencement days" were then got up with much more of public feeling and interest than have since existed. At a time when every man of competency in the community contributed to endow the establishment, it left none in- different to its prosperity or success.
The site of the Academy is said by Thomas Bradford to be made ground, filled in there from cutting down a part of the hill once in the Friends' burying ground opposite, it having been four or five feet higher within their wall than on the street. His idea was, that the Friends' ground originally sloped across Fourth street into the Aca- demy ground; which seemed to have been a bed of an ancient water-course along its western wall.
About forty years ago, the trustees having purchased the " Presi- dent's house" in south Ninth street, for a more enlarged place, re- moved " the University" there; and that great building they have again pulled down to renew in another way.
VOL. I .- 3 C
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The Old Academy.
I might add some remembered anecdotes of teachers and pupils, but I forbear. Graydon's Memoirs contain amusing facts of the youths there, his companions, before the revolution :- such as jostling off Master Beveridge's wig, and pranks of less equivocal insubordi- nation :- vexing and fretting Master Dove-a doggereliser and satirist of severe manners-far more of a falcon than a dove ;- making long foot-races round the square, and priding themselves in their cham- pion-another swift-footed Achilles. These are the revived images of fathers now, who were once young !
"The fields, the forms, the bets, the books, The glories and disgraces"- "Now leaping over widest ditch, Now laughing at the tutor !"
To such the " University boys" of the present day may go for their apologies for breaches of discipline now-not for wilful trans- gressione but for lapses of prudence and discretion-
" He will not blush that has a father's heart, To take in childish play a playful part."
The days are gone when I could roll My hoop along the street, And with a laughing jest or word Each idle passer greet ; Where'er I go, I now move slow, In early years I ran ; Oh! I was then a happy child, But now I am a man.
I used to whistle as I went, Play marbles in the square, And fly my kite and play my top, My coat and trousers tear ! I " whistle" for my whistle now, " Fen" marbles is the plan : The only vent on which I'm bent Is money-I'm a man.
CARPENTERS' HALL, THE PLACE OF FIRST CONGRESS .- Page 419.
OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SOUTH SIXTH STREET .- Page 423.
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Carpenters' Hall and Congress.
CARPENTERS' HALL AND CONGRESS.
THIS respectable looking building back, in Carpenters' court, ori- ginally constructed for the hall of meeting for the Society of House Carpenters of Philadelphia, was taken and used by the first Con- gress, when met in Philadelphia to deliberate on the incipient mea- sures of the war of the revolution. It was afterwards used, for seve- ral years, as the first Bank of the United States. Now, it has fallen into humbler purposes as an auction house. The citizens of Phila- delphia who pass and repass it daily seem to have forgotten its former glory, but not so an enlightened and feeling Virginian, who, visiting it in 1829, thus describes its character and associations, in a letter to his friend.
" I write this (says he) from the celebrated Carpenters' Hall, a structure that will ever be deemed sacred while rational liberty is cherished on earth. It stands in a court at the end of an alley lead- ing south from Chestnut, between Third and Fourth streets. It is of brick, three stories high, surmounted with a low steeple, and pre- sents externally rather a sombre aspect. The lower room, in which the first Congress of the United States (perhaps I should say colonies) met, comprehends the whole area of the building-which, however, is not very spacious. Above are the committee rooms, now occupied by a very polite schoolmaster, who kindly gave me permission to inspect them. Yes! These sublime apartments, which first resound- ed with the indignant murmur of our immortal ancestors, sitting in secret consultation upon the wrongs of their countrymen, now ring with the din of urchins conning over their tasks; and the hallowed hall below, in which the august assembly to which they belonged daily convened, is now devoted to the use of an auctioneer! Even now, while I am penning these lines at his desk, his voice stuns my ear and distracts my brain, crying ' how much for these rush-bottom chairs ? I am offered $5-nobody more ?- going! going !! gone !!! ' In fact the hall is lumbered up with beds, looking glasses, chairs, tables, pictures, ready made clothes, and all the trash and trumpery which usually grace the premises of a knight of the hammer. I must do him the justice, however, to say, that he very readily granted me the privilege I am now enjoying when he understood my pur- pose. The building, it is gratifying to add, still belongs to the So- ciety of Carpenters, who will by no means part with it, or consent to any alteration.
"It was here that the groundwork of our independence was laid- for here it was, on the 4th September, 1774, after the attempt on the part of 'the mother country' to tax the colonies without their con
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Carpenters' Hall and Congress.
sent, and the perpetration of numerous outrages by the regulars upon the defenceless inhabitants, that the sages of America came together to consider of their grievances. Yes! these walls have echoed the inspiring eloquence of Patrick Henry, 'the greatest orator,' in the opinion of Mr. Jefferson, 'that ever lived'-the very man who 'gave the first impulse to the ball of our revolution.'
" In this consecrated apartment, in which I am now seated-this unrivalled effort of human intellect was made !- I mark it as an epoch in my life. I look upon it as a distinguished favour that I am permitted to tread the very floor which Henry trod, and to survey the scene which, bating the changes of time and circumstance, must have been surveyed by him. O, that these walls could speak! -that the echo which penetrates my soul as I pronounce the name of Patrick Henry, in the corner I occupy, might again reverberate the thunders of his eloquence ! But he has long ago been gathered to his fathers, and this hall, with the ancient State-house of the " Old Dominion,' I fervently hope may exist for ages as the monuments of his glory.
" I cannot resist the temptation of transcribing from Mr. Wirt's book a passage in one of Henry's speeches, which I think, for sublimity and pathos, has never been and never will be equalled. It was delivered before a Convention of Delegates from the several coun- ties and corporations of Virginia, which assembled in the old church at Richmond, on the 20th of March, 1775. Mr. Henry had been declaiming, in his usual manner, against the doctrine of those who were for trying once more the experiment of conciliatory measures in order to obtain a redress of grievances ; and he broke forth at the close of his argument with the following splendid peroration.
""" It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace-but there is no peace. The war is already begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- chased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take ; but, as for me,' he cried, with both his arms extended aloft, his brows knit, every fea- ture marked with the resolute purpose of his soul, and his voice swelled to its boldest note of exclamation-' give me liberty ; or give me death !'
" Mr. Henry rose to be governor of Virginia, and consequently was obliged by his duties to mingle much with what was then called the aristocracy ; but as he had sprung from the yeomanry, and was in truth their own dear child and adored champion, he never deserted them in the hour of need, or abandoned their society. It is said that while practising law, previous to the revolution, he often came into court from a shooting excursion, dressed in a coarse hunter's shirt and greasy leather breeches, and without any preparation pleaded
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his cause with an ability that seldom failed of success. He was the first that uttered the words 'Declaration of Independence,' and predicted the separation of the colonies from the mother country long before others dared think of it. Such is the respect which the Vir- ginians entertain for his memory that they have named two counties after him, the one called Patrick, and the other Henry."
Perhaps no collection of men ever excelled this congress for talents, firmness and judgment. Doctor Franklin, in his letter to Charles Thomson, of 5th February, 1775, speaking of the materials of that Congress says, " the congress is in high esteem here (in England) among the friends of liberty. Lord Chatham said, he thought it the most honourable assembly of men that had ever been known. The same, in effect, was said by Lord Cobham, the Duke of Richmond, and the Duke of Manchester."
If the reader will cast his eye on the history of that splendid epoch, and glance over the res geste of the men who then figured in our two first national councils, he cannot but be astonished at the number and greatness of the minds which were engaged in that eventful crisis. Their eloquence in the halls of legislation-their political contributions to the public presses-their skill and wisdom as commanders, and their devotion and patriotism as men, have never been surpassed. The cause of the selection of such suitable men was to be found in the then purity of the elections, made such by the intensity of national devotion which pervaded all ranks of so- ciety. No selfish or private aims then biased "the high emprise," but all hearts glowed with patriotism, and " dear country and home" stimulated every breast. It was, in a word, the spectacle of Ameri- can energy and talent, when pure and purged of faction.
Congress afterwards, in the expressed opinion of Charles Thom- son, their secretary, depreciated much in point of talents, and weight of individual character. That which sat in York, Pennsylvania, in 1777-78, was but a weak body of men in comparison with former men.
When we contemplate the magnificence of the present stately hall of Congress at Washington, and then carry back our recollections to the hall with which we furnished the congress after the adoption of the Constitution, we cannot but be struck with "the change of times and circumstances." In the brick building, now occupied as court rooms, at the south-east corner of Chesnut and Sixth streets, we once accommodated the collected wisdom of the nation-there they once deemed themselves accommodated in ample room and elegance. Let the reader just look at the picture of that hall, as given in this work.
Doctor Thomas C. James related to me an anecdote of the first Congress, which he received from the lips of the late venerable Bishop White, then its chaplain, and which he said he received directly from. Charles Thomson, the secretary, to this effect. As soon as the body had organized by choosing Peyton Randolph president, all
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Carpenters' Hall and Congress.
seemed impressed with a sense of the high responsibility they had assumed, and a most profound silence ensued, as if to say, what next! None seemed willing to break the eventful silence, until a grave-looking member, in a plain dark suit of " ministers' gray," and unpowdered wig, arose,-all became fixed in attention on him.
" Conticuere omnes intentique ora tenebant."
Then, the gentleman informant said, he felt a sense of regret that the seeming country parson should so far have mistaken his talents and the theatre for their display ! But, as he proceeded, he evinced such unusual force of argument, and such novel and impassioned eloquence, as soon electrified the whole house. Then the excited inquiry passed from man to man, of who is it? who is it? The answer from the few who knew him was, it is Patrick Henry!
" Ille regit dictis animos et pectora mulect."
The honourable body having thus received its impulse, moved onward with energy and concord.
It was on this same occasion that General Washington, then a member from Virginia, was observed to be the only member to kneel, when Bishop White first offered his prayer to the Throne of Grace-as if he was thus early impressed with a sense of his and their dependence on "the God of battles."
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Office of Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
" Yet still will memory's busy eye retrace Each little vestige of the well-known place."
OUR city, justly fond of her pre-eminence as the home of the founders of an important State, has also the superadded glory of possessing within her precincts the primitive edifice in which the great national concerns of this distinguished Republic were conceived and sustained. The small building of but twelve feet front, repre- sented in the annexed drawing, now occupied as a small shop for vending cakes and children's trifles, was once the office of Secretary for Foreign Affairs. From that humble looking bureau were once fulminated those uctermined and national resolves which made our foreign foes to cower, and secured our Independence among the na- tions : "Tho' small our means, great were our measures and our end !"
From the contemplation of such a lowly structure, so seemingly disproportionate to our present great attainments, (“ a generation more refined, improved the simple plan !") the mind recurs back in- stinctively to those other primitive days, when the energies of the pilgrim founders were in like manner restricted within the narrow bounds of "Lætitia Court," and within the walls of " Lætitia House," on which occasion, Penn's letter of 1687, (in my posses- sion,) recommends " a change of the offices of State, from his cottage, to quarters more commodious."
The " Office for Secretary of Foreign Affairs," under present con- sideration, is the same building now on the premises of P. S. Du- ponceau, Esq., situate on the eastern side of south Sixth street, No. 13-a house appropriately owned by such a possessor; for, in it, he who came as a volunteer to join our fortunes, and to aid our cause, as a captain under Baron Steuben, became afterwards one of the unaer Secretaries to our Minister of Foreign Relations, and in that building gave his active and early services. In the years 1782 and '83, under that humble roof presided, as our then Secretary for Fo- reign Affairs, the Hon. Robert R. Livingston. Up stairs, in the small front room facing the street, sat that distinguished personage, wield- ing by his mind and pen the destinies of our nation. In the adjoin- ing back room, sat the two under Secretaries, to wit : Louis R. Mor- ris, since Governor of Vermont, and our present venerated citizen, Mr. Duponceau. There, having charge of the archives of a nation. they preserved them all within the enclosure of a small wooden press ! The only room down stairs, on the ground floor, was that occupied by the two clerks and the interpreter. One of the clerks.
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