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. II > Part 51
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In 1721, he incidentally mentions that the sails and rigging com- ing to him from London for his new ship had escaped the pirates thus showing that sails and rigging were at least preferred from abroad in that day.
In 1722, I notice as among the vessels at Philadelphia, those they call a pink, a galley, and a great fly-boat of 400 tons, all of which traverse the Atlantic ocean.
In connexion with shipbuilding, we may justly congratulate our- selves on having had the ablest ship-carver, in the late respectable and aged William Rush, that the world has ever seen. His figures on the heads of ships have excited admiration in numerous instances in foreign countries, and have been sent for from England, to adorn vessels there. We should have heard more of such facts of prefer- ence, but that the duties there were managed to cost more than the first cost of the images themselves. More concerning his talents as an artist will be found under the article " William Rush."
The frigate United States, built at Philadelphia, by Humphreys, was the fastest sailing ship ever constructed any where.
I have been often assured by competent observers, that it is a fact of which we have abundant reason to be proud, that we, as a nation, surpass all other people in the skilful construction and fast sailing of our mercantile shipping. Our constructors and captains, though
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Paper Money.
selt-taught, do actually cover the ocean with vessels which are no- where equalled. In a word our packet ships, for superior sailing and quick despatch of voyage, do actually eclipse the world. Our sea captains, too, are the most active and vigilant of all mariners, doing double of service, in any given period of time, to any other navigators any where to be found.
PAPER MONEY.
" Gold, imp'd by thee, can compass greatest things- Can purchase states, and fetch and carry kings.".
IN the first introduction of paper money, there was much differ- ence of opinion concerning its eventual benefit to trade and to the community. It appears to have been first emitted under the auspices of Governor Keith, about the year 1723. Many remonstrances and counter views were urged by some.
In 1723, when Benjamin Franklin first visited us from Boston, where he had seen abundance of paper money, he noticed with sur- prise the free circulation of metallic money among the people. The whole of his own money then consisted of a Dutch dollar and a shilling's worth of coppers-both coins unknown among us now.
The very next year (1724) James Logan, in writing to the pro- prietaries, shows the quick effect of the paper emission, by saying, " No gold or silver then passes among them, because of their paper money-when they buy the former they give three shillings per L., or 15 per cent. advance in exchange for their paper."
The common fate of " paper credit" soon follows-for counter- feiters, though threatened with " death" in staring capitals, use the means which " lends corruption lighter wings to fly," by pushing their supply also into the market. Behold ! they come even from Ireland !
The Gazette of 1726 announces a great quantity of counterfeit colonial bills, executed in Ireland, as arrived, and the two agents being apprehended, are soon after punished. Some of this doubtless found its use in the purchase of land for the new-comers, for the papers along to the year 1729 often make mention of its being occa- sionally detected in use.
About this time Governor Gordon, who succeeded Sir William Keith, emitted £45,000 on land pledged at half its value, and sub- ject to redemption. This was increased from time to time till the whole amounted to £85,000.
In 1729, James Logan, writing to the proprietaries, thus speaks, saying, "I dare not speak one word against it. The popular phrensy
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Paper Money.
will never stop till their credit will be as bad as they are in New England, where an ounce of silver is worth twenty shillings of their paper. They already talk of making more, and no man dares ap- pear to stem the fury of the popular rage. The notion is, that while any man will borrow on good security of land, more money should be made for them, without thinking of what value it will be when made. They affirm that whilst the security is good the money can- not fall. The king's own hand should forbid this measure. Yet the last act should not be abrogated, (ill as the measure is,) because the money now out (if annulled) would occasion the utmost destruc- tion." It may be remarked, that although the measure pleased the people, as they thought it increased riches as by magic, they knew not how, yet the crown officers were always averse to the creation of a paper medium. It may be mentioned also as a curious indica- tion of the early times, and the actual need once felt of some kind of supply for the necessary interchanges required in the dealings among men in society-that there is now in the museum of the City Library an original petition of the people, of the year 1717, to the assembly of Pennsylvania, praying them to make produce a cur- rency !
I have in my possession an original account-current of the years 1730-1, by Andrew Hamilton, Esq., one of the trustees of the General Loan office, showing the operation in those days, when no banks existed, of borrowing money upon mortgages, deeds, and other securities. It seems to show that the " credit system," even then, was required and indulged, as a useful means of improving trade and increasing property. The account begins with a detail of securities received from the previous trustees, to wit :
61 mortgages on the £15,000 act, yet due, £930
228 do. on the £30,000 act, 9,438
335 do. on the several emissions, 19,212
264 do. on the 2d £30,000 act, 26,000
The new trustees lend out in the years 1730-1,
On 39 mortgages, the sixth emission of Ist act, £2,546
On 77 do. being the first emission of the 2d re- mitting act of 1741, 5,481
And on a pledge of plate,
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Considering the present great use of paper currency in our bank notes, and the question of their utility being sometimes agitated, it may be curious to state here the view of such money as given by the assembly as early as the year 1739, being their preamble to the act of that year, to wit : " Whereas it has been found by experience, that bills of credit, emitted upon land security, as a medium of com- merce have been of great service for carrying on the trade and other improvements in this province, and money and gold being now be- come a commodity and generally remitted [exactly as now !] to Great Britain, in return for the manufactures of that kingdom imported hither." See Credit System, App. p. 562.
VOL. II .- 3 F
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Paper Money.
Among the emissions of later times were the bills for raising funds In 1775, for erecting " the new jail in Walnut street," and the " light house on Cape Henlopen ;" both of them were decorated with pic- tures of the buildings, and the history of the money in both cases was, that the bills by reason of the war, &c., were never " called in," and the whole sunk in the hands of the holders !
To these succeeded the far-famed and much scouted continental money-an emission so immense in aggregate, so overwhelming to the payers, and so hopeless to the payees, as to make it in the end wholly non-effective to all concerned. The whole emission, as pre- sented in a detailed official account exhibited in 1828, stated the enormous total of 241} millions of dollars !- all issued in five years, from 1775 to 1780. We may well exclaim, "Lo, what it is that makes white rags so dear !"
In the course of the rapid depreciation which ensued, it was a common incident to hear a hundred dollars of it asked for a single yard of silk-to see children give a dollar bill for a few cakes, and finally to see 300 dollars of continental given for one dollar of silver. At one time 75 dollars of it was exchanged for one dollar of state paper. Sometimes the possession of so much nominal money, of so little worth, gave rise to many occasional freaks for its destruction - such as using it to light a pipe or a candle at a tavern ; and even the soldiers sometimes, to show their recklessness of such money, or to vaunt of their abundance in it, have been known to deck off their recruiting drummers and fifers in an over-jacket formed entirely of sheets of continental money !
One of the worst uses of this money was to present it as "a legal tender," to pay with almost no value what had been before pur- chased for a bona fide valuable consideration. Many base men so acquired their property-especially when to " cheat a tory" was deemed fair prize with several. Houses still stand in Philadelphia, which, could their walls speak out, would tell of strangely inconsi- derable values received for them by the sellers. The large double house, for instance, at the north-west corner of Pine and Second streets, was once purchased, it was said, with the money received for one hogshead of rum! The lot in Front, below Pine, whereon four or five large houses stood, called Barclay's row, was sold for £60 only of real value.
Many specimens of the colonial bills, now rarely seen, may be ir- spected in my books of MS. Annals, both in the City Library and with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
All of us have heard so much of " continental money," without having ever seen it-roughly and rudely as it was executed, and ruinous as it was to many by its rapid depreciation, (falling, in 1781, to 7000 for 100 dollars of specie, and soon after to nothing !) that it may be curious, and a novelty to many, to see a copy herein given of the impression of a seven dollar bill. Flooded as the country had been by its destructive inundations, it is matter of just surprise that
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Lotteries.
so little now remains, even as a preserved curiosity. We had never seen more than the present specimen, and this we only found after
THE UNITED COLONIES.
No. 1776.
SEVEN DOLLARS.
CONTINENTAL CURRENCY.
SEREN
BI
This Bill entitles the Bearer to receive Seven Spanish milled Dollars, or the value thereof in Gold or Silver, accord- ing to a Resolution of Congress, passed at Philadelphia, Novem- ber 29, 1775.
CONTINENTAL CURRENCY.
J. Packer, R. Tuckniss.
SEVEN DOLLARS.
THE UNITED COLONIES.
many fruitless inquiries. Such were the helps by which we carried on the war. None of it was ever redeemed ; and those who had most of it, had the evidence in themselves how far they had indivi- dually contributed to its eventual success. See App. p. 551.
LOTTERIES.
It must be told ; These from thy lottery wheels are sold: Sold, and thy children dearly taxed, That few may win.
1
IT must be told, that fearful as is the waste of treasure and morals by the present infatuation of many for lotteries, they were, at an early period of our city, the frequently adopted measures of " raising ways and means." It is true, they were then fairly conducted, had public benefit in design, and tickets were generally vended by disinterested citizens without reward, for the sake of advancing the public weal. It was their way, when the mass of the people was comparatively poor, and direct taxes were onerous and unpopular, to thus bring out the aid of the abler part to pay willingly for expensive public im- provements, &c. The facts in the case are to the following effect, to wit :
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Lotteries.
The earliest mention of a lottery in Philadelphia occurs in 1720 when Charles Reed advertises "to sell his brick house in Third street by lottery." That house, if now known, should be the head- quarters of lotteries now, as the proper " head and front of their of- fending."
In 1728, the city council, averse to all private projects in lotteries, interfere and frustrate the design of Samuel Keimer, printer, and once a partner of Franklin. He had advertised his purpose to make a lottery at the approaching fair, and the council, having sent for him and heard his case, gave orders that no such lottery should be at. tempted, and thus the affair dropped.
In 1748 began the first occasion of a sanctioned public lottery. It was altogether patriotic. It was in time of war, when great appre- hension existed that the plunder of the city might be attempted by armed vessels. Individual subscriptions and a lottery were resorted to as means for raising the " Association Battery," then constructed near the present navy yard. On this occasion, the Friends put forth their strength to discourage lotteries, and read a rule against them in their meeting. Some controversy ensued.
Christ church steeple was the next subject of public interest, awakening general regard as an intended ornament and clock-tower. A lottery for this object was first instituted in November, 1752, and the drawing finished in March, 1753, of which further particulars may be seen in the article, " Christ Church."
In the same spirit, the citizens, in March, 1753, encouraged the institution of another lottery for another steeple, viz. : "for raising £ 850 towards finishing a steeple to the new Presbyterian church," at the north-west corner of Third and Arch streets. The lottery was drawn in May following.
The facilities of lotteries must then have been very encouraging, as we find, about this time, that the lottery expedients are numerous. On such occasions, they invited citizens of Philadelphia and other places to contribute for quite distant places. Thus, to raise five hundred dollars to build a long wharf in Baltimore, a lottery is sold off in Philadelphia ; and so to build a church in Brunswick, another is sold in Philadelphia. In Connecticut I see, in 1754, that £13,332 is raised by lottery there, to aid the building of the Princeton College, and tickets are sold in Philadelphia.
In 1754, they form a lottery of 5,000 tickets, at four dollars each, to raise a fund to complete the City Academy in Fourth street, then lately purchased of Whitfield's congregation : and in the next year a further lottery of four classes is made to raise 75,000 dollars, and net 9,375 dollars, for the general objects of the Academy, and to endow professorships, &c.
In 1760, St. Paul's church is helped to finish by a lottery. The bare walls were at first set up by subscription. First, a lottery of 5 000 tickets, at four dollars, is formed, by which to clear 3000 dol-
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lars ; and the next year, another lottery, of 30,000 dollars, is formed to clear enough to buy off the ground-rent, &c
In 1761, the zeal for lotteries began to show Itself as an evil. In this matter " every man did as seemed right in his own eyes." Thus, one man makes it for his store of books and jewelry, and Alexander Alexander so disposes of his forty-six acres of land on the south-west end of Petty's island, in lots, for 10,500 dollars. There are lotteries, too, announced for all the neighbouring churches : one for Borden- town, one for Lancaster, one for Middletown, one for Brunswick, one for Carlisle, Newtown, Forks of Brandywine, Oxford, and even Bal- timore. Some, too, are for schools. It is even proposed to erect, by lottery, a great bath and pleasure garden. On this occasion, all the ministers combine to address the governor to resist it, as a place of vice.
Lotteries are also granted for raising funds to pave the streets. In 1761, 12,500 tickets, at four dollars, making 50,000 dollars, are sold for raising 7,500 dollars to that purpose.
In the same year (1761) a lottery is made to pay off a company of rangers at Tulpehauken, for services against the Indians, in 1755, on a scheme of 5,000 tickets, at two dollars each! Another lottery is made to erect the light-house at Cape Henlopen, to raise £ 20,000; and the house itself was begun in 1762. The bridge over the Cones- togoe is erected by lottery, and also the bridge at Skippack.
As a necessary sequel to the whole, the legislature had to interfere, to prevent so many calls upon the purses of their citizens, and soon after those lotteries, an act was passed to restrain lotteries !
It would strike us as a strange location for drawing of lotteries now, to name them as in stores on the wharves : but the lottery for St. Paul's church was drawn at a store on Gardener's wharf, above Race street. And a subsequent lottery for the Presbyterian steeple, (corner of Third and Arch streets,) was drawn in April, 1761, in Masters' store, on Market-street wharf.
Lotteries having so received their quietus, none appear to have been suggested till the lonely case of 1768, when a lottery was granted by the legislature, in four classes, for raising the sum of £ 5,250 for purchasing a public landing in the Northern Liberties, and for addi- tional paving of the streets.
The history of lotteries, since our independence and self-govern- ment, and its lately pervading evil in all our cities, is too notorious, and too generally lamented by the prudent and considerate, to need any further notice in this connexion. In the hands of the wily traf- fickers in these unstable wares, legal enactments have been but "ropes of sand," without power to fetter them.
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Steamboats.
STEAMBOATS.
" Against the wind, against the tide, She breasts the wave with upright keel."
IN the year 1788, the bosom of the Delaware was first ruffled by a steamboat. The projector, at that early day, was John Fitch, a watch and clock maker by profession. He first conceived the design in 1785 ; and being but poor in purse, and rather limited in educa- tion, a multitude of difficulties, which he did not sufficiently foresee, occurred to render abortive every effort of his most persevering mind to construct and float a steamboat, called the Perseverance.
Applying to congress for assistance, he was refused; and then, without success, offering his invention to the Spanish government for the purpose of navigating the Mississippi. He at last succeeded in forming a company, by the aid of whose funds he launched his first rude effort as a steamboat, in the year 1788. The idea of wheels had not occurred to Mr. Fitch ; but paddles, working in a frame, were used in place of them. The crude ideas which he entertained, and the want of experience, subjected this unfortunate man to diffi- culties of the most humbling character. Regarded by many as a mere visionary, his project was discouraged by those whose want of all motive for such a course rendered their opposition more barbarous ; while those whose station in life placed it in their power to assist him, looked coldly on, barely listening to his elucidations, and receiving them with an indifference that chilled him to the heart. By a per- severance as unwearied as it was unrewarded, his darling project was at length sufficiently matured, and a steamboat was seen floating at the wharves of Philadelphia, more than fifty years ago. So far, his success, amid the most mortifying discouragements, had been suffi- cient to prove the merit of the scheme. But a reverse awaited him, as discouraging as it was unexpected. The boat performed a trip to Burlington, a distance of twenty miles, when, as she was rounding at the wharf, her boiler burst. The next tide floated her back to the city, where, after great difficulty, a new boiler was procured. In Oc- tober, 1788, she again performed her trip to Burlington. The boat not only went to Burlington, but to Trenton, returning the same day, and moving at the rate of eight miles an hour. It is true, she could hardly perform a trip without something breaking; not from any error in Fitch's designs or conceptions, but, at that time, our mechanics were very ordinary ; and it was impossible to have ma- chinery, so new and complex, made with exactness and competent skill. It was on this account that Fitch was obliged to abandon the great invention, on which the public booked coldly From these
OLIVER EVANS' CAR .- Page 454.
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FULTON'S STEAMBOAT .- Page 446.
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Steamboats.
failures, and because what is now so easy then seemed to be imprac- ticable, the boat was laid upas useless, and rotted silently and unnoticed in the docks of Kensington. Her remains rest on the south side of Cohocksink creek, imbedded in the present wharf of Taylor's board yard.
Fitch became more embarrassed by his creditors than ever; and, after producing five manuscript volumes, which he deposited in the Philadelphia Library, to be opened thirty years after his death, he died in Kentucky, in 1798. Such was the unfortunate termination of this early-conceived project of the steamboat. Fitch was, no doubt, an original inventor of the steamboat ; he was certainly the first who ever applied steam to the propulsion of vessels in America. Though it was reserved to Fulton to advance its application to a degree of perfection which has made his name immortal, yet to the unfortunate Fitch belongs the honour of completing and navigating the first American steamboat.
His five manuscript volumes were opened about thirteen years ago. Although they exhibit him as an unschooled man, yet they indicate the possession of a strong mind, of much mechanical ingenuity. He describes his many difficulties and disappointments with a degree of feeling which cannot fail to win the sympathy of every reader, caus- ing him to wonder and regret that so much time and talent should have been so unprofitably devoted. Though the project failed-and it failed only for want of funds-yet he never for a moment doubted its practicability. He tells us, that in less than a century, we shall see our western rivers swarming with steamboats; and that his dar- ling wish is to be buried on the margin of the romantic Ohio, where the song of the boatman may sometimes penetrate into the stillness of his everlasting resting place, and the music of the steam engine echo over the sod that shelters him for ever !
In one of his journals, there is this touching and prophetic senti- ment : " The day will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches from my invention ; but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do any thing worthy of attention !"
The truth is, that Fitch, like Robert Morris, lived thirty or forty years too soon : they were ahead of the condition of their country. These great projects of improvements, which we now see consum- mated, were beyond the means of the country to execute, and were therefore thought visionary and extravagant. Public opinion has since become better instructed, and the increase of wealth has ena- bled us to do what was then thought impossible.
I derive these facts from J. Fitch's MS. books in the Philadelphia Library, to wit : On the 27th of September, 1785, he gave his moder and description to the Philosophical Society-which fact is also re- corded on their minutes, and without proceedings or comment .- On the 1st of May, 1787, he first got his boat and works so far completed, as to make his boat perform an excursion to the satisfaction of the company then on board .- On the 12th of October, 1788, she agair
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Steamboats.
made an excursion with many eminent citizens on board, who much admired at their sense of its satisfactory operation .- In that winter he left the concern, and made some journeys southward. He afterwards again joined the company, and got the boat to go well, on the 12th of April, 1790. She again made a satisfactory demonstration in the summer of that year, for her last time. There were many intervals, in the preceding times, in which she was laid by to make repairs and alterations, and many accidents to overcome and to ree tify, all tending to show the first difficulties in a new enterprise, and displaying at once his indomitable perseverance and patience .- On the 19th of March, 1791, he signs his articles in behalf of the com- pany, with Aaron Vail, the American consul in France, the terms not expressed : but he speaks of his dissatisfaction therewith, and his fears of some intended injustice to himself.
On page 296, in my MS. Annals, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is a picture of his first boat, as he invented her in the year 1786, showing the propelling paddles on the side. He after- wards quite altered its appearance, by placing the paddles behind the stern. He thus spoke of his first scheme, saying, " It is in several parts similar to the late improved engines in Europe, though there are some alterations. Our cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal force at each end. The mode to procure a va- cuum is, I believe, entirely new, as is also the method of letting the water into it, and throwing it off against the atmosphere without any friction. The engine is placed about one third from the stern, and both the action and reaction turn the wheel the same way. The engine is a twelve inch cylinder, and will move a clear force of 11 or 12 cwt. after the frictions are deducted, and this force acts against a wheel of eighteen inches' diameter."
As remembered to the eye when a boy, when seen in motion, she was graceful, and " walked the water like a thing of life." His pre- dilections for watchmaking machinery was very manifest; for two or three ranges of chains of the same construction as in watches, were seen along the outside of his vessel, from stem to stern, moving with burnished glare, in motion proportioned to the speed of the boat ; and ornamenting the waist, not unlike the adornments about an In- dian bride.
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