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. III > Part 23
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The Prince de Broglie describes in the narrative of his visit to this country the appearance of the State House in 1782, as "a building literally crushed by a huge massive tower, square and not very solid ;" and the appearance of Congress, and the room as large, " without any other ornament than a bad engraving of Montgomery, one of Washington, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It is furnished with thirteen tables, each cov- ered with a green cloth. One of the principal representatives of each of the thirteen States sits during the session at one of these tables. The president of the Congress has his place in the mid- dle of the hall upon a sort of throne. The clerk is seated just below him."
Upon the completion of a portion of the building the east room
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was occupied by the Assembly (Andrew Hamilton, Speaker) at their October session, 1736, the Council at this time sitting at the house of the president, James Logan. In 1775 it was the meet- ing-room of the second Continental Congress when it came to Philadelphia, and was so occupied until the Declaration of Inde- pendence and the Confederation, except when the city was held by the British, until the removal to Princeton in 1783. After this the Supreme Court occupied the room; and the district court of the city and county, created in 1811, sat here for some years. In this same chamber the " Articles of Confederation and Perpet- ual Union " between the United States were signed, which were finally ratified by the whole thirteen States, March 1, 1781.
And again a body of the most distinguished men put it to national use, for here met from May 14, 1787, till September 17th, the Federal Convention to frame a Constitution for the United States of America; Washington was president of the convention, and many of its members had also been members of the old Continental Congress.
Afterward, on the 20th of November, the State convention met in Independence chamber to take action upon the proposed Con- stitution for the United States; and again, November 24, 1789, to frame a new constitution for the State, known as the constitu- tion of 1790, as they adjourned finally September 2d of that year. As the result of this constitution, creating two branches of the Legislature, the Senate and House took possession of the eastern and western chambers, and here remained until the abandonment of Philadelphia as the State capital. The "temporary " capital was in 1799 at Lancaster, until finally removed as a "perma- nent" one to Harrisburg.
In October, 1789, the First General Convention of the United Protestant Episcopal Church met in the Assembly-room, by con- sent of the president of the State, for eight days; at which the churches were united, the House of Bishops was formed, the first president-bishop, Seabury, was elected, the constitution of the Church was agreed upon and signed, and the present Prayer- Book was adopted.
The second room prepared for use, the west room-not ready for occupancy by some years as soon as the east room-was used by the Supreme Court from 1743; also by the Assembly when Congress was using the east room ; and by the convention to form a constitution for the new State of Pennsylvania, July to Sep- tember, 1776; and afterward by the mayor's court when the Supreme Court moved to the east room after Congress left. The Supreme Court was not reorganized and in operation until the summer of 1777. For a long time the west room was used for holding the city and county courts, the Court of Common Pleas occupying it last, until it was converted into a National Museum in 1873.
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Thus, the chambers hitherto occupied by the National and State Legislatures were vacated after April 11th, 1799, and were un- occupied until 1802, when Charles Wilson Peale was allowed the use of the whole second floor for his museum. The old chairs and furniture, not taken away by the Legislature, were sold or given away as relics. The president's chair, the table, the silver inkstand, two chairs, and others, were retained by the Legislature and carried to Harrisburg. Seventy years afterward, through a Committee of Restoration, many of them were replaced in their original room.
John Hancock's Chair .- This relic of Independence Hall and of the " time that tried men's souls" was the property of the State of Pennsylvania, which owned all the furniture of the chamber of the old State House, where the Continental Congress sat. There is nothing to show that the chamber was specially furnished for the use of Congress, and the chair of the Speaker of the As- sembly in former times was probably that which was used by the presidents of the Continental Congress. It is most likely that it did duty in the sessions of Congress held in the present Inde- pendence Hall, but it is not known that it was removed to the building at the south-east corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets, called, when first erected, "Congress Hall." It is probable that there was new furniture prepared for those chambers. While the chair remained in the old State House it must have been used by the successive presidents of Congress-viz. Peyton Randolph, who resigned May 24, 1775; John Hancock, president until Oc- tober, 1777; Henry Laurens, president from November, 1777, to December, 1778; John Jay, president from December, 1778, to September, 1779 ; Samuel Huntingdon, from September, 1779, to July 10, 1781; Thomas Mckean, from July to September, 1781 ; John Hanson, from November, 1781, to November, 1782; Elias Boudinot, from November, 1782, to February 4th, 1783; Thomas Mifflin, from February, 1783, to June, 1783-when Congress removed from Philadelphia, in consequence of the mu- tinous conduct and threatenings of soldiers of the Pennsylvania line. Congress did not constantly sit in Philadelphia during the Revolution. It met at Baltimore March 4, 1777; at Lancaster, September 30, 1777 (Philadelphia being in the occupation of the British) ; at York, July 2, 1778; and at Princeton, after the mutiny, November 26, 1783. It afterward met at Annapolis and at Trenton, and finally went to New York in 1785, where it remained until the Constitution of the United States was adopted and the Confederacy dissolved. In addition to the gentlemen named above, it is probable that the chair was used officially by many other members of Congress when in committee of the whole or upon other business. It afterward went into the State service, and has been used by all the Speakers of the Senate since 1781. At the dedication of the Washington Hall, October 1st, 1816, an
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address was delivered by John B. Wallace, Esq., who received the keys of the building. This chair was used on that occasion. There is a deal of history about that old chair ; and now that the State Senate has restored it to Independence Hall, it will be one of the most sacred relics preserved in that memorable place.
This chair was of course used by Washington in 1787 as pres- ident of the Constitutional Convention. This is proved by Mr. Madison in his Reports of the Debates of the Convention ; he says in the Madison Papers, iii. 1624: "Whilst the last members were signing, Dr. Franklin, looking toward the president's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, ob- served to a few members near him that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. 'I have,' said he, 'often and often, in the course of the session and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting ; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising not a setting sun.'' The chair has carved on the top of its back, and gilded, the image of a sun half in the sea; whether rising from the sea, however, or setting in it, is not so clear.
The staircase leading to the Council Chamber and to the other two rooms on this floor, the Banqueting-Hall and its antechamber, was completed as early as 1741.
The upper part of the building was occupied for various offices, and one, "the Long Room," as an official banqueting- room. William Allen, the mayor in 1736, inaugurated it as such by giving a great banquet as a "raising " frolic, followed in after years by all the ceremonial banquets, whether to celebrate the king's birthday, the arrival of a new governor or any mem- ber of the Proprietary family, or a commander-in-chief of the royal forces, or it was even loaned to merchants for the same purpose. From 1802 to 1828-29 it was occupied by Peale's Museum of Natural History and Art. In October, 1743, the governor's Council had their room finished for occupancy ; it was the west room, second story. The U. S. circuit and district courts and marshal's office occupied the second story, west room, from 1828-29 until about 1854, when the city and districts were consolidated under one government, and the City Councils, being much increased in numbers, moved from Fifth and Chestnut streets in 1855 and fitted up two chambers for their use.
The State House and Yard have been the scene of many no- table historical and public events. Under its occupancy by the Assembly of the Province and the courts of the city and county it was the head-quarters of the people and their Indian neigh- bors. When, in 1775, it was occupied by the second Conti- nental Congress, it became of national interest, which was in- tensified by the Declaration. On the 1st of July, 1776, Con-
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gress adopted the resolution of Richard Henry Lee declaring the colonies to be free and independent States, as offered by him on the 7th of June, and had appointed on the 11th, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Livingston as a committee, Lee being at home on account of the illness of his wife. On the 1st of July, Jefferson, as chairman, reported a draft of the Decla- ration ; the form of it was debated on the 3d and 4th, and then adopted in secret session ; it was announced the next day, and publicly read from an observatory erected by the Philosophical Society in the State House Yard, on the'8th of July by John Nixon, a member of the Council of Safety of Pennsylvania; and not by Captain Hopkins, as stated by Watson, Vol. I. p. 402.
In one of the chambers Ebenezer Kinnersley, colaborer with Franklin, gave his lectures on electricity in 1752.
The building has also been used by the city for public re- ceptions of celebrated men, among whom were La Fayette in 1824, Presidents Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Polk, Taylor, Pierce, Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes ; also Clay, Scott, and others ; also for the lying-in-state of the bodies of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, and citizen soldiers.
It was used by the British as a hospital and prison, the soldiers being confined in the Long Room up stairs, at the time of the battle of Germantown. A public reception was given in July, 1778, to Conrad Alexander Gérard, the first minister from France after her alliance with the colonies. He was escorted by Richard Henry Lee and Samuel Adams in a chariot with six horses. On the 3d of November, 1781, twenty-four standards and colors taken from the British under Cornwallis were brought here, escorted by the military and the populace.
For many years it has been the place of holding large meet- ings, both in front of the building and in the yard. Until the city was subdivided thoroughly into wards and precincts it was the place for voting at elections, which brought immense num- bers of people to one spot in one day, and many disturbances were caused by it. Now that the voting takes place in each ward, Election Day is nearly as quiet as any other, and produces no disturbances of any moment. Elections at the State House were discontinued by the passage of the act of May 3d, 1850, which declared they should be held in the respective wards. The division into precincts came shortly afterward, in 1851.
In 1816 the State sold the State House and buildings and the whole square to the city for seventy thousand dollars, under the trust that it should be used only for public purposes, and that no part of the grounds should be used for erecting any buildings. The corridors and offices at the wings had been torn down in 1813, and the present office-wings were erected for the use of the county clerks and offices. In doing so the space occupied by the corridors and staircases was built out wider than it had before
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been, and thus covered up the two southernmost doors in Inde- pendence Chamber and in the Judicial Chamber, and also neces- sitated the removing of the high case of the old clock.
Among the buildings on the Square are the City Hall at the eastern corner on Chestnut street, occupied by the mayor and the police, and the building in the rear on Fifth street, in which the American Philosophical Society has its library and museum in the second story, the lower story being used for courts and other offices. On the western corner is the Old Congress building, occupied by the Highway Department and the courts, and in the rear is a plain brick structure built for the Court of Quarter Sessions and its offices. The City or "Common " Hall, and the County Building, now known as Congress Hall, were not built when Hamilton planned the State House, but he thought of the needs of the city and the county, and he reserved two lots of fifty by seventy-three feet for these buildings.
P. 397. "By a law passed Feb. 17, 1762, a lot containing fifty feet in front on the south side of Chestnut street and sev- enty-three feet in depth on Fifth street (west side) was appropri- ated to the use of the city for erecting a public building to hold courts of common halls, and another lot of the same front on Chestnut street and the same depth on the east side of Sixth, to the use of the city and county of Philadelphia for like purposes." (Col. Recs., vol. xiv. p. 285.) Fifteen feet to each lot were added in 1787 by the Legislature.
The building at the south-west corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets was built in 1790-91 for a city hall. It was occupied from February, 1791, to August, 1800, while the Federal gov- ernment was in Philadelphia, by the Supreme Court of the United States, under Chief-Justices John Jay, John Rutledge, Cushing, and Oliver Ellsworth, with their associate justices; by the Supreme Court of the State; also by the United States District Court, of which Francis Hopkinson, William Lewis, and Richard Peters were judges. The mayor's court for the city was held in the south room, first story. Here the petty cases of the day were heard by him until by the new regulation the aldermen of the different wards performed those functions. City Councils also met here, in the second story, until the consolidation in 1854. The city treasurer also occupied the east rooms on the lower floor; he is at present (1879) in the northern half of the Girard Bank, in Third street.
Congress Hall, the building at the south-east corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets, though in the original plan of Hamilton, was not commenced till 1787 and finished in February, 1789. It was originally intended for the county courts. The occupancy of it was given to Congress between 1790 and 1800, when the Fed- eral government was removed to Philadelphia. The House of Representatives sat in the chamber which occupied the whole of
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the first floor, the Senate on the south part of the second floor. There was no door on Sixth street, as the case is now; it was opened about 1820. A hall or vestibule ran from the front door on either side the entrance on Chestnut street, containing the stairways; also there was an entrance to the gallery from the east. Offices were on each side of the hall and in the second story, and they were occupied by officers and committees of Congress. In the chamber of the House of Representatives, President Washington was inaugurated March 4th, 1793, for the second term, and John Adams as Vice-President; and Adams as President and Jefferson as Vice-President in 1797.
On this occasion, the 4th of March, the Senators and Repre- sentatives being assembled with unusual state, and the ambassa- dors of foreign nations, glittering with the insignia of royalty, around, the modest Washington, having on that day closed his long and splendid career, entered the assembly, "and, taking a seat as a private citizen a little in front of the seats assigned for the Senate, which were on the south side of the house," showed by his presence the respect which he deemed that propriety made decorous to the successor in his office.
The original draft of Washington's "Farewell Address" is owned by Henry Lenox of New York.
And here Washington came on Dec. 8th, 1798, from his "peaceful abode," "so dearly loved," in fulfilment of the last office conferred on him-that of lieutenant-general of all the armies, with his secretary, Col. Lear, and his trusted major-gen- erals, Hamilton and Pinckney, beside him, when Congress had ordered the nation should be armed against the aggressions of France.
During the sessions of Congress in this building the army and navy were well established ; the United States Mint was started ; Jay's treaty of commerce with England was debated and ratified ; the United States Bank was instituted ; the States of Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee were admitted; two formidable insur- rections were put down-Shay's Rebellion and the Whiskey In- surrection ; an Indian war was conducted; and the official an- nouncement of the death of Washington was made.
Here Fisher Ames defended, in his memorable speech, Wash- ington and the treaty of Mr. Jay; here Marshall vindicated the action of the Executive under it in that conclusive argument which fixed the eyes of the nation at once upon him, and showed to all how fit he was for that highest honor with which he was afterward adorned; within these same walls Dexter, Sedgwick, Trumbull, Tracey, Williams, Benson, Boudinot, Sitgreaves, Harper, and Smith of South Carolina gave force and dignity to all around them, and the pious Ashbel Green invoked the guidance of Heaven upon their counsels and their acts.
The news of Washington's death reached Philadelphia on the
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ZION, GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH .- Pages 219 and 313.
ST. AUGUSTINE. FIRST CHURCH .- Pages 206 and 322.
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day of his funeral, and the official announcement was made the following day on the floor of the House by the Hon. John Mar- shall of Virginia, afterward chief-justice of the United States. It was resolved there should be a funeral procession from Con- gress Hall to the German Lutheran Church to hear the funeral oration by General Henry Lee, Washington's intimate friend. The church, in Fourth street above Arch, at the corner of Cherry street, the largest in the city, was crowded on the occa- sion. This old church was taken down in 1871 and a row of fine stores built on its site. The illustration represents it as it was at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
After Congress removed from Philadelphia the building was used for court-rooms, as originally intended; and afterward the arched entrance on Sixth street was opened, the partitions of the entry from Chestnut street were taken down, and the two rooms and entry thrown into one large room. This was used for years as a court-room, afterward as the tax-receiver's office, and now by the Highway Department.
Mr. William McKay (" Lang Syne ") wrote : " Here is an in- side view of the plain brick building at the south-east corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets. In this limited enclosure the repre- sentatives of the people in former days viewed themselves as sur- rounded by uncommon elegance and decoration in their discus- sions, they being ' fresh from the ranks of the people'-actually so-and unused to legislative splendor other than had been ex- hibited by the old Congress of 1776 in the east wing of the State House on Chestnut street. Prior to their removal South they passed unanimously a vote of thanks to the authorities of Penn- sylvania for having done the thing so very handsomely.
"The House of Representatives, in session, occupied the whole of the ground floor, upon a platform elevated three steps in as- cent, plainly carpeted, and covering nearly the whole of the area, with a limited logia or promenade for the members and privileged persons, and four narrow desks between the Sixth street windows for the stenographers, Lloyd, Gales, Callender, and Duane. The Speaker's chair, without canopy, was of plain leather and brass nails, facing the east, at or near the centre of the western wall.
" The Senate convened in the room up stairs, looking into the State House garden. It has since been used by Judges Washing- ton and Peters as the Federal court.
" In a very plain chair, without canopy, and with a small ma- hogany table before him, festooned at the sides and front with green silk, Mr. Adams, the Vice-President, presided as president of the Senate, facing the north. Among the thirty Senators of that day there was observed constantly during the debate the most delightful silence, the most beautiful order, gravity, and personal dignity of manner. They all appeared every morning
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full-powdered and dressed, as age or fancy might suggest, in the richest material. The very atmosphere of the place seemed to inspire wisdom, mildness, and condescension. Should any of them so far forget for a moment as to be the cause of a pro- tracted whisper while another was addressing the Vice-President, three gentle taps with his silver pencil-case by Mr. Adams im- mediately restored everything to repose and the most respectful attention, presenting in their courtesy a most striking contrast to the independent loquacity of the Representatives below stairs, some few of whom persisted in wearing, while in their seats and during the debate, their ample cocked hats, placed 'fore and aft' upon their heads."
At these two corners of Fifth and Sixth streets on Chestnut street, on the State House Square, before the Revolution, large wooden sheds were put up, as seen in Peale's picture of the Hall as it stood in 1778. One of them was used as a place of shelter for the Indians visiting the city as deputations; the other was sometimes used for storage; during the Revolution they were used for artillery and general munitions of war. The Assembly of the Province granted these corner lots, some time before the Revolution, to the city and county of Philadelphia.
That portion of the Square on which the building of the Amer- ican Philosophical Society stands was granted to the society by the Commonwealth in 1785, and it was erected in 1787, the proviso of the grant being that the grantees were strictly re- strained from selling, transferring, or even leasing it, and the buildings to be erected thereon were to be applied exclusively to the accommodation of the said society. The Philadelphia Library Company had also applied several times for a similar lot, but was always refused. The society takes its origin from the Junto, an association established in 1743 by Dr. Franklin, Nich- olas Scull (afterward surveyor-general of the Province), George Webb (one of our early poets), and others. Another society, called the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, was founded in 1766. The two were united in 1769, and char- tered by the Penns, under the title of "The American Philo- sophical Society, held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge." The first president was Benjamin Franklin, suc- ceeded by David Rittenhouse, Thomas Jefferson, Professor Cas- par Wistar, Professor Robert Patterson, Chief-Justice William Tilghman, and others. What other of "the old Thirteen " can present such names in the history of physical science as Bar- tram, Rittenhouse, Kinnersley, Godfrey, and Franklin ? What other Legislature than the Legislature of our Province gave at the early day of 1769, when our Provincial means were limited, two hundred pounds to buy a telescope and build an observatory, that philosophers might observe the transit of Venus in that day, and again, in 1775, presented three hundred pounds to David
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Rittenhouse " as a testimony of the high sense which the House entertained of his mathematical genius and abilities in construct- ing his orrery " ?
" Peale's Museum " was located in the chambers of the lower floor of the society building in 1794. The collection started with some bones of the mammoth and the paddle-fish in 1785, and was at first located in a diminutive frame house connected with his dwelling, corner of Third and Lombard streets. He was a natu- ralist, and also an artist, having studied with Hesselius, Copley, and West. When he got fairly settled he constantly engaged in painting portraits, increasing his collection and enlarging a zoo- logical garden he started in the rear of the hall. Many of the portraits of the heroes of the war and the statesmen of the day, particularly those known as the "Peale Collection," which for a long time adorned his museum, were painted in this building. Washington sat to him and simultaneously to his brother and two sons, giving rise to the bon-mot of a punster on meeting Mrs. Washington, who mentioned the fact to him: "Madam, the President will be peeled all round if he don't take care." The eagle now in the National Museum is from his zoological garden. In 1802 he removed the museum to the State House, the whole second floor having been granted him rent free. Here he re- mained until his death. A signboard, "Museum," was placed over the front door. Afterward. it was removed into the Arcade in Chestnut street, and kept by his son, Rembrandt Peale, also an artist.
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