USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Early Philadelphia; its people, life and progress > Part 10
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The library had numerous donations of articles usually accepted by Museums but particularly undesirable in a library which lacked space for books. Other libraries sprang up but all were merged with the parent in 1771 and two years later removed to the second floor of Carpenter's
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Hall, where the officers of both Armies found an occasional solace in perusing them, especially when the library-room was used as a hospital. Not a book was lost or mutilated and all fees were scrupulously paid during this period of usurpation. In August, 1774, it was ordered "that the librarian furnish the gentlemen who are to meet in Congress in this city with such books as they may have occasion for during their sittings, taking a receipt from them," and so we have the first Congressional Library.
The corner-stone of the library's first real home was laid in 1789 in Fifth Street, corner of Library. Franklin wrote the inscription, excepting that part which refers to him- self as founder, and his statue, executed in Italy and pre- sented by William Bingham, was placed in a niche over the doorway. The early morning aspect of the figure draped in a toga was suggested by the illustrious scholar himself and it is said to have cost five hundred guineas. It still stands over the portal of the library building at Juniper and Locust Streets, erected in 1880 to accommodate the vast accumulation of books. One can easily believe that the queer recipe for the statue was a curious distortion of some simple remark of the sage.
At the close of the Revolution the library contained 5000 books and a home of its own became imperative. The modest building was the first in the United States devoted to the use of a public library. In 1792 James Logan's library was added to the collection and in 1869 the bequest of Dr. James Rush placed at the disposal of the Company the beautiful building known as the Ridgway Branch of the Philadelphia Library, where a hundred thousand vol- umes repose in dignified seclusion. It is situated on Broad Street between Christian and Carpenter Streets and is a granite mausoleum of Doric architecture, finished in 1877.
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
E have already observed enough of Franklin's plans to note the catho- licity of his mind. As the population increased and the colonies became more densely settled he saw the need for a society of wider scope than the Junto of 1727 and in 1743 issued his well-known circular entitled " A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantaytions in America." The proposal was well received and the next year he says they have " had several meetings to mutual satisfaction." He names the members: "Dr. Thomas Bond as Physician, Mr. John Bartram as Botanist, Mr. Thomas Godfrey as Mathematician, Mr. William Parsons as Geographer, Dr. Phineas Bond as General Natural Philosopher, Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, President, Mr. William Coleman, Treasurer, Benjamin Franklin, Secre- tary," and to these he adds Mr. Alexander of New York, Mr. Morris, Chief Justice of the Jerseys, Mr. Howe, Secre- tary, Mr. John Coxe of Trenton and Mr. Martyn of the same place. He expects, he says, that several other gentle- men of the City will join, as well as some from Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, and the New England Colonies. Thus was launched the first scientific society in the new world. It flourished side by side with the Junto, which in 1766 broadened out as the " American Society held at Phila- delphia for promoting and propagating Useful Knowl- edge," and in 1769 the two were united with Franklin as President, an office which he held until his death.
By this time the Society had members in the different colonies, in the Barbadoes, Antigua, Heidelberg, Stock-
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holm, Edinburgh, London and Paris. Franklin advised a correspondence between the central organization and those distant members and with the Royal Society in London and in Dublin. Thus persons residing in remote districts of America were put in direct communication with the Old World scientists in all their lines of work and to men of intelligence living far from the centres of education and enlightenment in the days of few books and periodicals, this was very important.
Governor John Penn refused to be the Patron of the Society because Franklin was the "greatest enemy " to his family, but his successor, Richard Penn, was more gracious and courteously considered the appointment an honour. The Quaker Assembly looked with favour upon the philosophers and voted a thousand pounds to assist them in planting mulberry trees for the benefit of silk- worms. A care of smoky chimneys and an interest in manures, among other subjects, occupied their attention and the pressure of erudition was relieved by very good dinners. To increase the comfort and prosperity, as well as the scholarship of the province, was the laudable am- bition of the Philosophical Society, and its members were drawn from every creed and walk of life.
There was Ebenezer Kinnersley, a professor in the Col- lege to whom Franklin owed much of his success in impor- tant electrical discoveries. Kinnersley contrived an amus- ing " magical " picture of King George II, so arranged that anyone attempting to remove his crown would receive a shock.
David Rittenhouse, the greatest American astronomer, who succeeded Franklin as President, was Vice-Provost of the University and first Director of the Mint, con- tributed the first purely scientific paper in the series of the
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Transactions of the Society. In June, 1769, he made observations on the transit of Venus, only seen twice before, from the observatory erected in the State House yard. It was from this balcony that John Nixon first read the Decla- ration of Independence to the people. He constructed an orrery representing the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, which appeared upon the seal of the University for a time. David was not above a little practical work and Washing- ton depended upon him to grind the glasses for his spec- tacles made famous by that remark of the first President as he adjusted them to his nose, " I have grown gray and blind in your service."
Brother Jabetz, Prior of the Ephrata Cloister, was wont to walk eighty miles, it is said, to attend the meetings, and his tall spare figure in flowing robe, girt by a hempen cord, added a charming element of picturesqueness, as well as a flavour of asceticism which seemed just what the phi- losophers wanted.
Jefferson was the third President and was an early member, combining with Franklin the ideal and the prac- tical. While abroad he disputed the arguments of the learned Count de Buffon, another member, on the de- generacy of American animals and finally sent him the bones, skins and horns of an enormous New Hampshire moose. Franklin answered a similar argument on the de- generacy of American men by making all the Americans at the table and all the Frenchmen stand up. The Ameri- cans happened to be fine, physical specimens and they towered above the little Gauls. Jefferson got a gold medal from France for designing a plow almost as good in its way as Franklin's model stove. He calculated the num- ber of bushels per acre at Monticello. He was also the architect of his beautiful home and the stately buildings of
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the University of Virginia nearby. During the bitter fac- tional strife of Jefferson's administration he was always ready to neglect politics for science, the one, as he said, being his duty, the other his passion. Indeed he filled one of the rooms of the White House with bones and fossils and frequently consulted Dr. Caspar Wistar about his scientific investigations and discoveries. Proud of his in- terest in these things Jefferson was not careful to conceal his joy in them. Indeed his propensity became a feature of the criticism heaped upon him as can be imagined from Bryant's lines in the Embargo:
" Go, wretch, resign the Presidential chair ; Disclose thy secret measures, foul or fair ; Go, search with curious eyes for hornéd frogs,
' Mid the wild wastes of Louisiannian bogs, Or where the Ohio rolls its turbid stream Dig for huge bones, thy glory and thy theme."
The gala days of the philosophers were the annual dinners and the entertainments to distinguished visitors where many lively raconteurs and bon vivants were gath- ered about the board. Here were the Abbe Correa de Serra, Judge Richard Peters, Peter Stephen Duponceau, Dr. Caspar Wistar, John Vaughan, Robert Walsh, George Ord, William Strickland, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman and Nicholas Biddle.
Perhaps the most unusual of Richard Peter's many attainments was his keen wit and brilliant conversation. He used to follow the assizes or circuits of the courts in all the surrounding counties and always relieved the tedium of the legal atmosphere by his humourous sallies. When the Pennsylvania delegation went to the conference with the Indians at Fort Stanwix, in New York State, Peters
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accompanied them and, during the negotiations, so insinu- ated himself into the good graces of the Indian chiefs that they proposed to adopt him into their tribe. Their offer was accepted and Peters was introduced to his adopted relatives by the name " Tegohtias," bestowed in allusion to his amusing talkativeness.
In 1771 he became Register of the Admiralty, retaining this post until the Revolution broke out. Although this association might have been expected to attach him to the King's interests, he did not hesitate to espouse the cause of American rights and organized a company in the neigh- bourhood of his home, filling the post of captain. His administrative and executive abilities were so well known, however, that he was soon summoned to act as Secretary of the Board of War and thus became on June 13, 1776, the first Secretary of War of the new republic. Everyone who has read the record of that memorable time can imagine the difficult and trying position in which he was placed and it was undoubtedly due to his indomitable energy and unceasing labours that Washington's army had what pro- visions and ammunition they got. Some notion of the army's frequent grievous state and of the tremendous bur- den Peters bore on his shoulders during all the anxious years of strife may be gained from one of his letters:
I was Commissioner of War in 1779. General Washington wrote to me that all his powder was wet and that he was entirely without lead or balls, so that, should the enemy approach, he must retreat. When I received this letter I was going to a grand gala at the Spanish Ambassador's, who lived in Mr. Chew's fine house in South Third Street. The spacious gardens were superbly decor- ated with variegated lamps, the edifice itself was a blaze of lights, the show was splendid, but my feelings were far from being in harmony with all this brilliancy. I met at this party my friend, Robert Morris, who soon discovered the state of my mind. " You
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are not yourself tonight, Peters, what is the matter? " asked Morris. Notwithstanding my unlimited confidence in that great patriot, it was some time before I could prevail upon myself to disclose the cause of my depression, but at length I ventured to give him a hint of my inability to answer the pressing calls of the Commander-in-Chief. The army is without lead and I know not where to get an ounce to supply it; the General must retreat for want of ammunition. "Well, let him retreat," replied the high and liberal-minded Morris ; " but cheer up; there are in the Holker Privateer, just arrived, ninety tons of lead, one-half of which is mine and at your service, the residue you can get by applying to Blair McClenachan and Holker, both of whom are in the house with us." I accepted the offer of Mr. Morris.
Peters then goes on to relate how he approached McClenachan and Holker, both of whom, however, de- murred because of the large sums already owing them. Thereupon Morris came forward, assumed the whole re- sponsibility, the lead was delivered and so the army for the nonce had a supply of bullets.
After the surrender of Cornwallis, Mr. Peters resigned his post and received the thanks of Congress for his " long and faithful services." He was thereupon elected to Con- gress and had his share in the business of ending the war and arranging the longed-for peace. He was a member of the Assembly in 1787 and its Speaker from 1788 to 1790. One day during this time a member tripped on the carpet and fell flat. This was followed by laughter on the part of the House but Judge Peters with great gravity called, " Order, order, gentlemen! Do you not see that a member is on the floor!"
When Washington was on his way to New York for his first inauguration as President of the United States, Peters and General Thomas Mifflin, the Speaker of the State
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Senate, were the representatives of Pennsylvania who met him as he entered the state.
The University made him a trustee in 1789 and in 1791 he became the Speaker of the State Senate. Declin- ing the Comptrollership of the United States Treasury he was commissioned Judge of the Federal Court of Penn- sylvania in 1792 and held the office until his death.
Judge Peters was one of the founders of the Philadel- phia Society for Promoting Agriculture, the first of its kind in America, and held the presidency of it until his death. From the farm at Belmont came many model things. His specialty was dairying and the Belmont butter went to market put up in one-pound packages.
Unfortunately for the judge, his one-pound weight, ac- cording to a new assize of weights and measures, was too light, and the whole consignment was seized by the in- spector and confiscated for the benefit of the poor. The judge then sent his old weight to be examined and cor- rected by the standard and when it was returned the letters "C. P." (for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) were stamped upon it. The servant who brought it back car- ried it at once to the judge, who was at dinner with a party of friends. Taking it, he carefully inspected it and looking gravely at his wife, said, as he held it up for her to see, " My dear, they have at last found us out. Here is the old weight come back with C. P. stamped in it which can stand for nothing in the world but Cheating Peters."
Although the surroundings of Belmont were unusually beautiful the fields often presented a shabby appearance, for the judge was so occupied with public affairs and with agricultural experiments that he had little time to devote to the practical management of his farm. One day a German, who had often read the judge's agricultural reports, made
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a pilgrimage to Belmont. He found the gate without hinges, fences dilapidated, and the crops not equal to his own. When the judge came out to speak to him, the rustic bluntly expressed his disappointment at the appearance of the place. " How can you expect me," said the judge, " to attend to all these things when my time is so taken up in telling others how to farm?" The old German was dis- gusted and drove away without asking any more questions.
As may be imagined, Belmont was the scene of lavish and constant hospitality and while Philadelphia was the seat of the Federal government the chief statesmen, diplo- mats and foreign notables were frequent guests there.
The judge dearly loved to surround himself with his friends, and his political prominence, his intellectual bril- liance, and his genial personality drew a large coterie about him. Washington and Lafayette were on terms of great intimacy with him and the former, " whenever a morning of leisure permitted," was in the habit of driving to Bel- mont and there, free for a time from the cares of state, would enjoy his host's vivacious flow of conversation, walk- ing for hours with him in the beautiful gardens between " clipped hedges of pyramids, obelisks and balls " of ever- green and spruce, or beneath the shade of ancient trees.
Judge Peters's many stories and bon mots were whole- some and without the least trace of ill-humour or sharpness. On one occasion while attending a dinner of the Schuylkill Fishing Company he was seated beside the president, Gov- ernor Wharton. Toward the end of the dinner more wine was required and the Governor called a servingman named John to fetch it. Said the judge, " If you want more wine you should call for the demi-John," adding that he himself " drank like a fish" from his goblet of water.
To advertise one of his suburban tracts of land he
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posted a plan of the locality on a signboard and carefully covered it with glass, saying that if he left it exposed " every hunter who comes along will riddle it with shot and then everybody will see through my plan." The project was not successful and one of his friends advised him to have it officially laid out. " All right," said Peters, " it's time to lay it out. It's been dead long enough." Once when going to court, a very fat and a very thin man stood at the entrance of a door into which his honour wished to pass. He stopped for a moment for them to make way, but perceiving they were not inclined to move, he pushed on between them, exclaiming, " Here I go then, through thick and thin."
As he grew older his nose and chin approached each other and a friend observed that they would soon be at loggerheads. "Very likely," the judge replied, " for hard words often pass between them."
Judge Peters was one of the courtliest of men and re- tained the ancient mode of dress long after others had abandoned it. To his dying day he wore knee-breeches and silver buckles on his shoes, always powdered his hair and dressed it in a queue. He died August 22, 1828.
A famous story of Ord's was of a fellow member, Dr. Abercrombie, rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's, who went to Shrewsbury, New Jersey, dined on good old Madeira and then preached from the text, " And the bar- barous people showed us no little kindness."
Delightful memories there are of John Vaughan's cele- brated breakfasts, Dr. Wistar's Sunday evening parties, and Henry C. Carey's Sunday afternoon vespers partici- pated in by Dr. Benjamin Rush, Chief Justice Tilghman, Jared Ingersoll, Dr. Robert Patterson, Jonathan Williams, John Fitch, Rev. William Smith, Dr. Barton,
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Charles Wilson Peale, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Noah Webster, Josiah Quincy, Washington Irving, Elisha Kent Kane, Count de Lesseps, Mr. Gladstone, Oliver Wendell Holmes, George Bancroft, James Russell Lowell, Louis Agassiz and Joseph Leidy.
Interrupted by the Revolutionary War, the members reassembled on the 5th of March, 1779, and a year later were granted their first charter, and a lot of ground ad- joining the State House on which to build a hall. In 1789 this Hall was completed and stands to-day filled with price- less relics. One of the most curious of these is a strange instrument, called a Horologium or Planescope, which Dr. Christopher Witt gave to the society in 1767. Dr. Witt was the last surviving member of the Majestic Brotherhood of the Wissahickon and the instrument came to him in 1708 from Kelpius, the hermit who lived in a cave on the banks of that stream near the present Rittenhouse Street. It is supposed to have belonged to Magister Zimmerman, who formed in Germany the Order of the Wissahickon and cast the horoscope of the new undertaking before the brothers sailed. It was used generally for social and busi- ness affairs in early Philadelphia and the pastor of Old Swedes' Church, previous to the laying of the corner-stone, requested a noted mystic named Seelig, residing on the Wissahickon, to cast a horoscope and find a propitious day for the commencement of the building. The occult brotherhood were present in a body at the laying of the foundation stone in the fall of 1698 and took part in the ceremony by furnishing the instrumental music and inton- ing the Psalms and responses. Ancient volumes handled by men whose names are household words, paintings, and manuscripts comprising the greater part of the Franklin papers, and funds for various useful purposes are in the
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THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY'S BUILDING, FIFTH AND CHESTNUT STREETS, 1917
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
Society's care. Its general meetings held annually in the spring bring together important persons from at home and abroad, while its regular fortnightly meetings add papers and discussions of great value. They are held on Friday evenings as in the old Junto days.
The American Philosophical Society has given the impulse to historical societies, scientific schools, academies of natural science and kindred institutions in other cities and is still inspired by the broad spirit and diligent industry of its founders.
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THE UNIVERSITY
HE movement which developed into the University of Pennsylvania was begun in Philadelphia in 1740. Like the province itself, it had its origin in religious persecution.
At the close of the year 1739 there arrived in Philadelphia on the way to his parish at Savannah, Georgia, the Reverend George Whitefield, then but twenty-four years of age, although his powers of preaching much exceeded his breth- ren of the Episcopal Church. So great was this power that a complaint was made to the bishop immediately after his first sermon in Gloucester Cathedral following his ordination, that fifteen people had been driven mad by it. The bishop only replied that he hoped the madness might not be forgotten before another Sunday. This was the beginning of his preaching eighteen thousand times, or ten times a week for four and thirty years. Franklin was attracted by his eloquence and wrote to a friend, " I knew him intimately for upwards of thirty years. His integrity, disinterestedness, and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting every good work, I have never seen equalled, and shall never see excelled." He adds that Whitefield used sometimes to pray for his conversion " but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard."
Very soon Whitefield was prohibited from preaching in Christ Church and the crowds which assembled to hear him were too great for any house in the City, so that a movement was set on foot to provide a building which would accommodate the people and protect them from the weather. Franklin was foremost in the work and tells us that sufficient sums were soon received to procure the
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THE CHARITY SCHOOL, ACADEMY AND COLLEGE ON FOURTH STREET BELOW ARCH STREET The "New Building" of 1740 and the College Dormitories
COLLEGE HALL ON NINTH STREET BELOW MARKET STREET, 1829-1872
THE UNIVERSITY
ground on Fourth near Arch Street and to erect the build- ing, which was 100 feet long and 70 broad, "about the size of Westminster Hall." The work was carried on with such spirit that Whitefield preached in it in November, 1740. There was another purpose which the trustees of this building had in mind and which appears in their ad- vertisement in July of 1740 where they say it is "for a charity school for the instruction of poor children, gratis, in useful literature and the knowledge of the Christian religion." As one of the Trustees, Whitefield was com- missioned to select a master and mistress for the Charity School. What measure of success was attained for this school has never been positively determined but it is the clause which was incorporated word for word in the deed to the Trustees of the Academy in 1749 that connects the University with the origin of 1740.
Franklin's first proposal for a " compleat education of youth " was mentioned in 1743, but it was not until his publication of " Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania," 1749, that the idea took the form of a definite prospectus, which he distributed freely among the principal inhabitants. It is well to note his departure from the common practice of the time of emphasizing the usual classical education, by his particular mention of the importance of keeping our mother tongue foremost in the aims of the Institution. He was ahead of his time also in urging that as " art is long, and their time is short " that they " learn those things that are likely to be the most useful and most ornamental; regard being had to the sev- eral professions for which they are intended." Also " that to keep them in Health, and to strengthen and render active their Bodies, they be frequently exercised in Run- ning, Leaping, Wrestling, and Swimming, etc."
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Franklin was ably seconded by Dr. Richard Peters, afterwards rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's. Franklin wanted him to organize and head the Academy in 1743 but he declined. He became President of the Board of Trustees in 1756 and was the leading spirit during Franklin's absences abroad.
It may be well to name the 24 gentlemen who asso- ciated themselves to carry this project into being. They were:
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