History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 14

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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the Quakers were generally opposed to the war ; their influence wanes and disappears; they cannot resist the current of new ideas, and they are even compelled to compromise with the world ; still the minority they form in the community is of immense importance,- Quaker simplicity checks worldly extravagance and helps it to return from excess to moderation. But the Revolutionary period is a period of transition ; society is swayed by the alternate victories of conflict- ing elements and by foreign influences. The travel- ers who visited our shores during the war, and who speak with praise of our society, pay it a rare com- pliment ; they must have instinctively recognized the characteristics, still undeveloped, of the American society of the future, the society born in peace, when with the turmoils of war had ceased the follies and exaggerations of an unsettled publie taste.

The rigidity of President Washington's principles, the examples of economy and simplicity to be found in his manner of living, the sweet influence of Mrs. Washington, and of such superior women as her friends, Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Knox, Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Stewart, Mrs. Powell, Mrs. Bradford, Mrs. Otis, and Miss Ross, gave an elevated tone to that society among whose brightest ornaments were that leader of taste and elegance and famous beauty, Mrs. Bingham (daughter of Thomas Willing), whom Mrs. Adams mentions as the "dazzling Mrs. Bingham," Miss Nancy Hamilton, Mrs. Madison, or, we should say, the fascinating Widow Todd, for she married Mr. Madison in 1794, and those favorite young friends of Washington, Miss Harriet Chew, who some years after married Charles Carroll, Jr., of Maryland, her sister, Mrs. Henry Philips, and their elder sister, Peggy, who married Col. John Eager Howard, of Baltimore, in 1787. She then left Philadelphia, but came back to reside in 1796, while her husband at- tended Congress as a senator from Maryland. The Chew sisters were renowned for their beauty and amiability.

Mrs. Washington's first levée in Philadelphia is thus spoken of by Miss Sally Mckean in a letter to a friend in New York : "You never could have had such a drawing-room ; it was brilliant beyond any- thing you can imagine; and though there was a great deal of extravagance, there was so much of Philadelphia taste in everything, that it must have been confessed the most delightful occasion of the kind ever known in this country." The "extrava- gance" mentioned by Miss Mckean must have been little to the taste of the President, who attended his wife's levées as a private gentleman, much relieved at dispensing with the ceremonious forms of his official receptions, if we are to judge by his own words when he wrote to Mrs. Catherine Macaulay, "Our wishes are limited, and I think that our plan of living will now be deemed reasonable by the considerate part of our species. Mrs. Washington's ideas coincide with mine own as to simplicity of dress and everything

1 Watson's Annals, vol. ii.

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which can tend to support propriety of character, without partaking of the follies of luxury and osten- tation."

Oliver Wolcott, on being appointed auditor of the Treasury, in 1789, went to New York to see whether he would be able to maintain his family there on the emoluments of his office, and after due inquiry wrote to his wife: " By observation of the people in public service, and other respectable families, I am confident that no change in our habits of living will be in any degree necessary. . . . The example of the President and his family will render parade and expense improper and disreputable." When Congress was removed to Philadelphia rents rose and the markets became dearer. Mr. Wolcott wrote to his wife: " I have at length been to Philadelphia, and with much difficulty have procured a house in Third Street, which is a respectable part of the city. The rent is one hun- dred pounds, which is excessive, being nearly double what would have been exactedl before the matter of residence was determined."

That rents and the cost of living had increased was the natural consequence of the influx of population resulting from the transfer of the seat of government. Philadelphia was the great metropolis, to which came travelers and foreigners of distinction, impelled by curiosity to see this new republican government, or by admiration for the great man who had brought his country safely through a crisis such as no other people had ever known. Then there were the nu- merous officers of the government and their families, and many eminent citizens from other parts of the country, attracted, as by a magnet, by the presence of Washington and the Congress. More remarkable was the change which had taken place in the customs of the people between the time of the ending of the war and the return of Congress. The vagaries of fashion during that period have been recorded.

An inventory of the wardrobe of Gen. Lord Ster- ling, published in the " American Historical Record," vol. i., shows that officer to have been remarkably well provided, as the total of garments was four hun- dred and twelve, among which were thirty-one coats, fifty-eight vests, forty-three pairs of breeches, thirty shirts, one hundred and nineteen pairs of hose, four- teen pairs of shoes, and four pairs of boots. It may show either how scarce were gloves, or how unusual was the wearing of them at this time, that Sterling had but two pairs of gloves, while he had fifty- four eravats and stocks. The list is without date, bnt probably it was taken in the Revolutionary war, as among the articles are n "blue cloth cont, vest, and breeches |regimental), laced with gold." Ilats or caps are not mentioned in this inventory. The breeches were showy, being of various striking colors, and made of crimson and figured velvet; brown cloth, lined with red; gay with gold lace; white, claret, scarlet, and other varieties of colors. The coats were of cinnamon silk, blne cloth, brown

mixed, white cloth, blue, claret, scarlet, brown, black, plum, gray, parson's gray, and other colors. The stockings were of various colors and material ; and the vests, in most cases, of the color of the coats and breeches.

Lord Sterling was excusable, but fashion does not stop at lords ; it penetrated even into the agricultural districts of Pennsylvania.

In the Freeman's Journal of July 10, 1782, a farmer complains against tie-wigs with tails, double rows of gilt buttons npon coats and waistcoasts, and laced and embroidered garments. He said,-

" My eldest sun, having spent some weeks in the city, comes home a mero baboon ; hair besprinkled as white with powder as that of an old man of eighty years of age; a pair of ruffles reaching from his wrist- bands to the extremity of lus nails; a strip of gold Ince encircling hia hat, with a button and loop of the same metal; a huge stock on bis neck, containing mnelin enough to be his winding-sheet ; a suit of super- fino clothes, wrought ont in a most glaring manner; and, to complete all, a long piece of cold iron, called a sword, daogling after him,-in imitation, I suppose, of some coxcomb he has seen in town."

A few days afterward, "Priscilla Tripstreet" says,-

" Umbrellas used by men ought to be taxed ; they are unfit for a man. Why should the men's silver, pinchbeck, and plaited shoe-buckles, weighing a pound cach, be passed over in silence ?"

Even the Quakers were not free from the contagion ; not so much the men, for Brissot de Warville, in 1788, describes the Quaker dress as-

"a round hat, generally white; cloth coat; cotton or woolen stockings ; no powder in their hair, which is cut short, and hangs around. They carry in their pockets a little comb in a case; and, on entering a house, if the hair is disordered, they comb it before the first mirror they meet. They put on woolen stockings on the 15th of September. It is an article of discipline, which extends to their clothing."

But the Quaker ladies, if prohibited from imitating their worldly sisters and too timid to follow the ex- ample of pretty Dolly Payne, who, after the death of her Quaker husband, Todd, became one of the gayest belles of the republican court, nevertheless introduced many little improvements in their toilet that would have horrified the meetings of olden times. De War- ville says of them,-

"The Quaker matrons wear the gravest colors, little black bonnets, and their hair simply turned back The young women curl their hair with great care nud anxiety, which costs them as much time as the most exquisito toilet. They wear little hats, covered with silk or satin. They nie remarkal le for their choice of the finest linens, muslins, and ailks. Elegant fans play between their fingers, Oriental luxury itself woold not diadain the linen they wear."

Three years later the Duke de la Rochefoncauld- Liancourt made the sage reflection, " Ribbons please young Quakeresses as well as others, and are the great enemies of the sect."

In The Times, by Peter Markoe, published in 1788, the poet says,

"Genius of Penn' coulist thon thy mansion quit Mind hear wound Sense nbused by flimsy Wit ; Couldst thou behold by fops thy hablt mocked, Aml view the doubtful hat, half-finpped, half-cooked; Licks which the useful e mb have seldom knowo, And cheeks which glow with roses not their own ; Staya which distr ore the fashionable belle, l'rodncing more than Nature's graceful swell,

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

Whilst Art, the foe af genuine beauty, spreads Hoops from their waists and cushions on their heads- Struck by the scans less wicked than uncouth, How wouldst thou pity our degenerate youth !"

In "The Trifler," published in the Columbia Maga- zine for 1788, the writer makes a very sarcastic attack on the ladies. He says, --

" A few years ago tho happiness of the ladies depended as much on the display of their necks and the contraction of their waists as it now does upon their anterior projection and posterior plumpness. Miss Becky Catastrophe-a young lady of a diminutive size-has quitted a ball-room in the extremest mortification because her bishop was not as large as Mrs. McRump's,-a miatron whose natural swell might have disclaimed the assistance of Art! And Mrs. Palace has scarcely excited so much envy by the elegance of her manners and the brilliancy of her equipage as by a volumioons craw, which, like the fortification of Gibraltar, serves indeed to keep everybody at a distance. But, then, the difficulty of con- veyiog provisions to the garrison is equally great in both instances."

In Carey's Herald, the year before, the disappear- ance of the queues is thus noted,-

" There is said to be a rage for cropping. Many of our young men lately have discumbered themselves of queues and clubs, and even some beaux, lately arrived from London and Paris, have docked those ancient ornaments of the head, and adopted a style called a la mode d'Amerique."

This fashion came from France. The influence of that country on the Americans' style of dress was great after the Revolutionary war, and still more so during the French Revolution. The Parisian repub- licans looked to ancient Greece and Rome for sim- plicity of dress, and the skirts, flounces, and trains gave way to the simple flowing robe à l'antique, with short sleeves and the waist under the armpits. This radical change in the ladies' garments crossed the ocean in due time. Another grateful change was the total abandonment of powder and high head-dresses.

In 1791 these changes had not all taken place, but an unbecoming fashion was thus satirized :

"THE CRAW OF FASHION-A NEW SONG.

" Fashion ! mayst thou ever reign In each city, ou each plain ! Lying ronge we now despise! Fashions cease to scale the skies I Taste ordains a newer law, And establishes the Craw ! * % *

" Beauty, with true lustre shine ! All will own thee half divine! If to reason thou shouldst bend, Truth will own thee Reason's friend. Study to preserved applause : Maids have bosoms-geese have craws !"

The changes in male costumes were more impor- tant even than those in the dresses of the ladies : cloth of various colors was now used instead of silk, satin, and velvet, richly embroidered, which had been the previous style. The stiffening was taken out of the skirts of coats, the waists were shortened, and waist- coats were cut so short that they did not reach the hips. Breeches gradually vanished from view. Shoes were subject to experiment with various sorts of buckles, but were gradually lengthened into the Hessian boot, which, with pantaloons, were in full fashion before the year 1800. The broad black ribbon worn round the necks of gentlemen gave way to the cambric stock

buckled behind, and to this followed the white linen cravat monstrous in its folds. The latter banished the ruffle from the shirt, and brought forward the standing shirt-collar.

About this time the round hat, which had made its appearance in England even before the end of the war, came into general use, and the cocked hat was put aside as out of fashion ; it and the powdered hair and queue were, however, retained by the older men as part of a gentleman's full dress.

Asbury Dickens says of Washington and others,-

" He [Washington] was dressed in a full suit of the richest black vel- vet ; his lower limbs in short-clothes, with dismood knee-buckles and black silk stockings. His shoes, which were brightly japanned, were surmounted with large, square silver buckles. His hair, carefully dis- played in the maoner of the day, was richly powdered and gathered be- hind into a black silk bag, on which was a bow of black ribbon. In bis hand he held a plain cocked hat, decorated with the American cockade. He wore hy his side a light, slender dress-sword, in a green shagreen scabbard, with a richly-ornamented hilt. . . . At the head of the Senate stood Thomas Jefferson, io a blue coat, single-breasted, with large, bright, basket buttons, his vest and small-clothes of crimson. . . . In the semi- circle which was formed behind the chair, and on either hand of the Presideut, my boyish gaze was attracted by the splendid attire of the Chevalier D'Yrujo, the Spanish ambassador-theo the only foreigu min- ister near our infant government. His glitteriog star, his silk chapeau- bras edged with ostrich feathers, his foreign air and courtly bearing, con- trasted strongly with those nobles of Nature's forming who stood around him,"

Let us see, now, what a foreigner says of Washing- ton at home, and of Philadelphia.

Viscount de Chateaubriand, who came to America in 1791, with the intention of seeking the Arctic northwest passage, visited Philadelphia to see Gen. Washington, for whom he brought a letter of intro- duction from Marquis Armand de la Rouairie, for- merly a colonel in the Continental army. He says of this city, in his " Voyage en Amérique": "On ap- proaching Philadelphia we met some country-people going to market, some public conveyances and other very elegant carriages. Philadelphia seemed to me a handsome city. The streets are wide; some, lined with trees, cross each other at right angles in a regu- lar order from north to south and from east to west. The Delaware flows parallel to a street which follows its northern [western] shore. This river would be of considerable importance in Europe, but is not spoken of here. Its shores are low and but little picturesque. " Philadelphia, at the time of my voyage, did not extend to the Schuylkill. Only the land toward that stream was divided into lots, upon which a few iso- lated houses were built. The aspect of Philadelphia is cold and monotonous. Generally speaking, what is wanting in the cities of the United States is monu- ments, and above all, old monuments. . . . A man landing, as I did, in the United States, full of enthu- siasm for the ancients, a Cato, who songht everywhere the rigidness of the early Roman manners, must have been greatly scandalized on meeting everywhere the elegance of dress, the luxury of equipages, the friv- olousness of conversations, the unequality of fortunes, the immorality of banking and gaming-houses, the

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noise of ball-rooms and theatres. In Philadelphia I might have believed myself in an English town. There was nothing to announce that I had passed from a monarchy to the republic. . . . My political disappointment doubtless caused the ill-humor which made me write the satirical note (in the " Essais Historique") against the Quakers, and even a little against all Americans. The appearance of the people in the streets of the capital of Pennsylvania was gen- erally agreeable, the men were very neatly clad, the women-above all the Quakeresses, with their uniform hats-exceedingly pretty."

The enthusiastic young Frenchman's narrative of his interview with Washington is not without inter- est. " When I arrived in Philadelphia," he wrote, " the great Washington was not there, I was obliged to wait a fortnight ; at last he returned. I saw him pass in a coach which whirled rapidly past, dragged by four mettlesome horses. According to my ideas, Washington must necessarily be a Cincinnatus; now Cincinnatus in a coach disturbed somewhat my re- public of the year of Rome 296. Could the Dictator Washington be any other than a rustic, urging his oxen with a goad, and holding the handles of his plow ? But when I went to carry my letter of recom- mendation to that great man, I found the simplicity of the old Roman.

" A small house built in the English style, and re- sembling the other houses in its neighborhood, was the palace of the President of the United States; no guards, not even footmen. I knocked, a young ser- vant girl opened the door. I asked her if the general was at home; she said that he was. I told her that I had a letter to hand him. The girl asked my name, difficult to pronounce in English, and which she did not succeed in retaining. She then told me gently, ' Walk in, sir,' and she led the way through one of those narrow corridors which serve as vestibules in English houses, introduced me into the parlor and begged me to wait the general's coming. . . . After a few minutes' waiting the general entered. He was a man of tall stature, with a calm and cold rather than noble countenance (the engraved pictures of him are very resembling). I silently handed him my letter ; he opened it, looked at the signature, which he read aloud, exclaiming, 'What, from Col. Armand !' This was the name by which he was used to call him, and which the Marquis de la Rouairie had signed."

Chateaubriand then went on to explain the object of his voyage. Washington, he says, made very few short remarks, sometimes in French, sometimes in English, und listened with a sort of astonishment. Perceiving this, the Viscount said, with warmth : " But it is less difficult to discover a northwest pas- sage than to create a nation as you have done, Gen- eral !" " Well, well, young man," replied Washington, deprecatingly, taking him by the hand. The young traveler, who was to make so great a name in French literature, was invited to dine with the President the

next day. There were but half a dozen guests, and they talked principally about the French Revolution. On the following day Chateaubriand continued his voyage. He says of this solitary interview with Washington, " My name, probably, did not remain an entire day in his memory. I was happy, however, that his glance once fell on me! I have felt the warmth of it all my life. There is virtue in the glance of a great man."

The parallel between Washington and Bonaparte which follows this remark, is one of the most appre- ciative ever written, of the character of the modern Cincinnatus. We will quote one paragraph : " Wash- ington was altogether the representative of the wants, the ideas, the lights and opinions of his time; he wished the very thing he was called upon to do; hence the coherence and perpetuity of his work. This man who strikes us but little, because he is natural and of just proportions, has confounded his own existence with that of his country ; his glory is the common patrimony of growing civilization ; his fame rises like unto a sanctuary where flows an inex- haustible stream for the people."

Chateaubriand's poetie fancy may have exaggerated the simplicity of the President's domestic arrange- ments; there is no exaggeration in his appreciation of the man.

Another traveler has given vent to his enthusiasm about Philadelphia in the following poetic effusion. It is taken from " Travels through America," a poem, by Michael Forrest, published in Philadelphia in 1793:

" ITail, PHILADELPHIA! I now behold Thy regularity, as I've been told; But more majestical thon dost appear- More grand, more regular, and far more clear- Than my ideas were of thy grand form, Or even now my pen can well Inform' Governor PENN first its plan begun, In imitation of old Babylon. The streets are wide, and in a line direct . The angles right, where they do intersect; The footway par'd nicely, with brick and tiles, From north to south, nearly two English miles; And from both rivers1 to the centre street, Named First, Second, and so on till they meet. That half alone, joining the Delaware, Is built out nearly to the Centre Square. The buildings shew no great variety, But the most pleasing regularity ; Vold of extremes, the houses friendly join, Nor cottage low nor palace ronse the nine To sound the warmbling lyre. Upon the whole, From the Arctic to the Antarctic pole, View all the cities round this flying ball, Their commerce, shape, and regulations all ; Compare their climates and situation,

Their buildings, cleanness, and navigation, Then judge impartially, and you will find, Tlint Philadelphia most will please the mind."

Dancing, as an amusement, was little resorted to during the war of independence, except while the British were in possession of the city. After the

1 Schuylkill and Delaware.

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

conclusion of hostilities the old City Dancing As- sembly was revived, and gave balls at their owu rooms. Balls, dancing-parties, dinners, and tea-par- ties were frequently given by the wealthy and fashion- able. De Chastellux thus describes the manner in which things were conducted at the assembly balls :

"The assembly or subscription ball, of which I must give an account, may here be properly introduced. At Philadelphia, as at London, Bath, Spa, etc., there are places appropriated for the young people to dance in. and where those whom that amusement does not suit play at different games of cards. But at Philadelphia games of commerce are alone al- lowed. A manager, or rather a master of ceremonies, presides at these methodical amusements. He presents to the gentlemen and ladies- dancers-billets fulded up, containing each a number. Thue Fate de- cides the male or female partner for the whole evening. All the dancee are previously arranged, and the dancers are called ia their turns. These dancee, like the toasta we drink at table, have some relation to politics. One ie called ' The Success of the Campaign;' another, ' The Defeat of Burgoyne;' and a third, 'Clinton's Retreat.' The manager is generally choseo from among the most distinguished officers of the army. This important place is at present held by Col. Wilkinson, who Is also clothier-general of the army."

He alludes again to the custom of having but one partner for the whole evening, a custom which, he thinks, prevails only in America. He says, "Dancing is said to be at once the emblem of gayety and of love. Here it seems to be the emblem of legislation and of marriage. Of legislation, inasmuch as places are marked out, the country dances named, and every proceeding provided for, calculated, and submitted to regulation ; of marriage, as it furnishes each lady with a partner, with whom she dances the whole evening, without being allowed to take another. . . . Strangers are generally complimented with the hand- somest women. The Comte de Dumas had Mrs. Bingham for bis partner, and the Viscount de Noailles had. Miss Shippen. Both of them, like true philoso- phers, testified a great respect for the manners of the country by not quitting their partners for the whole evening. ... When music and the fine arts come to prosper at Philadelphia, when society once becomes easy and gay there, and they learn to accept of pleasure when it presents itself, without a formal invitation, then may foreigners enjoy all the advan- tages peculiar to their manners and government, without envying anything in Europe."

De Chastellux describes an " American" dinner at the Chevalier de Luzerne's, and complains of the "absurd and truly barbarous practice, the first time Isaac Weld, who was in this country at the same time as the Duke de Liancourt, says, on the same subject, " It is a remark very generally made, not only by foreigners, but also by persons from other parts of the United States, that the Philadelphians are extremely deficient in hospitality and politeness toward strangers." He then proceeds to criticise Philadelphia society in the following severe terms : you drink, and at the beginning of dinner, to call out successively to each individual, to let him know you drink his health." "One is ready to die with thirst," he says, " while he is obliged to inquire the names or catch the eyes of five and twenty or thirty persons. The partial or direct attacks when a guest asks per- mission to drink with you and passes you the bottle drives him to comical despair, the bottle is then "Among the uppermost circles in Philadelphia pride, haughtiness, and ostentation are conspicuous, and it seems as if nothing could make them happier than that an order of nobility should be established by which they might be exalted above their fellow-citizens as much as they are in their own conceit. In the manners of the people in general passed to you, and you must look your enemy in the face, for I can give no other name to the man who exercises such an empire over my will. You wait till he likewise has poured out his wine and taken . there is a coldneee and reserve-as if they were suspicious of some de-

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 14

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992