History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 64

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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" Hanc moram rugis sapiens futuris Ponito : quamvie viridem senectam Cautus arceto, remorare vitæ Goudla blandæ.

"Vive nunc : ætas fugit impotentis Fluminis ritu, volucriave venti ; Vis etilit nulla, et revocavit horas Nulla volantes.

" Umbra een pulvis fumus, sut Innois Fumus, et nostrum remanebit elim. Nil nisi virtan, monuments sacra

Ingenilque."

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AUTHORS AND LITERATURE OF PHILADELPHIA.

She went abroad for the purpose of recruiting her health, which had become much impaired after her disappointment. On her return, her mother having died, she took the management of her father's house at Graeme Park, and it became the most noted place in Pennsylvania for the meetings of the most gifted persons in the country. When she was thirty-six years old she was married to Henry Hugh Ferguson, a Scotchman, near relative of Dr. Adam Ferguson. After only four years of married life. her husband, being in England for a season in 1776, returned with a commission in the British army, and was attainted of treason to the United States government. Devoted as she was to her native conntry, yet, like many others of those best born and best situated, she regarded in- dependence with alarm. Although a woman, she was too prominent in society for her conduct and opinions not to be important and necessary to be known to the authorities. Rev. Dr. Duché, the distinguished rector of Christ and St. Peter's Episcopal Churches, in a panic of intolerable alarm, wrote a letter to Gen. Washington, urging him to abandon the rebel canse and submit himself to the British government, a letter which Washington, notwithstanding the con- sequences to befall the writer, felt himself bound to make known to the Congress. An offer had also been sent to Joseph Reed that if a reconciliation could be effected he should receive ten thousand pounds and any office he might desire in the colonies, an offer that received that noted answer that the king of Great Britain had nothing within his gift that would tempt him. The letter to Washington and the offer to Reed were transmitted through Mrs. Ferguson. Her sex, her high character, and her condition as the wife of a man in open hostility, who must to a great degree infinence her opinions, were all forbearingly regarded by the government. She was refused her request in 1778 to go to New York in order to bid farewell to her husband, and they never met again. Graeme Park was seized as his property, but her peti- tion for a lifetime occupancy was granted, and she retained it until her death, in 1801. She lived in com- parative poverty, yet was well known for many bene- factions out of her limited income for those of her neighbors who were poorer than herself.

The pious Petrarch of Gloucester would doubtless have made the Laura of Graeme Park his wife when, after her disappointment, she could have afforded again to take more hopeful views of life. So we must understand such words as these, with which one of his rhyming letters ends, after comparing her to Stella in answer to her likening him to Swift :

"O Laura ! when I think of this, And call you friend, 'tia greater bline Than all the 'fat church-warden's schemes,' Which rarely ' prompt my golden dreams ;' Yet if the happiness, fair maid, That soothes me in the silent ahade Should, In your eye, appear too great, Come, take it all, and share my fate."

The answer shows that the time for yielding to such diversion to her griefs had not yet come. After sug- gesting some advice to him, she concludes thus : .

" Haste not to bend at Hymeo's shrine ; Let friendship, geo'rons friendship, be The bond to fetter you and me,- Vestal, platonic, what you will, So virtue reigne with freedom atill. But if in matrimonial noose You must he hound, and have a epouse The faithful rib that heav'n shall send I'll fondly greet, and cell her friend."

Mrs. Ferguson's prose was quite superior to her poetry. Her journals of travels, and many of her letters, are very excellent in their kind. She was long remembered with an interest that was bestowed equally upon no other woman in the whole country. Misfortune had served not only to make her compas- sionate to the sufferings of others to a degree that was romantic, but led to eccentricities that were easily atoned for by her other shining characteristics. Joshua Francis Fisher writes of her in 1831, " Mrs. Ferguson is said to have been a lady of fine talents, of refined delicacy, exquisite sensibility, and romantic gener- osity. Several of her friends are still living who remember with delight her noble disposition, her agreeable conversation, and her amusing eccen- tricities."

It has appeared that the earliest literature in Penn- sylvania was for the greatest part in the line of poetry. So far from being strange, this is in harmony with the earliest literature of all people. Poetry is older than prose,-as a written language, of course. The first things thought worthy to commit to writing among all peoples when first arising into enlightenment are the songs, religious or otherwise, that have been aforetime in the mouths of the people. It is so to a degree with such a colony as that founded by Penn. In his suite, besides those who came for the sake of adventure, were devont, simple-minded men, who, regarding themselves as exiles, were more apt, if they should conceive a notion to literature of any sort, to follow the suggestions of the imagination than of the understanding. The young child can be taught pre- cepts sooner if imparted in rhyme than in plain prose. It will learn the precept not so much for its own value as for the pleasure of the rhyme. It is the same with young nations. The first literature must necessarily be poetic. We have seen something of what that of Philadelphia was,-that, withont claims to be considered great, some of it, when we consider all the circumstances of its creation, was of such a kind that Philadelphians may well be gratified that so much of it was preserved. The coming of Benjamin Franklin, who of all philosophers was probably the most unpoetic, had rather a discouraging influence upon that kind of literature, by pointing the minds of the people entirely to the practical and to the material. So meagre was his imagination that it did

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not even indulge itself, except to a very limited ex- tent, in dreams of any sort, not even of the future life. His teachings, his example, led ever to the practical and the material. Endeavors, according to his teachings and example, when not exerted for the practical and the material, were vain, even reprehensible. Even virtue, whatever his opinion of that might be, was attainable only through the pre- vious attainment of wealth. The value of Franklin to mankind, therefore, is to be estimated by the stim- ulus he gave to a young community with inexhaus- tible, undeveloped resources to make themselves rich and happy. The institutions which he helped to establish were on a scale so great as to be benign in other directions besides those in which he traveled. They served to educate the youth to defend the op- pressed, to care for the helpless. The freedom, the culture, the material prosperity that followed his endeavors did their work on the community and on individuals also. He was the first, it is true, to begin a literary magazine, the General Magazine,-historical chronicle for all the British plantations in America,- but it was far more political and news-telling than literary, and was continued only for about a year, because it was not an undertaking for which the character of his mind was suited.

We have seen that much of the prose writing here- tofore was of a religious kind. A greater variety of opinions was never found in a new community than in Philadelphia at its founding. Noticeable in this connection are the agitations that were then beginning upon the subject of African slavery. Whatever merit belongs to the initiation of this subject, since become so vast and eventful, is due to George Keith, already mentioned, who wrote an essay upon it. But as he was wont to find fault with his brethren the Quakers for other habits and opinions, his remonstrances upon this subject doubtless had as little influence as the others. If the Quakers should be endangered in their claim to priority in this matter hy being reminded that the first apostle for the freedom of the African deserted their meeting and went back to the Church of England, they may feel reassured by the fact that not very long after Keith another of their sect was even more pronounced and more steadfast in his preaching. This was Ralph Sandiford, a native of Liverpool, once a sailor-boy, and who after settlement in Philadelphia became a preacher. In 1729 he had printed, at Benjamin Franklin's press, a book entitled "The Mystery of Iniquity ; or, A Brief Examination of the Practice of the Times." The public sentiment upon the subject was by no means in accord with the preacher, and the chief magistrate threatened him with condign punishment if he should circulate it. Regardless of threats, he persisted in circulating it gratuitously. There is no record, we believe, that he was ever punished. What hostility there was to negro slavery was mostly confined to the ponrer sort of white persons, on the ground mainly of their

competition with them in servile employments, -- an argument that was the most powerful and most reasonable ever adduced against the institution. Complaints were not unfrequently made by such white men, and discriminations in their favor de- manded, which to some extent were complied with. Sandiford, who was generally regarded as a fanatic, died at Lower Dublin, in Philadelphia County, in 1733.

Quite beyond him went Benjamin Lay, for whom Franklin in 1736 printed a book. He was a native of

Benjamin Lay

Essex, in England, and, like Sandiford, had been a sailor. He was advanced in years when he came to Philadelphia. Ile rode two hobbies,-hostility to negro slavery and to animal food. On these two sub- jects he put forth pamphlets, circulating them gratis, but his fiercest assaults were made upon meat. In his zeal he set out to fast in the manner and to the extent of the Saviour, and actually got himself into imminent danger of perishing, when some friends interposed just in time to rescue hin.

The most able and respectable among this class was Anthony Benezet, a native of St. Quentin, France, but who had left that country when a very young child, and, after spending the time until his eighteenth year in England, had come to Philadelphia, where he was soon afterward engaged as a teacher in the public schools. Ile became seriously interested in the slave trade, gave much of his time to its study, aud pub- lished several works thereon. The first of these was " A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies relative to Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions." This was in 1767. In 1772 appeared "Some Historical Ac- count of Guinea, with an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and Lament- able Effects ;" and in 1780, " A Short Account of the

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Religious Society of Friends." He was a devout Quaker and a thoughtful, sincere philanthropist. His works had a wonderful influence upon public opinion everywhere. They were read extensively in England, and were the first to give direction to the movement against the slave trade initiated by Wilberforce, Clarkson, and others.

Franklin gives a curious account of a Rev. Mr. Hemphill, a Presbyterian divine, some of whose preachings led to a war of pamphlets shortly after the starting of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Frank- lin himself entered into the dispute, partly ont of amusement, it is probable, to encourage what af- forded frequent jobs for his press, and to defend a man whom his brethren had driven from their communion for the sake of his views upon religious topics. The reverend gentleman had borne him- self ably enough in the pulpit, being a man of decided eloquence, until it was discovered that many of his sermons were not of his own composition. Franklin would not abandon him even then, having the audacity to say that he preferred to have a preacher preach a borrowed sermon, if it was good, than his own, if it were not. But this argument did not satisfy the public, even that part who had sympa- thized with Mr. Hemphill. When the theft was discovered beyond a doubt he had to leave the field.

The most eminent native-born Philadelphian of the period we are now considering was David Rittenhouse. His birthplace has very commonly been assigned to Germantown, but he was born, according to Alli- bone, at Paper-Mill Run, Roxborough township, near Germantown. His father was a farmer, whose ambi- tion for his son was not higher than that he should pursue the same vocation. But even in boyhood, while at work upon the farm, his talents for math- ematics and astronomy commenced to develop with a rapidity almost without precedent, and at the age of seventeen, without assistance from any quarter, he had constructed a clock. Long before this, how- ever, his talents for mathematical studies had been evinced, and on the farm near Norriton, Philadel- phia Co., whither his father had removed, the fences, stones, his plow-handles, and all other objects on which he could mark with a pencil or chalk had upon them mathematical calculations that he had made. At the age of seven years he had constructed a complete water-mill in miniature. During bis mi- nority he had also made himself fully acquainted with the "Principia" of Sir Isaac Newton, and, without the slightest knowledge that the science of fluxions had been demonstrated, discovered it himself. The farmer's boy believed himself to have been its first discoverer until he afterward ascertained that that honor had been the subject of most acrimonious, pro- longed dispute between Newton and Leibnitz, a dis- pute which was at last settled among the scientific men of the world by assigning the honor to both, as each was clearly proved to have made the dis-

covery în ignorance of the other's investigations and results. For the honor of the achievement itself, therefore, Rittenhouse deserves praise equally with these illustrious men. Allowed by his parents to dis- continue working on the farm, he built a shop on the roadside, near by, and commenced business as a clock and mathematical instrument maker. The marriage of his sister with William Barton, an Irish gentleman of good education, was very favorable to his ambi- tion. Through Barton's encouragement and assist- ance he was enabled to continue his studies with ease, but these he prosecuted so continuously, day and night, that unfortunately his health became seriously and permanently impaired.

In 1768, Rittenhouse completed his first orrery, an instrument which was seen by Thomas Jefferson. He declared that the young man who had con- structed it was one who, " as an artist, had exhibited as great proofs of mechanic genius as the world has ever produced." He made the next year his celebrated "Report on Observations of the Transit of Venus," which attracted the attention of the whole scientific world. The orrery first constructed by him was purchased by the College of New Jer- sey. He went straightway to the construction of another, which he afterwards employed in his astro- nomical calculations. This is now in possession of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1770 he removed to Philadelphia, and was elected a member of the Philosophical Society, to whose Transactions he be- came a frequent contributor during the remainder of his life. In 1773, as appears in the records of the society, he was chairman of a committee appointed to examine the first steam-engine constructed in this country, that had been made by Christopher Colles for the use of a distillery. The engine, after being worked for a few moments, broke, it was said, from the too little expense that had been employed in its construction ; but the report of the committee was favorable to the principle on which it had been undertaken. Rittenhouse was employed by the gov- ernment of Pennsylvania on several occasions as one of the commissioners for settling the boundaries be- tween that and the adjoining States, and finally, after the death of Franklin, he became president of the Philosophical Society.

This celebrated institution had been founded, in 1769, by the union of the American Philosophical Society with the American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge. The first of these societies was originated by Franklin in 1743.1 Its first president was Thomas Hopkinson. It is unfortunate that its details are not known, the minutes kept by it having been lost. It continued to exist for about ten years, when it ceased.

The second of the societies was the old Junto, estab-

1 His circular, issued on May 14, 1743, was entitled " A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America."

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lished by Franklin in 1727, reconstructed under a new name and with somewhat enlarged intentions, the members of the Junto having decided upon the admission of corresponding members. A new name was adopted : "The American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge, held at Phila- delphia." The plans of the society were gradually enlarged, and the name slightly altered.

In 1767 the American Philosophical Society, now reduced to a very few members, resolved on resusci- tation. They had the influence of the Governor, John Penn, and made James Hamilton their presi- dent, after getting about fifty other members. The first paper among its Transactions was from David Rittenhouse, and was upon the subject of the orrery that he had constructed. A new vigor was thus im- parted, and it was resolved to construct an obser- vatory at Philadelphia and one at Norriton, the residence of Rittenhouse. Being without sufficient means for the accomplishment of all their purposes, they applied to the Legislature for assistance, and, the Governor being their chief patron, they obtained a grant of one hundred pounds for the purchase of a telescope. Finally, in 1769, the two societies were united. Each, on the new organization, was desirous of retaining its president, Franklin of the one, and Hamilton of the other. A very active contest was had between the two parties, which was ended by the defeat of Hamilton. Under the combined influence of the leading members, the society rose with great rapidity. Observatories were raised in Philadelphia (State-Ilouse Square) and at Norriton. One of the first matters considered by the new society was in- struction to the committee on American improvements to inquire as to the most suitable route for a canal between Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. The com- mittee, after investigation, reported in favor of the upper route. They were, however, appalled by specu- lations upon the probable cost, and abstained from making any estimate, reporting that it was beyond " the ability of the country."

It is obvious, from the laws first passed by the society, that noue were desired as members who could not contribute to its progress. All its mem- bers were to be assigned to one or more of its six committees, 1, geography, mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy ; 2, medicine and anatomy ; 3, natural history and chemistry ; 4, trade and com- merce ; 5, mechanics and architecture ; 6, husbandry and American improvements. The officers were a patron 'the Governor of the State being ex officio that officer, a president, three vice-presidents, a treasurer, four secretaries, three curators, and twelve counselors. It was a fortunate city that had two such men living contemporary with each other as Benjamin Franklin and David Rittenhouse at the period of the inception of its undertakings in behalf of philosophy, science, and political economy. Rittenhouse seemed to desire to take his favorite studies with him into the future

world. He requested, upon his death-bed, that his body might be buried under the pavement of his ob- servatory in the garden attached to his residence. The request was of course complied with. In 1813 his life was published, written by William Barton, his nephew.1

Rittenhouse came to the presidency of the society between the two men who were probably the greatest intellects that the country has produced. Succeed- ing Benjamin Franklin, he was himself succeeded by Thomas Jefferson, who, after occupying the office for three years, retired, when the office was bestowed upon Caspar Wistar. Wistar was of a family of German Quakers, who were settled first as glass-manufacturers in New Jersey, afterward in Philadelphia. Educated abroad, chiefly for the purposes of a medical educa- tion, he became professor of chemistry and anatomy in the university, to which he imparted a distin- guished reputation, in the department of its medical school especially. Besides his many contributions to the Society's Transactions, he published " A System of Anatomy," which ranks among the very highest authorities upon that branch of science that have been produced in this country or Europe. The next two presidents, Robert Patterson and William Tilgh- man, ably sustained the dignity of that office. The former, an Irishman by birth, was professor of mathe- matics in the university and became its provost. Several papers of the Transactions were from his pen. Tilghman is noticed at length in the chapter on the Bench and Bar, wherein his reputation was fully on a level with that of any man that has ever sat upon the bench in the State. His successor is mentioned also in the same chapter ; but he must be sketched more at length in this sphere, wherein his services were yet more conspicuous and comparatively im- portant.

Peter S. Du Ponceau was the most variously gifted man perhaps that has ever lived in Philadelphia. He was a native of the island of Ré, on the western coast of France. While but a child he acquired a knowledge of the English and Italian by the inter- course he had with English and Italian officers who were stationed on that island, where his father was acting in some military command. Being intended for a military engineer, he had given up this pursuit on account of some imperfection of his eyesight. At thirteen he was sent to a college kept by the Benedic- tines, and at the death of his father, while he himself was in his fifteenth year, he at first yielded to the desire of his mother and friends of the family that he should study for the priesthood. But after a few mouths he gave up theology, left Bressuire, where he was at his preparatory studies, and went to Paris,

1 " Memoir of the Life of David Rittenhouse, LL.D., F.R.S., tale President of the American Philosophical Society, etc., Interspersed with various notices of many distinguished men, with an Appendix conlain- Ing sundry philosophical and other papers, most of which have not hitherto been published," By William Barton. Philadelphia, 1813.

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where he supported himself by making available his knowledge of English in translating books and merchants' papers in that language, and in giving lessons. It was not long before he made the ac- quaintance of Court de Gébelin, author of " Le Monde Primitif," and became his secretary. Happening to meet at the house of Beaumarchais with Baron Steu- ben, he was persuaded by him to accompany him to America as his secretary and aide-de-camp. They sailed from Marseilles, and arrived at Portsmouth, N. H., December, 1777. Having accompanied Gen. Steuben, who obtained for him a brevet commis- sion of captain, he was obliged, after three years' rervice, to retire, on account of ill health, from the army. Becoming a citizen of America, he, then only twenty-one years of age, succeeded Robert R. Liv- ingston in the department of foreign affairs. About two years afterward he retired from this position, and, having studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1785, being then twenty-five years old. Such was the

PETER S. DU PONCEAU.

rapidity of his rise, that on the acquisition of Louis- iana from Napoleon Bonaparte, Mr. Jefferson offered him the position of chief justice in the United States Court for that State. In the midst of his practice, which was large and lucrative, he found time to trans- late several foreign works upon the law, and wrote several original dissertations upon it as practiced in the United States, most noted of which is that en- titled " A Dissertation on the Nature and Extent of the Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States." Another admirable paper is his " Discourse on Legal Education," prefixed to a work of Thomas Sergeant's, entitled " A Brief Sketch of the National Judiciary Powers exercised in the United States prior to the Adoption of the Present Federal Constitution." More elaborate is his " Brief View of the Constitution of the United States, addressed to the Law Academy of Philadelphia."

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 64

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