USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Two > Part 18
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The tolls for the year ending November 1, 1834, on all the public improvements were $323,535.08. The estimate had been half a million. A lack of boats, drought and other causes had contributed to produce the result. "A recurrence of such unpro- pitious circumstances" he was sure could not happen hereafter.
As soon as the people and the banks began to recover from the paralysis into which they had been thrown by the excessive issue of paper money in 1812, they began to petition for more charters, hence these institutions during Shulze's and Wolf's time multiplied with marvelous rapidity. They usually offered a bonus to the State for their charters and the legislature did a thriving business in granting them.
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Many of these institutions were created as pure speculations. The stock usually rose in value very considerably after it was first issued and many therefore were organized to make money from the first sale of the stock. To accomplish the end it was needful for the organizers to be the first holders of as much stock as possible, and various methods were adopted to compass this end. Various regulations were adopted from time to time by the legislature, one of which required that the scrip to be given for the stock should be sold and delivered through the window of a specified building, that a proper time should be allowed for dis- posing of the whole, that if customers were not found for all in that time then the commissioners should divide the remaining shares among themselves. A window was accordingly made in the building, about ten feet from the ground, then the shutters were closed and a hole was cut in one about six inches square, through which the money was to be paid for the scrip. If a person wanted stock he went to the place with two or three friends, tall, powerful friends, who could fight as well as reach up to the window. "You must all be dressed," says a witness, "or rather undressed, for the occasion: a pair of very thin trousers, for those in active service, being the uniform ; the exertions required, and the thermometer, perhaps at a hundred degrees, making any further attire not only superfluous, but an impediment. If, in three days' attack, during which the stock could be taken, you should be so far victorious as to get up to the wall under the window, you will have effected that which hundreds cannot effect, though they may be beaten black and blue and lose their trousers in the attempt. But we will suppose you and your friends have so far succeeded and are actually under the window, subject, of course, to an instantaneous removal, as all are now contending against you there. You will be punched and jostled very severely ; all of which you must disregard and proceed to be hoisted, or to hoist one of your friends, up to the hole in the shutter-full al- ready with two or three hands that have held by the frame, and
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Erected between Wilkes-Barre and Pittston in memory of those who fell July 3, 1778. Engraved especially for this work from a negative by Rau
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suspended as many bodies for perhaps an hour. If it be you that is hoisted you are now in a most favorable position, because, when one of them falls, from exhaustion, you can clap your hand in the place from which his is removed and thus support your own weight till your strength is fairly gone, in the event of your friends whose heads you stand upon, being driven from under you. You will have to fall at last, and most likely without obtaining the scrip; but you can console yourself by reflecting that yours is a case common to nine out of ten that have gained the same happy and advantageous position, and indeed to all that have not the ring, the ribbon, or countersign, without which, to get stock, none but the stranger thinks of making an attempt. I have seen all this, and more, over and over again. I have seen Philadelphia merchants perform this; I have seen men taken off the ground for dead; I have seen them entirely naked; and I have seen them in other respects in a state too shameful to be described."1
When the Girard bank was incorporated one hundred and fifty-three commissioners were appointed by the legislature to dispose of the stock. Each of these commissioners was per- mitted by the act to take five shares on the first day, ten on the second, and fifty on the third, and after that they were allowed to take the balance of shares that might remain unsold. The number of shares to be sold was 30,000. "These," said the "Inquirer," "if a proper course of conduct had been pursued, might have all been disposed of during the first day, but, on the contrary, little more than a thousand shares were sold, it being the interest of the commissioners to protect the sale until after the three days. It is said, moreover, that certain of the commis- sioners avoided disposing of the shares to those who had forced their way to the window, having entered into contracts with rela- tives and friends to share the profits of the stock. Hence they reached over the hands and heads of others, in order to take the money from those with whom they had made bargains and whose
1 Brothers, U. S. of America, 53, 54
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hands they recognized by wearing rings, white strings tied round their fingers, and other marks of designation.
"In order to obtain a large portion of the stock a few persons -three or four-engaged fifty or sixty muscular men, who stripped themselves of their best apparel, and substituted other in its place suitable to a riot ; they then formed themselves into a cordon, and surrounded the three windows at which the stock was to be taken, and by noise, bustle, blows and confusion, pre- vented peaceable citizens from obtaining shares."1
The mode of disposing of the stock excited general indigna- tion, and a town meeting was held at which the commissioners were denounced for their course. Colonel John Swift described the mode of getting the charter, the appointment of so many commissioners, and their mode of procedure. He declared that all the shares might have been disposed of in a single day, that the commissioners evidently sought to protect the sale for self- advantage, and that they had made bargains with their friends outside, whom they recognized by concerted badges, rings, etc. The meeting resolved : "That the open and palpable system of bargain and sale, the utter disregard of the people's rights, the scenes of riot, confusion and disorder which have sprung from and characterized the proceedings of the commissioners, are sources of sincere regret and humiliation, and call loudly for such expression of public opinion as shall not only bring home to the authors of this disgrace the odium which they merit, but shall redeem the character and redress the ways of an insulted and injured community."
The taking of the stock of the Western bank in 1832 was of the same disgraceful character. On the last day assigned by the legislature for subscribing, as fifty shares might be taken by each person, the struggle and excitement to get them were great. A spectator says: "It is impossible, without rendering ourselves liable to the charge of exaggeration, to give an adequate idea of
1 Brothers, U. S. and Inquirer. 54, 55
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the disgraceful and inhuman proceedings. There were probably 5,000 spectators, many of them, however, interested in the struggle that was going on among those who were attempting to force their way to the window and obtain scrip. These latter, about 300, were for the most part stout and athletic men, a large proportion of them stripped of every vestment but their panta- loons and shoes, and many of them distinguished by black eyes, bruised limbs and gashed faces, sad indications of their struggles for stock."
The building from which the stock was dispensed was a four story brick house. All its windows were closed, and over the one through which the stock was delivered boards were nailed, through which was a solitary aperture sufficiently large to admit two hands at one time. Around this window was a solid phalanx of men wedged together as compactly as living beings could be wedged, some of them writhing and struggling to reach the aper- ture, others fainting, shrieking with pain and beseeching a pas- sage outward in order to save their lives. Many were dragged out like dead bodies, after ropes had been attached to their limbs. Not one-fifth of those who reached the windows were able to remain there a sufficient length of time for the commissioners to take their money and hand them their certificates; and some who had accomplished their object were so weakened and exhausted by the effort that their certificates fell from their nerveless hands before they could effect their escape.1
Bank charters were chiefly valuable by reason of the large prospective profits from issuing notes. Notwithstanding the bitter lessons learned by the public from bank failures, public faith in them was usually restored quickly and then their notes again began to move around the circle. The profits from the business were great, arising first from the payment of interest on loans, secondly from the loss of notes by wear in possession of outside holders. When signatures were much worn the
1 Brothers, 56
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issuers refused to redeem them, and a large quantity was never paid. Again, the banks adopted an easy method of paying for their stock. They discounted the notes of their own stockholders in payment. Thus the Girard bank in 1836 resolved that the stock may be paid up in full at the time it is taken, or at any time hereafter; and, for the greater convenience of the stockholders, the bank will discount the notes of such as may desire it for forty dollars per share, on a hypothecation of the stock, at sixty days date, and renew the same for sixty days, from time to time, on payment of five dollars per share at each renewal, until the whole shall be paid. With such an easy method of paying for stock and such great profits in the business, does any one wonder why banks formed so rapidly and why so many wished to become shareholders? A bank might organize without the payment of a dollar of capital; in truth, the principal source of profit was from the issue of notes.
At this period, too, charters for railroads were granted. They contained two features that are worthy of notice. The State could become the owner after twenty years, and individuals under regulations that were prescribed could send their own cars over them. They were simply another kind of highway, though somewhat restricted in their use in consequence of their different nature. The idea of State ownership was clearly embodied and intended ; individuals could build, but as soon as the State had the means it might become the owner, and thus fit them into that great system of transportation in which it had so boldly embarked. Charters, too, were desired for manufacturing enterprises and were now freely granted. The extent to which this was carried excited no little alarm. In Governor Wolf's message for 1834 he uttered some strong sentiments. He declared that corpora- tions ought to be restricted to such enterprises as were incon- testibly of public utility, for which individual capital and credit would be inadequate. He thought that the privilege of voting by proxy at their meetings ought to be withheld and that in
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general they were a deviation from "republican simplicity," and an encroachment on the liberties of the people. "By multiplying these formidable, irresponsible public bodies we shall, in the process of time, raise up within the Commonwealth an aristo- cratic combination of powers which will dictate its own laws and put at defiance the government and the people. These observa- tions have been suggested by a knowledge of the fact that a morbid, restless solicitude to produce a state of incautious legis- lation, tending to precipitate a system of legalized speculation upon the people of this Commonwealth has, for some time past, but too conspicuously manifested itself in our legislative halls, in the shape of applications for the incorporation of monopolies of various descriptions. A depraved, unsound spirit, evincing a vitiated anxiety for the establishment of banking institutions and other corporations possessing exclusive privileges, seems to have marked the era in which we live as one peculiarly distinguished for its inveterate oppugnancy to the tardy but certain method of securing competency and independence pursued by the men of other days, as well as for its peculiar predilection in favor of some shorter and less difficult path by which to arrive at wealth and power."
The governor truthfully saw "that an increase of banks would add nothing to the actual capital of the country," but "would contribute largely to increase the already too redundant supply of bank paper." He strongly favored the withdrawal of all notes below ten dollars. Such a measure would increase the circulation of specie and give the people a sounder circulating medium. He also proposed other restrictions on their circulation and discounts, and that a portion of their dividends above a prescribed figure should be paid into the State treasury as an annual equivalent for the privileges conferred, to be applied to the education fund, or some such other beneficial public purpose.
The internal improvement scheme with all its appendages was a mighty force in feeding the fever of speculation and in
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diverting thousands from honest, legitimate ways of making a living. Thus the State led a vast number into an unhealthy, un- known wilderness with the false hope that they were to grow rich
First Continental treasurer, 1775; congressman, 1776-1777; also 1780; with John Nixon depu- tized to organize Bank of North America; mem- ber of Federal Constitutional convention; con- gressman, 1788; collector of tax on spirits dur- ing whiskey riots, 1791; president Academy of the Fine Arts
without work, to thrive without cost. Another scheme, quite in harmony with the idea that the State was ready to assist every- body and everything, was the guarantee of the payment of interest on the capital employed by companies incorporated for some
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alleged object of improvement, in which the State had no direct or immediate interest, thus placing it in the attitude of an under- writer issuing to the corporators an interest of five per cent. upon the capital. invested in a project which, when completed, might never yield three, or even one per cent. Against this Governor Wolf declaimed in strongest terms. After describing the conse- quences of this course, which would operate "like a canker upon the public purse," he added : "In the legislative body alone resides the power to restrict and control that insatiable thirst for monop- olies and chartered privileges, that morbid spirit of speculation which would make the State stand sponsor for every abortive scheme in which corporations may choose to embark."
If the State was plunging downward at a fearful rate in its populistic experiments, and the rush to follow and reap the largest individual gain was marked with an utter shamelessness of the general welfare, of State pride and decency, the growth of the common law and its administration were solid steps upward to firmer ground. The judiciary, so Governor Wolf remarked in his message in 1835, was efficient, safe and entirely adequate to a prompt and vigorous administration of the law. Complaints of its delay were no longer heard. The judges were generally able and industrious, sound jurists, and their decisions com- manded the respect and confidence of the public. The people had at last learned that the common law was not a phantom, not a mask to cover arbitrary decisions of judges, but a body of real law, the experience of many minds and ages. Besides, for many years, the decisions of the Supreme Court had been reported and published, and were now embodied in several volumes. The people had learned that the judges had respect for these decisions, that they furnished safe rules to apply in similar circumstances. It is true that society is slowly changing, and so the grass is slowly growing over many of these precedents, which cannot be regarded as living law, but rather as tombs in which the wisdom and life of the past lie safely buried. But over this body of law, living
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and dead, respect had accumulated-respect for the living law because it was a code of wisdom applicable to most of the transac- tions of daily life; respect also for the law that had no longer any vitality, as a memorial of the past, of the changefulness of society, of the impossibility of ever forming rules endowed with per- petuity. Thus the people had come to have a respect for the law and its administration, which is one of the indispensable condi- tions of human progress.
Governor Wolf strongly defended the proclamation of Presi- dent Jackson against nullification in South Carolina. He was not, however, a blind admirer of the President, for when Jackson began his crusade against the United States bank, Governor Wolf labored for the renewal of its charter. This action caused some opposition to the Governor in his campaign for a second term ; but he was triumphantly re-elected in 1832 and thus entered upon the greatest work of his public career-the establishing of a popu- lar system of education. As early as 1831, in his annual message to the legislature, he had spoken in favor of a general system of public schools free to all. In the session of the legislature in that year the lower House adopted a resolution for the ap- pointment of three commissioners whose duty it should be to collect information on the subject. The Senate defeated this measure, however, but the agitation began anew immediately after the re-election of the Governor. The cause of popular edu- cation gained new friends, and various reports were made to the legislature, giving valuable information on the subject. The legislative session of 1833-34 opened with bright prospects for the cause. The Governor's message was devoted to an earnest discussion of universal education. Among other things, he said : "It is time, fellow citizens, that the character of our State should be redeemed from the state of supineness and indifference under which its most important interest, the education of its citizens, has so long been languishing, and that a system should be ar- ranged that would ensure not only an adequate number of schools
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to be established throughout the State, but would extend its pro- visions so as to secure the education and instruction of a com- petent number of active, intelligent teachers, who will not only be prepared, but well qualified, to take upon themselves the govern- ment of the schools and to communicate instruction to the scholars." The legislature followed the Governor's suggestions and a "joint committee on education of the two houses" was ap- pointed "for the purpose of digesting a general system of educa- tion." Senator Breck, of Philadelphia, was made chairman of this committee. His selection was a fortunate one. He was a man of public spirit and fine abilities, and had gone to the legis- lature for the purpose of laboring in behalf of education, which labor he regarded as the highest public honor.
Mr. Breck's committee finally reported a bill providing for a general system of public education, which was adopted by a prac- tically unanimous vote of the legislature. It was approved by the Governor on April 1, 1834. The details of this school law are so admirably treated in Wickersham's History of Education in Pennsylvania that the writer will not enter here upon that phase of the subject. The struggle to maintain the schools just established invites the attention of the historian, and this will be the chief theme of the last year of Wolf's administration.
The school system, adopted with comparative unanimity, was at once attacked by a storm of opposition, especially in the central and southeastern portions of the State. This opposition arose from several sources. The early settlers of Pennsylvania be- longed to various religious sects ; and in the course of time hun- dreds of schools were established in connection with the churches. Many of these denominational schools were in a thriving condi- tion, and it was feared that the new educational system would finally destroy them, and that all instruction would become secular in character. Hence the German sects opposed the free schools from the purest of motives. They feared, likewise, that their language would be displaced ; therefore, they felt it their duty to
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defend the mother tongue. Wickersham claims that considerable opposition to the new law came from the aristocratic families in the State, who had no sympathies with the democratic conditions of American life; while the bitterest enemies were the ignorant and narrow-minded, who appealed to the most sordid motives to defeat popular education.
LaFayette's Headquarters, Valley Forge Encampment, 1777-1778 Engraved for this work from a negative by D. E. Brinton
The opposition was well crystallized when the legislature con- vened in the fall of 1834. Governor Wolf's message was firm and defended the new law in the most positive terms. The legis- lature was flooded with petitions for the repeal of the measure, and on March 19, 1835, the Senate passed a supplementary act entitled "An act making provision for the education of the poor gratis, and to repeal the act of the first day of April, 1834." April II was the historic day when the school bill with its amend- ments came up in the House of Representatives. The general
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impression prevailed that it was useless to oppose the repeal, but as Samuel Breck had much to do in founding the free schools, Thaddeus Stevens appeared at the crisis and defended the schools when threatened with destruction.
Stevens moved to strike out all the senate bill after the enact- ing clause, and substitute for it a bill strengthening the law. Upon this motion he delivered the memorable speech which will always rank with the great masterpieces of oratory. As a parlia- mentary effort, it is all the more remarkable from the fact that the majority of the House of Representatives were opposed to the free school law. The speech of Stevens swayed that opposition, and his substitute motion was adopted by a vote of fifty-five to thirty.
Thus popular education in Pennsylvania was saved; but Gov- ernor Wolf, who had advocated it so strenuously, was defeated for a third term. Retiring from the gubernatorial chair, he was appointed by President Jackson, in 1836, to the office of first comptroller of the treasury. After holding this position two years, he was appointed by President Van Buren to the collector- ship of the port of Philadelphia, which he held until his death on March 1I, 1840.
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CHAPTER XII.
RITNER'S ADMINISTRATION-1835-1839
T HE defeat of Governor Wolf was accomplished by a number of causes combined. It is true, his advocacy of free schools had rendered him unpopular ; but issues over which he had no control whatever were involved in the campaign. The anti- Masonic sentiment in Pennsylvania was at that time a powerful factor in politics. In addition to this disturbing element, there was the swarm of hungry office-seekers who were harassing the Gov- ernor for positions. Some of the best paying offices had been held by the same parties for a long time, and the Governor was ear- nestly besought to turn them out. To all these he gave a deaf ear.' Whatever may have been his reasons for thus acting, they did not satisfy hungry and disappointed applicants. They had labored faithfully for him, expecting a reward, and it had not come; this they knew, and this was enough. That others who held the offices had labored quite as faithfully was no affair of theirs. The offices should be changel, all should have a chance-this was their belief. The number of the disappointed was large. The only thing left for them was to labor against Wolf's renomination. To this end they bent themselves, everywhere proclaiming that two terms were enough. The friends of Governor Wolf beheld the approaching storm. His renomination would be no easy matter, his re-election still more difficult. The Democratic con- vention met at Harrisburg on the 4th of March, 1835. Many of the counties had chosen two sets of delegates. Three days
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were spent in disputing and on the 6th the convention voted by fifty-two to forty-one to adjourn to meet at Lewistown on the 6th of May. The friends of Wolf voted against the resolution, and on March 7 renominated him for a third term.
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