USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Warwick's Keystone commonwealth; a review of the history of the great state of Pennsylvania, and a brief record of the growth of its chief city, Philadelphia > Part 19
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The remembrance of the aid that France had given to us during the Revo- lution created a sympathy in the hearts of our people for the effort she was
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making in the cause of reform and liberty. When the Bastile, that hated dun- geon of agony and despair fell on July fourteenth, 1789, in Paris, the event was celebrated in Philadelphia by the marching of large bodies of men and boys through the streets, singing national airs. Banquets were held and toasts were drunk to French snecess. In October, a mob of French women, poured out of the faubourgs of Paris, marched to Versailles, and brought the King and Queen cap- tives to the city. The Revolution was fairly on, and proceeded rapidly, step after step until it reached the period known as the Reign of Terror. The guillotine was set up, and scenes were enacted that beggar description. Louis XVI. was brought to trial, condemned and executed.
In the Spring of 1793, Citizen Genet, the Minister of the French Republic, reached this city. He was received by the people with every demonstration of joy, but Washington, who had been shocked by the news from the French capi- tal, looked askance at the new ambassador, and quickly divined his motives. Genet was a wild and an enthusiastic Republican, whose mind had been inflamed by the exciting scenes of the French Revolution, and he was about the last man to entrust with the important office of Ambassador. He acted without judg- ment, at times without reason, he even went so far as to defy the President, and would willingly have thrown the United States into a war with England, for at that time Great Britain had joined the alliance against France. A mag- nificent banquet was spread in his honor at Oeller's Hotel, at which Charles Biddle presided. The flags of America and France were closely entwined, and the red cap of the Jacobins was used as a decoration. Citizen Genet sang with great effect the stirring hymn of the Marseillaise, while the diners joined enthusiastically in the chorus. Every toast was quaffed with beakers of wine, and anathemas were hurled upon the despots who endeavored to make the peo- ple slaves. Reception after reception was given to the Ambassador, and at one banquet, the head of a pig, typifying the decapitation of the French King, was passed around on a great salver, and as each guest put on the "bommet rouge" he thrust a knife into the throat of the pig, at the same time exclaim- ing the word "Tyrant" thus expressing his contempt for Louis XVI. A vast majority of the people, carried away by their enthusiasm, denounced the gov- ernment for not taking an active part and expressing sympathy with France in the effort she was making to secure her freedom. Washington, Adams, Ham- ilton and a number of other leading conservative men, feared that if this ex- citement was not halted, some overt act might be done which would involve us in international difficulties, and the President wisely declared for a policy of strict neutrality. French privateers carried their prizes into American waters. "L'Ambuscade," a French vessel, brought the British ship "Grange" into port and confiscated her cargo. Genet was ordered immediately to surrender the captured ship, but feeling strong in the support of the people, refused to com- ply with the demand and even went so far as to undertake to fit out in our harbor, a privateer under the name of "La Petite Democrate." There was noth- ing now left but to demand the instant recall of the French Minister, and Washington did this without delay. This action upon the part of the Presi- dent, strange to say, met with the disapproval of the vast majority of the peo- ple. The spirit of the times even entered into the private conferences of the
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Cabinet. Jefferson was a strong sympathizer with the revolutionists, and he and Hamilton had many stormy disputes at the Cabinet meetings. About this time the term of the President was expiring, and although Washington's luke- warmness in the cause of France had created against him many enemies, it did not prevent his unanimous re-election. Genet was recalled by his government, and sank immediately out of sight.
In 1790, Franklin's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, began the publi- cation of a paper called "The General Advertiser," but which afterwards changed its name to that of "The Aurora." This paper was most savage in its abuse of the President and his policies, and openly denounced him as a Monarchist. But these attacks were tame as compared with those in the "Na- tional Gazette," a paper edited by a Frenchman named Freneau who had been requested to come to this city and take charge of that journal at Jefferson's express invitation. Jefferson soon saw that he could not with any decency remain a member of the Cabinet and he sent in his resignation.
Notwithstanding the reports that came across the water from the French Capital as to the cruel acts of the mob, the French fever did not subside, and crowds marched through the streets of the city as savage in disposition as the mobs in Paris, wearing the tri-color cockade and the "bonnet rouge," singing in chorus the "Marseillaise" and the wild strains of the "la ria," and at intervals dancing the Carmagnole. The only feature lacking was the bearing aloft on a pike the bloody head of an aristocrat. "Ten thousand people in the streets of Philadelphia," wrote John Adams, "threatened to drag Washington out of his house and effect a revolution, or compel the government to declare war in favor of the French Revolution and against England."
Young women dressed in French costumes and affected French manners, while young men sat at tables on the pavements in front of the Inns and Coffee Houses, as at the cafes in Paris, sipping their wines and liqueurs and address- ing each other as Citizen So and So in accordance with the custom that pre- vailed among the revolutionists in France. Some enthusiasts went so far as to crop their hair at the temples and wear it after the fashion of the Jacobins and the sansculottes.
While these scenes were at their full height, a yellow plague stalked suddenly into the city, scattering broadcast the seeds of death and desolation. It was so deadly and devastating in its touch that it caused to subside at once all political excitement. There had been many visitations of yellow fever in the past, but nothing as compared with the present epidemic. It was supposed to have been brought into the port by ships coming from the West Indies. The city was illy prepared to receive it, for the sanitary regulations were very imperfect, there being nothing but surface drainage and no system of effec- tive quarantine. Infected vessels came up the river without hindrance, while sailors were allowed to go ashore without inspection, and in consequence the seeds of the disease were spread in every direction. The authorities at once took means to stay the progress of the plague. The streets and out houses were cleaned, and every stagnant pool was drained. The firing of guns and heavy ordnance was ordered, the authorities believing that the concussion would agitate the atmosphere and carry away the germs. Bon-fires were kindled in
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the streets and they blazed by night and by day until they threatened the city with a general conflagration. The custom of hand shaking was dispensed with, and no one thought of stopping on the highway to converse with a friend. In every direction upon the streets were seen men whose noses and mouths were covered with cloths or sponges saturated with camphor or some pungent drug, while others had their cars and nostrils stuffed with wool or cotton. Even smoking was indulged in by women, it being thought that the fumes of tobacco would counteract the influence of the germs. Men walked in the mid- dle of the streets to avoid contact with passers-by, and also to keep as far away as possible from the doors of the houses in which patients were lying and dying. All sorts of charms and amulets were worn, even to bits of tarred rope, but nothing could prevent the rapid spread of the disease. When the plague was at its height, men fell dead in the public streets and in some cases their bodies remained there for a long while before the authorities could make preparation for their removal. The undertakers were over-taxed and death carts rumbled through the strecets by night and by day, as the victims were carried to a common grave, for the funerals were without ceremony. All so- cial entertainments, receptions and parties were abandoned and the atmosphere was filled with a stench that was sickening in itself. The city seemed to be covered with a pall. Shops, churches, schools and offices were closed, and grass grew in many of the streets. Farmers were afraid to bring their pro- duce to the markets, and provisions necessarily rose to a very high figure. So terrifying was the attack of the plague that all people who were able to leave the city, packed up their effects and departed. The roads were crowded with coaches, carriages and wagons of every description hurrying away to places of safety. There were two thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight houses vacant in the city, the inmates having fled, and considerably less than twenty- five thousand people remained to face the dreadful pestilence. Of course, the reports carried out of the city were greatly exaggerated and in consequence, the gates of other cities were closed against the refugees. New York and Balti- more placed soldiers on guard by night and by day on the roads leading from Philadelphia. Wilmington was one of the few towns that extended a helping hand. One Jersey farmer who ventured to come to market, said the city looked as yellow as the pumpkins in his patch, and as he passed an open door of a dwelling the stench issuing therefrom was so great as to knock him down sprawling on the pavement. The science of medicine was in a primitive state, and the disease baffled the skill of the best practitioners. Nurses could not be found, and in many instances men, women and children died without receiv- ing the slightest care or attention, although be it said to the honor of the medi- cal profession, the doctors as a rule stood by their post, and this in the face of the fact that parents abandoned their children and children their parents. When the fever was high, the disease was accompanied by a black vomit, which was a sure sign of approaching death. There were some noble instances of self sacrifice, and a number of people were brave enough to offer their services as nurses in the hospitals. Inmates of the jail agreed to discharge this duty provided they were given their freedom, and some of them performed efficient service. The Mayor, Matthew Clarkson, stood valiantly by his duty.
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A young Frenchman, Stephen Girard, who at this time was comparatively unknown, and had a provision store in Front street, became a nurse, and at the risk of his own life watched over the suffering and the dying in the house of pestilence. It had been an oppressively hot, rainless summer, and the weather had added to the virulence of the disease. As the autumn approached, how- ever, the scourge began to abate and in November, Governor Mifflin issued a proclamation appointing a day of thanksgiving and prayer. A feeling of con- fidence was gradually restored, people returned to their homes, shops opened, business was resumed and the city once more assumed its old time appearance and activity. Approximately five thousand had been swept away by the ter- rible plague, or about twenty-two per cent. of all the people who had remained in the city during its continuance.
Upon a return to normal conditions, the French fever was revived. Marie Antoinette, the dethroned Queen of France, had gone to the scaffold in Octo- ber, and her execution had been followed by that of the Girondins, but the Reign of Terror had not yet reached its height, for a struggle was now on be- tween the factions, which resulted in the execution one after the other of Hebert, Danton and Robespierre.
During the Reign of Terror the gutters of Paris ran red with blood. The guillotine was surrounded daily by crowds who watched the executions of the condemned without emotion. The tumbrils, filled with victims, were followed on their way to the scaffold by hags and harridans who hurled their impreca- tions against the aristocrats. So numerous were the executions that a special sewer was constructed at the guillotine to carry away the blood of the victims. These scenes were not confined alone to Paris, for the massacres in some of the cities such as Lyons, Toulon and Nantes were even worse in their details than the executions in the Capital. Men, women and children were ranged in platoons and raked with musketry and artillery. Vessels crowded with victims were towed out into deep water and scuttled. Men boasted of their cruelty. One creature strutted around with his pocket filled with ears, while another wore as a badge in the band of his hat the finger of a little child. At the fall of Toulon, Fouche, writing to a friend, Collet d'Herbois, exultantly said : "This night we send two hundred and thirteen rebels into hell fire. Tears run down my cheeks and fill my soul with joy."
Intoxicated with the strong wine of the Revolution, men seemed to be lost to every sentiment of humanity. Perhaps these events in details did not reach America, but information enough was received to show the savagery of the Revolutionists. The people, however, were so imbued with a spirit of devo- tion to France that these reports did not sober them. "When will the savages be satiated with blood?" exclaimed John Adams in despair. The news of every French victory was made the occasion of a celebration and one of the favorite toasts was, "May tyrants never be withheld from the guillotine's closest em- braces." On the eleventh of June, "a grand festival" was held "to celebrate the anniversary of the abolition of despotism in France." The celebration was one of the most remarkable ever witnessed in Philadelphia, and lasted from early morning until sunset, and even after that during the night crowds marched through the city in their wild frenzy singing the Marseillaise. Minister Fau-
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chet had succeeded Genet, and he took a prominent part in the demonstrations, arousing the people to frenzy by his passionate appeals.
About this time occurred the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, to which we have already referred in a previous chapter.
The Indians were giving considerable trouble in the Ohio valley, and General Wayne, one of the most popular officers of the Revolution and who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army by Washington, led an army into that section and won a decisive victory in August, 1794, at the Falls of
the Miami. Wayne's return was wel- comed with every demonstration of joy and by the firing of guns and the ringing of bells.
Friction had been created between England and America by the part we had taken in the espousal of the French cause, and Washington deem- ed it of importance to send an Am- - bassador to the British Court to have an understanding and if possible to effect a treaty. John Jay, a prominent Federalist, who had been Chief Jus- tice of the Supreme Court since its es- tablishment, was chosen for the mis- sion. So unpopular was his appoint- ment that the people gathered in the public streets and burnt him in effigy. The English had neglected to abandon their forts in the valley of the Ohio as they had agreed to do under the Ar- ticles of Peace, and they had given comfort, aid and shelter to the Indi- ans, but since the signal defeat of the savages at the hands of General Wayne the road was made comparatively GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE. easy traveling to effect a settlement with the British Court. When the terms of the treaty, however, were made known in Philadelphia, in July, 1795, there was at once a violent outburst and Jay was again burnt in effigy, together with a fac-simile copy of the treaty he had made. The anti-English sentiment was so strong that no matter what the terms of the agreement had been they would not have met with public approval.
The time was approaching when the Presidential term of Washington was about to expire, and he called his Cabinet officers around him and in- formed them that it was his purpose to publish a farewell address to the peo- ple. This notable address was prepared and published in "The Advertiser" on September nineteenth, 1796. It made a deep impression upon the public mind. Notwithstanding the abuse that had been heaped upon him by his enemies; Washington was still dear in the hearts of the people because of the signal
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services he had rendered the Republic in the carly and tentative years of its career. On his birthday, the twenty-second of February, he held a public reception, at which he took occasion to say farewell to his friends. It was the last function of his public life. The reception rooms were crowded and there was a feeling of sadness in every heart and at times the President's emotions were so great that he himself could not control them. He remained to witness the inauguration ceremonies of his successor, and at the banquet given upon that occasion lie filled his glass and said, with tears in his voice and eyes : "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time I shall drink your health as a pub- lic man. I do it with sincerity and wishing you all possible happiness." On the day .of the inauguration of Mr. Adams, Washington, at the termination of the ceremonies, was followed to his house by a great crowd of people who cheered him to the echo. When he was about to enter the doors of his home, he turned around to address the multitude. Dr. Duer, describing the incident says, "His countenance assumed a serious and almost melancholy expression, his voice failed him, his eyes were suffused with tears, and only by his ges- tures could he indicate his thanks and convey a farewell blessing to the people." In the afternoon he called upon the President to pay his final respects. That same day he was given a dinner by the merchants of the city, and on Thursday, the ninth of March, he and his family took up their departure for Mount Ver- non, where he hoped to pass the remaining years of his life in quiet and repose. Nellie Custis in writing to a friend about this time said, "Grandpa is very well and well pleased with being once more farmer Washington." Great as he was in his life and deeds he was never greater in any period of his career than when he laid down his robes of office and retired to private life, and set an example to his successors, fixing two terms as the limit of occupancy of the great office as President.
John Adams entered upon his administration handicapped by the prestige of his predecessor. Even the most violent enemies of Washington were in a measure restrained in their abuse and criticism by reason of his great per- sonality and record. Adams, on the other hand, did not have this protection, and "The Aurora" brought its batteries into line to open a campaign of vituper- ation. Modern newspaper criticism is weak and vapid as compared with the persecution to which he was subjected. Because of his anti-French sentiment he was called an aristocrat and a monarchist. He was addressed as "His Ro- tundity, the Duke of Braintree"-alluding to his home in Massachusetts-and "His Serene Highness." There was no act he did that was not misconstrued, there was no speech he made that was not misinterpreted, and for four years, or during the whole of his administration, these attacks continued without abatement, and at the end of his term the "Aurora" declared "he was cast of God as polluted water out of the back door."
There was, however, about this time a slight change in public sentiment. The French were enraged because we did not espouse their cause and render them aid in their war against Great Britain. They captured our merchant vessels upon the seas and carried them into French ports, and they acted in such a way as to make war inevitable. At this juncture, John Marshall, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Elbridge Gerry were sent to France upon a
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diplomatic mission to patch up an agreement and if possible to effect an un- derstanding with the Revolutionists. Upon their arrival the French authori- ties gave them a cold welcome and as time ran on treated them with insult and insolence. They were approached by private agents representing the gov- ernment who made demands for money, and threatened war unless they were bribed to keep the peace. Pinckney, most indignant at this proposition, made the famous reply, "Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute!" A full report of this matter was transmitted to Congress and aroused a spirit of re- sentment in the hearts of all the people. Instead of buying peace we were ready to fight for it at any cost, no matter what the result. Marshall, after these unsuccessful negotiations with the French authorities, returned to the United States. He was met at Frankfort on June nineteenth, 1798, by the First City Troop, and amid the pealings of Christ Church bells and the cheers of a great crowd of people he was conducted to the City Tavern. The mob now, instead of singing the Marseillaise, shouted out as its Shibboleth, "Mil- lions for defence, but not one cent for tribute!" and sang in chorus the new patriotic song, "Hail Columbia," which had recently been composed by Joseph Hopkinson, of this city. Before the arrival of Marshall, Citizen Adet, the French Minister, broke off diplomatic relations with the United States and issued an address to the people urging them to arise and overthrow their gov- ernment, but he soon, like his predecessors, passed out of sight and was for- gotten. The withdrawal of the Minister was in itself a declaration of war.
President Adams had set aside as a day of fasting and prayer for divine guidance, the eighth of May, 1798. This was about a month before Mr. Mar- shall reached the city. Instead of carrying out the purpose of the President, the day was devoted to violence and mob rule. Crowds appeared upon the streets wearing the black and the tri-color cockades, the former an anti- and the latter a pro-French badge. It did look as if the factions would clash in deadly con- flict. At no time in the history of the city had the mobs been so violent, and so near a bloody revolution. The French sympathizers gathered about the door of the President's mansion on Market street and threatened him with assas- sination. The situation was so desperate that the domestics in the house armed themselves "determined to sacrifice their lives" in his defence or "to make a desperate sally among the multitude." To preserve the peace, Governor Mif- flin ordered a patrol of horse and foot to disperse the mob.
After the war between France and the United States broke out, Wash- ington was named Commander-in-Chief of our forces and coming to this city took up his lodgings in North Eighth street. While here, he received every attention, but he remained only for a short time, for when Napoleon Bonaparte came into power peace was speedily made. The war spirit and the anti- French sentiment, however, did not in any wise bring popularity to President Adams. The Alien and Sedition Laws called down upon his head a storm of condemnation. The battle of the Federalists, however, was taken up by the "Gazette of the United States," a paper published by a man named Jolin Fenno, but he was carried away by the yellow fever in 1798. He had a facile pen, a commanding style and really was a journalist of great ability. His paper, by its reasonable, logical and conservative arguments had great influ-
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ence among the thinking people of the city. William Cobbet, a trenchant writer, also took up the gauntlet in behalf of the Federalists, but he was so impulsive and vituperative that he kept himself and his friends constantly in hot water. He too was handicapped by the fact that he was a born English- man. The editors of the opposing papers, however, when it came to a combat of words, were not in the same class with him, for his abuse and satire could not be surpassed. A. times he was too bitter and caused a reaction. He was like a cavalryman who goes into battle with a sword as sharp as a razor and who is apt to do more damage to himself and his horse than he is to the enemy. He became involved in a libel suit, lost the case and was pauperized by the verdict.
Every year since the dreadful epidemic of yellow fever of 1793, the city had suffered a return of the pestilence, but in 1797 the scourge raged with un- usual violence. The people had learned, however, by experience, to take sen- sible precautions against its spread. Everybody set about burning brim-stone, scrubbing floors and whitewashing cellars and walls. Streets, alleys, lanes and conrts were cleansed of their filth and the plague in a measure was stayed, but in 1798, the following year, the fever again visited the city and the conditions more nearly approached those of 1793 than at any other time. Its appearance created a panic, and the people took flight in every direction. Fifty to sixty thousand inhabitants departed for other cities or else to find lodgment in the
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