Part 92
The old Postoffice was afterwards the Congress Hall Hotel. It was kept by Robert Patton, postmaster from 1791 to 1814.
The first postmaster of Philadelphia who received a newspaper notice as such was Peter Baynton in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of November 27, 1776.
When the Government was removed from New York to Philadelphia in 1791 the departments were located in private homes, and the “General Postoffice was on the east side of Water Street, a few doors below High Street.”
An early pioneer mail route through the wilderness, across the State was over the old State road. It was established in 1805. The mail was carried on horseback from Bellefonte to Meadville. The first contractor was James Randolph, of Meadville, the second was Hamilton, of Bellefonte.
----------
Conway Cabal Started in Reading by General Mifflin on November 28, 1777
When the British marched triumphantly into Philadelphia there was gloom over America such as to make people lose all confidence in General Washington, the commander-in-chief, and as General Gates had but recently, on October 19, 1777, achieved such a brilliant victory over Burgoyne at Saratoga, the one event to bring joy to their hearts, it was but natural to suggest that Gates was the more competent. Many letters appeared in the public press favoring a change of commanders and Pennsylvanians were clamorous for the retaking of Philadelphia.
General Conway had written, “Heaven has been determined to save—your country or a weak general and bad counselors would have ruined it.” The words reached Washington’s ears, and he let Conway know the fact. A personal interview ensued, but Conway refused to apologize, and he boastfully told General Mifflin of his interview with the commander-in-chief. He was commended by Gates, Mifflin and others.
The Gates faction in Congress procured Conway’s appointment as inspector general of the Army and made him independent of the chief.
General Thomas Mifflin at this time was head of the Board of War, but on November 27 Gates became its president and the following day Mifflin declared to Gates that Conway’s letter was a “collection of just sentiments.” This produced what has been known in history as the “Conway Cabal.”
The principal events which led up to this cabal transpired in Reading, which during the British occupation of Philadelphia became a favorite place of resort for Philadelphians who wished to retire a little from the stormy political atmosphere of the city.
More than a score of fugitive families made their homes there, among them being General Thomas Mifflin, who at that moment was out of command in the army, complaining, though not ill, considerably restive, and apparently not in high favor at headquarters. He was resting at his country estate, “Angelica,” three miles distant from Reading.
There were other officers of the Continental Army there and many gay social gatherings were held.
It was in these dissipations that gossip among the high officers frequently turned against General Washington, who, according to Mifflin, would only counsel with General Greene.
They said Greene was not the wisest, the bravest, nor the most patriotic of counselors.
In short, they averred that the campaign in this quarter was stigmatized as a series of blunders, and those who conducted it were incapable.
The better fortune of the northern army was ascribed to the superior talents of its leader; and it began to be whispered that General Gates was the man who of right should have the station sustained by Washington.
A cabal was soon formed, in which Gates, Mifflin and Conway were already engaged, and in which the congenial spirit of General Charles Lee, on his exchange as a prisoner of war, immediately took a share.
The well-known apostrophe of General Conway to America, imparting that “Heaven had passed a decree in her favor, or her ruin must long before have ensued from the imbecility of her military counsels,” was at this time familiar wherever officers congregated.
On a visit which Conway made to Reading he expressed himself to the effect that “no man was more a gentleman than General Washington, or appeared to more advantage at his table, or in the usual intercourse of life, but as to his talents for the command of an army, they were miserable, indeed.”
These and similar expressions repeated frequently could not fail to create an unfavorable sentiment against the commander-in-chief.
It is also fortunate that the general population did not yet believe any of the officers busy in the cabal against Washington to be superior to Washington.
Without the knowledge of Washington, the Board of War devised a winter campaign against Canada, and gave the command to Lafayette. It was a trick of Gates to detach the marquis from Washington. It failed.
Lafayette was summoned to York to receive his commission from Congress, then in session there. That distinguished patriot met Gates, Mifflin and others at table. The wine flowed freely and toasts abounded.
At length the marquis, thinking it time to show his colors, said: “Gentlemen, I perceive one toast has been omitted, which I will now propose.” They filled their glasses, when he gave praise to “the commander-in-chief of the American armies.”
The coldness with which that toast was received confirmed Lafayette’s worst opinion respecting the men around him, and he was disgusted.
The conspirators, finding they could not use the marquis, abandoned the expedition. So, also, was the conspiracy abandoned soon afterward.
There is no doubt that the duel which subsequently took place between General Conway and General Cadwalader, though immediately proceeding from an unfavorable opinion expressed by the latter of the conduct of the former at the Battle of Germantown, had, perhaps, deeper origin, and some reference to this intrigue, for the brave and competent Philadelphian was an ardent champion of General Washington.
Some of Gates’ New England friends became tired of him. Conway, found out, was despised, left the army and returned to France.
So the cabal resulted happily, in a thorough vindication of the wisdom of Washington, and brought deserved censure on those who had not done their full duty.
Bancroft says “that those who had caviled at Washington, being unable to shake the confidence of the people, wished their words benevolently interpreted or forgotten, and Gates and Mifflin asked to be excused from serving on the committee,” meaning the committee which had been appointed by Congress to consult with Washington upon a complete reform in his administration of the army.
Mifflin became a major general in the following February and General Greene was made quartermaster general a few days later. Mifflin made a request to join the army in the field, but Congress desired Washington to make an inquiry into his conduct, which Washington did not do, and Mifflin then tendered his resignation, which Congress refused to accept, and, although Mifflin’s health was miserable, he served throughout the war.
The internment of the army at Valley Forge called forth remonstrances of the Continental Congress, the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly of Pennsylvania and furnished much of the subject-matter by which Washington was censured by those who were partisans of other generals who coveted the high and important office. These discouragements weighed heavily upon the anxious commander, who had quite enough trouble without those in authority adding thereto.
The men in camp erected huts of logs and mud, but blankets and clothing were scantily provided. Yet amid all this suffering, day after day, surrounded by the frosts and snows of a severe winter, patriotism was still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers. It has often been recorded that Washington considered his experiences at Valley Forge as the most trying scenes of his life.
----------
Federal Party Is Broken Up in Closing Days
of November, 1823
It was during the administration of Governor John Andrew Shulze, of Lebanon County, that in 1823, President Monroe made his celebrated declaration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western Hemisphere and the noninterference of European Powers in the political affairs of this continent.
The determined stand taken by President Monroe was warmly indorsed by the people of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the State at the subsequent session adopted resolutions to the effect that it afforded them “the highest gratification to observe the President of the United States, expressing the sentiments of millions of freemen, proclaiming to the world that any attempt on the part of the allied sovereigns of Europe to extend their political systems to any portion of the continent of America, or in any other manner to interfere in their internal concerns, would be considered as dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.”
Governor Shulze, in transmitting the resolutions to the President, expressed his hearty indorsement of the doctrines therein set forth.
Soon after the election of Shulze, in the closing days of November, 1823, the old parties were broken up, none after that calling themselves Federalists. Indeed, the term Federalist became odious; but from the ashes there sprang a party that became more powerful than any which before or since has borne sway in this country, the great Democratic Party.
Every Federal newspaper in Pennsylvania except three—the United States Gazette, of Philadelphia; The Village Record, of West Chester, and the Pittsburgh Gazette—joined in its support.
In the national election of 1824, parties being in a disorganized state, there was no choice for President by the people. Crawford, Adams, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were supported. John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives. But in 1828 Jackson was chosen, receiving a majority of 50,000 in Pennsylvania. His brilliant victory at New Orleans, gained with scarcely a casualty on our side, created immense enthusiasm among the people in his favor.
In 1824 and 1825 the Nation’s early friend and benefactor, General Lafayette, revisited the scenes of his former trials and final triumphs. Governor Shulze had the satisfaction of welcoming the hero to the soil of Pennsylvania, which he did at Morrisville in a brief but eloquent and impressive speech.
This was Lafayette’s second visit to Pennsylvania and was an event which produced marked and spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population. Next to the great Washington he was hailed as the deliverer of this country, and nowhere was he made more welcome than in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and other parts of Pennsylvania.
This was the era when stupendous plans for the internal improvement of the Commonwealth were adopted and put into execution. The Schuylkill navigation canal, which had been projected almost thirty years previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed in 1825. The occasion was one of great rejoicing and the success of the enterprise gave an impetus to other improvements.
Shortly afterward the Union Canal was also finished, and the great Pennsylvania Canal was prosecuted with vigor. Governor Schulze hesitated somewhat at this stupendous plan of internal improvements by the State and opposed the loan of $1,000,000 authorized by the Legislature. He was obliged to yield, however, to the popular will, and before the close of his second term $6,000,000 had been borrowed.
At the session of the General Assembly in 1826 a Board of Commissioners for internal improvements was established. The Legislature authorized the Commissioners to contract for a canal from Middletown extending up the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of the Juniata, and from Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Kiskiminitas, a navigable feeder of a canal from French Creek to the summit level of Conneaut Lake, and to survey a canal from there to Erie. These enterprises were started with the modest appropriation of $300,000, which was to be borrowed.
The board made two contracts, one for twenty-two and one-half miles along the Susquehanna and twenty-four miles along the Allegheny. At the following session the canals authorized were to be extended farther up the Susquehanna, the Juniata, and up the valley of the Kiskiminetas and the Conemaugh, another between Bristol and Easton and others of lesser importance.
In 1826 Governor Shulze was renominated and received within 1000 of all the votes cast for Governor. This was the nearest to a unanimous election ever known in Pennsylvania, and was an evidence of the confidence the people had in him, his fine character and intelligence.
Previous to 1827 the only railroads in America were a short wooden railroad constructed at Leiper’s stone quarry, in Delaware County, Pa., and a road three miles in length opened at the Quincy granite quarries in Massachusetts in 1826.
In May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch Chunk to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest and most important railroad in America.
In 1828 the State determined to engage in railroad building. The canal extending through the center of the State was to be connected by a railroad crossing the Allegheny Mountains, and with Philadelphia by a railroad extending to Columbia. Thus by railroad and canal a system of highway improved communication would extend from the Delaware to the Ohio.
The expenditures were now so rapid and enormous that the State began to suffer. Governor Shulze convened the Assembly in November, 1828, a month before retiring from office, and explained the tense situation. Funds had given out, the work was stopped and something must be done. But as he was soon to retire, he smoothed over the situation, leaving his successor to wrestle with the problem.
On December 15, 1829, George Wolf, of Northampton County, was inaugurated as Governor of Pennsylvania. He had defeated Joseph Ritner, who attempted to seek this high office on the rising wave of the anti-Masonic era, which at this time changed the political horizon of the State and Nation.
Governor Wolf stepped into office at the time the financial affairs were in a deplorable condition. His only remedy was to push the public works to rapid completion. This was done, and in a few years he, with others, had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far these needed improvements went toward developing the natural resources of Pennsylvania.
----------
Major George Washington Meets French Commander Joncaire at Logstown, November 30, 1753
The contention between Great Britain and France for the possession of what is now Western Pennsylvania began about the middle of the eighteenth century. The Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, signed October 18, 1748, while it nominally closed the war between those two countries, failed to establish the boundaries between their respective colonies in America, and this failure, together with the hostile and conflicting attitude of the colonists in America, was the cause of another long and bloody war.
An association was formed in Virginia about 1748, called the Ohio Company, which was given a royal grant. The object of the company, according to its charter, was to trade with the Indians, but its actual purpose was to settle the region about the forks of the Ohio, now Pittsburgh, with English colonists from Virginia and Maryland.
All the vast territory from the Mississippi to the Alleghany Mountains, south of the Great Lakes, had been explored and partly occupied by the French. They had forts, trading posts and missions at various points and they made every endeavor to conciliate the Indians. It was apparent they intended to extend their occupancy to the extreme tributaries of the Ohio, which they claimed by virtue of prior discovery.
So it was but natural when the English sought to gain a permanent occupancy of the Ohio Valley that the French should begin actively to assert their claims to the same region.
The Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis de la Galissoniere, sent Captain Bienville de Celeron in 1749 down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers to take possession in the name of the King of France. His command consisted of two hundred and fifteen French and Canadian soldiers and fifty-five Indians. The principal officers under him were Captain Contrecœur, who afterwards built Fort Duquesne, Coulon de Villiers, and Joncaire-Chabet.
They planted leaden plates, properly inscribed, at different points, beginning at the present town of Warren, and then along the Allegheny River, then along the Ohio, and up the Miami, and they reached Lake Erie, October 19, 1749.
The French affairs were actively pushed by Joncaire-Chabet, who occupied the house at the mouth of French Creek, or Venango, which had been built by John Frazer, a Pennsylvania trader, whom Celeron drove off when he found him there.
Early in January, 1753, a French expedition consisting of 300 men under command of Monsieur Babier set out from Quebec. Traveling over land and ice, they reached Fort Niagara in April, then pushed on to the southeastern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek. In May Monsieur Morin arrived with an additional force of 500 men, and he assumed command.
It was intended to build a fort here, but the water was found to be too shallow and the expedition moved to a place which, from the peculiar formation of the lake shore, they named Presqu’ Isle, or the Peninsula. This is now the City of Erie.
Here the first fort was built and named Fort la Presqu’ Isle. It was constructed of square logs, was about 120 feet square and fifteen feet high. It was finished in June, 1753 and garrisoned by about 100 men under command of Captain Depontency.
The remainder of the forces cut a road southward about fifteen miles to Le Boeuf River, or French Creek. Here they built a second fort, which they called Fort Le Boeuf, similar to the first, but smaller. This is the site of the present Borough of Waterford, Erie County, Pa.
In 1752 a treaty had been entered into with the Indians which secured the right of occupancy, and twelve families, headed by Captain Christopher Gist, established themselves on the Monongahela, and subsequently commenced the erection of a fort where the City of Pittsburgh now stands.
The activity of the French alarmed these settlers, and soon all their proceedings were reported to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia. He determined to send an official communication to the commander of the French, who had established his headquarters at Fort Le Boeuf, protesting against the forcible interference with their chartered rights, granted by the Crown of Britain, pointing to the late treaties of peace entered into between the English and French, whereby it was agreed that each should respect the colonial possessions of the other.
George Washington, then only twenty-three years old, was selected for this mission by Governor Dinwiddie. He performed his duty with the greatest tact and to the satisfaction of his Government.
With a party of seven besides himself, among whom was Christopher Gist, he set out November 15, 1753, from Wills Creek, the site of Fort Cumberland, in Maryland, which was the limit of the road that had been opened by the Ohio Company.
The first place of importance was Logstown, where they arrived on November 30. This important Indian village was on the right bank of the Ohio River, about fourteen miles below the present Pittsburgh. It was at Logstown where the Treaty of 1752 was made. Here Washington enlisted the services of the chief Indians and proceeded on his mission.
Washington writes in his journal that they set out from Logstown for Venango about 9 o’clock in the morning, with Tanacharison, the Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder and the Hunter, and arrived at Venango on December 4.
Soon as Captain Joncaire had finished his greetings wine was passed and after much drinking all restraint was banished, which gave license to their tongues and their true sentiments were revealed.
The French officers told young Washington that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, to which they had undoubted right from a discovery made by LaSalle sixty years since. They also told him they had raised an expedition to prevent the English from settling on the river.
Joncaire endeavored by every means to win the Half-King from the English, but the chief remained true to his mission, and accompanied Washington to Le Boeuf, to which place he was referred, as the commanding officer of the French had his headquarters there.
The party arrived at Fort Le Boeuf on December 11. Washington was received with courtesy by the commandant, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre.
In regard to the message of Governor Dinwiddie, Saint-Pierre replied that he would forward it to the Governor-General of Canada, but that in the meantime, his orders were to hold possession of the country, and this he would do to the best of his ability.
With this answer Washington retraced his steps, enduring many hardships and passing through many perils, until he presented his report to the Governor at Williamsburg, Va., January 16, 1754.
----------
William Penn and Family Arrive in Province on His Second Visit, December 1, 1699
Captain John Blackwell, an officer and one of the heroes under Cromwell, was commissioned Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania July 25, 1688, while he was in New England, but did not present himself before the Council until the following March. He and the Council never acted in harmony, and nothing of importance was accomplished during his short and stormy term, which ended the following December.
Thomas Lloyd again became the Chief Executive. During 1691 the six Councilors from the Lower Counties, without Lloyd’s knowledge, formed themselves into a separate Council, appointed Judges for those counties and made ordinances.
The President and Council of the Province immediately published a proclamation declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal. The latter made counter-proposals, but they were rejected.
Penn tried to restore better understanding between the two sections of his Province and gave them the choice of three modes of executive government, viz., by Joint Council, by five Commissioners or by a Lieutenant Governor.
The members from Pennsylvania preferred the last, but those of the Lower Counties declared for the Commissioners, but they could not agree upon any plan, so the counties of Pennsylvania elected Thomas Lloyd for their Governor and three lower counties rejected him.
Penn confirmed the appointment of Lloyd and sent William Markham, who had joined with the protesting members, as the head of the government in the Lower Counties. This was done against Penn’s judgment and had the consequences he predicted.
These dissensions served to furnish the Crown with a pretext to deprive Penn of his Province. William and Mary seized this opportunity to punish him for this attachment to the late King, and they commissioned Benjamin Fletcher, Governor General of New York, also to be the Governor of Pennsylvania and the territories. The Council of the Province was officially advised of his appointment April 19, 1693.
Governor Fletcher was empowered to summon the General Assembly, require its members to subscribe to the oaths and tests prescribed by acts of parliament, and to make laws in conjunction with the Assembly, he having a vote upon their acts, etc. No mention was made of William Penn, nor of the Provincial constitution, yet, on the arrival of Colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the Government was surrendered to him without objection, but most of the Quaker magistrates refused to accept from him the renewal of their commissions.
William Penn condemned this ready abandonment of his rights, and addressed a letter to Colonel Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment, which might have restrained the latter from exercising his authority had it been timely received, as he was attached to Penn by many personal favors.
Trouble arose when Fletcher attempted a new form of election contrary to the laws of the Province, and the rejection of eight of the old laws, chiefly penal. The Assembly insisted that their rights should first be redressed.