Part 4

Philadelphia does not abound in manufacturing establishments. The predominance of British goods has shut up many workshops that were employed during the late war. Paper is manufactured in great quantities in Pennsylvania. Founderies for coarse cast iron articles are numerous. In town there are two manufactories of lead shot. Printing is carried on to a considerable extent, and executed in a superb style. It is said that one of the late Edinburgh novels was here set up in types in one day. The quarto edition of Joel Barlow’s Columbiad is an unrivalled specimen of printing. The types were cast by Messrs. Binnie and Ronaldsons, who, by their skill and individual exertions, have saved the United States from importing these essential literary implements. Mr. Melish’s[27] geographical establishment, is another prominent concern. He is continually embodying the most recent government surveys of the interior, into the general maps of the country. At Lehigh Falls, on the Schuylkill, there is a mill for cutting brads, which produces no less than two hundred in a minute. Philadelphia is in various respects well adapted to manufacture; if the facilities which it presents for its advancement are neglected, the city must decline, as the trade of New York and Baltimore is making rapid progress. The new road from the latter city to the Ohio,[28] and the extension of carriage, by steam boats, through the Mississippi and the Ohio, are all circumstances which tend to supersede Philadelphia as a market and as a thoroughfare.

At present, vast quantities of English goods are selling by auction in the ports of the United States. New York is the chief mart in this way. Merchants from the country, attend sometimes these {34} sales for many days, and even for weeks together. Public sales, and the present low prices, are very injurious to the merchants and manufacturers of England.

Probably the market of Philadelphia displays the greatest quantity of fruits and vegetables in the world. Boat loads are brought by the Delaware, and numerous waggons come loaded from the interior. Peaches, apples, pears, melons, cucumbers, pine apples, sweet potatoes, onions, &c. are plentiful beyond example.

The cleanliness and the civil address of persons who vend provisions in the market, are truly gratifying: if a speck is to be seen on the white apron of the butcher, it may be inferred that it came there on the same morning. Girls arrive on horseback, or driving light waggons, to sell vegetables, or the produce of the dairy. Many of these females, I am told, are the daughters of farmers who are in good circumstances. Here are none of the lazzaroni hucksters of fruit and sweet-meats, that form such a deplorable spectacle in the finest cities of Britain; nor of the miserables who rise earlier than the sun, to pick from amongst the ashes, the charred offal of their neighbour’s fire.

_September 3._ To-day I have seen a man sprawling on the ground in a state of intoxication; he is a native of Ireland. This is the first instance of the kind which I have seen in America. From this incident, I do not mean to represent that the people here do not drink spirituous liquors. The truth is, that many drink of them almost the moment after they get out of bed, and also at frequent intervals during the day; but though this fact has been noticed, the first conclusion is nevertheless true, that excessive drinking is rare.

{37} The saw for cross-cutting timber for fuel, is a tool which, for superior expedition, recommends itself to joiners and others. The following figure is a representation of it.

AB is the blade, about thirty inches long, and about two inches broad. It is very thin, and its teeth are very slightly bent to the right and left, so that it makes a narrow cut, through which the slender blade moves with little friction,--hence its facilities. The crooked stick ECA is the handle, FDB is another crooked stick, into which the blade is fixed at B. The wooden bar CD serves for fulcra, over which the blade is stretched by twisting the small rope EF, by means of the peg GH.

[Illustration]

The sawing of firewood, and many other sorts of hard labour, are chiefly performed by black people. Happily, very few of these are now slaves in Pennsylvania. Free blacks, it is understood, have no difficulty in earning the means of subsistence, but the circumstance of their being despised and degraded, has had bad effects on their character. Even the Quakers, who have so honourably promoted negro emancipation, allot a separate part of the church to people of colour. In the state prison, too, they are separated from whites. These odious distinctions should be abolished in a free country.

Negroes are stigmatized as an inferior race; indolent, dishonest, and vindictive in the extreme. {38} There can be no doubt that, in many instances, these characteristics are too just, but it cannot be otherwise, while moral culture is, in a great measure, withheld from them, while they are excluded from the society of the wise and the good, and while the hope of applause gives no stimulus to the coloured man. Moral or immoral, he is a negro. This, of itself, is enough to keep him down. If Africans were placed on a similar footing, and with the same opportunities, as their white neighbours, and if they still kept behind, we might then begin to suspect a radical defect in their nature. But, as they are, it cannot be pretended that the experiment has been made.

For some time past, the democratic party have been nominating candidates for their general support in the ensuing election. No doubt is entertained of a democratic preponderance in the next session of Congress. The Federalist cabal is now disconcerted in this part of the Union. The mercenary avarice that would barter the independence of America for English goods, was never less formidable than now.

Here, as at New York, boarding houses are to be found, varying from the simplest accommodations, to elegance and luxury. The person who lives in a house where a high price is paid for board, is separated from the poorer class, and his acquaintances and associates are people in affluent circumstances and polished education; he is as free in the choice of his society as he possibly can be. Without doors, however, persons of lesser note are not treated with _hauteur_, and in transacting business the utmost affability prevails.

The dress worn in temperate weather is the same as in Britain, with this difference only, that pantaloons {39} are almost universal: the shorter small-clothes are used only by Quakers. On Sundays it would be difficult to discriminate betwixt the hired girl and the daughter in a genteel family, were drapery the sole criterion. Attentive observation of the people on the streets, would convince any one of the general diffusion of comfort and competence.

The symptoms of republican equality are visible in all the members of the community. I have seen several curious instances of this, which would surprise those accustomed only to the manners of the old world. For example, the Mayor is a respectable-looking, plainly dressed gentleman, and apparently a penetrating and efficient police magistrate. On a late occasion the court was crowded, and the weather hot; he desired a person in attendance to bring cold water. It was brought in a brown jug, not accompanied with a glass. A person within the railing (probably a lawyer or clerk, more thirsty than his honour) intercepted the vessel, drank, and then handed it to the Judge.

On the Sabbath, we do not witness all the stillness and solemnity that usually characterize a presbyterian town. On the _morning_ of that day, I have seen loaded waggons start in the market street, for the westward. A grocer, opposite to the house where I board, has two shops, one of them he keeps open for the sale of liquor, segars, &c. In a late newspaper, a complaint appeared against bringing cattle into the street for sale on Sunday _afternoon_. If this complaint was founded on truth, it is at least evident that it was addressed to citizens who, it was believed, would suppress the evil. I am inclined to think that a very great proportion of the people spend the day in the duties of {40} religion; but some here, as in other places, employ it purely as a day of rest; some as a day of amusement; and others in visiting friends, or other convivial meetings. On a Sunday afternoon I have heard many reports of guns, in the neighbouring woods or swamps. You will consider all this as a foul blot on the fair character of the City of Brethren; but I trust that your liberality will not impute to the jurisprudence of America, pre-existing customs, that, at every stage of the settlement, must have been imported from England; even from a country which pays tithes, for the support of a priesthood.

Every day numbers of European emigrants are to be seen in the streets. The ingress is greater than at any former time. I have never heard of another feeling than good wishes to them. For my own part, I have met with several receptions kinder than I ever could have anticipated; and have become acquainted with a number of excellent citizens, whose approbation will always be sufficient to convey a high gratification to my mind.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] The author’s route from New York to Philadelphia was by boat to New Brunswick, thence by stage to Trenton on the Delaware, where boat was taken for Philadelphia. Stages, by this time, had practically ceased running between New York and Philadelphia.--ED.

[18] James Witherspoon, born in Haddingtonshore, Scotland, in 1722, was a descendant of John Knox. Graduating from Edinburgh University, and receiving ordination as a Presbyterian minister, in 1768 he accepted an invitation to become president of Princeton College, and brought with him a considerable addition to the college library. From the first he took an active part in the Revolutionary War; as member of the provincial assembly, he assisted in overthrowing the royal governor; as member of the continental congress he signed the Declaration of Independence, and aided in initiating several important legislative measures. After the close of the war, he retired to his farm near Princeton, dying there in September, 1794.--ED.

[19] Washington’s Letters, vol. ii, page 4, Lond. 1795.--FLINT.

[20] John Mease, a wealthy and philanthropic Philadelphian, was born in 1771. Although a graduate of the Medical College of the University of Pennsylvania, he did not practice regularly, but devoted himself to literary and scientific pursuits. In association with David Rittenhouse and other members of the Philosophical Society, he was engaged in numerous undertakings for the betterment of the city. His _Picture of Philadelphia_, published in 1811, was for many years the best travellers’ guide thereof.--ED.

[21] The American Philosophical Society, the oldest scientific association in America, was organized by Franklin in 1743. In 1769 it was combined with the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, and from that date (except for a few years during the Revolutionary War) has never failed to meet regularly. Among its presidents may be noted Franklin, Jefferson, Rittenhouse, and Caspar Wistar.

The Society of Artists, formed in 1810, to establish a school of drawing and hold an annual exhibition of foreign and American paintings, was dissolved soon after Flint’s visit to Philadelphia.

The Academy of Fine Arts was organized in 1805, largely through the efforts of Charles Wilson Peale. The following year a building was occupied, and the first exhibition opened in 1811, in conjunction with the Society of Artists. The Academy has ceased to hold exhibitions, but maintains a good permanent collection.

The Museum, opened by Peale at his residence in 1784, contained for the most part portraits of Revolutionary heroes painted by himself. When transferred to Independence Hall (1802), it included a large collection of birds, insects, and the implements of primitive men. The Philadelphia Museum Company acquired it in 1821; but later the collection was sold and dispersed.--ED.

[22] Dr. Mease’s Picture of Philadelphia.--FLINT.

[23] Thomas Cooper, born in London in 1759, was eminent both as a lawyer and a scientist. Educated at Oxford, he practiced law, first in England, and after 1795 in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. Upon a visit to France (about 1792), he studied chemistry, and continued his researches in that science after coming to America. Upon being removed, for arbitrary conduct, from a judgeship (1811), he was appointed professor of chemistry at Dickinson College, later at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1820 became president of the college of South Carolina. At the time of his death (1840) he was engaged in revising the statutes of the latter state, and in writing pamphlets in favor of state rights.--ED.

[24] For a brief biography of David Rittenhouse, see A. Michaux’s _Travels_, volume iii of our series, note 75.--ED.

[25] Alexander Wilson was for many years a weaver and poet in Paisley, Scotland. Trouble breaking out between the weavers and masters, he emigrated to Philadelphia in 1794, becoming in turn weaver, school-teacher, and peddler. In 1802 the scientist John Bartram became interested in Wilson’s talents, and gave systematic direction to his natural taste for ornithology, to which he devoted the remainder of his life. He published his first volume of _American Ornithology_ in 1808, and had nearly completed nine volumes before his death, in 1813.--ED.

[26] A public reading-room called the Atheneum was established by private subscription in 1814. Ten years later it contained 3,300 volumes, including prominent foreign and American reviews. Rooms were rented from the American Philosophical Society until 1847, when the Atheneum building was erected.--ED.

[27] For a sketch of John Melish, see Bradbury’s _Travels_, volume v of our series, note 129.--ED.

[28] For a brief description of the National Road, see Harris’s _Journal_, volume iii of our series, note 45.--ED.

{41} LETTER IV[29]

Journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg--Lancaster--Elizabeth Town--The River Susquehana--Harrisburg--Carlisle--Chambersburg--Cove Mountain--Macconnel’s Town--Sidelong-hill--The river Juniata--Bedford--The Allegany Ridge--Stoystown--Laurel-hill--Lauchlinstown--Chesnut Ridge--Greensburg--Adamsburg--Pittsburg--Interspersed remarks on the Country, Taverns, &c.--Notices of Emigrants, and occurrences by the way.

_Pittsburg, 28th September._

The contents of this will be composed of notes taken on my journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg.[30]

On the morning of the 20th of September, I went to the Coach-Office in Philadelphia to take my seat. Such is the number of travellers that I found it necessary to take out a ticket two days previously.

The mail-coach is a large clumsy vehicle, carrying twelve passengers. It is greatly encumbered by large bags, which are enormously swollen by the bulk of newspapers. As a substitute for glass windows, a large roll of leather is let down on each side in bad weather.

During the greater part of the day our route was through a part of the country of a clayey soil, moderately fertile, and of a flat insipid surface. Late in the afternoon, we passed some land of a finer mould, and more elegant structure, with fruit trees bending under their load. The Indian {42} corn is nearly ripe, and is a great crop this year. The stalks are generally about eight feet high. The people have been picking the leaves off this sort of crop, and setting them up between the rows in conical bunches, to be preserved as winter food for the cattle.

We passed several family waggons moving westward. The young and the strong walking, the aged and infants riding. Waggons for removing families, and those for carrying goods to Pittsburg, have a canvass cover, stretched over hoops that pass from one side of the waggon to the other, in the form of an arch. The front is left open, to give the passengers within the vehicle the benefit of a free circulation of cool air.

Lancaster is a large town, well known for the manufacture of rifle-guns. We were too late in the evening for having a distinct sight of the place, or of the country towards Elizabeth Town, which is much commended.

_September 21._ The coach stopped at Elizabeth Town, last night, for three hours, and started again before three o’clock. We were near Middletown (eight miles on our way) before the light disclosed to our eyes a pleasant and fertile country.

It was near Middletown that we got the first peep of the river Susquehana, which is here about a mile in breadth. The trees on the east bank, confining the view to the right and left, produced an illusory effect, almost imposing on the mind a lake instead of the river. The highly transparent state of the air, and the placid surface of the water, united in producing a most distinct reflexion of the bold banks on the opposite side. Cliffs, partially concealed by a luxuriant growth of trees, sprung from the detritus below, and by smaller {43} ones rooted in the rifted rocks. Over these a rising back ground is laid out in cultivated fields. The eye is not soon tired of looking on a scene so richly furnished, and so gay.

Harrisburg, the seat of legislature of Pennsylvania, is a small town which stands on a low bottom by the river; a pleasant, but apparently an unhealthy situation. Opposite to the town is a small island in the river, connected with the eastern and western shores by very long wooden bridges. The waters of the Susquehana are limpid, but shallow at this place, and ill adapted to navigation, except in times of flood.

The country immediately west of the Susquehana is truly delightful. The soil, whether occupied by the natural woods, orchards, or crops, is covered with a profuse vegetation; and the superficial aspect altogether agreeable. The best sort of houses are of limestone; they shew nothing of fine taste or neat workmanship, but are far superior in durability and appearance to the wooden erections so common here. Barns are much larger, and frequently neater than the adjoining dwellings.

Towards Carlisle, the road passes through lands inferior to the lower country, seen in the forenoon. The surface of limestone rocks, and large detached blocks of the same mineral, interrupt the plough in the field, and the wheeled carriage on the road.

Carlisle, though in a newly settled country, has an appearance somewhat antiquated. With so much grass growing in the streets, a suspicion arises that there is not much traffic here.

Shippensburg is a place more recently founded than the last, but has, notwithstanding, contracted something like the rust of time. Wooden {44} erections soon acquire a weather-beaten appearance. The subsidence of log houses discloses chinks, shewing that they are well ventilated in summer, but not the most comfortable lodgments for the winter.

At Chambersburg the coach halted during the night. The rough roads already surmounted, and the report of worse still before us, determined two of the passengers, besides myself, to walk, as an easier mode of travelling over the mountains. Chambersburg is 143 miles from Philadelphia, and 155 from Pittsburg; and lies in the intersection of the roads from York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Several branches of what has been very properly called the current of emigration, being here united, strangers from the eastern country, and from Europe, are passing in an unceasing train. An intelligent gentleman, at this place, informed me, that this stream of emigration has flowed more copiously this year, than at any former period; and that the people now moving westward, are ten times more numerous than they were, ten years ago. His computation is founded on the comparative amount of the stage-coach business, and on careful observation. This astonishing statement is, in some degree, countenanced by a late notice in a New York newspaper, that stated the number of emigrants which arrived in that port during the week, ending the 31st of August last, to be 2050. The gentleman alluded to, says, that shades of character, sensibly different from one another, are forming in the western States. He represents the Kentuckians to be a high-toned people, who frequently announce their country, as if afraid of being mistaken for inhabitants of Ohio State; and the Ohians, as having less pride of country, being less assuming in their {45} demeanour, but not less agreeable in conversation, nor less punctual in business transactions. Were it not for the intelligence of my penetrating informant, and for his great intercourse with travellers, I would certainly not have remarked the supposed distinction of these provincial characters. If the difference really exists, it will be difficult to assign any moral cause that is adequate; unless it be the keeping slaves in Kentucky, a species of stock not permitted by the constitution of Ohio.

_September 22._ We found a waggoner who agreed to carry our travelling necessaries to Pittsburg. For my portmanteau, weighing about fourteen pounds, he charged three dollars, alleging the trouble that attends putting small articles within doors every night. This is an instance of one man measuring his demand by the urgent situation of another. The jolting that waggons undergo in this rugged country, render it indispensable that baggage be packed with the utmost care.

The two young gentlemen with whom I started, are Americans, good walkers, and cheerful companions.

One mile to the north of Chambersburg the road ascends a steep hill of slate clay, the first stratified substance that I have seen overlaying the limestone. The soil on the summit is so excessively poor, that I am surprised to see such ground cultivated in this country.

Several taverns by the road are log-houses constructed by laying squared trees horizontally, in a quadrangular position, in a way similar to that in which house-joiners pile up boards to be dried. As the erection advances, the last laid or uppermost log is notched on the upper side, near both ends, for the reception of the next cross pieces. {46} The interstices are filled up with lime or clay, and the roofs are of shingles, or thin boards. Frame houses consist of erect posts, set in sills or horizontal foundation beams. Over the tops of the posts other horizontal pieces are laid, forming the summit of the wall. The outside of the posts are covered over with thin boards, ranged horizontally, the upper one uniformly overlaying the edge of that immediately under it. The inside is most commonly lined with lathing and plaster, but the last piece of finery is frequently dispensed with.

Near Baker’s tavern, six miles from Chambersburg, the waggon wheels have uncovered a fine slate clay, fit to be used as slate pencils. The same kind of substance is to be seen in the adjoining stream.

Around Campbell’s Town, seven miles from Chambersburg, the land is bleak, and apparently poor; to the north-west an extended high ridge exposes to view a large tract of romantic wood scenery.

At thirteen miles from Chambersburg is Loudon, a few houses only, two of them taverns, situated at the foot of the ridge just mentioned, which is called the Cove Mountain. A new road is formed over it. The ascent is winding and gradual, so that seven miles are occupied in surmounting the formidable barrier. The darkness of the night, and the great quantity of timber on both sides, rendered this part of our journey very gloomy. Not a sound was to be heard but that of the Catadid, a large green insect, whose note resembles its name, as nearly as it can any articulate sound. Near the top of the hill stands a miserable log tavern filled with _movers_, a name for settlers removing to the western country. At the summit, we were accosted in the Irish accent. The individual {47} told us that he was so much exhausted, that he could not proceed farther, and that he had laid himself down among the trees.[31]