310 = DISCOURSE BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [NOVEMBER their demeanor in reference to either of the con- the subject little of that glowing interest of which, in flicting parties. They were constrained to stand aloof the hands of an American, it is naturally susceptible. from both, or which was tantamount in their estimation, Just thoughts and harmonious periods can scarcely their acts of friendship for one or the other, had no re- compensate for the absence of that vis vivida with lation to the position of either, considered as belliger- which it should be drawn and coloured. The amusing ents. It presents a striking analogy to the case of oaths, and vivacious memoir by Graydon, is too loose in its which, independently of the truth of the testimony, as facts and too rambling in their development and disthey are held by the Quakers to be forbidden, must in cussion, to supply so serious a desideratum. any event be peremptorily declined. In the extensive The absence of a formal history during and since the diffusion of the fact, that the Quakers as a body, did revolution, has not only proved injurious to the fame of not participate in a sanguinary conflict, it seems to have our civic patriotism, but it conveys a really mortifying been too frequently forgotten, that the business of a reflection upon our indifference to national glory.— soldier is totally inconsistent with Quakerism, and that From the labours of this society; the accumulations of its assumption would imply the dereliction of a testimo- Mr. Hazard; and the curious researches of Mr. Watson; ny which they hold to be sacred. Common justice re- the historian can labour under no paucity of materials. quires that as well the reasons of their abstinence should The selection of an individual who is competent to such be known, as that their forbearance was reciprocal, and a task, by the charms of an elegant and finished English only amounted to a strict and rigid neutrality. style-by philosophical studies-by liberal and enlarged Other circumstances have contributed to the perpet-views-is a matter of very general,even public concern. uation of this injustice, than those to which I have The reputation of a country and the moral influence of ventured incidentally to allude. The national feeling her example upon her cotemporaries and posterity, which was engendered by Pennsylvania's being the must essentially depend upon the ability of her histori principal theatre of war-by being the locality of the ans, How can the one or the other of these be effectfirst Congress and by being the place whence emenated, but through the medium of a performance whose ed the Declaration of Independence-almost absorbed intrinsic and superior merits shall command the esteem provincial attachments and local sympathies. Sectional of other countries and of other times? The brilliancy predilections were exchanged for the brighter and more of great events, or the glare of imposing successes and trancendant glory of the whole, confederacy. The wise dismal catastrophes, is not necessary to the preservation providence of her sisters in arms, while animated by the of a people's memory or the perpetuity of a people's patriotic fire which sought to destroy the pretensions influence. The nation whose opening effulgence and of Britain over the Union, did not permit them to be meridian splendor are embalmed in the pages of a Livy, frigid upon the subject of their own reputations. They and whose decrepitude and decline are recorded by the have blazoned their exploits in a hundred narratives pen of a Tacitus, is less indebted for her fame to the and histories, and perhaps too sedulous of fame, have power of her arms and the wisdom of her counsels than sometimes despoiled Pennsylvania of the laurels by to the elegance of her historical authors. Would not which her brow should be adorned. Not content with the bays of ancient Greece long since have been faded assuming merits and gallantry which, perhaps, they le- or obscured, if the genial and kindly influences of gitimately claim, the disposition has been frequently Homer, Herodotus, and Thucydides had been withobserved to filch from Pennsylvania some of the mighty drawn? Such events as the Persian and Peloponnesian meed of her large honours,' by attributing to cowardice wars and the expeditions of Alexander, which comprise or toryism the effect of religious tenets, and by ascrib- the principal exploits of that celebrated people during ing to the state at large the disaffection of a few. Du- the lapse of three centuries-illustrious as they are,ring all this period-a period beyond half a century-may have been surpassed by nations whose memory, we have so far acquiesced in the subject of these reproaches as to maintain the profoundest silence; and though vires acquirunt eundo, not a production has appeared which aspires to the dignity of defending the purity and patriotism of her course by an authentic narrative. The materials for a history lie scattered in the richest profusion over works which, to the burning shame of our patriotic sensibilities, be it spoken, are seldom examined. That part of our story which is interwoven with the country, is accesible in every form in which it can be presented, by compilations of origidal documents-the attraction of personal memoirs and the graver productions of elaborate histories. But where are the narratives of Pennsylvania in particular, subsequent to the year 1775? The total absence of any sober and authentic development of her transactions, sufferings, and services, has not been without its effect upon the currency of opinions involving the detriment of her revolutionary fame. Of the two histories which are extant, the one by Proud nominally terminates in 1770, and that by Gordon ends with the year 1775. It was reserved to Ebeling, a German, to illustrate the stirring events of the revolution, and to deduce our domestic annals to a recent period. This work, so little known to English readers except that small portion of it which is seen through the medium of an excellent translation by the venerable Duponceau, terminates in 1802. However worthy of commendation it may be regarded, considered in the light of a literary production, it was intended only to be general and succinct, and is the composition of a foreigner, who, removed from the scene of action and partaking of little of the spirit of the times, must frequently be at a loss to account for obvious occurrences, and can impart to not perpetuated by genius, is lost in the mists of remote antiquity. A smile may perhaps be excited at an allusion to the ever enduring fame of Greece and Rome, with relation to the domestic transactions of Pennsylvania; but it would not be improper before the contemptuousness of ridicule be indulged that our history, before, during, and since the revolution, be fairly examined and truly known. Genuine philosophy unfettered by the trammels of education and uninfluenced by eclat, will coolly scan premises and investigate facts, before she will pronounce a decisive judgement. In imitating this prudence let us be guided by no blind or vainglorious partiality, but contemplate with calmness, some of the broad lines of the images which it will be the duty of our historians to exhibit. It is not my intention here to advert to her early history, nor to refer to the noble-minded pioneers of the wilderness to decry the germ of a race, destined to an elevation of fortune remarkable throughout future time. I am to speak of her history from that period when her existence as a separate nation commenced-when there was a dissolution of former ties-and when new sympathies and connexions sprang into being. The revolution of Pennsylvania, by a self-devotion to the cause which could only have originated in the conviction of its justice, was marked by domestic distresses, both personal and pecuniary, which would have cooled the ardour of any people in whose breasts liberty was not an unextinguishable principle. The general destitution, and unfitness for war, has been well described by the Canada Major in Graydon, that we possessed "commissaries without provisions; quarter masters without stores; generals without troops; and troops without discipline.' Notwithstanding all these motives to despon 1831.] DISCOURSE BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 311 dency, which from the actual presence of the enemy must have operated more directly in Pennsylvania than in the sister colonies, the flame that was kindled diffus. ed itself with incredible rapidity, and burnt with a bright and constant lustre. She offered herself for im-lonies, and of course British adjudications made subsemolation upon the altar of liberty, and was a consenting victim to the sacrifice, if it should be necessary to the salvation of the country. But though the revolution itself, both for the purposes of truth in the removal of unmerited obloquy, and the exhibition of our civic spirit under the pressure of calamitous times, be a glorious theme for historical narrative and commentary, yet it is but an epoch whence commences a new order of things equally calculated to elicit the admiration of the world. The Congress of the United Colonies, having declared their independence, recommended by a manifesto that conventions should be held to establish their respective governments upon a republican basis. The same month witnessed a compliance with the recommendation of Pennsylvania, and the Constitution of '76 which was the consequence, recognized those great principles of political right which, in all natural codes, must be regarded as fundamental. Four years afterwards, in further vindication of those immunities which, in common with the confederated colonies, she had solemnly declared were inalienable, means were taken to annihilate the odious incongruity of legal bondage by conferring upon negroes and mulattoes, the boon of liberty and the privilege of denization. It may create surprise, that this act of justice was so long delayed; but the extensive prevalence of slavery seems to have rendered our commonly just and clear-sighted progenitors, for a long period, indifferent to its flagrant inconsistency and odiousness. Even a majority of the Quaker sect so late as the year 1688, declined responding to the sentiment entertained by a number of their brethren in Germantown, that slavery was inconsistent with the Christian faith; and it was not until 1696, that Keith and his adherents denounced the institution as unjust and irreligious. As soon as its impropriety became apparent, this great object employed the pens and tongues of our philanthropists, with the fervour and animation of a good cause, and all who have investigated the history of its progress will ascribe to the efforts of Friends successfully aided by Southeby, Sandiford, Lay, Woolman, and Benezet, the merit of its final accomplish ment. * fore, and to leave to observation and experience the labour of correcting further improprieties and abuses. By the Declaration of Independence, the force of British authority as such, was destroyed in the United Coquent to the 4th of July, 1776, had no validity in our Courts of Justice. The improvements since introduced into this state, are so numerous and various that it would require a volume to define and expound them with that perspicuity and precision which the magnitude of the subject implies. Suffice it that the abscision of that chain of legal figments which are requisite to sustain the action of ejectment in England-the introduction of short pleading the permission to file a plain statement of the cause of action in lieu of a technical declaration the ample provisions which have been made for amicable and compulsory arbitration-and the ingraftment of the principles of scientific equity into the body of the Common Law,-have contributed to render the forms of our jurisprudence less entangled and perplexed to the popular vision, and more conformable to the common sense of mankind. In the prosecution of that reform whose spirit is so observable in each successive act of the legislature, it would not be surprising if a great and fundamental change should be made in the administration of civil justice: Without venturing to express an opinion whether codification so popular at the present day, should be ultimately adopted or be really desirable, we may confidently leave it to the very able jurists, to whose hands is committed the preparation of a modified system. As it stands with all its imperfections, it has received the involuntry homage of English lawyers, in the proposition to transfer without acknowledgment, many of its provisions into their own jurisprudence. The most beautiful feature in the scheme perhaps, is the combination of the rules of Chancery with the doctrines of the Common Law, by which most of the benefits of equity proceeding, are realized and secured without any of the inconveniencies arising from a separation of the two jurisdictions. The origin of this incorporation has been ascribed to the establishment of a provincial judicature which, in the year 1684, amalgamated the principles of both. No evil should be more vigilantly guarded against, than opposition in the sentiments of a community to the legal system; and what has a stronger tendency to create disrepute, than the spectacle of two tribunals, acting upon inimical principles, and arriving at opposite results? The maxims which govern a Court of Equity are frequently incompatible with the rigid doctrines of the Common Law, and the decrees of the Chancellor are sometimes found in direct contravention of the ordinary tribunals. It nas been the difficult task of our judiciary slightly assisted by the legislature, to reconcile these discordant elements, and reduce them into a harmonious union. Soon after the struggle had terminated by the recognition of independence, Pennsylvania, true to the principles of her early policy, began to remodel her civil jurisprudence by rendering it more consonant with the suggestions of unsophisticated reason, and the practical doctrines of modern times. The common and statute law of England blended together as they are-administered in different tribunals under the guidance of different and conflicting principles-and handed down from ages characterized by quaintness and absurdity- By a long succession of decisions the two have been was thought in many of its features to be unsuitable to combined upon systematic rules, adequate to almost eva country whose political maxims and forms of govern- ery emergency, and yet not encroaching upon the estabment were so contrariant and dissimilar. By virtue lished landmarks of the law. The chancery powers to of the charter granted by Charles 2nd to William perpetuate testimony; to obtain evidence out of the Penn, the criminal code and those civil regulations of state; to superintend the persons and property of non Great Britain which were applicable to the condition of compotes mentis; and to compel indirectly the specific a new country, were to prevail till changed by the co-performance of a contract; are powers in habitual exerlonial legislature. Numerous alterations were made, cise, and all except the last, conferred by the Constituwhich display the republican tendencies of the province, tion. It is true, we do not possess the chancery appeal and the views that were entertained in relation to the to the conscience of a defendant, except so far as relates laws of England. The refusal to erect a Court of Chan- to affidavits of defence; nor the prohibitory writ of incery, the destruction of the rule of primogeniture, the junction, except the legislative writ of estrepement issudeclaring of navigable rivers public highways; the pro- ed during the pendency of an ejectment to prevent the visions in relation to wills and testaments and the regis- commission of waste. But the loss of these is seldom try of deeds and mortgages; altered the complexion of felt in practice, since they are partly supplied by the the English code in most of its distinguished features. provisions referred to, and the flexible nature of the It was not deemed necessary, immediately after the re-system itself, which would, no doubt, enable the Court volution, to do more than re-enact what had existed be. • Vide Appendix Note 2. to apply a remedy where otherwise there would be a failure of justice. To perfect what his predecessors had begun, the late learned and amiable Chief Justice of 312 DISCOURSE BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [NOVEMBER Pennsylvania, lent all the resources of his well disciplin- and large expenditure, philanthropists have been graed and discriminating mind. Without entertaining any tified with the recognition of the principle of total sewild and chimerical notions of equity, inconsistent with clusion in the erection of buildings devoted to this obthe general doctrines of a technical science, he strove ject. A history of the efforts made to accomplish this to attain all the advantages, while he studied to avoid great undertaking, and the distrust which is still manithe imperfections, resulting from the separation of the fested in relation to its ultimate effects, would furnish two tribunals. In reserving the application of equity an instructive commentary upon those tendencies of the to those anomalous cases which the general law did not human mind to adhere to opinions founded upon a plauseem to contemplate, or to which it had denied a rem- sible theory, or recommended by a high antiquity. The edy, he has attempted the erection of a structure laid plan of separate confinement originated with "The upon the most solid and broad foundations. It only re- Philadelphia Society for alleviating the miseries of Pub. mains that the distinguished individuals who survive lic Prisons," whose birth was so early as 1776; but the him upon the bench, or who have been subsequently prosecution of its benevolent designs being obstructed appointed, shall prosecute what has been so nobly be- by the British army, it languished till 1787, when it was gun, and nothing can prevent its attaining the ultimate re-organized under the title which it still retains. The end of all law-the dispensation of substantial justice. perseverance of the beneficent Howard in so uninviting But it is not merely the civil branch of our jurispru- a sphere, is not more remarkable than the indefatigable dence upon which we can dwell with complacency. philanthropy by which the members of this association Our criminal system has undergone revision and amend- have ever been animated and distinguished. Many of ment, and presents in its punitory features a spectacle the meliorations in our criminal polity are justly attribwhich is certainly pleasing, when compared with the utable to their exertions, as well as that improvement sanguinary inflictions which at once deform and dis- in prison discipline to which I advert.—For the purpose grace the European codes. I would not be understood as of ascertaining the nature and importance of the alteraattributing the origin of this reformation to the revolutions which were from time to time introduced, as well tion, for mild punishments have always been acceptable as the character of what is now accomplished, it is indisto Pennsylvania, and existed from the settlement of the pensable to refer to the old system in vogue. Under province to the year 1718. Upon the death of Penn, the sanguinary code of Great Britain it was thought unthe vindictive rigour of the English penalties was sub- necessary to devote much attention to the internal stituted for a code, the lenient provisions of which ex- economy of prisons, since, to great numbers of their included the punishment of death from all offences ex- mates, they were merely anti-chambers to the gallows. cept the most flagitious grade of felonious homicide. To many they were places of very temporary residence Soon after the authority of the mother country which the sojournment of a few brief nights. The unforimposed this odious system upon her infant charge, tunate, but perhaps respectable debtor; the depraved was abolished, the legislature complied with an injunc- and abandoned felon; the young delinquent; the har tion of the Constitution of 1776, touching the mitigation dened offender; and all, without distinction of crime or of her penal enactments. The act of 1786, besides as- sex; were immured in a close and corrupting assemsuaging the punishment of crimes which were not cap- blage. The only consequences of an intercourse so ital before, and removing the penalty from three high promiscuous, unnatural, and disgusting, were the in. offences, rescinded those foul provisions of British law, crease of guilt and the destruction of innocence. Though which denounced confiscation for death by casualty, the advantages of complete separation, of entire solitude, and the forfeiture of the estate of a felo de se. The hu- were perceived at an early period, the Society was sa mane clemency of this law was not only preserved in tisfied with the removal of the debtors, the separation the succeeding acts of 1790 and 91, which accelerated of the sexes, and the classification of the prisoners, acthe work of reform so propitiously advanced, but the cording to their ages, and the turpitude of their offenlatter, with a laudable boldness and praiseworthy liber- ces. These alterations, and others of minor magnitude, ality, struck from existence the ridiculous crime of were accomplished by the several Acts of Assembly, conjuration, and the barbarous proceedings of the law passed in 1786, '90, and '95. Posterior statutes for the of England in cases of muteness and contumacy. For erection of a Bidewell, and the slight modifications in the purpose of aiding the legislature with the voice of prison police, all look with an unwavering eye to the experience, a legal gentleman well fitted for the task, great object of hard labor and unmitigated privacy. It was appointed to report upon the operation of the mild was not until the year 1818, that the legislature recoglaws which had already been enacted. The report nized the principle of solitary confinement, by appropresenting such a mass of facts in reference to the di- priating money for a penitentiary upon that basis, for minution of crime, and pervaded as it was by philosoph- the western extremity of the state. That penitentiary, ical remarks upon the legitimate objects of punishment, and the one commenced in the year 1821, at Philadelelicited the great revolutionary statute of 1794, which phia, are now in successful operation, silently eloquent changed the whole aspect of our penal jurisprudence. by their effects in removing the doubts of the timirous, The unwarrantable distinction between petit treason and demolishing the fallacies of the unfriendly. A parand ordinary murder was striken from the statute-book, amount difficulty which the adherents of solitary conand death was reserved for that felonious atrocity which finement encountered, was, to defend it against the adis displayed in the commission of deliberate and pre- vocates of the Auburn prison at New York—a plan meditated homicide. * Recent circumstances have which is borrowed from the Maison de Force of the Neshown that, notwithstanding the inefficacy of this kind therlands, and which has received from its friends in of retribution as a remedy; its repugnance to the senti- Europe the most unqualified approval. While it may ments of the people; and the great example of the be admitted to be superior to the European establishDuke of Tuscany, in whose dominions it is repealed; ments; and possessing recommendations of an imposing our legislature is not prepared to efface the blot from order, it need not be concealed that in some of its feaour code. But it must not be forgotten that those im-tures it is opposed to the spirit of Pennsylvania policy, provements in our penitentiary discipline, which have and that the adoption of it here would have been a poled to an abridgment in the terms of incarceration, sug-sitive retrogression. The discipline is enforced by segest additional reasons for the abolition of so odious and revolting a punishment. As a consequence of this penal reform, at once concomitant and inevitable, the economy of prison police, claimed early and lively attention. After intense labor Vide Note 3, in the Appendix. vere flagellation, inflicted for the slightest violation of prison law, which prohibits all occular and oral communication among the prisoners. According to the practice in Pennsylvania, ever since the year 1794, the intercourse had not been constant but occasional, since confinement to solitary cells had formed a portion of almost every judicial sentence. The ignominy of corpo 1831.] DISCOURSE BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. ral correction, so revolting to the natural sensibilities, and so inimical to the genius of our institutions, was abandoned with disgust by our legislature, as early as 1795. As the prevention of intercourse at Auburn is proved to be impracticable by its continuance in the face of the most relentless rigour, the scheme was believed to have defects which we sought to obviate, and to possess but the single advantage of separate domitories over the old one prevailing in Pennsylvania. The experience of nearly two years, during which period the Eastern Penitentiary has been the recipient of convicts, has been shown, from abundant testimony, to justify the sanguine predictions of its friends. The mental power remains unaffected by privacy, except that the heart is chastened and the passions are subdued. The health is invigorated, and industry confirmed by toil voluntarily pursued to beguile the tedium and drive away the ennui, inseparable from idle seclusion. As the persons of the unfortunate criminals are unknown to each other, no obstacle upon enlargement, can prevent the establishment of character, nor the reduction into practice of those virtuous resolutions which were suggested and formed in the retirement of solitude. 313 nection with roads subsequently made, a continuous line of turnpike now extends ftom Trenton upon the Delaware, to Steubenville in Ohio. The cost of this thoroughfare which stretches a distance of 343 miles, including the bridges on the way, has been ascertained to transcend the celebrated road of Napoleon over the Simplon. The number and superiority of the brides of Pennsylvania,have given rise to the appellation, "The State of bridges." Upwards of 70 corporations exist in different sections of the state, and by those which have gone into operation, 63 bridges have been erected at an expense exceeding $3,000,000. Of all the structures of this kind in America, the Permanent Bridge over the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, erected by a society incorporated in 1798, is the most substantial and magnificent. The foundation of the western pier is laid more than 40 feet below the level of the river's surface-a depth surpassing any bridge of modern times. It may be observed that the introduction of chain bridges into Europe, where they have wonderfully multiplied, was induced by the success of a novel enterprise undertaken in 1816, by Messrs. White and Hazard, who suspended a bridge composed of iron wires over the Schuylkill, in the form of a catenary curve. The idea of facilitating communication in Penn. sylvania by means of canals, though not carried into execution until after the revolution, was suggested by the genius of her founder. With a sagacity which nothing could elude, Penn discovered the feasibility and fore saw the importance of connecting "by water" the river Susquehanna with a branch of the Schuylkill. The suggestion is the more remarkable since at that early period canals and turnpikes were unknown in Great Britain. The distinction of introducing the subject of canals to public attention has been conferred upon Pennsylvania, by a writer of very respectable authority. † Without mooting the question whether the completion of any of these undertakings was anterior to all others in the United States, it is sufficient to mention as some evidence of the spirit which animated Pennsylvania, that David Rittenhouse and Dr. Wm. Smith, in 1762 But the historian of Pennsylvania will not merely do justice to her prowess, patriotism, and sufferings during an eventful era, and illustrate the symmetry of her political form, her civil jurisprudence, her criminal code, and penitentiary discipline-but with a more comprehensive eye he will survey the peculiarities of her phys. ical and mental condition as displayed in the facilities presented for internal commerce and the conveniencies of life-in the refinement of manners and cultivation of literature and the arts. He will look abroad for those exhibitions of enterprise or indications of sloth, those monuments of taste or memorials of barbarism, which lie scattered over the physical surface in the forms of thoroughfares, improvements, and pursuits; or are buried in the maxims upon which social conduct is regulated, and the various performances emitted from the press. This opens to a liberal min, a wide field for bold conjecture, and philosophical commentary. It must try, to their utmost tension, the powers of descrip-levelled and surveyed the route for that communication tion and narrative, and put in requisition all the resour- by water, which has since been accomplished by the ces of study and thought. In attempting a rude sketch Union Canal; and that the Philosophical Society in 1764 of the extensive region he must explore, I can only ex- ordered a survey for a canal to connect the waters of hibit some faint conceptions of the scene which may the Chesapeak and Delaware. The projectors of the be drawn by a competent pencil upon a larger canvass. former work, entertained views of the most imposing The physical arts which administer to the necesssi- and gigantic description. They had the boldness to ties and conveniencies of life, are pursued with ardour contemplate a junction of the eastern and western waand success in all their diversities. From the manufac-ters of Lake Erie, and of the Ohio and Delaware, a disture of the simplest instrument of labour up to the great tance of 580 miles,-opposed as was the project by the designs of architecture and ship-building, the ingenu- intervention of the Allegheny mountains, and by the ity of our mechanics and artists suggests a theme for difficulties of penetrating the almost illimitable wilds of the proudest eulogy. Those portions of the soil which the great valley of the Ohio and Mississippi. In the present inequalities of surface, and are not teeming with year 1791, about a century after the idea of water comvegetable esculents, abound in rich and precious min- munication had been started by Penn, the actual comerals. In a country whose territory is so extensive, and mencement may be dated of those daring projects in whose sources of wealth lie in distant places and almost Pennsylvania, which now intersect and unite almost ev impervious tracts, it seemed necessary that nature ery important part of the conntry. The first act passhould be assisted by the exertions of genius and art. sed in America for the construction of a railway, was To give these facilities the internal improvements of the that by our legislature in granting permission to Mr. state were commenced, and to her may be ascribed the Stevens and others to connect Columbia on the Susdistinguished honor of having expended more than any quehanna with Philadelphia. This enterprise, which state in the Union in these improvements, and of setting the State has completed, in consequence of its a splendid example in the construction of turnpikes and abandonment by the individuals to whom the authorbridges, of canals and rail-ways. It has been estimated ity was given for its execution, was only the precursor that since the year 1791, the disbursements of the trea- of others which shall connect, by a continuous railway, sury and of corporations for these objects, have amount the Delaware with the Ohio and the Lakes. ed to about 37,000,000 of dollars. Since the year 1792, 168 companies have been incorporated for the purpose of constructing turnpikes, and it has been calculated that passable roads have been made by these societies to the extent of about 3000 miles. The first turnpike commenced in the Union is said to be that which extends from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and by its con This reference, meagre as it is, to the practical capabilities of Pennsylvania, and the liberality which has marked her career in public improvements, furnishes some index to the manners and intellectual condition of her people. It is a subject of surprise and regret, that an opinion so erroneous should prevail in some of the * See Appendix, Note 5. 314 DISCOURSE BEFORE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. other states of the Union in relation to her character in both. Is it not a solecism to suppose that a legislature whose history is distinguished by undertakings so vast, and expenditures so daring, should have no intrinsic greatness of materials? Is it reasonable to imagine that the people from whom its members must emanate, and from whom is primarily derived the conception of enterprises so glorious, have no mental elevation, no sound intelligence? If the principle be just, that the tree is known by its fruits, the character of our state should be exalted in a judicions estimation far beyond that of her revilers. The ignorance which is imputed to the state at large, is a partial ignorance of the English language among that handful of a worthy race in the interior of Pennsylvania, so respectable for their industry, and laudable for their virtues. As the purposes of life require that there should be "hewers of wood and drawers of water," so in contributing to the public weal by the fulfilment of their lots as plodding farmers or labo rious artizans, they merit the encomiums as they must receive the respect of patriots. [NOVEMBER eloquence of the clergy, the high estimation of our various seats of learning, and above all the unrivalled reputation of a great medical university, indicate no dearth of talents, no want of devotion to study. Public libraries are to be found, perhaps, in every county of the state, and the athenæums established in petty villages, evince a diffusive zeal for knowledge and an ardour of of liberal inquiry, to which it is difficult to point out a parallel. Among the literary institutions of the United States, the Philadelphia Library, and the American Philosophical Society, deserve a prominent station, if indeed, they be not altogether unrivalled and transcendant. The library which, in its inception and early progress, had to struggle with very restricted and even contemptible resources, has assumed a magnitude which in the number and value of its books, surpasses any collection on this side of the Atlantic. Though its existence was so early as 1731, the number of its volumes in 1785 did not exceed 5,487. In 1806 they amounted to 14,218, showing an augmentation in twenty-one years of 8,731 books; and in the twenty-five Upon a comparison of the number of newspapers now years which have since elasped the amount is more than published in the state, with what were issued at the re-quadruple-the number being now estimated at more volution, and are now printed abroad, we shall find than 37,000 volumes. A cursory inspection of the vothat the common mind of Pennsylvania cannot languish luminous catalogue will suffice to discover the characor decay for want of a generous sustentation. Between ter of its ingredients, and to exhihit in its contents as the settlement of the province and the year 1775, there well the rarest gems of antiquity as many of the useful had sprung into being, about sixteen newspapers in the and elegant productions of all nations of modern and English and German languages, but few of these were subsequent times. The American Philosophical Socidestined long to illuminate the colony. Lights which ety was originally established at Philadelphia in the shone vividly for a time, were soon extinguished for year 1743, and formed a junction in 1769 with another want of the necessary aliment, and these were succeed- literary association of similar objects and design.† ed by others which, after dispensing a flickering and Though at first devoted to the natural and mathematical momentary glare, were destined in their turn to go out sciences, it now embraces in its circle of investigations for ever. It was seldom, and for brief periods, that the antiquities, topography, geography, statistics, and more than three or four existed simultaneously, and history of the state and country. Little need be said from 1762 to 1773, only three papers were circulated at of an institution which can display in imposing succession Philadelphia. According to Thomas' History of Print- upon its scroll of Presidents, such names as Franklin, ing, the year 1775 gave birth to five newspapers and a Rittenhouse, Jefferson, Wistar, Patterson, Tilghman magazine; but the war suspended or terminated the and Duponceau. The ten volumes of Transactions pubpublication of the latter and two of the papers-a third lished, including the volume which has been issued by was destroyed by fire-and of the two remaining, one the Committee of History, demonstrate an ardour of lisurvived till 1778, and the other finished its career in terary enterprize and a depth of research, a plenitude four years afterward. The magazine is pronounced to of mind and a variety and profundity of attainment, have been meritorious for the character of its literary which reflect the highest credit upon the country. contents, though its principal contributor was a person- The contributions of Franklin and Rittenhouse, of Dr. age neither greater nor less than the notorious Thomas Smith and Francis Hopkinson, are characterized by a Paine. But that age was not without luminaries of a native amplitude of soul, capable of adding to that scisuperior order. Dickinson, to whose "Farmer's Let- ence which looks into the sublime and awful mysteries ters," Ramsay ascribes the impulse of the revolution, of nature, a comprehensiveness of conception and a Rittenhouse, Franklin, Rush, Ewing, Hopkinson and boldness of discovery, which lie beyond the grasp of the Galloway, formed a constellation of no ordinary magni- narrow, the timorous, and the weak. But, undazzled tude. They surrounded that day with a splendor, and by the splendour of a philosophy which penetrated into gave to it a celebrity which must ever reflect a bright- the immeasurable regions of the planets and the countness upon Pennsylvania. To enable us to ascertain less wonders of the galaxy, and that which subjected to with some little precision the character of our intellectu- human controul the terrific lightnings of heaven, let us al advancement, we must take into consideration the be just to the more homely, but not less practical monucondition of a new country, requiring the application of ments erected by patient thought and sedulous reading. its energies to subjects uncongenial with erudite re- It is to these fruits of genius and toil, we are indebted searches and literary success. Though many of the for the speculations of a learned and ingenious philolowriters; who have since acquired distinction, flourished gist, which unfold to us the amazing beauty and very during the revolution, and may be classed with either artificial structure of the Indian idioms, and which plaudivision, I may perhaps be justified in referring to sibly exhibit, perhaps conclusively prove, that the red Parke, Graydon, Samuel Stanhope Smith, West, Fulton, men of the American forests, however separated by disDennie, Linn, Brown, and Godman, as authors and ge- tance and marked by contrariety of habits, are united by niuses who belonged more particularly to a subsequent the relationship of a common ancestry-by the ties of period. So many circumstances may operate adversely an identical origin. If, before and during the revoluto the display of great powers in literature-the diver- tion, Pennsylvania could boast, in this institution, of a sion of the public mind to practical objects, and a tem- Godfrey born, and a Franklin educated and adopted, porary indifference in the public taste to the elegancies we may yet claim a Rittenhouse, a Wistar, a Patterson, of literary composition-that an entire destitution of a Tilghman, and a Godman-not to mention many emieminent men, should furnish no criterion of the national nent survivors, contemporary with that illustrious intellect. The commanding eminence of the bench and group. bar of Pennsylvania, the learning and acuteness which have marked the medical profession, the erudition and See Note 7, in the Appendix. Taking the relative number of periodical works as a guide by which to estimate our advancement or recesSee Note 8. † Note 9. |