A DUEL AND OTHER MATTERS
On July 24, 1805, a third Richmond appeared in the Pittsburgh newspaper
field in the person of Ephraim Pentland. He established a weekly
newspaper called _The Commonwealth_, which was published in a building
situated in the West Diamond, opposite the southwest corner of the
new court house. The newspaper resulted from the dissension in the
Republican party in Pennsylvania.
Governor McKean’s second term was drawing to a close. For two years
prior to 1805, he had disagreed with the Republican General Assembly
because of its extreme radicalism. It had enacted several revolutionary
bills which he vetoed. The members appeared to have an especial
aversion to lawyers, and a bill was passed to substitute, in civil
cases, referees for juries, and prohibiting the employment of counsel.
This bill was also vetoed. The House assumed that the Supreme Court was
arrogating to itself powers which it did not possess, and on February
28, 1803, scarcely a month after the impeachment and removal from the
bench of Judge Addison,[233] the first step was taken in the attempt to
impeach three of the judges of the Supreme Court for alleged arbitrary
conduct in committing to prison for contempt, the plaintiff in a suit
pending in the court.[234] Brackenridge was absent from the bench when
the offender was imprisoned, and although accused of being largely
responsible for the impeachment of Judge Addison, was now loyal to his
colleagues, and sent a letter to the House in which he declared his
full concurrence in the course taken by the other judges, and asked
to share their fate. The House replied by addressing the governor,
and asking for Brackenridge’s removal. McKean refused to comply with
the request. On January 28, 1805, the impeachment trial came to an
end; a majority of the Senators pronounced the judges guilty, but as
the majority was short of two-thirds, the result was an acquittal.
The anger of the radical Republicans was boundless. A division took
place in the party, which caused intense feeling throughout the State.
McKean’s supporters took the name of “Constitutionalists,” while the
opposition called themselves “Friends of the People.” The charm of
French phrases was still strong.
The “Friends of the People” now put forward Simon Snyder as a candidate
for governor in opposition to McKean. The abuse that was heaped on
their former idol was appalling; threats of civil war were in the
air. McKean was charged with being a demagogue who pandered to the
worst elements in the Republican party, while being by education and
sentiment an aristocrat. He was also accused of having gone over to
the Federalists. The _Tree of Liberty_ continued a staunch supporter
of McKean. Its former violence had given way to an advocacy of
“moderation.”
_The Commonwealth_ was established in the interest of the faction
opposed to McKean, and its attacks on him and his supporter, the
_Tree of Liberty_, were brutal. Israel came in for the most violent
abuse. Pentland accused Israel of being ignorant. “Let a beardless
boy instruct you, old goat!” was one of his coarse thrusts. In the
same article he designated Israel as “the man with the long beard, but
no brains,” and concluded crudely, “Let a goslin’ instruct you, old
goose!”[235]
The campaign teemed with personalities. The Federalists looked on
in amusement, but finally came to the support of McKean, and he was
elected. Pentland’s chagrin knew no bounds, and after the election was
over, he continued to attack the _Tree of Liberty_, the management of
which, by this time had changed. He vented his spite on the supposed
owners. He charged that, although the newspaper was published in the
name of Walter Forward, Tarleton Bates and Henry Baldwin,[236] the two
most prominent politicians in Pittsburgh, were the real proprietors,
and that Bates was the editor. Baldwin, who was not quite twenty-six
years of age, later in life became a member of Congress and a justice
of the Supreme Court of the United States. Forward was a young man
of nineteen, a law student in Baldwin’s office, and subsequently
attained high political distinction. He was several times a member
of Congress, was Secretary of the Treasury under President Tyler,
_chargé-d’-affaires_ to Denmark, under President Taylor, and president
judge of the District Court of Allegheny County.
Bates was the oldest and best known of the three men. His tragic end
has caused a halo of romance to be cast about his striking personality.
He was a native of Virginia, where he was born on May 22, 1775. He
was of Quaker origin, his father having lost his membership in the
Society of Friends because of his services as a volunteer at the siege
of Yorktown. The family seat was Belmont in Goochland County. Tarleton
Bates came to Pittsburgh when eighteen years of age. During the early
years of his residence he was employed by the national government in
the Quarter Master’s Department under Major Isaac Craig, the Deputy
Quarter Master and Military Storekeeper at Pittsburgh, with whom for
a time he made his home. When the Spaniards surrendered their rights
to the country on the lower Mississippi in 1798, and the Mississippi
Territory was organized with Natchez as the capital, Bates determined
to leave Pittsburgh and settle in the southern town, but did not
carry his design into execution.[237] Upon the appointment of John C.
Gilkison to the office of prothonotary, he became a clerk under him.
He had a fair education, was studiously inclined, and was possessed of
considerable culture, including a knowledge of the French language. He
owned the best copy of Lavater in Pittsburgh. His letters to members
of his family[238] indicate that he was generous, warm-hearted, and
tender. The family fortunes were low. His brother Frederick, just
starting out in life, felt the need of money and made his wants known
to Tarleton. Although in the habit of speaking of himself as living
in “exiled poverty,” he responded without hesitation: “Nothing within
my ability shall be wanting to smooth the entrance of the rugged path
of life”; and he offered to help Frederick to the extent of thirty
dollars a month. He led an upright life and ever attempted to deserve
the good opinion of his mother and “avoid the imprudencies of youth.”
Frederick charged him with being engaged to be married. His answer was
an admission that he was in love, and a frank intimation that thus far
success had not crowned his efforts. That he was fond of the society
of ladies appears from a letter in which he tells of the many charming
ladies in Pittsburgh. His acrostic on the name of Emily Morgan Neville,
the daughter of Colonel Presley Neville, lends color to the imputation
that at one time he was in love with that fascinating young woman.
His complete obsession with politics was probably responsible for his
remaining unmarried.
He was warmly attached to his party. In a letter written while the
Republican party--which he was in the habit of calling the Democratic
party--was still in its infancy in Pittsburgh, he said: “I believe I
am almost the only Pittsburgher who is not ashamed to call himself a
Democrat, and I am sure the appellation will never discredit me.” He
related humorously that on one occasion he attended a Fourth of July
celebration, and among the speakers was Colonel Presley Neville, who,
“abhors the Democrats as so many imps of hell.” He was proud and told
his family that he acknowledged no superior, and “admitted no knave,
however bloated with wealth, to be an equal.” He was one of several
famous brothers. His younger brothers, Frederick, James, and Edward,
after his death, emigrated to the Missouri Territory where Frederick
was the first secretary of the Territory, and the second governor of
the State. James afterward settled in Arkansas and became a delegate to
Congress from that Territory. Edward became the friend of Henry Clay
and in 1860 was a candidate for President before the convention which
nominated Abraham Lincoln; he became Attorney-General in Lincoln’s
Cabinet.
On Christmas Day, 1805, the article appeared in _The Commonwealth_,
which was the direct cause of the death of Tarleton Bates in a
duel. In the course of the incendiary diatribe, Pentland declared
that Bates and Baldwin were “two of the most abandoned political
miscreants that ever disgraced a State.” He demanded savagely: “To
what party do they belong?” and answered the question himself. “To no
party, to all parties. They have been Whigs and Tories, High or Low
Republicans, Democrats or Anti-Democrats, Jacobins or Anti-Jacobins,
Constitutionalists or Republicans, according to existing circumstances.”
Pentland’s punishment was to be publicly cowhided by Bates on Market
Street on January 2, 1806. He is said to have fled precipitately when
attacked. Pentland gave a darkly colored account of the occurrence:
“On Thursday evening last, a considerable time after dark, the editor
of this paper was waylaid, and attacked in a most outrageous manner,
by Tarleton Bates, the prothonotary of this county, and co-proprietor
and editor of the _Tree of Liberty_. Bates was in company with some
persons who were no doubt to act as aids, should their assistance be
wanted, but owing to the mistiness of the evening, and their quick
disappearance, all of them could not be recognized. Baldwin, Bates’s
colleague in infamy, and the brave and redoubtable Steele Semple, who
never feels afraid but when he is in danger, were in the gang,--both
limbs of the law, students of morality!”[239]
Dueling had been forbidden in Pennsylvania since 1794, under penalty
of fine and imprisonment, and loss of citizenship for seven years.[240]
An unconverted public sentiment, however, still approved of the code
of honor, and Pentland, who had at first threatened legal proceedings
against Bates, challenged him instead. The challenge was carried by
Thomas Stewart, a young Irishman who was a merchant in the town.
Bates declined to accept, on the ground that Pentland’s conduct since
his chastisement, had rendered him unworthy of such notice. Pentland
then posted Bates as a coward, upon which on January 7, 1806, Bates
published a letter in the _Tree of Liberty_ giving his reason for
refusing the challenge, in which he reflected on Stewart. Stewart
demanded a retraction, which was refused, whereupon he challenged
Bates. This challenge was accepted.
Bates immediately wrote his will. It was expressive of deep feeling.
There was every indication of a premonition of his forthcoming end. He
had always led a simple life, and in death he desired to avoid display.
In that moment he recalled the discussions in the French Legislative
Councils during the Directory, on the disposal of the dead by burning.
“Henry Baldwin, my very dear friend, my sole executor, ... is to burn
my body, or at least bury it without any direction,” he wrote; then
he provided for the education of his brother James, which was to be
completed by his studying law. In case the estate proved insufficient
for the purpose, his brother Frederick was to provide the deficiency.
Any residue, he declared, “is to go to my adored mother.”
The encounter took place the next day in a ravine in Oakland, in what
is at present the Fourth Ward of the city of Pittsburgh. The ravine
through which a rivulet coursed, called “Three-Mile Run,” long since
sewered over, opened on the Monongahela River, at a point now occupied
by the lower end of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company’s ore-yard,
and by the office of the Eliza Furnace. To-day there are laid out
through the ravine several unpaved hillside streets with narrow board
sidewalks, one of which is the lower portion of Halket Street. On the
upper edge of the easterly border of the ravine is Bates Street, named
for Tarleton Bates. The duel was fought near the Monongahela River;
the distance was ten paces; the weapons were pistols. Both principals
displayed undaunted courage. Bates fell at the second fire, shot in the
breast, and expired in an hour.[241] On the day that Bates lay dead in
the ravine which ever since has been haunted with his memory, Pentland
made another slanderous charge in his newspaper: “I shall not engross
the columns of this paper with remarks on the private character of Mr.
Bates, because that already appears to the public in colors as dark as
the skin of his mistress.”[242]
The community was shocked at the tragedy. Notwithstanding the
directions of Bates’s will in regard to the disposal of his body, he
was buried in Trinity Churchyard. A great concourse of people attended
the funeral, the chief mourner being Henry Baldwin; but the whole town
deplored his death. In its next issue, the _Tree of Liberty_ added to
the general gloom, by appearing in mourning dress. Two weeks later the
post brought news of the dire calamity to the widowed mother in her
Virginia home, and to her children. Amid their tears they rejoiced
that the Virginia traditions of honor had not been violated and that
Tarleton Bates had accepted the challenge and preferred “death to
a life of infamy and disgrace.”[243] The depth of their attachment
appeared in the fact that the family preserved his letters as precious
mementoes as long as they survived. For a time the grave was a hallowed
spot to be pointed out to visitors, but as Bates’s old friends died,
and a new generation came on, it was neglected, and now the location
is forgotten. Bates’s brothers received their inspiration from him. He
was the ablest member of the family. Had it not been for his untimely
death, the name of Tarleton Bates might have become one of the great
names in Pennsylvania history, if not in that of the United States.
At the northwest corner of Market and Third streets, in the house
built by Major Ebenezer Denny, of brick taken from Fort Pitt,[244] was
the store of Denny & Beelen. The firm was composed of Major Denny and
Anthony Beelen. They sold, “dry goods, hardware, groceries, stationery,
perfumery, china, glass, and queensware.”[245] Major Denny, the senior
partner, was a slender, blue-eyed, and red-haired man of thirty-nine.
His was a most adventurous career. In the Revolution he was ensign
in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, and lieutenant in the 3d and 4th
Pennsylvania Regiments. He had served as lieutenant under General
George Rodgers Clark in Illinois, was adjutant to General Josiah
Harmar in the campaign against the Indians in 1790, and aid-de-camp
of General Arthur St. Clair in 1791. He was the messenger who carried
the news of the rout of St. Clair’s army to President Washington at
Philadelphia, then the seat of the national government. On returning to
private life he had gone into business with Captain Joseph Ashton, a
former Revolutionary officer like himself, at the place later conducted
by Denny & Beelen. This partnership was dissolved in 1794 when Denny
was again appointed to a military command and placed in charge of an
expedition sent to Fort Le Boeuf. In Pittsburgh he took a conspicuous
part in public affairs.[246] He was a candidate for representative
to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives against Lucus, but was
defeated. Later he was elected county commissioner. In 1803 he was
treasurer of the county, being the first man to hold that office, and
was the first mayor of Pittsburgh upon its becoming a city in 1816.
Anthony Beelen, Major Denny’s partner, was a native of the Austrian
Netherlands, now Belgium, and was the son of Francis, Baron de Belen
Bartholf, Minister of the King of Austria, Joseph II., to the United
States, who, upon the death of the King in 1790, continued a resident
of the United States. The Baron seems to have soon discarded his title
of nobility, as he was engaged in business in Pittsburgh at an early
date, going by the name of Francis Beelen, being a partner in the
firm of Amberson, Beelen, & Anshutz which was dissolved in 1794.[247]
Anthony Beelen made the acquaintance of Denny in Philadelphia, and
became associated with him, and in 1794 settled the affairs of Ashton
& Denny.[248] In 1803 he was one of the Pittsburgh assessors.[249] In
later years he conducted an air furnace and other enterprises. Beelen
afterward lost his property, but the family fortunes rose again when
Mrs. Mary Murphy died. In her will she left all her valuable estate,
the principal part of which consisted of the block on Market Street in
which “Clapboard Row” was located, to Beelen in trust for his daughter
and granddaughter.
On Third Street a short distance west of Market Street, Andrew Willock,
Jr., conducted a baking business, at the “Sign of the Sheaf of Wheat.”
He also kept a tavern,[250] taverns and bakeries being frequently
carried on together. Alexander McLaughlin, an oldtime merchant, was
located at the southwesterly corner of Market and Fourth streets in
the same block with Denny & Beelen. He had formerly been on Second
Street.[251] In 1800 he was a candidate for county commissioner,
but was defeated by Nathaniel Irish.[252] James Wills, who dealt in
“boot and bootee legs,” adjoined McLaughlin on the south.[253] Next
to Wills’s house was that occupied by John Wrenshall. Wrenshall was
a man of culture and, in addition to keeping store and preaching the
Gospel when the opportunity was presented, was a writer of ability. His
_Farewell to Pittsburgh and the Mountains_, published in Philadelphia
in 1818, was a poem of some merit, and of considerable local interest.
He was the grandfather of Julia Dent, the wife of General U. S. Grant,
eighteenth President of the United States. Joseph Davis was located
between Wrenshall and Denny & Beelen. He was assessor in 1802.[254]
John Irwin, one of William Christy’s old partners, had his store at
the northeast corner of Market and Fourth streets. He was a former
Revolutionary officer, having been captain in the 2nd Pennsylvania
Regiment. At the next corner, where Market Street intersected the South
Diamond, in the large three-story brick building were the tavern and
store of William Irwin, the other partner of Christy. This building
was another of the houses built of brick taken from Fort Pitt.[255]
To this house William Irwin had removed in 1799[256]; and here he
furnished public entertainment, and sold, in addition to whisky, and
other diverting drinks, “kettles, stoves, and dry goods.”[257] Dancing
classes were also held in the building, those for ladies at three
o’clock in the afternoon, and the classes for gentlemen at six o’clock
in the evening.[258] More serious business was conducted there. In
the large hall in the third story the courts were held for more than
a year after being removed from Andrew Watson’s house.[259] This was
likewise the room in which Lodge No. 45 now held its sessions.[260]
North of the South Diamond the buildings were farther apart. At the
southeast corner of the East Diamond and Diamond Alley was the log
store of William Woods & Company.[261] On the opposite side of Market
Street from John Irwin and William Irwin’s stores, in the middle of
the block, was John Hamsher’s retail shop, where he sold copper and
tin-plate articles, and clover seed.[262] Next door was the store of
James Dunlap & Company.[263] In the Diamond, east of Market Street,
was the semicircular market house, which covered most of this part
of the Diamond. Its wide, projecting roof was supported by a double
row of brick pillars. In the interior of the building were rows of
stalls, with benches and blocks, for the butchers. Encircling the
structure was a brick pavement along the curb of which the farmers and
market gardeners were stationed.[264] In the Market House the borough
elections were held.[265]
Across Market Street from the Market House was the new court house. It
was the pride of the western country, and the only high building in
the town. It was a square, two-story brick structure with one-story
wings, for the county offices, and was surmounted by a tall wooden
spire. In 1800, the main building was barely completed, some of the
upper rooms being yet unplastered, although the county offices had been
removed to the wings two years before.[266] The belfry lacked the bell;
and the space before the building was only then being paved. The main
entrance was on Market Street, and on either side of the doorway were
fluted wooden columns with Corinthian capitals. The court room was on
the first floor and was paved with bricks which, like the brick used
in the pavement outside, were large and almost square. Supporting the
ceiling were Doric pillars resting upon square panelled pedestals.[267]
The judges’ bench and the jury box were in the rear of the court room.
They faced the entrance, and the judges’ bench admitted seating the
president judge and the four lay associate judges, at one time. It
was elevated above the floor and was reached by stairs placed at the
northerly end. The jury box was southerly of the judges’ bench, with
a narrow passage between it and the judges’ bench. After the bell was
placed in the belfry in 1801, Joseph Harris became bell-ringer, and
rang the bell whenever court was about to convene.
Back of the court house, one hundred and forty feet west of the West
Diamond, and running parallel with it, was an alley, now called Delray
Street. On the westerly side of this alley, a short distance south
of Diamond Alley, was the new square two-story stone county jail.
It was erected on a lot purchased by Allegheny County in 1793, and
was completed at the same time as the court house. The building was
surrounded by a stone wall, the entire lot being enclosed by a high
board fence.
Immediately in the rear of the court house, at the southwest corner
of the West Diamond and Diamond Alley, was the tavern of John Reed
at the “Sign of the Waggon.” Here the Allegheny County courts held a
few sessions, during the interval between the time of leaving William
Irwin’s house, and the completion of the court house.[268] At the
northeast corner of Market Street and the North Diamond, was the tavern
of Thomas Ferree at the “Sign of the Black Bear.” Directly across
Market Street in the new brick building, was the boot and shoemaking
establishment of John and Alexander Wills.[269] On the same side of the
street, the second door south of Fifth Street, was James Yeaman’s brick
building, in which he conducted his bakery and brewery.[270]
REFERENCES