Having given an account of the first theatrical exhibition given in this
city, and the site of the first theatre, we come now to the second,
which may, in fact, be termed the first erected for legitimate purposes.
The company continued to play at Plumstead’s warehouse, gaining favor
gradually with the public, until June, having remained open two months,
and playing to crowded houses. On the 17th of June they played “The
Careless Husband” by particular request, the proceeds of which were
appropriated to the poor of the city. It is a curious fact in the
history of the drama, and one which reflects but little credit upon its
opponents, that in almost every case of opposition the belligerent
parties were bought over by _money_, and even this came into their hands
as _donations to the poor_; but whether the poor ever received a penny
of it is a matter time and eternity have already reconciled. Even at the
present day there are classes of men whose opinion of actors and
theatres would undergo a _material_ change if a portion of the proceeds
of the theatrical representations were poured into their laps, and used,
as the phrase goes, _for the poor_.
In the year 1759 David Douglas opened the second theatre in
Philadelphia. This building stood at the southwest corner of South and
Vernon Streets. It was built entirely of wood, weather-boarded and
painted a dark lead-color. It was a large building, and calculated to
hold a thousand persons. Douglas had succeeded to the throne of the
“mimic world” in consequence of the death of Mr. Hallam, whose widow he
married. Douglas was a man of enterprise, and ambitious to establish the
regular drama in the Western World. In the pursuit of this object he at
once determined to erect temples to the histrionic muses which in
after-years would lead to the establishing of others, whose classic
beauty and architectural design might emulate the proudest edifices of
the land and find their model in Roman superstructure. In doing this, he
had to contend against the prejudices of the people, and select such
plays as were calculated to disarm opposition and enlist the liberal in
his favor. Thus, he opened the old South Street Theatre with the tragedy
of “Douglass,” written, as was stated in the bills, by Mr. Home,
minister of the Kirk of Scotland. This was followed by “Hamlet,” which
play, it was said, furnished a moral lesson for youth and the regulation
of their conduct through life. On the 27th of December a benefit was
given towards raising a fund for “purchasing an organ to the college
hall in this city, and instructing the charity children in
psalmody.”[32]
On the following evening “Hamlet” was played for the benefit of the
Pennsylvania Hospital, and the theatre closed for the season. The
members of the company—at least the chief portion—were Mr. and Mrs.
Douglas, Miss Cheer, Mrs. Morris,[33] Mrs. Crane, Mrs. Allyn, and Miss
Hallam. In addition to the company which we have already mentioned in
another chapter, we find the names of Quelch, Tomlinson, Stuart,
Tremaine, Reed, and Morris.
Francis Mentges, afterwards an officer in our service, was the dancing
performer. While he danced he assumed the name of Francis. Miss Cheer
was the _Lady Macbeth_ of the day, and Morris, the husband of the lady
whose unfortunate fate we have stated, was the low comedian: his name is
to be found in various companies, enacting old men, up to as late a
period as 1800. Dunlap says, “Those that can look back to 1788 will
remember him as a little, shrivelled old man, with a voice palsied with
age, having for his second wife a tall, elegant woman, the favorite
comedy lady, and the admiration of the public.”
The Presbyterian Synod, in July, 1759, formally addressed the governor
and legislature to prevent the opening. The Friends made their
application to Judge William Allen to suppress the representations. His
reply was that “he had got more moral virtue from plays than he had from
sermons.” As a sequel, it was long remembered and spoken of, that the
night the theatre opened, and on which he intended to visit, _he was
called to mourn the death of his wife_! The motto over the stage was:—
Totus mundis agit histrionem.
There are many persons who confound this with the third theatre, erected
by Douglas. That no further doubt may exist upon its site, three brick
buildings are situated, as stated, at the southwest corner of South and
Vernon Streets.
Society Hill, which extended from Spruce Street (gradually rising,
having its summit on Pine Street) to the Swedes’ Church, was the
fashionable portion of the city. At that period they had “Cherry Garden”
on Society Hill; the “Friends’ Meeting-House,” the “theatre,” “George
Wells’s place.” They had also a flag-staff erected on Society Hill,
under which Whitefield preached. This staff stood at the corner of Pine
and Front Streets. Alderman Plumstead’s garden was situated in Union
Street, and it was the admiration of the town.
In the year 1724 a slack- and tight-rope exhibition was given by a
company of men and women, at the corner of South and Front Streets. They
continued their antics for twenty nights to gaping crowds. This was the
first exhibition of the kind ever given in the city.
Douglas, finding the more respectable portion of the community disposed
to encourage theatricals, selected a more eligible site for the building
of another theatre, and for that purpose fixed on a vacant lot situated
at the southwest corner of South and Apollo Streets, above Fourth: hence
the error of many historians who confound this with the one at the
corner of Vernon Street. This theatre was erected in 1760. Little
attention was paid to design in the building. The view from the boxes
was intercepted by large pillars supporting the upper tier and roof. It
was lighted by plain oil lamps, without glasses, a row of which was
placed in front of the stage. The scenery was dingy,—chamber-scenes
taken from descriptions of old castles; and altogether the whole
presented a dark and sombre appearance. The stage-box on the east side
in after-years was fitted up for President Washington, whenever he
honored the theatre with his presence, at which time “The Poor Soldier”
was played by “desire.”
Much was written and published at this time against the immoral tendency
of the stage; and a cursory glance at the public papers would lead to a
belief that the introduction of stage-plays was deprecated as being a
greater evil than pestilence and famine. The fathers of the Church were
quoted most appositely on the occasion, and the poor players were near
being confounded with the weight of authority against them; for,
unfortunately, they could not “quote Scripture for their purpose.”
Occasionally some one was bold enough to raise his voice in their
defence, but it was heard as the small note of the oaten reed amidst the
braying of the warlike trumpet. More, however, is effected by steady
perseverance than by violent measures. The players pursued the “even
tenor of their way,” and as the mass of the people did not foresee the
evil consequences which the more enlightened apprehended, they attracted
full audiences, which kept up their spirits in spite of the
papal bulls incessantly issued against them.
We have here to correct an error of Mr. J. F. Watson in his celebrated
“Annals of Philadelphia.” In doing so, the writer of this would merely
remark that this error of Watson’s evidently arises from his distaste to
the subject of theatres; for had he exercised a twentieth part of his
usual judgment in tracing past occurrences, incidents, &c., this would
not have occurred. Page 471, first volume of Watson’s Annals, we find
this paragraph:—“In 1760 a large building, constructed of wood, situated
in South Street above Fourth Street, was opened,” &c. &c. “The managers
were Hallam & Henry.”
Mr. John Henry, the partner of Hallam in after-years, arrived in New
York from England in 1767, and made his first appearance at the John
Street Theatre, New York, December 7 of that year. The company was
still Douglas’s.
Mr. Wemyss, in his Chronology of the American Stage, says that the John
Street Theatre opened December 7, 1767, under the management of Hallam &
Henry, and in the same book announces his first appearance in America,
on that very evening, as _Aimwell_ in The Beau Stratagem. Hallam & Henry
did not form a partnership until the 21st of November, 1784. Douglas
having gone to Jamaica, where he received a judgeship under the British
crown, he relinquished the sceptre of the American company to Hallam,
his step-son, who took for his partner John Henry. How our friend Wemyss
could fall into so gross an error is entirely beyond our comprehension.
The South Street Theatre opened under Hallam & Henry’s management in
1786.
The members of the old South Street company, in 1761, consisted of
Messrs. Douglas, Hallam, Allyn, Morris, Quelch, Tomlinson, Street, Reed,
Tremaine, and Master A. Hallam, Mesdames Douglas, Morris, Crane, Allyn,
and Miss Hallam.
To the antiquarian the subject of our drama and stage would afford a
wide range for the display of his genius in that line, as they embrace
the very “_Mémoires pour Servir_” for a volume.
“POST TENEBRAS LUX.”
“After darkness comes light.”
We have referred to these reminiscences of the olden time simply to
contrast the past with the present; for in tracing up the progress of
any one institution connected with the government, it necessarily
follows that every thing else must have a corresponding progressive
interest. Reminiscences, however, are but retrogressive shadows that
come over us in their gloom, as they conjure up the spirits of those
who have long since passed away from the earth, as have all those scenes
which the “Old Mortalities” of the present take delight in repainting.
“Passing Away” is but the result of the onward march of Time:—
“Still he goes,
And goes, and goes, and doth not pass away;
He rises with the golden morning, calmly,
And with the moon at night. Methinks I see
Him stretching wide his mighty wings,
Floating forever o’er the crowds of men,
Like a huge vulture with its prey beneath.”
In 1753, on the death of the postmaster-general for America, Benjamin
Franklin and Colonel William Hunter, of Virginia, by a joint commission
from the English postmaster-general, were appointed to succeed him. The
two American deputies were to have £600 per annum between them, provided
they could raise the sum from the net proceeds of their office. The
colonial post-office receipts had never been sufficient to pay a
shilling of revenue into the English treasury; and to render them
productive enough to yield the compensation mentioned, various reforms
were necessary, and Franklin immediately set about introducing them. In
the summer of 1753 he started out on a tour of inspection, and visited
every post-office in the colony, except that of Charleston, infusing new
vigor into the service, and putting the whole upon an improved footing.
After four years’ almost unremitting attention to the postal service,
the new system began to tell, and the results were that the receipts
soon yielded the salary of the postmaster, and considerably increased
the revenue of the government. As he himself stated, it “yielded three
times as much clear profit to the crown as the post-office of Ireland
did.”
As the modern postal system was based in part upon that of Charles
II.’s time, much of it remains to this day; but the vast improvements
made give to the original plan what can be better expressed in the
language of the Emperor Augustus: “I found Rome all brick, and left it
all marble.” Thus the postal department, then in a _debris_ state of
chaotic confusion, presents at the present time an institution wherein
order and system reign supreme.
Franklin made every department pay. The carrying of newspapers was made
a source of revenue: previous to his administration they had been
carried free. He charged each subscriber who received a newspaper by
mail nine pence a year for fifty miles, and eighteen pence a year for
one hundred miles. Post-riders received orders to take all newspapers
offered, instead of only those issued by a _postmaster_. Franklin
himself being both postmaster and newspaper publisher, this action on
his part was considered worthy the man and his position. The speed of
the post-riders was accelerated by his energy, and their number
increased to meet the public demand.
In 1753 the delivery of letters by the penny post was first begun, and
at the same time letters were regularly advertised. Letters from all the
neighboring counties were sent to Philadelphia, and lay there until
called for.
Our readers can form some idea of the mode of travelling between cities,
when we state that Franklin improved on the old system by starting a
mail from Philadelphia, to run three times a week in summer, to New York
and Boston, and once a week in winter. To get an answer from Boston a
Philadelphian had been obliged to wait six weeks. Franklin reduced the
time to three. The rates of postage were also materially reduced. The
rate across the ocean was fixed at one shilling, and, strange as it may
seem, it has not changed since, although one hundred years have
elapsed.
Most of the post-roads then were mere bridle-paths through forests.
“Even,” says a writer, “between Amboy and Trenton, the very road along
which Franklin the runaway apprentice had wearily trudged in the rain in
1723, had as late as 1775 a stake set up every two miles to keep the
traveller from going astray.”
In 1765 Mrs. Franklin, writing to her husband, then in England, says,
“The Southern mail has not come in, nor has the Virginia mail, for more
than two months.” Little intercourse at that period. The name of
Franklin in connection with science, and his being deputy
postmaster-general, was not only a household word from Boston to
Charleston, but was also extensively known in Europe. Only two American
names were then familiar to the Old World,—Jonathan Edwards in the
religious world, and Benjamin Franklin in the circle of science.
Jonathan Edwards was born at Windsor, in the province of Connecticut, in
1703. He graduated at Yale College, and afterwards was a tutor in the
establishment. He was ordained in the ministry in 1727. His chief works
are a “Treatise on the Religious Affections,” “An Enquiry into the
Notion of Freedom of Will,” “A Treatise on Original Sin,” “Religious
Narratives,” &c.
In 1756 an attempt was made, instigated by some political enemies, to
induce the postmaster-general to remove Franklin from office, as being a
“factious and troublesome man.” As the cause assigned was so trifling,
the postmaster-general sent his “deputy” a letter of reprimand, or
rather one of gentle reproof. So the matter ended.
A copy of the “Gazette” bearing date 1747 is in the possession of a
gentleman of this city. Published by B. Franklin, Postmaster, and D.
Hall. All post-office notices and letters remaining in the post-office
were published in the “Gazette.”
In 1774 Benjamin Franklin was very summarily dismissed from the office
of postmaster. The letter from the postmaster-general stated simply
“that the king had found it necessary to dismiss him from the office of
deputy postmaster-general of America.”
It is not necessary for us to give the readers the reasons for this act,
as the history of Franklin in connection with the events preceding the
Revolution will fully explain them. _The colonies were in a state of
incipient revolution._
The course pursued by the British Government was such that, under the
excitement arising from its acts, the colonies declared themselves
constitutionally exempt from all obedience to the measures of the
British Parliament, and that the government of the provinces was in fact
dissolved.
Thus, the Congress held in Philadelphia on the 5th of September, 1774,
will ever be remembered and celebrated in the annals of history as the
first page dedicated to liberty. It was a congress of men who met to
decide the question whether one man had the power and the right to rule
the million, or the million the right to govern themselves. The success
of our Revolution decided the question; and counter-rebellions and
revolutions can never change that _base_, upon which is erected
Liberty’s throne.
Franklin arrived in Philadelphia, from England, on the evening of May 5,
1775, and the very next day the Assembly of Pennsylvania, then in
session, appointed him a delegate to the Second Continental Congress,
which was to convene in Philadelphia four days after. The people of
America had everywhere become exasperated beyond all further
forbearance. The blood of their countrymen had been wantonly shed by
British troops, at Lexington and Concord, in April; and the call to arms
was now ringing through the land.
The second Congress, held May 10, 1775, was remarkable for its action at
a moment when liberty was as a “waif” in the political world, liable at
every breeze to be lost in the vortex of its revolutions. It set the
seal on British rule in the colonies forever! It was the first move
morally and physically made against tyranny and usurpation, and was only
surpassed by that which inaugurated the Fourth of July, 1776, as the
birthday of freedom!
One of the acts of its members was to adopt the armies of New England,
and elect General George Washington commander-in-chief, and also to
adopt a platform which made colonial resistance, to use a modern term,
“a military necessity.”
Another of their measures was to correct the postal department, which
during Franklin’s absence had been somewhat neglected. A committee was
appointed, of which Franklin was made chairman, to consider the best
means of establishing posts for the conveyance of letters and
intelligence throughout the country. Franklin was at home in this
employment, having served a long apprenticeship and studied its workings
both theoretically and practically. He drew up a plan for the purpose,
and laid it before the committee, who approved of it at once; and it was
eventually the same as that upon which the post-office of America is now
conducted.
The committee recommended that a postmaster-general be appointed for the
UNITED STATES, who should hold his office at Philadelphia, and be
allowed a salary of one thousand dollars for himself, and three hundred
and forty dollars per annum for a secretary and controller, “with power
to appoint such and so many deputies as to him may seem proper and
necessary;” that a line of posts should be appointed, under the
direction of the postmaster-general, from Falmouth, in New England, to
Savannah, in Georgia, “with as many cross-posts as he shall think fit;
that the allowance of the deputies in lieu of salary and all contingent
expenses shall be twenty per cent. on the sums they collect and pay into
the general post-office, annually, when the whole is under, or not
exceeding, one thousand dollars, and ten per cent. for all sums above
that amount a year; that the several departments account quarterly with
the general post-office, and the postmaster-general annually with the
Continental treasurers, when he shall pay into the receipt of the said
treasurers the profits of the post-office, and if the necessary expenses
of this establishment should exceed the produce of it, the deficiency
shall be made good by the United Colonies, and paid to the
postmaster-general by the Continental treasurers.”
This plan, and resolutions accompanying it, were submitted to Congress,
who adopted it, and, taking into consideration the interest Franklin had
always taken in the department, and also his summary dismissal under the
“British dynasty,” unanimously elected Benjamin Franklin, Esq.,
postmaster-general for one year, and until another Congress assembled.
Eighteen months had passed since his dismissal, when he now found
himself reinstated in office with higher rank and augmented authority.
Nay, more: he was postmaster-general under a new ruling power,—a power
that was uprising like the glorious sun from the mists and the gloom of
a long, dreary night of wrong and oppression. It was now the dawn of a
new era in the history of men and of nations. _It was the dawn of
freedom!_
The people made a law; and as there cannot be rational freedom where
there are arbitrary restraints, they adopted Cicero’s maxim, and
proclaimed liberty as the law of the land:—
“_Libertas est potestas faciendi id quod jure liceat._”
One of the strongest tests by which the progressive prosperity of a
country may be ascertained is that of its postal department. It forms a
chain which links together all private and public interests; it links
state to state, countries to countries, nations to nations. It is the
alphabet of the world!
Benjamin Franklin appointed Richard Bache, his son-in-law, deputy
postmaster. They established mail-riders to carry the mails, and
stationed them at distances of twenty-five miles, to deliver from one to
the other and return to their starting-places: they travelled night and
day, and were men selected for their honesty and sobriety.
At the same time it was ordered that three advice-boats should be
established, “one to ply between North Carolina and such ports as shall
be most convenient to the place where Congress shall be sitting,” one
other between the State of Georgia and the same port. The boats to be
armed, and to be freighted by individuals for the sake of diminishing
the public expense.
The state of the country was such that it became necessary to enlist the
services of the most prominent men in its cause, both at home and
abroad; and who so popular then as Benjamin Franklin? A writer speaking
of him and the period says, “With a fame unequalled in brilliancy by
that of any other man of those times, not only as a philosopher and
sage, but as a profound political thinker, and an undaunted asserter of
the rights and liberties of his country, Franklin’s name was now
familiarly known and revered throughout all Europe.”
Is it to be wondered at, therefore, that he should have been appointed
one of the commissioners to France? The commissioners first appointed
for this purpose, on the 26th of September, 1776, were Franklin, Silas
Dean, and Thomas Jefferson. The last, however, declined, and Arthur Lee,
of Virginia, was put in his place. Mr. Lee and Mr. Dean were both in
Europe, the former having been employed several years in England as a
colonial agent, and the latter having been sent out in the preceding
March by the committee of secret correspondence, with a view to
diplomatic as well as commercial objects; and Franklin, after a
boisterous voyage in the United States sloop-of-war _Reprisal_, Captain
Wickes, and after escaping from the guns of several British cruisers,
met them in Paris in the latter part of December, 1776. This portion of
history is familiar to all.
In the absence of Franklin, Richard Bache attended to the post-office
business, and in all respects carried out his father-in-law’s plans.
In March, 1777, Franklin received from Congress a commission as minister
to Spain.
After residing in Europe nearly nine years, acting in the capacities
named, he returned to America, and arrived in Philadelphia on the 14th
of September, 1785. His return was greeted with every mark of personal
regard and public respect.
We will close this portion of our postal history, and Franklin’s
connection with it, by the following letter, which he wrote to Mr.
Thomson shortly after his return home. It is to be regretted that it is
a _finale_ which reflects but little credit on our government at that
time, and gives occasion for our opponents to repeat the old saying that
“republics are ungrateful.” Nor is Franklin’s case an isolated one.