“I LIVED IN PHILADELPHIA.”
The Quaker city may well be the pride of the American nation. Founded
by William Penn, shortly after his settlement of Pennsylvania in the
year 1682, it has become, after the lapse of two centuries, the most
important town in the United States. Second to New York only in the
matter of population, it is, at present, the first manufacturing
city in the whole country; whilst it has long held supremacy as the
centre of literary and philosophical activity. In the centenary year
of 1876, Philadelphia possessed no less than 146 daily and weekly
newspapers, and twenty public libraries: no bad sign of the state of
intellectual advancement of a town containing about seven hundred
thousand inhabitants. The population consists largely of members of
the Society of Friends, or of their descendants; but there is always
a considerable foreign element in the city: the Irish numbering about
one-seventh, the Germans one-thirteenth, and the English one-thirtieth.
There are at least 400 churches and chapels, and more than 400 public
schools; and 100 hospitals and asylums.
The causes of the prosperity of Philadelphia are not difficult to
be discovered. It is noticeable, that all flourishing capitals are
marked by strong cosmopolitan features, with a background of national
characteristic. The characteristic basis of the Pennsylvanian is
his Quaker ancestry; and upon this has been grafted, in varying
proportions, the religious and political notions, the manners,
customs, and national prejudices, of English, Scotch, German, Irish,
Welsh, Swedish, and other emigrants, ever since the middle of the
last century. The capital of the state took the full-flow of this
tide of immigration; further augmented during and after the war of
independence, by a number of French people seeking for that peace and
security which was denied them in their native land. With all these
varying elements, however, the frugal, patient, industrious Quaker
spirit has pervaded the place; and reduced all this complexity to
some sort of harmony. Of party spirit there has, naturally, been much
activity; indeed, at the period of our history, it prevailed more
extensively than in almost any other town in the United States; but
the cultivation of knowledge, of the useful arts, and of commercial
enterprise, have been the agents in producing the prosperous and
beautiful capital of Pennsylvania.
The city of Philadelphia would appear to have been the pole, one
hundred years ago, which attracted alike the inquiring traveller and
the political fugitive. The Abbé Raynal had collected and published, in
1770, an account of the American colonies,[1] which produced a profound
sensation in Europe. It was translated into almost every European
language. The literary characteristics of the book were great animation
and plausibility; and, although it excited many strictures, from the
political facts being largely mixed up with rhetorical allusions to
the wrongs and errors of past generations, the work was, for a time,
exceedingly popular, and furnished a basis for much of the cotemporary
information on America. The unfortunate Jean Pierre Brissot, who was
at Philadelphia in or about the year 1788, declared that Raynal had
exaggerated everything; and Cobbett always qualified any allusion to
the Abbé’s writings by some expression or other, to a similar effect.
Brissot adds, however, his own impressions of the city, which were high
enough, both with reference to the beauty of its situation and of its
public buildings, and to the prosperity of its inhabitants.
An English traveller,[2] who visited the States in 1795-6, gave some
curious particulars of the condition of society in Philadelphia at
that period. Quakers appeared to number about one quarter of the
whole population. The average Philadelphian was represented as being
deficient in hospitality and politeness towards strangers:--
“Amongst the uppermost circles in Philadelphia, pride,
haughtiness, and ostentation are conspicuous.… In the manners
of the people in general, there is a coldness and reserve, as
if they were suspicious of some designs against them, which
chills to the very heart those who come to visit them. In
their private societies a _tristesse_ is apparent, near which
mirth and gaiety can never approach. It is no unusual thing,
in the genteelest houses, to see a large party of from twenty
to thirty persons assembled, and seated round a room, without
partaking of any other amusement than what arises from the
conversation, most frequently in whispers, that passes between
the two persons who are seated next to each other. The party
meets between six and seven in the evening; tea is served with
much form; and at ten, by which time most of the company are
wearied with having so long remained stationary, they return
to their own homes. Still, however, they are not strangers to
music, cards, dancing, &c.”
Until about 1779 no public amusements were suffered in the city; but,
after a few years later, Philadelphia would seem to have got a little
gayer,[3] at least in the winter time--when the Congress and the State
Assembly were sitting, and President Washington made his annual stay
of some weeks. The President’s birthday became a special anniversary,
when all the citizens (except Quakers) would make a point of paying him
a visit. Concerts and public assemblies were held, and two or three
theatres, even, were started. The great political revolution, in point
of fact, produced a social one of quite as definite a character, even
in prim Philadelphia. As concerning the manners of the lower classes,
Weld records a sad deficiency: they would return impertinent answers to
questions couched in the most civil terms, and would insult a person
bearing the appearance of a gentleman, on purpose to show how highly
they estimated the principles of liberty and equality. Hostlers and
servants always appeared to be “doubtful whether they ought to do
anything for you or not;” civility was not to be purchased with money;
it seemed incompatible with freedom, and with the ideas which would
convince a stranger that he was really in a land of liberty.
* * * * *
Now, Mr. William Cobbett, late of his Majesty’s 54th Regiment,
had heard of this new country. His reading, hitherto, had been
purely literary; but, plunged into the world of London--a novice in
politics--he imbibes the then popular notions of republicanism, and
is an enthusiastic admirer of the new ideas. The eloquent pages of
Tom Paine,--unanswerable in themselves, yet, at that day, rigorously
proscribed,--help to intoxicate; and, boiling with indignation (as
he says) at the abuses he had witnessed, he has, indeed, become a
republican. That is, a theoretical republican: for, when he soon comes
to see all sides of republicanism, he reverts to his intrinsic love for
the constitution under which he was born.
And to this new land of liberty he will go.
He landed in Philadelphia in October, 1792, and, for a short time, took
up his residence at Wilmington, a little port[4] on a creek of the
Delaware, about twenty-eight miles below Philadelphia. Here Cobbett
found the very thing to give him a start in life; for the place was
swarming with French emigrants, who wanted, above all things, to learn
the English language. After a little time it appears that he found
Philadelphia itself a better field for his energies; and, accordingly,
having removed thither, he soon had as many pupils as he could attend
to. This occupation was the occasion, also, which produced the “English
Grammar for Frenchmen:”--
“When I afterwards came to teach the English language to French
people in Philadelphia, I found that none of the grammars,
then to be had, were of much use to me. I found them so
defective, that I wrote down instructions and gave them to my
scholars in manuscript. At the end of a few months, this became
too troublesome; and these manuscript instructions assumed the
shape of a grammar in print, the copyright of which I sold
to Thomas Bradford,[5] a bookseller in Philadelphia, for 100
dollars (or 22_l._ 11_s._ 6_d._); which grammar, under the
title of _Maître d’Anglais_, is now in general use all over
Europe.”
Cobbett seems to have held a rather qualified opinion upon this French
grammar: for he elsewhere says it was “a very hasty production,” and
that it was so defective that he was almost ashamed to look into it
[1829]; but that it had the great merit of “_clearness_, and of making
the learner see the _reason_ of the rules.” Yet the book still holds
its own; and it has been repeatedly reprinted in France, Belgium, &c.[6]
Besides the teaching of English to the emigrants, there was some
translating done for the booksellers. The first of any importance,
and which Cobbett alludes to somewhere as his “_coup d’essai_ in the
authoring way,” was the work of Von Martens on the “Law of Nations;” at
that date a book of considerable authority:--
“Soon after I was married, I translated, for a bookseller
in Philadelphia, a book on the Law of Nations. A member of
Congress had given the original to the bookseller, wishing for
him to publish a translation. The book was the work of a Mr.
Martens, a German jurist, though it was written in French. I
called it _Martens’s Law of Nations_.… I translated it for a
quarter of a dollar (thirteenpence halfpenny) a page; and, as
my chief business was to go out in the city to teach French
people English, I made it a rule to earn a dollar while my wife
was getting the breakfast in the morning, and another dollar
after I came home at night, be the hour what it might; and I
have earned many a dollar in this way, sitting writing in the
same room where my wife and only child were in bed and asleep.”
Another task of similar character was the translation of “A
Topographical and Political Description of the Spanish part of St.
Domingo,” the author of which was Moreau de St. Méry,[7] one of the
more distinguished of the French emigrants. This worthy man’s shop,
at No. 84, South Front Street, was probably a favourite resort of the
_literati_, as he was a person of considerable attainments, and a
member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia; whilst the bulk
of his expatriated fellow-countrymen consisted, without doubt, of a
cultivated class of men. Louis Philippe and his brothers were there.
Talleyrand was there for a time,[8] and Cobbett recalls the fact, many
years after, of having met him in St. Méry’s house.
Several of Cobbett’s best anecdotes of Philadelphian life are
associated with Frenchmen; here is one:--
“A Frenchman, who had been driven from St. Domingo to
Philadelphia, by the Wilberforces of France, went to church
along with me one Sunday. He had never been in a Protestant
place of worship before. Upon looking round him, and seeing
everybody _comfortably seated_, while a couple of good stoves
were keeping the place as warm as a slack oven, he exclaimed,
‘_Pardi! on se sert Dieu bien à son aise ici!_’”
It need not be imagined, however, that he had no American friends. On
the contrary, as we shall see in the sequel, he made some friendships
that lasted through life.
FOOTNOTES
[1] “Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du
commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes.” The author was assisted by
Diderot, and others; and, at last (about 1780) the work was forbidden
in France. Raynal lived to regret the extreme notions which he had
advocated, and actually appeared at the bar of the National Assembly
(in the month of May, 1791), there, to the surprise and displeasure
of his audience, boldly to expostulate with them on their rash
and ruinous courses; the principal charge being that they had too
literally followed his principles, and reduced to practice the reveries
and abstracted ideas of a philosopher, without having previously
adapted and accommodated them to men, times, and circumstances!
Raynal exercised a great deal of influence upon his generation, and
may be considered as having contributed largely to the uprooting of
institutions which resulted from the French Revolution; and this
singular piece of moral courage was displayed at an advanced period of
his life, when he had little to fear from any possible violence; the
usual consequence, in those days, of reaction in opinion.
[2] Isaac Weld. See his “Travels through the States of North America,
and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795,
1796, and 1797” (2 vols., London, 1800).
[3] According to Brissot, even the Quakers were getting less strict,
some of them being inclined to lapse into luxury, and have carpets!
[4] Now a flourishing town, with several newspapers, and extensive
manufactures.
[5] Thomas Bradford, a leading Philadelphian of the period, was one of
the members of a family that exercised a good deal of influence in the
city for a long course of years. He died in 1838, at the advanced age
of ninety-four. His father was Colonel William Bradford, a hero of the
Revolutionary War, and his great grandfather William Bradford, one of
the fellow-emigrants of Penn. This founder of the family was the first
printer in Pennsylvania, and he lived to see some of his descendants
amongst the most useful and esteemed citizens of Philadelphia. The
Bradfords, during an entire century (1719-1819), published and
conducted a newspaper in the city. Thomas Bradford was among the
founders of the American Philosophical Society. His son, Thomas, became
a judge of the United States.
[6] The actual title, at first, was “Le Tuteur Anglais, ou grammaire
regulière de la langue Anglaise, en deux parties, &c. (à Philadelphie,
chez Thomas Bradford, 1795).”
The 35th Edition (Paris, 1861: Baudry) has the following remarks in
the preface, after alluding to the original success of the work: “La
clarté de sa méthode l’a fait accueillir en France avec un plus vif
empressement encore qu’en Amerique; ce qui s’explique parfaitement, car
cette grammaire étant à l’usage des Français, il fallait que son mérite
fut bien réel pour obtenir dans un pays étranger un succès qui n’a
fait que grandir depuis. Sa supériorité incontestable sur les autres
ouvrages du même genre ne peut donc faire doute, et ce qui le prouve,
c’est que le public et la plupart des professeurs les plus en renommée
parmi ceux qui ont conservé leur libre arbitre n’ont cessé de se servir
de cette grammaire.”
A republication of this grammar was undertaken by Mons. L. H. Scipion,
Comte Du Roure, who made large additions, with critical emendations,
to Cobbett’s book (5th Edit. Paris, 1816). This gentleman adds his
testimony to the general estimation in which the work was held, both
in America and Europe, and says, “Ce qui distingue avantageusement
le travail de M. Cobbett, c’est qu’il _raisonne_ souvent, et oblige,
plus souvent encore, le lecteur à raisonner.” But he must needs
give currency to a report which he had heard, that Cobbett was not
the real author of the _Maître d’Anglais_:--“Plusieurs personnes,
bien dignes de foi, m’ont assuré qu’il était tres-eloigné, surtout
en 1795, de posséder suffisamment la langue Française pour pouvoir
écrire dans cette langue; et que d’ailleurs M. Cobbett, très-célèbre
écrivain politique sans doute, n’avait pas fait dans sa jeunesse
toutes les études classiques que la composition d’une Grammaire rend
indispensables. _Peut-être ai-je été mal informé_”! A little bit of
national pique, let us suppose. Of course we know more about Mons.
Cobbett’s classical studies. And Mons. Du Roure got a little wiser on
that point, if he read the No. of the “Political Register” for Feb. 21,
1818.
[7] Médéric Louis Elie Moreau de St. Méry, a Frenchman of good family.
He had passed a somewhat distinguished career as a legislator, in his
native country, until the period of the Revolution; when he had to flee
from Robespierre. Having safely reached the United States with his
family, he became a merchant’s clerk for a short time, and eventually
opened a bookseller’s shop, to which was afterwards added a printing
office. He wrote and published several works in Philadelphia, and
returned to France in 1799. Died 1819, ætat. sixty-nine.
[8] The residence of Talleyrand in America is an obscure period in his
history. We may learn more of it when the long-expected memoirs are
published. The first part of his exile was spent in the neighbourhood
of New York, and time hung heavily on his hands, for his pecuniary
resources were scanty; and, indeed, this period was afterwards one
of the most painful memories of his life. There does not appear any
foundation for the suspicion that Talleyrand was a spy in the pay of
the French Government, although it is probable enough that he kept
his eyes open on his own account. At last he determined (as he wrote
to Madame Genlis) to try and retrieve his fortunes with mercantile
speculations; and in this he was successful. Towards the close of
1795, he sent a petition for the revocation of his banishment,
which was ultimately granted, and he returned to France in the
course of the following year. (_Vide_ “Biographie Universelle;” also
Touchard-Lafosse: “Hist. Polit. de Talleyrand.”)
A singular contribution to Talleyrand’s history occurs in “Men and
Times of the Revolution,” by Elkanah Watson (New York, 1856, pp. 387,
388). It will serve to refute the notion that he had any particular
mission. “In the years 1794 and 1795, I resided in the northern suburbs
of Albany, known as the Colonie. Monsr. Le Contaulx, formerly of Paris,
a very amiable man, was my opposite neighbour. His residence was the
resort of the French emigrants. During that period, Count Latour Dupin,
a distinguished French noble, made a hair-breadth escape from Bordeaux
with his elegant and accomplished wife, the daughter of Count Dillon.
They were concealed in that city for six terrible weeks, during the
sanguinary atrocities of Tallien, and arrived at Boston with two trunks
of fine towels, containing several hundred in each, the only property
they had been able to save from the wreck of an immense estate.… They
purchased a little farm upon an eminence nearly opposite Troy. Here
they were joined by Talleyrand, who had arrived about the same time
in Albany, also an exile and in want. I became intimate with them.…
They avowed their poverty, and resided together on the little farm,
suffering severe privations, bringing to Albany the surplus produce
of their land, and habitually stopping, with their butter and eggs,
at my door. They yielded with a good grace to their humiliating
condition. In the year following, I was surrounded in my office by a
group of distinguished Frenchmen; the Count, Talleyrand, Volney, the
philosophical writer and traveller, Mons. Pharoux, … and Desjardins,
a former Chamberlain of Louis XVI.” This intercourse at length
terminated, through the avowed dislike of the _émigrés_ to American
institutions, habits, and customs.