arrived none too soon.
But the lack of medicine was not the only hardship of those in the
Medical Department. A letter from Dr. Cochran to Abram Clark, President
of Congress, dated February 28, 1781, says: “I hope some pay is ordered
to be advanced to the officers of the department, without which it
cannot much longer exist. Many of us have not received a shilling in
near two years, nor can we procure public clothing.”
Many hospital physicians resigned owing to their inability to subsist
themselves longer. When Congress at length issued warrants they were as
worthless as the credit of Congress, and they afforded no relief.
Dr. Cochran was of stately presence and most genial. He won his high
place by real merit and experience.
He pawned his personal credit for the cause; the last sheets from his
bed were used on the wounded. He quieted dissensions in the department,
composed the difficulties of individuals, presented petitions for his
subordinate officers, and performed routine work which should have been
done by others. All this various labor was performed with cheerfulness
in adversity, and courage amid danger.
He was on terms of intimacy with Washington, Lafayette, Wayne, Paul
Jones and many more. Washington presented him with his camp furniture,
Lafayette gave him his watch, Wayne gave him his sword, the silver hilt
of which was melted into goblets.
Dr. Cochran was a charter member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He
died at his country-seat at Palatine, Montgomery County, N. Y., April 6,
1807. His widow survived him until March, 1813.
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Constitution of 1790, the First for the State,
Adopted September 2, 1790
The convention to frame a Constitution for the government of
Pennsylvania as a State completed its labors September 2, 1790.
On that day the members signed the instrument, after which they went in
procession from the State House to the court-house, where the new
Constitution was proclaimed.
Provision had been made for the continuance in office, until the new
government went into operation, of the Supreme Executive Council and
other State officers, but not of the Legislature, and the latter body
believing its authority had ceased, did not proceed to the transaction
of business on the following day.
At the election held in October, Thomas Mifflin, of Philadelphia, who
had been president of the Supreme Executive Council since November 5,
1788, was elected governor over General Arthur St. Clair.
The new Legislature met in the State House December 7, and on December
21 the change of government was formally effected.
A procession was formed at the chamber of the Supreme Executive Council,
which moved to the old court-house at Second and Market Streets, where
the old government yielded up its powers, and the new government was
proclaimed. Governor Mifflin was inaugurated “with much ceremony.”
On January 1, 1791, the City Councils, Mayor, Recorder and a great
number of citizens waited on Governor Mifflin and tendered him their
congratulations.
The first constitutional convention, whose most conspicuous members were
Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, George Ross and James Smith, met
at Philadelphia July 15, 1776, each one taking, without hesitancy, the
prescribed test oath, and organized by the selection of Benjamin
Franklin, president.
The labors of this convention were completed September 28, when the
Constitution was adopted, and went into immediate effect without a vote
of the people.
This Constitution vested executive authority in a Council of Safety,
presided over by Thomas Wharton, Jr., composed of twelve members, one
from Philadelphia and one from each of the counties. The legislative
power was vested in a General Assembly of one house elected annually,
and consisting of six members from Philadelphia and six from each
county. The supreme executive power was vested in a President, chosen
annually by the Assembly and Council.
A Council of Censors, consisting of two persons from Philadelphia and
two from each county, was to be elected in 1783, and in each seventh
year thereafter, whose duty was to supervise the Constitution and the
branches of government, with a power to impeach.
The Constitution of 1776 also provided that, “all useful learning shall
be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.” This was
the first time in America that higher education was made a part of the
fundamental law.
Following the successful termination of the Revolution the Pennsylvania
Constitution of 1776 proved inadequate for the requirements of a useful
and effective State Government, and its revision was demanded.
On March 24, 1789, the Assembly adopted resolutions recommending the
election of delegates to form a new Constitution. The Supreme Executive
Council refused to promulgate this action of the Assembly, but
acquiesced in September. An election was held in October, when delegates
were chosen.
The convention met November 24, 1789, and in it were the first talents
that Pennsylvania could boast. Thomas McKean, Thomas Mifflin, Albert
Gallatin, William Findlay, James Wilson, William Lewis, James Ross,
Alexander Addison, Edward Hand, Samuel Sitgreaves, Joseph Hiester and
Thomas Pickering were among the members. Thomas Mifflin was elected
President.
After a long session the members adjourned in the ensuing year to meet
again, when the subject of the Constitution was again taken up and
concluded, and the new instrument adopted September 2, 1790.
The most radical changes were made in the executive and legislative
branches of government.
The Supreme Executive Council was abolished, and a single executive
called a governor was created. The Assembly ceased to have the sole
right to make laws, as the legislative body was divided into two
branches, a Senate and a House.
The former judicial system was continued, excepting that a Supreme Court
was provided, the judges of which were to be appointed during good
behavior, instead of for seven years.
The Bill of Rights re-enacted the old Provincial provision copied into
the first Constitution, respecting freedom of worship, rights of
conscience, and exemptions from compulsory contributions for the support
of any ministry. The recognition of God, and of a future state of
rewards and punishments, was still demanded of all holding office, but a
belief in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments was not
included.
The Council of Censors ceased to have authority, and the veto power was
given to the Governor.
This body, with Frederick A. Muhlenberg as president, had met but once,
in 1783. It then got itself into such a snarl with the Assembly that it
became very unpopular.
Pennsylvania conformed in all important matters to the system upon which
the New Federal Government was to be administered.
General Mifflin continued to discharge the duties of the chief executive
with great ability, and was re-elected twice, serving in all three
terms, the limit allowed by the Constitution.
Governor Mifflin was elected to the Legislature at the end of his
service as Governor, and died at Lancaster, January 21, 1800, while
serving in that body.
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General Edward Hand, Distinguished
Officer of Revolution, Died
September 3, 1802
General Edward Hand, M.D., a native of Clyduff, Kings County, Province
of Leinster, Ireland, born December 31, 1744, became a resident of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and one of the first distinguished officers of
the Revolution. He died at his fine farm “Rockford,” near Lancaster,
September 3, 1802.
In 1767 he was appointed by King George III surgeon of the Eighteenth
Royal Irish Regiment of Foot, and sailed with the regiment from Cork,
May 20 of the same year, arriving at Philadelphia July 11.
Dr. Hand was appointed ensign in the same regiment in 1772, and
accompanied the command to Fort Pitt, returning to Philadelphia in 1774,
when he resigned his commission and was regularly discharged from the
service.
In the same year he went to Lancaster, with recommendations, in order to
practice his profession in that place.
The following year he married Catherine, daughter of Captain John Ewing
and Sarah Yeates, a sister of Hon. Jasper Yeates.
At the beginning of the American Revolution Dr. Hand gave his allegiance
to the colonies, and was commissioned, June 25, 1775, lieutenant-colonel
in Colonel William Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen.
This battalion consisted of nine companies of troops enlisted in the
counties of Cumberland, York, Lancaster, Northumberland, Bedford, Berks
and Northampton. After January 1, 1776, it became known as the First
Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hand accompanied Colonel Thompson and the battalion
to Boston, where they arrived August 17, 1775. He was on Prospect Hill,
August 20, when the battalion distinguished itself, and participated in
the siege of Boston during the following autumn and winter.
The officers and men of the battalion were publicly thanked by General
Washington in general orders the day following the skirmish at
Lechmere’s Point, November 9, when each man demeaned himself with
unusual skill and daring. The British had landed under cover of a fire
from their batteries on Bunker, Breed’s and Copp’s Hills, as well as
from a frigate which lay three hundred yards off the point, which at
high tide was an island. The regiment marched instantly, and, though the
day was stormy, regarded not the tide, nor waited for boats, but took to
the water, although up to their armpits, for a quarter of a mile and,
notwithstanding the regulars’ fire, reached the island and drove the
enemy from behind their cover into their boats.
March 7, 1776, Hand was appointed colonel of the regiment he had
commanded since February 2, and, with his command, left Cambridge March
15 to join General John Sullivan in New York.
During May and June this regiment was on Long Island. It picketed the
shores until August.
Colonel Hand took part, with his regiment, in the battle of Long Island,
and assisted to successfully protect the retreat of the American army.
This was a skillful maneuver which effected the retreat of twelve
thousand men, within sight of a strong enemy, possessed of a mighty
fleet, without any loss of troops and saving all the baggage.
Colonel Hand took part in the battles of White Plains, Trenton and
Princeton. At the last of these conflicts, says General Wilkinson, “at
the time General Mercer engaged the 17th Regiment, Colonel Hand
endeavored, by a rapid movement, to turn the enemy’s left flank, and had
nearly succeeded when they fled in disorder ... the riflemen were
therefore the first in the pursuit, and in fact took the greatest part
of the prisoners; they were accompanied by General Washington in person
with a squad of the Philadelphia Troop.”
Colonel Hand continued in command of his regiment until April 1, 1777,
when he was promoted to be brigadier-general, and was soon thereafter
sent to Fort Pitt in command of the western frontiers of Pennsylvania.
A new fort was erected in Westmoreland County, named Fort Hand.
General Hand did not meet with the expected success in fighting Indians
and asked to be relieved of his command, which Congress, May 2, 1778,
resolved to do. But before leaving Fort Pitt, General Hand conducted a
successful treaty with the Indians June 17, 1778.
In October following he succeeded General Stark in command at Albany,
and the next spring General Hand was ordered to take part in General
Sullivan’s campaign against the Six Nations. Although the youngest of
the generals engaged, Hand held the most important position after that
of General Sullivan. His experience in fighting Indians gained on the
western frontier was of great value in the expedition.
General Hand afterward joined General Washington and encamped at
Morristown, N. J., during the winter.
On the formation of the light infantry corps of the army, August, 1780,
General Hand was given command of one of the two brigades.
He was a member of the tribunal that tried and convicted Major André.
General Hand was appointed Adjutant-General of the Army of the United
States January 8, 1781. He was present at the siege of Yorktown and
returned with the troops to Philadelphia.
September 30, 1783, he was commissioned Major-General of the
Pennsylvania Line.
Upon the close of the war he resumed his practice of medicine at
Lancaster.
He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785, and a
member of the General Assembly 1785, and an Elector for the first
election of a President and Vice President of the United States in 1789.
General Hand helped frame the Constitution of Pennsylvania of 1790, and
held other positions of honor and trust.
He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and served
as President in 1799. He was the lover of fine horses and was himself an
excellent horseman.
As a citizen he was highly esteemed, and as a physician greatly sought
after and much beloved. He was a great Pennsylvanian.
----------
First Permanent Settlement and Earliest
Church, Dedicated September 4, 1646
The first European settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made on
Tinicum Island, now Essington, not far distant from the mouth of Darby
Creek on the Delaware River. The beautiful buildings of the Corinthian
Yacht Club are now located on this historic spot.
A monument was unveiled June 14, 1923, to mark the place where the first
permanent settlement in what is now Pennsylvania was made. This shaft
was erected by the Swedish Colonial Society and was unveiled by Miss
Nancy J. Paxson, tenth in descent from one of the original founders of
the colony.
Here it was that Colonel John Printz, a Swedish military officer of
note, who had recently been knighted by the Swedish Government for the
conspicuous role he enacted in the Thirty Years’ War, accompanied by a
few adventurers of the same nationality, located in 1643, erected a fort
of green logs and named the settlement he founded New Gottenberg. The
fort was mounted with four cannon. Provisions were made for the planting
of corn and tobacco.
A short time thereafter Printz built a pretentious mansion on Tinicum
Island, “very splendid,” with an orchard and pleasure house, and it bore
the name of Printz Hof or Printz Hall. This mansion house was two
stories high and built of hewn logs, while two or more fireplaces and
ovens were made of bricks imported from Sweden for that purpose. There
were even glass windows. The utensils were of copper and tin. Their
light was candle. Printz Hall also contained a fine library and every
convenience known at that period. This great house stood 160 years, when
it was accidentally destroyed by fire.
Printz planted orchards, cleared fields and firmly established himself
on the place he determined should be the seat of government for the
Swedish colony on the South River, as the Delaware was then known.
Printz sent Maus Kling, the engineer for the colony, to make a
settlement on the Schuylkill. Log houses were built there, and Kling
built on the east bank of the Schuylkill, near its mouth, probably on
what was afterward called Providence Island, a small fort which was
called New Korsholm.
These operations of Kling, the plantation and the fort, form the first
authenticated occupancy by Europeans of the site of the City of
Philadelphia.
On April 17, 1640, the Swedish ship Kalmer Nyckel sailed into the
Christiana Creek. Among the immigrants was the Reverend Reorus
Torkillus, a clergyman of the Swedish Lutheran Church, who thus became
the first minister of the gospel on the Delaware River. Soon after this
preacher’s arrival in the colony a meeting house was built, in which the
services of the Lutheran Church were conducted.
Governor Printz built a church on Tinicum Island, which had a bell and
belfry. It was succeeded by a more imposing and commodious edifice in
1646, built of logs, with a roof of clapboards and an altar with a
silver cloth. This church was dedicated by the Reverend John Campanius
on September 4, 1646.
Printz reported to his home Government he had the church finished and
dedicated, “adorning and decorating it according to our Swedish fashion,
so far as our limited means and resources would allow.”
There was a graveyard located adjacent to the church, in which was
interred the corpse of Andrew Hanson’s daughter Catherine, who was
buried October 28, 1646. This was the first burial of any European in
Pennsylvania, certainly the first in any regularly established cemetery.
The marriage of Governor Printz’s daughter, Armegot, to Johan Papegoja,
the commandant at Fort Christina, was solemnized in this old church at
Tinicum, in 1644, and it is believed to have been the first instance in
which a matrimonial ceremony was performed between Europeans within the
limits of the present State of Pennsylvania.
The Old Swedes’ Church called the worshippers together with the sound of
the first “church-going bell” on the American Continent. But in May,
1673, Armegot Papegoja was in such dire distress for funds that she sold
the bell to the congregation of the adherents of the Augsburg
Confession, at Laus Deo.
The worshippers believed this bell should be nowhere but in their own
Swedes’ Church and they determined to repurchase it, when the members of
the congregation gave their labor for two years at harvest time as the
consideration. The bell was brought back to Tinicum, but the facts
relating to its subsequent history are lacking.[6]
Footnote 6:
Colonel Henry D. Paxon says this original bell was recast, with some
additional metal, and now hangs in “Gloria Dei,” Old Swedes’ Church,
Philadelphia.
It is quite probable that this Old Swedes’ Church remained the active
center for worship long after the Swedes were swept from power on the
Delaware.
Peter Stuyvesant, at the head of a large fleet and formidable
expedition, September, 1654, captured Fort Cassimer, or Trinity, as the
Swedes called it, then after a siege of fourteen days compelled the
surrender of Fort Christina, which was defended by Governor Johan
Claesson Rysingh.
In the articles of capitulation, which were formally drawn up and signed
September 25 by the two commanders on the “parade ground” outside the
fort, it was agreed that the Swedish soldiers were to march out with the
honors of war.
The “guns, ammunition, implements, victuals and other effects belonging
to the Crown of Sweden and to the South Company,” in the fort or its
vicinity, were to remain their property. The Swedish settlers might stay
or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they stayed, need
not take the Dutch oath of allegiance. Swedes who remained should enjoy
the Lutheran faith, the “liberty of the Augsburg Confession,” and have a
minister to instruct them.
When the English came to the South River in the fall of 1664, the Swedes
at Tinicum still were worshiping in their Lutheran Church.
After the departure of Governor Rysingh, in 1653, there was only one
minister among the Swedes on the river, the man who was variously called
Laers, Laurentius Carolus, Lock, Lokenius, etc., was a poor fellow whose
missteps and mischances, moral lapses and legal misdemeanors are
repeatedly mentioned in the scanty chronicles of the time. He preached
in the Swedes’ Church at Tinicum and at Crane Hook, between Christina
and New Castle, where a log church was built about 1667. Lock died in
1688.
When Governor Andros visited the Delaware, in 1675, the New Castle Court
decreed, when designating places of meeting for worship, “that the
church at Tinicum Island do serve for Upland and parts adjacent.”
Great Tinicum Island stands with Jamestown and Plymouth as one of the
birthplaces of America.
Lewis, in the history of Chester County, says that the Swedes came from
New Castle and places along the Delaware, both above and below, to
worship in that building.
About this time the settlement at Upland, now Chester, began to thrive,
and it was not long before it became a more important place than
Tinicum.
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First Continental Congress Meets in
Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia,
September 5, 1774
The Assembly of Pennsylvania promptly responded to the “Instructions” of
the great meeting of the Provincial deputies held in the State House
July 15, 1774, and appointed Joseph Galloway, speaker, Samuel Rhoads,
Thomas Mifflin, John Morton, Charles Humphreys, George Ross, Edward
Biddle, and, subsequently, John Dickinson as delegates to the Congress
to be held in Philadelphia in September.
This body assembled September 5 in Carpenters’ Hall and chose Peyton
Randolph, of Virginia, president, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania,
secretary, of what proved to be the first Continental Congress.
The Declaration of Rights was agreed upon. This claimed, first, as
natural rights, the enjoyment of life, liberty and fortune; secondly,
they claimed, as British subjects, to be bound by no law to which they
had not consented by their chosen representatives. They denied to
Parliament all power of taxation and vested the right of legislation in
their own Assemblies.
The common law of England they declared to be their birthright,
including the rights of trial by jury of the vicinage, of public
meetings and petition. They protested against the maintenance in the
Colonies of standing armies without their full consent, and against all
legislation by councils depending on the Crown.
Having thus proclaimed their rights, they calmly enumerated the various
acts which had been passed in derogation of them. There were eleven in
number, passed in as many years—the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Tea
Act, those which provided for the quartering of troops, for the
supersedure of the New York Legislature, for the trial in Great Britain
of offenses committed in America, for the regulation of the government
of Massachusetts, for the closing of the port of Boston, and the last
straw, known as the Quebec bill.
On October 18, articles of confederation were adopted, the signing of
which, two days afterward, should be regarded as the commencement of the
American Union, based upon freedom and equality.
On October 26, an address to the people of Great Britain was adopted,
also a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal
address to His Majesty. The Congress then adjourned to meet in
Philadelphia on the 10th of May following.
Dickinson was a powerful member of this first Congress, his master hand
being first employed in the “Address to the inhabitants of Quebec,”
forwarded under date of October 26. This address set forth the reasons
why the people of that province should join with those of the Colonies
in their political interests.
Over the Pennsylvania delegation Galloway, with his wealth, education
and political prestige, and with some claim on their gratitude as their
advocate against the Proprietaries, was both presiding officer and
presiding genius. His influence was clearly seen in the selection of
delegates, for both Dickinson and Wilson were omitted in the original
list. The failure to name Mr. Dickinson was a grave error, but was
corrected when Mayor Rhoads could not serve.
As Congress assembled Galloway did the honors, but his conduct soon
revealed him acting as a volunteer spy for the British Government, and
he did everything in his power to exert a control over the first
Congress.
He even went so far as to hold secret meetings with the Governor of New
Jersey and the Lieutenant Governor of New York, when he proposed in
Congress a government for America to consist of a President General
appointed by the King, and holding office during his pleasure, and a
Grand Council chosen once in three years by the assemblies of the
various colonies, the members thereof to be apportioned according to
population.
His celebrated scheme was not popular, but in presenting it to Congress,
said: “I am as much a friend to liberty as exists, and no man shall go
further in point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now
addresses you.”