hospitals, but these, unlike the great hospitals of today, added to
their misery. They were mere barns where patients lay crowded together,
without proper care. Nurses could not be obtained even at high wages,
for to nurse the victims of yellow fever meant almost certain death.
Mayor Mathew Clarkson asked for volunteers to form a Committee of Safety
which should do whatever seemed possible for the health of the city.
Only twelve men in that greatest of American cities answered the call,
so serious was the situation.
One of these volunteers was none other than the greatest man of his day,
Captain Stephen Girard. Only two of these twelve volunteered to serve at
the hospital, and these heroes were Stephen Girard and Peter Helm. Both
possessed great wealth and might have fled the city to live in safety
and comfort far from the scene of this horrible pestilence, but they
nobly chose to help their fellow men and risk their own lives.
Of these two men Girard took the post of greatest danger, the interior
of the hospital. There for two months he spent a large part of each day,
nursing his patients. No money could pay for such services and Girard
would have accepted no return. Moreover, he went with his own carriage
to the houses where the sick lay, entered them, and drove with them to
the hospital.
At last the benevolence of the inhabitants elsewhere came to their
relief, and contributions in money and provisions were poured out with a
liberal hand, which relieved the physical distress. But it took the
return of cold weather to check the fever and on November 6 the citizens
who had fled at the beginning of the plague began to return, and from
that day conditions rapidly improved.
In the plague of 1793 the mortality was 3293, as reported by the
“Minutes of the Committee.”
In this scourge there were on Market Street and north thereof 1178
houses shut up and 1066 open, and 1152 deaths. Of the white inhabitants
4627 fled, 7332 remained in the city, and of the colored inhabitants 64
fled out of the city and 474 remained.
South of Market Street 1009 houses were closed and 969 remained open and
occupied, 1068 died, 4289 fled and 6133 remained, and 174 Negroes fled
and 833 remained to face the plague.
In the Northern Liberties 302 houses were closed and 822 remained
occupied; 546 died, 1751 fled and 4943 remained; 28 Negroes ran away and
205 remained.
In the district of Southwark 239 houses were empty and 742 occupied; 527
died, 1239 whites fled and 4521 remained, and 24 Negroes fled and 234
remained.
Thus in the city 2728 houses were closed on account of the occupants
fleeing the city or dying and 3599 remained occupied. More than 12,000
inhabitants fled the city, while 25,000 remained and came into close
contact with the fever victims.
The figures given here were taken during the month of November, when the
cooler weather was beginning to check the ravages of the plague.
According to the statisticians of that day, the average of those who
fell victims to the fever amounted to more than six and one-third
persons to the house.
Among those attacked were Governor Thomas Mifflin and Alexander
Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury in President Washington’s Cabinet.
Both recovered and on November 14 the Governor issued a proclamation
stating the pestilence had ceased and fixing a day of thanksgiving,
fasting and prayer. The disease was considered to be conquered about
November 6, and from that time confidence returned.
When the city was again desolated by yellow fever in 1798 the deaths
reached an enormous rate and much greater than in 1793.
In the month of August, 1798, the deaths in Philadelphia were 621 and in
August, 1793, 264; in twelve days in September, 1798, 720 died, and
during the same days in 1793 there were 290 deaths reported. From August
8 to October 3, 1798, there were 2778 deaths, and in this same period in
1793 there were 1847 deaths, so it is safe to predict that about twice
as many deaths occurred in the second plague as in the first.
----------
Philadelphia Merchants Rebel Against
Stamp Act in Great Meeting,
November 7, 1765
The relations between the colonies and the mother country at end of the
French and Indian War would doubtless have continued friendly had the
latter not seen fit to pursue a new policy toward the former with
respect to revenue and taxation. The colonies, until then, had been
permitted to tax themselves.
The first act of the British Parliament aiming at the drawing of a
revenue from the colonies was passed September 29, 1764. This act
imposed a duty on “clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, etc., being a produce
of a colony not under the dominion of his Majesty.”
In the colonies it was contended that “taxation and representation were
inseparable, and that they could not be safe if their property might be
taken from them without their consent.”
This claim of right of taxation on the one side and the denial of it on
the other was the very pivot on which the Revolution turned.
England maintained her position in this matter, and in 1765 the famous
Stamp Act passed both Houses of Parliament. This ordained that
instruments of writing, such as deeds, bonds, notes, etc., among the
colonies should be null and void unless executed on stamped paper, for
which duty should be paid to the Crown.
The efforts of the American colonists to stay the mad career of the
English Ministry proved unavailing. Dr. Benjamin Franklin, then in
London as the agent of the Province of Pennsylvania, labored earnestly
to avert a measure which his sagacity and extensive acquaintance with
the American people taught him was pregnant with danger to the British
Empire; but he did not entertain the thought that it would be forcibly
resisted.
The opposition to the Stamp Act was so decided and universal that Lord
Grenville, to conciliate the Americans, asked their agents to suggest
the person to have the sale of the stamps in their respective colonies.
Franklin named his friend John Hughes, who in the Assembly had been
voting with the opponents of the Proprietaries.
Franklin’s enemies tried to make much capital out of this participation
in the introduction of the stamps, while Hughes and Galloway tried to
lay the blame for the popular outburst upon the Proprietary Party in
both contrivance and connivance.
Massachusetts Assembly suggested that the various Houses of
Representatives or Burgesses in America send committees to a meeting in
New York City on the first Tuesday of October, 1765, to consider a
united representation to the King and Parliament.
The Assembly of Pennsylvania decided unanimously that it ought to
remonstrate against the Stamp Act, and appointed as its committee
Speaker Fox and Messrs. John Dickinson, George Bryan and John Morton.
Nine resolutions on the subject of the “unconstitutional impositions”
were adopted unanimously.
Mr. Hughes feared being mobbed during the joy of celebration incident to
the change of ministry in England. He sat at his home, armed, watching
for an attack on his house, but at midnight those whom he feared
dispersed, after burning a “stamp man” in effigy.
Hughes wrote to Governor John Penn and to Mr. Dickinson, the master of
the ship which brought the stamps, that he had received no commission to
take charge of them. The ship then lay at New Castle, afraid to proceed
farther, but on October 5 she sailed up the river to Philadelphia,
escorted by a man-of-war.
All the vessels in the harbor put their flags at half-mast, the bells of
the State House and Christ Church were muffled and tolled until evening,
and two Negroes with drums summoned the people to a meeting at the State
House. This sent Robert Morris, Charles Thomson, and others to Hughes,
who was very ill at his home, asking him to resign, or at least to
promise not to execute his office.
The crowd, Hughes said, was stirred up by the son of Franklin’s great
enemy, Chief Justice Allen.
On the following Monday, Hughes gave assurance that neither he nor his
deputies would act until King George’s pleasure be known, or the law be
put into execution in other colonies, or the Governor commanded him.
Hughes wrote to the Commissioners of the Stamp Office that he would
perform his duties if his hands were sufficiently strengthened, but in
due time he resigned.
On November 7, 1765, the merchants of Philadelphia assembled at the
Court House, where they adopted nonimportation resolutions which were
embodied in an agreement soon signed by almost everybody who could be
described as a merchant or trader, setting forth that the difficulties
they labored under were owing to the restrictions, prohibitions and
ill-advised resolutions in recent acts of Parliament.
These measures had limited the exportation of some of the produce,
increased the expense of many imported articles and cut off the means of
supplying themselves with sufficient specie even to pay the duties
imposed.
The Province was heavily in debt to Great Britain for importations, and
the Stamp Act would tend to prevent remittances, and so it was hoped the
people of the Province would be frugal in the consumption of all
manufactures except those of America or of Ireland, coming directly
thence, and that the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain would
find it to their interest to befriend them.
The subscribers agreed and pledged their honor to direct all goods
ordered from Great Britain not to be shipped and to cancel all former
orders until the Stamp Act be repealed. The ships already cleared for
Great Britain owned by the merchants were allowed to bring back the
usual bulky articles but no dry goods, except dye stuffs, and utensils
necessary for carrying on the manufactures, and to sell no articles sent
on commission after January 1, 1766.
The committee which circulated this agreement for signatures, and was
appointed to see to its being carried out, was composed of Thomas
Willing, Samuel Mifflin, Thomas Montgomery, Samuel Howell, Samuel
Wharton, John Rhea, William Fisher, Joshua Fisher, Peter Chevalier,
Benjamin Fuller and Abel Jones.
In February Franklin was examined before the House of Commons, when he
told them there was not enough gold and silver in the colonies to pay
the stamp duty for one year. He gave it as his opinion that the people
of America would never submit to paying the stamp duty unless compelled
by force.
Parliament had only the alternative to compel submission or to repeal
the act. It was repealed March 18, 1766, but accompanying it was the one
known as the Declaratory Act, more hostile to the American rights than
any of its predecessors. This act affirmed “that Parliament have, and of
right ought to have power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever.”
The news of the repeal reached America in May and caused unbounded
demonstrations of joy. Though the Quakers generally would not have
violently resisted the execution of the law, they shared with others the
joy produced by the tidings of the repeal.
----------
Expeditions Against Indians—Franklin Sails
for England, November 8, 1764
Soon after John Penn assumed the office of Lieutenant Governor,
November, 1763, he convened the Assembly and presented General Gage’s
request for 1000 men, to be used in the proposed Indian campaign, which
was granted, together with a vote of credit for the additional force
necessary “to frustrate the further wicked designs of those lawless
rioters.” This had reference to the “Paxtang Boys” and their bold attack
upon the Conestoga Indians, December 14, 1763.
Sir William Johnson, of New York, who had charge of Indian affairs for
the Royal Government, having learned of both the above massacre and
those in the Nain and Wichetunk settlements, a short time previous, and
being possessed of the actual facts, was particularly anxious to
acquaint the Six Nations with the details, and thus remove any bad
impressions as to the faith of Pennsylvania in dealing with friendly
Indians. It was most vital that there should be no alienation of the Six
Nations from the English interest.
The affair of the Paxtang Boys was happily settled without any unfair or
unwise hardships and the attention of the authorities again turned to
bigger problems and those more difficult of solution.
Early in 1764 extensive measures were resolved upon for the reduction of
the Indians. General Gage determined to attack them on two sides, and to
force them from the frontiers by carrying the war into the heart of
their own country. One corps was sent under command of Colonel
Bradstreet to act against the Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa and other
nations living upon or near the lakes. Another, under command of Colonel
Henry Bouquet, was sent to attack the Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo, Mohican
and other nations between the Ohio River and the lakes.
The two commands were to act in concert. Colonel Bradstreet was directed
to proceed to Detroit, Michilimackinack and other places, and on his
return to encamp and remain at Sandusky, and prevent the Western Indians
from rendering aid to those on the Ohio, while Colonel Bouquet was to
attack the latter in the midst of their settlements.
Part of the Forty-second and Sixtieth Regiments were assigned to Colonel
Bouquet, to be joined with 200 friendly Indians, and provincial troops
from Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Indians never came and Virginia
could not spare any men, but Pennsylvania furnished the one thousand
men, which was its quota. The Provincial Assembly also voted 50,000
pounds to maintain it.
This force was reduced by the desertion of 200 before leaving Carlisle,
and of others at Fort Bedford. Those remaining, with a very few
regulars, and less than 200 Virginians, made up the army of Colonel
Bouquet, which advanced from Fort Pitt in October, 1764, and marched
ninety-six miles to Muskingum, mostly through a wilderness which the
savages had deemed their sure defense.
This expedition appearing in such force in the heart of the enemy’s
country overawed the Indians, who sued for peace. The Delaware, Shawnee
and Seneca agreed to cease hostilities. Many white people held as
prisoners were liberated.
So thoroughly is Pennsylvania entitled to the credit of this successful
expedition, which not only restored so many of her men, women and
children to their families, but it had the chief part in securing peace
to the adjoining colonies.
The Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia did not contribute a penny to
the expense, but left Colonel Bouquet personally liable for the pay of
the volunteers from those provinces. The Pennsylvania Assembly in due
time came to his relief, and also paid for this.
By the agreement of 1760 the Assembly was allowed to tax the
Proprietaries’ lands upon certain conditions. The Assembly tried to have
the language of the bill changed so that the Proprietaries’ land would
not be taxed “only as high as the worst lands owned by the settlers” was
taxed, but no such change was allowed.
Indeed, harmony was scarcely to be expected between one of the
Proprietary family, as Governor on the one side, and the Assembly on the
other.
The Assembly was compelled to yield to the necessities of the province,
but the conduct of Governor John Penn so incensed the Assembly, that it
was determined by a large majority to petition the King to purchase the
jurisdiction of the province from the Proprietaries, and vest the
Government directly in the Crown.
Joseph Galloway sponsored the resolutions which resulted in the petition
being signed by three thousand five hundred persons and addressed to
King George III.
There was much opposition from leading men in the province against
throwing off the proprietary dominion, and these were not alone of the
Quaker belief.
Isaac Norris, the venerable Speaker; John Dickinson, afterwards
distinguished in the Revolution; the Reverend Gilbert Tennant, and the
Reverend Francis Allison, representing the Presbyterian interest, with
William Allen, Chief Justice, and afterward father-in-law of Governor
John Penn, were strong leaders in opposition to the measure.
The Quakers, on the other hand, supported it, and were sustained by
several successive Assemblies. The argument which lined up the
Presbyterians with those who opposed the change in Government was the
important question of defending the province, and particularly their
brethren on the frontiers. It mattered comparatively little whether the
Proprietaries or the richer inhabitants paid for this protection.
They also feared that under the Crown the Church of England might become
the Established Church. The majority, which wished to divest the
Founder’s descendants of their authority, were the strict followers of
the Founder’s religion.
Dickinson was re-elected to the Assembly, as was Norris, even though he
did not desire to return to that body. Galloway and Franklin were
defeated, the latter by twenty-five majority out of 4000 votes. Only two
of the ten members from Philadelphia were in favor of the change of
Government.
Norris was again elected Speaker, but dissensions arose which caused him
to resign the speakership, when Joseph Fox was elected to succeed him.
He appointed Dr. Franklin as an additional provincial agent in London,
and directed him to go with all dispatch, and urge the adoption of the
measure before the British Ministry.
Franklin sailed for England on November 8, 1764, being escorted by 300
admirers, to Chester, where he embarked.
He took with him a copy of the resolution which the Assembly, upon
hearing of the proposal in England of a stamp act or some other means of
revenue had passed, acknowledged it a duty to grant aid to the Crown,
according to ability, whenever required in the usual constitutional
manner.
Franklin found, on his arrival at London, that he had to contend with a
power far stronger and more obstinate than the Proprietaries themselves,
even with the very power whose protection he had come to seek.
----------
Governor Simon Snyder, Prey of Kidnappers,
Died November 9, 1819
Simon Snyder, three times Governor of Pennsylvania, was born in
Lancaster County, November 5, 1749, and died in his beautiful stone
mansion in Selinsgrove November 9, 1819.
Snyder had been defeated in the gubernatorial contest of 1805, but his
election was not long delayed.
Alderman John Binns, editor of the Democratic Press, then the most
powerful political leader in the State, was Snyder’s closest friend and
adviser and soon influenced such a current of popular sentiment toward
his friend’s candidacy that William J. Duane and Dr. Michael Leib were
compelled to support Snyder even though they realized Binns would be
more potent in guiding his Administration.
Snyder carried every county except six and defeated James Ross by 28,400
votes.
No sooner had the election occurred than the Governor was importuned to
appoint Dr. Lieb to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth, but the
astute Executive named N. B. Boileau, of Montgomery County, to that
important place.
Governor Snyder was re-elected in 1811 and again in 1814, being the last
Governor of Pennsylvania to serve three terms.
There were many thrilling events during the nine years of his
Administration, the most important of which was the War of 1812–14.
The Chief Executive of no State in the Union performed his part more
patriotically or with a firmer determination than did Governor Snyder.
A month before the formal declaration of our second war with England he
had issued an order drafting 14,000 men as the quota of Pennsylvania for
the general defense. His several addresses to the Legislature were of
the most patriotic fervor and he deserved the hearty support which was
generously given him.
During the trying period of the war, Governor Snyder exhibited many
splendid traits of character, and met every emergency with determined
courage and the consciousness of having performed his full duty.
Pennsylvania has been remarkably free from crimes against officials
holding high office, and yet the nearest attempt was a plot to kidnap
Governor Snyder.
Early in the year of 1816 Richard Smith, as principal in the first
degree, and Ann Carson, in the second degree, were tried in Philadelphia
before the Hon. Jacob Rush and his associates for the murder of John
Carson, her husband. The trial resulted in the conviction of Smith and
the acquittal of Ann Carson.
Richard Smith was a lieutenant in the Twenty-third Infantry Regiment U.
S. A. He was of Irish descent, a nephew of Daniel Clark, of New Orleans,
and heir to his estate, worth in excess of $1,000,000.
Ann Carson was the most captivating beauty of the underworld and the
most notorious character in the State, according to the newspapers of a
century ago. She married a Scotchman, Captain John Carson, a dissipated
ex-captain of the United States Navy, who was nearly twice her age.
Several years after this marriage Captain Carson sailed for China, in
command of the ship Ganges, and nothing more was heard of him for four
or five years, and his wife believed he had perished at sea.
During his absence Ann Carson became infatuated with the dashing young
Lieutenant Smith, who occupied an apartment in her home.
In the fall of 1815 Captain Carson appeared at the home and his
estranged wife had no welcome for him.
For the following several months the trio lived a life of continual
strife. One evening in January, 1816, the two men met in the parlor of
the Carson home on Second and Dock Streets, when Smith shot and killed
Carson.
The murderer was taken before Alderman Binns, who committed him to
prison on a charge of murder. As already stated, Smith was convicted and
Mrs. Carson acquitted.
Mrs. Carson immediately planned to save Smith from the scaffold. She was
able to command the services of the most desperate criminals.
Both Smith and Mrs. Carson knew that the Alderman and editor had great
influence with Governor Snyder, and their first effort was to bring
pressure upon him to obtain a pardon for the condemned man.
Binns refused to interfere, and in addition published a caustic warning
against any attempt to stay the course of justice. Never had there been
so much feeling manifested in the desire to obtain a pardon for murder
as on this occasion.
Ann Carson conceived the scheme to kidnap Binns and hold him as a
hostage for Smith. This plan failed. Then the desperate criminals
endeavored to coerce Binns into their measures by planning to kidnap his
son, who had been christened Snyder, after the then Governor. The boy
was not quite six years old, but daily went to his school.
This plot was communicated to Binns and the child was kept in his home,
and that plot also failed.
Then the notorious and desperate Ann Carson determined to kidnap the
Governor himself, and keep him in custody, under a threat of being put
to death, if he did not grant a pardon for Smith.
The very night this scheme was determined on, it was, through a
lay-cousin of Lieutenant Smith’s, communicated to John Binns, who
immediately dispatched the details of the plot to the Governor, who was
then at his home in Selinsgrove.
Ann Carson, accompanied by two ruffians named “Lige” Brown and Henry
Way, set out from Philadelphia on horseback to Selinsgrove. At
Lancaster, Way robbed a drover, but was badly beaten over the head and
easily captured. The others, however, made their escape and proceeded on
their nefarious errand.
Governor Snyder hastened to Harrisburg, where he swore out a warrant
against the woman, and she was apprehended and held in $5000 bail, which
was furnished by her friends. She returned to Philadelphia.
Way escaped from jail after nearly killing his jailer and was never
captured. Lieutenant Smith was executed.
Mrs. Carson’s subsequent career was merely a succession of crimes, in
which she affected the disguise of a demure Quakeress. It was in this
disguise she was detected passing a counterfeit note on the Girard Bank.
She was sentenced to seven years in the Walnut Street prison.
A writer says she was appointed matron in the women’s ward, where her
cruel treatment drove the female convicts to revolt and that Mrs. Carson
was killed during one of these uprisings.
John Binns in his “Recollections” says that while in prison she was a
kind and most attentive nurse.