Journal:
“The lad who was lately employed at the Postoffice as penny post having
run away, the gentlemen who expect letters are requested to call for
them until a suitable person can be procured to carry them. William
Dunlap.”
In November, 1756, the first stage was established between New York and
Philadelphia by John Butler. The Philadelphia terminal was at the sign
of the Death of the Fox in Strawberry Alley. It was to go via Trenton
and Perth Amboy, and to arrive in New York in three days. Butler was
started in business by the old Hunting Club, to which he had been
huntsman and keeper of the kennels.
In 1765 a line of stage vessels and wagons was established between
Philadelphia and Baltimore, via Christiana and Frenchtown on the Elk
River. These trips were made weekly.
In 1773, Messrs. C. Bessonett & Co., of Bristol, started a stage coach
line which made the trip to New York in two days and charged $4 fare.
The old Postoffice was afterwards the Congress Hall Hotel. It was kept
by Robert Patton, postmaster from 1791 to 1814.
The first postmaster of Philadelphia who received a newspaper notice as
such was Peter Baynton in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of November 27,
1776.
When the Government was removed from New York to Philadelphia in 1791
the departments were located in private homes, and the “General
Postoffice was on the east side of Water Street, a few doors below High
Street.”
An early pioneer mail route through the wilderness, across the State was
over the old State road. It was established in 1805. The mail was
carried on horseback from Bellefonte to Meadville. The first contractor
was James Randolph, of Meadville, the second was Hamilton, of
Bellefonte.
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Conway Cabal Started in Reading by General
Mifflin on November 28, 1777
When the British marched triumphantly into Philadelphia there was gloom
over America such as to make people lose all confidence in General
Washington, the commander-in-chief, and as General Gates had but
recently, on October 19, 1777, achieved such a brilliant victory over
Burgoyne at Saratoga, the one event to bring joy to their hearts, it was
but natural to suggest that Gates was the more competent. Many letters
appeared in the public press favoring a change of commanders and
Pennsylvanians were clamorous for the retaking of Philadelphia.
General Conway had written, “Heaven has been determined to save—your
country or a weak general and bad counselors would have ruined it.” The
words reached Washington’s ears, and he let Conway know the fact. A
personal interview ensued, but Conway refused to apologize, and he
boastfully told General Mifflin of his interview with the
commander-in-chief. He was commended by Gates, Mifflin and others.
The Gates faction in Congress procured Conway’s appointment as inspector
general of the Army and made him independent of the chief.
General Thomas Mifflin at this time was head of the Board of War, but on
November 27 Gates became its president and the following day Mifflin
declared to Gates that Conway’s letter was a “collection of just
sentiments.” This produced what has been known in history as the “Conway
Cabal.”
The principal events which led up to this cabal transpired in Reading,
which during the British occupation of Philadelphia became a favorite
place of resort for Philadelphians who wished to retire a little from
the stormy political atmosphere of the city.
More than a score of fugitive families made their homes there, among
them being General Thomas Mifflin, who at that moment was out of command
in the army, complaining, though not ill, considerably restive, and
apparently not in high favor at headquarters. He was resting at his
country estate, “Angelica,” three miles distant from Reading.
There were other officers of the Continental Army there and many gay
social gatherings were held.
It was in these dissipations that gossip among the high officers
frequently turned against General Washington, who, according to Mifflin,
would only counsel with General Greene.
They said Greene was not the wisest, the bravest, nor the most patriotic
of counselors.
In short, they averred that the campaign in this quarter was stigmatized
as a series of blunders, and those who conducted it were incapable.
The better fortune of the northern army was ascribed to the superior
talents of its leader; and it began to be whispered that General Gates
was the man who of right should have the station sustained by
Washington.
A cabal was soon formed, in which Gates, Mifflin and Conway were already
engaged, and in which the congenial spirit of General Charles Lee, on
his exchange as a prisoner of war, immediately took a share.
The well-known apostrophe of General Conway to America, imparting that
“Heaven had passed a decree in her favor, or her ruin must long before
have ensued from the imbecility of her military counsels,” was at this
time familiar wherever officers congregated.
On a visit which Conway made to Reading he expressed himself to the
effect that “no man was more a gentleman than General Washington, or
appeared to more advantage at his table, or in the usual intercourse of
life, but as to his talents for the command of an army, they were
miserable, indeed.”
These and similar expressions repeated frequently could not fail to
create an unfavorable sentiment against the commander-in-chief.
It is also fortunate that the general population did not yet believe any
of the officers busy in the cabal against Washington to be superior to
Washington.
Without the knowledge of Washington, the Board of War devised a winter
campaign against Canada, and gave the command to Lafayette. It was a
trick of Gates to detach the marquis from Washington. It failed.
Lafayette was summoned to York to receive his commission from Congress,
then in session there. That distinguished patriot met Gates, Mifflin and
others at table. The wine flowed freely and toasts abounded.
At length the marquis, thinking it time to show his colors, said:
“Gentlemen, I perceive one toast has been omitted, which I will now
propose.” They filled their glasses, when he gave praise to “the
commander-in-chief of the American armies.”
The coldness with which that toast was received confirmed Lafayette’s
worst opinion respecting the men around him, and he was disgusted.
The conspirators, finding they could not use the marquis, abandoned the
expedition. So, also, was the conspiracy abandoned soon afterward.
There is no doubt that the duel which subsequently took place between
General Conway and General Cadwalader, though immediately proceeding
from an unfavorable opinion expressed by the latter of the conduct of
the former at the Battle of Germantown, had, perhaps, deeper origin, and
some reference to this intrigue, for the brave and competent
Philadelphian was an ardent champion of General Washington.
Some of Gates’ New England friends became tired of him. Conway, found
out, was despised, left the army and returned to France.
So the cabal resulted happily, in a thorough vindication of the wisdom
of Washington, and brought deserved censure on those who had not done
their full duty.
Bancroft says “that those who had caviled at Washington, being unable to
shake the confidence of the people, wished their words benevolently
interpreted or forgotten, and Gates and Mifflin asked to be excused from
serving on the committee,” meaning the committee which had been
appointed by Congress to consult with Washington upon a complete reform
in his administration of the army.
Mifflin became a major general in the following February and General
Greene was made quartermaster general a few days later. Mifflin made a
request to join the army in the field, but Congress desired Washington
to make an inquiry into his conduct, which Washington did not do, and
Mifflin then tendered his resignation, which Congress refused to accept,
and, although Mifflin’s health was miserable, he served throughout the
war.
The internment of the army at Valley Forge called forth remonstrances of
the Continental Congress, the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly
of Pennsylvania and furnished much of the subject-matter by which
Washington was censured by those who were partisans of other generals
who coveted the high and important office. These discouragements weighed
heavily upon the anxious commander, who had quite enough trouble without
those in authority adding thereto.
The men in camp erected huts of logs and mud, but blankets and clothing
were scantily provided. Yet amid all this suffering, day after day,
surrounded by the frosts and snows of a severe winter, patriotism was
still warm and hopeful in the hearts of the soldiers. It has often been
recorded that Washington considered his experiences at Valley Forge as
the most trying scenes of his life.
----------
Federal Party Is Broken Up in Closing Days
of November, 1823
It was during the administration of Governor John Andrew Shulze, of
Lebanon County, that in 1823, President Monroe made his celebrated
declaration in favor of the cause of liberty in the Western Hemisphere
and the noninterference of European Powers in the political affairs of
this continent.
The determined stand taken by President Monroe was warmly indorsed by
the people of Pennsylvania, and the Legislature of the State at the
subsequent session adopted resolutions to the effect that it afforded
them “the highest gratification to observe the President of the United
States, expressing the sentiments of millions of freemen, proclaiming to
the world that any attempt on the part of the allied sovereigns of
Europe to extend their political systems to any portion of the continent
of America, or in any other manner to interfere in their internal
concerns, would be considered as dangerous to the peace and safety of
the United States.”
Governor Shulze, in transmitting the resolutions to the President,
expressed his hearty indorsement of the doctrines therein set forth.
Soon after the election of Shulze, in the closing days of November,
1823, the old parties were broken up, none after that calling themselves
Federalists. Indeed, the term Federalist became odious; but from the
ashes there sprang a party that became more powerful than any which
before or since has borne sway in this country, the great Democratic
Party.
Every Federal newspaper in Pennsylvania except three—the United States
Gazette, of Philadelphia; The Village Record, of West Chester, and the
Pittsburgh Gazette—joined in its support.
In the national election of 1824, parties being in a disorganized state,
there was no choice for President by the people. Crawford, Adams, Clay,
Calhoun and Jackson were supported. John Quincy Adams was elected to the
House of Representatives. But in 1828 Jackson was chosen, receiving a
majority of 50,000 in Pennsylvania. His brilliant victory at New
Orleans, gained with scarcely a casualty on our side, created immense
enthusiasm among the people in his favor.
In 1824 and 1825 the Nation’s early friend and benefactor, General
Lafayette, revisited the scenes of his former trials and final triumphs.
Governor Shulze had the satisfaction of welcoming the hero to the soil
of Pennsylvania, which he did at Morrisville in a brief but eloquent and
impressive speech.
This was Lafayette’s second visit to Pennsylvania and was an event which
produced marked and spontaneous enthusiasm among the entire population.
Next to the great Washington he was hailed as the deliverer of this
country, and nowhere was he made more welcome than in Philadelphia,
Harrisburg and other parts of Pennsylvania.
This was the era when stupendous plans for the internal improvement of
the Commonwealth were adopted and put into execution. The Schuylkill
navigation canal, which had been projected almost thirty years
previously, although not commenced until 1815, was completed in 1825.
The occasion was one of great rejoicing and the success of the
enterprise gave an impetus to other improvements.
Shortly afterward the Union Canal was also finished, and the great
Pennsylvania Canal was prosecuted with vigor. Governor Schulze hesitated
somewhat at this stupendous plan of internal improvements by the State
and opposed the loan of $1,000,000 authorized by the Legislature. He was
obliged to yield, however, to the popular will, and before the close of
his second term $6,000,000 had been borrowed.
At the session of the General Assembly in 1826 a Board of Commissioners
for internal improvements was established. The Legislature authorized
the Commissioners to contract for a canal from Middletown extending up
the Susquehanna River as far as the mouth of the Juniata, and from
Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Kiskiminitas, a navigable feeder of a
canal from French Creek to the summit level of Conneaut Lake, and to
survey a canal from there to Erie. These enterprises were started with
the modest appropriation of $300,000, which was to be borrowed.
The board made two contracts, one for twenty-two and one-half miles
along the Susquehanna and twenty-four miles along the Allegheny. At the
following session the canals authorized were to be extended farther up
the Susquehanna, the Juniata, and up the valley of the Kiskiminetas and
the Conemaugh, another between Bristol and Easton and others of lesser
importance.
In 1826 Governor Shulze was renominated and received within 1000 of all
the votes cast for Governor. This was the nearest to a unanimous
election ever known in Pennsylvania, and was an evidence of the
confidence the people had in him, his fine character and intelligence.
Previous to 1827 the only railroads in America were a short wooden
railroad constructed at Leiper’s stone quarry, in Delaware County, Pa.,
and a road three miles in length opened at the Quincy granite quarries
in Massachusetts in 1826.
In May, 1827, a railroad nine miles in length was constructed from Mauch
Chunk to the coal mines. This was, at the time, the longest and most
important railroad in America.
In 1828 the State determined to engage in railroad building. The canal
extending through the center of the State was to be connected by a
railroad crossing the Allegheny Mountains, and with Philadelphia by a
railroad extending to Columbia. Thus by railroad and canal a system of
highway improved communication would extend from the Delaware to the
Ohio.
The expenditures were now so rapid and enormous that the State began to
suffer. Governor Shulze convened the Assembly in November, 1828, a month
before retiring from office, and explained the tense situation. Funds
had given out, the work was stopped and something must be done. But as
he was soon to retire, he smoothed over the situation, leaving his
successor to wrestle with the problem.
On December 15, 1829, George Wolf, of Northampton County, was
inaugurated as Governor of Pennsylvania. He had defeated Joseph Ritner,
who attempted to seek this high office on the rising wave of the
anti-Masonic era, which at this time changed the political horizon of
the State and Nation.
Governor Wolf stepped into office at the time the financial affairs were
in a deplorable condition. His only remedy was to push the public works
to rapid completion. This was done, and in a few years he, with others,
had the proud satisfaction of beholding how far these needed
improvements went toward developing the natural resources of
Pennsylvania.
----------
Major George Washington Meets French
Commander Joncaire at Logstown,
November 30, 1753
The contention between Great Britain and France for the possession of
what is now Western Pennsylvania began about the middle of the
eighteenth century. The Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, signed October 18,
1748, while it nominally closed the war between those two countries,
failed to establish the boundaries between their respective colonies in
America, and this failure, together with the hostile and conflicting
attitude of the colonists in America, was the cause of another long and
bloody war.
An association was formed in Virginia about 1748, called the Ohio
Company, which was given a royal grant. The object of the company,
according to its charter, was to trade with the Indians, but its actual
purpose was to settle the region about the forks of the Ohio, now
Pittsburgh, with English colonists from Virginia and Maryland.
All the vast territory from the Mississippi to the Alleghany Mountains,
south of the Great Lakes, had been explored and partly occupied by the
French. They had forts, trading posts and missions at various points and
they made every endeavor to conciliate the Indians. It was apparent they
intended to extend their occupancy to the extreme tributaries of the
Ohio, which they claimed by virtue of prior discovery.
So it was but natural when the English sought to gain a permanent
occupancy of the Ohio Valley that the French should begin actively to
assert their claims to the same region.
The Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis de la Galissoniere, sent
Captain Bienville de Celeron in 1749 down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers
to take possession in the name of the King of France. His command
consisted of two hundred and fifteen French and Canadian soldiers and
fifty-five Indians. The principal officers under him were Captain
Contrecœur, who afterwards built Fort Duquesne, Coulon de Villiers, and
Joncaire-Chabet.
They planted leaden plates, properly inscribed, at different points,
beginning at the present town of Warren, and then along the Allegheny
River, then along the Ohio, and up the Miami, and they reached Lake
Erie, October 19, 1749.
The French affairs were actively pushed by Joncaire-Chabet, who occupied
the house at the mouth of French Creek, or Venango, which had been built
by John Frazer, a Pennsylvania trader, whom Celeron drove off when he
found him there.
Early in January, 1753, a French expedition consisting of 300 men under
command of Monsieur Babier set out from Quebec. Traveling over land and
ice, they reached Fort Niagara in April, then pushed on to the
southeastern shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Chautauqua Creek. In
May Monsieur Morin arrived with an additional force of 500 men, and he
assumed command.
It was intended to build a fort here, but the water was found to be too
shallow and the expedition moved to a place which, from the peculiar
formation of the lake shore, they named Presqu’ Isle, or the Peninsula.
This is now the City of Erie.
Here the first fort was built and named Fort la Presqu’ Isle. It was
constructed of square logs, was about 120 feet square and fifteen feet
high. It was finished in June, 1753 and garrisoned by about 100 men
under command of Captain Depontency.
The remainder of the forces cut a road southward about fifteen miles to
Le Boeuf River, or French Creek. Here they built a second fort, which
they called Fort Le Boeuf, similar to the first, but smaller. This is
the site of the present Borough of Waterford, Erie County, Pa.
In 1752 a treaty had been entered into with the Indians which secured
the right of occupancy, and twelve families, headed by Captain
Christopher Gist, established themselves on the Monongahela, and
subsequently commenced the erection of a fort where the City of
Pittsburgh now stands.
The activity of the French alarmed these settlers, and soon all their
proceedings were reported to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia. He
determined to send an official communication to the commander of the
French, who had established his headquarters at Fort Le Boeuf,
protesting against the forcible interference with their chartered
rights, granted by the Crown of Britain, pointing to the late treaties
of peace entered into between the English and French, whereby it was
agreed that each should respect the colonial possessions of the other.
George Washington, then only twenty-three years old, was selected for
this mission by Governor Dinwiddie. He performed his duty with the
greatest tact and to the satisfaction of his Government.
With a party of seven besides himself, among whom was Christopher Gist,
he set out November 15, 1753, from Wills Creek, the site of Fort
Cumberland, in Maryland, which was the limit of the road that had been
opened by the Ohio Company.
The first place of importance was Logstown, where they arrived on
November 30. This important Indian village was on the right bank of the
Ohio River, about fourteen miles below the present Pittsburgh. It was at
Logstown where the Treaty of 1752 was made. Here Washington enlisted the
services of the chief Indians and proceeded on his mission.
Washington writes in his journal that they set out from Logstown for
Venango about 9 o’clock in the morning, with Tanacharison, the
Half-King, Jeskakake, White Thunder and the Hunter, and arrived at
Venango on December 4.
Soon as Captain Joncaire had finished his greetings wine was passed and
after much drinking all restraint was banished, which gave license to
their tongues and their true sentiments were revealed.
The French officers told young Washington that it was their absolute
design to take possession of the Ohio, to which they had undoubted right
from a discovery made by LaSalle sixty years since. They also told him
they had raised an expedition to prevent the English from settling on
the river.
Joncaire endeavored by every means to win the Half-King from the
English, but the chief remained true to his mission, and accompanied
Washington to Le Boeuf, to which place he was referred, as the
commanding officer of the French had his headquarters there.
The party arrived at Fort Le Boeuf on December 11. Washington was
received with courtesy by the commandant, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre.
In regard to the message of Governor Dinwiddie, Saint-Pierre replied
that he would forward it to the Governor-General of Canada, but that in
the meantime, his orders were to hold possession of the country, and
this he would do to the best of his ability.
With this answer Washington retraced his steps, enduring many hardships
and passing through many perils, until he presented his report to the
Governor at Williamsburg, Va., January 16, 1754.
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William Penn and Family Arrive in Province
on His Second Visit, December 1, 1699
Captain John Blackwell, an officer and one of the heroes under Cromwell,
was commissioned Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania July
25, 1688, while he was in New England, but did not present himself
before the Council until the following March. He and the Council never
acted in harmony, and nothing of importance was accomplished during his
short and stormy term, which ended the following December.
Thomas Lloyd again became the Chief Executive. During 1691 the six
Councilors from the Lower Counties, without Lloyd’s knowledge, formed
themselves into a separate Council, appointed Judges for those counties
and made ordinances.
The President and Council of the Province immediately published a
proclamation declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal.
The latter made counter-proposals, but they were rejected.
Penn tried to restore better understanding between the two sections of
his Province and gave them the choice of three modes of executive
government, viz., by Joint Council, by five Commissioners or by a
Lieutenant Governor.
The members from Pennsylvania preferred the last, but those of the Lower
Counties declared for the Commissioners, but they could not agree upon
any plan, so the counties of Pennsylvania elected Thomas Lloyd for their
Governor and three lower counties rejected him.
Penn confirmed the appointment of Lloyd and sent William Markham, who
had joined with the protesting members, as the head of the government in
the Lower Counties. This was done against Penn’s judgment and had the
consequences he predicted.