was the wife of Joseph Hopkinson, the author of "Hail Columbia," whose
house at Fourth and Chestnut Streets was the resort of Dennie and the
wits.
Moore also contributed to the _Port Folio_ "When Time who steals our
Hearts Away," "Dear, in Pity do not Speak," "Good-night, Good-night, and
is it so?" "When the Heart's Feeling," "Loud sung the Wind," and "The
Sorrow long has worn my Heart."
Among the _Port Folio_ gentlemen who may have met "Anacreon" Moore, and
who were Dennie's faithful coadjutors, were John Blair Linn, John Shaw,
Francis Cope, Robert H. Rose, Thomas I. Wharton, Charles J. Ingersoll
and his brother Edward, Condy Raguet, Robert Walsh, John Sanderson, John
Syng Dorsey, Royall Tyler, Robert Hare, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, Alexander
Graydon, Josiah Quincy, John Leeds Bozman, William B. Wood, General
Thomas Cadwalader, Philip Hamilton, Richard Rush, Richard Peters,
Gouverneur Morris, Joseph Hopkinson, Horace Binney, Alexander Wilson,
Charles Brockden Brown and Samuel Ewing. To this list must be added the
bright names of Sarah Hall, Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson and Harriet Fenno.
The editors and editorial helpers of the _Port Folio_ from the death of
Dennie until 1827, when the magazine finally ceased, were Paul Allen,
Nicholas Biddle, Dr. Charles Caldwell, Thomas Cooper, Judge Workman,
John Elihu Hall, and his three brothers James, Thomas Mifflin, and
Harrison.
JOHN BLAIR LINN (1777-1804), the author of the "Powers of Genius"
(1801), a popular work which was splendidly reprinted in London,[13] was
the son of Dr. William Linn, of Shippensburg, who presided successively
over the destinies of three colleges--Washington, Rutgers and Union--and
was for many years a regent of a fourth--the University of the State of
New York. John Blair was graduated from Columbia, read law with
Alexander Hamilton, wrote an unsuccessful drama, "Bourville Castle," and
on June 13, 1799, was installed as joint-pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. He engaged in controversy with Joseph
Priestley, but his best achievements were "Valerian," a narrative poem,
and "The Death of Washington" (1800). John Blair Linn was a
brother-in-law of Charles Brockden Brown. A biographical sketch of him
was written for the _Port Folio_ in 1809 (page 21), and again in 1811
(89-97). Brown also published a review of his life and work in the
_Literary Magazine_, Vol. II, page 554.
[13] The Powers of Genius, a poem in three parts, by John Blair Linn,
A.M. Albion Press. Printed by J. Cundee, Ivy Lane, for F. Williams,
Stationers' Court, and T. Hurst, Paternoster Row, 1804.
JOHN SHAW (1778-1809) was born in Annapolis, May 4, 1778, and lost at
sea January 10, 1809. He studied medicine in the University of
Pennsylvania, and visited Algiers as a ship-surgeon in 1798. He died on
a voyage to the Bahama Islands.
The best poem that he contributed to the _Port Folio_ was:
Who has robbed the ocean cave,
To tinge thy lips with coral hue?
Who from India's distant wave
For thee those pearly treasures drew?
Who, from yonder Orient sky,
Stole the morning of thine eye?
Thousand charms thy form to deck,
From sea, and earth, and air are born;
Roses bloom upon thy cheek,
On thy breath their fragrance borne.
Guard thy bosom from the day,
Lest thy snows should melt away.
But one charm remains behind,
Which mute earth can ne'er impart;
Nor in ocean wilt thou find,
Nor in the circling air, a heart.
Fairest! wouldst thou perfect be,
Take, oh take that heart from me.
All his offerings to the _Port Folio_ were signed "Ithacus." His poems
were collected and published in 1810, together with a memoir and
extracts from his foreign correspondence.
FRANCIS COPE contributed essays to the _Port Folio_ in 1812. He was an
occasional writer for several years, signing his papers with the
initials "C. F."
ROBERT H. ROSE is the author of the "Sketches in Verse," published in
1810, nearly all of which had previously appeared in the _Port Folio_,
where the "Sketches" were termed "a kind of chalk drawings." One of
them, "To a Market Street Gutter," was a parody of the "Ode to the
Raritan," and was the cause of John Davis writing the "Pursuits of
Philadelphia Literature".[14]
[14] There is no mention of Robert Rose in Duyckinck, or Allibone, in
Appleton's Encyclopædia of American Biography, or in the admirable
Stedman-Hutchinson Library of American Literature.
The _Port Folio_ of May, 1816 (page 361), has a frontispiece engraving
of "Silver Lake," the seat of Robert Rose, in Susquehanna County, on the
New York line.
ODE TO A MARKET STREET GUTTER.
_A Specimen of Local Description._
O sweetest Gutter! though a clown,
I love to see thee running down;
Or mark thee stop awhile, then free
From ice, jog on again, like me;
Or like the lasses whom I meet,
Who, sauntering, stray along the street,
As if they had nowhere to go!
At times, so rapid is thy flow,
That did the cits not wish in vain
Thou wouldst be in the pumps again,
But like a pig, whose fates deny
To find again his wonted sty,
You turn, and stop, and run, and turn,
Yet ne'er shall find your "native urn."
How oft has rolled down thy stream
Things which in song not well would seem,
Ere scavengers their scrapers plied
To drag manure from out thy tide,
Or hydrants bade thy scanty rill
Desert its banks and cellars fill.
Last Thursday morn, so very cold,
A morn _not_ better felt than told,
Then first in all its bright array,
Did I thy "frozen form" survey;
And, goodness! what a great big steeple!
What sights of houses! and such people!!
And then I thought, did I not stutter,
But verse could, like _some poets_, utter,
How much I'd praise thee, sweetest Gutter!
After the publication of this parody John Davis printed "The
Philadelphia Pursuits of Literature. By Juvenal Junius of New Jersey.
Phila.: John Davis, 1805."
"Then Muses aid me! and I'll fain review
The Philadelphia lounging scribbling crew."
Davis had met the gentlemen of the _Port Folio_ and had all the
information necessary for stinging satire of the Mutual Admiration
Society that met at Meredith's and Hopkinson's or at Dennie's office. In
his "Travels" (p. 203), he writes: "At Philadelphia I found Mr. Brown
(C. B.), who felt no remission of his literary diligence by a change of
abode (from New York). He was ingratiating himself into the favor of the
ladies by writing a new novel, and rivalling Lopez de Vega by the
multitude of his works. Mr. Brown introduced me to Mr. (Asbury) Dickins,
and Mr. Dickins to Mr. Dennie; Mr. Dennie presented me to Mr. Wilkins,
and Mr. Wilkins to the Rev. Mr. Abercrombie; a constellation of
American geniuses, in whose blaze I was almost consumed.... Rev. Mr.
Abercrombie was impatient of every conversation that did not relate to
Dr. Johnson, of whom he could detail every anecdote from the time he
trod on a duck till he purchased an oak-stick to repulse
Macpherson."[15]
[15] Abercrombie's prospectus for a new edition of Johnson's Works--"to
be comprised in fourteen octavo volumes, with new designs and plates.
Phila.: 1811"--is contained in the _Port Folio_, Vol. VI, p. 98.
In the "Philadelphia Pursuits" Davis wrote of Dennie:
"There's no clown from Walpole to Hell-Gate,
But ribaldry from him has learned to prate."
And again:
"Such is our Dennie! high exalted name,
Eager alike for dollars and for fame."
Two Philadelphians only escaped the sting of the adder:
"With Clifton, Nature's poet, who shall vie?
Though low he lies, his works shall never die.
And Linn, distinguish'd for his moral lays,
Shall, by his strain, Columbia's triumph raise."
"The Sketches in Verse" was magnificently printed for C. and A. Conrad
by Smith and Maxwell in 1810.
To "a pastoral love-ditty" that began--
"Where Schuylkill o'er his rocky bed
Roars, like a bull in battle"--
Rose appended the note:
"Our American names, although some of them are truly savage, are
not much worse than many of those with which we might be furnished
by other nations in abundance; and Schuylkill would not have
offended the ears of Boileau more than the Whal and the Leck, the
Issel and the Zuiderzee."
THOMAS I. WHARTON (1791-1856), a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, was
a frequent contributor, and for a time was editor of the _Analectic
Magazine_.
CHARLES J. INGERSOLL, the author of "Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters on
American Literature and Politics," was born in Philadelphia, October 3,
1782, and died there May 14, 1862. His first boyish composition is in
the _Port Folio_ of October 24, 1801. It is entitled "Chiomara," and is
introduced by the editor as the work of a "youth ambitious of the fame
of Chatterton." Chiomara is a Gaul, who kills a Roman in defence of her
honor.
EDWARD INGERSOLL, a younger brother of Charles, wrote poems for the
_Port Folio_ on the events of the times, and named them "Horace in
Philadelphia." All his poems, of whatever nature, were signed "Horace."
CONDY RAGUET (1784-1842) published in the _Port Folio_ some interesting
letters on the "Massacre of St. Domingo." He had gone as supercargo to
Hayti, and lived there during the exciting scenes of the Revolution. He
also contributed numerous papers to the _Port Folio_ upon "Free Trade."
JOHN SANDERSON (1783-1844) was professor of Greek and Latin in the
Philadelphia Central High School. He wrote, at the suggestion of
Theodore Hook, a capital volume of Parisian sketches, called the
"American in Paris," which Jules Janin translated into French. Portions
of his "American in London" appeared in the _Knickerbocker Magazine_. He
successfully opposed, in a pamphlet signed "Riberjot," the plan of
excluding the classical languages from Girard College. He was an
intimate friend of John E. Hall, and contributed to the _Port Folio_.
JOHN SYNG DORSEY (1783-1818) succeeded Dr. Wistar as professor of
anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. He published an edition of
Cooper's "Surgery," and "Elements of Surgery," the latter of which was
adopted as the text-book in Edinburgh.
ROYALL TYLER was born in Boston, near Faneuil Hall, July 18, 1757. He
studied law under John Adams, was made a judge of the Supreme Court in
1794, and, in 1800, became chief justice. He was one of the closest
friends of Joseph Dennie, and when the latter became editor of the
_Farmer's Weekly Museum_ he wrote for him a medley of verse and social
and political skits under the general title "From the Shop of Messrs.
Colon and Spondee."
These papers he continued to write for the _Port Folio_. They "are
divided between Federal politics, attacks on French democracy, the Della
Cruscan literature, and the fashionable frivolities of the day." He also
wrote for the _Port Folio_, in 1801, a series of similarly varied
articles, richly reminiscent, entitled "An Author's Evenings."
ROBERT HARE (1781-1858), father of Judge J. I. C. Hare, who was
professor of chemistry and natural philosophy in William and Mary
College, and, later, professor of chemistry in the University of
Pennsylvania, published a number of moral essays in the _Port Folio_
under the pen-name of "Eldred Grayson."
DR. NATHANIEL CHAPMAN (1783-1850) used the pen-name of "Falkland."
ALEXANDER GRAYDON (1752-1818), a man of elegant manners and author of a
useful and entertaining volume of "Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in
Pennsylvania within the last Sixty Years," published, in the _Port
Folio_, in 1813-14, a series of chatty paragraphs styled "Notes of a
Desultory Reader." He lived in the "Slate-Roof House," at Second Street
and Norris' Alley, where he had an opportunity of meeting men of rank
and fame.
JOSIAH QUINCY (1772-1864), whose opinion of the _Port Folio_ has been
already quoted, contributed to it a series of articles, beginning
January 28, 1804, in the style of Swift, and signed "Climenole".[16]
[16] The name of the flappers, employed by the inhabitants of Laputa to
arouse them from their scientific reveries.
JOHN LEEDS BOZMAN (1757-1823) studied at the University of Pennsylvania,
and read law in the Middle Temple, London. He contributed both prose
and verse to the _Port Folio_.
GENERAL THOMAS CADWALADER (1779-1841) furnished the magazine with
translations of Horace.
RICHARD RUSH (1780-1859) was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1800,
and successfully defended William Duane, of the _Aurora_, on a charge of
libelling Gov. Thomas McKean. He occasionally contributed official and
personal anecdotes to the _Port Folio_.
RICHARD PETERS (1744-1828), the witty judge of Belmont, extended
princely hospitality at his country seat. His association with the most
distinguished men of Europe and America stored his memory with the
choicest bits of political and personal history. These odd old ends,
stolen out of the secret chronicles of the time, and decked with his
rare wit, were given upon irregular occasions to the _Port Folio_.
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (1752-1816) contributed political satires in both
prose and verse to Dennie and his confrères.
JOSEPH HOPKINSON (1770-1842), whose authorship of "Hail Columbia" has
been already referred to, wrote the articles upon Shakespeare that
appeared in the _Port Folio_ between 1801 and 1806. His house at Fourth
and Chestnut Streets was a favorite meeting-place for Dennie and the
wits.
HORACE BINNEY (1780-1875), one of the most distinguished lawyers at a
time when a Philadelphia lawyer was a synonym for skill and cleverness,
wrote in moments, snatched from a busy and almost breathless profession,
some of the clearest and most careful sketches of classical literature,
as well as the shrewdest of political satires to be found in the early
volumes of the _Port Folio_.
HARRIET FENNO, daughter of John Ward Fenno, founder and editor of the
_United States Gazette_, signed her verses "Violetta."
MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON was the woman who carried to Washington the
letter written by Dr. Duché urging concessions to the British as the
only means of saving the country from spoliation and ruin. She was a
daughter of Dr. Thomas Graeme, a Scottish physician, and granddaughter
of Sir William Keith. Father and daughter lived for a time in the
Slate-Roof House, then in the Carpenter mansion at Sixth and Chestnut,
and finally at Graeme Hall in Montgomery County. Her life was written in
the _Port Folio_ of 1809 (Page 524). Letters from her appear in various
numbers of that magazine, always signed "Laura." Nathaniel Evans wooed
Miss Graeme as "Laura" in true Petrarchan fashion. The Philadelphia
Library possesses the MS. of a translation of Fénelon by Mrs. Ferguson.
She visited Europe in company with Dr. Richard Peters, of Philadelphia,
and everywhere her brilliant conversation and refined manners won her
recognition and applause in literary society. Laurence Sterne was
fascinated by her. "She took a seat upon the same stage with him at the
York races. While bets were making upon different horses, she selected a
small horse that was in the rear of the coursers as the subject of a
trifling wager. Upon being asked the reason for doing so, she said 'the
race was not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong.' Mr.
Sterne, who stood near to her, was struck with this reply, and turning
hastily toward her begged for the honor of her acquaintance. They soon
became sociable, and a good deal of pleasant conversation took place
between them to the great entertainment of the surrounding company"
(Knapp, "Female Biography," page 217).
She wrote a parody upon Pope which was printed with Nathaniel Evans'
poems (1772):
How happy is the country parson's lot!
Forgetting bishops, as by them forgot;
Tranquil of spirit, with an easy mind,
To all his vestry's votes he sits resigned.
Of manners gentle and of temper even,
He jogs his flocks, with easy pace, to heaven.
In Greek and Latin pious books he keeps,
And, while his clerk sings psalms, he--soundly sleeps.
His garden fronts the sun's sweet orient beams,
And fat church-wardens prompt his golden dreams.
The earliest fruit in his fair orchard blooms,
And cleanly pipes pour out tobacco fumes.
From rustic bridegroom oft he takes the ring,
And hears the milkmaid plaintive ballads sing.
Back-gammon cheats whole winter nights away,
And Pilgrim's Progress helps a rainy day.
ALEXANDER WILSON was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died
in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. "The Poems and Literary Prose of
Alexander Wilson" was edited by A. B. Grosart, and published at Paisley
in 1876. "With the exception of Allen Ramsay, Ferguson and Burns, none
of our Scottish vernacular poets have been so continuously kept in print
as Alexander Wilson" (Grosart). Seven biographies of him attest the
lively interest felt in his personality and his work. In Scotland he was
apprenticed to a weaver, and, after serving his time, he continued to
work at the loom for four years more. He published "Watty and Meg" in
1792, an anonymous poem, the authorship of which was commonly ascribed
to Robert Burns. He came to America in 1794, worked for a year at his
trade, and subsequently taught at various schools in Pennsylvania and
New Jersey. In 1802 he settled at Kingsessing, now in the city of
Philadelphia, close by the home of Bartram, the botanist. Here he taught
the "Union" School. It was in a picturesque spot. Before its doors were
cedars and "stripling poplars planted in a row, and old gray white
oaks."
But birds were more attractive to him than boys. They commanded him, as
the nightingale did the gypsy steward, and he followed them into
untrodden wildernesses. Thomas Bradford undertook to publish Wilson's
colossal "Ornithology." It was to be distinctly an "American" work. It
was to be printed on American paper; and Amies, the paper-maker, even
declared that he would use only "American" rags in making it. Seven
volumes appeared during the author's life, or between 1808 and 1813.
Wilson published the "Rural Walk" in Brown's _Literary Magazine_ of
August, 1804, and the "Solitary Tutor" in the same publication, October,
1804. The former poem was reprinted in the _Port Folio_ of April 27,
1805. Dennie was charmed with the poem, and explained that he reprinted
it because the author "delights in pictures of American scenery and
landscape, and wisely therefore leaves to European poets their
nightingales and skylarks, and their _dingles_ and _dells_. He makes no
mention of yews and myrtles, nor echoes a single note of either
bullfinch or chaffinch, but faithfully describes American objects,
though not entirely in the American idiom." The following four stanzas
from the "Rural Walk" may give a conception of Wilson's close
observation and nice fidelity to nature.
"Down to the left was seen afar
The whitened spire of sacred name,[17]
And ars'nal, where the god of war
Has hung his spears of bloody fame.
"There upward where it (Schuylkill) gently bends,
And Say's red fortress tow'rs in view,[18]
The floating bridge its length extends--
A lively scene forever new.
"There market-maids in lively rows,
With wallets white, were riding home,
And thundering gigs, with powdered beaux,
Through Gray's green festive shades to roam.
"Sweet flows the Schuylkill's winding tide
By Bartram's green emblossom'd bowers,
Where nature sports in all her pride
Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers."
[17] Christ Church.
[18] Dr. Benjamin Say's house at Gray's Ferry.
Wilson, in 1804, undertook a journey to Niagara. The adventures by the
way and the sight of the stupendous cataract supply the theme of his
longest and most ambitious poem, "The Foresters." It was published with
illustrations in successive numbers of the _Port Folio_ of 1809, Volumes
I, II and III. The entire poem contained 2,000 lines. The _Literary
Magazine_ contains a part of the poem. This appearance, I believe, has
never been noted. It is to be found in Volume IV, page 155. The lines
were written August 12, 1805, and were published in the same month. In
the literary intelligence of the same month the future publication of
"The Foresters" is glanced at.
A prose letter and a poem, "The Pilgrim," by Wilson, are in the _Port
Folio_, June, 1809, page 499. Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon
met in Louisville, Ky., whither the latter had gone after disposing of
his farm upon the Perkiomen Creek, near Philadelphia. Wilson conceived a
dislike for Audubon, and wrote to the _Port Folio_ concerning
Louisville, "Science or literature has not one friend in this place."
Audubon, into whose mind no thought of publishing his own fine drawings
had yet come, refused out of jealousy to add his name to the
subscription list for Wilson's "American Ornithology." Robert Buchanan
wrote, "If Audubon had one marked fault it was vanity; he was a queer
compound of Actæon and Narcissus--having a gun in one hand and
flourishing a looking-glass in the other." Grosart is much too severe
when he styles Audubon "a great dilettante impostor."
After Wilson's death three supplementary volumes to his "Ornithology"
were added by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, and it was Lucien Bonaparte's
son, Prince Canino, who first suggested to Audubon the publication of
his collections.
One of Wilson's most intimate friends was the engraver Alexander Lawson,
with whom he became acquainted through William Bartram, and from whom he
learned to draw. Lawson was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, December 19,
1772. He came to Philadelphia in 1792, engraved four plates for
Thomson's "Seasons" for Thomas Dobson, and died in 1846. His daughter,
Mary Lockhart, was a contributor to _Graham's Magazine_.
It was Wilson's wish that he should be buried "in some rural spot where
the birds might sing over his grave." His wish was fulfilled, and his
body was laid away in the quiet old-world burial ground of old Swedes'
Church.
SAMUEL EWING was born in Philadelphia August 16, 1776. He was placed in
the counting house of John Swanwick. Upon the failure of his employer,
Ewing studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1800. He was a
contributor to the _Port Folio_ from the first. He wrote for it a series
of articles, entitled "Reflections in Solitude." All his contributions
were signed "Jacques."
In 1809 he founded _The Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign
Magazines_, which he edited for three years, until it was sold to Mr.
Thomas and the title changed to the _Analectic_, when the editorship
passed into the hands of Washington Irving. Samuel Ewing helped to
establish the _Athenæum_ in Philadelphia, and was for a time
vice-president of that institution. He died in Philadelphia, February 8,
1825. Samuel Ewing's father was the Rev. Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the
University of Pennsylvania, whose contributions have been noted in the
earlier magazines. A short account of his life is prefixed to his
lectures on natural philosophy, "A Plain Elementary and Practical System
of Natural Experimental Philosophy. By the late Rev. John Ewing.
Philadelphia, 1809. Revised by Robert Patterson." John Ewing was born
June 22, 1732, in Nottingham, Cecil County, Maryland; was graduated
from Princeton 1752; received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh; enjoyed
the friendship of Robertson, the historian, and died in Philadelphia,
September 8, 1802. An interesting anecdote is related in the life of Dr.
Ewing (page 16). In 1773 he dined at Dilly's with Dr. Johnson. He
remembered the silence that fell when Johnson entered the room. "He
attended to nothing but his plate; ... having eaten voraciously, he
raised his head slowly, and looking round the table surveyed the guests
for the first time." The conversation turning upon America, Ewing
defended the colonies. "What do you know, sir, on the subject?" Johnson
demanded. Ewing had been cautioned to avoid contradiction, but the
warning was forgotten. "Sir, what do you know in America; you never
read; you have no books there," thundered on the "great cham." "Pardon
me, sir," blandly replied the Philadelphian, "we have read the
'Rambler.'" This civility instantly pacified him.