Chapter XCI: The Wadsworth Longfellow House, Portland, Maine 400 (5)

"The doors and shutters of the lower windows of the mansion
were shut and fastened, the fire of the enemy being delivered
from the iron gratings of the cellars and the windows above,
and it was closely beset on all sides with small-arms and
artillery, as is manifest from the multiplicity of traces
still visible from musket-ball and grape-shot on the interior
walls and ceilings which appear to have entered through the
doors and windows in every direction; marks of cannon-ball
are also visible, in several places on the exterior of the
wall and through the roof, though one ball only appears to
have penetrated below the roof, and that by a window in the
passage of the second story. The artillery seem to have made
no impression on the walls of the house, a few slight
indentures only being observable, except from one stroke in
the rear, which started the wall."

In a few minutes Washington, realizing that precious time was being lost in the attack on the thick walls of the house, ordered a regiment to remain behind to watch Cliveden, while his main force hastened on.

It has been claimed that this brief delay was responsible for the defeat at Germantown. Wilkinson, on the contrary, insists that this delay saved Washington's army from annihilation, since he would otherwise have hurried on in the thick fog until he was in contact with the main body of the British army. The result, he thinks, would have been a far greater disaster than actually overtook the American arms that day.

The damage done to the house was so great that five carpenters were busy for months making repairs. Evidently Judge Chew was not satisfied with the result, for in 1779 he sold Cliveden for $9,000, only to buy it back again in 1787 for $25,000.

The property descended to Benjamin Chew, Jr., on the death of his father. During his occupancy of Cliveden, Lafayette was a guest there in 1825.

XXXV

OLD PINE STREET CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA

WHOSE PASTOR INSPIRED JOHN ADAMS TO PLEAD FOR INDEPENDENCE

There were four thousand, seven hundred and seventy-four houses in Philadelphia in 1767 when the Pine Street Presbyterian Church, the third church of this denomination in the city, was built. The subscription paper, still in existence, shows that L1,078 "in money or otherwise" was subscribed for the purpose. The sum needed to complete the building was raised by a lottery, which yielded L2,500. In the proceeds of the lottery the Market Street Church and the Second Church shared, L1,035 going to the Pine Street building.

The original building was of but one story, with gable ends. When alterations were made in 1837 the top of the church was raised bodily, while a larger roof was built over the old roof. The visitor who climbs to the loft is able to see the old walls and windows. The floor was raised one step above the street level, and was paved with brick.

Rev. George Duffield, D.D., who was pastor from 1772 to 1790, was a prominent figure during the Revolution. He was chaplain of the Continental Congress and of the Pennsylvania militia during the period of the war, and he delivered fiery messages that stirred patriots to action. John Adams, who was a member of the church, called him a man of genius and eloquence. On May 17, 1776, after listening to a sermon in which Dr. Duffield likened the conduct of George III to the Americans to that of Pharaoh to the Israelites, and concluded that God intended the liberation of the Americans, as He had intended that of the Israelites, he wrote to his wife:

"Is it not a saying of Moses, Who am I that I should go in
and out before this great people? When I consider the great
events which are passed, and those greater which are rapidly
advancing, and that I may have been instrumental in touching
some springs, and turning some small wheels, which have had
and will have such effects, I feel an awe upon my mind, which
is not easily described. Great Britain has at last driven
America to the last step, complete separation from her; a
total, absolute independence...."

Headley, in "Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution," says:

"The patriots of the first Congress flocked to his church,
and John Adams and his compeers were often his hearers.... In
a discourse delivered before several companies of the
Pennsylvania militia and members of Congress, four months
before the Declaration of Independence, he took bold and
decided ground in favor of that step, and pleaded his
cause with sublime eloquence, which afterwards made him so
obnoxious to the British that they placed a reward of fifty
pounds for his capture."

Later on in the same sermon he prophesied:

"Whilst sun and moon endure, America shall remain a city of
refuge for the whole earth, until she herself shall play the
tyrant, forget her destiny, disgrace her freedom, and provoke
her God."

As chaplain of the Pennsylvania militia, Dr. Duffield was frequently in camp, where "his visits were always welcome, for the soldiers loved the eloquent, earnest, fearless patriot."

Headley gives this incident of the courageous chaplain's work:

"When the enemy occupied Staten Island, and the American
forces were across the river on the Jersey shore, he repaired
to camp to spend the Sabbath. Assembling a portion of the
troops in an orchard, he climbed into the forks of a tree and
commenced religious exercises. He gave out a hymn.... The
British on the island heard the sound of the singing, and
immediately directed some cannon to play on the orchard, from
whence it proceeded. Soon the heavy shot came crashing
through the branches, and went singing overhead, arresting
for a moment the voices that were lifted in worship. Mr.
Duffield ... proposed that they should adjourn behind an
adjacent hillock. They did so, and continued their worship,
while the iron storm hurled harmlessly overhead."

In spite of his almost constant service in the field, Dr. Duffield was in Philadelphia among his people every little while. The church records show that he baptized children every month during the Revolution, except for the period of the British occupation of Philadelphia, when the church was occupied as a hospital, and more than one hundred Hessian soldiers were buried in the churchyard.

Another remarkable fact is that of the one hundred and ten men who had signed the call to George Duffield in 1771, sixty-seven served in the army during the war. Colonel Thomas Robinson, whose portrait is in Independence Hall, was a member of the church; Captain John Steele, who was field officer on the day of the surrender of Cornwallis, and Colonel William Linnard, whose company attempted to keep the British from crossing the Brandywine, were also members. Many other officers and private soldiers were on the rolls; the stones and vaults in the cemetery tell of many of them.

One of the original trustees of Pine Street was Dr. William Shippen, Jr., first Professor of Medicine in America and Director General of all the hospitals during the war. Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration, was an attendant at the services, and his mother was a member.

XXXVI

INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA

WHERE AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE WAS BORN

William Penn was a man of vision. When, in 1682, Thomas Holme surveyed for him the site of Philadelphia, the Quaker pioneer gave instruction that "the Centre Square," one mile from the Delaware, be set apart for the public buildings of the city and colony.

But for many years after the founding of the city, Centre Square was far out in the country. During these years temporary public buildings were provided for official meetings, including the Assembly, but in 1728 steps were taken to erect a suitable public building within reach of the people of the young city. Ground was bought on Chestnut Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, and the State House was begun in 1730. The total cost of the building was $16,250. Two wings were added in 1739 and 1740; these cost some $12,000 more.

Two years after the completion of the main building the Pennsylvania Assembly passed an act in which this statement was made:

"It is the true intent and meaning of these Presents, that no
part of the said ground lying to the southward of the State
House, as it is now built, be converted into or made use of
for erecting any sort of Building thereupon, but that the
said ground shall be enclosed and remain a public open Green
and Walks forever."

Eighty years after the passage of the act an attempt was made to divert the State House yard to other purposes. In a curious old document, dated February 6, 1816, W. Rawle and Peter S. Duponceau made an argument against this diversion, showing conclusively that the State House Square had been "irrevocably devoted to the purpose of an open and public walk." Thanks to their efforts and the efforts of others who have labored to the same end, the grounds are to-day, and must forever remain, open to the use of the people.

The first public function held in the new State House was a banquet, given in the "long room," in the second story. Of this Franklin's _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of September 30, 1736, said:

"Thursday last William Allen, Esq., Mayor of this city for
the past year, made a feast for his citizens at the State
House, to which all the strangers in town of note were also
invited. Those who are judges of such things say that
considering the delicacy of the viands, the variety and
excellency of the wines, the great number of guests, and yet
the easiness and order with which the whole was conducted, it
was the most grand, the most elegant entertainment that has
been made in these parts of America."

The builders were dilatory. It was 1736 before the Assembly was able to hold its first session in the chamber provided for it, and not until 1745 was the room completed. Three years more passed before the apartment intended for the Governor's Council was ready for its occupants.

In 1741 the tower was built, and on November 4 Edmund Wooley sent to the Province of Pennsylvania an interesting bill, "for expenses in raising the Tower of the State House":

95 loaves of Bread L0 19 9
61-3/3 lb. Bacon, at 7d 1 14 1
148-1/2 lb. Beef at 3-1/2d 2 8 1
Potatoes and Greens 0 7 1
800 Limes at 4s 1 12 0
1-1/2 Barrels of Beer at 18s 1 7 0
44 lb. Mutton at 3-1/2d 0 12 8
37-3/4 lb. Veal at 3-1/2d 0 11 0
30 lb. Venison at 2d 0 5 0
Turnips 0 1 6
Pepper and Mustard 0 1 5
2 Jugs and Candles, Pipes and Tobacco 0 6 0
Butter 9s. 8d. Turkey 4s. 4 pair Fowls 9s 1 2 8
-1/4 of a hundred of Flour 0 3 6
Two former Hookings at getting on two
Floors, and now for raising the Tower, 3 0 0
Fire Wood, etc.

Provision was made in 1750 for the extension of the tower for the accommodation of a bell, and on October 16, 1751, the Superintendent of the State House sent a letter to the colonial agent in London. In this letter he said:

"We take the liberty to apply ourselves to thee to get us a
good bell, of about two thousand pounds weight, the cost of
which we presume may amount to about one hundred pounds
sterling, or, perhaps, with the charges, something more....
Let the bell be cast by the best workmen, and examined
carefully before it is shipped, with the following words
well-shaped in large letters round it, viz:--

"'By order of the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania,
for the State House in the city of Philadelphia, 1752,'

"And underneath,

"'Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land to all the
inhabitants thereof--Levit. XXV. 10.'"

When the new bell was hung it was cracked by a stroke of the clapper. Isaac Norris wrote:

"We concluded to send it back by Captain Budden, but he could
not take it on board, upon which two ingenious workmen
undertook to cast it here, and I am just now informed they
have this day opened the Mould and have got a good bell,
which, I confess, pleases me very much, that we should first
venture upon and succeed in the greatest bell cast, for aught
I know, in English America. The mould was finished in a very
masterly manner, and the letters, I am told, are better than
[on] the old one. When we broke up the metal, our judges here
generally agreed it was too high and brittle, and cast
several little bells out of it to try the sound and strength,
and fixed upon a mixture of an ounce and a half of copper to
one pound of the old bell, and in this proportion we now have
it."

But when the bell was in place it was found to contain too much copper, and Pass & Stow, the founders, "were so teazed with the witticisms of the town," that they begged to be allowed to recast it. In June, 1753, this third bell was hung, and in the following September the founders were paid L60 13s. 5d.

In 1752 arrangements were made for a clock. The works were placed in the middle of the main building, immediately under the roof. These were connected by rods, enclosed in pipes, with the hands on the dial plates at either gable. Early views of the State House show these dials. The cost of the clock, which included care for six years, was L494 5s. 5-1/2 d.

During the twenty years that followed the installation of the clock and the bell the State House became a civic centre of note; but not until the stirring events that led up to the Revolution did it become of special interest to other colonies than Pennsylvania. On April 25, 1775, the day after news came to Philadelphia of the battles of Lexington and Concord, the great bell sounded a call to arms that was the real beginning of making the building a national shrine. In response to the call eight thousand people gathered in the Yard to consider measures of defence. On April 26 the newspapers reported that "the company unanimously agreed to associate for the purpose of defending with arms their lives, liberty, and property, against all attempts to deprive them of them." This determination of the people was soon sanctioned by the Assembly, and Pennsylvania prepared to raise its quota towards the Army of the Revolution.

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress met in the Assembly Chamber, and took action that made inevitable the adoption of the Declaration of Independence the next year. On Friday, June 7, 1776, in the Eastern Room on the first floor of the State House, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced the following:

"Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought
to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved
from all allegiance to the British Crown and that all
political connection between them and the State of Great
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

At the same time the Pennsylvania Assembly was considering, in the chamber upstairs, what instruction to give to its delegates. When the Assembly adjourned the Continental Congress removed to the upper room. There, on July 2, the Virginian's motion was carried. Later the Declaration itself was adopted, and on July 4, it was

"Resolved, that Copies of the Declaration be sent to the
several assemblies, conventions, and committees or councils
of safety, and to the several commanding officers of the
Continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the
United States and at the head of the army."

It was ordered that the Declaration be proclaimed from the State House on Monday, July 8, 1776. On that day the State House bell sounded its glad call; for the first time did it indeed "proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." And in the hearing of those who gathered in response to its call the Declaration was read.

From that day the State House has been known as Independence Hall, while the State House Yard has become Independence Square.

The sittings of Congress in Independence Hall were interrupted by the approach of the British. For five months the building was used as a British prison and hospital. But on July 2, 1778, Congress returned; the building once more belonged to the nation.

The building became more than ever a national shrine when, in 1787, the Constitutional Convention met there. On September 17, 1787, the votes of eleven States were recorded in favor of the Constitution, and Benjamin Franklin, looking toward a sun which was blazoned on the President's chair, said of it to those near him, "In the vicissitudes of hope and fear I was not able to tell whether it was rising or setting; now I know that it is the rising sun."

In 1790, the Congress of the United States met in the western portion of the buildings on the Square, erected in 1785 for the Pennsylvania Assembly.[1] This building was, by that body, offered to Congress and accepted for the term of ten years, until the Capital should be removed to the shore of the Potomac.

During these ten years, and for thirty-five years more, the Liberty Bell continued to sound notes of joy and of sorrow. On July 8, 1835, it was tolling for Chief Justice Marshall. When the funeral procession was on Chestnut Street, not far from Independence Hall, the bell cracked. Since that day it has been mute.

The passing years have brought many changes to Independence Hall, as well as to the Liberty Bell. The bell cannot be renewed, but the historic building and the Square have been restored until they present essentially the appearance of the days of 1776. The chief difference is in the steeple. The present steeple was built in 1828. It is much like the old steeple, but a story higher.

As the visitor passes from room to room of the venerable building, and examines the relics and studies the portraits of the great men who gathered there so long ago, his heart is stirred to thankfulness to those who dared to call a nation into being, and he cannot but think that it is good to live for one's country.

XXXVII

THE DAVID RITTENHOUSE HOME, NEAR PHILADELPHIA

THE HEADQUARTERS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S FRIEND AND CO-LABORER

_"See the sage Rittenhouse with ardent eye
Lift the long tube and pierce the starry sky!
He marks what laws the eccentric wanderers bind,
Copies creation in his forming mind,
And bids beneath his hand in semblance rise
With mimic orbs the labors of the skies."_

This was Barlow's way of telling of the achievement of David Rittenhouse, the colonial astronomer, in fashioning the marvellous orrery, the mechanical representation of the movements of the planetary system. Thomas Jefferson's prose description was a little more readable:

"A machine far surpassing in ingenuity of contrivance,
accuracy and utility anything of the kind ever before
constructed.... He has not indeed made a world, but he has by
imitation approached more its Maker than any man who has
lived from the creation to this day."

The father of the maker of the orrery was a paper manufacturer near Germantown, but when David was three years old he moved to a little farm in Norriton, nineteen miles from Philadelphia, where, in 1749, he built the stone house in which his son spent the rest of his life.

It was his purpose to make a farmer of David, and he might have succeeded if he had not invested in a few mathematical books. The twelve-year-old boy was fascinated by these volumes. Samuel W. Pennypacker has told the result:

"The handles of his plough, and even the fences around the
fields, he covered with mathematical calculations.... At
seventeen he made a wooden clock, and afterward one in metal.
Having thus tested his ability in an art in which he had
never received any instruction, he secured from his somewhat
reluctant father money enough to buy in Philadelphia the
necessary tools, and after holding a shop by the roadside,
set up in business as a clock and mathematical instrument
maker."

Dr. Benjamin Rush once said that "without library, friends, or society, and with but two or three books, he became, before he had reached his four-and-twentieth year, the rival of two of the greatest mathematicians of Europe."

The skilled astronomer was soon called upon to render a service to several of the Colonies. By means of astronomical instruments he did such accurate work in marking out the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania that Mason and Dixon later accepted his results, and he settled the dispute between New Jersey and New York as to the point where the forty-first degree of latitude touches the Hudson River. Perhaps, however, the achievement that won for him greatest fame was the observation, made in 1769, of the transit of Venus. The importance of the observation is evident from the facts that it provides the best means for calculating the distance between the heavenly bodies, which had never been satisfactorily made, and that the opportunity would not occur again for one hundred and five years. After months of preparation, which included the making of delicate instruments, Rittenhouse, one of a committee of three appointed by the American Philosophical Society, succeeded. In the words of Pennypacker, "The first approximately accurate results in the measurement of the spheres were given to the world, not by the schooled and salaried astronomers who watched from the magnificent royal observatories of Europe, but by unpaid amateurs and devotees to science in the youthful province of Pennsylvania."

Benjamin Franklin found in him a kindred spirit, and the Philadelphian was frequently a visitor at the Norriton farmhouse. On Sunday the two friends often went to the old Norriton Presbyterian Church, which had been built on the corner of the Rittenhouse farm, within sight of the house. This church, which probably dates from 1698, is still standing in good repair.

Some years after the successful observation of the transit of Venus brought fame to the American astronomer, he moved to Philadelphia. There, among other duties, he had charge of the State House clock.

At the beginning of the Revolution the Council of Safety asked that he should "prepare moulds for the casting of clock weights, and send them to some iron furnace, and order a sufficient number to be immediately made for the purpose of exchanging them with the inhabitants of this city for their leaden clock weights." The leaden weights were needed for bullets. Later he was sent to survey the shores of the Delaware, to choose the best points for fortifications.

When he became Engineer of the Council of Safety "he was called upon to arrange for casting cannon of iron and brass, to view the site for the erection of a Continental powder mill, to conduct experiments for rifling cannon and muskets, to fix upon a method of fastening a chain for the protection of the river, to superintend the manufacture of saltpeter, and to locate a magazine for military stores on the Wissahickon."

This was but the beginning of service to Pennsylvania during the Revolution. His activities were so valuable to the Colonies that a Tory poet published in the _Pennsylvania Evening Post_ of December 2, 1777, a verse addressed "To David Rittenhouse," of which the first stanza read:

"Meddle not with state affairs,
Keep acquaintance with the stars;
Science, David, is thy line;
Warp not Nature's great design.
If thou to fame would'st rise."

The following year Thomas Jefferson wrote to him:

"You should consider that the world has but one Rittenhouse,
and never had one before.... Are those powers, then, which,
being intended for the erudition of the world, are, like
light and air, the world's common property, to be taken from
their proper pursuit to do the commonplace drudgery of
governing a single State?"

To the call of the nation Rittenhouse responded in April, 1792, when President Washington appointed him the first Director of the Mint.

His closing years were full of honors, but his strength was declining rapidly; he had spent himself so fully for his country that his power of resistance was small. Just before he died, on June 26, 1796, he said to a friend who had been writing to him, "You make the way to God easier."

XXXVIII

THE HEADQUARTERS AT VALLEY FORGE, PENNSYLVANIA

WHERE WASHINGTON LIVED DURING THE WINTER OF 1777-78

A few rods from the beautiful Schuylkill River, at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, twenty-four miles from Philadelphia, is the quaint stone house where Washington spent nearly six months of the most trying year of the Revolution.

While the British troops were occupying Philadelphia Congress was in session at York, Pennsylvania. Valley Forge was accordingly a strategic location, for from here it was comparatively simple to guard the roads leading out of Philadelphia, and to prevent both the exit of the British and the entrance of supplies designed for the enemy.

The eleven thousand men who marched to the site selected for the camp were miserably equipped for a winter in the open. Provisions were scarce, and clothing and shoes were even more scarce. But the men looked forward bravely to the months of exposure before them.

Washington did everything possible to provide for their comfort. Realizing that the soldiers needed something more than the tents in which they were living at first, he gave orders that huts should be built for them. The commanding officers of the regiments were instructed to divide their soldiers into parties of twelve, to see that each party had the necessary tools, and to superintend the building of a hut for each group of twelve soldiers, according to carefully stated dimensions. A reward was offered to the party in each regiment which should complete its hut in the quickest and best manner. Since valuable time would be lost in preparing boards for the roofs, he promised a second sword to the officer or soldier who should devise a material for this purpose cheaper and more quickly made than boards.

Some of the first huts were covered with leaves, but it was necessary to provide a more lasting covering. After a few weeks fairly acceptable quarters were provided for the men, in spite of the scarcity of tools. Colonel Pickering, on January 5, wrote to Mrs. Pickering, "The huts are very warm and comfortable, being very good log huts, pointed with clay, and the roof made tight with the same."

At first, Washington sought to encourage his soldiers by assuring them that he would accept no better quarters than could be given them; he would set the example by passing the winter in a hut. But officers and men alike urged that it would be unwise to risk his health in this way, and he consented to seek quarters in a near-by house. However, he refused to make himself comfortable until the men were provided for.

His headquarters were finally fixed in the two-story stone house of Isaac Potts. There he met his officers, received visitors, planned for the welfare of the army, and parried the attacks of those who could not understand the difficulties of the situation. Once he wrote to Congress: "Three days successively we have been destitute of bread. Two days we have been entirely without meat. The men must be supplied, or they cannot be commanded."

To the objections of those who thought that the army should not be inactive during the winter weather, he wrote:

"I can assure these gentlemen, that it is a much easier and
less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable
room by a good fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill,
and sleep under frost and snow, without clothes or blankets.
However, although they seem to have little pity for the naked
and distressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them,
and, from my soul, I pity those miseries which it is neither
in my power to relieve or prevent."

The heavy hearts of Washington and his officers rejoiced when, on February 23, 1778, Baron Steuben and Peter S. Du Ponceau called at headquarters. Du Ponceau wrote later:

"I cannot describe the impression that the first sight of
that great man made upon me. I could not keep my eyes from
that imposing countenance--grave, yet not severe; affable,
without familiarity.... I have never seen a picture that
represents him to me as I saw him at Valley Forge.... I had
frequent opportunities of seeing him, as it was my duty to
accompany the Baron when he dined with him, which was
sometimes twice or thrice in the same week. We visited him
also in the evening, when Mrs. Washington was at
head-quarters. We were in a manner domesticated in the
family."

An order was sent from headquarters, dated March 28, that Baron Steuben be respected and obeyed as Inspector General. The need of his services is revealed by his description of the condition of the army when he arrived in camp:

"The arms at Valley Forge were in a horrible condition,
covered with rust, half of them without bayonets, many from
which a single shot could not be fired. The pouches were
quite as bad as the arms. A great many of the men had tin
boxes instead of pouches, others had cow-horns; and muskets,
carbines, fowling-pieces, and rifles were to be seen in the
same company.... The men were literally naked.... The
officers who had coats, had them of every color and make. I
saw officers, at a grand parade in Valley Forge, mounting
guard in a sort of dressing-gown, made of an old blanket or
woolen bed-cover...."

Mrs. Washington joined the circle at headquarters on February 10. She was not favorably impressed. "The General's apartment is very small," she wrote. "He has had a log cabin built to dine in, which has made our quarters much more tolerable than they were at first."

The most joyful day at Valley Forge was May 7, 1778, when a fete was held to celebrate the conclusion of the treaty of alliance between France and the United States. After religious service, the army was reviewed, and Washington dined in public with his officers. "When the General took his leave, there was a universal clap, with loud huzzas, which continued till he had proceeded a quarter of a mile."

On June 18 the glad tidings came to headquarters that the British were evacuating Philadelphia. Next day the camp was left behind. Washington did not see it again for nine years.

In 1879 the Isaac Potts house was bought by the Continental Memorial Association of Valley Forge. And in 1893 the Pennsylvania Legislature created the Valley Forge Park Commission, which has since acquired the entire encampment, has laid it out as a park, and has arranged for the erection of many monuments and markers and a number of memorial structures. But the house in which Washington lived must always be the central feature of the grounds.

XXXIX

THREE HEADQUARTERS OF WASHINGTON

PENNYPACKER'S MILLS, DAWESFIELD, AND EMLEN HOUSE, NEAR PHILADELPHIA

During the closing months of 1777, one of the darkest times of the Revolution, Washington made famous by his occupancy three houses, all located within a few miles of Philadelphia. The first of these, Pennypacker's Mills, is the only building used by the Commander-in-Chief during the war that is still in the hands of the family that owned it when he was there.

Pennypacker's Mills is delightfully situated in the angle formed by the union of the two forks of the Perkiomen, the largest tributary of the Schuylkill. Hans Joest Heijt, who built the grist mill and house on the land in 1720, sold the property in 1730 to John Pauling. He was succeeded in 1757 by Peter Pannebecker. His son Samuel was the owner of the house by the creek when, on September 26, 1777, Washington reached the Mills.

The orderly book of the following days and letters written from the house shed light on the events of the stay here.

On the day he reached the Mills, Washington wrote to William Henry at Lancaster:

"You are hereby authorized to impress all the Blankets,
Shoes, Stockings, and other Articles of Clothing that can be
spared by the Inhabitants of the County of Lancaster, for the
Use of the Continental Army, paying for the same at
reasonable Rates or giving Certificates."

The entry in the orderly book on September 28 read:

"The Commander-in-Chief has the happiness again to
congratulate the army on the success of the Americans to the
Northward. On the 19th inst. an engagement took place between
General Burgoyne's army and the left wing of ours, under
General Gates. The battle began at 10 o'clock, and lasted
till night--our troops fighting with the greatest bravery,
not giving an inch of ground.... To celebrate this success
the General orders that at 4 o'clock this afternoon all the
troops be paraded and served with a gill of rum per man, and
that at the same time there be discharges of 13 pieces of
artillery from the park."

On the same day there was a council of war. It was found that there were in camp, fit for duty, 5,472 men. The whole army in all the camps then contained about eight thousand Continental troops and three thousand militia.

Next day Washington wrote:

"I shall move the Army four or five miles lower down to-day
from whence we may reconnoitre and fix upon a proper
situation, at such distance from the Enemy, as will entitle
us to make an attack, should we see a proper opening, or
stand upon the defensive till we obtain further
reinforcements...."

Later in the day the army marched to Skippack, within about twenty-five miles of Philadelphia. The next stage in the advance was Methacton Hill, and from there the army began to move, on October 3, at seven o'clock in the evening, to the attack on the British at Germantown.

After the battle of Germantown Washington wrote to the President of Congress:

"In the midst of the most promising appearances, when
everything gave the most flattering hopes of victory, the
troops began suddenly to retreat, and entirely left the
field, in spite of every effort that could be made to rally
them."

The Commander's marvellous ability to handle men was shown by the entry made in his orderly book the next day, when he was back at Pennypacker's Mills. Instead of reprimanding the soldiers for their strange retreat, he "returned thanks to the generals and other officers and men concerned in the attack on the enemy's left wing, for their spirit and bravery, shown in drawing the enemy from field to field, and although ... they finally retreated, they nevertheless see that the enemy is not proof against a vigorous attack, and may be put to flight when boldly pursued."

The good results of this message were evident from the letter of a soldier written from the Mills on October 6. He said:

"Our excellent General Washington ... intends soon to try
another bout with them. All our men are in good spirits and I
think grow fonder of fighting the more they have of it."

To the joy of the soldiers the word was given on October 8 to march toward Philadelphia. In three short stages the army arrived, on October 21, at Whitpain, where Washington took up his headquarters in the house of James Morris, Dawesfield. From here messages were sent that tied his men still closer to him. On October 24 he issued a proclamation of full pardon to deserters who should return before a specified date, and next day he congratulated the troops on the victory at Red Bank.

The chief event of the stay at Dawesfield was the court-martial convened October 30, to try Brigadier-General Wayne, at his own request, on the charge that his negligence was responsible for the defeat at Paoli, September 20. The verdict was that "he did everything that could be expected from an active, brave, and vigilant officer, under the orders he then had."

Three days after the trial the army moved to Whitemarsh, near the junction of the Skippack and Bethlehem roads. There Washington lived at Emlen House, of which Lossing says, "At the time of the Revolution it was a sort of baronial hall in size and character, where its wealthy owner dispensed hospitality to all who came under its roof."

The house was modernized in 1854, but it still retains many of the original features. Among these is the moat at the side of the house.

Washington followed the example of the owner of the house by welcoming guests, in spite of the handicaps mentioned in the orderly book on November 7:

"Since ... the middle of September last, he [the General] has
been without his baggage, and on that account is unable to
receive company in the manner he could wish. He nevertheless
desires the Generals, Field Officers and Brigadier-Major of
the day, to dine with him in the future, at three o'clock in
the afternoon."

It was from Emlen House that Washington gave the first intimation that he knew of the infamous attempts to discredit and displace him which later became known as the "Conway Cabal." To General Conway himself he wrote saying that he had heard of Conway's letter to General Gates in which he had said, "Heaven has been determined to save your country, or a weak General and bad counsellors would have ruined it."

A few glimpses of the awful condition of privation that were to prevail that winter at Valley Forge were given on November 22:

"The Commander-in-Chief offers a reward of ten dollars to any
person, who shall, by nine o'clock on Monday morning, produce
the best substitute for shoes, made of raw hide."

The movement to Valley Forge was begun on December 1. The army went by way of "Sweeds" Ford (Norristown), where, as the quaint diary of Albigence Waldo says:

"A Bridge of Waggons made across the Schuylkill last night
consisted of 36 waggons, with a bridge of Rails between each.
Sun Set--We are order'd to march over the River. The Army
were 'till Sun Rise crossing the River--some at the Waggon
Bridge, & some at the Raft Bridge below. Cold and
Uncomfortable."

XL

SWEETBRIER-ON-THE-SCHUYLKILL, PHILADELPHIA

THE HOME OF THE FATHER OF THE FREE SCHOOLS OF PENNSYLVANIA

When Samuel Breck was fifty-eight years and six months old--on January 17, 1830--he wrote:

"My residence has been ... for more than thirty years ... on
an estate belonging to me, situated on the right bank of the
Schuylkill, in the township of Blockley, county of
Philadelphia, and two miles from the western part of the
city. The mansion on this estate I built in 1797. It is a
fine stone house, rough cast, fifty-three feet long,
thirty-eight broad, and three stories high, having
out-buildings of every kind suitable for elegance and
comfort. The prospect consists of the river, animated by its
great trade, carried on in boats of about thirty tons, drawn
by horses; of a beautiful sloping lawn, terminating at that
river, now nearly four hundred yards wide opposite the
portico; of side-screen woods; of gardens, green-house, etc.
Sweetbrier is the name of my villa."

Mr. Breck spent his boyhood in Boston, but his parents removed to Philadelphia in 1792 to escape what they felt was an unjust system of taxation. During the first years of their residence in the city of William Penn it had "a large society of elegant and fashionable and stylish people," Mr. Breck said in his diary. "Congress held its sessions in Philadelphia until the year 1800, and gave to the city the style and tone of a capital. All the distinguished emigrants from France took up their abode there."

Among the associates of the Brecks were some of the leaders of the new nation. Samuel Breck was frequently at the Robert Morris house, and later, during the four years' imprisonment of Mr. Morris, he "visited that great man in the Prune Street debtors' apartment, and saw him in his ugly whitewashed vault."

The diarist's comment was bitter: "In Rome or Greece a thousand statesmen would have honored his mighty services. In a monarchy ... he would have been appropriately pensioned; in America, Republican America, not a single voice was raised in Congress or elsewhere in aid of him or his family."

There is not a more striking passage in the diaries than that written on August 27, 1814, during the second war with England:

"I was in town to-day ... at half past twelve o'clock I went
with an immense crowd to the post-office to hear the news
from the South. The postmaster read it to us from a chamber
window. It imported that the navy-yard had been burnt (valued
at from six to eight millions of dollars) including the new
frigate _Essex_, sloop-of-war _Argus_, some old frigates, a
vast quantity of timber, from five to eight hundred large
guns, and many manufactories of cordage, etc., by our people;
that the President's House, Capitol, and other important
buildings had been destroyed, and all this by a handful of
men, say, six thousand!"

The diary told also of some interesting experiences at the mansion on the Schuylkill. In 1807 "a newly invented iron grate calculated for coal" was installed at Sweetbrier. After less than three weeks' trial Mr. Breck wrote, "By my experiment in coal fuel I find that one fireplace will burn from three to three and a half bushels per week in hard weather and about two and a half in moderate weather. This averages three bushels for twenty-five weeks, the period of burning fire in parlors." The coal cost forty-five cents a bushel, and Mr. Breck decided that wood was a cheaper fuel.

Even in those early days city families had their troubles with servants. "This is a crying evil, which most families feel very sensibly at present," was Mr. Breck's sorrowful statement. Fifteen years after this entry was written, a bitter complaint was made:

"In my family, consisting of nine or ten persons, the
greatest abundance is provided; commonly seventy pounds of
fresh butcher's meat, poultry and fish a week, and when I
have company nearly twice as much; the best and kindest
treatment is given to the servants; they are seldom visited
by Mrs. Breck, and then always in a spirit of courtesy; their
wages are the highest going, and uniformly paid to them when
asked for; yet during the last twelve months we have had
seven different cooks and five different waiters.... I pay,
for instance, to my cook one dollar and fifty cents, and
chambermaid one dollar and twenty-five cents per week; to my
gardener eleven dollars per month; to the waiter ten dollars;
to the farm servant ten dollars, etc., etc. Now, if they
remain steady (with meat three times a day) for three or four
years, they can lay by enough to purchase two or three
hundred acres of new land."

On one occasion, learning that the ship _John_ had arrived from Amsterdam, Mr. Breck visited it in search of men and women. He wrote:

"I saw the remains of a very fine cargo, consisting of
healthy, good-looking men, women and children, and I
purchased one German Swiss for Mrs. Ross and two French Swiss
for myself.... I gave for the woman seventy-six dollars,
which is her passage money, with a promise of twenty dollars
at the end of three years, if she serves me faithfully,
clothing and maintenance of course. The boy had paid
twenty-six guilders towards his passage money, which I have
agreed to give him at the end of three years; in addition to
which I paid fifty-three dollars and sixty cents for his
passage, and for two years he is to have six weeks' schooling
each year."

It was like Mr. Breck to make the provision for schooling. He was an ardent friend of education in an age when too many were indifferent. In 1834, when the fortunes of a proposal for free schools in Pennsylvania were in doubt, he consented to become a member of the State Senate. There he bent every effort to secure the passage of a generous provision for common schools. On the first day of the session he moved successfully for the appointment of a Joint Committee on Education of the two Houses, "for the purpose of digesting a general system of education." Of this committee he was made chairman.

After seven weeks of unremitting labor the bill incorporating the committee's report, a bill drafted by Mr. Breck, was introduced. In six weeks more it became a law, four votes only having been cast against it. Wickersham, in his "History of Education in Pennsylvania," says that the passage of the bill was "the most important event connected with education in Pennsylvania--the first great victory for free schools."

At the close of the session the author of the bill retired to Sweetbrier, in accordance with his intention to decline any further public honors. He felt that his work for the State and the Nation was done.

XLI

MILL GROVE AND FATLANDS, NEAR PHILADELPHIA

THE HOMES OF JOHN J. AUDUBON AND OF HIS BRIDE, MARY BAKEWELL

About two hundred years ago, there lived in France a poor fisherman named Audubon, who had nineteen daughters and two sons. One of the sons was sent away to make his fortune when he was twelve years of age. His entire patrimony was a shirt, a suit of clothes, a cane, and a blessing. For five years he was a sailor before the mast. Then he bought a boat. He prospered and bought other vessels. After many years he had large wealth, and was trading to the distant quarters of the earth.

When he was an old man he paid a visit to America. In two widely separated places, attracted by the country, he bought land. One estate was on Perkiomen Creek, near Philadelphia; the other was in Louisiana. In Louisiana he spent much of his time; and there, on May 4, 1780,[2] his son, John James Audubon, was born.

Commodore Audubon wanted his son to be a seaman, and he took him to France that he might be educated for the navy. But the boy's tastes were in another direction altogether. One of the teachers provided for him was an artist, who gave him lessons in drawing that were intended as a part of his training for the profession the father had chosen for him. But the boy put it to a use of his own. On his holidays he used to take a lunch into the country, and would return loaded down with all kinds of natural history specimens. These he would preserve in a cabinet of his own devising, and drawings of many of them would be made and treasured.

Commodore Audubon was not pleased with his son's habits, and he thought he would give him something to do that would distract his mind. The estate in Pennsylvania needed a superintendent. So he sent the would-be naturalist to America, with instructions to look after the estate.

But the wild woods about Philadelphia offered so many opportunities for tramping and nature investigation that the estate was neglected. The house on the estate, Mill Grove, which is still standing, is near the mouth of the Perkiomen. Along this pleasing stream he could ramble for hours, with his gun or his fishing rod or his collecting instruments. Before long the attic room which he occupied was a treasure house of birds and animals and natural-history specimens. He was his own taxidermist. He would do his work seated at a window that looks toward the Valley Forge country, where Washington spent the winter of 1777-78 with his faithful soldiers. The marks of his work are still to be seen on the old boards beneath the window. These boards came from the sawmill on the estate which gave the house its name.

Here in this attic room the young naturalist dreamed of making careful, accurate drawings of all the birds of America. He knew that this would be a difficult matter, but he was not deterred by thought of hardship and poverty.

While he was dreaming of what he would do for the world, something was happening in London that was to have an effect on his life. An official named Bakewell refused to be silent about a matter that the king felt should be forgotten. Bakewell was a conscientious man, and he did not feel that silence would be proper. The king rebuked him, and he resigned his office. At once he made up his mind to leave England and make a home in America, taking with him his wife and daughter.

After many investigations, he found an estate near Philadelphia that pleased him--Fatlands, on the Schuylkill, near the Perkiomen, so named because every year the latter stream overflows and deposits rich sediment on the surrounding lands. The mansion house at Fatlands was built in 1774, and there Washington as well as the British commander had been entertained by the Quaker owner who felt that he could not show partiality. Here the English immigrant made his home.

Of course Audubon heard of the coming of the strangers to the house across the road, not half a mile from his own quarters. But he did not go to call on them. He was French and they were English; he felt sure they would be undesirable acquaintances, and that he had better keep to the woods and follow his own pursuits, without reference to others.

Then came a day when he was having a delightful stroll through the woods. He was carrying specimens of many kinds. A stranger, also a hunter, encountered him and made a remark about his burden that touched a responsive chord. Soon the two were on good terms. "You must come and see me," the stranger said. The invitation was accepted with alacrity. Then came the question, "Where do you live?" To his surprise, Audubon heard that this pleasing man was his new neighbor at Fatlands.

Deciding that an Englishman was not so bad, after all, he made it convenient to call very soon. Then when he saw Mary Bakewell, the daughter of the house, he was sure he liked the English. She showed great sympathy for his pursuits, and he liked to talk with her about them. Before long she decided to help him in his great life work, the American ornithology.

The marriage was postponed because of the death of Mrs. Bakewell, who pined away, homesick for her native England. But the time came when, on April 8, 1808, the two nature lovers became husband and wife. Then they began the long wanderings in the West and the South, the fruit of which was what has been called one of the most wonderful ornithological treatises ever made, Audubon's "Birds of America."

Mr. and Mrs. Audubon floated down the Ohio River, spent a season in Kentucky and Missouri, had narrow escapes from the Indians, and finally found their way to Louisiana. There for a time the wife supported herself by teaching at the home of a planter. Friends and acquaintances thought the husband was a madman to continue his quest of birds when his family was in straitened circumstances. But Mrs. Audubon believed in him, urged him to go to Europe and study painting in oils, that he might be better equipped for the preparation of his bird plates. She secured a good situation as teacher at Bayou Sara, and was soon enjoying an income of three thousand dollars a year.

Finally, with some of his own savings, as well as some of his wife's funds, he went to England, where he was well received. Plans were made to publish the bird plates, with descriptive matter, at one thousand dollars per set. He had to have one hundred advance subscribers. These he secured by personal solicitation.

At last the work was issued. Cuvier called it "the most magnificent work that art ever raised to ornithology."

Many years later, Audubon, after the death of his wife, returned to the scenes of his early life as a naturalist. "Here is where I met my dear Mary," he said, with glistening eyes, as he looked into one of the rooms of the old mansion.

Mill Grove was built in 1762. Five years after Audubon's marriage the estate was bought by Samuel Wetherill, the grandfather of the present owner, W. H. Wetherill.

Fatlands, which is one of the most beautiful old houses in the vicinity of Philadelphia, was built in 1774. During the Revolution it was occupied by a Quaker named Vaux, who entertained many officers of both armies. It is related that one day General Howe, the British commander, was entertained at breakfast, while Washington was in the house for tea the same evening.

The house was rebuilt in 1843, on the old foundations, according to the original plan.

XLII

WAYNESBOROUGH, NEAR PAOLI, PENNSYLVANIA

THE HOME OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE

Captain Isaac Wayne, who commanded a company at the Battle of the Boyne, came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1722. Two years later he bought sixteen acres of land in Chester County and built Waynesborough.