Historic Shrines of America Part 14

There old Rene Leblanc had died; and when he departed, Saw at his side only one of all his hundred descendants.

Something at least there was in the friendly streets of the city, Something that spake to her heart, and made her no longer a stranger; And her ear was pleased with the Thee and Thou of the Quakers, For it recalled the past, the old Acadian country, Where all men were equal, and all were brothers and sisters._

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

FOUR: RAMBLES ABOUT THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEt.i.tIA PENN HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA _Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 145]

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THE LEt.i.tIA PENN HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA

WILLIAM PENN'S FIRST AMERICAN HOME

When William Penn, English Quaker, met Guli Springett, he fell in love with her at once. In 1672 they were married.

Ten years later when, as Proprietor of Pennsylvania, Penn was about to sail in the _Welcome_ for America, he wrote a letter of which the following is a portion:

"My dear wife and children, my love, which neither sea, nor land, nor death itself, can extinguish or lessen toward you, most tenderly visits you with eternal embraces and will abide with you for ever.... My dear wife, remember thou wast the love of my youth and the joy of my life, the most beloved as well as the most worthy of all my earthly comfort, and the reason of that love were more thy inward than thy outward excellencies, which were yet many. G.o.d knows, and thou knowest it, that it was a match of Providence's making, and G.o.d's image in us both was the first thing and the most amiable and engaging ornament in our eyes. Now I am to leave thee, and that without knowing whether I shall ever see thee more in this world."

Penn landed at New Castle, Delaware, in October, 1682. He had already sent forward the plot of his new country village; his cousin, Lieutenant Governor Markham, had come to America in 1681, bringing with him instructions for the beginning of the settlement. On this plot there was evidence of his thought for his wife and his daughter Let.i.tia; two lots were set apart for the family, on one of which he planned to build, while the other he designed for Let.i.tia.

When he reached America, he found that, by some mistake, Let.i.tia's lot had been given to the Friends for a meeting house. He was vexed, but nothing could be done. So he decided that the lot reserved for his own use should be made over to her. He did not carry out his purpose for some time, however.

For a time Penn remained at Upland (now Chester), but in 1684, he went to Philadelphia to oversee the erection of the houses for the settlers. His own house he built on a large plot facing the Delaware River and south of what is now Market Street. The house was of brick, which was probably made nearby, though many of the interior fittings had been brought from England in the _John and Sarah_ in 1681. It was the first brick house in the new settlement, the first house which had a cellar, and was built in accordance with the request the Proprietor had made:

"Let every house be placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of the plat, as to breadth way of it, that so there may be ground on each side for garden or orchard, or fields, that it may be a green country town, which will never be burnt and always wholesome."

For a few months the Quaker kept bachelor's hall in his new house.

Then he went to England, intending to return before long. Before his departure he arranged that the house should be used in the public service. Probably it was the gathering place for the Provincial Council for many years. Thus it was the first state house of Pennsylvania.

During the fourteen years' stay in England many misfortunes came to Penn. He was accused of treason, and his t.i.tle to the American lands was taken away from him. Later he was acquitted, and his lands were returned.

In 1692 Guli Penn died, and in 1696 Penn married Hannah Callowhill. In 1699, when he returned to America, he brought with him his wife and Let.i.tia, who was then about twenty-five years old.

Evidently the old house was not good enough for the ladies of the family. At any rate they occupied for a time the "slate-roof house,"

one of the most pretentious buildings in the Colony. When the manor, Pennsbury, twenty miles up the Delaware, was completed, the family was taken there. Great style was maintained at the country estate in the woods. The house had cost 5,000, and was "the most imposing house between the Hudson and Potomac rivers."

The Philadelphia house was transferred to Let.i.tia on "the 29th of the 1st month 1701." At once extravagant Let.i.tia tried to dispose of it.

She succeeded in selling a portion of the generous lot, but it was some years before she was able to sell the whole.

In the meantime the Proprietor felt that he must return to England because of the threat of Parliament to change the government of the American Colonies. Mrs. Penn and Let.i.tia, who did not like America, pleaded to go with him. He thought he would be returning soon, and he urged them to remain. They insisted. In a letter to James Logan he wrote: "I cannot prevail on my wife to stay, and still less with _Tish_. I know not what to do." Later he wrote: "The going of my wife and Tish will add greatly to the expense.... But they will not be denied."

In 1702 Let.i.tia married William Aubrey, who had all of Penn's keenness and none of his genial qualities. Almost from the day of the marriage both husband and wife pestered Penn for money. Aubrey insisted on a prompt payment of his wife's marriage portion. His father-in-law was already beginning to feel the grip of financial embarra.s.sment that later brought him to the verge of bankruptcy, but, on this occasion as well as later, he felt compelled to yield to the insistent demands of the grasping Aubrey.

The only members of the Penn family who ever returned to America were the children of the second wife, to whom most of the property descended.

The Let.i.tia Penn House, as it came to be known, fell on evil days. It was an eating house in 1800, and in 1824 it was the Rising Sun Inn.

Later it was called the Woolpack Hotel.

In 1882 funds were raised by public subscription, and the venerable house was taken down and rebuilt in Fairmount Park. Visitors who enter the city by the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York City may easily see it from a right-hand car window, for it is the only house in the corner of the park on the west side of the river.

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CARPENTERS' HALL, PHILADELPHIA

CALLED BY BENSON J. LOSSING "THE TEMPLE OF FREEDOM"

Philadelphia was but forty-two years old when a number of builders in the growing town decided to have a guild like the journeymen's guilds of London. Accordingly they formed, in 1724, "The Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia," whose object should be "to obtain instruction in the science of architecture; to a.s.sist such of the members, or the widows and children of members, as should be by accident in need of support," as well as "the adoption of such a system of measurements and prices that every one concerned in a building may have the value of his money, and every workman the worth of his labor."

At first the meetings were held here and there, probably in taverns.

In 1768 the Company decided to build a home. A lot was secured on Chestnut Street, between Third and Fourth streets, for which an annual ground rent of "176 Spanish milled pieces of eight" was to be paid.

The sum of three hundred pounds necessary to begin operations was subscribed in about a week.

The Company's annual meeting of January 21, 1771, was held within the walls, though the building was not entirely completed until 1792.

Three years after the opening of the hall came the first event that linked the building with the history of America. A general meeting of the people of Philadelphia was held here to protest against the failure of Governor Penn to convene the a.s.sembly of the Colony. A committee of three was appointed to wait on the Speaker and ask him for "a positive answer as to whether he would call the a.s.sembly together or not."

The a.s.sembly was then called to meet on the "18th day of the 6th month." Three days before the time fixed, another meeting was held in Carpenters' Hall to consider what measures for the welfare of the Colony should be proposed to the a.s.sembly. At this meeting the necessity of holding "a general Congress of delegates from all the Colonies" was voiced. Later the a.s.sembly approved of the idea of such a conference, and a call was issued.

On September 5, 1774, the delegates from eleven provinces met in the City Tavern. Learning that the Carpenters' Company had offered the hall for the use of the Continental Congress, the delegates voted to inspect the accommodations. John Adams, one of their number, said after the visit: "They took a view of the room and of the chamber, where there is an excellent library. There is also a long entry, where gentlemen may walk, and also a convenient chamber opposite to the library. The general cry was that this was a good room."

When this First Continental Congress met, it was decided that the session of the second day should be opened with prayer. Rev. Jacob d.u.c.h.e of Christ Church and St. Peter's was asked to be present and conduct an opening service. This historic account of the service was written by John Adams:

"Next morning he appeared with his clerk and having on his pontificals, and read several prayers in the established form, and then read the Psalter for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm. You must remember that this was the next morning after we had heard of the horrible cannonade of Boston (the account proved to be an error). It seemed as if heaven had ordered that Psalm to be read on that morning. After this, Mr. d.u.c.h.e, unexpectedly to everybody, struck out into extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well p.r.o.nounced."

In part, this prayer was as follows:

"Be thou present, O G.o.d of wisdom! And direct the councils of this honorable a.s.sembly, enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed, that order, harmony, and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst Thy people."

On October 26 the Congress was dissolved. The second Congress was called to meet on May 10, 1775, at the State House, later known as Independence Hall.

When the British took possession of the city in 1777, a portion of the army was quartered in the building. Officers and men alike borrowed books from the Library Company of Philadelphia, which had quarters here, invariably making deposits and paying for the use of volumes taken in strict accordance with the rules.

In 1778 the United States Commissary of Military Stores began to occupy the lower story and cellar of the building. From 1791 to 1821 various public organizations sought quarters here, including the Bank of the United States, the Bank of Pennsylvania, the United States Land Office, and the United States Custom House. The Carpenters' Company therefore, in 1791, erected a second building on this lot, which they occupied until 1857.

When Benson J. Lossing visited the historic hall, on November 27, 1848, he wrote of his great disappointment because the banner of an auctioneer was on the front of the building. He said:

"I tried hard to perceive the apparition ... to be a cla.s.sic frieze, with rich historic trigliphs, but it would not do....

What a desecration! Covering the facade of the very Temple of Freedom with the placards of grovelling Mammon! If sensibility is shocked with this outward pollution, it is overwhelmed with indignant shame on entering the hall where that august a.s.sembly of men--the G.o.dfathers of our Republic--convened to stand as sponsors at the baptism of infant American liberty--to find it filled with every species of merchandise, and the walls which once echoed the eloquent words of Henry, Lee, and the Adamses, reverberating with the clatter of the auctioneer's voice and hammer. Is there not patriotism strong enough in Philadelphia to enter the temple, and 'cast out all them that buy and sell, and overthrow the tables of the money-changers?'"

At length the Carpenters' Company decided that the time had come to do what the historian pleaded for. In 1857 they returned to the building, and since then they have held their meetings within the walls consecrated by the heroes of Revolutionary days. The rooms were restored to their original condition, and relics and mementoes of early days were put in place. The Hall has ever since been open to visitors "who may wish to visit the spot where Henry, Hanc.o.c.k, and Adams inspired the delegates of the Colonies with nerve and the sinew for the toils of war."