Charles W. Dahlinger

“ The views of the rival political parties were echoed with startling frankness in the columns of the Tree of Liberty and the Pittsburgh Gazette. On October 11, 1800, the Tree of Liberty announced the election of the Republican candidate for inspector of elections in the borough, and added jubilantly: “The people are no longer to be led up like tame asses to vote against their inclination for the characters that Ross, Woods, and Addison recommend. They now act for themselves.” ”

“ But one scarcely ever thinks of the men who made possible the statesmen and soldiers: the teachers, the men who conduct the newspapers, the writers of books, and above all, the men who publish and sell books.162 The publishers and sellers of books not only supply the wants of the reading public, but they lead it into new channels. They place temptingly before it the latest and best productions in every branch of human activity of the brightest minds in the world. ”

“ The number of brick houses on Market Street was still101 so limited that the merchants were fond of referring to the fact that the establishments conducted by them were located in a “brick house” or “next door to,” or “across the street from,” a “brick house.”
A majority of the merchants and professional men on the street were young, or at least had not arrived at middle age. Like all the men in new communities, they were possessed of unbounded energy, which found vent in their business affairs, in a desire for pleasure, and in an inordinate ambition for political preferment. ”

“ She charged Hilliard with having, during her absence, disposed of the household effects, including her wearing apparel, to John Smur, a tavern keeper in the town, and that everything had been taken away after nightfall; that the articles were part of her separate estate; that now she had “no bed nor board to go to.” She asked that no credit be extended to Hilliard on the strength of her estate, and declared that thereafter she would decline to pay his debts, but would use her estate for her own benefit. “In the future,” she concluded, “it shall not be expended in paying his tavern bills.” ”

“ The merchants generally lived with their families in the houses where their business was conducted. The street was noisy with children. Trees grew on the outer edges of the foot-walks, and in the summer grass and weeds sprang up, watered by the street wells and pumps that supplied the residents with water. ”

“ At a meeting of the Allegheny County militia held at Marie’s tavern, the red and blue cockade had been adopted. Fowler claimed that this was the result of public sentiment. He was fond of platitudes. “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” he quoted, crediting the proverb to an “English commentator,” and adding: “Says a celebrated historian, ‘individuals may err, but the voice of the people76 is infallible.’”110 A strong minority in Allegheny County remained steadfast to the Federal party, and the vote in favor of the adoption of the red and blue cockade was not unanimous. ”

“ The United States Government was still in the formative stage. Until this time the men who had fought the Revolutionary War to a successful conclusion, held a tight rein on the governmental machinery. Now a new element was growing up, and, becoming dissatisfied with existing conditions, organized for a conflict with the men in power. ”

“ Some men wore blanket-coats. Overalls, of dimity, nankeen, and cotton, were the especial badge of mechanics. The shirt was of tow or coarse linen, the vest of dimity. On their feet, farmers and mechanics alike wore coarse high-laced shoes, half-boots, or boots made of neat’s leather. The hats were soft, of fur or wool, and were low and round-crowned, or the crowns were high and square.
The inhabitants of Pittsburgh were pleasure-loving, and the time not devoted to business was given over to the enjoyments of life. Men and women alike played cards. ”

“ Scott was high in the favor of the Republican leaders, and on the death of George Adams on April 1, 1801, was appointed postmaster, and established the post office in his store, continuing the practice of medicine and the sale of drugs as before. William Gazzam was an aggressive Irishman, who had been in the country only a few years, but by dint of perseverance had pressed well forward in politics, perhaps to the detriment of his business, as he failed early in his career. He was brigade inspector of the Allegheny County militia, and justice of the peace. ”

“ A writer who saw the advantages of Pittsburgh with the eyes of a Münchhausen, writing of the value of its coal, declared, that the blaze afforded “so strong a light, that in winter, ... neither tailors, or other mechanics burn candles.”137
At the close of the eighteenth century, the black smoke of the iron shops, the glass manufactory, the boat yards, the distillery, the brewery, the tanneries, the brickyards, and the increasing number of dwelling houses had already given the town a sombre hue. Industry went forward with leaps and bounds, and manufactories on a larger scale were set up. ”

“ The civilization of Pittsburgh was crude and vigorous, withal prescient of future culture and refinement.
The place sprang into prominence after the conclusion of the French and Indian War, and upon the improvement of the military roads laid out over the Alleghany Mountains during that struggle. Pittsburgh was located on the main highway leading to the Mississippi Valley, and was the principal stopping place in the journey from the East to the Louisiana country. The story of its early social existence, interwoven as it is with contemporaneous national events, is of more than local interest. ”

“ Culture is the leading element in the formation and progress of society, and is the result of mental activity. The most potent agency in the production of culture is education. While Pittsburgh was a frontier village, suffering from the turbulence of the French and Indian War, the uncertainty of the Revolution, and the chaos of the Whisky Insurrection, education remained at a standstill. ”

“ There was also a cause peculiar to Pittsburgh, for the craving for office. The legislative acts of the borough were performed at Town Meetings held in the court house by the “Burgesses, Freeholders, and Inhabitants, householders,” at which all the male adults whether citizens or aliens149 who had resided in the place for a year, had a voice. In 1800, there were nearly two hundred qualified electors who had a right to participate in the Town Meetings,150 and practically the entire number were politicians. A desire for the glare of public life developed, and the creation of offices resulted. ”

“ James Hughes, pastor of the Presbyterian churches at Lower Buffalo in Washington County, and West Liberty in the adjoining county of Ohio in Virginia, and one of the trustees of the recently established191 Jefferson College, the pioneer college of the West.
Cramer lived and flourished in an age when many of the publications sent out in the name of religion contained the merest drivel, or were elaborations of theories in regard to matters infinite held by narrow-minded controversialists. The press was flooded with them. ”

“ Books printed in the German language were advertised as “Dutch” books. The custom of speaking of the Germans as “Dutch” was however not confined to Pittsburgh, but was universal in America. The Dutch inhabitants44 of New York and elsewhere, were the first settlers in the colonies, whose language was other than English. The bulk of the English-speaking population, wholly ignorant of any language except their own, were easily led into the error of confusing the newer German immigrants with the Dutch, the only persons speaking a foreign tongue with whom they had come in contact. ”

“ On the twenty-second18 of March, the following unique advertisement appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette: “Society was the primeval desire of our first and great ancestor Adam; the same order for that blessing seems to inhabit more or less the whole race. To encourage this it seems to be the earnest wish of a few of the mechanics in Pittsburgh, to have a general meeting on Monday the 24th inst., at six P.M., at the house of Andrew Watson, tavern keeper, to settle on a plan for a well regulated society for the purpose. ”

“ Taken in connection with the dress of the people, the food they ate, their churches, their societies, their work, and their amusements, they form a more or less complete outline picture of the time. Items which stand out in relief are Franklin stoves, chimney hooks, window weights, brass and stock locks, brass and iron candlesticks, snuffers, horse fleams, iron combs, iron buttons, knee buckles, powder flasks, American and German gunpowder,104 bar lead and shot, wallowers for Dutch fans, and cards.153 The sale of cards was an industry of importance in agricultural communities. ”

“ Pentland’s chagrin knew no bounds, and after the election was over, he continued to attack the Tree of Liberty, the management of which, by this time had changed. He vented his spite on the supposed owners. He charged that, although the newspaper was published in the name of Walter Forward, Tarleton Bates and Henry Baldwin,236 the two most prominent politicians in Pittsburgh, were the real proprietors, and that Bates was the editor. Baldwin, who was not quite twenty-six years of age, later in life became a member of Congress and a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ”

“ Next to the establishment of the Pittsburgh Gazette, the publication and sale of books, and the opening of the post route to the eastern country, the most important event in the early social advancement of Pittsburgh was the passage of an Act by the General Assembly, on April 22, 1794, incorporating the place into a borough. The township laws under which Pittsburgh had been administered were crude and intended only for agricultural and wild lands, and were inapplicable to the development of a town. ”

“ In this far-away community, with coal at its doors, and iron in the near-by mountains, Hamilton’s new doctrine found willing disciples and industry had more than a beginning. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, iron ore was mined in the Juniata Valley, and furnaces and forges established, and bar iron and castings made. The iron was carried to Pittsburgh, partly on horseback, and partly by water, down the Conemaugh and Allegheny Rivers. Small shops for the manufacture of articles of iron were opened. ”

“ In the taverns men met to consummate their business, and to discuss their political and social affairs. Lodge No. 45 of Ancient York Masons met in the taverns for many years, as did the Mechanical Society. Even the Board of Trustees of the Academy held their meetings there.117 Religion itself, looked with a friendly eye on the taverns. In the autumn of 1785, the Rev. Wilson Lee, a Methodist missionary, appeared in Pittsburgh, and preached in John Ormsby’s tavern,118 on Water Street, at his ferry landing,119 at what is now the northeast corner of that street and Ferry Street. ”

“ For many years it was the leading tavern. Gallatin, who was in Pittsburgh, in 1787, while on the way from New Geneva to Maine, noted in his diary that he passed Christmas Day at Marie’s house, in company with Brackenridge and Peter Audrian,69 a well-known French merchant on Water Street. Marie’s French nationality naturally led him to become a Republican when the party was formed, and his tavern was50 long the headquarters of that party. Numerous Republican plans for defeating their opponents originated in Marie’s house, and many Republican victories were celebrated in his rooms. ”

“ General Henry Lee, the Governor of Virginia, famous in the annals of the Revolutionary War, as “Light-Horse Harry Lee,” commanded the expedition sent by President Washington to suppress the Whisky Insurrection, and was in Pittsburgh several weeks during that memorable campaign. On the eve of his departure a ball was given in his honor by the citizens. On that occasion Brison was master of ceremonies. A few months earlier Brackenridge had termed him “a puppy and a coxcomb.” ”

“ In 1804, the Bank of Pennsylvania opened a branch in Pittsburgh. A stage line from Chambersburgh to Baltimore and Philadelphia was placed in operation in the spring of 1803.140 In 1804 this was extended to Pittsburgh, the first coach from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia being run on July 4th.
Religion was now keeping pace with the increase in population and the growth in material prosperity. Hitherto those who were religiously inclined were obliged to attend the services of either the German or the Presbyterian church. Other churches were now brought into existence. ”