William Hardman

“ Whether this punishment was ever inflicted, or whether the dread of it kept all our English Crusaders honest, is more than we can say. Who knows but the curious traveller in search of old legends may yet find, among the inhabitants of some coast town or island in the Mediterranean, a tradition, distorted and garbled by centuries of repetition, of the sudden appearance among their forefathers of a strange bird, which discoursed in an unknown tongue, and whose body was that of a man, albeit its head was covered with downy feathers. ”

“ His brilliant description, however, determines us to see for ourselves what an American theatre is like. Circumstances compel us to defer our visit for a week or two, when we see the Philadelphia company in the Baltimore theatre. Perhaps we are unfortunate, for great is our disappointment. It may be that one person sees with a democratic eye, while the optic of another is tinged with aristocracy. ”

“ We have been told before that it was the general’s custom, when he travelled, to pay as much for his servants’ meals as for his own.
We have not yet seen President Washington, but on our return to Philadelphia we have the honour not only of an interview with him, but, on presenting our letters of introduction, of an invitation to breakfast. He is tall and thin, but erect; rather of an engaging than a dignified presence. A mild, friendly man, very thoughtful and slow in speech, which makes some to think him reserved. His temperate life makes him bear his years well, though he is past sixty. ”

“ A miserable place is Paulu’s Hook,—the Jersey city of the future,—supported by travellers, all the New York stages and horses for going South being kept there. That clumsy and uncomfortable machine, the American stage waggon, cannot be passed over without some attempt at a description. We have already allowed one opportunity to go by: we must not let another. If one of them, horses, harness, and driver, could be brought to London, it would prove a lucrative exhibition. ”

“ In his speech to Congress, November 19, 1794, General Washington had to allude to this insurrection, which had only been suppressed that year, and when he had to name the particular counties which had revolted, it was remarked that he faltered, and his voice trembled as he uttered the names of Washington and Fayette. The amount of tar and feathers employed for the purposes of this insurrection must have been startling; and, when we consider how thinly peopled the district must have been at that time, a man who had not undergone “the discipline” was doubtless quite a rarity. ”

“ Questions assail us on all sides; for unbounded curiosity about other people’s business has ever been a national trait in the American character. We have not been many days in New England,—for it was to Boston that chance and the “snow” took us, and we are now making the best of our way to New York—when we fancy a pretty little cottage which we are told is to let, on the Connecticut river. We knock at the door: it is opened by a woman. ”

“ That is a much more solemn and important affair, which, though open to great abuse, has nevertheless done good service in newly occupied territories, where the arm of the law, properly so called, is powerless to punish or protect; or where, as in some cases, the populace take upon themselves to supplement that leniency towards crime, which is so characteristic of American legislation. Judge Lynch and his subordinates employ tar and feathers very freely as a punishment, but they are usually only mild adjuncts to far more terrible measures. ”

“ Not another case of baptism by immersion, surely? We are in a country which has no standing army; no sound of drum has invaded our ears since we quitted England: what means this military music? Hurrying down stairs, the mystery is soon explained. It is a procession of young tradesmen going in boats to Governor’s Island, to give the State a day’s work at the fortifications for strengthening the entrance to New York Harbour. ”

“ The stench of tobacco smoke, the fumes of various intoxicating drinks, and the shouts of these youths would be sufficient, but, as if to complete our disgust, a critical-minded buffoon, noisy and coarse-tongued, makes comments, close behind us, in a voice louder than that of the performers. ”

“ We pay two dollars and a half for our berth, and sail at four p.m., arriving at New York in twelve hours. We have the Chief Justice of the United States among the passengers. An unpretending gentleman, whom some young men treat with marked disrespect, although, considering he can sit in judgment on the President, he may be regarded as the first person in the States. In our note-book we find the following sentence, apropos of this: “Americans always affect, if they do not really feel, contempt for their seniors and all persons in office.” ”

“ The wretched lunatic bore the torture inflicted upon him, with the heroic fortitude of a man who believed himself to be a martyr to the discharge of some important duty. A similar fate befell a man name Roseberry, and several others.
In August, 1792, the Inspector of Revenue procured the house of Captain W. Faulkner for an office in Washington county; but the all-powerful mob threatened the captain that, if he did not prevent the further use of his house as an office, they would scalp, tar, and feather him, and burn his house and property. ”

“ With sardonic smile the hard-featured Yankee informs us that we must cross the Hudson to Paulu’s Hook, in the State of New Jersey, where we should find the stage waiting. Indignation is a word that but feebly expresses our feelings on the occasion. ”

“ Some twenty years later, it was employed with even greater vigour against the newly-founded government of the United States by its own citizens. If the populace objected to our attempted imposition of tea-duties, it objected more strongly to the excise on home-distilled spirits imposed by its own government. In 1791, Congress passed a law laying duties on spirits distilled in the United States, and immediately an insurrection in opposition to this law commenced in the four most western counties of Pennsylvania, viz., Alleghany, Washington, Fayette, and Westmoreland. ”

“ The majority speak well of General Washington, but all show an utter indifference on the subject of his resignation. “He is old, and men cannot last for ever;” such is the general remark. Less importance is attached to the choice of his sucessor than we should have expected. “John Adams,” said a tavern-keeping colonel named Beverley, “is a good man; Jefferson is also a good man; we cannot fail to find good men in America.” When we stop at an inn, it appears somewhat strange to European eyes to see the coachman eat at the same table as the passengers ”

“ Washington herself makes tea and coffee for us. On the table are two small plates of sliced tongue, dry toast, bread and butter, &c., but no broiled fish, as is the general custom. Next to Mrs. Washington sits her grand-daughter, Miss Custiss, a very pleasing young lady of about sixteen, and her brother, George Washington Custis, about two years older. There is but little appearance of form, one negro servant only attending, and he has no livery: a silver urn for hot water is the only article of expense on the table. ”

“ Generally speaking, he is the best informed as to general news on the coach; he is always a great politician, and frequently names his horses after the President and Vice-President, and if he has a horse that wants the whip he will name him after some man that he dislikes, so as to have the pleasure of flogging him in fancy. By-the-bye, our coachman for the last stage is a colonel! ”

“ Travellers see quite enough strange things with their own eyes without borrowing from friends or chance acquaintances.
The women in the country towns do not wear caps, and many of them have their hair plaited at full length down their backs like a queue, giving them a Swiss appearance not at all becoming in our eyes. Here is an American officer,—the first we have seen. ”

“ Apropos of lobsters, our humorous friend has another story to tell us. It is to be feared that our power of swallow must have appeared very large. We ought to see the lobsters caught in the Bay of Fundy, ought we? Yes, it was not uncommon to take them fifty or sixty pounds in weight, so that a dozen hungry men could easily sup off a single lobster, and leave enough fragments to satisfy somebody else! A sense of greenness pervades us: how otherwise should any one attempt so to impose? ”

“ The universal topic of conversation in this country is politics. Since we have set foot in the United States we find newspapers in every village. Our chance acquaintances are mostly people of uncouth manners, and without the least education beyond instruction in reading and writing, but their opinions are generally just and sensible. ”

“ It is not unlikely that this visit drew the attention of the populace to this hospital for inoculation, and actuated, as is supposed, by a dread of the smallpox from patients not conforming to the rules, they commenced a series of outrages. Probably the real reason of these outrages was this, that the minds of the American mob had now become thoroughly imbued with a love of tarring and feathering their fellow-men on the smallest provocation, and here was an opportunity not to be resisted. The patients going from the ships to the hospital were obliged to find a different landing-place ”

“ A concourse of people attracts our attention. We join the crowd, and find that the process of baptism by immersion is going on. It is freezing hard! The ice has been cleared away for some twenty yards in every direction, but a fatigue party of believers has been told off to keep the hallowed water from freezing with poles and staves. A few moments would suffice to coat it with ice again. ”

“ The inside of the vehicle is crowded with trunks and parcels, which not only cramp but bruise our legs. We are very sorry for a gentlemanly Frenchman, whose politeness is severely tested by the inconveniences he suffers. The driver tells us that he is a poor French duke, who has been ruined by the Revolution.
One of our travelling companions is a West of England clothier, a dry and precise man sometimes, but seldom given to exaggeration. ”

“ Stopping at Trenton all night, we start at six the next morning, and are not deposited safely at the Franklin’s Head, in North-Second-street, Philadelphia, until 2 p.m., albeit the distance is only thirty miles. Little do we imagine that, half a century later, railroad cars will be running almost along the same route, and that our successors of the nineteenth century will be able to make, with ease and comfort in three hours, a journey that has cost us the best part of two days. ”

“ The front seat holds three, one of whom is the driver. Door there is none, so the passengers get in over the front wheels, and sprawl across the driver’s seat. The hind places are most in request, since they allow you to rest your shaken frame against the back of the waggon. Women are generally indulged with it, and if they happen to be late, it is a strange sight to see them scramble over the intermediate men. The waggon is open at the sides, but has a roof supported by props, and is provided with curtains which can be buttoned down or rolled up, as the weather is wet or dry. ”

“ It was not unnatural that, since tea was entirely removed from the market, the shopkeepers should raise the price of coffee. The committee, however, was on the alert; it was not to be tolerated that coffee should be increased in price two or three pence per pound; and public notice was given that the question had been mooted, whether tar and feathers would not be a constitutional encouragement for such eminent patriotism. ”

“ Adverse winds, heavy seas, Newfoundland fogs, and loss of reckoning, varied by the amusement of forcing our skipper to disgorge five pounds of passage-money to each, have filled up the rest of our time until we tread terra firma once more. ”

“ To test the faith of proselytes, the coldest days are chosen for these ceremonies, and the services are intentionally prolonged. Intense faith is supposed to make the day mild and the water of summer temperature. ”

“ The four objects of resentment were placed in a cart facing each other, having been previously tarred and feathered “in the modern way.” It was estimated that at least a thousand people, chiefly dressed in uniform, among whom were four drummers, formed themselves into a procession at the townhouse in Marblehead. At the heels of this multitude came the cart with its miserable occupants—a fifer and drummer walking in front of it. In this manner they marched from Marblehead to Salem, a distance of four miles and a half, entering the latter town about noon. ”

“ Washington holds levees every Wednesday and Saturday at Philadelphia, during the sitting of Congress. On these occasions the ladies are seated in great form round the apartment, and have tea and coffee served to them. ”

“ We learn that he is Deacon Bishop, an elder of the Presbyterian church at Newhaven. A reserved and silent man, yet, when he does speak, he displays an amiability and intelligence not at all in accordance with his primitive dress and appearance. ”

“ His dress consists of a blue coat of superfine cloth, with scarlet facings and cuffs, and a buff cashmere waistcoat and breeches. A fine, handsome fellow, whose dress suits him right well. At Hartford a very reverend-looking old gentleman gets in, who more than fills the only vacant seat of our eight-inside. ”

“ Affidavits and reports of the facts were presented to President Washington, who, by the unanimous advice of his cabinet, decided to call out the militia,—a measure which was not accomplished without difficulty. The rebellion instantly collapsed; and it is not clear that the force called out to suppress the insurrection did not do more mischief than the insurgents themselves. Marshall, in his life of Washington, says—“The greatness of the force prevented the effusion of blood ”