Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

“ General Mifflin, afterwards governor, had his country seat at Cumru, three miles southeast of Reading, now used as the County Almshouse and Hospital buildings. In the different wars of this country Berks County men were among the first to offer their services; the Ringgold Light Artillery, Captain James McKnight, is said to have been the first company that reported at Harrisburg in response to President Lincoln’s Proclamation in 1861, and was one of five Pennsylvania companies to arrive first at Washington in defense of the Capital. ”

“ A motorist touring north along the Susquehanna Trail, when six miles above Harrisburg, just at the point in the roadway where one would turn off sharply to the right, if going to the beautiful Country Club of Harrisburg, can see a boulder which marks the site of Fort Hunter, one of the busy places during the stirring period immediately following hostilities which inaugurated the French and Indian War. ”

“ The attention of the Legislature having been called to the neglected and suffering condition of the insane poor of the State, in 1844, there was provision made for the establishment of an asylum to be located within ten miles of the seat of Government. The citizens of Harrisburg, with the aid of a liberal appropriation by Dauphin County, purchased a farm adjoining that city, and in 1848, the commissioners appointed by the State began the construction of the first building erected by the Commonwealth for the reception and care of the indigent insane. ”

“ In a State like New York, where one party controls the Legislature and another the city, the people in the cities may expect some protection from party opposition. In Pennsylvania, where the Republicans have an overwhelming majority, the Legislature at Harrisburg is an essential part of the government of Pennsylvania cities, and that is ruled by a State ring. ”

“ When I went to the city to live, where there were no such opportunities, I naturally enough turned to the gathering of books, with the result that when I went to Harrisburg in 1903 I left locked up in my house, 1540 North Fifteenth Street, in Philadelphia, over ten thousand volumes. In the main they were books relating to Pennsylvania and early imprints of the province and the state. It was the most complete collection of material of that kind which any individual had ever possessed, and in some respects was unequaled by any public library. ”

“ Pennsylvania has engaged more extensively in internal improvements than any other State.
Harrisburg, the capital, is pleasantly situated on the Susquehanna River, and contains an elegant State House.
Philadelphia is the most regularly laid out and well built city in the Union. The streets generally intersect each other at right angles, and the principal ones are 100 feet wide. The inhabitants are extensively engaged in manufactures. The commerce of this place is large, and according to the amount of its exports is the third commercial city in the Republic. ”

“ Sherburne did not exaggerate. Hitherto the war had never really touched the soil of any of the free states, but now it became apparent that Pennsylvania, the second state of the Union in population, would be invaded. Excitement seized Harrisburg, its capital, which Lee's army might reach at any time. People poured over the bridges of the Susquehanna and thousands of men labored night and day to fortify the city.
Jenkins, a Southern cavalry leader, was the first to enter Pennsylvania, his men riding into the village of Greencastle, and proceeding thence to Chambersburg. ”

“ Great excitement prevailed all over the State of Pennsylvania, and the Democracy of the great Commonwealth were thrown into intense perturbation and indignation, January 13, 1857, by dispatches from Harrisburg announcing that Representatives Samuel Manear, of York County, William H. Lebo, and G. Wagenseller, of Schuylkill County, Democratic members of the Legislature, had not only refused to support John W. Forney, the caucus nominee of their party for United States Senator, but had given their votes to the opposition candidate, Simon Cameron. ”

“ Harrisburg, the capital of the State, was indeed in danger, as was realized by the authorities and the citizens. Thirty regiments of Pennsylvania militia, besides artillery and cavalry and nineteen regiments from New York were assembled under the command of General Couch, who disposed his forces to the best advantage, assigning a large portion of them to the defence of Harrisburg. In that city all places of business were closed, and citizens labored on the fortifications with the pick and the spade. Men were enrolled by wards and drilled in the park and on the streets. ”

“ It is a railroad center with direct connections with the coal and iron resources of the State, and is an extensive lumber depot.
Public Interests.—The city is well laid out, lighted with electricity, and surrounded by magnificent scenery. The State capitol buildings are located in the midst of a beautiful park of 10 acres on a gentle rise of ground. The Capitol is one of the most magnificent buildings in the world. ”

“ The coherent homogeneous vote of the myriads of small homes which make up Philadelphia has made this sweeping victory possible against great odds. The party majority in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia is the strongest in the country. The city machine is as well organized as Tammany Hall. It holds city, State, and federal patronage. For ten years it has without challenge chosen the executive officers at Harrisburg and Philadelphia and held the Legislature and Councils. The city ring, in a decade of unchecked rule, has issued $40,000,000 of city bonds ”

“ In Capitol Park, sixteen acres, notable for shrubbery and flowers, is a bronze equestrian statue, General and Governor John Frederick Hartranft; sculptor, Frederick W. Ruckstuhl; also Mexican monument, white marble, erected by the state in 1868, in memory of citizens lost in war with Mexico, 1846-48. An elementary course of art{274} is taught in nearly every public school in Pennsylvania, prepared by the Department of Public Instruction at Harrisburg, the basis of all art instruction in normal schools ”

“ Sixty years have not elapsed since the sound of the first axe was heard in the woods of Harrisburg. The wild beasts and wilder men occupied the banks of the Susquehanna. Since that time, with the mildness which has characterized the descendants of William Penn, and that industry which has marked all the generations of Pennsylvania, the forests have been subdued, the wild beasts driven away to parts more congenial to their nature, and the wilder men have withdrawn to regions where they hunt the deer and entrap the fish according to the mode practiced by their ancestors. ”

“ The adoption of the Constitution rendered the institution of measures necessary for the election of members of Congress and electors of President and Vice President of the United States.
The Anti-Federalists immediately got busy and endeavored to effect a plan to revise the new Constitution, but were defeated in their purposes. The actions of this body in Pennsylvania in their convention in Harrisburg, September, 1788, were denounced by the people. ”

“ In the afternoon we were relieved by a Pennsylvania company, and as we retired in full sight of the rebels, the rascals yelled at us, and gave us several volleys, from which it is wonderful that every man escaped.
That evening we moved to the extreme rear, into Fort Washington, on the bank of the river in front of Harrisburg. Here it was said our advance work was over, and we were promised comfortable quarters and rest.
Any one nowadays can see a camp, but only one who has seen it can understand how picturesque it is. The night scene at Harrisburg was beautiful in the extreme. ”

“ A Lancaster County almanac, published in the latter part of 1778, is credited by many with first having called Washington “Father of His Country,” while Lebanon, Hummelstown, Harrisburg, New Cumberland, Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg and many other valley towns and places have Washington traditions as part of their historic past, because of Washington’s trip to Bedford during the “Whisky Insurrection” of 1794.
A force of 12,900 men was to be raised against the rebellion, and Carlisle was the rendezvous for the Pennsylvania contingent of 5200. ”

“ The whole number of citizens enrolled was about fifteen hundred, and more than one thousand were out on a parade at one time. On receiving news of the uneasiness manifested at Harrisburg, General Latta, then at Pittsburgh, telegraphed Major General J. K. Sigfried, commanding Fourth division National Guard, with head-quarters at Pottsville, to put the City Grays, of Harrisburg, on duty at the arsenal at once, and order his whole division under arms, and move to Harrisburg. He also received a similar telegram from Governor Hartranft, from Medicine Bow, Wyoming Territory. ”

“ But, in view of what we encountered later in our trip, I look back on the Pennsylvania roads as one of the high spots and pleasures, never to be undervalued.
From Easton we drove in the rain to Harrisburg. The scenery was beautiful. The Blue Ridge and the Alleghany Mountains loomed up in the haze like great cathedrals; but as long as the road was wide and comparatively smooth we enjoyed the ups and downs. Our engine told us that we were gradually ascending;9 the mist would be wafted off by a mountain breeze, and then a gorgeous panorama stretched before us as far as the eye could see. ”

“ Pennsylvania has got to find out some method by which Harrisburg may exist without being the tail to the kite of the Pennsylvania Central.
“I think, in the first place, we ought to graduate taxes. If a man has a thousand dollars a year and pays a hundred, the man that has five thousand a year ought to pay five hundred. I would have a millionaire with forty millions of dollars taxed so highly that he would only have enough to live comfortably upon.” ”

“ The Governor of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Penna. My dear Governor:
The leases which have been signed with the farmers to secure to the United States the right to maneuver on their farms, contains the provision that the damages done to their crops and improvements will be adjusted by a board to consist of three members: A civilian to be appointed by the Secretary of War, a militia officer to be appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania, and an army officer to be appointed by me. ”

“ Upon inquiry at Pittsburgh, the railroad officials informed us that they could not get their trains through to Harrisburg, and so the intention was to go from Beaver to Erie, as we understood the Erie railroad was running, and go to Harrisburg; but when we got to Beaver we found that the road running to Erie was stopped also, then General Latta and the Assistant Adjutant General and myself took a carriage and drove over to Allegheny City, and found that the train was running on the West Penn and took that train, and got to Harrisburg. ”

“ If we treat him as an outcast, he will remain an outcast who will harry the community to the end of his days. Above all, cease to detain him in idleness, which is the worst remedy for immorality of any sort.
Warden Wm. A. McIlhenny, of Harrisburg, stated that there was no land owned by Dauphin County which was available for the employment of his prisoners. The county farm was limited in size and was cared for by the regular inmates of the County Poorhouse. ”

“ It was told to me, at Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, when I was there in "Fremont's time," anno 1856. Alas! the fates deal hardly with Fremont. C. and F., now a satellite of C., helped to slaughter him once before in Pennsylvania—sold him out to Know-Nothings. Hope they haven't now in Missouri pitched him over to be succeeded by Do-Nothings. But to the story. Harrisburg has wide, clean, brick sidewalks. Many of the poorer sort there kept geese years ago, and sold or ate their progeny in the days of November and December—the "embers of the dying year." ”

“ Pennsylvania is a very beautiful State. The grass was as green as though it was springtime, and the golden ears of corn gathered together in heaps in the great fields looked very pretty. In Harrisburg we saw a donkey like Neddy. How I wish I could see my own donkey and my dear Lioness! Do they miss their mistress very much? Tell Mildred she must be kind to them for my sake. Our room is pleasant and comfortable. My typewriter was much injured coming. The case was broken and the keys are nearly all out. Teacher is going to see if it can be fixed. ”

“ General Sigfried arrived at Harrisburg with nine companies of the Seventh and Eighth regiments on the 23d, and was there joined by eight other companies, making a force under his command of some eight hundred men. These troops were stationed at the arsenal at the time the mob was dispersed by the police and sheriff's posse, on the night of the 23d, but were not called on by the civil authorities, they evidently understanding their duty, which was to attempt to enforce the law by the means within their power, before calling on the military for assistance. ”

“ Start half of them to Harrisburg, and the enemy will turn upon and beat the remaining half, and then reach Harrisburg before the part going there, and beat it too when it comes. The best possible security for Pennsylvania is putting the strongest force possible in rear of the enemy. ”

“ There is nothing to be found in the Archives of Pennsylvania, in the writings of William Penn himself, or of his friends and contemporaries, to show that such an event ever took place. The only plea under which it can be sheltered is a letter preserved in the State records at Harrisburg, under date of April 21, 1682, which Penn gave to Lieutenant-Governor Markham previous to the first voyage, and was addressed to the Indians, offering them peace, friendship, and protection. ”