The Pennsylvania Journal.—Repeal of the Stamp Act.—Rejoicings.—Dickenson's Letters.
day preceding the one in which the law was to go in force, it contained the emblematic head and "doleful" communication seen in the engraving. *
The repeal of the Stamp Act the following year produced great rejoicing in Philadelphia. The intelligence of the repeal was brought by Captain Wise. He was invited to drink punch at the Coffee-house, ** where a gold-laced hat was given him, and presents were distributed among his crew. The punch was made common; and many of the "first men played hob-and-nob over their glasses with sailors and common people." The city was brilliantly illuminated at night; a large quantity of wood was given for bonfires; many barrels of beer were distributed among the populace; and the next day the governor and mayoralty gave a feast to three hundred persons at the State House gallery. At that feast it was unanimously resolved by those present to dress themselves, at the approaching birth-day of the king, in new suits of English manufacture, and to give their homespun garments to the poor. The anniversary of the king's birth-day, in June, was also celebrated with great displays of joy and loyalty; and the people, in the plenitude of their good feelings, did not heed the advice of Franklin and Richard Penn, "not to exult as at a great victory."
When the British Parliament devised other schemes for taxing the Americans, Pennsylvania, like Massachusetts and all the other colonies, was aroused, and the rights of the American people were every where freely discussed. John Dickenson sent forth his powerful "Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer," *** and the circular letter from Massachusetts, recapitu-
* This is one third the size of the original, and gives a fac simile, in appearance, of the device.
** The London Coffee-house, established, as we have seen, by William Bradford ten years before, on the corner of Front and Market Streets, was the daily resort of the governor and other public functionaries, and there vendues were generally held. John Pemberton, a Quaker, owned the house in 1780; and in his lease to Gifford Dally, he stipulated that swearing should be discouraged there, and that the house should be closed on "the first day of the week.'" This would be an excellent clause in like leases at the present day.
*** See page 476, vol. i