Cramer’s books covered the entire range of literary endeavor and among them were a majority of the contemporary publications. The French Revolutionary movement was well represented. A work coming under this designation was the Life and Campaigns of General Count Alexander Suwarrow, which was of interest also because Suwarrow’s title to fame rested at least partly on the fact that he was the originator of the high tasseled-boot, much worn both in military and civil circles after the year 1800. There was a flood of Bonapartist literature. A book of this class which had a local interest was the Life of General Jean Victor Moreau. After being exiled from France on account of conspiring against Napoleon, this officer had come to the United States in 1805, and made a tour of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Having passed through Pittsburgh, his name was well known there. Works of travel were numerous. Conspicuous in biography were the lives of Washington, Franklin, and Kotzebue, the German playwright and novelist, then at the height of his career. There were histories of various European countries, and William Winterbotham’s History of the American United States. The History of Women, if at hand to-day, would be of interest to that large body of women who are making such herculean efforts to obtain greater rights for their sex. Among the notable books of the day was Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. Two editions had been published prior to Jefferson’s becoming President. After the election in 1800, the work was republished in a large octavo volume, for which Cramer was agent in Pittsburgh.[308] Another book which attracted considerable attention was the History of John Adams, Esquire, late president of the United States, by John Wood. It was a rank Republican account of a most interesting period. It was printed and ready for publication in December, 1801, but was suppressed at the instigation of Aaron Burr, as being incorrect and libelous. The book was finally published in 1802. A companion-piece to Wood’s book, was the one by James Cheetham, which gave an account of the suppression. It was entitled, A Narrative of the Suppression by Col. Burr of the History of the Administration of John Adams, by a Citizen of New York.
Philosophy was not neglected. Representative of that science were William Enfield’s History of Philosophy, William Smellie’s Philosophy of Natural History, Francis Hutchinson’s System of Moral Philosophy, and Count Volney’s Law of Nature. Books relating to trades, included the Miller and Millwright’s Guide; the Young Carpenter’s Assistant; the New System of Gardening; the Dictionary of Husbandry; Washington’s Letters to Arthur Young; the English Gardener; and Elements of Architecture. Freemasonry was described in William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry. Among books relating to the professions, those pertaining to divinity were most numerous. The Methodists had increased in numbers and were in better standing in the community. John Wrenshall was addressed as the “Rev.” John Wrenshall, and Cramer began to sell the Memoirs of George Whitfield, the famous exponent of Methodism. Law books were a close second to those of divinity. There were books on state, national, and international law. In medicine there were books for family use, and books for physicians.
Belles-lettres and poetry formed an important department. Predominant in belles-lettres were the writings of Addison, Steele, and Pope in the Spectator, and its successors, the Guardian, and the Tattler; Dr. Johnson, in his “Rambler”; and Salmagundi, when it appeared in 1807. Junius’s Letters; the works of Lawrence Sterne; the Posthumous Works of Jonathan Swift; and Peter Pindar’s Satires were other books in this department. In the selection of plays, those of Kotzebue were prominent. The English plays were represented by George Colman, the younger’s, The Poor Gentleman, a comedy produced in Covent Garden in 1801, and by Thomas Morton’s, Speed the Plough, produced in 1798. Because of its authorship, The Battle of Bunker Hill, by Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, had a local interest. In the realm of poetry, were the poems of John Pomfret, Robert Burns, Dr. Thomas Brown, Alexander Pope, John Milton, Thomas Moore, Allan Ramsay, and Robert Southey. In this class was Thomas Campbell’s The Pleasures of Hope; James Beattie’s The Minstrel; Samuel Rogers’s Pleasures of Memory; William Cowper’s Beauties of Cowper, and The Task; Joel Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus; Robert Bloomfield’s, The Farmer’s Boy, and A Song; James Thomson’s Seasons. Zaida, by Kotzebue; Charlotte Temple, by Mrs. Susanna Rowson, and Don Quixote were popular romances. In colonial days, and in the early days of the republic, little stitched pamphlets, called chapbooks, because largely circulated by itinerant vendors, or chapmen, were much in vogue. Books in this form for children had a large circulation, and Cramer carried an interesting list.
Cramer’s upright nature often led him to express opinions that were contrary to the views obtaining in publications of his firm. Cuming in his Tour of the Western Country, in the reference to Pittsburgh had written: “Amusements are also a good deal attended to, particularly the annual horse races.” On this observation Cramer commented in a note: “We are sorry to have to acknowledge that horse racing contrary to the express law of the State, has been more or less practiced within the vicinity of this place for a few years back; but we are pleased with the prospect of having it totally abolished by the influence of its evident impropriety, danger, and wickedness, operating on the minds of the more thoughtful and judicious.”[309] That Cramer was not alone in condemning the horse races is apparent from a communication which had appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette six years earlier.[310] This writer designated the races as “a fruitful seminary of vice.” He declared that the “schools and shops are shut up or deserted, and the youth of both sexes run to harm, folly, and debauchery.... The money, too, which ought to be expended in the honest maintenance of families and the payment of debts is squandered on sharpers, gamblers and sutlers.”
If some fact or custom was referred to, which Cramer considered morally wrong, or which might disparage Pittsburgh in the eyes of the world at large, he spoke out vigorously in opposition. In the Navigator for 1811,[311] the statement was made that there were “two or three whisky distilleries in the town.” This was immediately followed in the text by a disapproval of distilleries, and a quaint homily on the evils of intemperance. “We cannot say anything in praise of these,” Cramer wrote. “Whisky as a medicine is good, that is, to take it only when the system requires it and no more than is sufficient to perform the part of a gentle stimulant; but to drink it as is now universally practiced, is destructive of health, strength, morals, religion, and honesty; and is a serious national calamity, in which man sinks in the estimation of himself, and becomes an abhorrence in the eyes of God.”
Cramer’s career was short. He had never been robust, and close attention to business had undermined his constitution; consumption developed. He attempted in vain to obtain relief in southern travel, and died on August 1, 1813, just before reaching his fortieth year, at Pensacola, Florida, while on the way to Havana, the journey having been recommended by his physician. In Pensacola his remains were buried and there they lie in an unmarked grave. To the last he was planning new business projects, and preserved his cheerfulness to the end. Not once was he known to be fretful or ill-natured. He left his widow and one child, a daughter, Susan. The firm was continued for many years, first by the widow, in conjunction with John Spear, and after her death on May 5, 1818, by the daughter. The affairs of the partnership were not wound up until July 6, 1835.
In early life the daughter married Dr. J. B. Cochran in Pittsburgh. Becoming a widow, she removed to Beaver, Pennsylvania, with her three children. Her children were Zadok Cramer Cochran, James Spear Cochran, and Mary Cochran. After their mother’s death in 1854, the children removed to Coatesville, Pennsylvania. From Coatesville they went to Freeport, Illinois. Here the two sons engaged in teaching and conducted an academy. James later took up the study of the law, and was admitted to the Bar. Drifting into politics he was elected to the State Senate. The two brothers are both dead, but the sister is still living, being the wife of Joseph Emmert, of Freeport, Illinois.
REFERENCES
Chapter IX
[285] Tree of Liberty, August 7, 1802.
[286] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 10, 1800.