“Still stranger much, that when at last mankind
Had reach’d the sinewy firmness of their youth,
And could discriminate and argue well
On subjects more mysterious, they were yet
Babes in the cause of freedom, and should fear
And quake before the gods themselves had made;
But above measure strange that neither proof
Of sad experience, nor example set
By some, whose patriot virtue had prevailed.
Can even now, when they are grown mature
In wisdom, and with philosophic deeds
Familiar, serve t’ emancipate the rest!”
Cowper’s Task, Canto v.
The journal of my friend I found was too long for publication. Besides, I could discover his aristocratic propensities to grow stronger and stronger in exact proportion to his intercourse with the higher classes; so that I was obliged to omit his notes on the society of Philadelphia and Baltimore, in order to find room for his observations on Washington. Two circumstances, however, I must not suffer to pass unnoticed; his admiration of the Quakers, and his dislike of the Wistar parties,—a sort of half literary, half fashionable, weekly convention of gentlemen, at which a tolerable supper is added to a great deal of indifferent conversation on ordinary topics.
“There is,” says my friend, in one of his notes, “a much greater number of literary and scientific gentlemen in Philadelphia than can be found in any other city of the United States; but they are, as yet, far from forming ‘a republic of letters.’ As long as literary and scientific men without fortune are merely tolerated by their wealthy but less clever colleagues; as long as science and literature in the United States are judged, not by their high intrinsic value, but by the advantages which may result from them in the common transactions of life; as long as arts and sciences remain without influential patrons or public consideration, it is in vain to attempt their promotion by pampering poets and painters with a weekly supper. These ‘literary réunions,’ as they are called in Philadelphia, are not calculated to put a man of letters at his ease, or to elicit new thoughts by familiar conversation. On the contrary, they are stiff, unsociable, full of that gênante étiquette which prevails in all the higher American coteries to the exclusion of mirth and familiarity. The Athenæum and Garrick clubs in London contain daily a thousand times better opportunities of improvement to young literary men, than the Wistar parties of Philadelphia in the course of a century. There are, in fact, no establishments similar to those in the United States; though there are very respectable gambling clubs in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and even in the godly city of Boston.”
“The newly established Girard College,” observes my friend in another note, “will not prove so great a blessing to the Philadelphians as is generally imagined. With the munificent donation of its founder, and the truly royal splendour of its execution, it will, I am afraid, become after all little more than an ordinary school of arts and trades. The whole system of education in the United States, and the tone of society, must materially change, before an institution like the Polytechnic School of France can possibly succeed in forming scholars in the higher departments of science. The peculiar foundation and organization of Girard College does not seem to me to be much calculated to improve the system of hand-to-mouth learning produced by the material tendency, and the desire of pecuniary gain and profit, which form the index to the character of the greater part of professional men in America. The founder himself, though in many respects a public-spirited, and in his own way a clever man, had but a vulgar appreciation of genius, and a very high respect for money. This is undoubtedly the reason why he chose none but wealthy men for trustees of the college which was to bear his name, though it is more than probable some literary men might have been found in the United States, who, without being able to give bonds, would have proved of some advantage in establishing and organizing a college.
“All I have heard of that vain old Frenchman confirms me in the opinion that, even in his acts of generosity, he was but a vulgar plebeian; never consulting the feelings of those he wished to benefit, but first wounding with a rude hand their inmost soul, in order afterwards to apply the healing plaster in the shape of a bank-note. Thus, he would lecture one of his most faithful servants engaged to be married, on the vexations and follies of matrimony; drawing in a brutal manner the veil from nature’s holiest mysteries, and refusing to give him aid and protection, until, perceiving that his victim, dreading the consequences of his temper, remained, like some obedient cur, silent at the abuses of his master, he signed a bank-check in his favour to the amount, I believe, of some thousand pounds. I have heard other anecdotes about him of a similar nature, from which I could not help drawing the conclusion that it was his peculiar delight to make his friends and clients forswear every other god and goddess before he introduced them to the temple of Mammon;—or did the cunning Gaul do so from a knowledge of the society in which he wished to gain an ascendency? What reason, after all, had the Philadelphians to be proud of such a man? And what difference is there between an American banker leaving several millions of dollars to a rich and populous city, in order that his name may be perpetuated by the building of a school; and an honest English boot-black, who leaves an hundred thousand pounds for the establishment of an hospital?[15]—I can see none; unless it be that the act of the former proceeded from vanity, while that of the latter took its origin in charity and true Christian piety.
“The most interesting part of Philadelphia society are the Quakers; as a body the most singular, as individuals the most respectable, Christians in the United States. I do not here speak of their religious tenets, which are sufficiently known to the world; but of the fact of their being throughout a moral people, by mutual support almost universally in easy circumstances, and from their habits of industry and frugality seldom led into temptation. No other Christian society is held together by such strong ties of affection and brotherhood; no other set of men bear in their manners, habits, dress, and character so strongly the imprints of their faith. They carry their religion—a thing unknown in these times of moral and political advancement—into every act of their private and public lives; and, though they sometimes obtrude it in a manner not the most pleasant or refined on the notice of strangers, show at least on all occasions that Christianity with them is a living principle, not an abstract doctrine to be remembered only on the Sabbath.
“I like aristocracy in every shape, whenever it has a solid foundation; but I despise aristocratic pretensions in a vulgar rich man. The aristocracy of the Quakers consists not so much in wealth as in family, and this circumstance has given to the society of Philadelphia a tone decidedly superior to that of New York. Though much more exclusive and less hospitable than the New-Yorkers, the Philadelphians are more agreeable and elegant in their manners. They have more of the à-plomb of gentlemen. There is less motion and more dignity in their carriage; and you can see, from an hundred little circumstances, that the higher classes have the advantage of a generation over the ordinary run of aristocrats in the United States.
“The Quakers, who are still among those who directly or indirectly influence the fashions of society, have introduced a patrician simplicity in dress, manners, and habits, which forms a singular contrast with the gaudy ostentatious display of wealth with which one is occasionally struck in New York. The Philadelphia ladies dress with more taste than any others in the Union; they walk, dance, sing, and talk better than those of the Northern cities; and their manners in general are more finished. They do not study Latin and Greek, like some of the New England belles; but they prattle French and Spanish, and sometimes Italian, with tolerable facility. They cultivate the agrémens of society; while a great portion of the Northern women puzzle their heads, and those of their admirers, with philosophy and the classics. Yet it is but justice to say, that the women of New England, even those of the highest classes, remain unsurpassed as wives and mothers, and set, in this respect, the example to all other females in the United States.