MATURITY
When Patrick McIntyre published the one hundred and tenth number of The True American in Leesburg on Tuesday the 30th December, 1800, he, following the tradition of his craft, probably left his office with a lively sense of anticipation of the town's forthcoming celebration of the advent of a new century; that he could have foreseen that a single copy of that issue would be the sole available survivor of his journal in 1937 is not to be presumed. Yet in the Library of Congress that single copy begins its collection of Leesburg's newspapers and no copy of the paper is known to survive today in Loudoun. Its four pages devote themselves to the proceedings of Congress, to European affairs, to the activities of the Virginia House of Delegates and to the new treaty with France. The local news must be gleaned from the advertisements. The Rev. Mr. Allen advertises religious services to be held in the courthouse;[134] one W. C. Celden, a slavedealer, informs the public that he "has some likely young NEGROES which he will dispose of reasonably for cash;" and on the 4th page is found an item, obviously inserted by a private individual protecting himself with a cloak of anonymity, "For Sale. A likely NEGRO GIRL who has to serve for the term of nineteen or twenty years. She is now about twelve years of age, and very well grown, and will have to serve one year for every child which she may have during the term of her servitude. The terms of sale may be known by application to the Printer." The widow of Colonel Burgess Ball asks that those having claims against his estate will send them to her as the Administrators were anxious to make provision for their immediate payment.
The ultimate fate of The True American is unknown. In 1808 there was established in the town the Washingtonian which became the recognized organ of the Democratic party in Northern Virginia for many years. No surviving copy of any issue of the first year of this paper has been found by the present writer. Until 1841 it divided the Loudoun field with Whig competitors; after that date its journalistic rivals appear to have been of its own political faith, notably the Loudoun Mirror, established in 1855. In its early years the Washingtonian had a sturdy competitor in the Whig Genius of Liberty, copies of which are now rarely to be found. The most numerous available are in a broken file in the Library of Congress, beginning with numbers issued in 1817 and owing their conservation to the fact that they had been sent by the editor to the Secretary of State. As with the earlier True American these newspapers contain much foreign news and correspondence with lengthy reports of legislative activities in Richmond and Washington; and, in addition, an acrimonious and undignified exchange of long-winded and abusive letters in the Mason-McCarty-Mercer controversies. But that a county paper should find its first duty in presenting local news was not within the philosophy of the editor. Only here and there may one find a paragraph recording some local incident—but patient search is occasionally rewarded. A branch of the Bank of the Valley had been opened in Leesburg in 1818 with local subscribers to its stock and T. R. Mott acting as cashier. Then in the issue of the 31st March, 1818, we read:
"Specie. Arrived on Wednesday last at this port after a pleasant passage of two days from Alexandria, the waggon Perseverance—Grub, Master, laden with SIXTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS IN SPECIE for the Branch Bank of the Valley in this place. The Specie is deposited in the 'Strong box' thus laying a foundation for the emission of a paper currency predicated upon Specie Capital, which is the chief corner stone in all monied institutions; without it they must eventually fail."
That Leesburg was provided with its first street pavements through the proceeds of a public lottery has long been town gossip. By way of confirmation, there is an advertisement in the 12th May, 1818, issue of the Genius of Liberty: "By authority. Scheme of Lottery to raise $8000 for the purpose of paving the streets of the town of Leesburg, Va." providing a first prize of $4000 and 2011 other prizes running from $1000 down to $6 each, totalling $30,000. Against these 2012 prizes were to be 3988 blanks, to be represented by 6000 tickets to be offered at $5 each; but the astute managers stipulated that many of the larger prizes were to be paid in part by other tickets and that each of the prizes were to be "subject to a deduction of $15 to $100." To inspire the confidence of the public, the notice was signed by the following representative citizens as Commissioners: Prestley Cardell, C. F. Mercer, George Rust, Joseph Beard, Richd H. Henderson, Samuel Clapham, John Humphreys, John I. Harding, Sampson Blincoe, Fleet Smith, Samuel Carr, and John Gray. So successful was the lottery, avers tradition, that with its profits not only was the town able to pave its principal streets but also brought in, through wooden pipes, a much needed supply of water from Rock Spring, the present home of Mrs. H. T. Harrison. To the community that system of finance exerted an appeal so strong that once again it was used in 1844, to raise the necessary money to build an office for the County Clerk. The present County Office Building was purchased from the trustees of the Leesburg Academy in 1879.[135]
Always has Loudoun been a horse-loving country; but it may surprise some of her people of today to know that in 1817 the county seat possessed a "Jockey Club" which was sufficiently strong and well supported to conduct a four day racing meet with more generous prizes than are now offered. In the Genius of Liberty of the 14th October 1817 there is this advertisement:
"Leesburg Jockey Club. RACES will be run for on Wednesday the 15th October, over a handsome course near the town. A Purse of 200 Dollars three miles and repeat, and on Thursday the 16th day, two miles and repeat a Purse of $100 Dollars, and on Friday the 17th and repeat, a Towne's Purse of at least $150 and on Saturday the 18th an elegant SADDLE, BRIDLE and MARTINGALE, worth at least FIFTY DOLLARS. P. SAUNDERS, sec'y & treas'r."
Thus, although the local reporting was definitely remiss in those days, the advertising columns yield much treasure. The times were hard, land sales forced by worried creditors were frequent and often in the sales advertisements a note is made of log-houses on the land, shewing how numerous that form of habitation still must have been in the Loudoun of that time. With the land sales are many offerings of negroes, not infrequently with a humanitarian undertone pleasant to read, for in Loudoun then there was much anti-slavery sentiment not only among Quakers and Germans but, more significantly, among the wealthy planters and educated town folk. Thus in the issue of the 26th October 1818:
"Negroes for Sale. For Sale, a family of Negroes, consisting of a woman and children. To a good master they will be sold a great bargain. They will not be sold to a southern trader."
The financial stress of the day then, as later, bred much discontent if we may judge from the frequent notices of runaway white apprentices and negro slaves, the latter of both sexes; but while in the case of the slaves rewards are offered for their return of varying amounts from $5 to $200, the masters of the white apprentices, apparently appraising their services somewhat dubiously, offered but from one to six cents for their apprehension and return!