[31] I trust that the friends of liberty, especially among the Dissenters, will not fail to do every thing in their power to make Mr. Winterbotham’s confinement, and also the sufferings of Mr. Palmer and his companions, as easy to them as possible. Having been assisted in a season of persecution myself, I should be very ill deserving of the favours I have received, if I was not particularly desirous of recommending such cases as theirs to general consideration. Here difference in religious sentiment is least of all to be attended to. On the contrary, let those who in this respect differ the most from Mr. Winterbotham, which is my own case, exert themselves the most in his favour. When men of unquestionable integrity and piety suffer in consequence of acting (as such persons always will do) from a principle of conscience, they must command the respect even of their enemies, if they also act from principle, though they be thereby led to proceed in an opposite direction.
The case of men of education and reflection (and who act from the best intentions with respect to the community) committing what only state policy requires to be considered as crimes, but which are allowed on all hands to imply no moral turpitude, so as to render them unfit for heaven and happiness hereafter, is not to be confounded with that of common felons. There was nothing in the conduct of Louis XIV. and his ministers, that appeared so shocking, so contrary to all ideas of justice, humanity and decency, and that has contributed more to render their memory execrated, than sending such men as Mr. Marolles, and other eminent Protestants, who are now revered as saints and martyrs, to the galleys, along with the vilest miscreants. Compared with this, the punishment of death would be mercy. I trust that, the Scots in general will think these measures a disgrace to their country.
I cannot refrain from repeating again, that I leave my native country with real regret, never expecting to find any where else society so suited to my disposition and habits, such friends as I have here (whose attachment has been more than a balance to all the abuse I have met with from others) and especially to replace one particular Christian friend, in whose absence I shall, for some time at least, find all the world a blank. Still less can I expect to resume my favourite pursuits, with any thing like the advantages I enjoy here. In leaving this country I also abandon a source of maintenance, which I can but ill bear to lose. I can, however truly say, that I leave it without any resentment, or ill-will. On the contrary, I sincerely wish my countrymen all happiness; and when the time for reflection (which my absence may accelerate) shall come, they will, I am confident, do me more justice. They will be convinced that every suspicion they have been led to entertain to my disadvantage has been ill founded, and that I have even some claim to their gratitude and esteem. In this case, I shall look with satisfaction to the time when, if my life be prolonged, I may visit my friends in this country; and perhaps I may, notwithstanding my removal for the present, find a grave (as I believe is naturally the wish of every man) in the land that gave me birth.”
On the 8th day of April 1794, my father set sail from London, and arrived at New-York on the 4th of June, where he staid about a fortnight. Many persons went to meet him upon his landing, and while he staid at New-York he received addresses from various Societies, and great attention from many of the most respectable persons in the place. From thence he proceeded to Philadelphia, where he received an address from the American Philosophical Society. Independent of the above marks of respect, he was chosen by an unanimous vote of the Trustees of the University of Philadelphia, professor of Chemistry. He was likewise invited to return and stay at New-York, and open an Unitarian place of worship, which was to have been provided for him, and also to give Lectures on Experimental Philosophy to one hundred subscribers at ten dollars each. These invitations indeed he did not receive until he had been settled some little time at Northumberland. These are sufficient proofs that the citizens of this country were not insensible to his merit as a Philosopher, and that they esteemed him for the part he took in the politics of Europe. That he was not invited immediately on his arrival to preach either at New-York or Philadelphia, was not from any want of respect for his character, but because Unitarianism was in a manner unknown, and by many ignorantly supposed to have some connection with infidelity. The proper evidences of christianity, the corruptions it has suffered, the monstrous additions that have been engrafted on its primitive simplicity, and the real state of the opinions of christians in the first ages of the church, were subjects that had hardly ever been discussed in this country. The controversies that had been carried on in England had not awakened attention here, and therefore though my father was known as having suffered in consequence of his opposition to the established religion of his country, yet his particular opinions were little understood. As his religious tenets became more known, these prejudices wore away, and independent of the proposal to open a place of Unitarian worship at New-York, mentioned above, I shall have occasion to state the great reason he had to be satisfied with the testimonies of respect paid to him, by the most eminent persons in the country, not merely in his character as a Philosopher, but as a preacher of the Gospel.
About the middle of July 1794 my father left Philadelphia for Northumberland, a town situated at the confluence of the North-East and West branches of the Susquehanna, and about 130 miles North-West of Philadelphia. I, and some other English gentlemen, had projected a settlement of 300,000 acres of land, about fifty miles distant from Northumberland. The subscription was filled chiefly by persons in England. Northumberland being at that time the nearest town to the proposed settlement, my father wished to see the place, and ascertain what conveniencies it would afford should he incline either to fix there permanently, or only until the settlement should be sufficiently advanced for his accommodation; he was induced likewise to retreat, at least for the summer months, into the country, fearing the effects of the hot weather in such a city as Philadelphia. He had not, as has been erroneously reported, the least concern in the projected settlement. He was not consulted in the formation of the plan of it, nor had he come to any determination to join it had it been carried into effect.
The scheme of settlement was not confined to any particular class or character of men, religious, or political. It was set on foot to be as it were a rallying point for the English, who were at that time emigrating to America in great numbers, and who it was thought, would be more happy in society of the kind they had been accustomed to, than they would be, dispersed, as they now are, through the whole of the United States. It was farther thought, that by the union of industry and capital, the wilderness would soon become cultivated and equal to any other part of the country in every thing necessary to the enjoyment of life. To promote this as much as possible, the original projectors of that scheme reserved only a few shares for themselves, for which they paid the same as those who had no trouble or expence either in forming the plan, or carrying it into execution. This they did, with a view to take away all source of jealousy, and to increase the facility of settlement, by increasing the proportion of settlers to the quantity of land to be settled. Fortunately for the original proposers, the scheme was abandoned. It might and would have answered in a pecuniary point of view, as the land now sells at double and treble the price then asked for it, without the advantages which that settlement would have given rise to; but the generality of Englishmen come to this country with such erroneous ideas, and, unless previously accustomed to a life of labour, are so ill qualified to commence cultivation in a wilderness, that the projectors would most probably have been subject to still more unfounded abuse than they have been, for their well meant endeavours to promote the interests of their countrymen.
The scheme of settlement thus failing, for reasons which it is not necessary now to state, my father, struck with the beauty of the situation of Northumberland, which is universally allowed to be equal if not superior to any in the state; believing that, from the nature of its situation, it was likely to become a great thoroughfare, and having reason to consider it as healthy as it was pleasant, the intermittents to which it has latterly been subject being then unknown, determined to settle there. Before he came to this resolution however, he had the offer of the Professorship of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, before mentioned, which would probably have yielded him 3000 dollars per annum, there being generally about 200 students in Medicine of whom about 150 attend the Chemical Lectures; as likewise the offer of a situation as Unitarian Preacher and Lecturer in Natural Philosophy as I have likewise mentioned before. At that time he had no inducement to settle at Northumberland contrary to his inclination, as his books and apparatus were still at Philadelphia, his sons had not fixed upon any place of settlement for themselves, and neither he, nor they, had purchased a single foot of land in the town or the neighbourhood of it.
The following reasons among others induced him to prefer a country to a city life. He thought that if he undertook the duties of a professor, he should not be so much at liberty to follow his favourite pursuits as he could wish, and that the expence of living at Philadelphia or New-York would counterbalance the advantages resulting from his salary; and indeed, at that time he had no occasion to attend to any pecuniary considerations, as he believed his income, calculating upon his property in the French funds (which however from circumstances not necessary to be stated in this place, never produced him any thing,) to be more than equal to his wants; but what had greater weight with him than any thing else was that my mother, who had been harrassed in her mind ever since the riots at Birmingham, thought that by living in the country, at a distance from the cities, she should be more likely to obtain that quiet of which she stood so much in need.
Soon after his settlement at Northumberland, many persons, with a view that his qualifications as an instructor of youth should not be wholly lost to the country, concurred in a plan for the establishment of a college at Northumberland. To this scheme several subscribed from this motive alone. Many of the principal landholders, partly from the above and partly from motives of interest, contributed largely both in money and land, and there was a fair prospect, from the liberal principles upon which it was founded, that it would have been of very great advantage to the country. My father was requested to draw up a plan of the course of study he would recommend, as well as the rules for the internal management of the institution, and he was appointed President. He however declined receiving any emolument, and proposed giving such lectures as he was best qualified for, gratis; in the same manner as he had done at Hackney, and he meant to have given to the institution the use of his library and apparatus, until the students could have been furnished with them by means of the funds of the college. In consequence of the unexpected failure of some of the principal contributors, the scheme fell through at that time, and little more was done during my father’s life time than to raise the shell of a convenient building.
I shall in this place state, though I shall anticipate, in so doing, that in the year 1803 a vacancy occurred in the University of Pennsylvania, by the death of Dr. Euen, Principal of that institution. It was intimated to my father by many of the Trustees, that in case he would accept of the appointment, there was little doubt of his obtaining it; Mr. M’Kean, the present governor of the State of Pennsylvania, being among others particularly anxious that he should accept of it. In addition to the reasons that had induced him to decline the offer of the Professorship of Chemistry were to be added the weak state of his health, which would have made the idea of his having any serious engagement to fulfil, very irksome to him; he accordingly declined it.