Chapter I: Part 1

Historic Buildings of America

BOOKS BY MISS SINGLETON

TURETS TOWERS AND TEMPLES. Great Buildings of the World
Described by Great Writers.

GREAT PICTURES. Described by Great Writers.

WONDERS OF NATURE. Described by Great Writers.

ROMANTIC CASTLES AND PALACES. Described by Great
Writers.

FAMOUS PAINTINGS. Described by Great Writers.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS. Described by Great Writers.

FAMOUS WOMEN. Described by Great Writers.

GREAT PORTRAITS. Described by Great Writers.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS OF AMERICA. Described by Great
Writers.

HOLLAND. Described by Great Writers.

PARIS. Described by Great Writers.

LONDON. Described by Great Writers.

RUSSIA. Described by Great Writers.

JAPAN. Described by Great Writers.

VENICE. Described by Great Writers.

ROME. Described by Great Writers.

A GUIDE TO THE OPERA.

LOVE IN LITERATURE AND ART.

THE GOLDEN ROD FAIRY BOOK.

THE WILD FLOWER FAIRY BOOK.

Historic Buildings of
America

As Seen and Described
by Famous Writers

COLLECTED AND EDITED BY

ESTHER SINGLETON

_With Numerous Illustrations_

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1906

_Copyright, 1906_

BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

_Published October, 1906._

Preface

In response to requests for a book on American buildings on the plan of my _Turrets, Towers, and Temples_, _Romantic Castles and Palaces_, _Historic Buildings_, etc., I have endeavoured to gather here a number of houses, churches, forts and civic buildings that are doubly famous for their architectural interest and their association with historical events and distinguished personages. I have also included two monuments,--the Washington and the Statue of Liberty.

Of houses associated with Washington, I have selected Mount Vernon, Fraunces Tavern, the Hasbrook House at Newburg and the Morris-Jumel house, and to these the White House might be added, since he interested himself in the plans for it and even made a personal visit of inspection in 1792.

I have included a few simple houses that are types of the homes of the past and have become pilgrimage places to those who delight in reconstructing the social life of other days. Among these, the Whipple House is one of the best specimens of New England domestic architecture of the Seventeenth Century extant, and, having been judiciously restored, is now a museum of antiquities. Other New England types are represented by the Old Manse at Concord and the Clarke-Hancock house at Lexington.

The ruins of the Jamestown Tower carry us back to the first English settlement of the country, and the Cradock House in Medford, built in 1634 (the oldest house in New England), shows us what a house had to be in the early days of the colonists,--a fort as well as a dwelling, and a place of refuge in times of Indian attack. Another house that was also protected against Indian raids is the less-known Carlyle House in Alexandria, which was built about the middle of the Eighteenth Century.

Other forts are shown in St. Augustine, Sumter and Castle Garden. The latter also furnishes memories of musical and theatrical celebrities, gala performances, brilliant entertainments to distinguished guests, great mass meetings, and shows of the Crystal Palace order.

The Churches of Guadalupe in Mexico and St. Anne de Beaupré in Canada are shrines that attract thousands of devout visitors and rival in picturesqueness some of the pilgrimage-places in the Old World.

Two peculiarly individual buildings are also included: the curious beehive Tabernacle of Salt Lake City and the Palace of Chapultepec, built in 1785. As this was originally Montezuma’s country-seat, it carries us back as far as any other scene in the book. The Cathedral of Mexico is also built on Aztec ruins. It is interesting to compare this edifice with the Cathedral of Havana, in both of which the Spanish influence is easily appreciated.

Two of the most admired productions of American architecture will be recognized in the City Hall of New York and St. Michael’s, Charleston, which would almost pass for a Wren church were it transplanted to the Strand. Fortunately it survived the Charleston earthquake. The Mission Dolores has been damaged by the San Francisco earthquake as this book goes to press.

To our list of fine architecture should be added Christ Church in Alexandria, Independence Hall, and the old Boston State House.

It is sometimes said there are no prevailing styles of American architecture; but even with the few examples gathered here, we are able to note a general taste. The style favoured by the Dutch William and Mary of England (who shared her husband’s tastes), is revealed in many buildings from Boston to Charleston; and the Classic style of the Eighteenth Century, with its colonnades, porticos, domes and cupolas, is found everywhere and is constantly imitated, to-day.

E. S.

NEW YORK, _April 23, 1906_.

Contents

THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON 1
JOSEPH B. VARNUM.

WITHIN THE CAPITOL 8
CHARLES DICKENS.

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA 14
IZA DUFFUS HARDY.

CARPENTERS’ HALL 18
BENSON J. LOSSING.

THE CRADOCK HOUSE, MEDFORD 27
SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE.

FRAUNCES TAVERN 34
WILLIAM J. DAVIS.

WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE 43
JOHN FISKE.

THE MISSION DOLORES, SAN FRANCISCO 53
LADY HARDY.

KING’S CHAPEL, BOSTON 58
F. W. P. GREENWOOD.

SOME BUILDINGS IN HAVANA 68
RICHARD DAVEY.

ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH, CHARLESTON 78
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS.

THE CARLYLE HOUSE, ALEXANDRIA 84

INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA 92
D. W. BELISLE.

THE CASTLE OF CHAPULTEPEC 105
THOMAS UNETT BROCKLEHURST.

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, OTTAWA 110
LADY HARDY.

MOUNT VERNON 115
ARTHUR SHADWELL MARTIN.

THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 123
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

THE JAMESTOWN TOWER 132
CHARLES FREDERICK STANSBURY.

NASSAU HALL, PRINCETON 142

CASTLE GARDEN, NEW YORK 144
ESTHER SINGLETON.

MONTICELLO 151
EDWARD C. MEAD.

THE WILLIAM PENN HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA 164
JOHN F. WATSON.

THE CATHEDRAL, MEXICO 173
THOMAS UNETT BROCKLEHURST.

THE WHIPPLE HOUSE, IPSWICH 178
W. H. DOWNES.

FORT MARION, ST. AUGUSTINE 185
IZA DUFFUS HARDY.

ST. ANNE DE BEAUPRÉ, QUEBEC 192
ANNA T. SADLIER.

THE WADSWORTH-LONGFELLOW HOUSE, PORTLAND 199
NATHAN GOOLD.

WASHINGTON’S HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH 205
GULIAN C. VERPLANCK.

THE TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY 215
LADY HARDY.

THE NATIONAL WASHINGTON MONUMENT 220
JOSEPH B. VARNUM.

THE CLARKE-HANCOCK HOUSE, LEXINGTON 225

CASTLE ST. LOUIS, QUEBEC 236
J. M. LEMOINE, F. R. S. C.

SUNNYSIDE, TARRYTOWN 249
BENSON J. LOSSING.

THE OLD WITCH HOUSE, SALEM 255
ESTHER SINGLETON.

SHRINE OF GUADALUPE 263
THOMAS UNETT BROCKLEHURST.

CHRIST CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA 268
BISHOP MEADE.

A GLIMPSE AT THE HOUSES OF NEW ORLEANS 272
LADY HARDY.

THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY, MONTREAL 277
MAJOR A. C. YATE.

THE CITY HALL, NEW YORK 286
ARTHUR SHADWELL MARTIN.

THE WHITE HOUSE 293

THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND 300

THE OLD STATE HOUSE, BOSTON 305
EDWARD G. PORTER.

THE MORRIS-JUMEL HOUSE, NEW YORK 309

FORT SUMTER 313
IZA DUFFUS HARDY.

OLD STONE TOWER, NEWPORT 320
BENSON J. LOSSING.

ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, NEW YORK 325
CHARLES HEMSTREET.

FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON 332
EDWARD G. PORTER.

LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD, NEW YORK 338
ESTHER SINGLETON.

Illustrations

The Capitol, Washington _Frontispiece_

The Capitol (Rotunda) _Facing page_ 8

Arlington, Virginia „ „ 14

Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia „ „ 18

The Cradock House, Medford „ „ 28

Fraunces Tavern, New York „ „ 34

William and Mary College, Williamsburg „ „ 44

The Mission Dolores, California „ „ 54

King’s Chapel, Boston „ „ 58

Cathedral, Havana „ „ 68

St. Michael’s Church, Charleston „ „ 78

The Carlyle House, Alexandria „ „ 84

Independence Hall, Philadelphia „ „ 92

The Castle of Chapultepec, Mexico „ „ 106

Parliament Buildings, Ottawa „ „ 110

Mount Vernon, Virginia „ „ 116

The Old Manse, Concord „ „ 124

The Jamestown Tower, Virginia „ „ 132

Nassau Hall, Princeton „ „ 142

Castle Garden, New York „ „ 144

Monticello, Virginia „ „ 152

The William Penn House, Philadelphia „ „ 164

The Cathedral, Mexico „ „ 174

The Whipple House, Ipswich „ „ 178

Fort Marion, St. Augustine „ „ 186

Church of St. Anne de Beaupré, Quebec „ „ 192

The Wadsworth-Longfellow House, Portland „ „ 200

Washington’s Headquarters, Newburgh „ „ 206

The Tabernacle, Salt Lake City „ „ 216

The National Washington Monument, Washington „ „ 220

The Clarke-Hancock House, Lexington „ „ 226

Castle St. Louis, Quebec „ „ 236

Sunnyside, Tarrytown „ „ 250

The Old Witch House, Salem „ „ 256

Shrine of Guadalupe, Mexico „ „ 264

Christ Church, Alexandria „ „ 268

Old Houses in St. Charles’s Avenue, New Orleans „ „ 272

The Chateau de Ramezay „ „ 278

The City Hall, New York „ „ 286

The White House, Washington „ „ 294

The White House of the Confederacy, Richmond „ „ 300

The Old State House, Boston „ „ 306

The Morris-Jumel House, New York „ „ 310

Fort Sumter, South Carolina „ „ 314

Old Stone Tower, Newport „ „ 320

St. Paul’s Chapel, New York „ „ 326

Faneuil Hall, Boston „ „ 331

Liberty Enlightening the World, New York „ „ 338

THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON

JOSEPH B. VARNUM

On the 18th of September, 1793, the south-east corner-stone of the Capitol was laid by Washington, and a minute account of the ceremonial appears in the _Maryland Gazette_, published at Annapolis, September 26, 1793. It is mostly devoted to the Masonic ceremonial so usual at that day, in which “Lodge 22 of Virginia, that congregation so graceful to the craft,” figures largely with “Grand Master P. J. Geo. Washington, Worshipful Master” of said Lodge. We are also told that there appeared “on the southern banks of the grand river Potomac, one of the finest companies of artillery that hath been lately seen, parading to receive the President of the U. S.” The Commissioners delivered to the President, who deposited in the stone, a silver plate with the following inscription:

“This south-east corner-stone of the Capitol of the United States of America in the City of Washington was laid on the 18th day of September, 1792, in the thirteenth year of American Independence, in the first year of the second term of the Presidency of George Washington, whose virtues in the civil administration of his country have been so conspicuous and beneficial, as his military valour and prudence have been useful in establishing her liberties, and in the year of Masonry, 5793, by the President of the United States, in concert with the Grand Lodge of Maryland, several lodges under its jurisdiction, and Lodge, No. 22, from Alexandria, Virginia.

“Thomas Johnson, David Stewart, and Daniel Carroll, Commissioners; Joseph Clark, R. W. G. M. P. T., James Hoban and Stephen Hallate, Architects; Colin Williamson, M. Mason.”

A Mr. Clotworthy Stevenson made an address, and the account concludes as follows:

“The whole company retired to an extensive booth where an ox of 500 lbs. weight was barbecued, of which the company generally partook, with every abundance of other recreation. The festival concluded with fifteen successive volleys from the artillery, whose military discipline and manœuvres merit every commendation.

“Before dark the whole company departed with joyful hopes of the production of their labour.”

The first object which attracts the traveller’s attention as he enters Washington by rail is the Capitol.

It is not unusual on the Continent to see a noble cathedral surrounded by miserable tumble-down structures, many of which are so ancient as to indicate that the shrine never had an appropriate setting; and this circumstance makes the surroundings of the Capitol a matter of less remark to a foreigner than to an American whose first impressions are that the edifice never will have any buildings around in keeping with its own grandeur.

As you approach the city from the Potomac, the public buildings all appear to great advantage, being on high ground and rising far above the private buildings which do not shock by contrast. It is to be regretted that circumstances have led to the erection of a large proportion of the private buildings at the west and the abandonment, to a great extent, of Capitol Hill, which, at the first occupation, was regarded as the most desirable.

Mr. Trollope and others have descanted upon the mistake made in placing the principal front of the Capitol towards the east. But when the building was commenced there was reason for supposing that at least an equal part of the city buildings would be on that side. Besides, such porticos seem to require a level plane or plaza in front, rather than a descent like that on the west. The advantage of this is very apparent, since the porticos are naturally selected for all the great ceremonies, inaugurations and public gatherings. There is abundance of standing room here for any crowd, however great.

The dome is most appropriately surmounted by Crawford’s bronze statue of Liberty (itself 16½ feet in height) is 287 feet 5 inches above the basement of the Capitol, or about 142 feet higher than the old dome. St. Peter’s at Rome to the top of the lantern is 145 feet higher. St. Paul’s in London, 73 feet higher.

The Capitol Hill is about 90 feet above ordinary low tide.

The Capitol is 751 feet 4 inches long, which is 31 feet longer than St. Peter’s and 175 feet longer than St. Paul’s.

As compared with European edifices, there are few, if any, that have as imposing a front as the three eastern porticos present. Of course no comparison can be made with Gothic structures like the Parliament Houses in London. St. Peter’s Church, at first glance, almost always disappoints the visitor in its exterior; and it is only from a distance, where you see nothing of the front, that the majestic proportions of the dome are realized. There is an abruptness in the manner in which that front rises, with no relief except in a small piazza, which seems as out of place as the one on the western front of the Capitol. At the Capitol, the spectator, at a distance of one or two hundred feet, has the whole structure in all its outlines before him.

Most persons who visit the Capitol for the first time, have their attention so much absorbed in the extension, that they overlook the objects of interest in the central edifice. Yet there is no room in the new buildings comparable in beauty to the old Representatives’ Hall. The new halls for the Senate and House may present acoustic advantages, and certainly accommodate the public much better, but no room without columns can present as imposing an effect as one with them. And such columns! There is nothing like them elsewhere. That _brecchia_, or pudding-stone, is too costly to work, ever to be brought into general use. They cost over eight thousand dollars apiece, and there are twenty-four of them. And there is no more beautiful piece of sculpture in the building than the clock in this hall, representing History on a winged car, the wheel of which forms the dial.

The old Hall, too, is memorable as the scene where all the great men for the first half century of the Republic figured. Here Clay presided, Webster made his _début_, Adams died! And how full of associations with historical names is every part of the cosy old Senate Chamber, now appropriately occupied by the Supreme Court! Not one person in a hundred notices the _tobacco-leaf_ capitals of the circular colonnade between this room and the Rotunda; and still fewer ever think of going down the neighbouring staircase to look at the _corn-stalk_ columns which ornament the entrance to the room formerly occupied by the Supreme Court.

Every visitor to the new wings of the Capitol must have remarked upon the fact that, with the exception of the staircases, the most costly decorations have been lavished upon rooms which are only accessible to the public at limited times, or by sufferance of those having them in charge. One naturally expects to see the results of artistic skill to the greatest extent in the Halls of the Senate and House, as is the case in the centre building. It seems well enough that marble and frescoes should be used in such rooms as those appropriated to the President and Vice-President and the Senators’ retiring-room, the last of which, all of marble, is the gem of the building. But why so many thousands should have been expended on committee rooms, or in painting corridors which are too dark to be seen to advantage, is not apparent. The only reason ever assigned is, that it was desirable to experiment here on different styles of ornament.

There is no marble whatever in the Senate Chamber, and none, except the Speaker’s and Clerk’s desks in the House. This deficiency is the more noticed because of the extent to which this beautiful material is used on the staircases leading to the galleries, which are universally admired. But here it is remarkable that three of the staircases are of the same material. The Tennessee marble is certainly beautiful, but so is the white polished marble of the stairs leading to the west gallery of the Senate.

Another criticism upon the two Halls is that they are so much alike. The main difference is that one is smaller than the other. Conceding that, in certain respects, they had to be alike,--as in the oblong shape and the flat ceiling for acoustic purposes, and the construction of galleries so as to afford an uninterrupted view,--there was surely opportunity for a man of taste to have devised a finish which would have been more distinctive. One of them might have had some windows opening upon the outer world. Both are now placed in the interior, without a window on any side. It is true that they are well lighted both by night and day through the glass ceilings, and so far as we have observed the ventilation is good; yet it seems a pity that the rooms had not been constructed with windows, even if they were not to be opened.

Nothing in the old Halls was more refreshing to members, or more agreeable to spectators in the gallery, than the glimpse of green trees afforded through the windows, and such windows would have been the more attractive here, opening as they would have done upon the small porticos north and south. This was Mr. Walter’s plan, as appears by his report made in 1852.

It is pleasant to perceive that the architect has taken a hint from the corn-stalk columns, and shown more boldness and originality than is usual with his profession in departing from the regularly prescribed orders in regard to capitals and other ornamental work. A fine row of monolithic columns is to be seen on the floor of the south extension, under the Representatives’ Hall, the capitals of which are composed of the tobacco and thistle. The twenty-four columns and forty pilasters in the grand vestibules are entirely original, the capitals being composed of corn-leaves, tobacco and magnolias--each of the faces of the columns, as well as the pilasters, has a magnolia, all different in form, and all made from casts of the natural flower. The ornamentations of the ceiling and cornices in the Senate and House are all drawn from the natural products of the country. In the Representatives’ Hall are many rosettes composed of the cotton plant in its various stages of growth. No one can fail to observe and admire the exquisite statues of Franklin and Hancock, which are appropriately placed in niches opposite the staircases to the Senate gallery. The landings of the staircases furnished most appropriate places for large paintings; like that of Leutze, which improves upon acquaintance and causes every one to linger as he goes to or returns from the gallery of the House.

WITHIN THE CAPITOL

CHARLES DICKENS

The principal features of the Capitol are, of course, the two Houses of Assembly. But there is, besides, in the centre of the building, a fine rotunda, ninety-six feet in diameter, and ninety-six high, whose circular wall is divided into compartments, ornamented by historical pictures. Four of these have for their subjects prominent events in the revolutionary struggle. They were painted by Colonel Trumbull, himself a member of Washington’s staff at the time of their occurrence; from which circumstance they derive a peculiar interest of their own. In this same hall Mr. Greenough’s large statue of Washington has been lately placed. It has great merits of course, but it struck me as being rather strained and violent for its subject. I could wish, however, to have seen it in a better light than it can ever be viewed in, where it stands.

There is a very pleasant and commodious library in the Capitol; and from a balcony in front, the bird’s-eye view may be had, together with a beautiful prospect of the adjacent country. In one of the ornamented portions of the building, there is a figure of Justice; whereunto the Guide Book says, “the artist at first contemplated giving more of nudity, but he was warned that the public sentiment in this country would not admit of it, and in his caution he has gone, perhaps, into the opposite extreme.” Poor Justice! she has been made to wear much stranger garments in America than those she pines in, in the Capitol. Let us hope that she has changed her dressmaker since they were fashioned, and that the public sentiment of the country did not cut out the clothes she hides her lovely figure in, just now.

The House of Representatives is a beautiful and spacious hall, of semicircular shape, supported by handsome pillars. One part of the gallery is appropriated to the ladies, and there they sit in front rows, and come in, and go out, as at a play or concert. The chair is canopied, and raised considerably above the floor of the House; and every member has an easy-chair and a writing-desk to himself: which is denounced by some people out of doors as a most unfortunate and injudicious arrangement, tending to long sittings and prosaic speeches. It is an elegant chamber to look at, but a singularly bad one for all purposes of hearing. The Senate, which is smaller, is free from this objection, and is exceedingly well adapted to the uses for which it is designed. The sittings, I need hardly add, take place in the day; and the parliamentary forms are modelled on those of the old country.

I was sometimes asked, in my progress through other places, whether I had not been very much impressed by the _heads_ of the lawmakers at Washington; meaning not their chiefs and leaders, but literally their individual and personal heads, whereon their hair grew, and whereby the phrenological character of each legislator was expressed: and I almost as often struck my questioner dumb with indignant consternation by answering “No, that I didn’t remember being at all overcome.” As I must, at whatever hazard, repeat the avowal here, I will follow it up by relating my impressions on this subject in as few words as possible.

In the first place--it may be from some imperfect development of my organ of veneration--I do not remember having ever fainted away, or having even been moved to tears of joyful pride, at sight of any legislative body. I have borne the House of Commons like a man, and have yielded to no weakness, but slumber, in the House of Lords. I have seen elections for borough and county, and have never been impelled (no matter which party won) to damage my hat by throwing it up into the air in triumph, or to crack my voice by shouting forth any reference to our Glorious Constitution, to the noble purity of our independent voters, or the unimpeachable integrity of our independent members. Having withstood such strong attacks upon my fortitude, it is possible that I may be of a cold and insensible temperament, amounting to iciness, in such matters; and therefore my impressions of the live pillars of the Capitol at Washington must be received with such grains of allowance as this free confession may seem to demand.

Did I see in this public body an assemblage of men, bound together in the sacred names of Liberty and Freedom, and so asserting the chaste dignity of those twin goddesses, in all their discussions, as to exalt at once the Eternal Principles to which their names are given, and their own character, and the character of their countrymen, in the admiring eyes of the whole world?

Did I recognize in this assembly, a body of men, who, applying themselves in a new world to correct some of the falsehoods and vices of the old, purified the avenues to Public Life, paved the dirty ways to Place and Power, debated and made laws for the Common Good, and had no party but their Country?

I saw in them the wheels that move the meanest perversion of virtuous Political Machinery that the worst tools ever wrought. Despicable trickery at elections; under-handed tamperings with public officers; cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurrilous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers; shameful trucklings to mercenary knaves, whose claim to be considered, is, that every day and week they sow new crops of ruin with their venal types, which are the dragons’ teeth of yore, in everything but sharpness; aidings and abettings of every bad inclination in the popular mind, and artful suppressions of all its good influences: such things as these, and in a word, Dishonest Faction in its most depraved and most unblushing form, stared out from every corner of the crowded hall.

Did I see among them the intelligence and refinement: the true, honest, patriotic heart of America? Here and there, were drops of its blood and life, but they scarcely coloured the stream of desperate adventurers which sets that way for profit and for pay. It is the game of these men, and of their profligate organs, to make the strife of politics so fierce and brutal, and so destructive of all self-respect in worthy men, that sensitive and delicate-minded persons shall be kept aloof, and they, and such as they, be left to battle out their selfish views, unchecked. And thus this lowest of all scrambling fights goes on, and they who in other countries would, from their intelligence and station, most aspire to make the laws, do here recoil the farthest from that degradation.

That there are, among the representatives of the people in both Houses, and among all parties, some men of high character and great abilities, I need not say. The foremost among those politicians who are known in Europe, have been already described, and I see no reason to depart from the rule I have laid down for my guidance, of abstaining from all mention of individuals. It will be sufficient to add, that to the most favourable accounts that have been written of them, I more than fully and most heartily subscribe; and that personal intercourse and free communication have bred within me, not the result predicted in the very doubtful proverb, but increased admiration and respect. They are striking men to look at, hard to deceive, prompt to act, lions in energy, Crichtons in varied accomplishments, Indians in fire of eye and gesture, Americans in strong and generous impulse; and they as well represent the honour and wisdom of their country at home, as the distinguished gentleman who is now its Minister at the British Court sustains its highest character abroad.

I visited both Houses nearly every day, during my stay in Washington. On my initiatory visit to the House of Representatives, they divided against a decision of the chair; but the chair won. The second time I went, the member who was speaking, being interrupted by a laugh, mimicked it, as one child would in quarrelling with another, and added, “that he would make honourable gentlemen opposite, sing out a little more on the other side of their mouths presently.” But interruptions are rare; the Speaker being usually heard in silence. There are more quarrels than with us, and more threatenings than gentlemen are accustomed to exchange in any civilized society of which we have record: but farm-yard imitations have not as yet been imported from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The feature in oratory which appears to be the most practiced, and most relished, is the constant repetition of the same idea or shadow of an idea in fresh words; and the inquiry out of doors is not, “What did he say?” but, “How long did he speak?” These, however, are but enlargements of a principle which prevails elsewhere.

ARLINGTON

IZA DUFFUS HARDY

The next day we decided to improve the shining hours--truly and literally shining in this radiant spring weather of blue heavens and balmy sunshine--by paying a brief visit to the Capitol in the morning, and taking a drive to Arlington in the afternoon. It takes a good many brief visits to see the Washington Capitol thoroughly; but one appreciates and enjoys it so far better than by “doing” it in one long visitation, as we see so many tourists “doing” it, with red guide-books in their hands, or bulging from their pockets. (I must conscientiously confess, in parenthesis, that we ourselves also carry a _Guide to Washington_, and, during the inspection of the Capitol, are apt to refer to it pretty often.) In the endeavour to take it all in on one day, the eye gets surfeited with pictures and statues, mouldings and frescoes; the soul sickens at the further contemplation of busts and bas-reliefs, bronze-panellings and marble pillars; Pocahontas and Washington dance together dizzily in the confused brain; and Presidents and Puritan Fathers, William Penn and Miles Standish, allegorical figures of Freedom and Victory, the Declaration of Independence, the Landing of Columbus and the Sword of Bunker’s Hill all mingle in a kaleidoscopic jumble in the wearied mind.

In the afternoon, we take a carriage to Arlington, a beautiful drive of only about four miles. All the way the great white dome of the Capitol dominates the landscape. Across the Potomac, from Arlington Heights, beyond river, wood, winding road and city, we see it soaring into the intense blue of the sky like an Alpine peak.

The Arlington Mansion was built by George Washington Parke Custis (grandson of Martha and adopted son of George Washington). His daughter married Robert E. Lee, and here the Lees kept hospitable house and happy home until the disastrous days of war. During the long struggle the estate was confiscated, and, having been employed as headquarters for the Federal troops, was eventually turned into a “national cemetery,” where over fifteen thousand soldiers lie buried.

The beautiful park-like grounds are now a field of the dead. Up the hillside by thousands and tens of thousands, stretch the long regular serried lines of tombstones. Here, line by line, in rank and file, at peace beyond the battle, lies the silent army now. It is so hard to realize, looking on these squadrons of the dead, still seeming drawn up in battle array, that every one of those cold white stones strikes down to the dust that was once a human heart, that throbbed with the passionate pain of parting at leaving home and love, that thrilled at the trumpet’s call, that beat high with hope and valour and gave its life-blood for the victorious cause that it held dear!

One massive granite tomb covers a vault where lie the remains of more than two thousand of the unknown dead. But the deserted mansion itself is as sad as any of the tombs that surround it. The grand old house is empty and ungarnished; its bare floors echo mournfully to our footfalls; the hall door (the “classic portal, resting on eight massive Doric columns,” as the guide-book describes it), stands drearily open; all the world is welcome to enter there. It is not in the least like a haunted house; there are no corners whence bats might flit at night; no thick curtain of dust coats the walls, nor dark banners of spider’s web veil the windows. The lofty rooms are spotless, speckless, carefully kept and unutterably forlorn. We wander from room to room through a desolate silence only broken by our own steps; the conservatories are barren of flowers; the only living thing we come upon is a dog sleeping in a patch of sunlight. More mournful a memorial than granite slab or marble cross, more eloquent than inscription carved in stone, the forsaken mansion stands, a silent monument to the Lost Cause.

As we descend the great staircase, a mighty clatter and babble wake the hollow echoes, and we meet a gay and rather noisy party, led by our brisk young New Yorker of yesterday’s Mount Vernon excursion, swarming, chattering and laughing across the hall. Their happy, ringing voices strike a jarring note here. Well, we have done with Arlington Heights, and these joyous ones may ransack the lonely corners of the deserted chambers at their own sweet will. As we turn for a last look, we hear the youngest, liveliest and prettiest of the party exclaim, as she trips lightly into the bare drawing-room:

“Oh, my! here’s a room for a hop!”

We drive back to Washington and return to our hotel in good time for dinner, to which we sit down, a company of some three hundred, round tables loaded with every delicacy of the season, and dine to music, a band playing in the gallery overlooking the dining-room, exhilarating the spirits and stimulating the appetites of the assembled Sybarites by stirring strains.

Assassins may shoot and presidents may fall. After a splashing and a circling in the waves, the current flows on much the same.

“_Le roi est mort! Vive le roi!_”

CARPENTERS’ HALL

BENSON J. LOSSING

On Monday morning I visited Carpenters’ Hall, the building in which the first Continental Congress held its brief session. Having had no intimation concerning its appearance, condition and present use, and informed that it was situated in “Carpenters’ Court,” imagination had invested its exterior with dignity, its interior with solemn grandeur, and its location a spacious area where nothing “common or unclean” was permitted to dwell. How often the hoof of Pegasus touches the leafless treetops of sober prose when his rider supposes him to be at his highest altitude! How often the rainbow of imagination fades and leaves to the eye nothing but the forbidding aspect of a cloud of plain reality! So at this time. The spacious _court_ was but a short and narrow alley; and the _Hall_, consecrated by the holiest associations which cluster around the birthplace of our Republic, was a small two-story building, of sombre aspect, with a short steeple and all of a dingy hue.

This building is constructed of small imported bricks, each alternate one glazed, and darker than the other, giving it a checkered appearance. Many of the old houses in Philadelphia were built of like materials. It was originally erected for the hall of meeting for the society of house carpenters of Philadelphia. It stands at the end of an alley leading south from Chestnut Street, between Third and Fourth Streets.

The hall in which Congress met is upon the lower floor, and comprehends the whole area of the building. It is about forty-five feet square, with a recess in the rear twenty-five feet wide and about twelve feet deep, at the entrance of which are two pillars, eighteen feet high. The second story contains smaller apartments which were used by Congress and occupied by the society as committee rooms. In one of these, emptied of all merchandise except a wash tub and a rush-bottomed chair, let us sit down and consider the events connected with that first great Continental Congress.

For many years a strong sympathy had existed between the several colonies, and injuries done to one, either by the aggressions of the French and Indians, or the unkind hand of their common mother, touched the feelings of all the others and drew out responsive words and acts which denoted an already strong bond of unity. Widely separated as some of them were from each other by geographical distance and diversity of interest and pursuits, there were, nevertheless, political, social and commercial considerations which made the Anglo-Americans really one people, having common interests and common hopes. Called upon as free subjects of Great Britain to relinquish, theoretically and practically, some of the dearest prerogatives guaranteed to them by the Magna Charta and hoary custom--prerogatives in which were enveloped the most precious kernels of civil liberty--they arose as one family to resist the insidious progress of oncoming despotism, and yearned for union to give themselves strength commensurate to the task. Leading minds in every colony perceived the necessity for a general council, and in the spring of 1774, the great heart of Anglo-America seemed to be as with one pulsation with this sublime idea. That idea found voice and expression almost simultaneously throughout the land. Rhode Island has the distinguished honour of first speaking out publicly on the subject. A general Congress was proposed at a town meeting in Providence on the 17th of May, 1774. A committee of a town meeting held in Philadelphia on the 21st, four days afterwards, also recommended such a measure; and on the 23d, a town meeting in New York city uttered the same sentiment. The House of Burgesses of Virginia, dissolved by Lord Dunmore, assembled at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, on the 27th, and on that day warmly recommended the assembling of a national council; and Baltimore, in a county meeting, also took action in favour of it on the 31st. On the 6th of June, a town meeting at Norwich, Connecticut, proposed a general Congress; and on the 11th, a county meeting at Newark, New Jersey, did the same; on the 17th, the Massachusetts Assembly, and, at the same time, a town meeting in Faneuil Hall, in Boston, strenuously recommended the measure; and a county meeting at New Castle, Delaware, approved of it on the 29th. On the 6th of July, the committee of correspondence at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, expressed its approbation of the measure. A general province meeting, held at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 6th, 7th and 8th of that month, urged the necessity of such a Congress; and a district meeting at Wilmington, North Carolina, held on the 21st, heartily responded affirmatively. Thus we perceive that, within the space of sixty-four days, twelve of the thirteen colonies spoke out decidedly in favour of a Continental Congress, Georgia alone remaining silent. The Massachusetts Assembly designated the 1st of September, 1774, as the time and Philadelphia as the place for the meeting of the Congress. Other colonies acquiesced and at Philadelphia the delegates convened.

“Now meet the fathers of this western clime,
Nor names more noble graced the roll of Fame,
When Spartan firmness braved the wrecks of time,
Or Rome’s bold virtues fann’d the heroic flame.

“Not deeper thought th’ immortal sage inspired
On Solon’s lips, when Grecian senates hung;
Nor manlier eloquence the bosom fired,
When genius thunder’d from the Athenian tongue.”

--TRUMBULL.[1]

On Monday, the 5th of September, fifty-four delegates, from twelve colonies, assembled in Carpenters’ Hall. It was a congregation of men, viewed in every important aspect, such as the world had never seen.

Congress was organized by the choice of Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, as president, and Charles Thomson, of Pennsylvania, as secretary. The credentials of the various delegates were then presented, and now came a pause; who should take the lead? What measure should be first proposed? They had come together from distant Provinces, some instructed by the power that appointed them, others left free to act as circumstances should require. There was a profound silence and deep anxiety was depicted upon every countenance. No one seemed willing to break that silence, until a grave-looking member, in a plain dark suit of “minister’s grey” and unpowdered wig, arose. “Then,” said Bishop White, who was present and related the circumstance, “I felt a regret that a seeming _country parson_ should so far have mistaken his talents and the theatre for their display.” But his voice was so musical, his words so eloquent, and his sentiments so profoundly logical, that the whole House was electrified, and the question went from lip to lip, “Who is it? Who is it?” A few, who knew the stranger, answered, “It is Patrick Henry, of Virginia!” There was no more hesitation; he who startled the people of Colonial America nine years before, by his bold resolutions against the Stamp Act, and a few months afterwards by the cry of “Give me liberty or give me death!” now gave the impulse to the representatives of that people in grand council assembled and set in motion that machinery of civil power which worked so nobly while Washington and his compatriots were waging war with the enemy in the field.

Two days afterwards another impressive scene occurred. It was the _first prayer in Congress_, offered by the Reverend Mr. Duché. The first day had been occupied in the reception of credentials and the arrangement of business; the second in the adoption of rules for the regulation of the session; and now, when about to enter upon the general business for which they were convened, the delegates publicly sought Divine aid. It was a spectacle of great interest, for men of every creed were there. In this service their creeds were forgotten and the hearts of all united in the prayer which flowed from the pastor’s lips; a prayer which came from a then patriot’s heart, though timidity afterwards lost him the esteem of his friends and countrymen.

The Congress resolved to sit with closed doors, for enemies were around them with open eyes and busy tongues, and nothing was to be made public without special orders. Having no means at hand to ascertain the relative importance of the Colonies, it was agreed “that each Colony or Province should have one vote in determining questions.” One of their first acts was to express an opinion that the whole continent ought to support Massachusetts in resistance to the unconstitutional change in her government; and they afterwards resolved that any person accepting office under the new system ought to be held in detestation as a public enemy. Merchants were advised to enter with non-importation agreements; and a letter was addressed to General Gage, remonstrating against the fortifications on Boston Neck, and his arbitrary exercise of power. On the 14th of October, a _Declaration of Colonial Rights_, prepared by a committee of two from each Province, was adopted, in which were set forth the grievances complained of and the inalienable rights of British subjects in every part of the realm. As a means of enforcing the claim of natural and delegated rights, fourteen articles were agreed to as the basis of an American Association, pledging the associators to an entire commercial non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland and the West Indies, and the non-consumption of tea and British goods. In one clause the slave trade was specially denounced, and entire absence from it and from any trade with those concerned in it, formed a part of the association. Committees were to be appointed in every county, city and town, to detect and punish all violations of it; and all dealings with such enemies of American liberty were to be immediately broken off. One hundred and fifty copies of the Articles of Association were ordered to be printed.

An eloquent address to the people of Great Britain, from the pen of John Jay, and a memorial to the inhabitants of the several British American Colonies, written by William Livingston, were adopted by Congress on the 21st. A petition, drawn by John Adams and corrected by John Dickenson was approved on the 26th. Letters to the Colonies of St. John’s Island (now Prince Edward’s, Nova Scotia), Georgia and the Floridas, enclosing the doings of Congress, and inviting them to join the Association, were also adopted on that day (the last of the session). At the same time they approved of an elaborate address to the inhabitants of Canada. This was drawn up by Mr. Dickenson. Having made provision for another Congress to meet on the 10th of May following, the first general council closed its session by adopting a second humble petition to the King and a vote of thanks to the advocates of Colonial rights in both houses of Parliament.

Congress was in actual session only thirty-one days out of the eight weeks of the term, the remainder of the time being occupied in preparatory business. It was a session of extraordinary activity and a great amount of business of vast importance was transacted, notwithstanding many unnecessary speeches were evidently made. They were certainly more to the purpose than are most of the harangues in Congress at the present day, or, considering the diversity of opinion that must have existed upon the sentiments of the various state papers that were adopted, the session would have continued for several months. We have no means of knowing what harmony or what discord characterized those debates. The doors were closed to the public ear, and no reporters for the press have preserved the substance of the speeches. That every resolution adopted was far from receiving a unanimous vote, is very evident; for we find, by the subsequent declarations and acts of delegates, that some of the measures were violently opposed. Many deplored the probability of an open rupture with the mother country and refused acquiescence in any measure that should tend to such a result. Indeed, the sentiments of a large majority of the delegates were favourable to an honourable reconciliation, and the Congress was determined not to present the least foundation for a charge of rushing madly into an unnatural contest without presenting the olive branch of peace. Such was the tenor of its petitions and addresses; and every charge of desire on the part of Congress for a war that might lead to independence rested solely upon inference. Galloway, Duane, and others, even opposed the American Association; and they regarded the Adamses as men not only too much committed to violent measures by the part they had taken in Boston, but that they were desperate men with nothing to lose, and hence unsafe guides to gentlemen who had estates to forfeit. And yet Galloway, when he became a proscriptive Loyalist, and one of the most active enemies of the Republicans, was forced to acknowledge the stern virtue of many of the patriots of that assembly, and among them Samuel Adams. “He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, and thinks much,” he said, “and is most indefatigable in the pursuit of his object. It was this man who, by his superior application, managed at once the factions in Congress at Philadelphia and the factions in New England.”

The proceedings of this first Congress went forth to the world with all the weight of apparent unanimity, and throughout the Colonies they were hailed with general satisfaction. The American Association adopted and signed by the delegates was regarded by the people with great favour and thousands in every province affixed their signatures to the pledge. These formed the fibres of the stronger bond of the _Articles of Confederation_ afterwards adopted, and may be considered the commencement of the American Union.

THE CRADOCK HOUSE, MEDFORD[2]

SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE

The object of paramount interest which Medford contains is the plantation house of Governor Cradock, or “Mathias Charterparty,” as the malcontent Morton styled him. This house is the monarch of all those now existing in North America. As we trace a family back generation after generation until we bring all collateral branches to one common source in the first Colonist, so we go from one old house to another until we finally come to a pause before this patriarch of the sea. It is the handiwork of the first planters in the vicinity of Boston, and it is one of the first, if not the very first, of the brick houses erected within the government of John Winthrop.

Every man, woman and child in Medford knows the “Old Fort,” as the older inhabitants love to call it, and will point you to the site with visible pride that their pleasant town contains so interesting a relic. Turning your back upon the village and your face to the east, a brisk walk of ten minutes along the banks of the Mystic, and you are in presence of the object of your search.

A very brief survey establishes the fact that this was one of those houses of refuge scattered through the New England settlements, into which the inhabitants might fly for safety upon any sudden alarm of danger from the savages.

The situation was well chosen for security. It has the river in front, marshes to the eastward and a considerable extent of level meadow behind it. As it was from this latter quarter that an attack was most to be apprehended, greater precautions were taken to secure that side. The house itself is placed a little above the general level. Standing for a century and a half in the midst of an extensive and open field, enclosed by palisades and guarded with gates, a foe could not approach unseen by day, nor find a vantage-ground from which to assail the inmates. Here, then, the agents of Matthew Cradock, first Governor of the Massachusetts Company in England, built the house we are now describing.

In the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, at Boston, hangs the charter of “The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England,” brought over by Winthrop in 1630. The great seal of England, a most ponderous and convincing symbol of authority, is appended to it.

It is well known that the settlement at Salem, two years earlier, under the leadership of Endicott, was begun by a commercial company in England, of which Matthew Cradock was Governor. In order to secure the emigration of such men as Winthrop, Dudley, Sir R. Saltonstall, Johnson, and others, Cradock proposed in July, 1629, to transfer the government from the company in England to the inhabitants here. As he was the wealthiest and most influential person in the association, his proposal was acceded to.

We cannot enter here, into the political aspects of this _coup d’état_. It must ever arrest the attention and challenge the admiration of the student of American history. In defiance of the crown, which had merely organized them into a mercantile corporation, like the East India Company, with officers resident in England, they proceeded to nullify the clear intent of their charter by removing the government to America. The project was first mooted by Cradock, and secrecy enjoined upon the members of the Company. That he was the avowed author of it must be our apology for introducing the incident. This circumstance renders Matthew Cradock’s name conspicuous in the annals of New England.

Cradock never came to America, but there is little doubt that he entertained the purpose of doing so. He sent over, however, agents, or “servants,” as they were styled, who established the plantation at Mystic Side. He also had houses at Ipswich and at Marblehead for fishery and traffic.

For a shrewd man of business Cradock seems to have been singularly unfortunate in some of his servants. One of these, Philip Ratcliff, being convicted “_ore tenus_ of most foul and slanderous invectives” against the churches and government, was sentenced to be whipped, lose his ears, and be banished the plantation. Winthrop was complained of by Dudley because he stayed the execution of the sentence of banishment, but answered that it was on the score of humanity, as it was winter and the man must have perished. Ratcliff afterwards, in conjunction with Thomas Morton and Sir Christopher Gardiner, procured a petition to the Lords of the Privy Council, before whom Cradock was summoned.

Wood, one of the early chroniclers, tells us that Master Cradock had a park impaled at Mystic, where his cattle were kept until it could be stocked with deer; and that he also was engaged in ship-building, a vessel of a “hundred tunne” having been built the previous year (1632). It may be, too, that Cradock’s artisans built here for Winthrop the little “Blessing of the Bay,” launched upon the Mystic tide, July 4, 1631,--an event usually located at the Governor’s farm, at Ten Hills.

This house, a unique specimen of the architecture of the early settlers, must be considered a gem of its kind. It is not disguised by modern alterations in any essential feature, but bears its credentials on its face. Two hundred and sixty odd New England winters have searched every cranny of the old fortress, whistled down the big chimney-stacks, rattled the window-panes in impotent rage, and, departing, certified to us the staunch and trusty handiwork of Cradock’s English craftsmen.

Time has dealt gently with this venerable relic. Like a veteran of many campaigns, it shows a few honourable scars. The roof has swerved a little from its true outline. It has been denuded of a chimney and has parted reluctantly with a dormer-window. The loopholes, seen in the front, were long since closed; the race they were to defend against has hardly an existence to-day. The windows have been enlarged, with an effect on the _ensemble_, as Hawthorne says in a similar case, of rouging the cheeks of one’s grandmother. Hoary with age, it is yet no ruin, but a comfortable habitation.