George Washington's Wine Cooler

George Washington’s Wine Cooler: A Reflection of Post-Revolutionary America

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Citation Bride, Marjorie. 2021. George Washington’s Wine Cooler: A Reflection of Post-Revolutionary America. Master's thesis, Harvard University Division of Continuing Education.

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George Washington’s Wine Cooler:

A Reflection of Post-Revolutionary America

Marjorie McHenry Bride

A Thesis in the Field of International Relations

For the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies

Harvard University

May 2021

Abstract

In 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the new

nation of the United States of America. Thereafter, he embarked on setting up a

household that emphasized a “dignified and lasting American style, [as] the founding fathers were keenly aware of their legacy not only in politics and constitutional law but in their role as tastemakers in the realm of architecture and arts.”1 He ordered 12 Sheffield

silver-plated wine coolers from Great Britain to be used for entertaining guests in a

suitable fashion. During his presidency, he gave some of the coolers to acquaintances,

and others were handed down to descendants; the one in my possession was given to my

ancestor James McHenry.

I use this wine cooler as a tangible object of study and also to provide insights

into cultural, economic, and political issues of post-Revolutionary America as they related to Great Britain. During my research this question arose: Why, after a bitter conflict and successful separation from Great Britain, did many colonists go back to their pre-war practice of trading with and emulating their former enemy? Although Americans accomplished the feat of setting up a unique new form of government, did they ever truly separate culturally from their mother country? Did economic needs dictate their cultural mores? Ultimately, what do revolutions accomplish for the citizens of a new country?

1 Christie’s, “Lot Essay: Important Silver, Description of a Washington wine cooler,” 2012: 4. https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5525820.

Frontispiece

Fig. 1. Sheffield silver double wine cooler, with inscription. Commissioned by George Washington and presented to James McHenry in 1797. Descended through McHenry family and currently in possession of the author.

Inscription reads: Presented by Genl. Washington to James McHenry, August 14th, 1797.

Source: Photos by thesis author.

Dedication

This thesis is dedicated to my mother and father,

James McHenry and Marjorie Ober McHenry

and to my sister,

Joan McHenry Hoblitzell

and to all who came before them,

and to my sons

John Hambleton Bride

Christopher McHenry Bride

who will carry on our family traditions.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my Research Advisor, Don Ostrowski, for allowing me to pursue the particularly personal subject of this thesis. While it does not fall completely into the field of International Relations, which is my field of study, he suggested framing my family’s George Washington wine cooler in the context of post-Revolutionary trade with England. Mark Letzer, Executive Director of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, first piqued my interest in the wine cooler and in pursuing its history. He provided much early material and information for use in this thesis and continued to support me with ideas and access to needed resources. He has been an integral part of writing this work. Adam Erby, Curator of Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon, has been a constant source of information about the other eleven wine coolers and about George Washington and Mount Vernon in general. I appreciate enormously his suggestion that I apply to be a Mount Vernon Fellow in 2021–2022, a program I never would have known about and to which I have been accepted. My husband, Terry McEnany, a retired cardiac surgeon, has taken a sharp pencil to my drafts, frequently frustrating me but almost always turning out to be correct in his suggestions. He has also endured my absorption in this project with good grace, and continues to support me in my future endeavors to study George Washington and his life. Jeffrey Ryan, author, helped me put the thesis in shape over its many iterations, understanding that manipulating the computer was definitely not one of my strengths. And Bob Kinerk and Ann Warner, neighbors, helped enormously by using their editorial skills to improve some of my multiple drafts.

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... iii Frontispiece ...... iv Dedication ...... v Acknowledgments ...... vi List of Figures ...... ix List of Tables...... xi I. Introduction ...... 1 Background ...... 2 II. Literature and Research Review ...... 5 Culture, Lifestyles, and Gentility ...... 6 Trade and Luxury Trade ...... 9 Politics ...... 11 Research Methods ...... 12 III. Tracing the George Washington Wine Coolers ...... 14 History of the James McHenry Wine Cooler ...... 20 John McHenry, 1791–1822...... 21 James Howard McHenry 1820–1888 ...... 23 John McHenry, 1863–1939...... 23 James McHenry, 1899–1976 ...... 24 As Examples of New Technology ...... 24 As Tangible Objects ...... 29 IV. Cultural Lifestyles and the Consumer Revolution ...... 34 Civility and Refinement ...... 34 The Consumer Revolution ...... 43 Examples of Material Objects in the Consumer Revolution ...... 46 George Washington ...... 46

vii Social Practices and Circles ...... 51 V. Luxury Trade with Britain ...... 54 The Revolutionary War ...... 58 After the Revolution...... 59 Luxury Items and their Recipients ...... 60 Mid-Atlantic Gentry and Their Luxury Items ...... 63 Mount Vernon ...... 64 Doughoregn Manor ...... 71 Eyre Hall ...... 75 Willowbrook ...... 77 Hampton ...... 80 Fayetteville ...... 83 Silk Imported to Virginia ...... 85 VI. Politics of a New Country ...... 88 Federalists and Republicans ...... 89 James McHenry and John Adams, Federalists ...... 93 Jams McHenry ...... 94 John Adams ...... 97 Politics and Luxury Trade ...... 99 VI. Conclusion ...... 103 Background Research...... 104 Further Considerations on the Revolution...... 107 Further Considerations on George Washington’s Role in Luxury Trade ...... 114 Possibilities for Future Research ...... 117 Appendix Inventory of the Personal Property of James McHenry’s Estate ...... 118 References ...... 127

viii

List of Figures

Fig. 2. Harpsichord purchased by George Washington from the London retailers Longman & Broderip as a gift for his adopted stepdaughter, Eleanor Parke Custis. Built by Thomas Culliford & Company, 1793...... 68

Fig. 3. Silk Brocade and Lampas Document. 19.5 in. H x 28.25 in. W. Selvedge Width: 28.25 in. Gift of Mrs. Francis Henry Lenygon. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Collection. Object number 1973-161...... 70

Fig. 4. Salver. English, London. Maker: Robert Sharp. 1791/1792. Sterling standard. 1 11/16 x 15 15/16 in. diam...... 73

Fig. 5. Knife. English. Maker: Unknown. ca. 1765. Silver, sterling standard; steel. 10 ¾ in. L. Baltimore Museum of Art. Gift of Mrs. Bennett Darnall, BMA 1975.37. 1-10...... 74

Fig. 6. Fork. English. Maker: Unknown maker. C. 1765. Silver, sterling standard. 8 ¾ in. L. Baltimore Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Bennett Darnall, BMA 1975.37.11-20...... 74

ix Fig. 7. Eyre Hall Cruet Set. William Abdy. London, England 1784-85. Silver, glass. H. 10 ¼ in. W. 7 ½ in. Engraved E for Eyre family...... 76

Fig 8. Inset of engraved “E” on the base of the cruet set, in honor of Eyre family .... 77

Fig. 9. George III Two-Handled Covered Cup. English 1798-1799. Paul Storr (1771-1844), London. Monogram: JAD (John and Ann Donnell of ‘Willow Brook’). Silver with gilt lining 16 ½” H (41.9 cm). Baltimore Museum of Art: Collection of Elizabeth C. Carroll, Agnes S. Boyd and Leonard M. Levering, Jr. BMA L. 1967.7a&b...... 79

Fig. 10. Sauce Tureen on Stand. Neoclassical style; 1790-1810. Worcester, England; attributed to Chamberlain’s Porcelain Manufactury. Overall: H 15, W 11.5 L 20 cm; a) H 9, L 20, W 11.5 cm; b) H 8.5, L 14, W 10 cm...... 82

Fig. 11. James McHenry Will and Household Inventory. Probate Records of James McHenry, Baltimore County (1816). http://familysearch.org...... 84

List of Tables

Table 1. Location of the 12 George Washington Wine Coolers...... 19

xi 1

Chapter I

Introduction

In January 1976 my father, James McHenry, died unexpectedly. I was 37 years

old and busily involved with my own family life. His estate was bequeathed to my

mother and remained intact in our family home. Following my mother’s death in 1977,

her estate was probated, and the McHenry possessions were divided between my sister

and me.

Among the objects I chose was a silver wine cooler that had been in the family

but had previously escaped my notice. As I looked more closely, the two-bottle silver

container bore the inscription, “Presented by Genl Washington to James McHenry,

August 14th, 1787.” Although I am descended from an historic background, there had

been little discussion within the family about our roots or any objects that had come

down through the lines of descendants. For the next forty-plus years, I kept the wine cooler in my household as I grew and changed venues, using it occasionally to serve wine at parties, and otherwise keeping it either on a sideboard in the house or in a safe deposit box and not giving much consideration to its importance as a reflection of our country’s

history.

Not until the publication of Ron Chernow’s book Alexander Hamilton in 2005 and the subsequent international popularity of the Broadway musical fashioned after it, did I begin considering the importance of my heirloom wine cooler. Chernow’s

“Prologue” describes Eliza Hamilton receiving visitors in the front parlor of the house

she then, as a widow, shared with her daughter and had crammed with memorabilia from

her marriage. Chernow said that she would rise and

. . . gamely . . . escort [visitors] to a Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington. She motioned with pride to a silver wine cooler, tucked discreetly beneath the center table, that had been given to the Hamiltons by Washington himself. This treasured gift retained a secret meaning for Eliza, for it had been a tacit gesture of solidarity from Washington when her husband was ensnared in the first major sex scandal in America.2

If George Washington had given Alexander Hamilton a wine cooler, and if my direct ancestor James McHenry had received one as well, many questions came to mind.

How many coolers were there? Why had Washington ordered them? Where had they come from? Where are they now? Most importantly, what did they mean in the context of the history, culture, economics, and politics of the time? Could this particular wine cooler serve as a tangible object to understand more issues of post-Revolutionary America, the new nation that had ostensibly separated itself from Great Britain following a long and bitter fight?

Background

In September 1783, the Revolutionary War officially ended with the signing of the Peace of Paris. In 1789, George Washington, inaugurated as the new country’s first president, began to set up a household commensurate with his role as a founding father.

To complement his desired lifestyle, Washington began to acquire many elegant decorative objects for his homes: first in New York, then in Philadelphia in the presidential mansion (1790–1797), and finally at his family estate and final dwelling, which he named Mount Vernon (1734–1799). Before he left Philadelphia, and knowing

2 Ronald Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin, 2005), 2.

that he would be more completely furnishing Mount Vernon so he could entertain in an

appropriate manner, in October 1789 he wrote his friend Gouverneur Morris in London to

request the creation and delivery of twelve plated-silver wine coolers to be used for

entertaining his numerous guests. During the course of his presidency, Washington gave

some of these coolers to acquaintances as tokens of his esteem; others were handed down

to descendants after his death. One of the twelve wine coolers was given to my ancestor,

James McHenry, who was Secretary of War in Washington’s administration (a position

he would retain when John Adams assumed the presidency).

This thesis uses this wine cooler as a central object to study the economic,

political, and primarily cultural issues of post-Revolutionary America in relation to Great

Britain. As a unique tangible object, it provides insights into cultural practices, trade, and

international relations and reveals reasons for connections between people, processes, and

forms of inquiry in America and Great Britain during both the pre-and post-

Revolutionary periods. Posing the question of why, after a bitter conflict and successful

separation from Great Britain, the wealthy colonists not only resumed but increased

trading with their former enemy, it places particular emphasis on how the lifestyle

patterns that emerged after the Revolution were extremely similar to those in England

that were supported by trade between the two countries. The role of luxury trade, as it supported the gentility and lifestyle of the time, proved to be an important factor. Did the

Revolution accomplish the goal of creating a new form of government while retaining a lifestyle modeled after Britain? Was the luxury trade for economic, political, or social

status, or all of these?

Washington had expressed reluctance about trade but also wanted to keep good

relations with Great Britain. His successor, John Adams, also felt that trade was the

cornerstone of the America-British relationship. What role did luxury trade play in the

process? Was it essential or a minor part? Was it only to satisfy the need to be a

“gentleman” and to maintain luxurious lifestyles? This was, after all, supposed to be a

new democracy. Why were the mid-Atlantic regions primarily involved in luxury trade?

New Englanders lived more frugally, and their craftsmen had been making luxury items on their own for a decade.

How did evolving politics, Federalists versus Republicans, affect trade, politics, and international relations? George Washington had advised against getting involved with ”foreign entanglements” but joined with Alexander Hamilton in promoting trade.

What were the economic conditions of the colonies at the time and how did

personal financial conditions affect trade? Many colonists had been impoverished after

the war. Did the colonists, after all was said and done, go back to emulating the British

roots they had disavowed?

I hypothesize that although the American Revolution accomplished the goal of

setting up a new form of government, one never before seen in the world. But in so

doing, did America ever really separate itself economically or culturally from Great

Britain?

Chapter II

Literature and Research Review

The George Washington wine cooler is a tangible thing. Laurel Ulrich’s book,

Tangible Things: Making History through Objects, uses objects to ask this question:

What can these objects reveal about history, about the people who made or collected them, and about the museums that have kept and preserved them? Just about any tangible thing can be pressed into service as primary historical evidence. Attention to singular, physical things can reveal connections among people, processes, and forms of inquiry that might otherwise remain unnoticed.3

She notes that for historians, “a good way to broaden knowledge is to narrow the focus.”4

Specific artworks, artifacts, or specimens can be used as primary historical

evidence; an object as seemingly insignificant as a pencil, vase, bracelet, or woven basket

can be a link to past history, revealing cultural, political, and economic information

through ever-broadening circles of research. Thus, my Washington wine cooler illumines

not only the cultural patterns of pre- and post-Revolutionary America but economic

(primarily luxury trade) and political issues as well.

Washington ordered twelve wine coolers from a Sheffield silver factory in

Sheffield, England. Recent innovations in technology at the time made possible the production of Sheffield silver (a layered combination of silver and copper devised in the late eighteenth century) to produce a wide range of household objects nearly identical to

3 Laurel Ulrich, Ivan Gaskell, Sara Schechner, Sarah Anne Carter, and Samantha van Gerbig, Tangible Things: Making History through Objects (Oxford University Press, 2015), Introduction.

4 Ulrich, Tangible Things, 2.

sterling but far less expensive. Washington immediately seized on the advantages of

purchasing Sheffield plate. He wrote to his friend Gouverneur Morris in London asking

him to order twelve wine coolers

. . . of plated ware may be made I conceive handsome and useful Coolers for wine at and after dinner . . .eight double ones (for Madeira and claret the wines usually drank at dinner) and four quadruple Coolers (for the wine after dinner) . . . will be necessary.5

He gave double coolers to James McHenry, Secretary of War; Thomas Pickering,

Secretary of State; and Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury. Each held either two or

four bottles, were oval-shaped, measured approximately eight inches high and fourteen

inches long, and featured iron mask ring holders and wire baskets in the openings to hold

the liquor. Some of the dozen coolers ordered by Washington are in the collection of

Mount Vernon (either owned by the institution or on loan), one is in the Diplomatic

Reception Rooms at the U.S. State Department, and others have been sold at auction,

passed along to descendants or held in private collections.

Culture, Lifestyles, and Gentility

It is critical to consider how patterns of culture and lifestyle emerged following

the Revolution because they impacted the entire economic and political development of

the colonies. Although craftsmanship and trade occupations had formed in all the eastern

colonies before the war—more particularly in New England—the reaction to the Stamp

Act in 1765 and the start of the Revolution in 1775 precipitated a consumer revolution

5 Sotheby, “Washington-Custis Silver, Property of a Direct Descendant” (New York, May 19, 2005), 22.

and new market opportunities. Americans started producing raw materials for home

consumption and export, but

. . . imports compensated for the deprivations of war without displacing long-ingrained habits of household production . . . girls wove sheets, towels, and tablecloths for their trousseaus, imagining a day when they might arrange English teacups and sugar dishes on a tastefully trimmed cloth of their own manufacture.6

Shortly after his inauguration, Washington moved into his New York house with

the intent of furnishing and decorating it in a way that promoted an elegant style

reflecting his status as a gentleman and influencing his peers, those who had served for

and with him and constituted his inner circle. Many of them, such as members of the

Order of the Cincinnati, became recipients of his gift-giving and also followed his desire to create fine taste in art and architecture.

Across the upper classes, the new country appeared to have gone back to emulating its former adversary as its cultural patterns emerged, particularly its increasing emphasis on civility and colonial gentility. Colonial gentility was a movement that started in America at the end of the seventeenth century and continued through to the middle of the nineteenth century, involving the “refinement” of the country with aspirations of the upper and middle classes to emulate London’s reflection of Europe’s background in the

Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, gentility was the visible expression of gentry

status and was reflected in wealth, education, and authority in government. Homes, dress,

personal comportment, entertainment, material goods, and more were all judged in terms

of striving toward gentleman status in society. Richard Bushman, a scholar of this

movement, said:

6 Laurel T. Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), 281.

Gentility did its part not by appealing to modern liberal and capitalist values but by drawing on the aristocratic past. At a time when the Revolution had ended the principles of monarchy and aristocracy and the forces of capitalist enterprise were leading Americans into industrialization, Americans modeled their lives after the aristocrats of a society that was supposedly repudiated at the founding of the nation. . . . . Gentility was the visible expression of gentry status, gave expression to a universally acknowledged division, and had the comforting effect of reinforcing the established social order.7

Supporting the assumptions behind my thesis, he questions: “How could Americans

reconcile their commitment to aristocratic gentility with their devotion to republican

equality?”8

The Washington wine cooler, as portrayed by Washington’s statements and

desires (he ordered many similar items from England), serves as one example of a

tangible object revealing the desire for an aristocratic lifestyle. Extensive records and literature exist on the new markets and luxury trade in the colonies for the manufacture and shipping of carpets, fine fabrics, mahogany and carved furniture, porcelain, silk, portraiture, and more, all of which produced new industries, markets, economic growth,

and the expansion of gentility. Many other factors such as gift-giving to one’s compatriots, interest in wine and entertaining, production and consumption of tobacco, accumulation of coins, and celebratory medals, all played roles in the growth of gentility and the evolution of a society.

Indeed, the creation of this consumer society contributed a level of cohesion to the post-Revolutionary political world. Jennifer Van Horn argues for

. . . the importance of civil society in shaping and completing the American political republic. It was only after the Revolution and the

7 Richard L. Bushman, “The Genteel Republic,” Wilson Quarterly (Winter, 2014): xv-xvi.

8 Bushman, ‘Genteel Republic,” xvi.

formation of a new government in the early republic that Americans bent to the task of making a new political society using the tools of their civil society. Material objects gave them the mechanisms to form societies and communities which then led to shared ideals and political views . . . somewhat but not completely on the margins of the British Empire.9

Trade and Luxury Trade

Before the Revolution, as Great Britain had attained the status of a military and economic superpower, the thirteen American colonies existed as one part of a global empire which not only held military control but relied heavily on trade with its subjects.

In 1763 Britain decided to place a standing army of 10,000 men in North America and passed a series of tax acts to help pay for this army. But in 1765 and 1768, the colonies initiated boycotts of British goods, then intensified the boycotts by convening the first

Continental Congress in 1774.

The colonial economy depended on international trade, with American ships carrying products such as lumber, tobacco, rice, and dried fish to Britain, while the mother country sent textiles and manufactured goods back to America. With the disruption of shipping and trade during the Revolution, Americans began to make necessity goods on their own, but their taste for luxury and English goods hardly diminished. Luxury items are defined as those goods for which demand increases more proportionally as income rises. International trade was a well-known concept to most

American colonists because of their familiarity with the consumer society that originated in London due to England’s trade deals across four continents. During the late eighteenth century, the colonists’ pursuit of gentility accelerated luxury trade between the young

9 Jennifer Van Horn, The Power of Objects in Eighteenth-Century British America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 10.

nation and its former adversary. Pre-Revolution American trade with Great Britain

resumed in full force after the Revolution, feeding the needs of gentry and middle-class

consumption.

In his farewell address, Washington expressed support for trade with other

countries but advised against “foreign entanglements.” Although he expressly referred to

ongoing conflicts between France and Great Britain, he felt the new country should

concentrate on building its own cohesive power and not become involved with disputes

or political issues in other countries.

Yet, as Washington considered America’s need for trade to encourage economic

growth, and England’s eagerness to resume trade with America, he tempered his formerly negative feelings about commerce between the two countries. His order for one dozen wine coolers and other English objects reflected his change in attitude.10 According to

Chernow: “Even after waging war against Britain for more than eight years, Washington

took a coldly realistic view of the strategic need for cordial relations with London.”11 The

federal government depended on customs duties as its principal revenue source and could

scarcely afford to antagonize its major trading partner. As trade with England swiftly

rebounded, Washington observed: “Our trade in all points of view is as essential to GB as

hers is to us.”12 How much of this trade stemmed from their need to be landed gentry?

10 Kathryn Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver (Mt. Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, 1957), 42.

11 Chernow, Washington: A Life (New York: Penguin, 2010), 656.

12 Chernow, Washington, 656.

Politics

Despite having created a new constitution and a potentially strong form of democratic government, by the mid-1790s, growing controversies raged between the two major parties. The Federalist party led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Republican party led by Thomas Jefferson, struggled over issues involving the central government, finance and trade, and leadership of the country. Federalists dominated the national government from approximately 1789 to 1801. Under Hamilton’s influence, the party called for a national bank, trade and tariffs, and good relations with Great Britain. “The Federalists . .

. prized their Anglo-American identity, and even after the American Revolution, they retained their affinity with the mother country.”13 Because it promoted a strong central government, a national army and navy, and economic growth including industry, the tenets of Federalism appealed mostly to businessmen and conservatives—the part of the population that favored gentility and for whom the luxury trade was essential to their identity.

Officially known as the Democratic-Republican Party, the Republican party was formed under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to oppose the centralist policies of Hamilton’s Federalist Party. The Republicans were suspicious of a national bank and capitalism and particularly feared a potential monarchy, the loss of individual and states’ rights, and those of the common man, in turn supporting political equality, expansionism, and agricultural growth in the south. Republicans saw themselves as cosmopolitan, cherishing the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality. They championed the French Revolution and disdained Great Britain. But although they held

13 Suzanne Mettler, and Robert C. Lieberman, “The Fragile Republic,” Foreign Affairs (Sep-Oct, 2020): 183.. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-08-07/democracy-fragile-republic.

these points of view, many were wealthy plantation owners and merchants who also

valued luxury goods and sought gentility. As the country grew, luxury goods continued to

represent a significant part of the country’s imports. The strong trade relations with

Britain, which had been established by Washington, continued well beyond his term,

even though his successor, John Adams, leaned more toward the Republican point of

view.

Research Methods

The hypothesis I am researching using a George Washington wine cooler as the

focal point, is that even after a bitter revolution from Great Britain, post-Revolutionary

America never really separated itself from the cultural and lifestyle practices of England.

To test this hypothesis, I used a mixed-mode research design using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Examples include:

• Tangible things. Case studies of objects that reveal broader historical

information, such as textiles, household objects, books, farm tools, etc. I also

researched objects that were frequently offered in American trade with Great

Britain, such as silver and silk, to assess how creating, selling, and consuming

these goods revealed economic, political, and cultural patterns.

• Economic and financial circumstances of American colonists pre- and post-

Revolution. I researched primary sources from state archives, historical societies,

and personal/family charts; reviewed farm records, state archives, household

inventories, tobacco trade, bank accounts, etc., to analyze and compare the

different periods. I researched a number of secondary sources that provided

important context regarding the lifestyles the colonists sought both before and

after the Revolution.

• Political influences. I analyzed various historians’ views on how the conflicts

between the Federalists and the Republicans affected trade with England after the

Revolution.

• Role of luxury trade. Establishing the importance of luxury goods (silver, silk,

etc.) as essential, significant, or insignificant, I sought to determine what made

them status-defining. I focused specifically on Sheffield silver, its manufacture,

trade, and use in the colonies.

• Wine coolers. I traced the histories of each of the twelve wine coolers ordered by

George Washington. Research into family histories, auction houses, museum

collections, and other experts helped me determine histories and locations of

each, and I reviewed this data for any significant patterns and insights.

• Revolutionary outcomes. I compared the results of three to four sample post-

revolutionary cultures in selected circumstances to determine what changed from

their pre-revolutionary conditions.

Chapter III

Tracing the Twelve George Washington Wine Coolers

Will you then, my good Sir, permit me to ask the favor of you to provide and send to me by the first Ship, bound to this place, or Philadelphia . . . Of plated ware may be made I conceive handsome and useful Coolers for wine at and after dinner. Those I am in need of viz. eight double once (for Madeira and claret the wines usually drank at dinner) each of the apertures to be sufficient to contain a pint decanter, with an allowance in the depth of it for ice at bottom so as to raise the neck of the decanter above the cooler; between the apertures a handle is to be placed by which these double coolers may with convenience be removed from one part of the table to another. For the wine after dinner four quadruple coolers will be necessary . . . Should my description be defective, your imagination is fertile and on this I shall rely . . . The reason why I prefer an aperture for every decanter or bottle to coolers that would contain two and four is that whether full or empty the bottles will always stand upright and never be at variance with each other. Whether these things can be had on better terms and in better style in Paris than in London I will not undertake to decide. I recollect however to have had plated ware from both places, and those from the latter came cheapest; but a single instance is no evidence of a general fact.14

Thus wrote George Washington, in October 1789, to his friend and New York

merchant Gouverneur Morris who was living in Paris pursuing various commercial

dealings. During his time in Europe, Morris visited England as a private agent to discuss

the conditions of the original treaty between Britain and America and to sound out

thoughts about a commercial treaty; it also would have been an opportune time for him to purchase English goods. Washington was at the time living in New York, first on Cherry

Street and then on Broadway. But he was soon to move to Philadelphia into the elegant,

14 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 42.

recently rebuilt house of Robert Morris on High Street. The family stayed in Philadelphia

until March 1797, when they returned definitively to Mount Vernon.

From the very beginning of his presidency it was important for Washington to

acquire objects which would set a precedent for future leaders and impress foreign

delegates. In a letter to James Madison he noted: “As it is my wish and intention to conform to the public desire and expectation, with respect to the style proper for the

Chief Magistrate to live in, it might be well to know . . . what these are before he enters upon it.”15

Thus in 1789 while still in Philadelphia, and despite having achieved an already

lavishly decorated house, the President still felt the need to upgrade his table. Hence he

wrote to Morris to place his order for the twelve wine coolers, a number he apparently

felt necessary to produce the proper entertaining style. His decision to personally absorb

the cost of furnishing and decorating the presidential residence reflected his opinion of the importance of shaping the new executive office’s aesthetic and public image.

Regarding the choice of plate silver, according to Buhler’s account of Mount

Vernon silver, he was “but following the custom of his colony when he ordered his plate from London,” 16 as plate was regarded as not only more serviceable but less expensive.

Nonetheless, the coolers proved more expensive than expected and not exactly as the

president had conceived them. In November 1790, Washington wrote from Mount

Vernon to his secretary Tobias Lear: “Enclosed I send you a letter from Mr. Gouvr.

Morris with the Bill of cost of the articles he was requested to send me. The prices of the

15 Betty C. Monkman, “The White House Collection: George Washington.” White House History, no. 6 (Fall 1999): 19.

16 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 9.

16 plated ware exceeds, far exceeds the upmost bounds of my calculation.”17 A later document reveals that the four quadruple coolers cost £96 and the eight double coolers cost £84.

Although accounts of Washington’s disposition toward England at the time indicate that on one hand he had “relented in his attitude toward England” and understood that trade was important, his silver collection that descended to the Custis family also included an American-made silver salver in a size made to hold approximately six wine glasses. Bearing General Washington’s crest, this salver was ordered circa 1775–1780.

Given the state of relations with England at this time, perhaps earlier than the wine cooler orders, Washington wrote “I do not incline to send to England (from whence formerly I had all my goods) for anything I can get upon tolerable terms elsewhere.”18

Yet, ultimately, the wine coolers, along with a large supply of English plate silver objects, were used frequently when Washington entertained an endless string of guests.

Even while engaged in the improvement of Mount Vernon in 1783, Chernow noted:

Once again, with Roman fortitude, Washington endured an invasion of unwanted visitors . . . Mount Vernon became a way station for travelers eager to glimpse the retired national leader. Visitors . . . sat down with the Washingtons for a succulent meal consisting of “a small roasted pig, boiled leg of lamb, beef, peas, lettuce, cucumbers, artichokes, puddings, tarts, etc.”19

17 Sotheby, “Washington-Custis Silver,” 23.

18 Sotheby, “Sotheby to Offer George Washington’s Silver.” https://sothebys.gcs-web.com/static- files/5daece0e-04cf-44a8-b95e-fc251a33a01b

19 Chernow, Hamilton, 776.

His renovations to the house included a “stately dining room featuring a long table that

seated ten people.”20 Although Washington found the wine coolers to be more expensive

than expected, it is suggested that “the extraordinarily fine condition of those remaining

suggested that the cost was for the heavy layer of silver which has continued to conceal

the copper core.”21 Where can they be found today?

At the time of Washington’s “retirement” from the presidency and move to Mount

Vernon, he gave away two of the quadruple coolers and four of the double coolers to friends and cabinet members. One double was given to James McHenry, Secretary of

War; one to Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State (now in the Mount Vernon

Collection); and one to Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of Treasury. A letter to James McHenry dated 1797 includes the following:

It had escaped me, until reminded by a re-perusal of some of the first letters, that my Table ornaments and Coolers were in your possession. Not for the value of the thing, but as a token of my friendship and as a remembrance of it, I ask you, Colonel Pickering, and Mr. Wolcott to accept, each one of the two bottle Coolers; I think there are three of them. The other articles I pray you have carefully packed . . . and sent to Col. Biddle, who will be directed what to do with them.22

The Timothy Pickering double cooler is currently housed in the State Department

Diplomatic Rooms, and the Oliver Wolcott double cooler is in the hands of the Wolcott

family and was formerly on loan to Mount Vernon. George Washington brought four of

the other double wine coolers home to Mount Vernon, and they descended in the Custis

20 Chernow, Hamilton, 777.

21 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 51.

22 Sotheby’s, Washington-Custis Silver, 25.

family. One was sold at Sotheby’s and is now in a private collection and on loan to

Mount Vernon, and the other remains in the family.

As to the four-bottle wine coolers, George Washington brought two home and they descended in the Custis family. He gave one to Alexander Hamilton, which sold in

2012 at Christie’s auction in New York for a substantial $782,500 and is currently in a private collection. It must be noted that although this sale was reported extensively as bringing a price far higher than expected, there was also some criticism that the owner,

Alexander Hamilton (“Sandy”) Spaulding, was “looking to strike it rich by auctioning it off . . . shame on him, unworthy of his ancestry, unworthy of his name”23; others thought

it should have been donated to a national institution that showcases American history.

The other quadruple cooler was bought by James McHenry when it was offered at

auction in 1797. Thereafter, it descended through the family until it was donated to

Mount Vernon by another McHenry descendant, Edith Dove McHenry. She was married

to Wilson Miles McHenry, who inherited the piece from his father James Howard

McHenry (1820–1888), who in turn inherited it from his father John McHenry (1791–

1822), son of Secretary of War James McHenry. Table 1 recaps the whereabouts of the

twelve wine coolers today.

23 Richard Saunders, “Do you have George Washington’s wine cooler?” Poor Richard’s Almanac, November 27, 2011. https://ourfriendben.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/do-you-have-george-washingtons- wine-cooler/.

Table 1. Location of the 12 George Washington Wine Coolers.

Quadruple Wine Coolers 1. Purchased by James McHenry. Descended through family. Now owned by Mount Vernon. Inscribed: Used by Genl Washington when President and sold 1797 By his order on his retirement to private life 2. Given to Alexander Hamilton. Descended through family. Sold at Sotheby’s January 2012. Currently owned by collector Gary Hendershott of Little Rock, AR 3. Descended through Custis family. Owned by Mount Vernon. 4. Descended through Custis family. Whereabouts unknown. Double Wine Coolers 1. Given to James McHenry. Descended through family. Owned by Marjorie McHenry Bride. Inscribed: Presented by Genl Washington to James McHenry, August 14th, 1797. 2. Given to Timothy Pickering. Owned by U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Reception Rooms. 3. Given to Oliver Wolcott. Descended through Wolcott family. On loan to Mount Vernon. 4. Descended through Custis family. Owned by Mount Vernon. 5. Descended through Custis family. On loan to Mount Vernon. 6. Descended through Custis family. Sold at Sotheby’s. Now part of private collection. On loan to Mount Vernon. 7. Descended through Custis family. Whereabouts unknown. 8. Whereabouts unknown. Possibly sold at 1797 Washington auction. Possibly in the collection of the John Marshall House, Richmond, VA.

Source: courtesy of Adam Erby, Curator, Mount Vernon.

History of the James McHenry Wine Cooler

James McHenry was born in Ballymena, Ireland in 1752 and died in 1816 at his

county seat in Baltimore, named Fayetteville in honor of his friend and commander, the

Marquis de LaFayette. He was commissioned Surgeon General to George Washington in

1778, and served as Secretary of War under Washington and John Adams (1796–1800).

He was also a member of the U.S. Constitutional Convention and a Member of Congress.

McHenry was married to Margaret (Peggy) Caldwell. Bernard Steiner, who wrote

about McHenry’s life and correspondence, said:

He was a man of rare charm and attractiveness, who gained and kept the love of the best men of his time. A mere list of names of his intimate friends, scores of whose letters are here published for the first time, proves the nobleness and loveliness of his character. Washington loved him, as he loved few men. The men with whom McHenry was associated in the Revolutionary army, such as Hamilton, Lafayette and Tallmadge, never lost the esteem they there learned to feel for him.24

Although there is no written record of McHenry’s receipt of the George

Washington wine cooler, regarding his other household possessions at an earlier time, he

wrote to his wife in 1784:

On examining what silver furniture we have, I find 13 silver table spoons, 22 teaspoons, a silver punch strainer and tea tongs. My brother has just ordered a silver coffee pot from England, so that in the meantime we may use one of less value.25

In addition to the double wine cooler given to him by Washington, he purchased at auction one of Washington’s quadruple wine coolers, which became part of the household items his descendants received.

24 Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry, Secretary of War under Washington and Adams (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1907), ixx.

25 Steiner, Life of James McHenry, 284.

McHenry appears to have taken little or no part in public life after his resignation

from public life. He wrote pamphlets and kept in touch with political life. He is buried in

Baltimore near his original residence. Of significance today is that his family kept intact

many of his possessions, particularly his letters and records, which have been kept in

various collections at the Maryland Historical Society and the Library of Congress. His

papers pertain mostly to his public service in the Revolutionary War and the years immediately succeeding, especially 1797–1800 when he was a Federalist member of the

Cabinet. There are many letters from Washington, Adams, Lafayette, Hamilton,

Pickering, and others.

There is little household information that sheds light on his ownership of the

George Washington wine cooler. However, the inscription on the double wine cooler,

“Presented by Genl. Washington to James McHenry, August 14th, 1797,” attests to the fact that it was indeed given to him at the same time as the other two double wine coolers were given to Thomas Pickering and Oliver Wolcott. This inscription may have been made at a later time, however, as the same style of inscription is on the quadruple wine cooler which he bought at auction.

John McHenry, 1791–1822

John McHenry lived a short life, dying when he was only 31, just six years after his famous father’s death. According to author Bernard Steiner, all the living descendants of James McHenry are descended from this son who was his second son and fourth child.

John was born in Baltimore and attended St. Mary’s College there, became a lawyer, was active in the Presbyterian Church and a member of the Society of Cincinnati,

descendants of George Washington’s generals and cabinet members. He served in the

War of 1812 in the Maryland militia. He married Juliana Elizabeth Howard at her family home of Belvidere in Baltimore. Their son James Howard McHenry was born in October

1820, but Juliana died six months later. McHenry died in 1822 of the fever in

Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

Because of his short life, there are no records of the family’s household life, but it

appears that the wine cooler they inherited was retained for a time at Belvidere, a grand

estate owned by Juliana Howard’s father, Col. John Eager Howard, located in the Mount

Vernon Square section of Baltimore. This was a substantial mansion with a main section

and east and west wings, surrounded by a forest park where May Day fetes, national

holidays, and other events were held.

Belvidere was a social center not only of Baltimore’s fashionable life, but of the

American colonies; notable guests from home and abroad were entertained there. A

particularly interesting event occurred in 1824 at a dinner of the Society of the Cincinnati

to honor LaFayette’s visit to Baltimore.

After the removal of the splendid dessert . . . a pair of very elegant wine coolers were introduced at the request of Colonel Howard, the venerable President of the Society, who, when they were placed on the board, rose and in a feeling manner mentioned their having originally belonged to the venerated Father of our Country, and having been presented by him, on his retiring from the Presidency of the United States, to a late valued friend of General LaFayette, and member of the Cincinnati, Major McHenry, as a memento of his esteem. (It was) determined that the two eldest grandsons of Major McHenry should bear the coolers into the dining room. They did so. General LaFayette assisted the President in placing the largest one on the table . . . and made some feeling remarks which the occasion naturally suggested.26

26 Marjorie Ober McHenry family book, privately held, 1959.

James Howard McHenry 1820–1888

Because he was left an orphan at an early age by the untimely deaths of his

mother and father, it appears that James lived for some period at Belvidere and then was taken in by a distant cousin, Mrs. John Ridgeley of Hampton, and lived there. He went to school in Geneva, and at Princeton and Harvard Law School. Although he inherited

Belvidere from his father-in-law, Col. John Eager Howard, he sold it, bought 1,000 acres near Pikesville outside of Baltimore, and built Sudbrook, a large gray stone house with stables, hot houses, a grapery, and “all the requirements for a luxurious, hospitable country life.”27 His wife, Sarah Nicholas Cary, “took an active part in the social life of the day and both were also great travelers. Many of the lovely family possessions were brought back by them from their trips.”28

In 1900, Sudbrook was destroyed by fire. It is assumed that the George

Washington wine cooler was part of the household inventory and was saved in the fire.

The name Sudbrook lives on, as early on James Howard McHenry had had a plan for a

suburban community on his land which was ultimately realized by the creation of

Sudbrook Park by Frederick Law Olmsted.

John McHenry, 1863–1939

When John McHenry married Priscilla Pinkney Stewart, his father-in-law built their first house, Clovelly, (named after a town in Devon, England), for the couple. John had gone to school in Baltimore, graduated from Yale University in 1885, and then

27 Marjorie Ober McHenry family book.

28 Marjorie Ober McHenry family book.

worked at the Mercantile Trust Company in Baltimore for many years. He was a

respected businessman, sportsman, and member of the community.

In 1909, your grandmother was sitting on the lawn and looking up, she saw flames licking the shingled roof. She rushed in the house and called the telephone operator, who in turn called not only the fire department but all the neighbors. The house burnt to the ground but nearly all the contents were saved, even a mantlepiece and corner cupboards, which were installed in the dining room of the new Clovelly.29

James McHenry was one of four children born to John McHenry and Priscilla

Stewart McHenry while they lived at Clovelly. He attended Yale University, served in

the Marine Corps in the Pacific in World War II, and married Marjorie Hambleton Ober.

His older brother, John (Jack), was killed in World War I. Therefore James inherited the

George Washington wine cooler from his parents. Upon his death, the cooler descended to his daughter, Marjorie Hambleton McHenry Bride.

As Examples of New Technology

“Fused silver plate on copper, silver.” So reads the description of a quadruple

wine cooler in the Mount Vernon collection:

Elliptical wine cooler of used silverplate on copper composed of a basin and removable lid; raised bombe basin with cornice and applied, cove molded foot; silver lion’s mask and ring handles on each short side; four short conical projections with flat tops sitting on flattened knops in interior of well, arranged to correspond to the center of the four openings of the lid; removable lid with four circular opening; each of the openings is surrounded by a pierced, reeded collar above and a plain plated collar below the surface of the lid; four reproduction cylindrical baskets constructed of silver wire with a short cylindrical cap projecting from their center base, are mounted on the projections inside the basin and kept in place by the lower collars of the lid.”30

29 Marjorie Ober McHenry family book.

30 Sotheby, Washington-Custis Silver, 24.

In the mid-eighteenth century there arose a trans-Atlantic consumer revolution,

along with empire building and

. . . globally connected and locally defined, yet distinctly Atlantic, back- and-forth movements in which the shuttling of ideas, people, and goods crisscrossed the ocean and influenced landscapes, commodities, and trade on both sides. Discussions of this so-called consumer revolution often single out the 1740s as a turning point, the decade in which a noticeable rise in conspicuous consumer consumption began around the Atlantic.31

To support this burgeoning demand, technologies arose in Europe and America to

produce many kinds of consumer and household goods: silk, textiles, clothing, gold

buttons, pottery, furniture, portraiture, utensils, etc. In his discussion of the rise of

gentility in the eighteenth century, Bushman states:

Capitalism joined forces with emulation to spread gentility wherever the lines of commerce could reach. Without the mass production of genteel goods, ordinary people with limited incomes could not have afforded the accoutrements of refinement. Entrepreneurs responded to every sign of increasing demand for fabric, furniture, parlors, clothing, and ingeniously provided them at affordable prices.32

And even though the colonies had made great strides in manufacturing many of their own goods, Julie Flavell says of the diverse population of colonists:

They wanted to be part of the business and social world of the British empire and the northern Atlantic. Even on the frontier, imported consumer goods were snapped up as quickly as possible. Colonists did indeed resort to short-term production of homespun during boycotts of British goods in the 1760s and 1770s, but they weren’t really going to give up their silks, velvets and fashion accessories forever.33

31 Zara Anishanslin, Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016), 13-14.

32 Bushman, “Genteel Republic,” 406.

33 Julie Flavell, When London was Capital of America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 217.

The eighteenth century more broadly marked the beginning of the first Industrial

Revolution, seeing the widespread replacement of manual labor with new inventions and machinery and the spread of capitalism. The 1700s also saw the invention of such items

as the piano; the sextant; the spinning jenny and spinning frame; Benjamin Franklin’s

dictionary and bifocal eyeglasses; the threshing machine, cotton spinning machine, and

cotton gin and the smallpox vaccine.34

The technology to make the George Washington wine coolers originated in

Sheffield, England in 1743. The material was accidentally invented by an employee of

Cutler’s Company in Sheffield. As he was trying to repair another silver item, he heated

it too much, and the silver started to melt. As he examined the melted silver, he noticed

that the silver and copper had fused together and that even though he could see the two

metals separately they worked as one. Hence an ingot of copper and an ingot of sterling

silver were fused together and then rolled out into a sheet. This sheet (one side silver and

one side copper) was then used to construct the desired item using techniques that were

used with sterling silver. The vast majority of this fusion plate was made in Sheffield,

hence the name Old Sheffield Plate.35

This double sandwich form of Sheffield plate was perfected between 1743 and

1770. Later a new method of silver plating was developed, known as electroplating, in

which an object is constructed entirely out of a base metal then covered with pure silver.

This should not be confused with Old Sheffield Plate, or OSP. All Old Sheffield Plate

34 Mary Bellis, “Inventions and Inventors of the 18th Century,” 2019. https://www.thoughtco.com/ 18th-century-timeline-1992474.

35 J. H. Tee Antiques, “Old Sheffield Plate,” 2021. https://www.justinteeantiques.com/news-info/old- sheffield-plate/.

27 was manufactured in Sheffield. There can be confusion when identifying whether a silver object is pure sterling silver, Old Sheffield Plate, or silverplate, as methods changed over time. Electroplating was developed in the early 1800s and produced popular consumer items in many factories. According to OSP expert Hannah Crouthamel:

Most of what is generally available in the marketplace today is silverplate, but Old Sheffield plated wares are still around. Since Old Sheffield Plate is made like a sandwich with silver being the bread and copper being the filling, look to the edges for clues. If when you turn over a piece, there is a thread-like silver protuberance on the underside of the edge, then it is Old Sheffield Plate. If it is absolutely smooth, then it is silverplate If there is a telltale seam where two ends were put together, (often copper is showing through at this seam), then you have Old Sheffield Plate. Before 1770, the edges were sometimes tinned or left untreated, resulting in a weak edge and a lack of sophistication. More often the edges would be turned under much like a hem. From 1770–85 (George Washington ordered his in 1789) the edges were strengthened and nicely finished by using plated wire or plated “u” shaped strips.36

During the eighteenth century, silver was a luxury that only the very wealthy could afford, but the introduction of Sheffield Plate and (and silverplating) reflects changes in society from that time on. Sheffield-plated objects were significantly less expensive—about one-third the price of silver ones—but looked the same:

For example, in the eighteenth century a pair of Sheffield plated candlesticks could cost three pounds versus nine pounds for a stamped silver pair and thirty-five pounds for a cast silver pair; a silver soup tureen could cost between fifty and one hundred pounds, while the Sheffield plated one could sell between ten and fifteen pounds.37 Crouthamel stated that the aristocracy, gentry, and professional classes, always seeking value for money, quickly embraced the new technology of Sheffield plate as “they were a relative bargain and everyone liked a bargain, none more so than the wealthy.”38 She also

36 Hannah Crouthamel, “The Farm Antiques,” 2012. https://thefarmantiques.com/hello-world/.

37 Crouthamel, “Farm Antiques,” 3.

38 Crouthamel, “Farm Antiques,” 3.

quoted Gordon Crosskey, author of the definitive study Old Sheffield Plate: “The ultimate success of the industry was the universal patronage of the aristocracy. That in an age of social emulation and conspicuous consumption was of inestimable value.”39

These preferences for seeking gentrified elegance at the same time as value for

the money applied to both sides of the Atlantic in the eighteenth century, and to George

Washington’s purchase of the twelve Sheffield silver wine coolers, although it appears

that Gouverneur Morris made the actual selection of where to buy them. Washington

instructed him, reinforcing his preference for an object of “noble simplicity,” to avoid extravagance in his selection, “for extravagance would not comport with my own inclination, nor with the example which ought to be set.”40 Buhler says Washington “was

but following the custom of his colony,” when he ordered silver plate from London, and he requested “that whatever goods you may send me where the prices are not absolutely limited you will let them be fashionable, neat, and good in their several kinds.”41 Even

though Washington’s household silver included a large number of both silver and plated ware, some of it made by American craftsmen, by 1789 “plated ware continued to interest

General Washington”42 based on numerous requests sent to both France and England. So

Morris ordered twelve wine coolers made of Old Sheffield Plate. We know that:

The coolers proved more expensive than expected, and not exactly as the President had described them; yet the extraordinarily fine condition of

39 Crosskey, quoted in Crouthamel, “Farm Antiques,” 3.

40 Christie’s, Lot Essay, “Important Silver,” 5.

41 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 9-10.

42 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 37.

those remaining suggests that the cost was for the heavy layer of silver which had continued to conceal the copper core.43

And in spite of his complaints, Washington seemed determined to continue to preserve

his elegant status by ordering casters to help move the wine coolers.

As Tangible Objects

As “tangible objects,” based on concepts developed by such historical scholars as

Laurel Ulrich (Tangible Things: Making History Through Objects), and Jennifer Van

Horn (The Power of Objects in Eighteenth Century British America), the twelve wine

coolers ordered by George Washington can be used to inform more deeply the cultural,

economic, and political forces playing out in post-Revolutionary America, as well as

George Washington’s own personal issues.

From a personal point of view, it seems that Washington was a man of conflicts,

caught between his comfortable but practical beginnings and to some extent his

corresponding personal tastes, and the cultural and financial forces of the time. The wine

coolers shed light on both the more opulent and the more practical side of his tastes, that

is, a peek into his personality. Although he was born in the rich farmlands of tidewater

Virginia, Washington’s early life was dominated by his widowed mother, Ann Fairfax,

who

drilled habits of thrift and industry into her children, including rising early with the sun, a strict farmer’s habit that George retained for the rest of his life . . . . That the commoner George could ever aspire to a life as richly consequential as that of King George II, then enthroned in royal splendor, would have seemed a preposterous fantasy in the 1730’s.44

43 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 51.

44 Chernow, Washington, 6-7.

Working as a surveyor, ending up in the military, he never went to college. In his

career in the military, Washington would have had ample opportunity to see and

sympathize with the lives and plights of simple men. Even as President, he requested that

orders of personal goods not be expensive, and in some cases complained about them

being too expensive. But the background from which he grew, with tastes imbedded early

on, was of planters who “strove to ape their English cousins, who remained the

unquestioned model of everything superior and cosmopolitan.”45 True to his background,

Washington married Martha Custis and acquired a substantial household of fine

furnishings and decorative objects, including a large array of silver. (At the time of his

marriage, silver plate had not yet become popular.)

Jennifer Van Horn sheds further light on Washington’s persona in her account of his black suit, another “tangible object.” For this suit, which he donned for many

ceremonial occasions, he requested “the quality thus—The best superfine French or

Dutch black—exceedingly fine—of a soft, silky texture.”46 Although conservative,

Washington’s costume functioned within the style of the best European clothing and

proceeded directly from the shared transatlantic culture of politeness in which colonists

participated earlier in the eighteenth century. Van Horn continues: “The black suit may

seem an obvious choice: inoffensively polite without being excessively luxurious.”47 Was it politics or personality that were reflected in his diplomatic decisions:

45 Chernow, Washington, 6.

46 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 404.

47 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 404.

[Would] coarse and less-finished American-manufactured fabric be better because of its political assertions of independence, or should he remain in the more traditional imported silk dress, which refined his body and proclaimed his genteel status to others?48

Would sterling silver or plate silver wine coolers have been preferable?

The wine coolers also shed light on George Washington’s personal wealth, how he viewed it, and how he acted upon it. Although he inherited Mount Vernon from his family toward the end of the Revolutionary War, he returned with a group of French officers who described the place as “relatively modestly suited for America’s hero . . . but

not large . . . even with barren gardens. Washington must have been distressed by the

creeping signs of decay everywhere.”49

Yet, many accounts say that Washington is thought to have been the richest U.S.

president with vast sums of money, land, and objects, enhanced by his wife’s

considerable dowry. But Washington clearly did not see himself this way. In 1785, an

English visitor described him as one of the best informed as well as successful planters in

America. But his success was more questionable. Chernow noted that in that same year

Washington grumbled: “‘To be plain, my coffers are not overflowing with

money.’ Unable to curtail his free-handed spending and with his crops faring poorly, he

started out 1786 with a paltry 86 pounds in cash.”50 As elegant as sterling silver would

have appeared, buying plate silver suited better his perception of himself.

In addition, gift-giving to his close circle of friends and family was reflected by

the George Washington wine coolers. We know that he gave three of the double coolers

48 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 405.

49 Chernow, Washington, 410.

50 Chernow, Washington, 478.

to James McHenry, Thomas Pickering, and Oliver Wolcott, former members of his

cabinet. He wrote to McHenry:

It had escaped me, until reminded by a re-perusal of some of your first letters, that my Table ornaments and Coolers were in your possession. Not for the value of the thing, but as a token of my friendship and as a remembrance of it, I ask you, Colonel Pickering, and Mr. Wolcott to accept, each one of the two bottle coolers.51

At Washington’s death, his estate was left to his wife. Martha Washington’s will dated September 22, 1800, stated:

I give and bequeath to my grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, all the silver plate of every kind of which I shall die possessed, together with the two large plated coolers, the four small plated coolers, with bottle casters, and a pipe wine, if there be one in the house at the time of my death.52

Many others, including LaFayette, Henry Knox, his secretary Tobias Lear, and his

physician James Craik, were close to him as were the members of the Society of the

Cincinnati.

The wine coolers are objects which reflect the joint forces of the “refinement of

America” and its consumer revolution, the return of trade with England, the rise of new

technologies (including that of plate silver), and the political domination of the

Federalists, who favored England over France. A study of the coolers, their origins and use reveals connections between the people, processes, decision making, and history of their time. Their part in the material culture of the eighteenth century can be seen behind the development of social classes, aristocratic refinement, then communities, then

51 Sotheby, “Washington-Custis Silver,” 25.

52 Sotheby, “Washington-Custis Silver,” 26.

33 political and governmental structures, international relations, and ultimately world power and dominance.

Chapter IV

Cultural Lifestyles and the Consumer Revolution

Although there had been a high level of consumption of material goods in the

colonies before the Revolution, post-Revolutionary America saw a burgeoning of

consumption. The upper class and the growing middle class ordered a large number of

luxury goods from Great Britain, as well as from the new and expanding supply of local

craftsmen. George Washington’s order of goods from England, including the wine cooler

described in this thesis, reflected the growing consumer society pattern. What forces

drove the rise of gentility and this consumer society? What were the colonists seeking

socially and how did this affect their consumption? Why did they not purchase more

goods from existing fine craftspeople up and down the East Coast? Although the

expansion of wealth and consumption in America accelerated well into the nineteenth

century, this discussion focuses on the period following the Revolutionary War, to the end of the eighteenth century, and into the early nineteenth, with some reference to pre-

Revolutionary social and cultural patterns.

Civility and Refinement

Washington’s own views on civility can be found in a book he wrote at the age of sixteen entitled 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.

Some of his rules of etiquette from this piece follow:

● Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect, to those that are present. ● When in company, put not your hands to any part of the body, not usually discovered. ● Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace, walk not on when others stop. ● Turn not your back to others especially in speaking, jog not the table or desk on which another reads or writes, lean not upon any one. ● Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.53

We know from many accounts of Washington’s life that, in spite of his relatively

humble beginnings, he put great emphasis on civil behavior and proper appearance: from his household furnishings, to his own clothing, to the appearance of those associated with him. Instructing his regiment in 1776, he told his troops that “nothing adds more to the appearance of a man than dress” and that he hoped “each regiment will contend for the most soldier-like appearance.”54

Did Washington’s ideas spring from his own personal values, or did they reflect

beliefs of the time? Where did the notion of gentility start in the colonies? According

to Richard Bushman, gentility was not much on the minds of the first English settlers

in North America in the early seventeenth century. Their lives generally were governed

by more austere religious codes, not to mention the austere material conditions of early

colonial life. Then, at the end of the seventeenth century, a handful of merchants newly

53 George Washington, 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. Ed. J. M. Toner, 1888. Believed to be written in 1744. Independently published, 2021. ISBN-13 979- 8710803707.

54 Chernow, Washington, 223.

36 migrated from Britain built city houses in Boston and Philadelphia, houses that we would now call mansions. Soon substantial new dwellings in the fashionable Georgian style were going up across the colonies. “By the time of the Revolution . . . every member of the colonial gentry felt he must reside in a mansion furnished with polished walnut furniture, creamwares, and plate—all ornaments of the genteel life.”55 Washington’s

Rules of Civility was just one of hundreds of such books then circulating through both

Europe and the colonies.

The Revolution raised the conflictual issue of whether this growing movement toward gentility and refinement conflicted with moves toward democracy because while gentility represented an elite culture not suited to a republican society (these conflicts were to continue for decades), gentility “not only survived but prevailed, becoming an essential element in the success of America’s democratic experiment.”56 The continuance and value of this society formed by class distinctions and social customs is supported by

Van Horn, who says:

Local communities, constituted through common goods and shared mores, generated their own material variations of a dynamic, transatlantic, polite culture; they used their networks of goods to lay claim to cultivated status and to simultaneously ground their emerging social associations in the material world.57

By the mid-eighteenth century, gentility and the move toward refinement had become popular concepts directed to more democratic uses. Whereas in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries a small elite of wealthy and educated citizens lived in

55 Bushman, Genteel Republic, 2.

56 Bushman, Genteel Republic, 2.

57 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 10.

37 mansions, dominated high society, and held high government offices, now “ordinary” people could call themselves a part of the gentry, adopt genteel manners, and show a refined life by owning an important object, perhaps imported from England—a teapot, a fine textile, a piece of furniture, a simple portrait. By the mid to late 1700s they were ladies and gentlemen of a certain class. And as consumerism of fine objects and an understanding of good manners grew, farmers, workers, and clerks, joined the gentry.

According to Bushman:

What drove this transformation was a popular desire to emulate those who stood at the peak of society and government, to dignify one’s life with a portion of the glory that radiated from the highest and best circles. But (as we will see in the consumer revolution) the extraordinary growth of gentility in the United States would not have been possible without the unlikely alliance that was forged between gentility and capitalism.58

Another Bushman book, The Refinement of America: Person, Houses, Cities,59 is one of the most comprehensive studies of the growth of civility and refinement in

America. He studies a series of houses, gardens, urban spaces, churches, and household objects over the periods of Gentility (1700–1790) and Respectability (1790–1850) for

“outward signs of what the inhabitants hoped would be an inward grace; they wished to transform themselves along with their environments.”60 He says that small tokens of gentility can be found scattered through all of American society in the eighteenth century, like pottery shards in an excavated house lot, a teacup, a silver spoon, knives and forks, a book or two, each associated with a majority of the population who considered

58 Bushman, Genteel Republic, 3.

59 Richard L. Bushman, The Refinement of America: Person, Houses, Cities (New York: Vintage, 1993).

60 Bushman, Refinement, xii.

38 themselves the gentry. By the middle of the nineteenth century gentility was thoroughly entrenched in the middle classes.

Regarding the specifics of genteel items, Bushman says:

The genteel life depended on the creation of proper environments, made up from mansions, pictures, silver spoons, teacups and mahogany tables. All that distinguished genteel drawing rooms was the manner of the people and the style of the objects that surrounded them. Wine sipped from a crystal wine glass had a different meaning than rum gulped down from a redware mug. Talk before a fireplace with a decorated chimney breast in a plastered and painted room with high ceilings differed from conversation before the gaping maw of a kitchen fireplace in a dark low room with exposed beams overhead. A polished environment was as much the essence of gentility as polished manners.61

Bushman gives us extensive examples of settings and physical arrangements which portray eighteenth century gentility. In 1772, William Corbit built an elegant

Georgian manor house in Cantwell’s Bridge, Delaware, which is described as:

. . . extraordinary but not unprecedented. It conformed to the classic Georgian plan of four rooms on a floor divided by a stair passage from front to back, and had a broad staircase flowing down into the front hall with burnished balusters and a rail that swirls to its conclusion at the bottom.62

The inventory of a neighboring house owned by the Ridgely family offers clues about the family’s values by indicating which activities merited finer furnishing:

Of the three tables in the parlor, the tea table was considered most valued; with the tea and its attendant rituals can be associated the twelve wineglasses, nine tumblers, three decanters, three china bowls and a tin punch bowl.63

61 Bushman, Refinement, xviii.

62 Bushman, Refinement, 7.

63 Bushman, Refinement, 18.

Bushman states: “By the eighteenth century, the meaning of gentry houses so far

exceeded the practical functions they performed as sheltered warm places for sleeping,

eating and work that houses became a form of literature.”64 Gardens as well:

Most eighteenth-century American Gardens were classic and formal . . . . The most extravagant including terraces, parterres and paths of gravel or sand laid out in precisely straight lines among the parterres . . . along with possibly a gazebo or summer house, a body of water, and a wall or fence.65

Clothing was another important indicator of gentility, going as far back as legislation that originated in England in the thirteenth century:

The genteel presence created by bearing and graceful motion was further enhanced by clothing; dress signaled rank and character as surely as posture did. The meaning of the feel, the color, the cut, and the expense of clothing was clear enough to have been codified in law.66

Bushman also raises the point that reflects the hypothesis of this thesis, pointing

out that gentility did its part not by appealing to modern liberal and capitalist values but

by drawing on the aristocratic past. Although there were definite benefits to be gained —

wealth, social power, capitalism, trade, economic growth, future industrialization—the

Revolution had supposedly ended the principles of monarchy and aristocracy.

Nevertheless, Americans were rushing backward to habits that had originated in England.

Bushman stated further:

The spread of gentility speaks to the enduring allure of royal palaces and great country estates, to the enticing mystery of nobility and gentry, to the enchantment of those seemingly charmed and exalted lives, and to enthrallment with their grace of movement, speech, and costume. The hold

64 Bushman, Refinement, 132.

65 Bushman, Refinement, 129.

66 Bushman, Refinement, 69.

of the old regime on the imaginations of Americans cannot be overlooked in explaining the spread of refinement and the creation of a mass market.67

Later he also states: “The spread of parlor culture was one of the great democratic

movements of the nineteenth century.”68

But as the eighteenth century evolved, Bushman discusses the sense of anxiety

and ambivalence about luxury which evolved, exemplified by John Adams’ statement: “I

fear that even my own dear Country wants the Power and Opportunity more than the

Inclination, to be elegant, soft and luxurious.”69 John and Abigail took pains to be elegant

but not too ostentatious; according to Bushman, Adams’ history “epitomizes the strains in

American culture in the closing decades of the eighteenth century.”70 Although drawn to

the beauty and refinement of genteel culture, Americans saw danger lurking behind the

polished surfaces.71 It seems that the rise of gentility and consequent different social

classes was a double-edged sword.

Cary Carson, in his book Face Value: The Consumer Revolution and the

Colonizing of America, discusses the lack of separation from the mother country during the new nation’s efforts to emulate British patterns of gentility. He quotes a traveler in

America just before the Revolution, who said: “Very little difference is, in reality,

67 Bushman, Refinement, xix.

68 Bushman, Refinement, 273.

69 Bushman, Refinement, 200.

70 Bushman, Refinement, 200.

71 Bushman, Refinement, 203.

41 observable in the manners of the wealthy colonist and the wealthy Briton.”72 Carson continues:

Trying to explain why Americans had such an affinity for British culture at the same time they were throwing off British rule is unnecessary; independence involved no serious repudiation of the values and tastes that both Britons and Americans shared. Gentility remained secure because its usefulness transcended national boundaries and outlasted international conflicts. The American Revolution made less difference to the consumer revolution than the other way around.73

Carson provides a wide-ranging study of American consumer demand created by the growth of gentility, and how this demand was satisfied by both European and domestic products. He addresses the growth of the gentry culture in eighteenth-century

North America and how it gave rise to a consumer economy. He argues that gentry culture appeared and achieved recognition in the fluid society of the new colonies, changing traditions of the early eighteenth century, and creating new situations where they needed a standardized system of social communications. He states:

They required a set of conventions they could carry with them that signified anywhere they went the status they enjoyed at home. So it came to pass that ordinary people adopted and then adapted to their own various special needs a system of courtly behavior borrowed ultimately from a protocol developed in Italy and France and disseminated through Amsterdam and London to provincial England and the colonies. Standardized architectural spaces equipped with fashionable furnishings became universally recognized settings for status-communicating social performances that were governed by internationally accepted rules of etiquette.74

72 Cary Carson, Face Value: The Consumer Revolution and the Colonizing of America (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2017), 196.

73 Carson, Face Value, 197.

74 Carson, Face Value, 35–36.

Carson illustrates his theories through the use of material objects that denoted

civility. For example:

• Monograms—”The popularity of monograms is a tip-off to students of material

culture to look for other attributes of everyday objects that refined them into

symbols of class consciousness.”75

• Furniture—”Notable congruities between furniture history and the history of

gentility starting approximately in the middle decades of the seventeenth century

. . . exotic materials, new forms, sets and suites for well-rehearsed social

performances.”76

Household designs and their accoutrements showed their level of sophistication, and fashion styles revealed their membership in certain classes. As outward signs of status, consumer goods and the social arts served, first, as shared symbols of group identity, and second, as devices that social climbers imitated in the hope of ascending the social ladder.77

The seventeenth and eighteenth century migration of Europeans (primarily the

British) to America—a period during which the concept of gentility and the growth of

both civility and refinement created a new system of social signaling that was visible to

all—produced an enormous demand for consumer goods and set the stage for the

consumer revolution.

75 Carson, Face Value, 67.

76 Carson, Face Value, 67.

77 Carson, Face Value, 34.

The Consumer Revolution

The development of the Atlantic economy in the eighteenth century, and the move toward elevated social habits in the colonies, changed the buying patterns of both the rising colonial gentry and the middle class, creating even stronger ties with Britain through a shared community of taste and ideas, and leading to what is known as the consumer revolution. More complete information on trade with Britain will be covered later in this thesis, but here we will review trade ties.

Local craftsmen and vendors in the colonies also supplied goods to the gentry.

Ultimately, where does George Washington’s purchase of the twelve Sheffield wine coolers fit into the gentrified consumer practices of the day? T. H. Breen’s book, The

Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence78 provides excellent insight into how personal wealth issues mobilized Americans on the eve of independence and how an ongoing material culture shaped initially social, and eventually political, patterns in the new country. Breen states:

What gave the American Revolution distinctive shape was an earlier transformation of the Anglo-American consumer marketplace. This event, which some historians have called a ”consumer revolution,” commenced sometime during the middle of the eighteenth century, and as modestly wealthy families acquired ever larger quantities of British manufactures— for the most part everyday goods that made life warmer, more comfortable, more sanitary, or perhaps simply more enjoyable—the face of material culture changed dramatically.79

78 T. H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (Oxford University Press, 2004).

79 Breen, Marketplace, xv.

Pre-Revolution, although people purchased locally, often with considerable credit,

“Each year the volume of imports increased, creating by 1750 a virtual ‘empire of goods.’”80 In an earlier article by Breen, the writer states:

Colonists in back country America could see themselves as “English people who happened to live in the provinces”; they could consume the same wide range of British and oriental commodities as could those who shopped with the grocer Abraham Dent of Westmorland (England).81

Given these existing trade and buying patterns, the imposition of taxation by Britain on

American goods would certainly be a major contributor to the conflict that ensued.

But after the war, a new, late-eighteenth-century marketplace developed

as Americans exercised their newfound free of choice—in alignment with their political

circumstances—to go back to Britain because those imports “offered American colonists

genuine alternatives, real possibilities to fashion themselves in innovative ways.”82 Breen

suggests the key element in the mid-eighteenth century social and material transformation

might best be termed “invention of choice”—how they made sense of and used the flood of imports that found their way into even the most humble provincial households. Choice led to changes in status and beauty, the relationships of families and communities (also suggested by Van Horn in The Power of Objects)—choices of great significance to individuals and communities, which also had the potential for a new kind of collective politics.

80 Breen, Marketplace, xv.

81 T. H. Breen, “Baubles of Britain: The American and Consumer Revolutions of the Eighteenth Century,” Past & Present, vol. 119, no. 1 (May 1988): 73–104.

82 Breen, Marketplace, xvii.

The relationship of material objects to social and political change is also explored in Carson’s Face Value, where he discusses how the consumer revolution and use of material objects culturally changed peoples’ ability to improve their social and ultimately political status: “Artifacts expanded the vocabulary of an international language that was learned and understood wherever fashion and gentility spread.”83 He also discusses

“Americans’ exceptional need for consumer goods” in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, how this spread of consumer habits affected the growth of the country both negatively and positively, creating capitalism but also class structures. ”How did this wide-open land of opportunity earn dual reputations as both ‘the best poor man’s country’ and a ferociously materialistic society where ‘pride of wealth’ trumped all other values?”84 Bushman also cites how economic growth, capitalism and politics were so intertwined, echoing the emergence of the consumer revolution and tying it to political developments.

Although imports from Great Britain were still the primary source of eighteenth- century consumer goods, it must be noted that American craftsmen also played a role in the consumer revolution and benefitted from the growth of the upper and middle classes in the colonies. David Jaffee’s book, A New Nation of Goods: The Material Culture of

Early America,85 shows how middle-class Americans embraced a new culture of domestic consumption. He uses case studies outlining the significant role of provincial artisans in four crafts in the northeastern United States—chairmaking, clockmaking,

83 Carson, Face Value, 5.

84 Carson, Face Value, xxii.

85 David Jaffee, A New Nation of Goods: The Material Culture of Early America (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).

portrait painting, and book publishing—to explain the shift from preindustrial society to a new cultural and societal configuration. Jaffee says:

In the wake of the Revolution’s destruction of the aristocratic and hierarchical colonial regime, the new middle ranks, eager to advance their social claims in the bustling, mobile, commercial society of late eighteenth-century America, allowed their pretensions to swell. They wanted objects to satisfy their cultural authority, and a host of artisan- entrepreneurs were only too happy to oblige by creating new forms at increasingly affordable prices.86

This depiction of the middle class conforms with other views of the consumer revolution

and the rise of gentility, but certainly conflicts with the idea that the “aristocratic and

hierarchical” ranks had been destroyed.

Examples of Material Objects in the Consumer Revolution

As the consumer revolution evolved in the eighteenth and early nineteenth

centuries, some examples of objects acquired shed light on those who purchased them

and on the objects themselves. The twelve Sheffield wine coolers George Washington

bought illustrate this.

George Washington

He probably chose these based on not only his own personal taste but also to

further an image of gentility. According to Breen, “a young Virginia planter named

George Washington lectured a British merchant in 1760, ‘When I tell you that instead of

86 Jaffee, A New Nation, 45.

47 getting things good and fashionable in their several kinds, we often have Articles sent Us that could only have been us(e)d by our Forefathers in the days of yore.’”87

Most of the imports Washington demanded had not been available in Virginia before 1740.88 Washington ordered “fine china and silver, fashionable clothing, furniture, books, decorative porcelains, statuary, and paintings. . . . The latest London fashions appeared at Mount Vernon within months of their introduction on the London market.”89

Yet we know that he complained about his lack of wealth, and he also encouraged domestic production: “To spur American manufactures, he would wear a double-breasted brown suit made from broadcloth woven at the Woolen Manufactory of Hartford,

Connecticut,”90 and he promoted American farm products and methods, including a

Delaware grist mill, at his various farms.

Apparently Washington’s conflicted view of himself—residual insecurity from his early background, a need for the approval of others, alongside his imperative to appear a symbol of gentility and upper-class America—dominated his behavior and his consumption of objects of all kinds, particularly those from England. The following description of one of Washington’s official dinners, held every other Thursday afternoon at four o’clock, was given by William Maclay, a senator from Pennsylvania and critic of

Washingtonian excess:

George and Martha Washington sat in the middle of the table facing each other, while Tobias Lear and Robert Lewis sat on either end. John Adams,

87 Breen, Baubles, 170.

88 Breen, Baubles, 170.

89 Breen, Baubles, 354.

90 Chernow, Washington, 566.

John Jay, and George Clinton were among the assembled guests, with a table bursting with a rich assortment of dishes—roasted fish, boiled meat, bacon, and poultry for the main course, followed by ice cream, jellies, pies, puddings, and melons for dessert. Washington usually downed a pint of beer and two or three glasses of wine, and his demeanor grew livelier once he had consumed them.91

Such a lifestyle certainly required a full complement of fine objects to support it.

Washington was part of a huge network of colonial merchandising that developed in the

Chesapeake region by the mid-eighteenth century. As trade in tobacco became the engine

driving this provincial economy, a style of life and gentility arose among the great

Tidewater planters and their Palladian mansions. Utilizing on a consignment system with

British and Scottish merchants, “George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, William Byrd II

used this system to get the best rates, furnish their splendid homes and dress their families

in the latest London fashions. After the 1730s the demand for consumer goods among the

local gentry rose sharply.”92 Thus, George Washington was simply following the custom

of his colony when he ordered so many goods from England.

Among them was his silverware and plate silver. Some examples of Washington’s

many acquisitions can be found in Buhler’s Mount Vernon Silver: “Washington’s

invoices and letter books give a rich and tantalizing array of his possessions.”93 His first

recorded investment was in August 1757, for “a Neat cruit stand & Casters, 2 Setts best

Silver handle Knives & Forks best London Blades, with the Engraving of 53 crests.” In

1759, for his marriage to Martha Custis, presents for her and her children: “A pr of neat wrought gold Shoe Buckles, A pr fine stone Stay hooks, A silver thimble.” In 1772, from

91 Chernow, Washington, 580.

92 Breen, Baubles, 122.

93 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 12.

London: “A Gentleman’s Hunt’g Cap . . . A Silk Band, and handsome Silv’r Buckle to it, a large Family Bible bound in Morocco with Cuts, and Silver Clasps, etc.” In March 1776

Washington ordered items from three Philadelphia goldsmiths: William Hollingshead,

Edmund Milne, and Richard Humphreys: Camp cups and table spoons, to be engraved

with the Washington crest.94

His correspondence in 1783 shows him becoming resistant to purchasing from

England, as he wrote his nephew Bushrod Washington: “I do not incline to send to

England (from whence formerly I had all my goods) for anything I can get upon tolerable terms elsewhere.”95 He was also seeking good products and prices from France, and

subsequently ordered a huge quantity of plate through LaFayette for “Everything proper

for a tea table, as well as Salvers, breadbaskets, casters, a Cross or Stand for the centre of

the Dining table, goblets, candlesticks, etc.”96

But by 1784 he had, as previously mentioned, softened in his attitude toward

England, and placed an order of Sheffield plate to Joy & Hopkins of London, with their

response showing them “anxious to please their distinguished customer and eager to

recapture the American market interrupted so inconveniently by war.”97 By 1789 he had

increased the quantity of his Sheffield and other British purchases, including the twelve

wine coolers described in this thesis.

94 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver.

95 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 38.

96 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 41.

97 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 44.

However, by 1790 it appears that these were his last purchases made abroad.

Perhaps because he had been living in Philadelphia, records show purchases of silver tea pots, utensils, and other tableware as well as household furniture from various

Philadelphia goldsmiths and furniture makers. To quote Buhler: “That we can admire the

Washington silver (a forty-year span of purchases) unreservedly is surely a direct reflection of his taste, almost, one may say, of the innate integrity which contributed so much that is finest in our country’s heritage.”98

Other examples reflect the buying habits of his peers. Jennifer Van Horn provides good information on these patterns. She says:

Much of the most intricate dressing furniture used and sold in America, both before and after the Revolution, was imported from England. Not only was London the style center for British Atlantic society, but the city’s specialized cabinetmakers could produce complicated forms of dressing furniture quickly and inexpensively, having access to the component parts. George Washington purchased a London-manufactured mahogany dressing chest . . . through his factory in 1757.99

The influence of English cabinetmakers Thomas Chippendale and George

Hepplewhite can be found on imported dressing glasses “such as those President George

Washington purchased for his wife and granddaughter from Philadelphia merchant John

McElwee’s Looking Glass and Colour Store around 1790.”100 Van Horn discusses an instance when Washington wrote to his friend Gouverneur Morris in France, requesting

“a number of table decorations . . . including a mirrored plateau with nine sections and several neoclassical porcelain figurines . . . similar ones of which Washington had seen in

98 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver,75.

99 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 281.

100 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 308.

51 the houses of the French and Spanish ambassadors and desired his entertainments to be in the popular fashion.”101

As another example of an object that exemplified the social, community, and political bonding of the consumer revolution, Van Horn states:

For American consumers, a different set of objects provided an index for the nation’s growing wealth and political might and signaled to republican leaders that goods had begun to forge the right relationships between people in the new nation. Of any material good, the rage for creamware tied disparate communities together in the years after the American Revolution.102

Originally produced by Joseph Wedgewood in England, tableware of all varieties could be found not only in elite dining rooms but those of middle-class urban and even rural families. George Washington ordered more than 250 pieces in 1769 and continued to acquire it throughout his presidency.

Social Practices and Circles

We have seen how the purchase of certain consumer goods created distinct social classes, which led to communities and eventually to political alliances. But many wealthy people of the colonies were brought together not only by ownership and use of these items, but also by the social practices they involved. One of these was the role and use of wine among the elite. In practice, although gin and beer were popular drinks, in the eighteenth-century wine began to play a significant role in the emerging culture of politeness, polite conversations and performance, and gatherings of the elite. Along with

101 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 389.

102 Van Horn, Power of Objects, 412.

this cultural movement came a burgeoning trade in Madeira wine in the colonies. George

Washington ordered the twelve wine coolers so he could offer Madeira and other wines.

According to David Hancock’s Oceans of Wine:

Madeira was America’s wine in the eighteenth century, when the colonies drank a lot of wine but before a domestic industry had developed . . . and produced a complex network of trade connections that supported a very elegant cosmopolitan consumption culture.103

Other social and eventually political circles involving consumer objects arose

around the practice of making awards to friends and colleagues, and giving gifts to

individuals and organizations. George Washington became President of the Society of the

Cincinnati, so as to “maintain a social network among the officers.”104 Over time, controversy arose about the organization’s elitist nature, but Washington provided financial support. He also had a medal designed by French engineer Pierre-Charles

L’Enfant, described as an insignia with a bald eagle, hung from a pale blue and white ribbon; he also commissioned dinnerware with the organization’s crest for its members. During the middle and late eighteenth century, many other circles of gift giving developed: silver and other objects given to colonial churches, diplomatic gifts that created favored relationships, and inter-family gifts that wove tight elite alliances.

George Washington figures here as a primary consumer in the eighteenth- century consumer revolution. But if his purchases seemed excessive, he was accompanied in his habits by the many members of elite communities in the colonies.

They had a fierce desire to acquire luxury goods and be part of elite and wealthy social

103 David Hancock, Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 75.

104 Chernow, Washington, 444.

53 classes. They had fought for liberty, equality, and constitutional rights but were now driving themselves toward a capitalistic society.

John Adams believed there would always be different classes of wealth. Did the fact that they had separated from the mother country make them yearn even more for what they had lost, or were the colonists just living out old habits? What was happening was the growth of American national consciousness in parallel with a supposed rejection of the baubles of Britain, according to Breen. By trying to decide where they stood on issues around American independence, they were being drawn together in communities to a major extent created by important British consumer items which defined their role in society and politically. Did Britain create the consumer market which then allowed the new country to define itself? Further study on trade relations between the two countries will shed light on this question.

Chapter V

Luxury Trade with Great Britain

Even after waging war against Britain for more than eight years, Washington took a coldly realistic view of the need for cordial relations with London. As the federal government depended upon customs duties as its principal revenue source, America could scarcely afford to antagonize its major trading partner. After the war, as American trade with England swiftly rebounded, Washington had observed, “Our trade in all points of view is as essential to G(reat) B(retain) as hers is to us.”105

Author Ron Chernow made this statement based on Washington’s continued

frustration with England, even after independence had been established by the Treaty of

Paris. American ships had been excluded from trade with the British West Indies, and

British soldiers refused to vacate Western posts. After the war American trade with

England swiftly rebounded, and the leader of the new country did not want relatively

minor complaints to interfere with his earnest efforts to improve relations with the mother

country. To understand the context of trade between America and Great Britain, and then

to study the role that the exchange of luxury items played in this trade, we must examine

events leading up to the Revolution and the importance of purchases from England

during the consumer revolution following the Revolution.

Until the conclusion of Britain’s Seven Years War (1756-1763), as part of the

British Empire, American colonists paid relatively few taxes, although the Navigation

Acts required that all trade within the empire be conducted on British ships and certain goods whether imported or exported had to shipped through England regardless of their

105 Chernow, Washington, 656.

destination. But as the British put a standing army in North America, the Sugar Act

(1764) and the Stamp Act (1765) were imposed to pay for the army’s costs, followed by

the Townshend Acts in 1767 imposing tariffs on a variety of imported goods. Although

the Townshend Act was repealed, England countered with a series of trade restrictions,

resulting in the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and in 1774 the First Continental Congress.

These taxation events clearly affected the colonists’ economic and commercial

decisions, and increased their fear of future British control. According to Ben Baack:

“Rather, it seemed the incentive for economic independence might have been the

avoidance of the British regulation of colonial trade.”106 Another author, Joseph Reid,

agreed:

The confluence of not having representation in Parliament while confronting an aggressive new British tax policy designed to raise relatively low taxes may have made it reasonable for the Americans to expect a substantial increase in the level of taxation in the future.107

An overview of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century pre-Revolutionary

economy in the colonies showed a wide range of productive activities, many of them

based on their geographic location. In New England, with its forests, streams, and

harbors, enterprises developed around lumbering and shipbuilding with easy trade from

natural harbors. New England merchants were able to obtain substantial profits, much of

it from the triangular trade: from their area (fish, grain, lumber) to the West Indies (sugar,

molasses) to England (manufactured goods), back to the American colonies or the West

Indies (sugar, molasses) to North America (rum) to West Africa (slaves), back to the

106 Ben Baack, “The Economics of the American Revolutionary War,” 4. Economic History Association website. https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economics-of-the-american-revolutionary-war-2/.

107 Joseph D. Reid, Jr., “Economic Burden: Spark to the American Revolution?” Journal of Economic History 38, no. 1(1978): 81.

West Indies. The mid-Atlantic farms, with their favorable climates and fertile land,

produced surplus grain (wheat, corn, oats) which were exported to other colonies and

England. The long, navigable rivers of the colonies delivered furs from Native Americans

which were sent to England and Europe. Plantations of the south grew tobacco, rice, and

indigo, which were exported to England in return for manufactured goods (early

consumer goods), as well as pitch and tar from forests, vital for shipbuilding in both

countries.

In all these areas, colonists’ attempts at economic growth were being stifled by

British trade policies which prevented them from trading with anyone but England and

the British West Indies. Industrialization was also affected, as New England’s largest

industries—shipbuilding, cloth-weaving and sewing, shoemaking and furniture-making—

grew from cottage industries but were hampered by English laws.

At this time in the colonies, the prevailing sentiment was that European culture

was inherently superior, so the move toward gentility and refinement grew exponentially

after the Revolution. Colonists imported what luxury goods they could, sent their children

to Europe, particularly London, to be educated, had their portraits painted by European

artists, bought the latest clothing from abroad, and built homes based on European

architecture. Nonetheless, a distinctly American, high-end production of goods developed, albeit mostly based on European patterns. Portrait painters such as John

Singleton Copley, Rhode Island furniture makers John Goddard and Edmund Townsend,

Georgian-style plantation houses, and silversmiths in Boston and Charleston prospered.

Maxine Berg suggests that much of this influence was driven by Britain’s desire to create a market to allow it and other European countries to exchange a “constantly increasing

57 volume of manufactured exports for raw materials, colonial groceries and foodstuffs,”108 and that “[England’s] new consumer goods came to be perceived in Europe and America as the distinctive modern alternative to former Asian and European luxuries.”109

Although London and Europe were the focus of colonists’ imports before the

Revolution, their consumption had not reached the level of luxury goods sold to the growing gentry and middle classes after the Revolution. With various systems of credit and barter in place, Britain took advantage of the market in the colonies to sell goods valued in millions of pounds. At the same time, the colonists grew industries to allow themselves to afford such imports. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation notes:

Cloth, both linen and woolen, was the most important product imported, followed by metals in the forms of nails, tools, cookware and dining utensils. Other imports included hats, shoes, glass and earthenware, china, gunpowder and shot, paper, leather goods, salt, coal, refined sugar and furniture.110

Julie Flavell quotes Benjamin Franklin in London, remarking about the colonists:

The notion that most of these would readily revert to wearing homespun was a fantasy. Britain’s American colonists were fully modern people. They wanted to be part of the business and social world of the British Empire . . . even on the frontier imported consumer goods were snapped up as quickly as possible. Colonists did indeed resort to short- term production of homespun during boycotts of British goods in the 1760s and 1770s, but they weren’t really going to give up their silks, velvets and fashion accessories forever.111

108 Maxine Berg, In Pursuit of Luxury: Global History and British Consumer Goods in the Eighteenth Century (UK: Oxford University Press, 2004), 132.

109 Berg, Pursuit of Luxury, 142.

110 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, The American Revolution: Imports into British North America. 2020. http://www.ouramericanrevolution.org/index.cfm/page/view/m0095.

111 Flavell, When London was Capital of America, 217.

The Revolutionary War

Julie Flavell notes:

After independence the new United States would find itself in a ruinous balance of trade with Britain precisely because it could not really do what Franklin was now saying it could do whenever it chose, that is, live without modern consumer goods.112

Breen echoes this problem:

British manufacturers, the colonists claimed, could count on American consumer demand; all they had to do was fill colonial orders . . . putting the colonists at a huge economic disadvantage and resulting in a chronic imbalance of payments.113

These economic woes were exacerbated by the costs of the Revolution. Although

earlier restrictions on trade and industry had ended, and an American merchant marine

and manufacturing industry had developed, American merchants were excluded from the

British West Indies, and they lost their favored position with Britain as a trade partner.

There was also a very high level of foreign and domestic debt; continental currency had

experienced enormous inflation and depreciated considerably. With no power of taxation,

the new Congress did not have an independent source of revenue to pay off its wartime

debts.

A study by Lindert and Williamson about the effects of the Revolution on both

economic growth, income, and equality, sheds further light on the colonies’ status after the war and may explain, to some extent, the consumer revolution.114 Their study gathers

112 Flavell, When London was Capital of America, 217.

113 Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 97.

114 Peter Lindert, and Jeffrey Williamson, “America’s Revolution: Economic disaster, development, and equality,” VOX, CEPR Policy Portal, July 2011. https://voxeu.org/article/america-s-revolution- economic-disaster-development-and-equality.

59 per capita income data from the New England, Middle Atlantic, and South Atlantic regions for the time period after the Revolution. The data shows tepid growth performance overall in the 1774–1800 period driven primarily by the economic disaster associated with the Revolutionary War, and a lagging South.

Consequential disruptions to overseas trade took place during the Revolution; the colonies, especially in the lower south, suffered heavy financial losses and recovered slowly and only partially. In the south, due to slaves, the richest 1% had 8.9% of total income. Although some of these southern incomes had been damaged by the war, and some plantations were broken up, the wealthiest colonists strove to maintain their status by buying from England, followed shortly by the middle class in the consumer revolution.

After the Revolution

Given the harsh repercussions after the war, no wonder George Washington said what was quoted at the beginning of this chapter: “Our trade in all points of view is as essential to G(reat) B(retain) as hers is to us.” Chernow noted a similar position held by

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton:

Trade with the former mother country was the crux of everything Hamilton did in government. To fund the debt, bolster banks, promote manufacturing, and strengthen government, Hamilton needed to preserve good trade relations with Great Britain.”115

James Shepherd and Gary Walton provide an overall view of the colonies’ trade with Britain during the period 1768–1972, citing statistics on commodities such as linens, tea, wines, guns, pottery, etc., but finding no evidence of luxury items as a part of total

115 Chernow, Hamilton, 341.

trade. The study does show that the Northern colonies imported the largest share of

commodity imports from Great Britain and Ireland, with Florida, Bahamas, Bermuda,

and the upper and lower south close behind.116 This pattern changed after the Revolution

as the Mid-Atlantic states led the way in the growth of refinement and gentility and imported more luxury items.

Luxury Items and Their Recipients

What were considered luxury goods? How were they purchased from England?

What role did they play in the growth of the middle and upper classes after the

Revolution? Having used the George Washington wine cooler as one example of the president’s desire to provide a refined and elegant environment, we will examine some

other case studies to determine whether their importation from England furthered their

owners’ fierce desires to be of a certain class, while also maintaining their connections

with the culture of their former country.

Chapter IV laid the basis and reasons for the post-Revolutionary consumer

revolution with the explosion of upper- and middle-class importing. But we must also

consider what part England played in pushing this new and lucrative market. Julie Flavell

said:

Despite the unforgiving commercial legislation passed at the end of the war, London remained America’s financial capital for the time to come. It continued to be the major provider of credit and insurance to America through the early years of the Republic. London merchants continued to handle the lucrative market for American tobacco and rice. Wealthy Americans of the eastern seaboard were still very much a part of the social and business networks that had crisscrossed the Atlantic since the

116 James F. Shepherd and Gary M. Walton, Shipping, Maritime Trade and the Economic Development of Colonial North America (UK: Cambridge University Press, 1972), Table 9.2, 161.

eighteenth century. Americans continued to buy huge quantities of British goods. Only after the war of 1812 did Americans begin seriously to manufacture more goods for themselves.117

In the discipline of economics, a luxury (or upmarket) good is one for which

demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, so that expenditures on the

good become a greater proportion of overall spending. “Luxury goods are in contrast to

necessity goods, where demand increases proportionally less than income.”118 This

definition, of course, leaves wide room for a variety of choices and changing consumer

and economic circumstances. A set of gold buttons could at any point be considered more

important than a set of porcelain dinnerware.

There was also, among the colonists, criticism of consumer demand for luxury

items. T. H. Breen says:

In theory, it was easy enough to identify a luxury item. An object such as a diamond necklace or a gold ornament was so expensive that only the most wealthy, and presumably the most cultivated men and women in society could possibly afford it. Indeed, those who tried so hard to check other people’s spending divided the goods of the market place into three deceptively neat categories: superfluities, necessaries, and conveniences.119

Breen notes that at one time china had ranked as a luxury item, but when local production

became available, china ceased being a luxury.

To examine the role of luxury goods among the gentry, we examine a number of

luxury goods ordered from England to fulfill elegant environments in homes in the mid-

Atlantic states, as well as the collectors and grand estates that acquired them. The luxury

117 Flavell, When London was Capital of America, 246.

118 Hal Varian, “Choice.” Chapter 5. In Hal Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics. 9th ed. (New York: Norton), 117.

119 Breen, Marketplace, 184.

items considered here, such as silver, silk, and many personal and household items, do

not fit the descriptions mentioned above; they could never have become essential, and

they were bought by wealthy, affluent people to support their self-worth and status and for their recognized quality and craftsmanship. And they were ordered from England, reflecting their purchasers’ views that consumer goods from England would increase their position among the new gentry of America. Objects such as furniture, ceramics, porcelain, garden designs, architectural models, clothing and decorations, books and publications, wines and other fine liquors, glassware, clocks, scientific instruments, and more, all fit into the gentry’s status-making constructs.

Silver in particular was highly valued. In his article The Consumer Culture of the

Middle Atlantic, 1760–1820, Paul Clemens describes silver as the “most prestigious and

elegant of tableware . . . a marker of status, distinction, and taste.”120 Most of the silver

that went into Middle-Atlantic homes was not fashioned in the households of rural

silversmiths or even in Philadelphia or New York shops; rather, it came from Great

Britain. In the rural Middle Atlantic, silver and porcelain remained luxury goods through

the 1820s.121 As porcelain and pewter had been commonly used, silver became more

popular and more heavily imported from England. Silversmithing was highly skilled

work, and for most of the period there were few capable silversmiths outside of New

England. Local silversmiths in the post-Revolutionary period did their production by

machine and improving their skills. More utilitarian items were American-made, such as

utensils and tea services. But the process required significant capital investment and

120 Paul G. E. Clemens, “The Consumer Culture of the Middle Atlantic, 1760–1820,” William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 62, no. 4 (Oct. 2005): 614-615.

121 Clemens, “Consumer Culture,” 614-615.

skilled labor. Clemens charts the growth of expenditures in three counties of the Middle

Atlantic (Chester, Fairfield, and Kent counties in Pennsylvania) for a variety of luxury items, including silver. He uses data from the 1760s, 1790s, and 1820s to show that the ownership of silverware, averaged among the counties, was highest among the wealthiest class during the 1760s and 1790s—a period when it would have been imported from

England.122

Mid-Atlantic Gentry and Their Luxury Items

The post-Revolutionary consumer revolution spurred the growth of the middle

and upper classes, as well as an explosion of trade with England and Europe, in urban and

rural areas from New England to the South. Some of the wealthiest families lived in the mid-Atlantic states, and their holdings provide examples of luxury object ownership. To expand on the large amount of silver purchases, William Voss Elder III (former Curator of the American Wing at the Baltimore Museum of Art) and M. B. Munford explain that

shipments of silver flatware, carpets, china, and other luxury items for wealthy planters and merchants in Maryland and Virginia would have been of English manufacture, procured by an agent through London or Bristol, and often “shipped practically to the doorsteps of the recipients in the Tidewater regions.”123 The English items were generally

more ornate and of higher quality than their counterparts in Philadelphia, New York,

Boston, and Baltimore, and thus preferred by the colonists.

122 Clemens, “Consumer Culture,” Table XVI, 616.

123 William Voss Elder III, and M. B. Munford, Orders from London: English Silver Used in Maryland (Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 2005), 64.

Elder made another point: “Another important consideration that may have made

the importation of this English silver a necessity was the usual desire of the Marylander

or Virginian to have his silver engraved with his crest or coat of arms.”124 Questioning

whether they had the right to use these symbols, Elder said they were all of armigerous

English families; of 152 Virginians who held top offices during the late seventeenth and

early eighteenth century, 88 percent were connected to aristocratic English families or the

sons of baronets, knights, or the rural gentry of England.

Mount Vernon

The most prominent among the southern gentry was, of course, George

Washington. Although not directly descended from or connected to English aristocracy,

Washington’s rank and prestige placed him firmly among the wealthy upper class, a role

model for elegance and refinement in the post-Revolutionary period, thus causing him to

create a household reflecting those values. His friend Gouverneur Morris wrote

Washington from London: “It is of very great importance to fix the taste of our Country

properly, and I think your Example will go so far in that respect.”125

Mount Vernon is a wood building fashioned after the Italian Palladian style,

located on the banks of the Potomac River near Alexandria, Virginia. The Washington

family had owned land in the area since 1674, and the mansion was built by

Washington’s father Augustine around 1734. The president became its owner in 1761 and

124 Elder & Munford, Orders From London, 1.

125 Gouveneur Morris, Letter from Gouveneur Morris to George Washington, January 24, 1790. Gouveneur Morris Papers (Washington, DC: Library of Congress): PGW Pres., 5: 48-49. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-05-02-0043-0001.

embarked on the expansion of the building and grounds. Although he had lived in three

executive residences in New York and Philadelphia, when he took ownership of Mount

Vernon he made a series of improvements which resulted in a house of 11,028 square feet with 21 rooms. He finally retired to Mount Vernon in 1797.

We know that in spite of his ambivalence toward trade with England after the

Revolution, Washington acquired many objects. From his early years as an aspiring member of the Virginia gentry, through his time as the nation’s highest official,

Washington accumulated worldly goods that told of his various interests, concern for appearance, and enduring preference for the best goods available without being ostentatious. After 40 years of purchases, Washington had amassed a substantial collection of objects from East Asia, England, France, and America.

One of the most important categories was his silver collection, which is described in Buhler’s Mount Vernon Silver. Washington’s father had left him little silver at his

death in 1743. When Washington inherited the property in 1754 at the age of 23, his first

purchase of silver from England was “A Neat cruit stand & Casters . . . and 2 Setts best

Silver handle Knives & Forks best London Blades Engraving 53 Crests.”126 Over the

period of 40 years his purchases are too many to catalog, but those from England

included many sets of flatware with crests, silver earrings with bobs, sewing thimbles and

equipment, and hunting and camp cups. In 1783, orders were placed for more large

platters and salvers, extensive tableware of salts and peppers, bread baskets, and

candlesticks. Tea urns and sets, patent and wall lamps, and much more continued in the

following years, and in what seems to be his last order abroad in December 1790, the

126 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 12.

66 twelve Sheffield wine coolers. Buhler ends the Mount Vernon Silver book, with its detailed inventory, this way: “That we admire the Washington silver unreservedly . . . is surely a direct reflection of his taste, almost, one might say, of the innate integrity which contributed so much that is finest to our country’s heritage.”127

Although Washington’s English purchases of silver and items for elegant entertainment were extensive, he also showed a taste for highly sophisticated items. In

1785 he wrote to his London agent Wakelin Welch requesting an elegant piece of jewelry:

Sir, I request the favor of you to send me for the use of Mrs Washington, a handsome & fashionable gold watch, with a fashionable chain or string, such as worn at present by Ladies in genteel life. G. Washington. P.S. Let the hour & minute hands be set with Diamonds. G. W.128

Pocket watches as gifts were both practical and poetic items at the time, and along with seals, charms, and decorative sewing tools they adorned mistresses of households and allowed them to run a successful home. With a refined taste and eye for excellence,

Mrs. Washington sought superior craftsmen, quality, and elegance in her jewelry and dress. According to Mount Vernon curators, the watch was crafted in 1784 by London

Watchmaker Richard Webster and casemaker Valentine Walker, the watch has two interchangeable dials and two decorative outer cases, making it adaptable for everyday wear or evening events.

127 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 64.

128 “The Papers of George Washington.” Digital edition (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008). https://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN.html.

According to Amanda Isaac, a curator at Mount Vernon, other luxury acquisitions

from England after the Revolution included many specialty items at which the British

excelled—or perhaps it would be better to say, offered excellent workmanship without

the exorbitant prices of other European sources. The harpsichord that Washington

purchased from London retailers Longman & Broderip for his adopted stepdaughter,

Eleanor Parke Custis, is an example (see Figure 2). Acquired in 1793, Nelly was 14 at the

time and had already been given a square piano and piano lessons. But of the several

musical instruments at Mount Vernon, this two-manual harpsichord was particularly

grand and impressive. Information at the Mount Vernon website129 describes the

harpsichord as being remarkable for its musical gadgetry, showing how sophisticated the

largest harpsichords had become at the culmination of their eighteenth-century heyday.

Built of English solid oak, then covered with decorative and sometimes figured veneers, the purchase and shipping of this grand object, from London to Philadelphia to Mount

Vernon, represents the height of luxury goods and the true style to which Washington aspired.

129 “George Washington’s Mount Vernon.” Available at: https://www.mountvernon.org/preservation/collections-holdings/.

Source: Photo used by permission of Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.

The use of silk as a luxury item was also present at Mount Vernon. The Fine and

Decorative Arts department at Mount Vernon shows fragments of silk gowns (see Figure

3) which Martha Washington secured from London. As a wealthy member of Virginia’s elite planter class, Mrs. Washington had the opportunity and means to acquire fine

European silks that represented some of the costliest luxury goods imported to the colonies. Although some silks were used to cover furniture, Mrs. Washington had

“concern for the high value of imported textiles and the care she took to have dresses dyed, repaired, or remade into newly fashioned garments.”130 Along with the other gentry of her time, she was highly concerned with her appearance and with the image she and her husband presented to the country. Washington himself also used luxury textiles for his vests and other articles of clothing.

130 Carol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection. Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 254.

Fig. 3. Silk Brocade and Lampas. 19.5 in. H x 28.25 in. W. Selvedge Width: 28.25 in. Gift of Mrs. Francis Henry Lenygon. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Collection. Object number 1973-161. Source: Photo from Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Collection.

Doughoregn Manor

Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a

staunch conservative and Federalist, and owner of the grand Doughoregan Manor near

what is now Frederick, Maryland, as well as a townhouse in Annapolis. He was also a

Catholic, and seeing this as a barrier, grew his acclaim from political battles in his

Maryland. His father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, was the richest man in America.

Sent abroad to study, Charles returned home to marry, inherit both Maryland

properties from his father, and immerse himself in Federalist politics, sporting events,

and grand parties. His great wealth (at his death, the land holdings alone were estimated

to be valued at $1,654,382) allowed him to reflect the English aristocracy he revered.

None of the subsequent generations of Carroll’s descendants would do as well, although some would continue to observe many of the customs and traditions of the English landed aristocracy that Carroll so openly admired. Late in Carroll’s life one visitor remarked that he kept the most English household in America. Since the Carroll family retained most of its wealth over the succeeding generations after Charles Carroll’s death, although many of the household furnishings were dispersed, records of his original furnishings have survived at the Maryland Historical Society and elsewhere. His letterbook for the years 1771–1833 which is now in the Arents Collection of the New York Public Library, “reveals a complete dependence on and/or a choice of English manufacture for nearly every aspect of their lives.”131

According to his letterbook, Carroll used agents in London for his purchases both

before and after the Revolution. William V. Elder III, former Curator of the American

Wing at the Baltimore Museum of Art, outlines the extensive furniture, silver, and other

objects of Carroll’s household in an article on orders of silver from England.132 Extensive

131 Ann Van Devanter, ed., “Anywhere so Long as There be Freedom: Charles Carroll of Carrollton, His Family and His Maryland” (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1975), 275.

132 Elder & Munford, Orders From London.

objects of plate silver are shown: a chocolate pot and covered flagon made by John Swift

in London; a sauceboat and tankard, also from London; as well as utensils and service items of plate (see Figures 4, 5, 6). Furniture orders were specific for two substantial square mahogany tables, chairs, a writing desk, one fashionable sofa with twelve chairs to

match, and a hunt board. Turkish carpets and blue silk and stuff damask for curtains were

ordered, “made up in the newest taste with carved corniches, fringe, tossils, lines, hooks

that are proper for them.”133 Spode china and English porcelain were part of the orders.

Carroll displayed his status and elegance through the eighteenth century until his

death in 1832. According to Elder, by 1770 the accumulated plate owned by the Carroll

family at the Annapolis house alone was valued at £1,296—a considerable sum in its day,

and the majority was made in England.

133 Van Devanter, Anywhere, 280.

Fig. 4. Salver. English, London. Maker: Robert Sharp. 1791/1792. Sterling standard. 1 11/16 x 15 15/16 in. diam.

Source: Photo courtesy of Baltimore Museum of Art.

Fig. 5. Knife. English. Maker: Unknown. ca. 1765. Silver, sterling standard; steel. 10 ¾ in. L. Baltimore Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Bennett Darnall, BMA 1975.37. 1-10.

Source: Photo courtesy Baltimore Museum of Art.

Fig. 6. Fork. English. Maker: Unknown. ca. 1765. Silver, sterling standard; ...... 8 ¾ in. L. Baltimore Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Bennett Darnall, BMA 1975.37.11-20

Source: Photo courtesy Baltimore Museum of Art.

Eyre Hall

As a signer of the Virginia non-importation resolutions along with fellow burgesses George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, and as a friend and colleague of John Adams, Severn Eyre was a post-Revolutionary figure of great fortune and stature in his country.134

Located on the eastern shore of Virginia close to the town of Cheriton, Eyre Hall

was originally built in 1760, expanded in 1790 and 1807, and is still owned by family

descendants. Eighteenth-century inventories of the estate show that its owners, Severn

and Margaret Eyre, participated in the consumer revolution of the time, acquiring luxury

goods so they could engage in the refined manners of the time.

Mark B. Letzer, Director of the Maryland Historical Society, wrote about the

provenance of the silver at Eyre Hall, which came to Severn Eyre through the will of

Bridget Foxcroft. She said: “I will and bequeath unto my beloved kinsman Severn Eyre

. . . the silver punch bowl, sugar box ditto and the silver cup thereto belonging, the new

silver tankard, twelve spoons ditto, two porringers ditto.”135 The punch bowl referred to is the so-called “Morningstar” punch bowl, a significant piece of the Eyre Hall collection.

It dates to 1692 and is non-ecclesiastical, very rare in the colonies prior to the eighteenth century.

The house also held a handsome collection of silver plate which had been purchased before the Revolution, and was typical of other George III era silver ordered by other planters throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Items such as coffeepots, baskets,

134 Savage, Eyre Hall.

135 Bridget Foxcroft, Last Will and Testament (Northampton County Deeds and Wills Book, January 13, 1704): 1698–1710.

76 and sugar canisters were ordered with the requirement that they be in the latest fashion.

Their extensive holdings of silver and pewter also were ordered from England.

J. Thomas Savage describes the Eyre’s participation in the refined lifestyle of the time as exemplified in Eyre Hall’s design “in keeping with the traditions of his neighbors but of a scale and level of finish that spoke to his position and aspirations,” the exterior reflecting the popular English Georgian style. An English-style garden complemented the house, along with a fashionable pergola. Their possessions included Turkish carpets;

Queens china; 45 black walnut, cherry, and mahogany chairs; six leather maple chairs; mahogany sideboard tables; and a card table. The silver inventory approximated 237 ounces. Figure 7 and Figure 8 are examples of their silver.

Fig. 7. Eyre Hall Cruet Set. William Abdy, London, England, 1784–1785. Silver, glass. H. 10 ¼ in. W. 7 ½ in. Engraved E for Eyre family. Source: Photo courtesy Baltimore Museum of Art.

Fig 8. Inset of engraved “E” on the base of the cruet set, in honor of Eyre family.

Source: Photos courtesy Baltimore Museum of Art.

Willowbrook

Owned by John Donnell, Willowbrook was built in 1799 as an elegant rural

retreat west of Baltimore overlooking both the city of Baltimore and the Patapsco River.

Most Baltimore families of means of the period had such country houses to which they

escaped from the city’s summer heat and frequent epidemics.

Donnell came to Baltimore from Castletown, Ireland, just after the Revolution and married and American named Ann Teackle Smith. Desiring to emulate his roots, he

designed a house which was a typical example of a Palladian building of the type adapted

in America from such books as Robert Morris’ Select Architecture.136 According to

136 Robert Morris, Select Architecture, Being Regular Designs of Plans and Elevations Well Suited to Both Town and Country, in which the magnificence and beauty is accurately treated (Gale ECCO edition, 2010) [originally published in 1757].

Elder, this design was particularly popular in the Maryland and Virginia colonies, and reflected their attachment to England. Similar homes built in the crescent of Baltimore’s perimeters around 1780 were in what may be termed the Baltimore Adamesque-Federal style, a local continuation of the earlier Annapolis-Georgian style example.

Of particular interest at Willowbrook is the Oval Room with its decorative plasterwork. Although created by a Baltimore craftsman, it was based on the English designs of Josiah Wedgewood pottery, which was imported in the eighteenth century into the colonies.137

The Donnell family also purchased London silver of the highest quality for

Willowbrook in 1799. Numerous pieces of this silver were installed in the Oval Room or the adjacent hallway, each marked JAD for John and Ann Donnell. According to the

Baltimore Museum of Art, the covered cup (see Figure 9) is of unusually fine craftsmanship and “admirably defines the taste and lifestyle of late eighteenth-century

Baltimoreans. If you could afford it, buy the English rather than the American product

(good quality products by then available), even after the Revolution.”138

137 Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Period Rooms, 1987.

138 Elder and Munford, Orders From London, 72.

Fig. 9. George III Two-Handled Covered Cup. English 1798-1799. Paul Storr (1771-1844), London. Monogram: JAD (John and Ann Donnell of Willow Brook). Silver with gilt lining 16 ½” H (41.9 cm).

Source: Photo courtesy of Baltimore Museum of Art. From the Collection of Elizabeth C. Carroll, Agnes S. Boyd and Leonard M. Levering, Jr. BMA L. 1967.

Hampton

In 1745, Col. Charles Ridgely, a third-generation Marylander, bought 1,500 acres north of Baltimore and established a tobacco plantation, then an ironworks that provided material for the American Revolution. In the process, he created a massive amount of wealth for the Ridgely family. It was, of course, built on the backs of enslaved and indentured servants as well as British prisoners of war. The estate grew, with grains, orchards, livestock, quarries, mills and other mercantile ventures.

In the midst of this sea of endeavor, Ridgley’s son, Capt. Charles Ridgely, commissioned a massive 24,000 square foot, elegantly furnished, Georgian-style mansion, considered perhaps the largest private residence in the United States at the time it was completed in 1790. The mansion is a grand example of American Georgian architecture (a fusion of classic European architectural styles and American design concepts), with a symmetrical five-part design and classical details. It offers a showcase into the wealthy gentry of its time. The family’s lifestyle included hosting lavish gatherings, racing thoroughbred horses, acquiring fine furnishings and English imports, and enhancing Hampton’s surroundings with formal gardens.

Hampton has been preserved by the National Park Service based on its architectural merit, and its carefully laid-out parlors and great rooms showcase many luxury items purchased by Capt. Ridgeley after the Revolution, particularly textiles, ceramics, some furniture, and silver. Information on some of these items was provided to the thesis author by Hampton’s curator, Gregory Weidman:

FINE IMPORTED FURNITURE, Hodgson & Nicholson are now opening, a great Variety of the following Articles, just imported from London, in the Ship Mary, Captain Bodfield; Net Mahogany portable Writing Desks; Mahogany Cases, to hold complete Sets of Knives and

Forks, Spoons, etc. Fish-Skins, a great Variety of Walking Sticks and Canes; Fine Slate Pencils; Mahogany Frame Dressing-Glasses, moulded and beaded, 5 by 4 to 10 by 8 inches, gilt Edges; Oval and square Hanging-Glases, Toilet or Dressing-Boxes, 14 by 10, with Drawers; Mahogany Sconces, plain and beaded, 10 by 8 to 20 by 12.139

Other popular imports from England were piano fortes (sought after before

domestic piano making became refined) as well as decorated looking glasses. Weidman cites an advertisement for the arrival from London of “a large assortment of Dressing and

Pier Looking Glasses of all sizes . . . oval Pier Looking-Glasses, burnished Gold Frames,

neat japann’d Ditto, Black and Gold Ditto; Mahogany serpentine Dressing Boxes, with

oval Glass, square Ditto.”140

For entertaining, there were beautiful and elegant Worcester and Davenport

dessert services. The blue and white Worcester service most likely dates from 1790–

1795, according to Weidman, although it could have been from a 1787 accounting with

another English importer. The Ridgeleys owned two similar dessert services decorated

with cobalt blue and gilt borders, made a few years apart, and attributed to Chamberlain’s

Porcelain Manufactury in England. They imported a wide variety of porcelain tureens

(see Figure 10), sauce boats, and serving dishes. Their dining room was clearly a showcase for the time, and rounded off with various English silver pieces such as a

George III cruet made by Charles Aldridge and Henry Green in London, and a George III breadbasket made by William Abdy I in London, approximately 1783, bearing the

Ridgeley crest; both are currently in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

139 E-mail from G. W. Weidman to the thesis author, December 11, 2020.

140 E-mail from G. W. Weidman to the thesis author, December 11, 2020.

Fig. 10. Sauce Tureen on Stand. Neoclassical style; 1790-1810. Worcester, England. Attributed to Chamberlain’s Porcelain Manufactury. Overall: H 15, W 11.5 L 20 cm; (a) H 9, L 20, W 11.5 cm; (b) H 8.5, L 14, W 10 cm.

Source: Photo courtesy of Hampton National Historic Site, HAMP 11473, 10050.

Fayetteville

In 1792, James McHenry purchased a 95-acre tract from the Ridgeley family who owned Hampton, and McHenry named it Fayetteville in honor of his friend the Marquis de Lafayette. Now known as Ridgeley’s Delight, the property is located in downtown

Baltimore.

In addition to his prestigious political life, McHenry developed a comfortable

level of wealth as a successful businessman. As a committed Federalist and loyal to

George Washington, when asked to take the post of Secretary of War he agreed, even

though it would mean a financial loss to him. His sense of honor required that he avoid any conflict of interest, so he sold the business his father and brother had established, as well as his interest in another mercantile house. The business was called John McHenry

& Co. and it had a range of interests from investing in U.S. certificates, to real estate

ventures in western Maryland, to some shipping interests. One business was valued at

£3,000, and the other brought in £1,000 per year. He was able to retain other sources of

income as he had rental properties around Baltimore and owned shares of stocks in at

least one local insurance company. Although McHenry and his family suffered some

setbacks along the way, and although he did not establish or live in a grand estate, he ended his life in a comfortable manner.

The inventories of McHenry’s estate (see Figure 11 and Appendix), as well as his

will, reveal much about the man. Adam Erby at Mount Vernon produced the inventories

from the digital records at https://www.familysearch.org/en/.

Fig. 11. James McHenry Will and Household Inventory. Probate Records of James McHenry, Baltimore County (1816). http://familysearch.org.

Source: photo supplied by Ed Papenfuse taken from the source document at https://www.familysearch.org/.

Silk Imported to Virginia

The export of English silks to the colonies followed the same growth increase as

silver and other luxury goods after the Revolution, as part of the consumer revolution of

the late eighteenth century. And Virginia became one of the prime markets for these silks,

many made in the famous Spitalfields factory in England.141 Together with Maryland, the

region was the second-largest importer of English textiles after New York and

Philadelphia.142 Plantations had developed along many of Virginia’s rivers, and linked

with the tobacco trade, merchants and traders increased in the area, relying on the

expertise of agents to select the best goods for them among British imports. These merchants carried a range of goods and textiles for all classes, but at the top of the hierarchy, wearing the best luxury goods and with considerable disposable income, were the planters. They created a culture comparable to that of the English gentry. They also began building “great houses” or rural retreats for themselves, with formal dining and dancing that required the wearing of fine clothing.

According to William Farrell, “To visitors, Virginians appeared well dressed, even garish at times.”143 Farrell discusses the issue of colonial Virginia tastes in silk, suggesting that brocades on a plain background were the most popular type of silk used for clothing, and says: “Overall, English silks in America appear to share much in

141 Spitalfields factory. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp132-137.

142 Peter Maw, “Yorkshire and Lancashire Ascendant,” Economic History Review, vol. 63, no. 3 (2009): 736, Table 2.

143 William Farrell, “Silk and Globalization in Eighteenth-Century London: Commodities, People and Connections c.1720–1800” (PhD diss., University of London, 2014), 211.

common with those worn in Britain, outside of the court and the leaders of the beau

monde.”144

Although trade diminished severely during the Revolution, it resumed in full force

afterward. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, with its extensive collection of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century textiles, provides many examples of English silks that were purchased and worn by wealthy Virginians. The pieces in the collection include bed covers, fragments of clothing, bedclothes, furniture coverings, and more. A brocaded

silk sack gown was (according to family tradition) worn by Martha Washington’s sister

Elizabeth Dandridge Aylett Henley; another two fragments have been linked to Martha

Washington herself. The provenance of a peach, red, and yellow striped gown dated

1770–1780 indicates that it was worn by a member of the Blair family of Richmond,

Virginia. Also in the collection are two men’s three-piece suits, one velvet with a yellow background and small multi-colored sprigs woven into it, dated 1760–1780, the other of pink ribbed silk lined with linen. Other pieces were imported through Virginia but were dispersed to Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and other states.

In addition to the silk examples at Colonial Williamsburg, there is a mixed linen-

cotton bed curtain called the “Apotheosis of Benjamin Franklin and George

Washington,” made in Britain circa 1785, for the export market. It shows George

Washington driving a chariot and Benjamin Franklin standing next to a figure of Liberty.

Another English printed cotton bed hanging shows George Washington being led by

Peace and being crowned by Fame. Linda Baumgarten comments:

144 Farrell, “Silk and Globalization,” 211.

These items, along with the many inventories and records of English and Virginia merchants, show a dazzling array of silk items brought into Virginia . . . silk stockings, ribbons, handkerchiefs, sewing materials and more . . . to satisfy the demand for luxury goods among the gentry.145

145 Linda Baumgarten, Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986), 26-27.

Chapter VI

Politics of a New Country

James Madison believed that “A democracy, in which the people ‘assemble and

administer the government in person,’ will always be subject to endless ‘turbulence and contention.’ But in framing the Constitution he also believed that “by electing men who will always put the public good before narrow or partisan interests,” the good of the country would be served.146 He foresaw the future development of and growing conflict

between the new nation’s two parties, the Federalists and the Republicans. Madison was

shrewd to sense the importance of the relationship between technologies of communication and the forming of public opinion. The American two- party system, the nation’s enduring source of political stability, was forged in—and, fair to say, created by—the nation’s newspapers.147

The Federalist party, comprised primarily of businessmen and conservatives,

appeared to subscribe to the concepts of refinement and gentility, and to participate in

luxury trade with England. The Republican party, comprised of property owners who saw

themselves as cosmopolitan but rejected the idea of an elitist class, seemed to reject

luxury items but in fact, purchased them from a variety of sources. A look at the

development of the two parties, their surrounding political context, and the examples of

two figures of the time, James McHenry and John Adams, shows that members of both

parties enjoyed the intriguing delights of consumerism.

146 Jill Lapore, These Truths: A History of the United States (New York: Norton, 2018), 144.

147 Lapore, These Truths, 145.

Federalists and Republicans

The birth of the Federalist Party grew out of the battle for ratification of the

Constitution and the form of the new federal government—whether to uphold the

principles of the American Revolution for independence and equality, or to undermine

them with a situation that could potentially end up with another monarchy. The

Federalists were the first official American political party in 1787, growing out of

arguments for creating the Constitution. It was comprised of advocates such as George

Washington, Gouverneur Morris, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Morris, James Madison,

Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay.

At the end of the Revolution, several circumstances undermined the ability of the

government to function. American revolutionists had borrowed on credit to pay for the

war, creating instability in the currency market. All financial authority rested with the

states, negating the ability to fund national emergencies or provide supplies. The country

owed tremendous debts to foreign entities.

From his experience as commander in chief, Washington understood the need for

a strong central government. At the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, the Federalists prevailed in advocating for their proposals: first, for the separation of powers by

implementing three branches of government, and second, for a strong chief executive, a

national bank insured by the central government, and a bicameral legislature.

During the fight for ratification Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote and distributed

The Federalist, a collection of 85 articles and essays under the pseudonym Publius as a

way to promote ratification of the United States Constitution. Hamilton went so far as to

praise the British monarchial system and advise that the future American president should

in many ways emulate a king—a position that would be strongly challenged by future

Republicans. According to Marx Renzulli, the predictable outcome of ratification was anti-federalist opposition that was strongest in rural New York and Virginia, whereas

New York City, a merchant-based economy, saw great benefit to Federalism. In general, cities were usually Federalist supporters, and frontier regions more Republican.

Congregationalists in New England, Anglicans in larger cities, and Catholics in Maryland were generally Federalists, while other minority denominations tended toward

Republicanism.148

Between 1789 and 1801 Federalist policies called for a national bank, tariffs, and

good relations with England, as expressed in the Jay Treaty negotiated in 1794. Federalist

members favored banks, national over state government, manufacturing, an army and

navy, strong economic growth, working with England rather than France, and (a view

supported by Washington) neutrality in the war between the two countries. In his farewell

address, Washington warned against getting involved with foreign entanglements but

supported trade with England.

Upon taking office in 1790, President Washington named his wartime chief of staff Alexander Hamilton to the new office of Secretary of the Treasury, and Hamilton

swiftly built a national coalition to support his Federalist policies. As Chernow says:

Whatever their mandarin style and elitist tendencies, the Federalists had an abiding faith in executive power and crafted the federal government with a clarity and conviction that would have been problematic for the Republicans, who favored small government and legislative predominance.149

148 L. Marx Renzulli, Maryland: The Federalist Years (NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1972), 142, 183, 295.

149 Chernow, Washington, 771.

And in the face of fierce opposition, Chernow pointed out: “Washington never sought to suppress debate or clamp down on his shrill opponents in the press who had hounded him mercilessly.”150

These two politicians were joined by Madison and many other Federalists.

Although many of Hamilton’s ideas were adopted, when he proposed funding the

national debt, a split erupted in the original Federalist party, led by Madison who

disagreed with this idea as did many others. This resulted in an anti-Federalist faction that

formed into the Republican Party under Thomas Jefferson, thus creating a rift in

Washington’s administration. Although Washington was re-elected without opposition in

1792, the feud continued, with the Republicans trying to replace Federalist John Adams

as vice president. Failing in this effort, Jefferson secretly prepared resolutions to

Congress to repudiate Hamilton and weaken the administration.

Basic disagreements revolved around the Federalist view that they had brought

economic prosperity and industrial vigor to the nation, and that

public credit is restored and established. The general government . . . has created a new capital stock of several million dollars . . . giving life and vigor to industry in its infinitely diversified operation. The enemies of the general government . . . may bellow tyranny and aristocracy . . . but the actual state of agriculture and commerce, the peace, the contentment and satisfaction of the great mass of people give lie to their assertions.151

Jefferson wrote in 1798:

Two political Sects have arisen within the U.S., one believing that the executive is the branch of our government which needs the most support

150 Chernow, Washington, 771.

151 Charles A. Beard, “Gazette of United States, September 5, 1792.” In Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy, edited by Charles Beard (New York: MacMillan, 1915), 231.

. . . it is already too strong for the republican parts of the Constitution . . . these are called federalists, sometimes aristocrats or monocrats.152

The Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Jefferson and Madison in the early

1790s and championing republicanism, political equality, and expansionism, became

increasingly dominant during Washington’s second term, to a large degree debating about

the Jay Treaty, which involved issues of trade with Britain. Although Jefferson was

defeated by Federalist John Adams in the 1796 presidential elections, he was elected

president in 1800, and his party included many wealthy Southern plantation owners.

The Jay Treaty reflected many of the issues that divided the two parties over

support for either England or France, ultimately resulting in the Federalists’ continued

trade with England after the Revolution. The treaty resolved many post-war trade

problems with England, allowing ongoing trade with the mother country, and kept

America from intervening in the war between England and France while allowing

American ships to carry goods wherever they wanted to go. Republicans, who supported

France, denounced the Jay Treaty believing it did not reflect American prestige and did

not support the alliance that France and America had created during the Revolution.

Mettler and Lieberman wrote:

The Federalists, centered particularly in New England, prized their Anglo- American identity, and even after the American Revolution, they retained their affinity with the mother country. Republicans saw themselves as cosmopolitan, cherishing the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality, and they championed the French Revolution and disdained Great Britain.153

152 Thomas Jefferson, “From Thomas Jefferson to John Wise, 12 February 1798.” National Archives, Founders Online. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-30-02-0066.

153 Mettler and Lieberman, Fragile Republic, 182.

Other figures contributed significantly to the Federalist cause, including Timothy

Pickering and Oliver Wolcott (both recipients of wine coolers from Washington), DeWitt

Clinton, Rufus King, James McHenry, John Marshall, and Charles Coatesworth

Pinckney.

James McHenry and John Adams, Federalists

Since politics involves contributions and actions from all types, there were many early founders of America who were less visible but equally important as leaders.

Leadership comes in all forms and incorporates a variety of skills; there are those who are charismatic and prestigious and who can wield extraordinary power, creating an overarching vision with which they can inspire their constituents. Other leaders work behind the scenes, carrying out visionary concepts by networking and communicating, and making smaller but equally important contributions.

Two Federalists, James McHenry and John Adams, shared a driving ambition but each had a different history and personality. Both were born into relatively modest circumstances, but became part of the post-Revolutionary thrust toward gentility and refinement. They shared a common goal: trying to change a political system imposed by the British in order to create self-governance in America. Both were defined by their service to the country, made very important contributions to our democracy, and aspired to a gentleman’s life and behavior while playing important roles as Federalists, shaping the political, economic, and cultural agendas of the Federalist party post-Revolution.

James McHenry

James McHenry was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and at the age of 16

chose to emigrate to British North America. Being a Protestant made it impossible for

him to attend Trinity College in Dublin, and “ambition prodded him to consider the

colonies rather than Europe—the family’s recent dealings with mortality left him resolved to make the most of his life and the colonies offered a new start.”154 So he left

for Philadelphia (followed later by his family, to Baltimore). Arriving in this fashion,

McHenry knew that if he was to succeed he must learn to be a gentleman, something

available in the colonies as it had not been in Ireland. He would have to learn the rules

expected of a gentleman in dress, manners, learning, profession, and above all the code of

honor. Honor was crucial, and by the late eighteenth century colonials expected a man to

earn it. “Working as a surgeon with Dr. Benjamin Rush and exposed to radical

revolutionary ideas, James McHenry transformed from a young man in need of a change

to a young man about to help in making a revolution.”155

Ambitious for a better life in the colonies and a rise in gentlemanly status,

McHenry climbed from the lowest rank of surgeon’s mate to a member of General

George Washington’s staff, along the way making contacts that opened doors for a future in politics, first at the state and then at the national level. As a member of “the Family” of officers closest to Washington, he rose rapidly in Maryland politics, becoming his state’s

Federalist leader, serving in the Continental Congress, and one of three physicians who participated in the Constitutional Convention and signing the Constitution. In 1796

154 Karen E. Robbins, Forgotten Federalist (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2013), 9.

155 Robbins, Forgotten Federalist, 23.

Washington asked McHenry to serve as the nation’s third Secretary of War, a position he held during Washington’s administration and through most of John Adams’ administration.

McHenry made contributions with apparently less significant results, but they were described by Robbins as equally important and at the heart of the action—decisions he made only after thorough contemplation and a certainty that they aligned with his values. When he arrived at the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787, he was the only delegate from Maryland present, so he had to take on by himself the issues that concerned his state and the nation. In the midst of the debate, his beloved brother became critically ill in Baltimore, so McHenry suffered a prolonged absence from the convention, returning just in time to face a plan that was far broader in scope than he had anticipated.

Working hard to add his mark, and overcoming his “gentlemanly dislike of party spirit,” he influenced the Constitution in small ways that had big results. He urged equal treatment of ports in the United States, which helped ensure that free trade would prosper.

He insisted on a clause forbidding ex post facto clauses that allowed people to be prosecuted for acts that were legal when they were committed. On the issue of ratification, Robbins states: “Only after real contemplation would McHenry commit, and then he would remain steadfast.”156

McHenry’s loyalty to his country, and his willingness to take responsibility upon

himself, continued throughout his career. As Secretary of War under Adams, McHenry

faced national difficulties when raising and managing the new army, and also dealing

with Indian tribes. He dealt with a lack of funds to obtain equipment and uniforms, which

156 Robbins, Forgotten Federalist, 109.

undermined his best efforts and left him overworked with no staff. He was responsible

for more than a third of all federal spending, but had only five clerks to handle the

paperwork. Yet he persisted in his duty to his country and his President.

However, partisan politics were undermining his efforts. According to Robbins,

Hamilton was trying to force McHenry’s compliance with what amounted to a

Hamiltonian running of the War Department, writing “poison-pen” letters to, among others, McHenry’s best friend, Washington. Although McHenry was criticized by some as incompetent, he was “intelligent, hardworking, honorable, and devoted to Washington, if sometimes overwhelmed by duties Congress refused to lighten.”157 He was obviously

beloved and admired by Washington, as evidenced by the president’s gift of the silver

wine cooler. When McHenry left office, the country had a well-organized and strong

military, and his name is remembered by Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

As evidenced by his Will and associated inventory, he also left his family a

substantial estate derived from business activities and commerce during his life. Upon his death, his wife Peggy Caldwell wrote:

Here we come to the end of a life of a courteous, high-minded, keen- spirited, Christian gentleman. He was not a great man, but participated in great events and great men loved him, while all men appreciated his goodness and purity of soul. His highest titles to remembrance are that he was faithful to every duty and that he was the intimate and trusted friend of Lafayette, of Hamilton, and of Washington.158

157 Robbins, Forgotten Federalist, 243.

158 Steiner, Life and Correspondence, 1–4.

John Adams

John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, into a middle-class family that

wanted him to become a clergyman. According to historian Richard Archer, he was a

man on the rise and with an overriding sense of ambition. Although he was becoming a

leading lawyer in the period before the Boston Massacre, he was nonetheless viewed as

part of the “second tier of Boston lawyers.”159 His legal skills and defense of British

Captain Preston after the Massacre threw him into prominence in the world of

government and revealed some of his character as well as his ambition. Reflecting on his

decision to defend Preston, he wrote in his diary:

The part I took in Defence of Captn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, general, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever Rendered my Country.160

Although that event had made him unpopular in many quarters, his career moved

swiftly upward, and he gained increasing national and international prominence. He was

a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, where he played a leading role in

persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting

the Declaration of Independence and then advocated for it in Congress. Later he became

a diplomat in Europe, securing important trade agreements. His credentials secured him

two terms as Washington’s vice president, followed by his own election (as a Federalist)

159 Richard Archer, As if an Enemy’s Country (UK: Oxford University Press, 2010).

160 John Adams, Diary 19 (16 December 1772 to 18 December 1773). Entry on p. 16, dated “1773, March 5th. Fryday.” Massachusetts Historical Society. https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/ doc?id=D19&hi=1&query=The%20part%20I%20took%20in%20Defence%20of%20Captn.%20Preston&ta g=text&archive=diary&rec=2&start=0&numRecs=51 Accessed 18 April 2021.

to the presidency in 1796. Along the way, he supported and facilitated trade with England

during the rise of refinement and consumerism in the colonies.

History regards Adams as one of the most important founding fathers, and his

contributions to the birth of America are widely recognized. To some extent, his

profession as a lawyer set a predictable path into politics at that critical time in the

country, forming the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and performing the

duties of the presidency. But more than that, Archer describes him this way:

Immensely ambitious, seeking not merely fame and fortune but immortality . . . and the law and public service were his means. As complex a man as any of the founding fathers, Adams was principled, committed to helping his country as well as himself, intelligent, hardworking to the point of exhaustion, introspective but capable of self- delusion, quick to imagine slights, and consumed by his reputation. He was sometimes tormented by the conflict between principle and personal advantage.161

He was also described as irascible and angry, and Robbins states that after his

presidency, as he began writing his own interpretation of events and publicly denouncing

his old cabinet members, “The former president did this as therapy, a way of releasing

years of pent-up anger. He had a deep-seated need to be appreciated by posterity.”162 His

shrewdness and personal qualities drove him to a very visible role in American history; at

the same time his desire for political fame and legacy drove him to try to build a

following that could re-elect him in 1800.

He was suspicious of a “Hamiltonian cabal” (of which he considered James

McHenry a part), rather than serving the interests of the country. Adams allowed his

further perception of McHenry’s incompetence to lead to a request for resignation; in

161 Archer, An Enemy’s Country, 216.

162 Robbins, Forgotten Federalist, 262.

fact, in McHenry’s quiet but persistent manner, he was doing his job very well. In the

end, however, Adams remained a strong Federalist and a key figure in forming the

federalist government which serves our country today.

Politics and Luxury Trade

Although the Federalist party coalesced in 1787, Washington had

relented in his attitude toward England as early as 1784 when he placed a large order of engraved plate silver . . . tea urn, tea pots, sugar and cream pails, etc. . . . with Jay & Hopkins in London, who were “eager to recapture the American market interrupted so inconveniently by war.”163

He ordered the twelve silver wine coolers to add to his substantial household inventory in

1789.

This was also the time when Federalists were in power, and they promoted the growth of commerce and trade, as well as a burgeoning interest in gentility and refinement that led to the consumer revolution (described in Chapter IV). Although members of the Federalist party came from all kinds of backgrounds and levels of wealth, we can assume that most of them ascribed to being considered gentlemen (as did James

McHenry), and were ambitious about their prospects in politics and society (as did John

Adams). Federalist capitalism and gentility went hand in hand:

So closely intertwined were economic growth and the expansion of gentility that it becomes impossible to determine which was cause and which effect. Capitalism certainly did not create gentility, but with equal certainty, gentility was promoted and spread by an army of industrialists, artisans, merchants, and shopkeepers, whose livings came to depend on the enlarging market for genteel goods. But there was also the potential conflict between gentility and the republican values of the new country.

163 Buhler, Mount Vernon Silver, 44-45.

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. . . Because it was formed for an aristocratic leisured class, gentility was out of place in republican, middle class America, ill-suited to the lives of the people who so fervently adopted it.164

The acquisition of luxury goods appears at first glance to belong primarily to the

Federalist party. Its policy promoting trade and economic growth, and its members’ affinity with England, motivated them to order items from that country. To be sure, the most prominent Federalist households contained many luxury goods ordered from abroad, particularly England. Washington’s collection at Mount Vernon includes many such objects. Although we know he started buying from England before the Revolution, items from the Federalist period include his Society of the Cincinnati table, teaware from

China, silver tableware from England, porcelain and platters from France, swords from

Prussia, and many other personal items: buttons, jackets, gloves, and jewelry and watches for his wife Martha.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of Maryland’s most wealthy and conservative

Federalists and property owners, bought extensive quantities of foreign luxury items for his Annapolis townhouse and his country manor, Doughoregan; they included English silver sets, mahogany furniture, a harpsichord, a French clock, Spode china, and porcelain.

And in spite of the agrarian tradition of Virginia and other southern states, there were wealthy Federalists in that region as well. Divisions in Virginia were based on income and taxation measures, and also fallout from the Jay Treaty separating pro-

England and pro-France sympathizers:

The root of this division was the fundamental issue of domestic centralization . . . . But in the following years the problems provoked by

164 Bushman, Refinement, xvi, xviii.

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the French Revolution and the outbreak of war in Europe provided an entirely new set of divisive issues.165

Many James River mansions in Virginia emulated the English Georgian style of

architecture and contained English-made or replicated furnishings. But Richard Bushman questions: “How could Americans reconcile their commitment to aristocratic gentility

with their devotion to republican equality?”166 Even with the clear division of political

and economic philosophies between the two parties, members of each one seemed to

have exhibited ambivalence about how they viewed luxury and gentility, and how they

should live their daily lives. Bushman noted that: “The contradiction between

republicanism and fashionable living was most keenly felt in New England, where

Spartan virtues harmonized with Calvinist religious restraints.”167

As a Federalist, John Adams perhaps most clearly represents this conflict. His

self-imposed anxiety about luxury did not stop him from assembling a substantial estate

in Massachusetts complete with gardens, additional wings, and outbuildings. It was

furnished with French chairs and sofas and elegant French dinnerware, all part of the

desire for luxury but a corresponding urge to deny it. As Bushman says, “John Adams’

history epitomizes the strains in American culture in the closing decades of the eighteenth

century.”168

165 Norman K. Risjord, “The Virginia Federalists,” Journal of Southern History, vol. 33, no. 4 (Nov. 1967): 486-517.

166 Bushman, Refinement, xvi.

167 Bushman, Refinement, 193.

168 Bushman, Refinement, 303.

102

Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Republican party, was immersed in the acquisition of luxury goods for his Monticello. Although some purchases were made in

America, and a few in England, his collections show voluminous inventories of French silver, furniture, drawings, maps, clocks, ceramics, and glass; a bust of Lafayette, a bookcase for Petit-Format Books, a marble trestle table, tea sets, and vegetable dishes— all ordered from Paris. It is clear that although political sentiment was fierce and disputed at the time, the desire for luxury goods and the appearance of refinement transcended political boundaries.

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Chapter VII

Conclusion

This thesis explores three major questions. The first was: Why, after a bitter fight with their mother country, did American colonists revert to a high level of trade with their former enemy? Using a Sheffield plate silver wine cooler that was given to my ancestor

James McHenry by George Washington, I examined the role that luxury items ordered by the colonists from England played in the increased level of trans-Atlantic trade after the

Revolution.

The second question was: What role did George Washington play in promoting luxury trade? Was he simply following the prevailing patterns of the country’s post-

Revolutionary demand for status and gentility? Or was he creating a leadership model of elegance and wealth which he deemed appropriate as President of the new nation?

The third question was: Since the Americans reverted to close trade relations with

England, was the Revolution really a revolution or just a civil war between two groups of

Englishmen? Although there were struggles to create a new nation, constitutional arguments, political divisions, and land disputes, America ended up with a new government, with laws significantly different from England’s—but a class system fashioned very much after England’s.

In pursuing these questions, I focused primarily on luxury trade. My desire was to contribute a better understanding of how that trade contributed to the entrenchment of the gentry class and to the division of wealth during the formation of the new country.

104

Following my detailed research, I concluded that there were significant and

important reasons, both economic and cultural, why America went back to trading with

England, particularly in the area of luxury goods. This trade accelerated after the

Revolution for cultural and class reasons. Washington, for his own reasons, played a role

in this activity. America was created by a true revolution which succeeded due to the

actions of Washington and the framers of the Constitution.

Background Research

This is the information I compiled which leads to my conclusions. Although the

sources used are almost all secondary, they offer strong evidence to support my opinions,

and can be tested by further primary research when available.

I start by introducing the historic Sheffield silver wine cooler, which was

presented to James McHenry, Secretary of War in George Washington’s cabinet, on

August 14, 1797. This cooler was part of a 1789 order of twelve similar wine coolers,

ordered from London by President Washington. They are described as “handsome and useful Coolers for wine at and after dinner”169 and were used to entertain the many guests

he received at Mount Vernon. Washington bought these items in spite of his ambivalence

about resuming relations with England. The cooler I described is one example of the

many luxury items purchased from England. I used it as a tangible object that enabled me

to study the economic and cultural practices of post-Revolutionary America. By placing

the wine cooler and other luxury items in the context of the growth of colonial gentility of

169 Sotheby, “Washington-Custis Silver,” 22.

105

the period and the growth of luxury trade, I traced the descent of the twelve wine coolers

themselves.

To follow the path of my cooler, I used my family tree. Of the twelve coolers, the

whereabouts of all but three are known, each offering a fascinating story in itself. A note

on Sheffield’s new technology of silver plating sheds light on the wealthy colonists’

desires to have luxury items but at a reasonable price. These wine coolers reflect many of

the forces of the time, the growing refinement of America, the return to trade with

England, and the rise of wealthy classes.

I then moved on to describe in some detail the changes in cultural lifestyles and

the vigorous consumer revolution that took place after the Revolution. This movement

was perhaps the most important factor in the resumption and increase of trade with and a

certain attachment to Britain. Although there had been colony trade with England before

the Revolution, the upper class and growing middle class sought to establish their status

by exhibiting refinement, gentlemanly lifestyles, and the acquisition of objects of

prestige.

Luxury items of all kinds—household furnishings, clothing, gardens, architecture,

portraits—reflected English style and gentility, while also helping to create and reinforce

class and social systems. While supposedly repudiating monarchy and aristocracy,

Americans rushed to emulate styles of British gentility. Luxury items were a must-have.

The burgeoning consumer revolution furthered the rise of capitalism. This

ongoing material culture shaped social, economic, and eventually political patterns in the country. To augment my information on luxury trade, I reviewed how Washington

established his genteel lifestyle, as well as his justifications for resuming trade with

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England. Along the way, I was able to provide an overview of his acquisitions, many

from England, although some from other countries. I went into greater detail about luxury

trade with England, providing specific examples of the kinds of objects bought and why.

I briefly reviewed trade before the Revolution, its expansion post-Revolution, and why it

expanded. Although America needed to resume trade due to economic losses suffered in

the Revolution, England needed the trade as well, and saw a good market in America.

Hence the old attachment was resumed, with many merchants re-establishing their former

relationships.

I use silver and silk as prime examples of luxury objects. Also, because there was

more ambivalence in New England toward upper-class wealth, I decided to research five examples of Maryland and Virginia homes of wealthy gentry. I looked into their backgrounds to determine why they either had or aspired to upper-class status, while also documenting some of the items they bought from England. Each family’s drive toward achieving status as they had known it in England, further supported my position that new

America could not detach itself culturally or economically from its mother country.

Federalists, prizing their Anglo-American identity, were more apt to retain their affinity with the mother country; Republicans mostly disdained Great Britain, seeing themselves as more cosmopolitan and championing the ideals of liberty and equality. I described two men who considered themselves to be self-made even though both were

Federalists: James McHenry and John Adams. Both purchased luxury goods from abroad and ascribed to the lifestyle of gentlemen. Most importantly, as founders of the country, they created a new government with vast differences from the English legal and judicial systems. They did this while at the same time remaining culturally tied to England.

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Further Considerations on the Revolution

Before the Revolution, seventeenth-century colonists consumed some locally produced goods but were still a primarily agricultural economy. There was more consumer goods production in New England than in the south, but more wealth in the southern states where gentry acquired large land holdings and merged upper-class families through marriage. Tobacco from these large estates was an important part of trade with England. Colonists in all states ordered goods from England, all the while wishing they could have more of the elegant items Britain produced.

The Revolution arose from what the colonists saw as unjust economic measures placed on them by the mother country. That perception disrupted trade with England and left the colonies in dire economic condition—an incentive on its own for resuming trade.

But more importantly, the American Revolution was a true revolution, not just a civil war. The founding fathers who started the Revolution ensured its success and created a new government. But they were a diverse group who came from different backgrounds, and in many cases had to prove themselves as either gentlemen or leaders. They created

an entirely new government which was influenced by the newly popular Scottish

Enlightenment rather than the English system they now disavowed. Achieving status in this new class system required not only knowledge and wisdom, but the appearance of refinement and gentility. An important way to achieve this status was through owning luxury goods, particularly those that had the status of coming from England.

One definition of a revolution is the forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. The American Revolution was a true revolution because it led to a constitutional democracy giving power to the people of the nation while also

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calling for a checks and balance system. In his book on the failed so-called “Arab

Spring,” Noah Feldman argues that true transformative political self-determination

requires people to act or demonstrate in order to achieve a system that gives them

sustained power. This never happened for the Arabs, but it did for America primarily due

to the new government’s system of checks and balances.170

One of the most important acts in America’s move toward a democracy was

Washington’s resignation speech as Commander-in-Chief, presented to Congress in

Annapolis on December 23, 1783:

The great events on which my resignation depended, having at length taken place, I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and (&) of presenting myself before (Congress) them, to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring (request permission to retire) from the Service of my Country. Having finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action, – and bidding an affectionate (a final) farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer (today deliver?) my Commission, and take my (ultimate) leave of all the employments of public life.171

Although there was only a loose alliance of 13 states under the Articles of

Confederation, Congress was weak, and there was no obvious leader waiting in the wings. But Washington had confidence in the ability of Congress to guide the nation—a revolutionary act of faith that changed America’s history. By surrendering his power to the civilian authority, he ensured that the United States would become a republic rather

170 Noah Feldman, The Arab Winter: A Tragedy (NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020).

171 “Washington’s Address to Congress Resigning his Commission, 23 December 1783.” Founders Online, National Archives. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0319-0004. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, vol. 6, 21 May 1781 to 1 March 1784. Princeton University Press, 1952.]

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than a monarchy or a nation led by the military. This act established the bedrock principle

of American democracy: that the military is subject to civilian authority.

Having presented this speech with great emotion, Washington departed, hoping to

be at Mount Vernon in time for Christmas, in the process handing his personal copy of

the speech to James McHenry. This copy remained in my family with my sister until

2007 when we sold and donated it to the Friends of the Maryland State Archives, along

with the letter that McHenry wrote to his (future) wife, Peggy Caldwell, describing the

ceremony. It is currently displayed in the rotunda of the Maryland State House in

Annapolis.

Thus in creating its new government, America separated itself legally and

politically from its mother country. Ironically, although the founders railed against the

overbearing executive powers of a British monarch, they ended up creating an executive

presidency with far more power than the king or queen of England would ever have

again. The U.S. is a republic with the form of a monarchy, while the UK is a monarchy

with the form of a republic. Importantly, our president is elected by the people, and power to the people is assured by the separation of powers between the executive, judicial, and congressional branches.

Another important factor that made the Revolution a true revolution was the

education of the founders, which heavily influenced how the Declaration of

Independence, the Constitution, and other important legislation were formed. Thomas E.

Ricks provides interesting insights into the education and philosophies of Washington,

Adams, Jefferson, and Madison in his book, First Principles..172 Ricks studies the origins

172 Thomas E. Ricks, First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country (New York: Harper Collins, 2020).

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of these founders’ educations as being the classical education of philosophy and literature

that shaped the founders’ thinking: the Iliad, Plutarch’s Lives, and the works of

Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato, and Cicero. These ideas passed through Europe to

Scotland, as many Scottish teachers came to America at this time. Although there was

some attention paid to English philosophers like John Locke, the founders were far more

immersed in the literature of the ancient world. Ricks says: “Enlightened types tended to place their faith in progress, freedom and the improvability of mankind.”173

Beginning with George Washington, we know he was an ambitious young man

who rose to grandeur as an American hero but did not allow his quest for distinction to

mutate into the pride that has led all too many leaders in history to put their personal

aggrandizement above the common good, some becoming despotic leaders. Jack Warren

says: “Washington’s greatest legacy was his willingness to give up power, and that he

helped create a government dedicated not to the interests of kings and aristocrats, but to

the interests of ordinary people. Nothing like it had been seen in the world.”174

But for all his enormous successes, Washington did not have the educational background of the subsequent founders, particularly the influence of Greek and Roman classicism. Thomas Ricks says:

The classical world was far closer to the makers of the American Revolution and the founders of the United States than it is to us today. Greco-Roman antiquity . . . was present in their lives, as part of their political vocabulary and as the foundation of their personal values. In short, it shaped their view of the world in a way that most Americans now are not taught and so don’t see.175

173 Ricks, First Principles, 55.

174 Jack Warren, quoted in David M. Rubenstein, The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians (Mexico: Thorndike Press, 2020), 34, 73.

175 Ricks, First Principles, 3.

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This classical background shaped the new government by forming its core values,

the principle one being virtue. For the Revolutionary generation, virtue was an essential

element of public life and meant putting the common good before one’s own interests,

“the lynchpin of public life, the fastener that held together the structure.”176 Since

Washington never went to college or had access to classical learning, and because acting

in a Roman manner was the easiest way to rise in upper-crust society, Washington was

keenly aware of his deficit. Ricks suggests that he may have come closer to the Roman

example because he was a man of deeds, not words. Washington worked hard to show

valiant leadership, unselfish virtue, and unyielding honor. Ricks questions what would

prove more influential in American history—the practical education on the frontier or a

classical education—and concludes: “Washington always understood power and how to use it. What could be more Roman than the prudent exercise of power?”177

John Adams was not from a wealthy family but one that had been in

Massachusetts for a while. His father was a farmer and preacher, and his mother illiterate

but from an upper-class family. They helped him pay, along with a scholarship, for his

education at Harvard where he discovered books and classicism. He made his fame by

defending the British in the Boston Massacre trial, and became the most ardent advocate

for independence, picking Thomas Jefferson to help write the Declaration of

Independence. Ricks said that Adams had questioned authority for years. The dominant

political narrative of colonial American elites was the story of how Roman orator Cicero

put down the Catiline conspiracy to take over Rome, and Ricks believed that “John

176 Ricks, First Principles, 5.

177 Ricks, First Principles, 20.

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Adams aspired to be the Cicero of his time, that is, the key political figure in late-

eighteenth-century Rome.”178 Both Cicero and Adams struggled constantly to achieve

status and class, and Cicero promulgated seeds of revolution, that “sovereignty flows from the people, who have the power to withdraw it, and the duty to do so if the delegated authority abuses it.”179

Although Adams was not born to elite status, he became a great man and achieved

the class level he sought. But he was always suspicious of the adverse use of class status

and wealth, writing an essay on power which restated ancient Greek views on

government: that monarchy degenerates into despotism, aristocracy into oligarchy, and

democracy into anarchy. Seeing the power of wealth as a threat to the nation, he believed

that apart from their powerful networks of peers, the rich possess top-down hierarchical

networks. He also predicted that society and politics in America would break down into

classes, with the richest citizens alongside those born into the best-known families, wielding a dangerous amount of power in the country.

Thomas Jefferson could be considered the most aesthetically minded of the founders. He had a classical education early as the son of a wealthy southern planter, and was heavily influenced by Scottish teaching and philosophy. At the College of William &

Mary, he was taught by two Scots from Marischal College in Aberdeen, Scotland. Ricks noted that Scotland’s influence on American history was profound and remains under- appreciated. Scottish universities were hotbeds of innovation, while the two well-known

English universities slumbered, having “degenerated to a large extent into a preserve for

178 Ricks, First Principles, 41.

179 Ricks, First Principles, 54.

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the idle and the rich”180 In addition, tobacco trade with Scotland thrived due to wind

currents and Scottish innovation. Because of the tobacco connection, Scottish influence

was strongest in the mid-Atlantic colonies and the South, with Ricks stating: “The story of the rise of the Scottish Enlightenment and the transmission of its ideas to America is fundamental to the history of American thought.181

Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be

self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with

certain unalienable Rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of

Happiness” are true reflections of the Enlightenment and its role in the new democracy.

His biographer Jon Meacham says, “I give him credit for being the great articulator of the

manifestation of the Enlightenment that shaped the modern world.”182

According to Ricks, of the first four presidents, James Madison was the most

“Scottish” in his thinking. Creating a system of checks and balances by accepting and

using party politics as the heart of the American political system can be traced back to

Hume and other Scottish thinkers. As the primary framer of the Constitution, Madison

was both an Enlightenment thinker, a politician, and a complex man. He chose to leave

his Tidewater origins for Princeton, the college being labeled “a provincial copy of

Edinburgh.” He studied under well-respected Scottish professors and took part in political discussions that swirled through the campus. He followed the rise of revolutionary actions against the British, believing (like the classicists) that America should be a land

180 Ricks, First Principles, 70.

181 Ricks, First Principles, 77.

182 Meacham, quoted in Rubenstein, The American Story, 122.

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of liberty and seat of virtue. Always connected to the classical world, yet realizing its

limitations, he came to the Constitutional Convention at the age of 36 as what Ricks

called “the best informed man in America on the principles of government.” In referring to Greece and Rome, he was able to ensure “the security of private rights, and the steady dispensation of Justice,”183 leading to the question of how to balance competing interests

as well as create a national republic that would make room for many interests. Madison

made many other contributions to this most important document.

It is clear that the thinking of these four founders, and the origin of this thinking

in classicism, completed the intent of the Revolution in the form of a new republic and

not a civil war.

Further Considerations on George Washington’s Role in Luxury Trade

It is a common misconception that George Washington used objects to convey

meaning during his presidential years when he was charged with identifying and fixing

the taste of the nation. It bears repeating that in 1790, Gouverneur Morris wrote to the

new president: “I think it of very great Importance to fix the Taste of our Country

properly, and I think your Example will go very far in that Respect.”184 In fact,

Washington used possessions to define himself even earlier as a rising member of the

Virginia gentry and throughout the Revolutionary War.185 We know that Washington

came from a relatively modest background, but he married into a family with status and

183 Ricks, First Principles, 196.

184 Morris, Letter from Morris to Washington, 48.

185 Cadou, George Washington Collection, 20.

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possessions, and Martha Custis brought many lovely objects to their union. He wanted to improve himself, show refinement, and be part of the gentry. The Introduction to the

“George Washington Collection” discusses how Washington was aware of the way objects that surrounded him also defined him. Perhaps describing his attitude and the circumstances surrounding him perfectly:

George Washington was no different from his fellow eighteenth-century Americans in understanding that certain objects denoted gentility, sophistication, enlightenment, and wealth. Because Washington wanted to maintain a material appearance in accord with his professional and social position, he paid keen attention to the objects that surrounded him throughout his life. Additionally, he understood that how others perceived him could, if necessary, be manipulated through objects.186

But it is harder to tell whether Washington actually influenced the rise of luxury-

goods purchases from England into America after the Revolution. Certainly he was an

enormously important figure to be admired and copied during his presidency. Bushman

describes the high-end social life of the founding years (especially during Washington’s

two terms as president), with social activities patterned after English royal courts, all

sanctioned by the President: “The father of the country was a patron of a court

society.”187

Furthermore, even while enacting his military, business, and presidential duties

he, like other men of substance, dedicated himself to the beautification and adornment of

Mount Vernon. But, like Charles Carroll, Severn Eyre, John Donnell, Charles Ridgely,

and many others, Washington had ordered luxury goods from England well before the

Revolution. His correspondence with London agents provides a telling paper trail of his

186 Cadou, George Washington Collection, 13.

187 Bushman, Refinement, 416.

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desire to be prominent. The extensive catalog of spectacular items from England shows

his first purchases of Chinese porcelain teaware and a silver-handled knife and fork to have been ordered in 1757. Buhler’s account of Mount Vernon silver documents wall lamps ordered in 1790, which appear to have been his last purchases of silver abroad; it is possible, however, that there were other shipments of luxury items up until his death in

1799. We know that George and Martha Washington entertained extensively (and in his opinion without respite), and we can assume that his taste and collections influenced others. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that although he acted as a role model for the purchase of luxury items offered by English manufacturing, others in his time were equally driven by their own desires for refinement, gentility, and an appearance of a cultural life.

Maintaining a cultural life based on England’s appears to have been of paramount importance to the post-Revolutionary colonists. This was reflected in their lifestyle and purchase of English luxury goods. But they clearly separated politically, so why not culturally? Perhaps separating completely from what they had known was too much to handle, for separation anxiety can occur when a rift is too deep.

This research also shows that the colonists’ drive to achieve status and wealth was the origin of the class system in America, which has only grown more divided over time.

Indeed, John Adams believed there would always be separate classes. Given the importance of luxury goods for the upper class, the equality espoused by the Founding

Fathers could not have been maintained over time.

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Possibilities for Future Research

By exploring the role of luxury goods in American trade with Britain after the

Revolution, in the context of the cultural, political, and economic climate surrounding

that period of time, my research demonstrates empirically why Americans returned to

trading with England after the Revolution. But the conclusions reached depend almost

entirely on secondary sources. My argument would be considerably advanced by more

quantitative information from primary sources, and I suggest that further research and

analysis should be conducted on the following:

• the percentage of luxury trade as a part of total trade between 1783 and 1800

• the value of English goods ordered pre-Revolution as opposed to post-

Revolution

• the availability of high-quality luxury goods produced domestically in the

colonies

• merchant records on both the English and American sides

• economic reasons to continue the trans-Atlantic trade

• further household inventories to show both domestic and international goods

and how they were used.

• museum and personal collections that contain post-Revolutionary English

goods.

Although I reached strong conclusions from the materials used and available to

me, deeper investigation into these areas would be helpful in further supporting my

conclusions. There is, of course, the possibility that such research might provide evidence

to counter my arguments.

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Appendix

Inventory of the Personal Property of James McHenry, late of Baltimore County, deceased Appraised by Messers Alexander Robinson & Robert Miller April 1818

(provided by Adam Erby from the digital records at https://www.familysearch.org/)

One Chariot & Harness….400- 1 Jenny Waggon & Do…50- 1 Waggon & Do…40-

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1 Cart & Do…8- 1 common Plough…4- 1 Deavers plough…2- 2 Carriage Horses…200- Old Harness…1- 2 old Saddles & Bridles…5- Curry Comb. Brush & Comb….75 Dung fork & Broom…1- 2 horse Buckdo [?]…1- 1 peck measure….25 1 [?] Basket….50 1 Culling Box…4- 1 wood saw & horses…2- 1 ladder….50 1 wheel Barrow…3.50 200 Bricks…1.80 1 Cow…1- 1 Grind Stone…30- 100 paling laths…1- 2 Scythes…75 1 old Sleigh…50 1 Corn Mill…25- 2 axes…25- 1 pick…1.50 Marble Slabs…1- 1 Sieves…1- 2 Spades…2-

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hoe rakes & c…2- 1 Roller…5- old lumber…1- 2 Chicken Coops…1.50 1 Engine…20- 1 Clothes Horse…1- 1 Bench…50 100 Cords of fire wood…500- 223 posts…55.75 12 Sails…1.25 1 Ton hay…26- ½ Ton Straw…8- 643 oak plank…164.32 3 Step ladders…1.50 1 wood beater [?]…1- 1 large Box…1-

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1 bathing tub…4- 1 mangle…25- 1 Stand…25 1 tub…25 1 Stove…1- 2 Brooms…25 1 wash stand & Basin…1- 150 pots with flowers…17.50 15 Boxes with plants…60- 120 flower pots…10- 1 wire sieve…1- 2 Coolers…75 2 watering pots…1- 2 Cages….1- 1 cot [?] and two frames…6- 2 water Casks…1.50 old lumber…1- Library contg Books Maps Charts pamphlets & c….1000- 7 old Paintings…7- 6 prints…10- 3 Busts---2- Marble Ornaments…2- 3 mutilated Stoves [?]…5- Shovel tongs & Grate & c…5- 1 Mahogany Desk & Contents…25- 1 writing Desk & Contents…2- 1 Telescope…5-

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4 Inkstands…1- 3 Tables…2- 1 Camera Obscura….15- 2 Screens…15— 2 Chairs…1.50 Books of prints…2- closets contents…2- 2 Urns…1- 1 case & Contents…15- 15 Bottles…1- Tools…30- 1 Roll worn wire…5- 1 Sickle…50 2 Iron window weights…50 1 Glass window Sash & Glass ware…2- Old Iron Articles…1.50

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1 old Sopha…2- 1 Strong Box…20- 1 fencing spade…1- 1 desk…2.50 1 Trunk & Contents…7- 2 window Sashes…50 1 Tool Bench…25 1 Basket…12/2 2 wood rakes…37/? paint & pot…50 1 tin lanthorn…25 5 lb Razin [?}…25 2 pr. Scales & weights…2- 4 cedar posts…2- 1 Jack…1- old lumber…1- 1 Magic Lanthorn…5- 6 Boxes…1- 1 Trunk old Iron…1- 3 painted planks & one Bench…1.50 2 window Sashes…25 1 work Bench…1.50 2 planes…2- 2 doors…1- 3 feet for Table…50 3 pair window Shutters…50 3 Boxes...1.50

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1 Refrigerator…5- 1 [?] whiting…25 1 wire safe…1- 1 wire window frame…50 1 old Table…25 Lumber…3- broken images…1- 1 Carriage Box…25 3 Benches…1.50 1 long Box…25 Negroes Ned & Sarah…200- Negro Augustus…200- Do Eliza…300- Do Jenny…250- Do Lewis & Benedict…300- Do Kitty, Matthew & Edward…200- 1 Clock…100-

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11 Oil paintings…400- 2 Marble Busts…50- 1 plaister Bust…10- 3 portraits wax & plaister…30 1 Do. Genl. Washington…100 2 Marble Slabs…30- 2 Mantle Urns…5- 2 Do. images…7- 2 Sconces…30- 1 Sopha…25- 23 Mahogany chairs…80- 1 full length portrait…10- 1 Side Board…20- 2 Knife cases…20- 2 mantle lamps…10- 2 cross rimmed fenders…10- 2 pr and irons…15- 2 do. Shovel & tongs…8- 1 pr. Card Tables…20- 1 Brussels Carpet…30- 1 Kidderminster do….90- 2 rugs…12- 1 Tray…25 Hall & Stair Carpet…25 2 Small Tables…4- 18 Servers…10-

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4 Spitting Boxes…3- 1 Knife Box…25 1 plate warmer…1- 1 set dining Tables…50- 1 do do 4 do…30- 1 Breakfast Table…7- 2 Tea Tables…10- 1 pr. old Card Do…10- 1 Dozen Black Gilt Chairs…12- 16 old Mahogany do…16- 16 bad & old do…8- 1 Sett Blue China…80- 2 Setts Tea Do…50- 1 [?] common Do…5- broken setts…5- 1 Sett Blue edged ware…25- 1 do white queens ware…25- 1 do tin ware…18-

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1 do earthen ware…10- 4 doz Knives & 4 doz forks plated…19- 2 carving do & Do…1- 20 Green handle dinner knives & forks…2- 1 Doz. Breakfast do…1.50 10 Oyster Knives…1- 11 plated desert knives & 11 forks…1- 1 Doz. Kitchen Knives & 1 doz forks…1- 1 Steel…25 10 Green handled fruit knives & 10 forks…50 1 Butchers Knife…40 3 small do…25 6 pr. [?] Crackers…3- 2 Cork Screws & Brush…25 1 small tub 1 lemmon squeezer & 1 Sugar breaker…1- 1 Mouse trap & 1 c pipe…3.25 1 pestle & mortar 2 hair [?] 2 Scrubbing Brushes & 1 p Brush…1.75 Glassware…50- cut Glass…50- plated ware…200- Silver…150- 6 chafing dishes 6 dish covers 1 fish Kettle…18- 4 Steel snuffers & trays…8- 1 Box Sperm Candles 6 lbs…2-

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2 mantle Ornaments…15- bags & c…2- 11 best decanters & 16 common do…35- 1 Bag Java Coffee 100 lb…25- ¼ Bl flour…2- 2 Goblests…2- preserves, pickles, dried fruit loaf Sugar [?] Molasses…42- Brown & white Sugar…5- 5 Bottles wind 3 do. rose wter 1 do. old Spirits 1 Do P Brandy…8- 1 Bottle lemmon acid 1 Phial limi [?] acid 1 Do. essence of Lemon…1.50 1 lb Soap 1 lb rice ½ Chocolate 1 Bottle anchovy 17 Baskets…4 62/2 14 Table [?] 1 pine Table and Irons & c Rag Carpet…11- 2 lanthorns 1 Globe 1 pr. Boat [?] pestles & horn 1 Clothes brush…18.75 23 brass stair rods…10- 1 Carpet 1 Bureau 1 Bedstead 1 bol [?]…30-

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2 Counterpanes 2 pr. Sheets 7 blankets 2 pillows & cases…37- 1 Bed & Boulster 1 matrass 1 pol…32.25 2 pictures 2 pitchers & Basins 2 looking Glasses…52- 1 pewter c pot 1 tin do. 1 easy do. 1 warming pan…5- 1 and iron shovel & tongs & fender…4- 1 chest of drawers 1 Clothes press 1 Bureau…55- contents of Do….205— 1 wash Stand pitcher & Basin And irons Shovel & tongs…10.75 8 pictures 1 Bedstead 1 Bed & Boulster 1 counterpane…60- 1 pr. Sheets 1 pillow & case 4 Blankets…17- 1 Carpet 2 small chairs 1 mirror 1 Toilet Glass…37- contents of 2 closets 1 Basket…5.25 1 mirror 1 Bedstead & Curtains 1 Bed Boulster & pillows…45- 1 pr Sheets 1 Counterpain 5 blankets, carpeting…29- 2 curtains 1 pr And Irons Shovel & tongs washstand pitcher & c…9.50 1 pine Table 1 paper [?] head brush 2 Trunks & contents…3.50 2 Spinning wheels 1 tape loom 2 pr wool cards…11.25 1 Coffee Mill 2 bags Salt 2 Bags old soap…5.40 1 Grate Shovel & poker 1 bread tray & looking Glass…12.75 2 Blinds Bags of Clothes & Sundries…10- 1 Bedstead, 2 Beds 2 matrasses 2 Boulsters 4 pillows…82- 6 Counterpains 6 Blankets 1 piece linen…22- 1 Silk coat 1 Band Box contents of Closet…11.22

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1 Bureau 1 Bedstead 1 Bed & Boulster 1 pillow & case 1 pr Sheets 3 blankets 2 blinds 1 counterpain…45- 1 wash Stand pitcher & Basin 1 Glass 1 piece carpet 1 case razors…6.75 Servants Bedstead Bedding Clothes & c…30- 1 Bed 1 Matress 1 Boulster & pillows…45- 4 Trunks & contents…190- 2 Baskets 1 Side Saddle 2 tables 2 matrasses & Bedding 1 Cot…26.25 2 Bags Java Coffee 139 lb 141 lb…72.80 5 Trunks & Contents…108- 2 course sheets 2 pieces Barge [?[ 5 Calico Beds Quilts 1 do Counterpains…21.25 1 Brussels carpet old carpeting 2 rugs for Servants 1 Coat & jacket…18- 1 easy chair, 2 pictures 1 old Straw carpet damaged linen…14.50 3 Brushes 8 [?] 1 Tea chest 4 lb tea…9.50 1 bag feathers 1 plate warmer candle wick…6- 3 Baskets old lumber 1 [?]…8- 3 Bed Steads 10 lb Sugar 3 Benches 1 table 3 c pots…18.75

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1 Bec chair 1 bible [?] box 1 easy stool 1 back gammon table…10- 15 lb Chocolate 2 carriage boxes 7 window blinds…12- old articles 1 Basket old Beds…4- 80 1/3 doz cask old wine…1928- 1/3 pipe common ine ¼ do do…120- ¼ quarter cork best wine…35- 22 Demijohns Madeira 5 do. Falcrum [?]…425- 1 Box Barrac [?] 1 Do. Urn de grace [?} 1 p Clach 1 p Champagne…68- 2 Bottles port wine 2/3 bl Burgundy p do arroc 1 Doz bottles [?]…34.51 1 Bl Herring p do Shad…10- 1 Bl [?] 1 cask old Bacon 2 bls pork 1 do old Bacon…116- 1 Bl 3 pieces [?] 1 cask Arms shoulders & jowls 1 bbl old Bacon…44- 1 Bbl new Beef [?] 1 box 31 lb Sperm Candles 3/ Bbls…30.50 1 wine pipe Do gr Cask 9 flour Bbls 7 meal casks 3 tubs…20- 1 paste Board 1 table 1 lye cask 1 refrigerator…3.75 1 Keg 2 Boxes 4 Baskets 1 safe…4.25 2 Casks soft soap 1 do 2 pieces Beef 1 Do some herring 1 Do 2 pieces pork…28- 1 firken 1 half Bble 1 Cask 2/3 corn beef 2 meal casks…11- 1 Sugar Bble 1 Cask 12 Gall Vinegar 1 had fish Bble…4.50

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1 firkin 28 lb lard 1 firkin ½ Bble Sugar 50 lb 2 Kegs 1 Bucket 12.87 1 Shad Bbl 1 Cask rye flour 40 lbs 1 keg 12 lbs lard…4.25 1 Box Sperm Candles & [?] 1 do mould [?] 1 do dep 9 lb 1 Do. 8th….9.90 1 Box 45 lb mould Candles 4 candle boxes 1 jar Sweet meats…12.50 6 Earthen crocks 2 do. 7lb lard 15 stone jars 3 Stone pitchers & 3 do. jugs…7.50 Jug Linseed oil 2 doz Cherry Bounce 16 botl Gooseberry cush…17.50 9 lamps 58 empty Bottles 1 Box NS herrings 1 Broom 1 Bunch old glass…11.12 16 milk pans & covers 4 milk crocks 1 Keg 1 pail with Butter…5.50 1 milk pail & 1 Churn…1- 1 jack 1 Coffee Mill 11 Iron pots covers & hangers…28- 3 dutch ovens 3 tea Kettles 2 gridirons & tripods…7- 6 Spoons 1 Clock jack earthen ware 1 Seive 6 chaffing dishes…8.62

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1 pepper mill 2 Bell metal Skillets tin ware…18.50 2 pr. And Irons Shovel & tongs Iron Skillets & Sauce pan…8.50 1 [?] 1 dripping pan 2 Spits 2 dozen Skewers…5.50 4 Bread trays, 1 knife Box, 1 Salt Box 1 [?]…3.75 1 Ironing table 2 kitchen tables 1 copper skillet…5- 2 cleavers 1 axe 2 dish tubs 2 water buckets 2 [?]…3.50 ½ dozen flat irons & Stands 4 grass candlesticks 6 common do. Snuffers & trays 3 ladles 2 Skimmers…10.25 1 pr. flesh forks 1 pr. Stake tongs 1 Sheat iron fender…1.12 1 boiler with brass cook garden reeds 12 oiling [?]…3.50 2 Ash Kettles 1 waffle iron 2 Gridles 3 frying pans 1 toaster 1 meat tub…8.25 20 Bus Coal Cellar…6- 1 Gold repeating watch 1 pr. Gold Sleeve buttons…55- 1 Cow & Calf 1 Knife 1 window cleaner…33- 2 pieces mosaic work 1 Breakfast table [?] ground…127- 14 Shares Stock in Bank of Baltimore @ $355…4970 77 do Farmers & Merchants do @ 54…4158 400 do City Bank of Do. @ $16 ¾…6700 46 Do Schuykill Bridge Company @ $10…460 10 Do Union Insurance Cy @80…800 5 Do Marine Do Do @ $350…1750 5 Do Maryland Do @ 425…2125

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1 Do US 3 [?] Stock @ 64…4461.37 5 Houses & lots at Washington square…40000 2 Do. Fayette Street…4000 1 Do Lovely lane…1600 1 Do Calvert Street...5000 [Total] $87,391.37 Alexander Robinson Seal Rob Miller seal

1 Shaw Baltimore dancing assembly…200- 1 Do new Theatre…200- 1 Do Library Company of Baltimore…30- [Total] $87,821.37

Alexr. Robinson seal Rob Miller seal

Baltimore County. On the 25th of April 1818 came John McHenry, acting Executor of the last will and Testament of Dr. James McHenry deceased and made Oath on the Holy Evangely & Almighty God that the aforegoing is a true and [? Inventory of the Goods and Chattles of the said deceased that have come to his hands knowledge & possession at the time of making thereof that what has since or shall hereafter come to his hand knowledge or Possession he will return

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in an additional inventory that he knows no concealment or suspects every to be that if he should hereafter discover any concealment or suspect any to be he will make the Register of Wills acquainted therewith that the same may be inquired into according to Law Sworn to in Open Court.

Test Wm. Buchanan Regr.

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References

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