The 'Diary of Sidney Qeorge Fisher 1859-1860
ISHER began the year 1859 by publishing in January a small book of verse, %ustic TQiymes, and he ended it in December Fby issuing a book on the impending crisis, The J^aw of the Territories. A speech he delivered before a local agricultural society was also printed, and several of his political articles appeared in the ^Hprth American. The year was highlighted for the diarist by the rapid increase in the number of horsecar lines, the passenger railways which did so much to stimulate the city's growth, by the sale of his friend Pierce Butler's slaves in Georgia, by duty as foreman of a grand jury, and by John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in October. The diary dwells increasingly on slavery and the rising national tension. "Slavery occupies all conversation now," Fisher wrote on January 2, i860. Though a man of moderate views, he had reached the opinion that civilization, liberty, and religion could not coexist with slavery.
1 January 8y 1859 In the evening read the Rustic Rhymes thro. There are two or three errors of the press, one very provoking. It is difficult for an author to correct proof. The lines are so familiar that the first word suggests all the others, and, unless he resolutely fixes his attention on each one, he is very apt to overlook an error. I thought I had done this, but it seems one escaped me, besides some others of punctuation. January fo, 1859 I remember when coal was first used. Long after, hot-air furnaces were invented, which are now universal. I
1 Rustic Rhymes was the second book of verse written by Sidney George Fisher, and was published in 1859 by Parry & McMillan of Philadelphia. His first book of poetry, Winter Studies in the Country, was published in 1856 by the same firm. On Dec. 19, 1859, Fisher inscribed a copy of each work for presentation to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 189 I9O SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April recollect, many years ago, 20 I suppose, I one day advised old Genl. Forman2 to get a grate for his parlor, telling him of the trouble saved & that by burning coal the room could be made comfortable in any part of it. His niece, Miss Augusta Forman from one of the lower counties, was present, and supported my opinion, saying that one of her neighbors had got one and that actually the water never froze on the sideboard the whole winter! The old General, however, preferred the wood fires, which are indeed much the pleasanter, if you can warm a house with them. The true way in the country is to have a furnace for the hall & wood fires in the rooms.
January 14^ 1859 Rustic Rhymes is out & makes a decent little volume. Directed copies to be sent to Mr. Binney, Clark Hare, Meredith, McMichael, Sally and Hetty, Dr. Neill, Mrs. J. F. Fisher. Took a copy to George Smith, who read some of it and approved it, particularly the piece called "A Welcome."3
2 Gen. Thomas Marsh Forman (1758-1845), owner of Rose Hill, a notable estate adjoining Fisher's Mount Harmon on the Sassafras River. Rose Hill is now the property of Alexander J. Cassatt. 3 The eminent Horace Binney; his son-in-law Judge J. I. Clark Hare; William Meredith, the noted lawyer; Morton McMichael, proprietor of the North American; Sally Smith and her sister Mrs. Mifflin Wistar; Dr. William Neill, formerly president of Dickinson College; Mrs. Fisher, wife of the diarist's first cousin; and George R. Smith, the diarist's best friend, are here alluded to. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 I9I Henry seemed in better spirits than usual. He said he had read part of my book and liked it. That "A Welcome" had caused him to shed the first tear since Sarah Ann died.4 I thought of him whilst I wrote it. I value his judgment more highly than that of many who have more literary culture, for he has mind and feeling and can appre- ciate just thought and sentiment, tho not a judge of the graces of style. January 20y 1859 Rain & warm all day. Went to town. Cor- rected proof of the article which is to appear on Saturday. It is a criticism on the President's message and an examination of the policy he recommends of taking Cuba & plundering Mexico & Nicaragua. It is severe in its censure, but I think just. As the subject is now up before Congress it may be read, but the Midas ears of our people are deaf to any reasoning that does not appeal directly to their pockets. If one wrote such things in the hope of producing effects, it would be vain labor.5 January 2fy 1859 Saw Henry who showed me a puff of the Rustic cRjiymes in the Evening Journal of Tuesday. It is meant to be laudatory, but is very foolish. Went to McMillan's.6 They say the book sells very well. Called to see old Mrs. Gilpin.7 Was glad to find her so well and cheerful. I have a great respect for her. Henry Gilpin was there. They all said a great many kind things about the %ustic %hymeS) indeed, I got a note from Henry about them some days ago, also one from Mr. Binney and one from Dr. Wood,8 all very compli- mentary and friendly. February /, 1859 These passenger cars, as they are called, but which are street railroads with horse power, and which have suddenly sprung into extensive use, are a great convenience. Tho little more 4 Sarah Ann, wife of Fisher's brother Charles Henry Fisher, died on May 6, 1858. "A Welcome" is a poem about a wife who, having died, waits joyfully in Heaven to receive her husband who lingers on his deathbed. 5 "The President's Message," signed Cecil, took up three and a half columns of the first page of the North American for Jan. 22, 1859. In it, Fisher concludes that the President's message demonstrates to the North "that we are governed by negroes and slaves. Every three of them has a vote, which weighs as heavy and counts for as much as one of our votes. Their labor produces the wealth which winds its net around all our interests; out of their weakness comes a power that governs our strength; on their degradation is built a throne that over- shadows our government, and threatens its existence, and they have cast the chain, that fetters their hands, around our necks." 6 Parry & McMillan, booksellers at the southeast corner of Fourth and Chestnut Sts. 7 Mrs. Joshua Gilpin, mother of Henry D. Gilpin. 8 Dr. George Bacon Wood, president of the American Antiquarian Society. I92 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April than a year old, they have already almost displaced the heavy, jolt- ing, slow and uncomfortable omnibus and are destined soon to banish it and hacks also entirely. They are roomy, their motion smooth & easy, they are clean, well cushioned & handsome, low to the ground so that it is convenient to get in or out and are driven at a rapid pace. They offer great facilities in traversing the city, now grown so large that the distances are very considerable from place to place. They traverse the city in its length & breadth and save time & expense. Today I took the 6th St. line at the turnpike & went to Shippen St., then walked to Elizabeth Fisher's wharf. Then, took the Pine St. line & went up to Mrs. Hone's in Pine above 19th St.9 Then took the Spruce St. line & came down to 10th St. & went from thence to Fisher's house.10 Coming home in the afternoon, I took the 5th St. line at Walnut St., close to Mr. Ingersoll's door11 & came out to the Germantown turnpike. Their remarkable success proves how much they were needed. They are all crowded, too much so, indeed, often for comfort. Already are built & in use lines on 2nd & 3rd, 5 th & 6th, 9th & 10th, Race & Vine, Market, Spruce & Pine Sts. Tracks are now laying for one in Arch St. and many more are projected. They will also soon stretch out to the neighboring villages, thus merging them in the town. Already one runs to Darby, 7 miles off, and this year we are to have them, it is said, out the Germantown & York Roads. A beneficial effect of this will be to enable everyone to have a subur- ban or villa or country home, to spread the city over a vast space, with all the advantages of compactness and the advantages, more- over, of pure air, gardens and rural pleasures. Before long, town life, life in close streets and alleys, will be confined to a few occupations, and cities will be mere collections of shops, warehouses, factories and places of business. There is only one objection to them, they obstruct the streets for carriages. The rails mal^e driving very inconvenient & unpleasant. But the few keep carriages, the many ride in the cars & they are now so comfortable that the most fastidious may endure them. Private carriages will be driven to the country also. February if, 1859 Called to see Meredith, having heard that he had been unwell ever since I saw him last, 6 weeks ago. He looks
9 Mrs. Isaac Hone, 1820 Pine St. 10 Joshua Francis Fisher, 919 Walnut St. 11 The diarist's father-in-law, Charles J. Ingersoll, lived at 506 Walnut St. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 193 very badly indeed, says he has congestion of the lungs and disease of the heart and is very desponding, I fear not without some cause. He has always been remarkable for stalwart, vigorous health and a strong constitution, but I have noticed a change in his appearance for more than a year past. His habits, as I told him, are enough to destroy the health of any man. He takes no exercise, stays in town all the year, sits in a small dark room looking out on a little yard surrounded by brick walls and chews & smokes from morning till night. He spoke about my volume of poems in the kindest manner. I must soon go to see him again for I feel uneasy about him.12 February //, 1859 Pierce Butler has gone to Georgia to be present at the sale of his Negroes. It is highly honorable to him that he did all he could to prevent the sale, offering to make any personal sacrifice to avoid it. But it cannot be avoided, and by the sale he will be able to keep Butler Place13 & have a fortune of 2 or 300,000 dollars, after paying his debts. This fortune is placed irrevocably in the hands of his trustees, Geo. Cadwalader, Tom James & Henry,14 for the benefit of himself and his children. A great result & very different from what was expected a year ago, and, it is fair to say, brought about chiefly by Henry's good management. It is a dreadful affair, however, selling these hereditary Negroes. There are 900 of them belonging to the estate, a little community who have lived for generations on the plantation, among whom, therefore, all sorts of relations of blood & friendship are established. Butler's half, 450, to be sold at public auction & scattered over the South. Families will not be separated, that is to say, husbands & wives, parents & young children. But brothers & sisters of mature age, parents & children of mature age, all other relations & the ties of home & long association will be vio- lently severed. It will be a hard thing for Butler to witness and it is a monstrous thing to do. Yet it is done every day in the South. It is one among the many frightful consequences of slavery and contra- dicts our civilization, our Christianity, our Republicanism. Can such a system endure, is it consistent with humanity, with moral progress? These are difficult questions, and still more difficult is it to say, what
12 William M. Meredith's health proved to be better than Fisher's, for, although Meredith was ten years older than the diarist, he outlived him by two years, dying in 1873. 13 A countryseat on the Old York Road. 14 Gen. George Cadwalader, Thomas C. James, and Charles Henry Fisher. 194 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April can be done ? The Negroes of the South must be slaves or the South will be Africanized. Slavery is better for them and for us than such a result. February ipy 1859 I know well every man of eminence and mark in this city, yet there are not half a dozen whose opinion on any literary question or question involving a knowledge of general princi- ples of government or politics I consider of the slightest value. When it is considered that often the worst, rarely the best of these, enter public life, the hopelessness of any high standard of intellect or knowledge or virtue in our government is apparent. That democracy does not work well and cannot rule such a country as this, prosper- ously and safely, is becoming more and more obvious every day. The government, indeed, is far behind and below the people. Ignorance, imbecility and corruption rule at Washington and will continue to rule until revolution and anarchy bring about a change of principles, of the whole system. Strange events are preparing both here and in Europe for the next ten or twenty years. zJWarch 4, 1859 I forgot to mention that on the 2nd I was 50 years old—older than I ever expected to be. My reflections on the subject are not agreeable. I have much to regret & not much to think of with satisfaction. Time, money, talents wasted, hundreds of oppor- tunities missed, advantages thrown away, some things done to be recalled with remorse, many things omitted which ought to have been done. I have failed in prudence', that keystone in the arch of life, without which well-being is impossible and well-doing useless. I forgot also to state that the last steamer brought news of the death of Mr. Robt. Walsh, in Paris, where he had resided for many years.15 He was 76.1 knew him well when I was a young man, indeed from childhood, was intimate with his family & a frequent visitor at his house. He was a scholar, an easy & elegant writer and a worthy gentleman. He was the editor of the National Cfazette for many years, a high-toned conservative journal, superior to any now in the country.16 I remember once, when he went to Long Branch for a week or two, he trusted me to edit the paper in his absence. I was fairly installed in his office & chair & wrote leading articles. He was very much pleased with them & predicted that I would some day be
15 Robert Walsh died on Feb. 7, 1859. 16 Founded in 1820, the National Gazette and Literary Register was absorbed in 1842 by the Philadelphia Inquirer, then called the Pennsylvania Inquirer, 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 I95
an author. He was also editor of the ^American Quarterly %emewy since defunct, but very respectably conducted then. I wrote several articles for that also. His son Robert I knew intimately. Mr. Walsh lived agreeably in Paris & enjoyed a reputation there among literary men. He was kind & hospitable to his countrymen. He retained his faculties unimpaired & his habits of literary labor to the last. zMarch 11, 1859 At 4 drove up to Brookwood17 to dinner. Butler's Negroes have been sold, 430 of them, and brought higher prices than was expected, averaging $700. each, all round, old & young. This sale clears him of debt & leaves him a fortune of $250,000, the whole of which is settled on his daughters, so that he cannot en- cumber & lose it. The sale attracted great attention in the South, not only because of the value of the property, but because it consisted of old family Negroes. The ft(ew York Tribune had a reporter there, who wrote a long description of the scene, coloured to suit the abolitionist views of the paper.18 It is not badly done and tho doubtless exag- gerated is in the main true. First there is an account of Butler, his family, estate in Georgia and the difficulties that caused the sale of these Negroes who had lived for generations on his hereditary prop- erty; then of the place where they were collected for exhibition some days before the sale, the race course 3 miles from Savannah, and the crowd of speculators, examining them there, looking at their teeth, feeling their limbs, making them walk, &c. Then the sale itself, the crowd of coarse, brutal-looking planters from the Southwest, their talk about the points & qualities of the human chattels, vulgar jests, &c; then cases of hardships & distress, separating brothers & sisters, appeals by the Negroes to purchasers, eagerness to be sold to individ- uals whom they thought had kindness & good nature in their faces, with anecdotes of individuals among them; then Butler walking among them, shaking hands with some and received with deference & smiles by all; lastly, after the sale, Butler, with a bag of coin in his hand, giving a dollar to each as he bade them goodbye. Henry thinks this last cannot be true. But why not. To give more would have been expensive & uselessly so. They had masters & no wants & yet some token was proper on the occasion, no doubt a very sad one to Butler.
*7 Home of Charles Henry Fisher. !8 The political impact of this sale is seen in a pamphlet published in 1863, What Became of the Slaves on a Georgia Plantation? I96 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April zMarch /
19 Dr. Thomas Dent Mutter (1811-1859) had served as professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College from 1841 to 1856. 20 William Henry Furness (1802-1896), Unitarian clergyman. 21 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 197 come poor, dependent on lecturing for a support. Another instance of the incongruities of this world's allotments. A man of genius poor, harassed by petty vexations, fettered & hampered by base cares, he who should be free from all care. What can he do? Such an intellect cannot make money, buy & sell and speculate and harness itself to the plow and cart of business. The books he can write are not for the multitude, they do not pay, except in fame, in the recognition of the few. I feel for him and such a fact, whilst it makes me value inde- pendence, makes me also despise wealth. The commonplace, the ignoble, the dull and ignorant can be rich. starch 24, 1859 In the evening Henry & I had much con- versation of very serious import. He made a communication to me of a transaction in which he undertook to decide for me in an affair of great importance, but in which he had no right to meddle without my knowledge, which gave me more pain than any similar event in my life, and in which his rash, tho kindly meant interference may produce most unhappy consequences. 22 Mary Dyre, or Dyer, practically insisted on martyrdom. The authorities finally obliged by hanging her at Boston on June 1, 1660. 2OO SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April the death of his wife, my grandfather married Mary Loutit, who was his cousin, being the granddaughter of his grandfather, Joshua George, whose daughter, Mary George, married James Loutit. James Loutit was the owner of Mount Harmon. By marriage with his daughter, my grandfather obtained it and moved there from Middle- neck soon after his marriage or at the time of it. Mount Harmon then included Sheffield, the first was called the Home farm & Sheffield the Quarter farm, that is, where the Negroes had their quarters. That Estate therefore came into the family thro the Loutits and for this reason my grandfather left it by will to my mother's half-sister, Phoebe, afterwards Mrs. Bradford, and left Middleneck, which was the original George Estate, to my mother. His will, however, was informally executed & he was considered as intestate, and the Commissioners, why, I never knew, just reversed his will, giving Middleneck to Mrs. Bradford & Mt. Harmon, Sheffield, Painter's Rest and a small part of Middleneck to my mother.23 zApril 5, 1859 Received today from Mr. Binney a pamphlet entitled The Readers of the Old ^Bar of 23 The plantations mentioned were of the following sizes: Middleneck, 2,300 acres; Mount Harmon, 400 acres; Sheffield, 600 acres; Painter's Rest, which also included Pullen's Refuge, 1,000 acres. 24 Binney's book had sufficient demand over the years that a second edition of one hundred copies appeared in 1866. In 1890, because "this interesting work has now become so scarce," it was reprinted in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography', XIV (1890), 1-27, 143-159, 223-252. 25 Daniel E. Sickles (1825-1914), of later Civil War fame, married Theresa Bagioli in 1853. On Feb. 27, 1859, Sickles shot and killed Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 2OI a low democratic politician. Key was attorney for the Dist. of Columbia, and was a gentleman by birth & education. Key had an intrigue with the wife of Sickles, a young & handsome woman, the daughter of an Italian music master. Sickles discovered the guilt of his wife and meeting Key in the street, in open day, on a Sunday, shot him. For this he is now on trial, but the trial is a farce as every one knows beforehand that he will be acquitted. Public opinion, par- ticularly in the South, not only justifies but applauds such an act, nay demands it. The trial nevertheless proceeds as if it were a reality. aApril 24, 1859 Mr. C. J. I. & Edward26 here in the afternoon. They told us that Mr. Cobden27 is dining today at Brookwood. I knew that he brought a letter to Henry. He has been a long time the leader of the radical party in England and Mr. Ingersoll says is a democrat. If he is a man of sense, one would think the spectacle of the working of democracy here would open his eyes to its probable consequences in England. I fancy, however, that he is not only a democrat but something of a demagogue, like Bright,28 his co-laborer in the same cause. zApril 27, 1859 The paper this morning contained an account of the termination of the Sickles trial. The scene was most disgrace- ful, as indeed the whole course of the trial has been. The jury found a verdict of not guilty, as everyone knew beforehand they would, amid the tumultuous cheers of the crowd. Sickles was overwhelmed by congratulations from the bystanders, the bar & the jury. When he left the room attended by a throng of sympathizing friends, he was greeted by acclamations from the concourse in the streets. The mob attempted to take the horses from his carriage & pull it themselves and attended him with shouts and hurrahs to his house. His counsel were serenaded at night and made speeches to the multitude. Such is democratic law & popular justice, which in the frenzy of the hour converts an assassin & a debauche into a hero. The verdict was against the ruling of the judge, weak & equivocal as that was, and against the evidence which did not support a single allegation of the defense, but contradicted them all. It was also in flagrant violation of law and the result of it as a precedent is that every man may 26 Charles J. Ingersoll and his son Edward. 27 Richard Cobden (1804-1865), English statesman. 28 John Bright (1811-1889), English orator and statesman. 2O2 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April take the law into his own hands & revenge his wrongs, fancied or real. dMay /, 1859 Drove up to Wakefield to take Elizabeth29 her accounts. Mrs. Sam Fox30 was there & I walked with them about the large old-fashioned garden, bowery & shady & bright with blossoms, and admired the old oaks on the lawn. A fine, hereditary place is Wakefield & now very valuable. There are 200 acres, worth, I should think, at least $200,000 dollars, prospectively much more. The family is rich. Uncle William31 cannot be worth much less than half a million now and all his children, except Tom,32 are independent & have besides expectations from others than himself. They told me a piece of news. Mary, Thomas's daughter, is engaged to be married to a son of George Carpenter, a very rich man in Germantown, but of low origin & connections. They say the young man is worthy and amiable and tho the match as an alliance is the reverse of desirable, yet what better can Thomas expect? 29 Elizabeth R. Fisher (1810-1875), first cousin of the diarist. 30 Mary R. Fisher, half-sister of Elizabeth and wife of Samuel M. Fox. 31 William Logan Fisher, owner of Wakefield. 32 Thomas Rodman Fisher (1803-1861). 33 Fisher's article, signed Cecil, was entitled "The Trial of Daniel E. Sickles." It occupied two full columns on the first page of Morton McMichaeFs North American, May 10, 1859. 34 Henry A. Boardman (1808-18 80). 35 Joseph R. Ingersoll, a man eminent in public life and uncle of the diarist's wife. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 2O3 addressed by a book or pamphlet, unless the author be one of the few whose names are very famous. Everyone tells me that Cecil,36 whenever he speaks, is listened to. Cecil, therefore, humble as he is, may do some good. uMay I4> 1859 Received from the editor of the American Farmer a proof of my article on Sargent's edition of Downing's landscape QardeningP Corrected & returned it to him. Drove to town at 1 with Bet. Attended to some business. Dined at Mr. J. R. Ingersoll's, he having invited me last Thursday. Mr. C. J. I. there. Before dinner Mr. Wikoff came in.38 He is a notorious person, clever, agreeable & good-looking and has contrived by the arts of a courtier to become acquainted with eminent & conspicuous persons all over the world without inspiring anyone with respect. He is the natural son of a Mr. Harry Wikoff of this city, a gentleman of birth & fortune, was acknowledged by him & made his heir. The son, how- ever, soon ran thro his fortune. His first conspicuous appearance here was many years ago as the agent of Fanny Elssler, the celebrated danseuse. He travelled with her, managed her affairs, and, it was said, enjoyed her favors. Afterwards he was connected with the press both in this country and in Europe and was employed by Lord Palmerston to write articles advocating the line of foreign policy that he wished the United States to pursue. He did not please his master, however, & they quarrelled. Some years ago he figured in an alleged attempt to abduct an heiress, Miss Gamble,39 for which he was thrown into an Italian prison, he says by the influence of Lord Palmerston. He was the friend of Louis Napoleon during the period of his obscurity & received notice from him after his elevation. He wrote a very clever book three or four years ago called The Adven- tures of a T(pving 'Diplomatist?* for the triple purpose of praising Louis Napoleon & his policy, and of revenging himself on Lord Palmerston & Miss Gamble. It is well written and does him much more credit as an author than as a gentleman, for, from his own 36 Fisher's nom de plume. 37 Andrew Jackson Downing (i815-1852) in 1841 published A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening^ Adapted to North America. This work passed rapidly through many editions. 38 Henry Wikoff (1813-1884), adventurer. 39 Jane C. Gamble. 40 Published in 1857. 2O4 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April showing, his conduct was very paltry and contemptible. His descrip- tion of Lord Palmerston at home, at Broadlands, and his explanation of the state of parties at the time of Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat are well done. He has recently been at Washington, hanging about the administration, and Mr. Buchanan has appointed him, very im- properly, a special messenger to carry out to China the treaty made by Wm. B. Reed and now ratified by our government.41 The favors of our government are, however, distributed without regard to moral character. tJxCay 27, 1859 These volumes increase with the years, or rather the months, for at my present rate I fill one about every three months. A proof of my idle life, I suppose, for if I were busy in external things I should not write so much in my diary, if at all. I should have few thoughts to record and less time to record them. I scarcely know why I write these books. It is partly habit, partly the pleasure of writing, partly for the sake of future satisfaction in read- ing the history of my daily life, which however uneventful and obscure, is my life, that is, all I have as a position in this great, busy world, which knows and cares nothing about me. If Sidney lives, he may perhaps feel some interest in seeing what sort of people his father and mother were and what were the circumstances surround- ing them. I should be very glad to have such a diary kept by my father or mother, tho many are indifferent about such things, and Sidney may be tho I hope not, and if his future disposition may be judged by his present promise, he will not.42 43 zMay joy 1859 Called also on Dr. Swann as I was passing his house. It is a very handsome one and this was the first time I ever was in it. There is a suite of four rooms on the second floor, a drawing room, a picture gallery, a library, and a dining room, all large and richly furnished. The staircase lands in the picture gallery which is open to the roof and lighted from above. The walls are covered with pictures, few of which have any merit, & the room filled with statues 41 William B. Reed (1806-1876), Philadelphia lawyer, diplomat, and author, in 1858 nego- tiated the Treaty of Tientsin which gave the United States trading rights in China similar to those held by England and France. 42 That Sidney the son, who changed the spelling of his name to Sydney, valued the diary is seen in the fact that on his death in 1927 it was about the only property he retained in addition to Mount Harmon. 43 Dr. William C. Swann, 1512 Walnut St. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 2O5 in marble and bronze. The bookcases are elaborately carved & the shelves crowded. But the man himself is weak & ignorant & cannot read a book or really appreciate a work of art. . . . Swann is an amiable fellow, and a gentleman in his manners. He is from Balti- more and married some ten years ago Miss Maria Bell, an heiress worth nearly a million now, I suppose. I knew her very well & she was a friend of Bet's. Almost ever since her marriage, however, she has been confined to her room by a painful and peculiar nervous disorder and has seen no one. She is a great sufferer and gets neither better nor worse. Swann has proved himself a kind & attentive husband and at the same time enjoys her large fortune & the luxuries it gives him, modestly & properly. He talks, to be sure, in somewhat ludicrous style about his pictures & his house, but that is forgiven. aMay jiy 1859 Bet this morning, in looking over some old papers, found a copy of verses written by Mr. G. M. Dallas on a proposal, which was executed, to put a cross on the spire built for St. Peter's Church by her uncle, Ben Wilcocks.44 The verses are not very good and the subject continuing in my mind, I wrote some this evening, which I have the vanity to think better. June joy 1859 No news except that Dr. Owen Wister is en- gaged to Miss Sarah Butler.45 It is a good match for both. He had been attentive to her for a long time. July 8,1859 Started at ij^ & drove up to Alverthorpe.46 Drove slowly, enjoying the weather & the beauty of the scenery. . . . Fisher & his wife are worthy & cultivated, kind & hospitable, and their children are interesting and attractive. The girls are handsome and accomplished & have intelligence & well-marked characters. I admire Helen the most & always did when she was a child. She has a rich, expressive, Spanish face, black eyes, brows & hair, glowing color & very sweet voice. They had their ponies out, and Helen rode a pretty, thorobred mare, sent by Williams Middleton & bred at Middleton Place.47 She rode with grace & spirit followed by the two 44 Benjamin C. Wilcocks. 45 Daughter of Pierce Butler and Fanny Kemble. 46 Home of Joshua Francis Fisher on Meeting House Road in Abington Township. 47 Williams Middleton, brother of Mrs. Joshua Francis Fisher, owned Middleton Place near Charleston, S, C. 2O6 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April boys on Shetland ponies about the park, for so the extensive grounds might be called, and leaped a brook in fine style. The place is in beautiful order & improvements are going on. A gate lodge has just been built & is nearly finished and the drive is to be altered. Altogether, it is, I think, the finest establishment we have near Phila. July I4> 1859 Delightful weather after the rain last night. Therm. 80 to 85. Geo. Blight stopped here some days ago and asked me to go with him to his farm at Chestnut Hill today to look at the cattle he bought from me last year, before they were sold to the butcher, as he thought them very fine. I agreed and so this morning I drove over to his place at 8, taking Daniel & sending my wagon back. We started at 9 in his wagon. He took me thro one or two streets between his place & Germantown, which I had not seen for many years and which are now lined with cottages & villas, surrounded by neat grounds, trees, shrubbery & flowers, many of them costly & handsome, all comfortable and pretty. They are in every variety of taste and size and there are hundreds of them. The same spectacle is to be seen on every lane near Germantown all the way up to Chestnut Hill, and not around Germantown only, but at Frankford, West Philada., Chester, along the Delaware, over in Jersey, every- where, in short, within ten miles of the city where a railroad runs. They are the result of railroads which enable anyone to enjoy the pleasures of country life and at the same time attend to business in town. They are owned by shopkeepers, manufacturers, merchants, &c, and their beauty and general good taste and the care and atten- tion lavished on them show what sources of enjoyment they are and how superior is the life they promote to that of the streets. Fresh air, space, trees, flowers, privacy, a convenient & tasteful house, can now be had for the same expence as a narrow & confined dwelling on a pavement, surrounded by brick walls & all the unpleasant sights & sounds of a crowded town. The advantages are so obvious that this villa & cottage life has become quite a passion and is producing a complete revolution in our habits. It is dispersing the people of the city over the surrounding country, introducing thus among them, ventilation, cleanliness, space, healthful pursuits, and the influences of natural beauty, the want of which are the sources of so much evil, moral & physical, in large towns. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 2O7 The passenger cars as they are absurdly called, or horse railroads, have given a great impulse to this movement. They are scarcely more than two years old, yet they have become a vast system already. They occupy nearly all the principal streets & traverse the city in every direction and are rapidly extending into the country. They are crowded with passengers & pay large dividends. They operate in two ways to disperse the population over the country, by making the streets inconvenient for all other vehicles and by offering cheap means of reaching the country. It is very unpleasant to drive the streets now because of the rails, so that private carriages have become useless whilst the cars, comfortable & easy, offer to those who live in the country a pleasant way of going to town at all hours & in any weather at trifling expense. One is now constructing on the Germantown road and will be in running order in a few weeks. It spoils the road for driving, but all the people in Germantown can by it go to town for 10 cents every 10 minutes. One consequence of this is the immense improvement of the country & rise in the value of property. In Germantown, they have now gas & water from water- works in every house. Shops & mechanics follow the rich population of the villas, and soon every luxury of a city can be had in the neighborhood. All the families who own much land here have been enriched, and as the neighborhood was composed of farms only a few years ago, these are very numerous. Some of the estates are immense. The Logans and Miss Dickinson, whose property now belongs to the Logans,48 have nearly 1,000 acres, worth now millions, Wakefield has 200 acres, the Norrises 600, Butler 200, the Wisters a large quantity, and many others. Blight has 60 acres worth, he told me, $5000 per acre & increasing in value. The same process is going on in every direction around the city. July 15, 1859 I sat next to Miss Morris49 at dinner. She is a cousin of Fisher's, is an old maid and lives & has lived all her life in an old-fashioned picturesque house & garden in Germantown. I have known her from boyhood and used formerly to see her very often at Stenton, in the old lady's time. She finds interesting resources in 48 Miss Sally Norris Dickinson left her estate to her younger sister Maria, wife of Albanus Charles Logan. 49 Margaretta H. Morris. Some of her work was published by the American Philosophical Society. 2O8 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April gardening and entomology and has published some papers on sup- posed or real discoveries about the Hessian fly & the Curculio. July 24, 1859 Went thence to Champlost to dinner, as Fox asks me almost every time he sees me and seems hurt that I go so seldom.50 He is at home every Sunday and likes his friends to come on that day without special invitation. Every other day in the week, he goes to town & dines at the club,51 leaving his sister to dine alone. The truth is, being without mental resources, he cannot spend a day alone in the country. In town, he meets a set of his friends & has a little occupation in attending to his estate. He is a most amiable and worthy man, honest & true as the sun, simple, plain & manly in his habits, free from selfishness, vanity and pride, a gentleman in all his feelings, kind and generous, but without talents or cultivation. I like him, tho his conversation does not interest me. His moral excellence makes up for intellectual deficiency. He is of a good old family and inherited a large estate, part of it Champlost, 200 acres, now very valuable and the handsomest place here. It has four noble pieces of wood on it, and by taking down inside fences & putting the cleared lands in permanent grass, would make a beautiful park. The house is of good size, old-fashioned and tho not a convenient one compared with modern dwellings, is furnished with great elegance and perfect comfort. Miss Fox 52 is one of the best persons in the world, far more mind & cultivation than her brother, overflowing with kind feelings, charitable, religious, somewhat prim, dainty in her ideas of neatness of house & dress, a thorough lady in manners & thoughts, and a lady of the old school. Her house & all her belongings are a model of nicety and elegance. Nowhere else is to be seen such bright silver, such snowy linen, such well-dressed servants or such excellent din- ners. And here these two people live, brother and sister, on a fine old ancestral place, with all the appliances that wealth can give, and are not happy. Miss Fox has a warm, loving woman's heart, with nothing to love, no companionship or sympathy. Her brother is away nearly all day, if at home there is but little sympathy or congeniality be- tween them, and she lives almost in solitude, the only friend she sees 50 Charles P. Fox. 51 Fox was a member of the Philadelphia Club from 1849 until his death in 1866. 52 Miss Mary D. Fox. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 209 often being Sally Ingersoll.53 Her sister, Mrs. Tunis,64 lives in town, alone also, a kind-hearted, worthy woman, but without ideas, and unhappily, from the effects of a solitary unoccupied life, is intem- perate, a great source of misery to the other two. Fox is the best off of the three, because he does not think & is without tormenting aspirations, but he is getting old & infirm, and is without occupation, object or interest in life. The three are worth among them a million of dollars, much of it unproductive of income. The property has never been divided and no accounts are rendered, each spending what he or she pleases of a fund more than enough for all. Miss Fox told me today that she would like Champlost left, after they were all gone, as a public park. That she could [not] bear to think that it would be cut up into cottage lots, the woods cut down and sold, but that she could not carry out her wishes unless the others consented. It is a very good idea & there is no reason why they should not con- sent, as there is no one who has claims on them or to whom they would care to leave it. 53 Wife of Harry Ingersoll. 54 Mrs. T. R. Tunis, 3 South Broad St. 2IO SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April gentleman. I value him highly as a relation & friend & should be very sorry to lose him. oAugustjy 1859 Went to town with Mr. Ingersoll at 10 to attend the funeral of Mr. Rush.55 Attended to some business. Met Casper Sharpless in the street and had some farming talk with him. The funeral started from Mr. Rush's house at 11, but I preferred going out to Laurel Hill in a passenger car to a slow drive thro heat and dust in a carriage. The cars are very airy & comfortable. Got to Laurel Hill at yi to 12. The funeral did not arrive till i}4, being ordered to proceed at a slow walk. Meanwhile I walked about the cemetery, admiring the beauty of the trees and musing over the graves of departed friends. At length the procession came. The serv- ice was performed in the chapel by Geo. Hare.56 The pallbearers were C. J. and J. R. Ingersoll, Peter McCall, John Cadwalader, Judge Stroud and Commodore Stewart.57 The company was not large and the ladies of the family were present, a thing now very unusual. Mr. Rush was 79 years old. Without having superior talents or knowledge he possessed that sort of ability which commands success in life. He was Attorney General, Secretary of the Treasury, Minister to England and Minister to France and he performed the duties of these offices, if not in a distinguished manner, at least without discredit. That he got them was due less to his own merits, than to his name & family, his father, Dr. Benj. Rush, and his grandfather, Richd. Stockton, having been "Signers." He no doubt also owed much to his wife,58 an admirable woman whose charms & accomplishments, tact & manners aided him greatly in his career. Mr. Rush was a worthy man, amiable & kind in all the relations of life, less high- toned in some things perhaps than was desirable, and very punctili- ous & courteous in his manners, which were formed by long residence in Europe and intercourse with high society. He had great admiration for England and more than enough reverence for lords and dukes, altho a democrat. I saw a good deal of him after my marriage as he 55 Richard Rush. 56 Rev. George Emlen Hare. 57 Among the pallbearers, in addition to the Ingersolls, were Peter McCall, a former mayor of Philadelphia; Judge John Cadwalader (i 805-1879); Judge George McDowell Stroud (1795- 1875); and Commodore Charles Stewart (1778-1869), then living in retirement at Borden- town, N. J. 58 Rush married Catherine E. Murray, by whom he had ten children. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania PHILADELPHIA HORSECAR FACTORY, C. i860 Lithograph by W. H. Rease SARAH ANN FISHER 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 213 was an old and intimate friend of Mr. Ingersoll, the only one he had left. zAugust 16, 1859 Got a letter this morning inviting me to de- liver the annual address for the Agricultural Society of Montgomery County at its exhibition in October. Replied by an acceptance. I might as well do it as not, as such things, if moderately well done, produce good will and I like to set myself a task, something that I must accomplish. zAugust iyy 1859 At 6, went over to Brookwood & sat half an hour with Henry. He gave me one of the line engraving copies of the miniature of Sarah Ann that he had made a month or two ago. He sent copies then to some of his & her friends, and sent one to me, framed. I asked him for another, to put in this diary, and here it is. The likeness is very good, but the expression is more grave and sad than was habitual to her, tho one she often wore.59 September f8, 1859 I received on Friday a summons to attend the Court of Oyer & Terminer next month as a grand juryman. I have dreaded something of the sort for a good while. Hitherto my being a member of the bar has protected me from such annoyances, but now, having given up practice, I am no longer exempt. It is a great bore and will interfere with my pleasant plans for next month & with my speech, too. September 28, 1859 At 3^ Bet & I took a drive around the lanes on Chelten Hills, a piece of country about 4 miles above this on the York Road, bought some years ago on speculation for country- seats by some town merchants. A number of good houses have been built and some of the places are prettily planted and embellished. The sites are high, healthy, and command extensive views of a beautiful country. September 29, 1859 I went to the cattle show.60 The Market St. passenger cars were packed full of people going and returning, so full that I was obliged to walk back, tho a car runs every three minutes. The grounds were crowded by an immense, miscellaneous and very unfarmerlike-looking multitude of men & women, many of the lowest 59 The original of this miniature is owned by R. Sturgis Ingersoll. 60 Held at Powelton, West Philadelphia. See List of Premiums & Regulations oj the Pennsyl- vania State Agricultural Society at its Ninth Annual Exhibition to be held at Philadelphia . . . September', i8jg. 214 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April class, rowdies, drunkards and prostitutes, attracted not by the cattle & sheep & farming implements, but by the race track and the per- formances of the steam fire engine, which the managers shamefully introduce for the very purpose of drawing together this crowd to make money for the Society. They thus defeat its ends & convert what should be an instructive display, useful and interesting, into a public nuisance. October j, 1859 At 10 o'clock went to the Court of Quarter Sessions. Thompson61 is the judge, a very good one, the only good one, indeed, in that court. He appointed me foreman of the grand jury. We heard his charge, sensible & well-expressed, and then went to the grand jury room in the Adelphi Building, 5th St. below Walnut. I found the business very simple and that I am quite up to it, so far at least. It is rather interesting, too. The jury is composed of plain, respectable men. We sat till 2, passing upon indictments for assault & battery and petty larceny. We are to meet every day at io>£. October 7,1859 Started at 9 and by fast driving got to Spring- town at 5 m. past 11. Went the Township Line Road to Chestnut Hill. The country beautiful all the way. From Chestnut Hill the scenery becomes bolder, the hills higher and the road runs thro a con- stant succession of extensive views over a well-wooded and richly cultivated country. In all directions are to be seen good houses and barns and handsome countryseats. ... At 1, I read my address, which occupied an hour. The audience was quite numerous. The ladies, at least one-half the number, were seated on benches, the men stood around. They were attentive and silent from beginning to end and if I might judge from the expression of their faces, fixed upon me, were interested. I saw none leave the crowd. There was no applause, which there never is among country people on these occasions, at least I never saw any. They are not easily excited by ideas and are not demonstrative. When I finished, the president moved a vote of thanks and that the address be printed, which was carried by an emphatic "aye."62 October i8y 1859 Went to the jury room and remained there until I}/*. The cases so far have been chiefly petty larceny & assault 61 Judge John Thompson, Jr. 62 Address before the Montgomery County Agricultural Society at Springtown, October 7,1859, a twenty-six-page pamphlet. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 215 and battery. Being a grand juror is a more serious business than I supposed. We have yet 900 cases to dispose of, besides other business, and it seems likely we shall sit till Christmas. I expected it would be an affair of about three weeks. October /p, 1859 The morning paper contained an account of an attempted Negro insurrection on the 17th & 18th at Harper's Ferry of a very curious character. It seems that a man by the name of Brown was the ring leader. He was from Kansas, and in the troubles there some years ago his house was burned & his son murdered by the border ruffians. This filled him with a desire for revenge and a hatred of slavery. He was soon after engaged in making an attempt to excite the slaves in Missouri to revolt and became a conspicuous person in the tumults & fights of that time. A year ago, he went to the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry and rented a farm, From time to time he was joined by others. No suspicion, however, was excited until last Monday, when with a band of 20 whites and one or two hundred Negroes, he actually captured the town and took possession of the U. S. arsenal, stopping the railroad trains. News of this soon reached Baltimore and Washington, troops were at once sent to Harper's Ferry, and after a sharp contest, in which several were killed on both sides, he & his party were taken prisoners, he being badly wounded & one of his sons killed. His plan was to seize the arsenal, which contained a large quantity of arms & call on the Negroes to join him, expecting to raise thus a large force & proclaim liberty to all the slaves. They, however, refused to join him, those with him having been compelled by force to form a part of his band. A more absurd scheme could not be imagined and the man is no doubt a monomaniac. He has produced great excitement, however, and no little terror in Maryland and Virginia and the event will no doubt be used with great effect by the politicians. The attempt, mad and desperate as it was, the alarm it has caused & the bloodshed which has been the result, reveal some of the dangers of slavery. He is not the only fanatic at the North, and he has no doubt many sympathizers, who if he had been more successful would have be- come confederates. It is said he was supplied with money by North- ern abolitionists. If this be true, it is a fact of grave import. He and his companions will no doubt be hung. He displayed great coolness and courage & is a man nearly 60 years old. The affair is over for the 216 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April present, but may have painful results. Between Northern abolition- ists and Southern extremists, the Union is in some danger, tho the mass of public opinion is sound & loyal. Revolutions are brought about not by the majority of the people, but by aggressive, active, and passionate factions. October 28, 1859 Took the manuscript of "The Constitution and the Territories" to Parry & McMillan. They calculated that it and the article on "Popular Sovereignty in the Territories,"63 to be printed with it, will make a volume of about 120 pages and cost #115 to print. They offer, if I will print it, to sell it for me and give me 12^ cts. for each copy sold, the retail price being 25 cts. If a thou- sand copies sold, this would about cover the cost. They said that for such a work Lippincott was the better publisher,64 as his business and means of pushing a book into notice were far greater than theirs, and that without such pushing no book would sell. That Lippincott could, if he chose, sell 5,000 copies. Determined to speak to Lippin- cott. November 3, 1859 Went to Lippincott's. He expressed himself greatly interested and pleased with the article and said that his "reader," before knowing who wrote it, spoke of it also in the highest terms, but that it was a pamphlet & he did not publish pamphlets. Moreover, that tho he agreed to every word of the argument, yet that among his most valuable commercial friends of the South were many of extreme Southern opinions who would disapprove highly the sentiments expressed and consider him responsible for them. This, by the way, reveals one source of Southern influence over the North. The same power is exerted in every branch of business. I then took the mss. to Parry & McMillan and they agreed to publish the work on the terms before mentioned. I am to take them the mss. of the other article tomorrow. Went to the jury at 10 and we then made a visit to the county prison in Moyamensing. We examined all parts of it and conversed with many of the prisoners. I was much interested. It is one striking exhibition of the manifold humanity around us, and a painful one. 63 The first of these two essays was intended for publication in the North American, but grew to a size too large for such a use; the second essay was published in the North American, Feb. 24, 1858. 64 J. B. Lippincott of J. B. Lippincott & Company, 22 North Fourth St. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 217 Many were there awaiting trial; sometimes they stay for weeks, sub- jected to the same confinement & fare as those convicted, which seems to me a great injustice & hardship, for perhaps they are inno- cent. Vagrancy, assault & battery, larceny, disorderly conduct are the chief offences, most of them the result of drunkenness. The prisoners generally seemed very coarse and depraved, tho there were some exceptions. Their condition is the result of external circum- stances, ignorance & want of early training, and the root of the evil is therefore in social causes. Laissez faire is the source of poverty & crime. Society permits every man to be ignorant & vicious and idle, till ignorance, vice and idleness lead him to crime. Then society in- terferes & shuts him up in prison. If a system could be devised that, without encroaching on just & rational liberty, would compel in youth temperance, industry and a knowledge of those trades by which a living can be got, there would be less poverty & vice and fewer prisons. Slavery in the South does this in a rough way. The discipline of the plantation enforces order and labor and prevents drunkenness. But then it degrades, destroys self-respect and pre- vents mental development and progress. Civilization has yet to discover some plan to prevent pauperism & crime, other than punishment, which shall not destroy self-reliance and weaken energy. The subject is one of great difficulty & deep interest. The Moyamensing prison is a large, handsome, substantial edifice, well-suited to the purpose. All parts are clean & well kept. The cells are neat, well warmed and ventilated. The prisoners have no beds, but sleep on the floor, & each has three blankets. Their food is good and wholesome. They have bread & coffee for breakfast & supper, soup and potatoes for dinner. I tasted the soup & bread & found them very good. They all said they were well treated & supplied. Indeed, they have much better fare & more comfort than many of them get out of the prison and there are very numerous applications for ad- mission. Hundreds go to the magistrates and ask to be committed, and, if refused, commit some petty offence on purpose to be sent to prison. They have there a shelter, warmth, and food, which they find difficult to get elsewhere. It is obvious, therefore, that the prison has no terrors for a large portion of those whose misdeeds make up the evils of society and is no punishment. There is a plan before Councils to remedy this evil by a house of correction, where such 21 8 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April persons can be made to work. I shall endeavor to help this plan by alluding to the subject in the presentment of the grand jury. After leaving the prison, attended to some business and called to see old Mr. Gilpin. November 4^ 1859 Called at Parry & McMillan's with the mss. of the other essay to be published in the book. McMillan then said that he had a secret to confide to me. Their firm was in financial difficulty & he said must stop. Therefore, he could not publish my book. The cause he said was the difficulty of making sales in the present general depression of business. He had brought $20,000 into the concern & all was lost. I expressed the regret I really felt and asked to whom I should apply. He recommended Martien,65 or Lindsay & Blakiston, but E. H. Butler, if he would undertake it, as equal to Lippincott. November 5, 1859 Bet & I took a drive, long intended, up the Wissahickon. We went along the Township Line Road across School House Lane & then up the Wissahickon Road, following the stream as far as Chestnut Hill, and then crossed to the back road from Chestnut Hill home. We were both in a state of rapture all the way at the beauty of the scenery & the weather. The rocky banks, the dark, clear water, the hemlocks, oaks and beeches, all in the glow of autumn color, the wild & picturesque charms of this romantic little creek winding thro wooded hills formed a succession of pictures de- lightful to behold. The pleasure was not a little enhanced by the ex- cellence of the road. It is many years since I visited this spot, once very familiar in walks and rides. November p, 1859 Called to see Butler.66 Decided that the book is to be printed in a volume of about 130 pages, to cost $180 & to sell for 50 cts. I am to pay the cost of printing and he is to pay me 25 cts for each volume sold. If 720 copies are sold the cost will be repaid and I think it pretty certain that I cannot lose much. Went with the jury at 10^ to visit the Alms House. It is a vast establishment. Saw a great deal of wretched humanity collected there, disease, insanity, poverty, ignorance, all humanely cared for. The spectacle suggested many reflections. The house was clean & comfortable throughout & the general expression of the inmates was cheerful. The children's 65 Alfred Martien, bookseller. 66 E. H. Butler had agreed to publish the book, provided Fisher guaranteed him from loss. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 219 ward was very interesting, so also the nursery. The arrangements seemed admirable in these. The insane department does not seem so well managed. There is less comfort and neatness and a deficiency in the means of recreation. Js[pvember ioy 1859 Dressed and started at \}4 to go up to Andalusia to dine with the Farmer's Club,67 Craig Biddle who is a member having invited me on Tuesday. Drove to Frankford and thence up the Bristol Road about 10 miles to Biddle's lane. Much pleased with the country there, which I had not seen for some years, not, indeed, since Henry rented Cowperthwaite's place about 12 years ago. It is very like Sassafras Neck, low, gently undulating land along the river. Such a country suggests ideas of ease, fertility, and plenty. It has a charm peculiar to itself, and so have the hills, and I admire & enjoy both. Got to Biddle's at 3% after a pleasant drive. It is a beautiful place of 100 acres on the river and much expence was lavished on it by his father in the time of his prosperity. The house is of Grecian architecture, a copy of the front of the Bank of the U. S., now the Custom House, a style unfit for a dwelling, especially in the country, and therefore in bad taste, but nevertheless in itself beauti- ful. It is large, with many rooms handsomely furnished in the manner of thirty years ago. The grounds are judiciously laid out and thickly planted with fine trees, which have now attained a large size and produce a good effect. I arrived too late to see much, but noticed some superb Norway firs. At some distance behind the house is an open wood and in front, the lawn slopes to the river. I found the company assembled—Merrick, Blight, Harrison, Dr. Geo. Fox, Lardner, Landreth, Dr. King, McCrea & Freass.68 The dinner was very handsome and the conversation, almost exclusively about farming, intelligent and agreeable. All present were really farmers, practically acquainted with the subject and interested in it, almost all live on their farms, most of them men of fortune and leisure, some of them residents in that neighborhood, in the habit of meeting fre- 67 An organization of twelve "farmers," founded in 1847. It met monthly at the houses or farms of its members when the moon was full, so that members and guests could find their way more easily. The club still thrives. 68 Samuel V. Merrick and George Blight, president and secretary of the club, Charles W. Harrison, Richard Lardner, David Landreth, Dr. Charles King, Dr. James A. McCrea, and Philip R, Freas of the Germantown Telegraph. 22O SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April quently at each other's houses. Did not fail to notice the good effects of life in the country, in furnishing these men with a healthy occupa- tion, a source of inexhaustible mental interest and a constant topic of conversation. I am sure the talk around the table was superior to what any other pursuit would furnish, far superior to that which one usually hears from the same number of lawyers. Fifty acres of land will give to anyone, who knows how to use it and enjoy it, these in- terests and pleasures and this knowledge. Craig Biddle manages the farm and, it is said, skilfully and successfully. The property belongs to the family undivided and is a common home where all go when they like. There is another house on it which belongs to Edward,69 who is now in Europe. Came away at 6}4 after a very pleasant after- noon. It was brilliant moonlight and I enjoyed my drive home, which I reached at 8}4. J^lpvember 75, 1859 ... a note from Geo. Blight, saying that the Montg. Co. Society yesterday authorized 1,000 copies of my address to be published & that this is the first address they ever pub- lished, which was the cause of the delay. In the evening read the address and made one or two corrections. Shall take it to the printer tomorrow. By the delay, it will come out simultaneously with the book on the Law of the Territories, whereas I intended it to precede the latter by a month. J^pvember /?> 1859 Went to town at 9^, to the jury at 10. We disposed of some cases & then visited the Eastern Penitentiary. Went all over it and was much pleased with the admirable plan of the building, the order, comfort, & cleanliness of the whole establish- ment. The system adopted is solitary confinement with work. The pris- oners are allowed books & newspapers. They have warmth, good cloth- ing & food. The punishment is severe, however, & felt to be so. The superintendents were intelligent and very polite to us. They gave us a substantial lunch. Went from the prison to the House of Refuge. This is a combination of prison & place of education & training for the young. They are sent here for crimes & for vagrancy by magis- trates and often by their parents. They are taught the elements of knowledge and also trades, & between these their time is divided. At a certain age they are bound out as apprentices to good masters. It is 69 Edward Biddle (1815-1872), Craig Biddle's oldest brother. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 221 an admirable institution and very useful, preventing, no doubt, a great deal of crime & pauperism. All the arrangements of the estab- lishment are very complete and the children are busy and looked healthy & happy. There were none on the sick list & had been but one death in the establishment since it was founded. Went thence to call on Dr. Meigs.70 He showed me a pike, sent to him from Harper's Ferry, one of 1800 collected by Brown to put in the hands of the Negroes had they joined him. It is a formidable weapon, with a blade 6 inches long set on a pole or handle about 7 feet long.71 "December j, 1859 John Brown was hung at Charlestown, Virginia [now West "Virginia^ yesterday. His remains & his widow came up in the same train of cars with me.72 The papers are full of the details of his execution, his interview with his wife, his conduct on the scaffold. Throughout, he behaved with the same firmness and intrepidity that he exhibited at his capture. He was a hero, no one can deny that, and excited the admiration even of his enemies. He has excited also the sympathy of a large and dangerous portion of the Northern people. Yesterday, harangues were delivered in this city, in New York and Boston and in many towns in New England. Shops were closed & the bells tolled. He has shown what an individual will can accomplish. This one man has done more to reveal the true nature of the slavery question than all others who have acted in it; he has stirred the nation from its depths and it may turn out that he will be the proximate cause of the dissolution of the Union. December 7, 1859 Went at 11 to the meeting of the Agric. Society. There was a good deal of pleasant conversational discussion about feeding cattle, plows, &c. Told them about the plows sent to me by Morrison.73 On the nth of next Feby. the Society will be 75 years old. It was determined to celebrate the anniversary by a dinner and an address. I was invited to deliver the address. I declined and proposed Alfred Elwyn, he having been for many years a prominent member and more than once, I believe, president. He declined. I then proposed Craig Biddle. I thought it would be pleasant to him 70 Dr. Charles D. Meigs (1792-1869). 71 One of these pikes is in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 72 Fisher was returning from his farm in Maryland. 73 Member of a wealthy English family. Charles Henry Fisher served as American agent for their investments. 222 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April to do it & his father was a president of the Society.74 He accepted and a, committee was appointed to make the arrangements. Went to Henry's and to Butler's. He has not yet advertised my book.75 He is evidently afraid to do so. Nevertheless, it sells & I feel pretty con- fident that at least enough will be sold to pay expences. December 12, 1859 Went to Butler's. My book selling very well. They sold 100 copies on Saturday & many this morning. Got a note from Mr. Henry Carey Baird76 today, asking my consent to print 5,000 copies of my speech to the Montg. Co. Agric. Society in a cheap form for general circulation. Called to see him. Told him that of course I was much honored by his request. He said he thought the speech would have a good effect in the West and that some persons who wished to see its arguments spread before the people were willing to subscribe to have it printed. Bet came out in her father's carriage at 2, & I in the car at 5. Wm. Wain came at the same hour and dined. He is an amiable, gentlemanlike fellow and very unfortunate in being poor. Henry has got for him a situation in the Little Sch. Rlroad Co. which gives him a salary. Thomas Fisher came this afternoon, bring- ing me an invitation to deliver an address to the Trustees of the Germantown Academy on the 23rd of April next, their hundredth anniversary. Consented. Could not well refuse. 'December i6y 1859 Last evening a lecture was delivered in town on the slavery question by Mr. Curtis77 of Boston. He is a gentleman of considerable literary reputation, having written a series of articles for Tutnam's ^Magazine some years ago that excited a good deal of attention. It was understood that his lecture was to be of the abolitionist school, and it was also understood that an attempt would be made to break up the meeting by violence. The attempt was made, but thanks to the ample preparations of the mayor,78 who had a large police force on the ground, it was unsuccessful. Some 74 Craig Biddle, youngest son of Nicholas Biddle, was elected president of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture on Jan. 5, 1859, and served as its president until Dec. 1, 1869, when he declined re-election. Nicholas Biddle had served as president from 1834 until shortly before his death in 1844. 75 The Law of the Territories (Philadelphia, 1859), a 127-page book published under Fisher's pen name "Cecil." 76 Henry Carey Baird (1825-1912), publisher and economic writer. 77 George William Curtis (1824-1892), author and orator. 78 Alexander Henry, who continued as mayor of Philadelphia until 1866, when he declined renomination. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 223 persons endeavored to create disorder in the hall, but were arrested & turned out. A large mob was assembled outside the building who threw stones at the windows & there were several fights, but the police prevented a riot. This mob was addressed in very inflamma- tory language by several persons, among others, I am sorry to say, Frank Peters, who is a hot-headed, foolish fellow. Among those ar- rested were several of the former mayor's (Vaux)79 police and several medical students from Georgia, armed with bowie knives and re- volvers. The lecture was delivered without serious interruption, the audience was large and respectable and half of it were women, who exhibited no fear. . . . The slaveowners are an oligarchy, who live in dread not only of the Negroes, but of the whites who are not slaveowners. Fear is the natural punishment of wrong, and fear leads to tyranny. As in all their former conduct, the South is thus rapidly preparing for its own downfall. Their politicians are making slavery more & more hateful to the North & connecting the cause of abolition with the cause of liberty, order & civil rights. These have been destroyed in the Southern states for the sake of slavery. Is not slavery therefore an evil when it produces such fruit? The friends of slavery are attempt- ing to destroy the same blessings in the North. Shall we surrender our rights, for the sake of holding the Negro in bondage? The Union was made to secure these rights. Events are showing that they, the Union & slavery, are incompatible, cannot coexist. Which then shall we sacrifice? The Union, slavery, or civil rights? Every right-thinking, conservative man will answer, preserve all three if possible; if that be not possible, sacrifice slavery first; if it must be, give up slavery and the Union rather than that freedom which the Union was intended to maintain. This will be the decision of the Northern people, as I predicted two years ago. "December 19, 1859 Henry showed me a letter from his friend, Sam Ward of Boston, in which he orders 30 copies of my book and asks whether I will consent that the Treface be reprinted in a cheap form for general circulation. This is the second compliment of the kind I have received from Boston. Some persons there, strangers to me, printed 100,000 copies of my article on "Kansas & the Constitu- 79 Richard Vaux, Henry's predecessor as mayor. 224 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER April tion" & distributed them all over the country. I made a fitting reply to Mr. Ward. 'December 21\ 1859 The debate on slavery goes on and the old charges and abuse are repeated every day. This is fortunate in some respects. Passion vents itself in speeches, the topic becomes weari- some, and there is less danger of violent action and the Democrats are disgusting the country more and more & driving sensible men from their ranks. The party is broken up and thoroughly demoralized whilst the Republican party acquires strength. It is the antislavery party and the prospect now is that it will carry all before it at the North. My predictions are thus verified that the antislavery party would eventually become the party of the populace. The moral feel- ing of the North is setting strongly against slavery & Southern politicians are the cause of it. December 22^ 1859 Three hundred medical students from the South, disgusted with abolition sentiments expressed here, a day or two ago held a meeting & resolved to leave the Jefferson College & the University. They went in a body this afternoon. Two Southern professors in those institutions advised them to go. They wrote of their intention to a medical college in Virginia, and received an in- vitation to come there free of expence. They wrote also to Gov. Wise,80 who applauded their motives and declared they should be received with military honors in Richmond. January /, i860 Walked with Bet to church, but did not go in. Indeed, I have never been to our village church, Mr. Davis's81 con- versation giving me no desire to hear his sermons. I think I can employ Sunday as profitably, as religiously at home. It is very well for the multitude to have a day consecrated to religious observances, for otherwise the engrossing cares of the world would exclude re- ligious ideas altogether from most minds. But for the thinking man, every day is Sunday, he sees the moral, the divine in truth, and truth governs every day and all things, the most common and familiar. His thoughts are his church. January 2> i860 Slavery occupies all conversation now. Fisher82 belongs to what is called the conservative class. For the 80 Henry Alexander Wise (1806-1876). 81 Rev. Thomas J. Davis of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Resurrection at Broad and Tioga Sts. 82 Joshua Francis Fisher. 1963 DIARY 1859-1860 11$ sake of preserving the Union and peace and order, which in reality means his own property and enjoyments, he is willing to sacrifice the right & the truth, to yield to all the demands of the South and to maintain slavery without so much as asking whether it be not in itself a wrong and a crime. He denounces such men as Emerson, Wendell Phillips & other leading abolitionists, who have more in- tellect, knowledge, and sincerity than all the politicians in the country put together, as traitors, blasphemers, incendiarists, &c. So have reformers & those who bear witness to the truth always been treated by the worldly & prosperous. Truth, when it attacks the interests of property or power, is always derided & persecuted, as all history testifies. . . . The issue that is now in reality and ere long will formally be offered to the Southern people is, shall the slaves be emancipated peacefully or forcibly? Disunion would at once decide it in favor of the latter alternative. If the Union can be preserved, material inter- ests are so strong that slavery may be preserved for a time, but its destruction must come at last. Moral truth is of a commanding nature; it will be obeyed. Slavery is a wrong, an injustice. It must either destroy the moral sentiment of the country or be destroyed by it. In this age of thought and free discussion, there is some hope that the destruction of slavery may be brought about by peaceful means. If John Brown had succeeded in his purpose of running off the Negroes in the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry, his success would have been a real failure. His death was necessary to his triumph. . . . Fisher mentioned today a fact which exhibits one of the most per- plexing difficulties of slavery, arising from the mixture of the races. Not only are hundreds who are almost Saxon in blood and who can scarcely be distinguished from the white race held as slaves, but men actually own & sell their sons & brothers. This happens constantly among the best & most refined families in the South. Fisher's story is that George Cadwalader was once at the table of a gentleman on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and noticed a striking likeness be- tween one of his sons and a mulatto servant waiting at dinner. A short time afterwards he found this son and the servant in the cars, the latter in chains. The son was taking him to be sold in Baltimore, his half-brother, as Cadwalader ascertained. Civilization, liberty, religion cannot coexist where such things are sanctioned.