HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE, “PROVINCIAL HONORS TO AN EXCISEMAN” (1807)

ALEX MORRIS, EARLY , DR. JON MILLER, SPRING 2006

“Provincial Honors to an Excise- the same year. Brackenridge went on to result was the first installment of his man.” From Modern Chivalry. be a chaplain in Washington’s army, most famous work, Modern Chivalry. though his sermons were more about Modern Chivalry is a novel in the Introduction patriotism than spirituality. In 1778 he picaresque tradition depicting the started The United States Magazine, wanderings of the aristocratic Captain Eccentric crank, passionate revolution- again working with Freneau. The mag- Farrago and his ambitious but incom- ary, and unpopular politician are all azine, which published everything from petent and uneducated servant, Teague terms that could be applied to Hugh current events to belles lettres, was con- O’Regan. Brackenridge named Cer- Henry Brackenridge (1748–1816), but ceived as a way of educating Americans vantes, Fielding, and Swift as major none of them adequately encapsulate in republicanism. It ultimately failed. influences on this work. Don Quixote the mixture of achievement and dis- Disappointed in his literary aspira- is particularly striking as an apparent appointment that characterized his tions, Brackenridge studied law under model for Modern Chivalry. Much of life. Brackenridge was born in Kintyre, before moving to the the work’s episodic plot is devoted to Scotland. His father William moved the Pennsylvania frontier in 1781. He estab- Teague’s search for an office and Cap- family to York, Pennsylvania in 1753, lished a law practice in and tain Farrago’s various attempts to de- beginning what would for Hugh be a helped to found the Pittsburgh Gazette. prive him of those offices (ostensibly life of vocational and ideological as well In 1786 he won a seat in the state assem- for the good of the republic), though in as physical wandering. bly, where he advocated for the found- the latter part of the work he begins at- As Claude M. Newlin writes in The ing of the Pittsburgh Academy (now the tempting to educate Teague for public Life and Writings of Hugh Henry Brack- ). Brackenridge service. enridge, Brackenridge was a poor farm- lost re-election after making a number Modern Chivalry has often been re- er’s son, but his parents nonetheless of unpopular decisions that were re- garded as a part of the neoclassical tra- made sure that he received an educa- garded by his constituents as betrayals, dition, and Brackenridge made it clear tion. He was well read in the classics, not the least of which was his support that it was a work intended for the in- and he could read Latin as well as a little of the new Constitution. He only ex- struction of the masses. While it is re- Greek. By fifteen he was a teacher at a acerbated the problem when he tried plete with moral instruction, modern free school in , where New- to explain his reasons for acting inde- critics like William Hoffa and Emory lin describes him enforcing discipline pendently of the public will in the Pitts- Elliott, among others, have recognized on the older boys with a firebrand (7). burgh Gazette. Responding to resent- that Brackenridge’s didacticism is of- Brackenridge went to Princeton in ment over his voting against a popular ten subtle and complex, satirizing the 1768, where he collaborated with Phil- land bill, Brackenridge argued that the aristocratic Farrago even as he appears lip Freneau to write Father Bombo’s people did not necessarily know what to use Farrago to instruct the reader. Pilgrimage to Mecca (1770), a satirical was in their best interests and should Modern Chivalry’s satire is wide-rang- prose work that foreshadows his later rely on their representatives, a position ing, directing barbs at the wealthy elite satires. Brackenridge would collabo- that had “sown the seeds of his own of as well as the common rate with Freneau again in composing eventual political failure” (Newlin 86). people of the frontier. the prophetic poem The Rising Glory Brackenridge subsequently lost his seat Modern Chivalry is a difficult work to of America (1771), which envisioned a in the state assembly as well as his bid categorize, in part because it was pub- united America as the new seat of west- for a place in the state’s constitutional lished in a number of installments and ern civilization. ratifying convention. critics have disagreed over whether to In 1772 Brackenridge became the In the wake of his political defeats regard it as a single work or as a series. schoolmaster of an academy in Back and the death of his first wife in 1787, According to Newlin’s account of the Creek, with Freneau as his assistant. Brackenridge composed The Modern work’s complex textual history, Brack- Freneau found the work intolerable, Chevalier, a Hudibrastic poem depict- enridge published the first two volumes comparing the children to leeches ing the travels of a modern knight. The in Philadelphia in 1792 and volume (Newlin 25), but Brackenridge stayed poem satirized Brackenridge’s former three the following year in Pittsburgh on until 1774, when he appears, accord- political opponents and the people of (319). The events of the Whiskey Rebel- ing to Newlin, to have had a nervous the frontier, but he did not publish The lion seemed to interfere with his liter- breakdown. He returned to Princeton Modern Chevalier, instead seeking to ary aims. Newlin writes that the fourth to pursue his master’s degree the fall of improve it by rendering it in prose. The installment of Modern Chivalry was 2 THE AKRON HERON: MATERIALS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, No. 6 not published until 1797. In 1804 the was a tax collector. Wilson was “seared Elliott, Emory. Revolutionary Writ- first two volumes were republished as in several places with a hot iron, then ers: Literature and Authority in the Modern Chivalry and a new installment tarred and feathered” (Baldwin 83). New Republic, 1725-1810. New York: of the tale was written, called Modern Brackenridge later attempted to medi- Oxford University Press, 1982. One Chivalry Part II. The following year ate between the rebels and the govern- of the most cited works in Bracken- Part II was accompanied by Part II, ment during the insurrection. On one ridge scholarship; deals with the bio- Volume II. Modern Chivalry, Vol. II, hand, he had long opposed the excise graphical context of his writings as which contained the original volumes tax on alcohol. On the other, he also well many other topics, such as tex- III and IV, was published in 1807 along opposed armed rebellion against the tual issues with Modern Chivalry, use with reprints of both volumes of Part government. His attempts to prevent of irony and satire, and the place of II. The first four volumes of Part I were the hostilities earned him the status authors in the new republic. reprinted in 1808 as Modern Chivalry, of traitor among both groups, and he Vol. I. Finally, in 1815 Modern Chivalry expected to be hanged with the other Brackenridge, Hugh H. and Leary, was republished in its entirety, with rebels when the militia seized the terri- Lewis, ed. Modern Chivalry: Con- some additional material. Bracken- tory. Though subject to suspicion and taining the Adventures of Captain ridge’s work would continue to be re- resentment from members of both par- John Farrago and Teague O’Reagan, printed in a variety of forms during the ties, Brackenridge was eventually ex- His Servant. Rowman & Littlefield nineteenth century, and it appeared in onerated. Brackenridge went on to be Masterworks of American Litera- a few editions in the twentieth. a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme ture. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, Modern Chivalry does not appear to Court known for his eccentricity and 2003. Only complete edition of Mod- have received much critical attention in defense of the law. He died in Carlisle, ern Chivalry still in print. its own time, a fact that Brackenridge Pennsylvania in 1816. mentioned ironically at the conclusion Ellis, Joseph J. After the Revolution: of his third volume, in which he won- Note on the Text Profiles of Early American Culture. ders why no one has attacked his work. New York: Norton, 1979. Provides a Despite its obviously republican aims, The text of this edition is taken from broad political and cultural context Modern Chivalry depicts an America Edmund Clarence Stedman and El- for Brackenridge’s life and works. of contradiction, diversity, and conflict len Mackay Hutchinson, A Library of during a time when many desperately American Literature, vol. 3 (New York: Hoffa, William. “The Language of longed for unity and stability. Joseph Charles L. Webster, 1891) 392-96. The Rogues and Fools in Brackenridge’s J. Ellis goes so far as to characterize spelling and punctuation of the original Modern Chivalry.” Studies in the Modern Chivalry as “the first distinctly have been maintained throughout. Novel 12.4 (1980): 289-300. Deals with American novel” for its depiction of the The source for this edition contains Brackenridge’s treatment of language contradictions that shape the American some inconsistencies with the first edi- and rhetoric, as well as aspects of his character (102). tions of Brackenridge’s work as it ap- narration and use of irony. The passage reproduced in this edi- pears in the Leary edition, though it is tion closely parallels the harassment of unclear if these inconsistencies arise as Newlin, Claude M. The Life and Writ- revenue officers that occurred leading a result of Brackenridge’s numerous re- ings of Hugh Henry Brackenridge. up to the . In Whis- visions or later editorial decisions made 1932. Mamaroneck, NY: P.P. Appel, key Rebels, Leland D. Baldwin describes by Stedman and Hutchinson. 1971. An exhaustive biography of an escalating pattern of harassment that Brackenridge. begins with the robbery of an excise Bibliography officer in 1784. In 1785, Brackenridge Rice, Grantland S. “Modern Chivalry defended a group of rioters who were Baldwin, Leland D. Whiskey Rebels: and the Resistance to Textual Au- accused of assaulting and cutting the The Story of a Frontier Uprising. thority.” American Literature 67.2 hair of excise officer William Graham. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh (1995): 257-81. Provides a discussion By 1791 several people presumed to be Press, 1939. Leland’s book is a clas- of Brackenridge’s relationship to connected to the excise were tarred and sic account of the Whiskey Rebel- print culture and republican ideol- feathered, including Robert Wilson, a lion and the events leading up to it. ogy. potentially delusional young man who Brackenridge’s role in these events is had caused some people to believe he foregrounded throughout the work. HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE, “PROVINCIAL HONORS TO AN EXCISEMAN” (1807) 3

PROVINCIAL HONORS TO “Teague,”[2] said he, “it is not And it is but reasonable, and what AN EXCISEMAN. less difficult to preserve equanim- a benevolent man would indulge; ity in a prosperous situation, than for it is a happiness to these crea- [Modern Chivalry; or, The to sustain with fortitude a depres- tures, to give themselves the op- Adventures of Captain Farrago. sion of fortune. These people, I per- portunity of being distinguished 1796-1806] ceive, in a flow of mind, are coming in this manner.” forward to express, with warmth, Duncan, who had heard a ru- Just at this instant a noise was the honest but irregular sallies of mor in the village of what was go- heard, and looking up, a crowd their joy, on your arrival amongst ing forward, had in the mean time of people were discovered at a them. It was usual in the provinces come up, and understanding from considerable distance, advancing under the Roman republic, when a the last words of the captain, what toward them, but with acclama- Quæstor,[3] of whom a favorable had been the drift of the conversa- tions that began to be heard. They impression had preceded, was tion with Teague, and discovering were dragging a piece of timber about to come amongst them. It is his mistake, interrupted him at this of considerable length, which ap- a pleasing, but a transient felicity, place.—“Captain,” said he, “ye peared to be just hewn from the and a wise man will not count too need na be cautioning him against woods; and was the natural stem much upon it. For popular favor is applause, and popularity, and the of a small tree, cut down from the unstable, to a proverb. These very turning o’ the head wi’ praise and stump, and the bark stripped off. people, in the course of a twelve- guid usage: for I doubt muckle if At the same time a couple of pack month, if you displease them, may it comes to that wi’ him yet. I wad horses were driven along, which shout as loud at your degradation rather suspect that these folks have appeared to be loaded with beds and removal from dignity. At the na guid-will toward him. I dinna and pillow-cases. same time this ought not to lead ken what they mean to do wi’ him, The captain was led to believe you to be indifferent, or at least but if a body guess frae the bed ye that these were a number of coun- to seem so, to their well-meant see there on the pony’s back, they try people, who having heard of expressions of favor at present; mean to toss him in a blanket. the revenue officer coming to his much less to affect a contempt, But if it were to be judged frae the district, had come forward to pay or even a neglect of them. A me- tree they hae trailing after them, I their respects to him, and to re- dium of ease and gracefulness in wad suppose they mean to mak a ceive him with that gratulation[1] receiving their advances, and an- hanging matter o’ it, and tak his which is common to honest but swering their addresses, whether it life a’ thegether. There is na doubt illiterate people, in the first par- is a rustic orator in an extempore but they are coming in a mob, to oxysms of their transport. Hav- harangue, or some scholar of the make a seizure o’ the gauger, and ing understood that country to be academy, or school-master, they the talk o’ the town is o’ a punish- chiefly peopled with the descen- may have prevailed upon to draw ment I dinna understand, o’ tar- dants of the Irish, or with Irish up a speech, and read it to you. ring and feathering. I have heard emigrants themselves, he had sup- There is no manner of doubt but o’ the stocks, and the gallows, and posed that hearing the new officer the President of the United States drowning like a witch, but I never was a countryman, they had been may have been a thousand times heard o’ the like o’ that in Scot- carried forward, with such zeal to embarrassed with the multitude of land. I have heard o’ the tarring receive him, with huzzaing and tu- addresses delivered or presented the sheep, to keep them frae the mult. On this occasion, he thought to him; and it required no small rot, but I never heard o’ tarring a it not amiss to turn the conversa- patience and fortitude to sustain human creature. Maybe they mean tion, and to prepare the mind and them. Yet it has been remarked, to put it on his nose, to hinder him the manners of the deputy for this that he has received them all with frae smelling their whiskey. I see scene, which being unusual, might complacency; showing himself they’ve got a keg o’t there in their disconcert and embarrass him. neither elevated with the praise, rear, drawn upon a sled; at least, I nor irritated with the intrusion. suppose it to be whiskey they hae 4 THE AKRON HERON: MATERIALS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, No. 6 in that keg, to take a dram, as they would rather join wid ‘em. What is was offered de commission; but de gae on wi’ the frolic; unless it be de government wid offices to one captain here knows dat I would not the tar that they talk of to put upon dat is choked, and can’t spake to take it. It is dis Scotchman dat is the officer.” his acquaintance in dis world? By de officer. By my soul, you may tar This last conjecture was the true de holy apostles, I am no officer; and feader him, and welcome.” one. For it was tar; and the stem of I just took it for a frolic as I was “No,” said the captain, step- the tree which they drew, was what coming up de road, and you may ping forward, “no gentlemen: for is called a liberty-pole,[4] which be officer yourself, and good-luck so I yet call you; though the men- they were about to erect, in order wid de commission; captain, I shall aces which you express, and the to dance round it, with hallooing have noting to do wid it.” appearance of force which your and the whoop of exultation. At this instant the advancing preparations exhibit, depart from The calvacade[5] now approach- crowd raised a loud shout, crying the desert of that appellation. Nev- ing, they began to cast their eyes Liberty and no excise! liberty and ertheless, as there is still a prob- toward the group of three, as they no excise! down with all excise of- ability of arresting violence, and stood together. ficers! reclaiming you from the error of “By de holy faders,” said Teague, Teague began to tremble, and your meditated acts, I address you “I see day have deir looks upon to skulk behind the captain. “By with the epithet of gentlemen. You me. Dey look as wild as de ‘White de holy water o’ de confession,” are not mistaken in your designa- Boys,’ or de ‘Hearts of Oak’[6] in said he, “dey are like de savages, tion of the officer of the revenue, Ireland. By de holy apostles, dere dey have deir eyes upon me, I shall though he had not the candor to is no fighting wid pitch-forks; we be scalped; I shall be kilt and have avow himself; but would meanly shall be kilt,[7] and murdered into de skin of me head off, like a wolf subject a fellow bog-trotter to the de bargain.” or a shape. God love you, captain, odium and risk: an act of which, “Teague,” said the captain, “rec- spake a good word to dem, and tell after all the pains that have been ollect that you are an officer of dem a good story, or I shall be ate taken of his education, to impress government, and it becomes you up like a toad, or a wild baste in de him with sentiments of truth and to support its dignity, not betray- forests.” honor, I am greatly ashamed. No, ing unmanly fear, but sustaining The bog-trotter[8] was right; for gentlemen, I am unwilling to de- the violence even of a mob itself this moment they had got their ceive you, or that the meditate with fortitude.” eyes upon the group, and began injury should fall on him, who, if “Fait, and I had rather be no of- to distinguish him as the officer of he has not the honor of the office, ficer at all,” said Teague, “if dis the revenue. An exact description ought not to bear the occasional is de way de paple get out o’ der had been given them of his person disadvantage: I am ready to ac- senses in dis country. Take de of- and appearance, for these people knowledge and avow, nor shall fice yourself; de divil burn me, but had their correspondents, even at these wry faces, and contortions I shall be after laying it down, as the seat of government; and travel- of body, which you observe in fast as a hot piraty, if dis is to come lers,[9] moreover, had recognized the red-headed man, prevent me; of it; to be hooted at like a wild him, and given an account of his that he is the bona fide, actual ex- baste, and shot, and hanged upon physiognomy and apparel. cise officer. Nevertheless, gentle- a tree, like a squirrel, or a Paddy “There he is, there he is,” was the men, let me expostulate with you from Cork, on St. Patrick’s day, language; “the rascally excise offi- on his behalf. Let me endeavor to to make fun o’ de Irish. I scorn to cer; we shall soon take care of him. save him from your odium, not be choked before I am dead; di- He is of the name of O’Regan, is by falsehood, but by reason. Is it vil burn de office for me, I’ll have he? We shall O’Regan him in a not a principle of that republican none of it. I can take my oat upon short time.” government which you have es- de holy cross, dat I am no officer. “Divil burn me, if I am de ex- tablished, that the will of the ma- By Saint Patrick, and if dere were cise officer,” said Teague. “It’s all jority shall govern; and has not the any Irish boys amongst dem I a mistake, gentlemen. It is true I HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE, “PROVINCIAL HONORS TO AN EXCISEMAN” (1807) 5 will of the majority of the United The committee had paid no at- of Oak” Protestant. These secretive States enacted this law? Will—” tention to this harangue; but had in organizations, and many like them, By this time they had sunk the the mean time seized Teague, and violently opposed Ireland’s powerful butt-end of the sapling in the hole conveyed him to a cart, in which landowners. dug for it, and it stood erect with the keg of tar had been placed. The 7. Possibly a pun on “kilt” in the sense a flag displayed in the air, and was operation had commenced amid of “To fasten or tie up; to pull or hoist called a liberty-pole. The beds and the vociferation of the bog-trotter, up; to ‘string up’, to hang” (OED, pillow cases had been cut open, and crossing himself, and preparing def.2). were brought forward. A commit- for purgatory. They had stripped tee had been appointed to conduct him to the waist, and pouring the 8. Eighteenth-century slang for an the operation. It was while they tar upon his naked body, emptied Irish person. were occupied doing this, that the at the same time a bed of feathers 9. The first instance listed in the OED captain had without interruption on his head, which, adhering to the of the now US standard “traveler” form gone on in making his harangue. viscous fluid, gave him the appear- is Webster’s 1828 Dictionary. But these things being now adjust- ance of a wild fowl of the forest. ed, a principal person of the com- The cart being driven off with the 10. In Scottish dialect, a tinker or met- mittee came forward, just at the prisoner in this state, a great part al-worker (OED). last words of the captain. of the mob accompanied, with the “The will of the majority,” said usual exclamation of “Liberty, and ☞ “Hugh Henry Brackenridge, he; “yes, faith, the will of the ma- no excise law. Down with all excise ‘Provincial Honors to an Exciseman’ jority shall govern. It is right that officers.” (1807).” Copyright 2006 Alex Morris. This text was prepared to fulfill a criti- it should be the case. We know the cal edition assignment offered in “Ear- excise officer very well. Come lay Notes ly American Literature,” a graduate- hands upon him.” level seminar taught by Jon Miller at 1. “A joyful greeting; a welcome,” “Guid folk,” said Duncan, “I am The University of Akron in the Spring (OED, def. 4). no the gauger, it is true; nor am I of 2006. Please note, this is not peer- reviewed work. License: You are free a friend to the excise law, though 2. Teague’s name derives from an ap- and encouraged to copy and distribute I come in company wi’ the offi- pellation commonly applied to Irish this work under the following condi- cer; nevertheless I dinna approve laborers at the time (Newlin 96). tions: 1. You may not use this work for o’ this o’ your dinging down the commercial purposes. 2. Any reuse or 3. A Quæstor was a magistrate of the government. For what is it but distribution must preserve this copy- Roman Republic responsible for over- dinging down the government to right, license, version, and citation in- seeing the finances of the military and act against the laws? Did ye never formation. 3. Any of these conditions the government. read i’ the Bible, that rebellion can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. This docu- is worse than witchcraft? Did ye 4. A Liberty-pole was a flag-pole often ment is, was created with, or contains never read o’ how mony lairds and erected to call meetings. It became a the full text of a PDF file published by dukes were hanged in Scotland symbol of the Revolution. The Whis- a website, The Akron Heron: Materials lang ago for rebellion? When the key Rebels erected similar poles during of American Literature. Please visit ak- their insurrection to symbolize their government comes to tak this up, ronheron.com for possible corrections ideological connection to the Sons of ye sal all be made out rebels, and or improvements, which may appear Liberty. hanged. Ye had better think what in later editions of this file. Suggested ye are about. Ye dinna gie fair play. citation: Hugh Henry Brackenridge, 5. An apparently common erroneous “Provincial Honors to an Exciseman.” If ye want to fight, and ony o’ ye form of cavalcade (OED). will turn out wi’ me I sal tak a turn Ed. Alex Morris. The Akron Heron: Materials of American Literature from wi’ him; and no just jump upon a 6. Both groups were peasant mili- Jon Miller at The University of Akron tant organizations in Ireland during man a’ in ae lump, like a parcel o’ no. 6 (May 2006): 5p. [Add date ac- the eighteenth century, the “White tinklers[10] at a fair.” cessed and URL accessed]. Boys” being Catholic and the “Hearts 5 4 3 2