The Diaries of Sidney Qeorge Fisher 1844-1849 ETWEEN 1952 and 1955, a number of installments of the Fisher diary were published in this Magazine. These selections B from the monumental memoirs of the diarist, who com- menced setting down the record of his life as a young man in 1834 and continued the practice until his death in 1871, were so well received by our readers that the Editors are continuing them during the current year. The present selection begins in 1844 when the writer was thirty-six years old. He was still a bachelor, although deeply in love with Miss Elizabeth Ingersoll. "Love and poverty/' he wrote, "is a bad com- bination, worse than friendship and wealth, perhaps either is better than solitude with or without money." Sidney George Fisher, well-born scion of a distinguished Philadel- phia family, was a lawyer who refused to practice because the pursuit of money interfered with his intellectual interests. He loved to read, to meditate, to luxuriate in the delights of nature. Unfortunately, his inherited wealth was not sufficient to enable him to do all this. But always he hoped to make ends meet through profits from his farm, Mount Harmon, on the Sassafras River in Maryland. The story of his farming operations, which were under the charge of a tenant farmer, is a story of continuing disasters. His calculations of the farm's yield were invariably delusive and drove him into heavy debt. Fortunately for Fisher, he could turn to his younger brother, Henry, whose business career was well launched and whose success was a constant wonder to Fisher as he made good his yearly deficits from Henry's profits. Henry did what he could to rehabilitate his brother's fortune. He urged the sale of Mount Harmon, but Fisher refused on the basis that it was inherited property, and, in any event, he loved owning it. Henry tried to persuade him to practice law, to do something active and gainful, but with limited success. 49 5O SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER January The following selection from Fisher's diary finds him disturbed by the election of Polk and Dallas, and deals with many topics, includ- ing social and public events, personalities of the day, and the great national issues of slavery and the Mexican War. Its most poignant moment comes with his heartbroken description of the death of his brother's lovely little daughter, Emily. Whenever Fisher began a new volume of his diary, he inscribed on its title page some apt quotation. The present diary is headed: We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. July 28, 1844 In the evening at Henry's. He has accepted the agency of the whole of Morrison's1 interests here, amounting to be- tween 7 and 8 millions. He is to get $3,000 per annum, with some other perquisites, which make his compensation $3,500. His regular income from his estate is now over $4,000. The opportunities which his position gives him will enable him easily to make from 5 to $10,000 a year more; so that he is now entirely independent with every prospect of becoming a very rich man. Such rapid success is very remarkable. Three years ago he was not worth $10,000 besides his farm, & hardly knew what he should turn to, to support his family. This result is not luck, but the legitimate consequence of industry, talent, honorable conduct & knowledge of business and of men, by which he has become able to secure the entire confidence of large capitalists and to render them such important services that they are anxious to secure the benefit of his efforts. I never saw a more happy family or one by whom happiness & prosperity was more fully deserved. My lot is very different, necessarily so because my turn of mind & disposition are different. His talents are practical & active, mine speculative, which lead to no external results. He is a doer, I a dreamer & must remain so all my life for it is useless to strive against nature. December 29, 1844 As to public affairs, the success of Polk & Dallas is complete, and ultra democracy has again signally tri- umphed, as it always must in this country, until drunk with power it 1 James Morrison (1790-1857) of London, a man of great wealth who had large American investments. 1962 DIARIES 1844-1849 51 plunges into the anarchy which will destroy it. Everything here & in Europe indicates that the old order of things is passing away, that the present civilization is to be destroyed, that the period of change has arrived. The masses are everywhere rising and claiming to govern society, to alter not only its political constitution but its organiza- tion, its relations, its life. What new forms will grow out of the chaos is a question which concerns a distant future. We, our genera- tion & our time, have unhappily to suffer all the troubles & griefs of the process of change, a fiery ordeal, of which the present foretaste is bitter enough. February [ ], 1845 Another movement, showing a disregard for vested rights, is an attempt lately made to unite the city & districts under one government, thus destroying its charter & altering all its relations. The pretext is a general police; the real motives are to give the vote of the whole to the democratic party & to improve the value of the vacant lots in the districts. It originated in holders of these lots & politicians. It was got up in the most insidious manner, no responsible or respectable riames being openly connected with it, tho the real movers are pretty well known. A meeting was called to oppose this scheme & Mr. Binney presented a memorial to be sent to the councils & the legislature. He interested himself very much in the matter as he is a large holder of city debt, the security of which such a measure would greatly injure. The chief objection to the pro- posed plan is one which cannot be insisted on publicly, that the city is conservative, the districts are radical. As long as the city remains within its present limits, the conservative party will govern it. If it be merged in the districts, the radicals will have the majority in the new corporation. The city in short would be governed by the mob of the districts and its own mob combined, its property would be applied to the improvement of the districts, its patronage & revenue be placed in the hands of demagogues & partizans of the lowest stamp. The whole scheme is one of plunder.2 Uncle William has published a book on the history of the Sabbath.3 It is an attempt to oppose the efforts of puritans and fanatics, who 2 Despite the efforts of Horace Binney and other conservatives, the city and districts were consolidated in 1854. Fisher wrote an article on "consolidation" which was published in the United States Gazette, Jan. 30, 1845, over his initial "S." 3 William Logan Fisher, History of the Institution of the Sabbath Day> its uses & abuses; with Notices of the Puritans & Quakers (Philadelphia, 1845). 52 SIDNEY GEORGE FISHER January are endeavouring by influencing public opinion & thro that the legislature, to force upon the community by law their narrow- minded & gloomy superstitions. It is so well done that I was quite astonished that he could have written it. March 2y 1845 The Reading Railroad & Schuylkill Naviga- tion Cos. are . engaged in a ruinous contest, in which much unpleasant feeling has been excited. The road is determined to take the whole coal trade & thus destroy the value of the canal if possible. For this object a double track was made last year at an expence, with wharves & machinery, of $1,500,000. The canal, to retain the busi- ness, has just issued proposals for a loan of $1,000,000 to enlarge its work. To prevent the success of this attempt & destroy public con- fidence, parties interested in the road have written pamphlets & newspaper articles against the canal; its friends have replied by similar attacks on the road & its directors. This paper war has been kept up for some time & is becoming every day more acrimonious & personal. The public rejoices because it makes coal cheap. But the owners of the 15 millions of capital invested in these two works are the sufferers. 4 July 8y 1845 Morrison was in town. Saw a good deal of him. He invited me to go out with him on the 1st of July, promising to show me country life in England and to give me all the facilities in his power. Would have been much tempted by this offer were it not that I had just got engaged with my new farming avocations, which I cannot now leave.5 They have increased Henry's salary to $5,000. He receives $1,000 from the Dennisons.6 These two posts are perma- nent, at least as long as he will want them. With his own fortune they make his income $10,000 a year at least. He can easily make 10 or $20,000 in addition. His success is very remarkable, unprecedented indeed. He deserves it all for the labor, anxiety and responsibility attending such varied & heavy interests is immense. The Morrisons have enlarged his powers giving him complete control of all their investments amounting to about ten millions of dollars. It is rare indeed that such a trust is confided to so young a man. 4 Alfred Morrison, a son of James Morrison.