NEW THEATRE.
—On FRIDAY EVENING March 2.—
Will be Presented, a Comedy, Called,
THE ROAD TO RUIN
To which will be added a COMIC OPERA
(never Performed in America) Called
THE SHIP WRECK
BOX—One Dollar, PIT—Three-Quarters of a Dollar. GALLERY—Half a Dollar. The Doors of the Theatre will open at HALF past FIVE, and the Curtain rise precisely at HALF past SIX … Tickets to be had at H. & P. Rice’s Bookstore, No. 40 Market street and at the Office adjoining the Theatre.
AN EXHIBITION OF Elegant Figures In Wax, Equal in Nature to life, and lately arrived from France. By JOSEPH PROVINI, No. 107 North Second Street—WHERE the SPECTATOR will be delighted with a well executed Wax representation of all the late ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE … the great GENERAL BUONAPARTE, with many ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS among whom the striking likenesses of VOLTAIRE and ROUSSEAU … at the low price of a QUARTER OF A DOLLAR …
JUST PUBLISHED—And to be sold at the AURORA (Price One Dollar, neatly bound and lettered) AN ENQUIRY into the DUTIES of the FEMALE SEX. By THOMAS CISBORNE …
—PEALE’S MUSEUM—
This valuable Repository of the works of Nature … is open daily as usual … Many interesting additions have been lately made to this Museum: even the feathered tribe … Waxen figures often large as life … the North American Savage and the Savage of South America—a labouring Chinese and the Chinese Gentleman—the sooty African and the Kamischadle, with some Natives of the South Sea Islands. Admittance only 1/4 of a dollar.
LAILSON’S CIRCUS—MR. LAILSON has the honour of informing the Public, that … his Circus … will open … on the first Tuesday of next month—By the Novelty and Variety of Equestrian Exercises, as well as by the other representations which will be given, he hopes to deserve the approbation and patronage with which his Public has already honoured him.
For the Relief & Cure—OF COUGHS, ASTHMAS, and CONSUMPTIONS—CHURCH’S COUGH DROPS, AFTER a trial of Six Years, prove to be unequaled by any other Medicine in the world, Prepared by the INVENTOR and SOLE PROPRIETOR, DR. JAMES CHURCH, At his Medicine Store, No. 1, South Third street, Philadelphia …
The covered country marketplace (to left) in the middle lane of High-street, 1798.25 (The market opens on Wednesdays and Saturdays.)
It’s the first day of March, 1798. I am living in Philadelphia and writing part-time for Benjamin Bache and the Philadelphia Aurora at a salary of $10 a week.26
I choose these advertisements from this morning’s Aurora to illustrate why a visitor says, “Philadelphia is … the finest city of the United States.”27 They also show some features of our time.
The government of these United States is less than a decade old. Pending completion of a new federal city on the banks of the Potomac River, this government rests in Philadelphia, a town of some 55,000 people occupying a grid of cobblestone streets and red-bricked town houses, ten blocks square, which slopes west to higher ground from the docks and ships of the Delaware River.
The Delaware connects this town with the farmlands and fisheries which feed its stomach and with the trade routes of the Atlantic which feed its purse. At each favorable tide, numerous square-rigged vessels as well as sloops and schooners, coasters and foreign, negotiate the Delaware to deposit hooped barrels of beef and pork, casks of shad, herring, rye flour, and flax seed, kegs of rum, Madeira wine, and butter, bundles of shingles and lumber, carts of vegetables, and every other object of desire on the congested wharves along Water-street. From the riverfront and perpendicular to it, a covered country market occupies the middle of High-street (the city’s broadest avenue) in its gradual ascent to the city’s center. Sheltered by a series of old market buildings, this country market accommodates hundreds of vendors in a range of open wooden stalls, separated from each other by brick and wooden pillars and overhung by crossbeams and iron provision hooks.
During the course of this century, the covered market along High-street has extended itself, block by block, from the riverfront toward the city’s center, so that “High-street” is becoming known as “Market-street.” Today, half call it “High”; half, “Market.”
Facing the covered market on the south side of High, between Third- and Fourth-streets, is No. 112, the publishing office of the Philadelphia Aurora. A block and a half farther up High, on the same side of the street, is No. 190, the Executive House of the President of the United States.
Congress Hall at Philadelphia, 1798. U.S. House of Representatives on the first floor, U.S. Senate on the second.28
FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
FEDERAL LEGISLATURE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
The bill for erecting a light house & placing certain Buoys in places therein mentioned was read the third time and passed …
March, the 2nd. Today’s Aurora carries its usual measure of Congressional news …
The Congress of these sixteen29 United States of America meet a block and a half southwest of the Aurora in the City Hall of Philadelphia, commonly called the State-house of Pennsylvania, a range of attached brick buildings occupying the entire south side of Chestnut-street (parallel to and one block south of High) between Fifth- and Sixth-streets. The House and Senate chambers occupy a wing, commonly called Congress Hall, on the west (away from the Delaware) side of the State-house.30 The U.S. House of Representatives sits on the first floor, the U.S. Senate on the second. A visitor to the city describes the House and Senate chambers as follows:
The hall for the Representatives is spacious. The Galleries above and below could hold perhaps four hundred spectators each. They are nearly always filled … The members have the privilege of introducing into the chamber itself all those [including the press] whom they wish; these persons must then remain behind the bar. Four rows of chairs placed in a semi-circle and protected by a semicircular enclosure are made ready for the members. Behind these … one sees as many benches or desks in a semi-circle in such a way that each member has an inkstand, a sandbox, some pens, a wafer, and some papers to make notes and comments, and even for writing letters. Before the center of this circle there is a raised platform on which is the Speaker’s chair, in front of two tables on which are placed the volumes of law … Four great stoves warm the chamber …
The chamber where the Senate assembles is above. It resembles more the rooms of a society than a sanctuary of laws. Thirty-two senators are likewise seated in a semicircle. The … Vice President of the United States performs the function of a Speaker. A small Gallery above can hold 50 spectators; they withdraw when the Senate is concerned with executive business.31
Plan of the City of Philadelphia in 1798.32
All Philadelphia newspapers report the affairs of Congress, although the Aurora’s publisher, Benjamin Bache, was barred, as of three weeks ago, from taking notes on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The banishment of Benjamin Bache arose from a bizarre incident which occurred in the House chamber on the last and very icy Tuesday of January, the 30th. Several members were warming themselves by the great stoves which heat the House chamber when, in idle conversation, a Republican congressman from Vermont (an Irish newspaper publisher) posed the possibility of starting an opposition newspaper in Federalist Connecticut. (President John Adams’ Federalist party controls each of the New England states and holds a commanding majority in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.) The Report of the House Committee on Privileges reads as follows:
Mr. Lyon [the Vermont Republican] was … holding a conversation with the Speaker [Mr. Jonathan Dayton] … loud enough to be heard … On Mr. Lyon’s observing that, if he should go into Connecticut and manage a press there six months … he could effect a revolution and turn out the present [Federalist] Representatives—Mr. Griswold [a Federalist representative from Connecticut] replied … “you had better wear your wooden sword” or words to that effect, alluding to Mr. Lyon’s having be
en cashiered in the army … Mr. Lyon spat in his face.33
Personal insults! Spitting! At a time when political etiquette and the hardship of overland travel force politicians to wait at home for the call to office34 rather than travel some campaign trail in pursuit of it, the newspaper is a mighty force in the political life of America. As this bizarre event suggests, even the threat of an “opposition press” can lead to violence.
During the next three weeks, Congress held hearings on the spitting incident, and the Federalist Speaker of the House, Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, tried to impose restrictions on newspaper coverage of embarrassing testimony. The Annals of Congress report:
The SPEAKER said … [h]e thought it improper that persons attending in the House to take notes … should publish the evidence [i.e., testimony] of members before [the members] had the opportunity of correcting it … The SPEAKER said, until the House should make an order … he did himself prohibit the publication of evidence in the future until it should be corrected by the members themselves …35
A gag rule! This was the federal government’s first attempt to restrict press freedom since the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (guaranteeing freedom of the press) was ratified in December of 1791. Benjamin Bache refused to comply, even after Thursday morning, February 15th, when Lyon and Griswold fell upon each other with stick and tong. The Annals of Congress report:
FRACAS IN THE HOUSE.
About a quarter past eleven o’clock, after prayers, whilst the SPEAKER was in his chair … Mr. GRISWOLD [Federalist, Connecticut] entered the House and observing Mr. LYON [Republican, Vermont] in his place (who was writing), he went up to him with a pretty strong walking stick in his hand with which he immediately began to beat him with great violence … At length, getting behind the SPEAKER’S chair, Mr. L[YON] snatched up the tongs from the fire; the combatants then closed and came down together upon the floor, Mr. G[RISWOLD] being uppermost. The members of the House … got round the parties and separated them but not before Mr. L[YON] had aimed a blow at Mr. G[RISWOLD]’s head with the tongs but which he parried off.37
The State-house Park behind Congress Hall, 1798.36
From the initial encounter to the latest fracas, Benjamin Bache reported details and testimony of congressional misbehavior without prior clearance by Speaker Dayton. For this disregard, Speaker Dayton barred Benjamin Bache, as of February 12th, from reporting on the House floor. Instead, the Aurora’s representative would take notes from the spectators’ gallery, where debate is less audible, less visible (Quaker spectators don’t remove their hats!), and thus more difficult to discern.38
Two days after his banishment, Benjamin Bache reported, in the Philadelphia Aurora, as follows:
The right of the people of the United States to listen to the sentiments of their representatives … was acknowledged by the first agents whom they appointed to express their voice in that assembly … It was never attempted to restrain reporters from publishing the proceedings of Congress till last week when the Speaker declared that if [reporters] continued to report the oral testimony … he would send them into the crowded gallery … [T]he threat was executed against one (The Editor of the Aurora) who was desired by the Speaker to leave …39
That’s where things stand today. The Aurora’s reporter takes notes from the crowded House gallery, but the paper continues to report without Congress’ prior review.40
One last word about Congress … A recent visitor claimed, “Philadelphia is not only the finest city of the United States, but may be deemed one of the most beautiful cities in the world.”41 The State-house Park behind Congress Hall supports this view. A current issue of the Philadelphia Monthly Magazine describes the park in these words:
On the south of [the State-house] buildings is a large area … enclosed with a brick wall and commanding an elegant front view of the [Walnut-street] jail, Philadelphia Library and Philosophical hall with the valuable Museum of the ingenious Mr. Peale. This garden is appropriated as a public walk for the use of the Citizens … [I]t is laid down in a grass platt, divided in the middle by a spacious gravel walk, lined with a double row of large native and exotic elms, which form a cool shadowy retreat, and is plentifully supplied with benches for the accommodation of visitors. As this is the only spot in this populous city appropriated to the necessary and refreshing uses of exercise and air, it is usually thronged with company … and on days of festivity, exhibits a lively scene of busy gaiety.43
The City Hall Clock Tower at the State-house, 1798.42 (Its chime foretells each market day.)
Today, being a Friday, is the day before a market day. The covered market in High-street is open each Saturday and Wednesday. To remind Philadelphians that tomorrow is a provisioning day, a bell in the City Hall’s clock tower tolls this evening from dusk until nine, and, as custom dictates, Philadelphians emerge from their homes in fancy dress, meander the brick walking pavements of High, imbibe brandy, whiskey, and Madeira at their favorite taverns, and dance their legs away. At nine, the complexion of the town perceptibly darkens, the crowd of revelers thins, and an occasional streetwalker is the only newcomer to the night’s activities. By ten, the wailing oystermen with their barrows of mollusks are gone, and, by eleven, only the flickering of double-branched oil lamps on sidewalk posts and patrolling watchmen (no longer crying hour or weather) animate otherwise motionless streets.44
One last item … A newsworthy event occurs this Friday evening, March 2nd, though too late for inclusion in tomorrow’s Aurora (Monday’s will report it). Some angry citizen or citizens hurl large rocks at the windows of the Aurora’s office at 112 High-street, shattering a number of panes. This has happened several times before …45
SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1798
GENERAL * AURORA * ADVERTISER
What were the merchants of the United States to expect from France when Great Britain continued to [attack American shipping to France, even) after our treaty with [Britain]? Our country and trade will never be placed upon a safe and respectable footing until our Executive and Legislative authorities display a vigilant and intelligent observation of the misconduct of every foreign nation … whether English, French or Spanish …
The War of the French Revolution between Britain and France continues in its fifth year. The issues and conduct of that war occupy the pages of the Philadelphia Aurora this and every morning.
Five winters ago (which was almost four years after the French Revolution began), Frenchmen guillotined their king, Louis XVI, declared an end to kingly government, and founded France’s first democratic republic. As King Louis XVI passed through “the little door to heaven,” Europe’s other monarchs trembled at the thought that their own populations, inspired by the French example, might send them on a similar journey. Britain’s King George III was quick to respond, joining other European monarchs in a war to crush the French Revolution, to restore the French monarchy, and to prove the invincibility of monarchy in general.
This War of the French Revolution between Britain and France still rages. America claims neutrality in this war, but Britain and France continue to seize American shipping to each other’s ports. Needless to say, America’s merchant-traders are suffering.
Today is Saturday and so a market day. The covered market along High-street is open from daylight till three. A French visitor describes the congestion:
The principal market in Philadelphia excites the attention of every visitor. It is a long building [and] … greatly crowded … [T]he passages sometimes are almost choked up with people … [P]rovisions are so abundant, and the vendors so numerous, that the purchaser who is dissatisfied has but a step or two to make to consult his caprice, or to endeavor to take a better bargain … A great quantity of the provisions sold at Philadelphia is … conveyed in covered waggons that arrive in the night. The horses are unharnessed, and stand round the carts, with hay before them, which the farmer always brings with him, to save expenses at the inns. Sometimes there are more than a hundred of these wa
ggons standing at the upper part of the street in which the great market is situated. Sometimes the farmers retail their provisions themselves, from their carts, which bring veal, pork, poultry, game, butter and cheese, as well as articles of agriculture and even the products of industry. Jersey furnishes the markets of Philadelphia with many articles, particularly hams, poultry, butter, and vegetables …46
The market exudes quality. Another European claims, “for beef, veal and mutton, the big market of Philadelphia is only second to that of London-hall, and, for fish, it only yields to that of New York.”47
The covered country market is a great distraction. Neither the Aurora’s office workers nor the President of the United States can ignore the hawkers and bell ringers, horses and hand-carts, and the babel of Philadelphia’s German, French, Dutch, English, and Gaelic tongues. The Aurora’s subscription office directly faces the boisterous High-street market, but the paper’s two-story print shop is located in a courtyard behind 112, through a vaulted carriageway which separates 106 from 108.48 Office workers suffer market distractions; pressmen and compositors don’t.
Though the High-street country market and a weekly horse auction on Seventh-street are two important Saturday events, Saturday morning is also the time when Philadelphians wash doors, walking pavements, and window ledges, even during the freezing weather of deepest winter. Water for the task is provided by long-handled, black wooden pumps which border Philadelphia’s walking pavements every eighty-five yards or so, on alternate sides of the street.49 Obviously, the Aurora waits till three (when the market closes) before cleaning the brickwork at 112 High.
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1798
American Aurora Page 2