Comfortable Philadelphia (1788)

BY JEAN PIERRE BRISSOT DE WARVILLE

(ANONYMOUS TRANSLATION, 1792)

PHILADELPHIA may be considered as the metropolis of the United States. It is certainly the finest town, and the best built; it is

the most wealthy, though not the most luxurious. You find here more men of information, more political and literary knowledge, and more learned societies. Many towns in America are more ancient; but Philadelphia has surpassed her elders. . . .

At ten o’clock in the evening all is tranquil in the streets; the profound silence which reigns there, is only interrupted by the voice of the watchmen, who are in small numbers, and who form the only patrole. The streets are lighted by lamps, placed like those of London.

On the side of the streets are footways of brick, and gutters constructed of brick or wood. Strong posts are placed to prevent carriages from passing on the footways. All the streets are furnished with public pumps, in great numbers. At the door of each house are placed two benches, where the family sit at evening to take the fresh air, and amuse themselves in looking at the passengers. It is certainly a bad custom, as the evening air is unhealthful, and the exercise is not sufficient to correct this evil, for they never walk here: they supply the want of walking, by riding out into the country. They have few coaches at Philadelphia. You see many handsome waggons, which are used to carry the family into the country; they are a kind of long carriage, light and open, and may contain twelve persons. They have many chairs and sulkeys, open on all sides; the former may carry two persons, the latter only one. . . .

Philadelphia is built on a regular plan; long anti large streets cross each other at right angles: tiffs regularity, which is a real ornament, is at first embarrassing to a stranger; he has ranch difficulty in finding himself, especially as the streets are not inscribed, and the doors not numbered. It is strange that the Quakers, who are so fond of order, have not adopted these two conveniencies; that they have not borrowed them from the English, of whom they have borrowed so many things. This double defect is a torment to strangers. The shops, which adorn the principal streets, are remarkable for their neatness.

The State-house, where the Legislature assembles, is a handsome building: by its side they are building a magnificent house of justice. . . .

Behind the State-house is a public garden; it is the only one that exists in Philadelphia. It is not large; but it is agreeable, and one may breathe in it. It is composed of a number of verdant squares, intersected by alleys.

All the space from Front-street on the Delaware to Front-street oft the Skuylkill, is already distributed into squares for streets and houses: they build here, but not so briskly as at New-York. The inhabitants wish for the aggrandizement of their city: they are wrong; Philadelphia is already too considerable. When towns acquire this degree of population, you must have hospitals, prisons, soldiers, police, spies, and all the sweeping train of luxury; that luxury which Penn wished to avoid. It already appears: they have carpets, elegant carpets; it is at favourite taste with the Americans; they receive it from the interested avarice of their old masters, the English. . . .

The Quakers have likewise carpets; but the rigorous ones blame this practice. They mentioned to me an instance of a Quaker from Carolina, who, going to dine with one of the most opulent at Philadelphia, was offended at finding the passage from the door to the staircase covered with a carpet, and would not enter the house; he said that he never dined in a house where there was luxury; and that it was better to clothe the poor, than to clothe the earth.

If this man justly censured the prodigality of carpets, how much more severely ought he to censure the women of Philadelphia? I speak not here of the Quaker women; I refer my observations on them to the chapter which I reserve for that society. But the women of the other sects wear hats and caps almost as varied as those of Paris. They bestow immense expences on their toilet and head dress, and display pretensions too affected to be pleasing. . . .

Notwithstanding the fatal effects that might be expected here from luxury, we may say with truth, that there is no town where morals are more respected. . . .

There is no town on the continent where there is so much printing done as at Philadelphia. Gazettes and book-stores are numerous in the town, and paper-mills in the State.

Among the printers and booksellers of this town, I remarked Mr. Carey, an Irish printer . . .

This printer, who unites great industry with great information, publishes a monthly collection, called The American Museum, which is equal to the best periodical publication in Europe. It contains every thing the most important that America produces in the arts, in the sciences, and in politics. The part that concerns agriculture, is attended to with great care. . . .

Since the peace, the Quakers have returned to their commerce with great activity. The capitals which diffidence had for a long time locked up in their coffers, are now drawn out to give a spring to industry, and encourage commercial speculations. The Delaware sees floating the flags of all nations; and enterprises are there formed for all parts of the world. Manufactories are rising in the town and in the country; and industry and emulation increase with great rapidity. Notwithstanding the astonishing growth of Baltimore, which has drawn part of the commerce from Philadelphia, yet the energy of the ancient capitals of this town, the universal estimation in which the Quaker merchants are held, and the augmentation of agriculture and population, supply this deficiency.

You will now be able to judge of the causes of the prosperity of this town. Its situation on a river navigable for the greatest ships, renders it one of the principal places of foreign commerce, and at the same time the great magazine of all the productions of the fertile lands of Pennsylvania, and of those of some of the neighbouring States. The vast rivers, which by their numerous branches communicate to all parts of the State, give a value to the lands, and attract inhabitants. The climate, less cold than that of the Northern States, and less warm than that of the South, forms another very considerable attraction.

But I firmly believe that it is not simply to those physical advantages that Pennsylvania owes her prosperity. It is to the manners of the inhabitants; it is to the universal tolerance which reigned there from the beginning; it is to the simplicity, œconomy, industry, and perseverance of the Quakers, which, centering in two points, agriculture and commerce, have carried them to a greater perfection than they have attained among other sects. . . .

And since the table of population of a country appears to you always the most exact measure of its prosperity, compare, at four different epochs, the number of inhabitants paying capitation in Pennsylvania.

You see that population has more than doubled in twenty-five years, notwithstanding the horrible depopulation of a war of eight years. Observe in this stating, that the blacks are not included, which form about one-fifth of the population of the State. Observe, that by the calculation of the general convention in 1787, the number of whites in this State was carried to 360,000; which supposes, very nearly, a wife and four children for every taxable head.

The public spirit which the Quakers manifest in every thing, has given rise to several useful institutions in Philadelphia, which I have not yet mentioned. One of them is the Dispensary, which distributes medicines gratis to the sick who are not in a situation to purchase them.

See how easy and cheap it is to do good. Let those men blush, then, who dissipate their fortunes in luxury and in idleness! One thousand six hundred and forty-seven persons were treated by this establishment during the year 1787. By calculation this treatment cost to the establishment five shillings and nine pence for each patient. Thus, for two hundred pounds sterling, sixteen hundred and forty-seven persons are rendered happy. . . .

Another society has for its object to alleviate the situation of prisoners.

The Philadelphians confine not their attention to their brethren; they extend it to strangers; they have formed a society for the assistance of emigrants who arrive from Germany. A similar one is formed at New-York, called the Hibernian Society, for the succour of emigrants from Ireland. These societies inform themselves, on the arrival of a ship, of the situation of the emigrants, and procure them immediate employ.

Here is a company for insurance against fire. The houses are constructed of wood and brick, and consequently exposed to the ravages of fire. The insurers are the insured, a method which prevents the abuses to which your company at Paris is exposed.

J.P. Brissot de Warville, (Dublin, 1792), 312–328 passim.