Philadelphia

Although we had gotten to know a little about our friends Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe; we felt that something was missing. We needed to see the place where these Founding Fathers had all gathered and created “the grand experiment” called America—we needed to visit America’s birthplace, Philadelphia. Since Cathy was attending her nephew’s first birthday in North Carolina, I, Tom, made the trip on my own.

Philadelphia is about 140 miles from our home in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, an easy 2.5 hour trip up I-95. The Philadelphia historical area is bordered by the Delaware River and 7th Street (east to west) and Race Street and Spruce Street (north to south). Since I had lived in Philadelphia in the late 1980’s, I knew my way around. I originally intended to save money by parking on the street but was not able to find a legal spot, so I opted for a parking garage. All day parking just outside the historical area was $17.50.

My main goal was to visit Independence Hall, since that is the place where both the Declaration of Independence AND the Constitution were conceived, created, and signed. So I headed immediately to the Independence Visitor Center to get my free entry ticket. But I got distracted as I walked down Chestnut Street.

The Signer
In a small park on Chestnut Street, right next to the Second Bank of the United States, stands a larger than life statue of a man of the Colonial era. He is called The Signer and he holds a document high overhead in one hand and flourishes a quill pen in the other. It is a dramatic pose.
I have always been interested in this statue. Why? Because when I lived in Philadelphia in the mid-1980s, I was friends with a man who claimed to be the model for The Signer. To this day, I don’t know if he was telling the truth. But he could strike The Signer’s pose dead on. That, and the date of the statue (1980) made me believe that his claim could be true. So I’ve decided that someone had to be the model for the statue, so why not him?

Independence Visitor Center
Once I had taken the obligatory shots of The Signer, I scurried off to the Independence Visitor Center to get a mandatory ticket to Independence Hall. Tickets are issued that allow entry to 80 people every fifteen minutes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., roughly 2,500 tickets per day. When I arrived at the Visitor Center it was 11:30 a.m. and they were running low on tickets. My brief stop at The Signer might cost me. When I got to the ticket counter, they had but five more tickets--I had made it with seconds to spare. However, I would have to wait until 4:30 for the tour. But that was no problem; I was happy just to get a ticket. Plus there are plenty of other sites to see.

The Visitor’s Center has two small movie theaters, both of which I visited. One shows a 20 minute film called Choosing Sides. The film describes four young characters of the Colonial period who must make decisions about their loyalties: a patriot, a loyalist, a Quaker, and the last can only be described as the fence sitter (but I can’t be sure since I fell asleep and missed this part.) The second theater shows a 30 minute film called Independence. Hollywood director, John Houston, is the director. The film begins as a zombie show as several key figures from the Revolutionary era literally return from the grave: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, is unjustly neglected and only has a cameo. For most of the film, the actors are bathed in a fog to represent the unholy act of the rising from the dead. Following the re-enactment of the signing of the Constitution, Ben Franklin returns to the grave with the mournful warning, “you have a Republic if you can keep it.”

Predidents' House
Just across the street from the Visitor’s Center is an open air exhibit on the site of the house that both Presidents Washington and Adams rented during 1790-1800 when the capital was in Philadelphia. They rented the house from Robert Morris, a wealthy patriot who sadly ended up in debtor’s prison. The exhibit sits atop the glass enclosed foundations of the original house, now 10 feet below street level. The house is but a five minute walk from where the Congress met in the Pennsylvania State House next to Independence Hall.

Strangely, the majority of the exhibit is devoted to the evils of slavery. I’m not sure why such an exhibit is located at that particular spot, but I guess it’s as good a spot as any to highlight this evil practiced by four of the first five presidents. The slavery exhibit focuses on the slaves owned by Washington and his wife, Martha. Under Pennsylvania’s “gradual emancipation” law at the time, slaves brought in from out of state could claim their freedom after six months. However, clever slave owners such as Washington, rotated their slaves out of state so that they could not claim their freedom. In addition, Washington signed the Fugitive Slave Act which required the return of slaves who crossed state lines.

One of the Washington’s slaves, a woman named Oney Judge, did manage to escape while in Philadelphia. President Washington had his steward, Frederick Kitt, run an advertisement for her capture. “Ten dollars will be paid to any person (white or black) who will bring her home….” (She was never caught and lived to a ripe old age in New Hampshire.)

Carpenter’s Hall
This relatively little known building is a must see. Not because of what it looks like, but because of the four major events that happened there. First, the First Continental Congress met here in the fall of 1774 to discuss their grievances against England following the passage of the so called Intolerable Acts. (The Intolerable Acts were a series of acts passed by Great Britain in response to the Boston Tea Party. These acts called for the closure of Boston Harbor, stronger control over the Massachusetts government, restrictions on the trials of royal officials, and quartering of troops in the homes of private citizens.) That Congress consisted of representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies. Georgia did not attend because they needed England’s help in dealing with their Indian problem at the time. This First Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Association, which restricted trade with England.

Second, in December of 1775, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and Francis Daymon met with Julien Achard De Bonvouloir of France to discuss French military support for the Revolution. France, an avowed enemy of the British, was eager to assist the colonies. The meeting was held in tight secrecy because France, obviously, did not want the British to know of their possible involvement.

Third, in June of 1776, an “Extra-Legal Body” of Pennsylvania citizens declared the official Pennsylvania Assembly invalid and opted to join the other colonies in the fight against England.

And last, this building was the temporary site of the First Bank of the United States until the actual First Bank building was constructed a few blocks away. The original vaults still exist in the basement.

The building, which has been in continuous use for more than 230 years, still contains some original Windsor chairs from the First Continental Congress. The Carpenter’s Company, consisting of 180 professional in the building, engineering and architectural professions, still meets here.

First Bank of the United States
The First Bank of the United States is not open to the public so I could only admire it from the outside. The Romanesque building is a monument to Alexander Hamilton who fought hard for a national bank. The bank enabled the states to combine their Revolutionary War debt as well as create a common currency. The South resisted the notion of a Federal bank claiming it was unconstitutional. However, George Washington signed a bill chartering the bank in 1791.

Second Bank of the United States
Because the charter for the First Bank ran for only 20 years, it expired during the term of James Madison. It took another half decade and the accumulation of additional war debt (from the War of 812) to convince Congress to charter the Second Bank in 1816.

The Second Bank building, modeled on the Parthenon, was open. It is now a gallery containing the portraits of dozens of the major figures of the Revolution. A majority of the portraits are by Charles Wilson Peale but there are others by Gilbert Stuart and Thomas Sully. The building also contains a large statue of George Washington by William Rush. There is also a full length painting of Lafayette looking regal in his cape.

Old City Hall
The Old City Hall, located next to Independence Hall, housed the Supreme Court from 1791 until 1800. It looks much like the modern courtroom of today except for the prisoner’s box in the middle of the room. One of the park rangers remarked that many people think the first Chief Justice was John Marshall but it was, in fact, John Jay, the co-author of the Federalist. John Marshall actually argued a case here and lost. The only original furnishing remaining is the Chief Justice’s uncomfortable looking wooden chair.

Congress Hall (Old name: County Courthouse)
On the other side of Independence Hall is the County Courthouse, now called Congress Hall. It was in this building that Congress met for the first ten years of the new republic (1791 to 1800). Here also the First Bank of the United States was originally established (1791), the Navy established (1798), and the Alien and Sedition Acts passed (1798).

The House of Representatives met downstairs and the Senate met upstairs. The House of Representatives had a similar configuration to that of today with much room for mingling and listening to debates. The Senate Chamber upstairs is smaller but more impressive. The Great Seal of the United States, created in 1782, is painted on the ceiling. The eagle holds arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. The eagle’s head faces toward the olive branch, symbolizing the United States’ preference for peace while always being prepared for war.

Great Essentials Exhibit
In the west wing of Independence Hall is the Great Essentials Exhibit which contains original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. (I’m not sure what an “original copy” actually is.) The light is kept low to preserve the documents, making them difficult to view. However, it was nice to be so close to these historical documents. (No tickets are needed to view this part of Independence Hall.)

Independence Hall (Pennsylvania State House)
And then finally it was time to visit Independence Hall. All day I had been thanking my good fortune for snagging one of the last tickets for the tour. However, as I waited in the line to enter the building, I learned that the Park Service allows people without tickets to get in if the 80 person limit had not yet been reached during any quarter hour segment. During my tour, they let in about 50 people without tickets—so I could have easily scored a tour without a ticket.

Much of Independence Hall is original but it was reconstructed in 1828. It is currently undergoing renovation and the clock tower is covered in scaffolding.

The highlight of Independence Hall is the Assembly Room where the Second Continental Congress met from May 1775 until December 1776. In this room sat many of the same delegates as the First Continental Congress with the addition of such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. It was here that the Declaration of Independence was conceived. Our guide, Larry, said that Thomas Jefferson wrote ninety percent of the Declaration of Independence. (I was disappointed that he didn’t give credit to the other authors: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin.) The Declaration was accepted here on July 4, 1776 and on July 8, John Nixon read the Declaration of Independence in State House Square (now called Independence Square). Following the reading the King’s coat of arms was burned.

That same summer, the Congress began work on the Articles of Confederation. This was a document that outlined the governing of the new states. It was put to the states for ratification in 1777 and passed by 1781. However, the Articles of Confederation was a weak document that only loosely regulated the states and did not allow for the collection of taxes. Without funding, the government could not operate.

In the summer of 1787, delegates from the 13 states met in this room to fix the Articles of Confederation. James Madison was successful in arguing that the Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced and not amended. This gathering became known as the Constitutional Convention. Notables from past Congresses, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were absent. However, James Madison convinced George Washington to attend and Washington was quickly elected as president of this Constitutional Convention. He sat in what later became known as the Rising Sun chair. The term was coined by Benjamin Franklin who pronounced the carving of the half sun on the back of the chair as a rising rather than a setting sun, representing the rising of the American republic. On the 17th of September 1787, the Constitution was signed by the delegates and put forward to the states for ratification. (The ratification was completed by June 1788.)

Following the tour, I asked Larry, who is African American, “What is the most meaningful thing for you ”? He said the most important thing for him was the Founders’ ability to compromise to move the Constitutional process forward. They realized that they would have to compromise on slavery or no deal on the Constitution was possible. They had to do the same with state’s rights, although I believe these two issues are closely linked. Larry was also taken by the amendment process that allowed the Constitution to accommodate new information and interests.

Liberty Bell Center
Because the long line of earlier in the day had disappeared, I made a quick stop at the Liberty Bell Center. (Hint: you can actually view the bell from the outside the building through a special window designed for the purpose.) Inside, a series of exhibits describes the history of the Liberty Bell and how it had been subsequently used world-wide as an icon for freedom. During World War Two, the Liberty Bell icon was prominent on Liberty Bonds used to raise money for the war effort. The bell, with its prominent crack, is placed at one end of the Center and is constantly guarded by a National Park ranger. (The bell was attacked by a person with a hammer not long ago.)

Final Thoughts
On Slavery. It is the human condition to view history backwards rather than forward. But sometimes we should try to view it from the perspective of those we study so that we can better understand their viewpoint. So, to understand the actions of the Founding Fathers we need to look at history from their perspective, not ours. Each was born into a pre-existing culture and were shaped by it, just as we are by ours.

The institution of slavery—principally to provide labor for plantations—was deeply entrenched in southern colonies when the Founders were born and raised. The Virginians—Washington, Jefferson, and Madison—were raised in this slave dependent culture while John Adams, whose father was a Massachusetts preacher, was not. Although the Founders were outraged enough to challenge the intolerable yoke of British oppression, most had no similar outrage against slavery. Most seemed to be disturbed by it, but not profoundly. They were unwilling to challenge slavery in any meaningful way.

One very important thing to remember is that the delegates from the southern colonies were immovable in their support for slavery. All the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were aware that—in the near term—there would be no challenging the concept of slavery without also destroying the creation of the Constitution.

On Memorial Day. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, Larry reminded us that owe our freedom to George Washington and his soldiers. That is a good ending to this day.

James Monroe, President No. 5 (1817-1825)
Ash Lawn 

It was a drizzly cool May day when we found ourselves yet again in the pursuit of another president — this time James Monroe. To see his plantation, Ash Lawn, we needed to retrace our steps from last January; Ash Lawn is just a few miles from Jefferson’s Monticello, outside Charlottesville, Virginia. (This is no coincidence, but more on that later.)

The admission was $12.00 for each adult ticket but they threw in a nice AAA discount of $1.00 for us. There is no museum per se at Ash Lawn, hence no movie to give us a sense of the man (and a chance to nap). There is a museum at his birthplace, just outside Fredericksburg, Va.

Note that the home has not always been called Ash Lawn. It was called Highland in Monroe’s day. Subsequent owners renamed it Ash Lawn for the majestic ash trees that line the entrance drive.

We were greeted at the house by Allison, a self-proclaimed history buff. She was extremely knowledgeable, but Tom had a hard time following her rapid-fire delivery. Cathy was forced into the note-taking role.

The first thing we learned is that the majority of the house is not from Monroe’s era. It is only the “white” portion of the home that is original. It consists of five rooms on a single floor.

As noted above, it is no coincidence that Monroe lived so close to Jefferson. He sought to live close to his friend (and father figure), who in fact selected the house site for Monroe. James and his wife, Elizabeth, occupied the house from 1799 to 1823 — except for their eight years in the White House.

What we would call the living room holds an original bust of Napoleon. The bust was a gift to Monroe, who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase with France while serving as Jefferson’s Minister to France.

The house has many portraits and paintings. Among them are portraits of Washington, Ben Franklin and a print of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – according to tour guide Allison, it was fashionable in the late 1700s and early 1800s to have those three pieces of art hanging in your house.

Highland was pretty small, compared with Monticello and Montpelier. So Monroe didn’t have many house guests. However, James and Dolly Madison, who lived about 30 miles away in Orange, were the first overnight guests. The Marquis de Lafayette also stayed with the Monroes, sleeping in a guest house near the main house. As Allison said, “Lafayette slept everywhere in Virginia.”

Under the house, we visited the kitchen. We learned that the Monroes were the first family in the U.S. to have a waffle iron. They also had a cookie press, which had George Washington’s likeness on it – Pillsbury would be jealous.

We also learned about tea bricks. Tea leaves were very expensive and tea bricks were much cheaper. Yes, they are bricks of tea. Kitchen help would grate off the tea leaves from the brick with something like a lemon grater and then put that into a tea cup. Each square is called a cachet, and each cachet would make 20 cups of tea.

Outside the house, we wandered the rather small but nice grounds and eventually found ourselves in the old ice house. There another guide, Gerald, was giving a lecture on Monroe’s role in the expansion of the United States. Monroe negotiated the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million while serving as Jefferson’s Minister to France.

Who was James Monroe?
Monroe held more political offices than any other U.S. president: Virginia state delegate, member of the Continental Congress, U.S. senator, ambassador to France, Virginia governor, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and, of course, President.

Throughout his life James Monroe preferred to be called Colonel. He was the first veteran since Washington to be elected president. His Revolutionary War credentials are deep. In December 1776, he crossed the Delaware twice with General Washington--first as a scout and second as a combatant. He was wounded in the Battle of Trenton the next day. He also joined General Washington at the infamous winter at Valley Forge (1777-1778).

Monroe began his political life in 1782 when he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly. He served at the Confederation Congress in Philadelphia from 1783 to 1786.

Allison told us that Monroe is the only person to be fired by two different presidents. He was fired by President Washington for favoring the French too much when John Jay was negotiating “Jay’s Treaty” with Great Britain. Monroe loved France and hated Britain, which obviously was an issue when negotiating treaties and walking a fine line between the two countries, which were constantly quarreling--and the U.S. hadn’t decided yet whose side to take in their spats.

Monroe also was fired by President Jefferson for not negotiating a favorable treaty over Britain’s impressment of American sailors. Monroe had actually negotiated a treaty with Britain in 1806 that would have ended the slave trade in both countries, but Jefferson didn’t like the language regarding the impressment issue. Britain agreed to stop taking American sailors, but the treaty didn’t explicitly say that Britain “didn’t have the right to take” American sailors. Jefferson was furious and refused to send it to the Senate for ratification.

Monroe also served as Secretary of State under President Madison and later was appointed to the second position of Secretary of War.

James Monroe was the last Founding Father to be elected President. He was first elected as President in 1816 and was re-elected in 1820. He is the only president besides George Washington to run unopposed. However, he lost one vote in the electoral college when an elector from New Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams—the next U.S. president—instead.

Monroe had many legacies in his two terms as president, some large, some small.

His first legacy is probably the expansion of the U.S. during his two terms in office. As president, he bought Florida and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana from the Spanish for $5 million.

He was a tireless proponent of national security and reached treaties with every major power. He convinced Congress to fund a system of coastal fortifications and built forts all along the coasts to protect the U.S. from foreign enemies. He also secured the border with Canada, which was owned by Britain. He vowed never to allow the United States to be attacked as it had been by the British during the War of 1812 when they were able to easily reach Washington, DC and burn it.

In 1820, President Monroe faced the so-called Missouri Compromise, a bill that allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state but restricted slavery in future states that were located above latitude 36°30′ north. This was 30 years after the Compromise of 1790 that located the nation’s capital in the slave holding south in exchange for the establishment of the First United States Bank. These compromises were leading inexorably toward the Civil War.

It is prescient that during the contentious Congressional debates, Georgia Congressman Thomas W. Cobb screamed at New York Congressman James Tallmadge, Jr. that “if you persist, the Union will be dissolved. You have kindled a fire which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, which seas of blood can only extinguish.” Tallmadge replied: “ Let it come!” And it would…40 years later (May, 2008).

His most enduring legacy is the Principles of 1823, which later became known as the Monroe Doctrine. These were actually three paragraphs in a speech he gave to Congress in December 1823. He thought the U.S. was too weak to fight lots of wars, so he thought a policy of sticking to affairs in the Western Hemisphere would be advantageous to the fledgling country. As well, South American countries were declaring their independence from Spain and Portugal and he wanted to keep them secure from recolonization. Essentially he told Europe to stay the heck out of the of the Americas and the United States would stay the heck out of Europe. (Not that the United States was actually powerful enough to do much in Europe.) (Historians are divided on how much of the Monroe Doctrine is attributable to Monroe and how much to his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams.)

But other small legacies are important, too. For example, he was the first president to make rules about where people sat at dinner in the White House, a European custom. And his daughter Maria Hester was the first presidential daughter to be married in the White House.

Monroe struggled financially his entire life. Plantations were not big money makers, and Monroe suffered when tobacco prices dived. He did try to diversify, and ran a quarry, grist mill, blacksmith shop and added a sheep farm. He also started switching to wheat when tobacco prices fell. And one of his slaves was a spinner, who was able to make lots of money for Monroe with her woven goods.

But he was able to acquire a lot of land out west in poker games, since land often was used as payment. And he was able to exchange land grants for items he wanted to buy for the house.

Yes, we continue to be amazed by the lack of financial acumen by the Founding Fathers. Although Allison told us that Jefferson was actually a great financial adviser, though he was deeply in debt when he died.

Jefferson’s death affected Monroe, particularly the fact that Monticello and all of Jefferson’s belongings had to be auctioned off because he was so deeply in debt. At that point, Monroe started trying to get his financial house in order. Still, his son-in-law had to sell all of Monroe’s 3,000 books – and all of his slaves -- when he died.

It is worth noting that in the early days of the United States, the pay for public service was not high and public servants were required to pay much of their expenses out of pocket. According to Hart (2005), Monroe petitioned Congress and several presidents for unpaid expenses. His entreaties were largely ignored and he died destitute.

Following our tour we asked Allison her impressions of Monroe. She said that she was aware that many people think Monroe did whatever Jefferson and Madison told him to do. But she believes that he was very much his own man—although admittedly a better administrator and delegator than intellectual thinker.

Monroe’s French Connection
Monroe loved France, and you can tell by looking around his house. The design of the house, which was built by Jefferson, is French. Much of the décor inside is French, including the French wallpaper, which many rich colonists used to convey their status to guests. And Monroe’s French-designed serving pieces are in the White House. Monroe and his family were the only Americans to attend Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor of France in 1804. This is no coincidence since Monroe’s daughter, Eliza, was close friends with the daughter of Empress Josephine, Hortense, from a previous marriage.

Monroe was in quandary the first time he went to Paris. The French Revolution was underway, Robespierre had been to the guillotine, and the Republic had taken over. He didn’t know who to present his official diplomatic papers to, so he presented them to the Assembly, which was a first. (The French turmoil was advantageous to Monroe and Elizabeth, though – the Republic needed money and was auctioning off Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s possessions at Versailles, so the Monroes were able to buy lots of French stuff at a discount.)

Monroe and Slavery
Monroe did the most of the Founding Fathers to end slavery, but he never freed any himself.

He had about 30 slaves on his plantation doing everything from working the tobacco crops to spinning yarn and making candles. He, like Jefferson, thought slavery was evil but couldn’t figure out how to deal with it.

The big hang-up, apparently, was that he and other politically active slave-owners thought it was the state’s responsibility to pay landowners for freeing the slaves since the slaves were considered property. He also believed that freeing the slaves would lead to a never-ending race war. (While governor of Virginia, he quashed a planned 1800 slave revolt and had 26 slaves hanged including the instigator, Gabriel Prosser.)

The United States abolished the slave trade in 1808 when Monroe was Secretary of State under Madison. However, the law allowed states to decide what to do with any slaves captured from slave ships sailing from Africa caught off the states’ shores. And since slaves were valuable, selling slaves quickly became a good way for states to make money. Rhode Island, for example, was a big slave-trading state. And many New England states traded slaves down to the Caribbean since they didn’t allow slavery themselves.

And as the country expanded south and west, slaves became more valuable in those areas, where new and successful crops were being grown, such as cotton and sugar cane. Slaves sometimes were sold in New Orleans and Georgia for twice what they would go for in Virginia.

In fact, Monroe had a problem with slaves trying to run away. So he threatened to sell them to landowners in New Orleans, which had a much higher death rate than Virginia.

Skin color also determined the value of a female slave – the lighter skin the better, particularly in New Orleans. Why? Because light-skinned slaves could be used for prostitution.

And of course female slaves were more valuable than male slaves for the obvious reason that they could produce offspring. But also, their jobs were year-round since they did the kitchen and house work. Men worked the fields, but not in the winter.

Although Monroe never freed his own slaves, he did support the American Colonization Society, which established Liberia in West Africa as a place for freed slaves to colonize. Its capital was named Monrovia in his honor.

References

Hart, G. 2005. James Monroe. Henry Holt and Company. New York, NY.

May, G.  2008.  John Tyler.  Henry Holt and Company.  New York, NY. 

Unger, H.G. 2009. The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness. Da Capo Press. Philadelphia, PA.