Philadelphia 1681-1887: a history of municipal development;

Front matter

Philadelphia ,

1681-1887 "^

Allinson and Penrose jf <

CHAP. II.— A Mediaeval Corporation— Penn's Charter .... S-59 Authoritv to Incorporate 8

A Close Corporation Constituted 8

Origin of Close Municipal Corporations 9

Integral Parts 11

The Recorder 13

Aldermen !•!

Judicial Functions . . 1-1

Common Councilmen 15

The Common Council 17

Charter Officers 18

The Freemen 1^

jNIiscellaneous Provisions 20

Early Necessity for Legislation 22

Act of 1712, Granting Power of Taxation 28

Highwavs 29

Water 37

Poor 37

Fire 40

Party-Walls 43

City'Officers 46

Ferries and Markets 48

Courts 49

Miscellaneous Ordinances 51

The Revolution 52

Summary of Second Period 54

CHAP. III.— CuARTER OF 1789 TO AcT OF 1854 60-139 Causes leading to Act of 1789 60

A Modern Municipal Corporation 61

Amendments to Charter of 1789 ()2

The ^layor 64

Recorder, Aldermen, and City Courts 65

Councils ^^

X Contents.

PAGE

Corporation Officers, Freemen, &c 67

Public Squares "9

City Property 82

City Trusts 83

Girard Trust 85

Steam Railroads 87

Gas Works 94

Port Wardens 109

Gaols and Prisons . • HO

Right to Borrow and Subscribe to Railroad Stock 118

Power of Committees of Councils 124

Police Regulations 129

Appointment of Officials 133

Review of Third Period 138

Causes leading to Consolidation 140

History of the Act 141

Municipal Bodies Consolidated 142

Sketch of the Districts 143-152

Sketch of the Boroughs 152

Townships 154

The Mayor: his Powers and Duties 156

Judicial Officers 159

Aldermen, Magistrates 160

Councils : their Powers and Limitations 1()1-169

Law Department 171

City Controller 174

Survey Department 185

Building Inspectors 188

Water Deiiartment 190

Gas Department 198

Poor 211

Inspectors of Prisons 213

Port Wardens 214

Content-i. xi

PAGE

Markets and City Property 218

Park Commissioners 220

Public Building 221

City Trusts 224

Relations of City and County 228

Finances after Consolidation 231-254

Receiver of Taxes 233

Board of Revision 236

Expenditure and Debt 239

Sinking Fund 249

Review of Fourth Period 254

Message of INIayor Vaux 257

CHAP, v.— New City Goverxmext, 1887 259-333

Summary of the Past 259

Reform Movement 262

New Constitution of 1874 263

Evils of Old System 271

Departments under New Charter 272-288

Improved ^Methods of Government , 281

Appointment of Officers 288

Impeachment 292

Contracts 293

General Provisions of the New Charter 294

Municipal Reforms in other Cities 297-332

Conclusion 333

APPENDICES 335-367

Text of the New Charter of 1885 335-357

Ordinance of Councils, 1886 359-367 i]^teoduotio:n^.

Local Governmext in Pennsylvania.

While the city of Philadelphia was founded at the command of William Penn, its early government, the extent of its local powers, and its position in relation to the county and the State were determined by those leading principles of local organization inherited from the mother country, and modified by the circumstances of the new colony. By those principles the State was organized, for purposes of local government, into the town and county. Transplanted to the new world, this form of organization underwent three kinds of modifications — either the powers of local government resided principally in the town, as in New England, or in the county as in Virginia, or were divided between both, as in Pennsylvania.

The town, in New England, was the principal and, at first, the only unit of local organization. The Puritans belonged to the middle class of England, and were equal in condition. The character of their religion necessitated a settlement near the meeting-house. The physical conformation of the country compelled them to settle on the coast and rivers; and neither the soil nor the climate tempted them wholly to agricultural pursuits, but rather to trading, fishing, and manufacturing. These causes, combined with the method of division of land, led them to adopt the town system.

In that system it is very remarkable that — coming, as the Puritans did, from the England of the seventeenth century — they reproduced English institutions of a much older shape than they bore in England at that time — the institutions of the settlers of England in the fifth and sixth centuries. Those institutions were simply the earliest forms of political organization among the Teutonic race, consisting in the union of xiv Introduction.

families, natural or artificial, in the clan which, when it has outgrown the predatory stage and has settled in fixed dwellings, becomes the mark or geyneinde from which is descended the town or parish. The ancient liberties and customs of that primitive organization were revived in a great measure in New England; so that the historian Freeman has said, "If you wish to see Old England, you must go to New England."

The leading feature of the New England system, and the one which affords the most striking illustration of its venerable descent, is the town meeting, the assembly of the freemen in person, and not through representatives, to legislate for their local affairs. At these annual meetings the selectmen are elected for the ensuing year, in whom is vested the principal administrative power. Among the other officers elected are, the constable, town clerk, treasurer, overseer of the poor, assessors, collectors, committeemen, road surveyors, j^arish commissioners, various inspectors, tithing men, listers, haywards, chimney viewers, fence viewers, timber measurers, and sealers of weights and measures. Among the many matters of local concern which fall within the jurisdiction of the township are the preservation of peace within its limits, the maintenance of highways, the care of the poor, and the voting of money for these and other local needs.

These township communities are not, as in the popular meaning of the word, a collection of houses, either forming a political community or not. They rather comprise a certain space of the earth's surface which may or may not contain a town, in the sense of a close settlement, but in which the inhabitants form a political community for purposes of local government. The incorporated municipalities in New England, as has been justly observed, are interlopers. A\lien a city has been incorporated the ancient constitution of the township has indeed lost much of its importance, but it has not been abolished. In many cases the two constitutions of the city and township, the modern representative assembly and the Teutonic primary assembly, exist side by side, each with its peculiar powers and jurisdiction.

Local Government in Pennsylvania. xv

"The whole history of our land and our race will be read backwards/' says Freeman/ "if we fail always to bear in mind that the lower unit is not a division of the greater, but that the greater is an aggregate of the smaller." As the union of families produced the clan, known in its territorial aspect as the village mark, so the union of clans, disregarding intermediate divisons, produced the tribe, known in its territorial aspect as the pagus, or county, while the union of independent pcigi has produced the kingdom ; and such is the remarkable analogy between the New England local institutions and their primitive originals, that De Tocqueville was warranted in saying, "It may almost be said that each of them (the townships) originally formed an independent nation. * * * Although they are now subject to the state, they were at first scarcely dej^endent upon it. They have not been invested with privileges, but seem, on the contrary, to have surrendered a portion of their independehce to the state." And, in fact, after the separation from England, when the State government had become firmly established, the towns were still permitted to make and administer most of those laws which were of immediate concern to themselves; while the legislature of the State was composed of representatives from the towns and made laws affecting only the common concerns of the towtts — which laws were executed by the town officers within their respective jurisdictions.

The county in New England was formed by an aggregation of townships to constitute a judicial district midway between the justices' courts and the superior courts of the State, and to take charge of the few matters of common interest to the neighboring communities. But the county had never had a very distinct political character, and played but an insignificant part in the administration of government. The State and the township possessed all the power requisite to conduct public affairs. The few county officers M"cre appointed by the governor, and had only a limited and occasional authority. The budget of the county was dra^m up by its officers and 1 Comparative Politics, page 119.

xvi Introduction.

voted by the legislature. The county court of sessions presided over the small number of affairs wliich concerned the townships in common, such as the erection of prisons and courts of justice, the county budget, the assessment of taxes, maintenance of certain highways, and acted in a judicial capacity in questions concerning the administration of the townships.

Such are the local .institutions of New England, the simplest and best system of local government in existence. They are descended from the primitive institutions of the Aryan race, and especially that illustrious branch of it^ — the Teutonic, and have justly excited the admiration of all men. Jefferson was greatly impressed with their merits, and wrote, "As Cato, then, concluded every speech with the words ' Carthago delenda est,' so I, every opinion, with the injunction, ' divide the counties into wards.' Begin them only for a single purpose ; they will soon show for what others they are the best instruments."

In Virginia, on the other hand, the county is the unit of organization for local government. The colonists of Virginia, it is true, were, like those of New England, of pure English stock ; but there was not the same equality of condition which characterized the early New England democracies. There was, in the beginning, a large body of "servants" sprung from the lowest class of London ; while the early introduction of negro slavery, and the consequent debased condition of the poor whites, contributed to increase the inequality. The result was, that the upper classes took the reins of government into their own hands from the start, and rendered impossible a democratic institution like the general assembly of the freemen in the town meeting. The land, moreover, unlike the small divisions of New England, was held in immense quantities in a few hands ; and the system of entails and primogeniture which, it has been claimed, reached a greater height in Virginia than in England, contributed to the same result — the complete removal of the government from the hands of the people, and the organization of the county for those small

Local Government in Pennsi/lvania. xvii

powers of local government that were granted. The climate, too, was mild, and the country was penetrated in every direction by navigable streams, forming harbors, far in the interior, where the English ship could exchange her cargo of manufactured goods for tobacco grown in the vicinity. The soil, of unrivaled richness, was peculiarly favorable to the cultivation of tobacco, which speedily became the main staple and source of wealth. Indeed, the cultivation of tobacco was so profitable in the early years of the colony, that it was grown in the streets of the only village that then existed ; and it was only by means of the most stringent laws that the farmers could be compelled to grow enough food for themselves and their laborers. The character of the original government, also, had a great influence on the development of the local institutions, and is in marked contrast to the free charter governments of New England. Vast powers were secured to the crown ; the whole legislative and executive power was vested in a council nominated by the crown, and guided by its instructions ; and for many years laws were made and taxes imposed without a legislature, until in the course of time such concessions were wrung from the crown as to lay the foundation of future liberties.

Under such conditions the development of local government in Virginia was in remarkable contrast to that in New England. 'While the settlers of New England, as we have seen, revived the local institutions of the fifth and sixth centuries in England, the settlers of Virginia reproduced local institutions very much like those of England in the seventeenth century. At first, indeed, close settlements were necessary for defense against Indians ; but the population quickly spread beyond the narrow limits of the early plantations, and scattered in agricultural pursuits over the surrounding country. "With the increase of population and trade arose the necessity for courts of justice, and the site of the court house was fixed at the original plantation from which the surrounding country had been settled. The counties were the outspreading of towns or plantations, and took their names from xviii Introduction.

them, as in the case of the county of James City. This growth of a settlement into a county is a most curious phase in the development of local institutions, because, as we have seen, the counties in New England, and in England, were formed from the union of smaller communities.^

The county in a short time became vested with the few powers of local government that existed. The j^rincipal county officer, the lieutenant, was appointed by the governor ; he was chief of the militia, and possessed many of those powers which in New England were divided among the officers of the township. A sheriff was also appointed by the governor for each county, from among three persons nominated by the county courts, generally from among themselves. The other county officers were the coroner and constables. Generally, the judges of the courts nominated their own successors, who were appointed by the governor. Court day was a holiday in all the country side, and was to Virginia what the town meeting was to New England. The jurisdiction of the court w^as limited, and an appeal lay to the governor and council. The county court laid the levy to defray the expenses of roads, buildings, bridges, and salaries of burgesses ; and appointed certain officers, as the surveyors of highways, inspectors of tobacco, and collectors of county levies. The court made its own by-laws, and with representatives from the parish could make by-laws for the county. When circumstances arose which the laws had not provided for, the court was empowered to act. The burgesses in the legislature were elected by the counties.

Nearly half a century elapsed M'hile unsuccessful attempts were made to introduce towns with some measure of local power. The need was early felt for a fixed place of export and import, and for the transaction of business in general. The regular attendance upon the weekly religious services was rendered impossible ; and among many other inconveniences incident to the scattered population, the want of proper

1 Edward Ingle, Local Institutions of Virginia, Johns Hopkins University Studies, third series. II.-III., page 81.

Local Government in Pennsylvania. xix

means for education was keenly felt. But the rivalries of the planters to secure near their own plantations the site of the paper towns ; the weakness, and sometimes even the opposition, of the mercantile class, and the increasing importance of the cultivation of tobacco, for a long time rendered such attempts futile. Every large planter had his own "landing" place, was his own factor, and possessed his own artisans. Even Jefferson, the enthusiastic admirer of New England institutions, wrote, " Let our workshops remain in Europe ;" for " the mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body."i

Before the Kevolution there was not a real city in Virginia. There was the town, for which trustees were appointed by the assembly to attend to the surveying, letting, and selling of the town land, under the direction of the county court; and there were, also, two chartered boroughs, Williamsburg and Norfolk ; but the powers of the mayor, aldermen, and council were extremely limited, and almost everything done by them had first to receive the sanction of the central authority in the form of an enabling act of the legislature.

In Virginia, then, the county was the principal, and at first almost the only, organization for purposes of local government; and the dominant idea of the whole system of government was the gradation of power from the governor downward, not, as in New England, upward, from the people. As we have seen, the important county officers were appointed by the governor, and there was a high property qualification for voters. The administration of the county was, indeed, a close corporation, and about the only share the poor white had in the government was to cast his vote for burgess.

Such are the systems of local institutions in New England

and Virginia. Their development in the two colonics forms

a regular and connected stor}^, and a brief description of them

here has been necessary because they are the originals after

^ Notes on Virginia, page 225.

XX Introduction.

the pattern of which the institutions of the other States have been modeled. Virginia and New England dominated the continent. The settlers in both were of pure English descent, and had the same political inheritance. The important fact to be borne in mind, which is too seldom realized, is that, in both, the institutions were not, like the territorial boundaries, brand-new and artificial, but have a direct and continuous connection with the past.

The two systems met in a struggle for supremacy in the settlement and organization of the North-west Territory. The State of Illinois, formed from that region, affords us an admirable illustration of the conflict of the two ideas. That State extends north and south four hundred miles, between parallels which include the seaboard States from New Hampshire to North Carolina ; and as emigration from the Atlantic to the Western States has always followed parallels of latitude, Illinois w^as settled in the south by immigrants from Virginia and the neighboring Southern States, and in the north, from New England. AMien the first constitution was framed in 1818, immigration had been almost exclusively devoted to the southern part of the State, and that instrument consequently bears witness to the origin of its authors. The basis of local organization, as in Virginia, was the county, but the system was marked by a more liberal and democratic spirit. The entire management of each county was placed in a court of three county commissioners. This court was, indeed, modeled after the Virginia county court, but there were two important differences : the commissioners were elected by the people of the county, and, by a process of differentiation, they had no judicial functions, the county judiciary being made a distinct tribunal. A sheriff, coroner, treasurer, surveyor, and recorder were likewise elected in each county. As in Virginia, however, there was no power given to communities within the county to control local affairs.

" But even at this time there had been planted in Illinois, and throughout the whole West, a germ capable, under right conditions, of developing a highly-organized township system.

Local Government in Pennsylvania. xxi

In dividing and designating the public domain, the Congress of the United States had early adopted the system of survey into bodies six miles square, and had given these divisions the New England name of townships. For purposes of record and sale, each township was divided into thirty-six sections a mile square, and these were further subdivided. Every man held his land by a deed which reminded him that his freehold was part of a township ; and there is much even in a name. But, further than this, the United States had given to the people of every township a mile of land, the proceeds of which should be a permanent township school fund. To give eifect to this liberal provision, the State enacted a law making the township a body corporate and politic for schooL purposes, and authorizing the inhabitants to elect school officers and maintain free schools. Here, then, was a rudiment of local government. As the New England townships grew up around the church, so western localism finds its nucleus in the school system. "What more natural than that the county election district would soon be made to coincide with the school townships, with the school-house for a voting place ? or that justices of the peace, constables, ward supervisors, and overseers of the poor should have their jurisdiction determined by those same township lines ?"^

After tli,e admission of Missouri as a slave State, under the compromise of 1820, southern emigrants turned to that quarter, while the northern part of Illinois began to be settled by immigrants from New England and New York. A strong sectional bitterness ensued between the northern and southern parts of the State, and the systems of Virginia and New England met fairly in contest for supremacy. The contest was at length compromised in a remarkable manner in the constitution of 1847, which provided tliatthe legislature should enact a general law for the organization of townships to be adopted by any county by a majority vote. One by one the counties

* Local Government in Illinois, by Albert Shaw, A. B. Reprinted from the Fortnightly Review, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, first series, III., page 10.

xxii Introduction.

of Illinois have taken advantage of the provisions of the law, until at the present time only one-fifth of the two hundred and two counties in the State cling to the old system.

The form of township organization adopted was a modification of the New England system. Each township generally conforms to the boundaries of the congressional or school districts, and possesses very large powers to manage its local affairs. As in New England, the leading feature is the annual town meeting of all the voters for the election of town officers and the transaction of local business.

In Pennsylvania still a third system of local government was developed, wherein neither the county nor the township was the only unit, but what local powers existed were divided between both. This system has likewise had an influence upon the development of local institutions in other States. The history of its growth is not as simple as in the case of New England and Virginia, being complicated by the fact that three different nations for many years contended for the possession of the shores of the Delaware, and it was not till after many compromises that English institutions were finally established there.

The first permanent settlement on the Delaware was Fort Nassau, built by the Dutch West India Company in 1624, near the present site of Gloucester, N. J. While the company was anxious to establish a trading post to secure the valuable fur trade with the Indians, they at the time were so completely taken up with their more lucrative privateering war upon the rich merchant ships of Spain, that for many years the enterprise languished, and, as may be easily imagined, was not favorable to the development of democratic ideas or local government. The powers of the company were in the highest degree despotic, and in many respects were coextensive with those of the States-General themselves. They might, "in the name and authority of the States, make contracts, engagements, and alliances with princes and nations of the countries mentioned," and " also build forts, &c. ; appoint and discharge governors, people for war, officers of justice,

Local Government in Pennsylvania. xxiii

and other public officers/' &c} A general right of approval and superintendence was reserved to the States. In order to forward the prosperity of the colony, the " Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions " was granted by the company. This was a complete feudal constitution, creating a landed aristocracy, and handing the State over to their control. The territory was to be divided into separate principalities, each under the control of a patron — a feudal lord — who was to settle it at his own expense in return for many peculiar privileges.^ But small success, however, attended these first attempts of the Dutch to effect a permanent settlement, until in 1638 the arrival of a colony from Sweden marks a new era.

The subsequent events upon the Delaware, before the arrival of William Penn, may be divided into three periods : first, the period of Swedish supremacy from 1638, when the first permanent settlement was made, to 1655, when the Swedes were overthrown by the Dutch, under Peter Stuyvcsant ; secondly, the period of Dutch supremacy, from 1655 to 1664, when the colonies on the Delaware, with the rest of the New Netherlands, M^ere conquered by the English ; and, thirdly, the period from 1664, when a large part of the settlements on the Delaware were included in the grant to the Duke of York, to 1681, when the province of Pennsylvania was granted to William Pcnn.^

The first settlement of the Swedes was made at Fort Christina, near the present site of Wilmington, in 1638, by the Swedish West India Company. The powers of that company were very much the same as those of the Dutch company, with the exception that its object was colonization and commerce, and not warfare. In the charter to Henry Hockhammer, a native of Holland, who is said to have actually planted a colony in the vicinity of Fort Christina, it is remarkable that the Swedish company granted much more liberal terms than the Dutch company had previously done.

' Charter of the "West India Company, Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, page 9. 2 Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, page 22. ^ Laws of Pennsylvania, 1G82-1700. Historical notes.

xxiv Introduction.

The laud was secured to the settlers as " allodial and hereditary property." They were given the right of administering justice, founding cities, villages, and communities; to make laws and appoint magistrates and officers. Liberal provisions M'cre made for the exercise of religion and the support of education.^ Of the laws and customs of the Swedes upon the Delaware, however, we have but little record. In the instructions to the Swedish governor, Printz — the most important state document of this period — ^he is commanded " to decide all controversies according to the laws, customs, and usages of Sweden; to bring to obedience and order, by necessary and convenient means, the mutinous and refractory persons who will not live in peace ; and he may punish great offenders, if he finds any, not only by imprisonment and other proportionate punishments, but even with death, according to the crime, if he can seize the criminal ; but not otherwise than according to the ordinances and legal forms, and after having sufficiently considered and examined the affairs with the most noted persons, such as the most prudent assessors of justice that he can find and consult in the country.'"'

"This — although but a glimpse — is sufficient to show," says Mr. Armstrong in his introduction to the Upland Court Eecords,* " that no special code was prepared for the government of the colony. The laws of the mother country were in ancient times various and conflicting, each province being governed by its own peculiar customs and statutes. About the year 1614 a compilation of these laws was made for the direction of the whole kingdom ; deficiencies and doubtful cases being supplied and explained by the aid of the civil law. It must not be forgotten, also, that the period of the independent power of the Swedes was a series of contests with their Dutch neighbors, who claimed an exclusive right to that region, although neither side came to blows for a long time, since they both feared the English, whose encroachments from

1 Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, page 53.

- Pennsylvania Archives, second series, vol. V., page 7B4.

2 Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. VII., page 38.

Local Government in Pennsylvania. xxv

the north and south threatened them both more and more to a much greater extent than they did each other. Surrounded also by Indians, treacherous and uncertain, and being few in numbers, it is natural to suppose that the government was a form of military rule, emanating from the company or its delegated agent, and by no means conducive to the growth of local independence; and that this government, among such a peaceful people as the Swedes, engaged in the cultivation of tobacco and the trade in peltries, was of the simplest kind.

At length the contests between the Dutch and the Swedes culminated in open hostilities, and ended in the conquest of the latter by the Dutch in 1655, under Stuyvesant, the director-general of New Netherlands. This conquest was followed by the establishment of a Dutch government on the Delaware, and the appointment, by degrees, of proper officers for the enforcement of the law and the administration of justice.

The government of New Netherlands, of which the settlements on the Delaware now formed a part, consisted of a director-general and council. The council had the supreme authority to make laws and execute them, and had also jurisdiction over all civil and criminal cases, although distant settlements were allowed their own courts, subject to an appeal.

In this highly-centralized government one of the most important officers was the schout, or fiscaal, who combined many of the duties of a sheriff, district attorney, or prosecuting officer, and acted in many cases for the States-General and the company. He " was charged specially with enforcing and maintaining the placards, laws, ordinances, resolutions, and military regulations of their high mightinesses the States-General, and protecting the rights, domains, and jurisdiction of the company, and executing their orders, as well in as out of court, without favor or respect to individuals. He was bound to superintend all prosecutions and suits, but could not undertake any actions on behalf of the company, except by order of the council ; nor arrest nor arraign any person on a criminal charge, except on information previously received, or unless he caught him in flagrante delicto. In taking xxvi Introduction.

information lie was bound to note, as well those points which made for the prisoner, as those which supported the charge against him, and after trial he was to see the proper and faithful execution of the sentence pronounced by the judges, who, in indictments carrying with them loss of life and property, were not to be less than five in number. He was, moreover, especially obliged to attend to the commissaries arriving from the company's outposts, and to vessels arriving from or leaving to Holland, to inspect their papers, and superintend the loading and discharging of their cargoes, so that smuggling may be prevented."^