The republican court; or, American society in the days of Washington

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Contents

PAGH

THE SEASON OF EIGHTY-NINE AND NINETY . . . .203

APPENDIX 427

II

Turning from the most credulous study of the half fabulous annals of ancient nations, to the history of our own country, for the period which is embraced in the memories of many who are still living, our reason falters in astonishment; we instinctively regard with doubt and disbelief the unparalleled advance in population, wealth, power, and all the elements of greatness, of those feeble and exhausted colonies, which in 1783 were acknowledged

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to lbe independent states, and which now constitute one of the first of the leading sovereignties of the world. Since Washington resigned his sword, at Annapolis, our three millions of people have increased to thirty millions, and New York, with its suburbs, which since some of her present citizens arrived at the age of manhood had but thirty thousand inhabitants, is now the third city in Christendom, likely at the next decennial census to have rank nearest to London, and at no distant period to take from even that great capital her long enjoyed supremacy, in numbers, riches, and magnificence. Boston contained at the close of the war about thirteen thousand inhabitants, in 1786 fourteen thousand and. two hundred, and in 1789 eighteen thousand ; the population of New York had increased, when the federal government was inaugurated, to thirty-three thousand, of whom two thousand and three hundred were slaves ; and that of Philadelphia to forty-two thousand, of whom less than three hundred were slaves, and these probably for the most part owned by temporary residents.

In each of these three cities, and indeed throughout the colonies, there was at the commencement of the war as much refinement of manners, with as generous a culture of the heart and the understanding, as could be found perhaps in any foreign society. Many of the young men who were then coming forward had been educated at Eton, Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh ; and our own colleges of Harvard, Yale, Nassau Hall, and William and Mary, and King’s College in New York, were far more respectable for the character and learning of their professors, the judicious thoroughness of their courses of instruction, and the gentlemanly discipline maintained in them, than is commonly supposed. Schools for young women also were very numerous, and some of them were widely known and most liberally supported. The most celebrated of these was the Moravian establishment at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania,

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where, in nun-like seclusion, were educated a large proportion of the belles who gave the fashionable circles of New York and Philadelphia their inspiration during the last twenty years of the century.*

In Boston there was undoubtedly more real respectability than in any other town of its population in the British empire. It was the home of the families of Winthrop, variously illustrious from the foundation of the colony, and of Cushing, Quincy, Bowdoin, Dana, Prescott, and others of hereditary distinction ; and here lived the “ silver tongued orator ” Samuel Cooper, and Samuel Adams, John Adams, Joseph Warren, James Otis, John Hancock, John Singleton Copley, and a great number besides who became honorably conspicuous in history. Except in letters, in which the names of Dana and Prescott have reappeared with additional splendors, Boston has never since, notwithstanding her growth in numbers, magnificence, and means and displays of refinement, presented a more remarkable array of dignified character and eminent abilities.

We have some glimpses of the social life of Boston at the close of the war, in the entertaining memoirs of the Marquis de Chastellux, who went the round of fashionable gayeties here in 1782. He noticed the prevalence in society of a certain “ton of ease and freedom,” but thought the gentlemen awkward dancers, particularly in the minuet. The women were well-dressed, but with less elegance than those of Philadelphia. The assembly room was superb, in a good style of architecture, well decorated and well lighted — much superior to that of the Philadelphia City Tavern. He drank tea

* “ I have seen a remarkable institution for the education of young ladies, at Bethlehem. About one hundred and twenty of them live together under the same roof ; they sleep all together, in the same garret ; I saw one hundred and twenty beds, in two long rows, in the same room ; the beds and bedclothes were all of excellent quality, and extremely neat. How should you like to live in such a nunnery?” — John Adams, to his daughter, March 17, 1777.

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at Mr. Bowdoin’s and was there with a supper party of twenty of the select people of the city.* The next day, with the Marquis de Yaudreuil, he dined at Mr. Breck’s, where, among some thirty persons, he encountered Mrs. Tudor, who knew French perfectly, and was possessed of understanding, grace, and delicacy, and Mrs. Morton, who, besides speaking French, was a poetess of no mean celebrity. Soon after he attended the Tuesday evening Club, which is still in existence, at the end of more than a century from its commencement ; and calling again at Mr. Bowdoin’s, his admiration was kindled at the sight of that gentleman’s beautiful grand-daughter, the eldest child of Lady Temple, “ an angel in the disguise of

* Francis Jean, Marquis de Chastellux, litterateur, philosopher, and soldier, was born of a noble family in Paris in 1734. He was elected in 1775 one of the forty members of the French Academy, and in 1780 came to America, with the rank of Major General, under the Count de Rochambeau, and remained here between two and three years. He published De la Felicite Publique, 1772; Voyage dans VAmerique Septentrionale, dans les annes 1780-81-82, in two volumes, which were severely criticised by Brissot de Warville ; Essai sur V Union de la Poesie et de la Musique ; Discours sur les AvantagesctDesavantages qui resultant pour V Europe de la Decouvcrte de VAmerique ; Discours en Vers addresses aux officiers et soldats des differentes Armees Americaincs, traduit de l’Anglais de David Humphreys, and some other works, besides articles in the Encyclopedic, &c. He died in 1788. It was but a short time before his death that the Marquis was mai'ried, and he wrote to Washington advising him of the happy event. The Chief answered in one of the few examples of written pleasantry we have from him. “ I was,” he says, “ not less delighted than surprised to meet the plain American words, * my wife.’ A wife ! well, my dear Marquis, I can scarcely refrain from smiling to find you caught at last. I saw by the eulogium you often made on the happiness of domestic life in America that you had swallowed the bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier. So your day has at length come. I am glad of it, with all my heart. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are well served for coming to fight in favor of the American rebels, all the way across the Atlantic ocean, by catching that terrible contagion, domestic felicity, which, like the small pox or the plague, a man can have only once in his life, because it commonly lasts him, (at least with us in America : I know not how you manage these matters in France,) for his whole lifetime. And yet, after all, the worst wish which I can find it in my heart to make against Madame de Chastellux and yourself is, that you may neither of you ever get the better of this same domestic felicity, during the entire course of your mortal existence. If so wonderful an event should have occasioned me, my dear Marquis, to write in a strange style, you will understand me as clearly as if I had said, what in plain English is the simple truth, ‘ Do me the justice to believe that I take a heartfelt interest in whatever concerns your happiness,’ And, in this view, I sincerely congratulate you on your auspicious matrimonial connection.”

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a young girl.” * M. de Chastellux discovered that the Americans had the bad habit of eating too frequently, and they made him play at whist, with English cards, much handsomer and dearer than were used in Paris, and marked their points with louis d'ors. The stakes however were easy to settle, notwithstanding the addiction of the people of this country to gambling, for the company was still faithful to that voluntary law established in society which prohibited playing for money during the war.

M. Jean Pierre Brissot de Warville followed in a few years, and was not less pleased than the Marquis de Chastellux with the amiable, affable, hospitable people of Boston. Were he to paint all the estimable characters he met in that charming town, he tells us, his portraits would never be finished. The Bostonians were even then somewhat too philosophical in their religion, but they united simplicity of morals with that French politeness and delicacy of manners which rendered virtue most agreeable. They were true friends, tender husbands, almost idolatrous parents, and kind masters. The grim young republican heard in some houses the piano forte, and exclaimed, “ God grant that the Boston women may never, like those of Paris, acquire la maladie of perfection in the art of music, which is not to be attained but at the expense of the domestic virtues ! ” The “ demoiselles here had the liberty enjoyed in Geneva, when morals were there, in the time of the republic ; and they did not abuse it. Their* frank and tender hearts had nothing to fear from the perfidy of men : the vows of love were believed ; ” and wives, to sum up all, were “ occupied in rendering their* husbands happy.”

* Miss Temple, afterward Mrs. Wiuthrop, and the mother of the present Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, was brought up in Governor Bowdoin’s family, and adopted by him as a daughter. With him she lived during the whole period of the revolution, meeting at his house Franklin and Lafayette, and all the French and American officers of distinction who visited the city. Lafayette was a great admirer of hers, and called often to see her during his last visit to America. She was long the reigning belle of Boston.

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