My scrap-book of the French Revolution

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MY SCRAP-BOOK

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aSook I.

REMINISCENCES OF AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN RESIDENT IN PARIS FROM 1791 TO 1799.

CHAPTER PAGE

Book I

REMINISCENCES OF AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN RESIDENT IN PARIS FROM 1791 TO 1799-

I. Thomas Waters Griffith: he goes to France.

II. August AND. September, 1792.

III. His Imprisonment.

IV. Life in Paris under the Directory.

CHAPTER L

THOMAS WATERS GRIFFITH : HE GOES TO FRANCE.

THOMAS WATERS GRIFFITH, who was born in Baltimore in 1767, and died in the same city in 1834, left behind him several printed books of which he was the author, many papers and letters of historical interest, and a copious account of fifty years of his own life, eight years of which time he passed in France during the stormy days of the French Revolution. As a merchant resident in Havre, and subsequently U. S. Consul at the same port, he had it in his power frequently to favor the escape oi emigres ; and Louis XVHL, in recognition of these services, sent him the Cross of St. Louis in 1816. Mr. Grjfifith says little, however, of such things in his Journal. In 1799, during the disputes between the United States and the Directory, he quitted France, to which country he never returned. He was afterwards sent on a mission to Hayti, of which he has given an interesting lO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

account in his Journal. Tlie manuscript ends in 1821, after wliich time he led till 1834 an uneventful life as a public-spirited and useful citizen of Baltimore.

That my readers may know what manner of man was this young eye-witness of the French Revolution, from the autumn of 1 79 1 to 1799, I here introduce his Revolutionary experience by a few extracts concerning his early life in the first pages of his Journal. It begins thus : —

The Proprietary of Pennsylvania had taken so much pains to cultivate the place of his first settlement in that province that the population soon increased by immigration. Early in the eighteenth century came out a colony of Welsh Baptists from England, who took up a considerable body of land on the head waters of Christern Creek. They had brought with them their own pastor, the Rev. John Griffith, my great-grandfather, and they at once erected a brick church, and set aside land for its support. The colonists retained their habits of industry and honest simplicity. They were a rural population fifty miles distant from the port of Philadelphia^ and they long preserved their native (Welsh) language, in which indeed I have often heard them converse with fluency and pleasure.

My father, Benjamin Griffith, when he had acquired a small capital, settled down in Baltimore, and married Rachel, daughter of Thomas Waters, who was also of Welsh extraction. I was the only child of this marriage, my young mother dying in Baltimore shortly after my birth. I was then sent as soon as possible to the care of my grandparents in Chester Co., Pennsylvania, who lived within sight of Valley Forge. In those days imported convict servants were employed in Maryland, and an Irish girl of this description was sent to take charge of me in Pennsylvania. Such servants were often persons of the worst character, who brought crime and disorder into peaceful families. My nurse was of this description, and her conduct towards me, her unfortunate charge, betrayed such criminal designs that my protectors got rid of her as soon as possible. Not long after, she was tried for murder at Chester, convicted, and executed.

THOMAS WATERS GRIFFITH.

THOMAS WATERS GRIFFITH. n

My father married again and had a large family, two daughters ^ and five sons. I take pleasure in reflecting on the respect my ancestors had acquired by their uniform integrity, and their religious and benevolent deportment. My father, Benjamin Griffith, was an outspoken enemy to British taxation, and when our Revolutionary troubles broke out, and troops were raised in Baltimore and Pennsylvania, he at once volunteered his services, while his family was moved from Baltimore to a place of safety.

When in 1776 the British army passed within two miles of my grandfather's house, and halted a day or two south of the Valley Forge, I well remember the appearance of the Hessians, who came looking for Colonel Denvers, who had married my aunt. Not only did they plunder our house and barn, but they went so far as to put a halter round my grandfathers neck, alleging that he would not tell them where the rebel colonel was. This, in fact, he did not know, the colonel being at that time at the American headquarters then moving from place to place in advance of the enemy. To Mrs. Denvers and her infant boy (who they knew was named George Washington) they were civil enough ; and also to myself, although I was not a little alarmed at their strange language and long whiskers. I thought them savages, and very dreadful. When scouting parties came it was necessary to spread before them quantities of bread, butter, cheese, and such drinks as the house afforded. The foraging parties gave out that all they took should be paid for in Philadelphia, and my grandfather took their receipts, but nothing was ever received. Not long after the British left to occupy Philadelphia, the same ground was occupied by American troops ; and Colonel Denvers' house became the headquarters of General Potts, whose orderly conduct and social manners made him a great favorite among us.

After the battle of Gerraantown, in which my father served with the Baltimore troop, he was sent to bring back to Baltimore the remains of his commander, General Cox, whom he

1 The younger daughter married, in 1S13, Randolph Wallace Lati mer of Baltimore. — E. W. L.

had interred upon the battlefield. He took this opportunity, as I was then ten years old, of reclaiming me from my grandparents, and took me home to be placed under the care of his second wife, who was my mother's cousin.

I missed, however, the freedom of country life, and pined for the farm of my grandfather. But thus it happened that I was spared all sight of the sufferings of the Revolutionary army in the terrible winter of 1777-78, when, half-naked and half-famished, our soldiers encamped during the bitter winter months between the Heights looking down on Valley Forge and the Schuylkill.

It was the year 1776, and I was sent to school in Baltimore, but I often changed my teachers, who were forced to give up teaching for various causes ; one, — Mr. Laurence Bathurst, who was a good man and an excellent instructor, — because he was a Roman Catholic. At that time nothing was taught in those schools but English reading, writing, and ciphering, and there was a great scarcity of teachers of any kind. It was a fortunate circumstance, I think, for the establishment of free institutions in the United States that the state of society at that period was rather patriarchal than refined. Children were under great restraint to parents ; their manner of living was plain ; their desires limited ; and the rules of justice, with the fear of God, were implanted in the youthful mind by the general use of the Bible and Testament as reading-books in the schools.

When I had attained the age of fourteen I was sent to a superior school in Delaware. The whole yearly expense of my boarding and tuition was about eighty dollars. The fare was very scanty, but we had at least some tea and sugar after the French alliance and the change of the currency from paper money to specie ; whereas before that our diet was confined to bread and milk, or other plain food, to which no doubt I owe a length of days which my infancy by no means promised, and certainly a disposition to be thankful for any kind of sustenance a bountiful Creator may provide for me.

At this school I made progress in learning, and was held to have had success in elocution, so that Governor Van Dyke of Delaware, who was present at one of our school celebrations, had the complaisance to advise my being kept at school and placed where I might study law as my profession. But a year or two later, when an offer was made me of going into the office of a relative who was a Baltimore lawyer, my father told me plainly (being moved thereto, I think, by the strict religious opinions of his wife) that in his opinion the profession was not compatible with Christian duty. There can, I think, be no doubt that some professions afford less security against temptation than others, and perhaps that of the law is the worst in this respect. Still, some lawyers have been called honest, and it depends on any man under Divine Providence to guard himself, and make his profession honest and even honorable so far as depends on himself.

At the school in Delaware we had occasional private theatricals ; on one occasion I acted Marius in Addison's play of " Cato," and the Mock Doctor in an after-piece. The news of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis was celebrated by burning thirteen tar barrels elevated on poles in our schoolyard.

I was taken at sixteen from that school, — alas ! too young ; but my father had not abandoned the idea of completing my education. An intimacy had sprung up between himself and some French officers during their stay in Baltimore, and this induced him to wish that I should acquire the French language. He had indeed promised M. Louis, Commissioner- General, who had been quartered in his house in 1781, to send me to France, and put me under his care. I was therefore placed at a school where I could learn French, and in 1783, peace being restored with the acknowledgment of American independence, a sudden impetus was given to commerce, building, and general improvement in Baltimore. My father filled several of the municipal offices, and I was placed in a counting-house to learn book-keeping. But my father, wishing to open for me a more extensive field of improvement, sent me to Philadelphia to be placed in the counting-house of Mr. John Field. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and expressed himself " wilHng," as he said, " to take the youth ; " but he demanded a premium of eight hundred dollars. This my father, with his large family by his second wife, was unable to pay. All my life I have been somewhat anxious to be smartly dressed, and my appearance, as I heard afterwards, was in part the cause of the high premium demanded, for Mr. Field observed that from my looks he was led to consider my father as a wealthy man ; and that, dress as I might, I should have to make fires and sweep out the store for some time. To this I should have offered no objection, but the sum asked for my premium was too great. I was therefore placed in Baltimore with a merchant recently arrived from Liverpool.

Besides attending to business in a way which I was led to believe was wholly satisfactory to my employer, I found time to take lessons in French, dancing, and psalmody, also in instrumental music for a short time ; but the latter was particularly discouraged by my employer, who took occasion to say in my presence that a good merchant and a good musician could not be combined in the same person. Therefore my fiddle was laid aside with the approbation of my father, although he was particularly fond of music. He was always consulted by me in matters of amusement as well as business, and his will was ever a law to me, not only from the awe inspired by his occasional rebukes, but from the gratitude ever due to an affectionate and prudent father. He was at that time much influenced by his wife, who had recently joined the Baptist communion. My father greatly revered the character of an open professor of religion, though he never embraced it himself He cheerfully hired seats in the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, until about this time a stated minister was procured for the Baptist Society. I had myself been baptized in my infancy by the rector of St. Paul's Church. I had not, however, at the period of which I write, formed any decided religious sentiments, but was induced from a slight knowledge of classical literature rather to incline to the theology of heathenism. This tendency to skepticism was probably stimulated by the suspicions of my father, who at this time exhibited much anxiety concerning my religious opinions. I did not, however, relax in my attendance on public worship, nor allow the slightest want of respect to appear in my conduct towards religion and its professors.

When I attained my twentieth year and received a clerk's salary, I was eager to pursue my acquaintance with foreign languages, and boarded first with a German, afterwards with a French family. I made one observation which I think I have never seen elsewhere; namely, that there are in these languages no terms of swearing exactly corresponding to our English cursing.

I occasionally looked into Mr. Murphy's Circulating Library, but I did not subscribe. My father's collection of books was limited, chiefly divinity. I read with great interest Hume's "History of England" and the "Spectator." To this last I was indebted for the general knowledge of manners with which I commenced life. I also belonged to a debating society of young men as little advanced as myself, and became a member of the first Abolition Society, at this time started in Baltimore, and in its establishment I took much interest.

The people of Baltimore, during the first years that succeeded the war, grew faster in wealth than in discretion. In the course of three years a reaction came. The country was exhausted of capital to pay for excessive importations. Each State was seeking relief for itself, and great fears were entertained lest we should be subject to taxation in passing from one State to another. People of property were compelled to reduce their expenses, and the working classes were destitute of employment. The Treasury of the Union was empty, and could not be replenished by funds from the States, for the States had relied on duties collected in their ports ; these daily diminished, and pubhc creditors were either put off or paid in some States by a further issue of paper, — an expedient that afforded only temporary relief. But there was little of this paper in circulation. Baltimore had been without a bank until nearly this period, and all large payments were made in bags of heavy coin.

Under these circumstances my employer diminished as much as possible his expenses; and, unfavorable as the times were, I embarked in business on my own account. My capital consisted only of my savings ; but my character for integrity and industry stood me in good stead, and on the whole I succeeded far better than could have been expected. I also, about this time (1790), began to send communications to the newspapers. My opinions were those of a Federalist ; and it is with some pride I can add that the same political principles have been my guide and standard throughout life.

I had occasionally visited my respected grandfather, who was living in Philadelphia ; also New York and Alexandria, with a desire to find one of these places suitable for my future business ; but I finally concluded on going to France and establishing myself in one of the French seaports, where I could receive consignments from America.

This determination was greatly strengthened by the admiration with which at that time (1790) I viewed the first steps taken in France towards the establishment of a free government, — a sentiment in which, it may be said, every man in America partook at that period, including my aged grandfather.

Although Mr. Adams had forcibly pointed out the dangers that might arise from uncurbed democracy, and our own General Government had been modelled on his principles, the true position of things in France was not even suspected in America ; indeed, every act of the Constitutional Assembly was enthusiastically admired. There was no republication in America of the speeches of the more conservative members, which might have corrected our ignorant enthusiasm ; while the splendid declamations of Mirabeau, which were all reprinted, made us think that Frenchmen were fitted for a government more hberal than our own.

Personal attachment to Louis XVI. was, however, very general in the United States, for the services he had so lately rendered us ; and many no doubt thought it likely that a British Constitution, with a limited monarchy, would be the blessing France would derive from the Revolution. The violent acts of revenge which were committed against families residing in chateaux in the country were not fully known to us ; and by this time they had partially ceased, the great body of the nobles having emigrated. The converting of the immense tracts of land held by the clergy and the monks to the relief of poor cures and their parishioners, long oppressed by taxation, was approved by our own people, many of whom looked on these things as a repetidon of what had been done in England in the days of the Reformation by our ancestors.

My grandfather spoke often of the three wars in which England had been engaged with France during his lifetime, one of which, if not two, had brought strife to his own door ; and though he devoutly prayed that peace should pervade the whole earth, he foresaw, as he often told us, that before his death he should see another war.

During my frequent visits to Philadelphia I had seen among my relatives a young lady who was my cousin by the mother^^ side, and who was about two years younger than myself. She appeared to me more charming than any other, and she seemed inclined to favor my partiality. She maintained a regular correspondence with me, until at last I conceived that I had only to ask to obtain her hand. I felt I could not be happy without her. This it was that induced me to dispose of my business in Baltimore in order to fix myself in Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia I persevered in my attentions to my cousin until I discovered that she was actually engaged (and had been so for some time) to another gentleman. This, though perhaps a fortunate thing for a young man in my circumstances, wounded my self-love and in every way did me an injury. Possibly my vanity may have led me to put flattering constructions on a woman's mere politeness, though I still think it was not excusable in my fair cousin to continue such a correspondence after an engagement without an avowal of it ; nor do I think she was justified in soliciting my influence with her parents in favor of my rival. This did not reconcile me to my disappointment. All further inter-

1 8 THE FRENCH REVOLUTIO.V.

course ceased from that moment ; -^ and as absence and new faces were most likely to obliterate the recollection of her attractions from my mind, I decided, as I have said, to seek my fortunes in France, taking leave of my relatives, and especially of my dear and aged grandfather, who parted from me with much solemnity, warning me to be careful, sober, and just in my transactions ; to put my trust in God ; and to remember that if (as he said) the rolling stone should gather no moss, there was always a home for me under his roof in Philadelphia. As for me, the tears rushed down my cheeks as from the eyes of a child six years old.

Georgetown, in the District then laid out for the seat of our General Government, being the best place in which to purchase good yellow tobacco, I went there, and embarked seventeen hogsheads in the hope of making something by them, and I sailed with them in the ship " George," Captain Wildes, belonging to Mr. Theodore Lyman of Boston, at the latter end of August, 1791.

Before the ship had been long at sea the necessity of a superintending Providence impressed itself upon my mind, and I forever ceased to consider it a matter of indifference whether there were twenty gods, or the One God.

Our passage was boisterous and tedious. Anxious to learn the situation of affairs in Europe that I might judge of my future prospects, I persuaded the captain to land me at Dover, whence I went on by a night coach to London.

In London, besides attending to my business, I did the usual sight-seeing, catching a ghmpse amongst other things of King George IIL as he skipped into his carriage, and was amazed by the rapidity of his movements.

In London an American gentleman associated in the shipping business at Havre, with Mr. Francis Taney, proposed to me to assist them for a while. I was glad to accept this offer, but I knew I could not be very useful to them, nor prosecute my intention of establishing myself in France,

^ The miniature of this lady now hangs over my mantel-piece. It was taken from his pocket-book after his death, fifty years after the cruel disappointment he has here recorded. — E. W. L.

until I had acquired a more familiar knowledge of the language of the country than I had been able to obtain by reading and translating •' T^l^maque."

Although it was the close of 1791, and the Revolution was well on its way in Paris and its surrounding provinces, Normandy was not very much disturbed. Havre was still garrisoned by several Swiss regiments, the officers of which were very accomplished, and maintained excellent discipline ; but the National Guard, lately established, performed some duties, and as every one was obliged to serve in this new militia, if called upon, I did not find myself exempt, and had to engage a substitute from time to time.

After staying some weeks in Havre, I decided to go to Bolbec, about twenty miles distant from it on the Paris road, where a respectable school was kept by a priest, still unmolested, in an old abbey. Most of the scholars were the young sons of West Indian planters.

I found the landscape in Normandy rural and pleasing. The highways were excellent. The country was studded with farmhouses surrounded by apple orchards. I saw, too, young children leading cows to pasture by the wayside. But I was surprised to learn that no butter was made to sell.

Bolbec had a cotton factory, for Normandy is manufacturing as well as agricultural. I found there a young gentleman from Boston of the Russell family, who, like myself, was boarding in this quiet village for the sake of learning French. We were received into the house of a surveyor who occupied part of the old abbey, and we paid at the rate of ^260 a year for board and instruction, the young ladies of the family undertaking the latter, though we also hired the services of a master.

I made such progress that at the end of two months I was able to return to Havre ; and from that time I was able to speak and write French almost as if it were my native language.

Many of the characteristics of the Normans are no doubt derived from the blood of their Norse ancestors. Amongst the French they are distinguished by their sagacity and love of cicier, to which the climate, being colder than most other parts of France, may incline them. I found them a plain, industrious, frugal people, clad as their ancestors, it was said, had been from time imraemorialj in drab cloth, broadbrimmed hats, and wooden shoes. The females owe to the climate the fairest complexions in France. They all wear pyramidal caps, of mushn or lace, with lappets hanging down the back. Their weddings are almost as solemn as their funerals. They go to church in pairs, youths and girls ; but on their return the friends of the bridal couple keep open house with feasting and dancing for many days.

The poultry, fruit, and meats of Normandy are excellent ; fish and oysters also are procured from the British Channel. Normandy left to itself would never have become revolutionary. Its people were conscious of no intolerable oppression.

So far the events in Paris had been to the quiet inhabitants of Bolbec little more than mere news. It will be recollected that in the summer of 1791 Louis XVI. had been stopped near the frontier at Varennes in an attempt to fly from France, and that he was brought back to Paris. There the uncertainty felt as to his real views was the cause of suspicion. Doubts marred the enjoyment that the nation had begun to take in the Constitution and the new state of things.

News of the flight to Varennes, which took place June 21, had not reached America at the close of August, when I began my voyage, so that I was quite ignorant of what had so materially changed the face of affairs. I began to find it difficult to form any opinion concerning the Revolution in progress. On this subject I found my two most intimate French acquaintances — the surveyor and the abbe — at variance, but with this difference : the surveyor was boisterous and outspoken enough, while the abb6 was afraid to say much, even to Russell and myself, because we were not subjects of a monarchy. With my friends at Havre I continued to hope for the success of the liberal principles intended to be established by the new Constitution, without reference to a republican form of government, such as had been established in our own country. And these appeared to be the sentiments of the merchants and people with whom 1 associated.

At Havre and at Bolbec I accompanied my friends to church, for, in whatever language God was worshipped, the place was sacred to me ; and I thought I gained in piety by my presence there, though I was ignorant of what I heard, the service being in Latin everywhere.

The commerce of Havre was chiefly with the West Indies, including formerly much of the trade in unfortunate Africans. Its population was about 30,000. It had two churches and a small theatre.

In the spring of 1792 I left Havre for Paris, intending to establish myself in the south of France, the place to be determined by what I might see in the capital. War had by this time been declared between France, Germany, Austria, and Prussia. Louis XVI. had boldly rejected laws which would have deprived him of the means of performing acts of charity, but now felt himself compelled to sanction war against his own brothers.

In Paris I went to lodge in a hotel, rather retired, in the Rue Gu^negard. I waited at once on Mr. Gouverneur Morris, the American minister, and met there, among others, Commodore John Paul Jones, Joel Barlow the poet, James C. Mountflorence, and several more Americans. I also met the Count d'Estaing, Saint John de Crevecoeur, Esq., formerly consul of France in New York, and his son Otto, M. Ray de Chaumont and his lady, formerly Miss Cox of Philadelphia, and Madame de Lafayette, with some of her family, but the marquis was already at the head of an army on the borders of the Rhine.

Commodore Paul Jones died in Paris soon after my arrival there ; and I, with the American gentlemen I have named, and a small deputation from the National Assembly, attended his funeral. His interment took place in one of the common cemeteries of the town. There was no priest, nor any funeral service, but a few soldiers fired a volley of muskets in honor of the naval hero over his grave.

22 THE FREA'CH REVOLUTION:

My stay in Paris was prolonged by my great interest in the stirring events of the time, until my finances became low, when, remembering how much my country owed to France for her aid in resisting England, I began to consider a plan for joining the army under General Lafayette. I looked with admiration on the services the general had rendered to the cause of liberty^ both in my own country and in France. I was moreover influenced by Major Mountflorence, who had served in the North Carolina Line. I therefore agreed with that gentleman that we should consult with Mr. Morris, our minister, and, if agreeable to him, go to camp with recommendations that he might furnish us to General Lafayette, and obtain suitable employment in the French army, under his command, if possible. But Mr. Morris, though he had not been much longer in France than either of us, filled a post, and occupied a station, which enabled him to appreciate the state of public affairs, and see further into futurity than ourselves ; besides which, genius and judgment he was known to possess.

When we made our plan known to him, he politely tendered us the letters for Lafayette, but advised us most earnestly to decline them for a few weeks, declaring prophetically that the Constitution would be crushed, and the marquis be overthrown with the king at the same time. This counsel alarmed Major Mountflorence as well as myself. We agreed to postponement, and never again thought of joining an army towards which the marquis had been accused of treachery, and from which at last he was forced to fly, having risked his life in Paris to resent insults to the king on the 20th of June preceding.