Legends of Loudoun Part 16

At the end of the eighteenth century Loudoun was, in politics, a Federal stronghold. Colonel Leven Powell has long been credited with being the founder of that party in the county. The momentous election for members of the Convention of 1788 was bitterly fought. Stevens Thomson Mason and William Ellzey, both lawyers, were opposed to the adoption of the Federal Const.i.tution. For its adoption stood Colonel Powell and Colonel Josias Clapham. Both of the latter, as we have seen, were old soldiers but no match as orators to their opponents and thus were at a great disadvantage in the contest. Powell's great personal popularity alone is said to have secured his election. Mason also won but the county remained so strongly Federal that its vote dominated its Congressional District.

When war with Great Britain was forced upon us in 1812, a cavalry regiment was raised in Loudoun of which Armistead Thomson Mason of Selma became colonel. But the incident in that war which most prominently stands out in Loudoun's memory came in 1814.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OAK HILL. EAST DRAWING ROOM, showing mantel presented to Monroe by Lafayette, and other historical furniture.]

After the American forces under General William H. Winder had been defeated by the British at Bladensburg in August of that year, it was apparent that the capture of Washington was highly probable. Madison's Secretary of State, James Monroe, had been in the camp of General Winder, closely studying with him the enemy's movements and seeking to appraise the ability of the Americans to successfully defend the Capital. That he was not rea.s.sured by what he thus learned is shewn by the letter he sent to President Madison wherein he advised him to remove from Washington the government's more important records. The President recognized, none too soon, the imminence of the danger. The more valuable of the government archives were ordered to be taken from Washington and Stephen Pleasanton, then a clerk in the State Department, was placed in charge of their removal. He caused to be made a large number of linen bags in which were placed the government's books and doc.u.ments, including the _Declaration of Independence_ and the Const.i.tution. It is said that the painting of Mrs. Dolly Madison, hanging in the White House, was cut from its frame and accompanied the government's records. Some accounts aver that, so numerous were the archives, twenty-two two-horse wagons were used in their transportation from Washington; others who have written of the incident say that four four-horse wagons only were used, while still others claim the method of transportation to have been by ox-teams. However they were carried, they left Washington across the old Chain Bridge and sought their first safety in the grist mill of Edward Patterson on the Virginia side of the Potomac two miles above Georgetown. So threatening was the British advance, however, that it was deemed prudent to carry the precious cargo further up-country; the wagons were duly reloaded and the caravan continued to Leesburg, where the sacks were placed for one night in the courthouse according to some writers or, on the authority of others, in a vacant building in the town, the key of which was given to a certain Rev. Mr. Littlejohn, a young clergyman then recently ordained. The next day the sacks were again placed in the wagons and driven to the nearby plantation of Rokeby where in its vaults they were stored for two weeks until it was safe to return them to Washington.

During those two weeks President Madison was a guest of Ludwell Lee at Belmont, whence he directed National affairs; and ever since that time it has been a primary and essential a.s.severation in the credo of every true Leesburger that the town was, during that stirring fortnight, the de facto Capital of the United States.

Proud as that memory may be today, the event itself is said to have caused great anxiety to the more substantial citizens of the town and nearby country for fear lest their sudden prominence in the affairs of the nation would invite a swift and disastrous foray upon them by the temporarily triumphant Britons; a denouement which, happily, did not ensue.

CHAPTER XIV

MATURITY

When Patrick McIntyre published the one hundred and tenth number of _The True American_ in Leesburg on Tuesday the 30th December, 1800, he, following the tradition of his craft, probably left his office with a lively sense of antic.i.p.ation of the town's forthcoming celebration of the advent of a new century; that he could have foreseen that a single copy of that issue would be the sole available survivor of his journal in 1937 is not to be presumed. Yet in the Library of Congress that single copy begins its collection of Leesburg's newspapers and no copy of the paper is known to survive today in Loudoun. Its four pages devote themselves to the proceedings of Congress, to European affairs, to the activities of the Virginia House of Delegates and to the new treaty with France. The local news must be gleaned from the advertis.e.m.e.nts. The Rev.

Mr. Allen advertises religious services to be held in the courthouse;[134] one W. C. Celden, a slavedealer, informs the public that he "has some likely young NEGROES which he will dispose of reasonably for cash;" and on the 4th page is found an item, obviously inserted by a private individual protecting himself with a cloak of anonymity, "For Sale. A likely NEGRO GIRL who has to serve for the term of nineteen or twenty years. She is now about twelve years of age, and very well grown, and will have to serve one year for every child which she may have during the term of her servitude. The terms of sale may be known by application to the Printer." The widow of Colonel Burgess Ball asks that those having claims against his estate will send them to her as the Administrators were anxious to make provision for their immediate payment.

[134] See Chapter XIII ante.

The ultimate fate of _The True American_ is unknown. In 1808 there was established in the town the _Washingtonian_ which became the recognized organ of the Democratic party in Northern Virginia for many years. No surviving copy of any issue of the first year of this paper has been found by the present writer. Until 1841 it divided the Loudoun field with Whig compet.i.tors; after that date its journalistic rivals appear to have been of its own political faith, notably the _Loudoun Mirror_, established in 1855. In its early years the _Washingtonian_ had a st.u.r.dy compet.i.tor in the Whig _Genius of Liberty_, copies of which are now rarely to be found. The most numerous available are in a broken file in the Library of Congress, beginning with numbers issued in 1817 and owing their conservation to the fact that they had been sent by the editor to the Secretary of State. As with the earlier _True American_ these newspapers contain much foreign news and correspondence with lengthy reports of legislative activities in Richmond and Washington; and, in addition, an acrimonious and undignified exchange of long-winded and abusive letters in the Mason-McCarty-Mercer controversies. But that a county paper should find its first duty in presenting local news was not within the philosophy of the editor. Only here and there may one find a paragraph recording some local incident--but patient search is occasionally rewarded. A branch of the Bank of the Valley had been opened in Leesburg in 1818 with local subscribers to its stock and T. R.

Mott acting as cashier. Then in the issue of the 31st March, 1818, we read:

"Specie. Arrived on Wednesday last at this port after a pleasant pa.s.sage of two days from Alexandria, the waggon Perseverance--Grub, Master, laden with SIXTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS IN SPECIE for the Branch Bank of the Valley in this place. The Specie is deposited in the 'Strong box'

thus laying a foundation for the emission of a paper currency predicated upon Specie Capital, which is the chief corner stone in all monied inst.i.tutions; without it they must eventually fail."

That Leesburg was provided with its first street pavements through the proceeds of a public lottery has long been town gossip. By way of confirmation, there is an advertis.e.m.e.nt in the 12th May, 1818, issue of the _Genius of Liberty_: "By authority. Scheme of Lottery to raise $8000 for the purpose of paving the streets of the town of Leesburg, Va."

providing a first prize of $4000 and 2011 other prizes running from $1000 down to $6 each, totalling $30,000. Against these 2012 prizes were to be 3988 blanks, to be represented by 6000 tickets to be offered at $5 each; but the astute managers stipulated that many of the larger prizes were to be paid in part by other tickets and that each of the prizes were to be "subject to a deduction of $15 to $100." To inspire the confidence of the public, the notice was signed by the following representative citizens as Commissioners: Prestley Cardell, C. F.

Mercer, George Rust, Joseph Beard, Richd H. Henderson, Samuel Clapham, John Humphreys, John I. Harding, Sampson Blincoe, Fleet Smith, Samuel Carr, and John Gray. So successful was the lottery, avers tradition, that with its profits not only was the town able to pave its princ.i.p.al streets but also brought in, through wooden pipes, a much needed supply of water from Rock Spring, the present home of Mrs. H. T. Harrison. To the community that system of finance exerted an appeal so strong that once again it was used in 1844, to raise the necessary money to build an office for the County Clerk. The present County Office Building was purchased from the trustees of the Leesburg Academy in 1879.[135]

[135] 6 Ns Deeds 272, Loudoun County records.

Always has Loudoun been a horse-loving country; but it may surprise some of her people of today to know that in 1817 the county seat possessed a "Jockey Club" which was sufficiently strong and well supported to conduct a four day racing meet with more generous prizes than are now offered. In the _Genius of Liberty_ of the 14th October 1817 there is this advertis.e.m.e.nt:

"Leesburg Jockey Club. RACES will be run for on Wednesday the 15th October, over a handsome course near the town. A Purse of 200 Dollars three miles and repeat, and on Thursday the 16th day, two miles and repeat a Purse of $100 Dollars, and on Friday the 17th and repeat, a Towne's Purse of at least $150 and on Sat.u.r.day the 18th an elegant SADDLE, BRIDDLE and MARTINGALE, worth at least FIFTY DOLLARS. P.

SAUNDERS, sec'y & treas'r."

Thus, although the local reporting was definitely remiss in those days, the advertising columns yield much treasure. The times were hard, land sales forced by worried creditors were frequent and often in the sales advertis.e.m.e.nts a note is made of log-houses on the land, shewing how numerous that form of habitation still must have been in the Loudoun of that time. With the land sales are many offerings of negroes, not infrequently with a humanitarian undertone pleasant to read, for in Loudoun then there was much anti-slavery sentiment not only among Quakers and Germans but, more significantly, among the wealthy planters and educated town folk. Thus in the issue of the 26th October 1818:

"Negroes for Sale. For Sale, a family of Negroes, consisting of a woman and children. To a good master they will be sold a great bargain. They will not be sold to a southern trader."

The financial stress of the day then, as later, bred much discontent if we may judge from the frequent notices of runaway white apprentices and negro slaves, the latter of both s.e.xes; but while in the case of the slaves rewards are offered for their return of varying amounts from $5 to $200, the masters of the white apprentices, apparently appraising their services somewhat dubiously, offered but from one to six cents for their apprehension and return!

Though times were hard and money scarce there was, in the community, a healthy appreciation of the cultural side of life. George Carter of Oatlands advertises the services of a professor of music, seemingly brought into the county by him, who "now offers to teach the fundamental rules of this science in 8 lessons so as to enable those who are taught by him, to pursue their studies by themselves until they may obtain a perfect practical knowledge of musick."[136] Music seemed to have been in the air. Eighteen months later, there is notice given by Henry Krebs that he has commenced teaching the piano and German flute and the French language. He could be found at Mrs. Peers' boarding house.[137] Lectures on English grammar are announced by E. Hazen at the house of Mrs.

McCabe[138] and Charles Weineder, a miniature painter, came to Leesburg for two weeks to take orders in his art.[139]

[136] Issue of 12th October, 1818.

[137] 2nd Nov., 1819.

[138] 9th Nov., 1819.

[139] 26th Oct., 1818.

The profession of the law was followed in Leesburg by Richard Henderson, Burr William Harrison, L. P. W. Balch (who was also secretary of the school board) and John K. Mines. Dr. J. Clapper practiced medicine at Hillsboro "where he may be found at Mr. Hough's tavern," we trust not indicating undue conviviality of the gentleman's disposition. There was ample accomodation for travellers, their servants and horses. Enos Wildman announced that he had lately acquired the Eagle Tavern, formerly run by W. Austen;[140] while Samuel M. Edwards presided at the "Leesburg Hotel & Coffee House" which he had recently purchased from Mr. H. Peers and which was "situated on the main street leading from Winchester to Alexandria, George Town and the City of Washington." Yet another tavern was operated by one "Mr. Foley" and, as we have seen, there were boarding-houses as well. Their bars were stocked without difficulty, for Lewis Mix & Co. had a distillery near the mouth of Sugar Land Run and called for rye, corn and oats.

[140] 20th Jan., 1818.

But perhaps the most impressive picture painted by these old advertis.e.m.e.nts is that of the teeming industrial and commercial life of the town. It was still, happily, the age of the handicraftsman; the machinery age was yet to come. Transportation was uncertain and slow, and country towns largely produced the furniture, tools, clothing and other needed articles for their own inhabitants and those of their surrounding communities. The variety of the activities of the artisans and merchants of the Leesburg of that day paralleled those of other similar towns throughout the nation. John Carney had a "Boot & Shoe manufactory" which was conveniently located "on King street, next door to Messrs. Humphreys and Conrad and immediately opposite the Court House." In advertising his wares, he added that he wished to take on two or three apprentices of from thirteen to fifteen years of age. He had a business rival in William King, who conducted a similar activity and confidently announced that he had "some of the first rate workmen in the State."

Hats were made and sold by Jacob Martin "at his shop opposite the market house" who duly proclaimed "a very large a.s.sortment of hats on hand from the first quality to those of lowest prices; including a large a.s.sortment of Good Wool Hats, likewise some Morocco Caps."

If the Loudoun citizen of President Monroe's day needed the services of a tailor, they were made available by Thomas Russel whose business apparently flourished; for he advertised for "one or two journeymen taylors to whom constant employ and the best wages will be given." He also sought one or two apprentices to learn his craft.

Jonathan C. May was opening a dry goods and clothing shop under charge of D. Carter, next to the drug store of Robert R. Hough. As a compet.i.tor he had Joseph Beard with his "General and Seasonable a.s.sortment of Dry Goods" and Daniel P. Conrad who, "at the Stone House opposite the Court House" offered "a seasonable supply of Fall Goods"; he and George Richards meanwhile publishing notice of the dissolution of their former partnership. In nearby Waterford, B. Williamson and C. Shawen also dissolve their partnership in a general store, on account of Williamson moving to Baltimore and Shawen carries on under the name of C. Shawen & Co.

Samuel Tustin was engaged in a coachmaking business in Leesburg and sought "good tough white ash plant and timber--also a quant.i.ty of poplar half inch plank." He, too, wanted an apprentice, seeking one who was fifteen to seventeen years old. There was no lack of opportunity to earn a living offered to a steady lad with an inclination to work and a taste for trade. To the more mature, Aaron Burson offered to rent his fulling mill and dwelling house near Union, describing them as being in "an elegant neighbourhood for the fulling business."[141] John B. Bell, occupying a part of William Drish's house on King Street, was a bookbinder. Not daunted by the slump in business, James G. Jones and Company notify the Loudoun public that they have commenced the brush making business "at Mr. Wetherby's stone house, King Street, nearly opposite Mr. Murrays and that they want a large quant.i.ty of hog's bristles" for which a liberal price will be given "IN CASH."

[141] i.e. the thickening and cleansing of woollen cloth.

S. B. T. Caldwell advertised for sale writing paper, wrapping paper and medium printing paper.

The present day collectors of old furniture will note that David Ogden had removed his business to the southeast corner of King and Cornwall Streets where he had on hand and offered "some fashionable sideboards, Eliptic Dining Tables, Secretary, Bureaus etc., etc., which I will dispose of on moderate terms. Orders from the adjacent country will be thankfully received." In the same year of 1818, Jacob and Isaac Thomas of Waterford announced that they had on hand a general a.s.sortment of Windsor and fancy chairs and were also prepared to do "house, sign and fancy painting with neatness and dispatch."

The political dispute between Mason and McCarthy, mirrored in the pages of _The Genius of Liberty_, was fated to resolve itself into a tragedy that shook county and Commonwealth to their roots and caused no small sensation throughout the youthful Republic. General Armistead Thomson Mason of Selma,[142] a grandson of Thomson Mason, was a graduate of William and Mary College, a veteran of the War of 1812 and a Senator of the United States from Virginia as well as the leader of the Democratic party in Loudoun. Opposed to him as a Federalist was his cousin, Colonel John Mason McCarty, a grandson of George Mason of Gunston Hall, a descendant of old Daniel McCarthy of Westmoreland[143] and who then occupied Raspberry Plain. For a long time there had been political rivalry and bickering between the two men and when Mason introduced a bill in the Senate to permit Loudoun Quakers, when drafted for military services in war-time, to furnish subst.i.tutes by the payment of $500 apiece, McCarthy seized upon its political possibilities and promptly accused him of cowardice. The issue flared in the political campaign then on and, to add to the fire, Mason challenged McCarty's vote at the polls. Some accounts say that this so incensed McCarthy, described as being generally a good-natured individual with a strong sense of humour but also with a temper that upon occasion would break out beyond bounds, that he thereupon, at the polling place, defied Mason to personal combat, in his anger naming the weapons, contrary to a universally recognized rule of the code. Mason decided to ignore the matter, McCarthy taunted him in the public prints and although Mason's side had been defeated at the election, the affair gradually might have blown over and been forgotten had not Mason, returning from a journey to Richmond, by evil chance found himself a fellow stagecoach pa.s.senger with his old friend and superior officer, General Andrew Jackson. The matter of the quarrel with McCarthy, in due course, came up for discussion and Jackson, ever a fire-eater himself, is said to have told Mason with some brusqueness that he should not let the matter drop. On his return, therefore, Mason sent his cousin a letter in which he said he has resigned his commission for the sole purpose of fighting McCarthy and "I am now free to accept or send a challenge or to fight a duel. The public mind has become tranquil, and all suspicion of the further prosecution of our quarrel having subsided, we can now terminate it without being arrested by the civil authority and without exciting alarm among our friends." He informed his opponent that he had arranged his family affairs and was "extreemly anxious to terminate once and forever this quarrel." How recklessly eager was his wish was shewn by his instructions to his seconds to agree to any terms at any distance--to pistols, muskets or rifles "to three feet--his pretended favourite distance, or to three inches, should his impetuous courage prefer it."

[142] See Chapter XIII ante.

[143] Chapter IV ante.

McCarthy, in the meanwhile, had cooled down and was inclined to turn aside this new challenge in a humorous vein. He suggested to Mason's seconds that the antagonists jump from the dome of the capitol; but the matter had gone too far for joking and he was told his suggestion did not comply with the code. Again and yet again he offered similar absurd solutions and being rebuffed and in an effort to frighten Mason, suggested shotguns loaded with buckshot at ten paces, suicidal terms which were modified by the seconds to charging the weapons with a single ball and the distance to twelve feet.

After the fatal outcome of the Hamilton-Burr duel in 1804, a wave of hostility to the whole inst.i.tution of duelling had swept the country. In January, 1810, Virginia had pa.s.sed an act making the death of a duellist within three months of the encounter, murder, and providing that the survivor should be hung. Moreover, it was provided that the mere act of sending or accepting a challenge should make the offender incapable of holding public office. Therefore it was expedient that the meeting should not be held in Virginia and a field, along the side of which ran a little brook, near Bladensburg in Maryland, was selected for the affair. Princ.i.p.als, seconds and referee arrived at a nearby inn on the night of the 5th February, 1819, and at 8:00 o'clock the next morning, in the bitter cold and snow, the cousins confronted each other on the field, standing so close to one another that their "barrels almost touched." As the signal was given both fired and then fell to the ground--Mason dying and McCarthy dangerously wounded. Mason's body was brought back to Leesburg where it rested for a while in the old stone house on Loudoun Street now owned by Mr. T. M. Fendall, before burial in the St. James graveyard in Church Street with religious and Masonic rites. There the grave is still to be seen. It is said that Mrs. Mason locked the main entrance of Selma after the funeral and that no one again used it until her only son came of age--a son destined to meet his death, many years later, as an American officer, in the battle of Cerro Gordo in our war with Mexico. Tradition has it that ever after the duel, McCarthy was a morose and haunted man. A gruesome detail is added that long after his death his marble gravestone was removed to the Purcell drug store in Leesburg and there used for many years as a slab on which prescriptions were compounded.

From such a sombre picture we may turn with relief to the spectacle of Loudoun in gala attire indulging in the greatest and gayest county-wide celebration her history affords.

Of all those who, from abroad, came to help the American Colonies in their revolt, none so wholly captured the affections of her people as the French Marquis de Lafayette and as the years after the war pa.s.sed by, that affection remained steadfast. In January, 1824, the American Congress entertained the happy idea of authorizing the President to officially invite the old general again to visit our sh.o.r.es, this time as the guest of the whole nation. Lafayette sailed from France on an American war ship in July, 1824, arriving in New York on the 14th August. Then began the national welcome which, continuing for over a year, stands by itself in our history.

In August, 1825, Lafayette, being in Washington, informed his hosts that he wished, once again, to see his old friend James Monroe, then living in retirement on his estate, Oak Hill. Arrangements were made accordingly and on the 6th August the Marquis, accompanied by President John Quincy Adams, left Washington in the latter's carriage for the long drive to Oak Hill. On their arrival they were greeted by Monroe and a number of his friends who had gathered to pay honour to the nation's guest. For three days Lafayette tarried at Oak Hill, walking over the farm with his host and reminiscing over the heroic days of nearly fifty years before. Leesburg, determining to show its love and respect for the general, sent a delegation to invite him to a celebration in his honour in that town, to which Lafayette readily a.s.sented. On the morning of the 9th August, 1825, "Mr. Ball a member of the Committee of arrangements and Mr. Henderson of the Town Council"[144] went to Oak Hill to escort their guest to Leesburg. With them were two troops of cavalry commanded by Captains Chichester and Bradfield. General Lafayette, President Adams, former President Monroe and Mr. Henderson took their seats in the carriage drawn by splendid bay horses which had been provided for the occasion and the procession set out for the county seat. As it neared the town, salvos of artillery greeted it and the roads and town itself were so lined and filled with people that it was estimated that at least 10,000 (almost half of the county's population) were present. And now, to quote the historian of the occasion:

"The guest of the nation, with his honoured friends, alighted in the field of William M. McCarty, where in the shade of an oak, he was introduced to Cuthbert Powell, Esq., chairman of the committee of arrangements; who welcomed him in terms of respect and affection apt to the occasion, and in a manner at once feeling and grateful; to which General LaFayette replied, with the felicity which seems never to forsake him. He was then introduced to the committee of arrangements and to General Rust, the marshall of the day, and his aids. The General then received the military, a.s.sembled to honour him, consisting of the volunteer troops of cavalry, commanded by Captains Chichester and Bradfield; the two rifle companies, commanded by Captains Henry and Humphries; and the companies of light infantry, commanded by Captains Moore and c.o.c.kerill, who, by their equipments and discipline did credit to themselves and the county."[145]

[144] Presumably Fayette Ball of Springwood and Richard Henderson, a prominent lawyer of Leesburg.

[145] _General Lafayette's Visit to Virginia_, by Robert D. Ward.