The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850 Part 8

One of Wilson's most intimate friends was the engraver Alexander Lawson, with whom he became acquainted through William Bartram, and from whom he learned to draw. Lawson was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, December 19, 1772. He came to Philadelphia in 1792, engraved four plates for Thomson's "Seasons" for Thomas Dobson, and died in 1846. His daughter, Mary Lockhart, was a contributor to _Graham's Magazine_.

It was Wilson's wish that he should be buried "in some rural spot where the birds might sing over his grave." His wish was fulfilled, and his body was laid away in the quiet old-world burial ground of old Swedes'

Church.

SAMUEL EWING was born in Philadelphia August 16, 1776. He was placed in the counting house of John Swanwick. Upon the failure of his employer, Ewing studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1800. He was a contributor to the _Port Folio_ from the first. He wrote for it a series of articles, ent.i.tled "Reflections in Solitude." All his contributions were signed "Jacques."

In 1809 he founded _The Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines_, which he edited for three years, until it was sold to Mr.

Thomas and the t.i.tle changed to the _a.n.a.lectic_, when the editorship pa.s.sed into the hands of Washington Irving. Samuel Ewing helped to establish the _Athenaeum_ in Philadelphia, and was for a time vice-president of that inst.i.tution. He died in Philadelphia, February 8, 1825. Samuel Ewing's father was the Rev. Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, whose contributions have been noted in the earlier magazines. A short account of his life is prefixed to his lectures on natural philosophy, "A Plain Elementary and Practical System of Natural Experimental Philosophy. By the late Rev. John Ewing.

Philadelphia, 1809. Revised by Robert Patterson." John Ewing was born June 22, 1732, in Nottingham, Cecil County, Maryland; was graduated from Princeton 1752; received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh; enjoyed the friendship of Robertson, the historian, and died in Philadelphia, September 8, 1802. An interesting anecdote is related in the life of Dr.

Ewing (page 16). In 1773 he dined at Dilly's with Dr. Johnson. He remembered the silence that fell when Johnson entered the room. "He attended to nothing but his plate; ... having eaten voraciously, he raised his head slowly, and looking round the table surveyed the guests for the first time." The conversation turning upon America, Ewing defended the colonies. "What do you know, sir, on the subject?" Johnson demanded. Ewing had been cautioned to avoid contradiction, but the warning was forgotten. "Sir, what do you know in America; you never read; you have no books there," thundered on the "great cham." "Pardon me, sir," blandly replied the Philadelphian, "we have read the 'Rambler.'" This civility instantly pacified him.

This anecdote reminds us that the Americans did not always fall their crests when in the presence of Dr. Johnson. It is a familiar story that when Johnson demanded of Gilbert Stuart, "Sir, where did you learn English?" the ready-witted young artist replied, "Out of your dictionary, sir." Bishop William White, first Bishop of Pennsylvania, has left, in a letter to Bishop Hobart, his memory of an interview with "that giant of genius and literature, Dr. Samuel Johnson." "Having dined in company with him in Kensington, at the house of Mr. Elphinstone, well known to scholars of that day, and returning in the stage-coach with the doctor, I mentioned to him there being a Philadelphia edition of his 'Prince of Abyssinia.' He expressed a wish to see it. I promised to send him a copy on my return to Philadelphia, and did so. He returned a polite answer, which I printed in Mr. Boswell's second edition of his 'Life of the Doctor.'" Richard Rush relates in the _Port Folio_ that when his father, Dr. Benjamin Rush, attended a meeting of "The Club" in London, Goldsmith asked him a question about the North American Indians, when Johnson remarked that there was not an Indian in North America foolish enough to ask such a question. Whereupon Goldsmith retorted, "There is not a savage in America, sir, rude enough to make such a speech to a gentleman."

Dr. Ewing's daughter, Sarah, born in Philadelphia October 30, 1761, married John Hall, of Baltimore, the son of a Maryland planter. In January, 1824, she contributed to the _Port Folio_ "A Picture of Philadelphia as it is." In a letter to a Scotchwoman (1821) she wrote: "Your flattering inquiry about my literary career may be answered in a word. Literature has no career in America. It is like wine, which we are told must cross the ocean to make it good." Sarah Hall died in Philadelphia April 8, 1830.

Her eldest son, John Elihu Hall, was born in Philadelphia December 27, 1783; studied law, and edited the _American Law Journal_ 1808-1817. He was for a time professor of rhetoric in the University of Maryland. In the _Port Folio_ of March, 1806, encouraged by Thomas Moore, he commenced the publication of the "Memoirs of Anacreon," but suspended the work after a few instalments had appeared. In 1820 (Vol. IX, p.

401), he resumed the articles. Most of the Anacreontic odes occur, and the "biographical tissue" gave the papers a resemblance to Hardwicke's "Athenian Letters" and to the "Anacharsis" of Abbe Barthelemy. "Sedley"

was the signature used by J. E. Hall in his _Port Folio_ papers. In 1812 he published serially in that magazine his literary miscellany, ent.i.tled "Adversaria."

His brother, James, born in Philadelphia August 19, 1793, died near Cincinnati, July 15, 1868, published in the _Port Folio_ of 1821 his "Letters from the West," afterward published in book form by John Elihu.

Another brother, Thomas Mifflin Hall (1798-1828), wrote several poems for the magazine. Harrison Hall (1785-1866), a third brother, published the _Port Folio_ and wrote a book on "Distillation," which went through several editions here, and was reprinted in England.

JOHN ELIHU HALL became editor of the _Port Folio_ in February, 1816. Its history up to that time may be briefly stated. It was at first a weekly quarto, printed by H. Maxwell and sold by William Fry, opposite Christ Church. In 1806 the quarto size was changed to octavo. In 1809 the magazine appeared monthly instead of weekly, and continued from that time to be a monthly publication. In the prospectus issued at the time of this change the magazine was said to be "edited by Oliver Oldschool, a.s.sisted by a confederacy of men of letters." In its new dress it "cherished the hope that it might bear a comparison with any of the foreign journals." In 1804 the price had been raised to six dollars. The issue of July 21, 1804, was in deep black lines, in mourning for Alexander Hamilton. The issue of July 23, 1808, was a memorial number to Fisher Ames. The "Oliver Oldschool" figurehead was abandoned in January, 1811, and "conducted by Jos. Dennie, Esq.," took its place; for, the editor explained, "Since the magazine is no longer _political_, the appellation of Oliver Oldschool is no longer expedient or necessary."

During Dennie's last illness his place in the editorial chair was taken by Paul Allen (1775-1826), who wrote poems, and prepared the "Travels of Lewis and Clarke" for the press, and who must not be confounded with another eccentric Bohemian, James Allen, brother to the Sheriff of Suffolk, who wrote under the inspiration of the West Indian muses--sugar, rum and lemon-juice--who "wore ruffles--and they hung in tatters about his knuckles."

January, 1812, told of Dennie's death and "that the confederacy of scholars disbanded almost as soon as it was formed." At this time the _Port Folio_ was the oldest literary journal in America.

NICHOLAS BIDDLE became the next editor. He supplied the magazine with a number of articles upon paintings, old and new, and resigned his charge early in 1812. Dr. Charles Caldwell was requested to succeed him. "I accepted the proposal," he says, in his "Autobiography," "in less than a minute, and in less than one hour began to prepare for the performance of the duty it enjoined" (_Autobiography_, page 322). Caldwell entered upon his task under an engagement to furnish ninety-eight pages of matter for each number, and this matter would have to be to a great extent original. In six months Caldwell increased the number of subscribers twenty-five per cent. The war naturally became the theme of greatest interest. General Brown declared that "he reported himself, and ordered his officers to report themselves in their connection with all interesting events of the army, as regularly to the editor of the _Port Folio_ as they did to him, or as he did to the Secretary of War." In this way the magazine obtained some interesting and valuable biographical notes of military and naval officers. Dr. Caldwell employed as a.s.sistant editor the famous and versatile THOMAS COOPER. Cooper was an Englishman, who was born in London in 1759, and had been a member of the National a.s.sembly of France. He quarrelled with Robespierre, and challenged him to a duel. Robespierre swore revenge, and Cooper, knowing that flight alone could save him from the Jacobin Club, returned to England. He was censured by Burke, and replied in a bitter and abusive pamphlet. He followed his intimate friend, Mr. Priestley, to America and lived with him at Northumberland, where Coleridge and Southey dreamed of establishing an Eden of Pantisocracy. When Cooper came to Philadelphia, Washington and Jefferson and Jay and Madison were there. Cooper lent his pen to Jefferson and the Democrats, and was paid by them. He was appointed to a judgeship, but soon removed. He was elected professor of chemistry and moral philosophy in d.i.c.kinson College, and from there he went to the chair of chemistry in Columbia College, South Carolina. He left Philadelphia in 1819, and died in the South in 1840.

JUDGE WORKMAN was a second a.s.sistant writer. The most extensive contributions that Dr. Caldwell made to the magazine were his reviews of "An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure of the Human Species," by Samuel Stanhope Smith, President of Princeton College. The reviews covered ninety pages and dealt with a philosophical and experimental examination of the strange case of Henry Moss, a Maryland negro, whose name, as Dr. Caldwell says, is as well known to the readers of periodicals as was that of John Adams or Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. Moss was a full-blooded African, whose skin, save in a few spots, turned white. Caldwell's critiques appeared in the _Port Folio_, 1814, pp. 8 and 457, and also in the _American Review_, II, 128, 166.

Dr. Caldwell at this time edited _Delaplaine's Repository_, and Smith had his revenge in a telling criticism of that work in the _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_, to which Caldwell replied in 1816. To finish the story, there is to be found in the _Port Folio_ of 1820, page 153, an article on S. S.

Smith, with portrait, which is as ample in praise of the essay as Caldwell was liberal in detraction. Caldwell resigned his editorship in 1816. In the next month Oliver Oldschool the Fourth made his appearance in the person of John Elihu Hall.

The magazine was still well manned and well maintained. Philadelphia still kept her leadership in culture and literary production. In 1814 only twenty new books were annually put forth in America, and yet in April of that year the _Port Folio_ declared, "From facts within our own knowledge, we fearlessly a.s.sert that Philadelphia contains scholars not a few whom Europe herself would be proud to acknowledge." In 1817 the _London Monthly Magazine_ began to copy from the _Port Folio_.

But about 1820 the prestige of Philadelphia begins to fade and her ancient influences to hang about her "like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief." In this year (_Port Folio_, page 463) is heard the first note of alarm. New England is gaining; "with such rivalry Philadelphia must yield the proud t.i.tle which she has borne, or rouse from the withering lethargy in which she slumbers." New York jealousy is increasing. In 1820 Salmagundi says that "one of the editors of the _Port Folio_ was discharged--for writing common-sense." These trifles indicate a shifting of the balance of power. Three years more, and the cry of discontent and peevish querulousness reaches its height.

"With the exception of some scores of verses 'tempered with lovers'

sighs' and oozing from the brains of 'lunatics, lovers and poets,' the last volume contains very few communications from any friend to us and our cause. In the days of our first predecessors such was the number and zeal of contributors that the editor was obliged to exchange the labor of composition for that of selection, and he often expatiated with grat.i.tude upon the learning, the liberality and the industry of his voluntary a.s.sistants. Although they wore their visors up before the public, most of them are now known to us, and we can recognize many of them at home and abroad, pushing their fortunes at the bar, in the desk or the academy, or serving their country in high and honorable stations.

They were all quickened with the fervid spirit of enterprise and adventure. They combined learning and wit and genius with industry, perseverance and ambition. They laid the foundation of a work which has outlived all its rivals and contemporaries; but they have left few to inherit and emulate their disinterested devotion to the cause of letters.... England, that detestable country where _everyone_ has been starving for the last century, where _everyone_ has been crushed by the load of taxes, and _everyone_ has been flying from home to avoid the oppressions of the Ministry, prints several thousand copies of a magazine, and the whole edition is sold and paid for in twenty-four hours. These matters are ordered differently here. Instead of _purchasing_ our newspapers and magazines we subscribe for them."

Alack-a-day! the world went very well in the consulship of Plancus! No doubt even in the best and soundest of their times the magazines did suffer by the subscription plan. The remaining stock of the _a.n.a.lectic Magazine_ was sold for seven cents a volume in sheets, and the stock of the _Literary Gazette_, its successor, brought but six and a quarter cents per pound.

Hall took the opportunity presented by the publication of "The Lives of the Signers," by his friend and contributor, John Sanderson, to trouble the deaf public again with his bootless cries:

"Oh! that we could boast a reading public; and that we could say, with truth, that any other books than a few novels and poems and, generally, an elegant folio Bible, kept for ornament and family dignity, were to be found in half the splendid mansions of Philadelphia. But 'we can procure the book at the Philadelphia Library.' Yes, and the author of an excellent work must be left to beg and starve, and his wife and children must be doomed to penury because their natural protector was a literary man and an author, who conferred honour on his species. _Burn_ the Philadelphia Library, we say. Aye! _burn_ it! if this must be its influence, to deprive meritorious authors and enterprising artists of their sustenance and of the means of continuing their labours. Let those who cannot afford to purchase valuable works, who wish to peruse scarce tomes, the work of former generations, resort to the library; but let our rich merchants, our thrifty lawyers and the elegantly neat Quaker proprietors of the soil of this city, who have sons and daughters to be educated for usefulness and happiness, be ashamed to creep into the repository of rare, ancient and learned volumes, and ask in a soft voice of the librarian, '_Is Sanderson's Biography in?_' and to add, '_My daughters wish to see it._'"

In 1822 the _Port Folio_ was reduced to making selections from the literary and political journals of Europe after the manner of _The Select Reviews_ which Ewing had edited.

The final suspension of the _Port Folio_ was preceded by an international quarrel. John Neal was in England in 1834, and his offer to write for _Blackwood's Magazine_ in that year a series of sketches of "American writers" was accepted, and the first instalment appeared in _Blackwood's_ of September, 1824, page 305. The author could name only three writers "who would not pa.s.s just as readily for an English writer as for an American." The trio consisted of Paulding, Neal and Brown. The article was signed "X. Y. Z." and was written in the favorite _Blackwood's_ "bludgeon" style. Neal says of himself, "He is undeniably the most original writer that America has produced--thinks himself the cleverest fellow in America, and does not scruple to say so--he is in Europe now." When he approached the date of the _Port Folio_, Neal paid his compliments, displaying unmistakable malice, to John E. Hall. "Hall had the misfortune, some years ago, to fall acquainted with Mr. Thomas Moore, the poet, while Mr. Moore was 'trampoosing' over America. It spoilt poor Hall--turned his brain. He has done little or nothing since but make-believe about criticism, talk dawdle-poetry with a lisp, write irresistible verses under the name of 'Sedley' in his own magazine, twitter sentimentally about 'little Moore,' his 'dear little Moore'--puffing himself all the time anonymously in the newspaper, while he is d.a.m.ning himself, with unmistakable sincerity, twelve times a year in his own magazine. We do not think very highly of the mutton-headed Athenians at Philadelphia; but we do think, nevertheless, that Mr. John E. Hall is a little too much of a blockhead even for their meridian."

Hall published a scathing review in the _Port Folio_, December, 1824, of the author of "Logan" and "Randolph," the Baltimorean who was writing for _Blackwood's_. In volume 19 (1825, p. 78) this "nauseous reptile" is still further reviewed. Neal is quoted as saying, "Dennie is dead, John E. Hall is alive; Dennie was a gentleman, John E. Hall is a blackguard;"

and Hall retorts that Neal is a "liar of the first magnitude," who prefers "English guineas to Baltimore horsewhips."

The _Port Folio_ was now making a desperate struggle for life. Its publication was suspended from January to July, 1826, and again from January to July, 1827. Its budget was finally closed in December, 1827.

FROM THE PORT FOLIO TO GRAHAM'S.

The _Ladies' Museum_ was commenced in February, 1800, and made five numbers.

The _Philadelphia Repository and Weekly Register_ was commenced in 1801.

It was edited and published by David Hogan, and later by John W. Scott.

It was popular and original.

The first magazine published in America for children appeared in Philadelphia in 1802--the _Juvenile Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful Information_, Phila., 1802, printed for Benjamin Johnson and Jacob Johnston.

It was followed by the _Juvenile Olio_ in the same year. This magazine was edited by "Amyntor" a citizen of Philadelphia, and was published by David Hogan.

Charles Brockden Brown, the most important of Philadelphia writers, the first professional man-of-letters in America, and the predecessor of all cis-Atlantic novelists, was born in Philadelphia, January 17, 1771, and in that city he founded, in 1803-4, the _Literary Magazine and American Register_.

Brown had been educated until his sixteenth year in the school of Robert Proud, the historian of Pennsylvania. He then studied law with Alexander Wilc.o.x, of Philadelphia. His health, which had been ever poor, suffered still further from enthusiastic attention to the needs of a belles-lettres club of nine members, and to the law society of his native city. The _Columbian Magazine_ of August, 1789, contained his first published article. It was ent.i.tled "The Rhapsodist," and was continued through several numbers of the magazine.

A close friendship sprang up between Brown and Elihu Hubbard Smith, and Brown made his home in New York, where Smith introduced him to "The Friendly Club." After the plague visited New York and Smith died of the fever, Brown returned to Philadelphia to spend the remainder of his life.

The first number of the _Literary Magazine and American Register_ was published by John Conrad, who had made a liberal arrangement with the editor, on Sat.u.r.day, October 1, 1803. Brown's prospectus, which filled the first three pages, is so characteristic of the author, and so interesting as a contemporary comment upon magazines and their purposes, as to admit of complete quotation.

_The Editor's Address to the Public:_

"It is usual for one who presents the public with a periodical work like the present, to introduce himself to the notice of his readers by some sort of preface or address. I take up the pen in conformity to this custom, but am quite at loss for topics suitable to so interesting an occasion. I cannot expatiate on the variety of my knowledge, the brilliancy of my wit, the versatility of my talents. To none of these do I lay any claim, and though this variety, brilliancy of solidity, are necessary ingredients in a work of this kind, I trust merely to the zeal and liberality of my friends to supply me with them. I have them not myself, but doubt not of the good offices of those who possess them, and shall think myself ent.i.tled to no small praise if I am able to collect into one focal spot the rays of a great number of luminaries. They also may be very unequal to each other in l.u.s.tre, and some of them may be little better than twinkling and feeble stars of the hundredth magnitude; but what is wanting in individual splendour will be made up by the union of all their beams into one. My province shall be _to hold the mirror up_ so as to a.s.semble all their influence within its verge, and reflect them on the public in such manner as to warm and enlighten.

"As I possess nothing but zeal I can promise to exert nothing else; but my consolation is, that aided by that powerful spirit, many have accomplished things much more arduous than that which I propose to myself.

"Many are the works of this kind which have risen and fallen in America, and many of them have enjoyed but a brief existence. This circ.u.mstance has always at first sight given me some uneasiness, but when I come more soberly to meditate upon it my courage revives, and I discover no reason for my doubts. Many works have actually been reared and sustained by the curiosity and favour of the public. They have ultimately declined or fallen, it is true; but why? From no abatement of the public curiosity, but from causes which publishers or editors only are accountable. Those who managed the publication have commonly either changed their principles, remitted their zeal, or voluntarily relinquished their trade, or last of all, and like other men, have died. Such works have flourished for a time, and they ceased to flourish, by the fault or misfortune of the proprietors. The public is always eager to encourage one who devotes himself to their rational amus.e.m.e.nt, and when he ceases to demand or to deserve their favour they feel more regret than anger in withdrawing it.

"The world--by which I mean the few hundred persons who concern themselves about this work--will naturally inquire who it is that thus addresses them. 'This is somewhat more than a point of idle curiosity,'

my reader will say, 'for from my knowledge of the man must I infer how far he will be able or willing to fulfil his promises. Besides, it is great importance to know whether his sentiments on certain subjects be agreeable or not to my own. In politics, for example, he may be a malcontent; in religion an heretic. He may be an ardent advocate for all that I abhor, or he may be a celebrated champion of my favourite opinions. It is evident that these particulars must dictate the treatment you receive from me, and make me either your friend or enemy: your patron or your persecutor. Besides, I am anxious for some personal knowledge of you that I may judge of your literary merits. You may possibly be one of these, who came hither from the old world to seek your fortune; who have handled the pen as others handle the awl or needle; that is, for the sake of a livelihood, and who, therefore, are willing to work on any kind of cloth or leather, and to any model that may be in demand. You may, in the course of your trade, have accommodated yourself to twenty different fashions, and have served twenty cla.s.ses of customers; have copied at one time a Parisian, at another a London fashion, and have truckled to the humours, now of a precise enthusiast, and now of a smart free-thinker.

"''Tis of no manner of importance what creed you may publicly profess on this occasion, or on what side, religious or political, you may declare yourself enlisted. To judge of the value or sincerity of these professions, to form some notion how far you will faithfully or skilfully perform your part, I must know your character. By that knowledge, I shall regulate myself with more certainty than by any anonymous declaration you may think proper to make.'

"I bow to the reasonableness of these observations, and shall therefore take no pains to conceal my name. Anybody may know it who chooses to ask me or my publisher. I shall not, however, put it at the bottom of this address. My diffidence, as my friends would call it, and my discretion, as my enemies, if I have any, would term it, hinders me from calling out my name in a crowd. It has heretofore hindered me from making my appearance there, when impelled by the strongest of human considerations, and produces, at this time, an insuperable aversion to naming myself to my readers. The mere act of calling out my own name, on this occasion, is of no moment, since an author or editor who takes no pains to conceal himself, cannot fail of being known to as many as desire to know him. And whether my notoriety make for me or against me, I shall use no means to prevent it.

"I am far from wishing, however, that my readers should judge of my exertions by my former ones. I have written much, but take much blame to myself for something which I have written, and take no praise for anything. I should enjoy a larger share of my own respect, at the present moment, if nothing had ever flowed from my pen, the production of which could be traced to me. A variety of causes induces me to form such a wish, but I am princ.i.p.ally influenced by the consideration that time can scarcely fail of enlarging and refining the powers of a man, while the world is sure to judge of his capacities and principles at fifty, from what he has written at fifteen.

"Meanwhile, I deem it reasonable to explain the motives of the present publication, and must rely for credit on the good nature of my readers.

The project is not a mercenary one. n.o.body relies for subsistence on its success, nor does the editor put anything but his reputation at stake.