Modern chivalry

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THE HAFNER LIBRARY OF CLASSICS [Number Twenty-Five

Modern Chivalry]

AMERICAN FICTION SERIES Unabridged reprints of historically important but now inacces¬ sible novels, mainly of the earlier periods, under the general editorship of Harry Hayden Clark, professor of English, Uni¬ versity of Wisconsin. The individual volumes are edited by American scholars, who have supplied Introductions, Chronolo¬ gies, and Bibliographies.

NOW PUBLISHED

MODERN CHIVALRY,

by Hugh Henry Brackenridge

Edited by Claude M. Newlin, Michigan State College ORMOND, by Charles Brockden Brown Edited by Ernest Marchand, Stanford University HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON,

by John Pendleton Kennedy

Edited by Ernest E. Leisy, Southern Methodist University THE YEMASSEE,

by William Gilmore Simms

Edited by Alexander Cowie, Wesleyan University

MODERN CHIVALRY BY

Hugh Henry Brackenridge Edited, with Introduction, Chronology, and Bibliography By CLAUDE M. NEWLIN

Michigan State College

HAFNER PUBLISHING COMPANY New York and London

1968

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Copyright, 1937, by AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

Reprinted by Arrangement

First Printing 1962 Second Printing 1968

Published by Hafner Publishing Company, Inc. 31 E. 10th Street New York, N.Y. 10003

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-17005

Printed in U.S.A. by NOBLE OFFSET PRINTERS, NEW YORK

3,

N. Y.

INC.

PREFACE

In a postscript to the first volume of Modern Chivalry Brackenridge wrote: “I hope to see it made a school book; a kind of classic of the English language.” In the present edition, appearing almost a century and a half after the publication of that volume, this early American classic is for the first time made available in its entirety to students of American history and literature. None of the previous reprints include all the material contained in the first editions of the various parts. The reprint in the “ Rogue’s Bookshelf ” in 1926 includes only Part I, and the text is derived directly or indirectly from the bowdlerized and otherwise “ revised ” text of the 1847 edition. In preparing both the Introduction and the text I have at¬ tempted to make clear the relation of Modem Chivalry to the succession of events and conditions which caused it to be written. The book originally appeared in installments in 1792, 1793, 1797, 1804, 1805, and 1815, each addition being written to satirize some new folly or absurdity in American life. Since this correlation be¬ tween events and the installments of the book is obscured in the early collected editions, I have reproduced the text and title page of the first edition of each part. The reader will therefore be following the successive parts as they first made their impact on the American public. The revised text of 1815 has been used only for the correction of misprints in the first editions. I am indebted to the officials of the Library of Congress, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Phila¬ delphia, and the library of the University of Michigan for their kindness in permitting me to use the rare early editions which were essential for the preparation of the text. I wish also to ex¬ press my gratitude to my colleagues, Mr. John Abbot Clark and Dr. A J. M. Smith, who read the Introduction in manuscript. C. M. N. East Lansing, Michigan v

198710

CONTENTS Preface .

v

Introduction.ix A Brackenridge Chronology.xli Selected Bibliography.xlii Modern Chivalry, by Hugh Henry Brackenridge Note on the Text.

2

Part

I — Volume I (1792).

3

Volume II (1792).

81

Volume III (1793).

159

Volume IV (1797).

251

Part II—[Volume I] (1804).

327

Volume II (1805).

465

Volume IV (1815).633

ILLUSTRATIONS Portrait of Brackenridge.frontispiece A Letter on Legal Matters

) > . Page of a Letter to Jefferson )

.

following page xxiv

Title Page of 1792 Volume.page 1 Pages 8 and 9 of 1792 Volume ) > “ Father Bombo’s Pilgrimage ” ) Illustrations by Darley

.

. Vll

.

.

following page 28

following pages 84 and 164

INTRODUCTION

life of Hugh Henry Brackenridge spanned the last years of colonial America, the Revolution, and the early years of the re¬ public— years in which the first modem democracy was pain¬ fully acquiring experience. His writings are the comments — at first sanguine, and then satirical — of a stanch democrat, yet a sturdy individualist, upon the American scene during these turbu¬ lent and critical years. Modem Chivalry, in particular, is the copious and somewhat chaotic expression of the political and social philosophy which education, environment, and the specific experiences of professional and public life developed in him. He was a democrat, yet a satirist of democratic absurdities; a true frontiersman, yet a biting caricaturist of the crudity, the ig¬ norance, the stubbornness of the backwoods rustics. His ideal was a reasonable democracy which should direct its efforts intelli¬ gently and inexorably toward the common good. Against po¬ litical and social aberrations from this golden mean the sting of his wit was consistently directed throughout the formative period of American institutions and government. This was his service to American democracy. His position among the writers of his period is unique. He represents more completely and more vi¬ tally than any other the classical and eighteenth-century ideals of sanity and moderation. The

I. Life

Brackenridge came of a race and a class which played an im¬ portant part in the development of a sturdy American democracy. The son of a poor farmer, he was bom near Campbellstown, Kintyre, Scotland, in 1748.1 In 1753, when Hugh was five years old, the family, in search of a better living, migrated to Pennsylvania. 1. H. M. Brackenridge, " Biographical Notice of H. H. Brackenridge,” in Modem Chivalry (edition of 1856), p. 159. This biographical sketch by Brackenridge’s son was originally published in the Southern Literary Messenger, VIII, 1-19 (1842). IX

INTRODUCTION

X

Here they settled in York County, then the frontier.2 Hugh’s boyhood passed uneventfully in the performance of the regular duties of a farm boy — clearing land, plowing, and the innumer¬ able tasks that the hard life of the frontier demanded — duties which irked him, as from early childhood he showed a decided preference for literary rather than manual labor. Fortunately, even on the frontier, opportunities were not lacking for laying the foundations of a solid education. Hugh’s mother sympathized with his intellectual aspirations,3 and it was probably through her in¬ fluence that he was able to attend schools at Slate Ridge and at Fagg’s Manor.4 By the time he was thirteen years old he was well trained in Latin and had made some progress in Greek. While still a boy he read Horace — in a borrowed copy, which was destined never to be returned, for a browsing cow devoured it while the student was lost in daydreams.5 At the age of fifteen, Hugh obtained a place as teacher of a free school at Gunpowder Falls, Maryland. After the first few days, spent by the youthful schoolmaster in establishing order among his unruly scholars,6 he apparently settled down to the routine of a teacher’s life, pursuing his own studies during his leisure hours. He remained at Gunpowder Falls for five years, by the end of which time “ he had exhausted the sources of learn¬ ing near him; and his thirst for knowledge urged him to seek more copious streams.” 7 The search led him, in 1768, to the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. There, in the company of such congenial classmates as Philip Freneau and James Madison, he pursued the studies precisely fitted to his intellectual tastes and needs: Greek, Latin, French, philosophy, moral science, history, geography, criticism, public speaking, natural philosophy, and mathematics.8 His skill in the composition of speeches for the monthly oratorical exercises soon won him such recognition that he was called upon 2. 3. 4. 5.

“ Biographical Notice,” p. 151. Ibid., p. 151. Ibid., p. 152, and Pittsburgh Gazette, June 30, 1787. " Biographical Notice,” p. 152.

6. At the first defiance, he seized “ a brand from the fire, knocked the rebel down, and spread terror around him.” (“ Biographical Notice,” p. 152.) 7. Ibid., p. 153. 8. John Maclean, History of the College of New Jersey, I, 362.

INTRODUCTION

xi

to furnish ammunition for less ready orators, greatly to his own financial and sartorial advantage.9 Of the classical authors whose works he studied, Lucian influenced him particularly, and undoubt¬ edly contributed to the development of his satirical bent.10 An¬ other profound influence in his intellectual development was that of the great president of the college, John Witherspoon, who ably presented neoclassical literary doctrines and Whig political phi¬ losophy in his lectures.11 In college Brackenridge and his friends produced a variety of juvenilia, more caustic than literary. Typi¬ cal of the group, no doubt, was Spring, whom Brackenridge lam¬ pooned in a satirical poem, Spring’s Confession, where the youth is made to say: I will declare, for all must know it, I long have strove to be a poet. Besides this sin, alas, God knows, I’ve wrote some dirty things in prose.12 In 1769 the friends organized the Whig Literary Society, a rival of the Cliosophic, or Tory, Society,13 supporting it in the following year by a series of crude but vigorous satirical poems entitled Satires against the Tories}* The same year Brackenridge and Freneau began an extravagant prose tale called Father Bombo’s Pilgrimage to Mecca}5 Most important of all, for the commence¬ ment exercises of the class of 1771, Brackenridge and Freneau collaborated on an epic-like and prophetic poem, The Rising Glory of America. That Brackenridge was to be primarily a prose writer is indicated by his confession “ that on his part it was a task of labour, while the verse of his associate flowed spontane9. It is recorded that on one such occasion the grateful orator rewarded him with a handsome suit of clothes and a smart cocked hat. See “ Biographical Notice,” p. 153. 10. See below, p. 43. References to Modem Chivalry will hereafter be given as page references to the present edition. 11. C. M. Newlin, Life and Writings of Hugh Henry Brackenridge, p. 10. This work is hereafter referred to as Life. 12. Satires against the Tories, p. 17.

Ms. Am. 0336, Historical Society of Penn¬

sylvania. 13. C. R. Williams, The Cliosophic Society, p. 4. 14. These poems are preserved in the Bradford Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Manuscript Department. 15. Ms. Am. 0336, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. the tale is printed in Life, pp. 15-21.

Brackenridge’s portion of

ously.”16 This poem, issued in 1772, was the first published work of its authors.17 After his graduation in 1771 Brackenridge remained at Prince¬ ton for a year to read divinity and to serve as master of Nassau Grammar School. In 1772 he became master of an academy in Somerset County, Maryland, where Freneau was his assistant. Two years later he took his Master’s degree at Princeton. At the commencement exercises he read an original Poem on Divine Revelation, a serious, but not highly successful work, written under the influence of Milton and designed to please the clerical portion of the audience.18 Fortunately, this was Brackenridge’s last attempt at poetry in the epic vein. During the early years of the Revolution he remained at his schoolmaster’s desk. Having imbibed Whig doctrine at college, he was an ardent patriot, but his interests -were predominantly literary, and he chose to serve the cause with the pen rather than with the sword. In 1775 he wrote a heroic drama, The Battle of Bunkers-Hill, for his pupils to act,19 and in 1777 he produced a second play, The Death of General Montgomery. Meanwhile, in 1776, he had become a chaplain in Washington’s army. In this capacity, from 1776 to 1778, he delivered fiery denunciations of king, parliament, and the American Tories.20 The secular char¬ acter of the sermons is significant. By this time Brackenridge had definitely abandoned the idea of choosing the Church as a profession. In 1778 he left the army, and set off for Philadelphia with a thousand pounds in his pocket to launch a long-cherished literary venture — the United States Magazine.21 The first num¬ ber was published in January, 1779, the last in December of that year. But the time and the place were utterly unsuited to the suc¬ cess of such a venture. It did, however, render a service to the 16. “ Biographical Notice,” p. 153. 17. The Rising Glory of America was later revised by Freneau. The original form containing Brackenridge’s contribution is reprinted in F. L. Pattee’s Poems of Philip Freneau, I, 49-83. 18. Poem on Divine Revelation, preface. 19. Gazette Publications, p. 279. Although the play was published in 1776, Brackenridge says it was written in 1775. 20. For these sermons see Six Political Sermons founded on the Scriptures; and Gazette Publications, pp. 132 ff. and 265 ff. 21. L. N. Richardson, A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789, p. 197; and “ Biographical Notice," p. 154.

INTRODUCTION

XIII

cause of American letters. Brackenridge published in it no fewer than eight poems by his friend Freneau.22 He himself contributed a considerable variety of material in verse and prose, including a curious short story, “ The Cave of Vanhest,” 23 which has a bio¬ graphical interest on account of its reference to his successive loves: Miss Urany Muse, Miss Theology, and Miss Law.24 In his deep concern for American literature and culture he had hoped to prove that America was “ able to cultivate the belles-lettres, even disconnected with Great-Britain; and that liberty is of so noble and energetic a quality, as even from the bosom of a war to call forth the powers of human genius, in every course of literary fame and improvement.”25 He wished to instruct as well as amuse his readers. In a passage of the “ Introduction ”26 to the first issue of the magazine, which contrasts sharply with the spirit of Modem Chivalry, he said: The honest husbandman who reads this publication will rapidly improve in every kind of knowledge. He will be shortly capable to arbitrate the differences that may arise among his neighbours. He will be qualified to be a Magistrate. He will appear a proper 22. L. N. Richardson, A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789, pp. 208-9. 23. This story ran in the numbers from January to July. 24. United States Magazine, pp. 311-13. 25. Ibid., p. 3. Brackenridge’s estimate of the place of literature and liberal culture in America was later revised downward. In 1771 as in 1779 he had had great expectations.

In The Rising Glory of America he exclaimed: 'Tis but the morning of the world with us And Science yet but sheds her orient rays. I see the age, the happy age, roll on Bright with the splendours of her mid-day beams, I see a Homer and a Milton rise In all the pomp and majesty of song. . . . (Poems of Philip Freneau, ed. by F. L. Pattee, I, 78.) In 1797, after the economic policies of Hamilton had become effective, he wrote: " Why is it that I am proud, and value myself amongst my own species? It is because I think I possess, in some degree, the distinguishing characteristic of a man, a taste for the fine arts; a taste and characteristic too little valued in America, where a system of finance, has introduced the love of unequal wealth; destroyed the spirit of common industry; and planted that of lottery in the human heart . • . (pp. 280-1). In 1808 he said, with reference to the art of writing: “ It is not an age or country, that will make it the means of emolument, or the way to honour. And though I would rather be the poet than the Mfficenas as to after-fame, yet it is better to be the Mecenas as to present enjoyment. I would warn therefore a son of mine against too much attention to some parts of what may be called polite literature, as not fashionable in our present state of society (Gazette Publica¬ tions, p. 347). 26. United States Magazine, p. 10.

XIV

INTRODUCTION

person to be appointed Sheriff in his county. He will be equal to the task of legislation. He will be capable of any office to which the gale of popularity amongst his countrymen may raise him. A decade later Brackenridge was considerably less sanguine about the ability of the husbandman or mechanic to hold office. During this year (1779) in Philadelphia, he had prudently be¬ gun the study of law, which he continued in Annapolis under Samuel Chase,27 after the failure of the magazine.28 In 1780 he was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia,29 but since the legal profession was overcrowded in the capital, he determined to cross the mountains to the frontier village of Pittsburgh, where he hoped to develop a law practice and eventually “ get forward in a Congress or some other public body.” 30 For twenty years he was to live in Pittsburgh, never quite successful in adapting himself to the crudities and the restrictions of a frontier environ¬ ment. He was to be keenly alive to the economic and social in¬ terests of the western country, but he was also to be a caustic critic of the tousle-headed democracy of the west. Soon after arriving in Pittsburgh he began his participation in local affairs by opposing the movement to set up a separate state in western Pennsylvania and Virginia.31 His legal practice gave him an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with the economic problems of the community, among the most litigious of which were the uncertainty of land titles and the burden of the excise tax.32 By 1785 he had definitely settled down in Pitts¬ burgh. He had purchased land, built a house,33 and contracted a marriage with a Miss Montgomery.34 On May 11, 1786, his son, Henry Marie, was born.36 27. “ Biographical Notice,” p. 156. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

United States Magazine, pp. 483-4. J. H. Martin, Bench and Bar of Philadelphia, p. 281. The Echo, p. 148. Law Miscellanies, pp. 511-13. Life, pp. 60-64. Ibid., p. 70.

34. For the name of Brackenridge’s first wife I am indebted to his great-greatgranddaughter, Mrs. Charles H. Bigelow. 35. Henry Marie Brackenridge became a man of some distinction. His Recollec¬ tions of Persons and Places in the West is one of the most valuable sources for early western social history. For details of his life see Dictionary of American Biography.

INTRODUCTION

xv

In July, 1786, through Brackenridge’s encouragement and as¬ sistance, the Pittsburgh Gazette was established. It had been his ambition to be “ among the first to bring the press to the west of the mountains,” 36 and the paper soon became an indispensable medium for publishing his literary bagatelles, for promoting the interests of the Pennsylvania frontier, and for advancing his own political ambitions. Now, in pursuance of one of the objectives for which he had come west, he announced his candidacy for the state assembly, promising to work for American rights of naviga¬ tion of the Mississippi, for the establishment of an academy in Pittsburgh, and for a bill to permit settlers to pay for their land partly in state certificates of indebtedness.87 Elected on these promises, he later changed his views and voted against the land payment bill. In spite of his attempts to justify himself through speeches and articles in the press, he was accused of being a traitor to his constituency, and his career in elective political office was at an end before it had scarcely begun. He was to find his compensation — and his revenge — in the writing of Modem Chivalry,38 which he must have begun shortly after this time, as the first volume appeared in 1792. Almost at the same time with the destruction of his political hopes, his home life was broken up by the death of his wife.39 In 1790 he married again. His second wife was Sabina Wolfe, the daughter of a German farmer.40 In spite of the failure of his political ambitions, Brackenridge remained a critical observer of the political scene. In the as¬ sembly he had joined with the Federalists in supporting the new Constitution, but once the new government was established he began to find fault with some of the important acts of the ad¬ ministration: the establishment of the United States Bank, the assumption and funding of the war debts, and the system of in¬ ternal taxation.41 The westerners considered the excise to be 38. Gazette Publications, pp. 23-i. 37. Pittsburgh Gazette, September 9, 1786. 38. See below, pp. xx-xxiv. 39. H. M. Brackenridge, Recollections of Persons and Places in the West (re¬ vised edition), p. 10. 40. For an amusing account of Brackenridge’s courtship see John Pope, Travels through the Southern and Western Territories of the United States, pp. 14—18. 41. The Freeman’s Journal, August 3, 1805.

XVI

INTRODUCTION

particularly objectionable because of the fact that home-manu¬ factured whisky was their chief marketable product. Brackenfidge became their spokesman. “ Let them,” he advised Hamil¬ ton, “ have a little time to breathe and recover loss, and feel vigor, and if they do not submit to every demand of contribution to the revenue, I shall be the first to bear testimony against them in their country, as I have done heretofore when I thought them wrong.” 42 However, Hamilton turned a deaf ear to his remonstrances, and the western farmers continued to defy the law. Western Pennsylvania was drifting steadily toward the Whisky Insurrection. Brackenridge’s divergence from the Federalists at this time was also sharply apparent in his attitude toward the French Revolution. When he learned of the execution of Louis XVI, he acclaimed the event in an article flippantly entitled “ Louis Capet lost his Caput.”43 When President Washington issued his neutrality proclamation at the time of the declaration of war against Eng¬ land by France, Brackenridge, in an outburst of liberal enthu¬ siasm, protested in an open letter to him. “ The cause of France is the cause of man,” he said, “ and neutrality is desertion.” He maintained that America should assist her sister republic by in¬ vading Canada and by attacking British shipping.44 The climax of his revolutionary fervor came on the Fourth of July, 1793, when he took the French Revolution as the text for the Inde¬ pendence Day oration which he was invited to deliver at the an¬ nual celebration in Pittsburgh. He said: The celebration of the day introduces the idea of the effect of it beyond the sphere of these states. . . . The light kindled here has been reflected to France, and a new order of things has arisen. . . . Shall kings combine, and shall republics not unite? We have united. The heart of America feels the cause of France.45 42. National Gazette, February 9, 1792.

Brackenridge had an enlightened con¬

ception of the political significance of the West. In the article quoted he said further: “I consider the western country as the tiers itat, or third estate of the union, and, as necessary to hold the balance in the interests of the east and south parts. There is nothing, in my contemplation, will contribute more to the dura¬ tion of our empire than such a balance. It will also serve to counterbalance the weight of the monied interests and germ of aristocracy, in the richer capitals, by preserving a bed of simplicity and true republicanism.” 43. National Gazette, April 20, 1793. 44. Ibid., May 15, 1793. 45. Ibid., July 27, 1793; and Gazette Publications, pp. 121-4.

INTRODUCTION

XVII

By the end of the next year his revolutionary enthusiasm had abated. Beginning in the summer of 1794, the Whisky Insur¬ rection, in the fomentation of which radical societies formed on the model of the French revolutionary clubs played an important part,46 soon made him shudder at the thought of revolution.47 During the insurrection, Brackenridge, who, unfortunately for himself, was able to view the situation from both the national and the local points of view, played an apparently equivocal part. He saw the necessity of maintaining a firm union, and of enforcing national laws; but, as has been seen, he at heart sympathized with the western farmers in their opposition to the excise tax. Al¬ though determined at first to hold himself aloof from the insurrec¬ tionist movement, he was gradually drawn into the vortex by being called upon for legal advice,48 and by being virtually forced into committees and public meetings 49 In participating in these ac¬ tivities he attempted to give the appearance of agreement with the insurrectionists for the purpose of achieving moderation and accommodation to the demands of the Federal government.50 Con¬ sequently he was suspected of treachery by both sides, and was called before Alexander Hamilton for questioning. The mental stress and anxiety occasioned by the examination were almost in¬ supportable, but he was completely absolved from the charge of treason.51 As he had explained his actions in the assembly seven years before by writing a series of articles in the Pittsburgh Gazette, so now he hastily wrote his detailed and apologetic Incidents of the Insurrection in the Western Parts of Pennsylvania, in the Year 1794, which was published in three volumes in 1795. At the same time he found relief from his recent ordeal in composing a number of humorous poems in the Scottish dialect.52 Most important of all, he wrote a continuation of Modem Chivalry.68 46. Incidents of the Insurrection in the Western Parts of Pennsylvania, in the Year 1794, III, 86 and 148-9. 47. Ibid., I, 85-6. 48. Ibid., 7, 8, 28-4. 49. Life, pp. 135-66. 50. Ibid., and Incidents of the Insurrection, I, 29-30, 32-8, 47-8, 101-16. 51. Incidents of the Insurrection, II, 75-8. 52. See David Bruce, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect; and Gazette Pub¬ lications, pp. 238 ff. 53. See below, pp. xxiv-xxv.

xviii

INTRODUCTION

By 1798 the western opposition to Federalist theory and practice had crystallized, and in that year Brackenridge became the founder and leader of the Republican party in western Pennsylvania.54 Again he was a candidate for election to the state assembly. Albert Gallatin and Thomas McKean, the Republican candidates for con¬ gressman and governor respectively, were elected,55 but Bracken¬ ridge was defeated after a particularly vituperative campaign in which he was bitterly denounced in the Pittsburgh Gazette.™ As a reward for his labors for the Republican party, Bracken¬ ridge was appointed a justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania on December 18, 1799. In August, 1801, he moved to Carlisle, a more convenient center for the performance of his duties as justice on circuit. The appointment as justice did not, however, put a stop to his political activities in behalf of the Republican party. In Pittsburgh he assisted in establishing a Republican newspaper, the Tree of Liberty, which began publication in the summer of 1800. In 1801 he entered into correspondence with Jefferson, giv¬ ing him information concerning the local political situation, as well as general advice.57 He also wrote a fervent eulogy in verse, entitled “ Jefferson, in Imitation of Virgil’s Pollio,” which is vir¬ tually a summary of the Jeffersonian political philosophy.58 Soon, however, he began to question certain aspects of Jeffer¬ son’s policy. The points on which he especially differed from the Administration concerned naval preparedness and the extent of the powers that could appropriately be exercised by the judiciary branch of the government.59 Although admitting the need for judicial reform, Brackenridge naturally did not share Jefferson’s profound distrust of the common law nor his hatred of the ju¬ diciary,60 a distrust and hatred which at this time had taken deep 54. H. M. Brackenridge, Sixty Years in the North and Twenty Years in the South, pp. 11-12. 55. Pittsburgh Gazette, October 19, 1799. 56. Ibid. For the newspaper attacks on Brackenridge and his answer to them, see below, pp. xxv-xxvi. 57. These letters are to be found in the Thomas Jefferson Papers, Vol. 109, in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. 58. The poem was published in the Tree of Liberty, January 24, 1801, and is reprinted in Life, pp. 232-4. 59. Pp. 786-7. 60. Jefferson, Writings (ed. H. A. Washington), VII, 451. He says here: " The great object of my fear is the Federal Judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever

INTRODUCTION

xix

root in the public mind. In Pennsylvania the popular distrust found expression in a wholesale impeachment of the justices, and in spirited attacks upon the common law and the state constitution. Brackenridge’s writings of the years 1804-1814 are for the most part a defense of the judiciary, of lawyers, and of the common law against assaults by extremists. The radicals failed in their attempts to overthrow the legal structure of the state, but they succeeded in calling attention to the need for legal reform. Brackenridge and other members of the supreme court were assigned a part in this work by an act of legislature which required them to determine which of the English statutes were in force in Pennsyl¬ vania.61 In 1810, when the legislature was considering a bill to prohibit the citing of English decisions as precedents in American courts, Brackenridge drew up an argument showing that although the English decisions should not be binding, they might be il¬ luminating, and should therefore not be prohibited.62 In 1814 he published a collection of legal papers, Law Miscellanies, which is of considerable value for the history of American law, part of it being an attempt to adapt Blackstone to American conditions.63 His last publication was a new edition of Modern Chivalry, is¬ sued in 1815 with copious additions. On June 25, 1816, he died at Carlisle, aged sixty-eight. II.

The Origin and Development of Modern Chivalry

Modern Chivalry had its origin in the disillusionment and dis¬ appointment which were the result of Brackenridge’s first attempt to win political preferment. Its continuation through successive volumes was occasioned by his urge to check people and parties, both in the backwoods and in the older settlements, on the fre¬ quent occasions when they deviated from the path of rational acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is engulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them.” Brackenridge considered the Federal Judiciary a “ cingulum to bind the states ” (p. 786). 61. F. M. Eastman, Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania, II, 302. 62. Law Miscellanies, pp. 49-53. 63. Other publications during this period were Gazette Publications, a volume of his journalistic and other minor writings which appeared in 1806, and a versified epistle to Sir Walter Scott, inspired by his picking up a copy of the Lady of the Lake in Pittsburgh in 1811.

INTRODUCTION

XX

democracy. So intimate is the relationship which the book bears to the events of a quarter of a century in the life of its author and the history of the country that in order fully to understand the’ work it is necessary to follow in detail certain of the events briefly mentioned in the preceding section. When, after his election to the legislature in 1786, Brackenridge failed to keep all his campaign promises, the reaction against him was immediate. The anger of his constituents was further inten¬ sified by reports that in a meeting of assemblymen from the West at the house of Thomas McKean in Philadelphia he had spoken in favor of the Bank of North America, which was greatly hated in the West, and, adding insult to injury, had remarked, “ The people are fools; if they would let Mr. Morris alone, he would make Pennsylvania a great people, but they will not suffer him to do it.” 64 Later that same evening, when asked by a colleague if he did not fear that his constituents would be dissatisfied at the stand he had taken on the land payment bill, he was said to have replied that he would satisfy the people by making a statement of the case in the Pittsburgh Gazette.65 From the garbled re¬ ports of the evening spread by spiteful politicians it was made to appear that he had expressed the opinion that the people were fools and would be hoodwinked easily by anything he cared to tell them through the press. Thus his chief means of defense was made suspect, and every attempt to justify his actions through articles in the Gazette only made matters worse. Meanwhile his activities in the legislature were maliciously criticized in the same paper by his colleague William Findley, an ex-weaver.66 It be¬ came common report that he had “ sold the good will of his coun¬ try for a dinner of some stockholder’s fat beef.” 67 This first break with his constituency had come in connection with matters of state and local interest. His reputation was still further damaged when the assembly began the debate on the plans for ratification of the Federal Constitution. Brackenridge’s colleagues from the frontier, like most westerners, were opposed to the Constitution, and attempted to prevent the formation of 64. 65. 66. 67.

Pittsburgh Gazette, April 21, 1787. Incidents of the Insurrection, III, 13. Pittsburgh Gazette, February 10, 1787. Ibid., January 20, 1787.

INTRODUCTION

xxi

plans for ratification during the last session of the assembly in 1787. The situation reached the proportions of a scandal when nineteen members, including William Findley, attempted to pre¬ vent action on the plan by absenting themselves from the House so that a quorum would be lacking.68 Brackenridge, on the other hand, worked vigorously for the Constitution, using his keenest satire in attacking its opponents. Largely through his efforts, a bill was finally passed by the as¬ sembly setting a date for the election of delegates to a ratifying convention.69 He spent the interval between the close of the legislative session and the date of ratification ably and untiringly defending the Constitution through articles in the Gazette, and attacking the assemblymen who had opposed the new plan of government.70 In particular, he wrote in Hudibrastic verse an account of recent events in which William Findley, the ex-weaver, was held up to ridicule, thinly disguised as an ignorant artisan named Traddle who sought to become a statesman.71 As the outstanding champion of the Constitution in his district, Brackenridge naturally expected, in spite of his recent unpopu¬ larity, to be chosen as delegate to the ratifying convention. His fury and chagrin could scarcely be exaggerated when he learned that he had been defeated by William Findley, the ex-weaver, who had absented himself from the assembly, ignominiously hiding in a garret, to prevent the passage of the bill authorizing the ratifying convention. He poured out his anger and disappoint¬ ment in caustic verse: Whence comes it that a thing like this, Of mind no bigger than a fly’s Should yet attract the popular favor Be of his country thought the saviour, Sent to assembly and convention With votes almost without dissention ?72 68. Proceedings and Debates of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania (Phila¬ delphia, 1787), pp. 138-42. 69. Ibid., p. 142. 70. Pittsburgh Gazette, November 3, November 10, December 1, 1787, and Janu¬ ary 28 and March 8, 1788. 71. Ibid., November 3 and November 10, 1787. tions, pp. 58-69. 72. Pittsburgh Gazette, December 1, 1787.

Reprinted in Gazette Publica¬

xxn

INTRODUCTION

The answer to this question was hardly flattering to either the constituency or the successful candidate. *

As natural bodies are made up, Of higher, lower, bottom, top, In other words, of head and tail, So bodies politic as well, Of upper, nether, end should be. Why then indignant do we see, Such things as Traddle and Humbugum, And Tadry Hash and Hogum Mogum, 'Mongst managers of state affairs, Of which they know no more than bears? But whence is it that most of these Were of the Western Country geese? Because ’tis reasonable that we The legislative tail tree be. Let Philadelphia be the head, And Lancaster the shoulder blade; And thence collecting in a clump, A place called Stoney Ridge the rump. The tail will naturally stretch, Across the Allegheny ridge, While we submit to stubborn fate, And be the backside of the state. Why then complain that ignorance, Of state affairs should come from hence? 73

To the disillusionment of these political experiences we owe the first volume of Modern Chivalry with its biting satire on the popular folly of raising the ignorant to a high place in society and government. It was Brackenridge’s first idea to present the sub¬ ject in verse, and in 1788-89 he began a narrative poem, The Modern Chevalier, which he hoped might become the American Hudibras.74 An outgrowth of the satires on Findley previously published in the Pittsburgh Gazette, it describes a visit of the 73. Pittsburgh Gazette, March 8, 1788. tions, pp. 72-6. 74. Gazette Publications, p. 311. pendix, p. 1.

Partially reprinted in Gazette Publica¬

Modem Chivalry (edition of 1815), IV, ap¬

INTRODUCTION

xxiii

Chevalier to the cabin of Traddle the Weaver, whom he chides for being content with his lowly sphere in life. Is that a loom that stands before ye That keeps you from the walks of glory? It ill befits that men whom nature, Hath favour’d with such parts and feature Should waste the taper of existence, In meaner arts, when their assistance Is wanted both in field and council, To help our politics at groundsell, And make some new and wholesome laws.75 Another character, observing the scene, tells the Chevalier: It would do service to the state, If such a noble Knight as you Would teach them [the electorate] what they ought to do, And give them seasonable lessons Respecting such their crude creations, That on the one hand while they pass The ignorant though monied ass, So on the other should avoid The chusing such among the crowd As are unqualified, though less, They may in property possess.70 Of this work Brackenridge said later: To me the verse of Butler is not less pleasing than the prose of Cervantes; but though in my opinion, my verse imitation of that of Butler is not without some felicity of imitation, yet never having been complimented to the same extent by others, I thought proper to change my composition into that of prose; or rather to drop the continuation of it in verse, and to take prose, which was a more humble and might be a safer walk.77 It was thus that Brackenridge began the writing of Modern Chivalry. He was probably working on the book by 1790.78 Two 75. Gazette Publications, p. 312. 76. Ibid., p. 328. 77. Modern Chivalry (edition of 1815), IV, appendix, p. 1. 78. In that year Jean Badollet heard him say to a certain Mr. N., “ Sir, I could set down and write a piece of humour for fifty-seven years without being the least exhausted. I have just now two compositions agoing.” (Henry Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin, p. 134.)

XXIV

INTRODUCTION

volumes of it were finished by 1792, when they were published in Philadelphia. A third volume was issued the next year at Pitts¬ burgh by John Scull; this was the first literary work published west of the Alleghenies. These three volumes constitute the first unit of Modem Chivalry. In this episodic tale of Captain Farrago — who is the spokesman for Brackenridge himself — and his Irish servant, Teague O’Regan, we see the ignorant exalted in town and country, in society, in church and state, even in science and the arts. For Teague, fresh from his native Irish bogs, totally illiterate, but unblushing in his assumption of fitness for any position, no matter how high, is al¬ most sent to the legislature by an ignorant but enthusiastic con¬ stituency, is pressed to enter the ministry, becomes the petted darling of society, wins temporary popularity as an actor, and is even proposed as a member of the American Philosophical Society. The Captain, a stanch country gentleman, liberal and intelligent, strives in vain to curb the soaring ambitions of his bog-trotter, until, finally becoming resigned to the idea that ignorance may reach the top, he begins to groom Teague for a federal appointment. The narrative is broken by the interlarding of chapters of philo¬ sophic comment after the manner of Swift’s Tale of a Tub, and in the course of it the author finds space to satirize many phases of American life. The year after the publication of the volume the Whisky In¬ surrection occurred. Brackenridge, as has been seen, had played a dangerous and difficult part in the insurrection79 and had apolo¬ gized for his conduct at length in his Incidents of the Insurrection in the Western Parts of Pennsylvania, in the Year 1794. In 1797 he completed his literary treatment of the insurrection by publish¬ ing a fourth volume of Modern Chivalry. In the beginning of this volume Teague receives the federal appointment for which he has been waiting, but it turns out to be a position hardly above his deserts. He is made an excise tax collector in western Pennsyl¬ vania, precisely that part of the country where excisemen were most hated. Arriving in his territory, Teague meets the not un¬ common fate of excisemen in that district — he is tarred and feathered, and driven from the settlement. The Captain, like 79. See above, p. xvii.

Text of a letter from Brackenridge on legal matters. The letter appears in reduced facsimile on the two pages immediately following, by permission, from the originals in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Phila? Decemb. 14. 1801. Sir — It is now nine or ten months since I had accomplished all that you had directed in the case of I. J. Heron; and last September I brought with me to this city the papers; deed recorded in the office at Post Vincennes, &c. But contemplating the going to Baltimore this winter I omitted saying anything until I could have an oppor¬ tunity personally. But as it will be a considerable time before I can make it convenient to visit Maryland I would be glad to deliver the papers here to any person authorised to receive them. I shall be in the city three weeks from this time. The sum which I have thought I might ask for services in this case including money laid out in postage of papers, recording, &c., will be one hundred dollars. This can be remitted to me by the person who calls upon me for the papers, or with whom I may be directed to place them. Am with great respect Yours H. H. Brackenridge

On the third page following is a reduced facsimile of the first page of one of Brackenridge’s letters to Jefferson, re¬ produced from the Jefferson manuscripts in the Library of Congress. It is of special interest for its explanation of why Brackenridge so constantly made use of an amanuensis.

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