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STAINED GLASS TOURS IN FRANCE
STAINED GLASS TOURS IN ENGLAND
A STAINED GLASS TOUR IN ITALY

FRENCH MEMORIES
OF
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA

General Rochambeau.
After a sketch attributed to De Fcrsen, aide-de-camp to Rochambeau.

EEENCH MEMORIES
OF
EiaHTEENTH-CENTUEY AMERICA

BY
CHARLES H. SHERRILL

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1915

COPYSIQHT, 1915, BT
CHARLES SOEIBNER'S SONS
Published October, 1915

TO

MT FOREFATHERS
WHO TOOK FABT IN THE ST&tJGaLE FOB AMEBICAV mDEFENDEKCB
RECOMPENSE SHERRILL
JACOB SHERRILL
JEREMIAH SHERRILL
DIRCK WTNKOOP
SOLOMON DAT
JOHN BOTLAN
THIS PICTURE OP EARLY AMEHICAN SOCIETT
AB BEEN THROUGH CONTEMPOBABT
FBENCH ETES
IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED

FOREWORD
If the reader be not pleased with the following
sketch of early American customs, he should blame
a certain ancient sofa, and not the author ! For it
was the said sofa that caused these lines to be
written, and it came about in this way: Among
some old furniture handed down in our family is an
unusually long mahogany sofa, upon which, says
tradition. General Lafayette frequently sat when
he came to take tea. Tradition further alleged
that in the memoirs of some Frenchman (name not
given) this fact was set forth at length. Curi
osity to read what this unknown had to say upon
the subject led through such pleasant hterary
country that soon the original purpose of the
quest gave way to a constantly growing interest
in these memoirs emd records of the last quarter
of the eighteenth century, from the battle of Lex
ington till the transfer of the Federal Government
to the city of Washington. WhUe studying an
cient stained glass the author gradually realized
that the art's advanced state at the beginning was
due to its being merely mosaic transferred from
the wall to a window so that the Ught could shine
[vii]

FOREWORD
through, thus enhancing its color value. What he
has tried to do in this case is to collect the mosaic
out of dusty archives and ancient books, and then
set it up where the hght of to-day could shine
through these bright memories and reveal a com
pleted picture of our ancestors and their times
colored to the Ufe. Although no reader of this
book can ever receive therefrom one-tenth the
pleasure it gave in the writing, nevertheless, the
author hopes that it may serve to encourage more
and frequent journeys into the Uterary country it
maps — ^perhaps those jom-neys wiU justify the
writing of the book.
Charles H. Sherrill.
20 East 65th Street, New York City,
September 1, 1915.

[viii]

CONTENTS

PAGE
Dedication  v
Foreword  vii
Chapter I
OuK French Visitors  1
Chapter 11
Dancing, Visits, Music, Cards, Conversation, Eti
quette  31
Chapter III
Dress and French Fashions. Courtship and Mar
riage  54
Chapter IV
What Our Ancestors Ate and Drank; Their Cus
tom OF Toasts, Etc. .  74
Chapter V
American Physical Traits and Temperament, and
THE Effect of Our Climatb  108
Chapter VI
City Life, and Especially in Philadelphia,
Charleston, and Boston  135
[ix]

CONTENTSChapter VII
PAGE
City Life (Continued). Newport, Providence,
Hartford, New Haven, Albany, Baltimore, New
York, New Orleans, and Washington . . 157
Chapter VUI
Country Life  181
Chapter IX
Travel — ^Its Conveniences and Inconveniences . 205
Chapter X
Education, Colleges, Newspapers, Interest in
Public Affairs  232
Chapter XI
Religious Observances  261
Chapter XII
The Learned Professions: Law, Medicinb, Archi
tecture, ETC  274
Chapter XIII
Labor, Manufacture, Merchant Marine, and For
eign Trade  288
Chapter XIV
The Allied Armies  307
Bibuographt
French Authorities Consulted and Records Ex
amined  329

[x]

ILLUSTRATIONS
General Rochambeau  Fro-rdis-piece
After a sketch attributed to De Fcrsen, aide-de-camp to Rochambeau. FACING PAGE
Due de Lauzun  10
From the painting of the surrender of Yorktown, by John Trumbull, in
the Yale School of Fine Arts.
Due de La Rochefoucauld  24
From a drawing by J. Gu^rin.
City dancing assembly invitation  32
From the original in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsyl
vania.
Elizabeth Bowdoin (Mrs. Temple)  36
From the original crayon, by John Singleton Copley, in possession of
Winthrop Tappan.
The Red Lion Tavern, near Philadelphia, as it is at pres
ent, where a "frolick de melons" was held annually in
August  38
Richard Peters  42
From the painting by Rembrandt Peale in the Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts.
Head-dresses of the eighteenth century  60
Comte de Segur  78
From a portrait appearing in hia volume of "Mfemoires."
The New Theatre, Philadelphia  . 140
From an old print in the collection of Charles A. Munn.
[xi]

ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
View of Second Street, north from Market Street, with
Christ Church, Philadelphia, about 1804 .... 146
Boston — ^as shown in an early print  154
From the collection of Charles A. Munn.
Saint John de Crevecoeur, 1786  174
The United States Capitol at Washington  178
From the collection of Charles A. Munn.
Mercy Warren, wife of General Warren  238
From the painting by Copley.
The colleges at Cambridge  240
After the engraving by S. Hill in the collection of Charles A. Munn.
Ezra Stiles, president of Yale  242
From the portrait by Reuben Moulthrop, 1794.
BuUdings of Yale College, New Haven  244
From the engraving by A. P. Doolittle, 1807.
Nassau Hall  248
After an old print which appears in "An Account of the College of
New Jersey, 1764."
Dartmouth College, showing chapel and hall .... 252
From the engraving by S. Hill In the collection of Charles A. Munn.
City election at the State-house, Philadelphia . . . 258
From the original water-color by John Lewis Krimmell in the hall of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
State-house, Philadelphia, 1778  286
From an old print in the collection of Charles A. Munn.
Lafayette  308
From a portrait painted by C. W. Peale, in 1780, for Washington.
Reduced from copperplates of French sketches of
American military types  320
From tbe collection of the author,
[xii]

FRENCH MEMORIES
OF
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA

CHAPTER I
OUR FRENCH VISITORS
"Oh! wad some power the giftie gie us to see
oursel's as ithers see us," sang Burns. If ye wiU,
gentle readers, ye may have the "giftie" for the
taking, if your wish be to see how "ithers" saw us
during those formative years when our national
hberty was being heated in the melting-pot of
war, and pouured into the mould of constitutional
government. And what other nation can show
such friendly, such sympathetically appreciative
historians, such kindly "ithers" as were the
French who wrote of us in those days when our
nation "lay a-borning " .?* The spirit in which
they set about their study of us is weU expressed
by the Comte de Segur to his wife: "I conform
to their habits, 1 respect their customs, for that
is the only way to know the Americans well."
There are two entirely different ways in which
to write history. One is the time-honored manner
of the "one-man book," a picture of some portion
of a nation's Ufe drawn by one pen, and from the
sole point of view of one author. But is this
[I]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
method as truly descriptive of the people de
scribed as it would be if, instead of being limited
to one author's thought upon the subject, it could
be broadened so as to include the points of view
of many observers from widely differing angles
—foreign observers preferably, so as to secure im
partiahty .»* In other words, to construct a con
temporary mosaic picture made up of bits struck
off from many men's brains ! Although beset
with difficulties, would not such a task, if accom
phshed, possibly be fuUer in its truthfulness than
the story of any one historian ?
And what are these difficulties.*^ First, there
must exist a sufficient number of reports upon the
particular epoch under consideration; next, the
writers must be so diversffied in cheu-acter and
type as to assure a wide scope of material; then
the period selected must have possessed such in
terest abroad as to arouse the best and most
sympathetic interest in these foreign narrators;
and, lastly — ^most awesome difficulty of all — ^the
work of compilation that such a history with so
many roots must entail !
But in our case all these difficulties dissolve into
thin air, Uke a mirage in the desert, when we ap
proach and examine them. The life of the Ameri
can people during the quarter of a century which
elapsed between the battle of Lexington (1775)
and the instaUation of the Federal Government
[2]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
at the new city of Washington (1800) was of such
engrossing interest to the French as not only to
produce a series of about seventy memoirs, but
also to insure that their authors' acute minds
were keenly aroused to the scenes taking place
under their eyes. So interesting are these human
documents that the most forbidding difficulty of
aU — the work of compilation — proves to be a de
hghtful occupation, a labor of love. And then
as to the difficulty of finding writers of sufficiently
diversffied type, we shaU be met with a most
dehghtful surprise. Although the authors con
sulted were all Frenchmen, so many were the
angles from wliich they observed, and so greatly
did their points of view differ, that, taken to
gether, their observations cover the entire field
with amazing completeness. Not only can we
draw from the narrative of ordinary travellers,
but also from aU sorts of specialized and contrast
ing types — a royaUst exile Uke the Due de La
Rochefoucauld, or Brissot, the Girondin repub
Ucan, a eulogistic marquis, or a captiously criti
cal philosopher, a botanist, a geologist, a book
seller, or a farmer — ^from Crevecoeur, who Uved
so long among us as to spoil his French, and the
Comte de Revel, who spent only twenty-four
days in our land (all in the trenches at Yorktown),
from the ChevaUer de la Luzerne, the Minister
who greatly admired us, to Beaumarchais, the
[3]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
government agent, who sometimes ridiculed us —
as perhaps was to be expected from the author of
"The Barber of Seville" I Nor are we Umited to
these memoirs, numerous though they be, in pre
paring this sketch of our country's yesterday as
seen through French eyes, for the archives of the
various departments of the French Government
£u-e filled with a rich store of reports of those times
written home by diplomats, soldiers, and sailors.
Then, too, there are many private letters, some
pubUshed and more unpubhshed, which lend in
timate touches so necessary to our picture of the
long ago. Surely no important epoch of any
country's Ufe has ever been so fuUy or so sym
pathetically described by the people of another
nation. Many French writers upon America have pur
posely been left unquoted because the authors
wrote at second hand, and had not themselves
visited our country and seen conditions with
their own eyes. Obviously, they do not serve our
purpose so weU as the writings of the men who
hved with and fought alongside our ancestors,
and brought away with them that indescribable
something which KipUng says ever exists when
two strong men meet — the bond of human sym
pathy. Then, too, sundry of the writers are of
small value to us because they were so engaged
in recording mihtary details as to include Uttle
[4]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
or nothing about the Ufe of their American friends;
some of these, Uke Admiral de Grasse, and Bou-
gainviUe (whose memory is deUghtfuUy embalmed
in the gorgeous purple-flowered vine that bears
his name) were engaged in naval conflicts off our
coast, and lacked land service in America during
the period we have chosen. We have left un
touched the Uterature describing such French set
tlements in America as Asylum, Scioto, etc., for
the obvious reason that their customs were French,
not American.
A most important fact added by these personal
narratives to the general history of the period is
that although the French Government was un
doubtedly swayed by poUtical considerations in
lending assistance to America, hoping thus to
strike England in a vital spot, it is obviously true
that these individual French annaUsts were in
spired not only by disinterested friendship, but
also by a cordial interest in our new experiment
at Uberty. They were alhes of the heart, not of
the scheming brain. Says Brissot in his preface:
"You wifl see in this book of travels the prodig
ious effect of Uberty upon customs, industry, and
the improvement of the human race. This is the
encouraging picture which these travels will offer
to the friends of Uberty." Indeed, so genuine
was their regard for their American friends as to
bUnd them to many unrelated faults, £uid to leave
[5]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
their narratives more flattering than our ancestors
deserved— a very agreeable discretion on their part,
say we !
One feels vastly more interest in a tale told by
one of our own friends than by an unknown — the
story at once ceases to be impersonal and takes on
an intimate flavor. So, without delay, let us pro
ceed to make the acquaintance of these friendly
eighteenth-century Frenchmen before we settle
ourselves to hear their engaging comments upon
our ancestors. A most dehghtful group of person-
aUties they will prove to be, ahke only in being
Frenchmen and in their friendly attitude to the
customs and people of the new-born American re
pubUc, but in every other respect a most diver
sified gathering.
We shall find that they wiU naturally faU into
groups of varying size, either by reason of their
professions, personal traits, inchnations, or turns
of thought. Some of them, hke TaUeyrand,
Chateaubriand, or Segur, were already on the
road to brilhant futures and the Temple of Fame;
while others, like Brissot, Custine, de Broglie,
and de Lauzun, will be forever sadly grouped in
our memory as feUow victims of the guillotine.
Many of them were of the warrior caste, but
(anomalous though it be) it is from those devoted
to this stern profession that we shaU glean most
of our hghter hints of American Ufe. While some
[6]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
came here to fight, stiU others left home because
of civil strife in France — temporary exiles await
ing on our hospitable shores the return of more
peaceful conditions in the Old World. More than
a few wiU prove to have visited our land equipped
with a philosophical turn of mind, for it must not
be forgotten that to be a philosopher was a repu
tation then highly esteemed. A few were natural
ists and seekers after facts connected with re
claiming the wilderness, and new conditions of
soil and chmate, so fuU of interest to inhabitants
of lands where nature had long been servant of
man. A few were merchants, to whom commerce
and its opportunities vastly overshadowed all
other human interests. One only was a woman,
the Marquise de la Tour du Pin, but her pen
pictures are the best of aU — so gay, so brave, so
discriminating. It is for us to make the first advances to these
folk of two centuries ago, so, hat in hand, let us
approach the first group, and make the acquain
tance of those representatives of the warrior caste
sent to our aid by Louis XVI.
At their head stands the steady, resourceful
commander-in-chief of the land forces. General
Rochambeau, already weU on in age and experi
ence when he was selected by his king to command
the httle French army of six thousand men landed
in Providence, R. I., to aid the strugghng colonists.
[7]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Close by him is the charming but irresponsible
Marquis de ChasteUux, welcomed everywhere by
Americans of every rank in hfe, and delightfuUy
responsive in his account of this welcome. When
he officiously wrote to the French Minister, criti
cising Rochambeau, and telUng that the plan of
the alhes was to attack New York City, the
letter fell into the hands of the Enghsh, who, de
ceived as was ChasteUux regarding our real pur
pose, returned it to Rochambeau. Most sig-
nfficant of that general's character and knowledge
of men was his handUng of this insubordinate
letter; he sent for ChasteUux, showed it to him,
and then threw it into the fire ! This reveals at
a glance the natures of the two men, and it also
explains why Rochambeau's homely comments
contain so much of value concerning the Ameri
can hfe he saw going on about him.
Near Rochambeau stands Baron de Kalb, who
was sent to America as an investigator by the
French Government before ever the war began,
and who had so glorious an end at the battle of
Camden, fighting for our independence.
Baron Cromot du Bourg and Baron Louis de
Closen, both aides-de-camp of the commander,
will prove most engaging comrades, so clear was
their insight into the young American manhood
they came to know so well. De Closen com
mented both with pen and pencil, and the pages
[8]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
of his note-book are enhvened with sketches of
American damsels who caught his fancy.
More serious in vein wifl be Commissary Claude
Blanchard, and more precise in his observations.
He learned what he could of Americans, but his
chief thought was always for the weffare of the
French troops. One of the few criticisms he re
ceived from his commander was on account of the
poor quahty of American bread — surely no fault
of the hard-working quartermaster.
More serious than Blanchard in cloth, but far
less so in his point of view, was the worthy chap
lain, Abbe Robin, whose writings contain more
than a few hints on fashions and the ways of
American women.
By way of sharp contrast we wiU turn next to
the Due de Lauzun, the dashing soldier but un
principled man. We shaU do wefl to forget the
immorahty of his memoirs (which, Sainte-Beuve
said, alone provided sufficient excuse for the French
Revolution!), and remember only that the por
tion reporting his stay in America is entirely free
from that reproach. Remeniber, too, the episode
outside New York when he rode back under a
heavy fire to recover his hat which had blown off I
Lieutenant-General Mathieu Dumas made care
ful notes of his experiences while serving under
the French colors in our country, but left them
behind him in a box at Doctor Bowen's house in
[9]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Providence. He thought they were lost, but
forty years later Mrs. Ward, sole survivor of the
Bowen family, gave them to General Lafayette
in New York to return to their owner. It is un-
fortimate that Dumas's memoirs deal ahnost ex
clusively with mihtary events, and say but Uttle
of the people whose battles he was fighting.
Comte Guillaume de Deux-Ponts so distin
guished himseff in the savage charge on the Eng
Ush redoubts at Yorktown that he was decorated
by Louis XVI, and immortalized by TrumbuU in
his picture of the surrender of CornwaUis, now
hanging in the rotunda of the Capitol at Wash
ington. It is interesting to recaU that £iU the
French officers in that picture were painted from
Ufe by TrumbuU in 1787, at Thomas Jefferson's
house in Paris while the latter was American
Minister to France.
That the Comte Joachim de Revel should have
occasionaUy been severe in his strictures upon
American ways is not to be wondered at, for he
was landed from the French fleet at Yorktown, and
for twenty-four days and nights fought in the
trenches without sleeping in a bed or getting a
chance to change his clothes. Never did foreigner
receive so poor an example of American hospitaUty ,
and we cannot begrudge him the joy which he
experienced when once more back iu his bunk
aboard ship. [lO]

Due de Lauzun.

From the painting of the surrender of Yorktown, by John
Trumbuli, in the Yale School of Fine Arts.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Prominent in this group of warriors is Admiral
Comte de Grasse, whose fleet played so important
a part in the Yorktown victory by preventiag the
Enghsh navy from succoring their land forces,
but here again we shall be disappointed, for his
memoirs deal with naval technicaUties alone, and
not at all with hfe on shore. One of his officers,
however, Chevaher Aristide Aubert Dupetit-
Thouars, known later for his trip round the world,
gives a merry account of his adventures on the
shores of Chesapeake Bay, where he took most
kindly to the toasting habit then so prevalent
among us. A very human sailorman was Dupetit-
Thouars, and quite outspoken and unphilosophical
when he took pen in hand.
Count Axel Fersen, popularly remembered
as the devoted friend who drove the coach in
which Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette tried to
make their escape from Paris, has much to say
in his vivacious memoirs of the days he spent in
America while fighting in Rochambeau's army.
Nearest to us of aU this group of fighting French
men is a young officer with a curiously shaped
head — ^pointed face and low brow — a youth who
risked his king's displeasure to cross the ocean and
help us. He was a human battery of enthusiasm
for Uberty and Americans, so much a part of us
that he led our troops in the assault on the York-
town redoubts, and named his son " George Wash-
[II]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ington" — so close to our hearts ever since that
every schoolboy in our land can teU his heroic
story — our beloved Lafayette — so energeticaUy
and enthusiasticaUy brave in our cause, and yet
of so thoughtful a modesty as to insist that Amer
ican volunteer officers should outrank officers of
equal grade in our ally's army ! From him we
shaU quote freely, for no more sympathetic pic
ture exists than his of the people he knew and
loved so weU.
Associated with Lafayette there wiU be found
the Comte de Segur, son of the French Minister
of War, and himseff later Ambassador to St.
Petersburg, and also the gallant Vicomte de
NoaiUes, who marched aU the way on foot from
Newport to the Hudson to set his men an example
of endurance. These three young men had been
intimates at the French court, and both Lafayette
and de Segur married sisters of de NoaiUes.
Another intimate friend of these three was the
Prince de Broglie, and it is easy to imagine his
and de Segur's disappointment at being unable to
share Lafayette's exciting experience in America,
their arrival here being delayed until September,
1782, when the active fighting and its attendant
glory were past, although the French army had
not yet embarked upon its return voyage. Both
of them traveUed extensively, and they record
their experiences dehghtfuUy , especiaUy the frankly
[12]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
irresponsible de Broghe, who upon his arrival in
America "only knew a few words of EngUsh, but
knew better how to drink excellent tea with even
better cream, how to teU a lady she was pretty,
and a gentleman he was sensible, by reason whereof
I possessed aU the elements of social success."
It is, perhaps, because of de Broghe's own dis
appointment in missing the fighting that he re
ports so picturesquely the tale of young Bozon
de Perigord, who, ordered to return to France,
disguised himself as a private and tried to smuggle
himseff on board a ship carrying French troops
boimd for active service in the West Indies.
Next we come to four cousins of de Broghe's,
the de Lameth brothers. This gaUant quartet,
each of them a colonel, is represented in the lit
erature of the time by the memoirs of Theodore,
who, though not in the United States and there
fore unable to throw hght upon our Ufe and cus
toms, does give us a vivid picture of the fight at
Yorktown, in which his brother Charles was twice
badly wounded at the head of his hundred grena
diers that breached the paUsades protecting the
EngUsh redoubts so as to permit of the French
assault. Alexandre de Lameth, another of these
four brothers, shared Lafayette's long captivity
in Austria.
Another of the mihtary observers was the
Comte de Pontgibaud ("a French volunteer of
[i3]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
the War of Independence," he caUs himself),
whose story was of such interest as to be pubUshed
in EngUsh as weU as in French. In closing the
Ust of soldiers sent to our aid by France, let us
remember that the German-born Steuben was
selected, paid, and sent here by the French agent
Beaumarchais, and that thereafter he signed him
seff de Steuben and not von Steuben, as inscribed
below his statue in Washington.
Next beyond the mihtary group we shaU ob
serve sundry gentlemen whom, to give them plea
sure, we wiU caU the philosophers, and although
less numerous than the band of officers, they are
double that of the naturaUsts, the historians, the
traveUers, or the exiled emigres. There are no
less than haff a dozen of them, headed by Jacques
Pierre Brissot de Warville, the scholar, poUtician,
and propagandist, who, though he became the
leader of the Girondins, paid the penalty of his
moderation at the guillotine. Philosopher though
he was, he was as immoderate in his abuse of
ChasteUux as in his devotion to Crevecoeur,
Quakers, and the cause of the negroes, nor did
his altruistic philosophy prevent his signing an
agreement with French bankers before he sailed
for America to send them, and them only, certain
information concerning the pubhc debt of the
United States and of the individual States, so
that they could carry on "the speculations which
[i4]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
they proposed to make in American securities,"
and for this they paid him ten thousand livres.
Few Frenchmen ever visited America better
equipped with letters of introduction than he;
of one from Lafayette to Washington we shall
learn later. Notwithstanding these letters, the
French Minister, de Moustier, considered hun a
mischievous person, and would have nothing to
do with him, wliich stand was perforce followed
by Brissot's old friend, Crevecoeur, then serving
as French Consul in New York. This same de
Moustier, later on Ambassador to BerUn, and in
1791 Minister for Foreign Affairs, left in the ar
chives of the Foreign Office many interesting docu
ments touching American commerce. AU the
foregoing, however, in no wise affected the value
or interest of Brissot's writings, for he was a good
friend of our country.
Etienne Claviere will chiefly be remembered by
us as the man who induced Brissot to visit America,
and who coUaborated with him in one of his books.
Another of the same group was the GaUicized
ItaUan, Mazzei, less memorable for his persistent
efforts to introduce the culture of the vine in
America than for having been the man who by
his indiscreet publication of a confidential com
munication embroiled Thomas Jefferson with
Washington. Mazzei Uved for several years near
MonticeUo, Jefferson's home in Virginia, and
[i5]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ended his varied career by becoming privy coun
cUlor to the king of Poland, after which he retired
on a Russian pension and died in Italy at the
ripe age of eighty-five. Another friend of Jeffer
son's was Pierre-Samuel Dupont de Nemours, who
at his request wrote in 1800 an elaborate treatise
on national education in the United States, what
it was and what it ought to be.
Two more of this group, J. E. Bonnet and M.
Jh. Mandrillon, were rather more statistical than
philosophical, and are chiefly useful as providing
certain dry bones for our structure, leaving us to
seek the flesh and red blood in the writings of
their contemporaries.
Although the Marquis de Marnezia and Roux
both philosophized concerning French emigration
to our western country, they disagreed radicaUy as
to its expediency, the former being as optimistic as
the latter was pessimistic.
Moreau de St. Mery, whose diary reposed so
long in the archives of the Ministry of the Colonies
in Paris before being pubhshed by the Yale Uni
versity Press, was such a practical philosopher as
to foresee the certain future of the impoverished
emigr6 TaUeyrand, and befriend him during his
stay in America — to his own advantage when the
great man had come into power. Not only is
St. Mery of great service in our researches, but
also to any student of TaUeyrand, for aU of the
[16]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
many letters that St. Mery received from him
are carefully copied into the latter's diary. It
was this same painstaking diarist who had aheady
codified the laws affecting the French colonies for
Louis XVI, and yet it was under his presidency
that in 1789 the electors of Paris, against that
king's wishes, voted to estabhsh a national militia.
For safety's sake — to prevent quarreUing — there
stands weU apart from this group of philosophical
folk a pair of critics, for so we can best describe
Ferdinand M. Bayard and Chevalier FeUx de
Beaujour. Bayard was the more active of the
two, and therefore the more interesting, while
Beaujour (later on Consul of France) was rather
pompous in his attitude toward men and things,
a trait evidenced by the hundred-thousand-franc
monument he erected for himseff before his death
in the cemetery of Pere La Chaise, Paris.
Contrasting strongly with the pair just de
scribed are several naturahsts: General Victor
CoUot, the Michaux, Andre and Frangois Andre,
father and son, botanists, C. F. Vohiey (afterward
a Senator) the geologist, and the famous J. Hector
St. John de Crevecoeur, author of the "American
Farmer," which he sold for "30 guineas with
promise of a present if the pubUc Ukes the book,"
and which was destined to have an instant and
wide success in EngUsh, French, German, and
Dutch. Two of these men, Michaux and CoUot,
[17]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
during their travels here, conducted confidential
diplomatic investigations for two French ministers
— the former for Genet, and the latter for Adet.
Crevecoeur, chiefly because of assistance lent to
the botanical garden of New Haven (Uke Michaux's
services to Charleston) was elected an honorary
citizen of that town. Furthermore, he deserves
weU of aU Europeans by reason of his seventy-two-
page pamphlet urging their use of potatoes; in this
work there might usefully have coUaborated Gen
eral Marion, who proved to the British troops how
weU Americans could fight on a diet of sweet po
tatoes ! Another foreigner even more interested in
gastronomies, and one who left many amusing
Emecdotes of his three years here, is Brillat Sa-
varin. Another smaU group wiU be chiefly known to
us £is travellers — Etienne Marchand, who early
wrote of what is now Alaska, Baudry des Lozieres,
Miffort, Bossu, Berquin-DuvaUon, and Perrin du
Lac, who described Louisiana, soon to join our
Union of States, and Captain M. Bourgeois (also
for some time an inhabitant of New Orleans), who
might be termed a Pan-American writer, so com
pletely does his Ust of cities visited cover our
western hemisphere.
Perhaps the most picturesque group of aU is
that of the agents and diplomatic representatives
sent us from the French Foreign Office, and it
[i8]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
certainly includes surprisingly differentiated per-
sonahties. Among them are the ChevaUer de la
Luzerne, admiring us and by us admired, and
the indiscreet Citizen Gen§t, so unwise in his
activities as to necessitate his recaU. There is
the modest Bonvouloir (whose poUtical reports,
written in a preparation of milk, were invisible
untfl heated by a red-hot shovel), and his opposite,
Pierre Augustine Caron de Beaumarchais, better
known from his authorship of "The Barber of
SeviUe" and "Marriage of Figaro" than for his
series of remarkable letters to Vergennes, setting
out the pohtical advantage to be gained for
France by aiding the American colonies against
England — arguments which, thanks to theh skil
ful use by Vergennes (then Minister of Foreign
Affairs), caused Louis XVI to decide in favor of
that momentous step. Of this same Vergennes
Jefferson wrote: "He has very imperfect ideas of
our institutions, and no confidence in them"; but
it must never be forgotten that it was neverthe
less he that won over his royal master to our
cause. The responsibihty for that decision was
Vergennes's, and he risked his entire future on its
success. He knew men, and the Ministers he sent
us from the French court were far more in touch
with our repubUcan institutions than those se
lected by the First French RepubUc.
The French Minister first accredited to us was
[19]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Conrad Alexandre Gerard de Rayneval, one of two
brothers in the Foreign Office. Vergennes always
referred to him as " Gerard," reserving the fuU fam
ily name for the other brother. It is f eUcitously ap
propriate that much should have been written of
this period by a modern French diplomat and dis
tinguished man of letters. Ambassador Jusserand,
than whom no more successful foreign represen
tative has ever visited Washington. FoUowing
Gerard, the complete Ust of ministers between 1775
and 1800, with the dates of presenting their let
ters of credence to our government, is ChevaUer de
la Luzerne (November 17, 1779), Count de Mous
tier (February 26, 1788), Colonel Jean de Ter-
nant (August 12, 1791), Edmond G. Genet (May
17, 1793; diplomatic relations with him were
suspended by our government, August 15, 1793),
Joseph Fauchet (February 24, 1794), and Pierre
Auguste Adet (Jiine, 1795). Of these. Colonel
de Ternant might have joined our soldier group,
for he was Lieutenant-Colonel and Inspector with
our forces in the south, and was captured at the
surrender of Charleston. He spoke EngUsh flu
ently, and was "a man of wits and talent," ac
cording to ChasteUux.
The last group of aU is in many ways the most
interesting, and comprises the names of four tem
porary exiles from France who found intolerable
the poUtical troubles accompanying the French
[20]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Revolution. IU assorted they wiU certainly seem,
for they are the Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Tal
leyrand (later Prince of that name), the Due de
La Rochefoucauld, and the Marquise de la Tour
du Pin. Of these the two former wiU prove less
useful to our purpose than the others, and for
widely differing reasons — Chateaubriand as being
too poetic, and TaUeyrand for excessive brevity.
Chateaubriand's love of the picturesque caused
him to be fascinated by the habits of our Indian
tribes, and he devoted so much enthusiasm to his
discussion thereof as to leave but httle for our
forefathers and their ways. Nor were his obser
vations of Indian customs nearly so convincing as
Perrin du Lac's, or as Captain Bossu's accounts
of his beloved AUabomons (Alabamans) and
Akangas (Arkansas) . Miffort, by reason of twenty
years spent among our Indian tribes, was the best
quahfied to chronicle their ways. The Creeks
made him their War Chief, which possibly explains
the dedication of his book to Napoleon Bonaparte.
Of TaUeyrand's private hfe while in America
the less said the better. The fact that he had
been Bishop of Autun seems to have escaped his
memory during his stay in Philadelphia, where
Washington dechned to' receive him — some say
for poUtical reasons (to please the French Minister,
who protested strongly against his reception),
and some say for social reasons. Perhaps it was
[21]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
a combination of both. In any event, it did not
interfere with the high opinion of our future which
he attained after extensive travel in aU parts of
the country, an opinion which found practical
expression in his entering upon a land specula
tion with property in Maine, which he purchased
from General Knox, as weU as with another large
tract in Virginia. It was while visiting the Mar
quis and Marquise de la Tour du Pin on their
humble farm near Albany that he learned of the
events of the ninth of Thermidor, including the
death of Robespierre, which opened the way for
his return to France and subsequent great career.
The diary of the Marquise de la Tour du Pin,
especiaUy that part which treats of her stay in
America, is altogether charming, and gives a de
hghtful picture of these distinguished scions of no
bihty rising at four o'clock every morning to
make butter for their Uving, but on Sunday
dressing up in their best and repairing to the more
congenial atmosphere of the Schuyler and Van
Rensselaer homes in Albany. It is evident on
every page how warmly she reciprocated the sym
pathy everywhere extended to them in this land
of refuge, beginning with the moment when the
good folk of Boston took her cropped hair to
mean preparation for the guillotine, before escap
ing from Paris. Alas! for her, that she had to
learn of American journaUstic enterprise by read-
[22]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
ing in one of our gazettes that her father. Colonel
DiUon, had perished on the scaffold !
Another visitor to her humble farm was the
Due de La Rochefoucauld, hke herseff an exile.
In the eight volumes which he wrote upon his
travels and studies in America during the years
1795, 6, and 7, we shaU find a wealth of material
upon which to draw.
In addition to this long hst of early visitors,
there also exist other later Frenchmen equaUy
efficient in their friendhness — ^men Uke Ambas
sador Jusserand, Vicomte de NoaiUes, Leon Chot-
teau, and Henri Doniol, modern chroniclers of
the French soldiers and sailors who fought in
America, and three eighteenth-century men, Hil-
Uard d'Auberteuil, Abbe Raynal, and Frangois
Soules, students and writers of our history in
those early days, even though they never saw our
land. Amazing, is it not, that so many French
men should have devoted their pens to the cause
of our independence and the praise of American
manhood in those formative days of our nation-
building ?
An iUuminating conclusion deducible from their
collective writings is that, because our ancestors
had long enjoyed great pohtical freedom and were
fighting to prevent its withdrawal, our revolu
tion was rather a war to retain rights than one to
secure a hitherto unenjoyed Uberty, as was the
[23]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
French Revolution. This fact helps to explain
why our revolution was followed by a stable re
pubUcan government, which was not the result
in France. This also explains why the customs
and manners of our people changed hardly at aU
during the period of twenty-five years that sepa
rated the battle of Lexington from the beginning
of the eighteenth century, the period during which
our French friends had us under the closest ob
servation. Consider how greatly everything ih
France altered during the quarter century foUow
ing their revolution, 1789 to 1815, and it wiU help
you to realize how stable by contrast was our
manner of Uving during the same period foUowing
our uprising. Nor is this the only great problem
of national hfe upon which hght is gained by a
study of the French observers of America during
this critical period.
Great interest was felt among the French in the
Society of the Cincinnati, that famous mihtary
order instituted May 10, 1783, by American and
French officers with George Washington as Presi
dent General. Louis XVI gave it his official sanc
tion at VersaiUes December 18, 1783, and became
its Patron. So great was the influence of this so
ciety in its early days that many feared, because
its membership was hereditary, that its aristocratic
tendencies would endanger our republican form of
government. As one proof of how real that danger
[24]

Due de La Rochefoucauld.
From a drawing by J. Gu6rin.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
then seemed it is amusing nowadays to recall that
Tammany HaU was founded May 12, 1789, for the
avowed purpose of acting as a counterweight to the
aristocratic Cincinnati ! Of the French mentioned
in this chapter there belonged to the Cincinnati:
Lafayette, Rochambeau, de Grasse, ChasteUux,
Dumas, de NoaiUes, CoUot, Deux Ponts, Lauzun,
Charles, Alexandre and Theodore de Lameth, Bou-
gainviUe, Segur, BrogUe, Custine, Fersen, Blan
chard, du Bourg, Bozon de Perigord, Closen, Pont
gibaud, Ternant, Gerard, and Luzerne.
Some of the memoirs were written under a pseu
donym, and pubUshed outside France in order to
avoid the official censor. So repressive an influ
ence did this censorship exert that many com
plaints were made that it robbed French presses
of much business otherwise obtainable from Amer
ican writers unwiUing to be exposed to annoying
excisions, to say nothing of the long delays neces
sitated by this official supervision. Crevecoeur
printed his first book, " Letters from an American
Farmer," in England and in Enghsh, but when
he came to bring out his "Voyage dans la Haute
Pennsylvanie, etc.," he did it in Paris and in
French, protecting himseff, however, by aimounc-
iag that it had been written in Enghsh, and that
he had only translated it. MandriUon pubUshed
both his "Voyageur Americain," and his "Spec-
tateur Americain," in Amsterdam, aUeging that
[25]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
the first was written by an unknown Enghshman
by order of Lord Chatham, the prime minister,
and translated into French by "M. Jh. M."
When, two years later, he printed the second book,
he had grown bold enough to lay aside the trans
lation subterfuge, although stiU unwiUing to put
more than "M. Jh. M." on the title-page, and
further conceaUng his identity by adding "Ne-.
gociant a Amsterdam." Bonnet pubUshed his
"Reponse aux Principales Questions, etc.," at
Lausanne, giving as the author "un citoyen des
Etats-Unis," while Mazzei printed his "Re-
cherches" at CoUe, and signed it "un citoyen de
Virginie." In the latter book there appear four
letters on the unity of legislation Avritten by the
Marquis de Condorcet, but here again we have
the author's identity concealed from the censor
by the pseudonym "Bourgeois de New Heaven,"
an unintentionaUy flattering speUing of New
Haven, Connecticut, which had conferred the
honor of citizenship upon the author. Bourgeois
printed his book in London, and d'Auberteuil his
in Brussels — ^both of them being in French.
That it was considered worth whfle to take aU
this trouble to put books on America into the
hands of French readers shows conclusively how
keen must have been the pubhc interest in that
subject. In order to reproduce aU the detafls possible
[26]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
of the panoramic picture painted by our French
friends, the author has examined not only aU
their available memoirs unpubhshed or pub
Ushed, but has also searched through the amaz-
iugly complete archives of the French Govern
ment (deposited in the Archives Nationales, the
BibUotheque Nationale, and several of the Min
istries), opened to him with that courtesy for
which the French are so justly renowned.
A coUector of these early memoirs wfll occa
sionaUy encounter an anomalous value set upon
certain books, and an attempt to puzzle out the
causes for these seeming discrepancies in cost wiU
lead him along pleasing paths. He wiU find that
General Mathieu's work is stfll in demand as a
text-book for students of mihtary service, and is
therefore never to be cheaply had. Querard ex
plains the rarity of Marquis de Lazay Marnezia's
pamphlet, "Lettres ecrites des rives de I'Ohio,"
by saying it was seized by the poUce. The first
edition of the memoirs of the Due de Lauzun was
one of the very few books pubhshed by Honore
de Balzac during his short (and unsuccessful!)
career as a pubhsher, and it is therefore snapped
up by coUectors of unusual books. There were
but twenty-three copies printed of the first edi
tion of ChasteUux's travels, and that, too, by the
printing-press on board the French fleet at Provi
dence, which easily accounts for the price set
[27]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
upon a copy. The first edition of the so-caUed
memoirs of Admiral de Grasse proves upon investi
gation to consist of only about a dozen prints of
his story of the engagements leading up to his
defeat in the West Indies by Admiral Rodney
and the Enghsh fleet, these few copies being in
tended for use at the court-martial before which
he was tried. General CoUot's memoirs (post
humously pubUshed, by the way) are rare because
the bookseUer who bought the entke edition,
both French and Enghsh, deliberately destroyed
all but three hundred of the French and one hun
dred of the Enghsh copies, hoping thus to in
crease their sale value. The coUector wiU find
that interesting facts hke these will be constantly
appearing to increase the dehghts of his fascinating
occupation. If the said coUector turns his attention to the
prints and other iUustrations of the period, he
will soon learn that, although there was a wealth
of them in England just then, especiaUy of politi
cal caricatures, the opposite was true across the
Channel, for the French had but few iUustrations
of interest deaUng with the momentous facts then
taking place. Fewer stiU are there prints to be
had of American events, and most of these are
aUegoricaUy represented, and therefore lack those
details iUustrating customs and home hfe which
we would have wished.
[28]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
At the back of this book wfll be found a hst of
the authorities consulted. It is with real plea
sure that the author acknowledges his special in
debtedness to the gentlemen in charge of the
Library of the French Foreign Office, of the Ar
chives Nationales, and of the great coUection at
the Bibhotheque Nationale; to Senator Pierre
Baudin, who, while Minister of Marine, gave per
mission to study the records of his ministry; to
Ambassador Robert Bacon; to several friends in
the Library of Congress; to Governor Simeon E.
Baldwin of Connecticut; to Rev. Anson Phelps
Stokes of Yale University ; to Mr. Henry Vignaud,
the learned coUector of Americana; to Mr. Charles
A. Munn; to Mr. James Hazen Hyde; to General
Asa Bird Gardiner; to Mr. WilUam C. Lane, Li
brarian of Harvard University; and lastly, to a
number of antiquarian bookseUers of Paris, who,
understanding the purpose of this volume, helped
in ways for which no financial recompense was pos
sible. The coUecting of the available information and
its reduction by selection have been so interesting
that the hours devoted thereto seem in the retro
spect but minutes. As the work progressed, the
author's amazement constantly grew that the
people of a foreign race should not only have plen-
tffuUy spiUed their blood for us, but also should
have so voluminously recorded the saUent social
[29]

FRENCH MEMORIES
characteristics of the new nation they had helped
to its feet. It is the writer's eamest wish that
these pages may assist in reviving the memory
of France's splendid service to the feUow citizens
of Washington.

[3o]

CHAPTER II
DANCING, VISITS, MUSIC, CARDS,
CONVERSATION, ETIQUETTE
"Come, miss, have a care what you are doing,"
shouted the Master of Ceremonies to a damsel
who was permitting a bit of gossip to interrupt
her turn in a contra-dance. "Do you think you
are here for your own pleasure .3" That such
discipUne should have characterized a PhUa
delphia assembly in 1781 was ahnost as surpris
ing to the French officer who saw it as it is be
wildering to us in these free-and-easy days of
tango teas and complete surrender to that invad
ing thief of society's waking hours! How cut-
and-dried were the Philadelphia dancing-parties
of those times was recorded in great detail by
the briUiant Marquis de ChasteUux, the French
officer whom American society did its best to
spoil, and who repaid its attentions by his amia
ble account of American Ufe. But Usten to fur
ther details of this same assembly: "A Man
ager, or Master of Ceremonies presides at these
amusements. He gives to each dancer a folded
ticket which is numbered, and thus it is chance
[3i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
which decides the partner that you are to have
and must keep the whole evening. All the dances
are arranged in advance, and are caUed out in
order. These dances, hke the toasts which they
drink at table, have a certain poUtical flavor.
One is caUed 'The Success of the Campaign,'
another 'The Defeat of Burgoyne,' a third 'The
Retreat of CUnton.' The managers are gener
ally chosen from the most distinguished officers
of the Army. At present this important post is
confided to Col. Wilkinson, who is the army
clothier, that is to say, charged with uniforming
the troops. Col. MitcheU, a short, stout man of
fifty years, a great horse lover, and recently in
charge of the army transport both for the Ameri
can as weU as the French armies, used to be
Master of Ceremonies, but when I saw him he
had just quitted that distinguished position, and
danced as a simple citizen. They say that he
used to exercise his authority with much severity."
That the securing of partners was admittedly
troublesome appears from the legend, "The
ladies wiU be so obUging as to provide themselves
with partners before the evening," printed on
the eleven hundred invitations issued by the
French Minister for the ball he gave Philadelphia
society when, in 1782, an heir was born to Louis
XVI. One happy solution of the partner prob
lem was noticed by Perrin du Lac: "Ordinarily
[32]

y )C^(J—4^0(>.

¦{ 'ITY .lh-lJS^r-.f.Nfl ¦.ASS.E3IBJ.Y.

'tV ''r.'///u//

¦/

II

J, ' '/i/t7t// ¦ A/ //i/j/c/i
r!' ¦ li / /I '/ // 'I,-/, ¦/¦,¦/¦
'l////(i/.it I,// /// ///('//<:/¦'. ^_ -/fti-//tf-n/' lh/<('(/:J.

'J(r//i .''• /I fi 'icur/n"//i/ '.

City dancing assembly invitation.
From the original in the possession of the Historieal Society of Pennsylvania.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
a young lady attends a bafl with a young man
with whom she dances constantly throughout the
evening; that is always the case when he is her
sweetheart. Sometimes a young man who has
come alone to a baU is unable to dance at aU
because no one is wiUing to accept his invitation."
How lacking in repubhcan simphcity were these
balls of the new repubhc appears from the re
port of one in Philadelphia, written by Mimster
Adet to his government, February 23, 1796:
"Yesterday evening they gave the President a
baU, the subscription for which was, as is cus
tomary, opened a few days before. AU that
luxury, flattery, idolatry could imagine was there
combined. There were only lacking Body Guards
and the red and blue ribbons of decorations to
enable one to imagine himseff at the Court of a
King. Courtiers were certainly not lacking."
Another admiring visitor to testify concerning
the dancing-parties of those days was the Comte
de Segur, son of the French Minister of War,
whose conclusion after attending numerous balls
in Providence, was: "I do not remember to have
ever seen anywhere more gaiety and less confu
sion, more pretty women, well-dressed, fuU of
grace, and with less coquetry." This same de
Segur had formed one of an almost inseparable
trio at the French court, the other two being
the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Vicomte de
[33]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
NoEiflles, and it was a great blow to be left be
hind when they, first one and then the other,
went off to the American war. Of de NoedUes
one has to learn at second hand, but he has al
ready been introduced as the officer who, when the
French moved out from Newport to join Wash
ington on the Hudson, marched on foot afl the
way in order to set his men an example of en
durance. Made of splendid stuff were the French
who joined in our struggle for independence, and
that nearly seventy of them wrote their impres
sions of American society and its customs shows
how abundant is the material from which to draw
an account of our forefathers whose friendship
they earned and enjoyed. One after another
they shaU step forward to contribute to our pic
ture of the American Ufe they knew, and while they
are so contributing, we shaU come to know and
love them as did our ancestors long ago. But now
back to our warrior-beau ChasteUux and Usten
while he compares a Boston bafl with its proto
type, the Philadelphia Assembly: "We set out
together for Dr. Cooper's house, and from thence
to the Association Ball, where I was received by
my old acquaintance, Mr. Brick, who was one of
the Managers. I stayed there untfl ten o'clock.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil opened the baU with
Mrs. Temple; Monsieur I'Eiguflle (the elder) and
Monsieur Truguet each danced a minuet, and
[34]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
did honor to the French nation by the distin
guished and gracefifl manner of their dancing.
I regret to say that it contrasted somewhat with
that of the Americans, who generally are awkward,
particularly in the minuet. The prettiest dancers
were Miss Jarvis, her sister. Miss Betsey Brown,
and Mrs. Whitemore. I found the women very
weU dressed, but with less elegance and care than
in Phfladelphia; as for the haU, it was superb,
of a chEmotting style of architecture, wefl furnished
and hghted. For general effect, good order and
refreshments, this Assembly was much superior
to that at the City Tavern of Philadelphia." It
may console our Boston friends to know that
more than one of the French commented that
the Phfladelphia ladies did not excel in dancing !
Even that practical-minded quartermaster, Blan
chard, noticed in Providence that "neither the
men nor the women dance weU; they use their
arms very awkwardly."
ChasteUux, despite his interest in the frivolous
side of social hfe, was too astute to overlook the
serious note that in those troubled times was ever
to be heard by those who cared to hsten. Tories
everywhere imperflled the success of the Ameri
can cause, and in recognition of this fact he notes
that "the Tories have been pubhcly excluded
from this Assembly (Philadelphia)" and com
ments that "Miss Footman was rather contra-
[35]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
band, being suspected of not being a good Whig."
Sundry confirmations of this system of social boy
cott are to be found in the official despatches of
the French Ministers, preserved in the Ministry
of Foreign Affgurs in Paris, to which the author
was courteously granted access by the French
Government. Minister Gerard on August 24,
1778, reports that he had been obhged to give up
the idea of a baU on his King's birthday, because
"they wish to estabhsh an absolute Une of sepa
ration between the Whigs and Tories, especiaUy
between the ladies." He gives as his reason for
reporting this plan to ostracize the Tories, "I
presume, Sir, that you wiU not be indifferent to
knowing the moral dispositions of this country,"
with which sentiment we are in hearty accord.
This same diplomat also wrote home how un
wiUing were the Americans to allow even Congress
to interfere with so popular a pastime as dancing.
He teUs Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign
Affairs, that Congress, at the instigation of Pres
byterian delegates from the north, had passed a
resolution renewing their request that the several
States forbid dances and theatrical representa
tions: "The very day this resolution was pub
lished there were held theatricals, acted by army
officers and Whig citizens. The next day the
Governor of Philadelphia gave a baU to a numer
ous company!" Even thus early did our people
[36]

Elizabeth Bowdoin (Mrs. Temple).
From the original crayon, by John Singleton Copley, in
possession of Winthrop Tappan,

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
set their faces against class legislation by Con
gress. That this wide-spread love of dancing was
not incompatible with patriotism is proved by
the alacrity with which the ladies at a Baltimore
baU given in Lafayette's honor engaged them
selves to make up into shirts for his American
troops the Unen which he had secured for that
purpose. Nor was the worship of Terpsichore confined to
the upper ranks of society, for "aU American
women, married or single, love dancing. They
dance either between eight and eleven in the
morning, or else in the evening from sunset untfl
late at night. There you see grandfather, son,
and grandson at the same party, which shows
that dancing is done for pleasure, and not for
display." This last is from the recently pub
Ushed memoirs of St. Mery, long hidden away in
the archives of the Ministry of Colonies in Paris.
It may be hinted, in passing, that St. Mery is
possibly of less value for his deductions from what
he saw in America than for the sidehght he throws
on TaUeyrand, whom he befriended in exile and
adversity in Philadelphia, to be rewarded later
in France upon Tafleyrand's rise to power. St.
Mery was for some time employed in the Phila
delphia office of Daniel Merian, the business
"name and style" under which the French Gov
ernment long conducted a large and profitable
[37]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
trade in America. It is from St. Mery we leam
that dancing was every whit as popular in the
country as in the cities, and he gives a pleasant
account of what he caUs a "frohck de melons,
to which aU the neighbors come to dance and
eat watermelons," and which was held annuaUy in
August at the Red Lion Tavern, a Uttle way out
of Philadelphia on the New York road. Such
a combination of physical and gastronomic ac
tivities speaks weU for the soundness of our fore
bears' constitutions.
Because the tango and kindred new dances
now engage pubhc attention, dancing seems en
titled to come first in this retrospect of early
American society as seen through French eyes.
In similar wise, by way of recognizing the sway
of that second social tyrant, bridge, cards shaU
come next in order. Hear what the French had
to say upon a subject so important to the social
life of France at that time. Says ChasteUux of
an evening spent in Boston: "For the first time
since I have been in America they made me play
whisk [sic]. The cards were English, that is to
say, much prettier and dearer than ours, and we
marked our points with louis or Portuguese pieces.
As soon as the party was over the losses were not
difficult to adjust, because they were faithful to
the rule estabUshed in society since the beginning
of the troubles, which did not permit playing for
[38]

The Red Lion Tavern, near Philadelphia, as it is at present, where a "frolick
de melons" was held annually in August.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
money so long as the War lasted. This law,
however, was not scrupulously foUowed in the
clubs, nor when men played with each other.
Bostonians Uke high play, and perhaps it is for
tunate that the War came at this time to moder
ate a passion, whose consequences had begun to
be dangerous." Just before Lafayette left France
for the first time, the cause of the strugghng
EngUsh colonies had so laid hold upon the pop
ular imagination of French court circles (where
aU Americans were indiscriminately caUed Bosto
nians) as to displace whist by the new game of
"Boston." Card-playing as a pastime was then
so general a feature of European life that it is no
wonder the French were surprised that this form
of gaming was not more in vogue across the water.
After this glimpse of city hfe, let us change the
scene to a rainy day at General Nelson's coun
try house: "It is not useless to observe that
on this occasion where fifteen or twenty people,
of whom aU were strangers to the family and the
land, found themselves assembled ia the country,
and forced by bad weather to remain in the house,
there was no question of playing cards. How
many parties of tric-trac, of whisk, of lotto,
would there have been among us as a necessary
consequence of an obstinate rain."
ChasteUux points out that another diversion to
which Europeans would have tumed under Uke
[39]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
stress of weather was music, which he calls "a
resource unknown in America," although he con
tradicts himseff further on by saying: "Miss
Toffiver sang several songs with Enghsh words
but Itahan music." He further refutes himseff
in this reg?u"d by narrating that in Phfladelphia
"during the afternoon we went to take tea with
Madame Shippen. It is the first time since my
arrival in America that I have seen music at a
social function taking its part in real amuse
ments. Miss Rutteledge played the clavichord
and played it very weU. Miss Shippen sang
with timidity but a very pretty voice. Mon
sieur Ottow, secretary to Chevaher de la Luzerne
(the French Minister) had a harp brought, and
accompanied Miss Shippen, and also played sev
eral pieces. Music naturaUy brought on dancing.
The Vicomte de Noaffies strung up a violin,
which he tuned to the harp, and started the
young ladies dancing, while mothers and other
grave personages conversed in another room."
Another of his pen vignettes shows that the range
of songs was not Umited, especiaUy if the re
straint due to female society were removed: "The
Secretary of War, Mr. Peter, gave the signal for
joy and liberty by singing a song of his own com
position, so gay and free that I wiU dispense with
giving either a translation or an extract — it was
reaUy very pretty. He then sang another one
[4o]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
more chaste and more musical — a very pretty
Itahan cantabile. Mr. Peter is certaiifly the
best Cabinet Officer of both the hemispheres for
voice and the singing of either grave or gay music."
Brillat Savarin took part in a pleasant scene at
Bulow's farm, near Hartford, where the host, "to
reUeve conversation caUed out from time to time
to his daughter: 'Maria, give us a song!' And
she would sing with charming modesty, without
waiting to be urged, the national song, 'Yankee
dudde' [sic], 'Queen Mary's Lament,' and
'Major Andre,' aU very popular songs. Maria
had taken several lessons and hereabouts passed
for a virtuose, but her song pleased rather be
cause of the quaUty of her voice, which was sweet,
fresh, and clear."
What role music played at a summer resort hke
Bath, Virginia, is narrated by Bayard, who jour
neyed thither on horseback in 1783. Bayard was
one of the few Frenchmen to write of us with that
caustic criticism which the French can, when they
choose, use so telhngly that its significant absence
from most of these memoirs affords a striking proof
of the kindly attitude of their writers. However,
this particular quotation of his is moderately genial
and teUs of a gathering from which the formahty of
city life is absent, and where "the ladies are in
vited to sing. Those with flexible and melodious
voices are applauded and don't have to be urged
[4i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
to sing again. Everyone is wiffing to sing because
they are sufficiently well brought up in the des
erts of the New World to dishke those snobs who
permit themselves to hiss a woman who has
yielded to the invitations of her friends. When
a young American woman starts to sing, she be
gins by putting on a very grave appearance.
Her features, which a smile would embeffish, are
drawn down; she remains perfectly perpendic
ular on her chair, her eyes fixed on the floor —
and one waits untfl her voice begins to proclaim
that she is not petrffied." A few years later, we
find that a change has set in, and that in Boston
"music, which their Presbyterian ministers for
merly described as a diaboUcal art, is beginning to
form a part of their education. The piano is
heard in some wealthy homes." He hopes, how
ever, that although music is coming into its own
as one of the social amenities, Boston women wiU
never get the rage for such perfection in it as the
French; "it is never acquired except at the expense
of the domestic virtues ! " says the serious and in
quisitive phflosopher Brissot, who brought with
him in 1788 a letter of introduction from Lafayette
to Washington, which described him as "a man of
letters, who . . . greatly desires to be presented to
you; he intends to undertake a history of America,
and you will therefore please him very much if
you let him look over your papers; for he really
[42]

Richard Peters.

From the painting by Rembrandt Peale in the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AJMERICA
loves America, writes weU, and wfll set out mat
ters in their true Ught."
The correct hours for the paying of formal
visits were so variously reported by the French
that one is led to beheve that there was no set
tled rule in this regard, at least when the receiv
ing of such welcome visitors was involved. It is,
however, rather surprising to find in the pages of
ChasteUux: "We went to see the ladies, foUow
ing the Phfladelphia custom where the morning
is the most suitable time to make visits."
Of course our love of shaking hands did not
escape observation. How much depends on the
point of view ! Baron Closen thought it strange
that the French custom of men kissing each
other when they met, even in the pubhc streets
"caused much laughter among the Americans,"
and he stoutly maintains that "the American
habit of giving long and violent hand-shakes is
just as comic as the European kissing custom!"
The gentle art of conversation has always been
popular in this country, and our earnest (and
excessive?) practice of it ought to have brought
us perfection in aU its possibilities. Our con
versational gffts appealed strongly to the French,
whose comments thereon are ahnost all in a fa
vorable vein, the most notable exception being
Felix de Beaujour, according to whom "the
conversation of the men turns generaUy upon
[43]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
pohtics or upon business — a favorite topic, for
the American loses no chance to make money.
Wealth is the subject of all his conversation and
the reason for afl his actions." That most of the
French admired the state of conversation as a
pohte art in America is praise indeed from a
people possessing the high traditions of their fa
mous salons of the preceding century. Brissot,
upon the occasion of a visit to a Boston club,
was pleased by "the information which they dis
play in their conversation." Of that same city
Mandrillon reports that the conversation, as weU
as "the houses, furniture, clothes, food and cus
toms aU resemble so closely Ufe in old London
that it was difficult to find any difference between
it and that which always goes on in the midst of
the excessive population of great capitals." What
adjective would he nowadays use for their popu
lation !
ChasteUux, while in Boston, paid " a visit to Miss
Tudor, where we once more had the satisfaction
of a quiet conversation, interrupted from time to
time by agreeable music, which carried us rapidly
on to the hour when we had to go to the club."
EquaUy satisfying were his conversational experi
ences in Philadelphia, and of one occasion in parti
cular he comments so illuminatingly as ahnost to
revive the scene and make us participators therein:
"The 13th I went to dine with the southern Del-
[44]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
egates in company with the Chevaher de la Luzerne
and the French traveUers. Mr. Sharp and Mr.
Mutterson were the nearest to me. I entered into
conversation with them and was very pleased with
what they had to say ; I was still more so with that
which I heard the same evening at Madame Mere
dith's (daughter of General CadwaUader). It was
the first time I met this agreeable family, although
ChevaUer de la Luzerne was on intimate terms
with them, but they had just arrived from the
country where General CadwaUader was detained
by some business. Madame Meredith has three
or four sisters or sisters-in-law. I was astonished
at the ease and gaiety which reigned in this fam
ily, and regretted not to have known them sooner.
I conversed more particularly with Madame Mere
dith who appeared very amiable and weU edu
cated. For an hour we talked of Uterature,
poetry and especiaUy of history. I found that
she was weU informed on that of France, the re
lations of Francis I to Henry IV, Turenne and
Conde, of RicheUeu and Mazarin, — aU seemed
familiar to her, and she treated of them with much
grace, spirit, and naturalness. While I was talk
ing with Madame Meredith, Mr. Linch was en
gaged with Miss PoUy CadwaUader, and she hke
wise made a conquest, so much so that when we
left them Chevaher de la Luzerne amused him
seff greatly at the enthusiasm which their society
[45]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
had inspired, and our regrets at having known
them so late. It must be said in honor of the
ladies that not one of them is what you would
caU pretty." Volney, the geologist, disagrees
completely with the author just quoted, for he
considers us a tacitum race, but it is pleasing to
note that he is convinced "that the domestic
sflence of the Americans is one of the most radical
causes for their industry, activity, and success in
agriculture, commerce and the arts." It would
seem as if our ancestors were as gifted in pleasing
certain foreigners by silence, as others by con
versation !
Because they came from France, a country
where social geology had long been clearly strati
fied, it would have been but natural if our writers
had devoted considerable time and many pages
to an inquiry anent social classffication as prac
tised in a repubhc, but strangely enough the refer
ences to this subject are but few, although those
few are ifluminating. Nearly aU of them take
frequent occasion to laud the perfect equaUty
everywhere to be found in our land. EspeciaUy
did they notice this while travelhng and in places
of pubhc entertainment, as wifl appear in the
chapters devoted to those subjects. Even mih
tary titles did not carry with them any social
distinction, says Dupetit-Thouars, who was
amazed to see a shoemaker who had been a col-
[46]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
onel, and an apothecary who was a general ! Al
though opportunity was equaUy open to every
one, our foreign friends did not fafl to observe
that society as usual made certain regulations to
govern its members. Of course Bayard had his
customary fling at those regulations, and con
cluded that there was among us no other test of
social rank than the possession of wealth: "The
inhabitants of Phfladelphia, hke all citizens of the
United States, are classified by their fortunes.
The first class is composed of carriage folk. Ahnost
afl these gentry, whatever their origin, have their
coats of arms painted upon their carriage-doors.
The son of a deported thief has Uveried servants
just like everybody else. NobiUty having been
abohshed by the Constitution alone, it is not
astonishing that so many individuals pretend to
be descended from ancient EngUsh famiUes.
This fad becomes a sort of mania in mercantile
cities. The second class is composed of mer
chants, lawyers, and business men without car
riages, and doctors who pay their visits on foot.
In a third class are found people who exercise
the mechanical arts. Ladies who possess car
riages never so far forget themselves as to receive
in their homes those of the third class ! The
people engage in commerce with aU the ardor
which vanity, long credits and the hope of gain
ing a fortune easfly and rapidly can inspire. The
[4?]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
more business a man does the more he is consid
ered. 'He is,' say they, 'a very busy man':
this title obviates the need for meriting any
other. Business is mentioned with the same en
thusiasm which the French employ to describe
some generous action, or to give a panegyric.
When a candidate for office pubhshes his platform
in the newspapers, he begins by enumerating
how much he is worth. The position of a rich
man is the most briffiant which a citizen can
desire." Supposing that this afleged state of affairs were
not overcolored, it would be interesting to note how
absolutely consistent it is with the statistics given
by Price Coffier, to show that an Enghsh peerage is
generaUy the reward of a marked success in the
business world. The colonists were chiefly of Eng
Ush origin and, therefore, why shouldn't they have
exhibited Enghsh tendencies in social classification
as weU as in other respects ? Beaujour is one of the
few to agree with Bayard's extreme view upon the
power of wealth in our country: "In Europe
there is greatly praised the equahty which reigns
among them (Americans) but this equahty is less
real than seeming, because custom estabhshes in
society here even more decided hnes than else
where, and distinctions the more odious because
they are founded on nothing but wealth, without
any regard for talents or even for pubhc office.
[48]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
There is nothing in this country but extreme
hberty or extreme dependence — everybody is
master or servant, and you do not see any of
those intermediate classes which elsewhere serve
to bridge over the chasm." Talleyrand (des
tined later to be Napoleon's Minister of Foreign
Affairs) sugar-coats this bitter pfll of Beaujour,
for although he admits our passion for acquiring
wealth, he insists that we have an equaUy strong
one for independence. One day in Maine he
said to a man who had never visited Phfladelphia:
"When you go there you will be glad to see Gen
eral Washington." "Yes, indeed," rephed he,
and added, with his eyes sparkhng, "and I also
want to see Bingham who they say is so rich!"
Washington the champion of liberty, and Bing
ham the man of wealth — together they incar
nated America for him !
Surprising as was our social equahty to these
aristocratic Frenchmen, even more astonished
were they at the extent to which love of luxury
evidenced itseff in this democracy of the new
world. They came from a land possessing to a
remarkable extent an admirable inbred frugahty,
and they were, therefore, aU the more easily
shocked by the wide-spread love of luxury in
America. Comte de Segur remarked in Boston
that "democracy has not banished luxury; no
where in the United States did one see so much
[49]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
wealth and so agreeable society." Nor was this
true in the cities alone, for TaUeyrand found "on
the banks of the Ohio River, in a house built of
roughly hewn logs, a piano, adorned with reaUy
beautfful bronzes. When Monsieur de Beau-
metz opened it Mr. Smith said to him, 'Don't
try to play on it, because our piano-tuner, who
hves a hundred miles off, didn't come this year.' "
The large number of comments on this subject
makes it clear that love of luxury had as firm a
hold upon the wife of the day-laborer as upon
the wealthiest households. Of Philadelphia, Bay
ard says: "Few cities in the world have so large
a proportion of shops as the Capital of Pennsyl
vania. The owners of these shops often indulge
in luxury beyond their means." It would seem
that the high cost of hving is an ancient, and not
a recent defect in our body pohtic.
Our national purity of speech and manners was
a never-faiUng source of surprise to the French.
Perhaps they gave us more credit in that respect
than we deserved, because subconsciously aware
that the upper classes in their own land were
then touching a lower moral ebb than ever be
fore in their history. It is gratffying to record
of the Due de Lauzun's cynical memoirs that only
that one-tenth which describes his stay in America
is clean and wholesome. It is a significant testi
monial to his American environment that ahnost
[5o]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
the only decent comment upon women made by
this proffigate braggart is one on Mrs. Hunter of
Newport and her two daughters: "I was never
in love with the Hunter girls, but if they had
been my sisters, I could not have been more at
tached to them." A miracle indeed ! but, unfor
tunately, only a temporary one, for its effect
seemed to last only so long as he trod American
sofl. Bayard characterizes our national decency
as prudery, even insisting that it materiaUy re
duced our vocabulary, as witness the unwilhng-
ness of our women to use such a word as "shirt" !
Beaujour was much fairer than Bayard, and
thought crudity was a fairer term to apply than
prudery, and on the whole deals leniently with
us: "Some writers, and especiaUy the French,
have praised American customs, while others,
and especiaUy the English, have decried them.
Both of them have gone to excess. In this coun
try, as in others, there is a minghng of vice and
virtue, but the virtues appear less attractive
than elsewhere because they are rarely accom
panied by that grace which makes them admirable,
whfle the vices here appear more hideous because
Americans know nothing of the art of disguising
them under a deceitful exterior. The American
has a crudity of manner which displays him in an
unfavorable hght to strangers." ChasteUux as
sents to crudity as a fair description of our early
[5iJ

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
manners, but utterly fails to see the prudery
which gained Bayard's notice. Moreover, he is
more hopeful than Bayard as to the future which
is in store for us: "If music and the fine arts
prosper in Philadelphia, ff society becomes easy
and gay there, ff they learn to appreciate pleasure
when it comes without being formaUy invited,
then one will be able to enjoy afl the advantages
resulting from their customs and government
without having to envy anything in Europe."
The purity which was generaUy remarked by
the French as characterizing our social inter
course certainly produced an admirable effect in
our public life, as Brissot points out: "The fre
quent exercise of reason produces among the
Americans a great number of individuals known
as men of principle. This name sufficiently in
dicates their character, a type so httle known
among us that it has not even been named.
It is among these men of principle that you
will find the true heroes of humanity — Howard,
FothergiU, Penn, FrankUn, Washington, Sydney,
Ludlow." Segur, as son of a Cabinet Minister
at the brflhant French court, was pecuharly
fitted to notice the effect of this general purity
of maimers upon the assembhes and baUs held
at Providence, "greater than I ever remember to
have seen in any other place."
It is not necessary for one to read many French
[52]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
memoirs of our revolutionary and nation-forming
period before being struck by the wide scope of
the observations therein set out. Nothing seemed
to escape the attention and even the study of
those actively inteffigent friends from across the
sea. Highly interesting as they are upon aU
phases of American life, upon none are they more
pecuharly competent to speak than upon society
— ^that was a game of which they knew aU the
rules. Of how they were impressed by what our
ancestors ate and drank, what they wore, their
methods of travelling, how they studied and then
thought, and sundry other alhed matters — ^we say
in Elizabethan phrase, "more anon."

[53]

CHAPTER III
DRESS AND FRENCH FASHIONS.
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
There is nothing which pleases an American
more than to discuss something with somebody,
and just at present no subject is more popular
than the high cost of living. We are all seeking
a St. George who can slay this dragon, but thus
far without success. There are some who with
more philosophy than flippancy declare that we
are suffering from the cost of high hving, rather
than the high cost of Uving — they say it can be
seen on every side. Curiously enough, that is
just what the Frenchmen said of our forebears
at the end of the eighteenth century. Felix de
Reaujour thought "Americans make immoderate
use of aU the commodities of wealth; no people
have more clothes. Elsewhere luxury is only to
be found in the upper ranks of society, but here
it is everywhere, and it has even penetrated to
the cottage of the workingman and the country
laborer, so much so that in the United States
there is no distinction in dress. The maid is
dressed hke her mistress, and the poorest work-
[54]

FRENCH MEMORIES
man like the First Magistrate." Even more ex
phcit is ChasteUux: "Such is the present good
fortune of America that there are no very poor
people to be seen and everyone enjoys easy cir
cumstances. If some individuals possess less than
others, so unhmited are the resources ready to
hand that their minds seem to be occupied with
what their future condition wiU be rather than
with realizing their present one. Such is the
general equahty of condition that those things
which everywhere else would be regarded as
luxuries are here considered necessities. So it is
that the salary of a workingman must not only
provide subsistence for his family, but also com
fortable furniture for the home, tea and coffee
for his wife, and a silk dress to put on every time
she goes out. This is the principal cause for
the high cost of labor, although it is generally
blamed to a lack of hands." Chateaubriand pro
tests that a man visiting the United States as
he did, expecting to see "the austerity of early
Roman customs" in the new repubhc, would be
"scandalized by finding on aU sides elegance of
attire, luxury of equipages, frivoUty of conver
sation, inequaUty of fortune, — the tumult of baU-
rooms and theatricals." Bayard hints that a
protest was aheady arising against this whole
sale desertion of simplicity (how useless a protest
we to-day can testify): "In vain Citizen Living-
[55]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Ston, of venerable memory, recaUed his fair
compatriots to their spinning wheels and to con
servative simphcity of manners and fortune, for
he was not hstened to, — ^his writings are not read.
Even the Quakers, whose luxury is of a less no
ticeable sort, caimot escape this criticism. Their
men have discarded long wristbands, but they
stiU wear shirts of fine linen and buy expensive
cloth from England in which to attire themselves.
Their wives do not wear feathers, but they are
as fastidious in their hnen as their husbands, and
their dresses are of Bengal cloth. The Quakers
load their tables with sflver. This excessive
luxury is the more objectionable because, hke a
miser, it absorbs the precious metals, which are
valuable only in circiflation. The rage for luxury
has reached such a point that the wffe of the
laboring man wishes to vie with the merchant's
wife, and she in turn wifl not yield to the richest
woman in Europe." That they were not collec
tors of silver alone appears from Blanchard:
"They are also very fastidious about cups and
saucers for tea or coffee, as well as concerning
glass, decanters and other articles of that sort,
for daily use."
Nor was this state of affairs confined to the cities,
for Brissot observes it in that State where city Ufe
was peculiarly secondary to that of the country:
"The Virginians indulge in a cheap luxury. Peo-
[56]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
pie who have hved on intimate terms with them
assure me that even the richest have only five or six
shirts, generally only two or three — while they are
wearing one, the other is being washed — washer
women are very expeditious. Their shirts are fine,
and so are their sflk stockings. The trousseau of
a girl about to be married is composed of only a
few chemises. I observed also that they do not
understand the use of napkins, that they wear
sflk scarves, and that instead of using handker
chiefs they blow their noses with their fingers,
or with a sflk handkerchief which serves as
cravat, napkin, etc." He also noticed that
American women have the fashion of wearing
shawls. Then as now, while the working classes lived
far better than their prototypes in Europe, they
also had to pay more for what they bought.
Brissot teUs of a shirt costing fffty francs: "In
Paris it would be worth four and a half francs
— everything else in proportion." Gerard the
French Minister wrote his govemment, Septem
ber 10, 1778: "All merchandize seUs for four or
five, times more than it was worth before the
war, and many articles seU in the proportion of
six to one." One of his successors. Minister
Adet, complains bitterly to the Committee of
Pubhc Safety (July 18, 1795), because of the high
cost of hving at the American seat of government :
[57]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
"The expenditures to which I find myseff con
demned alarm me. Although I hve like an or
dinary citizen of Philadelphia — although my
dinners are ordered with repubhcan frugahty —
I shaU spend more than you allow me, and shaU
be unable to serve my country as I would wish.
... If my stipend sufficed for my expenses I
would not complain of my inability to save any
thing . . . but there are expenses that I cannot
meet as did former Ministers of large private
fortune." His immediate predecessor, Minister
Fouchet, had already paved the way for him by
reporting home December 20, 1794, that "the
American people rival in luxury the greatest
European cities."
It would be worse than the traditional Irish
buU — a wild mixing of metaphors — ^ff we should
attempt to combine "fine feathers make fine
birds," with the idea that the said fine birds
would consent to hide their Ughts under a bushel.
That strict churchman, Abbe Robin, was not de
ceived as to the purpose inspiring some people
to attend divine service: "Piety is by no means
the only motive which brings crowds of American
women to church. Having no theatres or pub
lic promenades, the churches are the only places
of pubhc resort where they can show off their
new and constantly increasing luxury; they there
display themselves arrayed in silk, and sometimes
[58]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
shaded with superb headdresses, their hair piled
up on frames in imitation of the French fashions
of some years ago. Instead of using powder they
wash themselves with soap, which does not always
suit them; they are generally agreeable blonds.
The most fastidious are learning, however, to
adopt European fashions. ' ' This observation con
cerning the utihzing of church to exhibit one's
finery is indorsed by La Rochefoucauld: "All
through America it is the great ambition of a new
township to build a church; if there be added
thereto a good tavern, it acquires a certain stand
ing among other townships not so well provided.
Apart from subserving municipal vanity, the
church is particularly desired by young people of
both sexes, by the young girls especially, who go
there to display their carefuUy made toilettes,
and to meet their friends."
Perhaps we have always been a vain people,
but is a national vanity to be despised which
caused such wide-spread neatness of attire as
to eUcit the unanimously favorable comment of
foreigners.!^ They were quick to notice the ab
sence of those rags which in Europe proved that
equahty of opportunity did not exist, and that
degradation had persisted so long as to create a
social caste. "Of aU that pleases a stranger ar
riving in the United States," says Beaujour,
"nothing is more pleasing than the external
[59]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
cleanUness noticeable everywhere, in the streets,
the houses and the clothing. Everybody is de
cently dressed. The men wear wooUen suits, the
women cloth dresses, generaUy white, always
with clean linen, and nobody is to be seen in pub
Uc with those hideous rags so distressing in other
countries." No one showed himseff better quahfied to recog
nize whence came the fashions which then as
always won the hearts of our fair compatriots
than the observant priest. Abbe Robin, who
"hardly expected to find French fashions in the
midst of American forests. The headdresses of
afl the ladies, except Quakers, are high, volu
minous and adorned with our veils. One is sur
prised to find throughout aU of Connecticut so
active a taste for dress, — I might even say, so
much luxury amid customs so simple and pure
that they resemble those of the ancient patri
archs." ChasteUux found not only this taste for
French fashions, but also a lady champion eager
to lead a crusade in their favor, who "has taste
as delicate as her health. Excessively enthusi
astic over French fashions, she only awaits the
end of this triffing revolution now taking place
to initiate an even more important one in the
customs of her nation." In some centres he fears,
however, that the women are going to extremes;
for instance, in Annapolis "the luxury of the
[60]

Chapcazi
a I J Thzladrlp/ue

WS«a»K^^

Head-dresses of the eighteenth century.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
women surpasses that of our provinces. A French
hairdresser is a man of importance there; one
of these ladies pays hers one thousand ecus
wages." Baron Closen reports: "The women
are very pretty, have good style, and dress ex-
ceUently — some even foUowing the French fash
ions." So attracted was he by the appearance
of certain fair Americans as to sketch them on
the margin of his note-book. Even the serious-
minded General Rochambeau could not fail to
notice that "the women have taken up French
fashions, in which they are deeply interested."
St. Mery goes more into details: "Philadelphia
women dehght in luxuries, such as ribbons,
shoes, etc., but no veils or laces, and ahnost no
artfficial flowers." Our fastidious visitors were
of the opinion that the prevaihng luxury in dress
did not of itseff teach our women how to use it
to the best advantage, at least so thought the
Prince de Broghe: "The ladies of Philadelphia,
although magnificent enough in their costumes,
generafly do not wear them with much taste. In
arranging their hair they have less hghtness of
touch than our French women. While they
have good figures, they lack grace and make their
curtsies badly." Although luxury is one of the
most difficult habits to break, Brissot shows that
our women could and did, when patriotism de
manded it, put aside the insidious deUghts of
[6i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
dress: "Even in the larger cities Americans are
being driven to ruinous luxury; for this reason
there has been formed at Hartford, Connecticut,
an association of leading ladies who, in order to
assist in paying off the Pubhc Debt, agreed at a
meeting held November 6, 1776, no longer to
buy gauzes, ribbons, feathers, silk or, in general,
any articles demanded by foreign fashions."
That women should love dress struck the French
as the most natural thing in the world, but
that was the only particular in wliich Ameri
can women fitted in with the preconceived no
tions of them entertained by those observers
fresh from an older civiUzation and a stricter
etiquette. Of the many novelties that engaged
their attention, nothing was more un-European
than our attitude toward marriage, not only in
respect to the Uberty accorded young people
while arranging for it, but also in the effect
which marriage later had upon the girls them
selves. They are edmost shocked at the freedom
our girls enjoyed, and yet they frankly admit
that no harm came of it either before or after
marriage, for they settled down more sedately
as married women than did the artificiaUy guarded
and overrestrained jeunes Jilles of their own
country, who looked forward to marriage as
meaning freedom from the petty tyrannies of
their childhood. Instead of finding marriage ar-
[62]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
ranged by the parents, according to European
fashion, this dehcate business, to the surprise — ¦
nay, consternation — of the Frenchmen, seemed
entirely confided, forsooth, to the young people
themselves. St. Mery says: "The choice of a
sweetheart is without exception made pubUcly,
and the relatives indulge in no formahties in re
spect of it, because such is the custom of the
country. The chosen sweetheart comes to the
house whenever he pleases, he takes his beloved
out walking when he hkes. Often he comes on
Sunday with a cabriolet to fetch her, and brings
her back in the evening without anyone asking
where they have been. Young people sit up
spooning after their elders go to bed, and some
times a late returning servant wffi find them
both asleep and the candle burned out — so cold
is love in that country."
Let us see what use, according to Crevecoeur, the
youngsters make of the hberty aUowed during this
interesting period: "These young people sit and
talk and divert themselves to the best of their
abiUty. If someone has lately returned from a
cruise he is generaUy the speaker of the evening.
They often aU laugh and talk at once, but they are
happy and would not exchange their amusements
for those of the most briUiant assembUes in Europe.
This lasts until the father and mother return, when
aU retire to their respective homes — the men re-
[63]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
conducting the partners of their affections. Thus
they spend many of the youthful evenings
of their hves; no wonder, therefore, that they
marry so early." How wisely the young girls
set about this important business of choosing a
hfe partner appears from Bayard: "The time
which passes between the proposal and the mar
riage is given over to mutual observation. The
girls insist upon an absolute independence which
they devote to testing the character of their
future husband. They wish to learn if he is
bad tempered, if he is constant, if jealousy wiU
not some day render him troublesome or coarse.
They yield to every fancy which comes into their
heads, and do everything they can to escape the
reproach later on of having concealed their im
perfections. It is a contest of frankness, inspired
by the desire for common happiness." EspeciaUy
numerous are the remarks made on the fact that
young women do not permit jealousy to hamper
their freedom before marriage.
Both Brissot and Mazzei make vigorous at
tacks upon the hard-hearted bachelors, the former
admitting, however, that "luxury is aheady de
veloping in this city a very dangerous class of
men, bachelors, for the extravagance of the
women makes them fear marriage." And Mazzei
adds: "As for bachelors, who should be rarer
here than in Europe (and for well-known reasons),
[64]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
they are more numerous in Phfladelphia than in
any other American city, while in other parts
of Pennsylvania they are no rarer than elsewhere."
He goes on to tell how small is the risk which
bachelors are running, because they are treated
so frankly and no attempt made to deceive them:
"The young girls and men see each other every
hour of the day, and that too without masks;
they do not marry unless both are pleased, and
don't postpone until too late the discovery that
they have been deceived. The object of both
sexes is to learn each other's character. It does
not appear that beauty alone is a particular at
traction to young men of wealth, neither is it
rare for a girl to refuse a man whose face and
fortune are his only recommendations."
How much freedom they enjoyed after they
had made their choice is clear from Brissot:
"You will see a young girl drive off with her
sweetheart in a light carriage, and injurious sus
picion never interferes with the pure pleasures of
this trip into the country. When they are
mothers, Boston women become reserved; their
manner is always, however, open, kindly, and
communicative. Given over entirely to house
keeping, they busy themselves solely with making
their husbands happy and bringing up the chil
dren." Rochambeau gives a hint that unmar
ried girls confined themselves strictly to the
[65]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
business in hand, and did not waste time on
married men: "The girls enjoy the utmost free
dom until they are married. Their first ques
tion is to leam if you are married; if you are,
the conversation faUs flat; once married, they
give themselves entirely to their new author
ity." Of a certain Virginia dame Blanchard
relates that "they say she is rather gay, which
is rare in America; but then," he adds, "she
was bom in Europe and did not come here untfl
she was seventeen, and seems desirous of going
back." The entire absence among us of the European
custom of parents providing their daughters with
marriage portions or "dots" excites many com
ments from our visitors. Crevecoeur explains
why this is true: "At Nantucket, as I observed
before, every man takes a wife as soon as he
chooses, and that is generaUy very young. No
marriage portion is required, none is expected.
No marriage articles are drawn up by skifful
la-wyers to puzzle and lead posterity to the Courts,
or to satisfy the pride of the contracting parties.
They give nothing with their daughters. Their
education, their health, and the customary outfit
axe aU that the fathers of numerous famihes can
afford. As the wife's fortime consists principally
of her prospective economy, modesty, and skil
ful management, so the husband's is founded on
[66]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
his abiUty to work, his health, and his knowledge
of some trade or business."
Not only was this true of New England, but also
in Maryland, says Bayard, who sets out very clearly
the many advantages of our system: "They give
their daughters at marriage a small trousseau and
the slave who was the companion of her infancy.
I wish this were also true in France, for there you
can wager a thousand to one that a rich girl wfll
be married by a man of no dehcacy of feehng,
but who is in love with her dowry. The victim
of his cupidity, no longer loved by the vile spec
ulator, wiU have nothing in exchange for what
she gave him but long sad years. In the United
States the adventitious circumstances of fortune,
with few exceptions, are subordinated to mo
rahty, and the two sexes get along very weU to
gether. There, marriage is a matter of senti
ment, and the happiness of the family is of the
first importance, so that purity of morals takes
care of itseff without need of appealing to a
magistrate. AU the children are brought up in
the bosom of a worthy family, happy in the har
mony thereof, and instinctively organize them
selves for that state of feUcity, and become vir
tuous ,when they are grown up."
Perhaps the greatest surprise of aU the bewil
dering ones that marriage a Vamericaine seemed
to furnish our friends from the Old World was the
[67]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
steadying effect its responsibilities obviously had
upon those very maidens whose freedom from aU
restraint before marriage seemed destined to
make them unruly after that ceremony. We
must remember that it was still the golden age
when everybody married young, and generally
"Uved happfly ever Eifterward. " Crevecoeur is
but one of many to remark how young they
married: "A general decency everywhere pre
vails; the reason, I believe, is that ahnost every
body here is married, for they get wives very
young and the pleasure of returning to their
families overrules every other desire." The
Comte de Revel, although less than a month in
America, felt quahfied to remark that "in gen
eral the married women are more reserved than
the unmarried ones." How opposite was this
state of affairs to that existing in Europe ap
pears from Mazzei: "In certain European na
tions girls must be extremely reserved, and
especially so with young men, but once married
they do not bother themselves so far as anybody
is concerned. In America, on the contrary, girls
have a good time with the young men, but mar
ried women are reserved, and their husbands
are not so familiar with young girls as before
they were married."
"Because girls may go unattended to parties,"
says Perrin du Lac, "married women seldom go.
[68]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
As custom does not require them to accompany
their daughters, they generally prefer to stay at
home and busy themselves with their other children
or the care of their households." Bayard also bears
witness to the admirable manner in which married
women discharge their new duties : " When girls are
caUed to undertake the duties of mothers and wives,
they seem fUled with afl the dignity of their new
state. The airs and graces of youth give place
to a reserve, or rather to a dehcious withdrawal,
the proof of a contented soul enjoying in silence
the happiness which it absorbs. They carry out
with fidehty the promise of obedience which they
make at the altar. I have seen women whom
fortune, health, and beauty tempted to every
pleasure, but who preferred their duty to afl of
them." And how seriously they took these new
responsibffities was noticed by Crevecoeur: "But
no sooner has this ceremony been performed
than they cease to look so merry and gay. The
new rank they hold in society impresses them
with more serious ideas than were before enter
tained. The title of master of a family neces
sarily demands more sohd behavior and deport
ment. The new wife follows in the trammels of
custom, which are as powerful as the tyrannies
of fashion. She graduaUy advises and directs;
the husbands, equally obedient to the ancient
habits of their country, submit without feeling
[69]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
any impropriety in so doing; were they to act
otherwise they would be afraid of subverting the
principles of society by altering its ancient rules;
thus both parties are perfectly satisfied, and aU
is peace and concord." Segur "saw several
ladies worthy of admiration for their agreeable
and sprightly manner in society. Lacking the
grace of our French women, they nevertheless
had their own which, for being more simple, was
none the less attractive."
Beaujour teUs us that in our land of many re
Ugious sects and much rehgious freedom, the
wives generaUy changed to the religion of the
husband. But they were free to do as they
pleased, as Michaux (junior) points out: "Although
divided into various sects, they Uve in great har
mony, and difference in religion is no obstacle
to marriage; husband and wife each attend the
service they prefer; this also apphes to the chil
dren when they grow up, and that too without
the slightest interference from their parents."
"Often I observed this spectacle," says TaUey
rand, "for which nothing to be seen in Europe
had prepared me — in the very same house father,
mother, and children foUowing peaceably and
without opposition the religion each preferred.
Sundays the whole family starts out together,
but each person goes to his own church."
St. Mery reports an amusing local custom which
[70]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
obtained in Philadelphia: "For three mornings
after marriage the wife serves punch and cold
refreshments to aU her friends; for the three next
days she gives tea in the evenings, her brides
maids assisting her."
Balch says of those ladies of long ago: "They
bring up their children with care, and pride them
selves on scrupulous fidehty to their husbands."
We, the chfldren in later generations of the chil
dren whom these ancestresses reared, must be
pardoned an especial interest in what the French
had to say about the way it was done: "Chfl
dren are carefuUy brought up in the paternal
mansion; there they enjoy the greatest hberty
and but httle attention is paid to them. They
go and come without being subjected to annoy
ing questions or forced to make ceremonious
grimaces caUed pohteness. They are somewhat
importunate, and very frank. But although they
are happy whfle in the bosom of the family, the
age of iron succeeds rapidly to that of gold" —
meaning thereby that schoolmasters were over-
strict. St. Mery finds children are particxdarly
weU treated in Virginia, and Bayard observed a
pleasant instance of their precocity at a country
house near Winchester in that State: "Dinner
hour having sounded, we sat down at a round
table, his daughter, nine years old, doing the
honors very gracefuUy in the absence of her
[71]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
mother." Dupetit-ThouEu-s exclaims, "New Eng
land is the home of pretty chfldren," and
gives such a charming description of them as to
make it clear that he reafly loved them. One
and all agree that American children were badly
spofled, and perhaps there are some of us to-day
who wiU admit that our customs have not been
noticeably rectified in that regard. Very much
in point is ChasteUux's anecdote of how thought
lessly the Schuyler children wounded the feel
ings of the English prisoners temporarily lodged
in their home: "The second son of Mrs. Schuy
ler, seven years old (a spoiled child as are most
American children — self-willed— now spiteful, now
amiable, running about the house all day), shouted
with laughter on seeing the Englishmen and,
slamming the door on them, cried out, 'You are
all my prisoners.' This naive remark was cruel
for them, and made them sadder than they were
the day before." To this anecdote he adds the
following general statement: "In America, as in
England, parents spoil their children when young,
and abandon them to themselves as soon as they
are grown up, so that in those two nations, edu
cation has never been either as carefuUy conducted
or as prolonged as it should be. Indulgence of
their children when they are smaU makes them
petty domestic tyrants; negligence during their
youth makes strangers of them." It is refreshing
[72]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
to turn from this last comment to a delightful bit
from Beaujour: "American children are almost al
ways prettily shaped, with blond hair, and with the
freshness of budding roses, and they sparkle in
the streets of American towns like field flowers in
the springtime."

[73]

CHAPTER IV
WHAT OUR ANCESTORS ATE AND
DRANK, THEIR CUSTOM OF
TOASTS, ETC.
What more inspiring rendezvous can we have
for this incursion into the long ago than the
dinner-table of George Washington, Commander-
in-Chief of the American forces. The engaging
Marquis de Chasteflux shafl be waiting there to
greet us, and take up the narrative: "On our
return to camp we found a good dinner ready
waiting and about twenty guests. The repast
was in Enghsh fashion, composed of eight or ten
large dishes both of butchers' meat and chicken,
accompanied by vegetables of different sorts, and
followed by a second course of pastries, com
prising everything under the two denominations
of 'pyes and powding' [sic]. After these two
courses they removed the tablecloth and served
apples and a quantity of nuts, which George
Washington generaUy ate for two hours, mean
while proposing toasts and indulging in conver
sation. These nuts are small, dry, and covered
with so hard a shefl that only a hcunmer can
[74]

FRENCH MEMORIES
break them; they are served haff open, and are
then picked out and eaten. About haff past
seven we arose from the table, and the servants
at once came to take it down and shorten it, as
it had been lengthened for dinner. I was aston
ished at this manoeuvre and asked the reason.
They told me they were going to lay the cloth
for supper. At the end of haff an hour I retired
to my room, thinking that the General might
have something to do and was only remaining
with the company out of regard for me, but half
an hour later they came to announce that His
Exceflency awaited me for supper. I returned
to the dining room protesting with all my might
against this supper, but the General said that he
was accustomed to take something in the eve
ning, and that I need only sit down, eat some fruit
and take part in the conversation." This long
stay at table had a convincing apologist in the
Comte de Segur: "Temperance was one of
Washington's virtues, and in prolonging his
dinner he had but one object, — ^that pleasure
of conversation which distracted him from his
worries and rested him from his labors. His
table was set every day for thirty. Washington,
animated by a singular and most disinterested
love for his country, dechned to receive that
which they had assigned him as Commander-in-
Chief. It was almost in spite of him that the
[75]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
government charged itseff with paying his table
expenses." When Blanchard dined with Wash
ington, he especiaUy noticed that meat and
vegetables were served together on the same
platter, and that the salad dressing was of vinegar
without any oil. Lieutenant-General Mathieu
Dumas was another who partook of one of Wash
ington's dinners, "which was remarkably plain,"
says he. From these as wefl as from many other
accounts of Washington's hospitahty (for he en
tertained aU the French officers, and each one
seems to have written down his experience), it
becomes quite clear that, as head of the revolu
tionary movement he felt that his was the re
sponsibihty of showing official hospitahty to the
gallant foreigners who had come so far to fight
for us. Nor did he fail to perform this duty,
and that too, in accordance with the best Ameri
can culinary traditions. He offered at his table
American viands cooked and served in the Ameri^
can manner, and what he and his guests from
the briffiant French court ate and drank best
tefls how people at that time cared for the inner
man — ^plenty of hearty, simple food, washed down
by quantities of alcohohc beverages strangely in
consistent with the more temperate tendencies of
to-day. That Washington's hospitality to our foreign
guests was not confined to entertaining them
[76]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
wliile they were serving our country but also
followed them home across the ocean appears
from a letter written him from Paris, October 26,
1786, by Lafayette: "I have received the hams
and I am much indebted for this amiable atten
tion on the part of Madame Washington. The
first one was served three days ago at a dinner
composed of Americans, to which our friend
ChasteUux was invited. They arrived in per
fect condition." Of how favorably Washington's
hospitahty impressed the French officers there
are not a few accounts, but only a couple of them
enjoyed a similar attention from Mrs. Washing
ton — one was Blanchard, who stopped to pay his
respects at Mount Vernon on his way north
from Yorktown. He has many amiable things
to say of the general's wife. In passing it is
interesting to note that although he speaks of
Annapohs and Georgetown, there was as yet no
city of Washington for him to visit. It is im
possible now to think of Georgetown otherwise
than as an outlying section of Washington, but
this is only one of the many starthng differences
between then and now in our country. Our as
similative power as a nation makes short work
of such sudden changes, nor does it show any
tendency to diminish now that we are a world-
power, and are commencing to confront greater
problems than those around the viUage pump.
[77]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
From what we know of the excessive daily
consumption of intoxicants in America at the
close of the eighteenth century, it seems strange
that there were so few adverse comments from
our more temperate Latin friends upon their
thirsty Anglo-Saxon associates. " My health con
tinues exceUent," wrote Comte de Segur to his
wife, "despite the quantity of tea one must
drink with the ladies out of gaUantry, and of
madeira afl day long with the men out of pohte
ness." How unusual was water as a beverage is
amusingly set out by Mazzei: "They consider
port wine and bordeaux as Ught, and water is
banished from every table. A man who arrived a
little while ago asked me one day at table how
much water cost. When I told him that aU it cost
was the trouble to fetch it, he added that he had
thought it a most expensive beverage because he
had not been able to obtain a glass of it without
the greatest difficiflty, whilst those who ordered
wine, cider, beer, grog or toddy were served at once.
They caU a mixture of rum and water grog, but
when sugar is put in it is caUed toddy. In 1774,
findmg myseff one day at Norfolk at a dinner of
thirty-two people, and having asked for a glass of
water, I perceived some confusion among the ser
vants, and the water did not arrive. The host, next
whom I sat, whispered in my ear, asking with a
smfle if I could not drink something else, because
[78]

Comte de Segur.
From a portrait appearing in his volume of "IVIemoires.'

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
the unexpected request for a glass of water had up
set the entire household and they did not know
what they were about." That every ramffication
of human thirst received due attention appears
from the following catalogue of beverages — " both
hot punch and cold before dinner, madeira or
Spanish wine, bordeaux in the summer — spruce
beer and exceUent cider are served before the
wine; formerly Enghsh porter appeared there
exclusively, but it is now replaced by exceUent
porter made near Philadelphia, which so much
resembles the Enghsh that even Enghsh palates
have been deceived by it. Tffis discovery is a
real service to America, for by it they are re
Ueved of a tax to EngUsh industry." Revel
took kindly to our spruce beer, and adds: "They
likewise have a Uquor which seUs at a high price,
and is made of peaches, of which they have a
great quantity, although generaUy bad, as are
also their apples and other fruits." MandriUon
teUs us that "the ordinary drink of the inhabi
tants is cider whose exceUence equals the best
white wine. They import rum from the Bar-
badoes. Madeira and England furnish them
with wines." St. Mery agrees that cider was our
usual beverage. None of the French spoke ap
provingly of our whiskey, in fact they seemed to
dislike it, and Perrin du Lac thought it had " the
most disagreeable taste of anything I ever drank
[79]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
in my hfe. Most of the people partake of this
strong liquor, which they distiU from rye and
corn. The drunkenness resulting from it is dis
gusting, and its use, no matter how moderate,
seems to me strongly to affect nervous persons."
To aU of the foregoing the only rebutting testi
mony is the casual statement of St. Mery that
Pffiladelphians drank iced water in summer and
made excessive use of hot drinks at other seasons.
Constant are the flattering remarks upon how
wefl our people hved — we shafl come to these in
detail while considering the various meals then
customary. Nor was this comfortable and race-
bettering scale of hving confined to the wealthier
classes — ^fortunately it obtained in every walk of
life, for, says Beaujour: "It must be remarked
that the poorest individual, the ordinary day-
laborer, is better fed and clad here than in any
other country. Every day of their hves they
eat more in the United States than in France,
and that tdo of expensive things, and those which
elsewhere are considered luxuries. They cal
culate (based on the receipts of the Custom
House) that each man consumes annually ten
pounds of sugar, two and a haff of coffee, one of
tea and about fifteen of molasses." Our citizens
were so accustomed to a varied diet and to sub
stantial food that Gerard, the French Minister,
reports to his government, September 10, 1778,
[80]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
that for this reason (and also because of the rise
in cost of provisions) "in general it appears, on
trustworthy testimony, that a European army
of 60,000 men would be weU kept on what 15,000
men cost in the United States."
Although the Frenchmen understood and ap
proved the hour and the importance of our
dinners, they were surprised, and in some cases
obviously shocked by our hearty breakfasts.
Says ChasteUux of Philadelphia: "The Ameri
can days begin with a heavy breakfast, and as
they dine late some shoes of veal in the morn
ing, some cuts of mutton and other trifles of this
sort sandwiched in between cups of tea and
coffee, never failed of a good reception. This
hght repast lasted no more than an hour and
a haff." This hearty American breakfast was
hardly to the hking of the French, and among
those who criticise it is St. Mery, who says that
"in Phfladelphia the breakfasts are at nine
o'clock. They have ham, slices of bread and
butter, tea and coffee." Brissot complains that
in Boston "breakfast consisted of tea, coffee and
meats, both broiled and roasted."
Not a few references were made to the phe
nomenon of coffee with milk in it being drunk at
breakfast — amazing to the Frenchmen. ' ' Our sup
per was frugal enough," says ChasteUux, "but
breakfast the next day was ample; we had ham,
[8i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
butter and fresh eggs, and coffee with milk in it as
a drink. We had become perfectly accustomed to
the American habit of using coffee with milk in it
as a beverage while eating meat, vegetables and
other food." He agrees with St, Mery that nine
o'clock was the correct hour for breakfast in
America. Perrin du Lac noticed that "no one
takes coffee after meals, but almost aU the men
drink it during breakfast," and Roux remarked our
"immoderate use of tea and coffee at all repasts."
When the French came to speak of our dinner,
the principal meal of the day, they treated the
subject with the deference and earnest attention
which men of their nation have always felt it
deserved. The general hour would seem to have
been two o'clock — so says du Bourg of Boston,
and St. Mery of Phfladelphia, although with the
latter ChasteUux disagrees: "In Philadelphia, as
in London, one does not dine untfl five o'clock
and sometimes not until six." Perhaps the fact
that ChasteUux's Pffiladelphia friends were more
fashionable folk than St. Mery's may explain the
difference, although it must be noted that the
former gives two as the hour at General Nelson's
home. Savarin dined at three in New York.
No disagreement, however, existed as to the
great length of time spent at table — Lafayette
writes to his wife from Charleston, June 19, 1777,
that he sat five hours at a great dinner given in
[82]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
his honor. Du Bourg would have us beheve that
"most of the time is consecrated to the table."
But let us hear what they ate. We have already
seen what was served at Washington's table, but
to learn the fare of ordinary folk we wiU turn first
to St. Mery: "Dinner in Philadelphia is at two,
no soup, but roast beef and potatoes, boiled or fried
cuts, bofled or fried fish, salad, wffich is sometimes
shced cabbage [he means cold slaw]. For dessert
they serve fruit, cheese and pudding. The women
leave the table after dinner. All the famfly silver is
always set out on the sideboard." Another Phila
delphia menu is given us by Chasteflux: "The
dinner was served in the American (or, ff you
please, in the Enghsh) style, that is to say, it
was composed of two courses, one comprising the
entree, roasts, hot dishes, and the other, sweet
pastries, etc. When these are taken away the
tablecloth is removed and they serve apples,
chestnuts and other nuts. It is then that they
propose healths. Coffee, which comes afterwards,
serves as the signal for leaving the table." This
same author thought as wefl of Boston dinners
as of Philadelphia ones, for, dining one night at
Mr. Cushing's in the former city, he says: "On
this occasion the Deputy Governor perfectly sus
tained the reputation to which the Bostonians
have every right, that of loving good wine and
good food, and of being very hospitable." As to
[83]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
the length of these Boston dinners he gives a
hint when he remarks of one at Mr. Brick's:
"There were thirty persons present. After dinner
they served tea, and whfle it was being taken
Mr. Brick insisted that we remain to supper."
This same bon viveur heartily approved of the
custom American women had of withdrawing
after dinner, as appeared from his account of a
visit to a Mr. Wilson: "He gave us a very good
dinner, and received us with simple and easy
politeness. Mrs. Wilson did the honors of the
table with aU the attention possible, but we par
ticularly appreciated her leaving at dessert; then
the dinner began to hven up." Brissot describes
a quieter entertainment, this time at a Quaker's
house, but there we also find plenty of food,
drink, and good cheer, even though the last be
in a lower key: "I want to send you a descrip
tion of a dinner given by one of the richest
Quakers during the General Assembly in Sep
tember, — it affords a curious contrast to our
splendid banquets. At that time the Quakers
from the country and neighboring cities crowded
into Pffiladelphia; their brothers received and
lodged them, and lavished the most affectionate
hospitality upon them. About twenty guests sat
down to table. The host was at one end and the
hostess at the other. Before beginning, there
was a moment of silence which the Quakers em-
[84]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
ployed to give thanks to the Supreme Being.
The first course consisted of a large piece of beef
placed at one end, a ham in the middle, and a
shoulder of mutton at the other, two soups, and
four platters of potatoes, cabbage, vegetables
etc. They drank cider, Pffiladelphia porter, and
beer. The host, addressing each guest in turn,
said 'Help yourself, ask for what you want, and
make yourseff entirely at home.' The second
course consisted of different sorts of pies or pas
tries, two plates of cream, two of cheese and two
of butter. The servant then came to pour out
a glass of wine for each guest, but I saw none of
that tiresome offering of toasts which is so often
a provocation to drunkenness rather than to
patriotism. They talked quietly, and it must
be admitted that tffis simple repast did not en
joy the gaiety of our noisy dinners or suppers."
The tone of regret with wffich even so sedate
a soul as Brissot remimscently refers to the
"gaiety of our [French] noisy dinners and sup
pers" turns our thoughts to the somewhat de
hberate merry-making wffich reigned after an
American dinner, as soon as the hour devoted to
toasts arrived. Bayard says: "The husbands
remain at table long after the ladies withdraw,
and tffis custom is ahke in country and city."
And St. Mery agreed that "women always sit
down first at meals, but always depart the mo-
[85]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ment the men announce they prefer Bacchus to
Venus." In this connection Mazzei proved a
gaUant champion of the ladies by recording that
"if the men remain at table too long in order
to drink more than they should, the women are
accustomed to withdraw; 1. Because they are
not interested m excessive drinking; 2. Because
they have somethmg else to do. The women
conduct aU the domestic affairs of the house, and
generaUy with much care; all the keys are turned
over to them and they take care of everything."
It is but fair to point out with Segur, that these
long sojourns at table were necessitated by the
elaborate system of toasts then m vogue: "Din
ner, wffich, according to the custom of the Eng
lish and Americans, lasted several hours, concluded
by a number of toasts. The more customary
were those to the Independence of the Umted
States, the King and Queen of France, and to
the success of the Alhed Armies, after wffich
came private toasts, or, as they are caUed in
America, sentimental toasts." That he did not
approve of the custom is clear: "Two things,
only, shocked me more than I can say, one was
the custom, when the time came for toasts, to
pass around the table a great bowl of punch
from wffich each guest was obhged in turn to
drink." Savarin was much impressed by the
size of one of these punch-bowls in New York,
[86]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
"holding enough for forty people — there are no
such huge bowls in aU France."
ChasteUux approves the patriotic toasts, but
does not hesitate to speak ffis mind freely concern
ing the tiresome exchange of "individual healths,"
"The formal toasts, as I have said already, are not
at aU aimoymg, and only serve to prolong conver
sation, wffich is always more animated at the close
of the repast. They do not require one to go to
excess, in wffich they differ greatly from German
healths and those stiU obtainmg in our garrisons
and in the country. But one absurd and reaUy
barbarous custom is that at the beginnmg of a
repast and the first time that one drinks, they
caU upon each mdividual ui turn to drink ffis
health. It is enough to make the actor of tffis
ridiculous comedy die of thirst wffile trymg to
remember the names of aU around a table of
twenty-five or thirty persons. It is also enough
to make the unfortunate whom he addresses die
of impatience because he cannot give proper at
tention to what he is eatmg and what they are
saying to him, bemg incessantly caUed at from
right to left by crueUy charitable men anxious
that he shaU notice the comphment he is receiv
ing. The best bred Americans do not approve
of this general appeal, and whenever they drink
individual healths they do it by groups, four or
five together. Another custom is the despair of
[87]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
strangers — ^those general and private attacks
fimsffing by regular duels, someone calhng out
to you from the other end of the table, ' Monsieur,
wiU you permit me to drink a glass of wine with
you.**' Tffis proposition is always accepted, and
when the bottle is passed you must face your
enemy (for how else shaU I caU a man who exer
cises such empire over my wishes !) wait untfl he
has poured out ffis wine and has taken ffis glass,
and then drink stiffly with ffim, hke a recruit
imitating the gestures of ffis driU sergeant. How
ever, I must do tffis justice to Americans, that
they themselves feel the absurdity of these usages
drawn from Old England."
It is from tffis same ChasteUux that we have a
pleasant picture of an evemng spent at the board of
General Washington — a picture showmg how care
fuUy he ordered ffis toasts : " The tablecloth having
been removed, some good bottles of bordeaux
and madeira were placed on the table. Every
man of sense wiU no doubt conclude that being
a French general under the orders of General
Wasffington, and hkewise a good Wffig, I could
not refuse a glass of wine when he offered it; I
will admit that I deserve httle credit for com
plying, and that, though less accustomed to
drinking than any of the others, I accommodated
myself qmte wefl to the Enghsh toast. The
glasses were very small, and each poured out the
[88]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
quantity of wine he wished, without anyone
pressmg ffim to tEike more. The toast is notffing
but a halt in the conversation to show that each
individual performs a part in making up the
company. I observed that at dinner the toasts
are attended with more soleirmity, — ^there are
several formal ones, and others were suggested
by the General and announced by the Aide de
Camp, who was doing the honors. Each day one
of them is stationed at the end of the table near
the General to oversee the service of the dishes
and the distribution of bottles. In the evemng,
toasts were announced by Colonel Hamflton,
and he gave them out as they came to ffim with
out order or formahty. At the end of supper
the guests were generaUy requested to propose a
sentiment, that is to say, a lady to whom they
were attached by love, friendsffip, or mere prefer
ence; tffis supper and conversation lasted gen
eraUy from mne o'clock imtfl eleven in the eve
mng, always informal and always agreeable."
Noticmg the importance we attributed to our
selection of toasts, the French took pains to
learn if it was their king, or the English one
who was being accorded tffis honor and, accord-
nig to Mazzei, were much pleased by the result
of their inquiries: "In America they have always
practised the Enghsh custom of drinkihg to the
health of the Sovereign after the meal. Before
[89]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
the Revolution the first health was always for
George III. 'The Nation' has taken ffis place,
and immediately thereafter comes Louis XVI.
I had the curiosity to ask the citizens of several
different States if, since peace was declared there
were places where they still drank to the health
of George III. They all assured me that they
had never heard of it either in pubhc or private
houses, but that everywhere they had seen the
health of Louis XVI drunk." Blanchard even
overheard the negro servants, after a dinner,
drinking the health of the French King.
Minister Adet, writing home to the Committee
of Pubhc Safety, July 17, 1795, officiaUy recogmzed
the pohtical sigmficance of the toasts then being
generaUy selected, as indicative of the trend of
pubhc opimon: "It is enough to read the series
of toasts proposed in those two cities (Baltimore
and Pffiladelpffia) to judge of the impression
made on pubhc opimon by the treaty." The
following year (September 24, 1796) he sent ffis
government a Ust of the toasts at a dinner given
ffim, as showing the state of the pubhc mind.
Dupetit-Thouars was the only other Frenchman
thoughtfffi enough to preserve for our delecta
tion a complete hst of toasts drunk on a certain
occasion: "His Christian Majesty and ffis better
half, the Queen of France, the King of Spain,
General Wasffington, His ExceUency the Count
[90]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
d'Estaing, His Excellency the Count d'Orvilhers,
the Marquis de Vaudreufl, Dr. Franklin, Presi
dent Adams, President Hamcock [sic], General
Lee, General Gates, Governor Jefferson, Her
ExceUency Mrs. Washington, and at least a haff
dozen more to absent ladies and gentlemen — 21
in afl." Doubtless few ff any of our readers
would welcome a return to this elaborate system
of alcohohc deluge after our repasts, but before
becoming too critical of our ancestors, should we
not consider if its denatured successor of to-day,
after-dinner oratory, is not even more calculated
to drive one to drink than the toasts of our early
society .J> How large a part sentiment played in
bmldmg up that ancient custom may be seen
from a httle picture left us by the Marqffis de
la Tour du Pin: "When breakfast (of which we
partook in common) was over, he rose, removed
ffis hat, and said in a manner fufl of respect 'we
wifl drink to our beloved President.' There was
no cabin to be found, even deep m the wilder
ness, where tffis loving act for the great Wash
ington did not conclude the repast. Sometimes
they added the health of 'the Marqffis,' for La
Fayette left a cherished name in the Umted
States." Over against tffis wide-spread use of intoxicants
it is but fair as weU as chasteffing to set out the
prevalence among our people of the tea habit,
[91]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
for tea was then not offiy a beverage, but had
also become an estabhshed social episode, with
an hour set apart to it, and an elaborate and per
fectly recogmzed code of rules. Although the
use of tea was not confined to what is now m
England the sacrosanct "tea hour," that be-
ffignant custom was already ffimly estabUshed
among us. Nor was it hmited in duration to
one hour, for Balch says: "About five o'clock they
take more tea, some wine, some madeira, some
punch, and tffis ceremony lasts until ten o'clock."
St. Mery observes: "They drink much tea,
sometimes with rum in it." Bayard confirms
the statement that the usual hour for tea-parties
was five in the afternoon, and he sets out very
amusingly the formal etiquette wffich attended
those functions: "I wiU give the reader an idea
of the pleasures of the city of Bath. At five
o'clock aU betake themselves to tea-parties,
where everytffing is conducted with the greatest
ceremony. On the right of the mistress of the
house are ranged in a haff circle aU the women,
as well attired as possible. A profound silence
foUows the arrival of each guest, and aU the
ladies maintain the gravity of judges sitting on
the bench. A mahogany table is brought and
placed in front of the dispenser of tea. Silver
vessels contain coffee, and hot water wffich
weakens the tea or serves to clean the cups. A
[92]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
servant brings in on a sflver tray the cups, the
sugar bowl, the cream jugs, pats of butter, and
smoked meat, wffich are offered to each indi
vidual, and with wffich she must cover her lap.
The French are often greatly embarrassed when,
with a cup and saucer in one hand, they are
obhged with the other to take tartlets, or smoked
meat cut in tffin slices. An elderly American,
to whom tffis new style of serving tea was in-
conveffient, after having taken a cup in one hand
and tartlets in the other, opened ffis mouth and
told the servant to fiU it for him with smoked
vemson! When everytffing is ready for the
feast the ladies produce their handkercffiefs and
spread them out. When you send back a cup
you take pains to place the spoon so as to indi
cate whether you want more, or have had enough.
A Frenchman, who spoke no Enghsh, and knew
nothing of tffis sign language, was distressed to
see the sixth cup arriving for ffim, so he decided
after emptying it to put it into ffis pocket until
the replemshments had been concluded." St.
Mery also testifies (this time at Pffiladelpffia,
whose ladies "do not excel in dancing, but they
know how to make tea") that "the hostess con
tinues to fiU up the teacups uffiess they are re
versed, and the spoon put on top." ChasteUux
speaks to the same effect: "Monsieur de la
Luzerne took me to drink tea at Mrs. Morris',
[93]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
wife of the Treasurer of the Umted States. His
residence is simple but well ordered and neat.
The doors and tables are of superb mahogany,
ffigffiy pohshed; the locks and andirons dehght-
fiffiy bright; cups set out in a row; the mistress
of the house very mce looking and very neatly
dressed, — aU appeared to me charming. I drank
some exceUent tea and woffid have taken more,
I think, if the Ambassador had not charitably
warned me at the tweffth cup that I must put
my spoon across my cup, whereupon tffis sort
of hot water torture was ended. 'It is almost
rude,' said he, 'to refuse a cup of tea when it is
offered, but it would be indiscreet for the host
to offer you more when the ceremony of the
teaspoon shows what are your intentions upon
tffis point.' " Dupetit-Thouars soon came to
learn that ff you did not know the proper signal
"you would be overwhelmed with tea !"
Nor was their tea signal understood offiy in the
Middle and Northern States, for Robin found it in
Connecticut as weU. He also noticed that "they
take a great deal of tea, the use of tffis insipid
beverage is the offiy pleasure they have; there is
not a single citizen who does not drink it from
porcelain cups. The greatest mark of courtesy
is to offer it. In countries where men live on
very substantial food and drink, tea may be use-
fffi to the health, but I tffink it injurious to those
[94]

I EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
where they eat almost notffing but vegetables
and dairy produce. Perhaps tffis is one of the
causes why, with a strong constitution and a
happy hfe, they hve a shorter time than other
men. They also blame tea for the loss of their
teeth." So severe is his indictment of tea-drink
ing that it is offiy fair to recall in passing that
Robin thought our poor bread was even more
responsible for the bad teeth than excessive tea-
drinking. Volney declares that he has reason to
beUeve that "very hot tea, so beloved by Ameri
cans of Enghsh descent, contributes to increase
then- susceptibihty to colds."
ChasteUux shows that Boston is as fond of tea as
its sister cities to the south, though they seemed to
take it after dinner rather than as a separate re
past. He teUs us that at Mr. Brick's house "after
diimer they served tea," and of another friend, that
" after dinner he took us to the room of his son
and daughter-in-law who wished to give us tea,"
and when he dined with the Marqffis de Vaudreufl
— " after dinner we went to take tea with Monsieur
Beaudouin"; Du Bourg says that, "in Boston
they take a great deal of tea in the moming,"
so we cem see that somebody or other must have
been busy drinking tea during every hour of the
livelong day.
It seemed also to be an important factor at pic-
mcs, for Brissot tells us that "one of the prmcipal
[95]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
pleasures of the dweUers in these cities consists of
parties in the country with their family or some
friends. Tea is the basis of these, especiaUy those
wffich take place after dinner." Of course so
thorough an American as Wasffington did not dis
regard this national beverage, and ChasteUux re
cords of one of ffis days spent at headquarters:
"The dinner was exceUent, tea followed dinner, and
conversation foUowed tea." Tffis discussion of
the Cffinese herb's wide popffiarity helps us to re-
ahze how self-denying was the patriotism dis
played at the famous Boston Tea-Party — they
did not hesitate to "mortify their appetite" for
tea in order to decrease the revenues of the
Enghsh Government and merchants. Chotteau
recogffizes tffis: "They aU drink tea in America
as they drink wine in the south of France. Tea
enters into the daily biU of fare. It was on every
table but the Colomsts baffished it with enthusi
asm, and dried raspberry leaves were offered to
delicate palates — a detestable drink — wffich they
had the heroism to find good."
So much for the principal repasts of the day,
and now we come to supper, wffich, according
to ChasteUux, "is not the important meal of the
Americans." Balch, to the same effect teUs us
that "at ten o'clock they sit down to table and
there is served a suppei; which is less considerable
than dinner/' ChasteUux wffile stoppmg in the
[96]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
country house of Mr. John Tracey, near Ports
mouth, New Hampsffire, found that: "At ten
o'clock an excellent supper was served; we drank
very good wine. About midffight the ladies with
drew, but we continued to drink madeira and
sherry. Mr. Tracey, foUowing the custom of
the country offered us pipes." One day in
Boston he was mvited to Mr. Brick's house, and
"supper was served exactly four hours after we
had risen from the table. It can be easily imag
ined that we took practicaUy notffing. Never
theless, the Americans did very well at it. In
general, they eat less than we during a single
meal, but they eat as often as they wish — a cus
tom which I consider very bad." Blanchard
also noticed that although "they sit down so
frequently at table, nevertheless, they are not
heavy eaters." Another pleasant contribution
to our supper hterature is from ChasteUux, after
a day spent with General Wasffington: "The
General sffid that he was accustomed to take
sometffing in the eveffing, and that ff I woffid
sit down I need offiy eat some frffit and join in
the conversation. The supper was composed of
three or four Ught dishes, of some frffit and above
aU, a great abundance of nuts wffich were no
worse received in the eveffing than they had been
in the morffing. The tablecloth having been
soon removed, some good bottles of bordeaux
[97]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
and madeira were placed on the table." Chas
teUux also noticed that the popular pastime of
proposing toasts was sometimes indiflged in after
supper just as after dinner.
Of all the numerous comments made by the
French upon American food, none are more
sigffificant than their decided expressions con-
cerffing our excessive meat eating, the poor and
(therefore perhaps) little eaten bread, and the
fact that our people Uved weU every day and aU
the time, regardless of whether they had guests,
or whether or not it was a hohday. As to meat,
Mazzei tefls us: "At 37° and 38° of latitude they
are often, during the summer, more carffivorous
than the Enghsh, They mix butter with their
meats, and put a great deal in almost aU their
dishes." Brissot found meat so important a part
of our diet as to authorize ffis comment: "In
America pork and beef do the honors of the table
the year round." He adds: "Fresh meat must
be much dearer in the country where the houses
are more scattered, than in the city where the
everyday needs demand the regffiar services of a
butcher." It is difficffit to reconcile ffis use of
"dear" with another comment of ffis: "Break
fast consisted of tea, coffee, meats, both broiled
and roasted, and cost ten cents, Massachusetts
money, for each traveUer." He not offiy finds
our fresh meat exceUent, but also reports that:
[98]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
"One sees salt beef of theirs wffich has traveUed
to Bordeaux, to the East Indies, to the West
Indies and after its return to Boston is stiU as
good as ever. They have tried tffis salt beef at
Marseffies and on French sffips elsewhere, and it
is begiiming to be ffigffiy esteemed. Being
cheaper than that of Ireland, it wifl no doubt
soon have the preference." An ffiuminating
conclusion from Balch compares our consump
tion of meat with that of bread, both in strikmg
contrast to the customs of the French: "Diimer,
wffich is generaUy at two o'clock, is composed of
a great quantity of meat. They eat very httle
bread." Tffis comparison is elaborated by Beau
jour: "In France each individual, taken one
with the other, cffildren and adffits together,
consumes a pound of bread a day and a haff
pound of meat, or other food wffich replaces it.
An American consumes hardly haff a pound of
bread, but on the other hand, at least a pound
of meat, without counting m other substantial
foods, such as butter and potatoes, wffich form
at least a quarter of ffis food." St. Mery records
that "Americans eat as much meat as the Enghsh,
and more meat than bread. They eat seven or
eight times as much meat as bread."
Du Bourg noticed that in Boston "they ate very
httle bread." ChasteUux says that: "AtBuffion's
Tavern, Baskenridge, New Jersey, the supper
[99]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
was so good that one tffing alone was lacking,
and that was bread. They asked us wffich sort
we wished, and at the end of an hour they gave
us what we asked for. In America they often
substitute for bread httle biscmts that are easfly
made and cooked m haff an hour." Our bread
was one of the few American products of wffich
the French consistently vouchsafe no word of
prffise — ^for them it was always bad. Even so
experienced a campaigner as Blanchard could
eat it offiy after it had been toasted! Wffile
traveffing in Maryland du Bourg reports: "Their
offiy grain is Indian corn, wffich accounts for
their eatmg offiy that kind of bread — ^the mesm-
est and worst m the world." Fersen noticed
that "m Virgiffia the people eat nothing but a
cake made of Indian corn flour, wffich they bake
before the fire; that hardens the outside a httle,
but the mside is offiy uncooked dough." Revel,
recountmg ffis experience at Yorktown, brmgs
perhaps the most serious charge agamst our
shortcoiffings as bakers: "Tffis part of Virgiffia
appears in general to be unhealthy; aU the m-
habitants that we have seen around our camp
had tffin, pale faces. It is possible that their
food is partly to blame, for they not offiy eat
no bread, but there are some of them who never
even heard of it. They make a sort of biscmt
on the hot cmders with corn meal, wffich they
[ loo]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
cffitivate in great quantities. They consume a
large amount of dairy products and potatoes,
wffich are exceUent. They prefer them to bread."
Robin joins in tffis general attack on our bakers
by aUeging that "the women, generaUy very
pretty, are often deprived of these precious orna
ments (teeth) at eighteen or twenty years of
age," and adds, "I presume tffis to be the effect
of hot bread. The Enghsh, Flemish and Dutch
preserve their teeth a very long time. The in
habitants of Connecticut, who have such fine
wheat, nevertheless do not know the precious art
of making it more digestible by kneading and
fermentation. Whenever it is reqffired they
make a cake wffich they put to haff-cook on an
iron plate; the French who went to the war in
America could not become accustomed to it,
and taught them to improve on it a httle. It is
to be found passable m the inns, but stiU very
inferior to that of our Army."
American bread was not the only tffing to bene
fit by coming into comparison with French cuh-
nary standards, for they also introduced a number
of gastronomic combinations unknown on tffis side
of the ocean. Savarin notices that those of ffis
feUow emigres "who possessed any talent for the
alimentary art draw precious support therefrom."
" On reacffing Boston I taught Juhen the caterer to
brofl eggs with cheese. This dish, new to Amer-
[lOl]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
icans, became quite the rage." "Captain CoUet
also made lots of money in New York in 1794 and
1795 by preparing ices and sorb^s for the inhabi
tants of that commercial city. The women, es
peciaUy, never tired of so novel a deUght — ^notffing
could be more amusing than their Uttle grimaces
while partaking thereof. They were at a loss to
understand how it coffid be kept so cold when the
Reaumur thermometer registered 26 degrees."
The French did not fffil to recogffize the im
portance so widely accorded "m our midst" to
pie, wffich they generaUy rendered "pye," al
though Voffiey writes approvingly of "paie (pye)
de pumkme!" It is almost needless to say that
our maple sugar, and especiaUy the extraction of
the maple sap from the trees, excited the UveUest
interest, and not a few regrets are expressed that
we did not export that dainty to France. One
would infer that the Due de La Rochefoucaffid
was possessed of an exceptionaUy sweet tooth, so
fffil of detafl is ffis description of the preparation
of maple sugar.
Almost no mention is made of the eating of
fiesh, although they were qmck to notice our liking
for oysters. St. Mery tefls us "Americans are
crazy about oysters, wffich they eat at aU hours,
and even in the streets. They hawk them about
the streets with lamentable cries untfl 10 p, m."
MandriUon reports that the oyster trade of New
[ I02 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
York City employed two hundred boats. Bour
geois says: "The inhabitants of New Rochefle
(N. Y.) hve off a sea shellfish cafled lobster, and
also black fish, the offiy fish caught there."
Turtles pleased our visitors greatly, so much so
that, according to Chotteau, the French officers
"in Pffiladelpffia ate exceUent turtles, and there
fore at table, thanks to the numerous toasts, time
passed qffickly." Wffile at Providence Blanchard
relates. "That same day I was invited to a party
m the country— a sort of pique-nique [sic] given
by about twenty men and a group of ladies.
The purpose of tffis outing was to partake of a
turtle weigffing some three or four hundred
pounds brought by an American sffip from our
islands. The meat did not strike me as very
pleasing, but then it was not weU prepared."
Savarm, whfle in New York, frequented "Little's
Tavern, where turtle soup was to be had during
the morffing, and in the evening the refreshments
usual in the Uffited States." Tffis woffid mdi-
cate a different division of the day gastronomi-
caUy from the one now m vogue.
Captffin Bossu was so pleased with the flavor of
our wfld ducks as to compare it favorably with
that of some Rouen domestic ducks of wffich he
had partaken on his way to America. He proved
ffis right to discuss tffis toothsome subject by point-
mg out that wild ducks were best during the season
[io3]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
they fed on wild rice, and therefore he urged that
swamps in France be planted therewith.
The number of vegetables in common use was
restricted — tomatoes were not considered healthy,
and ChasteUux says we grew artichokes, but did
not eat them. Dupetit-Thouars, on the other
hand, when complffiffing of the scarcity of bread,
says that it is replaced by vegetables. Brissot
makes the amusmg statement that "the Ameri-
pans of the Northern States do not hke offions,
and offiy cffitivate them to seU to the Americans
of the Southem States." Michaux (juffior) wit
nessed a confirmation of tffis: "Charleston harbor
is always fffil of smafl vessels from Boston, New
port, New Yorck and Pffiladelpffia, loaded with
potatoes, offions, carrots, beets, apples, oats, com,
and hay." In Brissot's description of Wethers
field, Connecticut, we read that it "is remark
able for its immense fields entirely fiUed with
offions, of wffich they export a prodigious quan
tity to the West Indies."
But seldom is any mention made of frffit ap-
pearmg upon the table, although we leam that
nuts were wefl hked, no less a person than General
Washmgton bemg extremely fond of them. "At
dessert," says the Prmce de BrogUe, "he consumed
an enormous quantity of nuts, sometimes for two
hours, if the conversation continued to interest
him." Savarin commented favorably upon this
[ io4 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
custom of eating nuts, and seemed to prefer
"coco and ycory [Roux speUs it ikery] nuts." He
liked them after dinner with ffis wine, because of
their thirst-producing quahties, also possessed by
the "welch rabbets," with wffich he was wont to
regale his two feUow emigres, Vicomte de la Massue
and Jean Rodolphe Fehr, at Little's Tavern, in
New York. He describes tffis dainty as "a bit of
roasted cheese on a shoe of bread. To be sure,
tffis preparation is not so substantial as rabbit
meat, but it stimulates thirst, makes the wine
seem good, and is proper for dessert in a smaU
company." Most of the Frenchmen went to America on war-
sffips, but those few who came on American vessels
received an excellent first impression of our food,
by reason of the fare served on board. We may
remark in passing that it coffid not have been easy
to victual sffips when the westward trip generaUy
took about seventy days. Says Brissot: "The
American sffips have, as a rule, good provisions in
abundance. Their salt beef is almost as good as
that of Ireland. We ate potatoes up to the very
moment we arrived at Boston. That wffi doubtless
surprise you because the general behef in France
is that in the spring they sprout and become
bad. Breakfast with tea, coffee, or chocolate; at
ffinner, meat, vegetables, wine, and beer, no coffee
and rarely any hqueur; tea at five or six o'clock;
[io5]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
at supper, eggs and rice, — that was our way of
Uving." So often do the French comment approvingly
upon the general cleanUness of the American peo
ple, that we are not surprised to hear from Brissot
that "kitchens are kept clean, and do not give out
the disgusting smell to be found in the best kitchens
of France. The diffing rooms, wffich are generaUy
on the ground floor, are ffiso clean and wefl aired;
cleaffiiness and fresh air is to be found .every
where." It is distressing to find m Perrin du Lac
that "they don't use napkins. They have forks
with two prongs that are offiy used when carving.
They eat with their kffives, wffich have rounded
ends" — aU of wffich is more of a comphment to
our ancestors' manual dexterity than to their man
ners. Smoking has become such a recogffized ad
junct to meals that it is reaUy quite surprising
how few are the aUusions made by the French
to the use of tobacco, especiaUy when one reflects
that they were visiting the land wffich provided
Europe with its supply of that "fragrant weed."
Bayard tefls us that "almost afl the men chew
tobacco," whfle St. Mery's remark upon the sub
ject is the most complete of any: "Afl Ameri
cans are smokers, they also chew, and sometimes
do both at once, but the American of any class
who uses snuff is a phenomenon, and their women
[io6]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
do not deform and dirty their noses as do Euro
peans." Perrin du Lac found that it was the
custom to smoke cigars in American theatres,
and he concluded that, in the opiffion of our an
cestors, "a Havana cigar, a newspaper and a
bottle of madeira make up aU the deUghts of
Ufe."

[107]

CHAPTER V
AMERICAN PHYSICAL TRAITS AND
TEMPERAMENT, AND THE EFFECT
OF OUR CLIMATE
It was difficult for General Rochambeau,
commander-in-cffief of the French forces, to
understand how a bookseUer Uke Mr. Knox
coffid promptly prove himseff an able artiUery offi
cer when given charge of that arm of the Amer
ican service, and ffiso how the American troops,
although entirely inexperienced in siege operations,
shoffid have so readily adapted themselves to work
in the trenches before Yorktown ! Tffis also puz
zled the Marqffis de ChasteUux as much as it
had ffis cffief. To both of them, carefuUy trffined
in accordance with the best European mihtary
system, it was inconceivable that any one lack-
mg such professional trffiffing should, by reason
of a certam naturffi eqffipment, achieve distmc
tion in the art of war. That natural trffit has
smce come to be recognized as American adapta-
bihty, and it is credited to us as a great national
asset. Crevecoeur reaUzed, thanks to ffis long
residence among us, that novel conditions were
[io8]

FRENCH MEMORIES
generating changes in our physicffi traits: "The
American is a new man who goes upon new prin
ciples. Most of them, therefore, entertffin new
ideas and develop new opiffions. From involun
tary idleness, penury, and useless labor he has
passed to tofl of a very different nature rewarded
by ample returns. Tffis is an American." And
TaUeyrand, the ablest of all the French who
visited us, foresaw that we "wiU one day be a
great people, the wisest and happiest on earth."
Generffi Victor CoUot looked so far into the
future as to feel that "America seems destmed
to play a leading role a few years hence m the
poUtics of Europe."
The ready adaptabffity of the American to any
new condition that might arise, plus ffis qffick-
ness of mind, ehcited numerous favorable com
ments from the French. Brissot is one of the
many to speak of our mventive abffity, already
beginffing to show itseff, but he was disposed to
creffit tffis gfft to Mother Necessity, coupled with
certain climatic influences. Perhaps ff he coffid
to-day witness the amazing number of patent
appUcations pourmg into our Patent Office, he
woffid realize that he had unwittingly remarked
a strong raciffi trffit wffich was to persist and de
velop long after it had outgrown the taskmaster
necessity of those early coloffial struggles.
It was but natural that tffis qffickness of mind
[109]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
shoffid sometimes strike a foreigner as productive
of excessive curiosity, and a propos of tffis, Chastel-
lux is in ffis best vern when repeating a traveUer's
tale anent tffis tendency of our forefathers: "He
says the Americans are the most inqffisitive peo
ple he has ever seen. Their curiosity, according
to ffim, is pushed ahnost to impropriety. When
he asked his way they offiy answered, 'you ap
parently come from Pffiladelpffia.' When dying
of hunger and thirst he demanded food, instead
of serving ffim, they sffid, 'you seem to be in a
great hurry, is there anythmg new in the North .!>'
He also relates that Mr. FrankUn (who possessed
a sense of humor in addition to that habituffi calm
wffich so surprised the Europeans) whenever he
was traveffing in Connecticut, a section noted for
its curiosity, was accustomed when he entered
an inn to call aU the family together and an
nounce in a loud tone, ' I am Benjamm FrankUn,
I was born in Boston, I am a printer by trade. I
am coming from Pffiladelpffia and I am going
back there at such-and-such time. I do not
know anytffing new, and now, my friends, wiU
you teU me what you can give me for supper.**'"
It seems almost a pity to attempt any rebuttal
of so good a story, but it is offiy fair to our an
cestors to quote from General Moreau in their
defense: "You arrive at a place, or change your
domicile, or set out on a journey, but no one
[iio]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
bothers himseff about you." And HUhard d'Au
berteuil insists that "one never sees there, as in
European cities, inquisitive idlers, hanging about
pubhc places on the lookout for news, or amus
ing themselves by staring at newly arrived
strangers." On the other hand, Boimet no
tices that "New Englanders are inqffisitive, espe
ciaUy to foreigners."
Strangely enough, although references are con
stant to our climate and its effect m developing
a ffistmct American type, very few differences are
described between European chmate and ours,
except by Voffiey, who visited us in 1795 and
devoted two whole volumes to "the chmate and
soil of the Uffited States." Fersen says of New
port that "the climate is superb," but then adds
that the heat there in August reminds ffim of
Italy. Perhaps the most striking of Volney's
observations is as to "the amount of electric
flffid with wffich the American atmosphere is im
pregnated to a greater proportion than that of
Europe; there is no need of mechanicffi or arti
ficial apparatus to make tffis sensible — ^it is suffi
cient to draw a silk ribbon rapidly across some
wooUen stuff to have it contract far more qffickly
than I have ever seen it do in France." He finds
the most sahent difference between the chmates
of America and Europe is that "there is no
sprmg m the Uffited States, and one passes
[III]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
abruptly from rigorous cold to violent heat, ac-
compaffied by the strange circumstances of a
cold wind and a burning sun, a winter landscape
and a summer sky." Pontgibaud is another of
the few to notice the remarkable brevity of our
spring, and also the dehghtfffi superiority enjoyed
by our bright, clear autumns over the gloomy
weeks which generaUy mark that season in
Europe: "A pecuUarity of the climate of tffis
country is that often there is no spring, and
owing to tffis absence of one of the pleasantest
seasons of the year you pass strffight from a
long, hard winter to weather of insupportable
heat wffich has foUowed, without any intermedi
ate gradations, a severe frost. The autumns, on
the other hand, are long and very fine." The
Marqffise de la Tour du Pin, on their farm near
Albany, remarked that "it is interesting to re
cord how suddeffiy spring arrives m these lati
tudes. Early in March the northwest wind,
after having been in complete control aU winter,
stopped abruptly. The southern breezes began
to be felt, and the snow melted so rapidly that
in two days the roads were transformed into tor
rents. In less than a week the fields turned
green, and the woods were filled with innumer
able wild flowers unknown in Europe."
And now for a surprise — the French thought
us a pffiegmatic people ! " Coldness and reserve
[II2]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
seem to me to be characteristics of the American
nation," says Deux-Ponts. "They appear to have
httle of that enthusiasm wffich one attributes to a
people fighting for their hberties." Roux, who,
visited America in 1784 concluded that "physicffi
and moral causes wffi ffiways prevent them from
becoming conquerors, uffiess their population sud
deffiy increases tffiough circumstances impossible
now to foresee." Miffister Fauchet and his feUow
Commissioners, writmg home April 19, 1795, re
port that "Americans are cold by nature, . . and
don't care to take part in pubhc demonstrations
or in processions." "The calm tranqffiUity with
wffich they argue their cases," says Perrin du
Lac, "cannot fffil to amuse a stranger. Even in
the most important affairs you wffi never see the
speaker move head or hands, nor will he by
the shghtest inflection of his voice indicate that
he is more aroused at one time than another."
After upbrffiding us for our "dffil spirit and soul
without energy," Beaujour adds: "But it is to
be hoped that their temperament will improve
with their chmate, and that the American wifl
one day acquire more vivacity of spirit, and more
strength of character." Robin says that our
"cUmate afforded but Uttle energy," and it must
have been dishearteffing to our forefathers to
learn of ffis fear that our climate must hmit our
future greatness. The antidote wffich he sug-
[ii3]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
gests for the sffid chmatic handicap woffid hardly
suit temperance societies: "The indolent, pas
sive character of tffis people eu'ouses the fear
that they wiU not arrive at the world power
wffich so many advantages promise them. But
this character is due to customs, to chmate, and
to food wffich some day wiU change. Unsub-
stantiffi food £uid drinks but slightly fficohoUc
(and, therefore, dissolvent rather than digestive)
must necessarily relax the fibres, give a slower,
more unfform circffiation to the blood, and there
fore cause a mentahty less active, and an imag
ination less animated, a greater reserve and a
cahner character. But when a numerous popu
lation shaU have cut down these " immense for
ests, the soil opened up to the sun with a freer
and less rarefied air, new forms of agricffiture and
a greater commerce wifl mcrease the use of al
cohohc hquors and cause a closer communication
between men now widely separated — aU these wiU
awake and excite the passions, and then the
Americans wiU reveffi aU that of wffich they are
capable." Strange theories these to be ad
vanced by a chaplain of Rochambeau's army !
So lazy were our forebears, according to Blan
chard, that "during the winter they go out but
little, and pass whole days together sitting in
the cffimney corner or beside their wives doing
nothmg, not even reading, so that, to escape
[ii4]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
boredom, they have to partake of frequent meffis."
Roux complains that "they are offiy wflling to
work two or three days a week. " " The Americans
were, as a rffie, lazy," says Fersen, and most of
the French seem to agree with ffim and Blanchard,
Hifliard d'Auberteffil being one of the very few to
come to our defense: "Lazy men are extremely
rare," says he, "they have not yet had time to ac
quire the habit of laziness." Although Volney as
serts that they "did not rise early in the morffing,"
and were "naturaUy cold and pffiegmatic, slow and
taciturn," he admits that "once up, they spend
the entire day in an uffinterrupted round of use-
fffi occupations." Crevecoeur, who hved longer
among us than any of the others, and whose
opiffion has therefore a pecuUar value, holds an
entirely opposite view and believes that Euro
peans became "tuned up" after arrival here,
nor is this the only point upon which he was
nearer right than those of ffis countrymen who
had but a few weeks or months in wffich to ob
serve us.
Although our ancestors struck the Frenchmen as
being pffiegmatic, tffis astoffisffing observation will
be partiaUy explained if we remember who it is that
is speaking, and reflect that we are hsteffing to
comments from members of a Latin race upon an
agglomeration of Anglo-Saxons, even the liveliest
of whom must seem oversteady to a Latin. Per-
[ii5]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
haps the most Latin of ffil the comments is one
from the pen of Bayard: "The pffiegmatic inhabi
tants of the New World seem to lack that delicate
orgaffization wffich gives foresight. One must
actuaUy beat upon their nerves to make them vi
brate, whilst in France it is enough to touch them
with the finger tip. But, on the other hand, they
reproach us with the short duration of our emo
tions." It is difficult to understand how they coffid so
constantly accuse us of sluggishness, especiaUy
as their conclusions seem so seldom justffied by
their premises. Take St. Mery, for an example
— ^notice the conclusion with wffich he starts, and
then ffis basis for it: "Man receives from this
climate an effect wffich deprives him of a part of
his energy, and which disposes ffim to indolence,
but that does not prevent ffim from being quarrel
some, and the quarrel generaUy ends in a boxing
match. Boxing has its laws and regulations.
The two atffietes choose the place of combat.
They undress themselves so that notffing but
their shirts remain on the upper part of their
bodies, and roU their sleeves up above the el
bows. Then on an agreed signal, they rush at
each other, deliver blows on the chest, head,
face and stomach — blows the sound of wffich no
one could imagine who had not attended such a
spectacle. After each new shock they draw back
[ii6]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
and separate. If one of them faUs during one
of these attacks ffis adversary does not touch
ffim so long as he is on the ground, but the shght
est movement he makes to rise, the other has the
right to ffit him and to knock ffim down agffin.
Nobody interferes to separate the champions;
they make a ring around them, and encourage
them, — each, the one in whom he takes especial
interest. So long as one of them does not con
sider himself beaten, the other holds ffim down
and smothers him with blows every time he tries
to rise from the ground. As soon as tffis admis
sion of defeat is secured, the vanqffished gets up,
dresses himself, and is free to depart until the
next chaflenge — if he has the temerity to accept
one. At the end of the battle one of the boxers,
and sometimes both, are covered with the blood
wffich they expectorate, vomit, or else lose from
the nose. Teeth are broken, eyes are shut by
being puffed up, and sometimes the sight is de
stroyed." Bayard also teUs of tffis same gentle
pastime: "The atffietes use fists, feet and teeth;
they pluck out each other's eyes and tffis is how
it is done; — the champions approach each other,
dehvering without warffing heavy blows of the fist;
they entwine their forefingers in their enemy's
hair, then, stiffening their thumbs, apply them
to the corners of the eyes and make them pop
out, amid cheers from a ferocious circle urging
[117]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
them on. Woe to the careless wight who aUows
ffis finger or thumb to get caught, for they wffi
be bitten by his adversary. Every market day
we saw crowds form round drunken atffietes
whom the code of honor forced to box. Fright
ened women fled from these barbarous pastimes
learned from the Enghsh. Generafly a brffiser
(breaker of bones) is judge for the combatants
and compels the observance of the rules. You
see him marcffing gravely round the circle and
addressing the two champions with an air of au
thority. It is he who gives the signal for combat
or applause. The imbecile crowd has more re
spect for ffis orders than they woffid have for a
magistrate. After the combat the friends of the
winner surround him, and shake ffis hands, wffile
others with lemons stop the blood which flows
from his nostrils, Tffis personage receives their
attentions and praise with the studied solemffity
of a theatrical hero."
Needless to say, such acute observers ffid not
fail to notice how differing latitude makes for a
difference m temperament between the Ameri
cans of the Middle States and those to the north
and south. Tffis is how it struck Beaujour:
"The men are strong and enterprising in the north,
fickle and frivolous in the middle states, careless
and lazy m the southern ones. A Bostoffian
woffid seek ffis fortune in the bottom of heU,
[ii8]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
but a Vhgiffian woffid not go four steps for it;
an inhabitant of New York, Pffiladelpffia, and
Baltimore does not die content if during his hfe-
time he has not changed ffis occupation three or
four times! Customs brought from abroad still
obtain tffioughout the northern and middle
states. It is not until one crosses the Potomac
that these customs, so clearly marked with the
traces of coloffial manners, appear to have ab
solutely changed. And whether tffis change
comes about from the influence of chmate or
negro slavery, it is none the less noticeable in
aU the usages of Ufe — their commerce is turned
over to strangers, agricffiture abandoned to
slaves, and the proprietor, under the luxurious
title of 'planter' concerns himseff with ffis
pleasures ffione." Chasteflux also notices how
marked was the difference between the various
sections of the country: "If one wishes to ob
tain an idea of the American repubhc he must
not coffiound the Virgiffians (whom a spirit as
warlike as mercantile, as ambitious as speculative,
brought to tffis continent) with the New Eng
landers, who owe their origin to religious enthu
siasm. One must not expect to find the same
resffit in Pennsylvania, where the ffist colonists
thought offiy of peophng and cultivating the
wilderness, as in South Carolina, where the pro
duction of certffin privileged articles tumed pub-
[119]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
lie attention to foreign trade, and established
connections necessary therefor with the old world."
Of the climate of Pennsylvaffia, Brissot says
that it is "less cold than in the northern states,
less warm and suffocating than in the middle
states, and offers considerable additionffi attrac
tion." The Comte de Fersen, during ffis stay with
the army at Newport, wrote home to ffis father,
"the chmate is superb."
So great was the difference between thecoloffies
that severffi of these foreign commentators pre-
fficted a political disagreement between the people
of the north and those of the south. Marnezia
thought that if we did not break up into a northern
and a southern repubhc we should end by even a
greater division either into many small republics
or else into eight separate monarcffies. May ffis
forecast never be nearer consummation than it
has been up to the present day !
Great as was the difference between the sec
tions in those early days, far greater than to-day,
it must not be forgotten that it in no wise af
fected the unaffimity of the coloffies in their re
volt agffinst the mother country. We modern
Americans, a uffited and homogeneous people,
are apt to pass over tffis surprising fact of our
early ffistory. The hereditary Prince of Bruns
wick told Rochambeau just before the Revolu
tion broke out, that the coloffists lacked the
[ I20 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
cohesion necessary for a general revolt, and pre
dicted that it woffid take a whole century to
overcome the local jealousies and inter colony
affimosities. But he was wrong — the amazingly
unanimous loyalty to the cause of independence
rang equaUy true in aU parts of the land; the
patriotism seen at Bunker HiU was no greater
than that displayed in the swamps of Georgia,
or during the dreadfffi winter at Valley Forge.
Such Toryism as existed seems to have been
due to private interest among the aristocratic
classes in the cities controUed by the Enghsh.
Notwithstanding constant temptations to desert
the cause of the strugghng coloffies, seemingly
doomed to defeat, Benedict Arnold is alone in
ffis iffiamy. It does one good to read Rocham
beau's account of the spirited refusffi of British
gold by the American sergeant at the head of
the revolted Pennsylvaffia State troops march
ing to demand arrears of pay from Congress in
Pffiladelphia. General Rochambeau observed that "the north
em states enjoy about the same temperature
as Paris, the middle states that of our southern
provinces, wffile those of the south suffer aU the
burffing heat of the coast of Barbary; from tffis
it resffits that they enjoy long hfe in the northern
states, shorter in the middle ones, while in the
southern states at sixty years of age they are ab-
[I2I]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
solutely decrepit." Volney "also thought that hfe
was shorter in the south than at the north, and
Michaux (juffior), whfle traveffing in western
Pennsylvania, saw "some old men over seventy-
five years of age, which is rare in the Atlantic
States south of Pennsylvania." Tffis subject of
American longevity was one of great interest to
our visitors, and provoked among them a vigorous
and somewhat amusing discussion, in wffich even
the tombstones of our churchyards were forced
(doubtless with reluctance) to testify agffinst us.
It was Robin, one of the earhest to arrive, who
set tffis fasffion of noting the ages on tombstones,
and from these he deduced that we were an un
usuaUy short-hved race. "I had assumed that
hfe would be short, and therefore I examined the
cemeteries of Boston. They are accustomed to
carve on each gravestone the name and age, and
I found there that the hves of most of the male
deceased seldom reached fifty years, and I saw
very few of sixty, ahnost none of seventy, and
none at all above that." But Brissot, who al
ways delighted to correct somebody about some
thing, rallies to our defense with the ffid of even
more rehable statistics and gives us rather the
better of the comparison in tffis regard over Euro
peans: "Abbe Robin says that after twenty-five
the American women appear old, that young
chfldren die in greater proportion than in Europe,
[ 122 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
and that there are few old men. Nothing could
be more untrue. I have carefuUy observed
women between thirty and fifty years of age,
and found most of them plump and of good
heffith. I have seen some ffity years old who
stffi had a very fresh appearance; one woffid not
have given them more than forty. I have no
ticed tffis same good health maffifested in women
from sixty to seventy, and am speaking now espe
ciaUy of New Hampsffire, Massachusetts, and
Connecticut women. It is true that in Penn
sylvaffia one does not see the same bright hues
on the interesting faces of the Quaker women
and girls, for they aie generffily pffie. I have
remarked their teeth, — some very handsome ones ;
there is no rffie to be Iffid down in tffis respect
and American women have the same faffing as
EngUsh women, — they are too fond of hot drinks.
Not offiy is the number of old men greater here
than in Europe, as I am going to prove, but these
old folk generally preserve their intellectuffi and
often their physical facffities. I am reminded
that at Ipswich, in Massachusetts, there is an
old Miffister who stffi preaches weU although
ffinety years old. I am told of another of the
same age who went twenty miles on foot every
Sunday to attend meeting. Fffially, there is Mr.
Temple, one hundred years old, who died in New
Hampshire ffi 1765. He left eight cffildren, four
[123]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
girls and four boys, of the following ages, 86,
85, 83, 79, 77, 75, 73." Sometffing of Hflhard
d'Auberteufl's concerffing the preservation of
their faculties by our elderly men is so a propos
that we wffi interrupt Brissot and interject it
here: "They become adffit at twenty and old at
fifty, and they grow to be as taciturn, as our
aged folk become loquacious. At bottom their
character tends to gravity, and they generaUy,
at that age, have less memory, much more wffi
than tffinking power, prudence than reasoffing
power, moderation than geffius; but for those
very reasons they are better quffiified to gffide
peoples, and more difficffit to subdue." Return
ing once more to Brissot, he sets out in further
support of his contention a table of vitffi statis
tics of Harvard graduates and adds, "what you
must conclude from afl these facts and statistical
tables (even ff the calculations lack rigorous ex
actness), is that a man's life is much longer in
the Uffited States than in the healtffiest country
of Europe." St. Mery disagrees with Brissot
and supports Robin, whose rehance upon grave
yard statistics he approves: "American women
are charmmg and adorable at fffteen, faded at
twenty-tffiee, old at tffirty-five, decrepit at forty
pr forty-five, and subject to nervous troubles.
To judge from tombstones, Americans generaUy
die between tffirty-five and forty-five." Chas-
[124]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
tellux would seem to side with St. Mery and
Robin, for he says of a certffin planter: "Tffis
Mr. Lambert is somewhat of a phenomenon in
America, where longevity is not common. He is
eighty-tffiee years old and hardly seems fifty-
five." But Mazzei, on the other hand, criticises
ChasteUux for aUeging that longevity is iffire-
quent in America, and the Due de La Rochefou
caffid especiffily extols the great length of hfe
frequent in Mffine. Boimet, too, specificaUy
states that Americans are long-hved. Volney
declares that we suffered from a tendency to
catch cold, wffich he blames to "overheated
apartments, baUs, tea-parties, and feather beds
(sometimes in the German style, i. e., feathers
both above and below the body)."
Let us leave them quarrelhng among them
selves as to how our chmate affected us, and turn
with a sigh of rehef to the peacefffi unaffimity
wffich characterizes their recogffition of its bene
ficial effect upon Europeans. Blanchard, quarter
master of the French troops, shafl voice tffis
general opiffion, for he can speak with authority:
"When the French army left at the end of 1782,
after two and a haff years spent in America, we
did not have ten sick among five thousand men.
This number, less than the proportion of soldiers
ordmarily in hospital in France, shows how
healthy is the chmate of the Uffited States."
[125]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Although the French could not agree upon
whether or not we hved long Uves, they were
gracious enough to find us a fine-looking, well-
set-up lot. The superior physique of our men,
and how weU they carried themselves, occasioned
generffi comment, and to tffis chorus of approval
there are but few dissenting voices. Beaujour
expresses the opiffion generffily held by ffis com
patriots when he writes: "The Americans are
almost aU taU, with good figures, strong weU-
proportioned hmbs, and a fresh, bright com
plexion, but in general they lack fiineness of Unea-
ment, and have but Uttle expression m their
faces. Although there are few ugly men to be
found among them, there are even fewer trffiy
handsome ones. I mean to say, of that wild and
striking beauty sometimes seen in the south of
Europe, and wffich served as a model for the
most beautifffi statues of the ancients." St,
Mery agrees that our men were taU and weU
made, £md Bonnet calls us "taU, of good figure,
sturdy, and courageous," The Vicomte de No
aiUes says of American troops that "afl are sober
and patient, Uve on corn bread, undergo priva
tions or delays without murmuring, are capable
of fatigue and long marches, valuable quaUties
wffich make of them a veritably Ught iffiantry.
Besides they look weU, and are most of them
handsome," And Hiffiard d'Auberteffil says:
[126J

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
"Although Americans of Enghsh stock are less
robust than most European peoples (owing to
the weakening effect of their moist chmate),
they are more fearless, less sensitive to wounds
than Europeans, and more easily healed of them."
From Pontgibaud we learn that these novel
physical traits carried with them a certffin simple
digffity: "Congress then consisted of tffirteen
members, one from each State of the Uffion, but
men very different from us in their habits and
ways. They took their seats in the Congress
HaU as unostentatiously as we should enter a
reaffing-room in Paris, and the wisdom of their
magnanimous resolutions was often surpassed by
the simphcity of their maimers." Robin ffiso
noticed tffis digffified simplicity and credits it to
our diet, but he says that our food is not suffi
ciently nourisffing, and objects to the insipidity
of such of our drinks as tea and milk, and he
thinks that we hve shorter hves than other men
on tffis account.
Since tffis worthy chaplffin in Rochambeau's
army has introduced the subject of the fair sex,
let us see how our ancestresses struck the French
men — ^we find a gratifying unaffimity of approval,
as was but to be expected from such gaUant
gentlemen. Nevertheless, they indffige in occa
sional criticisms as well as a few left-handed
compliments. Although Abbe Robin is a priest,
[127]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
one would tffink ffim a judge from the even-
handed justice of ffis conclusions: "American
women are taU and weU-proportioned, their fea
tures are generaUy regular, and their skins very
wffite, without color. They have less ease of
maimer than French women, but more digffity.
The figures of the men are equally weU-propor-
tioned. They have httle flesh, and their com
plexion is rather pale. They are less careless in
their dress than the women and very clean. At
twenty years the women have the freshness of
youth but at thirty-five or forty they are wrinkled
and decrepit." Although Perrin du Lac found
our women almost as phlegmatic as our men, " I
soon noticed that the very first note of a musical
instrument sufficed to dissipate that apathy
wffich seemed to affect both sexes ahke. The
girls danced with a pleasure that showed itself
in their faces. The more active and fatigffing
the dance, the better they liked it. By nature
pffie though pretty, American girls for the most
part lack that vivacity wffich is the soffi of beauty.
Rarely aroused during the course of their uffiform
hves, they are strikingly attractive offiy when
electrffied by pleasure or passion, at wffich times,
they aie, so to speak, qffite uffiike themselves."
Baron Closen admired all American women, but
found those of Pffiladelphia a little too serious,
caused, he tffinks, by the presence of Congress
[128]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
in that city. One is moved to query ff the good
baron was not undffiy extending the prerogatives
of that august body. Because of St. Mery's
long stay in Pffiladelpffia, it was but natural that
he should say: "American women are pretty and
those of Pffiladelpffia most so; no other city
in the world shows such a proportion." While
passing through Virgiffia he thought the women
pretty, but was so ungaflant as to allege that
they had long feet and poor teeth. Bayard, we
are glad to report, comes to the defense of the
fair Southerners: "Virgiffia women are tffil, well
poised, and have much more expression in their
faces than other American women. Although
they seem better fitted for the fatigues of Diana
than the games of Love, they obey the laws of
that master of gods and men." Segur declared
ffimseff a partisan of the Boston dames: "Europe
offers for our adiffiration no prettier or more
elegant, better bred or more tffiented women than
those of Boston." Beaujour dechned to be drawn
into these partisan ffiscussions; ffis opiffion of our
ladies as a whole, though calmly expressed, is
nevertheless flattering: "The women have more
of that dehcate beauty wffich is the right of their
sex and in general more refinement and expres
sion in their faces. They are teffi, and almost
aU have gracefffi figures, ffigh bosoms, a beauti
fffi head, and an amazing wffiteness of complex-
[129]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ion. You may be sure that ffiong with this
brflhant exterior there goes the modest ah and
naive grace which nature lavishes without art,
and thus you wiU get an idea of their style of
beauty. But this beauty does not last long; at
twenty-five their figures ffiter, and at thirty al
most aU their charms are gone." We have al
ready seen that Brissot does not agree with the
view that American women fade early, and he
argues stoutly agffinst that slanderous aUegation.
ChasteUux gives a ffint that stiffness was not a
failing of some of our girls: "We were wffited
on at supper by a young lady of great beauty,
named Miss Pearce. She was a neighbor of Mrs.
D. who came to see her and to assist in the ab
sence of her younger sister. This young person
was possessed, Uke aU American girls, of a very
modest demeanour, indeed even a serious one.
She was wiUing to have you look at her or praise
her face and even give a few caresses, provided
it was not done with an air of famiharity. In
fact, bad manners are so imusual in America
that these little hberties with young girls are of
no consequence and the hberty itseff possesses
an appearance of modesty wffich is not the case
with our affected prudery and fffise reserve."
Lafayette writes ffis wife from Charleston, June
19, 1777, that "American women are very pretty,
very simple, and of a charming cleaffiiness."
[i3o]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
And now as to the home Ufe of the early Ameri
cans — ^how, if at aU, was it affected by these new
conditions of chmate and environment .3 For
tunately for the purposes of our inqffiries. General
Rochambeau not offiy encouraged his officers to
travel as widely as possible, but ffiso gave them
especial permission to lodge in private houses
whenever the opportuffity offered. Says the
Comte de Segur: "Tffis permission gave me the
pleasure of observmg more in detafl the home
Ufe of American famiUes. I was enchanted with
the simphcity, the purity of maimers, and the
frank cordiahty of my hosts. Their pohteness,
though unstuffied, was but the more amiable
for that reason; they had good breedmg and
pleasant manners; everybody was naturffi. It
seemed as if ffil their duties were pleasures for
them. The spirit among them is that of good
sense; reason and goodness dictate their words
and preside over their conduct, and it must be
agreed that truth and happiness, far from being
totaUy exiled from the earth as gloomy pffi-
losophers have sffid, are to be found everywhere
in America." When passing tffiough Dover on
his way to Pffiladelpffia he remarks that the
neatness of the place proved the order, activity,
and mteffigence of its people: "Accustomed to
the spectacle of our [French] magnfficent cities,
to the affectations of our young men of fasffion,
[i3i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
and to the contrast between the luxury of our
upper classes with the shabby attire of our peas
ants and the rags of our poor," he was surprised
when he arrived in the Uffited States to see no
where such luxury nor such misery. "AU the
Americans we met wore weU-cut clothes, of good
stuff, and had good shoes. Their bearing was
free, frank, and cordial, removed ahke from
roughness and studied pohteness, and showed
them men of independence, but law-abiding, in
sisting upon their own rights wffile respecting
those of others. Their appearance told you
that you were in the land of reason, order, and
Uberty. I saw with adiffiration weU-peopled
towns, cities where everytffing evidenced an ad
vanced civiUzation — schools, churches, and uffi-
versities; nowhere indigence nor rudeness, but
everywhere fertihty, ease of circumstance, and
urbaffity. In every individual you met there
was to be seen the tranqffil pride of the inde
pendent man who, subject offiy to ffis laws,
knows neither the vaffity, the prejudices, nor the
forms of our European society; such is the pic
ture wffich, during aU my travels, surprised and
fixed my attention." In tffis connection let us
turn to Lafayette, sure of a word of kindly ap
preciation, and read a portion of one of ffiS letters
to ffis young wffe: "I am now going to talk to
you about the country and its inhabitants. They
[l32]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
are fully as amiable as my enthusiasm painted
them. Simplicity of manners, the desire to
oblige, the love of country as weU as of Uberty,
emd a charming equahty everywhere prevffils.
The richest and the poorest are on a level, and
ffithough there are immense fortunes in this
country, I defy anyone to find the shghtest dif
ference in the manners of one toward the other.
Everytffing recaUs EngUsh customs, except that
there is more simplicity in the homes than in
England I am enchanted to find that here aU
citizens are brothers. They are comfortably off
and each has the same rights as the most power-
fffi landed proprietor."
Some unknown pffilosopher has said: "Re
virtuous and you wffi be happy, but you won't
have a good time." Felix de Beaujour might
have been that aforesffid unknown pessimist to
judge from the foUowing: "Americans in their
domestic Ufe possess more of the elements of
happiness than Europeans, but in their social
Ufe they have less of them and, though it is true
that they are free from vexations, they hve almost
without pleasures. They know notffing of the
art of mffitiplying and diversifying their amuse
ments and the monotony of their hfe resembles
the sflence of the tomb." Perhaps the easiest
way to explffin why the French thought our
ancestors' Uves lacked amusement is that, from
[i33]

FRENCH MEMORIES
the Latin point of view, aU Anglo-Saxons, Ameri
can as weU as British, take their pleasures sadly.
But who shaU say ff the simple delights of the
early American home were not as weU worth wffile
as anytffing the gay court of Loffis XVI coffid
afford, even long before the shadow of Doctor
GiuUotin's dreadfffi invention feU athwart it.

[i34T

CHAPTER VI
CITY LIFE, AND ESPECIALLY IN
PHILADELPHIA, CHARLESTON,
AND BOSTON
On the day "the embattled farmers" begem
the immortal fusiUade at Lexington, the new
Yale Stadium, seating 67,000 people, could have
accommodated the combined popffiation of Pffila
delpffia, Boston, and New York, wffich were
then respectively 20,000, 25,000, and 20,000 ac
cording to Robin, Pontgibaud, and Mandrffion.
To perform the same service for those tffiee cities
now woffid necessitate a coliseum seating about
9,000,000, a project wffich offiy the Grand Canon
of the Colorado would be able to entertffin.
Telescopes would be needed instead of opera-
glasses, and the spectacle staged for such an
auffience woffid have to be on the scffie of Euro
pean army manoeuvres. We must not forget
that in those early days, accordmg to Boimet,
Bayard, and Brissot, offiy one-tenth of our popu
lation dwelt in cities instead of the 47 per cent
of to-day. Nor ffid the smaU urban popffiation
of these days tend to increase rapidly. Even in
[i35]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
1790, when our first officiffi census was taken,
the figures for the five leaders had offiy reached
the foUowing totals: New York, 33,131; Pffila
delpffia, 28,522; Boston, 18,320; Charleston,
16,359; Baltimore, 13,503.
How greatly the Revolution increased the im
portance of some cities wffile at the same time
dimiffisffing that of others is fairly starthng, as
we shaU come to know when we read of them in
detffil, and learn how much New York, Providence,
and Boston were injured, and how greatly Bffiti-
more, Ne'wport, and Pffiladelpffia were helped.
In few cases was the change so abrupt as that in
the increase of Providence and the dechne of
Newport, both taking place at the same time.
Some cities made their gffins more slowly than
others; for example, Brissot notes that just after
the war the increase of bffilding in Phfladelphia
was less striking than that taking place in New
York. How rapidly the order of our leaffing
cities was changing appears from comparing the
1790 figures with those given in 1810 by Beau
jour: Pffiladelphia, 120,000; New York, 90,000;
Bffitimore, 40,000; Boston, 36,000; Charleston,
30,000; New Orleans, 20,000; Wasffington, 6,000.
In passing it is interesting to note that many of
the French bear witness that the rural districts
back from the seacoast were actuaUy benefited
by the war, because of their immuffity from
[i36]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
ravages by the British navy, to wffich the sea-
coast was constantly exposed. CoUeville, speak-
mg of the number of vessels in afl the harbors
from the Potomac to Boston, says: "What must
not have been their commerce before the trouble.
I saw with equffi surprise the flourisffing condi
tion of the interior of the country."
The French were unanimous ffi their ffigh praise
of American cities and seemed especiaUy struck
by tffiee features unusual in Europe, viz., their
advantageous location, their strffight, finely bffilt
streets, and the fact that they possessed sidewalks.
This last trffit was especiaUy novel to those ac
customed to the risks from horses and vefficles
constantly run by foot-passengers in the then
ffithy, crowded, and crooked streets of Paris,
In tffis preference of the French for our cities
over those of Europe, Robm joms heartfly, for,
after reciting the unpleasant sights of dirty
European capitffis, he says : " AU those of America
rise prouffiy on smihng, healthy sites, bathed
with pure water, surrounded by fertile fields,
crossed by broad, strffight streets, ornamented
with clean, comfortable, and regffiar bffildings."
That the Americans shoffid consider the com
fort and cleaffiiness of foot-passengers by provid
ing sidewalks for them fills Beaujour with some
tffing akin to awe. "Most of the cities are
adorned with sidewalks for the conveffience of
[i37]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
foot passengers and are all carefuUy swept and
watered during the great heat." "And they even
have sidewalks on both sides of the street," writes
Bonnet, "and moreover their houses are marked
with numbers." "Even though the streets of
Charleston were not paved, they were provided
with brick sidewalks," says Michaux the younger.
Mandrffion becomes enthusiastic while prffising
the progress of order and decency in our com-
muffities as compared with those of Europe:
"Each city has commissioners for churches and
for schools, pflot-officers for ports, pohce to clean
and keep up the streets, commissioners and in
spectors for tobacco and other taxes, judges,
ffight- watchmen, etc., in a word, there reigns so
much of order, decency, security, and tranquil
ity in Boston, Pffiladelpffia, Savannah, Charles
ton, St. Augustine, that no one who visits them
but woffid prefer to dwell in those towns rather
than in the best situated ones of the Old World."
The effect produced upon the approacffing trav
eUer by certffin of our cities is recorded by Beau
jour: "Boston, New York, and Bffitimore, wffich
seem to rise from the bosom of the waters, slop
ing graduaUy up over uneven ground, offer an
agreeable prospect from a distance." We shaU
also find similar comments upon the fine site
enjoyed by Albany and by certffin other towns.
Although theatres at that time played an im-
[i38]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
portant part in the social hfe of Paris, the French
men have httle or notffing to say of theatres ffi
America. The most comprehensive comment is
one from Perrin du Lac: "Tffis theatre is large,
weU-buflt, and agreeably decorated witffin; but
comedy is here stifl in its iffiancy, as indeed are
aU the fine arts. The plays are afl Enghsh ones
— ^America has not as yet produced any. Al
though some of the actors have been to London
to develop their talent they have been unable to
tffiow off the pffiegmatic — the even character
from wffich they ahnost never escape. Ameri
cans prefer tragedy to comedy, and in the latter
seem to take no real pleasure except when it
portrays the opposite of their own characters —
extreme hghtness or excessive stupiffity or ridic-
ffious vffigarity. The noise of people coming
and going disturbs the spectators, and in spite of
notices to the contrary, one often suffers from
the continual smoking of cigars. The men keep
on their hats and remffin seated, but rarely being
gaUant enough to offer their seats to laffies."
Bayard also speaks of a theatre, and yet what he
saw coffid harffiy have been more primitive:
"Bath has two pubhc edffices, a comedy theatre,
and the bathing pavilion. The first of these is a
log-house, whose mterior accords with the sim
phcity of its externffi arcffitecture. We had for
our entertainment a wandering troupe of Irish
[139]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
comedians who had left their country to come here
in search of audiences less difficffit to amuse than
are the inhabitants of the cities, towns, and
viUages of Ireland; the reason for their emigra
tion gives a fair idea of these poor devils' abffity.
They were in turn emperors, peasants, or fools,
and besides were dymg of hunger. Assistance
was given them in spite of the severe remon
strances of the Methodists, who claimed that an
art so diabolical as the drama should not be
encouraged by Cffiistians. The pleasure excited
by the talent of these actors was poisoned by the
piracies of English playwrights, whose rapacious
hands had mutilated the masterpieces of Mohere.
I explained these larceffies to the visitors here at
the springs who thought all the plays were of
Enghsh origin. Recapitulating the different
kinds of recreation wffich one enjoyed at Bath,
I wifl say then that tragedy, comedy, opera
comique, and farce were played for us, that we
danced every week, and that tea-parties were
very frequent." St. Mery contributes but httle
to our store of iffiormation on tffis subject, al
though he reports that at. Norfolk, Virgiffia, a
town of five hundred houses and 3,000 people,
there was a theatre bffilt of brick, where seats
were sold at one dollar or seventy-five cents each.
In ffis article on Pffiladelpffia, dated August 22,
1798, he describes a theatre and says that women
[i4o]

The New Theatre, Philadelphia.
From an old print in the collection ot Charles A. Munn. Benches used instead of orchestra cha

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
go in the parterre as well as men, "but not women
of distinguished appearance. Women also go in
the upper gaUery and negroes are not admitted
elsewhere." He goes on to say that plays in
the Enghsh style are "very coarse and theh humor
is repulsive to French tastes." He also tefls of
two circuses in Pffiladelpffia. We learn from
Robm that there was a theatre at Annapolis, but
he does not favor us with anything beyond tffis
bare statement. Beaujour says: " Their national
dramas, Uke Bunker Hill and Major Andre, do
not give one a ffigh idea of their theatre."
Another interesting feature of city life into
wffich uffiortunately they ffiso give us but few
ghmpses is that of clubs. Chasteflux speaks of
one ffi Boston: "Tffis assembly was held every
Tuesday in rotation at the houses of the differ
ent members who composed it. On the day in
question it was at Mr. Russel's, a worthy mer
chant who entertffined us admirably. The rules
of tffis club are not burdensome — ^they offiy hmit
the number of courses served at supper, but two
of meat being ffilowed, for supper is not the im
portant meffi of the Americans. Vegetables,
pyes and especiffily good wine are not spared.
They assemble after teatime, play, converse,
read the pubhc papers, and sit down to table
between ffine and ten. The supper was as in
formal as ff no strangers had been present. Songs
[i4i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
were sung at table and a certffin Mr. Steward
sang some pretty good ones and that too with
rather a fine voice." Tffis was not the offiy
club in Boston, as we learn from Brissot, who
ffiso recounts a visit paid to the one just de
scribed — "there are severffi clubs in Boston.
Monsieur Chasteflux speaks of a private club
wffich was held once a week, to wffich he was
invited. I ffiso have been there several times
and have always been intensely pleased with the
cordiahty of its members to strangers, and the
iffiormation wffich they display in their conver
sation. Tffis club consists of only sixteen mem
bers. To join, one must be unanimously elected.
Each membelr can bring one stranger with ffim.
The meetings are held in turn at the members'
houses. These clubs no longer hold their meet
ings in taverns, which is a good tffing, — one
drinks less and spends less. Madeira is worth
four Boston sffilhngs a bottle at the merchants'
— at the tavern it costs six." Chasteflux also
makes brief mention of a club wffich he happened
upon at Sffiem: "Stopped at Good-hue's inn.
There was held in tffis inn a sort of merchants'
club. Two or tffiee of its members came to see
me." Although hardly a club. Bayard tefls of
an edifice wffich served as a centre for social
gatherings: "At Frederick-town ffimost aU the
houses are of brick, but the offiy pubhc bffilding
[ l42 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
worthy of notice is the Common House. The
children go there to enjoy the innocent pleasures
of youth. Tffis bffilding is square in form; it
has a smafl dome, and a peristyle supported by
Tuscan columns."
Let us set out with our French friends on a
"grand tour" of our cities, but, as already re
marked, we must be prepared for strange differ
ences between their order of importance then and
now. New York, instead of coming ffist, must
be postponed tffi toward the close of our itinerary
because its occupation by the Enghsh during the
Revolution prevented its being so wefl known to
the Frenchmen as our other towns. Wasffington
must come last of afl because, before 1792, ahnost
at the end of the period we are studying, it either
did not exist at all, or else offiy in the brain of
L'Effiant, the French engineer, who drew its
ground plan. We must begin with Pffiladelpffia
not offiy because of its relative importance in
size, but ffiso because it was so long the seat
of the Federffi Government. Next shafl come
Charleston, the great city of the South, due in
a measure to its being a conveffient port of ar
rival for westward-bound sffips safling by way
of the Azores to avoid the Gffif Stream and
the easterly trade-winds of the North Atlantic.
Then we shaU go north to Boston, the metrop
ohs of New England, and from thence progress
[i43]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
graduaUy south and west through Newport, Provi
dence, and Hartford to New Haven. Next shaU
come the interesting Dutch city (for so it seemed
to the French) of Albany, and after it we shaU
see Bffitimore, then known for its surprisingly
rapid growth. FmaUy, we shafl visit New York
and Wasffington.
And now for Pffiladelpffia, the capital city of
the young repubhc, and what a splendid first
impression we shaU have as we march in with
the French army on its way south to strike
the death-blow to Enghsh hopes at Yorktown!
Every street is gafly decorated, the City Fathers
come out to meet us, the air rings with welcome
to the gaUant friends from across the sea. The
eager hope of a glorious triumph soon to come is
felt and seen on every side. "Count Rocham
beau's army," says MandriUon, "hffited haff a
mile outside the city, and the soldiers, seizing the
opportuffity to spruce themselves up, in a twink
hng of an eye appeared as neat as for a review
in barracks. Tffis was a day of triumph for the
soldiers as wefl as for the spectators. The
streets of Pffiladelpffia overflowed with people,
and the fair sex were all attired in their most
beautffffi finery. The French troops marched aU
the way tffiough the city, preceded by martial
music, wffich added to the briffiancy of the pa
rade. There was no end to the adiffiration ex-
[i44]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
pressed for the neatness of the solffiers, as wefl as
for the proper pride of their bearing, wffilst they,
noticing the generous applause, naturafly appro
priated part of it to themselves. After pass
ing in review before Congress and the French
Miffister, the troops went into camp on a large
plffin by the SchuUuU." "Congress was in ses
sion as we marched tffiough the city," says Deux-
Ponts, "we pffid it the honors wffich the King
had ordered us to pay it. The Tffirteen Mem
bers took off their thirteen hats at each salute of
the flags and of the officers." "And in the eve
ffing wffile we are enjoying the banquet of 80
covers given by the French Minister, Chevaher
de la Luzerne, there is announced [says Blan
chard] the splenffid news that Admirffi de Grasse
has reached Chesapeake Bay with 28 sffips and
3,000 men. Outside the residence of the popffiar
ffiplomat the streets are crowded with people
shouting for joy."
"Next day [says Mandriflon] the Soisson Regi
ment went tffiough firing exercise. The scene was
embeffished by 20,000 persons and many elegant
eqffipages. The picturesque beauty of the locality,
the sereffity of the day, and the ghtter of arms afl
conspired to make it a briffiant spectacle."
It is no wonder that after so hearty a greeting
many ofthe French were disposed to record friendly
pictures of hfe in that fine old town, nor were any
[i45]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Europeans better equipped than they to appreciate
the comfort and refinement of the Ufe there en
joyed. Rayard comments with a note of surprise
upon the social attainments of certam of their
ladies, saying they woffid have been considered
remarkable even at the witty and brflhant French
court. ChasteUux frequently expresses ffis satis
faction with Pffiladelpffia society, congeffiffi to
even so accompUshed a courtier as he. Side by
side with tffis gayer hfe of the capitffi were to be
found the Quakers, the backbone of the colony.
Tffis contrast of two types of American citizen-
sffip aroused no jarring note. So far from blaming
the Quakers for the gravity of demeanor preva
lent in Pffiladelpffia, Raron Closen aUeges that
the seriousness of Pffiladelpffia women is due to
Congress holding its sessions there. The effect
of Congress upon polite society must have changed,
because no such indictment, so far as the author
knows, is nowadays brought agffinst the women
of Wasffington. Beaujour, on the other hand,
sffifts the blame back from Congress on to the
Quakers: "AU the streets look ffiike and so do
aU the houses; notffing coffid be gloomier than
tffis unfformity uffiess it be the sadness of the
inhabitants, most of whom are Quakers or Puri
tans." Chateaubriand, too, found the city "cold
and monotonous," and dishked the dead level of
the housetops unbroken by those "towers wffich
[i46]

View of Second Street, north from Market Street, with Christ Church,
Philadelphia, about 1804.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
crown European cities." Those who even to-day
woffid reproach Pffiladelphia for its "sabbath
cahn" should be reminded that the Due de
Lauzun found it so noisy that he was obhged to
take refuge at Newport,
The general neatness of the city particffiarly
pleased Perrin du Lac: "The cleaffiiness of the
house fronts adds to their beauty. Saturdays are
regffiarly devoted to wasffing them down from top
to bottom, and the doorsteps and side waUs are
sponged off as carefuUy as the interiors of the
dweffings." Although Segur has many flattering
tffings to say of the cleaffiiness of the city, the
simple elegance of its houses, and the easy circum
stances of its popffiation, he regrets that there are
no promenades or pubhc gardens, and so does de
Broglie. ChasteUux also complffins of tffis same
defect: "It is so lacking in aU wffich serves to
make hfe pleasant that there is not even a single
pubhc promenade." Perhaps we shaU not feel so
ffistressed ffi tffis regard as were Segur and Chas
teUux after we have read in St. Mery that "aU
American women are pretty, but those of Pffila
delpffia most so; thousands of them between four
teen and eighteen years old are to be foimd on a
winter's day on the north side of Market Street
from tffiee to five. At least four hundred of those
young persons are pretty enough to be foUowed
about if they took a walk in Paris." Although
[i47]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
TaUeyrand arrived in Pffiladelpffia fuU of disgust
for the novelties wffich generffily interest trav
eUers, he was very much taken with this city,
and admires its harbor crowded with vessels, the
wide, tree-bordered avenues, weU-buflt brick
houses, often with wffite marble fronts, the
"monumentffi exchange," the luxurious shops,
"as wefl stocked as those of Paris or London,"
but he agrees with La Rochefoucaffid that hving
there is too ffigh. It was in tffis town that on
May 16, 1794, TaUeyrand signed for its mayor,
Matthew Clarkson, the reqffired oath of fidehty
to the governments both of Pennsylvaffia and
the Uffited States, promising never to "commit
any act prejudiciffi to their hberty and mde-
pendence," a heavy draft on the future by a
man destined to be Mimster of Foreign Affairs
for Napoleon Bonaparte.
Most of the Frenchmen spent so much time in
Philadelphia, and made so many comments upon
its Iffe that we have ample materiffi from wffich to
prepare a synopsis of their conclusions. The prob
lem is not to find enough quotable passages, but to
select those sufficiently brief for our purpose. Let
us turn to Brissot : "Pffiladelpffia may be regarded
as the metropohs of the Uffited States; it is cer-
tffiffiy the handsomest and the best bffilt city. It
has more weffith, although less luxury. There are
to be found there more educated men, more with
[i48]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
poUtical and Uterary knowledge, and more poUt
ical and learned societies. There are many other
cities in America of greater age; although of
more recent date Pffiladelphia has not delayed to
surpass its older brothers." He gives as reasons
for the prosperity of Pffiladelpffia its location on
a navigable river, the country beffind it, and also
the chmate — "less cold than in the northern
states, less warm and suffocating than that of the
southern states, offers stiff further considerable
attraction. But I ffimly beUeve it is not offiy
to these physical advantages that Pennsylvaffia
owes its prosperity, — ^it is to the private manners
of its inhabitants and to the uffiversal tolerance
wffich has been known and practised there since
its beginffing." Mandrffion, de Broghe, du Bourg,
and ChasteUux comment on the sidewffiks every
where provided for the comfort of foot-passen
gers, "Uke London," says the latter. At the
same time that Brissot tells us that there were
no cafes in Pffiladelpffia, he gives us a peep be
neath the surface when he says that Phfladelpffia
is hke Europe in its loose hving.
Much has already been learned of Pffiladelpffia
Ufe from the chapter on Society, because it was in
that city and m Boston that the foreigners seemed
chiefly to have pursued their stuffies in that con
geffiffi field. So important was Phfladelpffia at
that time, not offiy to the entire confederation of
[i49]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
the coloffies, but especially to Pennsylvaffia, that
it absorbed ahnost aU the urban popffiation any
where about. Even Pittsburg, now so famous
both at home and abroad tffiough its steel trade,
is dismissed by Brissot with "it is a pity that
Pittsburg is not larger and more popffiated."
Those defects woffid seem to have been rectffied.
Even as late as 1796 Generffi CoUot found offiy
one hundred and fifty houses ffi Pittsburg. He
thought it strange that ffithough the Pittsburgers
dwelt in the rffidst of forests they preferred to
burn coffi, and he noted that it was cheaper to
send coffi to Bffitimore than to Pffiladelpffia:
"And yet twice as many waggons come here from
Phfladelpffia as from Bffitimore."
Charleston, South Carohna, wffi be our next
point, for it woffid be lackmg in respect to our
beloved Lafayette did we not promptly acknowl
edge the importance then enjoyed by that city
which gave ffim ffis first impressions of the land
he was so greatly to befriend. Let us see what
effect was produced upon him by the courteous
and luxurious folk of that metropohs of the South:
"The city of Charleston is one of the prettiest,
best bffilt, and most agreeably peopled that I
have ever seen," He prffises the women, the
fraternffi feehngs of the men, the lack of poor
people, and even the inn at wffich he stopped.
He complffins, however, of sitting five hours at a
[i5o]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
banquet given in ffis honor, "Tffis charming city
is worthy of its inhabitants and everything there
announces ease of chcumstance and refinement,"
The day after ffis arrivffi was fine. The novelty
of everytffing around him, ffis room, the bed with
its mosqffito-nettmg, the black servants who
came to serve him, the beauty and the foreign
appearance of the country, covered with rich
vegetation wffich he saw from the wmdows, aU
conspired to produce upon Lafayette a magicffi
effect, and to excite in him inexpressible sensa
tions: "All the people with whom I had wished
to make acquffintance here have overwhelmed
me with pohteness and attentions, nor is it the
pohteness of Europe. I have offiy prffise for the
reception wffich I have had here." Of the charm
and weffith of Charleston at that time, Crevecoeur
is, perhaps, the best ffistorian: "An European
upon ffis arrivffi must be greatly surprised when
he sees the elegance of their houses, their sumptu
ous furffiture as weU as the magffificence of their
tables — can he beheve himseff in a country whose
estabhshment is so recent! The inhabitants are
the gayest in America; it is known as the centre
of our beau monde, and is always fiUed with the
richest planters of the province who resort ffither in
quest of heffith and pleasure. The round of gaiety
and the expenditures upon these citizens' tables
are much superior to what you woffid imagine;
[i5i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
indeed, the growth of tffis town and province has
been astoffishingly rapid. It is a pity that the
narrowness of the neck on which it stands pre-
veiits it from expanding, which is the reason why
houses are so dear. Charlestown is in the North
what Lima is in the South; both eu^e capitals of
the richest provinces of their respective hemi
spheres. You may, therefore, conjecture that
both cities exhibit the aspect necessarily produced
by wealth, Carohna produces commodities more
vffiuable perhaps than gold, because they are
gained by greater industry; it shows also on our
northern stage a display of riches and luxury in
ferior indeed to Lima, but far superior to that
seen in our northern towns." Due de La Roche
foucauld remarks with surprise that afl Charles
ton men over ffity have white hair. Let us hope
this phenomenon did not resffit from the gay hfe
charged against them by Crevecoeur. Mandril
lon was as optimistic as to its future, as he was
pleased with its present: "It is Charles-town, the
capitffi of the colony, wffich is reafly the impor
tant market, and wffich wifl necessarily be more
and more so. It has strffight streets, most of
them wide, two thousand comfortable houses, and
some pubhc buildings wffich woffid pass for hand
some even in Europe."
Boston, cafled by Bourgeois "the best-bffilt
city of the New World," enjoyed as great im-
[l52]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
portance in the North as Charleston in the South.
It is easy to gather from the pages of Segur why
the French were so fond of the capitffi of Massa
chusetts: "Boston, wffich has now for a long
time flourished because of its commerce, appears
like the ancestor of the other American cities, and
at the time that I was there was exactly hke some
old and large city in England. Democracy has
in no wise baffished luxury from it. In no part
of the Uffited States does one see such ease of
circumstances, or more agreeable society. Europe
offers for our admiration no prettier or more
elegant, better bred or more tffiented women than
those of Boston, like Mrs. Jarvis, Smith, Tudor,
Morton." Prince de Broghe also gives a Ust of
the Boston ladies who especiaUy met with ffis
approvffi, includmg Mrs. Jervis (with a jealous
husband!), Mrs. Smith whose house was one of
the most agreeable in town, Mrs. Tudor the most
greatly admired of aU, Mrs. Temple, Mrs. Morton,
Mrs. de Aloys, and Miss PoUy Seiff, aU of them
"very pretty!" As a proof of the luxury dis
played in this city possessing "a large number
of weU-to-do folk, and a few very rich merchants,"
he cites their fine wines, napkins on the table,
everybody drinking out of a glass of ffis own, and
most surprising of all— your plate changed when
ever you wished! The Boston women, says he,
"are carefuUy dressed, but without taste, and do
[i53]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
riot understand how to arrange their hair. Some
have a knowledge of music and play severffi in
struments agreeably; they sing rather monoto
nously — a mixture of Enghsh and ItaUan methods
wffich is very sweet when the voice is a pretty
one." Mandriflon finds the city qffite Uke Lon
don: "There is no town in America wffich is so
advantageously situated for commerce as Boston.
It had, before the troubles, thirty-five or forty
thousand inhabitants of different sects. Th^ ac
commodation, the furffiture, clotffing, food, con
versation, manners, and customs resemble so
strongly those of London that it was difficffit to
find there anytffing different to that wffich ffi
ways attracts an excessive popffiation of great
capitals." Beaujour agrees that "theh pubhc
bffildmgs either surpass or at least equal the
magffificence of those ffi Europe." The frank
Blanchard comments that "there are ffiso some
poor quarters wffich give Boston a less modern
appearance than Pffiladelpffia and other Ameri
can cities." Deux-Ponts especiaUy Uked Boston,
"wffich in no wise resembles the other American
cities whose plans were prepared with foresight."
Abbe Robm has much to say of tffis metropohs
of New England. It is from ffim we learn that
there "the rich cover their floors with wooUen
or woven carpets, the others with fine sand."
Cromot du Bourg also goes into some interestmg
[i54]

Boston — as shown in an early print.
From the collection of Charles A. JVIunn.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
detafls: "The city of Boston is bffilt as are most
Enghsh cities, — very smaU houses of brick or
wood, extremely clean inside. The inhabitants
hve absolutely m Enghsh fasffion. They appear
a worthy folk, and affable. I have been very
weU received durmg the few visits I made. They
take a great deffi of tea in the morffing. Dinner,
wffich is generaUy at two o'clock, is composed of
a great quantity of meat. They eat very httle
bread. About five o'clock they take more tea,
some wme, madeira, punch, and tffis ceremony
lasts untfl ten o'clock. Then they sit down at
table and have a supper wffich is less consider
able than dinner. At each meal they take off
the cloth for dessert and bring on frffit. Most of
their time is devoted to the table. . . . During
the morffing of May 7th, I saw as much of the
town as was possible. It is very large and still
shows that before the War it must have been a
dehghtfffi place to stay. It is in the prettiest
position possible, and has a superb port.". "One
would tffink himseff in a fine European city,"
says Bourgeois; "the cafes, newspapers, prome
nades, carriages, — the continuous arriving of an
infiffite number of vessels from aU parts of the
world, aU proclaim tffis to be an important cap
ital and the distributing pomt of a widely differ
entiated commerce."
Brissot pitches ffis remarks upon Boston in so
[i55]

FRENCH MEMORIES
lofty a key that one would think he was about
to deliver an address upon its historic Common:
"How I loved to wander in that long street whose
simple wooden houses border the magffificent
canal of Boston, in the midst of those shops wffich
offered me all the products of the continent which
I had quitted. How I enjoyed the activity of
the merchants, the artisans, and the sailors! It
was not at aU that uncomfortable and noisy bustle
of Paris, not at aU that uneasy, busy, eager-for-
enjoyment air which characterizes my compa
triots, not at aU the profoundly bored demeanor
of the Enghsh — ^it was the simple, honest bearing,
fffil of digffity, of men who reaUzed their hberty,
who saw offiy brothers and equals ffi aU men.
Everytffing in that street bore the character of
a city StiU in its cradle, but wffich even in its
cradle enjoyed great prosperity. Boston is hardly
reborn from the horrors of war, emd yet its com
merce is flourishing; it has not yet hved out a
century, and yet witffin its boundaries it contffins
the arts, manufactures, products, sciences, and a
crowd of curious and interesting sights." He de
scribes certffin local customs of Boston and says
that there Presbyterianism has moderated its
fierceness.

[i56]

CHAPTER VII
CITY LIFE (Continued)
Newport, Providence, Hartford, New Haven,
Albany, Baltimore, New York, New
Orleans, and Washington
The word Newport has to-day a certffin eso
teric meaning, and as a summer home of "polite
society " is ffitogether uffique. Indeed, it seems but
naturffi that tffis shoffid have been the place for
the French to land and spend their ffist winter,
and that the officers, many of them fresh from the
court of Loffis XVI, shoffid have enjoyed their
stay there. But what strikes us as most un
natural is their account of the bhght that feU
upon Newport soon after the Revolution. Of
the halcyon days when that city played host to
the French army, Segur gives us one of ffis many
pleasant pictures: "It was easy for us when we
saw Newport to imagine the regrets of the French
army upon leavffig tffis charmmg city where they
made so long a stay. Other parts of America
were as yet pretty offiy in anticipation, but the
prosperity of Rhode Island was already complete
— ^industry, agricffiture, the activity of commerce
[157]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
left notffing to be desired. The city of Newport,
weU bffilt, with strffight streets, contffined a
numerous popffiation whose easy circumstances
proclaimed their happmess. Charming meetings
took place there between enhghtened men of dis
tinction and pretty women whose talents embel
lished their charms. The names and the graces
of Miss Champlain, the two Misses Hunter, and
severffi others have remamed graven upon the
memory of aU the French officers," Prince de
BrogUe makes a deUghtful comparison between
the various charming daughters of Newport, set
ting off Miss Champlffin of the beautiful eyes
against the Misses Hunter, "her rivals m beauty
and reputation," but preferring the former —
"no matter what Fersen says about it," thus
showing that the question was seriously debated
by the French officers. But Pofly Leyton, the
Quakeress, "a masterpiece of nature," enchanted
them aU by her simple graces, — "every time I
tffink of her," says de Broglie, " I decide to write
a huge volume against the dress, artfficial airs and
coquetry of certffin ladies whom fasffion admires,"
These and other fair ones, like Miss Spindley and
Miss Sylven seemed so to regret the approaching
departure of the French army, that it was de
cided to give them a ball. AU the preparations
were placed in the hands of Desoteux Cormatin,
who later fought for the Vendeans and signed
[i58]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
their peace agreement with the republic (1795),
and he succeeded in assembhng twenty charming
dames and damsels, and the dance and accom
panying supper "passed off very agreeably." "I
left Newport with regret," says the Due de Lau
zun, "for I had such an agreeable circle there."
The change for the worse set in soon after the
war, and so rapid was it that the Newport seen
by Brissot in 1788 is unrecogffizable as the prede
cessor of the Newport of to-day: "The State of
Rhode Island is regarded as possessing the best
harbors in the Uffited States, in fact Newport
seems destined by nature to be a considerable
port. The harbor is good and fit for the largest
vessels. Tffis town played a considerable role in
the last war. It was then flourisffing. The suc
cessive sojourns of the American, Enghsh and
French ariffies left a good deffi of money there.
AU has changed since the peace. The sohtude
wffich reigns there, interrupted offiy by groups of
iffiers passing the entire day with folded arms at
the street corners, the dilapidation of most of the
houses, the miserable suppUes of the shops wffich
display notffing but coarse stuffs, packages of
matches, baskets of bread, or other cheap mer
chandise; the grass growing in the Court House
square; the badly paved and muddy streets; the
rags hung up at the windows, or covering the
heads of women, the lank cffildren, or the pffie,
[i59]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
cadaverous men whose sunken eyes and sffifty
look make the observer uncomfortable; aU an
nounce misery, the reign of bad faith, and the
effects of bad government. I visited the market
place. Heavens, how different from those of
Boston and Phfladelpffia ! Some mediocre cuts
of meat awffited purchasers who never came. I
enquired the reason of an American who was
wefl iffiormed on the locffi situation. He told
me that most of the inhabitants hved on fiish
wffich they caught themselves, on potatoes, /and
other vegetables wffich they rffise m their own
gardens — ^few ate meat. The farmers no longer
send beef or mutton to its markets, Newport
seemed to me a tomb where hvmg skeletons quar
reUed over a few herbs. It seemed a city in
wffich pestilence and fire had destroyed both the
inhabitants and their houses." By the time La
Rochefoucauld arrived, its worst days were over,
and better ones already in sight: "Before the
Revolutionary War there were ten thousand in
habitants at Newport wffile Providence had offiy
one thousand; to-day Newport is reduced to five
thousand and Providence has six or seven thou
sand. The cause of tffis change is the number
of rich people wffich Newport lost by emigration.
The famihes who sympatffized with the Revolu
tion left the city when the Enghsh were in pos
session of it, and are established at Providence,
[i6o]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
takmg afl theh goods and chattels there; and
those who were attached to the Enghsh cause
foUowed the Enghsh troops when they were
forced to evacuate the Island. The pohtical
troubles wffich for a long time disturbed Rhode
Island have prolonged and corffirmed tffis condi
tion of distress at Newport, and it is offiy ffi the
last two or three years that its commerce has
begun to pick up a bit. The houses in Newport
are ahnost all smaU and ugly. They are of wood,
unpffinted. In every respect tffis town has aU
the marks of decadence. The harbor is the
offiy tffing wffich shows any sign of weffith." It
is not often that the Frenchmen, ever prone to
make preffictions concerffing America and tffings
American, guessed so correctly as did La Roche
foucaffid when he said: "Newport seems destined
from its advantages to be a navy-yard of the
United States, when she has a navy."
ChasteUux, speaking of the days when the
French army arrived at Newport, and that city
was enjoying a prosperity uffiortunately soon to
be bhghted, says of its rivffi: "The city of Provi
dence is bffilt on the bank of a river hardly six
mfles in length. It has offiy one street but tffis
is very long. The Fauxbourg, wffich is pretty
considerable, is on the other side of the river.
Tffis city is pretty. The houses are not large but
wefl bffilt and very comfortable inside." When
[i6i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Segur visited it at the close of the war, he found
that "Providence, which ought at present to be
a great and populous city, coffid then already
pass for a pretty httle town. It contffined offiy
three thousand inhabitants, but aU I tffink en
joyed comfortable circumstances resffiting from
constant work and active mdustry." Prince de
Broghe gives a pretty picture of Ufe in Providence,
wffile the French army was in quarters there
after Yorktown. "Generffi Rochambeau," says
he, "to distract ffis army, and please the ladies,"
gave severffi baUs in "the fine large pubhc hall
destined for that purpose." At the first one of
these entertffinments de Broghe remarked the
Misses Bown, sisters of the "Govemor of the
town," whom he does not describe because he
"did not wish to turn aU the men's heads, and
make aU the women jealous," after wffich saga
cious pffiase he proceeds nevertheless to paint
flattering portrffits of them both. But by the
time Brissot had reached America the change had
come; "The silence wffich reigns on Sunday in
ffil American cities reigned ffiso on Monday in
Providence, Everytffing proclffimed the dechne
of business." After tffis depression tffings looked
up and we are glad to read in La Rochefoucauld of
the great improvement wffich a Uttle later had
begun in this leading city of Rhode Island: "The
surroundings of Providence are more agreeable
[162]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
than those of Newport and give a great idea of
the place. The town occupies both banks of the
river. It has two parts connected by a weU-
bffilt bridge. Its large, weU-bffilt, well-painted
houses are very numerous. The streets are
paved. Tffis town is constantly growing and the
hopes of a more considerable growth are so great
that streets and ground plans of houses yet to be
bffilt are already Iffid out weU up the ffiUside.
Commerce, as I have said, is much more consid
erable in Providence than Newport — ^four or five
times more." He regrets that Providence as wefl
as Newport engages in the odious slave-trade.
Hartford fffiled, for some reason or another, to
make a favorable impression upon the French
men who visited it. Brissot was the one who
had the best tffings to say, although his opening
sentence arouses one's suspicion as to the value
of ffis testimony: "I passed through Hartford
twice, both times at night, so that I cannot give
an exact description of it. The town appeared to
me a considerable one. It is a rurffi city for most
of the inhabitants are farmers. Everybody there
is well-to-do. It is regarded as one of the most
agreeable ffi Connecticut for its society." He be
comes more enthusiastic as soon as he gets out
side the city limits: "The country round 6d)out
Hartford is very weU cultivated, and there are
elegant houses, large fields covered with herds of
[ i63 ]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
cattle, which are enormously fat and supply the
markets of New York and even Pffiladelpffia etc.,
etc. In describing the outskirts of Hartford we
are at the same time picturing aU of Connecticut,
and especially the surroundings of Middletown
and of New Haven." From the summary way
in wffich ChasteUux disposes of this capital of
Connecticut one would tffink that the pet of
American society must have received some severe
rebuff there: "The city of Hartford is not worth
stopping for, either when you are traveffing
through it or when you speak of it. It consists
of one long and very handsome street, paraUel to
the river. It is rather wide and the houses are
not far apart. Besides, it has many annexes.
Everytffing is Hartford for six leagues round, but
East Hartford and West Hartford are separate
toAmns, and are composed of houses scattered
through the country."
New Haven honored itseff by electing to citi
zenship on September 23, 1784, certain of the
French visitors, and among others, the Marquis
of Condorcet, wffich explains ffis pseudonym, "A
citizen of New Heaven" [sic], affixed to ffis four
letters which appear at the end of Mazzei's book
upon America. It is no wonder the distinguished
marqffis fffily appreciated tffis civic compliment,
coming as it ffid from the first city to be organ
ized in New England, and whose first mayor,
[i64]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Roger Sherman, had served with Jefferson on the
committee to draft the Declaration of Inde
pendence. "There was probably no place ffi the
country from 1786 to 1788 [says Governor Bffid-
win in ffis erudite brochure on these letters of
Condorcet] of the size of New Haven, which
coffid have furffished so many men capable of
writing effectively on topics of constitutional gov
ernment, and of treating them from so many
points of view." Brissot was also elected to
honorary citizenship, and, therefore, it is no sur
prise to find that tffis generaUy serious gentleman
fairly blossoms out when he treats of New Haven
and assumes a style more befitting ChasteUux than
the future leader of the Girondins: "New Haven
yields not at all to Weatherfields in the beauty of
its fair sex. At the baUs which take place there
durmg the winter it is not unusual, despite Puri
tan austerity, to witness a hundred charming
girls attired in those briffiant colors seen so sel
dom as you go toward the middle states, and that,
too, dressed with simple elegance." Notwith-
standmg Brissot's ffight of enthusiasm, we learn
from La Rochefoucauld that "the fortunes of the
inhabitants are modest. Most of them have
farms in the neighborhood from wffich they draw
their provisions; these smaU estates, each ca
pable of supplying the needs of a family, deprive
market-gardeners of a chance of selling vegetables
[i65]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
in New Haven, so they eu-e sent to New York.
Two rich merchants last year erected at a large
cost a cotton factory two miles from the town."
He goes on to describe the place as foUows: "The
city of New Haven occupies a large area, for the
houses are generffily set weU apart. Cultivated
fields are to be seen in the middle of the town.
All the streets are straight and cut each other at
right angles. The houses, mostly of wood, are
smaU and pretty. The streets are planted with
trees. Two large edffices in brick belonging to
the coUege, a fine church, and a State House adorn
the principal square, in the midst of wffich, how
ever, there also appears the gloomy spectacle of
a cemetery. The generffi appearance of the town
is agreeable. It seems to be so located that it
ought to be heffithy, and they say that the mor
tality is lower than in any other city of the Uffited
States," Mffiidrillon gives as a reason for its
commercial importance that "the port and city
of New Haven are the generffi rendez-vous of the
colony, and it is there that afl their business is
transacted. The city is situated on the inden
tation of a bay leading off the stretch of water
separating Long Island from the mffinland. It
was formerly the capital of a colony of the same
name, but was re-uffited to Connecticut in 1664
by a charter of Charles II. The instruction of
youth is carefuUy looked after there. To this
[i66]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
effect they have founded a coUege wffich is very
weU attended. It is called Yare [ !] HaU."
It is well to begin our account of Albany by
reciting the favorable impression it made upon
Chasteflux when he first approached it, because
most of the other French comments are not so
kindly, due possibly to French inabihty to appre
ciate the phlegmatic Dutch temperament: "The
vaUey tffiough wffich this river [Hudson] runs,
and Albany, bffilt in an ampffitheatre on its west
ern bank, woffid have presented a most agreeable
prospect if snow had not somewhat disfigured it,
A handsome house, built haff-way up opposite the
ferry, attracted one's attention, and seemed to
invite strangers to stop at Generffi Schuyler's,
who was both its owner and arcffitect," But alas !
tffis favorable first impression was rudely read
justed by his annoyance at the celebration of
New Year's Eve in that otherwise usually stffid
and respectable city. Nevertheless, he did not
fafl to bear witness to the digffity and poise wffich
apparently attended their form of inebriety, for
he reports that next morffing he met a number
of drunken folk about the streets who astoffished
him by walking without sUppmg on the icy side
walks, whilst he, cold sober, had the greatest ffiffi-
culty in staying on ffis legs. La Rochefoucauld
devotes much more attention to tffis city than
any of ffis compatriots, as indeed but few of them
[167]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
visited it: "There are in Albany six thousand in
habitants, of wffich two thousand aie slaves; the
laws of New York authorize slavery, AU the old
houses are bffilt in the Dutch fasffion. The front
wall rises by a series of steps in a pyramid, ter
minated either by a picturesque chimney or by
some iron figures, etc. All the houses built in
the last ten years are brick, tall and large, in the
Enghsh style. The Council is composed at pres
ent of young men who aUege that they are busy
embelUsffing the town and making it comfort
able, but in this city there is an apathy, an igno
rance, and antiqffity of ideas wffich does not per
mit the behef that these efforts wiU be worth
considering for a long time. Young men there,
I beheve, are born old ! There are five churches
in Albany, one the Dutch Lutheran, a bffilding of
very Gotffic and rather curious construction, and
one each of the Episcopahans, Presbyterians,
German Calviffists, and Methodists, Hospitahty
to strangers does not seem to be the dominating
quality of the citizens of Albany. The few that
we have seen are dffil, heavy, hve at home with a
wffe sometimes pretty, often awkward, to whom
they do not say thirty words a day ffithough they
call her 'my dear.' There are doubtless excep
tions both in the charms of the ladies and in the
easy and confiding manner of their husbands with
them, but they are said to be rare. The ancient
[ i68 ] ,

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
forms, the old, circumspect and timidly avari
cious customs of the early Dutch are rehgiously
preserved in Albany." He says they are so apa
thetic that Connecticut is getting the new West
Indies trade away from them, and two important
cities buflt in their immeffiate neighborhood at New
City and Troy, also, by superior enterprise, are
cuttmg mto their commerce. "Albany is one of
the most ancient estabhshments of North America.
Forty-five sffips belonging to its inhabitants and
forty-five others to New York or other places ffiong
the river supply the commerce of Albany, which is
steady but does not seem lucrative,"
Most of the French travellers passed tffiough
Baltimore at one time or another, and aU agreed
m speaking of its rapid growth and active, bus
tling appearance. Beaujour says that it is one
of those American cities whose waUs were raised
as if by enchantment through foreign trade, and
includes it in ffis hst of three (with Boston and
Pffiladelpffia) whose people do not die content
uffiess they have changed their profession tffiee
or four times durmg their lives, Severffi years
before ffis visit there came to it, in 1781, Abbe
Robin, who observes "Raltunore tffirty years ago
was offiy a Uttle village, but to-day it is a large
and wealthy city. Its form is that of a crescent.
The northem part seems to rise from the bosom
of the waters and to forecast its future greatness.
[169]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Lord Balthnore, an Irish CathoUc, estabhshed
two hundred Cathohcs m Maryland and gave ffis
name to tffis city," "It is of considerable size,"
remarked du Bourg, "and weU-buflt — ^it even has
sidewalks!" From Brissot, who went there in
1788, we learn: "Baltimore has about two thou
sand houses and fourteen thousand inhabitants.
It is very irregularly bffilt and on land shghtly
rffised above the Patabsco, There is stagnant
water in the city, few of the streets are paved,
and are frightfully muddy after a rain. All tffis
would seem to prove the ffir unheffithy, neverthe
less, ask the inhabitants and they wifl tell you
that it is not, Baltimore was only a village be
fore the war," In 1791 Chateaubriand found
Baltimore "a pretty city, very clean and very
busthng," although ffis stay there was but a
brief one, offiy long enough to pay the captffin of
ffis ship for bringing him from Europe, and to
give ffim "a farewefl dinner m an exceflent tavem
near the harbor," He then straightway engaged
a seat ffi the stage wffich ran tri-weekly to Pffila
delpffia, and wffich started for that city at the
convenient hour of four the next mornmg! St,
Mery, who landed at Norfolk, Virgiffia, and
passed through Baltimore in May, 1794, on ffis
way to Pffiladelphia, makes sundry significant
comments: "Baltimore is growing rapidly and
is elegantly constructed with brick houses mostly
[170]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
two Stories high, fme sidewalks in front of them,
some of wffich are ten feet wide (but entrances
to cellars take up half); straight, well-paved
streets; street lamps here, as is generaUy cus
tomary in America; popffiation ten thousand, of
wffich ten per cent are negroes; twelve churches
of ten sects and one theatre. The hotels lend
you slippers so that your boots or shoes will be
found clean outside the door m the morffing,"
Of aU the cities in our country, none have
changed so much as New York since it was vis
ited by the Frenchmen after the Enghsh had
evacuated it. As it had been in the hands of
the latter during the war, the French who came
over to fight did not have a fair opportuffity to
compare it with our other cities, but those who
came a few years later found it quite different
from its sisters. Miffort found New Yorkers "very
affable and hospitable. They receive strangers
kmdly." Pontgibaud says: "My surprise equalled
my curiosity when I entered New York. I ad
mired — from witffin, tffis time — tffis handsome
city whiqh had then but twenty-five thousand
inhabitants, and the beautiful neighboring island
cffiled Long Island. I was delighted with all I
saw — the elegance and cleanliness of the houses
added to the beauties of virgin nature." Chateau
briand describes New York as "a gay, populous,
and commerciffi city" — tffis was in 1791. The
[171]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
captious Beaujour actually unbends enough to
prffise it: "New York has a more smiUng ap
pearance than Phfladelpffia, and more closely re
sembles an European city. It is buflt at the
mouth of the Hudson on a tongue of land wffich
stretches between the river and Long Island Sound
and wffich has been detached by a cutting from
the maiffiand. The esplanade called 'The Bat
tery,' located at the sharp angle formed by the
meeting of the Hudson and the sea, affords one
of the most beautiful views in the world." Its
deUghtful situation particularly impressed Boimet,
who concluded that "a sojourn in New York is
good for the health."
Brissot gives us an account of how the city's busi
ness reverses, sustained during and after the Revo
lutionary War, were being recouped: "Men who
doubt the proffigious effect of hberty upon man
and ffis industry should go to America, — of what
miracles wiU they be witnesses ! Whfle ahnost
everywhere in Europe towns and cities are faffing
into rffins, here new bffildings are going up on
aU sides. New York has been partly consumed
by fire since the last war, but the traces of tffis
terrible conflagration are fast disappearmg. The
activity wffich reigns everywhere proclaims that
prosperity has already begun. Everywhere they
are broadeffing and extending the streets." He
describes new bffildings that are going up, and
[ 172]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
how they reclffimed a two-hundred-foot strip of
land along the North River. "I see notffing but
workmen marking out lots, building, pavmg,
constructing pubhc works. They are erecting a
bffilffing for Congress and repairing a hospital.
The ffigh cost of living is generally on the increase
in New York since the war." He gives legal fees,
doctors' fees, the cost of board and lodging, and
adds that there are no cafes in New York. Much
as he prefers Pffiladelphia, he caimot help no
ticing that bffilding in that city is going on less
slowly than in New York.
MandriUon does not agree that New York was a
busthng place — ^he even called us lazy! "New
York, an important town, known to-day (as is the
entire colony) under the name of New York, has
lost much of its importance and prosperity since
the last Revolution. Although the streets are ir
regular, the city does not for that reason present a
less interesting appearance, because of the gen
eral cleanhness wffich reigns there. The houses,
built of brick and roofed with tiles, are more
comfortable than elegant. Everyone is well-to-
do, food is abundant, of exceUent quaUty and
cheap. The poorest class of people have an as
sured support from the oyster-fisheries, wffich
employ two hundred boats. It is perhaps to tffis
generffi ease of circumstances that is due the in
difference and laziness for wffich its inhabitants
[173]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
are reproached, and wffich has had so marked an
influence upon the customs and society of that
city." To accuse New Yorkers of lazmess is
surely bad enough, but Bourgeois goes further by
aUegmg that "they take part in contraband trade
with marvellous skifl" — shades of the custom
house, that such a tffing should have been !
When speaking of Phfladelpffia we mentioned
the absence there of pubhc promenades criti
cised by severffi writers. Perrin du Lac found two
such promenades m New York, but, says he,
"they are httle used. Promenading does not
seem to be regarded as a relaxation by these
hardworking people. ... As for the women,
they prefer the principal street, with its roomy
sidewalks shaded by fine trees, where they can
enjoy the pleasure of lookmg at the elegant shops
wffich Une it on both sides, from one end to the
other of its entire length." He is struck by the
fact that the New York "streets are wide and
have sidewalks. The streets are clean, and reg
ffiarly hghted by ffight."
Crevecoeur, by reason of ffis long residence in
New York as French Consul, is perhaps the best
quahfied of aU to describe what he saw going on
about him: "The city of New York is handsome
although irregffiar. Tffis irregffiarity proceeds
from the nature of the soil, from the steepness of
the peffinsula on wffich the earher houses are
[174]

Saint John de Crevecoeur, 1786.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
bffilt, as well as from the necessity of continually
makmg artificial ground to increase the extent of
the city and procure for its trade the needful
warehouses and quays. The inhabitants derive
tffis taste for bffilding along the water from the
early Dutch settlers, and the admirable skill with
wffich they accomplish it from their own wisdom.
There is not, I beheve, smother city on this con
tinent where the art of laying the foundations of
quays and of constructing them has been pushed
further. I have seen one buflt forty feet into the
water. Tffis was done with trunks of pine trees
fastened together, which they drive in with rocks,
and then cover the surface with earth. Beaver
Street, wffich to-day is qffite a ways from the
water, was named thus because formerly it was
a smafl bay in wffich these affimffis had erected
a dam. I have conversed with old inhabi
tants who told me that they had seen the sea
mount up to the very neighborhood of the City
HaU. Certain streets have sidewalks on both
sides paved with slabs of rock and adorned with
plane-trees, whose shade in summer is equally
pleasant for the passersby and for the houses.
Here may be seen a uffion of Dutch neatness
with English taste and architecture. The houses
are located, fiffished, and pffinted with the great
est care. Here the merchants are intelligent,
able, and rich, and the artisans very skilful, es-
[175]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
peciaUy the carpenters, cabinet-makers, and join
ers. Stone being rare, nearly the whole city is
built of brick. Let those who, hke myself, have
experienced the remarkable hospitahty of New
Yorkers, praise it as it deserves. New York being
the favorite port for English packet-boats, tffis
city is necessarily the first that European strangers
enter. The reception which they receive here
suffices to give them a high idea of American
generosity, as well as of the simple and corffial
friendhness wffich they may expect in the other
cities of tffis continent. The streets are fre
quently cleaned and are hghted on dark ffights.
The city contffins thirty thousand inhabitants
and twenty churches belonging to different sects.
It is ffiso a pleasure to see a coUege, beautifuUy
built; it is furffished with an exceflent hbrary
and a great number of costly mathematical m-
struments." The most recent and striking improvement in
New York has been the wideffing of our great Fifth
Avenue, effected by removing the encroachments
of front door-steps, etc. Of how ancient a growth
were these encroachments appears from the fact
that certain of their predecessors were noted by
St. Mery over a century ago: "In New York two
benches parffilel to each other, stretch out before
each front door," and he also notes that cellar doors
were ffilowed to take up part of the sidewalks. In
[176]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
respect to those as weU as to certain other muffi-
cipal annoyances, we have been a long-suffering
people, but "all's weU that ends weU" !
St. Mery teUs us that "Brooklyn has about a
hundred houses," so it would be rather in an
article on country Iffe than ffi tffis chapter that
one shoffid depict those early beginnings of the
Brooklyn that to-day boasts nearly two miUion in
habitants. Another great change ffi the neigh
borhood of New York is revealed by Bourgeois's
account of New Rochelle, in those early days
"inhabited offiy by Frenchmen, who speak the
purest French in the Uffited States, and indeed
but httle else; cffildren are sent there to learn it,
and everybody there speaks it, even the negroes."
New Orleans came under our flag so soon after
the conclusion of the quarter century we have
been studying that reference to that charming
city is hardly out of place here, although Perrin
du Lac thought it "does not merit favorable
mention." Baudry des Lozieres (whose scope of
stuffies in the coloffiffi field knew no bound, ranging
from botany and medicine to recording savage
dialects, or effiogizing coloffiffi officials) was greatly
taken with the city of New Orleans. "It lies,"
says he, "in the midst of dehcious gardens," and
"since the Spaniards have rebffilt the city in
brick, it has much in common with Phfladelpffia."
Bourgeois reports that "many of the houses are
[177]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
buflt of brick, two stories ffigh, placed in a line,
and presenting a pleasmg prospect. Others are
only of wood, adorned with a bfficony, which
makes them agreeable to look upon. The streets
are wide and strffight as a string." He also no
ticed the number of fine gardens and "the superb
promenade wffich runs ffiong the top of the
levee." General CoUot admired New Orleans,
and said of St. Louis ("wffich from a military
standpoint has one of the best situations on the
Mississippi River") that "it wifl be to New
Orleans what Albany is to New York city." It
was Berquin-DuvaUon who wrote at the greatest
length of New Orleans. He attributes to Missis
sippi River water such marvellous powers of fecun
dity as to make one wonder that the states ad
joining that stream are not vastly over-popffiated.
He would have us believe that its effect upon the
gentler sex of New Orleans was such that it was
not unusual to see there a mother, her daughter,
and her grand-daughter afl about to have cffildren
at the same time !
And now to conclude our long excursion from
city to city by orie to Washington, the beautifffi
capitffi of our country, honored with the most
precious name that our ffistory can boast. Al
though Blanchard, after visiting Mount Vernon,
stopped at Georgetown, and must have passed
over the site where Washington now stands, there
[178]

The United States Capitol at Washington.
FroiQ the collection of Charles A. Munn.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
was as yet nothing for him to see but fields and
roffing country. Minister Ternant in October,
1791, "was unwiffing to qffit Georgetown without
goffig to see the site selected for the federffi city;
the situation seemed to me interesting in every
respect." He beheved that the federal treasury
woffid be enriched by "thirty million livres tour-
nois" from the sale of building lots there. He
reports President Wasffington to be greatly in
terested in the city named after ffim, and that
everybody hoped he would hve long enough to
see Congress transferred thither. The Marqffise
de la Tour du Pin, in 1794, refers casuffily to "the
new city of Wasffington, which they are beginffing
to build." We have to wffit untfl 1810 to hear
anytffing defiffite, and even then Beaujour fixes
the popffiation at offiy 6,000: "The city of Wash
ington, the present site of the Federffi Govern
ment, has been laid out on a very handsome and
uffiform plan. Its situation between Maryland
and Virgiffia, near the Chesapeake, wffich is the
heart of the United States, and on elevated land
wffither the Potomac brings the largest vessels,
has been well chosen. The town has an area of
4,124 acres, of which 712 are reserved for avenues
and 3,412 for sites for houses, but with the ex
ception of some bffildings destined for the gov
ernment (the principal one of wffich, where Con
gress sits, bears the pompous name of 'Capitol'),
[179]

FRENCH MEMORIES
none have yet been built, and it appears that the
very grandeur of the plan wifl either prevent or
at least retard its execution, because this country
is not yet rich enough to populate so large a site.
Wasffington to-day resembles those Russian cities
marked out in the deserts of Tartary, within
wffich one sees notffing but empty fields and
isolated houses."

[i8o]

CHAPTER VIII
COUNTRY LIFE
To understand the Uffited States of to-day, a
foreigner must study our cities, because they
contain forty-seven per cent of our entire popffia
tion. During revolutionary days they contained
only ten per cent, accorffing to Bonnet, Brissot,
and Bayard, who at that time estimated the pro
portion of our country residents as ffigh as ffine-
tenths of the whole. It was but naturffi that tffis
distribution of our popffiation should result, as
Bonnet noticed, in "tffis people havffig six land
owners for every one lacking it, instead of being
made up as is the French nation ahnost entirely
of tenants." Radical indeed is tffis change in our
drift-tendencies of population effected by less
than a century and a half of nationffi existence !
From the foregoing it is obvious that to Understand
the Americans of those early days we must go out
mto the country and see how life there affected
the customs of our forebears. First and foremost,
ff Rochambeau is to be beheved, it made for pa
triotism more than did residence in crowded cen
tres; for he was qffick to notice that few country
[i8i]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
folk were Tories, wffile "one ought not to be sur
prised that merchants or other dweUers m the
ports" showed less zeffi for the Revolution than
the farmers. It was, therefore, decidedly appro
priate that George Wasffington, representing as
he did not only that nine-tenths majority, but
ffiso its highest patriotism, shoffid have been the
first President of our repubhc. And where better
than at the home of that distmgmshed gentleman-
farmer, his retreat from the responsibihties of
statesmanship, can we begin our investigation of
the country hfe of ffis time ? Let us visit it with
our friend Blanchard, commissary in Rocham
beau's army on its march north after the glorious
victory at Yorktown. Another of our party shffil
be Custine, an officer who had been appointed
heutenant at the tender age of nine, and whose
brilliant career was soon to be ended by the guil
lotine (August 28, 1793) — an episode in an hys
teria of "crimes committed in the name of
liberty." Custine kept a diary during ffis stay in
America, but uffiortunately it has never been
found. But let us turn to Blanchard's narrative.
"Generffi Wasffington's home and birthplace
is situated between Colchester and Alexandria.
Mrs. Wasffington had arrived there the eveffing
before. She invited Monsieur de Custine, who
commanded our division, to dine with her, and
to bring with him several of ffis officers; he sug-
[182]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
gested my going; we arrived there ten strong.
Mrs. Wasffington is about fifty years old, short and
stout, and of comely appearance. She was sim
ply dressed, and her manner is unaffected. She
had with her tffiee other ladies, relatives. As to
her residence, it is the prettiest country house I
have yet seen in America. It is symmetricaUy
bffilt, and has two stories, counting the garrets,
where pleasant bedrooms are fitted up. Around
about are a number of cabins for negroes, of whom
the generffi owns many, for they are needed on
ffis immense estates, estimated to contain ten
thousand acres of land — parts of it excellent, as
I noticed. A large portion consists of wood
lands where Mr. Wasffington enjoyed shooting
before the war, which inchned him to the mih
tary hfe he has since led. In the neighborhood of
the house the land is not fertile nor are the trees
fine — even the garden is arid. What must have
decided the general's parents to chose tffis dweU
ing place is the view, wffich is extremely beautiful.
The Potomac flows ffiong the bottom of the gar
den, and the largest warsffips can anchor there.
It divides into several branches, but just at this
point is half a league wide. The entire outlook
is most agreeable. The opposite bank ought to
be more settled with houses and villages. In
short, it is a handsome abode — befitting Gen
eral Wasffington. We qffitted ffis worthy spouse
[i83]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
that eveffing, after spending a very agreeable and
truly interesting day."
Passing from one great American to another,
from George Wasffington to Thomas Jefferson,
we shaU see that although the latter was visited
at ffis country house by severffi French officers
and traveUers, he clearly found the Marquis de
ChasteUux the most congeffiffi of them aU. To
that sympathetic aimaUst, therefore, we wiU turn
for his impressions of the hfe led by that dis
tinguished American in ffis country retreat.
Under the gffidance of a loquacious Irishman,
ChasteUux arrived at the foot of some ffiUs from
wffich point he "had no difficulty in recogffizing
on one of their summits Mr. Jefferson's house,
for 'it sffines alone in these retreats.' He ffim
seff built it, and chose the site; nature owed it
to such a sage and man of taste to offer ffim as
ffis heritage the spot where he coffid best study
and enjoy her. He caUs ffis house MonticeUo
(Uttle mountain), a modest name, as it stands on
a very ffigh one ! — but it shows the owner's fond
ness for the language of Italy, and even more for
the fime arts, of wffich that land was the cradle,
and stifl is the refuge. From this on I no longer
needed a guide; I ffismissed my Irishman, and
after mounting for over haff an hour by a fairly
easy road, I arrived at MonticeUo. Tffis resi
dence, of wffich Mr. Jefferson was the arcffitect
[i84]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
(and at tunes the buflder) is in the ItaUan style,
quite elegant, though not faffitless, nevertheless;
it consists of a large square paviUon, entered from
two porticos adorned with columns. The ground
floor consists cffiefly of a large drawmg-room, very
lofty, decorated entirely in antique style; above
the drawing-room is a library of the same shape.
Two smaU wings, of offiy a ground floor and attic,
flank tffis pavffion and commimicate with kitchens,
pantries, etc., wffich on each side form a sort of
basement, surmounted by a terrace. It is not
alone to describe the house that I enter into these
details, but because it in nowise resembles the
others to be seen in this country; in fact it may
be sffid that Mr. Jefferson is the first American
to consffit the fine arts in regard to ffis dweffing-
place. But I ought to concern myseff with him
alone — I shoffid portray a man not yet forty,
with a taU figure and kind, agreeable face, but
whose wit and iffiormation coffid sufficiently re
place ffil externffi charms — an American, who
though never yet out of ffis OAvn country, is musi
cian, draftsman, geometrician, astronomer, physi
cist, jurisconsffit, statesman — an American sen
ator who sat two years in the famous Congress,
author ofthe Revolution (which is never mentioned
without respect, unhappily mingled with too
many regrets !) — a governor of Virgiffia, fifling
that trymg post during the invasions of Arnold,
[i85]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
of Pffihps, and of CornwaUis — ^lastly, a pffi
losopher, withdrawn from the world and affffirs,
because he loves the world only so far as he be
heves that he can be useful to it, and because
ffis feUow citizens are not yet in a state to bear
the hght or to suffer criticism. A gentle, amiable
wife, pretty cffildren he is bringing up carefuUy,
a house to beautify, great possessions to improve,
sciences and arts to cffitivate — afl these are what
remffin to Mr. Jefferson, after having played a
distinguished part on the stage of the New World,
and what he prefers to the honorable appoint
ment of miffister pleffipotentiary in Europe.
The visit I paid him was not unexpected; he had
asked me some time before to spend a few days in
the bosom of ffis family, that is, in the heart of
the mountains. Nevertheless I found ffis greet
ing grave and even cold; but after spending two
hours with ffim, I felt I had known ffim aU my
Ufe. Walks, the Ubrary, and, above aU, conver
sation — always varied, always interestmg, always
maintained by that sweet content two persons
feel who, on exchanging sentiments and opiffions,
fmd themselves in constant accord, and under
stand one another's haff-expressed word — afl these
made four days pass for me hke four minutes.
Tffis coffiormity was so perfect that not offiy
were our tastes alike, but even our preferences —
those preferences wffich dry-as-dust and material
[ i86 ]

[EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
minds ridicule as enthusiasm, and wffich men of
sensibihty glorify under the same name. I re
caU with pleasure that one eveffing as we were
chatting over a bowl of punch after Mrs. Jeffer
son had withdrawn, we happened to speak of the
poems of Ossian. It was as if an electric spark
had flashed from one to the other ! — each recalled
to the other certffin passages of those subhme
poems wffich had struck him most, and we con
versed upon them to my traveffing compaffions,
who happily knew Enghsh wefl and could appre
ciate them, but who had never read them. Soon
it was decided that the book should have its place
as a toast — it was fetched, placed beside the
punch-bowl, and together they lasted us far into
the ffight ere we reaUzed it ! At times physics, at
others pohtics or art formed the subject of our
conversations, for nothing has escaped Mr. Jef
ferson, and it seems as if, from ffis youth up, he
had set ffis mind, hke ffis house, on heights from
wffich he coffid contemplate the entire uffiverse."
A pleasant glimpse at the country house of an
other ffistoric American famfly is given by the
Marqffise de la Tour du Pm: "The Van Buren
farm house, an old Dutch mansion, occupied a
deUghtful site on the river bank. Though en
tirely isolated on the land side, it had easy com
munication with the other shore of the stream.
Opposite, on the Canada road, rose a large tavern,
[187]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF'
where one coffid get aU kinds of iffiormation,
newspapers, and notices of sale. Two or three
stage-coaches passed it every day. Van Buren
owned two canoes, and the river was always so
calm we could cross it at any time. No road
traversed tffis estate, shut in at some hundreds
of toises (toise= about two yards) by a mountain,
covered with noble forests, and ffiso belonging to
Van Buren, We sometimes thought tffis farm
would suit us, but it was held at a ffigher figure
than we could give. That alone prevented us
from acqffiring it, for the general rffie in America
at that time was (and I think stiU is), no matter
how much a man was attached to ffis house, ffis
farm, his horse, or ffis negro— if you offered him
a third more than the value, you were sure, ffi
a land where everytffing has a price, to become
the owner!"
One woffid naturally expect complimentary
comments upon hfe in the country houses of great
men such as those just described. But what of
that enjoyed by the rank and ffie of our people
— ^how did that strike the French .3 A soldier
wha spent only twenty-four days ashore in
America, and who slept on the ground every
ffight, never once during that entire period being
able to change ffis clothes, could not be consid
ered a severe critic if he said unpleasant tffings
of American country hfe! And yet Comte de
[i88]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Revel, who had that very experience in the
trenches before Yorktown, "saw some very fine
houses wffich from their exteriors as wefl as their
comfortable interiors seemed to belong to wealthy
people." Nor was tffis his offiy amiable remark
concerffing those he had crossed the sea to aid.
His friendly impressions of what little of American
hfe he was able to see are rendered aU the more
vffiuable because they come from the offiy French
man so critical as to find faffit with the disciphne
of French troops ffi service here; on that subject he
is as severe as he was kindly to us.
Turffing from Revel and ffis brief stay to others
who had ampler time to enter into the hfe away
from cities as led by our ancestors, let us accom
pany some of ffis compatriots on a round of visits
to certain country houses, beginffing with that
of General Nelson, where we shaU see what took
place when adverse weather conditions kept them
indoors. The generffi himseff chanced to be away,
but ChasteUux says that ffis mother and ffis wife
"received me with aU the interest, simphcity, and
corffiahty customary in that famfly; but smce in
America they never feel that women alone can
do the honors of a house, five or six Nelsons were
assembled to receive me, among others. Secretary
Nelson, uncle of the generffi, two of ffis brothers,
and two sons of the secretary. All these young
people were married, some had their wives and
[189]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
cffildren with them — aU named Nelson, but ad
dressed by theh baptismffi names ffione, so that
during my two days in tffis trffiy patriarchffi
house it was impossible for me to learn who was
who! When I say that I passed two days ffi
tffis house it must be understood in the most
hterffi sense, for the weather was so bad that we
coffid not go out. As the accommodations were
neither commodious nor spacious, the parlor, or
salon, was occupied by aU the company, espe
ciaUy the men, from breakfast until bedtime, but
the conversation was agreeable and wefl sustained.
If you wished diversion you found at your hand
very good Enghsh and French books. An ex
ceUent breakfast at ffine in the morffing, a heavy
diimer at two o'clock, tea and punch in the after
noon, and a hght supper wffich looked very ffice,
made a pleasant division of the day for those
whose stomachs coffid stand it. It perhaps mer
its observation that on tffis occasion where fifteen
or twenty people, of whom all were strangers to
the family and the land, found themselves thrown
together in the country and forced by bad weather
to remffin indoors, there was no question of play
ing cards. How many parties of tric-trac, of
wffisk [sic], of lotto, woffid there have been
among us as a necessary consequence of an ob
stinate rffin! Perhaps there woffid ffiso have
been more agreeable amusements to vary the
[ 190 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
scene — ^music, drawing, reading aloud, and
woman's fancy-work are resources unknown in
America, but it must be hoped that they wiU
not delay in acquhing them; certffiffiy trffiffing
was aU that a Miss Toffiver needed, for she sang
several songs with Enghsh words but Itahan
music." Brissot shaU teU us of a visit he made upon
Senator Dffiton of New Hampsffire wffile on ffis
travels in the northeastern part of the country:
"We left on Sunday and went to dine at Colonel
Dalton's house, wffich is tffiee miles from New-
Berry on the Merrimac. His farm is wefl stocked ;
I saw thirty cows there, a large number of fat pigs,
sheep, provisions m abundance, and a wefl-planted
garden. Artichokes grow very wefl, but they offiy
cffitivate them out of curiosity, for they are not
eaten. He takes great pffins with his gardens,
which are rather neglected in America. Mr.
Dalton received me with that frankness wffich
becomes a man in easy circumstances, and a man
of talent — with that hospitahty pecuhar to the
inhabitants of Massachusetts and New Hamp
sffire, wffich is certffiffiy much greater there than
m any of the Eastern or Middle States. The
Americans do not know what we call large ban
quets and fetes. They treat strangers as they
treat themselves every day, and they hve weU.
They sffid to me that they coffid not understand
[191]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
starvffig aU the week in order to feast on Sun
day ! Tffis fact reveals a wefl-to-do people wffich
does not concern itseff overmuch with fastmg.
Mr. Dalton's famfly was a picture of patriarchal
Ufe, and of true domestic happiness. It was
composed of four or five pretty, modest young
persons dressed in simple silk gowns, for it was
Sunday, and they had just come from meeting
or church. Mr. Dffiton had been speaker, or
president of the legislative body of New Hamp
shire. He had the reputation of speakmg wefl,
and of conducting proceedmgs with digffity. He
is now one of the senators ffi the national Con
gress." As a change from the sedateness of the enter-
tffinment afforded by tffis serious household, and to
get as many pomts of view as possible, let us turn
to what Chasteflux found near Portsmouth, New
Hampshire: "Mr. Tracey returned with two weU-
appomted carriages and took me, as well as my
staff-officers, to ffis country house. Tffis house is
situated one rffile from the town on a very pretty
site, but I coffid not judge of it because it was al
ready night. Nevertheless, I went out to see the
garden by mooffiight; it is large and composed of
different terraces. The house is very pretty and
perfectly furffished. Everything displays that
magffificence combined with simphcity which one
finds only m merchants' houses. The evening
[ 192]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
passed rapidly with the assistance of several
glasses of punch and agreeable conversation. The
ladies whom I found aheady assembled, were
Mrs. Tracey, her two sisters, and Miss Lee, their
cousffi. Mrs. Tracey has an agreeable and affi-
mated face, and her manners correspond. At
ten o'clock they served an excellent supper with
very good wme. Miss Lee sang, and persuaded
Monsieur de Vaudreffil and Monsieur de Talley
rand to sing also. About midffight the ladies
withdrew, but we continued to drink Madeira
and Sherry. Mr. Tracey, foUowing the custom
of the country, offered us pipes, a proposition
wffich was accepted by Monsieur de Tffileyrand
and Monsieur Montesqffieu, with the resffit that
they succeeded in getting themselves drunk and
carried home, where they were very glad to find
themselves in bed. As for me, I remffined per
fectly calm and continued to discuss commerce
and pohtics with Mr. Tracey."
Few of the Frenchmen traveUed so widely in
our country as ChasteUux, wffich gave him pe
cuhar advantages in knowing people of aU sec
tions, and the hfe they led in their homes. Let
us stray with ffim as far as the Byrd estate on
the James River in Virgiffia, a property that is
StiU in the possession of that family: "I went
on twenty-six miles in very hot weather and by a
most agreeable road, every moment commg upon
[ 193 ]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
fine residences, for the banks of the River James
is the garden spot of Virgiffia. That of Mrs.
Byrd (Westover), to wffich I was going, surpasses
them afl for magffificence of bffildings, beauty of
situation, and the charm of the society which
one finds there. Mrs. Byrd is the widow of a
colonel who served in the last war, and who was
later a member of the Royal CouncU. She has
taken charge of tffis fine house on the banks of
the James, a vffiuable property, a considerable
number of slaves, and some farms, wffich she has
improved. She is forty-two, of a pleasing figure,
and very sphited. By dihgent effort and activ
ity she has to some extent repaired the effects
of the dissipation of her husband, and her house
is the most famous and agreeable of the neigh
borhood." Even more intimate than all of these
accounts is one wffich the Due de Rochefoucauld
gives of ffis stay at General Knox's country place.
In it he voices the instinctive feehng of afl the
French writers on America that it was amid the
leisure and seclusion of the country, rather than
in the bustle of the city that a clear insight was
to be had into the real character of the Ameri
can and ffis home. Says he: "Mrs. Kjiox gains
greatly on acquaintance. If you have seen her
offiy in Pffiladelpffia you woffid tffink her never
happy except at a table of commerce or of wffisk
[sic], but in her own country house she proves
[194]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
bright, weU educated, admhable in every respect,
and full of merit. One recognizes a truly master
mind. In the country Miss Knox loses her ex
cessive timidity. She lets one see that she is
sprightly, clever, and gay."
That the custom of "stirrup-cup" was pre
served among us appears from ChasteUux's ex
perience: "At Mrs. Erskine's at Ringwood, N. J.,
they gave me all the iffiormation I needed, and
after having drunk a glass of madeira, accord
ing to the custom of the country wffich does not
permit one to leave a house without having a
drink, I remounted my horse." The writer can
testffy that the ancient hospitality of Ringwood
has been wortffily maintained. The Marquise de
la Tour du Pin found when leaving the Lansing
home, near Albany, that, "Madame Lansing hav
ing prepared for us a glass of madeira and a bis
cuit, it was absolutely necessary to partake, at
the risk of being considered bad neighbors." Mr.
Lansing was of Dutch parentage, and was greatly
surprised to learn that ffis French neighbor, till
ing a modest farm near by, had once been the dip
lomatic representative of the French king in Hol
land! Generffi Schuyler and "Mr. Renslaer" of
Albany had advised those distingffished settlers
that it was best "to divide our funds into tffiee
equal parts, one devoted to purchasing land,
another to eqffipment, including slaves, horses,
[195]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
COWS, agricffitural implements, and furffiture, and
the tffird to provide against the unexpected (such
as loss of slaves or cattle) and for living expenses."
That pleasant word "picffic," so popular at afl
times in our country, played havoc with the speU
ing powers of the French. Their ways of render
ing it were various, of which let "pique-nique"
be a sample. Their appreciation, however, of
that rustic entertainment was as enthusiastic as
their spelling of it was uncertain. Nor was tffis
the offiy word to be mangled, for Baron Closen
writes "Janckey Dudle" as the ffickname given
us by the English! Miffort effectively ffisguises
two of our Indian tribes, the Cherokees and the
Choctaws, by calling them the Scherokys and the
Tchactas, and spells Norwich (Connecticut) both
Norege and Norffige; and Volney dehghts to teU of
"Kentokey." Bayard shaU give us an account of one picffic
wffich he attended: "Laborers are sent the day
before to cut down branches and make a smaU
enclosure near a private house whose kitchen is
lent for such cooking as is necessary, but always
it must be near a river. The host brings cold
meats, pastries, etc., and the china and silver are
set out on tables covered with fine hnen. As soon
as a guest arrives, he is given cold punch in a large
china loving-cup, often contaiffing three or four
bowlsfffi, which passes round the circle, and is
[196]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
carried to every one's lips. Few French became
accustomed to tffis ancient way of drinking, and
in America, where almost aU the men chew to
bacco, it is excessively untidy. In the cities every
body has ffis own glass for beer or wine, but
toddy and punch are drunk from a loving-cup.
Toddy is a drink made of brandy, sugar, and tepid
water, in which are placed one or two roasted
crab-apples and a httle muscat. When the whole
company is assembled, the servants put off in
the boats, and nets are tffiown into the water; the
banks of the river resound with applause ff the
fishermen make a good catch. The fish are shown
to the spectators who order them either to be
cooked or tffiown back into the water. The ladies
mtercede for the pretty ones, but the gourmands
of America, much less gallant than those of Eu
rope, won't let a pleasing morsel escape for aU the
beautiful eyes ffi the world."
Another form of rustic gayety, but this of a
much more practical sort, was the gathering of
neighbors, known as a "corn husking." "Tffis,"
says the Marqffise de la Tour du Pm, "is caUed a
froUck." How appropriate was the name shaU ap
pear from the kind of refreshment offered those
undertaldng tffis neighborly task of rapidly per
formmg for each farmer somethmg wffich unaided
he coffid not do in the two days wffich, the author
ess says, "is as long as the corn coffid safely he
[197]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
unhusked. First they sweep the barn floor as
carefufly as if they were going to give a baU.
When ffight comes on they light the candles, and
afl the assembled guests set to work. There is
always one of them singing a song or telhng a
story. About midffight, there is served boihng
milk with cider in it. To tffis is added five or
six pounds of sugar if one feels inchned to do the
magffificent, or if not, the same quantity of molas
ses, then some spice, cloves, cinnamon, or nutmeg,
etc. Our industrious guests consumed, to our
great dehght, an immense caldron of tffis mixture,
along with much toasted bread, and left us at five
o'clock of a frosty morffing, saying (tffis in EngUsh)
' famous good people, those from the old country ' ! "
Only one disagreeable note is struck in the many
pleasing accounts of our country hfe, and that is
caused by the nearer view of slavery wffich it
afforded, an institution to wffich the French, one
and aU, objected heartily. Many were the meth
ods they suggested for removing that stain from
our escutcheon, the most novel and diverting being
one from Bonnet. He urged that the making of
maple-sugar would, if properly pushed, abohsh
slavery, because it woffid so reduce the price of
sugar as to ruin the West Indian cane planters,
whom he cffiefly blames for the importation of
slaves. If they could no longer profitably make
cane sugar, the reason for the slave-trade would
[198]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
cease. Fortunately, that stain is no longer on
our nation, and we may pass over the many aUu
sions to it in the French memoirs. Its effect on
the habits and manners of the slave owners was
so often commented upon that perhaps, to com
plete our picture of country life at that time, we
shoffid fficlude one wffich Mazzei quotes approv
ingly from Abbe Raynal, although beUeving as
we do that the abohtion of slavery has remedied
the resffits attributed to it: "Men who prefer the
tranqffiUity of country Ufe to a tumultuous so
journ in cities, should be naturally economical
and laborious, but they never were that in Virgiffia.
The people there ffiways took great pffins in fur-
ffisffing their houses. They Uked frequently to
entertffin their neighbors, and that too with much
display. They were ffiways glad to flaunt the
greatest possible luxury before the eyes of EngUsh
traveUers whom business brought to their plan
tations, but ffiways they shpped back into that
laziness and carelessness wffich is customary in
regions where slavery is estabhshed."
To slavery, however, we are indebted for one of
the most toucffing episodes in all these French mem
oirs — one from the pen of the Marquise de la Tour
du Pin, describing the purchase by the marquis of
a negro woman, long separated from her husband
by the cruel laws of slavery, and her delight at
findmg that he also owned her husband, so that
[199]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
they could once more be uffited. Nor did our
delightful French pair content themselves with
this, but when they left for France the next year
they freed these two negroes as well as two others
they had bought. So charming is the scene where
the four slaves, hardly able to believe that they
were being given their freedom, cast themselves
at the feet of their benefactress, that we can well
believe her words: "Who can describe the deep
emotions of such a moment. Never in my life
have I experienced anything so sweet !" Nor did
it prove easy to carry this act into effect, at least
in the case of one of them, for the magistrate be
fore whom the act of manumission took place
objected that, being over fifty, the slave coffid
not be freed. Fortunately, the negro coffid display
his birth certfficate, proving that he was only
forty-ffine. Two customary features of our rural landscape
seemed particularly to strike the French, one, the
use of wooden fences instead of the green hedges
so uffiversal in Europe, and the other, the open
and agreeable disposffi of the houses in our vil
lages, in contrast to the huddUng together of
hovels to wffich their eyes were accustomed at
home. They freely expressed their opiffion that
we would soon take to hedges and give up the
less picturesque fences ! As one of ;the reasons
therefor Brissot aUeges that "it is impossible that
[ 200 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
these fences shoffid be cheaper than hedges when
away from cities and more in the woods. It is cal-
cffiated that a negro can hew one hundred and
thhty to one hundred and ffity rails of wood in
a day." Boimet thought it just as wefl that we
continue for a wffile to use open rail fences instead
of hedges, because the latter in a recently cleared
country woffid necessarily harbor snakes.
As to the arrangement of our country towns,
Beaujour says : " The towns emd villages are bffilt
as in England along a single street, with but two
rows of houses. These houses generaUy stand
apart, so that an accidental fire caimot be com-
mufficated from one to the other. They ordinarily
form one long street, backed on both sides with
gardens and fields. Tffis manner of bffilding vil
lages is preferable to that commoffiy employed
in Europe, where the houses, huddled together,
provide ffil the inconveffiences of cities without
any of the agreeable features of country hfe."
Even those who dwelt in the cities, says Beaujour,
wished them to resemble what was to be enjoyed
outside: "American cities are not beautifffi and
sumptuous Uke those of Europe, but they have
more space, and almost afl have trees emd gardens
throughout, wffich lends them the appearance
and the pleasures of the country. Sometimes the
houses do not adjoin, but form groups as in some
of our hamlets." [201]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
When Lafayette marched ffis command of two
thousand Continental troops along the shores of
Long Island Sound, they passed "through a
smihng country covered with viflages, where the
equality of the people indicated a perfect democ
racy." The French seemed impressed with the
fact that country life had qffite a different effect
m America from that in Europe. The isolation
of the farms and country places appeared, in tffis
new land, rather to have benefited the maimers
£md morffis than to have had the opposite effect,
so usuffi in the Old World. Robin says: "These
farmers, simpler than our peasants, have neither
the rusticity nor the boorishness of the latter;
better educated, they have neither their wihness
nor their dissimffiation. Further removed from
the arts and less industrious, they are less ham
pered by ancient custom, and more ingeffious in
perfecting and inventing that wffich increases their
comfort." Brissot goes so far as to say: "The
Americans have pure customs because ffine-
tenths of them hve some distance apart in the
country." Boimet decided that American farm
ers were rich in proportion to the number of cffil
dren they had — the more cffildren a farmer had,
the more he could support.
It was in order to study our people thoroughly
that Bayard made his joumey of one hundred and
twenty miles on horseback from Baltimore to Bath,
[ 202 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Virginia, a summer resort now well known as the
Warm Springs: "As I wished reafly to know the
American people before going back to my country,
I concluded (because they were so scattered) that
beneath rustic roofs, ffi the isolation of forests, on
mountain heights I could best lay hold of their
characteristic trffits, and not in cities where afl is
imitation, where the inhabitants, in constant com-
muffication with Europe, are continuafly imbued
with Enghsh prejudices and reveal in theh habits
as in their opiffions the marks of chffins they had
the courage to break."
His is one of the few pictures now accessible of
fasffion amusing itself away from home during the
hot weather, when life in town was to be avoided
by those who could afford a change of ffir. The
custom of frequenting such resorts was then a new
one, and hfe and amusements there were most prim
itive; it is true they had a theatre, but it was buflt
of logs. That the primitive surroundings in no way
abated the fixed habits of pohte society appears
from Bayard's account of the due observance there
of aU the elaborate etiquette at that time surround
ing tea-drinkmg !
Another custom, hkewise then in its iffiancy,
and also exemplffying the deshe of city people
for a temporary escape from the restrffints of
urban hfe, was that of having out-of-town viUas
witffin easy access of their city residences.
[203]

FRENCH MEMORIES
"Most New Yorkers," says Bourgeois, "have
very pretty houses in the country, some of them
as far off as thirty miles. They drive out to them
in smart, hghtly buflt chaises, drawn by a single
horse, and one can enjoy the pleasure of shoot
ing from them without ahghting, for the land is
not ffiUy."

[2o4

CHAPTER IX
TRAVEL— ITS CONVENIENCES AND
INCONVENIENCES
It seems incredible that any one so calm-visaged
as Benjamin Frankhn must be held accountable
for the electricffi speeding-up both of modern
travel and the transmission of news ! Here we
are, author and reader, trying to translate our
selves back into the days of that remarkable
American, and yet it was his trffiing with thun
derbolts and kites that is going to make it so
difficffit for us to forget the aeroplanes and ocean
greyhounds of to-day, and to adjust our minds to
the forms of travelling found by the French in
our country during the days when our indepen
dence was gffined. We know that General Ro
chambeau encouraged ffis officers to travel widely
in order to keep him weU informed. Let us ac
company them, not forgettmg, however, that the
day of modern conveffiences was stffi far ffistant.
What shaU we find was the state of affairs then
confrontmg those about to set out on a journey ?
AU sorts of methods and every kind of convey
ance were used by our authors. In the beginnmg
[2o5]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
they teU us chiefly of travel on horseback (wffich
they found expensive), and that ahnost nobody
employed the customary European system of hir
ing post-horses. This helps us to understand why
de Kalb says in a letter of June 18, 1777, that
"immense sums were necessary to travel three
hundred leagues by land with ffil my baggage,
for the ffiring of horses and carriages." Per
contra, we find several accounts of how cheaply
one could travel in stage-coaches, the usual method
of getting from place to place. Brissot writes in
August, 1788, of the journey from Boston to
New York: "The distance wffich separates these
two cities is about two hundred and sixty miles.
Several individuffis have joined together to set
up a public stage-service to transport travellers
at regular intervals from one city to the other.
Stages are changed severffi times on the road, and
the trip lasts four days in summer but the trav
ellers are obliged to set out at four o'clock in the
morffing. Each day they do from sixty to sixty-
six miles. The charge is three cents a mile,
Massachusetts money; baggage ffiso pays three
cents a mile exceeding fourteen pounds, wffich
amount is carried gratffitously. We started out
from Boston at four o'clock in the morffing ffi a
coach wffich held six, hung on springs." The
pleasantest of afl the methods of locomotion as
weU as the cheapest, was, as might be expected,
[206]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
happened upon by ChasteUux, who enjoyed not
offiy the admhable trait of getting the best out
of Ufe wherever he went, but also (happily for us)
that of recording it divertingly. Near Albany he
took a couple of sleighs wffich belonged to the
State, furffished to ffim by the Quartermaster-
General, "an exceUent man named Quakerbush.
My intention was to pay for them but he would
not consent to it, assuring me that it would be
enough if I turned them over to the Quartermaster
of Rhode Island, who would send them back
when opportuffity served. There still exists a
very comfortable arrangement for miUtary men
and those ffi the pubhc service — each State mffin-
tains relays of horses for them to use in traveffing,
only reqffiring that the latter shaU be turned over
to the Quartermaster of the place where one fin
ishes using them. In the northem states there
are also sleighs used for that purpose."
Brissot both enlightens and entertains us by
ffis comparison between our vefficles and those
of his own country: /'Americans have as car
riages dffigences, coupes, phaetons, sulkies (with
one seat), cabriolets with places for two — all ex
ceUent vefficles, with hght wheels, good springs
and costing half as much as ours. Frenchmen
who go to America often take their carriages with
them, for they tffink they are going to land in a
savage country! Crevecoeur told me that he
[207]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
saw one of our gentlefolk land 'with one of those
heavy postchffises formerly so much in vogue:
It excited great surprise among the Americans,
who could not beheve that such a tffing came from
a civihzed land. The French Consul, for the
honor of the country, hastened to ffide it away
in a livery stable.' "
Concerffing the nature of the roads wffich, at
that time, connected the different parts of the
country, there is some conflict of testimony, but
ffithough Beaujour and one or two others were
incUned to be rather severe in their criticisms, the
majority of the testimony is commendatory.
MandriUon goes so far as to say that they "are
finer than those in most of the countries of
Europe." Segur is more specffic: "The road
which I was following was wide, very weU laid,
and carefully kept up ; every place where I stopped
the people received me with courtesy, and hast
ened to get horses for both me and my guide."
He sigffificantly comments upon the road between
Newport and New London, that "it was the first
bad road that I had met in the Uffited States."
Minister Fauchet was so unkind as to report to
ffis government, March 21, 1794, the^t on his way
from Baltimore "to reach Pffiladelphia we had
to travel by roads wffich were almost impassable;
it was offiy after much effort and fatigue that we
were able to arrive in that city." The impartial
[208]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
du Bourg found the Virgiffia roads "really very
fine," although he complains of those in Maryland.
Our ffighways must have been fairly good or Baron
Closen woffid hardly have been able to ride ffine
hundred and eighty miles (carrying a message
from Rochambeau in WilUamsburg, Vhgiffia, to
Congress ih Pffiladelpffia, and back) in less than
ffine days. It is from La Rochefoucauld that we
shffil obtain an explanation for the comparative
exceUence of the roads: "The roads are good be
cause the sofl is of such a nature as to make them
so. With the exception of that at Lancaster on
wffich they are at present working, road-making
as an art has had Uttle to do with the Pennsyl
vaffia roads." Bonnet, viewing our roads from
another angle, beheves they are good, not offiy
because the ground is properly prepared, but also
because they are reheved from the heavier traffic,
wffich is diverted to the canals and rivers.
Turffing from generahties to that most impor
tant particffiarity, the stage-coach driver. Bayard
gives us a very hfelike picture: "An American
stage-coach driver is a sort of a magistrate who
passes on aU kinds of questions. He takes part
in the general conversation of the travellers, and
often conducts it. It is very rarely that one re
monstrates with him, even in the humblest way,
upon ffis maimer of driving. If debates arise
upon the length of the road, upon whether or not
[209]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
it is comfortable, upon horse-flesh or the Uneage
thereof, upon the private fortunes of gentlemen
whose houses are along the road, he is consffited
and hstened to with much deference." The same
writer remarks, that when Americans travel they
do not carry about with them dozens of sffirts
Uke the French, but, wffile it is true that they
carry but few, they are of fme Unen and always
beautifuUy washed; they do not admire the
French custom of fiUing up a wardrobe with
shirts wffich become fuU of damp, and whose
number is but a proof of extravagance. In tffis
connection it is comforting to learn from Brissot
that American washerwomen were expeditious,
wffich must have been of pecuhar importance to
the traveUer with but few shirts. They charged
tffiee and a haff or four sffiffings for wasffing a
dozen pieces. He has aheady told us that bag-r
gage exceeding fourteen pounds had to be paid for
extra, wffich perhaps explains the hmited quantity
to wffich Americans accustomed themselves.
Turffing from travel by land to that by water,
we wiU let Brissot "say a word on the packet-
boats of America and the advantages wffich they
offer: although in my opiffion it would be more ad
vantageous and even cheaper to select the land
journey, still I must prffise the cleanhness and
order wffich reigns in these packets. The cabin
of the one upon wffich I travelled contffined
[210]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
fourteen beds in two tiers, one above the other.
Each had its own Uttle window. The room was
weU ventflated so that one ffid not breathe that
ffisgusting air wffich contaminates the packets
on the channel. They were fresffiy varffished.
The captffin, two men, and a negro cook formed
the entire crew. The table was good. There is
not a town ffiong tffis coast wffich has not packets
of tffis sort, plying to New York as wefl as to
New Haven and New London and aU are equaUy
clean and offer the same comforts to travellers.
You can be sure that there is notffing hke it in
the Old World." Nor was traveffing by coastwise
packets Umited to short distances, for Michaux
(junior) says they ran at frequent intervffis be-
between Charleston and New York, a trip wffich
generffily took ten days, and cost from forty to
fifty doUars: "Some of these boats have rooms
tastefufly arranged and comfortably disposed for
passengers who every year go north in large num
bers to avoid the sickly season, retuming to
Charleston in November." It took ffis father from
the 16th tiU the 27th of July for ffis joumey
aboard one of these packets from Charleston to
Pffiladelpffia. From St. Mery we learn that the
American saihng sffips which carried passengers
from Europe were considered very satisfactory
and, to judge from the detffiled menus wffich he
gives us of various repasts on board, they must
[211]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
have lived very well. He found the American
sailors sensible folk, but remarks that they were
great behevers in luck, and did not Uke to leave
port on Saturday.
It would appear from a number of observa
tions tffioughout theh writings that the French
were not pleased with the American system of
dehvering mffils, nor are we surprised when
ChasteUux describes one of the methods employed
to forward letters to their destination: "Severffi
times during the stay of the French army at
Wiffiamsburg, my letters addressed to Rocham
beau were entrusted to travellers, postal arrange
ments not being as yet regularly estabUshed, and
Americans often lacking the money to pay mes
sengers. The travellers who were not going
straight to Wflhamsburg generally deposited these
letters in some inn at the cross-roads, leaving
word that the fhst chance shoffid be taken to
send them on to their address, but it often hap
pened that they remamed for months together on
a mantelpiece without anyone having thought of
forwarding them, although the opportuffity had
often arisen. Finafly, some honest traveUer espied
them and took charge of them out of good will,
and without anyone asking him to do so."
As compensating for delays of tffis sort just de
scribed, there seems to have been an entire absence
of the temporary but annoying ones caused by ffigh-
[212]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
waymen, then so prevffient in dffierent parts of
Europe. TraveUers were reUeved from those ex
pensive dangers of the road, although it appears
from Brissot that they had not aU learned of tffis
fact in advance: "I traveUed with a Frenchman
who, tffinking that he had much to fear in a wild
country, had provided himseff with pistols. The
Americans laughed at tffis precaution and ad
vised him to put them in ffis trunk. He had the
good sense to beheve them." Nor was tffis ffis
offiy comment on the safety of our ffighways:
"On the road ffi Connecticut you wffi often find
pretty ghls ffione either driving a cabriolet or
on horseback gafloping hard, with a smart hat
on their heads, a wffite apron, and a dress of col
ored stuff; examples wffich prove at the same
time their precociousness (smce, ffithough young,
they are left to themselves), the security of the
roads, and the general gffilelessness prevaUing.
You will find them risking themselves alone with
out protectors in pubhc vefficles; I was wrong to
say risking themselves — ^who could offend them.i*
They are there under the protection of public
manners and their own innocence." Even the
presence of Indians in the settled parts of the
coimtry meant no danger to women, but it was
difficffit to convince foreigners of tffis fact. Mon
sieur Novion, wffile riding in northern New York
with the Marqffise de la Tour du Pin, was dis-
[2x3]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
tressed at the risk she ran by conversing with a
taU Indian whose costume consisted of a blue
loin-cloth. When he expressed ffis horror at the
danger incurred by residing in such a country,
she vouchsafed ffim the femiffine reply that not
only was she not afrffid of this Indiem, an old
acquffintance of hers, but also "ffi had told ffim
to throw ffis tomahawk at you, to protect me,
he woffid have done it!" "On our retum he
confided to my husband that I had strange friends,
and that he had decided to go and hve in New
York City, where civiUzation seemed further ad
vanced!" Before the Revolution took place httle atten
tion had of necessity been pffid to intercommuffi-
cation between the different coloffies, but we
gather from Brissot that tffis at once began to
improve when the coloffies united to obtffin their
independence, for then they promptly realized how
vitffi was such intercourse. As the country came
to be more and more settled, roads were pushed
out in every direction. Wasffington writes to
Lafayette from Mount Vernon, Jffiy 25, 1785:
"Roads are bemg prepared and the route wffi be
made easy [to the fertile plffins of Offio], by the
waters of the Potomac and the James Rivers,
and, a propos of these navigable streams, I will
tefl you that I have the satisfaction of seeing that
the subscriptions, particffiarly for the Potomac,
[2l4]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
surpass our greatest hopes. This plan of naviga
tion if it succeeds, will improve the relations be
tween the States bordering on the Atlantic and
aU the Westem territory, and will produce great
commercial and political resffits. This last point
is the spur to all my efforts, for great evils woffid
result from the separation which woffid inevita
bly take place if the difficffities of this commuffi-
cation were not removed by the time the naviga
tion of the Mississippi is opened to us."
Among the various Frenchmen who traveUed
out mto tffis new westem and southern country
were two expressly commissioned to report thereon
to their government, Miffister Genet sendmg
Michaux (the elder), and Miffister Adet General
CoUot. Genet, desirous of makmg mvestigations
m Loffisiana, wrote home, Jffiy 25, 1793: "I hast
ened to select an agent fit to conduct our negotia
tions on the ground. I cast my eyes on Citizen
Michaux, botanist of the Jardin Nationffi, who is
about to undertake a joumey to the southem sea
to enrich ffis native land with new discoveries.
Citizen Michaux is in every respect an estimable
man, enjoying great distinction here; he speaks
EngUsh and ffiso knows both the iffiom and cus
toms of the Indian tribes. He is therefore the
very man I would select, especiaUy since, as he
is accustomed to travelhng in the American back
woods, ffis departure could not arouse any suspi-
[ 2X5 ]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
cion"; so off Michaux went to "Kentuckey" and
the Mississippi. On June 21, 1796, Miffister Adet
wrote to Paris: "I have instructed General Col-
lot to travel throughout all the country to the
west of the AUeghanys, watered by the Offio
and Mississippi; to take detffiled notes upon the
character and opiffion of the inhabitants, as to
population, its annual increase, what its com
merce amounts to, and what it ought to be.
Besides, I have instructed him to reconnoitre aU
miUtary points on the Offio and Mississippi
rivers, and to draw plans of places whose loca
tion it might be interesting to know." We sus
pect that neither Genet nor Adet found the re
ports of Michaux or CoUet so useful for ffis poUticffi
purposes as they have proved for our literary one.
Certainly in the case of Michaux, poUtics was
ever secondary to botany. Indeed, he was offiy
about Genet's business from July 15, 1793, until
December 13 of the same year, which was but a
smaU portion of the eleven years during wffich
he botaffized from the West Indies as far north
as Hudson's Bay.
An agreeable as weU as instructive description
of a day spent in an American stage-coach comes
from Brissot. Let us invite, nay, recommend,
our reader to seat ffimseff next that interesting
Frenchman, for thus, at his ease, wfll he see eye to
eye with the Frenchman, regaUng hunseff betimes
[2X6]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
with the sage observations of that shrewd ob
server: "I left New York August 25, 1788, at
six o'clock in the morffing. I had engaged a
place in the dihgence caUed the New Line of
Stages to Pffiladelphia. It starts every day ex
cept Sunday, both from Pffiladelphia and New
York, two stages from each place, one bringing
you to your destination during the day and the
other taking a day and a hffif. You change
coaches seven or eight times on the way. Before
reacffing the coach it was necessary to cross the
North River in an open boat. There are four
ferries on the way from New York to Philadelphia,
besides tffis crossing of the North River. There
is no doubt that sooner or later bridges wifl re
place these ferry-boats, which are often danger
ous. One lands at Paulus-Hook and finds the
stagecoach wffiting. They say the crossing is
two mfles long; it costs six cents in New York
money. The stagecoach has four wheels and is
an open vefficle whose sides have double curtains
of leather and cloth wffich let down when it rains
or when the sun proves annoying, and wffich can
be rffised when you wish to enjoy the ffir and the
view of the country. These vehicles are badly
hung but, the road over wffich they run being of
sand and gravel, one suffers no discomfort. The
horses are good, and fast enough. The coaches
have four seats and hold a dozen people. Light
[2x7]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
luggage is put under one's feet, and trunks are
fastened on beffind, but you are not permitted to
have too many. Tffis is the offiy way of travel
ling, nor is it a bad one. There is no hiring of
private postchffises and horses, which is just as
wefl. Such individuals as do not care to take
the stage have a cabriolet with one horse. I wish
the French who have travefled m these stages
woffid compare them with those of France, —
those heavy dihgences into wffich eight or ten
people are stuffed, or with those cabriolets around
Paris where people, packed together, are deprived
of ah by the dirty driver who makes a horrid
noise; — ^with those miserable chffises dragged along
by two horses, where one is in a slanting position,
annoying and annoyed, and where one breathes
poisoned air — afl these vefficles, although they
run over beautffffi roads, make only a league an
hour. Ah ! if the Americans had the same kind
of roads, with what speed would they not travel,
since, in spite of the poorness of their roads, one
completes during the day the ffinety-six miles
(or tffirty-two leagues) which separate New York
and Pffiladelphia. So it is that after only a cen
tury and a haff, and in spite of a thousand ob
stacles Americans are aheady superior to nations
wffich have existed fifteen centuries. There are
to be found in these stages men of every profes
sion. They succeed one another with great rapid-
[218]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
ity; one who is offiy going fifteen miles gives up
ffis place to a traveller who is going further, — a
mother comes into the stage with her daughter to
go to diimer ten mfles away, whence she will be
brought back by another stage; there are, there
fore, constantly new acquaintances to be made.
The frequency of these vehicles, the ease of get
ting seats even for a short distance, the fked
prices (and that too, low) one and afl prove an
invitation to Americans to travel. The price is
tffiee cents a mfle. These stages possess the pe
cuhar advantage of disseminatmg the idea of
equality. A Member of Congress is seated be
side a laborer who voted for him and they talk
together with perfect famffiarity. You do not
see people puttmg on ahs, wffich you find so
often in France, where a man of the world would
blush to travel in so unworthy a vefficle as
a public dffigence. Private carriages humffiate
those unable to afford them; therefore, it is weU
for America that the nature of things prevents
tffis distmction between private and pubhc ve
fficles. The ordinary man — that is to say an
artisan or workman, who finds ffimseff in these
stages with a distinguished citizen, keeps quiet,
or tries, if he takes part in the conversation, to
rise to the level of the other, — at least he learns
somethmg. The man of distinction, for the same
reason, has less pride and learns more of the true
[219]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
sentiments of the people. I travelled ffil through
New Jersey in a coach of tffis kind with the son
of Governor Livingstone. I woffid not have
known it (so unostentatious and plain was ffis
appearance) if, from time to time, the innkeepers
at the stops had not saluted ffim with an air of
respectfffi famiharity. They told me that the
Governor himself often availed himself of these
stages. You will have an idea of tffis respected
man who, at the same time, wrote, governed, and
labored, when you learn that he did ffimseff the
honor of being called 'The Jersey Farmer.' The
advantages afforded by these stagecoaches cause
women to make use of them. They are often
alone and unaccompaffied by friends, but they
have notffing to fear from insolence or from the
questionable and sometimes loose conversation of
young men — a sort of talk wffich is, uffiortunately,
too common in French and English stagecoaches.
This association ofmen and women wffile traveffing
cannot but mffintain purity of manners, and prove
that they are respected; ff they were not, women
woffid keep away. I have heard Frenchmen find
fault with the frequent change of coaches, but
tffis custom is reasonable and has advantages.
In the first place, the drivers are also changed,
for they Uve in different towns along the road,
and arrange among themselves to furffish the
horses and coaches. A New Yorker drives the
[ 220 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
coach as far as Newark, and an inhabitant thereof
takes it on to Elizabethtown. Often it is the
owner of the coach who drives, sometimes he has
it driven by a servant. He is sure, therefore,
that ffis horses wiU not be worn out with fatigue,
and that his coach wiU be properly kept up,
which woffid not be the case if the drivers were
strangers. The same horses and coach take back
travellers who are on the return trip, and this
arrangement enables the stage-owners to make a
low charge. It woffid cost me about three times
as much to travel in France, besides the petty
vexations of paying postilhons, which is unknown
here. It is true that the coaches do not carry
heavy luggage but tffis is not so bad, for trav
eUers take only what is necessary, that is to say,
a smffil piece of hand-luggage. They are, there
fore, forced to be simple, and whfle traveffing do
not load themselves hke Europeans with a lot of
troublesome necessities. An American travels
with ffis comb and ffis razor, a couple of sffirts,
and some cravats."
Almost all the French traveUers express sur
prise that innkeepers in America were generaUy
men of substance and of importance in the com-
muffity, frequently bemg retired army officers,
sometimes of high rank, and far different from
the low fellows who kept inns in Europe. Chas
teUux tells of an inn called "Morehouse Tavern,"
[221 ]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
whose landlord was a colonel, and Segur confesses
that "I was somewhat surprised upon entering a
tavern to fmd that it was kept by a Captffin, a
Major, or a Colonel, who conversed equaUy weU
on his campffigns agffinst the English, upon the
cultivation of ffis land, the sale of his products,
or ffis income. I was still more astonished when,
having rephed to some questions concerffing my
family and having told them that my father was
a General and a Cabmet Miffister, to have them
ask what was ffis other profession or business.
I always found m inns clean rooms, tables wefl
served (abundant but wholesome and simple),
drinks a trifle too strong, rum, or cinnamon tea,
weak coffees, and excellent tea."
From Cromot du Bourg we learn that not offiy
were our innkeepers occasionafly former army offi
cers, but ffiso that some of them were in the learned
professions. Chasteflux says: "Mr. Poops took
me to Mr. Smith's inn; tffis Mr. Smith was both
innkeeper and lawyer. He had quite a pretty
hbrary, and ffis son, whom Mr. Poops presented
to me upon my arrivffi, appeared a well-educated
and well-mannered youth. I begged ffim to dine
with us, as well as another young man who was
lodged there. This latter had come from the
island of Domiffique, where he was born, to finish
his stuffies among the Americans, to whom he
seemed much more attached than to the EngUsh.
[222 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
He had chosen Easton as heffitffier and more
peacefffi than the other towns of America, and
he found in Mr, Smith's lessons and books afl
the instruction that he coffid deshe,"
Brissot, the pffilosopffical, perceives good reasons
for the importance in the commuffity enjoyed by
those who kept the inns: "An innkeeper is natur
aUy respected in a country where money is scarce,
because he receives more of it than other people.
Money has at its command the necessities of life
and — as a resffit — ^means a good bed, good things
to eat, attentive servants, and yet one does not
give tips in the inns nor to the drivers of stage
coaches, wffich is an exceUent plan. Beside the
fact that tffis tipping becomes insupportable be
cause of the persecution it causes, it ffiso gives
men an ffir of baseness, and accustoms them to
servile cupidity," Bayard says that "we were
lodged with Madame Tffiokmorton, a relative of
Generffi Wasffington. Board cost three doflars
a week. Tffis good American lady, because of
careless^ess uncommon among those who keep
boardmg houses, made rather a mess of her affahs.
Madame Throkmorton had about forty boarders,
for whom she set an excellent table." We ffiso
find a unanimity of opiffion upon the cleanhness
everywhere observable in the inns. From Bris
sot we leam: "We never stopped at a tavem with
out finffing everywhere cleanhness, decency, and
[223]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
digffity. The table is often served by a modest
and pretty young lady, by an amiable mother
whose pleasant face has not been affected by age,
and who still preserves her freshness; by men
with that ah of dignity which equahty gives, and
who are neither ignoble nor low like most of our
innkeepers." The Frenchmen never overcame their surprise
at the lack of distmction of caste between the
host and the customers of an inn; even unaristo-
cratic Brissot noticed that "the innkeeper (Mrs.
Robinson) was taking tea with her mffids; she
invited us to join her and we accepted. We have
notffing, and I repeat it, wffich is comparable to
tffis in France. The mffids in the inns are dressed
very neatly and have a modest and honest ap
pearance, and this remark may be made in every
part of the Uffited States." From the exfled
aristocrat, the Due de La Rochefoucaffid, we have:
"It appeared strange to Europeans to see the
mistresses of inns and theh housemffids (who
served the dinner and breakfast) sit down wffile
wffiting till you ask them for a plate; and that
the innkeeper attended to your wants at table
with ffis hat on ffis head, — ^but in America the
innkeeper is often a Captain or a Major. I have
seen stagecoach drivers who were Colonels, so
simple is life in America." From Lafayette we
have sometffing to the same effect: "These tffings
[224]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
are very different from Europe. The master and
the mistress sit down at table with you, do the
honors of an exceflent repast, and when you
leave, you pay without bargaiffing. When you
do not want to go to an inn, you find country-
houses where the fact that you are a good Ameri
can causes you to be received with the atten
tions wffich you woffid have in Europe from a
friend." It is ChasteUux that sets out most in detail tffis
un-European system of pffid hospitahty, generafly
to be found in such towns as lacked inns: "The
place where I was to stop was Farmington. Mr,
Wadsworth, fearing that I would not find a good
inn there, gave me a letter of introduction to one
of ffis relatives named Lewis; he assured me that
I woffid be wefl received without mconveffienc-
ing anybody, and need not be embarrassed be
cause I would pay just as ff at an inn; and it was
true, for when the inns are bad or the ffistances
between them do not coffiorm with the days'
journeys wffich one plans to make, it is the cus
tom in America to ask hospitahty from some pri
vate mffividuffi who has room for you in ffis
house, and for your horses in ffis stable. In tffis
way one converses with one's host as an equal,
but pays him as though he were offiy an inn
keeper," He comments again upon tffis custom:
"We left there about noon in order to go on
[225]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
twenty-four miles to the offiy house where we
could find a comfortable place. It was not an
inn, but the proprietor, Mr. Hunter, was glad to
receive strangers. Tffis difference between a real
inn and pffid hospitahty is to the financial advan
tage of foreigners, because in America, as in Eng
land, innkeepers pay ffigh taxes, and they reim
burse themselves by exorbitant charges. Mr.
Hunter received us very well and in a very clean
house." Du Rourg tells us that at Mr. Wacker's
house near Bffitimore, "they gave us an exceflent
supper and exceUent beds, our servants and horses
were weU treated, and when it came time to pay,
he refused to accept more than five sffilhngs." Nor
was there any danger of travellers faring badly at
these private houses, for "the Americans hve weU,"
says Brissot, "and treat strangers as they treat
themselves." Perrm du Lac was the offiy one to make any
reference to the keeping of a register of guests.
"One day ffi Newark," says he, "the lanffiord
showed us a tffick book in wffich it was the cus
tom to inscribe the names of strangers, at the
head of wffich we read those of Washmgton and
his wffe. Some had added phrases expressing
their impressions of this picturesque place. The
French ones had the ffistinctive character of their
nation — ^love of pleasure and of women; the Eng
Ush were profound or libertine, but the Americans
[226]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
were content to write their names without add
ing anytffing thereto."
These writers do not seem unanimous upon the
question of expense at American tavems, De Kalb
writes, June 18, 1777: "Food, lodgings, horses —
everythmg is extremely ffigh." Brissot says: "We
dmed at the tavern at Cambridge. I never paid so
dearly for a diimer — about ten sffilhngs or eight
French Uvres for beef, two cffickens, a haff bottle
of madeha, a pot of porter, and two cups of coffee.
The coffee ffione cost us a shflhng. It would be
unfair not to give the reason for this dearness; —
Cambridge is a university town and much fre
quented." On the other hand, wffile going from
New York to Pffiladelpffia Michaux (juffior) pffid
at the taverns where the coach stopped "a piastre
for ffinner, a haff of that for supper or breakfast,
and the same for lodging." Surely not exorbi
tant prices! Brissot ffiso shows us that reason
able arrangements coffid be made : " Board by the
week — and almost ffil the strangers and Members of
Congress are in boardmg-houses — ^was four or five
dollars, wffich is thirty-one to forty-two hvres, and
one pffid extra for French wine." Michaux (juffior)
remarks that "boarding houses in New York
charge 8 to 12 piastres a week. Living is cheaper
there than in Charleston," where they charge "12
to 20 piastres a week." In Pffiladelpffia he found
the prices even lower, paying offiy 6 to 10 piastres
[227]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
a week, but La Rochefoucauld records them as "8
to 12, without wine, Ughts, or ai fire in your bed
room." Deux-Ponts noticed that board cost about
twice as much per week in Phfladelphia and the
other larger cities near the seaboard as in the
towns of the mterior.
There is one point, however, upon which the
foreigners are ffil qffite decided in their criticism,
nor will you blame them when you hear from
St. Mery that he "protested agffinst the Ameri
can custom prevalent in aU hotels of putting an
other man into the bed in wffich you were sleep
ing." Michaux (juffior) says: "There were always
several beds ffi each sleeping room," and he reports
that at Mr. Patrick Arcffibffid's near Pittsburgh
there were four beds in one room to accommodate
the ten members of ffis family, plus any passing
strangers who might wish to spend the ffight!
No wonder the French thought us an easy-gomg
and harmoffious people ! La Rochefoucaffid says of
Bath, New York : " Although we slept in the tavern
we passed ahnost ffil our days m the Captam's
house where we were quieter than in that noisy
inn, no bigger than your hand, and so fuU of
people that one ffight we slept twenty-five m two
rooms and six beds, and these rooms were offiy
Uttle garrets open to the wind and the rffin."
Tffis must have been a singffiarly distressing cus
tom, and it is not surprising that even the imper-
[228]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
turbable Segur says that he found it ffifficult to
accustom himseff thereto. Prince de BrogUe
gratefuUy records: "I had so great an aversion
to sleepmg ffi company that I was accorded the
favor of not being waked up during the ffight by
some unknown newcomer." The Marquise de la
Tour du Pm was awakened at Lebanon, New
York, by a voUey of French oaths from an ad-
joiffing room. Next morffing her husband's friend
Monsieur Chambeau, told her that "about mid
ffight he had been aroused by a man who with
out more ado had slipped into the empty haff of
ffis bed. Furious at tffis invasion, he promptly
jumped out the other side and passed the ffight
in a chair hsteffing to the snores of ffis com-
paffion, who seemed in no wise disturbed by his
anger." St. Mery prffises the watchmen who, in Pffila
delpffia, caUed out the hours from 10 p. m. to 5
A. M., and comments upon how pleasant it is to
lie in a warm bed and hear the watchmen shout
that it is snowing outside ! We can hardly agree
with him when he adds: "They ffiso possess a
pecuUar value for travellers because they arouse
them at any hour desired so that they may set
out upon their journey betimes." Yes, but how
about the interrupted slumber of the rest of the
street ?
In closmg, and by way of realizmg how much
[229]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
better our ancestors fared wffile on a joumey
than any one then travelhng in Europe, Brissot's
conclusions Eu-e iUuminating: "We reached the
first inn at Spenser, a growing village in the midst
of the woods; thus far there are offiy three or
four houses to be seen. The inn was offiy haff
buflt, but the completed portion had that air of
cleaffiiness wffich pleases because it announces
comfort and those simple and refined customs of
which there is not even a suspicion in our viUages.
The rooms were clean, the beds good, the hnen
wffite, the supper passable; cider, tea, punch, aU
that for a sffiffing and a half or two sffiUmgs a
head; we were four. Now, my friend, compare
tffis order of tffings with that which you have
encountered a hundred times in our French inns;
dirty ugly rooms, beds full of bugs (those insects
which Sterne caUed 'the legitimate inhabitants of
inns, ffiways supposing,' said he, 'that a long pos
session gives a legal right'), linen badly bleached
and giving out an unpleasant odor, evil coverhds,
wine almost always spoiled, and ffil tffis for its
weight in gold; rapacious servants, disagreeable
except when their hopes are aroused by your style
of traveffing, rushing toward a rich arrival but
msolent toward one whom they consider of small
importance; — there you have the eternal tor
ments wffich attend travellers in France, — add to
those the fear of being robbed, and the precau-
t23o]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
tions wffich one must take every night to prevent
theft, while throughout the United States you
travel without fear and unharmed, and, even
deep ffi the forests, you repose tranqffifly ffi open
rooms or houses with unlocked doors. Now
judge wffich is the country that deserves the name
of civilized, and wffich one offers the aspect of
generffi happmess! Cleanhness you know, my
friend, is happiness, and tffis is why you find it
everywhere among the Americans, even down to
the smaUest detffils."

[23l]

CHAPTER X
EDUCATION, COLLEGES, NEWSPAPERS,
INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Suppose that some French traveller, who spoke
no Enghsh, shoffid find himseff in the Grand
Centrffi Station, New York City, with no inter
preter at hand, and suppose he tried, by speaking
Latin, to make hunseff understood by some one
of the passing throng — ^how long do you suppose
he would have to wffit to accomphsh ffis purpose.!*
It makes one hungry and thirsty and sleepy to
tffink upon the hours and the endurance such a
task woffid necessitate! And would tffis not be
equffily true ffi any part of the Uffited States ex
cept in certffin learned uffiversity circles."* Yet
during Revolutionary times the abiUty to speak
Latin was not uncommon among our educated
classes. Blanchard, quartermaster of the French
forces, teUs of a trip to a garden two mfles out of
Providence with Generffi Varnum, commander of
the locffi mihtia, to play at bowls, and inciden-
taUy to partake of punch and tea; ffithough he
knew offiy a few words of Enghsh, he got on
famously, because "Generffi Varnum spoke Latin."
[232]

FRENCH MEMORIES
On another occasion a hussar who spoke Latin
acted as ffis interpreter wffile purchasing sup
phes. Nor were incidents of that nature reported
offiy by tffis erudite quartermaster, whose mter-
esting narrative shows ffis enthusiasm for tffings
American tempered offiy by ffis disgust at Ameri
can bread, and the constant difficffity of procur-
mg sufficient for Rochambeau's troops, even on
one occasion bringing down on his perplexed head
the wrath of that exacting commander. Times
have changed, and that many of our coUege-bred
folk coffid then converse in Latin may or may
not have been a fine thing, depending on one's
point of view. But there can be no difference of
opiffion as to the wide enjoyment of a common-
school education by the contemporaries of those
early Ungffists, wffich was then as surprising to
foreigners as is to us the facihty m Latm speech
just cited. St. Mery was offiy one of many to
be amazed that "everybody in the Uffited States
can read and write, ffithough ahnost no French
saflor is able to do so," and Michaux agrees that
"it is very rare to find an American who does not
know how both to read and to write." Even the
ever-criticffi Beaujour admits that "primary in
struction is widely spread in the different States,
and especiaUy in those ffiong the Atlantic, where
ahnost everyone knows how to read, write, and
figure." Dupont beheved that "paternal tender-
[233]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ness, by not setting chfldren to work in the fields
tifl very late, is the reason for the generffi spread
of education." Bonnet was much struck by the
fact that, not content with schools like those in
Europe, "in severffi places they have ffiso estab
hshed ffight schools for such young people as have
to work during the day."
The acqffisition in youth of tffis generffi boon
was apt to be a pffinfffi and somewhat harrowing
experience, ff Bayard is to be beheved : " The school
masters employ a system better sffited for trffiffing
slaves than forming citizens. An EngUsh or Ameri
can school-teacher is the most dreary and pedantic
personage that limited knowledge has ever pro
duced. Dr. Benjamin Rush has in vffin recom
mended the humane methods of J. J. Rousseau.
The pedants have unanimously rejected them, and
continue to purchase a very modest amount of in
formation with blows of the wffip. Their cffief
argument in favor of that method is that otherwise
their digffity might be compromised by the pranks
of a bright and hvely chfld, — that the disciphne of
theh school runs tffis terrible risk. ' But you shoffid
dismiss the insuborffinate,' you answer them.
'A detestable plan,' repUes the vendor of knowl
edge, ' there goes my pay for a whole quarter right
out of my pocket ! It is better to whip scholars
than to let them go.' The uffiortunates who tofl
under the direction of these pedants soon lose
[234]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
that sweetness of character wffich they took to
school, and you see them emergmg from theh
torture-chamber tormentmg and beating each
other." As bahn for our aroused sympathies,
and an antidote against a too-confiding behef in
youtMul torture as depicted by Bayard, it is re-
fresffing to read of Blanchard's experience, who,
a few days after ffis landmg, visited a school in
Newport, and remarking upon the handwriting
of a httle ghl of nme years, whose beauty and
modesty he adiffired, and whose name (Abigale
Earl) he kept, puts down in ffis journal: "She
is what I would like to see my little girl when she
reaches her age," and he writes in her copybook
at the end of the httle ghl's name, "very pretty."
"The schoolmaster," he added, "had neither the
ah of a pedant nor of a missionary, but of a father
of a famfly."
Our system of co-education of young cffildren
was a novelty to the Frenchmen. Says Perrin
du Lac: "What a diBFerence between theh sys
tem of education and ours ! With us, from the
tenderest years, the httle ghls are separated from
the httle boys, and kept under the eye of theh
mothers or governesses. Here, the two sexes are
contmuaUy tffiown together throughout their
cffildhood, go to the same schools and are taught
ahke. When theh pubhc education is fiffished
at the age of twelve or tffirteen, the ghls lose
[235]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
none of the freedom enjoyed in childhood. Theh
school-friends, or those made elsewhere, visit
them freely whether or not theh parents are
present." It was a sore triffi to several of the Frenchmen
that we did not promptly decide to discard the
EngUsh language at the same time that we threw
off theh authority. Even the wfldest optiiffist
of them aU coffid not have foreseen a day when
the fringe of coloffies ffiong the Atlantic woffid
have grown into a nation with twice the popula
tion of the British Isles, thus becommg much the
largest Enghsh-speaking power, and therefore
there were then some grounds for the French de
she that we shoffid renounce the language of as
weU as our aUegiance to our EngUsh foes. But
wffich tongue was to be adopted as our national
language!* Here was a puzzhng problem. Two
suggestions then advanced deserve notice, be
cause they came from such thoughtfffi and acute
observers as Brissot and ChasteUux. The former
holds that notffing abrupt should be attempted,
as a change in our speech was aheady commenc
ing and woffid mevitably develop: "They shoffid,
if possible, seek to obhterate theh origin, and re
move every trace of it, and since theh language
wffi ffiways give them the he, they shoffid make
such innovations in it as they have attempted in
theh Constitution. What should prevent their
[236]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
adopting certam terms from the French. I* The
Americans are coming nearer to other peoples,
and they are movmg further away from the
Enghsh. They are developing a language wffich
wiU be thehs alone, and there wiU be an American
language." ChasteUux, on the other hand, dis
cusses a proposition that we should adopt Hebrew
ffi its enthety as a substitute for Enghsh. If he
were to return in the flesh and see how numerous
are the Hebrew signs ffisplayed ffi New York shop
wmdows, he woffid conclude that the generffi
esteem enjoyed by our Hebrew feflow citizens
must have made the adoption of theh language
a more serious proposal now than it was when he
wrote of it so flippantly. Neither of those writers
took so gloomy a view as Beaujour, who, wffile
despondently submitting to our continued use of
Enghsh, regretfuUy points out that "they wfll
never have, or at least not tifl very late, a Utera
ture of theh own, because they lack a national
language, and because Enghsh hterature wffi take
the place of their own!" Shades of Poe and
Hawthorne, of Bret Harte and Mark Twam !
ChasteUux has already told us of ffis astoffish-
ment that Mrs. Meredith, a Phfladelpffia lady,
shoffid know as much of French ffistory as he
himseff, but even greater was ffis surprise when,
turffing from the realms of society to the humbler
sphere of a pubhc inn, he finds on the parlor
[237]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
table at Courtheath Tavern, "Milton, Addison,
Richardson, and several other books of that
sort," the property of the tavern-keeper's two
young sisters, and read by them when not busy
waiting on travellers! Another gUmpse at the
education then enjoyed by American women is
furffished by that distinguished exfle, the Due de
La Rochefoucaffid-Liancourt, who traveUed so ex
tensively in the Uffited States during 1795, 1796,
and 1797. He noticed at the house of old Generffi
Warren that "ffis wife, of the same age as he, is
much more interesting in conversation. Contrary
to the custom of American women, she has been
busy aU her life with all sorts of readmg. She
has even printed one or two successful volumes of
poetry, and has written a ffistory ofthe Revolution
wffich she had the modesty and good taste not
to wish pubUshed untfl after her death. Tffis
good lady of seventy is amiable and has lost none
of her activity, nor of her sensibihty, for she stffi
mourns a son whom she lost in the War. They
assured me that the Uterary occupations of tffis
estimable dame have not diverted her attention
from the duties of housekeeping." These two ex
amples, from widely differing sociffi spheres, taken
together make out an exceflent case for the ade
quacy of the education of our women, whatever
their walk in hfe.
As forecasters of the future, upon anytffing
[238]

Mercy Warren, wife of General Warren.
From the painting by Copley.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
except the generahty of a glorious growth for the
Uffited States, the French were distinctly unsuc
cessful — upon any detafls of the said growth
they usually guessed wrong: Chesapeake Bay did
not become our great centre, we did not grow
steaffily more lazy and lymphatic, etc., etc.; one
successfffi prophecy by Beaujour anent our ad
vance in the mechaffical arts therefore deserves
especiffi attention: "Although the Americans
have made httle progress in science and the arts,
they carefufly cffitivate the more usuffi branches
of learffing, and one may judge from resffits that
they have no less aptitude for them than other
nations. They have very learned men in medi-
cme and naturffi ffistory, such as Dr. Rush, Wis-
tar, Muffienburg, Michel, Barton, and some very
ffistmgffished amateurs of agriculture like Presi
dent Jefferson, Chanceflor Livingston, and Hum
phries. In inventions, they have had Frankhn,
Rittenhausen, Goffid, and they now have Fffiton.
They even pretend that the squaring of the
circle, attributed to the Englishman, Hadley, is
the invention of theh compatriot, Godfrey.
Wffile Americans show a marked inchnation for
science and the mechafficffi arts, they show less
for hterature and the fine arts. Nevertheless
they have had some writers who merit distinc
tion such as Ramsay, Franklin, Jefferson, Barlow;
the latter's poem 'The Colombiad,' ffithough lack-
[239]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ing animation and grace, stiU shows some origi-
nahty, and is fffil of Uberffi ideas and generous
sentiments. One may therefore predict for Ameri
cans the greatest success m science and the
mechaffical arts, but not the same successes in the
fine arts."
That our cofleges were performing a great and
a patriotic service for the rising generation, and
therefore for the future of the nation, was the
unanimous opiffion of our observers, who reaUzed
how potent was theh agency for good. Chastel-
lux, in one of ffis quffint moods, even goes so far
as to creffit the coUege of Wiffiam and Mary with
a "miracle, that is to say, it made me a Doctor
of Law!" — an agreeably modest way of saying
that on May 1, 1782, they presented him with an
honorary degree.
Before further consideration of coUeges and col
lege Ufe, there is a serious admission to make, wffich
to some readers will prove a dishearteffing one,
viz.: that, except for Brissot's comment that Har
vard's "surroundings are charming, open, and ex
tensive, with space for the young men's exercise,"
there is absolutely notffing in aU these memohs to
indicate that atffietic sports even existed in Ameri
can coUeges. What a dreadfffi exposition of the
inadequacy of early college life ! How much times
have changed can be seen by reflecting that in
order to fiiU the sixty-seven thousand seats of the
[24o]

The colleges at Cambridge.
After the engraving by S, Hill in the collection of Charles A. Munn.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
new stadium at Yale Uffiversity (locafly styled
"the Bowl") it woffid, as we have already seen,
have reqffired more than the combined popffiation
of Boston, New York, and Phfladelpffia. All that
the French had to say of college life in those early
days may not meet with the unqualffied approval
of the modern undergraduate. For instance, such
ideas as Dupont's, that studies should begin at 5
A. M. during the summer and at 6 A. M. in winter.
To the patriotic stand taken by aU our coUeges
many glowing tributes are paid, and in these
encomiums the students share equaUy with theh
instructors. No finer type of coUege-bred pa
triot can be cited than Captffin Nathan Hffie,
Yffie, 1773, who ffied with the glorious regret on
ffis hps that he had but one Iffe to give for ffis
country. The coUeges strove for the cause with
bram as weU as brawn, as appears from more than
a few appreciations of the exceUent poUtical pam
phlets of President StUes of Yffie, and other col
legians hke him. They taught with their Uves as
weU as theh voices, ffid these early instructors —
"Uving books," ChasteUux caUs them, of a "coun
try aheady so distingffished for academies and
uffiversities equffi to those of the old world."
Warm approval of the system of removing
coUeges from the influence of large cities is ac
corded by Abbe Robin, a chaplffin in Rocham
beau's army, whose memohs are of more than
[24X]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
usuffi interest, so meUow are ffis appreciations of
men and tffings: "There has been shown us in
Europe the physicffi and moral danger of educa
tion in large cities. The Rostoffians have done
more, they have prevented it. Theh uffiversity
is at Cambridge, four miles from Boston on the
banks of the River Charles, in a dehghtfffi and
heffithy situation." Its site is ffiso approved by
Brissot for the same reason: "Tffis uffiversity is
far enough from Boston so that the tumult of
business does not at aU interrupt study. There
one can give oneseff over to that meditation wffich
sohtude ffione permits. It is ffiso sufficiently re
moved so that the arrivffi of strangers and that
sort of hcense which is carried on in a commercial
city (even in a free State) shaU have no influence
upon the habits of the students." Of another in
stitution, wffich had been located in a city, we
read: "One regrets offiy that tffis new academy
had not been erected far from the city, in some
rurffi retreat, where the scholars woffid have been
further removed from the tumffits of business,
and the dissipations and pleasures so numerous
in large cities." Thus wrote J. Hector Sain1>John
de Crevecoeur, the most widely read of afl these
French writers, member of leamed societies on
both sides of the Atlantic, friend of Wasffington
and FrankUn, and for some time French Consffi
at New York. He sold for thirty gffineas ffis
[242]

Ezra Stiles, president of Yale.
From the portrait by Reuben Moulthrop, 1794,

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
famous "Letters from an American Farmer," a
book that Wasffington declared woffid "afford a
great deffi of profitable and amusive iffiormation" ;
neither of them foresaw the great vogue it was
destmed to enjoy, both in its Enghsh and French
forms. The mdividuffi uffiversities and coUeges of our
country eUcited frequent comments and general
praise from the French. Of Harvard we learii
from Brissot that "Boston has had the glory of
giving the first uffiversity to America. The
bffilffing ffi wffich the students and professors as
semble is situated in a superb plffin four mfles
from Boston ffi a place cafled Cambridge. The
bffilffing is divided into different parts very weU
ffistributed. As the students, who arrive from
aU over the Uffited States, are numerous, and the
number is constantly mcreasing, additions wffi
have to be bffilt. The course of study is ahnost
the same as at the Uffiversity of Oxford." He
gives an account of Mr. "Beaudoffin" the presi
dent, and of the ffistingffished professors who as
sist him, and then goes on to describe how patri
otic is the solemn festivffi celebrated the tffird
Wednesday of Jffiy, in honor of learffing: "Tffis
festivffi wffich takes place in afl the American col
leges, but on ffifferent days, is cffiled the 'Com
mencement.' It is similar to the exercises and
ffistribution of prizes in our coUeges. It is a
[243]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
day of joy for Boston; almost aU the inhabitants,
with aU the government officers, set out for the
beautifffi plffin of Cambridge. The most success
fffi students there display their tffient in the pres
ence of the public, and receive prizes, and these
academic exercises, of wffich patriotic subjects
form the principal part, end with an entertain
ment out of doors at wffich frankness, gffiety, and
the most toucffing fraternity reign." In these
days of constant increase in the cost of hving, it
is ffishearteffing, not to say exasperating, to read in
La Rochefoucaffid that the Harvard undergradu
ates "are subject to the modest tax of sixteen dol
lars for each one of the four years that they stay
there, and six doUars per month pays for their
food. If after theh four years of residence, they
deshe to prolong theh study to take degrees,
they no longer pay the sixteen doUars, but only
the rent of theh rooms."
Of Yffie there are numerous and favorable ac
counts. It is comforting to leam that "the young
students, who are there in great numbers, are sub
jected to very wise regffiations." La Roche
foucaffid reports that "there is in New Haven a
coflege of an already ancient foundation, where
they assure you that the instruction is as good as
in any other of the Uffited States," and Man
driflon agrees that in New Haven "the instruc
tion of youth is very carefiffiy conducted, and to
[244]

Copyright by W T Lilhg & Co.

Buildings of Yale College, New Haven.
From the engraving by A. P. Doolittle, 1807.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
that end they have founded a college wffich is
largely attended." That same city so ffigffiy ap
preciated the vffiue of the services the French
were rendering our country, not offiy by theh
swords, but ffiso theh pens, that they voted the
freedom of the city to sundry soldiers and httera-
teurs of that friendly nation. Tffis act enabled
the Marqffis de Condorcet, when adding four
letters to Mazzei's book, to use the nom de plume
of "A Burgess of New-Heaven." Candor compels
the admission that the spelhng used by ffim for
the last word was offiy an uffintentional comph
ment to life in the City of Ehns.
Because of the long sojourn of the French army
in Rhode Island, there are frequent complimen
tary references to Brown University, ffithough La
Rochefoucaffid ranks it after Yffie and Harvard:
"The coUege is mffintffined at Providence by
legacies, gifts, and private subscriptions, but as
it is mcompletely kept up, famffies who wish to
give theh chfldren a more carefffi education send
them to Massachusetts or Connecticut. The
principal gffts to the coflege have been made by
a Baptist. He has imposed the conffition that
the cffief posts and most of the others also must
be filled by men of that persuasion, and that
fact has drawn to tffis State a greater number of
that sect than of any other."
Because of the sedate reputation wffich Prmce-
[245]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ton has earned and long enjoyed, the author does
not hesitate to discharge ffis duty as historian by
quoting in fufl St. Mery's remarks concerffing
that distingffished institution: "Princeton has
one college, with a brick waU around a dhty
courtyard, wffich is a bad example to set the
students. There is ffiso an old cannon wffich is
m bad condition. In Nassau HaU are forty-two
bedrooms, each for three students. Although
there is room for one hundred and twenty stu
dents, there are generaUy offiy about eighty in
residence, mostly from Vhgiffia and the two
CaroUnas. The Ufe there is too easy-going.
Gaming and loose Uving occupy the students
more than study." ChasteUux was a most dis
criminating observer, so that over against those
just quoted shaU be set ffis remarks upon what
he caUs "Prince-Town": "Tffis town is situated
on a sort of sUghtly elevated plateau sloping off
on every side. It has but one street, wffich is
formed by the ffighway. The houses are to the
number of sixty or eighty, aU pretty weU built,
but they are hardly noticed because one's atten
tion is at once cafled to an immense bffilding
easily seen from a distance. It is a coUege that
the State of New Jersey built severffi years before
the War. As tffis bffilding is remarkable for its
size alone, it is useless to describe it. I ffis-
mounted for a moment to go tffiough the vast
[246]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
edffice. I was joined ahnost immediately by Mr.
Withersporn [sic]. President of the Uffiversity. He
is a man of at least sixty years of age, a Mem
ber of Congress, and very highly esteemed in ffis
country. In meeting me he spoke French, but
I easfly perceived that he had acqffired the use
of tffis language rather by reading than by con
versation, wffich ffid not prevent me from reply
ing to him in French, for I saw that he was very
pleased to show that he knew it. With an annual
expenffiture of forty gffineas, parents can keep
theh chfldren ffi tffis coUege. Lodgffig and the
teachers take up haff of tffis sum, and the rest is
for food, either at the coUege itseff or in board
ing-houses in the town. Since the War this use
ful mstitution has faUen into decay. They had
gotten together a great number of books, most of
wffich had been dispersed. The EngUsh had
even taken from the chapel the portrffit of the
Ring of England, but the Americans were easfly
consoled for tffis loss, saying that they ffid not
want a Kmg, — not even a pffinted one."
Of far wider scope than the educationffi influ
ences exercised by our uffiversities and cofleges is,
and ffiways has been, that wielded by our news
papers, and from the very beginffing of our re
pubUc the character of those educating and en-
Ughteffing pubhcations has been of an excellence
unsurpassed in foreign lands. One has offiy to
[247]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
recaU that Benjamin Franklin, our first and great
est diplomat, was a member of that worthy guild
to reahze the ffigh type of many of the men con
cerned in the presentation of current events to
our pubhc thhsty for iffiormation. No wonder
Robin remarks that "almost afl take the news
paper which is printed in theh neighborhood,"
or that "aU, from the Congressman to the work
man, read one or other of the thousands of news
papers wffich appear." Dupont observed that
whfle "a large part of the nation reads the Bible;
ffil of it assiduously peruse the newspapers. The
fathers read them aloud to their children wffile
the mothers are preparing breakfast, sometffing
wffich takes at least three quarters of an hour
every morffing." "Very numerous," says Deux-
Ponts, "are theh newspapers or gazettes, in-
faffible barometers of pubhc opiffion, for theh
editors woffid have no sffie if they did not print
what the majority Uked. Back in the country
they offiy appear weekly, but in towns of the
second class twice a week, whfle in the large cities
they come out morffing, noon, and night. Tffis
multipUcity of papers, dangerous where unneces
sary, is advantageous in the United States. It
woffid be difficffit to invent a better gffide for
pubUc opinion." Brissot reffiizes that "those
newspapers are the channel of information in
America, and that is why they are kept so gener-
[248]

Nassau Hall.
After aa old print which appears in "An Account of the College of New Jersey, 1764."

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
aUy iffiormed." Says Bonnet: "They take an
interest in pohtics because they read the news
papers, of wffich more than 30,000 sheets are
pubhshed each week m the five New England
states alone."
Minister Ternant wrote home, August 19, 1792:
"The newspapers are fiUed dffily with articles either
defenffing or bitterly attacking the new federal
government, as weU as the actions of its principal
agents, and each party seeks thus to win the ap
proacffing elections." So important ffid he con
sider it that ffis government be kept constantly
advised of the opiffions expressed in the American
newspapers that he regffiarly forwarded it two of
them pubhshed in Pffiladelpffia, "one (the General
Advertiser) is the property of the celebrated Dr.
FrankUn's grandson and successor as printer, and
the other (the National Gazette) is edited by a Mr.
Fresneau, an employee of the State Department."
The great pohticffi usefffiness of these numerous
public prints especiaUy appealed to Lafayette:
" In tffis happy country, where everyone hears of
and follows the course of public events, news
papers prove of great assistance in the Revolu
tionary cause." In Boston, says Bourgeois, "there
are printed, just as in London, not offiy books
but also daily sheets cafled 'papers,' wffich have
encouraged both credffiity and fanaticism among
them — what a curious coUection it would be if
[249]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
there were gotten together aU the different
gazettes pubhshed in Boston, and chcffiated
thence throughout the Uffited States!" He
seemed to tffink the editors capable of sometimes
coloring the news to suit their own wishes, and
Generffi Moreau ffiso thought "the newspapers of
this land do not ffiways teU the truth, when it is
a question of theh own interests."
Savarin gives amusing testimony to the prompt
enterprise displayed by the New York newspapers,
wffich "reported fairly accurately " a drinking bout
in wffich he and two French friends were pitted
agffinst two Englishmen from Jamffica. Tffis was
in 1794, and he tells us that what the New York
reporters printed of tffis baccffic struggle was
copied by other papers all over the country.
There is sometffing qffite modern in the story of
how Perrin du Lac learned of the enterprise of
our reporters before he had time to notice any
tffing else American. The boat on wffich he ar
rived was inspected by the medicffi officer from
the quarantine station just off Staten Island.
"Hardly had we agffin hoisted safl than we saw
approacffing severffi newspaper men anxious to
get the latest news from Europe. We gave them
such newspapers as we had, and in return therefor
they took ashore with them such passengers as
wished to land."
Even in the then most sparsely settled regions,
[25o]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
the newspapers' educating influence was con
stantly exerted. "In the province of Mffin [sic]
they only print one newspaper twice a week,"
says La Rochefoucaffid, "but that is an hnportant
one. It is widely circulated in the country dis
tricts, and read with interest. Newspapers are
more numerous in New Hampshire, tffiee of them
are printed at Portsmouth, two at Dover, and one
at Darmouth [sic] on the Connecticut River,
where the state college is located." St. Mery tefls
us that in Norfolk, Vhgiffia, there were two
printing offices, two newspapers, and a loan hbrary,
but he gives the pahn to Phfladelpffia, with its
tffirty-one printing offices, and tffirteen news
papers. In tffis conclusion severffi other writers
agree, among them Brissot: "There is no city on
tffis continent where they print so much as in
Phfladelpffia. The printing offices, the news
papers, and the bookseflers are as numerous there
as the bookseflers are throughout the State."
Whfle speaking of Lexington's two presses, each
printing a biweekly gazette, Michaux (juffior)
comments that "some of the paper is made in
tffis country and costs a tffird more than in
France; writing-paper is imported from England."
It is perhaps surprising to learn that the early
American gazettes did not confine themselves to
neighborhood, or even to American news. It was
from a Boston newspaper that the Marqffise de
[25l]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
la Tour du Pin learned that her father. Colonel
Arthur Dillon, had been guillotined m Paris,
April 13, 1794, and she adds: "Indeed afl the
news from France was printed in the American
papers as soon as received," While diffing at
General Schuyler's in Albany, she learned from
a locffi newspaper of the overthrow of Robes
pierre, and she comments on the personal satis
faction tffis news gave to TaUeyrand and Beau-
metz, who were also present on that occasion.
It was from an American newspaper that Chateau
briand learned the exciting news of the ffight
from Paris of Loffis XVI and Marie Antoinette,
and their arrest at Varennes, wffich decided him
to return to France and ffid theh cause by join
ing the army of the French princes. Brissot re
cords that "Salem, like aU American cities, has
a printing press and a newspaper wffich copies
from the newspapers of other States. Whfle
wffiting for supper there I read a newspaper ffi
wffich was the speech deUvered by Monsieur de
I'Epremesffil when he was arrested in open parha
ment (in Paris). What an admirable invention is
the printing pr^ss ! — it puts ffil nations into touch.
It electrffies one by the recitffi of fine actions in
one country that wffi soon become common to
ffil." Miffister Fauchet criticised French news
papers for not reacffing our standard in printing
foreign news, and complained. May 17, 1795, to
[252]

Kl^:

3 n

i i ji in;; i<
!l*i|l"

'('

P

iH"F-

, X

JL

Dartmouth College, showing chapel and hall.
From the engraving by S. Hill in the collection of Charles .\. Munn.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
the Committee of Pubhc Safety: "I cannot
avoid expressing to you my astoffishment at see
ing the French papers fffil of absurd stories about
America, despite my contmuaUy sendmg you an
account of the noteworthy events here."
In view of what we have just learned of how
large was the reaffing pubhc enjoyed by the
numerous American newspapers, we are qffite
prepared to find the Frenchmen encountering a
wide-spread interest in pohticffi questions. Segur
had harffiy landed and started for Phfladelpffia
when he mentions that "as all took a great in
terest ffi pubUc affahs, before aUowing me to go,
I had to reply as best I might to countless ques
tions wffich they asked." Even more forcibly is
tffis evidenced in the episode of Rochambeau's
vefficle breaking down on the road near Wind
ham, Connecticut, necessitating the services at
ffight of a carter whom they found already in
bed: "The man was sick, and though they of
fered to fiU his hat with gffineas he woffid not
work at ffight, but when he heard who it was,
he did so. CaUed out a second time, he stffi
asked further poUticffi questions, and ended by
saying: 'WeU! you are worthy men, you shafl
have your wagon by five o'clock in the morffing,
but before setting to work and without wisffing
to pry into your secrets, — are you pleased with
Washmgton, and was he with you ? ' We assured
[253]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
him that we were. His patriotism was satisfied,
and he kept ffis word." "Afl the agricffiturffi
people in the interior," sffid Rochambeau, who re
counts the foregoing anecdote in ffis memohs, "and
almost afl the landholders of Connecticut are am-
mated by tffis pubhc sphit, wffich shoffid serve
as a model for many others." Beaujour remarks,
"The conversation of the men generaUy turns
upon poUtics," and ChasteUux adds: "Every
American conversation has to wind up with poli
tics." Bayard evidently agrees with the two
foregoing: "After the ladies withdrew, we talked
politics. The UberaUty of the sentiments of these
two Americans as weU as their education encour
aged me to hazard some reflections on the mode
of elections adopted in the Uffited States." Bay
ard was not the offiy Frenchman to notice that
Americans loved to talk pohtics at table, for
Miffister Adet reported home ffi 1795 that "it is
after dinner that one relaxes, discusses matters,
and it is during the toasts that confidence and
persuasion can shp in. Your Miffister coffid do
notffing here did he not often have Congressmen
at ffis table." Mazzei concludes that "they seek
to inform themselves upon pubhc affffirs because
they find it to their interest. The progress made
by the American people, since the beginffing of
the Revolution tiU now, in the matter of reason
ing upon tffis sort of affairs, is reaUy astoffisffing."
[254]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Tffis same Mazzei was the indiscreet person who,
by quoting Jefferson in ffis letter of April 24, 1796,
to the Directory, wffich it hastened to pubUsh
in the Moniteur of January 25, 1797, was (accord
ing to Robert de Crevecoeur, biographer of ffis
distingffished progeffitor) the means of causing
the estrangement between Jefferson and Wash
ington wffich persisted so long. That Jefferson
cherished no ill-feeling against Mazzei for tffis in-
ffiscretion is clear from the friendly tone of a sub
sequent letter from the former to the latter.
Nor did the interest in public affahs, everywhere
noticeable in the Uffited States, evidence itseff in
speech alone. Baron de Kalb, that inteffigent in
vestigator of the French Government, who ended
ffis career so gloriously at the battle of Camden,
reported to ffis Foreign Office that, even wffile
there was still peace, "Boston has suspended afl
commerce with the port of London. The people
are no longer wflhng to use anytffing brought from
or made there." The women even deffied them
selves theh cherished solace of tea in order to in
jure the Enghsh tea trade, and the men, on the oc
casion of the "Boston Tea Party," changed tffis
passive resistance into an active one by turffing
Boston Harbor into a stronger iffiusion of the costly
herb than the Enghsh authorities coffid stomach.
Our early women-folk were as sturdy as their
consorts in practicffi demonstrations of theh keen
[255]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
interest in pubhc affahs, as appears from La
fayette's letter of October 7, 1780, to ffis wife:
"The women have made and are stiff making
subscriptions to ffid the soldiers. When tffis idea
was broached I made myself your ambassador
to the ladies of Philadelphia, and you are down
for one hundred gffineas on theh Ust." Chastel-
lux's account of a cffil upon Mrs. "Beach"
(Franklin's daughter), gives a pleasant picture
of how practicffi was the women's patriotism:
"Simple in her manners as her respected father,
she has also ffis benevolence. She led us into a
room fiUed with recent handiwork of Pffiladelpffia
ladies. Tffis work was neither embroidered wffist-
coats, nor sets of lace, nor even gold embroidery,
— ^it was shirts for the Pennsylvaffia soldiers.
These ladies had provided the cloth at their own
expense, and had taken reffi pleasure in cutting
and sewing them themselves. On each shirt was
msu-ked the name of the lady or ghl who had
made it, and there were 2,200 of them !"
Connecticut was not beffind Maryland in set
ting patriotism before thrift when her interest in
public affffirs was appeffied to, for after the vic
tory at Yorktown, Rochambeau says that on
his way to ffis transports at Boston "the French
Army, in its march, crossed Connecticut, and
Governor 'Trumbold' and ffis CouncU issued a
proclamation requesting ffil theh feUow-citizens
[256]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
not to increase prices during the march of the
French Army. Everybody coffiormed thereto so
generously that each soldier's mess obtffined daily
at a very low price afl sorts of food to add to theh
orffinary rations." Beaujour beheves our zest
for poUtics was due to our English origin: "They
get theh poUtical opiffions from those nations
from wffich they spring, and as most of them are
of Enghsh origin, they have carried to America
aU those elements of discord wffich agitate Eng
land. In every State they are ffivided into two
great parties, like those of the Wffigs and Tories,
and what is most thesome is that neither of those
parties knows exactly what it wants, or at least
takes no steps to obtffin it." Then foUow four
pages of what he understands to be American
poUtics, but he can hardly be sffid to unravel the
mysteries thereof. Comte de Fersen showed a
much keener insight than he when he remarked:
"It is a country wffich wffi surely be very happy
. . . ff the two pohtical parties wffich now divide
it do not make it suffer the fate of Poland and
of so many other repubhcs." Miffort found the
poUtical strife between our "Wigth and Toris"
so violent and objectionable that he took refuge
among the Indians of the backwoods, where he
lived for twenty years ! It is pleasant to see
that Perrin du Lac was impressed by the fact
that, "ffithough a strong party sphit animates
[257]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
almost aU the members of Congress, and ffithough
the Senate and the Executive show it in aU theh
deUberations, it never fafls to yield to a regard
for the common weal, wffich reuffites aU those
patriotic individuffis when anytffing touches pub
Uc prosperity." As Perrin du Lac refers to
Congress let us read the Due de Broglie's account
of its meeting-place: "The Hafl of Congress is
on the groimd floor, very large, and with no
other adornments than a poor engraving of Mont
gomery, another of Wasffington, and the Decla
ration of Independence. There are tffirteen tables
covered with green cloth, and at each of these,
durmg the sessions, sits one of the principal rep
resentatives of each of the tffirteen States. The
President of the Congress is placed in the centre
of the room on a sort of throne, the clerk below
him." He also remarks that in a wing of the
bffilffing next tffis haU, rooms are provided for
ambassadors from the savage tribes.
A httle time ago, a friend of the author re
marked to him that the wortffies of the Revolu
tion and the times m wffich they Uved had be
come so idealized as to seem to him no more
human than a steel engraving. As a protest
agffinst tffis use of denatured alcohol for preserv
ing the memories of our glorious past, and by
way of proving that our worthy shes were qffite
as human as theh descendants, it seems weU to
[258]

City election at tlie State-house, Philadelphia.
From the original water-color by John Lewis Krimmell in the hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
conclude tffis chapter with Bayard's description
of scenes on election day, wffich for real human
nature rivffi those wffich Mr. Pickwick and Samuel
WeUer witnessed: "Your election days are days
of debauch and quarrels. Candidates pubUcly
offer drinks to whosoever wffi give them votes.
Those who woffid excuse everytffing reply that
the mtention of the canffidates is offiy to offer
refreshments to those abemdoffing theh work and
commg from a distance. It is a great scandffi
that these candidates are charged with tffis en
tertainment, and another that the voters shoffid
Uve so far away from the place of election. The
tavems are occupied by party adherents. The
citizens take theh stand under the banners of the
canffidates, and the voting-place is often sur
rounded by men armed with sticks, who push
back and intimidate the voters of the opposmg
party. Therefore, it is not the people who regis
ter theh decision but the factions wffich fight
about it. After the canffidates have pubUshed
theh platforms ffi the pubhc prmts, theh adher
ents start the campffign, and give drinks to those
they wish to win over. To get the recrffits aU
together, the pubhc is often notffied to assemble
on such a day at such a tavern in order to clarify
the opiffion of the voters. If the candidate has
oratorical tffient, he is to be found there harangu-
mg his friends and awffitmg with security the day
[259]

FRENCH MEMORIES
of election. The country-people come on horse
back, and in troops of two by two. Drums beaten
by hirehngs who cry out 'Huzza!' at the top of
their lungs, complete the martiffi coffiusion on
election day. Women sohcit votes, runffing from
shop to shop to get them." "Tffis is a true pic
ture of what happens in the maritime cities,"
rephed Mr. Smith, "but it is overdrawn if you
are trymg to depict election-days in the interior
cities." And General Dumas makes a simflar
geograpfficffi distinction: "The elections of coun
try members are free from bribery. A man may
seduce some of ffis feflow-citizens by ffis eloquence,
but he cannot win theh votes by ffis money."

[260]

CHAPTER XI
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
So strictly was the Sabbath observed in Revo
lutionary days that "some pleasant dames, rather
jolly soffis, whom I went to see in Providence,
woffid not even sing on Saturday eveffing. Last
September on my way from Phfladelpffia to the
Hudson, sometffing happened wffich shows how
general is tffis observance. One Sunday some
officers came to cafl, and proposed we play a
game of reversi, but the landlady indignantly
burst in and tried to snatch away the cards. I
had difficulty in qffietmg her, and had to have
an Irish priest who spoke EngUsh explffin that our
reUgious prmciples did not forbid playing cards
on Sunday." And the foregoing was written,
not by some wfld young blade of the French
army, but by the conscientious, hard-working
commissary, Blanchard! "From Saturday eve
mng on," says Bourgeois, "ffil doors are shut,
nor do they open untfl Monday morffing, and
durmg the hours of ffivine service no one is allowed
to walk about the streets on pffin of imprisonment.
Strangers alone are exempt from this regffiation,
but even they must take care not to make the
[261]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
shghtest noise." And if perchance they did in
dulge m untimely noises — ^what happened .?> The
answer shaU come from Chaplffin Robin, who wffi
a tffie of woe unfold fufly as diverting as Blan
chard's, — ffiso about an unwary stranger who
nearly got into trouble by choosmg the wrong day
on wffich to be noisy: " One Sunday, a Frenchman
who Uved with me took it into ffis head to play
the flute. The people started to mob him, and
woffid have carried matters to extremes ff the
landlord had not stopped him!" Tffis unfortu
nate man had evidently not been warned that
"Sunday is observed with the greatest respect.
AU busmess, no matter how important, stops.
Even the most innocent pleasures are not per
mitted. Boston, a city of large popffiation, where
there is ffiways a great deffi going on, seems a
desert on these days. One meets nobody on the
streets, and if you happen upon someone, you do
not dare stop and talk with him!" These two
serio-comic episodes (both, by the way, chaperoned
by priests) demonstrate that neither the flute-
player nor the card-players were merely victims
of locffi "blue-laws," but that the will of the
American people themselves was reflected in
those regffiations. It took a httle time for this
un-European fact to dawn upon these friendly
strangers. Nor was tffis phenomenon true of
mufficipffi statutes alone. Our Decleu-ation of
[262]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Independence was widely known ffi Europe and
greatly admhed, but very few of the contempo
rary Frenchmen had any idea, before they landed
here, how completely that immortffi document
voiced the deeper feeUngs of the people, and par
ticffiarly in those passages wffich attribute our
liberty to the Divine Author. They came to
leam, and with sober astoffishment, that the Uves
of our ancestors proved that theh Declaration
was a pronouncement of facts, not phrases.
In such a book as tffis there is no place for
any of the many tedious discussions as to the
tenets of the various sects found by the French
in America; stiU less are we interested ffi the fre
quent ffisputes among them concerffing these dis
cussions. Brissot criticises ChasteUux, Bayard
attacks Brissot, etc., etc. But it does interest us,
and greatly, too, to notice the deep impression
made upon the Europeans by our system of abso
lute rehgious hberty, the large number of our
sects (none of wffich predominated), our very un-
European observance of the Sabbath, and our (to
them) novel attitude toward churches and atten
dance upon them. Short as was the time wffich
the French spent among us, it sufficed to impress
them with the deep sincerity of reUgious feeUng
wffich, then, as always, ran and stffi runs through
every class of our society. Mazzei boldly mffin-
tains that "among afl these States there is none
[263]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
where religious liberty is not on a better footing
than in any part of Europe." Even before Bris
sot reached American shores he learned on board
sffip that "these sffilors are very rehgious, as are
aU American sffilors with whom I have since trav
eUed " ; and Bayard, after ffis fine phrase, "Ameri
cans have a robust confidence ffi the Lord," adds
that "during moments of leisure, rehgion is a
subject of conversation, but less for the purpose
of criticising other sects than for confirming the
belief of each speaker in ffis own. Sometimes,
however, they treat members of sects other than
theh own rather stiffly." Says Beaujour: "Re
hgion is not offiy necessary to a man in American
sociffi hfe, but even more so in private hfe. The
Americans have acted wisely in admitting aU re
ligions alike and in excluffing atheism alone."
Mazzei notices that "the citizens who are not of
some Christian rehgion are few in number."
Whfle traveffing through Connecticut, Robin ob
serves: "I never entered a house without finffing
a Bible there, wffich they read eveffings and
Sundays in the family."
"Throughout afl of America," says La Roche
foucaffid, "the great ambition of every new town
is to bufld a church," and he shows how, even be
fore they could afford a church, the people were
miffister ed to by itinerant preachers: "There is
not a reUgious edffice in tffis province [Mame]
[264]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
elsewhere than in Beffast and Penobscot. Sundry
famished miffisters travel through the townsffips
preacffing a sermon or two, for wffich they are pffid
four doUars, and go on to preach elsewhere the
foUowing Sunday." Blanchard noted down that
m and about Boston everybody drove to church,
but that out in the country both young and old
generaUy arrived on horseback; outside of one
country church he counted over a hundred horses.
The scrupulous observance of the Sabbath, so
different from the custom in Europe, caused many
comments, not aU of wffich are complimentary.
Says Bayard: "Coming back from Church, I
observed that aU the house doors were closed.
They remained so aU day long. Everyone seemed
to be in retirement. Mrs. Bush, as weU as her
daughters, withdrew after ffinner to read severffi
chapters of the Old and the New Testament. It
is thus that in aU the Uffited States they keep
Sunday." "You caimot go into a house," says
Robin, "without finding everybody occupied in
readmg the Bible. It is a toucffing spectacle to
see a father surrounded by ffis family expounding
to them the sublime truths of the Sacred Book.
No one fails to attend the church of ffis sect.
Absolute silence is preserved there, as weU as an
order and respect wffich has not existed for a
long time ffi most of our Catholic churches. The
smging of the psalms is slow and majestic. The
[265]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
harmony of the poetry iu the nationffi language
increases the interest, and must contribute to
hold the attention of the audience." Blanchard
ffiso found "the singing pleasant and weU done,
not by priests and salaried chaplffins, but by
men and women, young and old, assembled to
gether by reason of a common desire to prffise
God." An equaUy pleasant picture of the in
terior of a church during service is pffinted by
Crevecoeur: "Here on a Sunday one sees a con
gregation of respectable farmers and theh wives,
afl clad in neat homespun, wefl mounted or riffing
in their own humble wagons. There is not a
sqffire among them, saving offiy the uffiettered
magistrate. There is a parson as simple as ffis
flock, and farmers who do not fatten on the labor
of others."
But worldly as weU as phflosophicffi ChasteUux
woffid have us beUeve that we carried matters to
an extreme: "They also agree in a practice which
does not seem to me to have any necessary con
nection with the dogmas of protestantism, — I
refer to the extreme severity with wffich they
observe the Sabbath. That day is consecrated
to ffivine worsffip, wffich is an exceUent idea,
but it is also consecrated to repose, and of what
use is repose without gffiety, without diversion!
I venture to say that in America you know noth
mg either of the strffin of work or of the plea-
[266]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
sure of repose. What a ffistressing sflence reigns
in your cities on Sunday! One woffid tffink
that a violent epidemic — a pest, had obUged
everybody to shut himseff up at home." Then
after describing the gayety of a European Sab
bath, he adds: "In America it is entirely ffiffer
ent. Notffing but laziness, no music or dancing,
the sexes separated. As the women know of
notffing else to do than make a toilette wffich
has not already been shown at Meeting, they
perforce drop into mere idleness, with no diver
sion but frivolous conversation and gossip, whfle
the men, bored with having read the Bible to
theh chfldren, eissemble around a joyless bowl,
at the bottom of wffich there is notffing but
drunkenness." Michaux (the elder) complffined
that "they are so fffil of scruples in America, that
on Sundays in the cities one dare not go out even
to take a walk," It reqffired so keen an observer
as Marnezia to notice that "ffithough the Sundays,
so reUgiously, even scrupffiously, observed in
America, are for them holy days, they are not
sad ones."
As to the mteriors of our churches, it is but
natural that the French shoffid find them over-
simple and lacking in decoration after the splen
dor of theh own cathedrffis. In Boston, Abbe
Robin remarks that "there £u-e ffineteen churches
of ffifferent sects, aU clean and some very pretty,
[267]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
especiaUy those of the Presbyterians and the
Anghcans. Their shape is a long quadrilateral,
with a speaking desk, and furnished with uffiform
benches. All these churches are bare of orna
ment, and notffing appeffis to the imagination or
the heart, nor reminds a man of what he has
come there to do, what he is, or what he is going
to be. Neither pffinting nor scffipture recafl
those great events wffich stimffiate ffis sense of
duty. No pomp or ceremoffies pamt for him the
greatness of the Being whom he adores, no pro
cessions suggest the homage owed to Him by
whom nature is awakened, and by whom the
fields are covered with harvests and the trees
with frffit." Indeed, to such an extent is tffis
simphcity carried that Brissot queries: "Can one
properly give tffis name (church) to a room where
there are offiy benches .3 — no ornament, pffinting,
altar, chahs, — notffing, in a word, of aU that one
sees in the churches of other religions."
Notwithstanding tffis simpUcity of the churches,
both witffin and without, the effect wffich they
produced upon our visitors was, says Brissot, very
pleasant: "Nothing is more charming than the
appearance of a church or meeting-house on a
Sunday. A good sffit is on the back of every man,
cloth from India or England attires the women
and cffildren, without theh bemg spofled by those
faflffis or ornaments which ennui, fancy and bad
[268]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
taste load upon our women." He adds : " Church
service in America is merely a meeting of brothers
who come there to shake hands, tffink and pray
together." When he reaches Connecticut he be
comes even more enthusiastic: "Weatherfields [sic]
is remarkable for its elegant meeting-house or
church. It is said to present an enchanting spec
tacle on Sunday because of the many young and
pretty ghls assembled there and for the agreeable
music with wffich ffivine service is mterspersed."
The offiy reference to a recognition of official
dom by the church is in St. Mery's statement that
St. Paffi's in New York "is eqffipped with benches,
one of wffich is agffinst the waU for members of
Congress, and opposite to it is another one reserved
for the Governor." The importance in the com
muffity of the miffister of the gospel was re
marked by Rochambeau: "The ffighest seat in afl
pubhc banquets was reserved for the clergyman.
He blessed the repast, but these prerogatives went
no further than social intercourse."
Because of the sthring events then taking place,
it was but naturffi that rehgious services shoffid
sometimes take on a pohticffi complexion. We
leam from Lafayette that "the sermons ffiso
speak out on its [revolutionary cause's] behffif,
for the Bible is often repubUcan." Having ad
vised an AngUcan clergyman to talk of notffing
but heaven whfle in the pffipit, Lafayette hstened
[269]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
on the foUowing Sunday to "the disgracefffi House
of Hanover," wffich proved how Uttle the preach
er's patriotism coincided with the Frenchman's
view of professionffi etiquette! ChasteUux gives
further testimony to the same effect: "Passing in
front of the Meeting-House just at the hour of
service, I had the curiosity to go in and remamed a
good haff hour so as not to interrupt the preacher,
and ffiso to show respect to those assembled.
There were not many people on account of the
excessive cold weather, but I saw several pretty
young ladies, very elegantly dressed. Mr. Bark-
minster, the young miffister, spoke with much
grace, and rather reasonably for a preacher. I
especiaUy noticed the adroit manner in wffich he
brought poUtics into ffis sermon by comparing
Cffiistians bought by the blood of Jesus Cffiist
but continuaUy obUged to combat flesh and sin,
— ^by comparing them, I say, with the thhteen
Uffited States wffich have acqffired hberty and
independence but are obUged to employ aU theh
strength to combat a formidable power and to
preserve the treasure wffich they have acqffired."
Notwithstanding the pohtical nature of some of
the sermons, we learn from Rochambeau that
"owing to these precautions, rehgion did not at
aU enter into poUtical deUberations." Beaujour
agrees with him that "reUgion exercises smaU in
fluence here. All strange sects are admitted."
[270]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
As to the good feehng existing between men of
ffifferent rehgious views and the lack of religious
ffissension, there are many quotations avaflable;
let us take one from Mandrffion: "That wffich
is the most edffying and at the same tune most
singffiar in the conduct of all the sects wffich have
peopled Pennsylvaffia is the spirit of concord
wffich reigns among them in spite of the ffiffer-
ence of theh rehgious opiffions. Although mem
bers of ffifferent churches, they love each other
like chfldren of the same father. They have ffi
ways Uved as brothers because they have enjoyed
the liberty to tffink as men. It is to tffis precious
harmony that one shoffid especiaUy attribute the
rapid advance of the colony." The keen-sighted
Mazzei is particularly struck by what an advan
tage it was to the Uffited States that there was
no State church, and ffiso that no one reUgion
dominated the others. It is equaUy clear to
Segur how valuable to the nation is tffis democ
racy of reUgion: "Besides, the mffitiphcity of
sects makes tolerance mdispensable among them
and what woffid seem perhaps very singffiar is
that the CathoUcs have set the example. No
form of behef is dominant there, nor privileged.
The miffisters of each sect were pffid by those who
profess it, and they did not tolerate any objec
tionable jeffiousy (mother of discords), but in
stead there reigned a prffiseworthy emffiation in
[271 ]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
charity and other vhtues." "AU reUgions," says
Perrin du Lac, "are respected and regarded by the
Government of the Uffited States as the most in
violable private property of the individuffis pro
fessing them." He counted fifty-three different
sects, and says theh number was constantly being
increased. Beaujour holds that "there is no coun
try in the world where there are so many reUgious
sects as in the Uffited States; there are fully
sixty-three, but among them aU (differing less in
dogma and in moraUty than in rite and discipUne)
there are offiy two wffich deserve to be distin
gffished from the rest, because each possesses a
particular physiognomy — the Quakers and the
Uffitarians." Robin finds in Boston ffineteen
churches of all sorts, St. Mery twelve churches of
ten sects in Baltimore, and La Rochefoucauld five
in Albany, aU of different denominations. How
these various cffits are geograpfficaUy divided
seemed especiaUy to interest Segur, who notes
that for rehgious reasons Dutchmen came to New
England and New York, Swedes to New Jersey
and Delaware, British Presbyterians to Roston,
German Anabaptists and Irish Cathohcs to Penn
sylvaffia, and French Protestants to the CaroUnas.
Although severffi of the French writers criticise
the Quakers for fffiUng, because of reUgious
scruples, to tffiie an active part in the Revolu
tion, it is only just to those worthy folk to report
[272 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
a pleasing anecdote of Segur's concerffing them:
"Quakers are very strict as far as they personally
are concerned, but never did anyone push tolera
tion further than they, and although war is in
theh eyes a great crime and they detest the mih
tary profession, stffi they know how to render
just homage to warriors who are sparing of human
blood and who combine vhtue with bravery.
One of the most renowned among them for ffis
sphit came to see Rochambeau on ffis way through
Phfladelpffia, and tffis is how he addressed him;
— 'my friend, yours is a viUainous business, but
they teU me that you carry it on with aU the
humaffity possible. I am very glad of it, I am
pleased to meet you, and I have come to pay my
respects to prove my esteem for you.' "

[273]

CHAPTER XII
THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS: LAW,
MEDICINE, ARCHITECTURE, ETC.
Jealous as were our American forefathers of aU
rank and titles, they nevertheless recogffized the
distinction due to education and brams, the pos
session of both of wffich has always been neces
sary for success in what are styled the leamed
professions. Even Crevecoeur, that champion of
the farmer, caimot help admhing the superior
education of our early lawyers, ffithough he
sounds a "wfld ffiarum," wffich is of itself a great
comphment to them and theh abffity : "The tffiee
principffi classes of inhabitants are lawyers, plant
ers, and merchants. Tffis is the provmce which
has yielded the first named theh richest spoils,
for notffing can exceed their weffith, theh power,
or their influence, — they have reached the ne plus
ffitra of worldly feUcity. These men are rather
law-givers than interpreters of the law, and have
uffited here, as well as in most of the other prov-
mces, the skiU and dexterity of the scribe with
the power and ambition of the prince. Who can
teU where this may lead at some future day ? In
[ 274 ]

FRENCH MEMORIES
another century the law wfll possess in the north
what now in Peru and Mexico belongs to the
church." But even he grudgingly admits that "in
some provmces, where every inhabitant is con
stantly employed m cffitivating and tiffing the
earth, they are the offiy men who have any knowl
edge. They are here what the clergy were in
past centuries with you." Although he finds him
seff unable to deny that "lawyer and merchant
are the fahest titles our town affords," he insists
that "it is a pity that our forefathers, who hap
pfly abohshed so many fatal customs and expunged
from theh new government so many errors and
abuses, both reUgious and civfl, ffid not prevent
the mtroduction of a set of men so dangerous."
In the same paragraph, however, ffis fair-minded
ness forces him to admit of Nantucket that "offiy
one single lawyer has of late years been able to
support himseff here. He is sometimes employed
m recoverffig money lent or in preventing those
events to wffich the contentious propensity of its
inhabitants may sometimes expose them. He is
seldom employed as a means of self-defense, and
much seldomer for attack." St. Mery, whose so
journ ffi America was long enough to quaUfy him
to judge us, agrees that "theh most remarkable
men are the lawyers," and adds "tffis profession
is more lucrative than m England."
Some idea of whether or not the early American
[275]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
lawyer was amassing uildue hoards of weffith was
learned by ChasteUux from a youthfffi veteran
of the Revolution: "I chatted ffiso with Mr.
Scotland, a young man who, although offiy twenty-
six years old, has fought in tffiee campffigns as a
Captffin of Artffiery and is now a lawyer with
ffiready a good practice. It is a fact that m
America it is the most respected and lucrative
profession. He told me that for a simple con-
sffitation they pffid him ordinarfly four doflars,
or even a haff joe (42 Uvres of our money). Be
sides, after the action is commenced, they pay
as much agam for each writ or each deed, that is
to say, for each step and for each written paper,
for in America lawyers are both soUcitors and no
taries." Although Brissot finds that "the fees
received by lawyers are much too ffigh; they are,
as in England, excessive," ChasteUux speaks of a
Mr. Smith who "was at the same time innkeeper
and lawyer, and possesses a pretty hbrary," show
ing either that the sffid Smith was an overgreedy
accumffiator of peff or else, what is more hkely,
that it reqffired sometffing besides ffis receipts
from the legal profession to support him! A
pleasing combmation — to adjust a man's legal
difficffities and repleffish ffis inner man aU at the
same time and without change of scene !
We have aheady observed that early society
tended to stratify itself, and that lawyers gener-
[276]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
aUy enjoyed a ffigh standing in the commuffity,
and by way of showing that other elements than
an educated brffin entered into it, there is a charm
ing picture of a country lawyer from the pen of
the Due de La Rochefoucaffid: "I stopped to ffine
at Bidderfort (Mffine) at Mr. Thasteher's, a law
yer whom I had seen at the Generffi's on their
return from the Chcffit Court of Penobscot.
Mr. Thasteher is also a member of Congress; he
Uves two mfles from town in a modest dweffing
wffich the most insigffificant lawyer of France
woffid have considered beneath ffis digffity. Op
posite ffis house and across the road is a hut
twelve feet square, buflt of rougffiy joined planks.
This hut, perched on rocks on the side of the road
(for aU tffis section is very rocky) is ffis office
(both for business and consffitation) and ffis
library. The Ubrary is composed of two thousand
volumes, aU exceUently chosen, not offiy upon
professionffi subjects but also of ffistory, customs,
and Uterature. It is provided with everytffing
new that appears in America, and he has sent
him from England aU works he considers important
and wffich he cannot get in the Uffited States.
He reads widely and is weU educated. Both in
thought and manner he displays an original turn
wffich is not displeasing because unaffected but
wffich sometimes imparts to ffis generffily eccen
tric ideeis a certffin exaggeration or even error.
[277]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
Simple in ffis exterior, rigid even to severity in
ffis principles, he is kindly, hospitable, obhging and
respected in ffis neighborhood. His farm-house
is never shut, ffis office is always open, for as he
has never been robbed he tffinks he shoffid pay
homage to the probity of ffis neighbors by tffis
uncommon confidence. Mr. Thasteher complffins
that the estabhshment of good schools is not
prompt enough in ffis district."
As to the conduct of lawyers after elevation to
the bench, it is gratffying to find that even in the
early days of our repubUc there was the same good
report of them that there has ffiways been. Our
courts even then stood so ffigh in pubhc esteem,
and have so weU mffintffined those early tradi
tions, that it is no wonder that our cffief tribunal,
the Supreme Court at Wasffington, is to-day gen
eraUy regarded as the most admirable bench in
the world. Mazzei says: "The maimer of trymg
cases ffi America is pretty weU known; it has re
ceived the approbation and prffise of even Abbe
de Mably himseff." Why not accompany St.
Mery into a court-room and see for ourselves with
ffis eyes: "The Court of Justice was assembled
there and we had the curiosity to go and see it in
session. One coffid hardly speak of the court
room as impressive, but, when looking at the
jury, it was impossible to refrain from admhing
an order of tffings wffich leaves the decision of
[278]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
cases to the very class of men who are in a posi
tion to know how they came about, and ffi whom
the study of law has not supplanted the emotions
of the human heart. Furthermore, no matter
how simple the temple consecrated to Justice,
it ffiways arouses the respect of men devoted
to it."
Turffing from the profession of law to that of
mefficine, we find that the early American physi
cians shared with the lawyers theh ffigh standing
in the commuffity, just as they equaUy enjoyed
confidentiffi relations with it. Perhaps it is for
the very reason that physicians and lawyers have
always stood so ffigh among us, that those two pro
fessions are, m America, recrffited from a better
class of society than they are abroad. Brissot
makes it clear that there was no sordid induce
ment for an American to study medicine, for ffi
though he thought our lawyers overpffid, he com
plains: "But the doctors have not the same
advantage in tffis respect as the lawyers." And
he goes on to explffin why the doctors did not eam
so much as the lawyers: "The good heffith wffich
is generaUy enjoyed here makes them less neces
sary, and yet they are pretty numerous. There
are few maladies here, the ah is heffithy m spite
of the nearness of the sea and the insular posi
tion of the city (New York) ; the inhabitants are
pretty temperate. Men of means are not rich
[279]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
enough to give themselves over to that luxury
and debauchery wffich kfll so many in Europe
and there are no reafly poor people, — ^fish and
meat being cheap." How discouraging was our
good heffith to the medicffi profession ffiso appears
from Crevecoeur 's account of Nantucket: "Sm-
gffiar as it may seem to you, there are but two meffi-
cffi practitioners on the Island — ^for what service
can physic be in a primitive society where inebria
tion is so rare .3" La Rochefoucaffid tefls us to
what strffits the medicffi profession of Mame was
reduced: "The country is absolutely bare of sur
geons, or at least of men who have sufficient
knowledge to deserve the name. The inhabitants
are not numerous nor rich enough to have good
surgeons. This profession, ffiways coupled with
another inore usefffi, becomes a secondary occupa
tion, and is offiy practised by ignorant feflows who
hardly know how to bleed you."
Chasteflux is not the offiy one to comment upon
how often American doctors were wise enough to
recommend a change of air instead of plying theh
patients with drugs. As showing the appreciation
abroad of the place enjoyed in the commuffity
by American physicians, and therefore how ex
pedient it seemed to gffin their favor, Crevecoeur,
after the war, when he became French Consffi in
New York, issued a general notice, November
17, 1783, to aU medical societies offering to fur-
[280]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
msh them certain French medical journals at the
expense of ffis kmg, wffich offer received a number
of acceptances.
Passing from those professions wffich pecuUarly
need the mtimate confidence of cUents, to those
in wffich relations are more commercial and
formal, we find that engmeering, as a profession,
was as yet so much in embryo as to excite but
Uttle comment from the French. Generffi Wash-
mgton's skffi as a surveyor was generaUy re
marked by them, but that was rather because
everythmg that had to do with bim seemed to
exert a fascination upon the foreigners, a con
temporary effect wffich goes far to justify ffis
place in our hearts to-day. Surveymg when it
touched Wasffington interested them, but not
otherwise. Our great pubhc works wffich were
to develop a power rendering us the offiy nation
in the world capable of constructing the Panama
Canal, were as yet offiy possibilities of the dhn
future. The Frenchmen, of course, wrote offiy
of what they coffid see, and although there was
but Uttle of engineering results for them to de
scribe, they do teU us much of our early arcffitec
ture, whose tendencies were even then remarked
as typicaUy American.
Says Crevecoeur: "An European on ffis arrivffi
must be greatly surprised to see the elegance of
theh houses, theh sumptuous furffiture, as weU as
[281]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
the magffificence of their tables, — can he hnagme
ffimseff in a country, the estabhshment of wffich is
of so recent a date ? " Let us see just how aU tffis
actuaUy did strike such an arriving European, m
the person of Abbe Robin, the observant chaplffin
of Rochambeau's army: "From tffis harbor fffil of
pleasant islands we see among the trees on the
western shore a magnificent perspective of houses
in an ampffitheatre, stretcffing round in a haff
chcle for more than haff a league, — that is Boston.
These ffigh, regular bffildings, interspersed with
clock-towers, strike us less as a modern colony
than an ancient city, embeffished and peopled by
commerce and the arts. . . Tffis street is adomed
with fine houses, for the most part two or tffiee
stories ffigh. The construction of the houses is
surprising to European eyes. They are enthely
of wood, not bffilt in the heavy and sombre fash
ion of our ancient towns but regffiarly and well-
Ughted. The carpenter-work is neat and weU
done, and the outsides are of smooth planks,
clapboarded one above another Uke the tfles on
our roofs; they are pffinted grey, addmg greatly
to the pleasing appearance. The roofs are orna
mented with bffiustrades, doubtless because of
fires. The houses are bffilt on foundations con
sisting of a wafl about a foot high: — one sees at a
glance how much heffitffier these houses must be
than ours. All the parts are sohdly mterlocked
[ 282 ]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
and theh weight is so trifling in comparison with
theh bffik that the houses can be moved about.
I saw one of two stories wffich had been trans
ported at least an eighth of a league. The enthe
French army witnessed a similar feat at Newport.
What we hear of the travelhng houses of the
Scytffians is far less marvellous." MandriUon
characterizes Boston's bffildings both pubUc and
private as "magffificent." He also says of Charles
ton, South Carolma, that it had "some pubUc
buflffings wffich woffid pass for handsome even in
Europe." Another arriving European, tffis time
the Comte de Segur, remarks of Dover, Delaware,
one of the first towns he encounters: "AU the
houses of Dover present simple but elegant shapes.
They are buflt of wood, and pamted ffifferent
colors. Tffis variety in bffildmg, the cleanUness
that reigns ffi them, the ffigffiy polished bronze
door-knockers, aU announce the order, activity,
inteffigence and prosperity of the inhabitants."
Beaujour takes an opposite view and snubs us
severely: "Theh civil arcffitecture is as yet un
formed, and theh style in construction is as petty
as theh custom of bffilding in paraUel Unes is
thesome. AU the cities, moreover, are bffilt of
brick or pffinted boards, and ff one excepts cer
tam edffices used for pubUc banks, notffing could
be more trivial than their arcffitecture. It is
Dutch wedded to Cffinese, if one can apply such
[283]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
names to tffis grotesque style." By the time
Brissot arrived tffis Dutch tendency in our arcffi
tecture was being modffied: "Elegant bffildings
in the EngUsh style are replacmg the houses with
Dutch pointed gables. There are a few stiU to
be found in the old style and they are pleasing
to an European observer for they remind him of
the origin of tffis colony." St. Mery says the
houses are bffilt by day labor, and especiaUy no
tices that in the cities the ceUar doors are aUowed
to encroach upon the sidewalks. Mandrffion
finds that "the houses of New York, buflt of
brick and roofed with tiles, are more comfortable
than elegant," but Crevecoeur holds that they
reveffi "a union of Dutch neatness with EngUsh
taste and arcffitecture." Although but Uttle is
said of large rooms and haUs devoted to pubUc
entertffinments, it is natural that the foUowmg
reference to a Boston baUroom shoffid be found
in the pages of ChasteUux, the pet of society:
"It is superb, beautffffi in its arcffitecture, weU
decorated and Ughted." De Broghe found no
Eu-cffitecture in Phfladelphia admhable except the
prison, and Chateaubriand thought the uffinter
rupted level of the housetops very monotonous !
Turffing to humbler and more prosffic surroimd-
ings, we learn from Brissot that "the shops in
the country are always apart from the houses.
Tffis proves a taste for cleanUness and ffiso theh
[284]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
respect both for home hfe and their women, be
cause the men who come to purchase have, thanks
to tffis arrangement, notffing to do with them."
Most of the remarks upon arcffitecture treat of
country houses, and St. Mery elucidates for us
the manner in wffich those buflffings graduaUy
improve with the circumstances of the owner:
"On the ffighway between Pffiladelpffia and New
York the settlers built ffist a log cabin, after a
whfle a wooden house of boards, and still later
on a mansion often of stone, — at wffich time they
employed the wooden house as a kitchen and the
log cabin as a stable." That these country houses
were constantly mcreasing in number is clear
from Robin's observation that "there are no longer,
as in Connecticut, offiy an occasional house ffiong
the road just large enough to lodge one family,
and furffished with what is barely necessary: here
in Maryland there are spacious homes isolated
from each other, made up of different buildings
surrounded by plantations; theh furffiture is of
costly woods and rare marbles, adorned by skiflfffi
artists." In Connecticut he comments agffin upon
the ample proportions characteristic of our arcffi
tecture: "Theh houses are spacious, clean, weU-
aired, buflt of wood, possessing every comfort.
I found in afl of the^n indications of their in
dustrious and inventive geffius." Tffis same com
fortable feature impresses La Rochefoucaffid dur-
[285]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
mg ffis visit to General Effiox's country place:
"The houses are bffilt near together, but out of
a hundred visible from the General's house there
are hardly haff a dozen log-houses. His own
house is a fine one without being magffificent,
weU-furffished but not luxurious, commodious
enough to lodge comfortably a large family which
may stifl increase, and ffiso to entertffin seven or
eight friends."
St. Mery notices how our arcffitecture is adapted
to locffi conditions: "In Norfolk, Virgiffia, the
houses are buflt with a central haU runffing through
them, wffich provides a Uving room for warm
weather." Bayard ffiso mentions the feeUng of
comfort wffich American houses seemed to inspire
in the French: "On a sloping ffiUside you observe
beside the road a wffite house with green bUnds, —
it belongs to Mr. Smith. There are two rooms
below and the same number of bed-chambers on
the first floor. The door is in the middle. Be
tween the parlors runs a wide corridor, open at
both ends, to provide a current of ffir during the
excessive heat of the dog-days. The kitchen is
separated from the house by a covered passage.
One might describe the parlors as handsomely
furffished because the waUs are covered with
pretty paper." Blanchard also notices that " they
make use of paper to cover theh waUs instead of
tapestry and have some very pretty ones." Bris-
[286]

State-house, Philadelphia, 1778.
From an old print in the collection of Charles A. Munn.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
sot saw "some pretty waU paper" at Mr. Over-
leaf's inn at Portsmouth.
The luxurious ChasteUux was not so easily
satisfied with ffis lodgings in a Virgiffia country-
house as the rest of ffis countrymen might have
been: "Theh houses are spacious and wefl fur
nished, but the bedrooms are not comfortable.
They don't mind putting tffiee or four people in
the same room, who are not disturbed by being so
crowded, because, not feehng the need for writing
and readmg, afl they reqffire ffidoors is a bed
chamber, a diffing-room and a drawing-room.
The cffief magffificence of the Vhgiffians consists
of furffiture, Unen, and table sflver, so that they
resemble our ancestors who had neither cabmets
nor wardrobes in theh chateaux, but offiy wefl-
stocked wine ceUars and good sideboards."
It remffins for that charming courtier, the
Comte de Segur, to fittingly conclude these ob
servations upon our early arcffitecture, by an
insphing sentence anent Pffiladelpffia: "It is
hardly the Eu-cffitecture of tffis city's edffices, but
rather the great memories, wffich attract one's
interest to them and command one's respect.
The enthe city is a noble temple erected to
tolerance."

[287]

CHAPTER XIII
LABOR, MANUFACTURE, MERCHANT
MARINE, AND FOREIGN TRADE
That an enterprising sphit early characterized
American busmess, and ffiso that it received wide
recogffition abroad, appears from the foUowing
narrative: "A young man with no capital at aU
was undecided as to what he shoffid do. He
selected from EngUsh newspapers the names of
five commercial houses, and wrote to each of
them to see ff he coffid find one wffich would give
him credit. To ffis great surprise, aU five car
goes came to ffim at the same time." Interesting
as is tffis early appreciation by foreigners of the
ffiert progressiveness of American busmess men,
it is not so sigffificant to our nationffi weU-bemg
as theh chorus of approving comments upon the
digffity of labor in our new repubUc. It is a most
welcome coincidence that foreigners should re
mark at the close of the eighteenth century, just
as they are accustomed to do to-day, that labor
was better paid and hved better in our country
than in Europe. It has always been our good
[288]

FRENCH MEMORIES
fortune that facts should warrant tffis observa
tion — may they never cease to do so ! Nor was
the reason far to seek — to labor was respectable.
Segur, one of those especiaUy struck with the
ffigffity of labor in our land, says: "There, no
useful occupation is ridicffied or despised, and amid
unequal conditions aU preserve the same rights.
Idleness alone is shamefffi. MiUtary rank, etc.,
does not prevent anyone from engagmg in a pri
vate profession. Everybody is a merchant, farmer
or artisan. The less well-to-do are domestics,
worlanen, or sailors; far from resembUng men
of the lower classes in Europe, here they fuUy
deserve the respect accorded them, and wffich
theh seemly ah and conduct demands." More
than by anytffing else was Crevecoeur struck by
the respect we accorded to honest toil: "Every
one in the town of Nantucket foUows some occu
pation with dffigence but without that servffity
wffich prevffils in Europe. The mechaffic seemed
to be descended from as good parentage, was as
well dressed and fed, and held in as much esteem
as ffis employer." A few years later on Beau
jour observed the same state of affairs: "It must
be remarked that the poorest individuffi, the ordi
nary day laborer, is better fed and clad here than
in any other country. Add to this that here one
never sees a man in rags, and that the poorest
workman is ffiways cleaffiy clad." Brissot fffily
[289]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
appreciates that the better scffie of Uving enjoyed
by the American workman than by ffis European
brother, had a most important bearing upon the
weffare of our people: "It is not rare to see in the
Uffited States a carter driving ffis cart and eatmg
a turkey wing and some wffite bread. I have seen
a vessel arrive in New York from Europe loaded
with Scotchmen; the next day there was not one
who was not ffired out and busy." He ffiso draws
a comparison between the wages pffid here and
abroad: "The current rate for black servants in
Phfladelpffia is four to five dollars per month, not
incluffing food. You see that these wages are
much ffigher than that of servants m our coim
try districts, and even in our large cities, where
the best pffid do not get more than two hundred
Uvres." Clearly as they grasped our sphit of enterprise
in commerce, and our ffigher regard for a Ufe of
toil than for one of leisure, the Europeans seemed
unable to understand how ready were the Ameri
cans to divert theh efforts into any new channel
wffich was either more profitable or temporarfly
necessary: "Because the land [Massachusetts],
lacking fertihty, yielded but a modest return, they
turned to fishing and navigation and now they
are fishermen and sailors." It always surprised
the French to find retired American officers keep
ing inns, nor could they explffin how General
[290]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Knox, a former booksefler, coffid almost at once
become an exceflent artiflery commander. Al
though they found our enterprise and respect for
work typical yet understandable, they continued
to evince surprise at our adaptabffity and versa-
tiUty. No class of our people was a greater bene
ficiary from tffis spirit of commerciffi enterprise
than that termed "labor," because its ffigh wages
and better scale of living constantly benefited
from the employment demand caused by Ameri
can enterprise.
From two serious labor evils then existing we
have fortunately since been freed, namely, slavery
and the use of indentured servants and appren
tices — wffich latter practice was carried to such
extremes as to justify Beaujour's criticism that
wffile in the South, one-third of the popffiation
consisted of black slaves, in the North, a quarter
of the enthe youth, wffite as wefl as black, were
bound by apprenticesffip contracts. In the re
marks wffich Brissot makes upon the latter un
fortunate practice, he points out the superior
efficiency of free, or uffindentured labor; "Labor
ers are rare and they are dear. However, I don't
know but that the lower wages paid mdentured
servants (offset as they are by the lesser efficiency
of these apprentices) are after afl less advanta
geous to the employer than the higher wages of
free labor." Roux ffiso decided that apprenticed
[291 ]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
labor cost more than that of free men, because of
the loss of time teacffing apprentices to work, their
doctor's biUs, and their sffip-money due to the sffip
captffins who brought them over. Perrin du Lac
teUs us that "tffis business [of providing inden
tured servants] is one of the most important in the
Uffited States. A ship captffin arrives in Ireland or
in some Hanseatic viUage. He announces that he
wiU take back a number of passengers . . . those
who caimot pay theh passage money treat with him
for it. He provides their food during the voyage,
and on arrivffi seUs theh labor for an agreed sum.
The duration of theh slavery never exceeds two
years for a bachelor nor four for a man of famfly.
When the time has exphed they are free, and be
come citizens."
Although in the early coloffiffi days it was fre
quently difficffit for newcomers to acqffire land-
holdings, tffis gradually corrected itseff, and
Rochambeau shows how easy it was by the time
he got here for laborers to become landowners:
"Because there is much more land to clear than
there are hands for the work, laborers are much
sought after. The ordinary manuffi or day-la
borer was pffid in my time a piastre or five livres,
— ten sous per day. UsuaUy after working stead-
fly for six years he has earned enough to buy a
piece of land."
It was considered a matter for congratffiation
[292]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
that the farmers expended much more labor and
thought upon the farm than upon the dwelhng-
house; says Chasteflux: "Near Rockaway, I was
astoffished at the degree of perfection to wffich
agriculture is carried. Tffioughout afl tffis State
the manor-house is very simple and smafl; the
farm bffildings alone are lofty and spacious. Fffith-
ful to national economy, they sow, reap and seU
without effiarging theh houses and expenditures,
content to Uve in the corner of their farms, and to
be mere witnesses of theh own wealth." Man
driUon, in ffis detffiled account of the condition of
affahs in each of the States, ranks South Carohna
at the head of them aU in the matter of cultivation:
"The country is weU settled, — there are few dis
tricts in Europe where civihzation and agriculture
reach so ffigh a degree of perfection."
After tffis consideration of the lot of labor, that
potent factor in the weffare of a nation, let us
learn what the French thought of its employment
in manffiacture, — the new field in wffich we were
later to prove so successful. Says Bayard, by
way of looking mto the future: "Americans wffi
surely perfect the macffines wffich assist the me
chaffical arts because hand labor will be very
dear there for several centuries. Theh miUs are
superior to those of Europe." He was evidently
better iffiormed than Gerard, the French Miffister,
who m 1778 wrote home to Vergennes, the Min-
[293]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
ister of Foreign Affairs, that "all the coloffists of
English extraction, except those of New England,
are alien by character and custom ahke to tffis
sort of work [manufacturing]." In tffis connec
tion he ffiso pointed out that "labor, ffiways
dearer in America than in England, has become
even more so by depopffiation caused by the war,
by men gone off to the army, and for the three
hundred privateering ships, and ffiso by the failure
to import men to fffi their vacancies." De Kalb
early noted the feeling among Americans that
they shoffid not confine themselves to agricffiture
and fisffing, but should invade the field of manu
facturing, and he reports to the French govern
ment certffin patriotic efforts being made to that
end: "There has just been formed in Boston a
company of rich men wflhng to make large ad
vances for the encouragement of aU sorts of manu
factures." And several years later, Brissot no
tices the same admhable plan in operation:
"They have formed a company to assist and en
courage manufactures and business. These com-
paffies are in general composed of merchants,
farmers, and the principffi agents of the govern
ment; each contributes ffis knowledge and a
small sum of money. In these compaffies they
are not seeking ideals alone but rather utffity and
reffi profit." He also says: "Two tffings are very
much the rage now among the Americans, viz.:
[294]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
emigration to the west and manufacturing. On
tffis last point Massachusetts seeks to rival Con
necticut and Pennsylvaffia."
AU the French felt that we shoffid strive to
become independent of foreign factories, and
MandriUon goes into discriminating detail in ffis
advice upon the subject : " But in regard to manu
factures, a different course of conduct shoffid be
followed. Instead of giving general encourage
ment to the exercise of all the arts as in Great
Britam, they shoffid choose with sagacity and pre
caution certffin objects for the success of which
they can reasonably hope and tffis choice shoffid
be of articles of prime necessity or those at least
without wffich it is difficffit to get ffiong." How
prone our own people were to continue in agricul
tural pursffits, and to depend upon newly arrived
foreigners to meet our manufacturing needs ap
pears from a report of February 28, 1795, sent by
Minister Fauchet and ffis feUow Comrffissioners
to the French govemment: "It is an mcontesta-
ble fact that America owes what few manffiac-
tures it possesses to emigrants from Europe.
The latest revolutions in Geneva are going to
give it (America) clockmakmg, sometffing wffich
does not exist here. Five or six hundred Geneva
artisans and capitahsts driven from their own
country have uffited to erect an establishment
on the North River in New York State. The land
[295]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
is actuffily bought and the preUmmary arrange
ments completed."
Mazzei comments on our backwardness in the
matter of manufactured products: "We have al
ready remarked the reasons why manufactures
have not been able, and will not for a long time be
able, to estabUsh themselves in the Uffited States,
at least in those parts wffich can easily trade with
Europe. The offiy objects which they make ffi
America, especiafly in the interior for the use of
those who hve there, are of such heavy merchan
dise as cannot stand the increase of price oc
casioned by freight and other expenses."
Brissot has the clearest vision of aU as to our
future manffiacturmg triumphs: "You will see the
American opeffing new markets and locating in ffis
fatherland those British manufactures wffich Eng
land had reserved for herself, and by tffis readjust
ment of industriffi procedure reverse the balance of
trade that used to be against America." How
wefl tffis new movement was aheady succeeding in
1778 appears from Brissot's statement in that year:
" If any table of statistics can give you an idea of
the prosperity towards which these confederated
commonwealths are hasteffing, it is that of their
exportations, wffich are constantly on the increase.
It is difficult even to enumerate aU the manffiac-
tured articles which the Americans now export
and of wffich ahnost one half were until recently
[296]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
unknown to them." As ffiustrating the interest
wffich aU Americans were then taking in our new
manffiacturing ventures, the postscript of a letter
written by Wasffington to Lafayette, dated New
York, October 11, 1790, is in point: "I send you
a pah of shoe-buckles, not for the vffiue of the
present but as a remembrance, and as a sample
of a manffiactured article of this city." A few
years later Beaujour comments: "Industriffi
manufacturing which for a long time remained
stationary in the Uffited States, has recently
made rapid progress." He ffiso comments in an
flluminatmg maimer on the status of manufactur
ing as seen by him at the beginffing of the new
century: "No proffibitive system, — no monopoly,
hampers busmess in tffis country, and when one
tffinks of the proffibitions and monopohes which
interfere with it in others, it is surprising that
manufactures have not made even more progress
here; but besides the lack of training wffich every
where retards the progress of the arts, that which
particffiarly must retard it in the Uffited States
is the dearness of hand labor. In France, the
average price of work by the day is two francs in
towns and one and a half in the country; here, it
is one doUar in the towns and three-quarters of a
doUar in the country, and, as the doUar is worth
five and a quarter francs, you see that labor is
three times dearer here than in France. The ffigh
[297]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
price of labor is therefore the principffi cause
wffich retards the progress of manufacturing m
the United States, and Americans wiU not be able
to equffi Europeans until, foflowing the English
custom, they shffil have supplemented by numer
ous machines the ffigh price of hand labor. They
have not as yet come to manufacture haff of what
they consume and, in view of aU they buy abroad,
one woffid think that they were still offiy a
European colony."
That acute observer Brissot gives us credit for
inteUigent specializing in our efforts: "But there
is almost no part of the Uffited States where they
do not have very fine nulls for corn or to saw wood
into planks. The northern States ffiso have them
for making iron. It is especiafly in the construc
tion of mills that the Americans are distinguished,
either for diversifying their use or for building and
distributing them." Tffis reference to specializing
in commerce causes us to turn back to one of the
proudest pages in our history — our former world
wide pre-eminence in constructing sffips, wffich
resffited in a splendid merchant marine, and wffich
put into American pockets the sumptuous profits
of a great ocean-carrying trade wffich we now
apathetically permit to go abroad, while our
merchant flags decorate museums or dangle from
the sterns of coastwise sffipping ! The writer re
members that during the two years he spent in
[298]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
Buenos Aires, offiy one merchant sffip bearing
the American flag came to that crowded port.
In the year 1911, no merchant vessel carrying
the American flag entered the ports of London,
of Havre, or Marseffies !
But let us turn back to a pleasanter picture.
Beaujour tefls us that "the most important branch
of American industry is the construction of sffips.
The Americans excel in naval arcffitecture, and on
tffis point they rivffi the most industrious peoples
of Europe. The finest sffips come from the dock
yards of Pffiladelpffia, Baltimore, and New York,
but the best of aU are those bffilt of wood from the
CaroUnas in the southern ports. They estimate
the annuffi tonnage of vessels constructed in the
different sffipyards at near one hundred thousand
tons." Abbe Robin speaks as decidedly as do aU
the others on tffis subject: "Theh sffipyards, estab
lished ffi aU their ports, have made them the rivals
of the best constructors of the old world. The
commerce of Boston furffished to Great Britffin
masts and yards for the Royffi Navy. The Ameri
cans constructed on commission or for their own
account a large number of merchant sffips re
nowned for the superiority of theh sailing powers.
They are so hghtly bffilt that one does not need
to be a connoisseur to distingffish them from the
sffips of ffil other nations." Pontgibaud remarks:
" I found a fine looking tffiee-master for they en-
[299]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
joyed, and justly, the reputation of being very
good sffipbuflders." And St. Mery, who came
to America in one of our vessels, testffies that
"American sffips are soUdly built, are very clean
and well furffished, — a good deffi of mahogany
being used." How widely this superiority was
recogffized abroad appears from Brissot's remark
that "the Dutch houses wffich trade with America
have given up using Dutch ships, which, much
heavier than American ones, reqffire a longer
time for the trip. ... I have since learned that
this ship made another voyage to MarseiUes and
was sold there to a French house. Tffis sffie of
American constructed sffips is a branch of indus
try wffich wfll some day expand and become very
advantageous to the Americans who both con
struct vessels and sell them." He quotes Lord
Sheffield as saying that the bffilding of ships,
either for sale or hire, is a very considerable
branch of commerce with the Americans. De
Kalb in a report to the French Government, says:
"I am constantly astoffished at the great number
of merchant vessels wffich I see in the harbors,
rivers, and bays, aU the way from the Potomac
River and Chesapeake Bay in Vhgiffia as far up
as Boston. I find everywhere a great deal of
work going on in the shipyards." Perrin du Lac
predicted that our "shipbuflding wiU, for a long
time, prove a source of riches and prosperity;" —
alas, that the period should have ended.
[3oo]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
MandriUon explains how the greatest possible
profit was skilfully drawn from this industry:
"The construction of sffips is considerable in tffis
provmce of New England; they send them to the
West Indies loaded with afl sorts of cargoes which
are sold there in exchange for the produce of
those islands, which they thereupon carry to Great
Britam, where both vessels and cargo are sold,
and then they send back from there sffil cloth and
other articles to complete the equipment of other
sffips aheady under construction ia their yards."
So successfffi did we become m sffip-building
that both the French and the EngUsh govern
ments, fearing competition, spread the rumor
abroad that our wood was so poor that sffips con
structed of it were of but short hfe. Fortunately
for us who are seeking the facts so many years after,
we find that even abroad there arose a chorus
of deffiffis of tffis mercantile fairy-tffie. Brissot
says: "The bad material wffich is tffieged against
American vessels is a fable. The art of constructing
vessels has made more rapid progress in America
than anywhere else. . . . Boston has produced
some astoffisffing naval constructors. Having long
and strenuously studied to combine swiftness with
strength in vessels, Mr. Peck had acffieved the
greatest success. It was from ffis hands that there
came the 'Belisaire,' the 'Hazard' and the 'Rattle
snake,' all so brilUantly ffistinguished for theh
speed during the last war. The bows constructed
[3oi]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
by tffis clever arcffitect have quaUties wffich others
lack; they carry a quarter more and sffil much more
swfftly. The EngUsh themselves recogffize the su
periority of American construction. The Amer
icans say to have a perfect vessel you must have a
Boston keel and Pffiladelpffia sides." He feels so
strongly on tffis subject that he devotes an entire
chapter to ffis argument for American sffips: "I
have seen in tffis port one of those packet-boats
intended for the service between France and the
Uffited States. Tffis sffip, the ' Marechal de Cas
tries,' was buflt in America and has the reputa
tion of being an exceUent sffiler; she is the best
reply to the stories emanating from the Navy
Department in Versaffies against the value of
American timber and the quaUty of theh con
struction." In tffis connection it is interesting to
record that the French government thought suffi
ciently weU of our trees to send Michaux, the elder,
to America to collect and send home, for planta
tion at Rambouffiet, such trees as he thought would
grow in France. During ffis first year here he
sent home over six thousand seedUng trees.
The flourisffing condition of American ship-
bffilding and its resffitant product — a strong mer
chant marine — were together most helpfffi to aU
American industries needing foreign markets for
their wares. Indeed, without the aid of tffis ship
ping, no markets at all would have existed for
[3o2]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
many of our products, as Beaujour clearly points
out: "Having notffing to exchange among them
selves but their agricultural produce, their do
mestic commerce is practicaUy restricted to that
ffiong the coast. They have almost none in the
interior because there are offiy a few macadam
ized roads and an even smffiler number of naviga
ble canals, but the rivers, most of which are tidal
very far up, assist mterior navigation and also
the smaU boat traffic wffich employs annually
three hundred thousand tons and twenty thousand
sailors. . . . Foreign trade is, therefore, the most
important business for Americans who, having
superseded the Dutch in the ocean-carrying trade,
have likewise developed theh commerce far out
of proportion to other nations." He adds vffiua
ble observations on the profits of the carrying
trade. The more he investigates this interesting
subject, the more is he amazed at the sudden rise
and spread of our foreign trade : "The commercial
avidity of the Americans equals and even sur
passes the Enghsh. These people have hardly
appeared upon the ocean and yet already there
is not a shore on the globe nor a sea that theh
navigators have not explored." TaUeyrand, too,
noticed how promptly our enterprising ancestors
seized upon new opportuffities : "In 1794 I wit
nessed the return of the ffist American expeffition
wffich had gone to Bengal. The sffippers made
[3o3]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
immense profits, and the very next year fourteen
American vessels set sail for India from different
ports to dispute with the English the rich profits
of that trade." Of the remarkable enterprise
ffisplayed by this iffiant among the nations, no
testimony is more convincing than that of La
Rochefoucaffid: "Boston trades with the entire
universe. Tffis trffit of enterprise in navigation,
credited to Americans in general, seems in particu
lar to belong to New England. Although the com
merce of a great number of Massachusetts ports
to the north and the south of Boston has for sev
erffi years considerably increased, I hear that the
commerce of that city, far from having suffered
thereby, has itself increased for severffi years and
has never been in a more flourishing state."
"There is no jeffiousy," says Hifliard d'Auberteffil,
"existing between Boston, New York, Charleston,
and Pffiladelpffia — offiy a useful rivalry." Nor
was Boston the offiy point in New England wffich
was gaining, for La Rochefoucauld tells us of Salem
that its popffiation, "wffich increases yearly, is to
day ten thousand. In commerce this city holds
the sixth rank in America, and the second in
Massachusetts, The peculiar activity and enter
prising geffius of its inhabitants suffice to explain
the extent and progress of this commerce."
In view of the present great awakeffing of iffier-
est in our relations with South America, it is timely
[3o4]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
to note that way back in 1787 Soules prophesied
that, "when you finffily become obUged to have
recourse to foreign trade, Spanish America wiU
offer you a fine outlet for your products." His
plan, however, was to exchange our goods for the
output of their gold mines, not dreaming that the
fertfle plffins of Argentina woffid some day out
strip mines in productive possibiUties. Of aU the
references to how widely our merchants and sffip
pers then pushed their trade, none is more en
hghtening than La Rochefoucauld's, that " the pur
pose of the vessels wffich go to the west coast of
North America is to buy sealskins there, wffich
they exchange in Canton for Cffinese merchandise
to be brought back to America, and either used
there or exported to Europe. . . . The ordinary
length of this trip from Boston of sffips from
mnety to two hundred and fifty tons is sixteen or
eighteen months. The profit is tffiee hundred
per cent. ' ' The profits of the ocean-carrying trade
are constantly growing greater but we allow them
to sUp mto foreign pockets. In view of the piti-
fuUy low ebb to wffich our statesmen have per
mitted our merchant marine to faU, it is pathetic
to read Hiffiard d'Auberteffil's prediction: "They
wffi without doubt become the greatest saflors in
the uffiverse, and the sovereigns of the ocean."
We afl want to get back to some such laws as were
put on our statute books in 1789 by Wasffington,
[3o5]

FRENCH MEMORIES
Madison, and Jefferson, at a time when our sffips
carried but twenty-tffiee per cent of our exports
and imports, and wffich laws by 1800 had aheady
raised that percentage to eighty-ffine per cent,
and by 1810 to ffinety-one and one-half per cent,
at the same time giving us a merchant marine
that won for us the War of 1812. In 1828, when
we were carrying eighty-nine per cent of our trade,
the agricffitural South and West, rffising the cry
of subsidies, combined against the shipping in
terests of New England and passed the Reciproc
ity Act of 1828, opeffing our trade to foreign com
petition, whereupon there at once began a loss
which by now has shrunk our total down to a
paltry and shameful eight per cent.
Tffis brief sketch of the weU-pffid labor, the in
fant manufacturing industries, and the aheady
vigorous foreign trade of tffiee miUion Americans
as the eighteenth century ended, makes a strange
contrast to the huge proportions of those tffiee
elements attained by a hundred miUion of us,
theh descendants to-day. Given a persistence of
the nationffi trffits wffich have acffieved these re
sults, it makes one's brffin reel to tffink of what our
cffildren's chfldren wfll witness and enjoy I

[3o6]

CHAPTER XIV
THE ALLIED ARMIES
Although this book concerns itseff offiy with
the customs and manners of the people, there
needs but a brief study of the American army to
justffy the mclusion of this chapter. Our Con
tinental army was little else than a temporary
bandffig together of citizens, wffich, its purpose
acffieved, promptly dissolved into the originffi
elements. Theh sociffi habits wffile soldiering
were in no wise ffitered by that temporary condi
tion, nor did they take back into private life any
tffing of what a European understood by the
pffiase "soldierly habits." They were citizens,
first, last, and ffil the time, both "the man behind
the gun," and "the man with the hoe." Reason
being thus shown for a chapter on the American
army, our readers^woffid, we feel sure, be rightfully
ffisappointed if notffing were said about the splen
ffid French troops to wffich we owe so much.
Besides, it would be a pity to neglect the oppor
tuffity to contrast the two forces, so uffited ffi
spirit, so widely different in appearance.
In speaking of the aUied forces it is, of course,
[3o7]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
to the French troops that we must first address
ourselves. The most conspicuous feature of many
wffich struck the undisciphned American was the
remarkable disciphne of the French; indeed, so
striking was it that even the French themselves
admitted that it was unusual, and mentioned it
with justffiable pride. Lafayette wrote to Ver
gennes, the French Miffister for Foreign Affairs,
January 30, 1781: "The admirable discipUne of
the French forces, besides the honor it ffid to
Rochambeau and ffis officers, fuffiUed an even
more interesting purpose since it gave the Ameri
can people the best possible impression of our
nation." We can imagine the satisfaction with
wffich that same gaUant young officer must have
reported to his adored Wasffington, that "the
French discipUne is such that cffickens and pigs
promenade among the tents without anyone
bothering them, and inside theh camp there is a
field of corn, not a stalk of wffich hasbeen touched."
"The deputations of Indians that visited our
camp," says Rochambeau, "coffid not get over
theh astoffishment at seeing apple-trees still loaded
with apples although just above tents wffich our
soldiers had occupied for three months." The
French army marched the entire length of America
in the best of order and discipline, says the Due
de Lauzun, "a prodigy of wffich neither the Eng
Ush nor the American army furffished an exam-
[3o8]

Lafayette.
From a portrait painted by C W. Peale, in 1780, for Washington.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
pie." Count Fersen wrote ffis father from New
port: "We have not yet had a single complffint
against the troops; such disciphne is admhable
and astonishes the inhabitants." Even the mod
esty of Rochambeau did not prevent him from
saying that "one may adduce as a proof of the
incredible discipUne of tffis army that during three
enthe campffigns there has not been a sword-
thrust nor a quarrel between a single French sol
dier and an American one," and adds that "the
discipUne of the French army has been mffin-
tained in ffil its campffigns. Tffis is due to the
zeffi of the Generals, the other officers, and certain
mdividuals, and especially to the fine spirit wffich
animated the soldiers, wffich has never once been
at faffit." Chasteflux concurs ffi crediting the
example of the officers with the admhable dis
cipUne of their men: "The courage of the Mar
qffis de Vaudreufl, the good breeding wffich he
exempUfied, as weU as the simphcity and kindli
ness of ffis ways, — an example foUowed by the
officers of ffis squadron — ^have, even more than
was hoped, captivated the hearts of the people
who, ffithough they were pronounced enemies of
the English, had not until that time been friends
with the French. I have heard it sffid a hundred
times in Boston that even durmg the most per
fect accord with London, never had an English
man-of-war anchored in tffis port without vio-
[3o9]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
lent quarrels between the people and the sailors,
wffilst the French squadron had spent three months
there without the sUghtest dispute arising. Our
navy officers were received everywhere not only
as affies but as brothers." ChevaUer de la Lu
zerne, the popular French Miffister, in writmg to
ffis government, gives a pleasing picture of this
spirit of confraternity: "The people of the States
tffiough wffich our divisions passed flocked from
aU sides to see them, the regimentffi bands played
in the eveffing wherever the troops camped, while
the inhabitants mixed freely with the officers and
soldiers, ffimost every march terminating with a
dance." So careful a commander as Rochambeau
ffid not fffil to appreciate the resffits effected by
ffis officers' efforts: "Each solffier was reduced to
four ounces of bread, some rice, and some meat,
but endured these Uttle discomforts with the
same spirit for which most of ffis officers had set
the example when they marched the whole of
tffis terrible trip on foot at the head of their
troops." Nor was this journey a holiday junket,
says Robin; "a march of two hundred and fifteen
miles during excessive heat through a country
ahnost without supphes, where the soldier often
lacked bread and was obUged to carry several
days' provisions, had, nevertheless, caused less
ilffiess than in French garrison towns. The care
taken by the officers had, it is true, contributed
[3io]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
greatly to this, by not permitting the soldiers to
drink water without some rum in it to take away
its unheffithy nature. Comte Saint-Mffine sent
ahead at each halt and each encampment to buy
barrels of cider, wffich he distributed to ffis com
mand at a very low price. Tffis example foUowed
at once by other corps, produced a most advan
tageous effect."
As showing how astute was the French com-
manffing officer, let us hear how the resourcefffi
Rochambeau handled some indiscreet insubordi
nation on the part of that delightful raconteur
(but doubtless trying subordinate) ChasteUux:
"But what deceived the EngUsh generals the
most completely was a letter wffich the ChevaUer
de ChasteUux wrote confidentiaUy to the French
Miffister, in which he boasted of having been so
skiffffi as to persuade me to coffiorm my opiffion
to General Wasffington's, that the siege of New
York Island was finaUy decided, and that our two
armies were going to uffite before that place, and
that de Grasse would be written to come with ffis
fleet and force the Bar of Sandy Hoock and the
entrance to New York Harbor. He complffined
bitterly and in very unpleasant terms of how httle
effect a man of spirit could have upon the imperi
ous character of a general who always wished to
have his way ! The Enghsh secret service officer
sent me a copy of this intercepted letter; it was
[3ii]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
certaiffiy not with the design of establisffing peace
in my household. I summoned the ChevaUer de
.'ChasteUus' and showing him tffis letter threw it
mto the fire and left him a prey to remorse.
You can judge that I did not attempt to undeceive
him, and you wiU see in these memoirs just how
far he enjoyed the confidence of the reffi project
wffich I proposed to the Comte de Grasse."
Relying on the tried disciphne of the French
army, Lafayette, by ffis timely advice to ffis own
govemment, eliminated the possibihty of friction
between the two armies, thus contributmg vastly
to their joint effectiveness: "The French Lieu
tenant-General was under the orders of Wash
ington just Uke the American Major-Generffis,
for Lafayette, requestmg troops to be sent, took
pams to stipulate in the most positive manner
that they shoffid be entirely under Washington's
orders. The Americans had the right of Une.
An American officer of equal grade and date ranked
a French officer." Think of it ! The officers of a
trained body of splendid professionffi soldiers,
gracefffily yielding precedence to the amateur
officers of a raw and constantly fluctuating militia !
Can military history show a more admhable in
cident ? The offiy adverse comments upon French
discipUne are a few from the Comte de Revel,
and they offiy have to do with their troops landed
for a month's siege operations before Yorktown.
[3l2]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
He admits that they "marauded a little, and one
coffid hardly blame them, because severffi de
tachments as weU as ours had been tricked by
their purchasing agents, and had offiy lard and
spofled biscuit." Let us hope that he was mis
informed when he tefls us that "as soon as the
town surrendered the wind became more favor
able and Monsieur de Mastelh, commanding two
vessels, entered the anchorage. His comrades
reproached ffim with having appropriated all the
beUs of the ships anchored in the river, and besides,
many others mdffiged ffi pillage. A great many
negroes were taken away and sold on our return
m our colonies. The enthe corps indffiged in this
unseemly behavior, and after pocketing the pro
ceeds, secretly mocked the more scrupulous."
There has undoubtedly never in modern times
been such a contrast between two bodies of troops
acting in concert as that between the brffiiant
French and the ragged Americans. We must dis
abuse our rffinds of the notion gotten from picture-
books that the Americans were atthed ffi Conti-
nentffi buff-and-blue, because we shafl find that
the only distinctively American uffiform was rags.
Balch says that when the French troops first
reached the Hudson River, after their march
from Newport, "General Washmgton reviewed
the two armies at White Plains. The American
Army, wffich he inspected first, was composed of
[3i3]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
four thousand five hundred men at the most,
among whom were many boys ('some even of 12
and 13 years of age !' says Blanchard) and negroes.
They had no uffiforms and seemed badly eqffipped.
In tffis respect they made a great contrast to the
French army, with whom General Wasffington
seemed very satisfied. The Rhode Island regi
ment alone appeared to the French officers weU
set up." ChasteUux speaks of meeting some of
this same regiment at Hartford the next year:
" On crossing the ferry I met a Dutchman of the
Rhode Island regiment. It is the same body that
we had with us last year, but since then it has been
recrffited and clothed. The greater part of the
soldiers are negroes or mulattoes, but they are
strong and robust men, and those wffich I have
seen make an exceUent appearance." Baron
Closen admires "the American troops, — cffildren,
blacks, and all," and Robin says: "In some regi
ments they have compaffies of negroes but always
commanded by a white man." It is clear from
these tffiee testimonies that our colored com
patriots fought as gaUantly for their country in
those early days as they did in the Spaffish War
at San Juan HiU and the Caney Blockhouse, or
when they made up a fourth part of Commodore
Perry's heroes on Lake Erie! They certaiffiy
cut a far nobler figure in our ffistory than did the
Tory famiUes of our seaboard cities, who, now as
[3i4]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
then, woffid be horrffied to hear that those col
ored patriots have more right to our respect and
gratitude than some of those so-caUed "Oldest
Famffies!" Lafayette's description of the difference be
tween the EngUsh and American troops affords
only one of the many proofs of how he took to
heart anytffing toucffing the American cause: " In
New York City, a numerous English garrison hved
sumptuously whilst a few hundred Americans,
badly clothed and badly fed, wandered about on
the banks of the Hudson. Newly recruited from
Europe and abundantly furffished with every
tffing, the English Army in Pffiladelphia consisted
of about eight thousand men; that of VaUey
Forge was reduced to five thousand. The un
fortunate soldiers lacked coats, hats, sffirts, shoes
— everytffing. Theh feet and legs turned black
from the frost and often had to be amputated.
Lacking money, they had neither food nor means
for transporting it. For whole days together ra
tions were lacking to the Army, and the patient
vhtue of the officers and solffiers was a continu-
mg mhacle, renewed every instant." "The men
are without coats, shoes or arms," wrote Fersen
to ffis father. Pontgibaud also paints a pitffffi
picture of the American troops during the dread
fffi wmter at Valley Forge: "Soon I came in sight
of the camp. My imagination had pictured an
[3i5]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
army with unfforms, the ghtter of arms, standards,
etc., — ^in short, miUtary pomp of aU sorts. In
stead of the imposing spectacle thus anticipated,
I saw grouped together or alone, a few mflitiamen,
poorly clad and for the most part without shoes,
many of them badly armed but supplied with pro
visions, and I noticed that tea and sugar formed
part of theh rations. In passing through the camp
I also remarked soldiers with cotton ffight-caps un
der theh hats and some wearing, instead of cloaks
or great-coats, coarse woollen blemkets exactly
like those provided for the patients in our French
hospitffis; — I learned later that these were the
officers and generals. Such, in strict truth, was,
at the time I came amongst them, the appearance
of tffis armed mob, the leader of whom was he
who has rendered the name of Wasffington fa
mous. Such were the coloffists — unskiUed warriors
who learned in a few years to conquer the finest
troops that England could send against them."
Distressing as was the state of our men at
Vffiley Forge, that low-water mark of the Revolu
tion, the Comte de Revel shows how slightly con
ditions had improved by the time of the glorious
victory at Yorktown: "I mounted guard at the
tavern wffich was behind our camp until, at four
o'clock in the eveffing, I was reheved by the
Americans who arrived to camp on our left to the
number of six hundred men. Tffis troop, as poor
[3i6]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
as one could imagine, looked exactly Uke our
trained bands wffich mount guard in certain
cities. Armed with guns, three-quarters of which
had no bayonets, witbout uniforms, without any
distinctive badge for their officers, without tents,
it seemed notffing more than a gathering of poor
country-folk, each bringing in ffis bag something
to Uve upon for a few days, and each constructing
for himself a hut of tree branches. They knew
how to break to the right and to the left and to
go tffiough a sort of manual of arms." Robin,
who, for a priest, always showed great interest
in dress, is for that reason especiaUy quaUfied to
ffiscourse to us upon the appearance of our an
cestors: "These troops have as yet no regffiar
uniforms. The officers and men of the artffiery
are the offiy ones who have it. Severffi regiments
have little wffite fringed tuffics wffich look rather
well. The trousers — of cloth — are wide, so as not
to incommode them ffi warm weather, and be
cause not interfering with the play of the legs
while marcffing they, on food less substantiffi and
of a temperament less vigorous than ours, are
able to endure more fatigue than we." Baron
Closen comments: "The Americans suffered by
comparison with our army both in appearance
and eqffipment, for most of these unfortunates
had only wffite cloth jackets, dirty and ragged,
and many were barefooted. But what of that.»>
[3i7]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
the sensible man wifl ask — they are afl the more
praiseworthy and brave for fighting as they do
when so poorly eqffipped in every respect."
Gerard, the French Miffister, in a private despatch
to ffis govemment, dated August 12, 1778, gives
it as his opiffion that "the people of America are
in general too easy-going for the profession of
soldiermg. Each soldier after his service of six
months with the army takes ffis clotffing home
with him. The coloffies are peopled with country
folk ffi uffiform, and the army is without them.
It has aheady been provided with enough to
clothe 100,000 men."
This absence of uniforms and generaUy dishev-
eUed appearance of our men comes out with dra
matic clearness upon the occasion of the culmi
nating episode of the War, the day of Comwaffis's
surrender, when agamst Wasffington's mclination,
but upon Lafayette's insistence, the Enghsh army
were reqffired to march out between the lines of
the affied armies and lay down theh arms. It
inflames our pride and yet touches our pity to
read of the appearance of our ancestors in that
ffistoric scene. Hear Robm's account of it : " The
two Unes of the combined army extended more
than a mile. The Americans had the right of the
line. Their inequality in age and height, the lack
of uniformity in theh ranks, and theh ragged
clotffing made the French appear to advantage,
[3x8]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
who, ffi spite of their fatigue, always presented a
neat, warlike and vigorous appearance. We were
aU struck by the good condition of the EngUsh
troops, their number and cleaffiiness. We had
not supposed that they were more than tffiee
thousand. Cornwffihs had ordered the military
stores to be opened to the soldiers before the sur
render. Each of them, therefore, wore a new
unfform, but this very smartness of dress seemed
to humihate them the more when contrasted with
the distressffig condition of the Americans. They
were ashamed to raise their eyes to theh con
querors. One after another they laid down their
arms ffi the agreed place; care had been taken to
keep spectators away to dimiffish their humiha
tion. The EngUsh officers on their way back had
the manners to salute even the lowest French
officers, somethmg which they did not do to Ameri
can officers even of the highest grade."
It is most gratifymg to find ffi severffi of the
French authors the frank and friendly admission
that the American losses at Yorktown were equffi
to those of the French troops; we, on our part,
must with equal frankness, remember that the
American column, wffich in the fmal assaffit Sus-
tamed most of our losses, was led by Lafayette !
Aucteville gives a detailed account of the composi
tion of our army and its quaUties : ' ' The Repubhc's
army was composed of four distinct groups, — the
[3i9]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
American regiments of regulars, disciplined, driUed,
tried, fit for Une of battle, formed a body of about
sixteen hundred men ; 150 dragoons, weU mounted,
drilled, and good horsemen; twenty-five hundred
rffihtiamen and five hundred rffiemen — a sort of
mounted light infantry. These two last boffies
of men are not uniformed, wear large trousers,
with or without shoes. The last-named form
especiaUy exceUent iffiantry men, — good shots,
fit for skinffisffing in the woods, but not for Une
of battle. Very few of these troops have tents,
ahnost aU camping in huts of grass or leaves. AU
are sober and patient, live on corn-bread, undergo
privations or delays without murmuring, are
capable of fatigue iand long marches, — ^vffiuable
quaUties wffich make of thern an infantry wffich is
unusuffily mobile in character. Besides, they pre
sent a good appearance and most of them are fine
looking men." "Afl their soldiers struck me,"
says the Prince de BrogUe, "as fine-looking, robust
and weU selected, — ^the sentinels aU carried them
selves weU." General Dumas speaks several times
of the mteffigence displayed by American officers.
Perrm du Lac pays a compliment to the marksman-
sffip of our troops in his comment that among the
factories at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was one for
"rifles, used by the westerners and by some of the
Indian tribes for hunting. It was to tffis murder
ous weapon that the Americans owed several of
[320]

Reduced from copperplates of French sketches of American
military types.
From the collection of the author.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
their victories in the War of Independence— theh
skifl in its use is so great that it must be seen to
be believed."
The few words which Rochambeau employs in
summing up ffis opiffion of the American forces
are a credit to the magnaffimity of that singularly
modest and efficient leader: "One shoffid do the
Americans the justice to say that they conducted
themselves with a zeal and courage and an emu
lation which never left them beffind others ffi afl
the work aflotted to them, ffithough they were
strangers to siege operations." This proves how
thorougffiy they justffied Lafayette's prediction to
Vergennes, the French Miffister for Foreign Af
fairs, written from New Windsor, January 30, 1781,
wffich was as discrhffinating as it was commenda
tory: "I feel myself m duty bound to adjust
your ideas upon the American troops and upon
the part wffich they will take ffi the operations of
the next campffign. The Continentffi regiments
are as brave and as weU discipUned as those who
oppose them. More hardy, more patient than
Europeans, they need not be compared in these
two respects with them. They have some offi
cers of merit who (besides those who have served
in the late coloffiffi wars) are aided by natural
abffity and trained by the daily experience of
several campffigns ffi wffich, the armies being
smafl and the country difficult, aU the light bat-
[321]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
talions served as advance guard and skirmishers.
The recruits wffich we are awaiting have fre
quently served ffi the same regiments to wffich
they are now retuming, and have been oftener
under fire than three-quarters of European sol
diers. As for the miUtia, it is nothmg but armed
peasants with some experience m fightmg, who,
although not lacking in ardor or discipline, wiU
be best employed m siege operations. There,
Monsieur le Comte, is the trutMul picture I feel
in duty bound to give you, and wffich it is not to
my interest to touch up because there wiU be
more glory to have succeeded with poor material.
The ChevaUer de la Luzerne, who has himself
seen our soldiers and will give you an exact and
disinterested account of them, will surely say as
I do that you can rely upon our regffiar troops."
Segur arrived just as the war was concluding,
and could, therefore, tefl us of what the traiffing
of those seven years of conffict had effected: "I
had expected to see ffi tffis camp awkward sol
diers, untrffined officers, republicans lacking that
urbanity wffich is common to our older civflized
countries. I recalled those ffist days of their
revolution when laborers and artisans who had
never handled a gun, without waitmg for orders,
rushed ffi the name of country to attack the Brit
ish phffianxes, to whose astoffished gaze they
seemed mere masses of rustics with no mihtary
[322]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
insigffia but hats bearing the device 'Liberty.'
You can, therefore, judge my surprise at finding
a disciphned army whose every detafl revealed
order, reason, trffiffing, and experience. The
generals, their staffs, and afl the other officers
showed in theh bearing and discourse a certain
nobihty and modesty, and that natural goodwifl
wffich is to me preferable to a pohteness whose
sweet face is but a mask wffich one is forced to
make amiable. This digffity of each inffividual,
tffis pride msphed by love of Uberty and the sen
timent of equahty had not caused the slightest
difficffity for the Cffief, who commanded them
without arousing theh discontent. To appreciate
Wasffington's genius and wisdom it is enough to
say that throughout aU the difficffities of a revo
lutionary war, he has for seven years commanded
the army of a free people without giving ffis coun
try reason for ffiarm, and without causmg Congress
to mistrust him." An anecdote from Generffi
Dumas's memoirs shows how greatly Wasffing
ton respected the position he occupied: "Generffi
Sh Henry Clffiton sent a despatch addressed to
'Mr.' Washington. Taking it from the bearer of
the flag of truce, and noticing the dhection, —
'Tffis letter,' sffid he, 'is directed to a Vhgiffia
planter. I shall have it deUvered to ffim after
the end of the war; till that time it shall not be
opened.' A second despatch was dhected to
[323]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
His ExceUency General Washmgton!" AU the
Frenchmen, with but one exception, were most
enthusiastic m their prffise of Washington as a
leader, and theh appreciation of him as a man.
Bayard ffione thought that posterity would not
confirm the ffigh opiffion of him entertamed by
ffis contemporaries. Chateaubriand's account of
our national hero, after a dinner at ffis house, is
perhaps the most mterestmg of aU, for he in
dulges in an extensive comparison between Wash
ington and Napoleon, both of whom he knew
personffily. His conclusions are enthely ffi favor
of the former because of his constructive career,
as contrasted with Napoleon's destructive one.
"Wasffington," says he, "has left beffind him
the United States as the great trophy won on ffis
battlefields"; "the republic he founded endures,
whfle the empire of Napoleon is destroyed."
Brissot tffiows a final comprehensive picture on
the screen, and shows us the citizen returning to
his ordmary Ufe and exchangmg the rffie for the
plough: "The ravages of tffis seven years' war
have been terrible, but as soon as the sword could
be tumed mto a ploughshare the earth yielded
its produce and misery disappeared. American
soldiers were citizens and landholders before
being soldiers. They remffined citizens whfle in
uffiform, and when they quitted it returned each
to his own home. It was not for money that they
[324]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
fought, nor as a profession, but for theh hberty,
theh wives, their chfldren, theh lands, — and such
soldiers in no wise resemble the bandits of the
old contment, who are paid to kifl theh feUow-
men, and who kiUed on the high roads on their
own account when peace compelled their employ
ers to discharge them. We have seen in America
what the ffistory of the world shows in no other
country except ancient Rome — a Generffi adored
by his soldiers rehnquishmg ffis power when it
was no longer needed and rething to peacefffi
private life; we have seen a numerous army
wffich was pffid notffing, generously agree to sepa
rate without payment and its soldiers rethe to
theh homes without committing any disorder,
each tranquilly betaking himseff either to ffis cart
or other originffi occupation — occupations wffich
we consider meffiffi in Europe." Tffis service
without pay was notffing new, but had existed
as early as 1775, when Bonvoffioh, a secret agent
sent to America by the French Govemment, dis
guised as an Antwerp merchant, reported that in
adffition to our paid troops we had "a large num
ber of volunteers who want no pay — ^you can
judge how wefl people of that stamp wiU fight!"
There are almost no references by our French
authors to an American federffi navy, as dis-.
jtingffished from privateers, and indeed it was a
negUgible quantity during the War of the Revo-
[325]

FRENCH MEMORIES OF
lution. Of the tffirteen frigates authorized in
1775, ffine never got fahly to sea, being destroyed
by our own men or by the English mostly before
they had received theh armament. There are
many passages in these French writers, however,
wffich are of great value to an historian of the
American navy, for they unmtentionffily reveffi
how it was that a nation having no regular fleet
in 1781 shoffid have added such a glorious navffi
page to its ffistory in 1812. We have discussed
tffis amazing transformation when considering
our ancestors' skifl ffi sffip-bffilding, but it is not
foreign to our present purpose to remark here
that American sffip-bffilding, even in the days of
the Revolution, had acqffired great fame abroad,
where many of our sffips were sold. We learn
from Robin that before the Revolution it was
from Boston that Great Britam obtamed masts
and yards for her navy. Constant reference is
also made by St. Mery and others to the large
number of excellent seamen which our flourish
ing coastwise trade was constantly traiffing.
Furthermore, ffithough the navy had hardly ex
isted during the Revolution, privateermg was
carried on to such an extent that three hundred
vessels were engaged in it, according to the des
patch of October 17, 1778, sent by the French
Minister, Gerard, to his Foreign Office. But even
so late as Beaujour's observations during the
[326]

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA
opeffing years of the ffineteenth century, we had
"difficulty in keeping up a flotiUa of a few frig
ates and an Army which could not be compared
ffi number with that of even a German prince.
Theh Navy is reaUy only in miffiature, and their
Army but a skeleton formation." He foresees,
however, the possibility of that rapid increase
and strengthening of our navy wffich only a
couple of years thereafter was to become so
powerful: "The Navy of the United States is
only in miniature; it consists of but seven or
eight frigates, the same number of corvettes,
some gafleys for bomb-throwmg and a few gun
boats, the whole amountmg to about four thousand
men and five hundred cannon. This feeble navy
is hardly comparable to that of Algeria, by wffich
it is continuafly insulted, but the Americans coffid
easfly possess a much stronger one, because they
have aU the necessary materiffi for constructing
the vessels and nearly one hundred thousand sail
ors to man them. Addmg up the different armed
forces on land and sea, the totffi is now only about
ffine thousand men, — that is to say, there is
ffi the United States hardly more than one man
in a thousand employed in mflitary service, whfle
there is not a country of Europe with less than
one m one hundred."
There are those, to-day, who urge that national
defense (without which there can be no national
[327]

FRENCH MEMORIES
seff-respect) does not need a strong navy, both
constructed and in construction. They should
not forget that the two months needed to build a
ship in the glorious days of 1812 differs so widely
from the two or three years now required for that
same purpose as to make afl the difference be
tween a country always ready to preserve its
digffity and one Uable to many miUions of loss
from raids upon its seaport towns during those
years spent ffi constructing what shoffid aheady
exist I

[328]

BIBLIOGRAPHY
FRENCH AUTHORITIES CONSULTED AND RECORDS
EXAMINED
Archives, Ministfere des Affaires Etrangeres, Paris.
Archives, Ministere des Colonies, Paris.
Archives, Ministere de la Guerre, Paris.
Archives, Ministere de la Marine, Paris.
Archives Nationales, Pciris.
AuBERTEUiL, HiUiard d': "Essais Historiques et Politiques sur
les Anglo-Americains." Brussels. 1782. Two volumes and
atlas, 303 and 315 pages.
Aucteville, Chevalier de: "Journal de la Campagne de la
Chesapeak." Archives Nationales.
Balch, Thomas: "Les Frangais en Amerique." Paris, Phila
delphia, Leipzig, 1872. One volume, 237 pages. Also a
second volume published by his famUy'in 1895 in English.
Bayakd, Ferdinand M.: "Voyage dans ITnt^rieur des Etats-
Unis," etc. Paris, 1797. One volume, 336 pages.
Beaujour, le Chevalier Felix de: "Apergu des Etats-Unis,'' etc.
Paris, 1814. One volume, 274 pages.
Beaurepaire, Chevalier Quesnay de: "Memoires." Paris, 1788.
Published by Virginia Historical Society, vol. II, N. S., p.
166, etc.
BERQxnN-DuvALLON: "Vue de la colonic espagnole du Missis
sippi," etc. Paris, 1803. One volume, 327 pages.
Blanchard, Claude: "Journal de Campagne, Guerre d' Amerique
(1780-1783)." Paris, 1881. One volume, 134 pages.
Bonnet, J. E.: "Etats-Unis de I'Amerique & la fin du IS^mo
Siecle."
(Bonnet, J. E.): "RSponse aux Principales Questions," etc.
Lausanne, 1795. "Two volumes, 312 and 469 pages. "Par
un Citoyen des Etats-Unis."
Bossu: " Nouveaux Voyages." Amsterdam and Paris, 1778. One
volume, 392 pages.
[329]

BIBLIOGRAPHY
(Bourg, Baron Cromot du): "Journal de mon Sejour en Ame
rique." An English translation published in Magazine of
Ammcan History, 1880-1881.
M. N. (Captain M. Bourgeois): "Voyages intfiressans," etc
London and Paris, 1788. One volume, 507 pages.
Brissot, J. P.: "M6moires sur les noirs de I'Amerique Septen-
trionale."
"Bbissot, J. P.: Correspondance et Papiers." Cl. Perroud.
Paris. 1912. One volume, 492 pages.
Brissot, J. P.: "Examen critique des voyages de Chastellux."
London, 1786.
Brissot, J. P. (WarviUe): "Nouveau Voyage dans les Etats-
Unis." Paris, 1791. Three volumes, 395, 460, and 448
pages.
Brissot de WarvillE; J. P., et Etienne Claviere: "De la
France et des Etats-Unis,' ' etc. London, 1787. One volume,
344 pages.
Broglie, Prince de: "Journal du Voyage," etc. Published in
"Melanges de la Society des BibUophiles frangais," tome II.
Paris, 1903.
Carre, M. H.: "Les Emigres Frangais en AmSrique." Revue de
Paris, May 15, 1898.
Charlus, Comte de: Letters in Archives Nationales, Paris.
Chastellux, Marquis de: "Voyage de Newport a Philadelphie,
Albany," etc. Printed on board French fleet at Newport —
"de I'lmprimerie Royale de I'Escadre"; only 23 copies
printed, 1781.
Chastellux, Marquis de: "Voyages de M. le Marquis de
ChasteUux dans I'Amerique Septentrionale." Paris, 1788.
Two volumes, 408 and 251 pages.
Chateaubriand, Vicomte de: "Voyage en Amerique (1791)."
Paris, 1838. One volume, 611 pages.
Chotteau, Leon: "Les Frangais en Amerique." Paris, 1876.
One volume, 438 pages.
Claviere, Etienne, see Brissot.
Closbn, Louis Baron de: "Journal." Unpublished, in Library
of Congress, Washington.
CoLLEViLLE, Vicomte de: "Les Missions Secrfetes du General-
Major Baron de Kalb." Paris, 1885. One volume, 161
pages.
[33o]

BIBLIOGRAPHY
CoLLOT, General Victor: "A Journey in North America." 1826.
'Voyage dans I'Amerique Septentrionale," etc. Two
volumes, 416 and 427 pages, and atlas.
(Condorcet, Marquis de): "Quatre Lettres d'un Bourgeois de
New Heaven sur I'unite de la legislation." PubUshed in
Mazzei's "Recherches Historiques," etc.
CBfevECCEUH, M. St. John de: "Lettres d'un Cultivateur Ameri
cain." Paris, 1787. Three volumes, 482, 444, and 593 pages.
Crevecceur, j. Hector St. John: "Letters from an American
Farmer." New York, 1904. One volume, 355 pages.
(Crevecceur, J. Hector St. John): "Voyage dans la Haute
Pensylvanie," etc. Paris, 1801. Three volumes, 427, 434,
and_409 pages._ "Par un membre adoptif de la nation
Oneida. Traduit et pubUe par I'auteur des Lettres d'un
Cultivateur Americain."
"Saint John de Crevecoeur, Sa Vie et Ses Ouvrages." Paris,
1883. One volume, 435 pages.
Daudet, E.: "L'exil et la mort du General Moreau," in Remie
des Deitx Mondes, November 15, 1908.
Deux-Ponts, Comte Guillaume de: "Mes campagnes en Ame
rique." Boston, 1868. One volume, 176 pages.
Doniol, Henri: "Histoire de la participation de la France a
I'etablissement des Etats-Unis d'Am&ique." Paris, 1886-
1893. Five volumes.
Du Lac, Perrin: "Voyage dans les deux Louisianes." Lyon,
1805. One volume, 479 pages.
Dumas, Lt.-Gen. Comte Mathieu: "Souvenirs." 1839. Three
volumes.
Du Petit-Thouars, Chevalier Aristide- Aubert: "Memoires et
Voyages." Paris, 1822. One volume, 404 pages. (Pref
ace speaks of two other volumes but they were never
published.)
Dupont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel : " Sur I'Education Nationale
dans les Etats-Unis d' Amerique." Paris, 1812. One volume,
159 pages. Written in 1800 at Jefferson's request.
Fauchet, Joseph: "Coup d'oeil sur l'etat actuel de nos rapports
politiques avec les Etats-Unis." Paris, 1797.
Fersen, Comte Axel: "Diary and Correspondence." Boston,
1902. One volume, 355 pages.
Goussencourt, Chevalier de: "Joiirnal." New York, 1864.
[33i]

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grasse, Comte de: "Memoires." Archives Nationales, Marine,
151, 86; 6397. Also a few copies printed for use at his
court-martial.
Jacquemart, Nicolas Frangois, see Roux.
Jusserand, J. J.: "Rochambeau in America, from unpublished
documents." Washington, 1912. One volume, 52 pages.
Jusserand, J. J.: "Washington and the French," in "Exercises
for the Birthday of Washington," Union League Club,
Chicago, 1912.
Kalb, Baron de, see ColleviUe.
Lafayette, General: "Memoires, Correspondance et Manu-
scrits." Paris, 1837. Six volumes, 495, 504, 520, 448, 544,
and 814 pages.
Lameth, Theodore de: "M6moires." Paris, 1913. One volume,
329 pages.
Lauzun, Due de: "Memoires." Paris, 1858. One volume, 409

B.. D.. (Lozieres, Baudry des) : " Voyage & la Louisiane, etc., 1794
a 1798." Paris, 1802. One volume, 382 pages.
Lozieres, Baudry des: "Second Voyage a la Louisiane," etc.
Paris, 1803. Two volumes, 414 and 410 pages.
M. Jh. M. (Mandrillon, M. Jh.): "Le Voyageur Americain,"
etc. Amsterdam, 1782. One volume, 197 and 166 pages.
Purports to be a translation from an anonymous English
book written by order of Lord Chatham, the Prime Minister.
M. Jh. M. (Mandrillon, M. Jh.): "Le Spectateur Americain,"
etc. Amsterdam, 1784. One volume, 128, 307, and 91
pages. " Par M. Jh. M. Negociant £i Amsterdam et Membre
de I'Academie de Bourg-en-Bresse."
Marchand, Etienne: "Voyage autour du monde," etc. Paris,
1798. Six volumes, 294, 529, 474, 494, 559, and 158 pages and
many maps.
Marnezia, Marquis de Lazay: "Voyage," etc. Paris, 1792.
Marnezia, Claude Frangois Adrien, Marquis de Lazay: "Lettres
6crites des Rives de I'Ohio." Fort Pitt and Paris. An IX de
la R6publique (1800). One volume, 144 pages.
(Mazzei, M.): "Recherches Historiques et Politiques sur les
Etats-Unis." CoUe and Paris, 1788. Four volumes, 384,
259, 292, and 366 pages. "Par un Citoyen de Virginie."
Menonville, Comte de: "Journal." Published in vol. IV and
vol. VII of Magazine of A-merican History. Paris, 1802.
[332]

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Michaux, Andre: "Memoires, 1787-1797." American Philosoph
ical Society Proceedings, 1889, pages 1-145. Notes pre
sented by his son to Society in 1824.
Michaux, Frangois Andre: "Voyages k I'Ouest des Monts AI-
leghanys," etc. Paris, 1804. One volume, 312 pages.
Milfort, le Gal.: "Memoire ou Coup d'oeil rapide sur mes dif-
ferens voyages," etc. Paris, 1802. One volume, 332 pages.
MoRfi, Comte de: "M6moires (1758-1837)." Paris, 1898. One
volume, 339 pages. A reprint.
NoAiLLES, Vicomte de: "Marins et Soldats Frangais en Ame
rique." Paris, 1903. One volume, 439 pages.
Pontgibaud: "Memoires du Comte de M." 1828. See More,
Comte de.
Pontgibaud, The Chevalier de: "A French Volunteer of the
War of Independence." Paris, 1897. One volume, 209 pages.
PBfivELAYE, Marquis de la: " Memoire sur la campagne de Boston
en 1778."
Revel, Joachim du Perron, Comte de: "Journal Particulier."
Paris, undated. One volumS, 287 pages.
Robin, M. I'Abbg: "Nouveau Voyage dans I'Amerique Septen
trionale." Philadelphia and Paris, 1782. One volume, 222
pages.
Rochambeau, Marechal_ de France: "Memoires Militaires,
Historiques et PoUtiques." Peu'is, 1809. Two volumes,
437 and 395 pages.
Rochefoucauld-Liancoubt, (Due de) La: "Voyage dans les
Etats-Unis d' Amerique." Paris, 1799. Eight volumes, 365,
349, 384, 349, 400, 336, 366, and 244 pages.
Rostaing, M. de: "Journal." Archives I'lnst. Guerre.
(Roux, Sergeant-Major): "Le Nouveau Mississipi, . . . par un
Patriote Voyageur." Paris, 1790. One volume, 44 pages.
St. Mery, Moreau de: "Voyage aux Etats-Unis de I'Amerique."
1793-1788. New Haven, 1914. One volume, 440 pages.
Savarin, BriUat: "Physiologic du Gout." Paris, 1853. Onevol-
ume, 526 pages.
Segur, Comte de: "Memoires, ou Souvenirs et Anecdotes."
Paris, 1826. Three volumes, 488, 438, and 601 pages.
SouiJis, Frangois: "Histoire des Troubles de I'Amdrique An-
glaise." Paris, 1787. Four volumes, 379, 365, 420, 272, and
36 pages.
State Department, documents at Washington, D. C.
[333]

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Taileyrand, Prince de: "Memoires," etc. Paris, 1891. Five
volumes, 457, 567, 469, 499, and 650 pages.
Tour du Pin, Marquise de la: "Journal d'une femme de cin-
quante ans." Paris, 1914. Two volumes, 405 and 391
pages.
Volney, C. F.: "Tableau du Climat et du Sol des Etats-Unis."
Paris, 1803. Two volumes, 532 pages, consecutively num
bered.
Note. — The above list generally excludes memoirs written by
Frenchmen who had not visited the United States, because
their comments on American customs and manners were at
second hand. In addition to the foregoing there has also been
examined such pertinent material as is to be found in the Biblio
theque Nationale, Paris, the Boston Public Library, the Library
of Congress, Washington, HcU'vard Umversity Library, the New
York Historical Society Library, the New York Public Library,
the Library of the State Department, Washington, etc.
SOME OF THE AUTHORITIES IN ENGLISH
CONSULTED
Baldwin, Govemor Simeon E. : "The authorship of the Quatre
Lettres d' un Bourgeois de New-Heaven," etc. New Haven,
1900.
Bradley: "The Fight with France for North America." New
York, 1902.
Durand: "New Materials for the History of the American
Revolution, translated from Documents in the French Ar
chives." New York, 1889.
FosDicK, L. J.: "The French Blood in America." New York,
1911.
Gardiner, General Asa Bird: "The Order of the Cincinnati in
France." 1905.
Gibbs: "Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and
Adams."
Perkins, J. B.: "France in the American Revolution." Boston
and New York, 1911.
Rosengabten, J. G.: "French Colonists and Exiles in the
United States." Philadelphia, 1907.
Rosenthal, Lewis: "America and France." New York, 1882.
[334]

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sparks, Jared: "Diplomatic Correspondence of the American
Revolution." Boston, 1829.
Stevens, B. F.: "Fac-simile of MSS. in European Archives
relating to America, 1773-1783."
Thwaite, R. G: "Early Western Travels, 1748-1846." Cleve
land, 1904.
Tower, Hon. Charlemagne: "The Marquis de la Fayette in
the American Revolution." PhUadelphia, 1901.
Trescott: "Diplomatic History of the Administrations of
Washington and Adams."
TucKERMAN, H.: "America and Her Commentators." New
York, 1864.
Turner, F. J.: "Correspondence of the French Mimsters to
the U. S. 1791-1797."
Tyler, Moses Coit: " Literary History of the American Revolu
tion."
Winsor, Justin: "Reader's Handbook of the American Revolu
tion."

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