Historic Philadelphia

Wharton marched with 60 policemen and
a posse of 20 local merchants down Dock
Street to the river, where they were met by
400 sailors, parading with fifes, drums, and
flags. Wharton and his men grabbed logs from
a stack of firewood and began smashing
heads. The conclusion was one hundred
strikers dragged to jail and the rest routed.
In 1798, when yellow fever struck, Hilary
Baker was still mayor. He bravely stayed in
town, visiting the poor and helping carry
victims to Pennsylvania Hospital. In September,
at age fifty-two, he died of the disease. The
citizens elected Bobby Wharton mayor.
Inmates at Walnut Street Prison took control
of the prison yard, armed with pickaxes
and crowbars. Mayor Wharton, carrying a
shotgun, led eight guards with muskets into
the yard. Wharton calmly ordered his men to
shoot. Two prisoners were killed. The rest surrendered.
Wharton demanded a grand jury
investigation, which found his actions “fully
justified.” He would be elected again in 1806,
1810, 1814, and 1820.
John Adams took the oath of office as second
President at noon on March 4, 1797, in
Congress Hall at Sixth and Chestnut. Many
spectators wept at the departure of the
beloved Washington, or perhaps, the uncomfortable
Adams later wrote wryly, “from the
accession of an unbeloved one.”
After the ceremony, there was a rush of
citizens who wanted to see Washington
leave. Men in the balcony slid down the
pillars to get to the street fast. Washington’s
carriage headed for his Market Street dwelling,
with His Excellency waving his hat and
displaying an uncharacteristically broad smile.
✧
Left: Benjamin Franklin Bache was the son
of Ben Franklin’s daughter Sarah. At age
seven, in 1776, Benny went to Paris with
his grandfather. Until 1785, he attended
boarding schools in Paris and Geneva. Back
in Philadelphia, he worked in Franklin’s
printing shop while attending the University
of Pennsylvania, and was Franklin’s
companion in the old philosopher’s last
years. After his grandfather died in 1790,
Benny started his own newspaper, first
called the General Advertiser but changed
to the Aurora in 1794. The paper
denounced President Washington for putting
on aristocratic airs. An Aurora exposé that
accused Washington of overdrawing his
salary had the president complaining about
attacks by “infamous scribblers.” Congress
passed a law against criticizing the
government in 1798, which didn’t last, but
neither did Benny Bache. He died in the
yellow fever epidemic.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
Below: The Philadelphia establishment, in a
futile attempt to keep the capital, built an
elegant Presidential Residence. Foundations
were laid in May 1792, for a square
structure with one-hundred-foot-long sides
on the west side of Ninth Street between
Market and Chestnut. There were delays in
financing and construction, and the mansion
wasn’t ready for occupancy until 1797. On
inauguration day, 1797, Governor Thomas
Mifflin sent a letter to President-elect John
Adams, offering him use of the Presidential
Residence. Adams declined, and the mansion
was boarded up. In 1799 Governor Mifflin
unloaded the white elephant at public sale,
for less than half its cost, to the University of
Pennsylvania, then in crowded quarters at
Fourth and Arch Streets. The university used
the mansion until 1829, when it was
replaced by other buildings.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER III
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