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PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE

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JANUARY 1862 TO DECEMBER 1864

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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Vou. IX. JANUARY, 1862. No. 67.

Stated Meeting, January 3, 1862. Present, eleven members. Dr. FRANKLIN Bacug, in the Chair.

The judges and clerks of the annual election, held this day. reported the appointment of the following officers:

President. George B. Wood, M.D.

Vice-Presidents. John C. Cresson, Isaac Lea,

George Sharswood.

Secretaries. Uharles B. Trego, E. Otis Kendall, John L. Le Conte, M.D., J. Peter Lesley.

Counsellors for Three Years. Isaac Hays, Robert E, Rogers, M.D., Henry C. Carey, Robert Bridges.

VOL, IX.—A

9 {[ January.

Curators.

Franklin Peale, Elias Durand, Joseph Carson, M.D.

Treasurer. Charles B. Trego.

Letters acknowledging the receipt of publications, were received from the R. Saxon Society, dated Leipsig, August 1, the Royal Society, dated London, July 1, and the Lon- don Linnean Society, dated July 14th, 1861.

Letters announcing donations to the Society were read from the Imperial Society of Naturalists, dated Moscow, June 1-13, the Imperial Academy at Vienna, dated June 25, the R. Saxon Society at Leipsig, dated July 9, and 30, the Society at Gorlitz, dated July 30, the Society at Gottingen, dated July 19, and the Society at Marburg, dated August 14, 1861, desiring an exchange of publications. The Marburg Society was ordered to be placed on the list of correspon- dents, to receive the Proceedings.

A letter was read from the Directors of the U. 8. Naval Observatory at Washington, which Institution was ordered to be. placed on the list of correspondents, to receive as full a series of the Transactions as can be made up.

Donations for the Library were received from the Aca- demies and Societies at St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, Leipsig, Gorlitz, Marburg, Gottingen, Haarlem, and Dijon; the School of Mines at Paris; the Royal and Linnean Socie- ties of London; Prof. Secchi, of Rome; the Director of the U.S. Observatory at Washington; the Director of the U. S. Mint at Philadelphia; C. M. Wheatley, of Phoenixville ; Charles Ellet, Jr., and Joseph Lesley, of Philadelphia.

Mr. Peale called the attention of the Society to the resumé of recent Antiquarian Science of Prof. Morlot, of Geneva, published by the Smithsonian Institution; and exhibited a specimen, from his own cabinet, of a saw-like stone, resem-

1862.] 3 [Lesley

bling the implements with crenulated edges described as saws by Prof. Morlot.

Prof. Lesley presented three short original Vocabularies of African Dialects, obtained by Rey. Alexander Crummell, from among four hundred recaptured slaves, landed from a United States war vessel at Sino, in Liberia.

The following words were obtained by the Rev. Mr. Crummell, from a crowd of recaptured Africans, landed at Sino, in Liberia, about two hundred miles west of Cape Palmas. The slaves were about four hundred in number, and apparently of four or five distinct nationalities, each group conversing and keeping apart. Mr. Crum- mell had the aid of several intelligent interpreters whom he found among them, and took great pains to secure both the true words and the correct pronunciation. As the English language is gradually supplanting the native African dialects along that coast, every au- thentic addition to our collections becomes valuable. In re-writing these words I have employed the continental vowels. The v is a pure English v, and the consonants are written double only when clearly pronounced double. The most striking feature of these little vocabularies, is the application of almost the same dental dissyllable to a number of very dissimilar objects. I refer to the words Ade (1), Ato (8), Ane (4), Ede (6), Aiie (8), Ionu (woman), Addo (stomach), Adu (teeth), Ade (tongue), Edda (hair), Etta (head), Etto (ear), Ido (eye). I suspected that some error had been occasioned by the use of pantomimic references to the members of the head, and that thereby the word for head was offered, when words for eye, ear, hair, tongue, teeth, &c., were required. But Mr. Crummell assured me that this source of error was carefully guarded against. We find the analogues of this dental dissyllable in the list of words meaning head, published in Vol. VII, page 151 of the Proceedings of this Society, among the Indian languages of America, in e. x. the Naguiler %e, the Chippewayan ed%ie; among the European languages, in the French ¢éte, the Wallzau totao, the Caucasian dudi and adada, the Siberian ty, Chinese feu, and Manchu wdzu. We find the same form meaning Aatr in the Vogul and Samoied words ofta, yta, yt, at, aett, and fue. It is remarkable how rarely this simple dental form occurs in that list; and that the confounding of head and hair under this form occurs in the same region.

Lesley. ] 4 [January.

Popo and Jelakufi Awusa People. Dahomi. People.

1 Uh, Ade, _ Dok-po.

2 Biu, Erver, O'-we.

3. Oku, Urtong, A-to.

4 Hodu, Ane, E*‘ne.

5. Biat, Etong, A-tong.

6. Sid-da, Ede, Aj-ise.

7 Bok-koi, De-din-ne, Teg-we.

8. Tok-quos, Aiie, Ta‘-to.

o Tera, Shaki, Te‘-ne. 10. Go-mer,* Ko, Oo. ean Miter | ee Ween! Moon. Wa-ta, U-la-ti, O%-su. Man. Bar-bar, Er-wu-su, Su-nu. Woman. Mut-chi, En-nun-nu, To-nu. Hand. Han-nu, Al-lo, Al-lo-pa. Foot. Koppa, Af-fo, Af-fo. Face. Fis-ca, K*-u-ma, An-nu-ku-mi. Stomach. Chik-i, Ad-do, Ad-do-go. Arm. Diim-si, Ab-lo, A‘-wa'. Teeth. Hai-ko-li, Ad-u, Ad-u. Tongue. Hal-lis-si, Ad-e, Ad-e. Hair. Gai-si, Kd-da, U-da. Head. Kai-si, Et-ta, U-ta. Nose. Han-si, Km-mo-ti, A‘-wo-ti. Kar. Quin-ni, Et-to, Et-to. Kye. Id-o, En-ku-ve, Un-de.

Prof. Haldeman described certain peculiar words and sounds of the Basque language, obtained from natives, on his late visit to Europe.

The attention of the members present was invited to a set of lithographs of fossil sauroid bones, discovered by Mr. C. M. Wheatley, in the Phoenixville Tunnel, on the Schuylkill River, about thirty miles above Philadelphia, in rocks of the New Red Sandstone Formation. The originals form part of

* Basque, ‘amar.

1862.] 5 (Hall.

Mr. Wheatley’s extensive cabinet of undescribed Mesozoic plants, shells and bones.

On motion of Mr. Fraley, Mr. Lesley was nominated Li- brarian for the ensuing year.

Pending nominations Nos. 425 to 445, and new nomination No. 446, were read.

And the Society was adjourned.

Stated Meeting, January 17, 1862. Present, twelve members. Dr. FRANKLIN Bacug, in the Chair.

The Verein fiir Naturkunde im Herzogthum Nassau, was ordered to be placed upon the list of corresponding societies.

Donations for the Library were received from the Academy at Boston; the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture; the Medical Journal and Franklin Institute; B. V. Marsh, and Sherman & Son, of Philadelphia.

Dr. Bache announced the death of Sir John Forbes, a member of this Society, November 13, 1861, aged 74.

Prof. Lesley, read extracts from letters from Prof. James Hall, of Albany, relative to the Taconic System of Dr. Emmons.

The discussion of this system has lately been revived by Mr. Marcou, supported by the distinguished Bohemian paleontologist M. Barrande. Mr. Hall in these letters claims that the original error was made by the geologists of the New York Survey, who had charge of the eastern divisions of the State, in identifying the two slate formations on the two opposite sides of the Hudson River. Sir William Logan, chief of the Canada Survey, describes a similar error made in the great plain of the Richelieu River, before the existence of the great fault in Canada was known. Mr. Hall, accepting the identification in the Hudson region, proved long ago that the Hud- son River slates were the same as the Taconic slates of Emmons. It now appears, that the Hudson River slates, east of the Hudson, are not the No. 3 (the upper part of the Lower Silurian) slates of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, west of the Hudson; and that that name must be dropped; or applied only to the slates of the Hudson River

Hall.] 6 [January.

Valley proper, at the base of the Lower Silurian Formation. In like manner, the Canadian geologists, having traced the great fault from Cape Gaspé, for seven hundred miles, along the south shore of the Lower St. Lawrence, past Quebec, across the plain of the Riche- lieu, and along the east shore of Lake Champlain, to meet the Hud- son River Valley fault, which seems to terminate north of the High- lands, it is now certain that the Quebec Group, the Georgia rocks of Vermont, and the whole Taconic System of Dr. Emmons, belong to the Lower Silurian System near its base, and are a thickening east- ward of the calciferous sand-rock over the Potsdam Sandstone which lies at its base. As soon as fossils were discovered in the slates on the east side of the great fault, those slates had to be referred to the base, instead of to the top of the Lower Silurian. But no further change was needful. Everything else remained the same. The structure of the Taconic range, and of the Canadian plain, remained the same. Dr. Emmons’s Taconic System beneath the Potsdam sandstone has no existence now, any more than it had before the dis- covery of the fossils, and their recognition by Barrande. Professor Hunt, of Montreal, has shown how both M. Marcou and M. Bar- rande have mistaken Dr. Emmons’s language, where he speaks of an ‘‘inversion’’ of the series in the Taconic Mountains, east of the Hud- son. Dr. Emmons supposed the existence of not one great fault, but numerous parallel faults, bringing up lower and lower sandstones, slates and marbles, as one crosses them going east. His interpreters ignorantly suppose a fan-shaped structure in the Green and Berk- shire Mountains, overturning the dips in the ranges to the west of them. Dr. Emmons taught an apparent inversion produced by the parallel upthrows. His interpreters teach an actual inversion by overthrow. The succession of the strata, however, is equally falsified by the view of Dr. Emmons and by that taken by his interpreters. Dr. Emmons, however, argued correctly from his premises. Did the parallel and increasing upthrows exist, then the Taconic System would be as he says it is, beneath the base of the Lower Silurian Sys- tem. M. Marcou, on the contrary, misconceives the whole structure, and his conclusion flows just contrariwise from his premises. The recent careful map survey of the minute anticlinal subfolds of the great fault along the east shore of the foot of Lake Champlain, by Sir William Logan, has resulted in establishing the old accepted order of the rocks, as both the apparent and the real order of the Taconic System; and the only resouree we have is to accept his theory, of a great thickening of the calciferous sand-rock along a deep

1862. ] q [Hall.

sea-shore line, extending from the mouth of the Gulf of St. Law- rence to Alabama; and a subsequent disruption and up-shove against this steep shore, along perhaps its whole extent, certainly along an ex- tent of seven hundred miles. Along this whole line the once so-called ‘Hudson River Slates’ (the No. 3, cf the Pennsylvania Survey) are over-ridden by and abut against the Hudson River Slates proper (Taconic Slates, or No. 1, of the Pennsylvania Survey). Whether the Philadelphia and Baltimore System will obtain hereby, at last, its explanation, we can only conjecture. But certainly its rocks and minerals resemble some of the members of this “ Quebee Group” or Taconic System; and there are evidences along its northwest edge, from Trenton past Philadelphia, of a great fault, in the place where we should be inclined to look for one.

Mr. Powel exhibited the stalk of an Aselepias from his garden, to show the strength of its fibre. Prof. Haldeman, mentioned an instance of thread spun from the nettle fibre.

Prof. Lesley was chosen Librarian for the ensuing year.

Standing Committees for the year were chosen, as fol- lows: ~ On Finance.—Mr. Fraley, Mr. J. F. James, Mr. Samuel Powell (in the place of Mr. Justice, declining re-election).

On Publication.—Dr. Bridges, Mr. T. P. James, Dr. Hartshorne, Prof. Coppée, Dr. Wister.

On the Hall.—Mr. Peale, Judge King, Prof. Coppée.

On the Library.—Dr. Bell, Dr. Stevens, Dr. Coates, Mr. Foulke, Mr. Barnes (in the place of Mr. Ord, declining re- election).

The list of surviving members was then read, as follows:

Summary.

On the List, January 1, 1861, ; : O76 In the U.S. 4 8

Elected in 1861, ee mies ( Foreign 4 88¢

In the U.S. 6 2

Reported as deceased, ‘ 3 u — Foreign 3 375

Resigned, in the U.S. . é : : + Number of members January 1, 1862, . 374

Of whom are resident in the U. 8S. 267 And in foreign countries. = LUT

8 [February.

Nominations Nos. 425 to 446, and new nomination No. 447, were read.

Nominations Nos. 425 to 445 were ballotted for.

The report of the Committee on the Library was presented, and its consideration postponed, owing to the lateness of the hour.

The ballot boxes being opened, the following persons were declared by the presiding officer duly elected members:

Mirza ALEXANDER KaseM Bee, of St. Petersburg.

Professor Orto BéuTLInek, of St. Petersburg.

Professor G. FoRCHHAMMER, of Copenhagen.

Professor J. S. STEENSTRUP, of Copenhagen.

Professor C. J. THOMSEN, Director of the Royal Museum at Copenhagen.

Professor ANDREW C. Ramsay, of England.

Professor Epouarp Desor, of Neuchatel.

Professor L. G. De Kontncx, of Liege.

Professor JOACHIM BARRANDE, of Prague.

Professor Ropert W. Bunsen, of Heidelberg.

Professor WILLIAM HorrMay, of London.

Doctor H. R. GoppsErt, of Breslau.

Professor ALEXANDER Braun, of Leipsig.

Mr. WitiraM J. Hamitton, of London.

Sir Witi1am J. Hooxsr, of London.

Doctor J. J. Kaup, of Darmstadt.

Doctor J. ANTHONY Froupg, of Oxford.

Doctor HERMANN LeBert, of Breslau.

Doctor 8. Werr MritcHe tt, of Philadelphia.

And the Society was adjourned.

_ Stated Meeting, February T, 1862. Present, eleven members. Vice-President, Jubak SHARSWoOD, in the Chair.

A letter, accepting membership, was received from Dr. 8. W. Mitchell, dated 1226 Walnut Street, January 31, 1862.

1862.] 9

Letters were read from Mr. B. Whiting, senior officer, and Mr. Hubbard, Librarian of the Washington Observatory, dated January 21, 1862, acknowledging the receipt of publi- cations.

A letter was received from M. Paul Bossange, dated New York, January 30, 1862, respecting the Annales de Chimie et de Physique.

Donations for the Library were announced from the Li- brary Company of Cape Town, South Africa; the Bureau of Engineers at Paris; the R. Astronomical Society, the Ameri- can Academy, American Antiquarian Society, and Boston Society of Natural History; Prof. H. A. Newton, of Yale College; the Publishers of Silliman’s Journal; M. Carey Lea, of Philadelphia, and the Academy of Natural Sciences ; the Adjutant General of the United States, and Col. Long, of the Bureau of Topographical Engineers at Washington; and the American Colonization Society.

Pending nominations Nos. 446, 447 were read.

The Committee on the Library submitted the accompany- ing special report of the Librarian, and recommended its sug- gestions to the favorable consideration of the Society.

The Librarian reports: That there have been added to the Library by donation in the year 1861, 317 books and pamph- lets, and Proceedings of Corresponding Societies. ‘The Lon- don, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, and the Astronomische Nachrichten have been regularly received on subscription.

A large number of pamphlets, periodicals, and publications of societies remain unbound upon the shelves; fifty volumes of pamphlets have been disposed ready for binding, and 150 more volumes will be so disposed during the printing of the Cata- POOUES: w...-3"-s The printing of the Catalogue has proceeded slowly, but steadily. .... Two bound copies of the part already printed, are herewith presented, comprising Classes T and II, to page 212; exhibiting the books and pamphlets of a general nature, such as Encyclopedias, Scientific Magazines, the Publications of Societies, and the Catalogues of Libraries ; together with books and pamphlets on the Mathematical

VOL. 1X.—B

10 [February.

Sciences and Physics, including Astronomy, Meteorology, Navigation, Geodosy, Civil Engineering, Geography, Maps and Charts, and Voyages and Travels. The III Class of books and pamphlets on Chemistry, Mineralogy, Mining, Metallurgy, Geology, and Paleontology, carrying the Cata- logue folio up to page 250, is in press. These three, with the IV Class, of 130 pages, and the V Class, of 115 pages, would make a volume of about 500 pages, which might be issued as a first volume. Leaving Classes VI, VII, and VIII, to make a second volume of about 600 pages. .... The Catalogue has been increased in size to these unforeseen di- mensions by the introduction of over ten thousand pamphlet titles, which are usually in themselves longer than book titles, and are still further lengthened by their references. ... . When the Catalogue is published, an increased use of the Library will probably be a consequence, for which additional room will be needed.

On motion, it was resolved that Dr. Bridges, Dr. Coates, and Dr. Le Conte, be a special committee to obtain informa- tion respecting the completion of the Catalogue of the Library.

On motion of Mr. Fraley, an appropriation of $349 35 was made, to pay the bill presented for printing the Catalogue, accompanying the Committee’s Report.

And the Society was adjourned.

Stated Meeting, February 21, 1862. Present, twenty members. Judge SHarswoop, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Dr. 8. Weir Mitchell, a newly elected member, was intro- duced.

Pending nominations Nos. 446 and 447, and new nomina- tions Nos. 448 to 452 were read.

The special committee appointed at the last meeting re- ported; the report was accepted and the committee discharged. The subject of printing the Catalogue was then discussed,

1862.] 11

and on motion of Judge King, was referred back to the com- mittee, with instructions to report at a future meeting of the Society, whether any change can be made in the style of the work, which will diminish the cost of printing the remainder.

On motion of Judge King, the Secretary was directed to communicate with the gentlemen charged with preparing notices of late members, Dr. Robert Hare, Dr. Elisha K. Kane, and the Honorable John K. Kane, and to respectfully request them to complete the same at their earliest conveni- ence.

And the Society was adjourned.

Stated Meeting, March 7, 1862. Present, fifteen members. Judge SHarswoop, Vice-President, in the Chair.

A letter was read from Sir Roderick I. Murchison, dated London, February 18, 1862, accepting membership.

_A letter was received from Samwel Hazard, Librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, dated Philadelphia, February 25, acknowledging the receipt of the Proceedings.

A letter was received from S. H. Long, Col. T. E., accom- panying a donation for the Library.

Pending nominations Nos. 446 to 452 were read.

New nominations Nos. 453, 454, 455 were read.

Dr. Bache announced the death of F. Martinez de la Rosa, a member of this Society, aged 73, who died in 1862.

Dr. Coates asked to be excused from preparing an obituary notice of Major John Le Conte, which on motion was granted, and Dr. Torrey was appointed in his stead.

Mr. Durand asked and received permission to borrow the MS. Journal of M. André Michaux, for the purpose of making extracts therefrom.

Mr. Tilghman offered the following:

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to report to the Society the names of any of its members, who may have been

12 [March. publicly and notoriously engaged in acts of treason against the United States, and to inquire into the expediency of striking their names from the list of its members ; which after debate was postponed for the present.

And the Society was adjourned.

Stated Meeting, March 21, 1862. Present, twenty-seven members.

Judge SHarswoop, Vice-President, in the Chair.

Letters were read from the Central Physical Observatory, of Russia, acknowledging and transmitting publications, dated St. Petersburg, June and July, 1861; from the Royai Bava- rian Academy, dated Munich, Dec. 2, 1861, accompanying a donation to the Library; and from Mr. J. D. Serjeant, Li- brarian of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, dated March 14, offering for sale certain copies of parts of the Transactions of this Society; which was referred to the Committee on the Library.

Donations to the Library were presented from the Central Observatory of Russia; the Academy at Munich; the Bos- ton N. H. Society ; the Franklin Institute ; the Royal Astro- nomical Society, London ; the Dublin University Association ; the State Library at Harrisburg; the Philadelphia Gas Works; Silliman’s Journal; G. P. Putnam, of New York; Charles Nagy, of Hungary; and J. 8. Newberry, of Wash- ington.

Dr. Coates made a verbal communication respecting the Catalogue raisonnée of the Medical Library of the Perna

vania Hospital, at Philadelphia.

Pending nominations Nos. 446 to 455 were read.

Mr. Tilghman offered the following resolution, in lieu of the one offered by him at the last meeting: ‘‘ Whereas, Mat- thew F. Maury and W. F. Lynch have committed public and notorious acts of treason against the United States, it is

1862.] 13

hereby ordered that they be expelled from this Society,’— which, with Mr. Gerhard’s amendment, ‘‘ And whereas, they have withdrawn themselves from the service of notice upon them by this Society,” was agreed to; the ayes and nays being called, there were 23 ayes, 5 nays, and one excused from voting.

And the Society was adjourned.

Stated Meeting, April 4, 1862. Present, nineteen members. Judge SHARswoop, Vice-President, in the Chair.

A letter was read from the Royal Danish Society, dated Copenhagen, July 1, 1861, acknowledging the receipt of pub- lications.

Letters, acccompanying donations, were received from the Royal Society of Upsala; the Royal Danish Society, dated Copenhagen, July 1; the Royal Prussian Academy, dated Berlin, August 31; the Prince Jablonow’ski Society, dated Leipsig, November 20; the I. Academy, dated Vienna, Oc- tober 28; the Dublin University Assocation, dated Novem- ber, 1861; and Dr. Dunglison, dated Philadelphia, February 19, 1862.

Judge King moved that the MSS. presented by Dr. Dun- glison be referred to a special committee, consisting of Judge King, Judge Sharswood, and Mr. Price.

Donations to the Library were received from the Academies at St. Petersburg, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Turin, and Paris ; the Societies at Upsala, Copenhagen, Leipsig, Emden, and Liverpool; the Royal Astronomical Society at London, and the Geographical Society at Paris; the Horticultural Society at Berlin; the Observatory at Pulkova; the Institutes at Salem, Massachusetts, and Buffalo, New York ; the Hospitals at Boston and Harrisburg; from Franz Odernheimer, of Wiesbaden; C. M. Wetherill, of Indianapolis; and Miss Garesché, of Philadelphia; and from B. L. Emerson, Francis

14 [April.

Leopoldt, John Penington, and Blanchard & Lea, book- sellers.

Mr. Price offered for publication in the Proceedings, a copy - of the Opinion of the Supreme Court in the suit for taxes against the Society, with a brief communication introductory, as follows:

To THe AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY :

I have the satisfaction to report to the Society, that the suit of the City of Philadelphia against this Corporation, claiming to tax the Hall, has been decided in favor of the Society, and against the power of the City to tax this property. The Argument of Counsel has been printed, and numerous copies of it are in possession of the Society. As the Opinion of Judge Read, which is that of all the Court, is of historical interest, as well as protective of the title and interests of the Society, I cannot but recommend that it be printed in the So- ciety’s Proceedings. For this purpose I herewith furnish a copy of that Opinion. I am, very respectfully, &c ,

Ex1 K. Price.

SUPREME COURT. THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA v. THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

The Hall of the American Philosophical Society is not liable to taxation.

Eastern District. Error to the District Court of Philadelphia. Opinion by

ReaD, J.—Independence Square was not one of the original squares left open for public use by William Penn in his platform of the City of Philadelphia, but consisted of various lots purchased at different times under the authority of the Legislature of the Pro- vince. The intention was to erect a State-house and other public buildings upon it, and that the residue of the square should be and remain a public green and walk forever. The old court house had been built in 1707, in Market Street above Second, and was used not only as a hall of justice, but also as a legislative hall, in which the Pro- vincial Assemblies transacted their business, and the general elections were held there. By the direction of the Representatives of the Freemen of the Province, Andrew Hamilton and William Allen purchased certain lots on the south side of Chestnut Street, lying contiguous to each other, and bounded by Delaware Fifth and Sixth Streets, and erected thereon the present State-house, which was begun

1862.] 15

in 1729 and finished in 1734. On the 20th February, 1735-6, the General Assembly passed an Act vesting the State-house and other public buildings, and the lots, in other trustees, to and for the use of the Representatives of the Freemen of the Province, and to and for such other uses as the said Representatives at any time or times thereafter in General Assembly met, should direct and appoint. “Provided always, and it is hereby declared to be the true intent and meaning of these presents, that no part of the said grounds lying to the southward of the said State-house, as it is now built, be con- verted into or made use of for erecting any sort of buildings thereon, but that the said ground shall be inclosed and remain a public open ground and walk forever.’’ Another contiguous lot having been purchased by William Allen, and both he and Andrew Hamilton having died without executing the necessary assurances; the General Assembly, on the 17th January, 1762, passed an Act vesting the whole property in new trustees, for the same uses declared in the former Act, and under the same proviso, with an immaterial altera- tion in its phraseology, and on the 14th May in the same year, they passed another Act, authorizing the trustees to purchase the remain- ing lots between Chestnut and Walnut Streets, for the same uses, and appropriated five thousand pounds for that purpose. By the first of these Acts, two lots, one at the corner of Sixth, and the other at the corner of Fifth Street, were directed to be conveyed, upon the pay- ment of fifty pounds for each, the first to trustees for the use of the County of Philadelphia, for erecting a public building for the holding of courts or common halls for the said county; and the second to the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of Philadelphia, for erecting a public building thereon for the holding of courts or common halls for the use of the said city.

On the 28th February, 1780, the General Assembly of the Com- monwealth vested the State-house, and the whole lot between Walnut and Chestnut and Fifth and Sixth Streets, in the Commonwealth, to the uses and trusts theretofore appointed and limited. The legal title was therefore in the State of Pennsylvania. From a club called the Junto, originated in 1727, by Benjamin Franklin, sprung a pro- position to form a society composed of virtuost or ingenious men re- siding in the several colonies, to be called The American Philosophical Society, to be held at Philadelphia, being the city nearest to the centre of the continent colonies, communicating with all of them northward and southward by post, and with all the islands by sea, and having the advantage of a good growing library. It was made in the form

16 [April.

of a circular, signed by Franklin, which bore date the 14th of May, 1748, old style, corresponding in the new calendar to the 25th, which is considered as the birthday of the present institution. In 1744, the Society, so far as relates to Philadelphia, was actually formed, and had several meetings, to mutual satisfaction, of the nine original members of the Philosophical Society. Six, including the three officers, President Hopkinson, Treasurer Coleman, and Secre- tary Franklin, are known to have belonged to the Junto.

Out of another Junto, established in 1750, arose another body in 1756, called “The American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge,” held at Philadelphia ; and in November, 1768, the name being changed to The American Society held at Philadel- phia for Promoting Useful Knowledge, Dr. Benjamin Franklin was elected its President. The first institution, The American Philoso- phical Society, was also revived about the same time, and on the 9th February, 1768, ex-Governor Hamilton was elected President of this body.

On the 2d January, 1769, these two institutions having merged themselves into one body, being the present “ American Philosophi- cal Society, held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge,” Dr. Benjamin Franklin was elected President, and Dr. Thomas Cad- walader, Dr. Thomas Bond, and Joseph Galloway, Esq., were elected Vice-Presidents. The Society, aided by the General Assembly of the Province, erected temporary observatories, one at Philadelphia, the other at the residence of Mr. Rittenhouse, in Newton township, Montgomery County, about twenty miles northwest of Philadelphia, for observing the expected transit of Venus, that was to occur on the 3d of June, 1769.

Measures were also taken for making observations at Cape Hen- lopen, on the Delaware Bay, where a building was found that could be used for the purpose. The observations at these different places were all successful, and the account of them, and of the results to which they led, is given in full detail in the first volume of their Transactions, published in 1771, from the press of William & Thomas Bradford, in this city.

Upon their application, the General Assembly, on the 15th March, 1780, passed an Act incorporating them, and one of its provisions, as indicative of the liberal policy, humane spirit, and wise fore- thought of our forefathers in the midst of a war for existence, is too remarkable to be omitted. That it shall be lawful for the ‘Society, by their proper officers, at all times, whether in peace or war, to

1862.] 17

correspond with learned societies as well as individual learned men of any nation or country, upon matters merely belonging to the busi- ness of the Society, such as the mutual communication of their dis- coveries and proceedings in philosophy and science, the procuring books, apparatus, natural curiosities, and such other articles and in- telligence as are usually exchanged between learned bodies for further- ing their common pursuits.” This learned Society has always pre- served its high character both at home and abroad, and numbers among its members the most distinguished men of the day. Of the past it enumerates among its Presidents, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Rittenhouse, Wistar, Patterson, Tilghman, Duponceau.

On the 15th April, 1782, the General Assembly transferred the property and moneys of the Silk Society to the Philosophical Society, who were to be accountable, and redeliver the same whenever a ma- jority of the subscribers to the Silk Society shall request it, in order to revive their institution. The Philosophical Society having repre- sented to the Legislature the necessity of their having a Public Hall, Library, and other accommodation, and prayed that they would grant to them a lot of ground suitable and convenient for erecting a hall and other buildings, an Act was passed on the 28th March, 1785, granting to them a lot on Fifth Street, being a part of the State-house square, for that purpose. The third section is in these words: ‘“ Pro- vided always, and it is the intention and meaning of this Act, that the said lot of ground shall not Le sold, leased or transferred, by the said Philosophical Society or their successors, to any other person or persons, or bodies corporate ; nor shall the same be applied by the said Society to any other use or purpose but that of erecting buildings for the accommodation of the said Society, as hereinbefore specified.” Upon a further representation from the Society, that the restriction in the preceding Act as to the letting parts of the building was dis- advantageous and unreasonable, the House thought it was founded in reason, and on the 17th March, 1786, passed an Act authorizing the Society to let or lease such vaults or cellars as they may think proper to make under the building by them to be erected on the lot aforesaid, and to let any other parts of said building for such purposes as may have affinity with the design of their institution, and for no other; the issues and profits to be applied to the purposes for which the Society was originally instituted, and to no other.

By the Act of the 8th April, 1785, the Commissioners of the County of Philadelphia, and the Wardens of the City of Philadelphia, having respectively paid to the Treasurer of the State the sum of

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fifty pounds each, the lots at the corners of Sixth and Fifth Streets were severally vested in the said parties respectively, agreeably to the Act of 1762. The Act also provided that the old gaol and workhouse should be sold, and three thousand pounds of the pur- chase-money be applied to the purpose of erecting the County Court- house on the northwest corner of the State-house lot; and the war- dens were authorized to take out of the personal estate of the latter corporation, three thousand pounds for erecting a court-house on the northeastern corner of the said State-house lot, and if it fall short of completing the building, then such sums as shall be necessary shall be taken out of the common stock of the city in the hands of the Treasurer of the Wardens. ‘These lots were extended in depth to 88 feet by the Act of 29th March, 1787; and by the Acts of 27th March and 29th September, 1789, a lottery was authorized to raise eight thousand dollars to defray the expenses of erecting a common hall in the city of Philadelphia. On the 11th March, 1789, the City of Philadelphia was incorporated by an Act of the General Assembly, by the name of ‘The Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of Philadelphia,” its limits being the original city plot of William Penn, as delineated in Holmes’s Portraiture of it: two miles in length, from river to river, and one mile in breadth, from Vine to South Street.

By an Act of the 30th September, 1791, the Governor was au- thorized to contract for paving the footway round the State-house square at such times as the City Commissioners shall be paving the cartways of the several streets which surround the State-house. The same Act, after reciting that it would contribute to the embellishment of the public walks in the State-house garden, and may conduce to the health of the citizens by admitting a free circulation of air, if the east and west walls of the said garden were lowered, and _palisadoes placed thereon, authorized the city corporation, at their expense, to take down the wall on the east and west sides of the State-house yard, within three feet of the pavement, and to erect thereon good and substantial palisadoes of iron, fixed on a stone capping, to be placed on such wall so prepared.

The City Hall was occupied by the executive, legislative, and judicial authorities of the city; whilst the Congress of the United States, on their removal from New York to Philadelphia, in 1790, occupied the County Court-house, the use of which was offered to them by the Commissioners of the City and County of Philadelphia, for their accommodation during their residence in Philadelphia, until their final removal to Washington, in 1800. The State-house had

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been used by the General Assembly of the Province and State for their place of meeting from 1735 until the removal of the seat of Government to Lancaster, in November, 1799. The Congress of the Confederation had also used it during the Revolutionary war, and continued its occupation until the 24th of December, 1784, when they adjourned to meet in the city of New York. The east room on the first floor of this building was the scene of the Declaration of Independence, on the 4th July, 1776.

By a resolution of the General Assembly of the 17th March, 1802, Charles Wilson Peale was allowed to remove his Museum into the east end of the State-house, and to use the lower story of the east end, except the room formerly occupied by the Legislature as a com- mittee-room, and the whole of the upper story, as he might find most convenient for the arranging and displaying the said museum, during the pleasure of the Legislature ; but it was provided that the citizens should hold their general elections at the State-house according to law, and he was to take charge of the State-house and State-house yard, to open the doors of the hall, and permit the citizens to walk in the yard for recreation, and pass and repass at reasonable hours. Under this regime I have often visited the museum, which was a favorite place of resort, and as a boy, played marbles and prison-base in the State-house yard, whilst it was still surrounded by the high brick wall. On the 8th August, 1811, an ordinance was passed to carry out the permission to take down the east and west walls of the State-house yard, and erect iron palisadoes in place thereof, granted by the Act of 1791; and on the 10th March, 1812, the Legislature passed another Act, empowering the Select and Common Councils to take down the south wall and make a similar improvement, and giving them the charge of the yard, and repealing so much of the resolution of 1802 as gave Mr. Peale the charge and care of it; and on the 23d April, in that same year (1812), an ordinance was passed to carry the Act into effect, and the City Commissioners were directed to take charge of the State-house yard, and keep it in proper order.

On the 24th March, 1812, the Legislature authorized the County Commissioners to occupy the east and west wings of the State-house for the accommodation of the public offices of the city and county, and to convert the same into fire-proof buildings, or, if found most convenient, to rebuild the same upon a more extended plan; which law was adopted; and a fire-proof, and one other suitable portion of said building was appropriated exclusively to the safe-keeping of the records of the office of the Prothonotary of this court, and for his

2) [ April.

use; but it was provided that the title in fee simple to the lot on which said offices may stand, be reserved to the Commonwealth.

By an Act of 13th March, 1815, the Legislature authorized the County Commissioners to take charge of the State-house, and to let the rooms, giving a preference of the upper part to Mr. Peale, but no lease to exceed one year, and repealed so much of the resolution of 1802 as made it the duty of Mr. Peale to take charge of the State-house; and after the sale to the city on the 23d March, 1818, they directed the Commissioners to give up possession of the lower part to the city.

On the 11th March, 1816, the Legislature passed a very disgracious Act, providing for the sale of the State-house and State-house yard, by running a street or streets through it, laying it out in lots, and valuing them so as to produce $150,000, and ordering the removal of the clock to Harrisburg; giving, however, an option before a spe- cified period, to the city corporation to purchase the whole for $70,000 (with certain exceptions), but expressly declaring that in such case ‘no part of the said ground lying to the southward of the State-house, within the wall as it is now built, be made use of for erecting any sort of buildings thereon, but the same shall be and remain a public green and walk forever.”

The two lots reserved and excepted out of the State-house square, were the County Court-house lot, and the lot on the northeast corner, reserved for the use of the city, and the lot on the east side of the square, granted to the American Philosophical Society under the Act of the 28th March, 1785, ‘‘and the two public offices which, by the Act of March 24, 1812, were put into the possession of the Com- missioners of Philadelphia County, which said offices are thereby re- leased from the claim of the State, and given and granted in fee simple, in lieu of the expense laid out in repairs on the State-house yard ; and the offices and ground on which they stand, or on which they are allowed by the said Act to stand, are thereby granted and confirmed to the said City and County of Philadelphia forever.”

By the Consolidation Act, the whole of this entire square, with all the buildings on it, with the exception of the lot of the American Philosophical Society, is vested in the City of Philadelphia, subject, of course, to the public use re-declared by the Act of 1816, as to all the ground lying south of the State-house.

By an Act of 16th March, 1847, the County Commissioners and the Select and Common Councils,—whose powers are now all merged in the consolidated city,—were severally authorized to erect a new

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court-house and a new city hall on parts of the State-house square; but the authority thus given has never been exercised, and the Act of the 2d April, 1860, was never carried into effect ; a fortunate cir- cumstance in the present state of our finances.

It will