1833 Letter from Philadelphia Describing the Visits of Andrew Jackson and Black Hawk
- Single three-page letter measuring 8 x 10 inches
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , 1833
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1833. Single three-page letter measuring 8 x 10 inches. Folded; some damage at seal intersecting with text. Very good plus.. A letter from Franklin Townsend in Philadelphia to his school friend Edwin W. Morgan at West Point. Townsend apologizes profusely for forgetting that he had not answered Morgan’s previous letter, updates him on his job at the Martin, Craven, & Smith hardware store, and asks him if he remembers a Miss Perkins from their school days in Wyoming (presumably Wyoming, Pennsylvania, as he also mentions Wilkes-Barre; both are in Luzerne County). The big news stories of the day, though, were visits by President Jackson and Sauk leader Black Hawk to Philadelphia. Townsend writes:
“A few weeks since as the papers have informed you General Andrew Jackson and the Indian Warrior honoured the City of Philadelphia with their presence We had very lively times and the honour due to the Chief Magistrate of a free people was paid to Jackson. My opinions of his knowledge or rather talents remains the same, I was glad to see the Chief Magistrate honored…but that favouring kindness which some lavished upon him, I think savors too much of a Courtier and cannot in all cases spring from the pure and deep recesses of the heart. Black Hawk seems now to be fully aware of the uselessness of combatting with the whites, and the attention which is shown to him and those with him, is not all lost upon them, but they seem to be very much pleased and say that they will never take up arms against us.”
President Jackson was visiting as part of a tour of east coast cities. As Townsend suggests, he was met with adulation; a newspaper at the time describes the streets “thronged with multitudes desirous of paying their personal respects”.[1] Black Hawk was also on somewhat of an east coast tour, though under very different circumstances. He and other members of the British Band had been imprisoned in the Jefferson Barracks and then Fortress Monroe following the Black Hawk War, fought over an attempt to reclaim Indigenous homelands east of the Mississippi River. The men were to be returned to their nations “under circumstances calculated to impress them with the extent of the power and resources of the country”[2]—that is, in Townsend’s words, to show them “the uselessness of combatting with the whites”. Black Hawk drew crowds of curious and excited onlookers, with one newspaper lamenting that his reception “rivalled [that of] the President himself.”[3]
[1] “His arrival at Philadelphia.”, Mississippi Free Trader, July 5, 1833, 2.
[2] “Philadelphia: Thursday, June 27, 1833”, The Philadelphia Enquirer, June 27, 1833, 2.
[3] “A Hint For Historians”, The Philadelphia Enquirer, July 1, 1883, 1.
“A few weeks since as the papers have informed you General Andrew Jackson and the Indian Warrior honoured the City of Philadelphia with their presence We had very lively times and the honour due to the Chief Magistrate of a free people was paid to Jackson. My opinions of his knowledge or rather talents remains the same, I was glad to see the Chief Magistrate honored…but that favouring kindness which some lavished upon him, I think savors too much of a Courtier and cannot in all cases spring from the pure and deep recesses of the heart. Black Hawk seems now to be fully aware of the uselessness of combatting with the whites, and the attention which is shown to him and those with him, is not all lost upon them, but they seem to be very much pleased and say that they will never take up arms against us.”
President Jackson was visiting as part of a tour of east coast cities. As Townsend suggests, he was met with adulation; a newspaper at the time describes the streets “thronged with multitudes desirous of paying their personal respects”.[1] Black Hawk was also on somewhat of an east coast tour, though under very different circumstances. He and other members of the British Band had been imprisoned in the Jefferson Barracks and then Fortress Monroe following the Black Hawk War, fought over an attempt to reclaim Indigenous homelands east of the Mississippi River. The men were to be returned to their nations “under circumstances calculated to impress them with the extent of the power and resources of the country”[2]—that is, in Townsend’s words, to show them “the uselessness of combatting with the whites”. Black Hawk drew crowds of curious and excited onlookers, with one newspaper lamenting that his reception “rivalled [that of] the President himself.”[3]
[1] “His arrival at Philadelphia.”, Mississippi Free Trader, July 5, 1833, 2.
[2] “Philadelphia: Thursday, June 27, 1833”, The Philadelphia Enquirer, June 27, 1833, 2.
[3] “A Hint For Historians”, The Philadelphia Enquirer, July 1, 1883, 1.