Political Conspiracies are Nothing New - June 28, 1814 Barney and the Dems Conspire to Harm Federalists Party in Maryland

            It is currently reported and believed in St. Mary's, Charles and Calvert counties, and in the exposed parts of Prince George's, that Barney's flotilla into the Patuxent for no other purpose than to bring the war into those federal counties, and thus to divert the attention of the enemy from Baltimore and Washington.[1] The circumstances mentioned to support this statement are strong, if not conclusive. In the first place the flotilla was equipped to defend Baltimore harbor, and it was understood not to leave there. Secondly, Barney ran into the Patuxent when it had been in his power to get into the Potomac, if he was ordered their. Thirdly, instead of running into St. Leonard's Creek, if he had proceeded up to Nottingham or pinpoint, a small place 7 miles higher up, he might then have defended himself  effectually, sloops of war being unable to follow him. And, if necessary, he might have carried barges across on rollers from pinpoint to the Chesapeake, only 9 miles. It would not have been the first time that gunboats were seen in cornfields. But they could have been left in safety. If Barney was ordered to the Patuxent for the purpose suppose it, it was a most wicked and wanton act the executive. —[2]

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[1] Hoey, John B. Copyright 1995-2014.  "Federalist Opposition To The War Of 1812

Engaged in a War That Was To End In A Stalemate, Did America's Founders Miscalculate Its Military Institutions?" {accessed from the web June 28, 2014: http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter2000/federalist.html]

The Federalists opposed the war for several specific reasons. For one thing, they saw it as a party war designed to further the interests of Republicans and to silence the opposition ~n a view that was reinforced by the Baltimore Riots in 1812 and the refusal of the administration to accept Federalists into the Cabinet in1814. "I regard this war, as a war of party, and not of the country," said Rufus King in 1812. "The people are no more obliged "O to approve and applaud the measure," added the United States' Gazette, "than "O any other party project."

The Federalists also feared that the war would throw the nation into the arms of Napoleon, who was variously described as "the great destroyer," "the little tyrant," the "monster of human depravity," and "the arch-fiend who has long been the curse and scourge of the European World." The initial protests against the war, particularly in New England, often expressed greater fear of a French alliance than of the war itself. "The horrors of war, compared with it, are mere amusement," said Timothy Dwight. "The touch of France is pollution. Her embrace is death." French Dominion, added William Ellery Channing, threatened not just the wealth, but "the minds, character, morals, and the religion of our entire nation."

Even after the danger of a French alliance had receded, Federalists continued to oppose the war because they considered it an "offensive" war aimed at Canada. Although willing to support a war to protect American commerce or to defend the nation's frontiers, they refused to sanction the conquest of Canada. "Let it not be said," Congressman Morris Miller of New York told the Republicans in 1813, "that we refuse you the means of defense. For that we have always been ~n we still are ready to pen the treasure of the nation. We will give you millions for defense; but not a cent for the conquest of Canada ~n not the ninety-ninth part of a cent for the extermination of its inhabitants."

[2]  Salem Gazette.; Date: 06-28-1814; Volume: XXVIII; Issue: 51; Page: [2]; Location: Salem, Mass

Transcribed by john Peter Thompson, 28^th June 2014.

The Bladensburg Turnpike - 1812

 The Bladensburg Turnpike

               Just prior to the War of 1812 a new Washington Turnpike Company was incorporated in December of 1812. This incorporated the Bladensburg Turnpike section which names four shareholders from Bladensburg:

LAWS OF MARYLAND, Nov. SESS. 1812, CHAPTER 78.

An act to incorporate a company to make a Turnpike Road from the District of Columbia to the city of Baltimore,

SEC 1. BE IT ENACTED by the General Assembly of Maryland, That a company shall be incorporated for making a turnpike road from the district of Columbia to the city of Baltimore; and for making the said road a subscription shall be opened for a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, in shares of fifty dollars each, under the direction of George Calvert, Richard Ross, Thomas Bowie and William Fitzgerald, at Bladensburgh; Archibald Dorsey, Richard G.Stockett, John S. Belt and Thomas Lee, Junr. At M'Coy's tavern; and William Lorman, Henry Payson, George Lindenberger and Jacob Giles Smith, in the city of Baltimore.

AND BE IT ENACTED, That the commissioners shall lay out a road from the city of Baltimore to the district of Columbia, byway of Norwood's ferry, on the Patapsco river, M'Coy's tavern, Vansville, White House, Ross' tavern and Bladensburgh, on as straight a line between each of said places as the nature of the country will admit.[1]  

               The charter first directed that public subscriptions should be opened for the sum of $500,000, divided into shares, and appointed managers to receive them. As soon as a specified number of shares should be sold the subscribers were to meet and elect twelve directors, who were in turn to meet and elect a president from among the stockholders. The latter were incorporated as the Turnpike Company. The president and directors were then authorized to appoint five commissioners to lay out and mark the road. Damages and compensation for land, stone, gravel, etc., were to be assessed by agreement with the owners, if possible, by condemnation proceedings if necessary.

The prescribed method of road construction was quite elaborate and scientific. In this particular the charters of 1796, 1797, and 1804-5 were practically identical. The roads were to be:

"Sixty-six feet wide, twenty-one feet whereof in breadth, at least, shall be made an artificial road, which shall be bedded with wood, stone, gravel, or any other hard substance, well compacted together, a sufficient depth to secure a solid foundation to the same; and the said road shall be faced with gravel, or stone pounded, or other small hard substance, so as to secure a firm, and, as near as materials will admit, an even surface, rising towards the middle by a gradual arch; and the said road shall be made so nearly level in its progress as that it shall in no place rise or fall more than will form an angle of 4 degrees with an horizontal line, and shall ever thereafter maintain and keep the same in good and perfect order and repair."

As different sections of the roads should be finished, toll gates might be established by the directors, and tolls not to exceed certain prescribed maximums might be exacted. A curious item was that fixing the toll for "every single horse, camel, ass or mule". These tolls might be farmed out. Driving around the gates to avoid payment of tolls was punished by fines, as had been done by the Act of 1787.

Provided by: Aeon Preservation Services LLC Final 6-02-2013

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[1] Maryland State Archives. Volume 618, Page 72.  http://aomol.net/000001/000618/html/am618--72.html

Bladensburg Crossroads: The Town as a Regional Gathering Place for Business, Information, Refreshment and Entertainment

Bladensburg’s location as a port at the highest navigable point on the Anacostia River (Eastern Branch), created a natural spot for people to gather for business and other purposes.  Ships brought European goods in exchange for tobacco.  Later, the local economy diversified, but Bladensburg remained a center for commerce and industry.   At the time of its founding, the river was the most important transportation link, but as the first fordable point, the head of the Eastern Branch also was a place where east-west travelers would find their fastest land route from Annapolis or Upper Marlboro to the regional port towns emerging at Alexandria and Georgetown and points farther west.  In addition, Bladensburg was a node on the north-south road, connecting the Virginia tidewater region with Philadelphia and fast-growing Baltimore.  As a crossroads, Bladensburg also became a regional economic center with businesses and services.

Commercial Operations.  Stores, warehouses, wharves, grist mills, gunpowder mills, a blanket factory, tannery, forges, manufacturing locations and smaller service businesses provided by carpenters, shoe makers, saddlers, tailors, etc.  These were places where the buying and selling of tangible goods occurred; locations where products were processed or made.  The post office often was located at a commercial site, and the mails were the way newspapers were distributed; hence, post offices were a key locus drawing people interested in timely information.  Some of these operations were quite extensive, as suggested by this 1820 description of a tannery on the river, “51 layaway vats, 4 limes, 3 trendlers, 2 pools, 2 bates, 4 latches, a complete bark mill, with machinery to grind the bark by water, team and bark houses, a large and convenient currying shop, newly erected, new mill for grinding Spanish hides, lofts for hides, hair, wool, and horns, a comfortable dwelling house, with a good garden attached, suitable either for the owner or manager.  The whole yard is supplied with the best water and hydrants which convey the water..." [1]

Taverns & Hotels.  Licensed ordinaries appear almost as soon as Bladensburg was laid out and remained a constant feature of the crossroads town.  Taverns usually were the location of the stagecoach stop.  In addition to food and drink, taverns usually provided overnight accommodations.  Hotels eventually emerged as an alternative to drinking establishments.  Performances (dramatic, musical) and other entertainments (prize fights, cock fighting, balloon ascensions, prostitution) sometimes occurred in or near taverns and hotels.  Many business transactions occurred at taverns, such as sales of real estate and property, including slaves.  Taverns were one enterprise where women thrived.  In Bladensburg tavern licenses were held by Jane Martin, Elizabeth Prather, Mary B. Scott, Catherine Wirt, and Margaret Adams.  Adams was an African American, whose tavern was patronized by Charles Willson Peale and Thomas Lee Shippen.

Spa Spring.  Early travelers through Bladensburg noted the presence of a mineral spring and its potential to become a spa.  Over time, a spa did emerge in a park like setting.  It was the site of both organized events and casual visitation.  One local tavern keeper, William Ross, saw the spa as a potential inducement for visiting his establishment in this advertisement from 1804, “The subscriber respectfully informs his friends and the public generally, that he has opened a House of Entertainment in Bladensburg...Such persons as feel disposed to visit the spa, during the season, can be comfortably accommodated...” [2]

Educational & Professional Services.  Professionals such as medical doctors and lawyers, also ministers, school masters, artists, dance and music instructors, midwives, bookbinders, etc.   The Bladensburg Academy was established with the support of some of the leading businessmen in the town.  A published account of a public performance of a poem written by the school master, Samuel Knox, preserves the names of some of the students at the school: Thomas Dick, O.H. Williams, William Stuart, John Howitt, Thomas Contee Bowie, and George Ponsonby. [3] Their teacher went on to publish several treatises on the need for a system of higher education in the United States.  Knox’s ideas were said to have influenced Thomas Jefferson’s plans for the University of Virginia.

By Doug McElrath, May 27, 2013.

[1]  Daily National Intelligencer, 11/18/1820.  Repeated in Nov and Dec.  "Valuable Tannery in Bladensburg For Sale."

[2] Washington Federalist, 6/8/1804

[3] American Museum, April 1789

Charles Willson Peale in Bladensburg, 1789

Charles Willson Peale in Bladensburg, 1789

            Many famous individuals have traveled through Bladensburg, and the record of the 1789 visit of painter Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) is one of the most interesting.  Peale was the patriarch of a large and talented family, who preserved for us a legacy of visual and written information about America in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Peale recorded his experiences in writing nearly as voluminously as he recorded his subjects in paint; his visit to Bladensburg is a good example.

            Peale left Annapolis on Friday, 14 August 1789, crossing the Patuxent River at Queen Anne, and spending the night with Benjamin Hall at his Partnership plantation.  On the following morning, Peale left Hall’s “to go to George Town, and reached Bladensburg at mid day – I waited on Mrs. Ross, who informd me that Mrs. Lounes (sic) wanted her portrait in miniature to give one to each of her Children.”  Ariana Brice Ross was the daughter of John Brice of Annapolis, and the widow of Dr. David Ross.  Peale would have known Mrs. Ross from their younger days in Annapolis; her brother, Edmund Brice, was Peale’s first pupil in painting.  Elizabeth Tasker Lowndes was the daughter of Benjamin Tasker of Annapolis, and widow of Christopher Lowndes.  David Ross and Christopher Lowndes were two of the most prominent citizens of Bladensburg in its early years.  Their two Bladensburg houses, built in 1746, were among the finest houses in the town.  Christopher Lowndes had died in 1785, and Mrs. Lowndes, in failing health, wanted a portrait of herself for each of her seven children.

               On Sunday, 16 August, Peale “began a miniature of Mrs. Lounes” and on the next day “began a portrait of Mrs. Lounes in head size” (i.e., life size, oil on canvas), continuing also to work on the miniature.  He recorded in his journal over the next few days: “I persue my business of painting the portraits of Mrs. Lounes, and finish all of them 7 in number vizt. 4 in oil and 3 in miniature, except the drapery of one of the miniatures which was for Mrs. Francis Lounes, who living in George Town, neglected sending me directions about it – and I thus determined to compleat it at George Towne.”

            On 8 September, after more than three weeks in Bladensburg, Peale wrote: “Mr. Benjn. Lounes paid me in full for these pictures 78 £ 15, that is 8 Guineas for the first Miniature 7 Guineas for the first head size & 6 Guineas for each of the 5 other Copies – making in all 45 Guineas.  I paid Peggy Adams for my board £ 3:10. And for keeping my Horse – 4.15.0   And left Bladensburg.”[1]

            Peale arrived in Georgetown on the 9^th of September, and began a painting of the three grandchildren of Elizabeth Tasker Lowndes, children of Rebecca Lowndes and Benjamin Stoddert.  His journal gives considerable detail about the planning and painting of the children’s portrait[2] and also the completion and framing of the portraits and miniatures of Mrs. Lowndes.  On 18 September, he “left George Town and reached Bladensburg to a late dinner.”  Staying overnight in Bladensburg, probably at Margaret Adams’ inn, Peale left Bladensburg on the 19^th, heading north toward home in Philadelphia, recording a poignant note as he departed: “left Bladensburg at X [10] O clock, and I am apprehensive about the same hour Mrs. Lounes departed this life. – it was accidental that I visited Bladensburg, and I am happy that I was in time to paint those 7 portraits which she desired for her 7 Children.”[3]  Heading north, Peale arrived in Philadelphia on 23 September.

Charles Willson Peale had a habit of writing into his journal curiosities that he found interesting.  For example, while working on Mrs. Lowndes’ portraits in Bladensburg, Peale interrupted the recording of his progress by copying directions for “preserving Plants in their Original Shape & Colour . . . “  Similarly, just after reaching Baltimore on 20 September, he copied into his journal innkeeper Margaret Adams’ detailed recipe for pickling sturgeon.

By Susan Pearl, May 22, 2013.

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[1] Margaret Adams was an elderly black woman who ran a successful Bladensburg inn that was preferred by President Washington..  See letter from Thomas Lee Shippen to William Shippen, 15 September 1790, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson.

[2] Now owned by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and hanging at Dumbarton House in Georgetown.

[3] At least two of the oil portraits of Mrs. Lowndes are known to survive – one was last recorded in the ownership of an art dealer, and the other is now owned and displayed at the Washington County Museum of Fine Art in Hagerstown, having been given to the museum by direct descendants of Mrs. Lowndes.

Planting, Profits, People, and Politics in Bladensburg, Maryland - 1814

               In 1806, The New and Complete American Encyclopedia describes Bladensburg as " a post town of Maryland in Prince George's county on the E[ast] side of the branch of Potomac at the junction of the N[orth] W[est]and N[orth] E[ast] branches about seven miles above Washington city consists of one long street on which are erected about 160 dwellings and a warehouse for the inspection of tobacco It is 38 miles S[outh] W[est by S[outh] of Baltimore, 8 [miles] E[east by N[orth] Georgetown, and 140 S[outh] W[est] by W[est] of Philadelphia [at a] Long[itude of] I 57 W[est] Lat[titude of] 38 57 N[orth]. (The New and Complete American Encyclopedia, 1806)" [1]

               Bladensburg was the commercial center for the primary source of income, tobacco cultivation, in the northwestern part of Prince George's County, Maryland, lying just outside and east of the border of the District of Columbia. Tobacco production was serviced by convenient access to the Potomac River through its tributaries and by a growing system of roads linking the American South with coastal cities along the way to New England in the north.

               Agriculture and horticulture produced income and wealth that supported adjunct businesses such as seed and farm supply companies, shipping and brokerages, retailers of consumer goods and secondary value added enterprises such as mills. Social structures and politics in 1814 Bladensburg supported lawyers, doctors, and teachers. The complexities of tobacco cultivation consumed everyone's attention and time, and in turn dictated the annual cycles of political, religious, business and social seasons (Bozman, 1837; Morgan & Culture, 1998; Morse & Webber, 1802). [2]

               And at its core, commerce in Bladensburg depended on the institution of slavery (Morgan & Culture, 1998). This does not mean that everyone owned slaves, but it does mean that many benefited from the wealth accrued by the work of slaves. While not all tobacco planters had the capital to acquire slaves, the large planters who did had become dependent on the institution of legalized bondage. The small return on investment that tobacco cultivation provided made tobacco a risky  business choice for small planters and often resulted in foreclosures in poor growing seasons and global market swings. This risk resulted in small farmers turning to farming, to growing small grains such as wheat, an alternative business leaving slave agricultural production to large wealthy land owners.

               The need for both planters and farmers to access capital to purchase agricultural supplies and to buy more acreage resulted in a key political crisis in early 19th century Maryland over the role of banks, monetary regulation, and the power of a central government and its relation to transportation infrastructure projects such as turnpikes and canals. The division of the body politic into two partisan camps pitted small government supporters to oppose the 1811 renewal of the First Bank of the United States in support of Jefferson's ideas of a yeoman republic unconstrained by urban banking control. [3]

               Businesses centered on trade and commerce in Bladensburg as in other commercial centers tended more to the Hamiltonian concept of a level playing field with access to commercial loan instruments, and under the Federalist banner sought to fight of the ideas of the Democratic-Republican Party. This political fight pitted Bladensburg against the rest of the county for much of the first 25 years from 1788 until 1814, and reflected much of the political debate in the Chesapeake and Mid Atlantic.

               The war with Great Britain was ardently supported by proponents of small government, the very same supporters who had successfully prevented a renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States charter would soon prove the Federalist's point as the country was driven into debt in large part due to the military buildup and costs of the war itself. Bladensburg paid a high price for being on the losing side of the national political debate as well as the management of the war that many residents did not support (Buchholz, 1908; Riley, 1906). [4]

References

Bozman, J. L. (1837). The history of Maryland: from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations. J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver.  

Buchholz, H. E. (1908). Governors of Maryland: from the revolution to the year 1908. Williams & Wilkins company.

Morgan, P. D., & Culture, O. I. of E. A. H. and. (1998). Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-century Chesapeake and Lowcountry. University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Morse, J., & Webber, S. (1802). The American Universal Geography: Or, A View of the Present State of All the Empires, Kingdoms, States, and Republics in the Known World, and of the United States in Particular. In Two Parts ... Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews; sold at their bookstore; by said Thomas in Worcester; by Thomas, Andrews & Butler in Baltimore, and by other booksellers.

Riley, E. S. (1906). A history of the General Assembly of Maryland, 1635-1904. Baltimore: Nunn & Co.

The New and Complete American Encyclopedia. (1806). (Vol. II). New York: John Low.

By John Peter Thompson May 21, 2013

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[1] The New and Complete American Encyclopedia. (1806). (Vol. II). New York, NY USA: John Low.

   p. 121.

[2] Morse, J., & Webber, S. (1802). The American Universal Geography: Or, A View of the Present State of All the Empires, Kingdoms, States, and Republics in the Known World, and of the United States in Particular. In Two Parts ... Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews; sold at their bookstore; by said Thomas in Worcester; by Thomas, Andrews & Butler in Baltimore, and by other booksellers. p. 582.

" The soil of the good land in Maryland is of such a nature and quality as to produce from 12 to t6 bushels of wheat or from 20 to 30 bushels of Indian corn per acre. Ten bushels of wheat and if bushels of corn per acre may be the annual average crops in the state at large... Wheat and tobacco arc the staple commodities. Tobacco is generally cultivated in sets by negroes in the following manner: the feed is sown in beds of fine mould and transplanted the begin of May... That pride which grows on slavery and is habitual to those who from their infancy are taught to believe and to see their superiority is a visible characteristic of the inhabitants of Maryland. But with this characteristic we must not fail to connect that of hospitality to strangers which is equally universal and obvious Many of the women possess all the amiable and many of the elegant accomplishments of their sex "

  

[3] A History Of Central Banking In The United States. 2012 The Federal Reserve Bank of Minnepaolis. [accessed May, 2013].http://www.minneapolisfed.org/community_education/student/centralbankhistory/bank.cfm?

" Though the intent of the Bank was to facilitate government finances, Hamilton had another goal in mind—to function as a commercial bank. At the time of the revolution, there were barely any banks in the colonies; Britain had used its authority to protect its own banks and prevent the development of financial rivals. Hamilton's vision was to create a central source of capital that could be lent to new businesses and thereby develop the nation's economy. So while in some ways the First Bank prefigured the Federal Reserve, it also differed from it significantly by offering commercial loans, which the Fed, along with most modern central banks, does not do."

[4] Buchholz, H. E. (1908). Governors of Maryland: from the revolution to the year 1908. Williams & Wilkins company. 

" The national administration in 1812 was republican Maryland however was in a rather uncertain mind the republicans and federalists being almost equally strong... Both the Maryland federalists who had opposed the war and the Maryland republicans who had advocated it were forced to bear the burden of the nation's war as far as Maryland was concerned without any aid from the central government."