John Quincy Adams in Pittsburgh

John Quincy Adams, Daguerreotyped in 1843, the year he visited Pittsburgh. Could a new two-volume edition of Modern Chivalry be among the books on the table behind him?

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An interesting pamphlet has just appeared on Project Gutenberg:

Ex-President John Quincy Adams in Pittsburgh (1843)

It consists of a speech by Wilson McCandless (who gave his name to the Town of McCandless, Allegheny County’s most perfectly square township) welcoming Mr. Adams, Adams’ speech in reply, and some correspondence between the two men.

McCandless sent Adams the new edition of Modern Chivalry by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, and it’s very interesting to read Adams’ opinion of the work. He had read and loved it as a young man, and he expects it to be a permanent part of the world’s literature. Whether it has lived up to that expectation is debatable; it is not always in print like the works of Hawthorne, but on the other hand it is reprinted often enough that it could not quite be called forgotten. At any rate, Pittsburgh has at least the honor of having made one of the first substantial contributions to American fiction, and can claim a literary culture well over two centuries old.

Hugh Henry Brackenridge on Duels

Hugh Henry Brackenridge was a remarkable man: author of one of America’s first novels, founder of what became the University of Pittsburgh, and urbane wit in what was still a rather rough little city across the Alleghenies from civilization. Here is a letter he sent to the Gazette in 1797 on the subject of duels, which were then a notorious plague in Pittsburgh. It was reprinted in a review pasted in the end-papers of an 1846 edition of his Modern Chivalry, so Father Pitt regrets that the source is secondary and not easily identifiable. “Mr. Scull” was the editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette.

Mr. Scull—The Age of Chivalry is not over; and challenges have been given even in the midst of a yellow fever which, one would think, was killing people fast enough already. The fear of God or the law, are usual and just grounds of refusing. But I will give you a sample of the way in which I get off with some of my challenges, in the following letter and answer on a late occasion; but omitting the name of the challenger, as I have no inclination to trouble him with a provocation.

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PITTSBURGH, October 15, 1797.

Sir—I will thank you to take a walk with a friend and meet me at the back of the graveyard about sunrise to-morrow morning. After what has happened, you know what I mean.

Your humble servant, &c.

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PITTSBURGH, October 15, 1797

Sir—I know what you mean very well; you want to have a shot at me, but I have no inclination to be hit, and I am afraid you will hit me. I pray thee therefore have me excused.

H. H. BRACKENRIDGE.

Fort Duquesne

This marker sits right in the middle of what was once Fort Duquesne, the French attempt to hold a vast inland empire that the British coveted. The British attempts to dislodge the French began a world war unprecedented in its scale; we call it the French and Indian War, but in other parts of the world it’s known as the Seven Years’ War. The marker shows the plan of the fort and the French names of the rivers; note that the French, logically enough, considered the Allegheny a part of the Ohio, and the Monongahela a tributary. Had the outcome of the war been different, not only would Pittsburghers—or rather Duquesnois—speak French, but we would have only two rivers.

Old Stone Tavern, West End

If the date “1756″ found etched in a cornerstone is correct, then this is the oldest building in the English colonies west of the Alleghenies. That date would make it older than the Fort Pitt Blockhouse by eight years. Father Pitt tends to doubt the authenticity of the date; but there is no doubt that this is a very old building, almost certainly from the 1700s, and one that ought to be preserved at all costs.

Cleaning Up After the 1936 Pittsburgh Flood

Here we have a short film, whose source is unidentified, of some of the cleanup after the St. Patrick’s Day Flood in 1936. It seems to be amateur footage, but it’s good enough to show us what a mess everything was. (It seems to be impossible to embed correctly on wordpress.com, so you’ll actually have to leave this site to see it. But hurry on back.)