The Vanishing Evidence

THE VANISHING EVIDENCE. BY THE REV. LOUIS F. BENSON , D , D. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA , AT THE ANNUAL MEETING , MARCH 3, 1924. WE genealogists : — but perhaps there should be a pause already to justify a phrase that seems to include a member of the cloth in that company of specialists . Those of you old fashioned enough to know your New Testa ment will recall that the first Gospel opens with a genealogical table, and that the third of the Evangelists interrupts his narra tive to insert a like document. It is plain enough that to both Evangelists genealogy had an essential part in the gospel they recorded , and was to one of them its very foundation. Is it not then obvious that one who is commissioned to preach that gospel becomes by the very terms of his commission a profes sional genealogist ? We genealogists are mostly aware that between the two pedi grees that bear respectively the august names of St. Matthew and St. Luke there are discrepancies so great as to make quite hopeless anything in the nature of what used to be called a “ harmony ”. From Joseph to King David only two names are the same in both lists The common . motive of both, clearly enough , is to prove the roj'al descent of the Christmas Baby The diverging methods we cannot fathom. No two genealogists ever left so much trouble behind them Indeed the incurably romantic methods of the Oriental mind are - - - - P JL S . . . G . always elusive We genealogists of the West might do worse than to utilize the spark elicited by the friction of the evangelic pedigrees to light one or two of the lamps of our profession : two lamps that will lighten the paths of our personal researches, and that will continue to illuminate those paths to the feet that follow ours (1) The first is the Lamp of Candor We ought never to record a statement of fact without disclosing the evidence that supports the statement I had in my library for years a book entitled Americans of Royal Descent But as edition followed edition in even ampler dimensions and more and more of my acquaintances were apotheosized , I began to anticipate the difficulty under which the present Labor Ministry of Great Britain is embarrassed , 7 . . . . ( 21 ) . Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vanishing Evidence . 22 - the difficulty of learning how to walk backward from the un accustomed presence of royalty And the only assuagement I could find lay in the repetition of the soothing formula , “ Oh! if only the author had given the evidence for these royal claims. ” When George Bancroft attained old age, he concluded that his reputation had reached a point that justified a final edition of his History of the United States cleared of all its references that had encumbered earlier editions, and resting solely upon his own authority. And how suggestive it is that this final edition is a dead book , while the earlier ones with ample footnotes of sources and authorities, are an essential part of every historical student’s library. ( 2 ) The other lamp of our profession is the Lamp of Veracity. The lack of dependableness in so much of the printed work in the department of study with which I am most familiar, is to me more than a cause of chagrin : it is an ethical puzzle : the problem of how one can combine inaccuracy with self - respect. For inaccuracy is not a fault : it is a sin. In his extreme old age President Routh of Magdalen used to be visited in his seclusion by younger clergy, very much in the spirit in which Henry Armitt Brown made those visits to . the equally venerable Horace Binney, in his Fourth Street office ; 1 as though to see a fascinating survival of an earlier time and to consult an oracle of professional wisdom. One November day in 1847, the Rev John William Burgon ( afterwards widely loved for his vicious attacks on the revised New Testament ) waited upon the President. “ Every studious man , ” he told the venerable scholar ( very much in Boswell’s manner ) , “ has had occasion to experience the special value of some one axiom or precept. Would you mind giving me the benefit of such a word of advice.” After an impressive pause the President said (very much in Dr. Johnson ’ s manner ) : “ Since you care for the advice of a very old man , sir, jfou will find it a very good practice, always to verify your references, sir. > J i And so the old scholar lit for us all the golden lamp of veracity. Some of you may recall the publication late in the 19 th century of a voluminous work entitled Supernatural Re . G S P ik . - J. M. Hoppin, Memoir of Henry Armitt Brown, Philadelphia, 1880, pp. 102-115. 1 , J W Burgon , Lives of Twelve Good Men, 2nd ed. , London , 1888, vol. it page 73. 1 . Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vamskmg Evidence. 23 . ligion It was loudly acclaimed, and seemed to many a very formidable indictment, until Bishop Lightfoot, in his pedestrian way, undertook to verify the sources and evidence collected in elaborate foot - notes. Whereupon the vast structure ( it was a three decker ) went down out of men’s sight, as though struck by a torpedo. In thus suggesting the supremacy of actual evidence and our one clear call to deal with it frankly and judicially , I have not really been preaching so much as laying the ground for a lament ; or, have been, if you choose, simply postponing the unwelcome first note of the lamentation which my special theme - * invites. I - S - - — . - G — P I shall touch but lightly upon the vanishing of our news papers and printed books. Hawthorne has left us a thumb-nail sketch of Mr. Hildreth writing his History of the United States in the Boston Athenaeum , “ a thin , middle aged man, in black, with an intelligent We are not Hawthornes, but many of us could furnish face. a sketch of Dr. McMaster in these rooms poring over the vol umes of old newspapers in preparing his History a much better book . To the modern school of historians and to all genealogists newspapers are an essential source But how are the historians of our times to recover the news papers that chronicle them ? There are days when you cannot hold your Bulletin intact long enough to finish reading it. In a library which I supervise we find that even the weeklies, if left exposed to the air, become so discolored and brittle that the binder refuses to handle them That our printed books in general are to share in such a fate I cannot persuade myself Nevertheless I have been attending the sick - bed of a set of the official edition of our Pennsylvania Colonial Archives, etc. , and the symptoms are discouraging The bindings first lost their color and then their surface: since then the substance remaining seems to be not flaking or peeling so much as actually dissolving in the air. And if the air once reaches the backs of the sheets, their decay will follow quickly In the case of our vast newspapers there seems no remedy for the vanishing of the evidence short of the vanishing of the for ests; but in the case of books likely to serve as sources, there is . . . . - - Passages from the American Note Books ( for 1850 ) , ed - 1903, p. 470. Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vanishing Evidence . 24 no real difficulty in the way of securing their permanence with linen paper, good ink and buckram binding . II Of the vanishing of the evidence which means the most to genealogists, we may take up first, Family Records Some years ago a telephone call came from a second-hand bookseller. He had just brought in the library of one of our eminent and wealthy citizens ( whom he named, and who was hardly more than buried ), and would I come down and go over the lot Assuredly , and was glad I went: glad of the chance to buy back at a reasonable figure a book I had loaned the decedent some years earlier and could never replace. It was an “ association book ” too, having the original letter with which I had accompanied the loan “ laid in. ” There was less pleasure a sense of shame almost in retrieving my friend’s family Bible, with the record among other things of the birth of the person who had sold the books in the hand of the one who had — — P . G S died. You have heard that when a good Philadelphian dies the body of his flesh goes to the banks of the Schuylkill to give the ancestral tone to the town water. You may add that the body of his books goes almost as quickly to “ Leary’ s, ” to increase the supply of association books. Incidentally, one who has spent large spaces of the last fifty years in old book-shops would counsel you that in presenting your book to your friend you write no sentimental inscription in it You can trust a real friend , in selling or giving away your gift book, first to tear out the inscribed fly leaf , but you cannot so trust his heirs and representatives. In fact rather few family Bibles get to the book shop, for the ample reason that no bookseller will buy them unless compelled to lump them with the books he actually wants. A select few grace the lecterns of impoverished churches. One wonders where the rest go For in the break up of old families, in the dismantling of old homes, and in the rather widespread decay of the old family feeling, a good many of them are being dispensed with , shall we say ? Two have come into my official hands as a librarian within a week of this writing, and pre sumably some come here. Where do the others go ? Family records began in family feeling, and were written for - P . - — Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vcmiskmg Evidence . 25 . posterity They owe their preservation till now to the accident that the Bibles furnished by the book -trade for the purpose were large and uncomfortable to read from. There has never been a time Bince 1560 when small English Bibles could not be had for actual use. And these have to a large extent perished in the use. The big Bible with its records was stored away, and brought out only to add to the record But this very cuni bersomeness, which has secured their preservation up till now, militates against their further preservation. In the small apartment of modem city life, with a minimum of closet room , the big books are no doubt in the way. And then a consider able proportion of our young people of breeding are very much after the pattern of Lord Randolph Churchill, who retained his position in the Tory Party, but held Liberal principles and pre ferred the bohemian type of life to the patrician They are refusing (so I hear ) , in their pleasant and offhand way , either the gift or the custody of the family silver ; they can hardly find room for their golf trophies. And , with all their gifts and accomplishments, they cannot be depended upon to keep up the family records or even to conserve them. The work undertaken by the Society of Colonial Dames, of heliostatting all the records it can secure the loan of , promises at least a partial amelioration of a regrettable situation. But it cannot expect to cover the situation The other day I glanced over a great closet full of family papers consigned to one of our second-hand book stores by the dismantlers of an old home the accumulation of generations which it would have taken weeks to examine properly. It turned out to be a treasury of valuable autographs, but what one felt more vaguely was an uncomfortable sense of vanishing evidence III i - . - - S P . G . — . Church Records Church records make a complicated subject which has had no adequate treatment. Every foot of the soil of England is included in the network of parishes, and in every parish is a church whose activities and records are a part of the govern ment system. One seeks out a parish church with assurance of finding its records in good state from an early period. The same parochial system obtains in Scotland , with a difference in the type of church order. The British sovereign who goes holiday making to Balmoral suffers a sea change and becomes - - - Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vanishing Evidence. 26 . a Presbyterian, signing the communicant register of his parish The late Queen Victoria ( who was a suppressed Lutheran ) had a great relish for the free Scottish prayers. She had , however, the inestimable privilege of imposing a time limit In the parts of New England where the Congregational Church was established and the parochial system enforced, the church records leave little to be desired , either in the way of fulness or preservation, especially where church and town were conterminous. In Virginia, which was in so many ways a re production of eighteenth century England, and where the Eng lish Church was established by law , the condition of early records seems to be deplorable Bishop Meade in his preface prides himself on having recovered “ many old vestry books, or fragments thereof , supposed to have been lost ) i I In this part of the country we have no parishes, except in the Pickwickian sense Every church is a voluntary associa tion: all the territory “ no man’ s land. ” On the subject of church records in general there is no printed information , and I must confine myself to the only ones of which I have first-hand knowledge, those of one branch of the Presbyterian Church , a large and comparatively respectable body , embracing nearly ten thousand parishes. Of such of the older parishes as have printed their history , a pitiful number begin with an apology : “ No records of this church prior to [a certain date, generally a comparatively late one] are known to be now in existence.” This is readily explained in the case of churches started on the frontiers or under humble social conditions; not so easilv in the case of an ancient foundation in a developing city such as the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, of which no sessional records of its first century exist. The only actual proof , for instance, that Charles Thomson was one of its ruling elders is the record of Synod in 1768 ( rediscovered the other day ), that “ Dr Alison is now come, and his elder , Charles Thomson. ” Perhaps your learned President would interpose just here his characteristic refrain : “ The Scotch Irish kept no records.” But this church is believed to have been formed by English , Welsh and Huguenot immigrants, and for fifty years from 1698 its pastor was an educated Puritan from Massachusetts. 1 . - - - . . G S V - P . . - Old Churches , Ministers and Families of Virginia, Phila. , 1861, vol . i , p. 3. * Cf . Bi -centennial Celebration of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, 1900, p. 82. 1 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vanishing Evidence. 27 It is possible no records were kept. It seems more likely that they disappeared during the British occupation of the city. In a town where non combatant and Tory influences were so strong, the English army recognized its enemieB, and it gutted all three of the Presbyterian churches. In the case of the Second Church at Third and Arch , the bill for repairs, after the army left, amounted to £202/9/7.* What we lump together as church records are very various and of differing genealogical value. In the denomination to which I have referred , the parish is a three headed organism. There is ( 1) The Congregation itself , which has supreme powers when it asserts itself , but which has no record - book of its own. (2) The Board of Trustees, which is a civil corporation , holding and managing the property, and whose minute-book is only incidentally of genealogical value. ( 3) The Session, made up of pastor and elders, the spiritual authority, whose minutes record the name of every one admitted to the communion or dismissed , and in the old days are uncomfortably rich in cases of discipline apt to cause embarrassment in the search for an cestors. Apart from these are the parish registers, of baptisms, com - P - S — municants, marriages, and perhaps burials. The minutes of Session have to be submitted to the Presbytery every year, and are scrupulously examined in committee before they are ap proved The registers, on the other hand , are subject only to the good will and good conscience either of pastor or a lay clerk , and kept as may be. Next to Sessional records, lists of mar riages prior to the Registration Act are most often asked for Most pastors regarded their marriage record as personal prop erty , since a larger part of the marriages a pastor celebrated were in his capacity as a clergyman and unconnected in any way with his particular parish. When the good man died , hie marriage record was dear to his widow, less so to his children, and likely in the end to be swallowed up in the category of vanished evidence The baptismal and communicant registers are, of course, the property of the parish, and share its fortunes. The older records of all sorts have been subject to careless ness, to fire and war hazards, and all the other mischances and deteriorations of time. 'he Presbyterian Historical Society has done its best to rescue those not properly guarded ; but the net - G . -. - . - E. It. Beadle, The Old and the New . 2 he Secoitd Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia , 1876 , p. 32. 1 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vanishing Evidence . 28 . result of their efforts is somewhat meager Even in the case of disbanded churches, some surviving officer or member asserts a property right in the records This X hope soon to have rem edied. Meantime the vanishing of the evidence goes bravely on In the case of a church disbanded so lately as the one at Tenth and Clinton Streets, not a page of its records can be found after repeated efforts. I know of a recent instance where im portant records disappeared even from the hands of a master in an equity case who had called for their production on the very ground of their importance. Contemporary records are further threatened by modern standards of efficiency Some time ago I learned that the Presbyterian Board of Pub lication was furnishing in great numbers loose-leaf record books for parochial use. This I had discontinued , and a resolution was pushed through the General Assembly enjoining all parishes to embody their records in strongly-bound books of good paper.1 This Taised such a protest throughout the country that the suc ceeding Assembly rescinded the resolution , and left its Publica tion House free to resume the trade in loose-leaf records.1 No doubt many a merchant has discovered the handiness of loose leaved day books and even ledgers. Why not then , if he happen to be parish clerk, apply the same method to the church books ? If such a state of mind is at all typical, the future outlook for the permanence of our church records does not seem very bright . . . P - - - S - G . IV Graveyards We turn now to Borne sunny thoughts in graveyards The last November number of Mr. Squires1 charming magazine, The London Mercury, has an article on “ Hymns, happy and unhappy ” The writer turns to that quaint section of the famous Hymns Ancient and Modem, entitled “ For the Young, ” and is chagrined to find that children are expected to Bing a ditty beginning, . . “ 'Within the churchytrd side by side Are many long low graves; And some have stones set over them; On some the green grass waves, ” , , Minutes of General Atstmby , 1912, p. 193. ’Jlftnuto, 1913, p. 132. 1 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vanishing Evidence . 29 The point is well taken. But we genealogists are not children , and might well adopt the verse aB our Society song. Nothing in the landscape is so promising as a well equipped graveyard. Nothing in life is so completely satisfying as an ancestor’s grave stone. Well, the evidence of our graveyards is rapidly vanishing Think of the destruction of recent years in our immediate neighborhood : of that expanse of graveyards one saw driving down Broad Street at Passayunk Avenue ; of the Free Quaker Burying Ground at Fourth and Locust ; of that on Spruce Street between Tenth and Eleventh, where the brownstone houses are; of that adjoining St. Luke’s on Thirteenth Street ; of that on Logan Square, west of the Academy of Natural Sciences, with its impressive table tombs; of that on Arch Street, east of Eleventh , behind the Georgian Church And now Ronald son’s Cemetery is offered to the city, and St. John’s on Race Street is to be obliterated by the city One wonders what has become of so much evidence in stone; of most of it, very probably, not even a record has been kept. Our colonial churchyards interest us most, on account of the predilection of our ancestors for a place of rest within the shadow of church walls. The earliest burying ground of the Friends is veiled in some obscurity. George Vaux thought it probably lay within the limits of the estate at Fourth and Arch Streets, acquired in 1693-94 Of this the whole plot has been used for burial, much of it having had two layers of graves, some parts even three. And here lie undisturbed the remains of the Quaker worthies of more than a century.1 Owing to the custom of avoiding markers, the early Friends’ burying grounds are less interesting to genealogists than are the records of them Of the earlier Catholic churchyards, apart from St. Mary’s and Holy Trinity , as they stand to day, I lack proper informa - . - P . . S > G . . tion. - - The churchyards of the three colonial Episcopal churches stand intact, to the great honor of their vestries, The burial ground of Christ Church and the churchyard of St. Peter’s seem as safe as anything can be in a town more and more men aced by the spirit of change ; and that of St. Peter’ s is surely the most winsome spot within the town limits. Of the per manence of St. Paul’ s churchyard one feels less assured. - The Friend# Meeting - House , Fourth and Arch Streets , Philadelphia ( 1904 ) , pp. 25, 28 . 1 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 Vanishing Evidence . 30 Of Lutheran churchyards, the Swedish at Swanson Street still remains, however lacking in ancient stones. Of German Lutheranism, St. Michael’s and Zion are almost forgotten, and, with the passing of St. John’s, goes the last vestige of historical Lutheranism from the older city. The German Reformed graveyard , as we all know , gave way to the laying out of Frank lin Square, and most of its stones lie probably beneath the walks and grass.1 The churchyard of the First Baptist Church was in Le Grange Place, and was not sold till June 30, 1862, when the Church removed to Broad and Arch, * Some of the historic stones have been preserved ; some, less historic but still old , I have met with in South Laurel Hill Of the colonial Presbyterian churches the record is more mixed. The First Church and its churchyard were on Market Street between Second and Third , the south side at the corner of Bank Street, and remained until 1821, when the church removed to Washington Square. The giving up of a spot so sacred and the removal to what one of the contending pamphleteers called “ a duck pond in the wilderness ” was accomplished over the heads of many who loved it * And the success of the project must have been unexpected , for as late as May 7, 1820, the widow of Governor Thomas McKean was laid there beside her hus band.* A new burial ground was purchased on Pine Street above Fourth , immediately west of the Third Church. The un claimed bodies were removed there and the head stones set up against its south wall, A transcript of their inscriptions was the first publication of this Society : a happy one, for time is dealing hardly with these ancient stones In the year 1895 the late Mr. George Griffith, on whose shoulders much of the burden of maintaining the First Church had fallen , secured the authority of the congregation to proceed in the sale of the Pine Street plot as a means toward a proposed endowment fund The holy wrath which this project aroused in the bosom of the Reverend Hughes Oliphant Gibbons, pastor of the adjacent - - - P . S . - G - . . See A Hit to ry of the Reformed Church in Philadelphia , by Rev. David Van Horne, Philadelphia, 1876 , pp. 73ff. 1 The Bi centennial Celebration of the Founding of the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia, 1899 , p, 103. * First Church, Bi -centennial , p. 87. 4 R. Buchanan , Life of Thomas McKean , Phila. , 1890 , p, 123. 1 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 1924 31 Vanishing Evidence . ft Third Church , was a joy to witness, and is a cheerful memory. It was he who encouraged the cries of “ Vandalism ! ” in the newspapers and arranged the cuts of the scene of the proposed desecration, with the monument of the First City r 'roop kept well to the fore. It was he who secured pledgee from the Troop and numerous representatives of families interested to fight the matter to the courts of last resort It was he who saved the graveyard. And I pay this humble tribute to the memory of one who loved “ whatsoever things are venerable ” The Second Church wag an inspiration of George Whitefield , and at every communion service a piece of sacramental silver given by him is placed upon the Table. Interments began while the church occupied the old Academy in Fourth Street ; of these there is no record.1 In 1750-52 the brick church was built in “ Dr. Hill’s pasture, ” at the northwest comer of Third and Arch.* Beneath its brick aisle, its famous first pastor, Gilbert Tennent, with Samuel Finley, President of Princeton College and a Reverend Josiah Smith of Bermuda , were sue cessively buried , and after the destruction of the church their remains were removed to Abingdon churchyard by Mr. Ten nent’s granddaughter, and a monument erected over them.1 In 1750 a burying ground on Arch Street above Fifth , ex tending 306 feet to the north , across what is now Cherry Street, was purchased , and remained in use for one hundred and seventeen years. * Uere, Samuel Hazard , the historian , assures us, lie “ many of the great and good , I I 5 None the less the congregation in February , 1867 , authorized the sale of the Arch Street graveyard and of a newer one between Noble and But tonwood Streets. The thing was accomplished , it must be ad mitted , with the greatest liberality toward the representatives of those interested and with every respect for the memory of ‘‘ the great and6 good , ” short of leaving them where they had wished to lie. It is claimed , sometimes, that apart from the shock to right feeling, no actual historical or genealogical loss is inflicted by such a disturbance of ancient landmarks. Let us see In December of 1907 the late Senator Knox came here to de liver an address at the festival of the New England Society B . P . * G S - -- . -. Samuel Hazard In The Old and the New ( ut iupra ) , p. 162. * Ibid ., p. 38. •Ibid. , p. 160. * Ibid . , p. 161. * Ibid. , p. 162. •See the Report of the Committee in 2 he Old and the New , pp. 165-167 . 1 1924 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 32 Vanishing Evidence . — — HXB paper for it was closely read undertook to prove, as 1 remember it, that Pelatiah Webster was the real author of the Federal Constitution. Some of the diners may have questioned the bearing of the Senator’s theme upon the Pilgrim Fathers they had met to honor. But a measure of interest was aroused in Webster’s forgotten personality, and a Ledger reporter started an investigation, Webster’s house on Water Street had disappeared ; no portrait was known The only trace the reporter came upon was a record of Webster’s burial in the Second Church graveyard on September 2, 1795. The reporter learned that many of the bodies from the Arch Street ground, and their monuments, had been removed to a large tract in Mount Vernon Cemetery purchased for that purpose. Thither he went, and published in the Ledger of April 7, 1908, a large cut of the Second Church plot, with three prominent flat stones in the immediate foreground , and the legend beneath : “ The Econ omist Lies Under the Middle Stone in the Foreground. ” Feeling interested, and mindful of President Routh ’s excel lent advice to “ verify your references, ” I secured the reporter’s photograph of the spot and took it out to Mount Vernon . The stones are there, but neither the central nor any other appears to record or even to suggest that Pelatiah Webster was laid be neath . And it seems that with the obliteration of the Arch Street ground the last visible trace of that elusive but historic personality has vanished. The Third Church and its yard occupy a plot on Society Hill, at Fourth and Pine Streets, granted by the Proprietors in 1764, and enlarged after the Revolution. If you should enter the church in an archeological mood you would repeat Lord Rosebery’s experience in searching for the remains of White hall Palace other than the Banqueting House, and , like him , find no more than original walls, refaced but not destroyed 1 There is, however, a grave-stone in the floor of what was the central aisle, and beneath is the grave of George Duffield , chap lain of the Continental Congress. Of the 110 members of the church who signed his call as pastor, the Revolutionary record of 67 has been traced ; 35 of them commissioned officers. * Those who survived lie here still. And the churchyard remains intact and undisturbed . The congregation has dwindled away , and one could wish that Hughes Gibbons were back to stand guard at the gate with his flaming sword , . - G S P - - . •9 Miscellanies , by Lord Rosebery , London . 1921 , vol. ii, p. 293. ’ Hughes O. Gibbons , A History of Old Pine Street , Philadelphia, 1905, 1 1924 p. 90. Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX 33 Vanishing Evidence . V But those of us who believe that historic monuments are the only inspiring teachers of history and that our ancient grave yards are hallowed spots, may as well recognize that they face a menace more potent than decay or lapse of guardianship And that is the spirit of utilitarianism. The utilitarian spirit is more orderly and less impulsive than the violence of the mob, but it yields nothing to the latter in the way of destructiveness. As between a Baron Haussmann and a French revolutionary mob, I gieatly prefer the mob The heart of our old town has become congested And it is now apparent that nothing is so costly or so sacred that it may be allowed to impede the free progress of the procession of automobiles from New Jersey and the suburbs The widening of our highways, the laying-out of new streets, the cutting through of diagonal avenues: these and the new bridge are the immediate projects. At the moment it is St. John’s that has to go, and “ Grumblethorpe ” that is menaced. But the widened and new streets will not stop to reckon any spiritual values : the abutments of the next bridge may obliterate Third and Pine. It is likely a “ felt need ” may develop for a park ing-place at independence Square: underground at first; and then , as the sod is killed o2, frankly on the surface. Possibly a movement may follow to remove Independence Hall to the Park , beside the little house in which William Penn did not live, 1 and even to justify the removal. Mr. Hazelton has abundantly proved that nobody signed the Declaration there on July 4 th, * and that the real declaration of the independence of the colonies was made on the 2 nd . * Historical research proceeds so rapidly that it may be possible to support the removal project by showing that the oral declaration of independence was not made in the Hall at all but at the London Coffee House to which the delegates had adjourned to recover from that oftquoted speech of Dr. Witherspoon , which , as some of us know, he never delivered.* To any one with sound genealogical feeling and true historic - . . . G S P . 1 Albert Cook Myers in The Public Ledger , January 17, 1921. * John M . Hazelton , The Declaration of Independence : its History , New York , 1906, p. 203. 5 Ibid . , p. 166. 4 See a paper on “ Wliat Did Dr. Witherspoon Say ? " by the present speaker in Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society , vol . viii , for June , 1916. 1924 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX Vanishing Evidence . 34 sense, it must cause keen distress to witness the destruction of one of the few remaining historical spots, of those most of all that are filled with memorials. But sentimentally it is at least open to question whether it may not be better that such spots be obliterated than that they should pass into the hands of the civil government and be remodeled for dedication to public use. For what the public craves is not historical associations, but a comfortable place in which to eat its automobile luncheon. Can some one suggest a wTord more urbane than the word ‘ brutal 77 that would describe with equal felicity the dealings with old “ Vernon ” on Germantown Road by the city into whose hands it was entrusted for the sake of its unspoiled col onial charm and its associations ? One remembers when Valley Forge embodied still something of bleak suggestion and the spirit of human sacrifice. Then it fell into the hands of the State Commission. Now all that Valley Forge seems to lack is an up- to-date sky -scraper apartment house, to demonstrate how comfortably Washington and his officers passed the winter The difficulty of debate, and even of criticism , is that of understanding one another. No doubt it is hard for a utilitar ian (a good man bom without the historic sense ) to understand that we feel toward those who “ adapt ” or mutilate our historic monuments very much as he himself would feel toward any who mutilated a historic document. We feel that they are tampering with the evidence which is the visible support of our patriotism. Such then is a glimpse of the wide field covered by the theme “ The Vanishing Evidence. ” And I have tried to remember that I was making an address and not writing a thesis The most effective way of closing an address, sometimes, is with a cunning art to lead up to a quotation of poetry more intriguing than a perspiring peroration. I first looked up Whittier’ s poem on “ The Vanishers.” It seemed ’ to me pretty but too homiletical or moralizing for my purpose. I then thought of the Book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, but a quotation from that source seemed to me as though it might have a professional twang. There is however a line of Tennyson’s that has been in my mind during the entire preparation of this address, as I have considered what impression it might make upon you. It has seemed to me, and does, that the continuing voice of my lament must have come to you as pensively and as monoton ously as W doves of immemorial in . elms moan The “ 1 P - . G S - . - 1924 Copyright The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania PGM Vol IX