A Counterfeiter's Paradise (43 page)

122, His costly defense

Burd and Huston as defense lawyers: Douglas Macneal, “Introducing David Lewis,”
Centre County Heritage
24.2 (Fall 1987), pp. 3–5. Description of Burd: Anne Royall,
Mrs. Royall’s Pennsylvania, or Travels Continued in the United States
, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: Published by the author, 1829), p. 247. Huston:
Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc.
(Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898), pp. 23–24;
The Scotch-Irish in America: Proceedings and Addresses of the Eighth Congress, at Harrisburg, PA, June 4–7, 1896
(Nashville, TN: Scotch-Irish Society of America, 1897), pp. 167–168.
“slouched hat…”:
quoted in Macneal, “Uttering, Publishing and Passing—Counterfeiting in 1816,” p. 34.

122–123, While Riddle and Huston

The
Gazette
’s history:
History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties
, pp. 226–227. For examples of the
Gazette
’s reports, see
Bedford Gazette
, January 4, 1816, reprinted in
Kline’s Weekly Carlisle Gazette
, January 17, 1816, and
Bedford Gazette
, January 5–6, 1816, reprinted in
Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser
, January 25, 1816.

123, In the pages

McDowell’s articles:
Bedford Gazette
, January 11, 1816, reprinted in
Kline’s Weekly Carlisle Gazette
, January 31, 1816, which includes the quote about “promising young men”; and
Bedford Gazette
, April 13, 1816, reprinted in
American Volunteer
, May 9, 1816.

123, The facts were

Reid’s estimate:
American Volunteer
, January 18, 1816. The Carlisle-based
Volunteer
reprinted reports from the
Bedford Gazette
, as did the Philadelphia-based
Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser
and several other papers throughout the state.

123–124, Lewis’s trial was

Lewis’s indictments: Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 30, and available in greater detail in the Bedford court docket book.

124, Getting to the courtroom

Description of Judge Walker: quoted in Frear,
Davey Lewis
, p. 17. See the fifty-eight-page trial transcript for Riddle’s line of attack.

124–125, The character that

“sociable & good humoured”:
from John H. Bridenthal’s testimony, included in the fifty-eight pages of trial transcript.
“sporting man”:
from Moses Power’s testimony.
“active in playing cards”:
from Henry Leeder’s testimony. The date of Little’s encounter with Lewis is uncertain: Little claimed it was on Christmas Day, while John Bridenthal said it was the day after. Little’s story about gambling with Lewis was corroborated at the trial by John H. Bridenthal’s testimony.

125, Lewis’s years with

The tavern keeper was Christian Romer, who ran a tavern at the foot of Sideling Hill, and testified that he saw Lewis on December 12. Lewis even tried to convince Romer to sign the bills for him, but the tavern keeper refused.

125, Drawing on more

Number of witnesses on each side: Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 30. For more on Huston’s technique, see
Lancaster Journal
, March 13, 1816. A summary of Lewis’s convictions and acquittals: Macneal, “Introducing David Lewis,” pp. 3–5.

125–126, By protesting that

Motion filed by Huston about misspelling: Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 31.
“with all convenient…”:
from the Bedford court docket book, dated February 22, 1816.

126, About an hour

Lewis escaping at 8:00 a.m.: from a letter by Joseph Morrison to John Tod, dated February 27, 1816, in “John Tod Papers, 1783–1838.” The sun rose that day at 6:52 a.m., according to the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department, Naval Oceanography Portal,
http://www.usno.navy.mil
.
“He could easily…”:
from a letter by J. W. Sharpe, Esq., quoted in Frear,
Davey Lewis
, p. 26.

126, The
Bedford Gazette

Impact of Lewis’s escape on the town and
Gazette
reports: Frear,
Davey Lewis
, pp. 22–25.
“penny-wise Commissioners…”:
Bedford Gazette
, April 13, 1816, reprinted in
American Volunteer
, May 9, 1816. Reward for Lewis:
American Volunteer
, May 9, 1816. News of the sheriff’s failed expedition and the demand for an inquiry:
Bedford Gazette
, March 18, 1816, reprinted in Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 33. Lewis’s capture: Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 34.

126–127, Lewis arrived in

Lewis’s date of arrival: Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 34. The weather and its impact: C. Edward Skeen,
1816: America Rising
(Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2003), pp. 1–4, 7–11. Temperature estimates:
Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser
, June 12, 1816; June 5 was reportedly 82 degrees, and June 6 and 7 were approximately 52 degrees. Plentiful ice: J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott,
History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884
, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), p. 938. Mary Shelley and the origins of
Frankenstein
: M. K. Joseph, “Appendix A: The Composition of
Frankenstein
,” in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley,
Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 224–227.

127, While passersby huddled

Description of the jail: James Mease and Thomas Porter,
Picture of Philadelphia, Giving an Account of Its Origin, Increase and Improvements in Arts, Sciences, Manufactures, Commerce and Revenue
, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Robert Desilver, 1831), pp. 179–180, and Negley K. Teeters,
The Cradle of the Penitentiary: The Walnut Street Jail at Philadelphia, 1773–1835
(Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Prison Society, 1955), pp. 18–19, 93.

127–128, These buildings were

The band of reformers was called the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, founded in 1787; see Teeters,
The Cradle of the Penitentiary
, pp. 29–35. Implementation of reforms: Cyndi Banks,
Punishment in America: A Reference Handbook
(Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005), pp. 36–37; Mitchel P. Roth, “Walnut Street Jail,”
Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia
(Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006), pp. 292–293; and Teeters,
The Cradle of the Penitentiary
, pp. 36–44. The average number of prisoners from 1815 to 1824 was 331, according to LeRoy B. DePuy, in “The Walnut Street Prison: Pennsylvania’s First Penitentiary,”
Pennsylvania History
18.2 (April 1951), p. 136.

128 The Walnut Street Jail housed

Decline of the Walnut Street Jail: DePuy, “The Walnut Street Prison: Pennsylvania’s First Penitentiary,” pp. 141–142; Teeters,
The Cradle of the Penitentiary
, pp. 96–103. Convict who sawed the iron off his leg: Teeters,
The Cradle of the Penitentiary
, p. 100.

129, The Walnut Street Jail’s lawlessness

Use of informers: Teeters,
The Cradle of the Penitentiary
, p. 95. The text of the Walnut Street authorities’ recommendation: The
Franklin Gazette
, June 5, 1820, published a response to allegations that Findlay pardoned Lewis for self-serving political reasons. Dated August 30, 1819, it read “The inspectors are induced to consider the said David Lewis as a suitable object for the clemency of the Governor, and respectfully recommend him to his excellency, for pardon of his offences, and remission of his fine, in consideration of his communicating information of an attempt to force the prison, by those confined in the same room with him.”

129, When Lewis’s pardon

Policy of freeing cooperative prisoners: Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 35, and
American Volunteer
, July 6, 1820. Election of 1817 and its aftermath: Isaac Sharpless,
Two Centuries of Pennsylvania History
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1900), pp. 276–278, and Philip S. Klein and Ari Hoogenbloom,
A History of Pennsylvania: Second and Enlarged Edition
(University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, 1980), p. 133. Biography of William Findlay: William C. Armor,
Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania, with the Incidental History of the State, From 1609 to 1873
(Norwich, CT: T. H. Davis, 1874), pp. 323–332.

129–130, On September 9, 1819

Date of Lewis’s departure: Dugan,
The Making of Legends
, p. 35. Unemployment figure: from a city report commissioned in August 1819, summarized in Edward S. Kaplan,
The Bank of the United States and the American Economy
(Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999), p. 67. Portions of the report were printed in local newspapers; see
Grotjan’s Philadelphia Public Sale Report
, September 13, 1819, and the
Weekly Aurora
, September 13, 1819.

130, Lewis was witnessing

The Panic of 1819: Murray N. Rothbard,
The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies
(Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007 [1962]), pp. 1–35; Kaplan,
The Bank of the United States
, pp. 67–75; and Samuel Rezneck, “The Depression of
1819–1822, A Social History,”
American Historical Review
39.1 (October 1933), pp. 28–47.

130–131, This period of false

Madison’s about-face and the broader shift in Democratic-Republican financial policy: Bray Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991 [1957]), pp. 230–241. Still standing today, Carpenters’ Hall headquartered the first Bank from 1791–1797 and the Second Bank from 1817–1821; Robert Smith was the architect who designed Carpenters’ Hall and the Walnut Street Jail, along with a handful of other important colonial-era buildings in Philadelphia. Resumption of specie payments in February 1817: Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America
, pp. 246–250, and Kaplan,
The Bank of the United States
, pp. 60–61.

131, Despite a strong start

The Bank’s poor management and reasons for its contraction: Rothbard,
The Panic of 1819
, pp. 10–18; Kaplan,
The Bank of the United States
, pp. 69–70; and Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America
, pp. 251–258, 272–276.

132, This simple request

Effects of the contraction: Rothbard,
The Panic of 1819
, pp. 17–24. Urban unem-ployment and plummeting real estate prices: Rezneck, “The Depression of -1819–1822,” pp. 30–34. Panic’s origins: Stephen Mihm,
A Nation of Coun-terfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), pp. 111–112. Panic’s impact on Ohio, Indiana, and other frontier areas of the Midwest: Mihm,
A Nation of Coun-terfeiters
, pp. 167–168. Reversion to a barter system: Rothbard,
The Panic of 1819
, p. 22.

132–133, Although the Panic

Agrarian rage provoked by the Panic: Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America
, pp. 258–259, 279–285.

133, Perversely, the easiest

The widespread anger over the spirit of speculation in general and the Bank in particular is evident from the newspapers of the period, particularly Hezekiah Niles’s popular
Weekly Register
. Anti-Bank sentiment: Samuel Rezneck, “The Depression
of 1819–1822, A Social History,” pp. 36–40. Many state legislatures, responding to the outrage, passed taxes on the Bank’s branches, until the Supreme Court, in
McCulloch v. Maryland
, established the legal precedent shielding the Bank from state taxation.

133–134, The rising populist

The social and economic foundations of the outlaw myth: E. J. Hobsbawm,
Bandits
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), pp. 13–49, 72–83, 109–115. Origins of Lewis’s Robin Hood reputation: Mac E. Barrick, “Lewis the Robber in Life and Legend,”
Pennsylvania Folklife
17.1 (August 1967), p. 13.

134, Lewis wasn’t the

“If I was the witch…”:
from a letter by John Adams to Joseph Ward, dated October 24, 1809, quoted in Malcolm Freiberg, “Thomas Hutchinson and the Province Currency,”
New England Quarterly
30.2 (June 1957), p. 190. In a later letter to John Taylor, dated March 12, 1819, Adams reminisces about having “seen a paper currency annihilated at a blow in Massachusetts” and discusses the dangers of paper money; see John Adams,
The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
, vol. 10, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown, 1856), pp. 375–377.

134–135, On a Sunday morning

McClelland’s story is drawn entirely from two reports in the
Bedford Gazette
, both reprinted in the
American Volunteer
, October 14, 1819. The robbery took place on Sunday, October 3, 1819, on the turnpike at Sideling Hill in Bedford County.

135, At around nine o’clock

The robbers having their faces blackened: from Governor Findlay’s proclamation of an award for their arrest, found in George Edward Reed, ed.,
Pennsylvania Archives, Fourth Series
, vol. 5 (Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1900), pp. 148–149.