Guide to the Alexander Addison Papers, 1786-1803 DAR.1925.06

Arrangement

Repository
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Title
Alexander Addison Papers
Creator
Addison, Alexander
Collection Number
DAR.1925.06
Extent
0.63 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Date
1786-c1805
Abstract
This collection contains correspondence to Alexander Addison, the president judge of the Fifth District Court of Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1802. His correspondents include Hugh Henry Brackenridge, William Findley and Charles Nisbet. It also contains two letters written by Alexander Addison to Hugh Henry Brackenridge. The bulk of the correspondence discusses political events in the United States and Europe, particularly the Constitutional Convention, Jay and Pinckney Treaties, Indian wars, and the Whiskey Rebellion. The majority of the correspondence has typed transcriptions that are included within the files. Digital reproductions of this collection are available online.
Language
English .
Author
Angela Manella.
Publisher
ULS Archives & Special Collections
Address
University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist
URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections

Existence and Location of Copies

Digital reproductions of this collection are available online.

Biography

The last quarter of the eighteenth century saw the formation of the United States government after the end of the Revolutionary War. Constitutional ratification, following the 1787 Constitutional Convention, was a tremendously contentious issue, as were issues of foreign policy surrounding the 1795 Jay Treaty with Britain, the 1796 Pinckney Treaty with Spain, and the Treaty of Tripoli. Westward expansion created significant legal questions about land ownership, development, and taxation, while Indian wars raged from the 1780s to the 1790s. Unrest over the excise tax on whiskey that swept through the American frontier came to a head in western Pennsylvania in 1794.

The papers of Alexander Addison address most of these major happenings in post-revolutionary America. Born in Scotland, Addison (1758-1807) received his Master of Arts from Aberdeen University at age nineteen. He subsequently trained as a minister, and was admitted by the Presbytery of Aberlowe in 1781. However, upon immigrating to the newly independent America in 1785, the Redstone Presbytery in western Pennsylvania refused to license Addison as a minister. As an alternative, he apprenticed as a lawyer and was later admitted to the Washington County, Pennsylvania, bar in 1787. Addison started his legal career as an itinerant lawyer. When Addison began practicing law, many of the judges and justices of the peace were men without formal education in law who were appointed by the state executive. However, the 1790 State Constitution required each district court to be headed by a President Judge educated in the law. In 1791, Addison was appointed the president judge of the Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, which included all of western Pennsylvania. For thirteen years Addison presided over the nascent Fifth District when both state and federal laws were being written and little legal precedent existed.

During the Whiskey Rebellion, Addison upheld the authority of state and federal law. In 1802, he was impeached from the bench as a result of ongoing and politically motivated conflict with fellow Justice John B. C. Lucas. Addison published various political tracts many of which are now available in digitized form. His papers trace extended correspondence with three notable men of Pennsylvania, each highlighting a different type of relationship and set of i nterests and issues detailed below. Addison died in 1807.

Charles Nisbet (1736-1803) was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Edinburgh and Divinity Hall. He served as a minister for various Scottish congregations. He was recruited by Dickenson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and became Principal there on July 5, 1785. A respected scholar, Nisbet was deeply committed to traditional Scottish-style university education and the ministry. He was consistently disappointed with what he viewed as an American disrespect for authority and tradition.

William Findley (1741/1742-1821) immigrated to Philadelphia in 1763. He was politically active at the state and federal level. Between 1789 and 1791 he variously served Pennsylvania in the General Assembly, the State Supreme Executive Council, the State House of Representatives, and the State Constitutional Convention. For the duration of 1791 through 1799 he served as an Anti-Administration and later as a Republican candidate in the second through fourth congresses. During this time, Findley worked to quiet the Whiskey Rebellion. Following his time as a federal congressman, Findley served in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1799 to 1802. He was successfully elected back to the House of Representatives, as a Republican, in the eighth through fourteenth Congresses.

Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1748-1816) was a well-known lawyer, newspaper publisher and political agitator in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Born in York County, Pennsylvania, he attended college and Divinity School at Princeton. Following his service as a chaplain in the Revolutionary War, he moved to Pittsburgh and was admitted to the Allegheny Country Bar with Alexander Addison and John Woods. After his mixed role in the Whiskey Rebellion and a failed U.S. congressional race against Albert Gallatin, he was appointed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Throughout his life, Brackenridge wrote and published the Pittsburgh Gazette, and penned a number of books, most notably his multiple editions of Modern Chivalry. He started his family in Pittsburgh and had four children, Henry Marie who went on to fame in government service, Cornelia, William, and Alexander Brackenridge. He later moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he continued to conduct affairs in Pittsburgh until his death.

Scope and Content Notes

This collection of correspondence contains long runs of letters from newspaper publisher Hugh Henry Brackenridge and from the Reverend Charles Nisbet of Dickinson College, and a short run of letters from Congressman William Findley. Addison, Brackenridge, Nisbet and Findley were all educated men of Pennsylvania. To Addison, Brackenridge was a fellow lawyer and writer. Nisbet was Addison's friend and a fellow Scottish theologian. Findley's relationship to Addison is less clear, although they both worked to quiet the Whiskey Rebellion. The bulk of the correspondence relates to the time and place in which they were written. All correspondents mention constitution ratification and early congressional events. Brackenridge writes repeatedly about the Jay Treaty and Pinckney Treaty. Brackenridge also references events surrounding the Whiskey Rebellion, and writes about his political enemy, Albert Gallatin, a federalist and foil to Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policy. Brackenridge provides editorial feedback on Addison's political tracts and essays. Findley's few letters detail events in the House of Representatives. Nisbet's letters are the most colorful, and touch upon the broadest range of domestic and foreign issues, most notably his openly sarcastic hostility towards post-revolutionary politics, both American and French. Nisbet also corresponds extensively with Addison about deeply personal problems related to Nisbet's alcoholic son.

Names of people and events that are inferred, rather than explicitly stated in the correspondence, are bracketed in the item level scope content notes. The majority of the correspondence includes typed transcriptions, which are filed with the original letters. Address information within the correspondence varies and is noted at the item level when known.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into series by correspondent. Series IV contains two small silhouette drawings not directly related to the correspondence.

Missing Title

  1. Series I. Correspondence between Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Alexander Addison, 1796-1798
  2. Series II. Correspondence between William Findley and Alexander Addison, 1791-1794
  3. Series III. Correspondence between Charles Nisbet and Alexander Addison, 1786-1803
  4. Series IV. Miscellaneous

Access Restrictions

No restrictions.

Acquisition Information

Part of the original donation of William M. Darlington's family library to the University of Pittsburgh in 1918 and 1925 by his daughters, Edith Darlington Ammon and Mary Carson Darlington.

The Manuscript fragment contained in Folder 90, was purchased by the University Library System in 2016.

Preferred Citation

Alexander Addison Papers, 1786-1803, DAR.1925.06, Darlington Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Previous Citation

Alexander Addison Papers, 1786-1803, DAR.1925.06, Darlington Collection, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Angela Manella in November 2006.

Copyright

No copyright restrictions.

Custodial History

This collection was located in the Darlington Memorial Library in the University's Cathedral of Learning until 2007 when it was moved to the ULS Archives Service Center for processing, storage, preservation and service. However, it remains in the custodianship of the ULS Special Collections Department.

Related Materials

Many digitized copies of Alexander Addison's published works are available in the Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 database indexed by Newsbank, Inc., in their Archive of Americana.

Hugh Henry Brackenridge and Andrew Watson Papers, 1784-1827, DAR.1925.04, Darlington Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System

Bibliography

  • Bell, Albert H. Memoirs of the Bench and Bar of Westmoreland County. Batvia, NY: The Batvia Time Publishing Company, 1925.
  • History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Chicago: A. Warner Co., 1889.
  • Morgan, James Henry. Dickenson College The History of One Hundred and Fifty Years 1783-1933. Carlisle, PA: Mount Pleasant Press J. Horace McFarland Company, 1933.
  • Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-2005. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2005.

Subjects

    Corporate Names

    • United States. Constitutional Convention (1787)
    • United States. Congress. House
    • Great Britain. Treaties, etc.. United States, 1794 Nov. 19

    Personal Names

    • Findley, William -- Correspondence
    • Nisbet, Charles -- Correspondence
    • Addison, Alexander -- Correspondence
    • Gallatin, Albert -- Correspondence
    • Brackenridge, H. H. (Hugh Henry) -- Correspondence

    Geographic Names

    • Washington County (Pa.)
    • Philadelphia (Pa.)
    • Carlisle (Pa.)
    • Haiti -- History -- Revolution, 1791-1804
    • Haiti
    • United States -- History -- Constitutiional period, 1789-1809
    • France -- History -- Consulate and First Empire, 1799-1815
    • France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799

    Genres

    • Drawings (Visual works)
    • Correspondence

    Other Subjects

    • Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815
    • Slavery -- Haiti -- Insurrections, etc.
    • San Lorenzo Treaty, 1795
    • Politics
    • Whiskey Rebellion, Pa., 1794
    • Government
    • Lawyers -- Pennsylvania -- Correspondence
    • Personal papers

Container List