ership of Philadelphia in all matters pertaining
to the higher life of the country, and prophesied:

Rome shall lament her ancient fame declined,
And Philadelphia be the _Athens_ of mankind.

General Lee might petulantly exclaim in 1779, "Philadelphia is not an
Athens," and Neal might write in _Blackwood's Magazine_ that the
Philadelphians were "mutton-headed Athenians," but the name became a
favorite one with which to characterize the thriving Pennsylvania town
which exercised such sovereign sway and masterdom over its sister
cities. Benjamin West, in a letter to Charles Willson Peale (September
19, 1809), predicts that Philadelphia will in time "become the seat of
refinement in all accomplishments ... the _Athens_ of the Western
Empire." Harrison Hall and the gentlemen who published and maintained
the _Port Folio_ always styled Philadelphia the "_Athens_ of America."

As the capital of the government it was the centre of wealth and
fashion. Fine old mansions and gardens adorned Chestnut and High
Streets; Judge Tilghman in the Carpenter Mansion, Israel Pemberton in
Clarke Hall, Thomas Willing, the merchant prince, at Third and Walnut,
and his partner, Robert Morris, at Sixth and High Streets, Edward
Shippen at Fourth and Walnut, the Norris family in their home upon the
site of the U. S. Bank and Custom House, and in their great mansion at
Fair Hill, the Hamiltons at Bush Hill and the Woodlands, dispensed
lavish hospitality.

William Bingham, father-in-law of the eminent banker Alexander Baring,
who was afterwards Lord Ashburton, entertained in grand style. General
Washington drove out from the Morris mansion along the unpaved streets
south of Chestnut Street in a coach drawn by six horses and attended by
two footmen. In his stables on Minor Street was a stud of twelve or
fourteen horses. General John Cadwallader, father-in-law of the second
Lord Erskine, in his great house at Second and Spruce, made liberal use
of his immense fortune.

In the first year of this century the University of Pennsylvania, which
had played so great a part in the Revolution, and to which Louis XVI
had, in 1786, made so generous a donation, was removed to its new home
in the spacious buildings erected for the executive mansion. The
Philadelphia Library, which had been Franklin's first scheme for public
improvement, and which had been enriched by the generous gifts of James
Logan, was furnishing such opportunities for literary work as