Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-20
Eupittt1g Gtat

Philadelphia Evening Bulletins edi-
torial page, devotes over a column in
recent issue to one of the three
men who made Harrisburg. He
writes OF william Maclay, one of
PennsylVanta's senators in the first
Senate of the United States. one of
the most misunderstood men of the
early history of the republic and one
OF It's strong characters. Professor
Harley, unlike many Philadelphians
VINO nave written of the men who
NODDED the nation, sees some good in.
the man from Harrisburg and makes
an effort to get his point of view. 1t
is refreshing to read something from
a student of history in the city which
adulates Mr.. Maclay's colleague, Rob
ert Morris, which refers to the sturdy
Susquehanna valley statesman in a
sympathetic way. For the first time,
1t seems from the viewpoint of a
Dauphin countian, it is admitted that
Mr. Maclay was something more than
censorious backwoods politician.
His criticism of the state maintained
py George Washington and his open
declaration to the Father of his
country that the presidency did not
give MN right to participate in de-
nperatlons of the Senate are now re-
sarded as something more than the
outglVlngs of bilious temperament.
people who built forts and cleared
1elds side by side in Central Penn
sylVanla and who were never under
stood by the Quaker element of early
Philadelphia any better than the
average Londoner understood the
Sanadlan and Australian prior to
the present war. Someone has called
him the first Democrat. He was as
radical as Jefferson, whose close
friend he was, and he stood for that
straightforward method of govern
ment without ceremonies that has
always been the desire of the people
IN the Susquehanna valley.
The interesting part of Professor
Harley's article to us Harrisburgers
of the day when we are striving to
advance our city as an attractive
place wherein to live, and die, is the
glimpse he gives of Senator Macla0
strolling along the banks of the river
which he loved and which is our
greatest natural pride. The Susque-
hanna river is the unsurpassed set
ting which nature gave to the tract
which is now Harrisburg just as the
State Capitol is the crown jewel con-
ferred upon 1t as the official seat of
government of the commonwealth
Professor Harley quotes from some
unnamed contemporary of Maclay:
Il used to watch Mr.. Maclay wear
ing suit of white flannel, with lace
fut1es, walking up and down the
river bank at Harrisburg, and
thought had never seen such a dig
nlfted and majestic old gentleman"
1t is picture which Harrisburgers
| ought to cherish and for which we
are thankful to Professor Harley for
reproducing. N William Maclay often
walked along the river front of Har-
rlsburg, the Riverside on which we
| have laVished thousands of dollars
and upon which visitors have Law
ished compliments for the manner in
which we have added engineering
skill to natural beauty. He was prob
ably the first after the Indians who
| frequented this spot, as shown by
the many remains found here, to
realize the setting. Probably the man
! who had the imagination to covet
| for Harrisburg not only the state,
but the national capital, saw the day
when the river he cherished would
be appreciated and become Harris
burg's promenade, pleasure place and
prime asset.
The story of William Maclay, the
man who laid the plans that carried
! out the dreams of the first John
Harris, painfully polling his ferry
fiat across the Susquehanna at Vine
| street two hundred years ago, is all
| too little known to the Harrisburgers
who pass the stone mansion which
he built in 1890 at Front and South
streets. This house, added to by its
present owner. William Elder Bal
ley, a descendant, by the way, of
| Colonel John Elder, the fighting
parson" of Paxton and early friend
of Maclay, is in many features as
the senator built it. Maclay was of
Scotch descent and his grandfather
came from the north of Ireland 200
years ago. He was born in Chester
| county, carefully educated. fought in
the French and Indian War as an
ensign and in the Revolution, was
Penn family representative, officer
under the British crown, had q price
put on his head for his independ-
ence, laid out Sunbury, filled many
offices and lived life of bewildering
| activity, which would take a page
of the HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH
to tell and which throbs with the life
of our river valley. William Maclay
was woven into the history of Cen
trail Pennsylvania and with the two
Harrises gave service to this com
munity of which the busy folks of
to-day and tho contemplative stroller
on the banks of the Susquehanna do
not know ard which those who do
have never taken the trouble to
acknowledge in enduring manner.
This senator of "the old school,"
as the Philadelphia historian STYLES
him, came back to Harrisburg after
his retirement from the first session
of the original lawgivers who as
sembled in the federal capital at New
York. and in the sunset of his life
saw the country turn toward the
pure democracy enunciated by his
friend Jefferson and for which half
the world fights to-day. He had mar
ried the daughter of John Harris,
who founded Harrisburg, and of all
his wide possessions he loved best
the farm on the outskirts of the
town that grew up around Harris
Ferry, by which the tide of immi-
grafton that settled Western Penn
sylvania. Kentucky and Tennessee
had flowed. This farm. he wanted
to make tho site of the Capitol OF
Pennsylvania. How we'll he planned
Ii is shown by the fact that the farm
ran at right angles to the river be-
tween North and South streets and
State street is the middle of it. Thew
accused him of selfishness because he
wanted to locate the national capital
on the banks of the Susquehanna
lust as at the same time they were
charging his father-in-la John Har-
ris, with Interior motives in irving
tc have the State capital located here.
something for which every person
having business at the centrally To-
Gated seat of Pennsylvania govern
ment now gives thanks.
-