During the latter part of the eighteenth cen tury and the early part of the nineteenth Phil adelphia was the most important city in America. The historian .SleSlaster says of it in 1784: "The city was then the greatest in the country. No other could boast of so many streets. so many houses, so many people, so much renown;" and Liancourt describes it in 1800 as "not only the finest city in the United States, but . . . one of the most beautiful cities of the world." Phil adelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania from 1683 until 1799, the seat of the Federal Govern ment from 1790 to 1800, and the mone tary centre of the country until 1836. (See BANK', BANKING.) For many years, also, it was the intellectual and literary centre of the country. Here were published the first news paper in the middle colonies: American Weekly Mercury (1719) : the first secular magazine in North America, Eimgeistliches Magazin (1764) ; the first daily newspaper in the United States, the Pennsylvania Packet (1784) ; the first Ameri can edition of the Bible in German (1743), aml in English (1781), and the first religions weekly, Religious Rem Cinbrancer (1813). The most popular of the early American magazines-the Port Folio and the Analectic-were also pub lished here.
Philadelphia took the lead in the early anti slavery movement, the first formal protest against slavery in this country being made by four Germans of Germantown in 1688, the first Abolition convention being held here January 1, 1794, on the invitation of the Pennsylvania Abo lition Society, and the American Anti-Slavery So ciety being founded here, under the leadership of Garrison, in 1833. In 1812 the water-works at Fairmount were begun and were finished in 1815. In 1S32 nearly 1000 deaths resulted from Asiatic cholera. In May, 1838. an anti-Abolitionist mob destroyed Pennsylvania Hall, in which an Aboli tionist meeting hail been just held: In 1844 oc curred the anti-Catholic riots, arising from the demand of the Catholics to be permitted to use the Douai instead of the King James Bible in the public schools. The anti-Catholics, or 'Native
Americans,' burned Saint Michael's and Saint Augustine's churches, and caused much loss of life before they were put down by the militia. Gas was introduced in 1836, and the first telegraph line was established in April, 1846. On February 2, 1854, a. consolidation act was passed by the Legislature, extending the city limits to the county boundaries, and uniting under one ni eipal all the outlying districts, known as Southwark, Northern Liberties, Ken sington, Spring Garden, Aloyamensing. Penn, Richmond, West Philadelphia. and Belmont; also the boroughs of Germantown, Manayunk, and other townships. Philadelphia took an active part in the Civil War, and raised more than $1,000,000 by a sanitary fair in 1864. The cen tenary of American independence was celebrated in 1876 by the Centennial Exposition; the bicen tennial of the landing of William Penn in 1882; and the centennial of the signing of the Con stitution in 1887.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Hazard ( editor ) , Bibliography. Hazard ( editor ) , Annals (Philadelphia, 1884) ; Scharf and West cott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 (ib., 1884) ; Allinson and Penrose, Philadelphia, 1681 1S57 (ib., 1887) ; Trades League, The Book of Philadelphia, I894 15941; Repplier, adelphia, the Place and the People (New York, 1895) ; Young, II emorial History (ib., 1895) ; Fisher, The 11aking of Pennsylvania (Philadel phia, 1896) ; id., Chapters in Pennsylvania, Col ony and Commonwealth. (ib., 1897) ; Rhoades, The Story of Philadelphia (New York, 1900) ; King, Philadelphia and Notable Philadelphians (ib., 1902).