Queen Street Nativist Riots - Southwark - July 1844 - The Story of Philadelphia, 1919

Riot in Philadelphia July 7, 1844
Library Company of Philadephia

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On the evening of Friday, July 5, some persons passing the Roman Catholic Church of St. Philip de Neri, on Queen Street above Second Street, in Southwark, saw muskets being carried into the church. Southwark was one of the strongholds of the Native American party, and its people became greatly excited when the report spread that the church was "a fort filled with guns and ammunition." In the evening hundreds of people gathered about the church. A small force of police of the district came to be ready for emergency, but as the crowd increased they felt that they would not be able to handle the crowd in case it became turbulent. The police, therefore, requested aid of the sheriff, Morton McMichael. As he had no posse organized, he applied for troops to General Patterson and himself went to Queen Street. He found the crowd in hostile mood, demanding that the church should be searched for arms. 

The sheriff, with Aldermen Hortz and Palmer, entered the church and came out with twelve unloaded muskets, with bayonets. The crowd not being satisfied with this report, decided to investigate the matter themselves and deputed three of their own number to examine the church. They discovered seventy-five additional muskets, fully loaded, as well as a substantial supply of pistols, knives, clubs, axes, cartridges, a keg of powder and bayonets fastened on poles to be utilized as pikes. While this party of investigators was in the church the detachment of soldiers asked for by Sheriff McMichael arrived and dispersed the crowd; so that the report of the second investigation was not circulated until the next morning.

It was several days later before the presence of these arms in the church was explained. William H. Dunn, an Irishman and brother of the rector of the church, a lawyer and a man of militant disposition, had, after the riots in May, organized a company of forty men for the defense of the church. As they were without arms, he secured from Governor David R. Porter an order for twenty-five muskets to be served from the arsenal and had secured from Brigadier General Horatio Hubbell, of the Third Brigade, a commission as captain of a volunteer company. The company had drilled in the church for some time before the Fourth of July, and on that day, fearing an attack, there had been 150 men in the building. The guns, which had been seen taken into the church, were guns which had been sent for repair and were being returned by the gunsmith.

The story of the secreted guns stirred the population to fury, and a crowd, ominously sullen and revengeful, gathered in the neighborhood in numbers that steadily increased as the day wore on. At night General George Cadwalader, who was in charge of the troops, concluded to clear the streets, in which cannon were planted. The people stood their ground until the pressure became heavy, and then they relieved their unwillingness to leave the scene by taunting the soldiers. General Cadwalader, finding this conduct unbearable, ordered his men to fire. 

As the gun was trained on a dense crowd of people and many women and children among them, Charles Naylor, ex-Congressman and lawyer, stepped out in front of the gun and protested against the order, shouting: "Don't fire! Don't fire!" Whereupon he was placed under arrest and sent into the church under guard to be held as a military prisoner.

The crowds dispersed, feeling much incensed against the soldiers. On the morning of Sunday, July 7, the story was told all over the city how Charles Naylor had saved the people from being mowed down by artillery. He was still in the church. After the crowds had been dispersed the night before, most of the troops had been released, except the Markle Rifles, the Mechanic Rifles and the Montgomery Hibernia Greens. This last-named company was made up solidly of Irish Catholics, so that the complaint that Naylor, "friend of the people," was being held prisoner by the Catholics made a rallying cry. 

The crowd clamored for the release of Naylor, brought some old cannon, but could do no damage with them because they lacked ammunition of appropriate size. Then they procured a heavy piece of timber, and, using it as a battering ram, forced open the door of the church. The soldiers within did not fire on the crowd. They released Naylor in custody of the aldermen of the district, who released him upon his own recognizance to appear when called.

Afterward, the crowd demanded that the soldiers should be removed from the church. Finally they left, the crowd cheering the Mechanic Rifles and the Markle Rifles, but they saluted the "Greens" with jeering and derisive yells and later with stones and brickbats. Finally, a soldier fired at the crowd, upon which his company broke and ran, hotly pursued by the crowd, who caught and beat several of them, one of them, who was suspected of having fired the shot, being left for dead. The soldiers having withdrawn from the church, the leading men of the Native American party took steps to protect the building. The utmost vigilance was necessary, because the news of the events of the day had spread all over the city and had brought continually increasing accessions to the crowd. When any new act of violence seemed to be impending the leaders, among whom were Thomas D. Grover, Lewis C. Levin, Charles J. Jack and John Perry, addressed the would-be aggressors. 

In the middle of the afternoon, however, some of them took the battering ram, which had been so successfully used against the door of the church in the morning, and with it made a breach in the west fence-wall of the churchyard. Breaking through doors and windows, they swarmed into the church. The Native American leaders, who had been keeping guard outside, went into the church and adjured the people to avoid destruction. In this they succeeded. Hundreds went through the church, and beyond the initial damage to doors and windows, nothing was done to injure the property. When the sightseeing desire of the crowd had been satisfied, the prominent Native Americans formed a committee of 100 to defend the church, and kept outsiders from entering the building. The crowd dispersed and it seemed as though the trouble was over. It would have been if the citizens' committee had been left in charge of the church.

During the afternoon, while the crowd had been marching through the church, the bell in the State House was rung for the militia to assemble, the authorities having decided to call the troops together to prevent further outbreak. At half-past 6 o'clock the troops left Independence Square, with the bands playing, which attracted a steadily growing crowd. The head of the procession reached the church at about 7 o'clock, when the citizens' committee defending the church turned it over to General Cadwalader. An order was given to clear the streets, and the Cadwalader Grays endeavored the execute the order in Queen Street. They found it difficult to do so, for the crowd was too dense to get away quickly and some of its members were sullen. The City Guards, Captain Joseph Hill commanding, were ordered to support the Grays, and advanced with bayonets pointed as for a charge. 

The crowd was for the most part peaceably inclined, but a few rough fellows made mischief by altercation or taunts addressed to the soldiers, and while this was going on some bricks and stones were thrown into the ranks from the crowd and struck some of the soldiers. Captain Hill, who was in front of his company with sword drawn, was attacked by one of the roughs, who tried to take his sword from him and had him beaten down on one knee. Captain Hill ordered his men to fire. Volleys rang out down Queen Street and Second Street, killing William Crozier, Isaac Freed, a boy named Linsenberger, Ellis Lewis, and perhaps some others, and wounding many, including some women who were on the steps of their own houses. This result infuriated the crowd. They procured guns and artillery from various sources and pitched battles took place in the streets until about 11 o'clock, when reinforcements of cavalry arrived, captured the cannon and dispersed the crowd. Two non-commissioned officers of the Germantown Blues and twelve citizens were killed and scores were wounded, many of them seriously. Governor Porter arrived in the city on Monday afternoon with more troops, and at its highest mobilization there were more than 5000 men under arms.

These riots revealed the unprepared state of the city, and, on July 11, Councils appropriated $10,000 for the enlistment of a battalion of artillery, a regiment of infantry and a troop of horse. Further sums were later voted, and by September these units had been made up, with a complement of 1350 men.

A new police act was passed April 12, 1845, by which the Legislature required the city of Philadelphia and the districts of Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, Kensington, Penn, Southwark and the township of Moyamensing to establish and maintain police forces consisting of not less than one able-bodied man for "every one hundred and fifty taxable inhabitants." Each district had its own superintendent. The sheriff of the county, in case of riot, could call to his aid the police forces of any or all of the other corporations, and he was authorized also, in case of need, to call upon the commanders of the militia forces to aid in restoring public peace.

The police force was a vast improvement over the old "watch" plan which had continued, with few modifications, from the old colonial days. An act which passed May 3, 1850, strengthened the efficiency of the force by providing for a marshal of police for the entire police territory to be elected every three years. By this later act the police force was at no time to exceed one for every 150 taxable inhabitants, as enumerated at the last septennial census, nor less than one for every 600 taxable inhabitants. At first, 400 were chosen as the unit of representation, which gave the city 55 policemen; Spring Garden, 26; Kensington, 24; the Northern Liberties, 21; Southwark, 18; Moyamensing, 12; Penn, 4 ; Richmond, 4, and West Philadelphia, when that district was incorporated the following year, was given 3. The city was entitled to four lieutenants and each outlying district one. The force then numbered 180, with 1 marshal, 12 lieutenants and 167 men. From 1848 on efforts had been made to get the police into uniform, but the men had objected. They regarded the wearing of a uniform as "a glaring violation of our republican institutions", but finally they were adoped and used in 1864.