The "Frankfort Advice":How a Small Philadelphia Suburb Helped John Adams

Orchestrate the American RevolutionBy Harry Kyriakodis

Frankford is a neighborhood in Philadelphia about six miles northeast of the original part of the city. It wasoriginally a small town in Philadelphia County and a suburb of Philadelphia founded in the mid to late1600s. Frankford very likely took its name from the Frankfurt Company, an organization of Germanpietists who purchased great tracts of land in Pennsylvania from William Penn. One settlement waslocated along what later became called Frankford Creek. Penn forged a trail through the hamlet fromPhiladelphia to New York City, a trail that became known as "Frankford Pike" (later "Frankford Avenue").

At the start of the American Revolution, a critical political event occurred in this village that is very muchunknown and unappreciated today. It was here, in Frankford, Pennsylvania, that local (i.e., Philadelphia)revolutionaries imparted some vital advice to delegates from Massachusetts on their way to theContinental Congress. This guidance set the stage for the entire War of American Independence, byfostering the unification of the disparate American colonies so as to pursue the break between them andGreat Britain.

From 1849 Map of the Township of Oxford, Boroughs of Frankford & Bridesburg

The First Continental Congress met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia from September 5 to October 26,1774. Delegates from twelve of the thirteen American colonies attended, including John Adams, hissecond cousin Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushing, and Robert Paine, all representing Massachusetts.These four men had left Boston together on August 10, 1774, and proceeded in a carriage south throughthe New England colonies, then New York and New Jersey before reaching Pennsylvania.

As the Massachusetts delegation neared Philadelphia, a group of local "Sons of Liberty"1 rode out to

welcome them in the village of Frankford. Dr. Benjamin Rush, Thomas Mifflin, and several other patriotsof Philadelphia made up this party. They and the New Englanders proceeded to a private room at atavern and got down to business.

The Philadelphians warned John Adams and his associates that they had been characterized as "fourdesperate adventurers" and were "suspected of having independence in view." Furthermore, Adams andcompany would be "undone" if they so much as uttered the word "independence" because the notion ofbreaking from England was unpopular in many colonies, particularly Pennsylvania. Still, the local Sons ofLiberty, being radicals who were for Independence, gave the men from Massachusetts some importantadvice on how to sidestep their extremist reputation so as to promote their goal of Americanindependence.

Dr. Benjamin Rush and John Adams

John Adams describes in detail what happened in Frankford almost fifty years later in a letter, datedAugust 6, 1822, to Colonel Timothy Pickering, a Massachusetts politician:

* * * As Mr. Hancock was sick and confined, Mr. Bowdoin was chosen at the head ofthe Massachusetts delegation to Congress. His relations thought his great fortuneought not to be hazarded. [So] Cushing, two Adamses, and Paine, all destitute offortune, four poor pilgrims, proceeded in one coach, were escorted throughMassachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, into Pennsylvania. Wewere met at Frankfort [Frankford] by Dr. Rush, Mr. Mifflin, Mr. Bayard, and severalother of the most active sons of liberty in Philadelphia, who desired a conference withus. We invited them to take tea with us in a private apartment. They asked leave togive us some information and advice, which we thankfully granted. They representedto us that the friends of government in Boston and in the Eastern States, in theircorrespondence with their friends in Pennsylvania and all the Southern States, hadrepresented us as four desperate adventurers. "Mr. Cushing was a harmless kind ofman, but poor, and wholly dependent on his popularity for his subsistence. Mr.Samuel Adams was a very artful, designing man, but desperately poor, and whollydependent on his popularity with the lowest vulgar for his living. John Adams and Mr.Paine were two young lawyers, of no great talents, reputation, or weight, who had noother means of raising themselves into consequence, than by courting popularity."We were all suspected of having independence in view. Now, said they, you must notutter the word independence, nor give the least hint or insinuation of the idea, either inCongress or any private conversation; if you do, you are undone; for the idea ofindependence is as unpopular in Pennsylvania, and in all the Middle and SouthernStates, as the Stamp Act itself. No man dares to speak of it. Moreover, you are therepresentatives of the suffering State. Boston and Massachusetts are under a rod ofiron. British fleets and armies are tyrannizing over you; you yourselves are personallyobnoxious to them and all the friends of government; you have been long persecutedby them all; your feelings have been hurt, your passions excited; you are thought tobe too warm, too zealous, too sanguine. You must be, therefore, very cautious; youmust not come forward with any bold measures, you must not pretend to take thelead. You know Virginia is the most populous State in the Union. They are very

proud of their ancient dominion, as they call it; they think they have a right to take thelead, and the Southern States, and Middle States too, are too much disposed to yieldit to them."

This was plain dealing, Mr. Pickering; and I must confess that there appeared somuch wisdom and good sense in it, that it made a deep impression on my mind, andit had an equal effect on all my colleagues.

This conversation, and the principles, facts, and motives, suggested in it, have givena color, complexion, and character, to the whole policy of the United States, from thatday to this. Without it, Mr. Washington would never have commanded our armies;nor Mr. Jefferson have been the author of the Declaration of Independence; nor Mr.Richard Henry Lee the mover of it; nor Mr. Chase the mover of foreign connections.If I have ever had cause to repent of any part of this policy, that repentance ever hasbeen, and ever will be, unavailing. I had forgot to say, nor had Mr. Johnson ever beenthe nominator of Washington for General.

There you have it: the whole framework of the American Revolution, laid out in Frankford, Pennsylvania.Adams continues in the 1822 letter: "You inquire why so young a man as Mr. Jefferson was placed at thehead of the Committee for preparing a Declaration of Independence? I answer; It was the Frankfortadvice, to place Virginia at the head of every thing." [emphasis added]

Where exactly in Frankford did this decisive meeting happen? The tavern was very likely the Jolly PostInn, which was once located on the west side of Main Street (Frankford Avenue) just north of OrthodoxStreet. Built around 1680 and originally called the Jolly Post Boy, the place received its name from havingbeen a stop for post riders between Philadelphia and New York. It was a principal hotel-tavern during thecolonial period and hosted many luminaries of the Revolution, including George Washington, ThomasJefferson, and the Marquis de Lafayette (in 1824). The landmark Jolly Post was about 230 years oldwhen it was demolished in 1911/1912.

The Jolly Post Inn in earlier days

In his letter to Timothy Pickering, Adams does not state the year in which the fateful Frankford meetingtook place. For sure, the Massachusetts delegation passed through the town in late August, 1774, on itsway to the First Continental Congress. John Adams recorded the journey in his diary, as this was his firsttime outside of New England. Here he writes, contemporaneously, about his entry into Pennsylvania andhis stop at Frankford—which, as in his letter to Pickering, he writes as "Frankfort"—in 1774:

[August] 29. Monday. Rode to Trenton upon Delaware River, to break fast.

* * *

We then crossed the Ferry over Delaware River to the Province of Pensylvania. Wethen rode across an Elbow, and came to the Delaware again—a beautifull Rivernavigable up as far as Trenton. The Country on each Side is very level. We arrivedat Bristol about Eleven O Clock, a Village on the Delaware, oppositeto which is Burlington. The Scenes of Nature are delightfullhere. This is 20 Miles from Philadelphia. Here Wesaw two or 3 Passage Waggons—a Vehiclewith four Wheels contrived to carrymany Passengers andmuch Baggage.

Wethenrode tothe redLionanddined.AfterDinner Westopped at Frankfortabout five Miles out ofTown. A Number of Carriagesand Gentlemen came out ofPhyladelphia to meet us. Mr. ThomasMifflin, Mr. McKean of the Lower Counties,one of their Delegates, Mr. Rutledge of Carolina,and a Number of Gentlemen from Philadelphia. Mr. Folsom and Mr. Sullivan, the N.Hampshire Delegates. We were introduced to all these Gentlemen and mostcordially wellcomed to Philadelphia.

We then rode into Town, and dirty, dusty, and fatigued as we were, we could notresist the Importunity, to go to the [City] Tavern, the most genteel one in America.There we were introduced to a Number of other Gentlemen of the City—Dr. Shippen,Dr. Knox, Mr. Smith, and a Multitude of others, and to Mr. Linch and Mr. Gadsden ofS. Carolina. Here we had a fresh Welcome to the City of Philadelphia, and aftersome Time spent in Conversation a curtain was drawn, and in the other Half of theChamber a Supper appeared as elegant as ever was laid upon a Table. AboutEleven O Clock we retired.

Furthermore, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote in his autobiography (A Memorial Containing Travels Through Lifeor Sundry Incidents in the Life of Benjamin Rush):

In September 1774, the first Congress met in Philadelphia. I went as far as Frankfordto meet the delegates from Massachusetts, and rode back into town in the samecarriage with John Adams, and two of his colleagues. This gentleman's dress andmanners were at that time plain and reserved. He asked me many questions relativeto the state of public opinion upon politics and the characters of the most activecitizens on both sides of the controversy.

Mr. Adams does allude to "A Gentleman who returned into Town with Mr. Paine and me in our Coach" inhis diary entry for August 29, 1774. This gentleman is surely Dr. Rush.

Neither Rush's autobiography nor Adams' diary indicate that any pressing political discussion arose whenthe Philadelphia men convened with the Massachusetts delegation in Frankford. Indeed, John Adamsdoes not mention any secretive meeting at Frankford and only briefly states that a "Number of Carriagesand Gentlemen" from Philadelphia came to greet the New Englanders. Perhaps Adams felt it best not torecord such a significant meeting for posterity so soon after it happened, particularly since it dealt withproposing treason of the American colonies (and himself) to Great Britain. (It is fortunate that all ofAdams' writings have subsequently been published and are available electronically.)

Then again, maybe the import of the "Frankfort Advice" had not fully hit home to Mr. Adams when heupdated his diary for that day. In his 1822 Pickering letter, Adams admits that he had occasionally ignoredthe counsel of Dr. Rush and the other Sons of Liberty during sessions of the First Continental Congress:

Although this advice dwelt on my mind, I hadnot, in my nature, prudence and caution enoughalways to observe it. When I found themembers of Congress, Virginians and all, soperfectly convinced that they should be able topersuade or terrify Great Britain into arelinquishment of her policy, and a restoration ofus to the state of 1763, I was astonished, andcould not help muttering, in Congress, andsometimes out of doors, that they would find,the proud, domineering spirit of Britain, theirvain conceit of their own omnipotence, their totalcontempt of us, and the incessantrepresentation of their friends and instrumentsin America, would drive us to extremities, and finally conquer us, transport us toEngland for trial, there to be hanged, drawn and quartered for treason, or to thenecessity of declaring independence, however hazardous and uncertain such ameasure might be.

Adams further laments to Pickering how he was regarded in Philadelphia soon after arriving in 1774:

It soon became rumored about the city that John Adams was for Independence; theQuakers and Proprietary gentlemen took the alarm; represented me as the worst ofmen; the true-blue Sons of Liberty pitied me; all put me under a kind of Coventry. Iwas avoided like a man infected with the Leprosy. I walked the streets of Philadelphiain solitude, borne down by the weight of care and unpopularity.

As for his opinion about Philadelphia, Adams penned this in his diary for the day of October 9, 1774:

Philadelphia, with all its trade and wealth and regularity, is not Boston. The morals ofour people are much better; their manners are more polite and agreeable; they arepurer English; our language is better; our taste is better; our persons are handsomer;our spirit is greater; our laws are wiser; our religion is superior; our education is better.We exceed them in every thing, but in a market, and in charitable public foundations.

But by October 28, after the First Continental Congress had concluded its work and he was able to startback home to Massachusetts, John Adams had a change of heart and spoke better of the City of BrotherlyLove:

"28. Friday. Took our departure, in a very great rain, from the happy, the peaceful, theelegant, the hospitable, and polite city of Philadelphia. It is not very likely that I shallever see this part of the world again, but I shall ever retain a most grateful, pleasingsense of the many civilities I have received in it, and shall think myself happy to havean opportunity of returning them."

As it turns out, John Adams saw Philadelphia again less than a year later when he and his cohorts(Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushing and Robert Paine) again comprised the Massachusetts delegation tothe Second Continental Congress. This body began its work at the Pennsylvania State House (nowknown as Independence Hall) in May of 1775.

A few accounts specify that the crucial encounter that John Adams related to Timothy Pickering took placein 1775. It is surely possible that the Philadelphia Sons of Liberty met the New Englanders in Frankfordyet again in 1775 and offered their wise words to Adams and his associates at that time. It would even bemore logical for the Massachusetts men to have received the Frankfort Advice in 1775, as it was duringthe Second Continental Congress that they actually acted upon the recommendations of thePhiladelphians. But there is no verifiable record of a clandestine meeting in Frankford that year betweenthese parties.

The Jolly Post Inn in later days

Regardless of which year—1774 or 1775—Frankford made its mark in American history, it is neverthelessclear that the "Frankfort Advice" enabled both John and Samuel Adams to become the leading championsof the American Revolution during the Continental Congresses.

In accordance with the Frankford Advice, John Adams rose during the Second Continental Congress andmoved that the assemblage should adopt the patriot army that was then at Boston and appoint acommander for that militia. Adams did not actually name George Washington for this position, but hedescribed the man he had in mind as a gentleman from Virginia "who could unite the cordial exertions ofall the colonies better than any other person." No one doubted who Adams meant and Washingtonmodestly left the Assembly Room. Maryland delegate Thomas Johnson formally nominated GeorgeWashington to head the Continental Army a few days later, on June 15, 1775. Many delegates haddoubts about putting a Southern man at the head of an army in New England, composed of NewEnglanders and led by New England officers. But there was probably no single act of the SecondContinental Congress that had a more far-reaching significance in creating the United States than a manfrom Massachusetts virtually naming a Virginian as commander-in-chief of the American military.

It can be said that John Adams assumed one of the greatest political risks in history by adopting theFrankford Advice. Members of the Massachusetts delegation said little and kept themselves in thebackground at the First and Second Continental Congresses, allowing the Virginia delegation to take aproactive role in leading the way. A Virginian was appointed commander-in-chief, a Virginian was taskedto write the Declaration of Independence, and a Virginian moved that Congress adopt the Declaration. Yetit was all more or less orchestrated behind the scenes by the New Englanders: John and Samuel Adams.

It was certainly a clever strategy, that which the Philadelphia Sons of Liberty passed along to Adams andhis colleagues. It worked so well that Joseph Reed, a sophisticated lawyer and political activist fromPennsylvania, wrote at the start of the 1774 convention that "the Bostonians are mere milksops"compared to the Virginians. Delegates from other colonies had a similar view.

Both Pennsylvania and Philadelphia were regarded as having been far more conservative before andduring the Revolutionary War than the New England colonies and most of the Southern colonies—and thishistoric reputation persists to this day. But the Frankford Advice episode highlights that the radicals ofPhiladelphia and Pennsylvania played a much more active role in the American Revolution than generallyacknowledged.

Frankford, Pennsylvania, was incorporated into a borough in 1800. By 1850, the town's populationexceeded five thousand as it experienced tremendous growth and prosperity. In 1854, the Act ofConsolidation (P.L. 21, No. 16 of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) combined Frankford and otherpreviously-independent communities of Philadelphia County into the city of Philadelphia. Today, Frankfordis primarily a residential neighborhood bounded roughly by the Delaware River, Roosevelt Boulevard,Cheltenham Avenue, and the original bed of the Frankford Creek.

1 The Sons of Liberty was a secret radical group founded in Boston in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act. Similar independent

associations soon sprang up in cities and towns throughout the colonies. While this patriotic movement lessened somewhat afterrepeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, the various Sons groups throughout the colonies corresponded throughout the 1760s and early1770s. The phrase "sons of liberty" later became a generic term applied to those who supported the goal of AmericanIndependence.