BGuthrie Photos: PA -- Philadelphia -- Independence NHP -- Independence Square (interiors)

PA -- Philadelphia -- Independence NHP -- Independence Square (interiors):

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. INDI_031227_006.JPG: This was where the Supreme Court held its first sessions. It's located in a fairly small building called the Old City Hall.
2. INDI_031227_011.JPG: Colonial charters each applied to one colony or state. The Constitution took the principles of law and individual rights to the national level. The independent federal judiciary, contained in the United States Constitution, exists to guarantee that the government exercises its authority without abusing the rights of individuals. The mission of the United States Supreme Courts, to interpret the Constitution and to assure Americans of their right to justice, remains unchanged since the ratification of the Constitution. However, the execution of the mission changed over time. Article III of the Constitution provided for a Supreme Court, but leaves the details of the federal judiciary for Congress to decree. The Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 created a new federal court system. The Judiciary Act divided the nation into thirteen federal judicial districts. For administrative purposes the new law groups the districts into three circuits, the Eastern, Middle, and Southern. The Judiciary Act required that circuit courts be held in each district at least twice a year with no provision made for federal circuit judges. Instead, one district judge and two Supreme Court judges presided over each circuit court. Supreme Court justices presided over two sessions of the Supreme Court and 26 sessions of the circuit courts every year. While the Supreme Court sessions usually lasted only a couple of weeks, circuit riding could take months at a time. President George Washington appointed six justices to the first Court in 1789. They faced the formidable task of establishing the judicial branch of the new government while also riding the circuits. Very early in the history of the Supreme Court, the requirements to ride the circuit produced dissatisfaction among the justices. The southern circuit alone ran over 1,300 miles, a distance travelled through wilderness along muddy or nonexistent roads. A justice that rode the southern circuit then traveled in haste back to Philadelphia for the twice yearly terms of the Supreme Court. Justices spent months of the year away from home and separated from their families. To add insult to injury, the Justices paid their travel expenses and lodging out of their own pockets!
3. INDI_031227_015.JPG: After the Justices traveled the circuit for the first time in 1790, they sent formal letters of complaint to President Washington, asking for relief from this burdensome duty. Washington heard their complaints and apparently felt confidence that he could convince Congress to change the law. When Governor Thomas Johnson of Maryland accepted Washington's appointment to the Court in 1791, he did so with the understanding that the practice of riding the circuits would be modified. Johnson rode the southern circuit in the fall of 1792 and resigned from the Court in January of 1793 saying: "I have measured things and find that the Office and the Man do not fit. I can not resolve to spend six months in the year... from my Family, On Roads, at Taverns Chiefly and... in situations where the most moderate desires are disappointed." Washington's optimism about change proved unfounded. In fact, not until 1911 did Congress formally abolish circuit riding for Supreme Court Justices. Congress has good reasons for requiring the justices to participate in federal district courts. Whenever a Supreme Court Justice held court, he automatically became an educator, teaching Americans the meaning of their federal system of government. Also, the decisions handed down by the justices reinforced the power and authority of the central government. However, for citizens as well as Justices, the day to day challenge of traveling on 18th century roads frequently caused problems for the legal system. As the Justices traveled the circuits, bad weather, illness, unusually long court sessions, and transportation problems disrupted their schedules. Lawyers and others having business at a district court also had to travel with some inconvenience although over shorter distances. When the court sessions were delayed or cancelled by the failure of the justices to appear on schedule, public dissatisfaction quickly appeared.
4. INDI_031227_019.JPG: When Justice James Iredell failed to reach the Delaware Circuit Court on time in 1793 the National Gazette of Philadelphia ran this article: "... near one hundred... citizens, were summoned to attend the federal circuit court of New-Castle, ... a quorum of judges did not appear to hold a court. The citizens that were summoned from their various occupations waited... then returned home. Many of them rode a considerable distance, and as no court was called... they were not paid for their attendance; their loss of time was of much more consequence than any thing they could have expected, but the insult offered to their feelings was felt by every one. Mr. Iredell, who was to have attended, certainly can have no proper excuse... Most people know that these gentlemen get very handsome salaries; and they know also from the sweat of whose brows it comes; ... they know whose right it is to call them to account for their malpractices..." Such criticism plus the rigors of circuit travel made appointments to the Supreme Court unattractive to the caliber of lawyer that George Washington sought for the Court. In fact, from September of 1789 to March of 1796, George Washington made fourteen appointments to the Court. For almost one-third of the Washington administration, the Court was not fully staffed, having less than the six Justices the law required. Despite the difficulties and the sacrifices the early years of circuit riding established an acceptance of the new federal judiciary system and an understanding of how it worked. Rulings handed down by the Court, wile not always popular, gained acceptance and dissenters pursued their complaints through legal or governmental processes. The early justices served their nation well in convincing its citizens that the colonial quest for order and individual liberties could safely be moved to a national forum.
5. INDI_031227_023.JPG: Alexander Hamilton insisted "that the complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution." Some who agreed with Hamilton's view of the courts worried about the judicial branch's independence because its appointees seemed to be in political debt to the President for nomination, and to the Senate for confirmation of their appointments. In 1793, the Court answered those who doubted its independence when it refused to give advice to George Washington, the president who had appointed every justice to the Curt. Washington approached the Court for advice on handling American neutrality in the face of the war between England and France that was sweeping Europe. Chief Justice John Jay pointedly urged the president to "get that advice from the heads of the departments," that is from cabinet members. Jay believed that the Court must never deviate from its role as a strictly judicial body. Presiding over the circuit court in New York City in 1791, Jay also declared his independence of the legislative branch. At issue was a law passed by Congress requiring that justices of the Supreme Court, while riding circuit, assume the responsibility for administering pensions to disabled Revolutionary War veterans. Jay ruled (First Hayburn Case) that under the Constitution, Congress could only assign the Supreme Court judicial duties; the Justices could not be required to perform administrative duties such as managing the pensions. Chief Justice Jay asserted the Supreme Court's right of judicial review for the first time with his ruling on this issue.
6. INDI_031227_030.JPG: The English do not have a formal written constitution. Instead, documents like the Magna Carta, plus traditions and legal precedents gathered over the centuries, form the basis of government. An inherited understanding of how the law works holds the system together. Colonists moving to the New World brought the English system with them. Having crossed the ocean, however, settlers quickly discovered that although the ideals of English law readily translated to the wilderness, the mechanics did not. Forming new societies without a hereditary ruling class, based on written charters or land grants rather than on tradition, and far from the courts of England, colonists realized the necessity of new legal systems. As early as 1620, Pilgrims arriving on the Mayflower drafted a plan for their new community and required each head of household to sign the Mayflower Compact. This charter, like those that followed, resulted from a combination of idealism and pragmatism. The leaders of the Plymouth Colony came with a vision for their settlement and wanted to protect their principles. With the signing of the Compact, they attempted to bind their entire group to these ideas. More practically, the Plymouth Company arrived with a grant for a colony in Virginia, but actually landed in Massachusetts. Accompanying the Pilgrims were a group of "foreigners" (non-Pilgrims) who had sworn allegiance to the Pilgrim leaders as a condition of their passage to the new world.
7. INDI_031227_037.JPG: The English do not have a formal written constitution. Instead, documents like the Magna Carta, plus traditions and legal precedents gathered over the centuries, form the basis of government. An inherited understanding of how the law works holds the system together. Colonists moving to the New World brought the English system with them. Having crossed the ocean, however, settlers quickly discovered that although the ideals of English law readily translated to the wilderness, the mechanics did not. Forming new societies without a hereditary ruling class, based on written charters or land grants rather than on tradition, and far from the courts of England, colonists realized the necessity of new legal systems. As early as 1620, Pilgrims arriving on the Mayflower drafted a plan for their new community and required each head of household to sign the Mayflower Compact. This charter, like those that followed, resulted from a combination of idealism and pragmatism. The leaders of the Plymouth Colony came with a vision for their settlement and wanted to protect their principles. With the signing of the Compact, they attempted to bind their entire group to these ideas. More practically, the Plymouth Company arrived with a grant for a colony in Virginia, but actually landed in Massachusetts. Accompanying the Pilgrims were a group of "foreigners" (non-Pilgrims) who had sworn allegiance to the Pilgrim leaders as a condition of their passage to the new world. These leaders feared that the unexpected location of the colony would give these people an excuse to rebel, arguing that their pledge of obedience only applied in Virginia. By signing the Mayflower Compact, all agreed to a plan of community for the Plymouth Colony. Early charters, like the Mayflower Compact, only sought to create social and legal order on the frontier. Immediate concerns were with survival and cultural continuation. The growing security of the colonies plus a developing sense of possibility led to later charters addressing not only community needs but also individual rights. With documents such as William Penn's Charter of Privileges, Americans stepped away from English tradition not only in relying on inclusive, written constitutions but also in insisting that those documents protect the law, the society, and individuals within that society
8. INDI_031227_039.JPG: In 1791, Philadelphia's city government moved into its first permanent home, here in Old City Hall. Until 1800, the city shared these premises with the United States Supreme Court in an arrangement that must have felt cramped and crowded at times. A look at the myriad of city activities that took place here during this decades leads one to believe that the building bustled with activity and may have felt overcrowded. The mayor, common council, select county, city regulators, city archives, and the city treasurer all maintained offices in this structure. In addition, the building served as the headquarters for the fight against Yellow Fever in 1793 and housed charitable and philanthropic groups such as the Philadelphia Abolitionist Society. The records do not give an exact location for each activity, although we do know that as of 1824 this room was used as the City's Treasury office. Generally, the impression is of a building teeming with city and federal officials plus citizens on private or official business.
9. INDI_031227_062.JPG: This is where the House of Representatives sat. The room had to be expanded pretty quickly as new states were added.
10. INDI_031227_154.JPG: The painting is Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI and queen of France (1774-93). Known mostly for "let them eat cake," she and her husband were deposed by an angry mob which descended on the palace at Versailles in 1789. They demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris where the couple became virtual prisoners. She sought help from her brother, the Austrian Emperor, and sister, Queen of Naples. Austria eventually declared war on France and the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason. In January 1793, Louis XVI was executed on the guillotine. Marie was executed in October 1793.
11. INDI_031227_176.JPG: Various committee rooms. The painting is the king of France, King Louis XVI (House of Bourbon).
12. INDI_031227_232.JPG: This inkstand is part of an exhibit called "The Great Essentials." It features surviving copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States. The latter is a draft with hand-written annotations by George Washington fixing up typos. The inkstand was made by Philip Syng, Jr. Each delegate who signed the Declaration of Independence (August 2, 1776) and Constitution of the United States (September 17, 1787) probably dipped his pen into it.
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [American Revolution] [History 1700s (excl wars)] [Park (National Park Service)]
2003 photos: Equipment this year: I decided my Epson digital camera wasn't quite enough for what I wanted. Since I already had Compact Flash chips for it, I had to find another camera which used CF chips. That brought me to buy the Fujifilm S602 Zoom in March 2003. A great digital camera, I used it exclusively for an entire year. Trips this year: Three-week trip this year out west, mostly in Utah. Number of photos taken this year: 68,000.
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