It Happened Here -- The Forgotten Advocate, Jesse Torrey

How do you make democracy work? How do you make it work, down through the generations?

How do you create moral, virtuous, thoughtful, public-spirited citizens?  These were questions that many famous thinkers, statesmen and philosophers, men who may have lived through the creation of the new American republic and were now feeling their way into the first decades of the 19th century were concerned about--men like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the French observer Alexis de Tocqueville.   These questions were also on the minds of many others; men on the edge of historical obscurity; men like Jesse Torrey, Jr.

West St., New Lebanon

 Jesse Torrey, Jr. was born in 1787, son of Jesse Torrey a revolutionary war veteran who had moved from Lebanon Connecticut to New Lebanon, New York, just over the Massachusetts border.  Jesse. Jr. loved to read and was able to indulge his passion for reading through his access to an extensive library of a friend, Dr. Moses Younglove.  It occurred to Torrey that though many youths learned to read, without free access to books, the interest in reading soon waned, and the talents that reading enabled-- the ability to gain new knowledge and to develop critical thought were quickly lost.  During the winter of 1803-1804 the sixteen year old Torrey canvassed every resident of New Lebanon to present a plan for his "Juvenile Society for the Acquisition of Knowledge",  a free lending library for all New Lebanon youths, male and female, 12 to 21. Donations were solicited and "subscriptions" were sold to those youths able to afford them. By spring the library was open and operated out of his home.

West St., New Lebanon

Torrey's activities for the next dozen years are obscure, though apparently with the encouragement of Dr. Younglove he obtained a medical education, and in 1814 established a short-lived medical partnership with Dr. Amasa Ford in Pittsfield.  Torrey continued to promote his idea of free public libraries, helping organize library societies  and contacting influential people for their support.  De Witt Clinton,  Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Roberts Vaux (a Pennsylvania lawyer, founder of the Pennsylvania public school system, early prison reformer and abolitionist ) were among those he contacted. He traveled through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the "federal city" of Washington before meeting with President Madison at his home in Virginia. In Washington he began to write articles for newspapers, including the Washington Intelligencer,  promoting free public libraries and temperance, suggesting a "spirit-ous liquor" tax might be used to fund public libraries.

While walking the streets of Washington, Torrey describes how he  abruptly stumbled upon another issue that would come to dominate his life. Lost in thought, he came upon a pair of "Georgey-men" leading a mournful parade of captured or recently purchased slaves--men, women and children roped and chained together, being led into slavery, their ultimate destination, the plantations of Georgia.
Incensed, he threw himself into discovering what he could about slavery in the nation's capital.  During his investigations he interviewed many free blacks in their homes and discovered they lived in fear of being kidnapped and sold into slavery.  A short time later Torrey met with President Madison and his wife, Dolly in their home in Virginia. (The White House had not yet been restored after it had been burned by the British.)  What started out to be a conversation about free libraries apparently became sidetracked into a discussion of slavery, with Torrey perhaps badgering the first lady for her support of the institution. Torrey's thank you letter for the visit begins with a sincere apology for his behavior, and the President's reply graciously insists they took no notice of it.

In 1816 Dr. Torrey published a small volume of his newspaper articles on free libraries and temperance, followed the next year by "Portraiture of Slavery", a tract detailing his investigations into slavery in Washington. The same year he published  a 43 page pamphlet, "The Intellectual Torch," a reworking of his first booklet.

Two years later the doctor from New Lebanon, driven by the desire to make better citizens,  wrote his first school book, The Moral Instruction and Guide to Virtue and Happiness.  A solid success, the book went through ten printings. Like the tremendously popular McGuffy Readers that would follow, morality was promoted, outside of a specific religious context. He followed that with a pamphlet in 1822 that summarized his thoughts about free libraries and education: " Herald of Knowledge; an address to the Citizens of the United States proposing a New System of Natural Instruction." Two years later he produced a "reader", an edited collection of stories entitled  A Pleasing Companion for Little Girls and Boys. Aimed at a younger audience, much of it was intended to be read to children in "primary schools and domestic nurseries" to develop an appetite for the printed word.  A wopping twenty five editions of this work would be published. In 1826 a Familiar Spelling Book followed.

Five years after "Portraiture of Slavery" was published, an expanded 132 page American Slave Trade
was published in London.  In 1832, Dr. Torrey returned to his medical interests with an article "Dissertation on Plague" and in 1832 he edited a sixteen page periodical "National Library, and Advocate of Civil and Religious Liberty or Universal Repository of Useful Knowledge". Published every two weeks, with no apparent focus, it soon became a catchall for polemicist of various religious denominations and in less than half a year Dr. Jesse Torrey left the publication.

With his last publication the historic record of Jesse Torrey comes to an end.  Most of what is known about Dr. Torrey comes from his writings, scattered, obscured and unheralded*. This is unfortunate because in so many areas his thoughts were in the forefront of ideas that would be a part of the national dialogue for decades to come.


Marker of the Week -- Why (more or less) permanent historical markers should not make references to current and possibly non-permanent conditions.

Rte 20,  New Lebanon

*Even Wikipedia lists no article for "Torrey, Jesse".