{"id":57047,"date":"2020-03-18T13:43:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=57047"},"modified":"2020-03-18T13:43:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:43:56","slug":"in-the-1st-u-s-epidemic-alexander-hamilton-leveraged-newspapers-to-save-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/in-the-1st-u-s-epidemic-alexander-hamilton-leveraged-newspapers-to-save-lives.html","title":{"rendered":"In the 1st U.S. Epidemic, Alexander Hamilton Leveraged Newspapers to Save Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, particularly relevant in light of the current Coronavirus pandemic, Jane Hampton Cook searches old newspapers to learn more about the Yellow Fever Epidemic that devastated Philadelphia in 1793. Jane, the former White House webmaster for President George W. Bush, is a presidential historian and the author of nine historical books. She is a consultant for the Women\u2019s Suffrage Centennial Commission.<\/em> Her works can be found at janecook.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As America combats the novel coronavirus, looking back at America\u2019s first epidemic during George Washington\u2019s presidency \u2013 using GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> \u2013 shows how Alexander Hamilton used the power of the press to try to save lives.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: a portrait of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. Credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yellow fever cases began in early August 1793 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after a ship arrived from Santo Domingo, which had experienced a previous outbreak.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: Arch Street wharf, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the first cluster of yellow fever cases was identified in 1793, from an engraving by William Birch in \u201cThe City of Philadelphia,\u201d 1800. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the end of August, New York\u2019s Weekly Museum<\/em> published a letter from Philadelphia (at that time, the capital of the United States):<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026it is very certain there is great danger from a species of Yellow Fever, very infectious, and which has in about ten days killed 20 people or upwards, between Arch and Vine streets, in Water street, and has spread within a few days to other parts of this city. Our physicians think every one ought to use the precaution of chewing bark, &c., and avoid infectious persons and places.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Weekly Museum (New York, New York), 31 August 1793, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton came down with yellow fever in Philadelphia, Hamilton used the power of the press to try to save lives.<\/p>\n

Worried about the \u201c\u2026undue panic which is fast depopulating the city, and suspending business both public and private,\u201d Hamilton wrote a letter on 11 September 1793 to Philadelphia\u2019s College of Physicians.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Daily Advertiser (New York, New York), 16 September 1793, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hamilton\u2019s letter was published in the Daily Advertiser<\/em> and other newspapers. He had battled the disease\u2019s yellowing of the skin, high fever, and stomach bleeding that led to black vomit:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have myself been attacked with the reigning putrid fever, and with violence \u2013 but I trust that I am now completely out of danger. This I am to attribute, under God, to the skill and care of my friend Doctor Stevens, a gentleman lately from the island of St. Croix.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hamilton met Stevens when he was a child in the Caribbean, where yellow fever was common. In his published letter, he recommended Stevens\u2019 treatment method:<\/p>\n

\u201cHis mode of treating the disorder varies essentially from that which has been generally practiced \u2013 And I am persuaded, where pursued, reduces it to one of little more than ordinary hazard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know him so well, that I entertain no doubt, that he will freely impart his ideas to you, collectively or individually, and being in my own person a witness to the efficacy of his plan, I venture to believe, that if adopted, and if the courage of the citizens can be roused, many lives will be saved, and much ill prevented.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stevens\u2019 method involved taking baths, drinking wine and inhaling herbs.<\/p>\n

Hamilton knew that Stevens opposed the common blood-purging method and other remedies of Benjamin Rush, the city\u2019s most prominent physician. Given what we now know about medicine, allowing leeches to suck blood from a patient did not purge poison and was actually harmful. Stevens\u2019 method reflects today\u2019s hygienic and homeopathic approaches.<\/p>\n

The Independent Chronicle<\/em> reported:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have good authority to assure the Public, that the recovery of the Secretary of the Treasury, and his lady, is confirmed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article noted that one of the Hamilton\u2019s servants had also gotten sick, followed the same protocol, and had recovered, concluding:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a strong confirmation of the goodness of the plan, pursued by Doctor Stevens, and ought to recommend it to the serious consideration of our Medical Gentlemen. In such a case, the pride of theory ought to give way to fact and experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Independent Chronicle (Boston, Massachusetts), 23 September 1793, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Philadelphia, a city of 50,000 people, yellow fever took more than 5,000 lives in 1793. As I wrote about in my book The Burning of the White House<\/em>, among the victims was John Todd. His wife Dolley married Congressman Madison nearly a year later \u2013 15 years before James Madison became the nation\u2019s fourth president in 1809.<\/p>\n

What ended the 1793 yellow fever epidemic? Winter. Cooler temperatures killed the mosquitoes that spread the disease. A U.S. Army physician discovered that mosquitos spread the disease in 1900<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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