Discovery
There are very few extant contemporary references to the Political Club. A U.S. army paymaster by the name of Major Beatty wrote in his journal that, while staying in Danville, he and his companions were "very much disturbed by a Political Club which met in the next house where we slept and kept us awake till 12 or 1 o'clock." Also, two letters mentioning the Club were written from Peter Tardeveau, a member of the Club, to two other members. Beyond this, no references to the Club have been found. Whether the Club was meant to be kept secret or the lack of references to it was purely accidental is not known.
The existence of the Club may never have been known if not for the discovery made by Thomas Speed II in 1878. Speed, the grandson of the Club secretary Thomas Speed, discovered a bundle of papers labeled "Political Club papers" while cleaning out his grandfather's desk. The elder Thomas Speed had kept meticulous notes of the Club's activities throughout its existence, though some were scribbled on bits of newspapers and old letters. Speed's grandson published the documents through The Filson Historical Society in 1894.
Read more about this topic: Danville Political Club
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“The discovery of Pennsylvania’s coal and iron was the deathblow to Allaire. The works were moved to Pennsylvania so hurriedly that for years pianos and the larger pieces of furniture stood in the deserted houses.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“That the discovery of this great truth, which lies so near and obvious to the mind, should be attained to by the reason of so very few, is a sad instance of the stupidity and inattention of men, who, though they are surrounded with such clear manifestations of the Deity, are yet so little affected by them, that they seem as it were blinded with excess of light.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)
“However backwards the world has been in former ages in the discovery of such points as GOD never meant us to know,—we have been more successful in our own days:Mthousands can trace out now the impressions of this divine intercourse in themselves, from the first moment they received it, and with such distinct intelligence of its progress and workings, as to require no evidence of its truth.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)