When Snow couldn't be found, the fracas fizzled out. But the next day the mob returned to Snow's establishment. The rioters, the Globe reported, cut down the restaurant's sign "and broke and destroyed most if not all of the furniture in the house, not forgetting to crack a bottle of the 'old Hock' [whiskey] 'now and then.'"
Up the street at City Hall, two branches of the city government, the board of aldermen and the common council, met and approved a proclamation authorizing Mayor William Bradley to "adopt such measures as may appear to him best calculated to allay the excitement now existing amongst a portion of the population of this City." Bradley, in turn, deputized retired Maj. Gen. Walter Jones, a veteran of the War of 1812, to organize a citizen's militia to restore order.
Anna Maria Thornton as painted by her friend Gilbert Stuart in 1804. In August 1835 Thornton was reportedly assaulted by a young ax-wielding Negro slave in her F Street home in August 1835. The incident set off Washington's first race riot.
(Courtesy National Gallery of Art)
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"Some fifty or sixty persons appeared at the City Hall about sundown, armed with muskets and fixed bayonets" to volunteer for the militia and guard City Hall, reported the Globe. About 300 or 400 Mechanics remained in and around Snow's restaurant, just a stone's throw away. Both parties maintained their positions until some time in the night. Then the Mechanics left the restaurant and headed toward the Rev. Cook's church and school at the corner of 14th and H Streets.
The mob wanted Cook, a solemn free black man who was well-versed in Presbyterian theology and sought to educate every Negro child he could find. Cook was a firm opponent of drink and slavery. Perhaps worried that the mob would associate him with Arthur Bowen's outrage, he retrieved his horse from a friend's stable and fled to Pennsylvania.
According to one account, the Mechanics "destroyed all the books and furniture and partially destroyed the building." As night fell, roving bands of white men hunted for free blacks and abolitionists to molest.
"Some disorders took place at three or four points, in the demolition of some small wooden tenements occupied by free negroes, as dwellings or as schools, and the breaking of the windows of one of their houses of worship," said the National Intelligencer newspaper. In addition, "a house of ill fame" on Capitol Hill was torched around midnight. The flames could be seen from Judiciary Square. The militia marched toward the blaze, led by Mayor Bradley, "but before they reached the spot, the fire had burnt down, and the rioters had dispersed."
At home on F Street, Anna Thornton lay awake listening to the noise of a city in chaos. When she finally dozed, she had a nightmare, according to her diary.
The next day, August 13, Washington was quiet, not the least because of widespread shock.
"We could not have believed it possible that we should live to see the Public Offices garrisoned by the clerks with United States troops posted at their doors, and their window barricaded, to defend them against the citizens of Washington," declared the National Intelligencer on August 15.
Two days later, President Jackson returned from a tour of the South. The tall, stern former general, clad in black coat and white shirt, with a wavy halo of flowing gray locks, offered the rattled people of the city authority that neither Bradley nor Key could provide. According to the newspapers, Jackson was greeted with relief and the fanfare of a marching band. He immediately sent word to the Mechanics, saying that he hoped to address their grievances.
Beverly Snow, meanwhile, had gone to his hometown of Fredericksburg and turned himself in to the sheriff for his own protection. From his jail cell, he wrote a letter to the politically influential Globe. He denied he had spoken salaciously of the Mechanics' women and cited his reputation in Washington.
"Sirs, do me the honor to look back at my past conduct, as a citizen, for the last six or seven years," he wrote. "If anything can be produced against me, let the world know it."
When city authorities vouched that Snow was not wanted for any crime, he returned to Washington. He dissolved his interest in the Epicurean Eating House and left town for a country where a man might live freely: Canada. His troubles had become such a symbol of the unrest that the events of August 1835 would be remembered as "the Snow Riot."
In his City Hall office, the district attorney could not rest. Key yearned to vindicate the rule of law and common sense in the nation's capital. For the good of the city, both Arthur Bowen and Reuben Crandall had to be brought to justice.
ARTHUR'S TRIAL, on charges of attempted murder and burglary, began first, in late November. Anna testified that he had been a docile boy, perhaps spoiled, who had succumbed to drink as he got older. She said that she did not believe he had intended to kill her. Her neighbor, Henry Huntt, told a different story. Roused in the night by Anna, Huntt said that Anna had said that Arthur had come into the room "with upraised ax." Huntt described Arthur shouting abolitionist slogans while slamming his ax into the door and calling for blood.
When his turn came, Key persuaded the judges to bar the argument that Arthur's inebriation was a mitigating factor. In cross-examination, Key induced Huntt to repeat the details of the assault. On December 10, Arthur appeared in court to hear the verdict. The jury deliberated for 15 minutes and returned a guilty verdict, which meant that Arthur was to be "hanged by the neck until he be dead."
Anna Thornton fell into a deep melancholy over the prospect of Arthur's execution. She pitied her servant Maria Bowen, who was going to lose her only child. And she feared for the health of her own 88-year-old mother, who adored Arthur.
As Anna probably knew, her mother already had experienced the hanging of a loved one. Ann Brodeau, it turns out, harbored a secret. She was not, as she pretended, a French-born schoolteacher. In fact, she was the widow of a prominent clergyman from suburban London whose last name was Todd -- Anna's father. He was famous for his generosity toward the poor, and himself. To support this philanthropy, he forged a bond for 4,000 pounds. He was caught, convicted and hanged in 1777.
