Outside academia he is all but forgotten, but in America’s Early Republic, citizens throughout the United States knew of him by his imprint, his publications, or his pamphlets. Mathew Carey was a printer, publisher, bookseller, and political economist. He first gained national recognition publishing the American Museum, a magazine read throughout the United States by influential figures. He traveled from New England to the Deep South, setting up a national distribution network his magazine. Later he used his system for books and political pamphlets. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, he printed and sold more books and Bibles than any other publisher in the United States. He encouraged American authors and directed taste in American literature.[1] He wrote a revisionist history of Ireland and bolstered his arguments with facts from history. He preserved documents on the Constitution and the Jay Treaty for posterity. Following Alexander Hamilton’s death, Tench Coxe, Mathew Carey and Hezekiah Niles continued to promote the American school of political economy to protect infant industries in the United States. An ardent nationalist, Carey campaigned for a central bank, tariffs, and improvements to America’s roads and canals. When Pennsylvania’s Jeffersonians split into factions, Mathew Carey, Tench Coxe, Alexander Dallas and John Binns, articulated policies that fused democracy, egalitarianism and capitalism. During the War of 1812 Carey observed the difficulties of New England’s economy and its powerful merchants with intense concern. He feared that New England would secede from the Union, and the nation would erupt in a civil war. He wrote the Olive Branch to preserve national unity. He considered the Olive Branch as one of the most important works. It was exceptionally successful, outselling every other book on politics published from 1784 until 1820.[2]

Manufacturers praised Carey and Southerners vilified him for his writings on the political economy. Southerners, opposed to the protective tariffs he proposed, burned him in effigy in Columbia, South Carolina.[3] Carey foresaw dissolution of the Union, and spent his retirement campaigning in vain for policies he believed would preserve it. Henry Clay used Carey’s writings on political economy as the basis for the American System.

Much of what he learned he learned from books, because he loved to read. He was a prolific writer. Few days passed when he did not put pen to paper dashing off letters to business and political associates or writing an essay expressing his views. Mostly he wrote about politics, the economy or the plight of the oppressed. [4]

He stood five feet six and a half inches tall, larger than James Madison, but shorter than John Adams. He knew them both, as well as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. He lived in Philadelphia when it was the nation’s capital, and he knew or corresponded with most of the influential figures of his era.

A limp marked his gait.   Like Talleyrand, who also had a deformed foot, Carey told the story that his nursed dropped him as an infant. His parents dipped him in holy wells. To his regret, they relied on the waters for a cure, instead of seeking medical help. He wore a heavy boot with iron plates that supported his weak ankle. He walked on the side of his bent and calloused foot, often in great pain.[5]

He had a full and well-proportioned face, a firm jaw, arched eyebrows and a slightly upturned nose. [6] His dark brown eyes had a penetrating gaze. In his youth, he brushed his hair back and clubbed it, tying it at the nape of his neck with a ribbon. As he aged, his hair turned gray and then white. In the fashion of the era, he shortened his locks brushing them forward.

He spoke with the brogue of his native Ireland. He lacked the self-confidence to be an effective orator, a skill essential for a politician. He was more comfortable working behind the scenes. A born organizer and promoter of numerous causes, he formed society after society to garner collective support for issues, usually becoming secretary.[7] He was fond of travel, and a good story. He traveled to northern New England and the Deep South on horseback, by stagecoach, or by steamboat learning the cultures and issues important to the nation’s regions.

Mathew Carey was compassionate, charitable and ambitious. He pursued his endeavors with enormous amounts of energy. He prized hard work and frugality. Irritable and impatient, he was easily offended and held grudges. He launched ambitious projects overextending himself financially. He was subject to spells of melancholy, and lived in fear of bankruptcy.

He was generous, and with a few notable exceptions honored his debts. As he matured, he became a solid citizen. His standing in Philadelphia and his ability to secure loans depended on it. More than once his passionate opinions imperiled his reputation and his business.

He dressed as a gentleman with a frock coat and britches and valued good manners. He was born into affluence, but not into privilege because his family was Irish and Catholic. The fourth son of Christopher and Mary Sherridan Carey, he was born on January 28, 1760.

ERA OF REVOLUTION | Early Life In Ireland

[1] Earl L. Bradsher, Mathew Carey, Editor, Author and Publisher: A Study in American Literary Development, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1912) vi.

[2] Edward C. Carter II, “Mathew Carey and ‘The Olive Branch,’ 1814-1818,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, V. 89 N.4 (October, 1965) 399. Mathew Carey, Autobiography, (Brooklyn: Research Classics, 1942) 118.

[3] Mathew Carey, “The Crisis,” (Philadelphia: Printed by William F. Geddes for Mathew Carey, July 26, 1832) 19.

[4] See William Clarkin, Mathew Carey: A Bibliography of His Publications 1785-1824 (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1984); David Kaser, Messrs. Carey & Lea of Philadelphia: A Study in the History of the Booktrade (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957) and Kenneth Wyer Rowe, Mathew Carey: A Study in American Economic Development (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1933). Carey wrote numerous books, broadsides and pamphlets.

[5] Mathew Carey, Miscellanies II, ms. (c. 1834) private collection, 59.

[6] Mathew Carey’s Passport, 1828, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Edward Carey Gardiner Collection, 227A, Box 27, Folder 11.

[7] For example: Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of American Manufactures (1819); Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements (1824); Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Manufactures and the Mechanic Arts (1826); Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of American Manufactures (1818); Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of National Industry (1819).