The Triumph at Plattsburg is the best of the national plays of Smith. He has avoided actual historical characters, and the conflict is kept in the background, while McCrea's danger keeps the element of suspense alive. It was first played at the Chestnut Street Theatre, January 8, 1830, with a strong cast, and was repeated. Apparently the scenery was quite effective and the national appeal met with a response.
For biography of Richard Penn Smith, see a sketch by Morton McMichael in The Miscellaneous Works of the late Richard Penn Smith, edited by H. W. Smith, Philadelphia, 1856, and an anonymous sketch in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. V, p. 119 (September, 1839). For accounts of the performances of the plays, see Charles Durang, History of the Philadelphia Stage, Series 2, Chaps. 51, 55, 56.
The published plays of Penn Smith, The Eighth of January, (1829), The Disowned, (1830), The Deformed, (1830), Quite Correct, (1835), Is She a Brigand, (1835), and The Daughter, (1836), all printed in Philadelphia, are hard to obtain. The following plays are in manuscript form in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia: The Pelican, A Wife at a Venture, The Sentinels, William Penn, The Triumph at Plattsburg, The Bombardment of Algiers, The Solitary or the Man of Mystery, Shakespeare in Love, and The Last Man. Smith's novel The Forsaken was published in Philadelphia in 1831.
The present text is based on the manuscript copy, for whose use the editor is indebted to the courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, especially of the Librarian, Dr. John W. Jordan, and of the Assistant Librarian, Mr. Ernest Spofford. The original program, found with the manuscript, has been reprinted here.
Note to Revised Edition.
An authoritative life of Penn Smith has been published under the title of The Life and Writings of Richard Penn Smith with a Reprint of His Play, The Deformed, 1830, by Bruce Welker McCullough, 1917. (University of Pennsylvania Thesis.)
