USA > New York > New York City > A history of the parish of Trinity Church in the city of New York, pt 4 > Part 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
"In accordance with these views, when it was decided to build a chapel in the upper part of the city, in order to preserve to the church its ancient parishioners, who had removed in large numbers from the neighborhood of Trinity Church, St. Paul's and St. John's, I intro- duced a resolution providing that the corporate debt should never exceed the sum of $250,000 beyond the amount of its bonds and mortgages, exclusive of those given by churches. The latter were excepted for the reason that they have never been regarded as an available resource. No interest is collected on them, and they are, in fact, held by the Corporation for the purpose of preventing, in case of emergency, the property to which they attach from being devoted to secular uses. The resolution referred to, after being amended so as to increase the limit of the debt to $300,000, was adopted.
"It is due to entire frankness to say that I was opposed to the construction of Trinity Chapel, believing the private wealth of the district, for which its ministrations were designed, sufficient to furnish them without the aid of Trinity Church. At the same time there were
438
History of Trinity Church
[1857
arguments in favor of the measure, on the score of justice and prac- tical usefulness, which it was not easy to answer, and solicitations from old and faithful friends of the church, who had removed to the upper part of the city, too earnest and persuasive to be resisted by the Vestry, many of whom had been their associates from an early period in life, and who were naturally reluctant to dissolve the connection as they approached its close.
" The measure having been resolved on, the Vestry adopted a plan which the architect estimated to cost $40,000. I urged its adoption on the ground of its comparatively small cost, and I particularly pressed on the Vestry the consideration that in the principal parish church enough had been done by them for the embellishment of the architecture of the city. At a subsequent meeting a majority of the Vestry, deeming the proposed edifice too small, or perhaps too plain for the position it was to occupy, adopted another plan, estimated by the architect to cost $79,000. It was never intended by the Vestry to exceed that sum. But those who have had any experience in building churches know not only how little confidence is to be placed in such estimates, but how difficult it is to adhere to original designs; and they will be disposed to consider the Vestry-who ultimately found themselves involved, greatly to their disappointment and annoyance, in an expenditure of $230,000 for the chapel and site-as objects of sympathy rather than censure.
" This unlooked-for expenditure, and the continued annual con- tributions to other parishes, which the Vestry were unwilling to abridge, have carried the corporate debt up to the enormous sum of $668,000, exceeding by the sum of $469,000 its available bonds and mortgages.
" It is well known that the greater part of the city below Cham- bers Street is devoted to purposes of business, and that private dwell- ings have given place to stores and warehouses. The wealthy portion of the population has gone to the upper districts, and most of the churches of all denominations have followed them. The North Dutch, which is still engaged in useful spiritual labors in the neighborhood of St. Paul's; the Methodist church in John Street, unhappily rent by internal strife; and St. Peter's, a Roman Catholic church, in Barclay Street, still maintain their ground. With these exceptions, Trinity Church, St. Paul's, and the church in Beekman Street, formerly St. George's, purchased and now entirely supported by Trinity, stand alone in this great deserted field of labor. The same process is going on above Chambers Street, and in a few years there will in all proba-
0
D
439
Report of General Dix
1857]
bility be no churches below Canal Street but those of Trinity parish. Notwithstanding this exodus of wealth, the vast population, the inhab- itants, in greater part, of alleys, garrets, and cellars, estimated to exceed 120,000 souls, occupy the field it has abandoned; and if Trinity Church had followed the same instincts which have drawn off the other relig- ious societies of the city to its more attractive districts, if she also had abandoned to their fate the poor and necessitous whom wealth and fashion have bequeathed to her, the lower part of the city would have presented an example of religious destitution unparalleled in the history of Christian civilization.
" It was in view of this great change in the condition of the popula- tion of the city that I introduced into the Vestry, on the 10th of April, 1854, the following resolutions:
"'Resolved, That the Standing Committee be instructed to report a plan by which the expenditures of the Corporation shall be limited to its income.
"' Resolved, That the said Committee be instructed to inquire into the expediency of making the seats in Trinity Church, and in St. Paul's and St. John's Chapels, free.
"' Resolved, That the said Committee be instructed to inquire into the expediency of establishing free schools in connection with Trinity Church and its chapels.
"' Resolved, That the said Committee be instructed to inquire into the expediency of devoting the funds of the Corporation, as far as may be practicable, after making provisions for the support of the new chapel in Twenty-fifth Street, to the education and religious instruction of the poor of the city.'
" The last resolution, as originally presented, was confined to the poor of the city below Canal Street; and, on the suggestion of a mem- ber of the Vestry, it was, in view of future contingencies, amended so as to embrace the whole city.
" This is the plan which nearly four years ago I deemed it my duty to bring before the Vestry. It was supported by a somewhat labored argument, which was not committed to paper, and which I will not tax the patience of the Committee by attempting to recall to remembrance. I trust, indeed, that no such exposition is necessary, and that the reso- lutions sufficiently explain their purpose. Their design was to rescue the lower part of the city-that portion which has not only an immense body of resident poor, but which receives into its bosom
440
History of Trinity Church
[1857
the greater part of the destitute who seek a refuge here from hardship in other countries-to rescue this combined mass of permanent and temporary indigence from the utter spiritual abandonment with which it was threatened by the removal of those to whose wealth and liberal- ity it had been accustomed to look for sympathy and pecuniary aid to more congenial districts. The plan comprehended not only the spirit- ual instruction of the adult inhabitants of this deserted district, once the seat of nearly all the wealth of the city, but the education of their children, and to the extent of the means of the Corporation, a minis- tration to their temporal wants. Trinity Church, with its endow- ments-fortunately growing more valuable with the progess of the city -was to stand in the place of the individual opulence which has fled from a district where its tastes could no longer find suitable fields for indulgence, and established itself in others, where it has rivalled Genoa in its streets of palaces, and where, in all its appointments and manifestations of in-door and out-door life, there is a concentra- tion of refinement, luxury, and splendor unequalled excepting by a few of the great capitals of Europe.
" It is possible that I may have looked upon this plan with that undue partiality which individuals are apt to feel for suggestions origi- nating with themselves. But it seemed to me to have been among the designs of Providence that Trinity Church should have been planted in this great district, ready with her ample endowments, to make provision, when the emergency should arrive, for those whom individual wealth has left upon her hands. I hold this to be the great mission of Trinity Church; and I have pressed on the Vestry, on all proper occasions, the duty of preparing for it, and of commencing the work with the utmost diligence. Though the plan has not been formally adopted, it has been practically acted on; and it is due to my associates in the Vestry to say that they have responded to all appeals in behalf of the destitute districts below Canal Street by as liberal an expenditure as the income of the Corporation, crippled by a heavy debt and bur- dened by large annual contributions to other churches, has admitted. The clerical force of the parish has been nearly doubled; the Sunday- schools have been greatly enlarged; parish schools for the gratuitous education of children have been established; by far the greater part of the pews in Trinity Church, one hundred and four out of one hundred and forty-four in St. Paul's, and a large number in St. John's, are free; efforts have been put forth to bring into the church those who have not been accustomed to attend any religious worship; Trinity Church is opened twice a day throughout the year for divine service; a mission
441
Report of General Dix
1857]
office has been established to receive applications for aid; lay visitors are employed to seek out want and relieve it; missionary agencies have been instituted in connection with the Commissioners of Emigra- tion; the whole lower part of the city has been virtually made a field of missionary labor; and a degree of energy has been infused into the ministrations of the church, temporal and spiritual, which compensates in a great degree for the lost support of the religious societies re- moved to other districts. In the midst of all this earnest effort, with five of her clergy residing within this neglected field of labor, con- versant with little else than its destitution, and devoting themselves to the relief of its wants, Trinity Church finds herself assailed as faithless to her trust by those, for the most part, whose lives are passed amid the social amenities of the upper districts, and in an atmosphere redo- lent with indulgence and luxurious ease.
"It was not supposed by me when this plan was brought forward that it could be fully carried out until a considerable portion of the leased property of the Church should become available for the pur- pose. It was only expected that a beginning should be made, and that the plan, in its great outlines, should have a practical adoption. However earnest the desire to put it in operation at an earlier period, the unexpected augmentation of her debt not only renders such a de- sire hopeless, but manifests that it may be even farther postponed, or possibly defeated, without a prudent husbandry of her resources.
" The expenditures of the Parish cannot be materially abridged without prejudice to its interests ; and the Vestry are unwilling to re- duce the annual allowances to other churches, believing that such a reduction would cause great inconvenience to the recipients, and in some cases impair, to a serious extent, the efficiency of the parishes thus assisted.
"In regard to the necessity of allowing the capital of her endow- ment to be consumed by the current expenses of the Church, I have differed in opinion with a majority of the Vestry. While they have deplored it, and yielded to it as a necessity, I have been in favor of meeting it by retrenchment, and bringing down the expenditure, as nearly as may be, to the standard of the income. I have urged this duty on the Vestry as one demanded by every maxim of financial pru- dence, and with the less hesitation, as the inconvenience to result from it would be of short duration ; for if the real estate disposable in 1862, or the great mass of it, can be kept undiminished until that time, the Church will be in condition to prosecute the great plan of ministration she has entered on with an efficiency which cannot fail
1
442
History of Trinity Church
[1857
to produce results of the highest importance to the City and State. If I have thought the Vestry in error in this respect, it is not because I have considered them lacking in liberality, but because they have yielded, under impulses highly honorable to their feelings, to an outside pressure for contributions, which in view of the deep and lasting inter- ests involved in the question, I would have resisted.
" This is, in truth, the only ground of apprehension in regard to the success of the plan of religious instruction for the poor of the lower part of the city. It must utterly fail, if Trinity Church, for the pur- pose of meeting a regular series of annual deficits in her revenue, caused to a great extent by her contributions to other Churches, shall consume her real estate ; and for this reason I would incur a tempo- rary inconvenience for the purpose of carrying out a great system, the benefits of which would be incalculable in value and endless in duration.
" To hold her real estate until it is unencumbered and can be sold without sacrifice is in no just sense an accumulation of capital. To accumulate is to augment by a reinvestment of income ; or, in other words, to convert revenue into principal. If her income exceeded her necessary expenditures ; if, instead of contributing it to the wants of others she were to withhold it and use it for the augmentation of her capital, she would be fairly obnoxious to the imputations cast upon her. Instead of erring in this direction, she has, as has been shown, been for a series of years expending large portions of her principal, and mainly for the purpose of making donations to other parishes.
"Several of the witnesses have testified that in granting aid to other churches, the Vestry have acted under the influence of party feeling, refusing assistance to those who differ with them in opinion, and grant- ing it freely to those whose views are in accordance with their own. I feel it to be my solemn duty to repel this imputation by stating my own experience. I have been more than seven years a member of the Vestry, and have been on terms of the most unreserved and confiden- tial communication with my associates. I have discussed with them the propriety of granting and declining applications for aid, not only at nearly all the meetings of the Vestry, but in many cases in private interviews; and no reference has ever been made by me or any one of them, at any meeting, official or private, to the party views of any of the Rectors or religious societies presenting such applications. The party divisions which have existed for several years in the Episcopal Church, and which have not only impaired its capacity for doing good, but dishonored those on both sides who have been active in keeping
9
الـ
443
Report of General Dix
1857]
them alive, have never been a subject of discussion at any meeting of the Vestry, which I have attended, nor have they been alluded to in connection with applications for aid. I have taken a deep interest in several applications myself, and have, perhaps, had some influence in securing grants of money to the applicants; and in no instance have I inquired what were the particular views of the Rector or the parish to which they belonged. I do not even know to this day whether they are High Church or Low Church. The only inquiries I ever made were in regard to their pecuniary and social condition, and their need of assistance; and these considerations, together with the ability of Trinity Church at the time to make the grants asked for, and the prob- ability that the grants would be effective for the objects in view, have been the only ones which have guided me in my votes. I believe the other members of the Vestry have been equally free from the influence of party motives. My belief is founded upon my knowledge of them as enlightened, conscientious, and liberal men, and upon all they have said and done in my presence through a familiar association of seven years. I cannot be supposed to have been deceived in regard to their principles of action but upon the hypothesis of a depth of dissimulation on their part, and an obtuseness of perception on my own, too gross for the largest credulity.
" I can say with the same confidence that I do not believe those who have the management of the affairs of Trinity Church have sought, during the period of my connection with them (a period of a good deal of excitement), to influence Rectors of parishes on any question in the diocese through the instrumentality of her donations. It is due to others to add that I have for several years attended the Conventions of the diocese, and become acquainted with a large number of the clergy. I have rarely met a more intelligent or independent body of men; and I regard the intimation that they would be governed in the doctrines they teach, or in the official acts they have to perform, by considera- tions arising out of the pecuniary aid their parishes may have received from Trinity Church, as alike ungenerous and unjust.
" In a word, I consider all these imputations of influence on the one hand, and of subserviency on the other, as the offspring of mere groundless suspicion; and they are, in some instances, so loosely hazarded as to make it the part of charity to refer them to the same narrow and distempered views of duty which are falsely imputed to the Vestry of Trinity.
"I have thus laid before the Committee with entire frankness a statement of my connection with Trinity Church, and the part I have
444
History of Trinity Church [1857
borne in the management of her financial affairs, and the great scheme of religious and temporal ministration which I desire to see carried out, under her auspices and through the aid of her endowments, in the lower districts of the city. I do not believe the importance of giving effect to this plan can be overstated. The funds of Trinity Church are the only resource for accomplishing it: she must execute it, or it will fall to the ground, and the district in which three of her church edifices stand become nearly desolate for all spiritual purposes. The prosperity of the city is deeply involved in it. Destitution, temporal and spiritual, goes hand in hand with crime, and when even now the spirit of acquisitiveness, which is characteristic of the age and has be- come its greatest scourge, is dishonoring it by forgeries the most bare- faced, and staining it by murders the most foul, what shall be our social condition if, in a large portion of the city, destitution and spiritual neglect shall combine with cupidity to arm the hand of violence, and stimulate it to still grosser outrage? What higher office can Trinity Church fulfil, what higher benefit can she confer on the classes which have the deepest stake in the security of property and life, than by devoting herself, as she is now doing, to make the lessons of religious and social duty familiar to those who, under the pressure of their physical wants, have the strongest temptation to forget them ? In the upper districts the possessors of nearly the whole private wealth of the city have become domesticated. There is more than one con- gregation the individual possessions of which are believed to exceed in value, with the largest estimate ever put on it, the entire property Trinity Church holds for the support of her four congregations. Those whom Fortune has thus overburdened with her gifts should be willing to leave unimpaired the endowments of Trinity Church, that she may make suitable provision for the poor whom they have left to her care. And whatever may be the narrowness of spirit which presides over particular circles, no doubt is entertained of the generous and catholic feeling which pervades the great body of the opulent classes. No city has more cause to be thankful for the munificence with which some of her richest men have contributed to great objects of social improve- ment within her limits; and it is most gratifying to add that in more than one instance the wealth which exists in the largest masses has been poured out with the noblest profusion to build up literary and charitable institutions for the common benefit. To such a spirit of munificence no appeal to relieve the destitution which hangs upon the outskirts of the upper districts need be addressed in vain. If among those to whom Providence has committed the spiritual guidance of
¥1
445
Report of General Dix
1857]
these favored classes there are any who seek to compel Trinity Church to scatter her endowments broadcast over the city, and thus disqualify herself for the great work of charity devolved on her in the district in which her lot has been cast; if there are any who are engaged in incul- cating an antiphonal beneficence the utterances of which are to be given only in response of those of Trinity, it is suggested, with the profoundest deference, whether a nobler field for the exercise of their influence does not lie directly before them-whether the great ends of their calling will not be better subserved by laboring to infuse into surrounding atmospheres, overcast with penury and want, some of the golden light which irradiates their own.
"The State, nay, the whole country, has a deep interest in this question. The city of New York, embodying as she does, to a great extent, the commercial and financial power of the Union, must exert a, sensible influence upon the moral and intellectual character of all with whom she is brought into association. The slightest agitations on her surface undulate in all directions to the great circumference of which she is the centre. On Trinity Church are devolved, in the order of events, the spiritual instruction and guidance of the district by which she is brought most directly into contact with all that lies beyond her limits. If this duty is not faithfully performed, no voice should be raised in palliation of the delinquency. On the other hand, if any of those who have withdrawn from this part of the city the wealth which Providence has, in such disproportion, bestowed on them shall seek to deprive the destitute whom they have left behind of the sole resource for spiritual instruction and for the alleviation of temporal want-if they shall succeed, by misstating the condition and unjustly impeach- ing the motives of Trinity Church, in defeating her efforts to carry out the great system of labor with which she is occupied-they will incur the gravest and most odious of all responsibilities-that of consigning one of the most important districts in the emporium of the Union to an intellectual and spiritual death.
" I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant. " JOHN A. DIX."
On the conclusion of the examination of witnesses, the Committee listened to the arguments of counsel. Mr. Porter appeared for those who considered themselves as dis- franchised corporators ; Judge Parker and Mr. Gouverneur M. Ogden spoke for the Corporation. The Committee
-@'444
7
446
History of Trinity Church [1857
then, having concluded their work, presented an amended report to the Senate, in which, however, none of the alle- gations of misuse and abuse of the trust were withdrawn.
The debate upon this amended report was long and not without bitterness ; finally a substitute bill was offered by Mr. Brooks, providing that all Episcopalians should be made corporators of Trinity Church, but that the property of the parish should remain in its own custody. Remon- strances against the proposed measures, and especially against the amendment or repeal of the law of 1814, came from many parts of the State. Similar remonstrances against the disturbance of vested rights were largely signed by business men in New York and elsewhere.1 Special memorials came from individual parishes. Among those who took an active part in the debate was the Hon. Daniel E. Sickles, afterwards a Major General in the U. S. service during the Civil War, who strongly and ably opposed the injustice proposed by the bill. On Monday, April 6th, the substitute offered by Mr. Brooks was adopted by a vote of 19 to 12, and the bill was en- grossed and sent to the Assembly, where its fate was sealed, as it failed to be reached for final action before the adjournment of the Legislature.
Thus, providentially, was averted a great evil, not only to the parish of Trinity Church, but to all the churches in our communion ; for no more radical measure could have been imagined, nor one better calculated to affect injuri- ously the rights and interests of corporations in general. The case for the Church was managed with great skill, wisdom, and dignity, and from that day to the present, a period of nearly half a century, there has been no renewal of that bold and unjustifiable assault.
1 Copies of these remonstrances are on file among the archives in the State Library at Albany.
447
St. John's Chapel
1857]
We pass to a subject of a more agreeable nature. During these proceedings and the pending of the bill, the Corporation had given attention to an enlargement of St. John's Chapel and its adjacent buildings. Of the im- provements made at that time, by which the interior be- came one of the most beautiful and imposing in the city, the architect's contemporary description is on file.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.