USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Albany bi-centennial. Historical memoirs > Part 7
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Saturday, July 17th-Reception of the Caughnawaga Indians.
Crowds thronged the streets to see the Caughna- waga Indians arrive in the city from their home in Canada. The train was to arrive at 5 : 10 P. M., and at that time the depot and the surrounding locality was densely crowded by an interested populace.
Preparatory to escorting the red men, the Jackson Corps, accompanied by the Albany City band, and headed by a platoon of police, under Sergeant Cava- naugh, proceeded to the City Hall where a counter- march was made. Then the corps escorted the aldermanic delegation, consisting of Aldermen Hitt - Greagan, Norton, Woodward and Marshal Craven to the depot. The corps presented an excellent ap- pearance.
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The Caughnawaga Indians were nearly an hour late in arriving in this city. They were received at the depot, and then, accompanied by the escort, pro- ceeded to the City Hall. The Indians numbered thirty-three. On the way up to the City Hall the aldermanic delegation walked immediately behind the Jackson corps, while the Indians followed. It was a uni- que spectacle, for although the natives were in the ordi- nary garb, their race mark was sufficiently prominent to give the scene a strong interest. There were in the party fourteen men and sixteen squaws, some of whom were plainly dressed, while the younger females were decked out in all the height of civilized fashion, and chains around the neck were the principal ornaments.
Arriving at the City Hall the party proceeded to the Common Council chamber, where there was not nearly enough space to seat the great crowd. The Indian delegates took seats in front.
Ald. Hitt sounded the gavel, and when there was order Mayor Thacher appeared and took his place at the President's desk.
Then Father Walworth arose, and in a few appro- priate words presented the city's guests to the Mayor.
MAYOR THACHER'S WELCOME.
Mayor Thacher, then in reply, spoke as follows :
Chiefs, many moons ago, almost more than you can count with the beads upon your wampum belt, your fathers gave a hospitable welcome and the hand of friendship to our fathers as they landed on these shores. It is now our turn to greet you and give you our welcome. Then we were few in numbers, while you were like the leaves of the forest. Then we were weak, while you were strong, and with that
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weapon, the tomahawk, so dreaded by the whites, you could easily have destroyed us. Instead of that you passed us the pipe of peace and bade us be your friends. We can do no less now than to call you friends, extend to you the hospitalities of our city, and assign you an important part in our festivities.
Chiefs, we are in the enjoyment of a form of government which is as peculiar as it is strong and enduring. It is a single nation made up of many States, bound together by one indissoluble tie. This idea of a Union was foreshad- owed by your own confederation of the Five Nations. The truth that in union strength is found, was not taught you by white men, was not revealed to you by the men of Europe. Long before a white man visited these shores, yes, two cen- turies at least before this place was settled, the great league of the Iroquois was established. What a power it made the Five Nations!
And what a history you have withal ! Your poet sings your legendary myths, and tells in strange cadence of the marvelous bird which destroyed Hiawatha's only daughter. Your people repeat still the national tale of Ta-oun-ye-wa- tha and his birch bark canoe as they floated down the Mo- hawk to the Canienga town. And our people tell the story -and shall tell it until virtue ceases to be interesting to our kind and we grow weary of constancy and truth -the story of Indian faith and fidelity.
Our ancestors found in your people a race with whom a promise was kept with all the exaction of necessity and with whom constancy to a plighted word was as imperative as destiny.
Among all the memories of the past revived by your visit here, there is nothing more satisfactory to us, nothing which speaks more clearly of the pleasant relations which existed between your people and ours in the middle of the seven- teenth century than the fact that in all our dealings with you, in all our acquisitions of land, we robbed you of nothing, but paid for what we got, and with the purchase we obtained what gold and silver could not buy, and what was of infi- nitely more value to us-the confidence and friendship of the Indian.
Therefore, your presence here now, and the knowledge that you will tarry with us during our celebration and join with us in our ceremonies, is a source of congratulation with
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our people, and I speak for all of them when I declare again that you are very, very welcome.
Chief Joseph Skye made an appropriate reply in Iroquois, which was translated into English by Joseph Foster, a young man of the tribe. He thanked the Mayor for the hospitality, and wished God to bless him and the city.
Then the band rendered a selection, and a chorus of the redmen gave a very excellent song in their native language, which received an encore.
The Mayor then came down from the desk and was introduced to the visitors.
THE CELEBRATION. Sunday, July 18th-Devotional Day.
MEMORIAL AND HISTORICAL SERMONS IN THE CHURCHES, APPROPRIATE TO THE OCCASION.
The devotional exercises of the Jewish congrega- tion were held on Saturday, July 17.
National and religious emblems were artistically mingled within the walls of Beth-Emeth temple when its doors were thrown open for the introductory relig- ious service of the great demonstration commemora- tive of the municipality's two hundredth birthday. Before the shrine reaching from floor to ceiling, rose a large arch formed of the national colors and capped with a large shield. On the platform at the sides of the arch were two stately phoenix palms. The front of the pulpit was hidden by a beautiful floral design, a large eagle of pure white flowers upon a green back- ground, with its outstretched wings extending to two
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large century plants at the sides of the pulpit. Upon the wings, in purple flowers, were the figures " 1686- 1886," the whole design being an apt emblem of the city's prosperity, extending as it does from century to century. The candelabra, containing lighted can- dles, at the sides of the shrine were draped with red, white and blue. Bi-centennial flags sprung from the sides of the main arch, and the American colors hung from the chandeliers. The reading table in front of the pulpit was entirely hidden under a bank of flow- ers and the platform was bordered with them. The organ loft and galleries were covered with deep folds of red white and blue bunting.
THE SERVICES
A few moments after 10 o'clock, as the choir were singing " Glorious is Thy Name," Mayor Thacher, and Aldermen Woodward and Klaar entered, escorted by Mr. B. Stark, and took seats in Mr. Stark's pew. The Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman of the First Reformed, and the Rev. Russell Woodman, assistant rector of St. Peter's, were also among the audience. The ser- vice, much of which was in Hebrew, was very impressive. The opening consisted of short prayers, interspersed with these chants: Boruck-Chu, Sch'ma, Micho Mocho, Kaddesh, Wa-je-hi-bi-ne-so-a, Sch'ma, Ho-du al e rez, as the choir chanted " Wa je hi bi ne so a," the doors closing out the shrine glided back, disclosing the interior of the holy of holies with its sacred treasures, and the Rev. Max Schlesinger read the Pentateuch from the scroll. The sermon by the Rev. Dr. Schlesinger followed, and the service was concluded with these musical selections " Bi-centen-
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nial hymn," " Wa-a-nach-nu," " Wa a nach nu ko rim," air and chorus.
Rabbi Schlesinger delivered the sermon and took for his text Psalms 127, 1, 2,7: "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
He said in the course of his remarks: This gives us the reason for our great rejoicing. Love of country, of the place of our habitation, is something natural. We love the soil on which our cradle or the cradle of our children stood ; the place, that witnessed our joys and sorrows and afforded us the battle-field of our life's struggles, is dear to our heart. As the tree clings with its roots to the soil from which it sprang, as it entwines and embraces it with a thousand fibres, which spread farther and deeper with every year, so does man cling to the spot on which he lives. Every fibre of his soul, his very heart-strings, are entwined around and with it. We naturally love our dear old Albany and are proud of her. But there are many other reasons for this our great love.
A JUST PRIDE IN ALBANY.
The principal one I take to be that our natural pride in our city is also a just pride. You may go far and wide and not find a spot that has become the habitation of man which is so happily, so grandly, so beautifully situated as our dear old Albany. Enthroned on her hills, she sits the veritable Queen of the Hudson. It is as if this magnificent river was paying homage to her and serving her with all its might. To her he brings up the tide of the ocean and makes her the head of his unrivalled navigation. From him she sends out the canals; and at her feet the happy union of the river with the distant lakes is accomplished, a union fruitful of innu- merable blessings. A mighty railroad system rushes through the whole length of our vast continent until it finds it ter- minus in her bosom. Both, railroads and canals, gather up the immeasurable wealth of the far West and distant North- west, and pour it constantly into her lap. Her industrious hands are kept busy handing them over to the waves of her faithful Hudson, that they be brought down to the ocean, to
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enrich foreign countries and make glad all nations. What a noble and commanding position our dear, old Albany occu- pies in the commercial, industrial and agricultural system of our country and the world ! And this material wealth is not the only blessing for which we have to give thanks.
THE BLESSING OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY.
There is another, without which it would be of little value. It is health. Seated on her hills and bathing her feet in the billows of the Hudson, Albany is one of the healthiest cities in this or any other country. Our plentiful supply of water and pure air is a boon that cannot be overestimated. Not less is her natural drainage which sweeps the city from end to end, so that every gust of rain clears and scours her streets, as no contractor ever would do. The situation of the city is our most efficient health officer. A most magnificent landscape scenery surrounds our city as with a panorama. Whichever side we turn, we are confronted with beauty so refreshing, so exhilarating, that only our daily familiarity with it can abate the joy and admiration it is apt to impart to the beholder. These, surely, are good reasons for our love of Albany. Another, and to my mind the most potent reason, is her noble history. We cannot dwell on it at any length. Only so much we will say that the main character- istic of her 200 years' history were justice and peace. "The place of the council fires," she was called by the wild abo- rigines, and wise counsels always prevailed within her walls. She wrote her record on the pages of history by her valiant deeds of great industrial enterprise and daring thought, rather than by weapons of warfare.
HERE BEGAN ENGINEERING TRIUMPHS.
In the history of the great industrial achievments of our age, Albany occupies not a mean place. With Albany and the Hudson the annals of steam navigation have to com- mence their wonderful story. Here it was where Fulton achieved his great triumph in 1807. Between Albany and New York was plying his wonderful invention, which became the pioneer of all those floating palaces which now fill the oceans and navigable rivers. It was mostly Albany enter- prise and Albany men who pushed on that gigantic work of inland navigation, a grand scheme of watery highways, that
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connect the West with the East, was accomplished, and bene- fited the whole country indirectly still more than directly. When in October, 1825, the canal from Lake Erie to Albany was completed it was not only our State which rejoiced and was thrilled by this great success. All over the country enterprise received a stimulus as never before. The great benefit to be derived from an easy and uninterrupted con- nection between the various parts of our vast territories was clearly perceived. The wonderful steam car, which but a short time before, had been invented in England, was brought over to this country, where it was to find its widest scope for running its glorious race with joyous errands of progress and peace.
THE SCENE OF GRAND ACHIEVEMENTS.
And again it was our dear old Albany that was foremost in appreciating and welcoming this new messenger of good tidings. In 1826 already a charter was granted to the Hud- son and Mohawk railroad company, and in 1830 trains ran from Albany to Schenectady over one of the first railroads of this country. As has been recently pointed out by his honor, the Mayor, even the telegraph announced its coming first in out dear old city. When in 1831 Joseph Henry made his marvelous experiment, and by means of an electro- magnet transmitted signals through a wire more than a mile in length, causing a bell to sound at the further end of the wire - this bell rang in the era of the telegraph. In the American Journal of Science he pointed out the applicabil- ity of the facts, demonstrated by his experiments, to the instantaneous conveyance of intelligence between distant points by means of a magnetic telegraph. You see that almost every one of the great inventions which facilitate the progress of our age is more or less connected with our city. Have we not good reason to be proud of her record ?
Dr. Schlesinger concluded his instructive address with an appropriate peroration and prayer for the city and city officers.
SUNDAY DEVOTIONS.
Sunday dawned fair and bright; there was neither wind nor rain in view to spoil the pleasure of the
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opening of the greatest week in the history of this old, old city. For many days prior, people complained of the extremely warm weather, but all thought that this day had been created specially for Albany's great Bi-centenary. Soon, however, the warm rays began to beat down, and as early as nine o'clock the air was damp, sultry and warm. Crowds of Albanians and visitors were seen in the streets early, all viewing old Albany in her bridal dress. Many comments fell from the strangers, complimenting the beauty and taste displayed by the decorations. Throngs wended their way to the churches, where the more notable services took place, all intent upon hearing a good sermon, and combining the elements of Christian teaching and Christian history in this city. None carried umbrellas though, and people generally were surprised to hear the rain begin to patter on the roofs soon after seating themselves. The sky looked clear and cloudless when they entered ; when they left the holy temples rain was falling fast. Considerable thunder accompanied the rain-all making a fit sym- bol of this great commencement of a great week. God's hand at the outset was shown, and his grace and benediction later, when He caused to clear away the rain clouds, leaving Albany in the afternoon a pleasant, beautiful city. Following are full reports of the services in the various churches :
ST. MARY'S.
The exercises at St. Mary's church were striking, unique, and moreover grand. It was a fitting cele- bration of the Bi-centenary. A grand military mass
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is a rare event in this country, and Albany never saw one before. Elaborate preparations had been made for the care of the vast multitude that was expected to attend, and as a consequence the best of order prevailed and the greatest possible number of spectators admitted to the church. Those who were fortunate to secure a ticket of admission, as a rule, were early in attendance and comfortably seated be- fore the arrival of the officials, the delegation of Caughnawaga Indians and other specially invited guests.
It was precisely 10:40 when the guests arrived and marched up the church aisle, headed by Mayor Thacher. The organist, Mr. Schneider, accompanied by Parlati's orchestra, immediately opened with a brilliant march from " Le Prophète," by Meyerbeer, during which the delegation was seated.
There were about thirty of the officials, among them Mayor Thacher, Senator Parker, Marshal Craven, Aldermen Thomas and Fleming, Police Commissioner Carroll, and Mr. Scott D. M. Goodwin. Next came the visiting Indians who were provided with chairs inside the altar railing, on the right of the church. The Jackson corps followed, under the command of Major Macfarlane, and numbered about fifty in all, presenting a fine appearance. They remained standing in the middle aisle, coming to a present arms upon the entrance of the sanctuary choir and the officiating clergy. As the latter marched up the aisle to their places on the altar, the sanctuary boys, led by Rev. Joseph Lanahan, sang a processional hymn of thanks- giving. The Jackson corps then took a position just
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outside the altar railing, and the solemn pontifical high mass selected for the occasion was begun.
Pontifical high mass was sung, Right Rev. Bishop Wadhams of Ogdensburg, acting as celebrant, with Very Rev. Father Ludden, administrator of the diocese, as assistant priest ; Rev. Father Burke, of St. Joseph's, and Father Duffy, of East Albany, as deacons of honor; Rev. Father Kennedy, of Syracuse, as deacon, Rev. Father Sherry, of Ogdensburg, as sub-deacon, and Rev. Fathers Sanderson and Dillon, of St. Mary's, as masters of ceremonies. Among the other clergy- men who assisted in the services were Fathers Walsh, Hanlon, Pidgeon and Byron, of the cathedral; Father Merns, of St. John's; Fathers Terry and Dolan, of St. Ann's; Father Cæsar Cucchiarini, of the Church of our Lady of Angels ; Father Toolan, of Sacred Heart church; Father Peyton, of West Albany; Father Sheehan, of West Troy ; Father McDermott, of Johns- town, and Father McDonald, of Waterville. The sermon was delivered by Father Walworth, who, in his usually effective and forcible manner, spoke from the following text :
EVENTFUL PERIODS IN THE HISTORY OF ST. MARY'S. . " Remember the days of old; consider all the genera- tions. Ask thy father and he will show thee, thy elders and they will tell thee."-Deut. xxxii ; 6.
MONSIGNOR, VERY REV. AND REV. FATHERS, GENTLE- MEN OF THE MAGISTRACY, THE COMMON COUNCIL AND COMMONALTY OF ALBANY, BELOVED BRETHREN OF THE LAITY-Two hundred and forty-four years ago was an eventful time in the history of Albany, and especially in the religious history of Albany. In that year two remarkable men clasped friendly hands just outside the gate of old Fort Orange. The one was clad in the usual costume of a gen-
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tleman of the period, the old-fashioned three-cornered cocked hat, the ample vest and cut-away coat, trunk hose and sil- ver-buckled shoes. The other wore a tattered cassock. His face was pale with signs of recent suffering. He had lost several fingers which had been bitten off from his hands in captivity. He was still a captive and carefully watched by his Indian tormentors. The first of these two men was the celebrated Dominie Megapolensis, the first minister of the Dutch Reformed church in Albany, who had just arrived from Holland. The other was that noble martyr of the Catholic church, Father Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit missionary whom the Indians had brought with then a captive from the bloody terrace of Ossernenon. There several of his compan- ions lay bathed in their blood, and amongst them a lovely Christian saint, first martyr of the mission, the young René Goupil. Would you like to see the spot where they suffered ? It lies in the angle formed by the junction of the Schoharie creek with the Mohawk river. You have only to take the cars on the West Shore railroad, stop at the station of Au- riesville, and mount the hill just behind it. The field was bought last year by the society of Jesus. A rude oratory stands there now, surmounted by a cross. I trust that be- fore long we shall see there a convent and a convent church.
At the time we speak of, the severed fingers of Father Jogues lay mingled with its dust. Four years later when he returned to the bloody field of his mission the savage Mo- hawks took his life also. His head, severed from the body, was mounted upon one of the palisades of the Indian fort or castle, and made to face northward towards Canada, from which he came. His body was thrown into the Mohawk and wafted on by the stream towards Albany. We shall never find it on earth, but I trust that many of us will see it again in the glory of heaven.
But let us return to the gate of Fort Orange and to the door of Dominie Megapolensis, where he and his Jesuit friend are clasping hands together and speaking together in the Latin tongue. Both were learned men, both were good men, and both were friendly one to the other.
These two clergymen, both Christians, but representing beliefs and worships widely differing, both grand forms in the history of Albany, came here the same year. The one fol- lowed trade hither, the other was brought in bonds. Neither
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staid here long ; the one retired soon to New York city, the other retired soon to eternity. But this is the moral to which I wish to bring your minds: When those two good men joined hands, there was no bigotry in that grasp. There was great variance in their faith. Each one held strong convictions which neither one would have consented to part with even to please the best friend on earth. As they dif- fered from each other in these convictions, both could not be in all things right. There may have existed prejudice in one mind or the other. But adherence to truth is not big- otry ; adherence to error is not bigotry ; prejudice is not bigotry. Bigotry is something more than a firm judgment or a false judgment. It is a dark, gloomy and evil passion in the heart, which can find no charity for those who differ with us, which can conceive of no good motive in those who op- pose us, which is always ready to believe a lie when applied to those who do not agree with us. When we see these two great and good men clasping hands together, so strongly dif- fering in religious convictions, but so full of mutual love and sympathy, it is both beautiful and sublime. Let us all lay it well to heart.
It is a pleasant thing to remember that, just forty-four years later, as if in return for the charity and hospitality given by Albany to this suffering Catholic captive, a Catholic King in England and a Catholic Governor of New York gave to Albany that happy parchment which made it a chartered city.
EARLY INDIAN MISSIONS ON THE MOHAWK.
The first French colony was established at Quebec in 1608. The city of Montreal was at first only a hospital founded in the wilderness by the Sœurs Hospitalières. Its stockade was building at the time when Father Jogues and his companions were captured near by and brought to the Mohawk valley, namely, in the year 1642. That same year, as I have already said, its first Dutch minister arrived in Albany from Holland.
Another Catholic missionary, Father Bressani, following in the footsteps of Father Jogues, was horribly tortured by the same Indians, and passed through Albany in 1644. Father Jogues returned with his mutilated fingers to the Mohawk in 1646, and was then and there martyred. Father Poncet, Father LeMoyne, Fathers Fremin, Bruyas and
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Pierron all passed through Albany on their way to and from the Indian castles on the Mohawk, a ground then already known as " The Mission of Martyrs." As early as 1667 a permanent chapel was established at Tionnontogen, now Spraker's Basin, and bore the name of St. Mary's. We find another existing at Caughnawaga, that is the sand flats near Fonda, called St. Peter's, as early at least as 1669, under the care of Father Boniface. Here, in 1676, the holy Indian maiden, Tegakwita, was baptized by Father James de Lam- berville. In that year and about the same time the famous Indian warrior Kryn, " Conqueror of the Mohegans," led large band of converts to the new Caughnawaga, already established at the great fall near Montreal. That Catholic colony exists there still-you see its representatives before you. This was an eventful period for the Catholic faith in the State of New York. Missions and mission chapels were erected among all the five nations of the Iroquois. Numerous conversions were made, and, alas, many martyrs suffered, both Frenchmen and Indian converts. This glorious period lasted from 1642 to 1684. The suppression of the missions was brought about, I grieve to say, not so much by the animosity of the savages against the faith as by the deadly spirit of covet- ous trade. Religion has no enemy more powerful or more cruel than the lust for money. The Holland Dutch of Albany and New York on the one side and the French of Canada on the other, struggled together to secure the trade in In- dian furs, and the work of the missionaries who sought to secure souls for God was crushed between the two. And I am, furthermore, sorry to say that a Catholic Governor of New York and a Catholic Governor in Canada were the principal agents in this unholy work of destruction. There are Catholics in our day, greedy tradesmen, or ambitious politicians, equally unworthy of the name they bear, engaged in work as unholy, and as mischievous to their religion. They might learn a lesson by studying that weakly christian- ity which flickered in the souls of Dongan and DeNonville.
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