USA > New York > Encyclopedia of biography of New York, a life record of men and women whose sterling character and energy and industry have made them preeminent in their own and many other states, Vol. 3 > Part 32
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Among these, he specified the reappor- tionment of the legislative districts, the government of cities, the relief of the court of appeals, the suffrage, education, and the regulation of legislative and court procedure. His ideas concerning these all found expression in the Con- stitution, which was ratified at the polls by a majority of nearly 100,000 .*
*A striking specimen of his subtle wit Is still fresh in the minds of surviving members of the convention. Toward the end of the session, with business pressing, the president was desirous of restricting discussion as much as possible. A resolution being before the convention, the pres- ident stated that it was not likely to precipitate debate and directed the secretary to call the roll for a vote. That officer had not called more than two or three names when the courteous and dis- tinguished leader of the minority, the Hon. John M. Bowers, arose and said: "Mr. President, I would like to say something on the question." The president either unconsciously, or purposely, it would be difficult to say, paid no attention and still directed the secretary to proceed with the call; whereupon Mr. Bowers, with considerable excitement of manner and waving of hands ex- claimed, "No, Mr. President, I want to debate the resolution; we all want to debate it." "That Is precisely the same thing," the president quickly replied, and the call proceeded amid the laughter of the convention, in which Mr. Bowers himself cheerfully joined.
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In January, 1899, President Mckinley nominated and the Senate promptly con- firmed him as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. Retained by President Roose- velt, his embassy included six years (1899-1905). In the long and brilliant line of scholars, orators and statesmen, who have honored the nation in this lofty station, none has been more acceptable to his own country or persona grata, more pleasing to that to which he was accredited than Joseph Hodges Choate. In the amicable relations between the two peoples, never more pronounced than during his tenure, there were some deli- cate and difficult issues to determine ; in- cluding especially the Alaska boundary, the Panama canal question, and the main- tenance of the Open Door in China. He performed the regular duties of his office with dignity, fidelity and dispatch, the embassy was the home of visiting Amer- icans and the rights and needs of his countrymen were attended to scrupu- lously. Entertaining elegantly, but not ostentatiously, he was a welcome guest in all circles of rank and refinement, but it was abroad, as at home, that his speech conquered. Invitations to speak were showered upon him for literary and civic occasions, and to these he responded cheerfully and freely, never forgetting that he was an American, but never offen- sively obtruding his nationality, as too many of our diplomats have been wont to do. The esteem in which he was held is clearly shown in the university degrees bestowed upon him and the exclusive associations to which he was invited. Both on the social and official sides his mission was eminently successful, link- ing more closely the ties that unite the great communities of the Anglo-Saxon race.
A fitting honor paid Mr. Choate was his appointment as head of the American
delegates selected by President Roose- velt in 1907 to represent the United States at the second Peace Conference to meet at the Hague, June 15, 1907. The delegates received their instructions from Secretary of State Elihu Root under date of May 31, 1907, in these instructions out- lining the wishes and desires of this gov- ernment. The service rendered by Mr. Choate as plenipotentiary ambassador, representing the United States, was weighty and exceedingly valuable; his addresses and arguments on compulsory arbitration, on an International Court of Appeal, and on the Immunity of Private Property at Sea, especially being worthy of preservation in government archives. Had the American project been adopted the history of the European conflict now raging would perhaps never need to be written.
Forty-six States were invited to partici- pate in the labors of the Hague Confer- ence and but two failed to send repre- sentatives, Costa Rica and Ethiopia. In the official instructions to the delegates the United States government said, "You will urge upon the Peace Conference the formulation of international rules of war at sea," adding, "No rules should be adopted for the purpose of mitigating the evils of war to belligerents which will tend strongly to destroy the rights of neutrals, and no rules should be adopted regarding the rights of neutrals which will tend strongly to bring about war." "Special consideration should be given an agreement upon what shall be deemed to constitute contraband of war." On the question of arbitration the United States delegates were instructed by Sec- retary Root to secure a general treaty along the lines of the treaties negotiated by John Hay when Secretary of State and "to secure such a treaty you should use your best and most earnest efforts."
The program for the work of the con-
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ference was so elaborate that a division of the conference into four commissions was advisable. Mr. Choate was desig- nated with Horace Porter honorary presi- dents of the second and third commis- sions. Mr. Choate, on June 28, 1907, ad- dressed the conference on the American proposition, "The Immunity from Cap- ture of Private Unoffending Property of the Enemy upon the High Seas."
In the language of the learned reporter, M. Henri Fromageot, Mr. Choate's argu- ment was "sustained with an eloquence and a dialectical force difficult to sur- pass." But the doctrine proved unaccept- able to the larger maritime nations. On July 18 he again addressed the confer- ence on the American proposition, inter- national arbitration, presenting most elo- quently and powerfully the proposition for a general agreement of arbitration among the nations. After ten weeks of discussion in the committee of Examina- tion A, the Anglo-American draft of a general treaty of arbitration was pre- sented to the first commission and was there debated with great warmth of feel- ing. On October 5 Mr. Choate again argued in favor of International Arbitra- tion and the adoption of the Anglo- American draft of a general treaty. On October 10 he argued at length against the Austro-Hungarian resolution which virtually meant postponement of the Anglo-American proposition of compul- sory arbitration which had secured a vote of thirty-two in its favor to nine against ; the opponents of the measure insisting upon the unanimity rule of international assemblies, and the opposition of Ger- many to a general treaty of arbitration finally proving fatal to the Anglo-Amer- ican project, the result of weeks of labor and discussion. Its partisans, however, secured the adoption of a resolution ad- mitting the principle of compulsory arbi-
tration and declaring in favor of so set- tling "certain disputes." Mr. Choate voted against the resolution which seemed a retreat from the advanced posi- tion the commission had taken in its votes and on October II, addressed the commission in a brief statement in be- half of the American delegation. At the closing session of the First Commission, October II, 1907, Mr. Choate on behalf of the American delegation delivered an eloquent tribute to M. Bourgeois, presi- dent of the First Commission to which the question of arbitration had been as- signed. In closing he said: "During these four months, Mr. President, we have lived happily under your benign dominion, we have worked hard, and have earned the bread of the conference by the sweat of our brows, and there have been moments of trial and suffering, but in separating, we look back with satisfac- tion upon our labors, thanks greatly to your beneficent and harmonizing spirit."
Other addresses made by Mr. Choate at the conference were on the establishment of an International Court of Justice (July 11) and on the American project for a Permanent Court of Arbitral Justice (Au- gust 1).
Those four months spent in delibera- tion with chosen minds of all nations constitute a record that is not only a source of satisfaction to Mr. Choate and the entire American delegation, but one in which the American nation takes great pride.
Dr. Choate's residence for nine months in the year is at No. 8 East Sixty-third street, New York. The other three months he sets apart for comparative re- laxation and repose at Stockbridge in the Berkshire hills, where he dispenses a gracious hospitality. He married, Oc- tober 16, 1861, Caroline Dutcher, dangh- ter of Frederick A. Sterling, of Cleve-
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land, Ohio, and sister of President Theo- dore Sterling, late president of Kenyon College. Mrs. Choate, and two sons, George and Joseph Hodges, Jr., and one daughter are living.
HAVEMEYER, John Craig, Man of Affairs, Philanthropist, Author.
This tribute of respect is dedicated to a man who has lived long and has lived well. The story of his life is full of les- sons, full of interest, full of inspiration. It covers a period when a great number of social, civic and religious reforms were effected with which he was identified. Now, an octogenarian, Mr. Havemeyer has stood through this long number of years for the highest ideals of citizenship, his voice has always been raised and his influence unswervingly cast on the side of right and righteous living, whether a business man, citizen, philanthropist or Christian, he has consistently sought to embody in his life the principle of Him who said : "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister."
The Havemeyers came from the Ger- man middle class, removed alike from noble and serf, which preserved through out the darkness of the Middle Ages the learning, energy and independence of character which made Northern and Cen- tral Germany receptive to Luther and the Reformation. Bueckeburg, in the prin- cipality of Schaumburg-Lippe, was the home city of the Havemeyers and there Hermann Hoevemeyer (as sometimes spelled) with nineteen others formed a Baker's Guild in 1644. Dietrich William Hoevemeyer, born 1725, was a master baker, a member of the Common Council of the City of Bueckeburg and served in the Seventy Years' War.
The first of the family to come to America was William Havemeyer, grand- father of John Craig Havemeyer. Or-
phaned at an early age, he had gone to England at fifteen, and in London learned sugar refining, eventually becom- ing superintendent of a refinery. He came to New York under contract with Edmund Seaman & Company to take charge of their sugar house in Pine street, bringing with him a bill of exchange for sixty pounds sterling, dated London, March 12, 1799, drawn on James J. Roose- velt, merchant, New York. He com- pleted the terms of his contract in 1807, then at once began business for himself, establishing one of the first sugar refin- eries in New York City, its location be- tween Hudson and Greenwich streets, on Vandam street. He became a naturalized citizen in 1807 and at his death, August 13, 1851, aged eighty-one years, he left a comfortable estate to his four children : Anna, Amelia, Albert and William Fred- erick.
William Frederick Havemeyer, father of John Craig Havemeyer, was born at No. 31 Pine street, New York City, Feb- ruary 12, 1804, died during his third term as mayor of New York, while in per- formance of his official duties at the City Hall, November 30, 1874. After prepara- tion in private schools he entered Colum- bia College, whence he was graduated, class of 1823, having particularly distin- guished himself in mathematics. He ob- tained a thorough business training as clerk in his father's sugar refinery, and in 1823 formed a partnership with his cousin, Frederick Christian Havemeyer, under the firm name of W. F. & F. C. Havemeyer, sugar refiners. In 1842, after fourteen years in successful business, he sold his interests in the firm to his brother, Albert Havemeyer, and retired with a competency honorably earned.
His prominent connection with public affairs began in 1844 and continued until his death thirty years later. He was a Democrat, and an enthusiastic supporter
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of Andrew Jackson during the years "Old Hickory" was so potent a power in the land. In 1844 he was chosen to repre- sent his ward in the Tammany Hall Con- vention. At the succeeding State Demo- cratic Convention held at Syracuse, Sep- tember 4, 1844, he was nominated presi- dential elector, and in the Electoral Col- lege cast the vote of New York State for James K. Polk, of Tennessee, for Presi- dent and George M. Dallas, of Pennsyl- vania, for Vice-President.
He became a member of the general committee of Tammany Hall and dis- played so marked a business ability that he was chosen chairman of the finance committee. He became very influential in the party, but was too independent in his actions to please the politicians who, to forestall his appointment by President Polk as collector of the port of New York, offered him the nomination for the mayor- alty. This was in the day when national party power was of greater importance to Tammany Hall than city control ; the ad- ministration of the city with its then but four hundred thousand population being comparatively simple. The Department of Charities and Correction was governed by a single officer; the police were ap- pointed, controlled and dismissed by the mayor ; "Jobs" were unknown and "rings" had not yet been invented. The office of mayor, however, was something more than a civic honor.
Mr. Havemeyer was elected mayor by a large majority in April, 1845, and at once directed his special attention to police affairs, the Common Council pass- ing at his instance an ordinance provid- ing for a municipal police force. Under its terms he nominated George W. Mat- sell for Chief of Police and he was con- firmed, great reforms were introduced in city government, one of the most impor- tant relating to immigration. Upon his advice the Legislature passed an act cre-
ating the board of "Commissioners of Emigration," there having been no offi- cial supervision of immigration by State or City prior to that board. Mayor Havemeyer was appointed the first presi- dent of the board and remained its head after his term as mayor expired. The Ward's Island institution for emigrants was established by Mr. Havemeyer and his associates. At the expiration of his first term he was reelected, untiring energy, ability and devotion characteriz- ing both administrations. He declined a third term and for several years retired from active participation in politics. In 1857, when the metropolitan police com- missioner and the mayor, Fernando Wood, were struggling for control of the police force, Mr. Havemeyer came out of retire- ment and aided Chief Matsell. In 1859 he was a candidate for mayor in a tri- angular contest and was defeated.
From 1851 until 1861 he was president of the Bank of North America, and from 1857 until 1861 he was president of the New York Savings Bank, taking the office at a time of great peril to the bank and leaving it upon a secure foundation. For several years he was vice-president of the Long Island Railroad Company and held similar relation to the Pennsylvania Coal Company.
During the Civil War he was an un- wavering and earnest supporter of the government at Washington. He presided over one of the four great meetings held simultaneously in Union Square, April 21, 1861, to give expression to the patri- otic sentiments of the people of New York. In July, 1866, he was selected in conjunction with Thurlow Weed as arbi- trator of a long dispute between the Board of Public Charities and the Board of Commissioners of Emigration involv- ing an amount in excess of $100,000. Their report was satisfactory to both parties and the controversy ended. Twelve years
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were passed in quiet before Mr. Have- meyer again entered the public arena, to lead the fight against the Tweed Ring. Tammany Hall, under the control of Wil- liam M. Tweed, had become an organiza- tion of banditti, with the city treasury and the city's credit at its mercy. Many mil- lions of dollars were stolen and divided between Tweed and his confederates, their methods of plundering so ingenious and so well marked under a pretence of legitimate public expenditures, that even eminent financiers were deceived as to the real condition of affairs. So greatly were they deceived that they signed a certificate exonerating the "Ring," while the rank and file of Tammany Hall ac- claimed the leaders, who scattered with a free hand a share of the stolen funds among their followers.
Mr. Havemeyer, however, was one of the men who were not deceived, and in the spring of 1870 united with other patriotic citizens in organizing the New York City Council of Reform, whose ob- ject was to rescue the city from its plun- derers and bring the guilty to the bar of justice. Mr. Havemeyer was its first president, and presided at the first great meeting of citizens held at Cooper Insti- tute, April 6, 1871, and the still more im- portant meeting held at the same place, September 4, 1871, which created the Committee of Seventy, of which Mr. Havemeyer was for two months vice- president and afterwards president.
The story of the final overthrow of the corrupt "Ring" is a familiar one. After Mr. Havemeyer and Samuel J. Tilden gained access to the Broadway Bank in which the members of the "Ring" kept their accounts and obtained the legal proof of the enormous thefts, criminal prosecution completely broke the power of the "Ring" whose members fled, died, or gave themselves up to the law.
The mayoralty campaign of 1872 saw
Tammany Hall with a very respectable candidate, the Apollo Hall Democracy with another, but neither candidate had the endorsement of the Committee of Seventy which just then was a power in politics. The Republican party saw their opportunity and nominated William F. Havemeyer, whose record as a war Dem- ocrat was satisfactory to the Republicans and whose services in behalf of reform rendered him acceptable to the Commit- tee of Seventy. He was elected and for a third time occupied the highest execu- tive office of the city. His third term was a stormy one, being a series of contests with the Board of Aldermen. Party leaders and private cliques were anxious to dictate or control appointments. The discomfited but not annihilated followers of Tweed were on the alert to discredit him. An indiscreet word or act, an un- acceptable nomination, anything in short which either was or could be construed into a mistake was certain to be seized upon by vigilant antagonists and by selfish interests to which he refused to be subservient. But he "fought the good fight," and "kept the faith," breaking down under the strain, however, and dying at his desk in the City Hall.
A New York morning journal none too friendly to him said: "He was a Mayor whose honesty of purpose had never been impugned," and that the real fruit of the Reform party "is to be seen in the puri- fied Democratic party which has just now, two years after the election of Mr. Havemeyer, carried New York by a ma- jority almost unexampled."
An impartial religious journal said : "He had been called in a trying time to fill a difficult position. More was ex- pected of him than he could perhaps ac- complish. Unfortunately for him he was controlled by a partiality for old friends with which the city had neither sympathy or patience. He knew the men with
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whom he had associated in years long gone by better than the men of to-day, and with the tenacity of a strong nature clung to them."
Mayor Havemeyer was for years a member of the board of trustees of Cen- tral Methodist Episcopal Church, was deeply interested in its property, gave liberally to its current expenses, to its benevolences and was a regular attend- ant on the public Sunday services.
Mayor Havemeyer married Sarah Agnes Craig, of Scotch ancestry. Her grandfather, James Craig, came from Paisley, Scotland, and settled at Bloom- ing Grove, Orange county, New York, and was the founder of the manufactur- ing village of Craigville, formerly known as Cromeline on Grey Court Creek, a powder mill said to have been located there during the Revolution. In 1790 James Craig erected a paper mill, the first in Orange county. His wife was the daughter of Captain Hector McNeil, who commanded the United States ship "Bos- ton" in 1777 and was third of the twenty- four naval captains appointed by Con- gress, October 10, 1776.
Their son, Hector Craig, was born in Scotland, coming to this country with his parents. In 1816 he was one of the in- corporators and secretary of the Bloom- ing Grove and New Windsor Turnpike and in 1818 also secretary of the Orange County Agricultural Society. In 1823- 25 he was a Congressman, again elected in 1829, but resigned before his term ex- pired to accept appointment by President Jackson in 1830 to the post of collector of the port of New York. He was re- moved from that office by President Van Buren for political reasons. In 1832 he was commissioner of insolvency for the Southern District of New York. He mar- ried a daughter of John Chandler, of Blooming Grove, a large land owner,
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storekeeper and miller, also trading with the West Indies, a man of importance in Orange county. Their daughter, Sarah Agnes Craig, was a country bred girl, a fine horsewoman in her younger days. She was educated in the famous Emma Willard School at Troy, New York. Her marriage to William F. Havemeyer was a very happy one, and in her affection, practical intelligence and earnest coöper- ation her husband found much of inspi- ration that led him onward in a notable business and official career. Mrs. Have- meyer was the mother of ten children, her heart was centered in her home, and her husband and children were her joy and pride. She was very charitable, had deep religious convictions, was earnest and sincere, her example and teaching potent in moulding the lives and charac- ters of her children. She lived to the age of eighty-seven and between her and her third child, John C., there existed the most intimate fellowship. The family home was located in what is now a far down town section on Vandam street, adjoin- ing the sugar house, and there John Craig Havemeyer was born.
John Craig Havemeyer was born May 31, 1833, son of William Frederick and Sarah Agnes (Craig) Havemeyer. Until his eleventh year he attended various pri- vate schools, Miss Durant's, Greenwich and Charlton streets, Miss Houghton's, Vandam near Varick street, and Mr. Mar- tin's in Dominick street. At the age of eleven he was sent to the boarding school of Rev. Robert W. Harris, White Plains, New York. From a diary neatly kept during this period it is found that the studies he pursued were Latin, Greek, mathematics, French, geography, history and spelling and that the religious ele- ment was prominent in the training he there received. He remained at White Plains about two years, then entered the
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grammar school of Columbia College, there gaining special commendation for excellence in English. He was unusually facile in expressing himself in good Eng- lish while quite young and when but fourteen one of his youthful essays, "The Seasons," was admitted into the public print. During portions of 1848-49 he was a student at New York University, but ill health and particularly poor eyesight compelled him to withdraw from college. He, however, continued his studies in pri- vate and became a member of two debat- ing societies, the Philosophian Society, of which he was chosen president in 1850, and the Addisonian, which he was instru- mental in organizing in January, 1851. The debates in these societies in which the boy took active part were of great aid to him in cultivating that fluency, clarity and directness of expression for which he has always been noted. The abandonment of his college course was a severe blow to him and brought him much sadness and disappointment. For a time he did nothing, then attempted to secure a position but the fact that his father was mayor created a peculiar diffi- culty. He became discouraged and re- solved to "run away," and go by vessel to California, but his father learned of his plans and busied himself in the boy's behalf, finally securing him a position with his uncle in a grocery store on Ful- ton street, where he received fifty dollars for his first year's work.
The following pledge solemnly taken and kept with an extract from his diary reveals his moral and religious sentiment, deliberate judgment and will power, even in youth: "I, the undersigned, do hereby solemnly promise and declare that I will, as far as in me lies, totally abstain from the use of tobacco, snuff or segars, and in addition thereto do sol- emnly affirm that I will refrain partaking in large or small quantities of intoxicat-
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