USA > New York > New York City > History of New York City : embracing an outline sketch of events from 1609 to 1830, and a full account of its development from 1830 to 1884, Volume I > Part 22
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The operations of the American Tract Society are now immense in volume and far-reaching and salutary in their influence. The whole number of distinct publications issued by the society in 1882 were 6574, of which 1448 were bound volumes, the remainder paper-covered books, tracts, leaflets, cards, and handbills. The whole number issued at for- eign stations, approved by the society's Publication Committee, was 4321, of which 686 were bound volumes. These various publications may be classed under the heads of expository, Christian evidences, biography, narratives for young people, narratives for children, stories for young children, awakening and conversion, consolation, and Chris- tian edification. The books and tracts are printed in the English, German, French, and Spanish languages.
The American Tract Society possesses a spacious brick building, five stories in height, on the corner of Nassau and Spruce streets, New York. When the society was formed Spruce Street was a narrow lane. On the site of the Tract House was a miserable old wooden tavern, and opposite it, on the site of the New York Times building, was a one-story wooden lecture-room belonging to the Brick Church on Beekman Street. This was replaced by a neat brick edifice a few years afterward. The Tract Society and the New York Observer were the pioneers of the printing establishments which have since given the open space in that neighborhood the name of Printing-House Square. The society is governed by a board of directors, elected annually."
One of the latest and best organizations in the city of New York for promoting the spiritual and temporal welfare of the people of the city, especially of the poor, is that of the NEW YORK CITY MISSION AND TRACT SOCIETY, organized in 1827.
The germ of this institution was planted (as is frequently the case)
* The officers for 1882-83 are : Hon. William Strong, LL.D., of Philadelphia, president; Rt. Rev. Benjamin B. Smith, D.D., LL.D., of New York City, vice-president, with fifty- one honorary vice-presidents ; Rev. J. M. Stevenson, D.D., corresponding secretary, with colportage ; Rev. William W. Rand, publishing secretary ; Rev. G. L. Shearer, financial secretary ; Samuel E. Warner, assistant secretary ; Rev. Thomas Armitage, D.D., record- ing secretary ; O. R. Kingsbury, treasurer.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
by a woman. A woman's mind conceived its plan, and a woman's hand began the good work. Dr. Adam Clarke said, in substance : " In all benevolent works one woman is equal to seven men and a half."
The incipient step in the formation of this society was taken by the noble wife of Divie Bethune, the daughter of the sainted Isabella Graham, in the year 1822. The organization was completed by the adoption of a constitution and the appointment of officers, at a public meeting held at the Brick Church chapel, on the site of the New York Times building, March 25, 1822. This, it is believed, was the first step in organized woman's work in city missions, and in the work of dis- tributing religious tracts.
This association of women went on quietly and unostentatiously, doing a vast amount of good labor, and working with the American Tract Society until 1827, when men, perceiving their good deeds and appreciating their influence, resolved to form a City Tract Society on the same plan. Accordingly, the following notice appeared in the Commercial Advertiser, of which the good Francis Hall was proprietor, on the 19th of February, 1827 :
" A public meeting will be held at the City Hotel this evening. at 72 o'clock, for the purpose of forming a New York City Tract Society, for the supply of our seamen, our humane and criminal institutions, and for other local tract operations in this city. Several addresses will be delivered. A general attendance of all who are friendly to the object is requested."
A large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen convened on the specified evening. The venerable Colonel Richard Varick," the president of the American Bible Society, and then seventy-five years of age, presided, and the Rev. W. A. Hallock was chosen secretary. The meeting was addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Somers and Monteith, and by the Rev.
* Richard Varick was born in Hackensack, N. J., in March, 1753, and died in Jersey City, N. J., in July, 1831. He was a lawyer practising in New York City when the old war for independence began. He entered the military service as captain in Macdougall's regiment, joined the Northern army under General Schuyler, and became that officer's secretary. He was afterward deputy muster-master-general, with the rank of lieutenant- colonel. After the capture of Burgoyne, Varick was acting inspector-general at West Point, where he remained until after the treason of Arnold, when he became a member of General Washington's military family, and was his recording secretary until near the close of the war. After the British evacuated the city of New York, in 1783, Colonel Varick was appointed recorder. He assisted in the revision of the State laws. He was Speaker of the Assembly in 1787. In 1789 he was appointed attorney-general of the State, and subsequently mayor of New York. Colonel Varick was one of the founders of the American Bible Society, and succeeded John Jay as its president.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
Drs. Milnor, Knox, Spring, Brodhead, and Macaulay. The participants were persons of various religious denominations. A constitution was read, adopted, and numerously signed by ministers and laymen.
The officers of the society chosen for the first year were : Zachariah Lewis, president ; the Revs. John Stanford, Cave Jones, and Henry Chase, Drs. John Neilson and John Stearns, and Messrs. Thomas Stokes, Gerard Beekman, and Arthur Tappan, vice-presidents ; Gerard Halleck, corresponding secretary ; Oliver E. Cobb, recording secre- tary, and Ralph Beekman, treasurer. Seventy directors were chosen. Among them appeared many names whose bearers have been conspicu- ous in every good work in the city until our day.
Perceiving, from actual observation, the pressing need of woman's influence and woman's work in their operations, the society founded by Mrs. Bethune was made an " annex" of the society just formed. In- stead of the two sexes laboring together-instead of joining forces as one family on an equal footing as to duties and privileges-the women's society was permitted to take the rank only of an " auxiliary" of the men's society ; and to this day it is called the Woman's Branch of the New York City Mission and Tract Society, with a separate organiza- tion, in which only women are officers and honorary members, mission- aries, and nurses. They make separate reports, but claim the right, and exercise it, of dating their " branch" from 1822, five years before the men's society existed.
The main society, at its first organization, appointed a woman agent. She seems to have been very efficient, for at the end of her first month's labor she reported visits to ninety families, and calls upon sev- eral clergymen in reference to forming auxiliary tract societies in the several churches.
During the first year the New York City Mission and Tract Society, through the agency of its committees and volunteer visitors, distributed 2,368,548 pages, or 592,137 tracts of four pages each. At the end of six or seven years, so useful and so extended became the work that it was deemed advisable to engage men as missionaries who should devote their whole time to Christian efforts among the poor and neglected. Mainly through the liberality of two or three persons, the society was enabled, in 1833, to begin this its best missionary work. Within two years the number of these missionaries was increased to fourteen. For thirty years these " tract missionaries, " as they were called, carried on their evangelizing work with great success, having distributed during that time an aggregate of 30,000,000 tracts, been instrumental in effecting 7000 conversions, and spending 8400,000. They had brought
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
thousands of men, women, and children into churches and Sabbath- schools, and planted many a fruitful seed by the agency of prayer- meetings in neglected neighborhoods.
In 1864 the society was reorganized. A secretary was appointed, with enlarged duties and powers, and a room in the Bible House was rented. Then it began the publication of reports and papers on the methods and results of city evangelization. At the annual meeting that year the name of the institution was changed to that of the New York City Mission and Tract Society, which it now bears, and in 1866 it was incorporated by the Legislature of New York. The same year a superintendent of missions was appointed for the organization of inis- sion chapels and services. The first of these chapels was established in 1867, and known as Olivet Chapel. It is between First and Second streets and First and Second avenues. Other chapels and services were soon organized, and the good work (the amount of which is incalcula- ble) has gone on with ever-increasing power and beneficence.
According to the annual report of the society for 1882 there were 5 mission churches and chapels: 47 missionaries employed ; 5 mission Sabbath-schools, with 2500 children taught during the year ; aggregate attendance upon religious services during the year, 250,000 ; 2245 families and S980 individuals aided, and $4422 cash distributed ; 2391 Bibles and Testaments given away, and 10,039 volumes loaned and given ; 2646 children led to Sabbath-schools and 306 to day-schools : 13,939 persons persuaded to attend churches and missions ; 998 temper- ance pledges signed, and 750,000 tracts distributed. It now employs 18 missionaries.
During the fifty-six years of its existence the society has distributed about 53,000,000 tracts, made 2,600,000 missionary visits, supplied to the destitute 92,357 Bibles and Testaments, loaned and given about 189,000 books, gathered into Sabbath-schools 119,309 children, and into day-schools 24,096 ; induced 276,118 persons to attend divine ser- vices, obtained 59,342 temperance pledges, and expended $1,331,483. In addition to this sum more than 8200,000 have been raised for build- ing chapels and churches in the city. In 1870 the mission converts were organized in bands of Christian brotherhoods, and the Christian ordinances were administered in the mission chapels. These are undenominational.
The Woman's Branch of the New York City Mission and Tract Society resolved in 1863 that henceforth their work should be directed to raising the money for the support of the missionary women. It was reorganized in 1875. The board of managers constituted five of their
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
number an executive committee, to give special attention to business details. A superintendent was appointed to give instruction and direc- tions to missionary women, write up a history of their work, and make appeals to the benevolent women of the city. According to the six- teenth annual report (for 1882) the benevolent work of the Woman's Branch has been widely extended in its scope and usefulness. The Branch is separate from the City Mission Society in organization and support. It holds intimate relations with the Association for Improv- ing the Condition of the Poor. It employs eight female missionary nurses who have been trained in hospitals, and thirty-three missionary women. It has sewing schools and sewing meetings for the poor ; promotes the cause of temperance among children of intemperate parents by Bands of Hope : has a pleasant Christian Workers' Home for the missionaries, which embraces, in the family, twenty-two mis- sionaries and nurses. It distributed in 1SS2 64,000 tracts and about 1100 Bibles, took about 800 children to Sabbath-schools, made 25,000 missionary visits, gave away over 3000 garments, gave for the relief of the sick and destitute $3325, and furnished the services of nurses to 2700 patients .*
* The officers of the City Mission and Tract Society for 1883 are : Morris K. Jesup, president ; John Taylor Johnston, vice-president, and Lewis E. Jackson, recording sec- retary and treasurer. There are forty-eight directors.
The officers of the Woman's Branch are : Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, first directress ; Mrs. Horace Holden, second directress ; Miss Mary N. Wright, treasurer ; Mrs. R. M. Field, secretary, and Mrs. A. R. Brown, superintendent. There are thirty-two active managers, representing fourteen churches, all Presbyterian or Reformed.
CHAPTER X.
O NE of the most important associations in a commercial city is an organization of judicious men having a special oversight of every- thing pertaining to its trade, ever watchful of all its industrial interests, vigilant in the detection of legislation inimical to those interests, and wise in its suggestions regarding enactments which touch, for good or evil, the springs of prosperity of the country.
Among these organizations the NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE iS the oldest and most influential of its kind in the United States. It was constituted in 1768 by twenty leading merchants in that city, some of whom afterward appeared conspicuous in public affairs, especially dur- ing the war for independence, which broke out soon afterward. Some of them were on one side and some on the other, in the discussion of the vital political questions of the day.
These merchants associated for the avowed purpose " of promoting and extending all just and lawful commerce, and for affording relief to decayed members, their widows and children." The association received a charter from Lieutenant-Governor Colden, dated March 13. 1770, giving it the name of " The Corporation of the Chamber of Commerce in the City of New York." The privileges of this royal charter were confirmed by the State government of New York in 1784.
That association was organized in troublous times. The industries of the English-American colonies were in a depressed state. Unwise and unjust navigation and revenue laws, and persistent resistance to the operation of these laws, had deranged commerce, and uncertainty had paralyzed business of every kind. The great quarrel between Great Britain and her American colonies, which speedily led to a dismember- ment of the empire, was then waxing hot. Non-importation agree- ments and ministerial menaces had created a feverish state of mind on both sides of the Atlantic. It was at this juncture that these twenty merchants met and formed the venerable association which exists in full vigor and abounding usefulness to-day. It resolved, at the outset of its career, on motion of Mr. Verplanck, that none but merchants should be members of that body. At that period the merchants con-
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
trolled the politics of New York. A majority of the Provincial Assembly were merchants.
Although Massachusetts had just issued its famous circular letter to its sister colonies, asking them to unite in resisting the oppressive measures of Parliament ; although New York City was in a blaze of excitement, and the Sons of Liberty were stoutly defending their lib- erty-pole against the ruthless hands of insolent British soldiers-force against force-and civil war seemed imminent, these twenty merchants. calm and dignified in the midst of the storm, made only the following minute of their proceedings at the momentous meeting on April 5, 1768 :
" Whereas, Mercantile societies have been found very useful in trad- ing cities, for promoting and encouraging commerce, supporting indus- try, adjusting disputes relative to trade and navigation, and procuring such laws and regulations as may be found necessary for the benefit of trade in general :
"For which purpose, and to establish such a society in the city of New York, the following persons convened on the first Tuesday in, and being the 5th day of, April, 1768 :
" John Cruger, Thomas White,
Elias Desbrosses,
Miles Sherbrooke,
James Jauncey,
Walter Franklin,
Jacob Walton,
Robert Ross Waddel,
Robert Murray,
Acheron Thompson,
Ilugh Wallace,
Lawrence Kortright,
George Folliot,
Thomas Randall,
William Walton,
William MeAdam,
Samuel Ver Planck, Isaac Low, Theophylact Bache, Anthony Van Dam,
who agreed that the said society of merchants should consist of
" A president, vice-president. treasurer, and secretary, and such a number of merchants as already are, or hereafter may become, mem- bers thereof, to be called and known by the name of THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
" The members present unanimously chose the following gentlemen their officers for the year, to commence on the first Tuesday in May next :
" John Cruger, president : Elias Desbrosses, treasurer :
Hugh Wallace, vice-president ; Anthony Van Dam, secretary.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
" The following gentlemen, who are of the society, not being pres- ent, assented to the same :
" John Alsop, Henry White, James McEvers."
Philip Livingston,
John Cruger, the first president of the Chamber of Commerce, was mayor of the city at the time of its organization, and was speaker of the Colonial Assembly from 1769 to 1775. During the perilous times preceding the outbreak of the Revolution his influence was powerfully exerted in maintaining order among the citizens. An active member of the Stamp Act Congress which met in New York in 1763, he was chosen to prepare the famous Declaration of Rights which was put forth by that body. Mr. Cruger left the city before it was occupied by the British in 1776.
The brothers Walton, Jacob and William, were among the most eminent and opulent merchants of New York in the middle of the last century. Jacob died in 1769. William, who was a son-in-law of De Lancey, built the beautiful mansion in Pearl Street, New York, opposite the (present) publishing establishment of Harper & Brothers, and known as the Walton Hlouse. It disappeared a few years ago, before the march of commercial business. It was, when built, the most elegant mansion on the continent.
Robert. Murray and Walter Franklin represented the Quaker element in the commercial features of New York at that time. Murray had a country-seat on the Incleberg (now known as Murray Hill, in the city), and it was at that mansion where Mrs. Murray detained the British officers, by good cheer and fascinating conversation, while General Putnam, with a detachment of the Continental army, flying from the menaced city of New York, made good his retreat to the main army, encamped on Harlem Heights.
The Chamber of Commerce maintained its organization and held meetings pretty regularly during the later portion of the stirring period of the Revolution. Its sessions ended in May, 1775, but on the 21st of June, 1779, such of its members (mostly Tories) who remained in the city met in the Merchants' Coffee-House, corner of Wall and Water streets, and with the consent of the British commandant renewed the sessions of the Chamber. Its operations were chiefly directed to aiding the military governor in municipal affairs, such as regulating the prices of provisions, the rates for carmen's services, and also for the encourage- ment of privateering, by assistance in recruiting for that service under the proclamations of the British admirals.
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
In 1770 Mr. Cruger retired from the presidency. ITis successors in the office until the return of peace were Hugh Wallace, Elias Des- brosses. Henry White, Theophylact Bache, William Walton, and Isaac Low. The act of reincorporation passed the Legislature of New York on April 13, 1784. The corporators named were Samuel Broome. Jeremiah Platt, John Broome, Benjamin Ledyard, Thomas Randall, Robert Bowne, Daniel Phoenix, Jacob Morris, Eliphalet Brush, James Jarvis, John Blagge, Viner Van Zandt, Stephen Sayre, Jacobus Van Zandt, Nathaniel Hazard, Abraham P. Lott, Abraham Durvee, William Malcolm, John Alsop, Isaac Sears, James Beekman, Abraham Lott, Comfort Sands, Joseph Blackwell, Joshua Sands, Lawrence Embree, George Embree, Gerardus Duyckinck, Jr., Cornelius Ray, Anthony Griffiths, Thomas Tucker, John Berrian, Isaac Roosevelt, John Frank- lin, John H. Kip, Henry HI. Kip, Archibald Currie, David Currie, and Jonathan Lawrence.
The descendants of most of these men who revived the Chamber of Commerce after peace was established, and were the active coadjutors of the first president of the reincorporated institution (John Alsop *), are recognized among the leading architects of the commercial greatness of New York City, which developed so wonderfully after the completion of the Erie Canal. They have ranked among the most enterprising, honorable, and prosperous merchants, and by their business probity and high personal character as citizens have contributed largely to the elements which constitute the good name of the metropolis.
From May, 1775, until June, 1779, the Chamber of Commerce, as we have observed, did not hold a meeting. From the time the British took possession of the city in 1776 until they evacuated it, many of the members, of English descent, co-operated with the British authorities. naval and military. From its recharter in 1784 it has been an active body in New York, having cognizance of most of the subjects of a commercial nature which have been before the community.
The Chamber of Commerce proposed the union of the Great Lakes with the Hudson River so early as 1786-the suggestion of the Erie . Canal. Of the entire canal policy of the State, especially that of De Witt Clinton and his coadjutors, from 1811 until the completion of the
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* John Alsop was an opulent merchant and a most earnest patriot. He was a native of Middletown, Conn .. to which place he retired when the British took possession of New York in 1776. Alsop was a man of great intellectual strength. He was a represen- tative of New York in the first Continental Congress in 1774, and remained in that body until 1776. His daughter Mary became the wife of the eminent Rufus King. Mr. Alsop died at Newtown, L. I, in November, 1791.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
great artificial aqueous highway in 1825, this body was a uniform and powerful supporter. While others doubted and many sneered, the wise and enterprising merchants of New York who composed the Chamber of Commerce were its firm friends.
The Chamber made the first movement in favor of fortifying the city of New York, by a memorial to Congress, sent by the hands of Colonel Ebenezer Stevens in 1798, when war with France seemed im- minent. Stevens was an active member of the Chamber. One of its most efficient members at its revival was John Pintard, who, as we have observed in speaking of the New York Historical Society, was foremost in every good work in the city for a quarter of a century.
In all the vicissitudes in public affairs which at different periods have unsettled the national policy and disturbed the relations of commerce, this Chamber has steadily adhered to the line of duty it had originally assumed, abstaining from all interference in the affairs of government in time of peace, excepting advisory, taking no part in political discus- sions, but always faithfully performing its obligations to support the cause of law and order, and to defend the honor of the country. When the Republic was in peril after the attack on Fort Sumter, the Cham- ber of Commerce was the first body in the city of New York that flew to the rescue, as we shall observe hereafter.
The first meeting of the members of the Chamber of Commerce for the purpose of organization was at the house vet standing at the corner of Pearl and Broad streets. It was afterward Fraunce's Tavern, where General Washington parted with his officers at the close of the Revolution. The next year rooms were rented in the Exchange, at the lower end of Broad Street. Ten years later the Chamber occupied rooms at the Merchants' Coffee-House, corner of Wall and Water streets. In 1817 it was located in the old Tontine Coffee-House, on the next corner above. From the completion of the Merchants Exchange in Wall Street, in 1827, it occupied rooms in that building until driven out by the great fire in 1835. From that time until 1858 its meetings were held in the directors' room of the Merchants' Bank, in Wall Street, and since then it has occupied its present quarters, at No. 63 William Street.
In 1875 a Court of Arbitration of the Chamber of Commerce was established by act of the Legislature, with an arbitrator at its head, who holds office during good behavior. He has power to administer oaths and affirmations to be used before any court or officer ; to take proof and acknowledgment of any charter party, marine protest, con- tract, or other written instrument, and to require any witness to appear
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FIRST DECADE, 1830-1840.
and testify before him, or the Court of Arbitration, or before the board of arbitrators. His salary is $10,000 a year, paid out of the State treasury, the Chamber of Commerce providing rooms for the use of the Court of Arbitration. Either party to a controversy may, within a specified time, appoint in writing one person to sit with the official arbitrator to hear and determine the matter.
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