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 5
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OUTLINE IHISTORY, 1609-1830.
Hohne. William W. Gilbert, Daniel Dunscombe, John Lamb, Richard Sharp. John Morin Scott, Jacob Van Voorhis, Comfort Sands, Edward Flemming, Peter Goelet, Gerrit Kettletas. Thomas Buchanan. James Desbrosses, Petrus Byvanck, and Lott Embree.
This committee was composed of the leading citizens of New York, engaged in various professions and industries, the bone and sinew of society at that time. Many of them were conspicuous actors in the important events which ensued ; and thousands of citizens of New York to-day may find among, and point with just pride to, the names of ancestors which appear upon that roll of honor.
This committee immediately assumed the control of the city, taking care to secure weapons for possible use, sending away all cannon not belonging to the province, and prohibiting the sale of arms to persons suspected of being hostile to the patriots, and they were many. They presented an address to Governor Colden explaining the object of their appointment, and assuring him that they should use every effort to maintain peace and quiet in the city.
It was known that royal regiments were coming to New York, and the committee asked the Continental Congress for instructions how to act in the premises. They were advised not to oppose their landing, but not to suffer them to erect fortifications, and to act on the defensive. In the Provincial Congress there was a strong infusion of Tory elements, and they exhibited a timid or temporizing policy on this occasion. The troops landed ; the Provincial Congress obsequiously showed great deference to crown officers ; the Asia man-of-war lying in the harbor was allowed supplies of provisions ; some of the acts of the Sons of Liberty were rebuked, and there seemed to be more of a dis- position to produce reconciliation than to assert the rights of the people. Edmund Burke, who had been an agent for the province, expressed his surprise "at the scrupulous timidity which could suffer the king's forces to possess themselves of the most important port in America."
When, soon after this, the troops were ordered to Boston. the com- mittee directed that they should take no munitions of war with them, excepting their arms and accoutrements. Unmindful of this order, they were proceeding down Broad Street to embark with several wagons loaded with arms, when they were discovered by Colonel Marinus Willett, # who hastily gathered some of the Sons of Liberty,
# Marinus Willett was born at Jamaica, L. I., July 31, 1740, and died in New York City August 23, 1830. He was graduated at King's (Columbia) College in 1766. Ho served under Abercrombie and Bradstreet in 1758, and when the quarrel between Great Britain and her American colonies began, Willett was one of the most energetic of the
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
confronted the troops, seized the horse that was drawing the head wagon, and stopped the whole train. While disputing with the com- mander, the Tory mayor of the city came up and severely reprimanded Willett for thus " endangering the public peace," when the latter was joined by John Morin Scott, one of the Committee of One Hundred, who told him he was right ; that the troops were violating orders, and they must not be allowed to take the arms away. The wagons were turned back, and the troops, in light marching order, were allowed to embark.
War had now begun. Blood had flowed at Lexington. Ticonderoga had fallen into the hands of the patriots. Ethan Allen had seized it in the name " of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The battle of Bunker's Hill soon followed. The army of volunteers gathered at Cambridge was adopted by the Congress as a Continental army, and Washington was appointed commander-in-chief. With his suite he arrived in New York on the 25th of June. The royal governor Tryon had arrived the night before and been cordially received by the Tory mayor (Mathews) and the common council. Here were the representatives of the two great parties in America-Whig and Tory- face to face. The situation was embarrassing, and for a moment the people were at their wit's end. The two municipal governments were hostile to each other. The Provincial Congress then in session in the city came to the rescue by timidly presenting Washington with a cau- tious address, containing nothing that would arouse the anger of the British lion. For a moment the patriotic heart of the city beat noise- lessly, and Washington passed on, sure of the public sympathy, which was only suppressed, and on the 3d of July he took formal command of the army at Cambridge.
The Continental Congress ordered New York to raise regiments of troops and to fortify the passes in the Hudson Highlands. The Pro- vincial Congress directed the great guns of the Battery, in the city, to be removed and sent up the river. This order brought matters to a crisis. Captain Lamb, with some Sons of Liberty and other citizens,
opponents of the ministry. A leading Son of Liberty, he was a leader in the rebellious movements in New York City. He entered MeDougall's regiment as captain, and partici- pated in the invasion of Canada. Promoted to lientenant-colonel, he was ordered to Fort Stanwix, in May, 1577, and participated in the stormy events of that neighborhood during the summer. In June, 1776, he joined the army under Washington, and was active in the military service during the remainder of the war. At the close he was chosen sheriff of the city of New York, and filled the office eight years. In 1807 he was chosen mayor of the city. Colonel Willett was created a brigadier-general in 1792, but never entered upon the duties of that rank.
John M. Francis
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OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830.
proceeded to execute the order on a pleasant night in August. While so engaged, a musket was fired upon them from a barge belonging to the Axia. The fire was returned by Lamb's party, killing one of the crew and wounding several others. The Asia opened a cannonade upon the town, which caused great consternation and the flight of many of the inhabitants. Lamb and his mnen persisted in this work in spite of the cannonade, and took away the whole twenty-one cannon from the Battery. After that the Asia was denied supplies from the city, and Governor Tryon, perceiving his danger, took counsel of his fears and fled for refuge on board a British man-of-war in the harbor, where he attempted to exercise civil government for a while. After these events the city enjoyed comparative quiet until the following spring. disturbed only by Sears's raid upon Rivington's printing estab- lishment, already mentioned.
CHAPTER IV.
A BRITISHI army commanded by General Howe had been besieged in Boston during the winter of 1775-76, and in March was com- pelled to fly to Halifax, N. S., by sea, leaving New England in posses- sion of the " rebels." Meanwhile the British ministry had conceived a plan for separating New England from the rest of the colonies by the establishment of a line of military posts in the valleys of the Hudson and Lake Champlain, between New York and the St. Lawrence. To do this New York must be seized.
Aside from this scheme, New York appears to have been a coveted prize for the British, and early in 1776 Howe despatched General Clinton secretly to attack it. Suspecting New York to be Clinton's destination, Washington sent General Charles Lee thither ; and on the evacuation of Boston in March, the commander-in-chief marched with nearly the whole of his army to New York, arriving there at the middle of April. He pushed forward the defences of the city begun by General Lord Stirling. Fort George, on the site of Fort Amsterdam, was strengthened, numerous batteries were constructed on the shores of the Hudson and East rivers, and lines of fortifications were built across the island from river to river not far from the city. Strong Fort Washington was finally built on the highest land on the island (now Washington Heights), and intrenchments were thrown up on Harlem Heights. In the summer Washington made his headquarters at Rich- mond Hill, then a country retreat at the (present) junction of Charlton and Varick streets.
On the 10th of July copies of the Declaration of Independence were received in New York. The army was drawn up into hollow squares by brigades, and in that position the important document was read to each brigade. That night soldiers and citizens joined in pulling down the equestrian statue of King George, which the grateful citizens had caused to be set up in the Bowling Green only six years before. They dragged the leaden image through the streets and broke it in pieces. Some of it was taken to Connecticut and moulded into bullets.
It was while Washington had his headquarters at Richmond Hill that -
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OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830.
a plot, suggested, it is said, by Governor Tryon, to murder him was discovered. One of his Life Guard was bribed to do the deed. He attempted to poison his general. He had secured, as he thought, a confederate in the person of the maiden who waited upon Washington's table. She allowed the miscreant to put the poison in a dish of green pras she was about to set before the commander-in-chief, to whom she gave warning of his danger when she placed them on his table. The treacherous guardsman was arrested, found guilty, and hanged. This was the first military execution in New York.
At the close of June, 1776, a British fleet arrived at Sandy Hook with General Howe's army, which was landed on Staten Island, and soon afterward the British general, who was also a peace commissioner, attempted to open a correspondence with Washington. He addressed his letter to " George Washington, Esq." The latter refused to re- ceive it, as the address " was not in a style corresponding with the dig- nity of the situation which he held." Another was sent, addressed " George Washington, etc., etc., etc." This was refused, as it did not recognize his public character. The bearer of the letters explained to Washington their purport, which was to "grant pardons," etc. Washington replied that the Americans had committed no offences which needed pardons, and the affair was dropped. Afterward Gen- eral and Admiral Howe met a committee of Congress on Staten Island to confer on the subject of peace, but it was fruitless of any apparent good.
Soon after Ilowe's troops had landed they were joined by forces under Sir Henry Clinton, which had been repulsed in an attack upon Charleston, S. C. Hessians-German mercenaries hired by the British Government-also came ; and late in August the British force on Staten Island and on the ships was more than twenty-five thousand in number. On the 25th of August over ten thousand of these had landed on the western end of Long Island, prepared to attempt the capture of New York. Washington, whose army was then about seventeen thousand strong, had caused fortifications to be constructed at Brooklyn, and he sent over a greater part of his forces to confront the invaders. The battle of Long Island ensued, and was disastrous to the Americans.
Washington skilfully conducted the remainder not killed or captured, in a retreat across the East River, under cover of a fog, to New York, and thence to Harlem Heights at the northern end of the island. The conquering British followed tardily, crossed the East River at Kip's Bay, and after a sharp battle on Harlem Plains took possession of the
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
city of New York, or what was left of it. The British had pitched their tents near the city, intending to enter the next morning, and were in repose. Suddenly at midnight arrows of lurid flame shot heavenward from the lower part of the town. A conflagration had been accidentally kindled at the foot of Broad Street. Many of the inhabitants had fled from the city, and few were left to fight the flames, which, in the space of a few hours, devoured about five hundred buildings. The soldiers and sailors from the vessels in the river stayed the flames before they reached Wall Street. The British took posses- sion of the city of New York in September, 1776, and held it until No- vember, 1783. Ex-Governor Colden died a few days after the fire, aged eighty-nine years.
A day or two after the occupation began, Captain Nathan Hale, of Connecticut, was brought to the headquarters of General Iowe in the Beekman mansion at Turtle Bay (Forty-fifth Street and East River), where he was condemned as a spy. He was confined in the greenhouse that night, and hanged the next morning under the supervision of the notorious provost-marshal, Cunningham, who behaved in the most brutal manner toward his victim. Hale is justly regarded as a martyr to the cause of freedom ; Andre, who suffered for the same offence, was the victim of his own ambition.
New York exhibited scenes of intense suffering endured by American prisoners during the British occupation of the city. It was the British headquarters throughout the war. The provost jail (now the Hall of Records) was the prison for captured American officers, and was under the direct charge of Cunningham. The various sugar-houses -- the largest buildings in the city-were also used for prisons, and some of the churches were converted into hospitals. Old hulks of vessels were moored in the Hudson and East rivers, and used as floating prisons. There were five thousand Americans suffering in the prisons and prison- ships at New York at one time, and they were dying by scores every day. Ill-treatment, lack of humanity, and starvation everywhere pre- vailed. " No care was taken of the sick," wrote one of the victims, "and if any died they were thrown at the door of the prison, and lay there till the next day, when they were put on a cart and drawn out to the intrenchments, beyond the Jews' burial-ground [Chatham Square], where they were interred by their fellow-prisoners, conducted thither for that purpose. The dead were thrown into a hole promiscuously, without the usual rites of sepulture."
The " prison-ships," as the old hulks were called, were, if possible. more conspicuous as scenes of barbarous treatment than the jails on
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OUTLINE HISTORY, 1600-1830.
shore. The most famous (or infamous) of these was the Jersey, the largest of the group and the longest retained in that service. She was moored at the Wallabout (now the Navy-Yard at Brooklyn), and was called by the captives "the hell afloat." These captive American Milors composed the bulk of the prisoners. The most wanton outrages were suffered by the poor victims. For example : "One night," said one of them who escaped, " while the men were eagerly pressing to the grate at the hatchway to obtain a breath of pure air while awaiting their turn to go on deck, the sentinel thrust his bayonet among them, killing twenty-five of the number ; and this outrage was frequently repeated." The number of deaths in this " hell " from fever, starva- tion, and even actual suffocation in the pent-up and exhausted air, was frightful ; and every morning there went down the hatchway from the deck the fearful cry of " Rebels, turn out your dead !" Then a score, sometimes, of dead bodies covered with vermin would be carried up by tottering half skeletons, their suffering companions, when they were taken to the shore and buried in the sands of the beach.
Such was the fate of eleven thousand American prisoners. The rem- nants of their bones were gathered by the Tammany Society of New York and deposited in a vault near the entrance to the Navy-Yard, with funeral ceremonies, in 180S. By arrangements made by the Con- tinental Congress for an exchange of prisoners, and the humane and energetic exertions of Elias Boudinot, commissary of prisoners, the con- dition of the captives was much ameliorated during the later years of the war. But the sufferings of the officers in the provost prison, at the hands of the brutal Cunningham, continued. Ile seemed to be acting under direct orders from his government and independent of the mili- tary authorities. In his confession before his execution in England for a capital crime, he said : " I shudder to think of the murders I have ben accessory to, with and without orders from government, especially while in New York, during which time there were more than two thousand prisoners starved in the different churches by stopping their rations, which I sold !"'
In July, 1777, the State of New York was organized under a consti- tution adopted at Kingston on the Hudson. George Clinton was elected governor, and continued in the office about twenty years con- wcutively. The first session of the Legislature was held at Pough- keepsie at the beginning of 1778.
In the summer of 1778 New York suffered from another great con- flagration. About three hundred buildings were destroyed in the neighborhood of Cruger's wharf, on the East River. It broke out in
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Pearl Street (then Dock Street), and raged for several hours. The fire companies had been disbanded, and the soldiers who tried to extinguish the flames effected but little, owing to inexperience.
The winter of 1779-80 was remarkable for intense cold. The suffer- ings in the city of New York, especially among the poor, were fearful. Sufficient fuel could not be obtained, for the city was blockaded on the land side by the Americans. Some of the citizens were reduced to great extremities. There were instances of their splitting up chairs and tables for fuel to cook their breakfasts, and the women and children lay in bed the rest of the day to keep warm. The waters about the city were frozen into a solid bridge of ice for forty days, and the British sent eighty heavy cannon over it from New York to Staten Island to repel an expected invasion.
The arrest and execution of Andre produced great commotion in New York society in the fall of 1780. The inhabitants were mostly Tories. The Whigs had left the city, and Tory refugees in different parts of the country had flocked back to the city. The Americans were anxious to obtain the person of Arnold and save André. Clinton would not give him up, and an attempt was made to seize him. Ser- geant Champe pretended to desert from the American army, and was warmly received by the traitor at Clinton's headquarters. It was arranged for Champe and some comrades to seize Arnold in the garden at night, gag him, take him to a boat, and carry him to Washington's headquarters at Tappan. Unfortunately, Champe was ordered by the British commander to go south with the troops on the very day when the plot was to be executed, and it failed.
On the arrival of the French allies on the banks of the Hudson the next year, the Americans prepared to attack New York, but the whole force finally marched to Virginia, and in October captured Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown. This victory virtually ended the war, but British troops continued to occupy New York for more than a year afterward. It was the last place evacuated by them. Preparations for that event caused a fearful panic among the Tory inhabitants of the city, who dreaded to face the indignation of their Whig fellow-citizens whom they had oppressed, and who would now return in force as victors. So more than a thousand of them left their homes and coun- try, and fled to Nova Scotia in British transports. The troops left the harbor on the 25th of November, 1873-a day yet celebrated in the city each year as " Evacuation Day."
Before the troops left, under the provisions of an honorable treaty, they committed an act unworthy of the British name. They nailed
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OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830.
their flag to the staff in Fort George, unreefed the halliards, knocked off the cleats, and " slushed " the pole to prevent Americans ascending it and unfurling the Stars and Stripes there before the departing troops should be out of sight. They were frustrated by a young American sailor (John Van Arsdale, who died in 1836), who ascended the flagstaff by nailing on the cleats and applying sand to the greased pole. In this way he soon reached the top, hauled down the British colors, and placed those of the United States in the position. This was accom- plished while the British vessels were yet in the Lower Bay.
Now occurred the closing scene of the Revolution. In the " great room" of the tavern of Samuel Fraunces, at the corner of Broad and Pearl streets, Washington parted with his officers on the 4th of De- cember, 1783. It was a scene marked by great tenderness of feeling on the part of all present. Filling a glass with wine for a farewell -entiment, Washington turned to the assembled officers and said, " With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you, and most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." He raised the glass to his lips, and continued, " I cannot come to each of you to take my leave ; but I shall be obliged if each one will come and take my hand." They did so. None could speak. They all embraced him in turn, when he silently left the room, walked to Whitehall, and entered a barge to convey him to Paulus's Hook (now Jersey City), on his way to Annapolis to surrender his commission to the Continental Congress sitting there. What a sublime leave-taking, under the cir- cumstances !
New York now began the task of recuperation. The evil effects of a seven years' occupation by foreign troops were seen on every side. Its buildings had been consumed by fire, its churches desecrated and laid waste, its commerce destroyed by the war, its treasury empty, its people estranged from each other by differences in political opin- ions ; feuds existing everywhere, and criminations and recriminations producing deep bitterness of feeling in society in general. New York was compelled to begin life anew, as it were. The tribute which it had paid to the cause of freedom was large, but had been freely given.
The Whig refugees returned to the city, many of them to find their dwellings in ruins. There was no change made in the city govern- ment. The old charter, the organic law, was resumed, and in Febru- ary, 1784, James Duane, an ardent Whig who had left the city and Had returned to his farm near (present) Gramercy Park and found his home burned and his fortune wrecked. was chosen mayor. AAlthough
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
the vitality of the city had been paralyzed, yet men-high-minded and energetic men, who constitute a state-were left, and their influence was soon manifested in the visible aspects of public spirit and a revival of commerce.
Public improvements were soon projected, but not much was done before the close of the century. The population numbered about 23,000, and there was only here and there a dwelling above Murray Street on the west side, and Chatham Square on the east side. There was not at that time a bank nor insurance company in the city. Wall Street, where they now abound, was then the most elegant part of the city, where the aristocracy resided, and yet most of the buildings were of wood, roofed with shingles. The sides of many were so covered. Brick and stone were seldom used. Between Broadway and the Hudson River, above Reade Street, might be seen hundreds of cows belonging to the citizens grazing in the fields.
The first public improvement begun was the filling in of the " Col- lect" or Fresh Water Pond, where the Tombs or Halls of Justice, or City Prison, now stand. This task was begun about 1790, but not completed until the close of the century. Duane and Reade streets were opened through the southern portion of the district. At near the close of the century a canal was cut through Lispenard's meadows from the " Collect" to the Hudson River, along the line of (present) Canal Street, forty feet wide, with a narrow street on each side of it. This accounts for the greater width of Canal Street. This canal was spanned at the junction of Broadway and Canal Street by an arched stone bridge, which was subsequently buried when the ground was heightened by filling in, and the canal disappeared. That bridge may be discovered in future ages, and be regarded by antiquarians as a structure belonging to a buried city older than New York.
The " Commons" (City Hall Park) yet lay open, and occupied only by the " New Bridewell, " the " New Jail." and the Almshouse at the northern part. Between the latter and the Bridewell stood the gallows.
In 1790 the first sidewalks in the city were laid on each side of Broad- way, between Vesey and Murray streets. They were of stone and brick, and were so narrow that only two persons might walk abreast. Above Murray Street, Broadway passed over a series of hills, the highest at (present) Worth Street. The grade from Duane to Canal Street was fixed by the corporation in 1797, and when the improve- ment was made Broadway was cut through the hill at Worth (formerly Anthony) Street about twenty-three feet below its surface. The streets were first systematically numbered in 1793.
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