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 II > Part 26
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Any young man with fair moral character and over sixteen years of age may become entitled to all the benefits above mentioned. of the payment of ST. Young men, whether they are members of the asi- ation or not, are heartily welcomed to the spacious reception-room and library. The latter is largely indebted to the late William Niblo, from whom the association received, by bequest, for the use of the library exclusively, over $150,000, besides his private collection of books on art. This collection is considered the most complete in the city. The library is also rich in works on manufactures-wood, stone, and textile fabrics.
658
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
The work of the association is carried on by its committees chiefly in the evenings. Special attention is given to the promotion of the temporal welfare of young men, while their spiritual well-being is not overlooked. Committees are in attendance at the rooms to welcome visitors, to assist young men in finding employment, and directing them to suitable boarding-houses. In the year. 1882 employment was found for 641 young men."
The association has occupied important relations to other interests in the city. With it originated the United States Christian Commission, the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and the Christian Home for Intemperate Men.t
One of the important, if not the most important, of the financial institutions in the city of New York is the Clearing-House Association.
The Clearing-House system has been in use in London, England, since 1790.
The Hon. Albert Gallatin, as carly as 1841, realizing the crudeness of the methods then in use, suggested a plan to facilitate the exchanges between the banks and a method for simplifying the settlement of balances. But little attention was paid to his suggestions, and it was not until 1853 that a concerted action was made to put them into prac- tical operation.
On the 11th of October of that year (1853) it commenced business in the basement of No. 14 Wall Street, with a membership of fifty-two banks, representing a capital of $46, 721,262. This number was soon reduced to forty-seven by the retirement and closing up of five of them by their inability to meet the requirements of the association.
By this system the banks of large cities became in certain operations as one individual, thus enabling them by united action to aid and strengthen each other in times of financial excitement and danger, and to exert by their combined power a salutary influence upon the bank-
# The association maintains a branch in the Bowery for a less fortunate class of young men than that reached at the central building, and it is preparing to erect a commodious structure there for the use of this class. In the branch, lodgings are provided. During 1882, 5718 lodgings and 45,000 meals were furnished to young men in destitute cir- cumstances. It has also a branch at Harlem, and it provides room for railroad em- ployes at the Grand Central and Thirtieth Street depots ; also a branch for German- speaking young men. In every way the association faithfully carries out its objects declared in its constitution-namely, measures " for the improvement of the physical, social, mental, and spiritual condition of young men."
+ The trustees for the management of the temporal affairs of the association in 1882 were : William E. Dodge, Jr., Perey R. Pyne, James M. Brown, Robert Lenox Kennedy, Gilbert B. Monroe, Samuel Sloan, John HI. Deane, Bowles Colgate, and William H. Hoppin.
THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860.
ing business of the country at large. It is doubtful if, without the aid of the banks of the city of New York, the United States, upon the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, could have raised the loan; necessary to carry on the war in time to have prevented the success of the enemies of the Union. It is certain that without the Clearing- House Association the banks could not have furnished the funds which at once established the credit of the government, and enabled it. by the restoration of confidence, to negotiate its bonds to the enormous amount of over 82,500,000,000. During the late war the machinery of the New York Clearing-House worked with exact regularity, the banks being united as one, and daily equalizing their resources.
The panic of 1873 was checked by similar action : the Clearing-House Association acted with promptness in combining their entire resources. by the use of loan certificates to the extent of over $25,000,000, thus sustaining themselves against panic and the serious results which naturally would have followed.
The Clearing-House Association occupies and owns the building No. 14 Pine Street, corner of Nassau Street. The first floor contains the cashier's department, the bank offices, and the manager's rooms.
The second floor is a spacious, high-ceiled hall, plainly yet elegantly fitted up, and provided with four lines of desks, sixty-four in number. one for each bank, cach bearing the name and number of the bank by which it is occupied, the banks being numbered according to the date of their organization, the oldest (the Bank of New York) being No. 1. etc. Each bank is represented each morning by two clerks, one a messenger who brings with him the checks, drafts, etc., that his bank has received the day previous upon the other banks, which are called " exchanges, " and are assorted for each bank and placed in envelopes : on the outside of each envelope is a slip on which is listed the various items which it contains.
These envelopes are arranged in the same order as the desks for the several banks. The messengers take their place in a line outside of the desks, each one opposite the one assigned to his bank, while on the inside of the desk is a clerk (called the settling clerk) with a sheet con- vaining the names of all the banks arranged in the same order, with the aggregate amounts his messenger has against each bank.
Exactly at ten o'clock A.M. the manager * takes his position on an
* The manager, Mr. William A. Camp, to whose courtesy we are indebted for the Arts and figures of this article, was born in Durham, Conn., in September, 1523. 11. .... been connected with the association for over a quarter of a century. His amitis. ability is manifest by the manner in which the details and laber are jerborst 1. 8.
660
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
elevated platform, calls the clerks to order, and at a signal from a bell each messenger moves forward to the desk next to his own, and delivers the envelopes containing the checks, drafts, etc., for the bank represented by that desk to the clerk on the inside, together with a printed list (called porter's sheet) of the banks in the same order, with the amount opposite cach bank. The clerk receiving it signs and returns it to the messenger, who immediately passes to the next desk, and so on until he has made the circuit of the room and reached his own desk, the starting-point, having delivered to each bank the ex- changes he has for it, and consequently delivering his entire exchanges for all the banks. Every other messenger does likewise, all moving on at the same time. In other words, each messenger has visited every bank and delivered everything his bank has received on each during the previous day, and taking a receipt for the same. Consequently the entire exchanges are delivered, while each clerk upon the inside has of course received from every other bank the amounts each had against it.
This operation occupies about nine minutes, and accomplishes that which could not otherwise be done in many hours, with a larger clerical force and untold risks. Besides the saving of time gained by this method, each bank is enabled to know the exact balance for or against
immense daily volume of financial transactions having been conducted without a single discoverable error or any loss to the bank. It is also worthy of remark that as much as fifteen and a half tons of gold coin have been received in one day in settlement of balances. Mr. Camp's career in the Clearing-House is signalized by the great suc- cess of that institution, which has proven itself one of the most valuable financial auxiliaries ever originated. In all important operations between the New York City banks and the United States Goverment during the Civil War, the machinery, so to speak, of the Clearing-Honse was brought into timely requisition, and enabled the banks to carry out transactions in aid of the general government that would otherwise have been utterly impossible. In the management of a business of such magnitude Mr. Camp has acquired an experience the equal of which, it is safe to say, no one else ever before had. Few men are more familiar than he with the principles on which the finances of the country are grounded, and fewer still possess a more critical knowledge of the varied financial interests of the nation. The statistics of the office under his management and direction are most complete and comprehensible.
Mr. Camp has been for a number of years a prominent member of the New England Society, and for four years a member of its board of officers. He is likewise a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a leading member of the Union League Club, and served at one time on the art committee of that club, and also on the auditing committees. He was also chairman of the art committee of the Palette Club, and has been actively and especially interested in patronizing the advancement of American art. He is connected with a number of charitable institutions in New York, and is deeply interested in all that pertains to the moral and material prosperity of the city." Mr. Camp is a gentleman of bread culture, liberal views, and is widely known and esteemed for those many qualities of head and heart that go to make up the able official and the worthy citizen.
661
THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860.
it at once, as the clerks, after receiving the envelopes containing the checks, drafts, etc., immediately enter from the slips upon their own sheets the aggregate amount from each bank, the differences between the total amount they have received and the total amount brought by them being the balance either due to or from the Clearing-House to each bank. The messengers then receive from their several clerks the various envelopes containing the exchanges, and return to their banks, reporting their condition, debtor or creditor, as the case may be. The clerks (settling clerks) then report to the assistant manager the amount they have received (on a ticket called debit ticket), they having reported the amount brought (on a ticket called credit ticket) upon first entering the room.
These amounts are entered in separate columns on what is called a " proof-sheet," and if no error has been, made the manager, finding the four columns to agree, announces that " proof is made," and the clerks then return to their respective banks. If, however, any error has been made by any of the sixty-four clerks, it is indicated on the proof- sheet, and all the clerks are then required to examine and revise their work, and not until every error has been discovered and corrected are the settling clerks allowed to leave.
The clerks are allowed until quarter of eleven A.M. to enter, report, and prove their work. If any errors are discovered or exist after that time, fines are imposed for each error, which are collected monthly by drafts on the banks fined.
Various and ingenious methods are resorted to for discovering errors. and the manager, from long experience, generally is enabled to antici- pate the nature of the error, whether in entry, footing, or transposi- tion, and thereby facilitates its discovery by instantly applying the best methods of examination. When it is remembered that there are sixty-four sheets, each containing 128 entries-in all $192-the diffi- culty in discovering where the error is in the shortest space of time is apparent.
The business of making exchanges and proof is usually accomplished in less than one hour, as the banks make but one entry of the aggregate of amount brought to the Clearing-House and credit the amount they have received. Keeping no accounts with each other. the settlement of balances is accomplished as follows : The debit banks (those which brought less than they have received) are required to pay to the manager of the Clearing-House before half-past one o'clock the same day, in legal tenders or gold. their debit balance, and upon the proof of the whole amount of debit balances being paid in, the credit
662
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
banks (those which brought more than they received) receive the amount due them respectively, thus by one process settling the entire transactions of all the banks of the day previous.
The Clearing-House Association requires of its members weekly reports to the manager of their transactions, in a statement of the loans, legal tenders, deposits, specie, and circulation, so that the move- ments of each bank can be determined and its condition pretty accu- rately estimated.
CAPITAL AND TRANSACTIONS, NEW YORK ASSOCIATED BANKS.
Years Euding Sept. 30.
No. of Banks.
Capital.
Exchanges.
Balances.
Average Daily Exchanges.
Average Daily Balances.
Ratios.
1851
50
47.044.900
5.230.455.987.06
297.411.493.69
19,104,504.94
988,078.06
5.2
1855
49
48.584.180
5.862.912,098.38
$49.601 137.14
17.412,052.21
940.565.38
5.4
1856
50
50.443.700
6.906.213.323.47
334 714. 149.33
22.278.107.51
1,079,721.16
4.8
1857
50
61,420.200
8.333.225.718.06
365.313.901.69
26.968,371.26
1.182.245.644
4.4
1858
4t
07.146.013 .
4.$56.664,888.09
314.235.9.0 60
15.393,735.88
1,016,954.40
6.6
1959
4,
67,921.711
6.415.005.956.01
363.9$4.682.56
20.867.833.19
1,174.943.96
5.6
1860
50
7.381.118.056 69
340.6:3.488.87
23,401.757.47
1.232.017.00
5.3
1561
50
6 -. 900.025
5.915,712 758.05
953.3-3.914.41
19 269.520.38
1.151.087.77
6.0
1862
50
6. 71. 443 591.20
415.530.331.46
22,237.081.53
1,311.758.35
6.0
1863
50
03581.063
24.097.196.655.92
885.719.204.98
77.984.455.20
2 866.405.19
3.7
1865
55
>2.370.200
28.717.146.011.09
1.066, 135, 106.35
93,541,195.16
3.472.732.9
3.7
1867
81.770.200
28,675.159. 472.20
1.114.963.451.15
93.101.167.11
3.717.413.80
40
1.568
59
$2,270.20)
28. 184.288 686 92
1,125.455.236.68
92, 182,163.87
3.612.219.95
4.0
1869
59
$2.720,200
32.407.026 985 55
1.120.318.302.87
121.451,292.81
3.637.397.10
3.0
1820
27.804.539. 105.75
1,036.484.821.79
10.274.478.59
3.365.210.46
3.7
1871
81 420.000
29.300.956 642.21
1.209.721.029.47
95. 133.0.3.64
3,927,665.68
4.1
1×72
61
84.430,200
33. - 14.3 0,368 39
1.428.582.007.53
109.884.316.78
4.636.032.16
4.0
1873
59
83.370.200
35.461.052. 825.70
1.474,502 024.95
115.885.793.55
4,818.633.67
41
187-1
59
1 81.635.200
22.855.921.636.26
1. 286, 753. 176 12
74.692,5$3.98
4.205.015.74
5.7
1875
59
80.435.200
25.061.937.902.09
1.40× 608.678 68
81.899,70.26
4.608,296.65
5.6
1876
59
81.731.200
21.507.274.217 04
1 :95.012.028 .- 2
70.349,427.52
4.218.317.95
5.9
1877
57
63.611.500
22.208. 188 441.15
1,307.413. 58.24
73.555,958.37
4.273.999.54
5.8
1879
59
25.175 770.500.50
1.100.111.002.4
82.015.539.74
4.560.622.35
5.0
1SS0
6.475.2001
37.182.128,621.09
1,515,538,631.29
121,510.224.25
4.956.008.60
4.1
1881
61,162.700
45,565.818.212.31
1.776.018,161.58
159.232,190.85
5.823.010.36
3.5
1882
'61
61.402.700 1
46,552,846,161.31
1,595.000,243.27
151.637.935.38
5.195.440.54
3.4
1853
63
61,102.700
40.293.165,257.65
1.508,9 3,196.15
182.513,800.17
5,161,198 93
677.620.482 61
48.428,657.49
2.307.252.39
4.6
1864
49
26.032.551.311.59
1,035,765.107.68
84.796.040.30
3.873.827.71
4.0
1866
58
23.280.243.201. 90
1
1.373.906.201.68
70.358,176 07
4.504.905.90
5.9
1878
14.807.597.818.00
The system in use by the New York Clearing House is so perfect that of the enormous transactions made through it, no error or ditfer- once of any kind exists in any of its records ; neither has any bank belonging to the association sustained any loss in its connection by the failure of any bank. or otherwise, while a member. Its operations amount to over sixty-five per cent of the total exchanges of the twenty- three clearing-houses of the country. It has proved of great service during financial emergencies, notably the great business revulsion of 1837 and the panic of 1578. In the latter case, by combining the resources of the inembers through the machinery of the Clearing- House, they were enabled to greatly modify the dangers which so seri- ously threatened the whole country.
663
THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860.
The financial revulsion of 1-57 was fearful in the city of New York, while the panic it caused lasted. The country had been prosperous for several years, or at least seemed prosperous. Business of every kind was remunerativo, commerce was flourishing. credit was on an appar- ently sound basis, though it was stretched to its ntmost limits, and there was scarcely a sign of an approaching tempest before it broke in fury upon the business community.
Late in August. 1557, the Ohio Life and Trust Company, an institu- tion which had been regarded as safe beyond suspicion, suspended for the enormous sum of $7,000.000. This suspension fell like a thunder- bolt from an unclouded firmament. It shook the financial community to its very centre. A month later the banks of Philadelphia suspended specie payments. The other banks in Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Rhode Island soon followed suit. A fearful panic seized the business community everywhere. The wheels of industry were stopped. As in 1-37, the credit system suddenly fell with a crash. Confidence was destroyed, and merchants and manu- facturers were driven into bankruptcy ..
Thousands of people, dependent upon their daily labor for daily bread, were deprived of employment. The destitute in New York City, influenced by demagogues, as in the case of the flour riots, assem- bled in the City Hall Park, and clamored for bread, accusing specula- tors as the authors of their distress, and threatening to procure food at all hazards. The municipal government came to their relief as far as possible. Many laborers were put to work on the Central Park and other public works. Soup-houses were speedily opened throughout the city, and private associations were formed for the relief of the suffer- ing. Food was in abundance in the West. Grain lay mouldering for want of money to move it to the seaboard. Money. too, was plentiful, but the holders of it, alarmed, would neither lend nor invest, but kept their coffers locked.
Early in October there was a run on the New York City banks, and they all soon suspended specie payments. The country banks of the State followed, so also did the banks of Massachusetts. The panic among the bank managers for a few days. as the pressure for specie increased, was very great. The effect of the suspension in New York was quite remarkable. There was a sense of relief felt everywhere. Bankers and merchants and other business men met each other with smiling faces. They felt as if there had been a tremendous thunder- clap, but nobody was hurt. With a sigh of relief. they acquired conti- dence. Matters in money circles immediately improved. As spring
604
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
advanced, business revived. Manufacturers resumed work, but the scars of the wounds received in the general crash were many, and long continued to irritate and annoy. The failures in business for the year ending in the summer of 1858 numbered 3123, and the liabilities amounted to over $291,000,000.
A curious episode in the social history of the city of New York occurred during this great business revulsion. Indeed, it seems to have been a product of that event. In June the consistory of the Reformed Dutch Church was led to employ a suitable person to visit families in the vicinity of the North Church, corner of Fulton and William streets, to induce them to attend the church and bring their children into the Sunday-school. For this service a pious and earnest layman, J. C. Lanphier, was employed. He entered upon the important duties with great zeal. Ile visited from house to house, and was generally success- ful. Ile finally conceived the idea of having noonday prayer-meetings in the Consistory Building.in the rear of the church, for business men, mechanics, and laborers. It was a general habit for all to have one hour for dinner, between twelve and one o'clock.
It was at first intended to have the day prayer-meeting once a week, and a handbill to that effect was circulated throughout the city, inviting persons to the Consistory Building at twelve o'clock on September 23, 1857. At that hour Mr. Lanphier took his seat to await the response. Gradually one after another came in, and six composed the first gathering. The next week there were twenty, and on October 7 there were forty. The panic was then at its height. Many persons were out of employment, and many were earnestly seeking relief from distress of mind and body. Such was the interest manifested that it was resolved to hold a daily prayer- meeting at the same hour, Sundays excepted, and a placard to that effect, printed in large letters, was hung at the door of entrance to the consistory-rooms, in Fulton Street.
The first daily prayer-meeting was held at noon on October 8, 1857. It was numerously attended. Merchants and other business men, teamsters, porters, merchants' clerks, laboring men, and working and other women in the neighborhood filled the room day after day. Persons of both sexes from all parts of the city and strangers from the country were soon attracted to these meetings.
This social phenomenon appearing in the midst of the most active business portion of the city continued to interest the community month after month, and year after year. It is no longer a phenomenon, but seems to be a fixed institution, for the Fulton Street Noon Prayer-
665
THIRD DECADE, 1850-1860.
Meeting has been continued for nearly a quarter of a century under the charge of the same earnest layman. Mr. Lanphier. Requests for prayers for persons have been a feature of these noon praver-meetings. and almost every day such requests are made orally, or by letters, some of which come from over the sea.
The year 1857 was notable in the history of the city of New York. not only for the great financial disturbance in the autumn, but for other conspicuous events-the demolition of one of its ancient land- marks, the erection of the first statue out of doors in the city, the amendment of the city charter, and scenes of riot and disorder growing out of conflicting claims to the exercise of municipal power.
The first-mentioned event was the taking down of the old Brick Church edifice, which, with its adjuncts, occupied the acute triangular piece of ground on Beekman and Nassau streets and Park Row. It had stood there for nearly a century, a witness of stirring historic scenes when the Park near by was The Fields. The last service held in it was on May 26, 1556. On the northern portion of its site now stands the fine publishing house of the New York Daily Times.
The work of art alluded to was the equestrian statue of Washington in Union Square, executed in bronze by Henry Kirke Brown, now (1883) living at Newburgh. It is confessedly the finest work of the kind in the city, as it was the first.
The amendment of the city charter alluded to was made by act of the Legislature passed April 14, 1857. The growing abuses in the city government had for some time called for an amendment of the charter. It was painfully apparent to all observers that the city was absolutely controlled by the votes of the unlearned. the landless, and often vicious citizens, who were largely of foreign birth, with scarcely any knowledge of the privileges and value of American citizenship. This class elected the public officers, and naturally chose men who would pander to their greed or their vices, while men of property, of education, of moral and intellectual worth, virtuous and religious-men who constitute a state-were made politi- cally subordinate to the other class. Hitherto the charter and State elections had been held on the same day ; by the amended charter in the spring of 1857 these were separated, and the day for the charter election was fixed on the first Tuesday in December. It was provided that the mayor and common council and the comptroller were to be elected by the people, the common council or city legislature to consist of a board of aldermen and six councilmen, elected from each senatoria! district, to be elected annually. The almshouse and fire departments
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
remained unchanged, but the superintendence of the Central Park was given to a board, to be appointed by the State authorities.
These amendments were acquiesced in, yet not without some protest concerning the management of the Central Park : but a law known as the Metropolitan Police act, which transferred the police department of the city of New York to the control of the State, produced intense excitement in the city. The necessity for this innovation was the alleged inefficient, partisan, and corrupt character of the police under the management of venal politicians. That act created a police district, comprising the counties of New York, Kings, Westches- ter, and Richmond. A board of commissioners was also created, to be appointed for five years by the governor, with the consent of the Senate, they to have the sole control of the appointment, trial, and management of the police force, which was not to number more than two thousand at any time, and to appoint the chief of police and minor police officers. It was the prescribed duty of these commissioners to secure the peace and protection of the city, to insure quiet and order at the elections, and to supervise arrangements for the public health .*
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