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 36
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More effective in quieting the mob spirit in the city were the words of Archbishop Hughes to his co-religionists among the rioters. He had been a firm supporter of the government from the beginning, preaching an intensely patriotic war sermon in St. Patrick's Cathedral at the beginning. By notices posted all over the city, he invited the rioters to his residence on the 16th. About four thousand of them
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FOURTHI DECADE, 1860-1870.
were there at the appointed hour. Though in very feeble health, he appeared on a balcony with the vicar-general and one or two priests and addressed the multitude with earnest and effectual words, exhort- ing them to obey the laws and to return to their homes in a peaceable manner. They dispersed quietly after responding heartily, " We will !"' and receiving his blessing.
During that day the common council adopted an ordinance appropri- ating 82,500,000 to pay the commutation ($300 each) of drafted men, but the mayor, properly refused to make this concession to the mob. In the afternoon merchants and bankers assembled in Wall Street and organized into companies of one hundred each, pursuant to the call of the mayor to assist in suppressing the fearful riot. Hundreds of citi- zens were sworn in as special police for the same purpose. Venders of arms were ordered to close their stores, and citizens whose premises were threatened were furnished with muskets and hand-grenades for their protection. Two formidable riffed batteries were placed in Printing-House Square, and effectually protected the Tribune and Times buildings and other property there.
During part of Wednesday, the 15th, the riot raged fiercely, but by noon it had evidently reached its climax. Some buildings were burned that day, and the poor colored people were subjected to the most in- human outrages. Their houses were burned, and some of the imnates were hung upon trees and lamp-posts in various parts of the city. At the request of the mayor the city regiments on duty in Pennsylvania had been ordered home by the Secretary of War, and they nearly all arrived on the evening of the 15th. At midnight they were placed under the command of General Kilpatrick. The combined action of the citizens, the police, and the feeble military force in the city had effectually suppressed the riot before the arrival of these regiments. It was estimated that nearly one thousand lives had been sacrificed in the riot, and property of the value of $2,000,000 had been destroyed. After this the draft went quietly on.
Within six months after this great riot, directed specially against the colored people of the city, a regiment of colored men, raised and equipped in a few days by the Union League Club of New York, marched down Broadway escorted by many leading citizens and . cheered by thousands of men and women, who filled the sidewalks, the balconies, and windows.
CHAPTER III.
T THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB, mentioned in the preceding chapter, is a product of the Civil War. It is essentially a child of the United States Sanitary Commission. It was organized early in 1863, and incorporated in February, 1865.
The Sanitary Commission, when not in session, was represented by five faithful men-namely, Dr. H. W. Bellows, its president ; George T. Strong, its treasurer ; Professor Wolcott Gibbs, and Drs. Cornelius R. Agnew and W. HI. Van Buren. During the entire war these men passed some part of each day or night in conference on the work of the commission, which grandly illustrated the idea of unconditional loyalty. That sentiment, Secretary Seward said, the work of the com- mission originated.
Professor Gibbs first suggested that this idea needed to take on the form of a club which should be devoted to the social organization of the sentiment of loyalty to the Union. This suggestion he embodied in a letter to Frederick Law Olmsted immediately after the election of Mr. Seymour as governor of the State of New York, in the autumn of 1862. It was heartily approved by Mr. Olmsted, and he at once applied his masterly organizing powers to the formation of such a club.
In the middle of January, 1863, a circular letter written by Professor Gibbs and marked " confidential " was sent to many citizens of New York. It proposed the formation of a club in the city of New York for the purpose of cultivating a profound love and respect for the Union, and to discourage whatever tended to give undue prominence to purely local interests. This letter was signed by Wolcott Gibbs. G. T. Strong, Dr. Bellows, Dr. Agnew, G. C. Anthon, G. Gibbs, G. F. Allen, and William J. Hoppin.
The responses to this letter were numerous and generous, and at a meeting held at the house of Mr. Strong on February 6th, an associa- tion was formed under title of the Union League Club. The prime condition of membership was " absolute and unqualified loyalty to the government of the United States. " Its primary object was to discoun- tenance and rebuke by moral and social influences all disloyalty to the
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National Government, and to that end the members pledged them- selves to " use every proper means, in public and private," collectively and individually. It was afterward made the duty of the club to resist and expose corruption and promote reform in our National, State, and municipal affairs, and to elevate the idea of American citizenship. The articles of association of the club were signed by sixty-four leading citizens of the metropolis.
The Union League Club was permanently organized on March 30th by the appointment of the following gentlemen as its officers : Robert B. Minturn, president ; Murray Hoffman, Charles King, William II. Aspinwall, John A. Dix, F. B. Cutting, George Bancroft, Alexander T. Stewart, Jonathan Sturges, Moses Taylor, Henry W. Bellows, Willard Parker, and James W. Beekman, vice-presidents ; Otis D. Swan, secretary, and William J. Hoppin, treasurer."
So equipped, with a corps of strong officers, the Union League Club began its patriotic work, which it pursued until the end of the war with unabated zeal. Late in 1863 it appointed a committee to take effectual measures for the promotion of volunteering for the military service. + Finding agencies sufficient in the recruiting of white regi- ments, the committee appointed for that service turned their attention to recruiting colored men. Governor Seymour refused to give them authority for such service. They obtained it from the Secretary of War, but upon the hard condition that the colored recruits were not to receive any bounty. In the face of these conditions the committee. within the space of a month, recruited and placed in camp on Riker's Island a full regiment (the Twentieth) of colored men. For this pur- pose the club had contributed $18,000. This was the regiment that received honors from the citizens of New York when it marched down Broadway six months after the riot. when no colored man's life was safe in the city. # The club raised two other regiments of colored mon in a short space of time.
* An executive committee was appointed, consisting of George Griswold, F. H. Delano, II. T. Tuckerman, William E. Dodge, Jr., George Cabot Ward, Thomas H. Faile, R. L. Kennedy, J. A. Weeks, and James Boorman.
+ The committee consisted of Alexander Van Rensselaer, Legrand B. Cannon, S. J. Bacon, J. A. Roosevelt, C. P. Kirkland, Elliott C. Cowdin, George Bliss, Jackson S. Schultz, and Edward Cromwell.
# On the morning of its embarkation the regiment marched to the club-house, where it received its colors, presented by the loyal women of the city. The presentation ad- dress was made by Charles King, president of Columbia College. A large number of ladies were present. He then handed to the officers and men of the regiment an ad- dress written by Henry T. Tuckermu, engrossed on parchment, and signed by one hundred and thirty-five of the ladies of the city, best known in society and philanthropic
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At the request of General Hancock the Union League Club appointed another committee to recruit for the Second Corps.# The club raised for the volunteers through this committee about $230,000 and more than three thousand men. The total number of sokliers which the club placed in the field that year (1863) was about six thousand.
Late in the fall of 1863 the club joined the United States Sanitary Commission in making arrangements for a Metropolitan Fair in aid of its benevolent work. Under the auspices of about one hundred women, most of them of the families of members of the Union League Club. the fair was inaugurated in March, 1864, and its managers put into the treasury of the Sanitary Commission over $1,000,000. The fair was opened at the armory of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, in Fourteenth Street, near Sixth Avenue. It was literally held all over the city, for there were public and private entertainments in many places-in pub- lic schools, in theatres, and in private parlors-in connection with it. Subscription papers were circulated in workshops, manufactories, mer- cantile establishments, public offices, and among the shipping in the harbor, the result of which was enormous contributions to the aggre- gate amount of money received. In the buildings specially devoted to the uses of the fair, in Fourteenth Street and on Union Square, were, besides merchandise of every kind, old armor, historical relics, and other rare objects calculated to attract the multitude. The total receipts amounted to $1,351,275. The total expenses were $167, 769, making net receipts of $1, 183,506.+
To the patriotism and liberality of one of New York's merchant princes, the late Marshall O. Roberts. + the fair was largely indebted deeds -- " Mothers, wives, and sisters of the members of the New York Union League Club. "
* This committee consisted of George Bliss, Jr., Theodore Roosevelt, George Cabot Ward, Parker Handy, Stephen Hyatt, Alfred ML. Hoyt, James T. Swift, Jackson S. Schultz, J. S. Williams, William H. Fogg. U. A. Murdock, George A. Fellows, Dudley B. Fuller, James M. Halstead, George C. Satterlee, Timothy G. Churchill, and Moses HI. Grinnell.
+ John H. Gourlie, a native of New York City, where he was born and has always resided-who had recently retired from the Stock Exchange, of which he had been a popular and honored member for over a quarter of a century, and a member of several societies. social literary, and artistic-was the chairman of the Finance Committee of the Metropolitan Fair. In his library now hangs, neatly framed, a receipt, of which the following is a copy :
" NEW YORK, May 17, 1864.
" Received from John H. Gourlie, chairman of the Finaure Committee of the Metropolitan Fair, One Million Dollars, for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission.
" $1,000,000.
GEORGE T. STRONG. " Treasurer of U. S. Sanitary Commission."
+ A full picture of the career of Marshall Owen Roberts from the unpromising position
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for its success. He had been aiding the government from the begin- ning of the struggle. He took a special interest in the Metropolitan Fair. When the managers found that the premises in Fourteenth
of a poor, meagrely educated orphan boy to the position of highest rank as a merchant and good citizen of the metropolis, would be instructive. We may only give a brief ontline of its principal features. His father, Owen Roberts, was a Welsh physician in the city of New York, where he settled in 1798. He died in 1817, leaving a widow and four boys, of whom Marshall was the youngest, and very little property. Marshall was then less than four years of age, having been born on March 22, 1814, and when he was eight years old his mother also died. At thirteen he apprenticed himself to a saddler, but failing health compelled him to abandon that business, and he obtained a clerkship in a ship-chandlery establishment. There his good conduet won the esteem of his employer. Prudent and saving, he had earned and kept money enough in 1834 to start a small ship-chandlery store on his own account, at Coenties Slip, where, by untiring devo- tion to business and suavity of manners, he attracted the attention and kindly offices of his older neighbors. Early and late he might be found attending to business. During the shorter days his store would be illuminated with tallow dips before daylight in the morning. Fishermen and seamen who dealt with him called his place " The Lighthouse," and its proprietor " Candle Roberts. "
By industry, honesty, and thrift Mr. Roberts caused his business to scon expand into large proportions, and he became a rich man in a comparatively few years. In 1847 he was worth a quarter of a million dollars, and possessed the power which belongs to a citizen who has. fairly won the reputation of positive trustworthiness as well as solid riches. By great sagacity he had made a fortune in the ship chandlery business, and he madle profitable investments and ventures in other branches of industry. He owned the IFendrick Hudson steamboat on the North River, the first really " floating palace" ever- seen ; and with the same sagacity he became the owner of ceean steamships and secured a very large income from the business of transportation of passengers and freight between New York City and California after it became a possession of the United States in 1818. He successfully competed with great capitalists, such as Howland & Aspinwall and Vanderbilt, in this business. We may not follow him in his successful career as a ship- owner, nor yet as a stockholder and manager of railways, in which, in his later years, he was much and profitably interested.
When the rebellion broke out in Charleston harbor, Mr. Roberts offered his steamship Nur of the West to the government to convey supplies to the beleaguered garrison in Fort Sumter, and she felt the first overt act of war by being fired upon by the South Carolina insurgents. All through the contest he was an active supporter of the govern- ment with his voice, his influence, his hand, and his purse, and when at its close Presi- dent Lincoln was assassinated, Mr. Roberts sent to the widow of the martyr his check for $10,000.
Before the war Mr. Roberts was a man of large wealth. He was one of the five who joined Mr. Field in forming the first ocean telegraph company. His personal and business influence was largely felt in the affairs of the city. In early life he took part in polities, and he was a great admirer and friend of Henry Clay. He was one of the leaders of the Whig party in the " hard-cider" campaign, and was a firm supporter of the Republican party from the time of its formation in 1856. He was often solicited to take the nomination for office, but with the exception of that of mayor of the city, he declined :lom all.
Mr. Roberts's residence on Fifth Aveune, at the time of his death, was one of the
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Street were too small for their purpose, Mr. Roberts, perceiving their dilemma, bought two vacant lots adjoining the armory, for which he paid $100,000, built upon the land a handsome edifice for the fair restaurant, and turned it over to the lady managers. Mrs. Roberts took charge of the restaurant with a host of lady assistants, and turned into the treasury from that department over $17,000. Its success was not as great in the amount of money received as was anticipated, for the public, as a rule, preferred to give cash donations ; but it afforded a vast amount of comfort to the visitors at the fair, and increased their numbers because of its accommodations.
The Union League Club has done noble work for the public good since the war. No longer compelled to stand as a sentinel, watching the approach of foes of the Republic, open and secret, it turned its energies into various fields of labor needing earnest workers. The subjects of political and social reform, State and municipal ; the cleansing of public offices of corruption, the promotion of the public health, the overthrow of a great conspiracy to plunder the public treas- ury, known as the Tweed Ring, and scores of other measures for the support of virtue, order, and cleanliness in public affairs, have all felt the influence of the club, through the untiring labors of efficient com- mittees. It was chiefly instrumental in securing for the city a Paid Fire Department and the present admirable Board of Health. Its Committee on Political Reform, of which Dorman B. Eaton is chair- man, has a perpetual existence.
In 1864 the Union League Club made its home in a fine mansion on the corner of Twenty-sixth Street and Madison Avenue, which had been built for the Jockey Club, where it remained many years, and gathered a valuable library and picture gallery. There was a spacious reading-room, and a large apartment set apart for lectures, concerts. and dramatic performances. Finally the site for its present home, on the corner of Thirty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue, was purchased, on which the club erected a building on a plan designed in reference to the requirements of an association composed, in 1853, of about fifteen hundred members, at a cost of about $400,000. The club first occu- pied it in 1881 .*
finest in the city. He possessed a very extensive and valuable fine-art gallery, for he had been a lover of art from his early youth. He was three times married. Four children were the fruits of his first marriage, one of the second marriage, and one of the third. His sagacity was most remarkable. "I never knew him," said a friend, " to make a mistake about the commercial standing of any man. When he said, ' I think that man will fail in so many months,' it always happened that the man failed."
" The first floor of the club house contains a large and well-appointed reading ati
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FOURTH DECADE, 1860-1870.
The club gives monthly receptions, at which new American pictures and foreign pictures, loaned, are exhibited. A ladies' reception is given annually, and is always a brilliant social event."
The Union League Club being a firm supporter of the Republican party, for obvious reasons, at the close of the war, the MANHATTAN CLUB was organized in 1865 for the avowed purpose of "advancing Democratic principles and for promoting social intercourse :" in other words, for promoting the interests of the Democratic party. This club was first conceived at the Union Club during the stormy Presidential election in 1864, when there was much antagonistic political feeling among the members of that association. Some of the Democratic members, feeling uncomfortable, withdrew and formed this new club. The organization was effected by the election of John Van Buren as president. It was reorganized in 1877. Meanwhile it had taken pos- session of its present elegant home at No. 96 Fifth Avenue.
The membership of the club is limited to one thousand ; its number of members in 1883 was somewhat less than six hundred. Its entertain- ments of guests are brilliant affairs. Leading members of the Demo- cratic party have been its honored guests from time to time. President Johnson was entertained during his "tour around the circle ;" Mr. Tilden was so honored by it on his nomination ; so also was General Hancock on a similar occasion. Indeed, both Tilden and Hancock were nominated by the club, it is said, before the Democratic National Convention to nominate a candidate for the Presidency had met. The president of the club in 1882 was Aaron J. Vanderpoel, and Henry Wilder Allen was the secretary.
conversation room, a billiard-room, and cafe ; the second floor contains a large and beautifully decorated room in which is a library of over 3000 volumes arranged in aleoves. The eastern half of this floor is devoted to the art gallery and general meeting- room of the club. The dining-room is a notable portion of the house. It is heavily panelled with oak, and its high-vaulted ceiling is beautifully decorated. All the rooms are more or less decorated. On the third floor are numerous rooms devoted to various purposes.
* The officers of the club for 1881-82 were: Hamilton Fish, president ; Joseph H. Choate, Noah Davis, George Cabot Ward, Jackson S. Schultz, Josiah M. Fiske, Cornelius R. Agnew, William M. Evarts, Legrand B. Cannon, John H. Hall, Salem H. Wales, Sinclair Tousey, and William Dowd, vice-presidents ; Walter Howe, secretary ; George F. Baker, treasurer. There have been nine presidents of the chib -- namely : Robert B. Minturn, Jonathan Sturges, Charles H. Marshall, John Jay (1866, 1869, and 1877). Jackson S. Schultz, William J. Hoppin, Joseph H. Choate, George Cabot Ward, and Hamilton Fish. The latter was chosen in 1879. It has on its roll about twenty honorary members, including two Presilents of the United States (Lincoln and Grant). The rest are or were officers of the army and navy.
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Mention has been made of the American Association for the Promo- tion of National Union and for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge. The necessity for an organization to counteract the influence of that society was so plainly felt that at the beginning of 1863 William T. Blodgett, an earnest and patriotic merchant of New York, went to Washington and consulted the chief officers of the government on the subject. A plan was discussed and agreed to, and on his return Mr. Blodgett invited a number of loyal citizens to a conference. The result was the formation, in February, 1863, of the LOYAL . PUBLICATION' SOCIETY. Charles King was chosen its president, and John Austin Stevens, Jr., its secretary.
The object of this society was the distribution of journals and docu- ments of unquestionable and unconditional loyalty throughout the United States, and particularly in the armies then engaged in the sup- pression of the rebellion, and to "counteract, as far as possible. the efforts then being made by the enemies of the government and the advocates of a disgraceful peace," by the circulation of documents of a disloyal character. Money was subscribed for the immediate begin- ning of operations. Over $3000 were contributed by members of the Union League Club.
Mr. King did not serve as president long, on account of ill health. and Professor Francis Lieber was appointed to take his place. Dr. Lieber was one of the most patriotic of our foreign-born citizens. He superintended the publication of one hundred pamphlets issued by the society, ten of which were written by himself. He and Mr. Stevens served the society with great ability until its dissolution early in 1866. In the space of six weeks after the society began its work, it sent to Washington for distribution in the Army of the Rappahannock 36,000 copies of loyal journals and documents.
In April, 1863, the society aided in the establishment of the _Iriny and Nory Journal, on the principle of " unconditional loyalty," under the management of Captain W. C. Church. It is still (1883) published under the same management. The final overthrow of the rebellion in 1865 ended the mission of the Loval Publication Society, and at its third anniversary meeting (February 27, 1866) it was determined to dissolve it. President Lieber made an impressive address to the mem- bers on that occasion, and adjourned the society sine die, saying, " God save the great Republic ! God protect our country !"
The Presidential election in the city of New York in the fall of 1865 was attended by exciting events. On November 2d the mayor (G. C. Gunther) received a telegram from the Secretary of War, informing
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Lim that there was a conspiracy on foot to set on fire several Northern vities on election day. The mayor did not believe it, but said he would Ww. vigilant ; but the government deemed it proper to provide against mischief. On the day before the election 7000 troops were landed at L'ort Hamilton, at the entrance to the harbor, and on Governor's Island, nearer the city. General Butler had been despatched from Fortress Monroe to take command of all troops in and around the city. He arrived the day before. On the morning of the election the troops were embarked on steamboats, which were anchored off the city at different points.
The day passed off quietly, but events which occurred in the night of the 25th of November brought the warning of the Secretary of War vividly to the minds of the citizens. On that night thirteen of the principal hotels in the city," Barnum's Museum, some shipping, and a large lumber-yard were found to be on fire at almost the same moment. This was the work of incendiaries employed by the conspirators at Richmond. One of these incendiaries, Robert Kennedy, who was caught and hanged, confessed the crime and revealed the methods em- ploved. Each incendiary, furnished with a travelling bag containing inflammable materials, took a room at a hotel like an ordinary lodger, closed the shutters of his apartment, tore up the cotton or linen bed- clothes, saturated the material with phosphorus and turpentine, set fire to a slow match, left the room, closed and locked the door and departed, leaving the house and all its inhabitants to burn to ashes ! The precautions to prevent a discovery foiled the attempt, for the flames in the tightly-closed rooms were smothered. Kennedy said this attempt to burn the principal buildings in New York City was in retaliation for Sheridan's raid in the Shenandoah Valley.
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