USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2 > Part 10
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tion, promptly turned out on the morning of the 24th of February, and took up its quarters in the court-rooms of the City Hall. This fact coming to the knowledge of the rioters, order was restored, and the regiment was dis- missed in the evening.
This same year witnessed, also, the destruction of the " OLD SHAKESPEARE TAVERN," the ancient stamping-ground of the " National Guards," and for many years intimately associated with the military history of the city. It stood at the south-west corner of Fulton and Nassau Streets (the site [1872] of the present Commercial Advertiser building). It was originally. a low, old-fashioned, massive edifice, built of small, yellow bricks, two stories high, with dor- mer-windows on the roof. The entrance, in its early days, was through a green baize door on Nassau Street-an entry running through the building, with rooms on both sides. "The Tap" was in the south front room, on Nassau. Street, and was fitted up in one corner with a circular bar of the old English fashion. The build- ing was erected many years before the Revolution, by John Leake, a commissary in the French war,* but, in 1822, a modern extension on Fulton Street, three stories high, was added.
On the second story there was a room for public meet- ings and military drills, and on the third story there was also another room, arched, for concerts and balls, and for the accommodation of the political, literary, and musical patrons of the house. It was kept in its palmiest days by Thomas Hodgkinson, an Englishman by birth, who had come over to the United States when quite young.f He
* This Leake is said to have saved the life of the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Dettingen. He was also at the siege of Louisburg, under Sir William Pepperell.
t Hodgkinson was an officer of the Second regiment of N. Y. S. Artillery, 1
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was a brother of the celebrated comedian and vocalist, John Hodgkinson, who was at one time manager of the old. Park Theater. Hodgkinson bought the house in 1808, and under his management it soon became and long continued a great resort for the wits of the day, and was celebrated for the superiority of its wines and the quiet comfort and elegance of its private suppers.
The "Shakespeare Tavern," in fact, was to New York what the " Mermaid " was to London in the days of Shakes- peare and Queen Bess, or, later, the "St. James Coffee- house " and the "Turk's Head" in the time of Reynolds, Garrick, and Goldsmith. Within its walls, Hugh Gaine and James Cheetham have broken many a lance over the polit- ical topics of the day. In its tap-room " Ready-Money Prov- ost" has been seen quietly sipping a mug of foaming flip as he meditated over some fresh scheme for cheating the revenue .* Here, De Witt Clinton was wont to discuss his
and distinguished for his devotion to the cause of his adopted country in 1812. At his death, which occurred on the day of the reception of General Lafayette, in 1824, he was a captain, and was buried with military honors. Two of his sons served in the " National Guard."-Recollections of the Seventh Regiment, for the use of two copies of which book (now exceedingly rare) the author is indebted to the courtesy of Herman G. Carter, Esq., and to the publishing house of J. M. Bradstreet & Son.
* " READY-MONEY"PROVOST," or David Provost-a man long known as the chief of a gang of smugglers who infested Long Island Sound-acquired his compound appellation in consequence of the abundance of money which he always had by him, even in times of the greatest scarcity. One of his strong- holds for secreting his contraband articles was at Hallett's Cove, L. I. He was for many years suc'. a character, that I here give a conversation said to have been held between him and a gentleman, as illustrative both of the man and of the ideas held by his class upon smuggling :
" I have not the honor of an acquaintance with you, Mr Provost ; but I have heard much of you and your occupation."
" No reflections, if you please, Mr. Talcott : my occupation is an affair of my own : 'Free Trade"'s my maxim : we fowt with Great Britain for liberty, and agin the tea-tax and the custom-houses. I got a bullet in my leg, and like to " have had a baggonet in my bread-basket at the battle of Brooklyn, over there where the Jarsey Blues was shot. I was agin the custom-houses then, and I'm agin them now. Well: we whipped the English, and the Hessians to boot, and got our liberties, they tell us. But blast my picture, if we aint more pes-
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pet project, the Erie Canal; here, Fitz-Greene Halleck, and Sands, and Percival," and Paulding, and Willis Gay-
tered and plagued with custom-houses now than we was then-and be hanged to 'em !"
"I meant no reflections, Mr. Provost," replied Mr. Talcott ; "but as you said you supposed you were a stranger to me, I only intended to say that you had been pointed out to me as a smug-I beg pardon-as a-"
" Ay, smuggler-say it out! They turn up their noses, and call me smug- ยท gler, who have never cheated a man in my life ; while they fail for their thou- sands, and ride in their coaches all the while besides ! Many a time have I lent the scoundrels the hard chink-the real Caroluses-to keep them out of limbo; when, before they had turned the next corner, they would call me smuggler !- just because I'm for making an honest living by FREE TRADE. There's Con- gress has just been introducing a Tariff, as they call it, and Madison, and Car- roll, and old Roger Sherman, and all on 'em are voting for it. But by the "- and here, with flashing eyes, the smuggler swore a great oath which we will not repeat-"' Ready-Money Provost' will stand by his 'reserved rights,' as they call them away there in Virginny, and nullify the custom-house laws, as long as the ' Pot' boils in Hellgate !"
" Never mind," replied Talcott, in a conciliating tone; " we will waive that subject. I am no merchant, and know little of the mysteries of trade or of smuggling. And if-"
"Smuggling, again ! I tell you, Mr. Talcott, you must not make my Jarsey blood boil too hot. I'm an honest man, that pays his debts, and ruins no friend who has the kindness to underwrite for me. I am only a free-trader,-acting as a broker between the importer and the jobber, just to help 'em get clear of the duties which Government puts on to pay their idle officers. It's no harm to cheat the Government,-particklar when one gets along without swearing till all's blue in the custom-house. And, as betwist man and man, I've never taken anybody in-man nor woman nother-and, what's more, I've always stuck to my engagements."
Provost, notwithstanding his roughness and questionable occupation, mar- ried the widow of James Alexander, and mother of Lord Stirling, an eminent American officer in the Revolutionary War. He was buried in the family vault, cut in a rocky knoll in Jones's Wood, near the house in which lie lived the latter portion of his life. It is now a dilapidated ruin near the foot of Seventy-first Street. The :.. arble slab which he placed over the vault in memory of his wife (and which commemorates him, also) lies neglected over the broken walls. Near the site of the tomb, the Germans, who love the open air, go thither on Sunday, in large numbers, and tents, wherein lager-bier is sold, form conspic- uous objects in that still half-sylvan retreat. Provost died in 1791, aged ninety years.
* In the spring of 1832, S. G. Goodrich was in New York, and invited Mr. Cooper, the novelist, to dine with Percival at the City Hotel. Mr. Goodrich thus describes their appearance: " It is not easy to conceive of two persons more strongly contrasting with each other. As they sat side by side at the table, I noted the difference. Mr. Cooper was in person solid, robust, athletic ; 1
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lord Clark, have met in social converse and passed many a merry jest and brilliant repartee ; here, too, McDonald Clark, the "Mad Poet," * has often startled the little circle gathered around him by one of his strange outbursts of poetic frenzy ; here, some of the liveliest sallies of the Croaker and most touching passages in Yamoyden were conceived and brought forth; and here, also, Sands first recited to his friends Stone, Verplanck, and John Inman, his last and most remarkable poem-The Dead of 1832.t Henceforth, let no one say that New York has no memo- ries save those of the temples of the money-changer. The old Shakespeare Tavern has entertained coteries composed
in voice, manly ; in manner, earnest, emphatic, almost dictatorial-with some- thing of self-assertion bordering on egotism. * * * Percival, on the contrary, was tall and thin; his chest, sunken; his limbs, long and feeble; his hair, silken and sandy; his complexion, light and feminine; his eyes, large and spectral ; his whole air startled; his attitudes, shy and shrinking ; his voice, abashed and whispering. Mr. Cooper ate like a man of excellent appetite and vigorous digestion : Percival scarce seemed to know that he was at the table. Cooper took his wine as if his lips appreciated it: Percival swallowed his evi- dently without knowing or caring whether it was wine or water. Yet these two men conversed pleasantly together. After a time, Percival was drawn out, and the stores of his mind were poured forth as from a cornucopia. I could see Cooper's gray eye dilate with delight and surprise."
Percival, as is well known, was very eccentric, even if he was not at times deranged. He was more free in conversation with Mrs. Colonel Stone than perhaps.with any other person. He was subject to deep dejections ; and, when he was quite "in the depths," he would come to her, usually spending several days at the house ; but he came and went suddenly. One morning, upon com- ing down to breakfast, she found a piece of poetry. It was on her plate ; and he was not seen nor heard of for some time afterward. This piece of poetry, entitled "Musings at the House of a Friend," does not appear in his published poems, and is, therefore, given at the close of Appendix No. V.
* For several curious anecdotes of McDonald Clark, see Appendix No. V.
t This poem appeared in the Commercial Advertiser but a few days before Sands's death. "By a singular coincidence," says Mr. Verplanck, in his ele- gantly written sketch of the poet, " he chose for his theme the triumphs of Death and Time over the men who had died in the year just closing-Goethe, : Cuvier, Spurzheim, Bentham, and Walter Scott ; Champollion, ' who read the mystic lore of the Pharaohs;' Crabbe, the poet of purity ; Adam Clarke, the learned Methodist ;- a goodly company, whom he himself was destined to join before the year had passed away." 1
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of as choice spirits as ever supped at the " Turk's Head." True, all is now changed. Where formerly it stood, the hum of business and the rattling of drays have succeeded
PROVOST'S TOMB, JONES'S WOOD.
to the quiet that was once so grateful to the wearied frame; and a bare brick building usurps the site of the quaint vine-clad tavern. But, though all traces of it have
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vanished, it will live in its traditions, which, like the ivy that formerly covered its portals, shall forever be entwined around the hearts of future generations .*
* On the death of its proprietor in 1824, the house passed to his connection by marriage, James C. Stoneall (afterward an alderman of the Second Ward), by whom the interior was remodeled and modernized, and a handsome bar- room fitted up in one corner, with an entrance on Fulton Street. Like his predecessor, Stoneall maintained the character of the house until the widening of Fulton Street caused its demolition.
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CHAPTER IX.
.IT was during the mayoralty of Cornelius W. Law- rence that the great Flour Riot took place-a riot which, although I can find no mention of it save in the contem- poraneous records of the day, at first threatened the most serious destruction to life and property.
The winter of 1836-'37 had been one of unusual severity. In addition to this, a scarcity of the cereal crops throughout the country, the preceding season (not more than one-half the usual quantity having been har- vested), had raised flour to twelve and fifteen dollars a barrel-at that time an enormous price. The poorer class of citizens, as a matter of course, suffered greatly ; and a mistaken idea having got abroad that a few of the larger flour and grain dealers had taken advantage of the scarcity to buy up all the flour in the city, there was added mental to physical distress. But, granting all this, it is extremely doubtful whether these feelings would have culminated in actual deeds of violence, had not two political factions-the Loco-foco and the Temperance-for their own ends, fanned the embers of discord into a blaze. The former, through their party organs, labored to stir up the evil passions in the bosoms of the laboring classes by the war-cry of " the poor against the rich;" while the latter attributed the scarcity of grain to the distilleries. A few weeks before
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the riot, a public meeting had been held at the New York Tabernacle,* to consider and act upon the high price of grain and provisions, on which occasion the speeches evinced considerable heat, though they were not of an openly incendiary character. The fires, however, were only smoldering, and, accordingly, on Friday, the 10th of 1837.
February, 1837, a notice was published in some of the newspapers, and conspicuously placarded through the city, of a meeting to be held in the Park on the afternoon of the next Monday, February 13th. The notice itself, as will be seen, was couched in language of a highly injudicious character, and well calculated to inflame the minds of the unthinking, and lead them into the excesses which they afterward committed.
The following is a fac-simile of the notice :
BREAD ! MEAT! RENT! FUEL !!
THEIR PRICES MUST COME DOWN !
The voice of the people shall be heard and will prevail. The people will meet in the PARK, rain or shine, at 4 o'clock MONDAY Afternoon,
To enquire into the cause of the present unexampled dis- tress, and to devise a suitable remedy. All friends of humanity, determined to resist monopolists and extortion- ists, are invited to attend.
MOSES JACQUES,
DANIEL GORHAM,
PAULUS HEDL, JOHN WINDT,
DANIEL A. ROBERTSON,
ALEXANDER MING, JR.,
WARDEN HAYWARD, ELIJAH F. CRANE.
New York, February 10th, 1837.
* The New York Tabernacle, built in 1835-'36, and designed for a free church, was torn down in 1856, and re-erected in 1859 by the society, on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street.
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Under the above call, a mob of about six thousand people collected together, at the time appointed, in front of the City Hall, combining within itself all the elements of riot and revolution. Moses Jacques was selected as the chairman. Order was not the presiding genius, and the meeting was divided into various groups, each of which was harangued by some favorite demagogue after his own fashion and on his own account.
Conspicuous among the orators was Alexander Ming, Jr., and other speakers, who, in a most exciting manner, denounced the landlords and the holders of flour for the prices of rents and provisions. One of these orators, after working upon the passions of his audience until they were fitted for the work of spoliation and outrage, expressly directed the popular vengeance against Mr. Eli Hart, who was one of the most extensive flour-dealers in the city. " Fellow-citizens," he exclaimed, " Mr. Hart has now fifty- three thousand barrels of flour in his store. Let us go and offer him eight dollars a barrel, and if he does not take it"-here some person touched the orator on the shoulder, and he suddenly lowered his voice, and finished his sentence by saying, "we shall depart from him in peace." This hint was sufficient. A large body of the rioters at once marched off in the direction of Mr. Hart's store, situated on Washington Street, between Dey and Cortlandt. The store was a large brick building, and had three wide but strong iron doors upon the street. Being apprised of the approach of the mob, the clerks secured the doors and windows, but not until the middle door had been forced, and some thirty barrels of flour rolled into the street, and their heads stavel in. At this point Mr. Hart arrived on the ground with a posse of officers from the police. The latter were immediately assailed by a portion of the mob in Dey Street, their clubs wrested from them and shivered to pieces. The numbers of the
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mob not being large enough at this time, the officers suc- ceeded in entering the store, and for a short while delayed the work of destruction. The Mayor next arrived on the scene, and attempted to remonstrate with the infatuated multitude on the folly of their conduct, but to no purpose ; their numbers were rapidly increasing, and his Honor was assailed with all sorts of missiles, and with such fury that he was compelled to retire. Meanwhile, large reinforce- ments of rioters having arrived from the Park, the officers were driven from the field, and the store carried by as- sault-the first iron door torn from its hinges being used as a battering-ram against the others. The rioters, like enraged and famished tigers, now rushed in ; the windows and doors of the upper lofts were wrenched open, and the work of destruction again commenced. Barrels of flour by dozens, by fifties, and by hundreds were thrown in rapid succession from the windows, and the heads of those which did not break in falling were at once staved in. Intermingled with the flour were sacks of wheat by the hundred, which were cast into the street, and their con- tents emptied upon the pavement. About one thousand bushels of wheat and six hundred barrels of flour were thus wantonly and foolishly destroyed. The most active of those engaged in this were foreigners, debased by intem- perance and crime-indeed, the greater part of the assem- blage was of exotic growth; but there were probably a thousand others standing by and abetting their incendiary labors Amidst the falling and bursting of the barrels and sacks of wheat, numbers of women were engaged, like the crones who strip the dead on the battle-field, fill- ing the boxes and baskets with which they were provided, and their aprons, with flour, and making off with it. One of the destructives, a boy named James Roach, was seen upon one of the upper window-sills, throwing barrel after barrel into the street, and crying out with every throw,
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" Here goes flour at eight dollars a barrel !"* Early in the assault, Mr. Hart's counting-room was entered, his books and papers seized and scattered to the winds.f
Night had now closed upon the scene ; but the work of destruction did not cease until strong bodies of police arrived, followed soon after by detachments of troops. The store was then closed, and several of the rioters were arrested and sent to the Bridewell, under charge of
THE OLD BRIDEWELL ..
the Chief of Police. On his way to the prison, the latter, with his assistants, was assailed, his coat torn off him, and several prisoners were rescued.
Before the close of the proceedings at Hart's store, the cry of " Meech " was raised, whereupon a detachment of the rioters crossed over to Coenties Slip to attack the
* This boy, however, with others, paid dearly for his flour, being afterward indicted, tried, and sent to prison for a term of years.
+ Mr. Hart's loss was set down at $10,000.
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establishment of Meech & Co., also extensive flour-dealers. But the store of S. HI. Herrick & Co., coming first in their way, they commenced an attack on that. . The windows were first smashed in with a shower of brickbats, and the doors immediately afterward broken. Some thirty barrels of flour were then rolled into the street, and their heads staved in. The .citizens and police, however, ad- vancing in large force, compelled the mob to desist, and soon dispersed it, capturing, also, some of the rioters.
" At eight o'clock in the evening," writes Colonel Wil- liam L. Stone to a friend on the morning after the occur- rence, " all was quiet. I took a stroll over the scene of the principal riot, wading for a considerable distance knee- deep in flour and wheat. Several hundreds of people were yet lingering about, but the police were strong, and the patrols of troops frequent. I saw several women stealing away with small sacks of flour; but the weather was too intensely cold for people to remain abroad, and before nine all was quiet and still. The night was bright moonlight, and the glittering of the burnished armor made quite a striking appearance. Thus has ended the first attempt of the sovereign wisdom of this country to reduce the price of provisions by reducing the quantity in the market!"
A detachment of the military, consisting of the Na- tional Guards, under Colonel Smith, and Colonel Helas's regiment, were under arms the entire night, with muskets loaded and cartridge-boxes well supplied with powder and ball, ready to act promptly on hearing the signal from the great bell of the City Hall; but, happily, their services were not called into requisition.
Regarding this riot, the city authorities were greatly blamed for not taking official measures for the preserva- tion of the peace of the city in anticipation of the meet- ing in the Park. They had had, it seems, full warning. .
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 499
An anonymous letter had been found a day or two pre- vious in the Park, addressed to a Mr. W. Lennox, inform- ing him that Hart's store would be attacked soon by a large number of people; and that, the better to carry out this project, two alarms of fire were to be given, one near the Battery, and the other higher up Broadway; and while the attention of the police was thus distracted, the conspirators were to break into Hart's store and carry off as much flour as they could. Besides this letter, sev- eral other anonymous letters, to the same import, were received by the Mayor. It would therefore appear that the' censure of the authorities by the public was not entirely undeserved.
In this riot some forty of the rioters were captured, and afterward indicted, tried, and sent to State Prison. The ringleaders, however, almost to a man, escaped. Not a single person who signed the call, nor, as can be discov- ered, a single orator who harangued the meeting, was tried. Nor did the mob succeed in bettering their condition. "One effect," says Niles' Register for the week after the riot, " has resulted from the doings of the Political Econ- omists (!), which will add to the distress of that class they affected a desire to relieve. The stock of flour having been reduced, the price has naturally risen, and fifty cents per barrel more is now asked than was demanded previous to the mob."
The Great Fire of 1835, narrated in the preceding chapter, convinced the people of New York that the question of an ample supply of water could no longer be postponed. It had now been nearly seventy years since the subject of supplying New York with water began to attract the attention of the city authorities. Prior to the year 1799, the dependence of the people of the city for water was on the old " Collect Pond," the famous " Tea-
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Water Pump," and wells in different parts of the city. In 1774, when the total population of the city did not exceed 22,000, works were constructed by Engineer Collis, on the east line of Broadway, between the present Pearl and White Streets. Here a reservoir was built, and a large well sunk in the " Collect Pond," now filled up and cov- ered with costly buildings. The breaking out of the Revo- lutionary War in 1775, and the occupation of the city by the British, caused these works, while yet uncompleted, to . be abandoned. The "Tea-Water Pump" was situated in Chatham Street, east of Pearl. Its water was pure and . soft, and the pump was resorted to from all parts of the city. As late as 1797, the records of the Common Council indicate its popularity, a resolution having been passed to prevent the street being obstructed by the water-carts, and the owner required to raise and lengthen the spout for the convenience of passers on the sidewalk. A fruitless effort was again made in 179S-'99 to obtain water for the city from the River Bronx, but no further action was taken at that time, owing to the organization of the Manhattan Company. This Company, which was incorporated April 2d, 1799, supplied the city until 1822. The Manhattan Works, however, had long since proved comparatively worthless; and, after much discussion-the people mean- while having decided the question of " water or no water" in the affirmative, by a large majority vote-it was resolved to construct an aqueduct from the Croton River, distant forty miles from New York, which should conduct the waters of that stream into the city. The work was, accordingly, forthwith begun, and finished in 1842.
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