USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2 > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
519
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY ..
"' I refuse to pay any such assessment as this you speak of. I'd have you understand that I am postmaster of New York City, and not postmaster of a ward committee.'
" The pressure to get the Post-office 'down town' still continued, and advantage was taken of the fact that the ' Middle Dutch Church' was for sale to procure it for a Post office. There was nothing in the world so unsuited as the building for such a purpose; but the location was desirable, and the mer- chants went to work to press the matter upon the Government. The property was offered for $350,000, but the Postmaster-General decided not to give more than $400,000. Lest the purchase might not be consummated, the merchants in a few hours raised by voluntary contributions the additional $50,000, and the old church was secured for secular purposes.
" The extravagance and folly of the Federal Government in buying property erected for a church, and attempting to alter it to accommodate a post-office, or in leasing any kind of private property and fitting it up for public service, finds an illustration, but not an exceptionable one, in this ' high old Dutch Church Post- office of New York city.' It may not be out of place to mention to the general reader that this old church was dedicated, in 1732, as a house of Christian wor- ship. Until the close of the century its services were carried on in the ' Hol -. land language ;' after that it was alternated with the English language. In the year 1776 the British tore out its pews, and (with the adjoining building, the old Sugar-house) used it as a prison for American patriots, taken and treated as rebels. When no longer needed for this purpose, it served in rainy weather as a school-house for cavalry. When the British evacuated New York the congregation again took possession, removed the pulpit and altar from the eastern side to the northern end, and erected the heavy, formidable galleries, destined eventually to become so conspicuous in the economy of the Post-office.
" Perhaps no building could be invented more unsuited for the purposes to which it has been appropriated. John Lorimer Graham, who had the respon- sible and difficult task of making it available, commenced by expending on the attempt what was then the large sum of $80,000. He then issued a printed circular, surmounted by a picture of the old church, dated New York, Jannary 2d, 1845, which read :
"'The postmaster has great pleasure in announcing to his fellow-citizens that the new Post-office building (112 years old) in Nassau Street, will be ready for occupation in a few days, and respectfully invites, &c., &c., to view the interior arrangements of the establish- ment.'
" It was a grand time when the citizens crowded into this old church to look for the Post-office. The eighty thousand dollars had made no material change ; to be sure, the altar railing was gone, but the pulpit remained, and the gal- leries, left intact, resembled great overhanging amphitheaters. But the Post- office was finally installed ; and then commenced that era in its business his tory that has made it a sort of visible standard, or gauge, of the mighty growth of old Manhatta.
" The inconvenience, the necessarily miserable arrangements, the total unfit ness of the place-inherently so by the main design of the building-have been a source of constant discomfort and annoyance, and male the labors of the clerks and the supervision of the executive officers onerous to the last degree During the first year of the occupation, the space immediately around the build.
5.20
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
ing was still covered with the tablets of what should have been the truly hon- ored dead; for there lay the representatives of a large part of our ancient and best population. The vaults under and around the church gave up their dead when the profane feet of the busy multitude pressed forward toward the church, not for prayer, but from the absorbing interest in the living, bustling world. For a long year the strange spectacle was presented of coffins and mail-bags, of carts and extemporized hearses, jostling each other while engaged in their allotted work ; but at last this incongruous mingling of the dead pop- ulation and the living ended; but the forbidding look of that old castellated church remained.
" The tower, bountifully made of stone, continued, and still continues, to look down sullenly on the bustle beneath, while the strong walls of the church inside, announcing, in Dutch, that ' My house shall be called a house of prayer,' and the rough plastered walls outside, speaking of the wasting storms of nearly a hundred and fifty years, repudiate all harmonious minglings and sympathies with the secular business of distributing the mails.
› "But the place is not without its living defenders of old traditionary pos- session. The mynheers are gone; the Knickerbockers know the place no more ; but the rats, descendants of the original stock, keep high revel still, and continue to dispute possession with Uncle Sam and his salaried cohorts." *
It was while Caleb S. Woodhull was Mayor that a ter- rible riot occurred in Astor Place. It was at this time 1849. that the Native American Party was all-powerful in the city, and the greatest prejudice existed among the populace against any one of foreign birth. Such was the state of popular feeling when, in the autumn of 1848, William C. Macready, a well-known and eminent English tragedian, came to this country to play a fare- well engagement. Some hostility existed between him and Edwin Forrest, an equally well-known and eminent American tragedian, arising, as Macready assumed, from the unfriendly course of Forrest toward him while Mac- ready was playing in this country in 1844, and, as For- rest claimed, from the course pursued toward him by Macready while the latter was playing in England, which hostility was greatly augmented by Forrest having hissed Macready, in Edinburgh, for introducing something of his own in the play of Hamlet, in which he was performing the principal character. When Macready was announced
* For a more detailed account, taken from the same source, see Appendix No. IV.
521
- HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
to appear in New York, in 1848, it was anticipated that some opposition would be manifested toward him by the friends of Forrest, but Forrest dissuaded them from any such attempt. Macready went through his engagement without interruption, and, upon his benefit night, inju- diciously, in his speech to the audience, referred to the project of a party or faction to excite hostile feelings against him, and of its failure, in language which had the effect of arousing an active opposition to him on the part of the friends of Forrest. He was attacked by a Boston newspaper while performing in that city, and, upon his subsequent appearance in Philadelphia, a riot in the the- ater was prevented only by the strenuous exertions of the manager and the presence of a strong police force. At the close of this engagement, Macready, in his speech to the audience, referred to the ungenerous treatment he had received at the hands of an American actor, and For- rest replied, in a card in a Philadelphia newspaper, charg- ing Macready with instigating persons to write him down in the newspapers while he was in England, and procur- ing his friends to go to the theater, to hiss and drive him from the stage; in which card he applied to Macready such epithets as " superannuated driveler," "poor old man," and spoke of the disturbed state of his guilty con- science ; to which card Macready rejoined by another, denying the truth of Forrest's statements, and threaten- ing an action for libel. No further attempt was made to oppose Macready, although he continued to be assailed in the newspapers, until his reappearance at the Astor Place Opera-house, in May, 1849, where, upon the first night of his appearance, he was prevented from performing by the hisses and demonstrations of a number of persons act- ing in concert, who displayed banners, with inflammatory appeals, in different parts of the house. As he persisted in performing, the demonstrations against him became 66
٠
522
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
more violent ; chairs and missiles were thrown upon the stage, and he was compelled to desist from his attempt. As the hostility against him was supposed to proceed from a very limited number of persons, who had organized together to drive him from the stage, it elicited strong expressions of condemnation on the part of several of the public newspapers, and forty-eight prominent citizens signed and published a letter requesting him to recon- sider his determination not to perform, and assuring him that the good sense and respect for order in the commu- nity would sustain him upon the subsequent nights of his ,performance; in consequence of which letter he was announced to appear on the evening of May 10th, 1849. This letter had a very different effect from what its sign- ers anticipated, and greatly intensified the opposition. It was regarded as a challenge or defiance, by a few rep- resenting the upper or wealthier classes, to the less prom- inent part of the community, and national prejudices and antipathies were aroused by appeals through certain newspapers, prominent among which was a weekly pub- lication denominated Ned Buntline's Own, conducted by E. C. Z. Judson, and by the posting and distribution of incendiary handbills throughout the city. Through these means, and from a report, which spread extensively, that the officers and crews of the British vessels and steamers in the harbor would assemble at the theater to sustain Macready, the excitement became general through- out the city, and, a serious disturbance being apprehended, the Mayor advised the managers of the Opera-house to close it for that evening, and abandon any further attempt of a public performance in the city on the part of Mac- ready. The managers, however, insisted upon their right, under their license, to open the theatre and perform, and the public authorities, in recognition of it, took measures to prevent any disturbance of the peace by stationing a
523
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
strong police force in and around the Opera-house ; and arrangements were made with the major-general com- manding the uniformed militia to have an efficient mili- tary force in readiness to sustain the authorities, if neces- sary. Long before the opening of the Opera-house, large crowds assembled about and in front of it, and upon the opening of the doors the theater was speedily filled by persons having tickets, and without any disturbance or disorder. When Macready appeared the whole audience rose, and, the great bulk of those present being friendly to him, he was received with cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs, mingled with the groans and hisses of the few who were opposed to him. The noise continuing, a placard was displayed from the stage, requesting those in favor of order to remain quiet, which was complied with. About ten or fifteen persons, however, in the parquet, and some in the gallery, continued their opposition by hissing and angry demonstrations, and, as they would not desist, they were arrested by the police. Order was temporarily restored, and the play proceeded, but with occasional interruptions and hisses. Meanwhile the crowd upon the outside of the theater had largely augmented, and a group of young men, about twenty in number, were especially active in fomenting disturbance, conspicuous among whom was the prisoner Judson, with whom many of the young men frequently conferred, and who appeared to be acting as their leader. Judson was heard to say, " It is a shame that Americans should be served so !" and after a confer- ence with three of the young men, in a low tone, Judson called out, " Now, boys, whatever you have to do must be done quickly !" and one of the young men shouted, " Now, boys, for a shower!" to which Judson, in his assumed capacity as a leader, called out, " Hold, boys, until you are all ready !" and immediately a volley of stones was dis- charged against the walls and windows of the Opera-
ดิบ/ปั่น
524
. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
-
house, upon which the police arrested several of the participants, but not without very great resistance on the part of others. In the interior of the house the play was proceeding, when it was suddenly interrupted by a large paving stone, which came through one of the windows and fell among the audience, followed by other stones, smashing the panels of the doors and falling in the lobby and other places. The wildest scene of confusion ensued in the interior of the theater, which was heightened by the cry that it was on fire under the parquet, which proved to be the fact, and through this timely warning it was .speedily extinguished. Notwithstanding the activity of the police in making arrests, the attacks upon the Opera- house were continued outside with increased violence. A large number now united in assailing it with stones, break- ing the windows and attempting to force the doors at the entrances, which were resisted by the police, and the doors were barricaded from the inside, when a proposition was made, but not carried out, to enter the building from the rear by ladders; a plan devised by the prisoner Jud- son, who had had ladders brought there for that purpose, with the design of entering the building in that way to put a stop to the performance and drive out the audience. The crowd on the Eighth Street side of the theater, as described by the witnesses, was wild with excitement, and at the front, upon Astor Place, were wrought up to the highest pitch, heaving to and fro like the waves of the ocean, the number of persons being variously estimated at from ten to twenty thousand. Stones and missiles were flying in all directions, and the police, after vainly endeavoring to allay the disturbance, and deserted by the Mayor, who fled from the scene, were compelled to keep compactly together for their own security. The recorder and the sheriff, who were upon the spot promptly, placed themselves at the head of the police and kept them
525 .
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
together, who were now assailed with stones, missiles, and cries of derision from every quarter, in their unavailing attempt, as a body, to disperse the crowd, and some of them were very severely injured.
As it was apparent that the police force was insuffi- cient to protect the building or to quell the riot, which had increased to alarming proportions, the sheriff, with the advice of the recorder, dispatched a messenger for the military. The major-general had ordered the Seventh regiment. of infantry, known as the National Guard, and a troop of horse, to assemble at the arsenal, fully equipped, but, owing to the shortness of the notice, a force of but two hundred and seven men, in all, had assembled when the call came for their services; and this body, under the command of Colonel Duryea, and accompanied by Major- General Sandford and Brigadier-General Hall, hastened to the scene of disturbance. Upon entering Astor Place, the troop of horse, which was in front, was assailed by a shower of stones and brickbats, which were so continuous and rapid that nearly every man in the troop was injured. Their horses became unmanageable, and, being thrown into confusion, they individually galloped off, leaving the infantry alone to contend with the rioters. The small body of infantry was speedily wedged in by the pressure of the crowd upon either side, and assailed by opprobrious epithets and paving stones, an ample supply of which was at the command of the rioters, from a large pile in the street, the pavement having been recently broken up to put down water pipes. The military, however, being kept together in good order and efficiently commanded, forced their way through the crowd and cleared the rear of the theater, the rioters retreating before them as they ad- vanced, and, having effectually cleared Eighth Street, a cordon of police was thrown across it, to prevent any fur- ther access to it by the rioters. The military then passed
----
526
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
through Eighth Street to Broadway, accompanied by the recorder and the sheriff, and turned into Astor Place, to force back the crowd from that side of the theater, the rioters retreating before them until the military had reached to about the center of the Opera-house ; when the crowd, either from the pressure behind, or from the determina- tion to resist, remained stationary, and commenced assault- ing the military with showers of paving stones and brick- bats, by which nearly the whole of the first platoon were injured, and also the colonel commanding, the recorder, and several others. At this moment a pistol was fired ,from the crowd, which wounded one of the captains, whereupon General Sandford, and General Hall, who accompanied him, called out repeatedly to the crowd to fall back and disperse, or that they would be fired upon ; but were answered only by derisive cries, and by the crowd rushing forward upon the military, during which the commanding general was knocked down, together with several soldiers in the front rank, the whole body being forced back toward the Opera-house, followed by continu- ous showers of stones. At this juncture the order was given to charge bayonets, and the attempt made, but it could not be done, the pressure of the crowd was so close; the muskets of several of the soldiers were forcibly taken from them by some of the more active of the rioters. The com- manding officer now apprised the recorder and the sheriff that it would be impossible for the military to maintain themselves without firing, and the sheriff, with whom that discretion was supposed to be lodged, after repeated calls to the rioters, on his part and that of the recorder, to fall back, or that they would be fired upon, and which was received with defiant shouts of " Fire, if you dare !" gave the order to fire. General Hall suggested to fire over the heads of the crowd, which order was given, and the mili- tary fired in that manner. It was followed by a shout,
527
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
" They have only blank cartridges! Give it to them again !" and another volley of paving stones followed, by which the recorder and several others were struck, and * one or two severely injured. The order was then again given to fire, and to fire low, which was done, when excla- mations were heard that men had been shot; and for the first time the mob gave way, and the military advanced, driving the rioters before them. The latter rallied again at the corner of Lafayette Place and advanced upon the military, discharging a volley of stones, by which sev- eral of the soldiers were hurt severely, when another order was given to fire, which was executed, and proved so effectual that the bulk of the rioters fell back and dis- persed, keeping up, however, for some time, an attack upon the military, with stones and brickbats, until the latter, without firing again, got complete possession of the ground, and order was restored. Twenty-three persons were killed upon the spot by the fire of the military, or died afterward of their wounds, and twenty-two were wounded, independent of injuries and severe wounds received from paving stones by many of the police and the military. Many of the killed and wounded were merely spectators, who had taken no part in the riot, or persons who were passing at the time. A woman walk- ing with her husband, in Broadway, was shot dead; a man was killed instantly by a musket ball while stepping from a Harlem railroad car; an eminent merchant was wounded in the neck by a ball while standing in the Bow- ery, and another person was severely wounded by a shot in St. Mark's Place, two blocks off from the scene of the riot; a Mr. Gedney was shot dead while looking at the riot from the corner of Astor and Lafayette Places, and his own brother was in the platoon by which the volley had been fired.
A very full investigation of the riot was instituted by
. 528
. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
the coroner's jury, who found that the persons killed came to their death from gunshot wounds fired by the military, by the order of the civil authorities, and that, in the opin- ion of the jury, the circumstances that existed at the time justified the authorities in giving the order to fire upon the mob .*
Quite a number of local events, of considerable interest at the time, occurred about this period. Among these may be mentioned the visit of Jenny Lind to the United States; and her first appearance in Castle Garden on the 1850. 7th of September, 1850; the new municipal regu- lations imposed by the amended city charter of 1849; the Grinnell expedition to the Arctic regions ; and the arrival of the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, on the 5th of December, 1851.
, 1851.
On the 14th of July, 1853, the World's Fair for the exhibition of the industry of all nations was opened at the Crystal Palace, in Reservoir Square, in the 1S53.
vicinity of the distributing reservoir of the Croton Aqueduct. "The fairy-like Greek cross of glass bound together with withes of iron, with its graceful dome, its arched naves, and its broad aisles and galleries, filled with choice productions of art and manufactures gathered from the most distant parts of the earth-quaint old armor
* An investigation was also instituted before Hon. John W. Edmonds, pre- siding justice of the Supreme Court, as a committing magistrate, to inquire into the cause of the riot, by whom it was instigated, aided, or abetted, and, upon the information thus elicited, additional arrests were made. As the recorder, the Hon. Frederick A. Tallmadge, had participated as a magistrate in quelling the riot, his place as presiding judge of the Court of Sessions was filled by the Hon. Charles P. Daly, one of the judges of the New York Court of Common Pleas, at the opening of the June term of the court, 1849.
Previous to this riot, it was the general opinion that no one could be prose- cuted for a riot, as it was supposed to be the natural effect of political passion. The trial of the Astor Place rioters decided and set at rest forever this question in the affirmative ; ride the able charge of Chief Justice Daly, in Judge Edmonds's Select Cases (not yet published on account of the plates being destroyed by fire)-from which, by the way, this account of the riot is taken.
529
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
from the Tower of London, gossamer fabrics from the looms of Cashmere, Sevres china, Gobelin tapestry, Indian curiosities, stuffs, jewelry, musical instruments, carriages 'and machinery of home and foreign manufacture, Maro- chetti's colossal equestrian statue of Washington, Kiss's Amazon, Thorwaldsen's Christ and the Apostles, Powers's Greek Slave, and a host of other works of art beside, will long be remembered as the most tasteful ornament that ever graced the metropolis." Beautiful, however, as was this fairy-like palace, it vanished in smoke in the short space of half an hour, on the 5th of October, 1858, and fell, burying the rich collection of the American Institute, then on exhibition within its walls, in a molten mass of ruins.
In the winter of 1855, Canal Street was extended from Centre Street across Baxter to Mulberry Street, at which point it intersected Walker Street. The latter street was at the same time widened twenty-five 1855. feet to East Broadway. Park Place and Duane Street were also widened, and the Bowery and Chambers Street extended.
In 1856, that great lung of the city, the CENTRAL PARK, was, for the first time, thrown open to the public. The project of a large park had long been agitated; and even as far back as the beginning of the present 1856. century it was proposed to make the Collect Pond the center of large ornamental grounds. But, with the excep- tion of the small parks scattered here and there, through- out the city, nothing definitely was decided upon until the 23d of July, 1853, when the Legislature authorized the purchase of a portion of the present Central Park, at that time bounded by Fifty-ninth and One-hundred-and-sixth Streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenues, about two and a half miles long by half a mile wide, and comprising nearly seven hundred and seventy-seven acres. On the 17th
67
530 ·
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
of November of the same year, five commissioners were appointed by the Supreme Court to appraise the land for the Park. They completed their work in the summer of 1855, valuing the land at $5,398,695; and in February, 1856, the Common Council confirmed their report and made the purchase. The State Arsenal and grounds were shortly afterward added, at a cost of $275,000. In 1859, the Legis- lature extended the northern boundary of the Park to One-
THE TERRACE-BRIDGE AND MALL, CENTRAL PARK.
hundred-and-tenth Street, thus including a high hill east of McGowan's Pass, from the top of which a fine view is obtained of the whole island. In 1864, the Park was again enlarged by the addition of Manhattan Square, a rough and uncultivated piece of land, covering a space of nineteen and a half acres, and bounded by Seventy-sev- enth and Eighty-first Streets and Eighth and Ninth Ave- nues. The whole area of the Park was thus increased to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.