History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2, Part 21

Author: Stone, William Leete, 1835-1908
Publication date: 1872
Publisher: New York : Virtue & Yorston
Number of Pages: 876

USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2 > Part 21

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).

TT TO YOUTETE

634

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

the trifling sum of five thousand dollars bail. At length, on Friday, the 29th day of December, Mr. Tweed, forced to the step by the power of public opinion, resigned his office of Commissioner of Public Works, George Van Nort, a gentleman of large experience and high standing, being appointed to fill the vacancy. On the same day that this resignation was sent in, Mayor Hall was prohibited by a writ from Judge Brady from reappointing or recognizing the old Common Council; while, to complete the final downfall of the "Ring," William M. Tweed, spurned by nearly all of his fair-weather friends, was ejected from the position of Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society- Augustus Schell being elected to his place by acclama- tion .*

Upon the assembling of the Legislature at Albany on the Ist of January, 1872, the Committee of Seventy for- warded a petition to the Senate praying for the expulsion of Wm. M. Tweed from his seat in that body ; and 1872.

here, at the present time of writing (February Ist, 1872), the matter rests. The " Tammany Ring has been broken into fragments." Tweed is under heavy bonds to answer for various charges; Connolly and other subordinate, though probably not less guilty, leaders, keep out of the public view ; James Fisk, Jr., t is in his grave-

* As an illustration of the unstableness of power and influence, especially when not founded upon principles of rectitude, the reader can compare the position held by Mr. Tweed now (1812) with the one held by him only a few months since, when, at the wedding of his daughter, nearly $100,000 worth of gifts was presented to the latter by her father's political and personal admirers. At the close of Appendix No. XI. a partial list of these presents is given, both as a curious bit of history and as a "sign " of the " times." No propriety is violated by this publication, since the list was printed at the time, purposely, by the family in nearly all of the city papers.

For the act of incorporation of the Tammany Society see Appendix No. XII. + On Sunday, the 7th of January, 1872, James Fisk, Jr., died from the effects of a pistol shot received at the hands of Edward S. Stokes, on the afternoon previous, in the Grand Central Hotel.

It may, at first, seem singular that Fisk is mentioned in the text in connec-

HARPERS __ L

ULLOJUT

HARPER & BROTHERS' BUILDING

635

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

having come to a violent end by unlawful means ; and the names of the chief actors in the Tammany frauds are liter- ally a " by-word and a hissing " to the " ends of the earth." * What further course will be taken, and with what results, cannot now with certainty be stated. Already, however, a good work has been performed; and the probabilities are, that if the Committee push matters with the same energy they have up to the present time evinced, the members of the "Ring" will be brought to justice, and forced to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. Then shall the City of New York, it is to be hoped, be as distinguished for the purity of her government, as she now is for her liberality, her influence, and her wealth.t

tion with the Tammany leaders. Investigation, however, points to him as having, with the "Erie Ring," been thoroughly identified with them in sun- dry ways. At least such is the prevailing public opinion, shown by the fact that his death is universally accepted as another sign of the utter disruption and ruin of the " Tammany Ring."

* Chief among the causes which undoubtedly led to the overthrow of the " Tammany Ring " were the caricatures or cartoons which appeared from time to time in Harper's Weekly. The effects of these, by bringing the leaders of the "Ring" into justly merited ridicule, cannot, perhaps, be over-estimated. Indeed, in all ages, before the invention of printing, and since, " picture writ- ing" has been one of the most effectual weapons for moving and directing public opinion. Every one will perceive the power of these methods of giving expression to suppressed opinion, especially upon the ignorant multitude, by reflecting what has often been the effect of a good caricature upon his own mind.

+ Before closing the record of this year allusion should be made to the " Westfield disaster." The Westfield, which was a ferry-boat plying between the city and Staten Island, exploded her boilers just as she was on the point of leaving Whitehall Slip on Sunday, the 30th of July. One hundred and six persons were killed, and one hundred and fifty injured, many of them for life.

------

CHAPTER XVI.

THE History of New York City has now been brought down to a period within the recollection of almost the youngest inhabitant. The limits of this work will 1872. not permit me to speak at length of the causes which have led to the commercial and local prosperity of New York; the part taken by her publishing-houses in the dissemination of much that is good and beautiful and true in American literature ;* the position won for

* Chief among these may be mentioned the house of Virtue & Yorston, ,which, though a branch of the great house of Virtue & Co., London, can with propriety be called thoroughly American, from the fact of its having been instrumental, more, perhaps, than any similar house, in making the public familiar with American scenery. On this account a brief sketch of this firm belongs to the history of the city.

The house of Virtue & Yorston was first established in New York, in 1834, under the name of R. Martin & Co., and, in 1835, opened at 69 Barclay Street. Thence it was removed to Broadway, between Maiden Lane and Liberty, and, shortly after, to 26 Jolin Street, where-Mr. Martin retiring-it became G. Virtue & Co. Upon the business being removed, in 1863, to 12 Dey Street (see engraving on opposite page), where it still remains, the name of the firm was again changed to the present one of Virtue & Yorston. Mr. Yorston, the junior partner, having long been connected with the establishment of G. Vir- tue & Co., in England, was peculiarly fitted for his work. He had also, for a series of years, extensively canvassed for those books which have given this house a world-wide reputation (among these, Views in Switzerland, and the Vernon Gallery), and was thoroughly conversant with the wants of the American public.

It has been said that the house of Virtue & Yorston has always been peculiarly American. It was while the firm was established on Broadway that Bartlett prepared and finished his sketches for the great work of himself and N. P. Willis upon the scenery of the United States and Canada-books which

VIRTUE & YORSTON

PUBLISHERS

& IMPORTERS

VIRTUE & YORSTON'S BUILDING

637

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

her in letters by Sands and Halleck and Bryant and Ban- croft ; her School of Painting, fostered in its earlier days by Trumbull, Jarvis, Henry Inman* and Ingham, and in its later ones by Church, Bierstadt, Page, Richards, Hunt- ingdon, Elliott, Kensett, and others equally distinguished ; her School of Sculpture, represented by Brown, Thomp- son, and Ward; the nature and extent of her benevo- lent institutions, t and the character of her " merchant princes." Wealth in itself is no evidence of a city's pros- perity, and therefore I do not refer to those of her rich men who are distinguished for that alone, and whose names will readily suggest themselves to the reader. But we, as citizens, do take pride in pointing to men whose immense wealth is guided and controlled by the prin- ciples of evangelical religion. Of this latter class are Marshall O. Roberts, William E. Dodge, S. B. Schieffelin, Moses H. Grinnell-and others of similar character-men who are distinguished alike for their christian virtues and purity of life, and for their unparalleled business success. While, moreover, I have been compelled, as a faithful his- torian, to recount a few events that must ever remain foul

still remain the best authorities on the subjects of which they treat. This house, also, was the first to inspire the American public with a taste for hand- somely illustrated works. The Great Civil War, The Battles of America by Sea and Land, illustrated with fifty-one steel engravings, and The History of the United States, with ninety steel engravings, are familiar to all lovers of Ameri- can history. Among the works which have been introduced by them, and which have tended greatly to cultivate a taste for art in this country, may be mentioned "The Art Journal," one of the most superb works that have ever been published ; " Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland," with one hundred and twenty engravings on steel ; " Ireland, its Scenery and Character," illustrated with over six hundred engravings; "Piedmont and Italy ;" "Switzerland ;" " The Beauties of the Bosphorus ;" "Scotland;" "Gems of European Art ;" "Royal Gems from the Galleries of Europe ;" "The Wilkie Gallery ;" "The Vernon Gallery ;" and " The Turner Gallery."

* For Personal Reminiscences of Inman see Appendix No. XIII.

t For a full account of the aims and nature of the benevolent institutions of New York City, the reader is referred to a book exclusively devoted to that subject, published by E. B. Treat & Co.

638

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

blots upon the otherwise bright escutcheon of the city, I would far rather dwell upon pleasanter themes -the founding of the INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB,* and the SOCIETY FOR THE REFORMATION OF JUVENILE DELIN- QUENTS-the establishment of that noble work, the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION-the course taken by the city during the late civil war, in which she led the van in every movement having for its object either the support of the Government or the relief of its brave defenderst- the dinner given to Charles Dickens, under the auspices

* "Colonel Stone," writes Harvey P. Peet, the President of the New York Deaf and Dumb Asylum, to the author, "entered with characteristic zeal into the effort to build up a superior institution for the deaf and dumb.in New York. To his influence is due, in large measure, my selection for the position of principal, and I ascribe much of the success which crowned my labors to his ready sympathy and encouragement, and his intelligent and zealous co-opera- tion. From the time I became principal of the institution, in 1831, to his death in 1841, he was the man, of all others, on whom I most relied for aid in urging the claims of our institution on the people of our city and State. He was constant in his attendance at our public exhibitions, ever ready and felici- tous in suggesting tests of the acquirements of the pupils, and ever prepared with appropriate anecdotes to be related by signs and translated into written languages, so that it always seemed that inuch of the popular interest of those occasions was owing to him. The editor of a journal of wide circulation and extensive influence, especially among the more wealthy and benevolent classes, he was eminently successful in his appeals to benevolence-and that because of the confidence generally felt both in his goodness of heart and in his discrimination.

" As a director of this institution, his quick intelligence and sound judg- ment enabled him to appreciate the value of suggestions for improvements, and his influence with the Board could always be relied on to secure their adoption, at the same time that his rare good sense preserved him from the error of some men of undoubted philanthropy, who, in a similar situation, have thought that theories formed in the closet might be made to overrule a life-long professional experience. He was a liberal donor to the library of the institution, and his newspaper was always sent free for the use of our teachers and pupils. His example and influence, moreover, obtained for it frequent donations of books and periodicals. The value of such gifts to an institution like ours needs no comment."

t Chief among these was the Great Metropolitan Fair, held in the city in the spring of 1864, for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission. and which netted $1,000,000 for the relief of the soldiers-a sum exceeding that produced by all other fairs, for the same purpose, in the country.

638

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

blots upon the otherwise bright escutcheon of the city, I would far rather dwell upon pleasanter themes -the founding of the INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB, * and the SOCIETY FOR THE REFORMATION OF JUVENILE DELIN- QUENTS-the establishment of that noble work, the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION-the course taken by the city during the late civil war, in which she led the van in every movement having for its object either the support of the Government or the relief of its brave defenderst- the dinner given to Charles Dickens, under the auspices

* "Colonel Stone," writes Harvey P. Peet, the President of the New York Deaf and Dumb Asylum, to the author, "entered with characteristic zeal into the effort to build up a superior institution for the deaf and dumb.in New York. To his influence is due, in large measure, my selection for the position of principal, and I ascribe much of the success which crowned my labors to his ready sympathy and encouragement, and his intelligent and zealous co-opera- tion. From the time I became principal of the institution, in 1831, to his death in 1841, he was the man, of all others, on whom I most relied for aid in urging the claims of our institution on the people of our city and State. He was constant in his attendance at our public exhibitions, ever ready and felici- tous in suggesting tests of the acquirements of the pupils, and ever prepared with appropriate anecdotes to be related by signs and translated into written languages, so that it always seemed that much of the popular interest of those occasions was owing to him. The editor of a journal of wide circulation and extensive influence, especially among the more wealthy and benevolent classes, he was eminently successful in his appeals to benevolence-and that because of the confidence generally felt both in his goodness of heart and in his discrimination.

639

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

of the Press, on the 18th of April, 1868 -- the erection of the statue to Samuel F. B. Morse in the Central Park, in 1870-the generous welcome extended to the Russian Duke Alexis by the citizens of New York, in the winter of 1871-and the unveiling of the Franklin statue in Printing House Square, on the 17th of January, 1872. The details of these events, however, are too well known to need recapitulation here. A brief retrospective glance,

LL. 4 1

DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM.

or rather a comparison between old and modern New York, will therefore conclude this history. Nor, perhaps, can this be done better than by giving at length a few of the closing passages of Dr. Osgood's admirable address. delivered before the New York Historical Society, on the occasion of its sixty-second anniversary, in November, 1866 :

" In 1796 taxes were light, being about one-half of one

640

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

per cent. ; and in that year the whole tax raised was £7,968, and the whole valuation of property was £1,261,585 -estimates that were probably about half the real value, so that the tax was only about one-fourth of one per cent. A man worth $50,000 was thought rich, and some for- tunes reached $250,000. Mechanics had a dollar a day for wages, and a genteel house rented for $350 a year, and $750 additional would meet the ordinary expenses of liv- ing for a genteel family -- such as now spends from $6,000 to $10,000, we have good reason to believe, from such authority as Mr. D. T. Valentine, Clerk of the Common Council. A good house could be bought for $3,000 or $4,000, and flour was four and five dollars a barrel, and beef ten cents a pound.

" There were great entertainments, and men ate and drank freely-more freely, apparently, than now -- but nothing of present luxury prevailed in the high classes ; and how rare the indulgence was, is proved by the com- mon saying, that 'the Livingstons give champagne,' which marked their case as exceptional. Now, surely, a great many families in New York besides the Livingstons give champagne, and not always wisely for their own economy or their guests' sobriety.

" These homely items give a familiar idea of old New York in 1801. We must remember that it was then a provincial city, and had nothing of its present back-coun- try connection with the West, being the virtual capital of the Hudson River Valley rather than that of the great Empire State. Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, and the noted cities of Western New York were but names then, and Albany was of so little business note that the main con- munication with it was by dilatory sloops, such as Irving describes after his slow voyage in the craft that he long waited for, and which gave him ample time to study the picturesque on the Hudson, with such food for his humor

641

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

as the Captain's talk in Dutch to his crew of negro slaves. What a contrast with a trip now in the St. John or the Dean Richmond-marine palaces that float you, as in a dream by night, through the charmed passes of the Hud- son to Albany !

" The New York churches were strong ; but the clergy were little given to speculative thinking, and no com- manding thinker appeared among them, such as abounded in New England. They kept the old creeds and usages with a strength that awed down dissent, and with a benign temper that conciliated favor. Latitudinarian tendencies were either suppressed or driven into open hostility with the popular creeds under deistical or atheist- ical teachers. In all, the congregations numbered thirty, and the Jews had one synagogue. Even the most radical congregation in the city, the Universalists, held mainly to the old theological views, and had only one point of peculiar doctrine, and even with this single exception, and with all the orthodox habits, they had only a lay organiza- tion in 1801, and were without a regular minister till 1803.

" The Dutch Reformed, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists, numbered each five congregations; the Baptists, three ; the Friends, two; the Lutherans, two; the Roman Catholics, Huguenots, Moravians, and Univer- salists, one each. Some writers erroneously assign seven churches, instead of five, to the Episcopalians in 1801, by claiming for them the Huguenot Church Du Saint Esprit, which was established in 1704, and acceded to the Episco- pal Church in 1804; and Zion Church, which was estab- lished by the Lutherans in 1801, and joined the Episcopal communion in 1810.

" As far as we can judge, the Presbyterian clergy had most of the new American culture of the severer kind, and Drs. Samuel Miller and Jolm M. Mason were the

642

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

intellectual leaders of the New York pulpit. The only man to be named with them in popular influence was John Henry Hobart, who was ordained in 1801, conse- crated Bishop in 1811, and who, in spite of his extreme views of Episcopal prerogative, is to be named among the fathers of the American Church, and a good specimen of what old Trinity Church has done to unite patriotism with religion.

" The Episcopal Church had much accomplishment in its clergy, and Bishop Prevoost, who received ordination in England, was a man of extensive knowledge ; and Dr. Livingston, of the Dutch Church, was a good match for him in learning and dignity. It is said that when these clerical magnates met on Sundays and exchanged saluta- tions, they took up the entire street, and reminded be- holders of two frigates under full sail, exchanging salutes , with each other.

* " We may regard old New York as culminating * in the year 1825, with the completion of the Erie Canal ; and that great jubilee that married this city to the mighty West began a new era of triumph and responsibility that 'soon proved that the bride's festival is followed by the wife's cares and the mother's anxieties. New York had become the national city, and was so for a quarter of a century . more, and then she became cosmopolitan, European as well as American, and obviously one of the few leading cities of the world-the third city of Christendom. We may fix this change upon the middle of the century as well as upon any date, and call the time from 1850 till now her cosmopolitan era. The change of course, was gradual, and the great increase of the city dates from the close of the Revolutionary War and the evacuation of the city by the British troops. The population doubled nearly in the ten years after 1790, and went from 33,000 to 60,000. In 1825 it reached 166,085, and in 1850 rose to 515,515.

643

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

All this increase could not but bring a new sense of power, and throughout all the bewildering maze of the old New ork politics we can see traces of the desire of the peo- ple and their leaders to dispute the palm of empire with Virginia and its old dominion.

"The introduction of gas and of the Croton water were grand illustrations of the power of organized industry, and mighty aids in throwing light, health, and purity into the lives of the people ; and the rise of the great popular daily journals that almost created the na- tional press of America made an era in the free fellow- ship of public thought. The city pushed its triumphal march forward during that period from Bleecker Street to Madison Square, and vainly tried to halt its forces at Washington and Union Squares, or to pause long any- where on the way of empire. The whole period would make an important history of itself, and our task now is with the New York of to-day, as it has risen into cosmo- politan rank since 1850-the year which gave us a line of European steamers of our own, and opened the Golden Gate of California to our packets.

" Look at our city now in its extent, population, wealth, institutions, and connections; and consider how far it is doing its great work, under God's providence, as the most conspicuous representative of the liberty of the nineteenth century in its hopes and fears. You are too familiar with the figures and facts that show the largeness of the city to need any minute or extended summary of recapitula- tion. That we are not far from a million of people on this island, that began the century with sixty thousand ; that the valuation of property, real and personal, has

* The valuation of property in New York city represented by the census on the 30th of June, 1871, was $769,302,250 of real, and $306,947,223 of per- sonal estate.

For the value of real and personal estate at the present time, as well as the

644

HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.

risen since 1805 from $25,000,000 to $736,988,058; that the real value. of property here is about $1,000,000,000, or a thirtieth part of the entire property of Great Britain; . that our taxes within that time have risen from $127,000 to $16,950,767, over four and a half millions more than our whole national expenditure in 1801; that our banking capital is over $90,000,000, and the transactions of our Clearing Houses, for the year ending October 1st, 1866, were over $29,000,000,000; that our Savings Banks have 300,000 depositors and $77,000,000 of deposits; that our one hundred and eight Fire Insurance Companies and thirty-eight Fire Agencies have a capital of $47,560,000, and our eighteen Life Insurance Companies a capital of $2,938,000, whose premiums last year (1865) were nearly $9,000,000; that by the census of 1865 the number of dwellings was 49,844, and the value of them was $423,096,918; that this city, by the census of 1860, re- turned a larger manufacturing product than any other city in the Union, and more than any State, except New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania-the sum total of $159,107,369, from raw material worth $96,177,038 in 4,375 establishments, with 90,204 operatives. and $61,- 212,757 capital, and manufactured nearly one-eleventh of the sum total of the United States manufactures in 1860, which was $1,885,861,676; that in twenty years we exported, from September 1st, 1846, to September 1st, 1866, to Europe, over 27,000,000 barrels of flour, over 164,000,- 000 bushels of wheat, 127,000,000 bushels of corn, nearly 5,000,000 bushels of rye; that the receipts for customs in this port for 1865 were $101,772,905; that this city is the great gold market of the world, and in 1865 received $61,201,108, and exported over $30,000,000 abroad, and received in twelve years, 1854 to 1866, from San Fran-

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.

History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2, Part 21

Author: Stone, William Leete, 1835-1908 Publication date: 1872 Publisher: New York : Virtue & Yorston Number of Pages: 876

Author: Stone, William Leete, 1835-1908
Publication date: 1872
Publisher: New York : Virtue & Yorston
Number of Pages: 876