USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2 > Part 22
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financial resources generally of New York city beginning of 1872 see Gover- nor Hoffman's Message, in Appendix No. XIV.
*
645
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
cisco, $375,558,659 in gold ; that our shipping, registered and enrolled in 1865, amounted in tonnage to 1,223,264 tons, and the number of arrivals of vessels in this port in 1865 was 12,634, of these 2,078 being steamers ; that our exports for the year 1865 were $208,630,282, and our imports were $224,742,419; that on an average thirty- five tons of mail matter are received here for our citizens, and fifty-five tons are sent out daily ; that the average number of mail-bags received is three hundred and eighty- five, and the average number sent out is seven hundred and thirteen ; that within three years and a half the mail correspondence of our citizens has doubled ; that the num- ber of letters and newspapers collected by the carriers for the quarter ending December 31st, 1865, was over 3,000,000, and the number delivered by them was over 3,600,000, and the deliveries from post-office boxes for the same quarter were over 5,000,000; that the increase of letters is so marvelous that New York may soon rival London, which in 1862 received by mail 151,619,000 letters. These and the like plain statistics are sufficient to prove the imperial wealth and power of New York, and to startle us with the problem of its prospective growth, when we remember that 41% per cent. increase, which has been generally the actual rate of increase, will give us a population of some 4,000,000 at the close of the century.
" Let us pass in review the industrial army of the city, which General Barlow, Secretary of State, allows me to copy from the unpublished census of 1865, and let us imagine it divided into regiments, thus, of about a thousand persons each :
Blacksmiths, over two and one-half .regiments or 2,621
Book binders, over one
1,134
Boiler Makers, nearly one.
... 910
Boot and Shoe Makers, over six.
... 6,307
Butchers, four ..
.... 3,998
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646
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Brokers, one and one-third.
regiments or 1,348
Barbers, one.
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1,054
Cabinet Makers and Dealers, two and one-half
2,575
Carpenters, over six ..
.... 6,352
Cartmen and Draymen, four and one-half.
4,675
Clerks, seventeen and one-half.
429
- Confectioners, nearly one.
756
Cooks, one ..
...
906
Coopers, one and one-half
....
9,501
Drivers, nearly two
..
1,895
Engineers, over one.
..
1,196
Grocers, one.
937
Hat and Cap Makers, one and one-half.
1,438
Jewelers, one.
925
Laborers, twenty-one and one-quarter.
21,231
Laundresses, three and one-half.
3,590
Lawyers, one and one-fourth ..
1,232
Merchants, six ..
5,978
Machinists, three
....
3,108
Masons, three.
. ...
1,334
Musicians, nearly one
...
809
Painters and Glaziers, four.
3,801
Peddlers, two.
1,988
Physicians, one and one-fourth
...
1,269
Piano Makers, nearly one.
855
Plumbers, one.
66
1,108
Police, one and one-half.
1,546
Porters, nearly three.
2,729
Printers, two ..
....
2,186
1 Saddlers and Harness Makers, one
. .
915
Sailors and Marines, over three.
3,288
Servants, thirty-three
33,282
School Children, one hundred.
100,000
Ship Carpenters, one.
1,156
Stone Cutters, one and one-third.
1,342
Tailors, ten.
9,734
Teachers, over one and one-half
...
1.608
Tinsmiths, one.
931
" These occupations and others that I might present from the voluminous pages of the census reckon about 150,000 of the people, and with school-children a quar- ter of a million .*
* The reader must bear in mind that the above figures were taken in 1865. Doubtless the next census will show a larger increase.
17,620
Clergy, nearly one-half.
1,401
Dressmakers, etc., nine and one-half.
2,757
Milliners, one and one-third.
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647
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
" The marvelous growth of population, within twenty years, has added half a million to our numbers, and called, of course, for new measures, and ought to be some excuse for some mistakes and disappointments. The charter bears the mark of many changes, and is des- · tined to bear more. The original charter was given by James II. in 1686; was amended by Queen Anne in 1708; further enlarged by George II. in 1730, into what is now known as Montgomery's Charter, and as such was confirmed by the General Assembly of the Province in 1732, and made New York essentially a free city. The Mayor was appointed by the Provincial Governor and Council, till the Revolution; by the State Governor and four members of the Council of Appointment, till 1821; by the Common Council, until 1834, and afterward by the people. In 1830, the people divided the Common Coun- cil into two boards, and in 1849 the government was divided into seven departments, the heads of each being chosen by the people, and the Mayor's term of office being extended to two years. In 1853, the Board of Assistant Aldermen was changed to a Board of sixty Councilmen, and the term of Aldermen extended to two years. In 1857, the number of Aldermen was reduced from twenty- · two to seventeen, and the sixty Councilmen to twenty- four.
" With all the drawback of defective municipal government, the city is a great power in the Union, and gave its wealth and men to the nation. Nay, its very passion has been national, and the mass who deplored the war never gave up the Union, and might, perhaps, have consented to compromise rather than to disunion, and have gone beyond any other city in clinging to the Union as such, whether right or wrong. The thoughtful mind of the city saw the true issue, and, whilst little radical or doctrinuire in its habit of thinking, and more
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648
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
inclined to trust to historical tendencies and institutional discipline for the removal of wrong than to abstract ideas, it did not waver a moment after the die was casi, and the blow of rebellion and disunion was clear. The ruling business powers of the city gave money and men to the nation, when the Government was halting and almost paralyzed. The first loan was hazardous, and the work of patriotism; and when our credit was once committed, the wealth of the city was wholly at the service of the nation ; and the ideas of New England, and the enthusiasm of the West, marched to victory with the mighty concurrence of the money and the men of the Em- pire City and State. The State furnished 473,443 men, . or, when reduced to years of service, 1,148,604 years' ser- vice; equal to three years' service of 382,868 three years' men ; and the city alone furnished 116,382 men, equal to , 267,551 years' service, at a net cost of $14,577,214.65. That our moneyed men meant devoted patriotism, it is not safe to say of them all. In some cases, their capital may have been wiser and truer than the capitalist, and followed the great current of national life. Capital, like : water, whose currents it resembles, has its own laws, and he who owns it cannot change its nature, any more than he who owns a water-power can change the power of the water. The capital of this city is bound, under God, to the unity of the nation, and, therefore, has to do a mighty part in organizing the liberty of the nineteenth century. Led by the same large spirit, and true to the Union policy which has been the habit of the community from the old Dutch times, the dominant thought of our people will be sure to vindicate the favorite idea of States Rights in the Union against States Wrongs out of it.
" And how shall we estimate the education of our people in its various forms ; by schools, colleges, news- papers, books, churches, and, not least, by this great uni-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. 649
versity of human life which is always before our eyes ! Think of the 208,309 scholars reported in 1865 in our public schools, and the average attendance of 86,674 in those schools, and over 100,000 scholars in regular at- tendance in all our schools, both public and private." Think of our galleries of art, private and public, and our
COOPER INSTITUTE, MERCANTILE LIBRARY, AND BIBLE HOUSE.
great libraries and reading-rooms, like the Astor, the Mer- cantile, the Society, and the Cooper Institute. Consider the remarkable increase of private libraries, such as Dr.
* For a History of the Schools and the Public School Society, by Hon. Hooper C. Van Vorst, see Appendix No. XV
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650
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Wynne has but begun to describe in his magnificent . volume. Think of our press, and its constant and enor- mous issues, especially of daily papers, which are the pe- culiar literary institution of our time, and alike the com- mon school and university of our people. Our 350 churches and chapels, 258 of them being regular churches of all kinds, can accommodate about 300,000 hearers, and . inadequate as in some respects they are, as to location and convenience, they can hold as many of the people as wish to attend church, and far more than generally attend. Besides our churches and chapels, we have powerful re- ligious instrumentalities in our religious press, and our city is the center of publication of leading newspapers, magazines, and reviews, of the great denominations of the country. In these organs the best scholars and thinkers of the nation express their thoughts in a way wholly unknown at the beginning of the century, when the religious press of the country was not appa- rently dreamed of. The higher class of religious and theological reviews that are published here are, perhaps, the best specimens of the most enlarged scholarship and . severe thinking of America, and are doing much to edu- cate an enlightened and truly catholic spirit and fellow-
. ship. If the question is asked, in view of all these means of education, what kind of mind is trained up here; or what are the indications of our New York intelligence, it may not be so easy to say in full, as to throw out a hint or two by way of suggestion. There is, certainly, what may be called a New York mind and character, and there must be from the very nature of the case. Some charac- teristics must mark each community, as the results of birth and breeding; and however great the variety of elements, some qualities must predominate over others in the people, as in the climate and fruits of a country.
Where two tendencies seem to balance each other for a
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651
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
time, one is sure, at last, to preponderate, and to gain value and power with time, and win new elements to itself. It is not hard to indicate the essential New York character from the beginning. It is positive, institu- tional, large-hearted, genial, taking it for granted that all men are not of one pattern, and that we are to live by allowing others to have their liberty as we have ours.
" How far assimilation in its various forms of thought and life is to go, we can only conjecture; for the process has but begun. Our community, like every other community, must go through three stages of development to complete its providential evolution : aggregation, ac- commodation, and assimilation. The first stage is aggre- gation ; and that comes, of course, with the fact of resi- dence. Here we are, about a million of us, aggregated on this healthy and charming island, and here we most of .us expect and wish to stay. We are seeking our next stage, and wish accommodation not with entire success, and the city is distressed by prosperity, and is like an overgrown boy, whose clothes are too small for his limbs, and he waits in half-nakedness for his fitting garments. In some respects, the city itself is a majestic organism, and_we have light, water, streets, and squares, much to our . mind, always, of course, excepting the dirt. The scarcity of houses, the costs of rent, living, and taxation are grievous, and driving a large portion of our middling class into the country. Yet the city is full and overflow-
* In this connection the following emigration statistics are of value. Dur- ing the year 1871 the number of passengers who arrived at the port of New York were as follows: Ireland, 50,220; Germany, 88,601; England, 51,027; Scotland, 10,154; Wales, 1,224; France, 4,345; Spain, 130 ; Switzerland, 2,630; Holland, 929; Norway, 2,718; Sweden, 10,749; Denmark, 2,210; Italy, 2,309; Portugal, 48 ; Belgium, 161; West Indies, 215; Nova Scotia, 53; Japan, 14; South America, 85; Canada, 68; China, 246; Sicily, 12; Mexico, 29; Russia, 713; East Indies, 6; Turkey, 8; Greece, 7; Poland, 763; Africa, 8; Central America, 35; Australia, 22. Total arrivals, 271,067, of whom 41,428 were citi. zens, leaving the number of aliens 229,639.
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652
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
ing, and is likely to be. The work of assimilation is going on, and every debate, controversy, and party, brings the various elements together ; and we are seeing each other, whether we differ or agree. Great progress has been made in observing and appreciating our situation and population. Probably New York knows itself better to-day than at any time since its imperial proportions began to appear. In politics, police, philanthropy, educa- tion, and religion, we are reckoning our classes, numbers, and tendencies, and feeling our way towards some better harmony of ideas and interests. The whole population of the city was, by census of 1860, 813,669; and by the . census of 1865, 726,386. The voters number 151,838; . native, 51,500 ; foreign, 77,475. Over twenty-one years, they who cannot read and write are 19,199. Families number 148,683. Total of foreigners by census of 1860 was 383,717 ; and by the census of 1865, 313,417. Num- ber of women, by census of 1865, was 36,000 more than "of men, and of widows, over 32,000; being 25,000 more widows than widowers. The Germans, by the census of 1860, numbered 119,984; and by the census of 1865, 107,269. This makes up this city not the third, but the eighth city in the world as to German population. These German cities have a larger population : Berlin, Vienna, Breslau, Cologne, Munich, Hamburg, and Dresden. The Irish, by the census of 1860, number 203,700; and by the census of 1865, 261,334.
" New York now, we believe, has a million of resi- dents, and either peculiar difficulties in the census com- mission of 1865, or peculiar influences after the war, led to the appearance of diminishing population. Certainly we have, of late, gained numbers, and have not lost in variety of elements to be assimilated. The national diver- sities are not hostile, and we are seeking out their best, instead of their worst, qualities. Italian art and French
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653
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
accomplishment we can appreciate without forgetting that we are Americans. We are discerning in our New York Germany something better than lager beer and Sunday concerts, and learning to appeal to the sterling sense and indomitable love of liberty of the countrymen of Luther and Gutenberg. The Irish among us, who make this the second if not the first Irish city of the world, and who contribute so largely to our ignorant and criminal returns, we are studying anew, and discerning their great service . to industry and their great capacity for organization. We find among them good specimens of the blood of the Clin- tons and the Emmets, and are bound to acknowledge that, in purity, their wives and daughters may be an example to any class in America or Europe. Old Israel is with us too in force, and some thirty synagogues of Jews manifest the power of the oldest organized religion, and the exam- ple of a people that cares wholly for its own sick and poor ; willing to meet Christians as friends and citizens, and learn our religion more from its own gospel of love than from its old conclaves of persecution. We often see other types of the Oriental mind in our streets and houses, and it will be well for us when Asia is here represented by able specimens of her mystical piety, and we learn of her something of the secret of her repose in God, and give her in return something of our art of bringing the will of God to bear upon this stubborn earth, instead of losing sight of the earth in dreams of pantheistic absorption. In many ways the various elements are combining to shape our ideas and society, and fill out the measure of our practical education.
" Yet, probably, the most important assimilation, as already hinted, is that which is going on here between the various elements of our American life in this mother-city, which is destined, apparently, to be to America what Rome was to the tribes that thronged to its gates. What has
654
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
been taking place in England is taking place here, and the Independents and Churchmen are coming together here as . 'in England since the Revolution of 1688, when extremes were greatly reduced, and the independency of Milton and Cromwell began to reappear in combination with the church ways of Clarendon and Jeremy Taylor. The most signifi- cant part of the process is the union here of Puritan indi- vidualism and its intuitive thinking and bold ideas, with . New York institutionalism, and its organizing method and objective mind. The Yankee is here, and means to stay, and is apparently greatly pleased with the position and reception, and enjoys the fixed order and established paths of his Knickerbocker hosts. It is remarkable that whilst New England numbered only some 20,000, or 19,517 of her people here, which is 7,000 less than the nations of Old England in the city, by the census of 1860, they are so well received and effective, and fill so many and impor- tant places in business and the professions. By the census of 1865, New York city has 17,856 natives of New Eng- land, and 19,699 natives of Old England; a balance of 1,843 in favor of Old England. Yet, in the State at large, the result is different, for the population numbers 166,038 natives of New England, and 95,666 natives of Old Eng- land; a balance of 70,372 in favor of New England. It is curious to note that the city had only 825 native Dutch in 1865, and the State 4,254. In a philosophical point of view, it is memorable that the Puritan mind is now largely in power, even in our church establishments that · so depart from New England independency, and the lead- ing Presbyterian and Episcopal preachers and scholars are largely from the Puritan ranks. Our best informed scholar in the philosophy of religion, who holds the chair of theo- logical instruction in the Presbyterian Seminary, is a New England Congregationalist, transplanted to New York. : Nay, even the leading, or at least the most conspicuous,
655
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
Roman Catholic theologian of New York is the son of a Connecticut Congregationalist minister, and carries the lineal blood and mental habit of his ancestor, Jonathan Edwards, into the illustration and defense of the Roman creed. It is worthy of note that our most philosophical historian is the son of a Massachusetts Congregational minister, and a lover of the old scholastic thinking, and a champion of the ideal school of Edwards and Channing in its faith and independency ; author, too, of perhaps the most bold and characteristic word of America to Europe, the oration of February 22d, 1866, that was the answer of our New World to British Toryism and Romish Obscu- rantism, whether to the Premier's mock neutral mani- festo or the Pope's Encyclical Letter.
" It is the province of the New York Historical Society to keep up the connection of the New York of the past with the New York of to-day, and zealously to guard and interpret all the historical materials that preserve the continuity of our public life. It is to be lamented that so little remains around us to keep alive the memory of the ancient time; and everything almost that we see is the work of the new days. Sad it is that all the old neigh- borhoods are broken up, and the old houses and churches are mostly swept away by our new prosperity. But how impressive are our few landmarks ! We all could join in the Centennial Jubilee of St. Paul's, and wish well to its opening future. So, too, we can greet our neighbors of the John-street Church in their Centennial, and thank God for the one hundred years of New York Methodism. Who of us can pass without reflection by the old Middle Dutch Church, now our Post-office, in Nassau Street, without recalling the years and events that have passed since 1729, when it was opened for worship in the Dutch tongue ? In March, 1764, the preaching there was, for the first time, in English ; and in August, 1844, Dr. De Witt gave an outline of its his-
636
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
tory and pronounced the benediction in Dutch; and that old shrine of the Knickerbockers is now the busy brain of the nation and the world, and receives and transmits : some forty tons of thought a day. What would one of those old Rip Van Winkles of 1729 have thought, if he
HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING AND ST. MARK'S CHURCH.
could have prolonged his Sunday afternoon nap in one of those ancient pews till now, and awoke to watch the day's · mail, with news by the last steamers and the Atlantic cable for all parts of the great continent ? Our Broad-
657
HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
way, ever changing, and yet the same old road, is perhaps our great historical monument, and the historical street of America by eminence. All the men of our history have walked there, and all nations and tribes have trodden its stones and dust. In our day what have we seen there- what processions, armies, pageants! What work would be more an American as well as New York history than Broadway, described and illustrated with text and por- traits from the time when Stuyvesant astonished the Dutch with his dignity to the years that have brought the hearse of our murdered President* and the carriage of his successor along its stately avenue ? Thank heaven for old Broadway, noble type of American civilization, from the Battery to Harlem River, and may the ways of the city be as straight as the lines of its direction and as true to the march of the Providence of God.t
" What the orator who ushers in the twentieth century here, or who celebrates your one hundredth anni- versary, may have to say as he reviews the nineteenth century, I will not undertake to say. What we should wish and pray for is clear. Clear that we should wish the new times to keep the wisdom and virtue of the old with
* Alluding to the funeral obsequies of President Lincoln, which consisted of the remains of the President being carried in procession through Broadway on the 25th of April, 1865, on their way from Washington to their final resting- place in Springfield, Ilinois. The remains reached the city the preceding day, and after lying in state in the City Hall, which had been draped for the occa- sion, the city of New York took its final leave of all that was mortal of Presi- dent Lincoln. " The remains were escorted to the railroad depot by a procession nearly five miles in length, composed of a military force of upward of sixteen thousand men, together with numerous civic officers and societies. Last in the procession marched two thousand colored citizens. Every window and balcony was filled; every house was shrouded in funeral drapery ; while along the whole line the streets were thronged with sincere mourners. A large assem- blage met in the afternoon of the same day in Union Square, to listen to a funeral oration from Hon. George Bancroft, and an eulogy from William C. Bryant."
+ For an article upon " New York Society in the Olden Time," by the Right Rev. Bishop Kip, see Appendix No. XVI.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY.
all the new light and progress ; clear that after our trying ' change from the old quarters to the new, we may build a nobler civilization on the new base, and so see better days than ever before; that the great city that shall be here should be not only made up of many men but of true manhood, and be not only the capital of the world but the city of God; its great park the central ground of noble fellowship; its great wharves and markets the seat of honorable industry and commerce ; its public halls the head-quarters of free and orderly Americans ; its churches the shrines of the blessed faith and love that join man with man, and give open communion with God and heaven."
THE END.
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APPENDIXES.
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APPENDIX I.
THE CONSTITUTION AND NOMINATIONS OF THE SUBSCRIBERS
TO THE
TONTINE COFFEE-HOUSE .*
CONSTITUTION, &c.
WHEREAS the several persons whose names are hereunto subscribed and set, have, at their joint expense, purchased certain lots of land in the Second Ward of the city of New York, and erected a building thereon, called the Tontine Coffee-house, to be kept and used as a coffee-house in the said city of New York, and have furnished the same for that purpose, and have taken con- veyances for the same premises in the names of John Broome, Gulian Ver -. planck, John Delafield, William Laight, and John Watts, five of the said sub- scribers, in joint tenancy, as trustees for themselves and the other subscribers ; and. whereas the property in the said lands, and building, and furniture is divided into two hundred and three shares, which belong to the persons whose names are hereunto subscribed and set, in the proportion mentioned opposite to their respective names; and the owner of each of the said shares, or his executors, administrators, or assigns, is to have and receive the profits of such share during the natural life of the person named and described, opposite to his name, as his nominee for such share, and to which description such owner has subscribed his name ; and, upon the death of any such nominee, the share, which depends upon the life of such nominee, is to cease, and the whole profits of the said premises are continually to go to, and be equally divided among, such of the said owners whose nominees shall be living on the first day of May in every year, until the said nominees shall by death be reduced to seven, when the whole of the said property is to vest in the persons then entitled to the shares, standing in the names of the seven surviving nominees ; and the trus- tees, or their heirs, in whom the fee of the said land and premises shall then be vested, are then to convey the same to the persons so entitled in fee, equally
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