USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V.1 > Part 16
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* Sir : Am just now informed that 2,400 men are arrived in New York. My Lord Loudon set a billetting them and sent only six to his old acquaintance, Mr. Ol. De Lancey ; he zounzed, and blood-and-zounzed at the soldiers. This was told my lord ; he sent Mr. Ol. half-a-dozen more. He sent my lord word if matters were to go so he would leave the country. My lord sent him word he would be glad of it ; then the troops would have the whole house. I really thought this so extraordinary, I must communicate it to you."-MS. Letter in the author's possession. Wm. Corry to Sir Win. Johnson, Jun. 15th, 1757.
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my blood!" exclaimed Loudon to Mayor Cruger, who presented the opinion of the Corporation, "if you do not billet my officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order all the troops in North America, under my command, and billet them myself upon this city!" All argument being thus at an end, a subscription was raised for the quartering of the officers; and Loudon, having rendered himself an object of detestation, went to Boston to breathe the same threats and to talk of the rigor which was to character- ize the next year's campaign.
Three years after the departure of Governor Hardy. ' the City of New York was thrown into deep mourning by the death of its former Chief-Justice and present Lieutenant-Governor, James De Lancey. On the 30th of July, 1760, he died very suddenly from an
1760. attack of asthma, a malady to which he had for many years been subject. The day previous to his decease, he had visited Staten Island, and dined with Governor Morris, General Prevost, and several other distin- · guished men of the day. Late in the evening he crossed the bay, seemingly laboring under great depression of spirits, and drove to his country -seat in the suburbs .* The next morning he was found by one of his little grandchildren t sitting in his library in the last agonies of death.
By his iolent political enemies Mr. De Lancey has been represented as a most unprincipled demagogue, while by his satellites he has been lauded to the skies as a dis- interested citizen and patriot. Neither of these views is correct; and the truth, as is generally the case, lies be-
* On the east side of the Bowery, a little above Grand Street.
t The little child that discovered him was the grandfather of the late. Bishop De Lancey, of New York. Miss Booth, in her generally accurate and valuable work, states that James De Lancey was the great-grandfather of the late bishop. This, however, is a mistake. He was his grandfather.
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tween the two extremes. Mr. De Lancey, undoubtedly, was very ambitious and fond of notoriety ; and his love of power and the emoluments of office often led him into the commission of acts from which otherwise he would have shrunk. While he has been praised for his " broad and popular principles," and for his "political skill in suc- cessfully preserving to the Assembly the right of annual appropriations," yet he assumed this position more from a determination to displease Clinton, that he himself might rule, than from any love for the people. His course in 1754, in relation to the college charter, alien- ated his warmest friends; and although he subsequently bitterly repented of giving his sanction to the act of incor- poration, yet it was more on account of his loss of popu- larity than from any feeling of liberality. He was, how- ever, possessed of many amiable and noble qualities and private virtues ; his disposition was social and genial, and he was withal a good classical scholar and a profound lawyer. His conduct upon the bench was generally irre- proachable; and his decisions, in those cases in which the feelings of the political partisan did not enter, were char- acterized by fairness and discrimination. His death, occurring at this time, was a great loss to the prov- ince ; for, numerous as were his faults, he was a man of unquestioned ability. During his long administration he had made himself thoroughly conversant with Indian relations ; and since the departure of Clinton had heartily co-operated with Sir William Johnson, the Indian super- intendent, in all his efforts in that department. By his death the political complexion of the province underwent a material change; and Dr. Colden, by virtue of being president of the council, took the charge of the Govern- ment until the wishes of the ministry were known.
Scarcely had the gloom resulting from the death of Mr. De Lancey been dispelled, when the city was again
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thrown into excitement-this time, however, from a pleasurable cause. In the October that succeeded the Lieutenant-Governor's death, General Amherst, covered with laurels on account of his conquest of Canada, visited New York. So overjoyed were the citizens at the suc- cessful termination of the protracted struggle, that it seemed as if they could not do too much for him, whom they regarded in the light of their preserver from the tomahawk and scalping-knife Accordingly, upon the arrival of Amherst, a public dinner was given to him, the freedom of the city presented in a gold box, salutes fired, and the whole city illuminated. Nor, as is too frequently the case with ovations, were these honors undeserved by their recipient, who was as modest as he was brave.
Meanwhile, the work of improving the city rapidly advanced. In the spring of 1761, new streets were opened and paved, among which was Partition Street, now Fulton. At the same time the first theater was opened 1761. in Beekman Street, under the patronage of the Lieutenant-Governor, although the project was strenu- ously opposed by the Assembly as tending to vitiate and lower the standard of public morals. "During this year, also, the old plan of lighting the streets by lanterns sus- pended from the windows was definitely abandoned; and public lames and lamp-posts were erected in the principal streets, a: a lighted at the public expense." Laws were also passed regulating the prices of provisions, some of which the same author gives as affording an idea of the prices at that time. Beef was sold at four pence half- penny per pound ; pork, five pence half-penny; veal, six pence ; butter, fifteen pence ; milk, six coppers per quart ; and a loaf of bread, of a pound and twelve ounces, four coppers.
In June, 1764, a light-house was erected on Sandy
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Hook and lighted for the first time. Two ferries were also established the same year ; one between Paulus Hook (Jersey City) and New York, and another between Staten Island and Bergen. At the same time the 1764. mail between New York and Philadelphia was changed from once a fortnight to twice a week, the distance be- tween the two cities being made in three days.
At an early period in New York the mails, now of such vital importance, were a very insignificant affair.
SANDY HOOK, FROM THE LIGHT HOUSES.
Even since the American Revolution a saddle-bag boy on horseback, without any protection, carried the mail three times a week between New York and Philadelphia. Peo- ple wondered at seeing the bags next placed upon a sulky ; and were lost in amazement when a four-horse stage be- 24
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came necessary for the increasing load and bulk. Now, a large car, several times a day, is found insufficient for the amount of mail matter that passes between those two cities ; and instead of there being, as formerly, only a few straggling letters, two hundred and fifty thousand postage- stamps are, on an average, daily canceled, and that is a representation of the number of domestic letters delivered at the post-office every twenty-four hours .* Then the post went and returned by way of " Blazing Star," Staten Isl- and. In process of time, several new routes were opened to Philadelphia. One crossed the bay to Staten Island 'in a perogue, commonly called a periagua, a little open boat with lee-boards, and steered by one man. Reaching the island, the traveler proceeded to the ferry at "Arthur Rolls'" Sound, crossed in a scow to New Jersey, and shortly reached the " Blazing Star," near Woodbridge. Journeying slowly to the Raritan River, New Brunswick was reached by a scow, and in the same manner Trenton, on the Delaware, until, by the third or fourth day, the "City of Brotherly Love" made its appearance. Another route advertised a commodious " stage-boat" to start with goods and passengers from the City Hall Slip (Coenties) twice a week, for Perth Amboy ferry, and thence by stage-wagon to Cranberry and Burlington, from which point a stage-boat continued the line to Philadelphia ; this trip generally required three days. This was long before the lays of steam-boats. These "stage-boats" were small sloops, sailed by a single man and boy, or two men ; and passing "outside," as it is still called, by the Narrows and through the " Lower Bay," these small passage-ves- sels, at times, were driven out to sea, thus oftentimes caus-
* One comparative statement more. The City of New York is divided into twelve postal stations, each one having its distinct officer and clerks. Station A, situated in the heart of New York, does a larger business than the city of Buffalo, New Haven, Hartford, Hudson, or Troy.
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ing vexatious delays. In very stormy weather, the "inside route," through the Kills, was chosen. The most common way to Philadelphia, however, was to cross the North River in a sail-boat, and then the Passaic and Hackensack by scows, reaching the " Quaker City" by stages in about three days. But these passages had their perils. The " Blazing Star Inn" (sign of a comet) lay four or five miles from the Staten Island ferry ; and Baron De Kalb, then a colonel, crossing over here in January, 1768, was the only one of nine passengers not frozen so as to lose life or limb. The open scow sank on a sand-bank and left the whole party exposed all night. When rescued, he alone refused to be warmed by the fire, but placing his feet and legs in cold water, went to bed and arose uninjured. One of his comrades died on the scow before succor arrived.
In 1756, the first stage started between New York and Philadelphia-three days through. In 1765, a second
stage was advertised for Philadelphia-a covered Jersey 'wagon-at two pence a mile. The next 1765. year another line was begun, called the "Flying Machine," with good wagons, seats on springs, time two days, and fare two pence a mile, or twenty shillings through. John Mersereau, at the " Blazing Star," " notifies that persons may go from New York to Philadelphia and back in five days, remaining in Philadelphia two nights and one day; fare, tw inty shillings through. There will be two wagons and tw . drivers, and four sets of horses. The passengers will lodge at Paulus Hook Ferry the night before, to start thence the next morning early." *
* In this connection it may be mentioned that, during the year 1756, the first British packet-boats commenced sailing from New York to Falmouth, each let- ter carried " to pay four-penny weight of s.lver." It is also worth noticing here that the earliest voyage to China from New York was made during the year 1785, in the ship Empress, Captain Greene. The same year Captain Dean per. formed this identical voyage in an Albany sloop -- a feat at that day more remark able than the sailing of the little " Red, White, and Blue " across the Atlantic a short time ago.
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During the year 1785, the first stages began their trips between New York and Albany, with four horses, at four pence a mile, on the east side of the North River, under a special act of the Legislature, for ten years. Ten years afterward this line was extended as far as Whitestone, just beyond old Fort Schuyler (Utica) .*
What a contrast between that day and our own! Then news from England five months old was fresh and racy. Now we must have it in two hours, and then grumble at the length of time taken by the Atlantic cable to convey the intelligence. Then news seven days old from New York to Boston was swift enough for an express. Now, if we cannot obtain the news from Washington in less than the same number of minutes, we become almost frantic, and talk of starting new telegraph companies.
* On the opposite page will be found a fac-simile of an advertisement, cut out of an- old newspaper kindly given me by the Hon. Theodore Faxton, of Utica, N. Y. Mr. Faxton is the son-in-law of " Jason Parker."
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PARKER'S Mail Stage, From Whitestown to Carajobarrie.
T HE Mail leaves Whiteflown every Monday and I bur/day, at two o'clock P. M. and proceeds to Old Fort Schuyler the fame evening ; next morning farts at four o'clock, and arrives at Canajoharrie in the evening ; exchanges pafengers with the Al bany and Cooperfloaux Pages, and the next day returns to Old Fort Schuyler'
Fart for paffengers, Two Dollars ; way pafengers, Four Pence per mile ; 14lb. bag- gage gratis ; 150wt. rated the Same as a paffenger.
Seats may be had by applying at the Post- Office, Whiteflown, at the house of the Sub- criber, Old Fort Schuyler, or at Captain Roof's, Canajobarrie.
JASON PARKER.
AnguA, 1795.
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CHAPTER VI.
IT will be recollected that, on the death of Mr. De . Lancey, the Government had devolved on Dr. Cadwal-
. lader Colden, as president of the council, until the wishes of the ministry could be ascertained. Shortly after his first speech to the Assembly on the 22d of October, 1760, · news arrived of the death of George the Second and the accession of his grandson; and as it was the unanimous opinion of the provincial council that the demise of the King dissolved the Assembly, writs were issued for a new one, returnable upon the 3d of March, 1761. Mean-
.. 1761. while, various were the conjectures respecting the name of the future governor. At one time rumor gave the gubernatorial chair to General Gage; again the public were confident that Thomas Pownal would be the fortu- nate man. Some few suggested Colden, and others Gen- eral Monckton. All surmises were at length set at rest. Ponal received the Governorship of Jamaica, Gage re.nained at Montreal, and Colden, having been appointed Lieutenant-Governor, announced to the Assembly that his majesty had been pleased " to distinguish the services of Major-General Monckton by constituting him his Cap- tain- General and Governor-in-Chief of the Province." The new Governor, however, did not long occupy the gubernatorial chair, for, preferring the excitement of arms to the cares and troubles of office, he, like Governor
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Hardy, requested to be allowed to resume his old profes- sion. Accordingly, having produced his commission to the council. and taken the oaths of office, he sailed from New York on the last day of November, 1761, leaving the government in the hands of Doctor Colden.
The administration of Doctor Colden was at first marked by no event of special moment, and the inter- course between himself and his Assembly, if we except the slight opposition against the theater in Beekman Street, was of the most amiable character. But this calm was to be of short duration; for, shortly after re- ceiving his commission of Lieutenant-Governor. he was instrumental in an act which set not only the Assembly, but the whole province, in a blaze. As by the death of Mr. De Lancey the seat of Chief-Justice had become vacant, a general wish was expressed by the community that the vacancy should at once be filled. The three · remaining judges, Horsmanden, Chambers, and Jones, hav- ing doubts as to their ability to issue processes under their old commissions since the death of the King, likewise urged the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint a successor without delay. Colden, however, was more concerned for his own and his family's advancement than for the welfare of the colony. In the same letter in which he announced to the Lords of Trade the death of De Lancey, he recom nended his eldest son for the, seat at the council-board, made vacant at the Lieutenant-Governor's death; and in the same fawning and grasping spirit he now desired the Earl of Halifax, the Colonial Secretary of State, to nominate a Chief-Justice. The result was, not only the nomination, but the actual appointment of Benjamin Pratt, a Boston lawyer, to the seat, not, as had been usual before the death of his late majesty, " during good behaviour," but " at the pleasure of the King." 1
The appointment in this manner, and at this time,
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was peculiarly unfortunate. The sister colony of Massa- chusetts was now writhing under the "writs of assist- ance," which the British ministry had so recklessly deter- mined to force upon the colonies. These "writs" had been requested by .the custom-house officers to enable them the better to enforce the revenue. They were in effect search-warrants, and whoever held them might with impunity break open a citizen's house and violate the sanctity of his dwelling. The inhabitants were justly incensed at this exercise of arbitrary power, and the more so, as they saw no disposition on the part of those in authority to resist this infringement upon their liber- ' ties. Bernard, the Governor of Massachusetts, scrupled not 'to become the tool of the Earl of Egremont, Pitt's successor, and boldly declared himself in favor of adopt- ing the odious plan of the Crown for increasing the revenue. Hutchinson, the Chief-Justice of the province, was equally subservient to the royal authority. An opportunity, however, soon came in which the temper of the people found vent. A petition having been presented to the Superior Court by the officers of the customs, that " writs of assistance " might ensue, the question was argued at length in February (1761) before the Chief- Justice and his four associate justices. Jeremiah Gridley, on behalf of the Crown, argued for the legality of the writ, on the ground that as the writ was allowed to the revenue-officers in England, to refuse the same powers to the colonial officers would be to deny that " the Parlia- ment of Great Britain is the sovereign legislature of the British empire."
The fearless and impulsive James Otis, who had resigned his office as Advocate-General, that, untrammeled, he might argue this case against the Crown, appeared for the people of Boston. " These writs,", he exclaimed, "are the worst instruments of arbitrary power, the most
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destructive of English liberty and the fundamental prin- ciples of law." With impassioned eloquence, he showed to the court the nature of these writs. "In the first place," he said, " the writ is universal, being directed to all and singular justices, sheriffs, constables, and all other officers and subjects, so that, in short, it is directed to every subject in the King's dominions. Every one with this writ may be a tyrant; if this commission be legal, a tyrant in a legal manner. Also may control, imprison, or murder any one within the realm. In the next place, it is perpetual. A man is accountable to no person for his doings. * In the third place, a person with. this writ, in the daytime may enter all houses, shops, &c., at will, and command all to assist him. Now, one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle, and whilst he is quiet he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom-house officers may enter our houses when they please. We are commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, bars, and everything in their way, and whether they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court may inquire. Bare suspicion without oath is sufficient ; and," continued . he, " I am determined to sacrifice estate, ease, health, applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of my country in opposition to a kind of power which cost one King of England his head and another his throne; and to my dying day I will oppose, with all the power and faculties that God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand and villainy on the other !"
At the next term of the court, the writ of assistance was granted, but such was the feeling of the people that the custom-house officers, although having the writs in
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their pockets, dared not in a single instance carry them into execution. But although the arguments of Otis failed to procure a decision in favor of the people, yet they did not die within the walls of the court-house. Caught up by his hearers, they were borne, as if on the wind, throughout the length and breadth of the land. "I do say in the most solemn manner," writes Mr. Adams, " that Mr. Otis's oration against writs of assistance breathed into this nation the breath of life."
With these stirring appeals of James Otis ringing in their ears, it may readily be supposed that the people of · New York were in no mood for this further encroach- ment upon their liberties. "To make the King's will," said they, "the term of office, is to make the bench of judges the instrument of the royal prerogative." Cham- bers, Horsmanden, and Jones refused to act longer unless they could hold their commissions during good behavior. Champions at once arose to do battle for the people. Conspicuous among these were William Livingston, John Morin Scott, and William Smith, all prominent lawyers and vigorous thinkers and writers; and they protested through the public prints against this attempt to 1761. render the judiciary dependent upon the Crown. Nor were their efforts entirely fruitless, for in the an- swer of the Assembly on the 17th of December to the request of Dr. Colden that the usual salary of three hun- dre 1 pounds to the Chief-Justice should be increased, it w: s resolved " that as the salaries allowed for the judges of the Supreme Court have been and still appear to be sufficient to engage gentlemen of the first figure, both as to capacity and fortune, in the colony, to accept of these offices, it would be highly improper to augment the salary of Chief-Justice on this occasion;" nor would they allow even the usual salary, unless the commissions of the Chief- Justice and the other judges were granted during good
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behavior. To this Colden refused to accede; and Chief- Justice Pratt, having served several terms without a salary, was finally reimbursed out of his majesty's quit- rents of the province.
Thus were the people of New York following in the wake of their Puritan neighbors. Colden himself, as if he had some glimmerings of the future, began to doubt the result. "For some years past," he wrote to the Board of Trade, "three popular lawyers, educated in Con- necticut, who have strongly imbibed the independent principles of that country, calumniate the administration in every exercise of the prerogative, and get the applause of the mass .by propagating the doctrine that all authority is derived from the people."
It was in the fall of 1763 that George Grenville and Lord North first devised the plan of raising a revenue by the sale of stamps to the colonists. Grenville, how- ever, hesitated long before pressing this measure ; 1763. and it was not until the 22d of March, of this year, that the Stamp Act passed, and received the signature of the King. The act declared that thenceforth no legal instru- ment should possess any validity in the colonies unless it was stamped by the Government .* Long before the pas- sage of the act, the rumor that such a project was even meditated by the ministry produced a universal outburst of indignation. If Parliament wished to raise any sum, said the colonists, let them employ the usual method of writing . reular letters to the provinces, requesting sup- plies according to the ability of each. When thus applied to heretofore, the King had never found them remiss, but, on the contrary-as their loyal obedience to these requi- sitions during the last war had fully shown-they had
* " By this act, a ream of bail bonds stamped was £100 ; a ream of common printed ones before, was £15; a ream of stamped policies of insurance was £100; of common ones, without stamps, $20."-Bradford, Muss., i, 12.
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always responded with alacrity. Taxation, however, with- out representation in Parliament was tyranny to which they would not submit. These views were advocated with great power by James Otis in a series of pamphlets ; and the public prints teemed with similar discussions, all of which were read with care and reflection. The Assem- blies of Virginia and New York especially, by their pro- tests, took firm ground against the passage of the act; but the petition of the former body was not received in Eng- land until it was too late, while that of the latter was so intemperate in its expressions against the newly-assumed pretensions of the Parliament that the agent, Mr. Charles, was unable to find any member of that body bold enough to present it.
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