USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V.1 > Part 23
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A paper called the New York Chronicle was published during the years 1761-'62, and then died. The New York Pacquet was next published in 1763, but how long it lived is not known. In 1766, Holt established the New York Journal, or General Advertiser, which, in the course of the year, was united with Parker's Gazette, the Journal being printed as a separate paper. John Holt 'edited the first Whig paper published in this city ; nor, as in the case of Hugh Gaine, did his patriotism come and go as danger approached or receded from the city: In 1774, Holt discarded the King's arms from the title of his
1774.
paper, and substituted a serpent, cut into pieces,
1775. with the expressive motto, " Unite or die." In January, 1775, the snake was united, and coiled with the tail in its mouth, forming a double ring. On the body of the snake, beginning at the head, were the fol- lowing lines :
" United now, alive and free- Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand, And, thus supported, ever bless our land, Till time becomes Eternity."
The designs both of 1774 and 1775 were excellent- the first by a visible illustration, showing the disjointed state of the colonies; and the second presenting an
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emblem of their strength when united. Holt maintained his integrity to the last. When the British took possession of New York, he removed to Esopus (now Kingston), and revived his paper. On the burning of that village by the enemy in 1777, he removed to Poughkeepsie, and pub- lished the Journal there until the peace of 1783, when he returned to New York, and resumed his paper under the title of the Independent Gazette, or the New York Journal revived. Holt was an unflinching patriot, but did not long survive the achievement of his country's freedom. He fell a victim to the yellow fever in 1798. The paper was continued by his widow for a little while, but ultimately fell into the hands of that celebrated political gladiator, James Cheetham.
The celebrated James Rivington began his paper in 1733, under the formidable title of Rivington's New York Gazette; or, the Connecticut, New Jersey, Hudson River, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser. The imprint read as follows : " Printed at his ever open and uninfluenced press, fronting Hanover Square." It is well known that Rivington was the royal printer during the whole of the Revolutionary War; and it is amusing to trace the degrees by which his toryism manifested itself as the storm gathered over the country. The title of the paper originally contained the cut of a large ship under full sail. In 1774, the ship sailed out of sight, and the King's arms appeared in its place; and, in 1775, the words ever open and uninfluenced were withdrawn from the imprint. These symptoms were dis- liked by the patricts of the country; and, in November, 1775, a party of armed men from Connecticut entered the city on horseback, beset his habitation, broke into his printing-office, destroyed his presses, and threw his types into pi. They then carried them away, melted, and cast them into bullets. Rivington's paper was now effectually stopped, until the British army took possession of the city.
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Rivington himself, meantime, had been to England, where he procured a new printing apparatus, and, returning, established the New York Royal Gazette, published by- James Rivington, printer to the King's most excellent Majesty. During the remaining five years of the war, Rivington's paper was more distinguished for its lies and its disloyalty than any other journal in the colonies. It was published twice a week; and four other newspapers were published in this city at the same time, under the sanc- tion of the British officers,-one arranged for each day, so that, in fact, they had the advantages of a daily paper. · It has been said and believed that Rivington, after all, was a secret traitor to the Crown, and, in fact, the secret spy for General Washington. Be this, however, as it may, as the war drew to a close, and the prospects of the King's arms began to darken, Rivington's loyalty began to cool down; and by 1787 the King's arms had 1787 .. disappeared; the ship again sailed into sight; and the title of the paper, no more the Royal Gazette, was simply Rivington's New York Gazette and Universal Ad- vertiser. But, although he labored to play the repub- lican, he was distrusted by the people, and his paper was relinquished in the course of that year.
From this brief sketch of the history of newspapers, from their first introduction into the city down to the period of the Revolution, an idea may be formed of the germ of the newspaper-press, which is now one of the chief glories of our country. The public press of no other country equals that of New York city and the United States, either on the score of its moral or its intellectual power, or for the exertion of that manly independence of thought and action, which ought ever to characterize the press of a free people .*
* The whole number of periodicals issued in the United States is 5,983, with 73 to be added for the Territories, 353 for the Dominion of Canada, and 29 for
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What a prophet would the great wizard-novelist of Scotland have been, had the prediction which he put into the mouth of Galeotti Martivalle, the astrologer of Louis the Eleventh, in the romance of Quentin Durward, been written at the period of its date! Louis, who has justly been held as the Tiberius of France, is represented as paying a visit to the mystic workshop of the astrologer, whom his majesty discovered to be engaged in the then newly-invented art of multiplying manuscripts by the intervention of machinery,-in other words, the apparatus of printing.
the British colonies,-making a grand total of 6,438 ; of which 637 are daily, 118 tri-weekly, 129 semi-weekly, 4,642 weekly, 21 biweekly, 100 semi-monthly, 515 monthly, 14 bimonthly, and 62 quarterly. New York State has the largest number of publications-894 (of which 371 are published and printed in New York city), and Nevada has the smallest number issued in any State-only 15. Nevada has more daily than weekly papers, and is unique in this respect, every other State having from three to twelve times as many weeklies as dailies. Tri-weekly papers are more common in the South than semi-weeklies, while in the Northern States the facts are reversed.
New York has 89 dailies, being the largest number published in any State. Pennsylvania is second, with 61. Next comes Illinois, with 38; and California has 34, being the fourth on the list. Delaware and Florida have each one daily paper. Kansas has as many as Vermont, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Arkansas combined. Nebraska and Nevada have each more dailies than either Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Maine, or Mississippi.
Of the 73 publications issued regularly in the Territories, 13 are daily 50 weekly, 3 tri-weekly, 4 semi-weekly, 1 monthly, 1 semi-monthly, and ] biweekly.
The papers of New York State have the largest circulation, averaging 7,411 each issue. Massachusetts is second, with 5,709 average; then comes the District of Columbia, with 4,323. As New York papers circulate everywhere, while those of California do not go very much out of the State, it is evident that the papers have a better local support than in other States of the American Union.
In the District of Columbia there is one newspaper published for every three square miles of territory. Massachusetts has one to 30 square miles, and Rhode Island one to 50. Then comes New York, with one to 57. Connecticut has one to 60, New Jersey one to 63, Texas one to 2,345, Florida one to 2,693; while in the Territories one newspaper spreads its circulation over no less than 14,465 square miles.
For the names of the publications published in New York city, the curious reader is referred to the American Newspaper Directory, of this city.
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"Can things of such mechanical and terrestrial im- port," inquired the King, "interest the thoughts of one before whom Heaven has unrolled her own celestial volumes ? "
." My brother," replied the astrologer, "believe me, that, in considering the consequences of this invention, I read with as certain augury, as by any combination of the heavenly bodies, the most awful and portentous changes. When I reflect with what slow and limited supplies the stream of science hath hitherto descended to us; how dif- ficult to be obtained by those most ardent in its search ;
' how certain to be neglected by all who love their ease ; how liable to be diverted or altogether dried up by the invasions of barbarism,-can I look forward without won- der and astonishment to the lot of a succeeding genera- tion, on whom knowledge will descend like the first and second rain,-uninterrupted, unabated, unbounded ; fertilizing some grounds and overflowing others; changing the whole form of social life; establishing and overthrowing relig- ions ; erecting and destroying kingdoms -"
" Hold ! hold, Galeotti !" cried the King; " shall these changes come in our time ?"
" No, my royal brother," replied Martivalle; " this invention may be likened to a young tree which is now newly planted, but shall, in succeeding generations, bear fruit as fatal, yet as precious, as that of the Garden of Eden,-the knowledge, namely, of good and of evil."
1
THIRD PERIOD.
1783-1871.
From the Evacuation of New York City by the British to the present day.
CHAPTER I.
"THE city is ruined by the war, but its future great- ness is unquestionable." So wrote a citizen of New York, at the close of the Revolutionary War, to a friend ; and never was there a truer prophecy uttered. The trade of the city was indeed "ruined;" her treasury was 1783. empty; and her people were yet divided by domestic feuds. Still, this state of things could not last long. The position of New York among the colonies had already become too important to be ignored for any length of time; and the same causes which, at an early period, made New York the center of the colonial interest, were to continue in operation until she should become that which she now is,-the metropolis of America. The Colo- nial Congress of 1765, the Provincial Congress of 1776, the selection of herself as the seat of the General Govern- ment in 1788, and the inauguration of Washington in 1789, were "all hints of the empire that was to be."
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On the 13th of September, 1788, the adoption of the Federal Constitution was publicly announced; and New
York was chosen as the seat of the General Gov- 1788. . ernment. This action of the Convention was peculiarly gratifying to the citizens of New York, who at once took steps to celebrate the occasion with fitting ceremonies .* .
It is well known that the festivities attendant upon such a momentous occasion should be embalmed for American generations yet unborn. The adoption of the Federal Constitution-the instrument which was to bind the almost disjointed members of the republic together, as one people-was the most important event that the citizens of New. York had ever been called upon to com- memorate. The period intervening between the formation of the Constitution by the Convention, and its adoption by the number of States requisite to give it validity, was one of deep anxiety to the patriots of that day, not un- mingled with fears as to the final result. A violent opposition sprung up in various parts of the Confederation, which was so successfully fomented by demagogues, and by those who feared they might lose weight in the national scale, should the new Federal edifice be erected, that the friends of the Constitution, seeing nothing better than civil tumult and anarchy in the prospective, should that instru- ment be rejected, entertained the most lively apprehen-
* The account given in the text of the PROCESSION in honor of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, as well as the narrative of the INAUGURATION BALL, is taken from the writings of the late Colonel William L. Stone, for thirty years the editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser. It is believed to comprise the only faithful historical record, political, festive, and fashionable, of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the organization of the Govern- ment, the pageantry attending it, and the demonstrations which followed that important epoch in our national history. The particulars were collected by Colonel Stone, with much care and labor, from such printed accounts as could be found in the scattered remnants of the little dingy newspapers of that day, and. also, such facts as were yet dimly floating in the recollections of those few who were then surviving and had been actors in the scenes described.
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sions upon the subject. There were, likewise, among the opponents of the proposed Constitution, some good men and real patriots, who honestly believed, that, in the event of its adoption, too much power would pass from the States to the Federal Congress and the Executive. The ablest tongues and pens in the Union were brought into action ; and it was that contest which combined the united wisdom of Hamilton, Jay, and Madison, in the Federalist, -- the ablest exposition of the Constitution that ever has been, or, perhaps, ever will be, written.
The action, however, of the respective States was slow. The proceedings of their conventions were watched with absorbing interest; and, when it was found that the voice of New York would turn the scale (the Convention being in session in Poughkeepsie), all eyes were eagerly turned toward that quarter. The chief reason of New York's reluctance to come into the Constitutional Union was the fear-in view of the rising destiny of their city and State- of making over too much of their local power to the central Government; especially their great share of rev- enue from imports, and their commanding position between New England and the South and West. The contest, however, was not long in doubt. Hamilton redoubled his wonderful efforts, and Livingston put the whole energies of his capacious mind in requisition, and the Federalists triumphed. The news was received in New York city with unbounded delight; the clubs celebrated the event with dinners and great festivity, and the citizens gave themselves up to the most unequivocal evidences of grati- fication. But private manifestations of the public feeling were held not to be worthy of the occasion, and no time was lost in concerting the necessary measures for a public commemoration of the event, upon the most extensive and splendid scale that the public means would allow. Nor has the pageantry of any American celebration since that
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day-not even excepting the Atlantic Cable Celebration of 1859-excelled it in the ardor of its enthusiasm, or in the splendor of its effect. In describing the procession on this occasion, Colonel Stone says :-
" The procession was organized 'in the fields,' above the city; thence it moved down Broadway to Great Dock Street; thence through Hanover Square and Queen (now Pearl) Street, up to Chatham ; through Chatham to Division, and thence across, through Bullock Street, to the grounds surrounding the country-seat of Nicholas Bayard, near the present junction of Broadway and ' Grand Street.
" A volume would scarce suffice to detail the par- ticulars necessary to a full description of the flags and emblems, and patriotic decorations, which graced the many divisions and subdivisions of this brilliant pageant-alto- gether exceeding anything of a kindred character pre- viously exhibited in the New World. After a brilliant military escort came Captain Moore, in the character and ancient costume of Christopher Columbus, preceded and followed by a band of foresters, with axes, suitably ap- pareled. The next division consisted of a large number of farmers, among whom were Nicholas Cruger, driving a six-ox team, and the present venerable John Watts, hold- ing a plow. All the implements of husbandry and gardening were borne in the procession, and the Baron Poelnitz attended a threshing-machine. Their horses were handsomely caparisoned, and led by boys in white uniforms. The tailors made a very brilliant display of numbers, uniforms, and decorations of various descriptions. In the procession of the bakers were boys in beautiful dresses, representing the several States, with roses in their hands. There were likewise an equal number of journey- men in appropriate uniforms, with the implements of the calling, and a loaf of bread was borne in the procession
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ten feet long and three wide, on which were inscribed the names of the several States. The display of the brewers was happily conceived, and appropriate. In addition to their banners fluttering gayly in the air, they paraded cars with hogsheads and tuns, decorated with festoons of hop- vines, intertwined with handfuls of barley. Seated on the top of a tun was a living Bacchus-a beautiful boy of eight years old-dressed in flesh-colored silk, fitted snugly to the limbs, and thus disclosing all the fine symmetrical proportions of his body. In his hand he held a silver goblet, with which he quaffed the nut-brown, and on his head was a garland of hops and barley-ears. The coopers appeared in great numbers. Their emblem of the States were thirteen boys, each thirteen years of age, dressed in white, with green ribbons at their ankles, a keg under their left arms, and a bough of white oak in their right hands. Upon an immensely large car, drawn by horses appropriately adorned, the coopers were at work. They had a broken cask, representing the old confederacy, the staves of which all their skill could not keep together. In despair at the repeated nullification which their work ex- perienced, they all at once betook themselves to the con- struction of an entirely new piece of work. Their success was complete, and a fine, tight, iron-bound keg arose from their hand, bearing the name of the New Constitution. The procession of butchers was long, and their appearance highly respectable. Upon the car in their procession was a roasted ox, of a thousand pounds, which was given as a sweet morsel to the hungry multitude at the close of the day. The car of the sons of St. Crispin was drawn by four milk-white steeds, beautifully caparisoned. The tanners, curriers, and peruke-makers followed next in order, each with various banners and significant emblems. The furriers, from the novelty of their display, attracted great attention. It was truly picturesque. Their marshal
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was followed by an Indian in his native costume and armor, as though coming wild from the wilderness, laden with raw furs for the market. A procession of journey- men furriers followed, each bearing some dressed or manu- factured article. These were succeeded by a horse bearing two packs of furs, and a huge bear sitting upon each. The horse was led by an Indian in a beaver blanket, and black plumes waving upon his head. In the rear came one of their principal men, dressed in a superb scarlet blanket, wearing an elegant cap and plumes, and smoking a tomahawk pipe. After these, in order, marched · the stone-masons, brick-layers, painters and glaziers, cabinet and chair makers, musical-instrument makers, and the upholsterers. The decorations of the societies vied with each other in taste and variety, but that of the upholsterers excelled. The Federal chair of state was borne upon a car superbly carpeted, and above which was a rich canopy, nineteen feet high, overlaid with deep-blue satin, hung with festoons and fringes, and glittering in the sun as with ' barbaric pearl and gold'. It was sufficiently gorgeous to have filled the eye of a Persian emperor, in the height of Oriental splendor and magnificence. Twelve subdivisions of various trades succeeded in the prescribed order, after which came the most imposing part of the pageant. It was the Federal ship Hamilton,-a perfectly-constructed frigate of thirty-two guns, twenty-seven feet keel, and ten feet beam, with galleries and everything complete and in proportion, both hull and rigging. She was manned by thirty seamen and marines, with officers, all in uniform, and commanded by that distinguished Revolutionary veteran, Commodore Nicholson. The ship was drawn by ten horses; and, in the progress of the procession, went through every nautical preparation and movement for storms, calms, and squalls, and for the sudden shifting of winds. In passing Liberty Street, she made a signal for a
سلين
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pilot, and a boat came off and put one on board. On arriving before Constable's house, Mrs. Edgar came to the window, and presented the ship with a suit of rich silk colors ; the yards were instantly manned, and the sailors gave three hearty cheers. When passing Old Slip, a Spanish government-ship gave her a salute of thirteen guns, which was returned by the Hamilton with as much promptness as though she had actually been a ship of war upon the wide ocean. Next after the ship came the pilots and the Marine Society. To these succeeded the printers, book-binders, and stationers, led by those veterans of the type and quill, Hugh Gaine and Samuel Landon. They had a car, upon which the printers were at work; the press was plied briskly, and impressions of a patriotic cde distributed, as they were taken, among the multitude. Their banners were worthy of their proud vocation. To these succeeded twenty-one subdivisions, of as many different trades, each moving under its own banners; after which followed the learned professions and the literary societies. The lawyers were preceded by John Lawrence, Esq., supported by John Cozine and Robert Troup. The Philological Society, headed by Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Esq., the president, was the next. One of the founders of this society was Noah Webster, LL. D., the great American lexicographer, who was in the procession. The standard was borne by William Dunlap, Esq. The officers and members of the university came next, and their successors were the Chamber of Commerce and merchants, headed by John Broome, president. William Maxwell, vice- president of the Bank, followed in a chariot, and William Laight, the secretary, was mounted upon a noble steed. Physicians, strangers, and gentlemen who were members of Congress, then in session in New York, closed the civic procession ; and the whole was brought up by a detach- ment of artillery.
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"The procession contained nearly five thousand people; and the spectacle was more solemn and imposing, and more truly splendid, than had ever before been presented to the eye of man on the American continent. It was, indeed, a pageant of indescribable interest, and, to most, of double attraction ; the occasion being one in which the deepest sympathies were enlisted, and it being also the first display of pomp and circumstance which they had ever witnessed. The whole population of the city had given themselves up to the enjoyment of the occasion; and gladness, in all its fullness, was depicted in every counte- 'nance, while a noble enthusiasm swelled every bosom. The bond of union was complete, and every man felt as though his country had been rescued, in the last hour, from the most imminent peril.
" When the procession reached the country-seat of Nicholas Bayard, a noble banquet was found already spread for the whole assemblage, beneath a grand pavil- ion temple covering a surface of eight by six hundred feet, with plates for six thousand people. This splendid rural structure had been erected in the short space of four days, and the citizens were indebted for it to the taste and enterprise of Major L'Enfant, by whom it was designed, and under whose direction the work was executed. The two principal sides of the building consisted of three large pavilions, connected by a colonnade of about one hundred and fifty feet front, and forming two sides of an obtuse angle ; the middle pavilion, rising majestically above the whole, terminated with a dome, on the top of which was Fame, with her trumpet, proclaiming a new era, and hold- ing in her left hand the standard of the United States, and a roll of parchment on which were inscribed, in large char- acters, the three remarkable epochs of the War of the Revolution,-the Declaration of Independence, the Alli- ance with France, and the Peace of 1783. At her side
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was the American eagle, with extended wings, resting on a crown of laurel gracing the top of the pedestal. Over six of the principal pillars of this colonnade, escutcheons were placed, inscribed with the ciphers of the several powers in alliance with the United States, viz .: France, Spain, Sweden, Prussia, Holland, Morocco; and over these were displayed the colors of those respective nations, which added greatly to the brilliancy of the entablature, already decorated with festoons and branches of laurels. The extremities of this angle were joined by a table forming part of a circle, and from this ten more colonnades were extended, each four hundred and forty feet in length, radi- ating like the rays of a circle; the whole having one common center, which was also the center of the middle pavilion, where sat the President of Congress. At the extremity of each colonnade was a pavilion, nearly simi- lar to the three before mentioned, having their outsides terminated in a pediment crowned with escutcheons, on which were inscribed the names of the States now united. The whole of the colonnades were adorned with curtains elegantly folded, and with wreaths and festoons of laurels dispersed with beautiful and tasteful effect. The various bands of music which had enlivened the march of the pro- cession were concentrated in the area within the angle first described, during the banquet, but so disposed as not to intercept the prospect from the seat of the president, through the whole length of the ten colonnades. The repast concluded, the procession was reorganized, and marched again into the city, and was dismissed at the Bowling Green, where the Federal ship fired a closing salute .??
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