USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 30
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AMERICAN OFFICIALS OF NEW YORK
had resigned and engaged in mercantile business in New York, where he had married Altea Keteltas, of an old New York Dutch family. Two of their sons had entered the navy, but James, the third son, studied law under James Alexander, and himself became one of the leaders at the New York Bar. He married Mary, eldest daughter of Colonel Robert Livingston. He acquired, partly by inheritance and partly by purchase, the Township of Duanesburgh, in Schenectady County, had a city resi- dence on Pine Street and a farm in the country, which was called Gram- ercy Seat, that name being a corruption of the Dutch name, "Kroom Messie" (crooked little knife), given to a creek which ran through the land. The present Gramercy Park was part of that farm. During the Revolu- tionary War he served in the Continental Congress and the New York Pro- vincial Congress, and at its close was a member of the State Senate. His Pine Street house was burned during the British occupation, but his farm had escaped damage. He held the office of mayor until 1789, when Presi- dent Washington appointed him the first judge of the United States Dis- trict Court of New York, in which office he rendered many decisions which were of great importance during the formative period of federal juris- prudence.
The other officials were also men of prominence. Richard Varick, the recorder, had been General Washington's private secretary during the latter part of the war; was Duane's successor in the office of mayor, and afterward for many years president of the American Bible Society. Colonel Willett had distinguished himself at the head of his regiment in many of the engagements of the war for independence, as well as in the famous Broad Street episode of June 4, 1775, before narrated, while the aldermen were all prominent merchants and members of the Chamber of Commerce. The first meeting of the Common Council, as completely organized, was held February 10, 1784. In the following month it changed the city seal, voting to erase the imperial crown and substitute the crest of the arms of the State of New York, consisting of a representation of a semiglobe with a soaring eagle thereon.
One of the institutions of the city which had survived and been in action throughout the British occupation was the Chamber of Commerce, which had been organized April 8, 1768, had been granted a charter by Lieutenant Gov- ernor Colden, March 13, 1770, and had been kept up by British: and resident merchants during the war. Returning merchants of the patriot party filled up the membership after the British evacuation, and on April 13, 1784, it was incorporated by the New York Legislature with John Alsop, president; Isaac Sears, vice president ; John Broome, treasurer ; John Blagge, secretary, and the following members in addition to these officers: Samuel Broome, George
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Embree, Thomas Hazard, Cornelius Ray, Abraham Duryee, Thomas Randall, Thomas Tucker, Daniel Phoenix, Isaac Roosevelt, James Beekman, Eliphalet Brush, John R. Kip, Comfort Sands, Nathaniel Hazard, Jeremiah Platt, Ger- ardus Duyckinck, Abraham P. Lott, Benjamin Ledyard, Anthony Griffiths, William Malcolm, Robert Bowen, John Berrian, Jacob Morris, John Frank- lin, Abraham Lott, James Jarvis, Henry H. Kip, Archibald Currie, Stephen Sayre, Jonathan Lawrence, Joshua Sands, Viner van Zandt, David Currie, Lawrence Embree and Jacobus van Zandt. The organization grew in mem- bership and had a great influence not only in the promotion of the business interests of the city, but also in its public affairs, the Common Council for some time drawing its membership chiefly from that of the Chamber of Com- merce.
An important incident of 1784 was the passage through the city, Septem- ber IIth, of General La Fayette, which was a very enthusiastic occasion. He was met by the mayor and Common Council, who tendered him the freedom of the city with a complimentary address, and he was escorted by a large body of citizens to the wharf, where he embarked for his return to France. Other notable gatherings were those welcoming John Jay on his return from his suc- cessful European mission, Baron Steuben, on a visit to the city, and Washing- ton, on his arrival in the city on December 2d.
The Continental Congress had failed in an attempt to control the customs. New York had consented that it should do so if the other States acquiesced, but Rhode Island refused, and Virginia, which had at first approved, withdrew her consent, so that the matter was left in the hands of the State. New York's law, as recommended by Congress, was on an ad valorem basis, but as New York was under British occupation, it was not effective until the evacuation. New York merchants were opposed to the ad valorem feature of the tariff, advocating specific duties because under them the best goods would seek the market, and the Chamber of Commerce sent in a petition to that effect. In response to this demand the Legislature of New York, convened in the City Hall in New York, changed the tariff law to a specific tariff, and appointed Colonel John Lamb, veteran Son of Liberty and distinguished soldier of the War for Independence, as the first collector of the port of New York, who established the Custom House on the lower floor of his dwelling, on the north side of Wall Street between William and Pearl Streets.
The freedom of the commerce of New York from the restrictions of the British Navigation Act gave an impetus to foreign trade; a regular French line of packets put the city in communication with the European continent, and various American firms established in foreign trade, the ship Empress of China, Captain John Green, being the first to sail for Canton, February 22, 1784. But the control of the tariff by the States was a handicap to the com-
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merce of New York. Connecticut, by imposing a lower tariff, took trade away from New York to New Haven, some of the merchants removing to that city, but coming back when the Constitution of 1789 was adopted and made the tariff uniform for the entire country.
There was only one bank in New York in the period immediately follow- ing the Revolution. This was the Bank of New York, established chiefly through the efforts of William Duer and General Alexander McDougall, early in 1784. General McDougall became its first president until his death. June 8, 1786. Isaac Roosevelt became president of the bank in 1789.
During the British occu- pation King's College had dis- continued its operation. Its building had barely escaped destruction in the fire of 1776, METHODIST CHURCH IN JOHN STREET IN OLDEN TIMES and had been used as a hospital by the British. While so used its library was rifled. The State legislature, May 1, 1784, passed an act changing the name from King's College to Columbia College, and placing it under the State Board of Regents created by the same act. The first student who entered the college under its new name was De Witt Clinton, nephew of the governor, who was an honor graduate at the first commencement, held April II, 1786, and was afterward mayor, United States senator, presidential candidate and governor.
Trinity Church had been destroyed by fire in September, 1776, and the corner stone for the new building was not laid until August 21, 1788. Rev. Dr. Charles Inglis, the rector, left the city with the refugees for Nova Scotia, and while the evacuation was going on the Tory members of the parish elected Rev. Dr. Benjamin Moore to the rectorship, but on the return of the Whigs to control of the town, those of them who were members of Trinity succeeded in securing action from the legislature, giving them control, whereupon they revoked the election of Dr. Moore and called Rev. Dr. Samuel Provoost to be rector. The three Reformed Dutch churches had been badly maltreated by the British, who had used them for prisons, hospitals, storehouses and riding schools, the Middle Church being in an especially deplorable condition, so that it was not reopened until 1790, and the three Presbyterian churches had also been used by the army for secular purposes. A fourth was built in 1787. There were also two German Lutheran churches, a Catholic congrega-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
tion, ministered to by Father Whelan, a Moravian church, Friends' meeting house, a Jewish synagogue, Baptist church, and the Methodist church on John Street, built in 1769, which church, "the mother of Methodism in New York," still occupies the same site.
The City Hall, at the northeast corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, built in 1700, was used for city business, but in 1785, when Congress assembled in New York, the council gave up the use of the greater part of it to that body, retaining only a part of the west end of it for mayor's office and council cham- ber. When the Federal Constitution had been adopted by the States, in 1788, the Common Council decided to give up the entire building for use of the new government, and had it entirely remodeled by Major L'Enfant, at a cost of
FEDERAL HALL AND VERPLANCK MANSION
Site of the old Custom House and Assay Office
$65,000, and it became known as the New Federal Hall, the most imposing edi- fice in the city. The first American post office in the city was opened November 28, 1783, at 38 Smith Street, and William Bedlow, a deputy of Postmaster- General Ebenezer Hazard (then at Philadelphia), was appointed postmaster.
New York, as were the other States, was agitated with discussion as to the propriety of creating a strong federal government with sovereign power of international and interstate problems, and at first the majority seemed to be those who dreaded loss of liberty by creating a strong and centralized gov- ernment, but the commercial interests of New York so plainly needed the aid of a federal power which could treat with foreign governments on a basis of equality, that through the able efforts of Hamilton, Jay and Livingston, the assent of New York to the Federal Constitution was secured, and New York became the federal capital. George Washington had been elected President, and John Adams Vice President of the United States.
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GEORGE WASHINGTON INAUGURATED PRESIDENT
Mr. Adams arrived in the city April 20, 1789, and was met at Kings- bridge by members of Congress and an escort of light horse, under com- mand of Captain Stakes, and when he reached town a salute was fired from guns at the Battery. President Washington came from Paulus Hook, where he had been received by Congressional, State and city committees, to New York, on a decorated barge accompanied by other craft containing rejoicing throngs, which cheered and sang patriotic songs. On the hither shore greater multitudes cheered him as he landed, and the procession that celebrated his coming was the largest which had ever, up to that time, been seen in New York. Declining the offered carriage, for he was tired of riding, the great President walked, properly attended, with the procession to the Franklin House, at 3 Cherry Street, where he had welcome but brief repose, after which he went to the DePeyster House, on Queen (now Pearl) Street, nearly opposite Cedar Street, to dine with Governor Clinton. The town was gaily decorated for the occasion-more gaily than it had ever been before, and in the evening there was a great illumination which included nearly every house in the city. The few exceptions were some of the as yet unreconciled Anti-Federalists, several of whose darkened windows were shattered by missiles thrown by some too enthusiastic partisans of the constitution. Receptions took nearly all of General Washington's time from then until April 30th, when the day opened with the roar of the guns at Fort George. In the morning, prayers were offered at many churches after a general ringing of all the church bells in the city. At noon an official escort waited at the President's door and he was followed by a great military and civic procession, mounted and on foot, to Federal Hall, where he went to the senate chamber, where he went up, bow- ing, to a seat between the Vice President on his right and the speaker on his left. Thence he stepped to the balcony and in full view of the senators and representatives within, of many of the nation's greatest on the balcony with him, and of a throng outside that packed the streets and roofs, he took the oath, kissed the Book, and Chancellor Livingston proclaimed: "It is done! Long live George Washington, President of the United States!" A flag shot up to the cupola of Federal Hall, and at this signal the guns at the Battery boomed again, the bells of all the city again clanged in chorus, and the shouts of the multitude resounded through the streets of the city. The President re- turned to the senate chamber and delivered his inaugural address, and then with his entourage repaired to St. Paul's church, to take part in a thanksgiving service conducted by Bishop Provoost. The United States of America had became a nation, fully organized on a permanent basis.
The religious sentiments expressed by the President in his inaugural address were pleasing to worshipers of all denominations, and the first re- sponse of approval came from the Methodist Episcopal Church in John Street,
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of which Rev. John Dickens was the pastor. Services had been held on the morning of the inauguration, in that church, where the New York Confer- ence (then comprising twenty ministers) had been in session for two days pre- viously, presided over by Bishops Asbury and Coke.
One of the first appointments made by President Washington was that of Mayor Duane, to be United States judge for the District of New York. He was succeeded in the office of mayor, under Governor Clinton's appoint- ment, by Richard Varick, previously recorder, and Samuel Jones was ap- pointed to the latter office. Aaron Burr was elected attorney-general.
When the new government was organized, questions of titles and social usages came up and roused much antagonism and heated discussion, beginning with a proposition in Congress to select titles for the President and other offi- cials. A senate committee proposed that the executive should be styled "His Highness the President of the United States, and Protector of Their Liber- ties." Others of more exuberant tastes thought that "High Mightiness," "His Elective Majesty," or just plain "His Majesty," would meet the situation better, but the House of Representatives would have none of them. It was decided to call him simply "the President of the United States." Certain rich and fashionable people, however, created a social atmosphere which was, as near as they could make it, a copy of European courts. Fenno's Gazette of the United States, which was regarded as being the government organ, made much of the social doings, which much offended the democratic ideas of the majority, although the President himself lived a simple and unostentatious life.
Among the presidential appointments were several New Yorkers, includ- ing Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury; William Duer, assistant secretary; John Jay, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court; Samuel Osgood, postmaster-general; and Gouverneur Morris, appointed on a special mission to Europe. Local federal appointments included John Lamb, collector of the port; Benjamin Walker, naval officer, and John Lasher, surveyor of the port.
The proceedings of the First Congress, while interesting from a national standpoint, had little in them pertaining to local history. The State legisla- ture enacted, March 16, 1790, that the lands at Fort George belonging to the State should forever be reserved for the erection of public buildings, and ap- pointing Gerard Bancker, Richard Varick and John Watts commissioners to demolish Fort George, level the grounds, erect a new bulkhead at the Battery and erect new buildings for the State government and to be applied to the temporary use of the President of the United States during such time as the Congress of the United States should hold its sessions in the City of New York. The commission rapidly cleared away Fort George, and in leveling the ground, under the ruins the workmen came upon the leaden caskets contain-
THE CINCINNATI AND TAMMANY
299
ing the remains of Lord and Lady Bellomont. They were moved with decorum and interred with proper marks of respect in St. Paul's churchyard. On March 25, 1790, Trinity Church, which had been rebuilt, was consecrated. There was placed within the edifice a canopied pew for the President's use. One of
Reproduced from the original print in the collection of Mr. Percy R. Pyne, 2d NEW YORK HARBOR, 1790, SHOWING GOVERNOR'S HOUSE IN BACKGROUND
the acts of the State Assembly, passed March 31st, granted Governor's Island and certain lands in Clinton County as well as f1000 cash to Columbia College.
"The Society of the Cincinnati," composed of officers who served in the War of Independence, was an organization at that time of great political power. Another organization which had arisen as in some respects a rival to The Society of the Cincinnati was the "St. Tammany Society or Columbian Order," with its well-known imitation of the tribal organization of the American In- dians. There had been a "St. Tammany Society" before that, but in May, 1789, the organization added the "Columbian" adjunct to its name and greatly strengthened itself, becoming in fact a protest against the hereditary feature of the Cincinnati, and more democratic in character. In both of the societies there were at that time members of both parties, but at times they were prac-
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tically opposing political camps. Both made a prominent feature of the ob- servance of Independence Day. In 1790, that anniversary falling on Sunday, the celebration was postponed until Monday, July 5th. Brockholst Livingston delivered an oration in St. Paul's Church, before a distinguished audience, in which were included members of Congress, the Cincinnati, and Federal, State and municipal authorities who, after the address, waited on the President. The members of the Cincinnati invited "the Grand Sachem and Fathers of the St. Tammany Society" to a dinner, at which such good humor prevailed as to make the occasion one of special note.
St. Tammany Society soon had occasion to place itself in a promi- nent position in connection with a matter of national importance. The Indians in the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia had been very trouble- some in the South under Spanish inspiration, and Colonel Marinus Willett had been sent on a special mission to the Creek Indians of the South, and word came that he was on his way to New York with McGillvray, chief of the hostile tribe (of mixed blood from a Scotch father), and twenty-eight warriors. John Pintard, sagamore of Tam- many, a man of high social standing, a scholar of distinction, and editor of the Daily Advertiser, saw in this news an opportunity to advance the prestige of the society, and made arrangements accordingly. Colonel Willett and his Indian guests, who had been traveling toward New York at government expense and had been greeted by great crowds at every place along the way, were met by the Sons of St. Tammany, dressed in true Indian style and with much aboriginal magnificence. The Tam- manyites took charge of the Indians, piloted them to the houses of the president, and secretary of war, and afterward showed them everything there was to see in New York likely to interest them. At a grand enter- tainment on August 3d, Grand Sachem Hoffman made them an eloquent speech, telling them that the spirits of two great chiefs, Tammany and Columbus, were supposed to walk up and down in that Great Wigwam. One of them, Tammany, was a great and good Indian chief, a warrior, hunter and patriot, and they called themselves his sons. Sagamore Pintard, whose speech, when translated to the warriors, seemed to greatly please them, produced a calumet beautifully ornamented, which was smoked by them all in turn. The Indian chief conferred upon Grand Sachem Hoff- man the title of Taliva Mico (Chief of the White Town), and the President of the United States was toasted as the "Beloved Chieftain of the Thirteen Fires." Other things were arranged by Tammany for the chiefs, one of which was their presence with the President at a great military review, July 27th, which much impressed them, and a dinner by the President, to the chiefs. A treaty with the Indians was drawn up and signed by them
WASHINGTON'S LAST LOOK AT NEW YORK
301
and the President, at Federal Hall, which was the last time the President ever visited that building.
The question of the place for the permanent capital had greatly agitated the country. New York and Philadelphia both wanted it and the latter had the strongest backing, but still stronger was the sentiment that a federal district should be cut out of one or more States which should be central to the population and should be subject to the authority of no one State. As the latter plan involved some years of building and preparation Philadelphia was pacified with a promise of the capital for ten years, and on July 16, 1790, the act for removal first to Philadelphia and afterward to the chosen district on the Potomac was signed by the President. The President gave his last State dinner on August 28th, and on the 30th a procession of State and municipal officers conducted the President and his family to McComb's Wharf on North River, where they embarked on the same barge that had brought them to the city. A salute of thirteen guns was fired, the people cheered and the President, waving his hat, said, "Farewell." He never returned to New York.
MANHATTANVILLE FROM CLAREMONT
CHAPTER TWENTY - NINE
CONSTRUCTIVE DAYS IN POLITICAL PARTIES THE CINCINNATI AND TAMMANY ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND AARON BURR
An enumeration of the inhabitants of New York made on December II, 1790, showed a population of 29,906 souls. Divided by wards, they were dis- tributed as follows: South Ward, 1756; Dock Ward, 1854; East Ward, 3622; West Ward, 6054; North Ward, 4596; Montgomerie Ward, 6702; Bowery Ward, 4819; Harlem Division, 503. In the following October the names of the wards were changed to numbers, and they were more equally divided on the basis of population.
On January 3, 1791, the State assembly of New York met in the city, and John Watts was elected speaker. General Schuyler's term was about to expire on March 4th, and he was a candidate for reelection, but was opposed by Aaron Burr, and the latter won by ten majority in the senate and five in the house. Burr's victory over Schuyler was considered as a bad defeat for the Federal party. Chancellor Livingston and his brother-in-law, Morgan Lewis, who had been prominent Federalists, used their influence in behalf of Burr, whom Lewis succeeded as attorney-general. John Pintard, Tammany sagamore, and Melancthon Smith, another Tammany man, were in that assembly, and Pintard developed much power and adroitness as a legislative leader.
Tammany was getting to the front in various ways. It had established, in September, 1790, an American museum, which was the basis of the New York Historical Society. Pintard's paper, the Daily Advertiser, announced that the object of the society in establishing the museum was to collect and preserve all material relating to the history of our country and all American curiosities of nature and art. The society had secured from the Common Council the use of a room in the City Hall for the purposes of this museum, which was open at all times to the members of the Tammany Society, and on Tuesdays and Fridays to the public. There was an interchange of civilities on Washington's Birthday, 1791, between the Cincinnati and the Sons of Tam- many, represented by the grand sachem, Josiah Ogden Hoffman.
Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, which had been printed in London with a dedication to Washington, appeared in an American edition with a pre- liminary note of high approval from Thomas Jefferson, secretary of state. The publication aroused a storm of Federalist dissent from its doctrines, coupled with adverse criticism of the secretary of state for endorsing them. Pintard published the entire work as a serial, running from May 6th to 27th, in the
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Daily Advertiser, together with the celebrated letters replying to the argu- ments of Paine and signed "Publicola." These were generally credited to John Adams, the Vice President, but were afterward found to be the work of his son, John Quincy Adams. Paine's work became popular with that section of the people who were in sympathy with the rising revolution in France, and whom the Federalists began to refer to tauntingly as "Democrats."
In 1792 was held a celebration of the third centenary of the discovery of America, on October 12th. There were orations, fourteen toasts, historical and allegorical tableaux, which glorified Columbus and his deeds, the Sons of Tammany or the Columbian Order, and Paine's Rights of Man. Tammany had become the adherent of the radical democracy represented by Thomas Jefferson. It soon exemplified this stand by be- coming the chief support of Governor George Clinton in his race for reelection in November. Against him was pitted John Jay, and the fight was hot and heavy, and at no voting booth was the fight more fierce than in Trinity Church, which was one of the polling booths in that election. -LO SSING-BARRITT The election turned upon No. 2 BROADWAY, COR. MARKETFIELD STREET, 1798 the legality of the returns from Otsego County. It was agreed to leave the result of the election on the decision of the senators from New York, Aaron Burr and Rufus King, who were to choose a third if they could not agree. They left it to Edmund Ran- dolph, who decided the legal question in such a way that the vote of Otsego County was rejected and Clinton was declared governor. The Federalists were incensed almost to the point of armed resistance, and made great demonstra- tions, even trying to induce the legislature to unseat Clinton, but without suc- cess. Clinton gained in popularity, and he received the vote of the State for the Vice Presidency, which he came near winning at that time. By this time the name "Republican" had become fixed upon the opponents of the Federal party. Later it became the "Republican-Democratic" party, and finally the "Democratic" party, being the only political organization which has been con- tinuous from the first administration to the present time.
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