USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 34
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After 1820 the selection of the mayor of New York was taken away from Albany, the Board of Aldermen, by enactment of that year, being substituted for the State Council of Appointment as the appointing power. Stephen Allen was mayor for 1821 and 1822, and was succeeded by William Paulding, who was mayor for the years 1823 and 1824. Philip Hone was appointed mayor in January, 1825, but served only one year. He was afterward, by appoint- ment of Zachary Taylor, naval officer of the port of New York, serving from 1849 to 1851. Mr. Paulding again filled the office in 1826 and 1827. Mayor Paulding was a native of Tarrytown, New York, and nephew of John Pauld- ing, who captured Major Andre. He settled in New York about 1795, in the practice of law, married a daughter of Philip Rhinelander, and was elected to the Twelfth Congress in 1810, but was absent from the last session of that Congress because of military duty. He took an active interest in raising and equipping militia regiments for the War of 1812, and rose to the rank of brig- adier general of militia. He took the lead in the honors to La Fayette on his visit to New York in 1824.
When DeWitt Clinton declined to stand for nomination to the governor- ship in 1822, it was because he felt that the Albany Regency was so strongly intrenched in political power that it might be able to accomplish his defeat. Martin Van Buren and his companions in the Regency as well as the Bucktails in New York were much delighted that their years of endeavor in that direc- tion had at last resulted in the final elimination, as they thought, of Clinton from the political situation. He was still, however, a member of the Erie Canal Commission, of which he had been the chief promoter and central figure from 1810. To complete the discomfiture of their greatest foe, by striking him where it would hurt most, they removed him from the commission. The canal project now approaching completion had, in its earlier and more doubt- ful years, been called by its opponents "Clinton's Big Ditch" and "Clinton's Folly." But now no one called it folly, and his enemies determined to elimi- nate him from the work of which he had for so many years been the centre and dynamic.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
But the way they took to accomplish it defeated their object. A storm of public indignation at this action took the situation entirely out of the hands of the bosses, and swept Clinton back to the governor's chair. So that instead of elimination, they had dealt exaltation. Clinton was elected governor in 1824, and was in that office until February II, 1828, when he suddenly died at Albany.
The canal for which he had worked so hard was completed in the autumn of 1825. The Seneca Chief, the first canal boat, left Buffalo at ten o'clock on the morning of October 26th, having on board Governor Clinton, Chancellor Livingston, General Stephen van Rensselaer, Thurlow Weed, Colonel W. L. Stone and Joshua Foreman ( founder of Syracuse). By arrangement cannon had been placed at intervals along the entire route, each of the cannon being within hearing distance of the next one, and in this way, when the cannon at the starting place in Buffalo boomed the signal that the flotilla of canal boats had started, the next cannon took it up, and so on down the line, so that in an hour and twenty minutes New York received the message, and answering back, the reply reached Buffalo within three hours from the time the first signal had been fired. This held the rec- ord for quick transmission of a message over such a distance until the electric telegraph was invented, and time and space were practically annihilated.
The 4th day of November, BROADWAY HOUSE 1825, when the distinguished party with their canal boats reached New York, was a day which was always remembered by those who at that time re- sided in the city. The naval fête, which formed a part of the celebration, was by far the finest that had ever been given CORNER OF BROADWAY AND GRAND STREET, 1824 here or elsewhere, and was probably never equalled by any that came after until the Hudson-Fulton tercentennial celebration of 1909. Military and civic processions on land, in which every organization in the city, political, commercial or otherwise, took part; the night illuminations of all the public buildings, hotels and institutions; the lavish and profuse displays of fireworks, of music, the cheering, the display of flags by day and lights at night on practically all private as well as public houses ; the entertainments,
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CANAL CELEBRATION IN NEW YORK
receptions and balls which took up the four days of the celebration, which finished with the grand ball in the La Fayette Theatre, on Laurens Street, all testified to the high appreciation of what this direct waterway connection with the Great Lakes meant to the future of New York.
The success and enthusiasm attending this celebration of the completion of "Clinton's Big Ditch" was doubtless very gratifying to the governor, as the culmination of his greatest lifework. The results of the operation of the canal more than verified the hopes that he and the other optimists iden- tified with this great work had ventured to express. It gave access to markets, added value to lands, settled not only the great central valley of New York but the great western region tributary to the Great Lakes, and greatly increased the population of the city of OLD MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE New York, which, from 123.706 population in 1820, grew to 202,589 in 1830. By this canal commerce flowed to and from New York, and its accomplish- ment made certain beyond rivalry the position of New York as the commer- cial metropolis of America.
In 1825 an important incident was the laying of the corner stone of the Merchants' Exchange. in Wall Street. Prior to that time the meeting place of the merchants of New York had been at the Tontine Coffee House, at Wall and Water Streets, a large building erected in 1792. The new Merchants' Exchange was completed in 1827.
In May, 1825, the first gas pipes were laid by the New York Gas Light Company, a small beginning for what is now the most extensive gas light- ing system in the world. The plant was rapidly extended, and in a few years the old oil lamps were replaced by gas in the principal streets of the city.
With the revival of business, following the completion of the Erie Canal, there was an era of speculation which came to an untimely end. in the panic of 1826, in which many lotteries, wildcat banks and ephemeral schemes, many of them fraudulent in origin, and others of honest inten- tion, went to the wall. Its immediate effects were disastrous to many, but its ultimate results were to render the public more cautious and lead to a healthier condition in the business world.
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William Paulding was succeeded in the office of mayor, in 1828, by Walter Bowne, who served until 1833. He was a descendant of a well- known Quaker family of that name, of Flushing, Long Island. He had for several years been successfully engaged in business in New York City as a hardware merchant, and had also attained some prominence in politics as a Democrat, having been elected, for three consecutive terms, to the State Senate. His successor was Gideon Lee, a prominent leather merchant, who served one year only in the office, a new law being passed by the legislature making the office elective.
The election of 1824 had been divided as factional rather than partisan, all four of the candidates, Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Clay and Craw- ford, being classed as Republicans. Neither candidate received a majority of the electoral vote, and the decision was therefore left to the House of Representatives, which chose John Quincy Adams. In 1828, the other candidates being eliminated, the contest was between Andrew Jackson, sup- ported by the dominant fac- tion of what had been called the Republican party, which in this national contest took, for the first time, the name of "Democratic Party" for its GOTHIC HALL, BROADWAY, 1827 official designation; and John Quincy Adams, who was largely supported by those who had, before its organization disappeared, been aligned with the Federalist party, was now running under the party designa- tion of "National Republican." Jackson was elected.
Governor DeWitt Clinton, having died suddenly at Albany, on Feb- ruary II, 1828, the lieutenant governor, Nathaniel Pitcher, served until the election of that year, when Martin Van Buren, who was then United States Senator, was elected to the office of governor, which he resigned his sena- torship to accept. He resigned the governorship, in 1829, being called to Jackson's cabinet as secretary of state, and Enos T. Throop became governor.
New York took a prominent place in political affairs by the organi- zation of the Whig party, at a meeting held here in 1830 to promote the presidential candidacy of Henry Clay, and favoring a protective tariff and the preservation of a national bank. The latter made a direct issue with Jackson, who had vetoed the bill to continue for another term the charter of the United States Bank, which would expire in 1836, and in this he was
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NEW YORK GETS ITS FIRST HORSE RAILROAD
supported by the Democratic party. Thus the distinction between parties was more clearly defined. Henry Clay, as a "National Republican," was a candidate against Jackson, in 1832, but he was overwhelmingly defeated by
the latter; and William L. Marcy, Democrat, was also elected governor of the State.
A very important event of this period was the organ- ization of the New York and Harlem Railroad, which was the first horse-railroad in the world, and the initial en- terprise in the tramway sys- tem of urban and interurban transportation.
After the last visitation of yellow fever, in 1823, New York was practically JUNCTION OF BROADWAY AND THE BOWERY ROAD, 1828 unmolested by epidemic dis- eases, except as isolated cases, brought in on ships, were treated at quarantine. But in 1832, New York had a new and most unwelcome visitor in the Asiatic cholera, which raged with much violence during the summer months, and it appeared again in 1834. There were 5835 cases and 2996 deaths in the former year, but its fatalities were greatly decreased on the second visi- tation.
In 1834, for the first time, the mayor of New York was elected by the popular vote, under the new law. Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence was the Tammany candidate, but many inde- pendent Democrats, as well as the. Whigs, supported Gulian C. Verplanck on an independent ticket. In those days the number of polling places was small, the polls were held open for
GRACE CHURCH AND VICINITY, 1828
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
three successive days, and there was no registration of voters. Excitement ran high because of the veto of the bank charter, which was rather gener- ally and quite bitterly opposed by the conservative element in the com- munity, but was supported by most of the Democrats, and particularly in New York City, by those of Tammany affiliations. In the sixth ward, where election disturbances were by no means infrequent, there was a raid on the polls by Jackson Democrats, who destroyed the ballots and every- thing in the room where the election was held. Finally, the militia had to be called out to preserve order, and were managed with such effectiveness that the riot soon quieted, although there had been numerous conflicts until the military arm was brought to bear. The result of the poll was favorable to Mr. Lawrence by a small plu- rality, but the council had a Whig majority. Mayor Law- rence had long been a man of prominence in political affairs, and had served in Congress OLD CUSTOM HOUSE before being elected mayor. Besides these disturbances, popularly known as the "Election Riots," many others occurred. Other lawless mobs soon after set in to break up the abolition meetings of William Lloyd Garrison, and soon after, the mob made severe attacks on some negroes who were trying to hold religious meetings, and these disturbances were only quelled by a new recourse to the aid of the militia. The same means had also to be used to quell a stone- cutters' riot in August, 1834, caused by the employment of State prisoners on cut-stone work.
News of the death of General La Fayette, in France, on May 20, 1834, reached New York on June 20th, and the City Council ordered that June 26th should be set apart for a proper ceremonial observance in honor of the popular French commander, and the day was marked by a very decorous and appropriate observance, including a military parade, and an address at Castle Garden, in the evening, by Frederick A. Tallmadge. The city build- ings and many business and private buildings were draped in mourning.
A most important move was made in the spring election, in 1835, when it was decided to secure a supply of water from the Croton River, forty miles distant. The existing supply had become palpably inadequate, and
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NEW YORK'S MOST DISASTROUS FIRE
the Croton project met with marked approval, although it was an ambitious and expensive undertaking for the resources and population of the city in those days. Samuel Stevens, who had been representative of the second ward in the Common Council for several years, is entitled to the chief credit of this undertaking, which was completed in 1842.
The most disastrous fire in the history of the city occurred December 16, 1835. It raged through that night and all the next day and night, and was not under control until the 18th. It burned along Wall Street from East River to Exchange Place, to Beaver, Hanover Square, Coenties Slip, and back to the river, covering an irregularly triangular piece of ground thirteen acres in extent and destroying 693 houses and stores, with property valued at eigh- teen million dollars. The South Dutch Church, in Garden Street, and the fine marble Merchants' Exchange, in Wall Street, were among the buildings destroyed. The loss was so great that practically all of the fire insurance companies were unable to meet their losses, and failed. The supply of water, insufficient at the best, was rendered the more inadequate because of the freez- ing weather. The blow to many of the enterprises was a staggering one, but the losers built up new buildings in a very short time, and the structures were of much improved quality.
The policy of Jackson with reference to the United States Bank had met the approval of the country at large, but had been very unpopular with most of the business men of New York and the other large centres. Even many who agreed with the Jacksonian reasoning against the renewal of the charter of the bank thought that his policy was defective in failing to furnish some adequate substitute for that institution. But Jackson prevailed; the charter had not been issued. Jackson withdrew the government deposits from the bank, and when a few years later it tottered to its fall, it showed such condi- tions in its management and methods as seemed to justify the harsh measures which Jackson began and Van Buren continued against the charter.
Besides destroying the bank and taking the government deposits from it, Jackson had paid off the national debt, which sent much specie out of the country. There were many banks established, and as there was no plan for securing to banks a national charter, the projectors turned to the States, many of which had no system of examining or controlling their banking institu- tions, so that many, perhaps the majority, of the banks instituted were with- out any basis worthy the name. Bank bills were issued in large quantities, but there was no certainty that they were worth anything. Notes freshly issued might be paid by banks at their counters, and the next day the bank might fail. The government land offices had received much of this "wild-cat" money and sustained much loss, until Jackson issued a special order that gold and silver only should be received on land payments. As this business was
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
very active in those days of land speculation, the gold and silver, of which the supply was small at the best, found its way into the national treasury.
Added to this condition of the country were high prices for food prod- ucts. There was a short crop of wheat, and flour as a consequence of that fact, and of the operations of some keen speculators in the commodity, went up from seven to twelve dollars a barrel. Meat also went up to abnormally high prices, and coal was ten dollars per ton. There was great murmuring among the poor, and in answer to a poster headed "Bread, Meat, Rent, Fuel!" which called for a meeting in City Hall Park, a large crowd gathered in the evening of February 10, 1837. One of the agitators who spoke told the crowd that Mr. Eli Hart had 53,000 barrels of flour in his store in Washing- ton Street, and a rush was made thither. Men, climbing up into the upper floors, dashed about five hundred barrels of flour out into the street, where the flour from the bursted barrels emptied into the roadway. At this point an alarm was sounded that the soldiers were coming and the mob desisted from its labors there, although other places were visited and sev- eral similar acts were done, though with less damage.
TONTINE COFFEE HOUSE AS IT APPEARED IN 1812 Banks all over the coun- try failed, and most of the notes in circulation became valueless. Such specie as was outside of the treas- ury went into hiding, and all kinds of property-stocks, houses, lands and merchandise-were offered at ridiculously low prices, but purchases were few. Many large business firms failed, mills and factories shut down because their products could not be sold. Rich men became poor, and poor people, because there was no work to be had, suffered for lack of food. The "panic of 1837" passed into history as probably the most severe monetary crisis this country has ever experienced, and in no place was it felt more keenly than in New York, where all the banks suspended May 10, 1837.
When Roger Brooke Taney, Jackson's secretary of the treasury, had withdrawn the government's deposits from the United States Bank, in 1833, he had deposited the money in various State banks, which, in the vigorous Van Buren campaign, were designated "pet banks" by the opposition. Much
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BROADWAY AS IT WAS
ENERAL DEPOTICANEMLENDIANCHE the BRITISH COLLEGE OF HEALTH
WEBB'S BURGERS WEBB'S EMPORIUM OF LIGHT.
WRIGHT
"TO STORE
BROADWAY, NEW YORK, 1836
3-44
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
of this money had been borrowed by the States in which they were located, to use in internal improvements, such as roads, railroads, canals, and the like. When the panic of 1837 came, many of the banks were unable to return to the government the money it had loaned them, and the government was greatly embarrassed. A special session of Congress was called which, on the request of the President, authorized the Treasury Department to issue $10,000,000 in notes, and provided for an independent treasury, the idea of which was origi- nated by Levi Woodbury, then secretary of the treasury, as a depository where the money of the government should be kept, instead of in the banks, and this was the foundation of the present system, the branches or subtreasuries after- ward being added, of which that in New York has always been of the greatest importance.
NORTHERN VIEW OF NAVY YARD AT BROOKLYN, 1835
CHAPTER THIRTY - TWO
FROM THE PANIC OF 1837 TO THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN-MUNICIPAL PROGRESS VARIOUS RIOTS AND DISASTERS
The banks which had suspended in New York, in May, 1837, had been compelled to do so because of the conditions which made that course the best for the banks, their shareholders and their depositors. There were twenty-three incorporated banks in the city, with an aggregate capital of $20,361,200. These banks, through their officials, held a consultation, on August 15th, and under the plans proposed by Albert Gallatin, appointed a committee, of which he was head, to call a convention of the principal banks of the country to agree upon a time for the resumption of specie payments, and take other steps to relieve the situation.
The banks of Philadelphia, influenced by the Bank of the United States (then operating under a charter from the State), declined to attend the convention, nor did any delegates attend from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or Tennessee, in which States the banking system was practically under the control of the Bank of the United States. But on November 27th the meeting was attended by delegates from seventeen States, and from the District of Columbia, and resolved upon the resumption of specie payments by July 1, 1838, but authorizing such banks as found it neces- sary to do so to resume before, this latter clause being put in because under the law of New York State a bank suspended for more than twelve months would forfeit its charter. Attempts to get the Philadelphia banks into the agreement having failed, an effort was made in another meeting to secure general accord in specie resumption by a slight postponement. Meanwhile, the New York banks having reduced their liabilities fifty per cent., Mr. Gallatin's committee reported that if supported by the com- munity and the State authorities, the banks could resume on May 10, 1838. A general meeting of citizens was held, in which great satisfaction with this announcement was expressed; and the action of the committee was approved and public support pledged. Secretary Woodbury wrote, pledg- ing the support of the United States Treasury. The New York banks resumed upon the date named, with such success that the banks throughout the country were compelled, by popular opinion, to resume on July Ist. The failure of the Bank of the United States, in the following year, carrying with it the entire banking system of the Southwestern States, together with disclosures highly discreditable to the management, put an end to the political demand for the creation of a new charter for that institution.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
The number of city wards had been increased to sixteen, in 1835, and to seventeen, in 1836. The Whigs were successful in the elections of 1837 and 1838, securing majorities in both boards of the Common Council, and elect- ing Aaron Clark as mayor, being the second mayor of the city elected by the popular vote. The Democrats were successful in 1839, electing Isaac L. Varian as mayor, and he was reelected in 1840. Robert Morris, of the well-known Revolutionary Mor- ris family, was the Tammany candidate for mayor in 1841, 1842 and 1843, being elected in all three years.
THE HOUSE OF REFUGE
At the junction of Broadway and the Old Post Road Erected in 1824; burnt, 1838
The inhabitants of the city, at the beginning of the Nine- teenth Century, were nearly all native born, of Dutch or Eng-
lish extraction. The first considerable immigration was Jewish, but soon the Irish predominated. The numbers of those who arrived were very small as compared with the immigration of the present day. The ten years, 1822-1831, inclusive, brought to the United States, through all ports, a total of 156,943 alien passengers, which included, besides immigrants, all foreigners who came on a visit, the records being kept in that way. The annual influx was under 10,000 until 1825, under 20,000 until 1828, when 27,382 arrived, then fell to below 24,000 for three years.
In 1831 there were 22,633 arrivals, which suddenly increased, in 1832, to 60,482; and in the decade of 1832- 1841, inclusive, there were 657,077 arrivals of alien passengers in the United States, or more than four times as many as in the previous decade. The Irish immigration greatly predominated in that decade, and until 1849.
From the first, the immigration came into the country very largely through the port of New York, and that was never more true than now, for in the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1909, of 751,786 incoming immigrants, 580,617, or about 77.23 per cent., came through the port of New York. This condition has been important as a factor in giving the population of the city its cosmopolitan character. The Irish-born population of New York is equal to that of Dublin; the German-born population equal to that of Frankfurt; the Italian-born population exceeds that of Venice; and the Jewish population is larger than in any other city of the world. More than half the population of the city is, wholly or partly, of foreign parentage.
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NATIVE AMERICANS ELECT A MAYOR
The panic of 1837 had a remarkable effect on immigration to the United States in the following year, for from 79,340 alien passengers, in 1837, the number dropped to 38,914, or more than fifty per cent., in 1838. But this was only temporary, for the number rose to 68,069 in 1839, and 84,000 in 1840. The potato famine of 1846 started a great Irish immigra- tion, the total alien passengers being 154,416 in that year, and 234,968 in 1847, largely Irish. Political events in 1848 and the following years gave impetus to a German immigration, which was soon to outnumber the Irish, and the California gold discoveries, in 1849 and 1850, made the stream of immigration larger and larger from every source. There was a check just before and during the Civil War. After the war it increased again. The Scandinavian immigration became a leading factor, going largely to the grain fields of the Northwest. Italy began to figure very largely, and with Russia and Austria-Hungary now furnishes the greater part of the immi- gration.
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