USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
The immigration to New York affected its politics. The naturalization laws made the immigrant eligible to citizenship within five years, and the growth of Tammany, as a political power, came largely from the policy of the organization in working for the support of the large number of potential voters who were brought by the packet ships to the city. Soon foreign-born citizens were not voting, but holding office, and whereas the Democratic and Whig parties had heretofore been the controlling contestants for the offices, there arose a new party based on opposition to the policy of the Democrats in par- celing out offices to alien-born citizens, and in the charter elec- tion of 1844, the Native Amer- ican Party had taken so many from the other parties (espe- cially from the Whigs) that James Harper, its candidate, re- ceived 24,510 votes, to 20,538 for Jonathan I. Coddington, the Democratic candidate, and 5297 GS SING- -CARRITT for the Whig nominee. This was the first election after the BROADWAY HOMESTEAD OF MAYOR VARIAN, 1839 passage of the law abolishing property qualifications for the suffrage.
On June 27, 1842, there was a celebration, with appropriate ceremony, at the receiving reservoir, in Yorkville (Eighty-sixth Street and Sixth Avenue), of the letting in of the water from the Croton Aqueduct, in which
348
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
the mayor, Common Council, the governor, and higher judicial officers participated; and on July 4th there was a similarly appropriate programme to celebrate the letting in of the water to the great dis- tributing reservoir, at Forty- second Street and Fifth Ave- nue, on the spot now occupied by the magnificent marble edifice of the New York Pub- lic Library, adjoining Bryant Park. On October 14th, the bringing in of the Croton water was made the subject of a public celebration, in which the whole city participated, and which in extent and mag- RECEIVING RESERVOIR "Croton Celebration," 1842 nificence exceeded even the great celebration of the com- pletion of the Erie Canal, which, until this water celebration, was the standard of ultimate magnificence by which all subsequent celebrations were compared. It included a parade, which was the finest ever wit- nessed in the city to that time, and included representatives of all societies. At the City Hall the water- works were formally trans- ferred to the city; and the Sacred Music Society sang a new ode, written by George P. Morris for the occasion. There was an address by . Mayor Morris; and Gover- nor Seward made a speech, in which he advocated the completion, by the State, of the enlargement of the Erie Canal, which had been sus- pended some time before, be- cause it was found that the DISTRIBUTING RESERVOIR cost was greater than antici- pated. There were many other features of festivity, but the climax was in the opening of the beautiful newly erected fountains in Union Square and City Hall Park, for many years among the greatest attractions of the city.
349
THE FIRST UNIFORMED POLICE
In 1842, an act was passed declaring that none of the school moneys, to be distributed by the New York Board of Education, should be given to any school in which any reli- gious or sectarian doctrine or tenet should be taught; and in the following year Archbishop Hughes raised the objection that to allow the Bible to be read daily in the schools was teaching a sectarian doctrine. Colonel William L. Stone, then superintendent of com- mon schools of New York, taking the other ground, there was a long public discussion, AQUEDUCT BRIDGE extending into the summer of 1844, when it was suspended by the illness and death (in August) of Colonel Stone. It was decided by the Board of Education, November 13, 1844, "that the Bible, without note or comment, is not a sectarian book, and that the reading of a portion of the Scriptures, without note or comment, at the open- ing of the schools, is not inculcating or practising any religious or sectarian doctrine or tenet of any particular Christian or other religious sect."
Harper, the Native Amer- ican mayor, had the distinc- tion of appointing the first regular uniformed police force of New York. The Legisla- ture enacted, in 1844, the Municipal Police Act, but pro- vided that it should not take effect until the city should pass ordinances to make it effective. As the City Coun- cil was of a party different from that in control of the Legislature, it did not put the PARK FOUNTAIN "Croton Celebration," 1842 act into effect, but passed an ordinance of its own, which provided for three forces, the watch, the municipal police, and the police proper, but using little care in the allotment of duties so as to avoid a conflict of authority. Under it, however, Mayor Harper appointed the
350
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
first uniformed police corps, known as the Municipal Police, but more familiarly as "Harper Police," and "M. P's." The old night watch, consist- ing of about one thousand men, whose only uniform was the firemen's hat, without its front helmet piece (whence the popular name of "Leather- heads") were still continued, there being only two hundred of the uniformed force appointed by Mayor Harper.
In the election of 1844 the Whigs had hoped by their support of Harper to secure the Native American vote for their national ticket (Clay and Frelinghuysen) in that year, but as many of the Native Americans were also abolitionists, they supported Birney and Morris on the Liberty Party ticket, and the Democrats carried the State for Polk and Dallas, securing their election. Harper was a candidate for reelection as mayor, in 1845, but received only 17,485 votes. The Whig candidate, Dudley Selden, had 7032 votes, and the election was won by the vote of 24,307, polled for William Frederick Havemeyer, the Democratic candidate. He was born of German parentage, in New York City, February 12, 1804, was graduated from Columbia College, and after that connected with his father's sugar refinery, until 1842, when he left that business. He was thereafter very prominent in political affairs, and was three times elected mayor of the city: in 1845, 1848, and 1872.
There were several notable events in 1845, that of most permanent interest being the completion of the magnetic telegraph (New York, Philadelphia and Washington Line), being the second ever constructed; the first, between Washington and Baltimore, having been completed in the pre- vious year. In 1846 lines were extended from New York to Boston and to Albany, and the system was rapidly extended to cover the entire country.
On July 19, 1845, a fire broke out which proved to be second only to that of 1835 in the amount of damage done. It completely destroyed Exchange Place, and Beaver Street from Broadway almost to William Street. Both sides of Broad Street, from above Exchange Place to Stone Street, with the east side of Broadway and Whitehall, were destroyed. Above Exchange Place the flames crossed Broadway and consumed several houses on the west side of that thoroughfare. The loss has been variously esti- mated at from six millions to ten millions of dollars.
After Mayor Havemeyer took office, in 1845, the City Council, finding that the police ordinance of the previous year was not working well, took the necessary action, under the Act of the Legislature of 1844, to establish a Police Department in accordance with its provisions. It ended the old system of watchmen, and ended the terms of many officers, such as mar- shals, street inspectors, fire wardens, health warden, lamplighters, dock masters, inspectors, etc., and appointed in their stead a force of day and
351
THE MACREADY-FORREST FEUD
night police, not to exceed eight hundred in number, locating them in dis- trict headquarters, under the supervision of captains and assistant captains, and headed by a chief of police appointed by the mayor. This was the force until 1856, when the Legisla- ture created a new system of Metropolitan Police to take its place. The Democrats elected Andrew H. Mickle, mayor, in 1846, but the Whig candidate, William V. Brady, was elected in 1847, and William F. Have- meyer, for another term, in 1848.
New York was well rep- resented both in the rank and file of the Mexican War, which followed, in 1847-1848, the admission of Texas to the Union.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 1840
General Worth, who was from this city, was one of the heroes of the victorious army from Monterey to the capture of Mexico. Commodore Sloat, who raised the American flag in that other Monterey, in California, was a New Yorker, as was General Stephen Watts Kearny, who marched sixteen hundred men through a thousand miles of desert and seized Santa Fé, and his nephew, Philip, who was the first Amer- ican soldier to enter the gates of Mexico, lost an arm at Chepultepec, and became the "gallant General Phil Kearny" of the Civil War, until that fatal day of Chantilly which ended his life, in 1862.
In our Twentieth Century days we are not entirely strangers to pro- fessional animosity on the stage, but it is more frequent on the operatic than the Thespian boards. It was different toward the end of the first half of the Nineteenth Century, and it is probable that professional jealousy of actors never had more serious results than did that which existed between the two tragedians, Edwin Forrest, the American, and William C. Macready, the Englishman. As to the foundation for the ill feeling, there are very conflicting accounts. Forrest had played in England and Macready had been on two previous tours in the United States. Both tragedians had been very successful on both continents, for each was a magnifi- cent actor ; but each had in the other's country met with some unfavorable newspaper criticism and charged that his rival had instigated it. One account says that Forrest had witnessed a performance by Macready, at Edin- burgh, and had hissed him; and another, that Macready had given Forrest a similar affront in London. The chances are that in its origin the whole feud
352
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
may have been built up on baseless rumors, but it was in full operation when Macready, then in his fifty-sixth year, came over on a third visit to the United States, in 1848. He opened in New York, and had a very successful engage- ment, but on the last night, which was his benefit, he took occasion, in the course of a speech which he made to the audience, to mention some party or faction which had organized to prejudice the American public against him.
Going to Boston, a newspaper of that city published a strong attack upon him; and in Philadelphia, while his engagement was a successful one, the management of the house where he played only prevented a riot with the aid of a strong police force. Again, at the end of the engage- ment, in the speech usually given on such occasions, Macready made ref- erence to having received ungenerous treatment at the hands of an Ameri- can actor. Edwin Forrest at once published a card in a Philadelphia paper in which he attacked Macready viciously, making several charges against him, and calling him a "superannuated driveler," and a "poor old man" who was "disturbed by a guilty conscience." To this card Macready rejoined with another, declaring Forrest's statements to be without foundation, and threatening an action for libel. Nothing was further done hostile to Macready, except occasional attacks from newspapers which had espoused the Forrest side of the quarrel; but his performances were undisturbed until his return engagement at the Astor Place Opera House, in New York, in May, 1849. He advertised to open on Monday, May 7th, in
"Macbeth," which Forrest was at the same time play- ing at Wallack's Theatre, in Broadway.
The subsequent proceed- ings indicate that there was concerted action to prevent Macready from playing, and many afterward blamed For- rest for the results which followed - probably unduly. There is much doubt whether Macready had anything to do with the things occurring OLD POST OFFICE Formerly Middle Dutch Church, Nassau and Cedar Streets in England, which Forrest charged against him, though it is certain that Forrest believed he had. But the hostility against Macready, while largely excited by the reports of his quarrel with Forrest, had a stronger basis in the temporary intensity of the Native American movement of the
MOB ATTACKS THE OPERA HOUSE
353
time. Caleb S. Woodhull had just been elected mayor, as the Whig candi- date, with the general support of the Native American faction. The large influx of foreigners after the Irish famine of 1846, had greatly increased the nativistic sentiment, which in many places had become an un- reasoning hostility to everything foreign, this being especially true of New York.
On the Monday night, a large crowd waited quietly on the outside of the opera house, and when the door was opened went in without disturbance to their seats. The witches' scene, with which the play opens, went through quietly, but Macready's appearance was the signal for hisses, catcalls and shouts of disapproval. Macready contin- ued through the act, though not a word he said could be heard.
BROADWAY THEATRE, 1850 East side of Broadway, between Pearl and Ann Streets
In the next act, when Mrs. Pope came on, she was saluted with such vulgarity and abuse that she fled from the stage, and when Macready appeared again he, too, was compelled to retire by a shower of stale eggs and heavy missiles. The play was suspended, and the disturbers went home in triumph.
Macready proposed to the managers to throw up the engagement, but, hearing of this, many who felt that the proceedings of the evening were a disgrace to the city, joined in a request to the distinguished actor to recon- sider his decision, promising him ample protection from any repetition of the outrages of the opening night. It was signed by more than forty of the leading citizens of New York, and Macready responded to the request favorably, naming Thursday, May 10th, as the date of his appearance in the same play. Announcements were posted, and at the same time bills were placed, side by side with Macready's, announcing a performance of the same play by Forrest at Wallack's Broadway Theatre.
Almost simultaneously there also appeared a handbill, reading: "Workingmen! Shall Americans or Englishmen rule in this country? The crews of the British steamers have threatened all Americans who shall dare appear this night at the English aristocratic Opera House. Workingmen! Freemen! Stand to your lawful rights!" It was stuck up everywhere, and
23
354
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
passed from hand to hand by thousands. Friends of Macready appealed to the chief of police, who made extensive preparations to repel violence. Tickets were only sold to those believed to be friendly to Macready, windows were secured by nail- ing planks across them, and when the evening came the police only permitted those having tickets to enter the theatre. A large mob assem- bled, but when the ticket hold- ers were in, the police barred the doors. The mob brought paving stones, which had been piled up in the streets prepar- atory to laying, and assailed the doors and windows, but were repulsed by the police.
Inside, the curtain rose, and, as before, all was quiet THE TABERNACLE, WITH ENTRANCE ON BROADWAY, 1846 until Macready appeared, when it was found that, in spite of precautions, many disturbers had gained admittance. They were about to rush to the stage and seize Macready, but a signal brought the police, who arrested the leaders and secured them inside, but ejected the others into the street. This infuriated the mob, who attacked the police, who were get- ting the worst of the encounter, when the Seventh Regiment, under Colonel Duryee, preceded by a troop of horse, appeared upon the scene. The horsemen, attacked by the mob with a shower of missiles, were compelled to retreat to Third Avenue, leaving several wounded on the street. The Seventh forced their way in file to the front of the opera house amid a shower of stones, which wounded many of the soldiers and battered forty muskets. The men were ordered to load with ball cartridge, and Recorder Tall- madge, who represented the city authorities in the absence of the mayor, addressed the mob, begging them to retire, but they paid no heed. Sheriff Westervelt, after consulting with the division commander, General Charles W. Sandford, ordered that a volley be fired, but to aim at the dead wall of the house opposite, over the heads of the crowd. The soldiers did so, but the mob only jeered, and responded with a shower of missiles. The order came from General Hall to reload, aim low, fire! and many of the mob were killed and wounded, while the others beat a hasty retreat. The soldiers pursued, and a part of the mob who, rallying in Third Avenue,
355
ASTOR LIBRARY AND FREE ACADEMY
renewed their attack with stones and missiles, injuring several of the soldiers, received another fatal volley, which finally dispersed the rioters. Generals Sandford and Hall, and Lieutenant Colonel Brinckerhoff were injured by the rioters, and one hundred and forty-one members of the Seventh, including Colonel Duryee and Captains Henry C. Shumway and William A. Pond. Thirty-four of the mob were killed and many injured. Macready finished his performance, and after being secreted in a private house for two days, went to Boston, where he embarked for England.
The morning after the riot there was great excitement, and a call was issued for a meeting in the park that evening of "all opposed to the destruction of human life." A great crowd assembled and listened to speeches denouncing the city authorities, and passed resolutions of censure, but although the Seventh was on guard duty for two days, there was no further disturbance. A coroner's jury, called to inquire into the deaths, justified the authorities who gave the order to fire on the mob.
An epidemic of cholera broke out in New York shortly after this occur- rence, and continued for some months. About three thousand persons died of the disease.
The Astor Free Public Library was incorporated January 13, 1849, having been endowed with the sum of $400,000 by John Jacob Astor, the richest merchant of the city, who had died in the previous year. The library was first opened to the public in February, 1854. It is now merged into the New York Public Library-Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations-which is now the official title of the city's public library system.
In January, 1849, the New York Free Academy opened its doors to the youth of the city who had completed at least one year in the public schools of the city. It was located on the corner of Lex- ington Avenue and Twenty- third Street, a site which was objected to by many because it was so far uptown. It was given collegiate powers in FREE ACADEMY Twenty-third Street, corner of Lexington Avenue 1858, and in 1866 assumed its present title of The College of the City of New York, and with an able management and faculty presents the finest example in the world of a col- legiate institution which is a part of a city's free school system. Its present magnificent buildings and campus, at 138th to 14Ist Street, on St.
356
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Nicholas Terrace, were begun in 1903. In 1882 the requirement of previous attendance of the public schools of the city was repealed, and the courses of the college are now open to all young men of the city who can pass the entrance examinations.
About 1848 to 1853, many important institutions of New York, which have accomplished much good, and most of which are still in existence, were inaugurated. Among them was the New York Association for Improv- ing the Condition of the Poor, which, though organized in 1843, was not incorporated until 1848; the New York Juvenile Asylum, incorporated in 1851 ; the Five Points Mission, inaugurated in 1850 by the New York Ladies' Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the most marvelously successful reformatory and religious movements of its
kind ever carried on in any city; and The Five Points House of Industry, inaugurated by Rev. L. M. Pease, as an outgrowth of the Mission, but which became a part of the institutional work of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Ascension, in 1851. Charles Loring Brace, who had been associated with Mr. Pease in that work, became specially interested in the needs of va- grant boys and girls, and suc- ceeded in interesting several men of philanthropic spirit, in OLD ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL Corner Fifth Avenue and Fifty-fourth Street, 1859 efforts in that direction, which culminated in the organization of The Children's Aid Society, of which he was the active head until his death, August 1I, 1890. The institution is said to have aided, in various practical ways, about half a million children. It is still in existence, carry- ing on its work on the lines laid down by its founder. St. Luke's Hospital was incorporated in 1850, the outgrowth of the efforts of Rev. William A. Muhlenberg, rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Com- munion, and the corner stone of its building was laid in 1854. The Demilt Dispensary was established in 1851, and the building was finished in March, 1853, at the corner of Second Avenue and Twenty-third Street.
The Young Men's Christian Association, founded in London by George Williams, a dry goods clerk, in 1844, found its way to this continent in 1851, when associations were established in Montreal and Boston. The
357
JENNY LIND IN NEW YORK
New York Association was organized in 1852, at a meeting presided over by Rev. Gregory T. Bedell, then rector of the Church of the Ascension, but later Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio. Rev. Dr. Isaac Ferris, pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, made an address, at the end of which many young men enrolled their names, including a number who became promi- nent citizens of New York, such as Hon. Henry Arnoux, Alfred S. Barnes, Dr. Howard Crosby, William E. Dodge, Theodore Dwight, D. Willis James, Morris K. Jesup and others. From the beginning the association has grown wonderfully, and has been and still is probably the most potent institution of the city for the benefit of its young men, outside of home influence.
In 1849 the Legislature passed an act granting an amended charter to the city, one of the features of which was the change of the date of the charter election from April to the day of the general election, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and to extend to two years the terms of mayor and aldermen, beginning January Ist, following the election. At the first election under the provisions of this charter, in November, 1850, Ambrose C. Kingsland, candidate of the Whig party, was elected mayor, the last to be elected to the office under that party name, and two years later the party received its national quietus in the defeat of Scott and Graham.
In September, 1850, Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish soprano singer, known to fame as "the Swedish Nightingale," sang to delighted audiences at Castle Garden, under the management of Phineas T. Barnum. Castle Garden was the old fortress, which after Revolutionary Days, was trans- formed into a summer garden. It was the scene of the reception of Gen- eral LaFayette, in 1824, and of President Jackson, in 1832, as well as of many other important gatherings. It never housed an event which left a deeper impression. Few of us, now living, heard her, but there are few who have not heard some old citizen speak with enthusiasm of her wonderful voice, and compare it, almost invariably to their depreciation, with the voices of the prima donnas of later days.
Sir John Franklin, the Arctic explorer, who left England in May, 1845, had been lost in the Arctic, and Lady Franklin had sent out expeditions to rescue him and the crews of his two vessels, the Terror and the Erebus, but these vessels had returned without tidings. The world became interested, and Henry Grinnell, a New York merchant and ship owner, offered to equip two of his vessels, and turn them over to the government for a rescue expedition. His offer was accepted, and the Advance and the Rescue, manned through the navy department, and commanded by Lieutenant Edwin J. DeHaven, U. S. N., left New York, May 22, 1850, and returned,
e
t
e
I
358
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
September 30, 1851. No traces of the lost Franklin expedition were found, but numerous discoveries were made, including Grinnell Land, the exten- sive region divided from Greenland by Smith's Sound. In 1853 Dr. Elisha Kent Kane went on another expedition in the Advance, equipped and pro- vided by Henry Grinnell and George Peabody. This expedition also failed to find any trace of Sir John's expedition, but discovered and mapped exten- sive, and before that unknown, Arctic regions, and definitely determined the existence of the circum- polar sea, locating and plat- ting much of its coast line. These discoveries created an interest in geographical knowl- edge, and led to the organiza- tion of the American Geogra- phical Society, with headquar- ters in New York. George Bancroft, the distinguished historian, was the first presi- dent of the society, which has ever since had a prosperous ST. PAUL'S AND THE ASTOR HOUSE existence.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.