USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 36
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In 1851 was completed the first through railway connection between New York and the Great Lakes. This was the Erie Railroad, and the event was appropriately celebrated, on May 14th of that year. The Hudson River Railroad Company, chartered in 1846, was completed to Albany, October 3d, in the same year. Some further details in regard to the begin- ning and development of railroad facilities as they relate to the history and progress of New York City will be given in a subsequent chapter.
The mayoralty election of 1852 was held at the same time as the presidential election, and the Democrats were successful in both, electing Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, President, and William R. King, of Alabama, Vice President of the United States; while for mayor of New York, Jacob A. Westervelt, who had previously served as sheriff of New York County, was elected. The legislature elected at the same time made another amendment to the charter of New York, by abolishing the office of assistant alderman, and creating, in its place, a Board of Councilmen, of sixty members, who were to be chosen one each from sixty districts, into which the Common Council should apportion the city. Mayor Westervelt was succeeded, January 1, 1855, by another Democrat, Fernando Wood.
It was during the term of Mayor Westervelt that the Crystal Palace was opened in what is now Bryant Park, as a "World's Fair for the Exhi-
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THE DAYS OF THE CLIPPER SHIP
bition of the Industry of All Nations." It was modeled upon the plan of the Crystal Palace Exhibition, which had been held in London in 1851, and it was opened by President Franklin Pierce, on July 4, 1853, with appropriate ceremonies. The building was constructed entirely of iron and glass, contained nearly forty thousand square feet of glass, and twelve hun- dred and fifty tons of iron. Its shape was that of a Greek cross, sur- mounted in the centre by a great translucent dome. Its exhibits, and especially its art gallery, delighted many thousands of visitors for several months, including many foreigners as well as Americans from all sections. It was opened as a permanent exhibition, May 14, 1854, but after a time the patronage dwindled. It was closed for a time; but afterward used for various exhibitions and gatherings. It was destroyed by fire October 5, 1858.
The population of New York City in 1850 was, by Federal census, 515,477, and in 1860, 805,658, so that this was the decade of the greatest relative growth of the city (Manhattan) during the Nineteenth Century. Growth in trade and manu- factures was especially great, and commerce with foreign nations had a remarkable in- crease. One of the greatest factors in this growth of com- merce was the wonderful de- velopment of the shipbuilding industry in the United States. The old packet ships were built on square and ungainly models, good enough to float, but not much for speed. The clippers at first were of 750 to 940 tons, but after the discov- ery of gold in California there was a demand for vessels larger and speedier than ever. FORMER JEWISH HOSPITAL, 1852 138 West. Twenty-eighth Street There is a tradition among sailors that the idea of the architecture of the bow and keel of the clippers of that era came from a study of the bonito, a famous and beautiful fish of the South Atlantic, which can swim faster than any other; but be this as it may, it was these vessels which for years maintained for the American flag the highest prestige on the high seas. New York was the centre of the building and sale of these clippers. Their achievements were the pride of Americans -how the Comet, 1209 tons, sailed to San Francisco, around the "Horn,"
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16,308 miles and back in seven months and nine days, the homeward voyage being in the record time of seventy-six days; the Sword Fish made a voyage from Shanghai to San Francisco in thirty-one days, another record; and the Dreadnaught, which ran away from all competitors and was the wonder of the seas for speed. She was owned by Edwin D. Morgan, of New York.
The winning of the Queen's Cup, by the America, built for and owned by Commodore John C. Stevens (founder of the New York Yacht Club) and his associates, in the regatta of the Royal Yacht Squadron, at Cowes, England, in 1851, was an event of great importance, as influencing the design of racing yachts all over the world. Many yachts have been built in England and America for the express purpose of international con- tests for the America's cup, which still remains in the hands of the New York Yacht Club.
The setting aside of Central Park was the most useful civic work of the decade. In 1851 the lack of any worthy park system first received serious attention. Many years before, it had been proposed to make a park around the "Collect," or "Fresh Water" pond, which occupied the site of the present Tombs prison, but it was never carried out. In early days the pond was used for boating in the summer and for skating in the winter, but later it became a receptacle for rubbish, a miasmatic breeding spot for mos- quitoes of the malaria-conveying variety, and finally was drained, filled up and covered with a dense population. Someone else had a fair project for a large park from Third to Eighth Avenues, and from Twenty-third to Thirty-fourth Streets, but nothing came of that, except Madison Square.
In 1851 the proposition was to buy Jones' Wood, which was a well- forested tract, from Third Avenue to the East River, on Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Streets. It found many advocates, and was accepted by ordinance and act of the Legislature, but was finally discarded as being too much to one side of the island. At last the Board of Aldermen appointed a commission to select a more central site, and the choice fell upon the tract between Fifth and Eighth Avenues, from Fifty-ninth to One Hundred and Sixth Streets, which was reported to the Council in 1856, and the site was extended northward to One Hundred and Tenth Street, in 1859. Competitive plans for construction and decoration were invited, and fortu- nately the choice fell upon Messrs. Olmsted and Vaux, who made Central Park one of the most beautiful in the world. The appointing of a con- sulting board brought into the city's service the aid of many of its fore- most citizens-Washington Irving, George Bancroft, Charles H. Russell and Andrew H. Green. To the latter, especially, New York owes a lasting debt of gratitude. His zeal and watchfulness were of incalculable benefit to this beautiful park. The people of no city in the world have a more
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POWER OF THE NEW YORK PRESS
beautiful public garden, and though it has taken constant vigilance to pre- serve its integrity, it has never lacked champions and defenders.
The rapid growth in population of New York City during the decade, 1850-1860, has been adverted to. But a very large part of the increase came from immigration. Many men came during this period who are to-day among our best citizens; but there was also a large proportion of the arrivals who were ignorant, not a few who were vicious, and a consider-
able number who were criminals. In the earlier immigration the country at large, and New York in particular, had found it comparatively easy to assimilate the newcomers into its population, but they were now pouring in at such a rate that their coming involved a serious civic difficulty.
Nationally the question of slavery had been thrown into the seething caldron of politics. New York had rid itself of chattel slavery by the process of gradual emancipation, and since 1827 its soil had been free. There had been a "Missouri Compromise" and a "Wilmot Proviso," but the ques- tion whether the country could continue half slave and half free was becom- ing more and more acute. There were hotheads on both sides who made the dispute daily more acrimonious. The vortex of the whirlpool of discussion was the City of New York, the city of editorial giants. Here was Horace Greeley, with his Tribune, leader and spokesman of the sentiment which was forming the new Republican party; Raymond, of the Times; Bennett, of the Herald; Webb, of the Courier and Enquirer ; Bry- ant, of the Evening Post; and other great journalists who moulded opinion to an extent equaled by none at this later day. The press of New York, editorially, was more truly metropolitan . then than now, not because it was intrinsically abler, because, as a matter of NEW-YORK ORPHAN ASYLUM fact, the newspapers of to- day are, from a news stand- point, far better than those of fifty odd years ago, but because then there was no other city ORPHAN ASYLUM Seventy-fourth Street and Bloomingdale Road, 1855 whose newspapers classed with those of New York. To-day, at Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and many other cities, are papers as truly metropolitan in character and make-up, and as influential in political matters, as those of New York. So far as the editorial
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chair is a tribunal of authority, it now has many seats. In the "fifties" it centred chiefly in New York, and from here went the arguments, pro and con, on the momentous issues which then swayed the hostile political camps.
Exciting as were the national issues of that era, there was much of local interest also in the year 1857. The miscellaneous immigration, of which mention has before been made, had created crime centres in New York, with which the authorities had in vain tried to cope. The "Five Points," of New York, in that period had attained to a preeminence of depravity and criminality not surpassed by London's "Seven Dials" at its worst. Squalid, unkept, noisome, vicious, the region had grown beyond the control of the police, many of whom were the hangers-on of ward poli- ticians of the baser sort. Often there was collusion between the police and the lawbreakers, and vice and infamy invaded many places in the city. The Legislature took the matter up and passed several amendments to the charter. The Council was remodeled. Seventeen aldermanic districts were to be represented each by one alderman, to serve two years ; and twenty-four coun- DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM cilmen were to be annually elected. The mayor, con- troller and corporation counsel were to be elected by popular vote, and the State and municipal elections were to be held on separate days. The man- agement of Central Park was to be in the hands of a State commission. The most radical reform was that of the abolition of the police system, as then in force, and the creation of a Metropolitan Police Board, charged with the preservation of the peace and the sanitary welfare of a district, comprising the counties of New York, Westchester, Kings and Richmond. Besides the mayors of New York and Brooklyn, who, under the law had member- ship in the board ex officio, its members were appointed by the governor, and to the first board Governor John Alsop King appointed Simeon Draper, James W. Nye and Jacob Caldwell, of New York; James S. T. Stranahan, of Kings; and James Bowers, of Westchester County.
Mayor Fernando Wood declared he would not recognize the law, and defied the commissioners, claiming that the statute was unconstitutional,
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THE POLICE RIOT
and he summoned the members of the old municipal police to stand by him in holding the property of the police department against the new com- mission and its appointees. Daniel D. Conover, appointed street commis- sioner by Governor King to fill a vacancy, came to the City Hall to claim his office, and was summarily ejected by the mayor. Conover swore out warrants against the mayor, one for violence to his person and another for inciting to riot. With these warrants he went, on June 16th, to the City Hall with a force of fifty of the new Metropolitan Police. The mayor's police attacked the Metropolitans, and a mob of the worst classes backed the old police, and with them would have overcome the new men if it had not been that the Seventh Regiment, on its way to embark on a visit, which the city regiments had arranged to make, to Boston, marched down Broadway, and being called upon, halted at the City Hall. General Sandford notified the mayor that if he did not submit to the peaceable service of the writs, he would use force, and the mayor submitted.
The Seventh Regiment went on to Boston, but on account of the excite- ment the general ordered that nine city regiments should remain in the city under arms. The Court of Appeals promptly decided the case against Mayor Wood and the Police Commission proceeded to install the Metropolitan Police in the place of the old municipal force. But rioting kept up in the streets at many places. Two gangs of rowdies, one known as the "Dead Rabbits," from Five Points, and another as the "Bowery Boys," came into conflict with each other in Bayard Street,
near the Bowery. Sticks, stones and knives were used and many on both sides were hurt, as well as bystanders- men, women and children. A small body of police who attempted to quell the dis- turbance was driven off. Paving stones were torn up, and drays, trucks and any- thing that could be used for the purpose was seized, and barricades were built at various places. The Seventh SOUTH DUTCH CHURCH IN MURRAY STREET, 1837 Regiment, still in Boston, was summoned by telegraph, and meanwhile the regiments in the city tried hard to suppress the disturbances, which abated before evening after six men had been killed and over a hundred wounded. Rioting broke out again the
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next day at Anthony and Centre Streets, but the Seventh Regiment had re- turned and the trouble was quelled. The militia kept under arms for several days, and quiet was restored. It was charged that many of the riotous dis- turbances that occurred had been aided, if they had not been incited, by mem- bers of the old municipal police, but the organization of the Metropolitan Police went on. Another disturbance occurring on the 13th and 14th between two gangs of rioters, one Irish and the other German, was suppressed by the Metropolitan Police, who after that greatly improved the order of the city.
The United States experienced another disastrous panic in the autumn of 1857. It was precipitated by the failure, on August 24th, of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, which though it had been regarded as one of the soundest and most prosperous institutions of the country, failed for seven million dollars. General distrust seized de- positors and the business pub- lic. The Philadelphia banks suspended payment, Septem- ber 25th, and this was fol- lowed by banks all over Penn- sylvania, Maryland, the Dis- trict of Columbia, and Rhode Island. There was a run on all banks, and the Bowery Bank went to the wall. Many business houses failed and the conditions became so acute that the Legislature, on Octo- BAPTIST CHURCH Corner Broome and Elizabeth Streets ber 13th, passed a law author- izing the banks to suspend specie payments for a year. They did so, by concerted arrangement, and the Massachusetts banks suspended payment on the same day.
As winter came on with great severity the sufferings of the poor, already great because of the general shutting down of factories, were greatly intensi- fied. Soup kitchens were established; many men were employed by the city and the Park Commission, but many died of cold and hunger. Riots were fre- quent but were suppressed by the police. The New York banks suddenly re- sumed payment on December 14th, and the situation slowly recovered. Riots, however, were of frequent occurrence, and murders and robberies were nu- merous. This condition was laid at the door of the city administration by many of the city, with a consequence that at the December election there was a Citizens' Party ticket, and Daniel F. Tiemann was elected mayor of New York, taking his seat in January, 1858.
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MR. FIELD'S CABLE BREAKS
The enlargement of the Astor Library by the liberality of William B. Astor, son of John Jacob Astor, the original donor, and the establishing of Cooper Institute, by Peter Cooper, were two of the notable events of the year. Another was the rejoicing over the completion of Cyrus W. Field's Atlantic cable. There was an illumination at the City Hall, and a fireworks display at night, and Mr. Field was banqueted at the Crystal Palace. There were many other festivities; mes- sages were exchanged be- tween the Queen of England and President Buchanan. Other messages were ex- changed but all at once they ceased. The cable had OLD SCOTCH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Corner Grand and Crosby Streets broken. It all had to be done over again, but it was ten years before Mr. Field's patience and zeal were rewarded by success. Some doubters did not believe that the messages had passed between the two continents, and the newspaper humorists made merry at the expense of the cable enterprise. If Mr. Field had not been made of stern stuff the cable connections might never have been made.
In October, 1858, the fair of the American Institute was being held in the Crystal Palace in Bryant Park, and on October 5th the building caught fire, and was destroyed with all its contents. A little while before that, in July, a riot had occurred on Staten Island. The Quarantine Station had for some years been maintained on the northern end of the island. There had been constant complaint against it on the part of the people resident there, who thought it caused disease and death, and knew it kept their property values down. They had petitioned for its removal, but had been able to accomplish nothing, though their efforts were repeated; so on the night men- tioned, citizens numbering over one thousand assembled and set fire to all the buildings. The militia were sent to quell the riot, and succeeded in dispersing the mob, but the State soon removed the Quarantine Station, temporarily, to the Lower Bay.
While the exciting discussion of the political questions which were fast to bring the country into the horrors of civil war filled the thoughts of the people. there were no remarkable events in 1859. The city election was held in December, and Fernando Wood was again elected mayor.
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In 1860, New York had several distinguished visitors, the Duc de Join- ville first, then Lady Franklin, wife of Sir John Franklin, who came to thank New York for the efforts, valuable though fruitless, which had been made by some of its citizens to recover her husband and the members of his Arctic expedition; but the one of greatest interest was the visit of the young Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII, and whose death has so re- cently been mourned. He traveled under the title of Baron Renfrew, and his manly and unassuming demeanor, added to the esteem which all felt for his mother, Queen Victoria, insured him a most cordial welcome. Parades, re- ceptions and other festivities testified to the good feeling of our people for the young prince.
The presidential election, the most momentous in our history, soon filled the attention of our people to the exclusion of most other matters, and ended in the election of Mr. Lincoln as President of the United States.
SAILORS' SNUG HARBOR IN 1860
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
NEW YORK CITY DURING THE WAR FOR THE UNION-STORY OF THE DRAFT RIOTS THE RETURN OF PEACE
In the dissensions between North and South, which preceded the Civil War, New York was divided. The city, as now, included among her citizens and business men, many who came from other States, just as all other cities of metropolitan rank attract to their borders representatives of all sections of their respective nations. So, in New York there were many Southern men, and there was much Southern sentiment. The busi- ness community of a great financial centre is always conservative, and while the Southern press was belligerent and threatening in tone, and Southern orators in Congress freely predicted disunion, unless some satisfactory solution of their claim, of right to carry their slave property into the terri- tories, was agreed upon, the consensus of opinion in the business centre of New York was that there would be no war. As to the question of the constitutional right of a State to leave the Union, that was a debatable question. Josiah Quincy, as spokesman of the Federalists, had threat- ened the secession of Massachusetts, sixty years before: "Peaceably if we may-forcibly if we must!" The South remembered this; and constantly used the tu quoque argument in response to Northern contention that no State had a right to leave the Union. But while Southern writers and orators were constantly adopting, as their own, the famous taunt of the Massachu- setts Federalists, the saying most quoted by those of the North, was the famous dictum of the Southern Democratic President, Jackson: "The Union must and shall be preserved!" Yet there were many in the North who would have been willing to "let the erring sisters go." Lincoln had himself declared that the republic could not endure half slave and half free; why not, then, let the slave section go off by itself with its turmoil and its problems, which had been the disturbing element in politics for twenty years? There was room on this great continent for two great empires. So many argued, and felt. Peace was good for business; war would unsettle everything; agitation, even, was a crime; for had it not already brought on a crisis? Gold had gone into hiding; commercial credit had disappeared, and while the banks were ready with their help for mer- chants and each other, they could not keep it up unless something was done to relieve the situation. Such was the view of many in the business world, which looked for compromise. Meanwhile, the South was drilling and arming. South Carolina, on December 20, 1860, declared herself out of the Union, and
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her senators withdrew from Congress. Buchanan, perplexed, knew not which way to turn; his cabinet was divided in allegiance, and its members were resigning. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, secretary of the treasury, resigned, and Philip F. Thomas succeeded him ; Lewis Cass secretary of state, went next, and Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, attorney-general, took his place, Edwin M. Stanton becoming attorney-general; John B. Floyd, of Virginia, secretary of war, after transferring as much military material as possible to Southern soil, resigned, and Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who had been postmaster-general, took his place, while Horatio King, of Maine, took the post-office portfolio. Thomas, of the treasury, resigned, and John A. Dix, of New York, was appointed in his place; and Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, secretary of the interior, also resigned.
EARLY VIEW OF AMERICAN MUSEUM
In these six changes there were two valuable accessions to the Union cause: Edwin M. Stanton and John Adams Dix. He was of New York City, though born at Boscawen, N. H., in 1798. Entering the army as a cadet, in 1812, he served on the Canada frontier throughout the War of 1812, and in 1819 became the aide of General Brown, then in command of the Northern Department. He was sent on a special mission to Denmark, in 1826, and in 1828 resigned his commission as captain in the army, to engage in the study and practice of law, in Cooperstown, N. Y. He became prominent in State politics as a Democrat, was adjutant general of New York from 1830 to 1833, and secretary of state of New York, and superintendant of common schools from 1833 to 1840, and a prominent member of the so-called "Albany Regency"; member of the Assembly in 1842, and of the United States Senate from 1845 to 1849. When there was a division of the Democratic party, in 1848, he was candidate of the Free-
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THE WAR CLOUD LOOMS DARKLY
Soil wing for governor, but was not elected. He had established himself in practice in New York City, and was a man of great prominence and influence.
After South Carolina had declared itself out of the Union, conserva- tive opinion in New York was divided. At one extreme were those who contemplated as a possibility that New York should become a free city, entirely independent of the State or National government, and in a posi- tion to maintain a policy of absolute neutrality in the event of the break- ing up of the Union. These were represented by the mayor, Fernando Wood, who actually advocated that course in his message to the Common Council, January 7, 1861.
There was another conservative wing, whose members still hoped to bring about a peaceful solution of the pending problems, and whose last effort was voiced in what became known as the Pine Street Meeting, held December 15, 1860. Among its promoters were leading citizens of New York: Charles O'Connor (who presided), John A. Dix, Samuel J. Tilden, William B. Astor, James W. Beekman, Edward Cooper, and many others. The meeting was very largely attended, and resolutions were addressed to the people of the South, fraternal and conciliatory in tone, but firm in Union sentiment, as coming from men who had heretofore been known as friends of the South, and had voted with the Southern people upon matters involving Southern interests. A committee, headed by ex-President Mil- lard Fillmore, was appointed to present the resolutions to Jefferson Davis, and to the governors of South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
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