USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, Vol. II > Part 11
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The subsequent tragedies of the Reign of Terror destroyed much of the popular sympathy with the French republic. America became the refuge of the émigrés, and this immense influx of foreign immigration wrought a visible change in the character of the people.
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In New York, where the exiles mostly congregated, was this change most of all apparent. French manners, French customs, French cookery, French furniture, French fashions, and the French language, came sud- denly in vogue, and for a season, New York seemed transformed into Paris. Another element was added to make up the cosmopolitan character of the city. It had been essentially Dutch and essentially English ; it now became essentially French ; and when the downfall of Robespierre recalled the exiles to their homes, and the city was vacated as suddenly as it had been filled, it still retained the impress of the invasion ; nor has it ever been wholly effaced, as all will acknowledge who have observed how much more predominant is the French element in this than in the other northern cities.
In the summer of 1795, John Jay, the newly-elected federal governor of New York, arrived from England with a new treaty ; rendered necessary by the repeated violations of the first, alleged by each nation against the other. The provisions of this treaty, which bound the United States to a strict neutrality in all wars between England and other nations, were denounced by the anti- federalist or republican party, as it had now come to be called, as a shameful repudiation of the obligations due by the country to France, and the most strenuous efforts were used to induce the President to refuse its ratification. In New York, the federalists were stronger in wealth-the republicans, in numbers. In the charter elections from 1788 to 1803, the federalists almost uni- formly carried six out of the seven wards of the city ; yet a large proportion of the inhabitants were non-
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voters, deprived of the elective franchise by the property qualification, and many of these belonged to the repub- lican party. This faction had sympathized warmly with Genet in his efforts to provoke a new war with England, insisting that the United States stood pledged by honor to return the aid extended her in the Revolution, and to take up arms in defence of the new republic.
No sooner had the new treaty become publicly known, than a mass meeting of the republicans was held in Boston, the treaty denounced as dishonorable and disadvantageous, and a committee appointed to state objections in an address to the President. A few days after, an anonymous handbill appeared in the streets of New York, calling on the citizens to meet in front of the City Hall on the 18th of July, to join with the Bostonians in expressing their opposition to the treaty. This was instantly met by a gathering of the federalists, who resolved to attend the meeting en masse, to present both sides of the question to the people.
On the day appointed, an immense concourse assem- bled in front of the City Hall. Aaron Burr and Brock- holst Livingston, the brother-in-law of Jay, who, with Chancellor Livingston and the rest of that influential family, had espoused the cause of the Republican party, appeared as the leaders of the opposition ; Alexander Hamilton and Richard Varick stood for the federalists and the treaty. The latter party at first took the lead, and succeeded in electing a chairman from among their number ; then proposed at once to adjourn the meeting. This proposal, of course, was opposed by the republicans, as making of the whole thing a farce, and defeating the
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purpose of the meeting. A motion was made to leave the matter to the decision of the President and Senate, and, the question being taken, both sides claimed the majority. A scene of violence ensued. Hamilton mounted the stoop of an old Dutch house which stood on the corner of Wall and Broad streets, with its gable end to the street, and attempted to speak in defence of the treaty, when he was rudely thrown from his place, and dragged through the streets by the excited multitude. A motion was made to appoint a committee of fifteen to report three days after, and a list of names was read and pronounced carried. The tumult soon increased to such a degree, that business became out of the question. " All you who agree to adjourn to the Bowling Green, "and burn the British treaty, will say Aye," shouted some one from among the mass. The thunder of the "Ayes" shook the watch-house on the south corner of Broad and Wall streets to its foundation, and the turbu- lent opposition ran, shouting and huzzaing, to the Bowl- ing Green, when the treaty was burned to the sound of the Carmagnole, beneath the folds of the French and the American colors. At the adjourned meeting, which was attended chiefly by the republicans, twenty-eight reso- lutions, condemnatory of the treaty, were reported by the committee, and unanimously accepted. The follow- ing day, a series of counter resolutions was adopted by the Chamber of Commerce, at this time composed almost exclusively of federalists, and on the 14th of August, the treaty was finally ratified by the Senate and signed by Washington.
In the autumn of 1791, the yellow fever broke out in
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the vicinity of Burling Slip. Though soon checked in its ravages by the approach of frost, it excited a panic among the inhabitants, and cut down several well known citizens, among others, General Malcolm of the Revo- lution. In 1795, it again made its appearance, about the first of August, and raged with virulence during the remainder of the season, carrying off seven hundred and thirty-five of the citizens. But these visits were but the precursors of the coming pestilence. . About the last of July, 1798, it again broke out with increased violence, heightened perhaps by the general alarm which at once diffused itself among the people. The whole community was infected with the panie, all who could fled the city, the stores were closed, the business streets deserted, and for many weeks the hearses that conveyed the victims of the pestilence to their last homes were undisputed possessors of the streets of the city. Most of the churches were closed ; Trinity, Christ's Church in Ann street, and the Methodist Chapel in John street alone remaining open. The Post-office was removed to the house of Dr. James Tillary on the corner of Broadway and Wall street, and the citizens came down for their letters from their retreats at Greenwich and Bloomingdale between the hours of 9 A.M. and sundown, the time at which the physicians pronounced it safe to visit the city. The greatest suffering prevailed, and contributions of money, provisions, and fuel poured in from the neighboring States for the relief of the poor, thus deprived of em- ployment, and hourly threatened with the death from which their poverty forbade them to flee. From the breaking out of the pestilence to the beginning of Novem-
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ber, when it ceased, the deaths amounted to 2,086, exclusive of those who had fled the city ; and this from a population of fifty-five thousand. Strangely enough, not a single case occurred on the Long Island or Jersey shores. The fever lingered in the city for several years, breaking out with violence at intervals, yet at no time did its ravages equal those of '98.
The contests between the federalists and republicans in the charter elections increased in violence, and the federal- ists began gradually to lose ground. In the election of 1800, the Sixth and Seventh Wards were carried by the republican party, and, elated by their success, the victors put forth renewed efforts in the election of the following year. To evade the property qualification, requiring every voter to be a landholder, an association of thirty- three young men purchased a house and lot in the Fifth Ward, jointly on the principle of a tontine, and having thus rendered themselves eligible according to law, pre- sented themselves at the polls as republican voters .* The same scheme was adopted in the Fourth Ward by a club of seventy-one members. The election returns showed four wards for the republicans, and three for the federalists ; the Fifth Ward being carried in favor of the
* The names of many of the members of this early Tontine Association after- wards became prominent in the politics of the State. . They were as follows: Joshua Barker, S. Tiebout, A. Macready, Peter Black, Tenius Wortman, George I. Eacher, Daniel D. Tompkins, Richard Riker, Thomas Hertell, Edmund Ferris, Arthur Smith, William Boyd, William A. Davis, William Jones, Edmund Holmes, William P. Van Ness, John Sonnelle, Jas. W. Lem, Cornelius C. Van Allen, Jno. W. Woolf, Robert I. Livingston, John Jagger, Jas. Warner, Robert Swartwout, John L. Broome, David Thompson, Joseph Brown, Samuel Lawrence, Gideon Kimberley, Henry Post, Gordon S. Mumford, Maltby Gelston, John Drake.
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former by a majority of six, and the Fourth Ward by thirty-five. This result was at once contested by the fed- eralists on the ground of illegal voting by the Tontine Association, and, being submitted to the decision of the retiring board, the majority of which belonged to that party, was pronounced null and void and the balance of power restored to the hands of the federalists. The State election having been decided in favor of the republicans by the election of ex-Governor George Clinton, Edward Livingston, the brother of the well-known chancellor of that name, received the appointment of mayor of New York.
CHAPTER XIX.
1801.
New York in the beginning of the Nineteenth Century.
AT this time, the city, though the metropolis of the western world, was a mere village in comparison with the city of to-day. The city proper was bounded on Broadway by Anthony, on the North River by Harrison, and on the East River by Rutgers streets ; and even within these limits, the houses were scattering, and sur- rounded by large gardens and vacant lots. The farm- houses on Bowery Lane extended as far as Broome street ; the fields and orchards on either side reaching from river to river. From the Battery to Cedar street, Greenwich street was the outside street on the shore ; there, Washington street had been commenced and partly built upon one side to Harrison street, where it terminated abruptly in the river.
Above Broadway was a hilly country, sloping on the east to the Fresh Water Pond, not yet quite filled in from the surrounding hills, and descending on the west to the Lispenard Meadows ; dotted with the picturesque country seats of wealthy citizens. Of the high hill at the junction of Broadway with Anthony street we have
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already spoken. This descended precipitously to the arched bridge at Canal street, thus forming a valley, to the north of which rose another high hill, falling off abruptly to a pond in the space between Broome and Spring streets, through which Broadway was filled up and prolonged.
At this time, Broadway ended at Astor Place, where a pale fence, stretching across the road, formed the southern boundary of the Randall Farm, afterward the endowment of the Sailor's Snug Harbor. The Old or Boston Post Road ran eastward, from Madison Square along the Rose Hill Farm, * by turn the property of Watts, Cruger, and General Gates, and wound its way by a cir- cuitous route to Harlem ; while the Middle Road, begin- ning in the Old Road near the entrance of the farm, afforded a direct avenue to the same village. The Kings- bridge or Bloomingdale Road, a continuation of the Bowery Lane, formed a junction with the Fitzroy and the Southampton Roads, and extended by the way of McGowan's Pass and Manhattanville to Kingsbridge, whence it continued to Albany. From the Bloomingdale Road, Love Lane, now Twenty-first street ran westward to the North River.
On the site of Washington Square was the new Potter's Field, lately removed from its original locality at the junction of the Greenwich and Albany roads, where it had been established in 1794, and which was deemed too near the public thoroughfares by the city authorities, by whom Washington Square was selected on
* This farm covered some twenty-five blocks of ground in the Eighteenth Ward, and was the property of John Watts prior to the Revolution.
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account of its retired location. The property owners in the vicinity of the latter protested strongly against the change, and even offered to present a piece of ground in another part of the city to the corporation, but the officials remained firm, and for many years the marsh in question continued to be used as a pauper burial-ground. The negro burial ground was at the corner of Broadway and Chambers street, on the site now occupied by Stuart's marble building. The churches, too, had their respective cemeteries, for it was not until 1813 that burials were first prohibited in the city below Canal street.
Public gardens were at this time favorite institutions, and were scattered in profusion over the city. On the shores of the North River in the village of Greenwich were the Indian Queen's and Tyler's, both favorite places of resort. On the west side of the Bowery in the vicinity of Broome street, was the celebrated Vauxhall Garden- not the original Bowling Green Garden, afterwards ' Vauxhall, at the junction of Warren and Greenwich streets, the resort of the early Dutch settlers-which had been purchased about the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury by a Swiss florist named Jacob Sperry, and after- wards sold by him to John Jacob Astor, who leased it to a Frenchman by the name of Delacroix, the proprietor at the time of which we are speaking. Far up on the Bloomingdale road was the Strawberry Hill House, after- wards christened Woodlawn; and on the eastern side of the island was the fertile Kip Farm, which, though not num- bered among the places of public resort, was noted for its variety of choice fruit and flowers, and was often visited by Washington and his cabinet during his stay in the city.
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1
On the hill at the junction of Broadway and Anthony streets, was a frame house with a brick front, which re- tained its place until a few years since, and is probably remembered by many of our readers. On the east of this hill was the country seat of Colonel Barclay. Above, on the Bowery nearly opposite Bond street, was the residence of Andrew Morris, in the vicinity of which, on the corner of Third street, stood the Minthorne man- sion. To the west, above Bleecker street, were the seats of John Jacob Astor and William Neilson, and in Laight street, just above St. John's Park, was the residence of Leonard Lispenard. At the northwest on the corner of Varick and Charlton streets was the celebrated Richmond Hill Mansion, built in 1770 by the British paymaster, Abraham Mortier, on grounds leased from Trinity Church, and occupied by Washington as his head-quarters during the Revolution. After the surrender of the city to the British, it became the residence of Sir Guy Carleton, after- ward Lord Dorchester. It subsequently became the property of Aaron Burr, and was his residence at the time of his fatal duel with Hamilton, and it was here that he was found by Dr. Hosack a few hours after, calmly reading the Confessions of Rousseau in his bath, as if totally oblivious of the fatal tragedy. From his hands, it passed into the possession of John Jacob Astor, who converted it into the Richmond Hill theatre.
On the block bounded by Fourth, Bleecker, Perry and Charles streets, was the now venerable Van Ness House, then owned by Abijah Hammond. These grounds originally formed a part of the extensive farin of Sir Peter Warren, the brother-in-law of James and
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Oliver De Lancey, whose son-in-law, the Earl of Abing- don, disposed of his share, consisting of fifty-five aeres, in 1788 to David H. Mallen for the sum of twenty-two hundred dollars. From his hands, it passed into the possession of Mr. Hammond, and was soon after dis- posed of to Whitehead Fish, who resided on it until his death in 1819, when it was purchased by Abraham Van Ness, for fifteen thousand dollars.
On the block of ground between the Ninth and Tenth Avenues, and Twenty-second and Twenty-third streets, stood the old Chelsea House, built before the Revolution by the widow of Thomas Clarke, one of the veterans of the old French war, who had purchased the estate a short time before his death, and named it Chelsea as the retreat of an old soldier. This subsequently became the residence of Bishop Moore of Columbia College, and was afterwards donated by him to his son, Clement C. Moore, who continued to reside in it until the levelling the grounds about it compelled its demolition.
At Incleuberg, now Murray Hill, lying between the Fourth and Sixth Avenues, and Thirty-sixth and For- tieth streets, was the residence of Robert Murray, the father of the grammarian, notable for having been the place where the worthy Quaker matron, by her cordial hospitality, detained the British generals long enough on the day of the capture of the city to secure to Silliman's brigade a safe retreat to Harlem. In the neighbor- hood, nearly opposite on the Bloomingdale road, was the Varian House, and higher up at Bloomingdale was the Apthorpe Mansion, where, as we have already narrated, Washington narrowly escaped capture on
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Murray Hill Cottage.
the same eventful day, while anxiously awaiting the arrival of his troops from the city ; and also the Grange, the residence of Alexander Hamilton. On the shores of the East River, near Turtle Bay, stood the celebrated Beckman House, built by Dr. James Beckman in 1764, and occupied in turn by the British commanders-in-chief as a country seat during the Revo- lution .* Here, the unfortunate Nathan Hale was tried
* The fine situation and extensive ground of this house made it a favorite resi- dence of the British officers. During the Revolution, it was occupied from the 15th of September, 1776, by General Howe, seven. and a half months; from the 1st of May, 1777, by Commissary Loring one year and five months; from the 20th of October, 1778, by General Clinton, three years and six months; from the Ist of May, 1782, by General Robertson, eleven and a half mouths; from the 16th of April, 1783, by Mr. Beckman ; and from the 16th of June, 1783, to the evacuation by General Carleton, five months ; in the whole, seven years, one and a half months.
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and sentenced to death, and confined in the greenhouse of the garden on the night preceding his execution. Near this, on the banks of the river, was the ancient Cruger Mansion, now tenanted by General Gates, and known as the rendezvous of the leading spirits of the day.
On the shores of the Harlem River, just below the High Bridge of the Croton Aqueduct, stood Colonel Roger Morris' House, a large, old-fashioned, two story building, commanding a fine view of the river from its elevated position, which had been the headquarters of Washington after his forced evacuation of the city. The old house is still standing, now known as the residence of Madame Jumel.
On the block bounded by Montgomery, Clinton, Cherry, and Monroe streets was the old Belvidere House, built on the banks of the East River in 1792 by thirty- two gentlemen, composing the Belvidere Club, and used for many years afterward as a place of public resort : and near this, in the vicinity of Cherry street, was the residence of Colonel Rutgers, with the cottage of Marinus Willett in close proximity .*
In Pearl, opposite Cedar street, was the residence of Gov. George. Clinton, the headquarters of Washington on assuming the command of the army at New York. Further down on the corner of Pearl and Broad streets, was the well-known Fraunces' Tavern, the headquarters of Washington after the evacuation of the city by the British troops, and the scene of his final parting with his officers. This house was built about 1730 by the De Lanecy family, an I was sold by Oliver De Lancey, in * Used al o for a hotel.
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1762, to Samuel Fraunces, who soon after opened it as a public tavern. It soon became notable as a Saturday night rendezvous of a gathering of choice spirits calling themselves the Social Club, and, though Fraunces was a well-known friend of the Liberty Party, was a favorite of both Whigs and Tories, who harmonized in their taste for the choice wines of the proprietor.
At the lower end of Broadway stood the Kennedy House, now the Washington Hotel, built in 1760 by Captain Kennedy, afterward Earl of Cassilis, and bequeathed by him to his son Robert, from whom it passed into the possession of the late Nathaniel Prime. This house was the headquarters of Putnam prior to, and of Howe and Clinton during the Revolutionary War, and the scene of Andre's last interview with the British general previous to his departure on the fatal West Point mission. Just above this was the King's Arms Tavern, a double house, two stories in height, with a front of yellow Holland brick, and a steep roof, covered with shingles in front and tiles in the rear, the headquar- ters of General Gage during his residence in the city. This afterwards became known as Burns' Coffee House, the well-known rendezvous of the Sons of Liberty, and the place from which emanated many of the patriotic resolves of the New York citizens. It was in this house that the first non-importation agreement of the colonies was signed by the merchants of the city of New York on the even- ing preceding the execution of the Stamp Act, and the first step thus taken toward the rebellion which ripened into their future independence. Here Arnold resided after the discovery of his treason, and it was from the
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garden, which extended down to the river, that the chi- valric Champe proposed to abduct the traitor and carry him off in triumph to the American lines in the Jerseys.
Above this, on the site of 39 Broadway-the reputed site of the first building ever erected on the island-was the Bunker Mansion House, the residence of Washing- ton during the second session of Congress.
But a volume would scarce suffice to note all the land- marks, rendered interesting by some association of the past.
The penal institutions of the island were the New Jail,* chiefly used for the imprisonment of debtors ; the Bridewell, in which vagrants and minor offenders were confined, as well as criminals, while awaiting their trial, and the State Prison in Greenwich village on the shores of the North River, for convicts of a higher grade. The latter was a large stone building, surrounded by a high wall on which an armed sentry was constantly pacing. It was opened for the reception of convicts in August, 1796, and was the second State Prison in the United States. In the course of a few years, the number of prisoners in this institution, as well as in the Bridewell, became so great that it became necessary to erect another building for their reception, and a Penitentiary for the imprisonment of minor offenders was accordingly built on the shores of the East River at Bellevue. This
* The first building used for a jail was on the corner of Dock street and Coen- ties Slip. After the erection of the City Hall in Wall street, the criminals were confined in dungeons in the cellar, while the debtors were imprisoned in the attic apartments, from the dormer-windows of which they used to hang out old shoes and hags to solicit alins of the passers by.
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institution, which was opened on the 16th of May, 1816, was a stone building, one hundred and fifty feet in length by fifty in breadth, and three stories high. In close proximity to it stood the New Alms House, opened in the spring of the same year ; a blue stone building, three hundred and twenty-five feet in front, with two wings of a hundred and fifty feet in depth each. In 1826, the Bellevue Hospital was built near by, and the three build- ings, inclosed by a stone wall, including twenty-six acres, were known henceforth as the Bellevue Establish- ment. The criminals in these institutions were set to work for the benefit of the State at breaking stone, picking oakum, etc. Through the efforts of Stephen Allen, then mayor of the city, and others, the tread-mill system was introduced into the Penitentiary in 1822, but after a few years' trial, was found inexpedient and abandoned. Upon the opening of the new State Prison at Sing Sing in 1828, the convicts were removed to it from the prison at Greenwich, and their places supplied by the prisoners from the Bridewell and the New Jail. In 1838, the Bridewell was demolished, and the stone of which it was composed was worked up into the Tombs, then in process of erection. The New Jail had some time previously been transformed into the modern Hall of Records. When this change was made, the fire alarm bell, which had hung in the belfry during the Revolution, was taken down and placed upon the Bridewell, where it remained until the demolition of the latter. A cher- ished relie of the firemen, it was then transferred to the engine house of the Naiad Hose Co., in Beaver street, where it remained until it rong out its own funeral knell
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