USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, Vol. II > Part 14
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CITY OF NEW YORK.
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New York College, Twenty-third Street, corner of Lexington Avenue.
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N.ORR-C .. S.
Portrait of Robert Fulton.
tion that he and Fulton, his partner in the grant, should fulfill the required conditions within the space of two years.
They immediately set to work to realize their design. Fulton took up his residence in New York, and com- menced the construction of the Clermont, the first of the steam vessels. No one believed in the possibility of his success ; the citizens looked jeeringly at the craft, and christened it in derision, " The Fulton Folly." Nothing daunted by their taunts, the sanguine projector perse- vered in his task, and on the 7th of August, 1807, an- nounced his vessel as ready for the trial trip to Albany. The boat was launched from Jersey City. At the time appointed, thousands of spectators thronged the tem- porary staging that had been erected along the sloping shore, to witness the failure of the chimerical enterprise. As the wheels revolved, slowly at first, then increasing in velocity, and the vessel was propelled toward the middle of the river, the cry of " she moves, she moves !"
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N.OKR-COSE
The Clermont-Fulton's first Steamboat.
run through the unbelieving crowd ; while the sailors on the other vessels, on witnessing the strange craft as she came puffing and snorting up the stream, fell upon their knees, and prayed to be delivered from the evil one. Fulton enjoyed his triumph as the speed increased, and the new power which he had chained to his bidding, bore him, in defiance of wind and tide, far from the sight of the dis- comfited citizens. Stopping a single night at the seat of Chancellor Livingston, he reached the place of his destination in thirty-two hours and secured the monopoly of steam navigation over the waters of New York.
But Fulton had not been alone in the pursuit of this lucrative monopoly. John Stevens with his son, R. L. Stevens, of Hoboken, had long cherished the idea of availing themselves of the power of steam, and almost simultaneously with Fulton, but just too late, had
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effected their purpose in the steamer Phoenix. Antici- pated in the scheme by his successful rival, Mr. Stevens struck out into a new field, and, sending his steamer round to Philadelphia by sea, first won the mastery over the waters of the ocean as Fulton had done over those of . the rivers. It was not long before the monopoly was set aside, and the Stevens again entered the lists of competition, producing an improved steamboat, capable of making thirteen and a half miles an hour, which con- vinced the doubters and persuaded them that the age of miracles was not yet past.
One of the most important uses of this new power which had thus been forced into the service of mankind was in bridging the rivers which separated the city from the opposite shores. The ferries, especially those of Long Island, had always borne an important part in the history of the city ; from their rent a great part of its revenue had been derived, and the proprietorship had been a constant source of dispute between the citizens and the residents at the opposite terminus. We have noted the progress of the ferries from time to time, in the preceding pages, but we propose to give here a brief review of their history, the better to explain the bear- ings of the vexed ferry question.
The first ferry was naturally established between New York and Brooklyn, its earliest neighbor. To avoid as much as possible the labor of stemming the strong cur- rent, the narrowest part of the river was chosen, though this was far above the furthest limits of the city, being from a point below Peck Slip on the New York to Fulton street on the Long Island side of the river. This
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ferry-the Old Ferry, as it afterward came to be called- was maintained as a private speculation until about the middle of the seventeenth century, when a regular ferry was established, and made a source of revenue to the city. The first ferry-house in New York was on the cor- ner of Broad and Garden streets, now Exchange Place, a low, one story house, with two dormer windows in the high, steep pediment roof, built in conformity with the Knickerbocker style of architecture, and an iron boat, oars and anchor for a sign, the principal landing-place of the ferry-boats, both from the Long Island and Jersey shores. The Brooklyn ferry-house at the foot of Fulton street was a commodious two story house, with stables and outhouses attached -- for unlike the ferry-houses of the present day, these were also taverns for the accom- modation of travellers. This ferry-house was burned in 1748 by the Sepoys of Long Island by way of revenge for the infringement on their rights by the corporation of New York.
The dispute originated in this wise. As we have already said, the ferry was at first a private speculation, established in 1642 by Cornelius Direksen, who kept a small inn near Peck Slip and owned a farm in the vicinity. William Jansen was his successor.
In 1652, the Burgomasters of New Amsterdam made an unsuccessful application to Governor Stuyvesant for the ferry to Breukelen to defray the city expenses. In 1654, an ordinance was passed, regulating the rates of ferriage, and in 1658, Harmanus Van Borsum hired the ferry from Governor Stuyvesant, at auction, at an annual rent of three hundred guilders, and became the
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successor of his father Cornelius who had died a short time before.
Upon the cession of the city to the English, the new rulers assumed control over the waters, and made the ferry pay toll to the city government. The people, how- ever, insisted on their right to ferry themselves and their neighbors across the river, provided that they did not interfere with the landing-places of the corporation, and so formidable became the opposition of these private ferries that the lessees of the government abandoned their enterprise in despair. John Airensen, John Euwatse and Direk Benson successively tried the experi- ment and abandoned the lease, and the corporation became convinced that they must adopt some new policy or abandon all hope of revenue from the ferries. Hitherto they had been balked in their endeavors to crush these private enterprises from the fact that they could claim no jurisdiction over the neighboring shores ; but, in 1708, they obtained a charter from Lord Cornbury, which not only confirmed them in their title to the old ferry, but also invested them with a grant of all the land lying between high and low-water mark on the Long Island shore from the Wallabout to Red Hook, with the privilege of establishing additional ferries within these limits. The farmers along the shore were still permitted to ferry themselves and their produce across the river, but were strictly forbidden to carry any passengers.
This charter incensed the Brooklynites greatly, and they did all in their power to evade its conditions. Urg- ing that the instrument was worthless in the absence of
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some technical formality, they continued their ferries and so harassed the corporation that in 1740 the latter obtained a more explicit renewal of their grant in the Montgomerie charter, and also procured the passage of an act by the Provincial Assembly, prohibiting private citizens from ferrying passengers across the river under penalty of a fine. After vainly endeavoring to obtain the repeal of this act, the people determined to have recourse to the law, and instituted a suit which was car- ried from court to court of the province, and finally referred by appeal to the king, when the vexed questions of the day were put to rest by the Revolution. Upon the restoration of tranquillity, it was again revived, and has ever since furnished food for litigation, though the peo- ple have, as yet, been worsted in the contest.
Until the year 1810, row-boats or pirogues were the only ferry-boats upon the rivers. Next came the horse- boats-twin-boats, with the wheel in the centre, pro- pelled by a sort of horizontal treadmill worked by horses, the first of which was introduced on the 3d of April, 1814, upon the Catherine street ferry. This was a boat of eight-horse power, crossing the river in from twelve to twenty minutes. The first improvement was made in the substitution of steam for horses as the motive power, and the first steamboat, the Nassau, was put on the Ful- ton ferry on the 8th of May in the same year ; but the new agent being found as expensive as expeditious, it failed to find favor in the eyes of the Company, and, for many years, this remained the only steam ferry-boat upon the river. In 1824, the monopoly which had been granted to Fulton and Livingston was set aside by order
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of the Supreme Court, the use of steam was thrown open to public competition, and the horse-boats soon became obsolete institutions.
The first improvement in the steam ferry-boats was the single boat with side-wheels ; the first of which was the Hoboken, built by R. L. Stevens in 1822. Simul- taneously with these came the floating bridges which rise and fall with the tide, aided by counterbalancing weights on the shore-the invention of Fulton-and the spring piles, constructed by R. L. Stevens. These improvements soon found favor on the ferries, the plan of bridging the river by an arch was abandoned, in the face of this new agent, which set time and space at defiance, and the genius of steam gained undisputed dominion over the waters.
In the charter election of 1806, the federalists suc- ceeded in regaining the ascendeney in the city, of which they had been deprived, and carried the First, Second, Third and Fourth Wards, together with the Fifth through an independent candidate to whom they had given their support. De Witt Clinton was in conse- qence removed from the mayoralty by the Council of Appointment at Albany, and the veteran Marinus Wil- lett was appointed in his stead ; while the recorder, Pierre C. Van Wyck, was superseded in his office by Maturin Livingston. Disaffection was now springing up in the republican ranks. The scope of our work does not permit us to trace the rise and progress of the numerous political parties that sprung suddenly into existence from time to time, and as suddenly vanished ; it will suffice to say that, at this time, a deadly feud
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existed between the Clintons and the Livingstons, that Governor Lewis, who was related to the latter, threw his influence in their favor, that the section of the repub- lican party which still clung to Burr made common cause with these, and that with these cliques was allied that of the Madisonian republicans, who supported Madi- son for president in opposition to George Clinton, the ex-governor of the State.
In the following year, the Clintonians regained the ascendency, De Witt Clinton was again appointed mayor, and Pierre C. Van Wyck was restored to the recordership. In the charter election, the First, Second and Ninth Wards alone were carried by the federalists. These were increased in the election of 1808, by the addition of the Third and Sixth wards, making an equal division of power. During this year the Tenth Ward was added to the city.
At the State election of 1809, the federalists for the first time since 1799, carried the State, upon which the appointment of the mayor depended .* This change was owing to the declaration of war which was now pending, and against which there was strong opposition. At the charter elections, the regnant party achieved a similar success, electing their candidates for aldermen in all the wards except the Fifth and Tenth, and gaining fifteen out of twenty of the whole common council. At the first meeting of the Council of Appointment at Albany, De Witt Clinton was again removed from the mayoralty,
* The mayor was at this time appointed to office by a Council of Appointment, consisting of a senator chosen by the Legislature from each of the four districts of the State, with the governor as chairman of the council.
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and Jacob Radcliff appointed in his stead ; while Pierre C. Van Wyck was again removed from the recordership to make room for Josiah Ogden Hoffman. In the fol- lowing year, the latter was restored to the office, then removed for the third time in 1813, and Hoffman again appointed in his place.
In the charter election of 1810, the republicans gained a majority in the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth and Tenth wards. This success was followed up by a victory in the State election, which restored De Witt Clinton to the mayor- alty, in which he continued until 1815. During this time, the politics of the city were fluctuating. The charter election of 1811 made no change in the Board. The election of 1812 gained to the federalists the assist- ant alderman of the Tenth Ward, and in 1813, the republicans gained the Sixth Ward, thus securing an equal division of power. This was recovered by the federalists in the following year ; when the great issue upon which the parties had been divided was ended by the termination of the war.
From this brief sketch of the political affairs of the city during the beginning of the century, we will return to its local changes and improvements. In 1807, a new missionary enterprise was undertaken by Trinity Church by the erection of St. John's Chapel in Varick street, on what was then deemed the outskirts of civilization. This was located opposite a dreary marsh, covered with brambles and bulrushes and tenanted by frogs and watersnakes, and was regarded by the citizens at large almost as a proof of insanity on the part of the church authorities.
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A curious fact discovered on the records of a Lutheran church of New York by one of the antiquarians to whom the city is so deeply indebted for preserving its traditions of the past, will serve to illustrate the popular faith at this period in the rise and progress of real estate in the upper part of the town. The church was at this time involved in pecuniary difficulties, contributions were solicited in its aid, and, to relieve it in its embarrassment, a friend proposed to donate to it a tract of six acres of ground in the neighborhood of the stone bridge on the corner of Broadway and Canal street ; but, after mature deliberation, the trustees refused the gift, alleging that the land in question was not worth the trouble of fencing in.
The commencement of the United States Navy Yard at Brooklyn in the beginning of the century called the attention of the citizens to an act of duty which had too long been delayed. The first stroke of the spade into the sand-hill upon which the new buildings were to be erected opened a terrible mine to the eyes of the public. The whole shore, the slope of the hill, the sand island in the vicinity-all were filled with the bones of the prison- ship martyrs, who had been thrust coffinless into the ground and literally piled one upon another. The hor- rible revelation reminded the citizens of the too-long neglected duty ; the relics were carefully collected and placed in the charge of the Tammany Society, and, on the Sth of May, 1808, escorted by one of the grandest processions that New York had ever witnessed, were conveyed to their final resting-place in a vault in Jack- son street, not far from the spot of their original inter-
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ment. Thirteen coffins filled with the bones were carried in the procession, and eighteen hogsheads besides were gathered from the sands and deposited in the vault. The corporation attended in a body, the bells were tolled and minute guns fired during the procession, and the whole city seemed elad in mourning.
In 1811, the city was again devastated by a terrible conflagration, which raged with fury for several hours, destroying nearly a hundred houses, and baffling for a long time all the efforts of the firemen. The steeple of the Brick Church and the cupola of the New Jail took fire and were barely saved, the one by the prompt action of a sailor by the name of Stephen McCormick, the other by the presence of mind of a prisoner on the premises. Both were afterward rewarded by the corporation.
One of the most important events of this period was the adoption of a plan of the future city, to which we owe the parallel streets and broad avenues of the upper part of the island, which contrast so strongly with the narrow streets and crooked lanes of the down-town locality. This plan was due to Simeon Dewitt, Gouver- neur Morris, John Rutherford and S. Guel, who had been appointed by the Legislature in 1801, as commis- sioners to lay out and survey the whole island to Kings- bridge into streets and avenues. By the proposed plan, the streets, beginning with the first on the east side of the Bowery above Houston street, numbered upward to the extreme end of the island. These were inter- sected by twelve avenues, numbering westward from First Avenue, the continuation of Allen street, to Twelfth Avenue upon the shores of the North River.
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As avenues were afterward laid out to the eastward of the former, they were designated by the names of the letters of the alphabet, A, B, C and D. By this plan, the island was laid out with admirable regularity, while the squares and triangles which were formed by the junction of those time-honored thoroughfares which could not be removed, were converted into public parks for the adornment of the city. The despised Potter's Field became the beautiful Washington Square ; the Bowery and Broadway met amicably in Union Square ; Madison Square was formed from the union of the Old and the Middle roads ; the great salt meadow on the eastern side of the city was drained, and Tompkins Square, with hundreds of city lots, sprung up from its depths ; valleys were filled up, hills were levelled, and art seemed destined to surmount all the difficulties of nature, and to make every inch of New York Island inhabitable ground.
During the occurrence of these events, the progress of the city had been greatly retarded by the threatening aspect of affairs with England. Despite the provisions of the treaty of 1795, the English had not ceased their aggressions upon American commerce. In the war that existed between England and France, the hostile powers blockaded each other's ports, and captured all American vessels that attempted to enter, despite the neutrality which was strictly maintained by the nation. Nor was this all ; the British cruisers, on the motto, "Once an Englishnan, always an Englishman," per- sisted in boarding and searching American vessels, and taking thence ali naturalized citizens as subjects of the
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British crown. These constantly recurring grievances irritated the people, and fast prepared them for an open rupture.
As early as 1806, an affair of this kind occurred almost within the port of New York, which excited uni- versal indignation. In April, the British frigate Lean- der, commanded by Captain Whitby, while cruising off Sandy Hook, fired into the sloop Richard, an American coasting vessel, and killed one of her men. The corpse was brought up to the city and buried at the public expense; and the citizens joined in demanding reparation of the British government for the unprovoked outrage ; but, though Captain Whitby was sent home to England and tried by a court-martial, he was speedily acquitted without punishment or censure.
On the 22d of June of the following year, the Ameri- can frigate Chesapeake, when off the coast of Virginia, was fired upon by the British man-of-war Leopard, and forced to surrender four of her men, who were claimed as subjects to the crown of Great Britain ; three of whom were afterwards proved to be American citizens who had been impressed by the British but had escaped from their service. This outrage was followed by a proclama- tion from President Jefferson, forbidding British armed vessels to enter the harbors of the United States until reparation for the attack upon the Chesapeake had been made by the British government, and security given against future aggressions.
War was now raging between England and France, and, in November of the same year, the British govern- ment issued "orders in council," prohibiting all trade
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Church of the Ascension, corner of Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street.
with France and her allies. By way of retaliation, in the following month, Bonaparte issued the celebrated Milan decree, forbidding all trade with England and her colonies, and thus struck the death-blow to American commerce.
It now became evident to all that war was inevitable ; and, in order to call home and detain the American ships and saifors, and to put the country in a posture of defence, on the 23d of September, 1807, an embargo
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was laid by Congress on all the vessels in the harbors of the United States. The result was most disastrous ; business was instantly paralyzed, failures occurred on every side, and the whole country seemed in a state of stagnation. This measure revived the disputes between the federalists and the republicans ; the latter sustain- ing the action of the administration, the former insisting that, if war were made at all, it should be against France as the principal aggressor.
On the 1st of March, 1809, the embargo which, while failing to obtain from France and England the desired acknowledgment of American rights, was ruinous to the commerce of the country with other nations, was repealed by Congress, and a strict system of con- intercourse substituted in its stead. Relying or the promise of Mr. Erskine, the British minister, thai the obnoxious "orders in council" should be repealed before the 10th of June, President Madison, lately elected to the office, proclaimed that commercial inter- course with England should be renewed on that day. The promise, however, was not kept, the government disavowed the pledge of the minister, and on the 19th of August, non-intercourse with England was again proclaimed.
In March, 1810, the hostile decrees of the French were revoked, and commercial intercourse was renewed with the nation. The English, meanwhile, continued their aggressions, stationing ships of war before the American ports, to intercept the outward-bound vessels and take possession of them as lawful prizes. Scarce an American vessel was safe on the seas, and, finding that
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no satisfaction was to be obtained from the British government, Congress resolved at length to bring mat- ters to a crisis, and on the 4th of April, 1812, laid an embargo upon all vessels within the jurisdiction of the United States, which was followed on the 19th of the ensuing month by the President's proclamation of war against Great Britain.
Although the citizens had differed greatly in opinion in respect to the expediency of the projected war, no sooner had it been declared, than they pledged them- selves heart and hand to aid in its accomplishment. The news reached the city on the 20th of June, and on the 24th, the citizens assembled in large numbers in the Park to concert measures for future action.
The meeting was called to order at 12 o'clock, noon, with Col. Henry Rutgers as president and Col. Marinus Willett as secretary. The law of Congress declaring war and the President's proclamation were read, and a preamble and resolutions, approving the action of the goverment, and pledging to its support " their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor," were unanimously adopted by the Assembly .* Copies of these resolutions
* These resolutions we transcribe entire-the preamble from which they are deduced is too long to be inserted here.
" Resolved, That we have viewed with pleasure and approbation the increasing " efforts of our government to preserve to our country the blessings of peace ; that " we duly appreciate their able negotiations, and admire their unwearied patience to "promote so important an end ; and that we consider them standing justified in the " eyes of their fellow-citizens iu all the restrictive measures to which they have " resorted, as temporary expedients, with the hope of preventing thereby the evils " of war.
" Resolved, That while solicitous of peace, and ardently attached to its blessings, " we believe that the crisis had arrived when it could be no longer with honor
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were ordered to be forwarded to the President, to Congress, and to the press for publication, and the people dispersed, fully determined to make their words good whenever they should be called upon to redeem their pledges. So vigorously were they backed by individual enterprise that, within four months after the declaration of war, twenty-six privateers were fitted out from the port, carrying two hundred and twelve guns and twenty-two thousand and thirty-nine men.
The city, in the meantime, was ill prepared for defence, although, taking warning by the indications of the gathering storm, the government had for some time past been busy with its fortification. In the beginning of 1807, the city was entirely defenceless. The Narrows and the Sound were open and undefended, not a fortifi- cation was to be seen in the harbor or on any of the islands, and a small force might have sailed up to the city without opposition, and captured it as did Nicolls in the days of Stuyvesant. Awakened to a sense of the impending danger, in the spring of 1807, the general government began to take measures to fortify the harbor of New York; but the work went on slowly, and it was
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