USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 35
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This new issue drew a marked line between the parties. The federalists, comprising the refranchised royalists, indorsed the new Constitution ; the anti- Federalists opposed it with all its adjuncts. The Consti- tution had already been accepted by the nine States necessary for its adoption, beginning with Delaware and ending with Massachusetts ; yet New York still held
* John Lamb, Marinus Willett, Isaac Sears, Henry Rutgers, William Malcolm, Robert Harpur, John Stagg, Peter P. Van Zandt and Hugh Hughes, most of whom were well known as active Sons of Liberty, were the New York representatives to this first Assembly after the close of the war.
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aloof. On the 17th of June, 1788, the Convention of the State of New York assembled at Poughkeepsie to deliberate on the matter. Governor Clinton, the presi- dent of the Convention, was a stanch anti-federalist ; while Alexander Hamilton and John Jay assumed the leadership of the federalist party, which was in the minority in the Convention. The State, at this time, was emphatically anti-federalist ; the city, on the con- trary, eminently federalist. In the latter, a society had been organized some time before under the name of Federal-Republicans, with John Lamb as chairman and his son-in-law, Charles Tillinghast, as secretary, to con- cert measures to prevent the adoption of the Constitution with its opponents throughout the Union, and this party through their organ, Greenleaf's Patriotic Register-the Holt's Gazette of the Revolution-assailed the actions and motives of the federalists, and stimulated the opposition of their friends at Poughkeepsie. The fede- ralists, on their side, spared nothing that might forward the success of their design. On the 23d of July, three days before the adoption of the Constitution, a thirty- two gun frigate, christened "the Federal Ship Hamil- ton," and manned by thirty seamen and marines under the command of Commodore Nicholson, was drawn by ten horses through the streets in procession from the Bowling Green to Bayard's Farm, in the vicinity of Grand street, where tables were spread in the open air, and a plentiful dinner provided for the whole company, consisting of four or five thousand persons. This demonstration, the first procession of the kind ever witnessed in the city, excited the curiosity of the
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public to the highest degree, and thousands flocked to the town from the neighboring country to witness the spectacle. The Patriotic Register, however, indulged freely in sarcastic remarks on the occasion, and so incensed the federalists, that, on the announcement on the 26th of the adoption of the Constitution, the spirit of mobocracy broke forth with violence, and a crowd of rioters, proceeding to the office of the paper in Pine street, broke open the door with axes, and demolished the press and types. Greenleaf, with an apprentice, after vainly endeavoring to defend his property, made his escape at the rear of the building into Wall street.
Emboldened by this success, the rioters next made their way to the house of John Lamb in Wall street, about midway between Pearl and William streets ;* but, anticipating the attack, preparations had been made for defence. The doors and windows were barred and the halls and stairways barricaded, and General Lamb, Col- onel Oswald, and Major John Wiley, with two youths and a colored servant, were stationed in the second story with loaded muskets, while the youngest daughter of Gen. Lamb, with Miss Chapman, a visitor from Connec- ticut, and a colored servant, who had refused to quit the house, were stationed in the attic as a reserve force, with an ample supply of Dutch tiles and empty bottles to be launched at the heads of the rioters. The mob, now
* John Lamb was at this time Collector of Customs for the port of New York, having been appointed to the office in 1784. A part of his residence was used for the Custom House, the business being not yet large enough to warrant a separate establishment.
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increased to thousands, surrounded the house, yelling, shouting and threatening an attack, but to these the inmates made no reply ; and at length the rioters, con- cluding the house to be either deserted or strongly garrisoned, held a council of war, and .determined to withdraw. The city soon subsided into a state of quiet, and the new constitution was gradually acquiesced in by the opposition.
On the 13th of September, 1789, the adoption of the Constitution was publicly declared, and the city of New York selected as the seat of the general government. This involved the need of more extensive ·accommoda- tions. The City Hall in Wall street, in which the Con- tinental Congress had been accustomed to meet, was fall- ing to decay, and the exhausted city treasury furnished no means wherewith to make the necessary repairs. In this emergency, a number of wealthy gentlemen advanced the requisite sum ; the Hall was remodelled under the direction of Major L'Enfant, and placed by the corporation at the disposal of the general govern- ment. On the 4th of March, 1789, the day appointed for the assembling of Congress, bells were rung and cannon fired, and the hall was thrown open for the expected session ; but only a handful of the members made their appearance. Unable to transact business in the absence of a quorum, they issued a circular letter to their, colleagues-and waited. Their patience was put somewhat severely to the test. The roads were bad, railroads and steamboats unknown, packets and stages. few, and punctuality, withal, regarded as a thing of minor importance ; and it was not until the 6th of April!
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that enough of the straggling members of both houses had come in to constitute a quorum and enable them to declare the result of the election. On the day in ques- tion, both houses assembled in the Senate Chamber, the votes were opened and read, two lists made out, the House of Representatives withdrew to its chamber, the votes were counted, and George Washington was declared unanimously elected first President of the United States. John Adams, having received the next highest number, was declared elected Vice-President, and messengers were dispatched to the new officials to notify them of the result.
John Adams was the first to arrive. Reaching New York on the 21st of April, he was met at the boundary line by Governor Clinton, with a military escort, and conducted to Kingsbridge. Here he was received by the Senate and House of Representatives, together with several companies of militia, and escorted to the City Hall, where he delivered his inaugural address. Two days afterward, Washington arrived. His journey from Mount Vernon had been a march of triumph. Every- where he was met with rejoicings, nor could he, with his utmost endeavors, extricate himself from these public expressions of their gratitude. He had wished to travel unostentatiously as a private citizen ; but he found this impossible without harshly repelling the heartfelt wel- come that was everywhere offered to him. At Alexandria he was greeted by a public entertainment, which was repeated at Georgetown ; on the confines of Pennsylva- ·nia he was met by a large escort, headed by Mifflin, his ancient enemy, now governor of the State, who
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Federal Hall and the Verplanck Mansion (the site of the present Custom House and Assay Office).
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conducted him to Philadelphia, where a splendid ovation was prepared for him ; and at Trenton, the bridge over which he had once retreated before Cornwallis to fall on the enemy's forces at Princeton, was strewn with flowers by a band of maidens, and he was escorted into the town with military honors by an immense concourse of citizens. At Elizabethtown Point he was met by a com- mittee from both houses of Congress, which, embarking with him in a barge which had been splendidly fitted up, escorted him to the landing-place at the foot of Wall street, where Governor Clinton was in waiting to receive him, attended by the State and city officers. Landing at the stairs at the foot of Murray's Wharf, which had been decorated for the occasion, he was escorted by a large procession to No 1 Cherry street, formerly occupied by Samuel Osgood, which had been prepared for his reception, whence he proceeded to Governor Clinton's to dinner. In the evening, the city was splendidly illu- minated, and a brilliant display of fireworks closed the demonstrations.
The Federal Hall was not yet finished, and a week elapsed before the arrangements for the inauguration could be completed. For this, the outer balcony of the Senate Chamber, looking down on Broad street, was chosen ; Congress having prescribed that the ceremony should take place in public and in the open air. The 30th of April was fixed for the inauguration. At nine in the morning, religious services were performed in all the churches. A little after noon, a procession was formed from the house of the President elect, consisting of the city cavalry, with the members of Congress and the
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heads of departments in carriages, followed by Washing- ton alone in a carriage, his aid-de-camp and secretary, Colonel Humphreys and Tobias Lear, with the resident · foreign ministers, also in carriages, bringing up the rear. Having reached the Senate Chamber, he was conducted by Vice-President Adams to his seat, then informed that all was ready for taking the oath of office. Upon this, he rose and proceeded to the balcony, followed by the Senate and House of Representatives. Adams, Knox, Steuben, and Hamilton, his old companions in arms and danger, grouped around him, Chancellor Livingston administered the oath, and, as he ended with the exclam- ation, " Long live George Washington, first President of " the United States !" the multitude rent the air with shouts of applause. Returning to the Senate Chamber, he delivered his inaugural address, then proceeded on foot, with the whole assembly, to St. Paul's church, where prayers were read by Bishop Provost, lately appointed by the Senate as one of the chaplains of Con- gress ; after which, he was escorted back to his residence. In the evening, there was a display of fireworks on the Battery, and the houses of the French and Spanish ministers were brilliantly illuminated. A month later, Mrs. Washington arrived, and was received at the Battery with the federal salute of thirteen guns, and escorted from the landing-place with military honors.
This ceremonial over, Washington's life in New York was simple and unostentatious. The new presidential mansion, to make room for which the old fort had been levelled in 1787-88, had not yet been completed, nor was it until after the removal of Congress, when it
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became the residence of Governor Clinton, and was some time afterward transformed into the Custom House. During the first session of Congress, he continued to occupy the house which had been assigned him in Cherry street, the accommodations of which were so limited that three of his secretaries-Humphreys, Nelson and Lewis-were obliged to content themselves with a single room. Tobias Lear, his principal secretary, with his as- sistants, Thomas Nelson, and Robert Lewis ; his aids-de- camp, Colonel Humphreys and Major Jackson, and Mrs. Washington with her two children, constituted his house- hold. His house was handsomely but plainly furnished. On Tuesdays, from three to four, he held a public levee ; on Thursdays, he gave congressional dinners ; and on Friday evenings, Mrs. Washington held her receptions. The whole establishment savored of republican sim- plicity, the chief tendency toward luxury being shown in the horses, which were remarkably fine, and were groomed with scrupulous care. Washington was simple and abstemious in his habits. He rose regularly at four o'clock, and went to bed at nine. On Saturdays, he sought relaxation from his labors by riding into the country, either on horseback, or with his family in the coach-and-six. In the evening, he sometimes visited the theatre in John street, at that time the only one in the city, which had been erected during the occupation of the British, and used by the officers for amateur theatricals .*
* The earliest theatricals in New York were in a store on Cruger's Wharf, near Old Slip, where a number of young men used to meet and amuse themselves with amateur performances. The first regular theatre was a stone building, erected in 1750 in the rear of the Dutch Church in Nassau street. Mr. Hallam was the manager, with a
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In this theatre, " which was so small," says Custis in his " Recollections and Private Memoirs of the Life and " Character of Washington," "that the whole fabric might " easily have been placed on the stage of one of our " modern theatres ;" the stage boxes were set apart for the President and Vice-President and adorned with ap- propriate emblems and decorations. The playbills were inscribed Vivat Republica. The performances were good, and the company iucluded several players of merit, among whom was Morris, who had been the asso- ciate of Garrick in the beginning of his career. It was here that the national air of " Hail Columbia" was first played, having been composed by Fyles, a German musician, the leader of the orchestra, in compliment to the President. On Sunday morning, when the weather was fine, Washington and his family attended St. Paul's church, where his pew may yet be seen ; in the evening, he read to his wife, receiving no visitors. He laid it down as a rule to return no visits, and gave no dinner invitations except to officials and foreigners of distinc- tion. For some time, the adoption of a title suitable to his position was discussed by Congress, but was finally aban- doned by common consent, and the simple but dignified address of "President of the United States," first con- ferred on him by the House of Representatives in reply
tolerably good company; but, after a time, he removed to Jamaica, and the theatre was, in consequence, pulled down. The second was a wooden building, in Beekman street, a few doors below Nassau, erected with the permission of Lieutenant-Governor Colden, by Philip Miller in 1769. This was destroyed by the Liberty Boys during the days of the Stamp Act, in revenge for some insulting allusion in the play. The next in order was the theatre in John street, above cited.
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to his inaugural speech, adhered to then and henceforth by the nation.
During the residence of Washington in Cherry street, he was attacked by a dangerous illness, which rendered a surgical operation necessary. The elder and younger Drs. Bard were his physicians. Washington bore the torture with surprising firmness. " Cut away-deeper, deeper still ;" exclaimed the father to his son, whom he had deputed to perform the operation through distrust of his own nerves, " don't be afraid ; you see how well he bears it." For a time, he was considered in a critical situation, and the greatest anxiety was manifested in the city. The pavement in front of his residence was strewn with straw, and chains were stretched across the neighboring streets ; but the operation proved eminently successful, and his speedy recovery removed all cause of alarm. Upon his convalescence, he set out upon a tour through the New England States, from which he returned a short time before the opening of the second session of Congress on the 8th of January, 1790. About the same time, he removed to the Macomb House, No. 39 Broad- way, afterward Bunker's Mansion House, where he con- tinued to reside during his stay in New York.
This stay was not a long one. Since the first adoption of the federal constitution, the country had been in a fer- ment in respect to the location of the permanent seat of government. The eastern States preferred New York, Pennsylvania clamored for its return to Philadelphia or the vicinity, the people of New Jersey petitioned for its removal to the shores of the Delaware, while Maryland and Virginia, with the rest of the southern States, urged
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the banks of the Potomac as the central location. During the first session, the banks of the Susquehanna had very nearly been chosen as the site ; and no sooner had the second session opened, than the discussion was renewed with unabated ardor. Each party persisted in urging its claims, and it was only by a somewhat curious compromise that an amicable arrangement was finally effected, and the District of Columbia selected as the capital of the United States.
Early in the session, Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, threw a new apple of discord into the assembly by proposing that, for the mainte- nance of the public credit, the general government should assume, not only the public foreign and domestic debt, amounting to fifty-four millions, but also the debts of the States, contracted during the Revolution, and estimated at twenty-five millions. The foreign debt was assumed without hesitation, as was also the domestic debt after considerable opposition, but here the question rested. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina and a part of Penn- sylvania, joined in favoring the assumption of the debts of the States, while Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, New Hampshire and the remaining part of the Pennsylvania delegation opposed the measure with so much acrimony · that, at one time, a dissolution of the Union seemed inevitable. The debts of most of the opposing States were small ; some objected to thus increasing the power of the general government; others, on the contrary, advocated it as a federal measure; but neither party could claim a majority. At this juncture, as a last
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resort, a compromise was effected through the joint agency of Jefferson and Hamilton, and two of the Vir- ginian representatives were induced to vote for the assumption ; while the Northerners, in return, ceded the other point at issue, and fixed the permanent seat of the general government on the banks of the Potomac ; though, by way of salvo to the feelings of the disap- pointed Pennsylvanians, it was agreed that it should first remain for ten years at Philadelphia. The precise loca- tion was left to the President, who was to appoint com- missioners to choose a site within certain limits from the lands which had been proffered by Maryland and Vir- ginia. These States, as well as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in their eagerness to secure the capital of the nation, had not only offered to furnish the necessary ground, but also to appropriate money for the erection of the public buildings, and, in the impoverished state of the country, this saving of expenditure proved a strong argument in their favor. Both bills soon after passed the Senate, the former with various amendments ; the federal government agreed to assume the greater portion of the State debts in certain specified propor- tions, and the month of December, 1800, was fixed as the date of the opening session of Congress at the capital city of Washington in the new District of Columbia.
Since the close of the war, Indian affairs had been in an unsettled state along the western and southern fron- tiers. Soon after the conclusion of peace with Great Britain, treaties had been negotiated with the various tribes which had taken part against the United States during the war; but these adjustments had proved
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unsatisfactory, and the natives complained bitterly of the constant encroachments of the whites upon their boun- daries. In the Carolinas and Georgia, discontent ripened into open war. The Cherokees, who claimed the northern part of the States as well as the greater portion of the State of Tennessee, were worsted in the strife and forced to flee to the Creeks for protection ; the latter, who inhabited Alabama and Georgia, strengthened by an alliance with the Spaniards in Florida, carried on the war with greater success, and, headed by their chief, Alexander McGillivray, severely harassed the settle- ments of the Georgians. McGillivray was a half-breed, the son of a Scotchman, who, educated by his father in the best schools of Charleston, had inherited the chief- tainship through the line of his mother, according to the custom of the nation, and turned his talents and educa- tion to good account by devising ways and means to strengthen its power. Bred in a counting-house and familiar with mercantile affairs, he opened a profitable trade with the Spaniards, through whom he obtained the arms and ammunition necessary for the successful continuance of the war.
Led by an enemy of superior intelligence, this out- break occasioned considerable alarm, and, soon after the opening of the first session of Congress, General Lincoln, Colonel Humphreys and David Griffin were dispatched as commissioners to the scene of contest to adjust the boundaries of the disputed territory. This was a tract of land, west and south of the Oconee River, which the Georgians claimed had been ceded to them by three successive treaties ; while the Creeks alleged that these
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treaties had been obtained by force or fraud, and there- fore could not be held as binding upon the nation. The commissioners were well received by McGillivray and his warriors, but, refusing to restore the lands, they effected nothing except to obtain a temporary cessation of hostilities.
The next year, Colonel Marinus Willett was dispatched by Washington to open a new negotiation. Disguising himself as a simple trader, in obedience to his instruc- tions, he entered the Indian camp and sounded the dis- position of the natives ; then, throwing off the mask, he avowed his errand, and invited McGillivray to go with him to New York to talk with the Great Father. To this proposal, McGillivray consented, and set out in the beginning of the summer, accompanied by twenty-eight chief and warriors of the nation. Their arrival excited considerable interest in the city. On landing, they were met by the Tammany Society, arrayed in Indian cos- tume, which escorted them to their lodgings on the banks of the North River at the tavern known henceforth as the Indian Queen. Here they remained for more than six weeks, negotiating the terms of a treaty with Gene- ral Knox, the commissioner appointed by Washington for that purpose, and, the matter being at length satisfac- torily arranged, the treaty was ratified, in true Indian style in Federal Hall in Wall street, on the 13th of August, the day after the adjournment of the second session of Congress. At 12 o'clock, the Creek deputa- tion was met by the President and his suite in the Hall of the House of Representatives, where the treaty was read and interpreted, after which, Washington addressed
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the warriors in a short but emphatic speech, detailing and explaining the justice of its provisions; to each of which, as it was interpreted to them, McGillivray and his warriors gave the Indian grunt of approval. The treaty was then signed by both parties, after which Washington presented McGillivray with a string of wampum, as a memorial of the peace, with a paper of tobacco as a substitute for the ancient calumet, grown obsolete and unattainable by the innovations of modern times. McGillivray made a brief speech in reply, the "shake of peace " was interchanged between Washing- ton and each of the chiefs, and the ceremony was con- cluded by a song of peace, in which the Creek warriors joined with enthusiasm. The warriors, indeed, had good reason to be satisfied with this treaty, which ceded to them all the disputed territory, and distributed presents and money liberally among the nation. Almost imme- diately after its ratification, the Creeks returned to their homes in the South, leaving their name as a memorial to their place of entertainment.
The visit of the Indians closed the official career of New York as the capital city of the nation, but this did not retard her prosperity, as at the time was greatly feared. Freed from the distractions of political excite- ment, the people turned their attention to mercantile pursuits, and soon made of their city the commercial centre of the western continent. In the autumn of 1789, James Duane was succeeded in the mayoralty by Colonel Richard Varick, who, since the evacuation, had been the city recorder. Colonel Varick was a popular lawyer of the city, who had won his military title in the
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service of Schuyler in the northern army, and, after wit- nessing the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga and the defeat of Burgoyne, had been aid-de-camp to Arnold till the discovery of his treason, after which he had served Washington as secretary until the close of the war.
In 1793, war broke out between France and England, and on the 9th of April, just five days after the news reached New York, Citizen Genet arrived at Charleston as the accredited minister to the United States from the new French Republic. This war placed the nation in an embarrassing position. Bound on one hand to France by obligations of gratitude as well as by the con- ditions of a treaty of alliance, it was pledged on the other hand by the federal policy to preserve strict neu- trality in European wars. The nation became divided, the anti-federalists warmly espoused the cause of the French party, while the federalists, with Hamilton at their head, insisted that the treaty had heen annulled by the change in the French government ; or, at all events, did not apply in case of an offensive war. Washington inclined to the latter opinion, and, while he received Genet as the minister of the Republic, proclaimed a strict neutrality in respect to warlike operations. This greatly displeased Genet, as well as the anti-federalists, who, warmly attached to France and detesting England, cheered on their late allies in their struggle for liberty, and warmly seconded the French minister in fitting out privateers from their ports to cruise against nations hos- tile to France. The journey of Genet through the States was a march of triumph. Everywhere, he was fêted and caressed ; in Philadelphia, he met with an enthusi-
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