USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 41
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Tomb of Montgomery, in the front wall of St. Paul's Chapel .- (For Inscription, see p. 712.)
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This Monument is erected by the order of Congress, 25th Janry, 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful remem- brance of the patriotism, conduct, enterprize & perseverance of Major General Richard Montgomery, Who after a series of successes amidst the most discou- raging difficulties Fell in the attack on Quebec, 31st Decr. 1775, Aged 37 years.
Invenit et sculpsit, Parisiis J. J. Caffieri, Sculptor Regius, Anno Domini ebbecixxvii
THE STATE OF NEW YORK Caused the Remains of " MAJOR GENL. RICHARD MONTGOMERY, To be conveyed from Quebec And deposited beneath this Monument, the 8th day of July, 1818.
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the deceased United States Bank. This measure, which was warmly supported by the federalists as well as by a section of the republican party, was as zealously opposed by Governor Tompkins, who, finding the bill likely to pass both houses, prorogued the Legislature for sixty days, in the hope, by gaining time, to secure its defeat. But this delay availed him nothing ; the Legislature, on reassembling, made it its first business to incorporate the bank, the capital of which was subsequently reduced to four millions. The City Bank, with a capital of two millions, and the New York Manufacturing Company, the ancestor of the Phoenix Bank, with a capital of one million two hundred thousand, were also incorporated during the same session by the Legislature. These were followed by a new National Bank, chartered in 1816 for twenty years, with a capital of thirty-five millions, a branch bank of which was established in New York, in Wall street.
In 1819, the city was visited by the yellow fever, which soon disappeared, to return with increased violence in 1823, when its reappearance excited universal conster- nation. This time, the disease broke out in a new quarter. Hitherto, it had invariably made its first appearance on the eastern side of the town; it now commenced in Rector street, near the North River-a neighborhood which had always been peculiarly healthy, and confined its ravages to that quarter of the city. Although the fever had visited the city so often that it might almost have been considered a naturalized disease, with the appearance of which the citizens had grown familiar through habit, it seemed this year to be regarded
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with especial consternation. All who could, fled the city ; the banks and custom house were removed to Greenwich village, the streets below the Park, comprising the infected district, were walled up, and all intercourse with them strictly prohibited, and the residents therein who were unwilling to quit their homes were forcibly removed by the Board of Health. For a time, business was entirely suspended, and the city wore the aspect of absolute solitude, broken only by the rumbling of the hearses, and the shadows of the nurses who remained to watch the dying and care for the burial of the dead. But these precautions tended greatly to check the ra- vages of the disease. From the commencement of the fever, on the 17th of June, to its disappearance, on the 2d of November, the deaths numbered but two hun- dred and forty, being far less than in most of its pre- vious visitations. The quarantine, established at Staten Island in 1821, soon checked the periodical recurrence of the disease, which appeared for the last time during this summer.
In the summer of 1824, news was received that Gene- ral Lafayette was on his way to New York. and the corporation at once prepared to welcome him as the guest of the city upon his arrival. The idol of the whole country, he was especially such of the city of New York, made up in great part of the so-called "French party," which had sympathized warmly with France in the struggle for independence, headed in the first place by Lafayette ; which had denounced the neutrality of the American government as cowardly and dis- honorable, and which let no opportunity slip for
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demonstrating its attachment to France, and its corres- ponding detestation of her rival, Great Britain. Not less was he beloved by the opposite party-the friend of Hamilton, the adopted brother of Washington, the < favorite of all his companions in arms, he had won golden opinions from all ranks and parties by his frank- ness and valor in the American Revolution, and his visit was a continuous march of triumph throughout the country. On Sunday, the 15th of August, he arrived in the ship Cadmus, and landed on Staten Island, where he remained till the next day at the residence of Daniel D. Tompkins, at this time Vice-President of the United States. On Monday, he was escorted up to the city by a large naval procession, and landed at Castle Garden amid the ringing of bells, the salutes of artillery and the shouts of the enthusiastic multitude, assembled to wel- come the guest of the nation. From the Battery, he was escorted to the City Hall, where he was welcomed by the corporation, assembled there to receive him, and congratulated by Mayor Paulding on his safe arrival, then conducted to Bunker's Mansion House, where free quarters had been provided for him and his suite. Dur- ing his stay in the city, he visited the navy yard, fortifi- cations and public institutions, and held a daily levee in the City Hall, where he was waited upon by thousands of the citizens. At his departure, he was escorted by a large detachment of troops to Kingsbridge, whence he set out for his proposed tour through the States. The beginning was but the augury of the future. Every- where, the same welcome and the same festivities awaited him, and when he returned to New York in September,
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1825, having accomplished a tour through the whole country in the space of thirteen months, despite his lameness and his eighty-six years, the citizens bade adieu to him in a fête at Castle Garden which surpassed any- thing of the kind before witnessed in the country.
The year 1825 witnessed the completion of a public work to which the city owes much of its present import- ance-the Erie Canal. This gigantic enterprise grew out of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, incor- porated in 1792, with fifty members, for the purpose of improving the navigation of the Mohawk River and of opening a communication by canal to Seneca Lake and Lake Ontario. Of this company, General Philip Schuy- ler was president, and Barent Bleecker, Jeremiah John- son and Elkanah Watson of Albany, with Thomas Eddy and Walter Bowne of New York, the most active mem- bers. The Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company was also organized about the same time for the purpose of opening a communication between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. The route in question was care- fully surveyed by Mr. Weston, a civil engineer from England, in company with Thomas Eddy ; and their reports, added to a tour of observation made by himself in 1800 through the western part of the State, suggested to Gouverneur Morris, who was actively interested in the enterprise, the idea of a canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The proposal attracted general attention ; the aid of the federal government was solicited in the matter, and, failing to obtain this, a resolution calling attention to the subject was introduced into the State Legislature, in 1808, by Joshua Forman, of Onondaga
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County, and the surveyor-general directed to have the route in question explored and surveyed, the sum of six hundred dollars being appropriated for the purpose. The survey was made by James Geddes, and a report of it furnished to the surveyor-general in 1809. On the 13th of March of the following year, the subject was brought up in the Senate by Jonas Platt, and De Witt Clinton, at this time a member of the Senate, was induced to give his support to the measure. From this time, dates the interest of Clinton in the canal ; and, though he was not the original projector of the scheme, it may safely be affirmed that to his practical talent, his indomitable energy and his obstinate perseverance is due the successful termination of the stupendous work-the giant of canals and the pride of the Empire State. Through his influence, the project was received with favor in the Senate, and a committee appointed con- sisting of Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, William North, Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter, Robert R. Livingston, and Robert Fulton, of which Morris was chairman, to survey the track of the canal, take levels, make estimates and form plans. In 1811, a report was furnished in behalf of the committee by Gouverneur Morris, accompanied with a finely executed map of the whole route; upon the receipt of which, a bill was brought into the Legislature by Clinton and passed on the 8th of April, vesting the canal commissioners with full executive power in respect to the navigation between the Hudson and the Lakes-and now the struggle began. The war, breaking out almost immediately, greatly retarded the progress of the work. The magnitude of
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the undertaking startled the citizens, many of whom sneered at it as visionary, and termed it, in derision, " Clinton's big ditch ;" and the opponents of Clinton made of the scheme a political issue, and thus strength- ened the opposition by the prejudice of party. Clinton and Morris, after vainly soliciting aid from the national government, appealed for assistance to individual States, and, aided by their friends, struggled long and earnestly for the success of the enterprise. How much the public expression of sympathy in the city of New York contri- buted to the ultimate success of their endeavors will best be told in Clinton's own words. "At the commence- "ment of the year 1816," says he, in his reply to the New York Address, "a few individuals held a consulta- " tion in the city of New York, for the purpose of call- " ing the public attention to the contemplated Western "and Northern Canals. The difficulties to be sur- "mounted were of the most formidable aspect. The "State, in consequence of her patriotic exertions during "the war, was considerably embarrassed in her finances; "a current of hostility had set in against the project; "and the preliminary measures, however well intended, "ably devised or faithfully executed, had unfortunately " increased instead of allaying prejudice. And such was " the weight of these and other considerations, that the " plan was generally viewed as abandoned. Experience " evinces that it is much easier to originate a measure " successfully, than it is to revive one which has already " been unfavorably received. Notwithstanding those "appalling obstacles, which were duly considered, a " public meeting was called, of which William Bayard
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" was chairman and John Pintard secretary ; a memorial " in favor of the canal policy was read and approved, "and a correspondent spirit, which induced the Legisla- " ture to pass a law authorizing surveys and examina- " tions, took place in every part of the State."
On the 17th of April, 1816, a law was passed, appoint- ing a board of commissioners with authority to lay out the track of the canals, and appropriating twenty thousand dollars for the purpose. De Witt Clinton was appointed president of the board, then removed from the office in 1824, in direct opposition to the wishes of the friends of the undertaking. On the 10th of March, 1817, the commissioners presented an elaborate report of their proceedings to the Legislature ; and on the 17th of April, 1817, a law was passed amid the most strenuous opposition, providing funds for the construc- tion of a grand canal, three hundred and sixty-three miles in length, with a surface of forty feet in breadth, declined to eighteen feet at the bottom, and containing a depth of four feet of water, sufficient for convey- ing vessels of more than one hundred tons burden, which should connect the waters of the Great Lakes with the Atlantic ocean, and form, next to the great wall of China, the longest line of continued labor in the world.
On the 4th of July, 1817, the ground was first broken for the canal by James Richardson, on the middle section in the vicinity of Rome, and from this date the work did not cease for a single day until its completion in 1825. On the 22d of October, 1819, the first boat sailed on the Erie canal from Rome to Utica, with De Witt Clinton.
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then governor of the State, Chancellor Livingston, Gen. S. Van Rensselaer, and a large party of friends of the enterprise on board. This was a passenger-boat, named the Chief Engineer, in compliment to Benjamin Wright, and was dragged by a single horse.
The work completed, the city of New York was naturally selected as the most suitable place for the canal celebration. On the morning of the 26th of October, 1825, the first flotilla of canal-boats left Buffalo for New York, where the intelligence of its departure was received one hour and twenty minutes after by the sound of cannon stationed along the line. The answer was returned in the same time ; and thus, in less than three hours, Buffalo had spoken to New York and received a reply. In our days of telegraphs, this seems slow conversation ; but the electric wire had not then girdled the earth, and this rapid transmission of news seemed almost a miracle.
On the 4th of November, at about five o'clock in the morning, the fleet, consisting of the Chancellor Living- ston, in which were Clinton and his party, with a long line of canal packet-boats in tow, arrived at New York and anchored near the State Prison at Greenwich, amid the ringing of bells and the salutes of artillery. Here they were met by the steamship Washington, with a deputation from the Common Council on board, to con- gratulate the company on their arrival from Lake Erie. The fleet soon after weighed anchor, and, rounding the Battery, proceeded up the East River to the Navy Yard, where salutes were fired, and the visitors were met by the corporation. Here a grand naval procession was
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formed, consisting of nearly all the vessels in port, gaily decked with colors of all nations, and escorted to the United States schooner Dolphin, moored within Sandy Hook, where the great ceremony of the day was to be performed. The actors in the programme having entered the schooner, the vessels in the procession formed a circle about the spot, and Clinton poured a keg of the fresh water of Lake Erie into the waves, thus wedding the inland seas with the Atlantic ocean. Fol- lowing in his footsteps, Dr. Mitchill poured into the waves waters which he had gathered from every zone- from the Ganges and the Indus, the Nile and the Gambia, the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine and the Danube, the Mississippi and Columbia, the Orinoco, the Plate and the Amazon, in token of the varied commerce which would gather about the island, destined to become the commercial centre of the world. On the land, the celebration was not less imposing. A civic procession four and a half miles in length, numbering nearly seven thousand persons, paraded with banners and music through the principal streets of the city, then proceeded to the Battery to meet the corporation on their return from Sandy Hook. A magnificent display of fireworks was given in the evening in the Park, the public and private buildings were illuminated, and the whole city wore an air of festivity. Not a single accident occurred to mar the harmony of the day, and the Erie Canal celebration may justly be ranked as one of the most successful pageants ever witnessed in the city.
Governor Clinton did not long enjoy his triumph, but expired suddenly of disease of the heart while sitting in
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his library on the 11th of February, 1828. The news of his decease occasioned deep grief in the city of which he had been the greatest benefactor. Suitable public testimonials of respect were offered by the corporation to his memory, and, on the Canal anniversary of 1853, a colossal bronze statue of him, executed by H. K. Brown, of Brooklyn, to the order of several private citizens of New York, was set up with appropriate ceremonies in Greenwood Cemetry. Mr. Clinton was twice married ; first, to Miss Maria Franklin, daughter of an eminent merchant of the city, by whom he had seven sons and three daughters ; and lastly, to Miss Catherine Jones, daughter of Dr. Thomas Jones of New York, who sur- vived him.
CHAPTER XXI.
1825-1855.
Gas Companies-The Italian Opera-Journalism in the city-Great Fire of 1835-Com. mercial Panic in 1837-The Croton Aqueduct-Astor Place Opera House Riot-Crystal Palace-Position of Affairs in 1855.
NOR was the Erie Canal-a work, of all others, rele- vant to the history of the city, to the growth of which it has contributed so largely-the only public improve- ment that sprung into existence during the year 1825 ; gas-pipes, joint-stock companies, the opera, the Sunday press, and the Merchants' Exchange, all made their first advent in the great metropolis in the course of the same year.
First, of the introduction of gas into the city. Hitherto, the streets had been dimly lighted with oil ; and though efforts had been made to substitute something better, and experiments had even been made in the Park with gas-lights as early as the summer of 1812, nothing defi- nite was done until March, 1823, when the New York Gas Light Company was incorporated with a capital of $1,000,000, with the privilege of supplying all that part
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of the city south of Canal and Grand streets. In May, 1825, it commenced the proposed improvement by laying gas-pipes in Broadway on both sides of the street, from Canal street to the Battery. From these, they were gradually extended over the southern part of the island, though for years the city presented a checkered appear- ance, with one block dimly lighted by the ancient oil- lamps, and the next brilliantly illuminated from the works of the new gas company. In 1830, the improve- ment was extended to the northern part of the island by the incorporation of the Manhattan Gas Light Company, with a capital of $500,000, for the purpose of supplying the upper part of the city, not included within the limits of the New York Company. The innovation soon grew into favor ; both companies have been eminently success- ful, and at the present day, nearly the whole of New York Island is veined with a net-work of pipes, both of gas and water, bringing the two elements into the homes : of the citizens, ready to gush forth at the touch of the obedient faucet.
Not so beneficial in their results were the joint-stock companies, which, following in the lead of the specula- tive fever which was raging at this time so fiercely in England, rose only to lead an ephemeral existence, and to fall again in the course of the following year with a terrible crash, involving the all of thousands in a com- mon ruin. The history of these is of too recent a date to be classed as yet among historical facts, nor would our limits permit it, were we disposed for the investigation ; it suffices to say that the commercial panic of 1826, brought on by the failure of numerous joint-stock com-
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panies, some under the control of fraudulent stock-job- bers, and others of visionary enthusiasts, honest in purpose, yet misled themselves and misleading others by the bubble of colossal fortunes, built up in a day by a fortunate stroke, destroyed, for a time, all confidence in business, and utterly paralyzed the commerce of the city. But this state of affairs was of short duration ; business gradually revived on a surer basis, the public lost confi- dence in the lotteries, bogus banks, and kindred schemes with which the whole country had previously been flooded, and the chaos resulted in good to the whole community.
This year witnessed the first effort to introduce the Italian opera to the shores of the New World. The theatre was already a fixed institution ; the stage of the old Park Theatre had witnessed the performances of Cooke, Kean, Cooper, Booth, Wallack, Conway, Math- ews and many others ; Incledon, Braham, Phillips and other vocalists had also been received with favor by the New York public ; yet no attempt had been made at operatic performances. In 1825, the Garcia troupe arrived, and, on the 29th of November, made their first appearance at the Park Theatre in the opera of "Il Barbiere di Seviglia," in which Signorina Garcia, after- ward the celebrated Malibran, then but seventeen years of age, made her début before the American public, and was received with unbounded enthusiasm. The genius of the great artist was quickly recognized, and the press of the city teemed with her praises. The first opera was continued for thirty consecutive nights, then replaced by others with equal success. She afterward appeared in English opera at the Bowery Theatre, opened for the
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first time in October, 1826, where she received ten thousand dollars for seventeen nights' performances. But the attempt was premature ; the country was still too young to afford the necessary encouragement to art, and, finding their success not commensurate with their wishes, the artists determined, after two years' trial, to abandon the enterprise, and, in 1827, set sail for France, where the youthful prima donna won herself a world-wide reputation as the acknowledged Queen of Song, then expired in the midst of her triumph, at the early age of twenty-eight. Other attempts to establish the Italian Opera on a permanent basis soon followed with like success ; Palmo, with a choice troupe of artists and a tasteful little Opera House, seemed likely for a time to succeed, but was forced at last to abandon the enterprise ; the Astor Place Opera House, built in 1848, bore the stamp of failure from its very foundation, and, passing in 1852 into the hands of Donetti, was converted into a menagerie ; then, in 1854, was purchased by the Mer- cantile Library Association and transformed into the present Clinton Hall ; the Academy of Music, the finest Opera House in the world, opened in 1855, with high hopes of success, also proved a failure, and was soon afterward thrown open to the concert and the drama. and to this day the opera, though now more firmly established than ever before, remains an exotic, without a local habitation.
This was also the epoch of the introduction of marble as a building material. Marbles abounded of every shade and texture and of a fineness unsurpassed by any in the Old World, yet so strong was the prejudice exist-
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Academy of Music.
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ing against them that when the American Museum, the first marble-fronted building in the city after the City Hall, was built in 1824, not a workman could be per- suaded to put up the edifice, and, as a last resort, a con- vict was pardoned out of the State Prison at Sing Sing on condition that he would perform the work. This museum was built by John Scudder, who removed his collection thither from the rooms which he had formerly occupied in the New York Institution. It remained in his hands and those of his heirs until 1840, when. it was purchased by P. T. Barnum, who soon after added to it the collection of Peale's New York Museum, located in . Broadway near the corner of Murray street, which had been purchased of the proprietor in 1838 by the New York Museum Company.
In 1825, the erection of the Merchants' Exchange in Wall street was commenced and finished in 1827, when the Post-office was removed to the Rotunda, where it remained until its destruction by the conflagration of 1835. The New York University, the Masonic Hall in Broadway, nearly opposite the New York Hospital, the Arcade in Maiden Lane, and many other buildings of more or less interest were also erected about the same time.
The approaching presidential election of 1828, rallied the parties together for a new contest. John Quincy Adams, the regnant President, was the candidate of the National Republicans, the lineal descendants of the old federal party ; while the pseudo "Albany Regency "party," with the republicans at large, supported the claims of General Andrew Jackson, the hero of New
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COXISC.
The New York University.
Orleans. The friends of the latter at this time assumed the name of Democrats; a term which had first been bestowed on them in derision in the days of the French Revolution, and which originated, like most of the parti- san names, in New York city. The city, increased in 1827 by the addition of two wards, was now again under the rule of Mayor Paulding, who had superseded Mayor Hone in 1826. The democrats had clearly gained the ascendency, and in the charter elections of 1826, '7, '8 and '9, succeeded in electing a majority in both boards
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of the Common Council. In the federal election, they also obtained the victory, and placed their candidate in the presidential chair of the United States.
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