USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 51
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" 'Stetimus tela aspera contra, Contulimusque manus ?'"
Three months later, under date of March 22d, Swift wrote :-
"I find you a little lament your bondage, and, indeed, in your case it requires
1 Smith erroneously states that Hunter was appointed lieutenant-governor of Virginia. His commission was that of governor-in-chief, but it was by a compromise with the Earl of Orkney.
483
HUNTER'S COUNSELORS.
a good share of philosophy. But if you will not be angry, I believe I may have been the cause you are still a prisoner ; for I imagine my former letter was intercepted by the French, and the most Christian king read one passage in it (and duly considering the weight of the person who wrote it) where I said, if the French understood your value as well as we do, he would not exchange you for Count Tallard and all the débris of Blenheim together." 1
Hunter was finally exchanged for the Bishop of Quebec, and was at once named by the queen for the government of Jamaica, which happened to be vacant. He signified a decided preference for the government of New York, which was also vacant, and his wishes were very graciously respected. He had married, while in the army, the lovely and accom- plished Lady Hay, who accompanied him to New York. It was not an auspicious moment for comfort and the enjoyment of life, for the country was in perpetual agitation about the war, and the unpopular administra- tion of Cornbury had rendered the whole community suspicious. But Hunter set an example of gentlemanly forbearance, kindly humor, ster- ling integrity, and purity of sentiment, which cooled the heated atmos- phere, and by slow degrees public affairs assumed a more healthful as- pect. The council was composed of Dr. Gerardus Beekman, Abraham De Peyster (who was also treasurer of the province), Peter Schuyler, Rip Van Dam, Dr. Staats, Robert Walters, Adolphe Philipse, Chief Justice Mompesson, Caleb Heathcote, John Barbarie, and Killian Van Rens- selaer.
Barbarie was a wealthy Huguenot, whose father settled in New Ro- chelle in the time of Jacob Leisler. His wife was Gertrude Johnson, the granddaughter of Hon. Stephanus Van Cortlandt. He was French in all his tastes and habits, polite to a fault, and pleasing in address, though given to extravagant fits of temper. He was also notoriously arrogant on the subject of birth and family connections.
Van Dam ranked among the most prominent merchants of the city. He owned several ships, and was extensively engaged in the West India trade. For many years he had stood out openly and manfully against all abuses, and had regarded with interest whatever affected the commerce of the young colony. Indeed, his first entrance into the exciting arena of politics seems to have been on the occasion of the seizure of some of his vessels by Bellomont, for alleged infringements of the custom laws. He at once threw himself into the opposition, and henceforth was an active party leader. He attained great power and influence, and after having been one of the governor's council for nearly thirty years, he as
1 Contributions to East Jersey History. Whitehead, p. 148. Smith's New York : Smith's New Jersey.
484
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
President of that body acted for more than a year (from July 1, 1731, to August 1, 1732) as governor of the province.1
Chief Justice Mompesson was probably of more real service to Hunter than any other counselor, as he had taken special care to inform himself in regard to the character, manners, morals, and peculiarities of the people of New York and New Jersey, and he was, moreover, less tinctured with party prejudice than the men who had been battling with grievances for a lifetime. He was a master of the English law, and his advice was always to the point.
At that epoch Germany was crying out in anguish through the draughts made upon her resources by the "Thirty Years' War." Thousands of the peasantry had no alternative but gradual starvation or immediate emigra- tion to some foreign country. Many of them, flying before the French, took refuge in the camp of the Duke of Marlborough. Queen Anne sent a fleet to Rotterdam to convey a portion of them to London, and such was the eagerness of the unhappy people to accept of exile that England was threatened, as it were, with an invasion. At least thirty-two thousand were landed upon her shores. The Ministry thought it might be a possible public advantage to quarter a few shiploads of them in the American colonies, to be employed in making pitch and tar for the naval stores, and therefore a proclamation was issued offering free passage to such as might wish to cross the Atlantic. At that moment Hunter was about to embark for New York, and was intrusted with the charge of three thou- sand, who had pushed forward for transportation. The government en- tered into a contract to settle them upon lands which they might agree to pay for in labor after a certain time, and to provide them with present necessaries, such as houses, and household and working utensils.
Hunter had scarcely reached New York ere he was compelled to hasten to Albany to confer with the sachems of the Five Nations. He took the opportunity to prospect along the Hudson River for a suitable location for the German colony, and finally purchased about six thousand acres of land of Robert Livingston from the manor property, and adjacent to some
1 Rip Van Dam was born in Albany. Coll. R. D. Ch. Records. He married Sarah Vander- spiegle, in the city of New York, on the 14th day of September, 1684. The baptisms of fifteen children are recorded in the Dutch Church between the years 1685 and 1707. Many of this large family lived to years of maturity. Rip, an elder son, married Judith Bayard. Richard married Cornelia Beekman. Isaac, who was baptized in the Dutch Church of New York, on January 9, 1704, was one of the executors of his father's will ; he had six children, the eldest of whom, Anthony, figured among the prominent merchants of New York for many years. Chamber of Commerce Records, by John Austin Stevens. Of the daughters of Rip Van Dam, Maria married Nicholas Parcel ; Elizabeth married, first, John Sybrant, second, Jacobus Kiersted ; and Catalytic married Walter Thong, and their daughter Mary became the wife of Robert, third Lord of Livingston Manor
485
LIVINGSTON MANOR.
pine forests. The Germans were soon upon the spot, and, sheltered by cheap and hastily constructed dwellings, huddled together in five distinct villages. Others came after them, many proceeding to Pennsylvania, where they laid the foundation of the German population which is so large an ele- ment in that State. These earlier German emigrants were mostly hewers of wood and drawers of water, differing materially from the class of Ger- mans who have since come among us, and bearing about the same rela- tion to the English and Dutch and French settlers of their time, as the Chinese of to-day to the American population of the Pacific coast of the United States.
Presently a change in the English Ministry turned the affairs of these war-worn and poverty-stricken emigrants into hopeless confusion. The new Lords endeavored to render every measure of their predecessors un- popular. They raised a terrific howl about the importation of foreigners to their American colonies, and declared that the giving of them employ- ment was going to endanger the Church. They attacked the legality of the agreement which the government had entered into with the Germans. Hunter soon found his drafts dishonored, and himself personally liable for the expenses of the German colony. It checked him in the carrying. out of many plans for their comfort and prosperity, yet he stood bravely by them to the extent of his power. They were sore and discomfited. They grumbled about their land, and said it was unfit for cultivation. Some of them defiantly appropriated other tracts than what had been assigned to them. They quarreled with the overseer whom Hunter had appointed. They clamored for more seed for their gardens, for more bread, beer, beef, hoes, and grubbing-hooks, and were lazy, and disinclined to prepare trees. for the manufacture of pitch and tar. Hunter explained to them his em- barrassments and his inability to control the English purse. They did not believe him, or, if they did, they refused to be comforted. He en- listed as many of them as practicable for the expedition about to be sent to Canada, and when that proved a failure, allowed them to keep their arms. This last act of consideration he soon, however, had occasion to regret.
He was returning from Albany, after one of his many interviews with the Indian sachems, and stopped for a few days, as was his custom when going up and down the river, at Livingston Manor. This beautiful place was even then the seat of a broad and elegant hospitality. The most refined and cultivated people of the country resorted there for visits, which were often prolonged for weeks ; and every distinguished foreigner who landed upon our shores was sure to be welcomed in his own home by the lord of the manor, who had lost none of the courtliness of his
486
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
younger years, and at seventy-six carried himself as proudly erect as at forty-five. He had always been courted, notwithstanding his political per- versity, and never appeared to better advantage than when entertaining a house full of agreeable guests. His wife had grown more delicately fair and beautiful under the snows of her many winters, and presided over the establishment with queenly dignity, still charming every one by her conversation and winning all hearts by her sweetness of temper. Their children were well bred and highly educated. Philip, who afterwards succeeded his father as lord of the manor, was then about twenty-five. Robert Livingston had not yet retired from public life. He was still sec- retary of Indian affairs, although Philip often acted as his deputy, and was actively interested in all that concerned the welfare of the province. His jurisdiction as magistrate extended over the entire country between the manor and Albany. Application had been made to him on the very day Hunter reached the manor, by one of the German clergymen, for the dissolution of two unhappy marriages at the German Flats, - as the Ger- man settlement was called. Livingston declined to interfere on the ground that Dirck Van Wessells Ten Broeck had just been appointed magistrate over the district to the south.
The manor-house was brilliantly lighted on the evening of the govern- or's arrival. As the family, with their distinguished guest, were quietly dining, a party of Germans appeared at the great east door and asked to see " His Excellency." Hunter at once granted the request, but the in- terview was neither agreeable nor profitable. The visitors came with cloudy visages and covert threats to announce their intention of removing to "the Schoharie country," which they declared had been promised them in the queen's contract, and at the same time demanded money from the government to effect their purpose. They had already hindered the government surveyors from laying out any more lots where they were at present located, and had organized an association, with the avowed determination of compelling acquiescence to their wishes. Even during the conversation on the manor-house balcony a party of armed Germans were hanging about on the borders of a thicket near by. Hunter adroitly postponed a final settlement with them for two days. In the mean time he sent an express privately to Albany, forty miles distant, with orders for two independent companies of troops to come directly to his relief by water. They arrived in the night, and were landed with great secrecy, and kept close under the bank of the river out of sight. By appoint- ment, Hunter met the German delegation at a little house on the shore, early the following morning. The latter were ill-mannered and would not listen to anything he had to say. He raised his voice and with much
487
COLDNESS AND SUSPICION.
decision told them what he should and what he should not do. One of the Germans began to bluster, and use profane and threatening language ; a signal at that moment brought the concealed soldiers briskly in front of the building with drums beating. Such an unexpected apparition so terrified the rude fellows, who had been plotting to seize the governor, that they retreated in great confusion to their villages. The soldiers followed them and took their arms away from them altogether. The salutary lesson restored order for a time, and the work of making pitch and tar once more commenced; but the German colony never ceased to be a thorn in Hunter's flesh.
The meeting of the Assembly occurred soon after Hunter's return to New York. He went before the House, and cordially admonished its members "to do away with unchristian division." Said he, "Let every man begin at home, and weed the rancor out of his own mind ; leave disputes of property to the laws, and injury to the avenger of them, and like good subjects and good Christians, join hearts and hands for the common good." But this Assembly, like many another before and after it, was cold and suspicious, and backward about raising the necessary allowances for the government. The excuse was the former misapplica- tion of the revenue, which had involved the country in debt ; and a little later, the poverty of the people was pleaded, which had been caused by the tax to defray the expenses of the late expedition to Canada. Some of the members openly denied the right of the queen to appoint salaries for her colonial officers. No one made more forcible arguments to that point than Stephen De Lancey, whose ideas had been molded by Euro- pean experiences. William Nicolls, the speaker of the House, lawyer- like and self-contained, favored the growing feeling that there should be a restraint upon the governor's prerogative. The support which was cautiously and after labored discussions granted to Hunter was on terms which he could not accept without breach of his instructions.
Levis Morris
Autograph of Lewis Morris.
In New Jersey Hunter found a warm admirer and friend in Lewis Morris. The acquaintance had begun in England some months before. But the gentlemen in the council whom Morris had so violently opposed
488
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
during Cornbury's administration set themselves like steel against both Morris and Hunter, until the latter was obliged to ask the Lords of Trade for the dismissal of Pinhorne, Coxe, Sonmans, and Hall. The New Jer- sey Assembly sustained him in this particular by declaring, in a memorial, that so long as these gentlemen remained in places of trust in the prov- ince justice could not be duly administered, nor liberty and property safe. Hunter about this time purchased a house in Amboy, on the knoll south of St. Peter's Church. 1 It commanded a fine view of the harbor, and of the bay and ocean beyond, and was his official residence while on his tours of duty in New Jersey; and it was where he often retired during the heat of summer, and on other occasions when desirous of recreation or relief from the weighty cares of state. He wrote to Dean Swift :-
" I thought in coming to this government I should have hot meals, and cool drinks, and recreate my body in Holland sheets, upon beds of down; whereas I am doing penance as if I was a hermit ; and as I cannot do that with a will, believe in the long run the devil will fly away with me. Sancho Panza was indeed but a type of me, as I could fully convince you, by an exact parallel between our administrations and circumstances. . . . . The truth is, I am used like a dog, after having done all that is in the power of man to deserve better treatment, so that I am now quite jaded."
Hunter's pecuniary embarrassments were of the most vexatious kind. He had stripped himself for the government, and could not even com- mand a salary. In a letter to Swift under date of March 14, 1713, he wrote : -
"This is the finest air to live upon in the universe ; and if our trees and birds could speak, and our Assemblymen be silent, the finest conversation also. The soil bears all things, but not for me. According to the custom of the coun- try the sachems are the poorest of the people. In a word, and to be serious, I have spent my time thus far here in such torment and vexation, that nothing hereafter in life can ever make amends for it."
Another serious difficulty arose out of his not being a High-Churchman. The Church had become the political engine of the ministerial faction, and when Coxe and Sonmans found themselves relieved from legislative power, they set themselves vigorously at work to enlist the clergy and
1 In addition to his property at Amboy, Hunter purchased Mattenecunk Island in the Dela- ware, near Burlington, and retained possession of it for some years after he left the province. In June, 1731, James Alexander wrote to Hunter that Governor Montgomery was so much delighted with this island, that he got vistas cut from it in various directions up and down the river for the agreeable prospects thus afforded. - Whitehead's East New Jersey, 154.
489
CITY CHARTER.
the missionaries in a plan to undermine the authority and compel the recall of Hunter, and obtain the appointment of the good Churchman, Nicholson, in his place. They informed the Ministry that Hunter was the protector of dissenters and Quakers, and the upholder of men of low and depraved tastes. They said many other things which it was sup- posed would be damaging to him at the Court of England. But Hunter's frank and manly answer to the accusations, appealing to the evidence of all sober men, clergy or laity, for a testimony to his straightforward con- duct in relation to the furtherance of Christianity, restored the confidence of the Lords of Trade, which it must be confessed was for a time shaken. Hunter was excessively annoyed, as appears from his letters, but he bore himself with consistent dignity, and never seemed to suffer any dejection of spirits. He was an indefatigable worker; his days were divided for each duty with arithmetical precision. When hardest pressed for money, he was usually in his wittiest moods, and often jocosely remarked that he expected to die in a jail. In his leisure moments one winter, assisted by the facetious Morris, he composed a farce, called " Androborus," - The Man-Eater, - in which the clergy, Nicholson, and the Assembly were so humorously exposed, that the laugh turned upon them in all circles. From the merriment thus provoked grew a better liking for and a more generous appreciation of the governor himself.
Jacobus Van Cortlandt was the mayor of New York in 1710, as was he also in 1719. The city had grown very little since the commence- ment of the century. The city government, like the provincial, was em- barrassed in its finances. It went beyond its resources when the City Hall was built on Wall Street. The corporation revenue failed to meet loans and expenses, and an annual levy was the last resort. In 1703, £ 300 was raised, which was less than one third of one per cent on the value of estates. The citizens grumbled, and in 1704 the amount was reduced to £ 200, which did not abate the dissatisfaction. Various expe- dients were proposed to add to the revenue of the corporation for absolute necessities. Finally, an appeal was made to the general government for further ferry privileges, which resulted in the charter of 1708. To the city's former franchises was added the grant of land between high and low water along the East River (on the Long Island side from Wallabout to Red Hook) to prevent competition on the part of unlicensed ferrymen. The advantage of additional city ferries soon became apparent. The fol- lowing table of income and expenditure in 1710 will interest such of our readers as may wish to compare it with the present financial structure and the sums involved : -
31
490
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Annual Income of New York City in 1710.
Annual Expenditure. 1710.
£
S
d.
Rent of Ferry .
180
0
0
0
0
" " Swamp
1
0
0
" " Land to Codrington 1 0 0
Rec'd from 68 Licenses 51 19 6
66 66 15 Freedoms 10
2
0
66
66 The Pound
2
0
0
66 Fines & Forfeitures 5
0
0
Bonfires on Nov. 5th & Feb. 6th & March 8th & April 13th . Pens, ink & paper for Town Clerk 1
20 0 0
4 Guagers & Packers & Cullers 3 12 0
66 66 Lease to Mr. Van
Evern
1 12
0 Books for Records 2
0
0
Repairs on City Hall and jails
50
0
0
Repairs on Ferry House
40
0
0
66
66 Lease to Van Orden
12
0
66
Lease to J. Anderson
1
0
0
Incidental Expenses
42
0
0
66
66 Lease to John Boss
12
0
Cage, Pillory & Stocks
10
0
0
Repairing the Sewer
10
0
0
66
Lease to Ryer Hanse
12
0
Total 294 7 6
Total 277
4 0
The importation of negroes was perhaps more lucrative at this date, than any other species of commerce. Buyers and sellers desired some special place of rendezvous, hence a slave-mart was erected at the foot of Wall Street. Considerable trade was carried on in clams, the Indians in the distant inland territories reckoning them among their best dishes. When they inhabited the coasts they caught them themselves; now they were only too glad to buy them of the Dutch and English.
An English writer, speaking of New York in 1710, said : -
" There is a kind of frog which lives there during the summer, and which is very clamorous in the evening, and in the night, especially when the days have been hot and rain expected. They quite drown the singing of birds, and fre- quently make such a noise that it is difficult for a person to be heard in con- versation."
And the same writer goes on to introduce to our notice the mos- quito : --
" The New York people are greatly troubled with a little insect which follows the hay that is made in the salt meadows, or comes home with the cows in the evening. This little animalculae can disfigure most terribly a person's face in a single night. The skin is sometimes so covered over with small blisters from their stings, that people are ashamed to appear in public."
But the most amusing part of the article, which by the way appeared
€ S
d
Salary per annum Town Clerk . 20
0 0
" " Dock 30
66 66 Marshall . 10
0 0
5 per c. Treasurer's Commissions 20 0 0 Bellmen's Salaries 36 0 0 Lanthorns & Hour glasses 3 0 0
Fire and Candle for Constable's Watch
30 0
4 0
66 " Lease to John Van Horne . 12
0
Repairs on the Dock .
10
0
0
66
66 Lease to Tuys Boss
12
0
.
491
THE DEBT OF ENGLAND.
in a London paper of that date, was in relation to New York lobsters. We will quote the passage entire : -
" Lobsters are caught thereabouts, and after being pickled in very much the same manner as oysters, are sent to several places. I was told of a very remark- able circumstance ! The coast of New York had European inhabitants for a long time, and yet no lobsters were to be found there. The people fished for them, but never a sign of one could they find in that part of the sea. They were brought in great well-boats from New England, where they were plentiful. But it so happened that one of these lobster-laden well-boats struck a rock and broke into pieces near Hell-gate, about ten miles from New York, and all the lobsters in it got off. Ever since then there has been a great abundance of them in the waters about the metropolis."
The statesmen of the mother country were very much astonished at the importance which their colonies had begun to assume. Hunter's letters revealed the spirit of self-sufficiency which was pervading New York. It was time to look into affairs, if Colonial Assemblies dared set bounds to the royal prerogative. Hitherto the supreme power of the home government had seemed in accordance with justice and with pol- icy. Indeed, nothing less would have kept the life-blood of the feeble infant in circulation. But as the child grew in strength and stature the fetters should have been loosened. No sensible parent deals with a son of fifteen in the same manner as with a son of five. It was folly to treat such a province as New York, in the early part of the eighteenth century, as it might have been proper to treat a little band of emigrants who had just built their huts on a barbarous shore, and to whom the protection of the flag of a great nation was an indispensable necessity.
England was already in debt, and the English mind was speculating upon the emoluments to be reaped from the colonies. The right of Par- liament to tax at discretion was not yet maintained, but the way to it was being paved through illiberal legislation. The nation was compara- tively free from pecuniary obligations when William III. ascended the throne. The war with France which followed was expensive. It was found impossible, without exciting the most formidable discontents, to raise by taxation the money needful for its continuance ; and at that very.moment numerous capitalists were looking around them in vain for some good mode of investing their savings. They had hitherto kept their wealth locked up, or lavished it upon absurd projects. Riches sufficient to equip a navy which would sweep the entire Atlantic of French priva- teers, was lying idle, or passing from the owners into the hands of sharp- ers. No wonder that the statesmen of the realm thought it might with
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