USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 56
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Rufus King was described by Brissot de Warville as thirty-three, and passing "for the most eloquent man in the United States," but so modest that "he appeared ignorant of his own worth." His young bride was remarkable for personal beauty - face oval, with a clear, brunette com- plexion, delicately formed features, expressive blue eyes, black hair, and exquisite teeth; "her motions were all grace, her bearing gracious, her voice musical, and her education exceptional." They resided with her father, John Alsop, near the corner of Maiden Lane and William Street. Colonel William and Lady Kitty Duer had taken up their abode in Broadway, nearly opposite St. Paul's Chapel. The latter, and her sister, Lady Mary Watts, often assisted their cousin, Mrs. Jay, in receiving
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guests. Kitty Livingston, Mrs. Jay's sister, was married in April of this year to Matthew Ridley, of Baltimore; Susan, the elder sister, having married John Cleve Symmes, a member of Congress, was residing in New York; two younger sisters were also in society, although their home was still at "Liberty Hall," in Elizabeth. The governor, in apologizing to a friend in March for his penmanship, said : "My principal secretary of state, who is one of my daughters, has gone to New York to shake her heels at the balls and assemblages of a metropolis, which might better be more studious of paying its taxes, than of instituting expensive diversions."
General Matthew Clarkson had recently married Mary, the daughter of Walter Rutherford. The young and pretty wife of Richard Varick was the daughter of Isaac and Cornelia Hoffman Roosevelt ; and her sister Cornelia had, within a year, married Dr. Benjamin Kissam, the recently appointed Professor of the Institute of Medicine in Columbia College. Mrs. James Beekman presided once more over her beautiful home on the East River, which had so long been occupied by British celeb- rities.1 Upon the return of the Beekman family from their seven years' exile, costly treasures in the way of silver and china ware which they buried under the greenhouse before their departure were exhumed uninjured.2 Two exquisite statuettes in rare old Chelsea, thus preserved in the earth, and numerous pieces of ancestral table-ware-gems of beauty - are in possession of the descendants. Mrs. Beekman had the genius to aid her husband in book-keeping while he was striving to retrieve his impaired fortunes ; and she sustained her part in the social kingdom of the capi- tal with distinguished effect.
Nearly all the clerical characters of the period were men of profound learning. They mingled with the youth and beauty of the capital at official dinners and at private parties. Bishop Provost was deeply versed in classical lore, in ecclesiastical history, and in the natural and physical sciences. He conversed with ease and pleasantry, and was ever a wel- come guest, as was also Mrs. Provost.3 Governor George Clinton occu- pied the mansion of Henry White, in Pearl Street, property sold under the confiscation act in 1786; the same year Mr. White died in Golden Square, London. His widow, Eve Van Cortlandt White, resided with her
1 See sketch of Beekman mansion, Vol. I. 569 ; Mrs. Beekman, I. 759, II. 188.
2 This greenhouse was the first upon Manhattan Island. Lemon-trees bore fruit under- neath its roof of glass before the war ; in the summer of 1776 Washington and his staff were treated to lemonade made from lemons picked from the trees in their presence.
8 Rev. Samuel Provost, Bishop of New York from 1786 to 1801, consecrated at Lambeth, England, was the son of John Provost and Eve, daughter of Harmanus Rutgers, and grandson of Samuel Provost and Maria Sprat, granddaughter of the first De Peyster in New York. He was born March 11, 1742, and died September 6, 1815. - Haldane's Ms. Gen. Coll.
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daughters, conspicuous belles in New York society, at 11 Broadway, the homestead inherited from her father, until her death in 1836. She was a lady of great wealth. The Bayards and the Ludlows remained in the city ; also many other loyalist families. The Misses Bayard were among the New York social beauties mentioned by a French writer.
Dr. John Charlton, an English surgeon who had been much at the court of George III., coming to New York with the British army, married Mary De Peyster, daughter of Treasurer Abraham and Margaret Van Cortlandt De Peyster, and settled in the city ; he was a short, stout man of florid complexion, fond of riding on horseback, and practised medicine principally among his family connections. The oldest and most eminent physician of the time was Dr. John Bard, one of the founders of the New York Hospital. He was seventy-three, a Huguenot by descent, and noted for his skill and learning scarcely less than for his extreme urbanity of manner. He usually wore a red coat and a cocked hat, and carried a gold-headed cane ; he drove about the city in a low pony phaeton, accom- panied by a faithful negro almost as venerable as himself. Frank Van Berckel, the son of the Dutch Minister, drove in a high phaeton, and a caricature print was issued representing the aged doctor in his little vehicle, passing under the body and between the wheels of the gay young Dutchman's elevated equipage without touching. It is said no one relished the humor of the illustration more than Dr. Bard himself. In 1788 he became the first president of the New York Medical Society. His son, Dr. Samuel Bard, who studied medicine in Edinburgh, and married his cousin, Mary Bard, organized the first medical school in con- nection with Kings College, and took the chair of physic in 1769, subse- quently becoming dean of the faculty. He succeeded to his father's practice, and when Washington was inaugurated President, became his family physician ; and he attained greater eminence than any of his predecessors. Dr. John Cochrane stood next to Dr. Bard in seniority, having achieved so high a reputation during the war that he enjoyed a wide patronage among the citizens of New York City. His home in Broadway was the hospitable centre of a large circle of Schuyler and Livingston relatives, and it was where the prominent generals of the army were entertained in the most princely manner. Dr. Thomas Jones, a man of fortune who had married a Livingston, was perhaps more eminent as a politician than physician, but in either field was distinguished as a scholar and a gentleman. He was a brother of Dr. John Jones of Phila- delphia .. . Dr. Kissam and Dr. McKnight both held professorships in the college, as before mentioned; the latter was the best surgeon of his day. besides. having an extensive family practice.
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The City Hospital, between Duane and Anthony Streets, upon the west side of Broadway, which had been projected before the war, and the edifice completed in time to be converted into a barrack for the reception of troops in 1776, stood unrepaired, and unused for the purposes of a hospital, until January 3, 1791, when it was opened for the admission of eighteen patients, and began its great work. The accompanying sketch illustrates its appearance about the beginning of the present century. The Society of Governors, established in 1771, meanwhile, simply pre- served its corporate existence by holding annual elections ; in the sum- mer of 1785, some destitute Scotch emigrants were allowed to use the vacant building as a place of shelter for a few weeks; the following win- ter Dr. Richard Bailey obtained permission to occupy one or two rooms
J.S.FOY SC
The City Hospital. [From a rare old print, never before reproduced.]
for anatomical lectures. Subsequently the legislature of the State were allowed to fit up some rooms for their accommodation during a particular session. The next year Dr. Bailey operated upon a patient in one of the rooms he had used for his lectures, and finding him unfit to be removed, was allowed to attend him there until he recovered.
Suddenly the doctors and their anatomies came to grief. The public mind had been startled during the winter by rumors that dead bodies had been stolen by the medical students from the different cemeteries of the city. On Sunday morning, April 13, 1788, some meddling boys playing about the building were impelled to climb a ladder, which had been left resting against one of the walls by a workman the day before, and peeped through the window to see what was going on within. A
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young surgeon, busy upon a subject in the dissecting-room, greeted the foremost inquisitive youngster with the flourish of an arm - not his own - and the boy fled with the news to his father, a mason, who repeated the story to his comrades, and, seizing such tools of their trade as would best serve them as weapons, they started in a body for the hospital. Their force increased as they advanced, and the whole city was in a wild tumult. The hospital was surrounded, the doors burst in, several subjects were discovered, and a collection of anatomical specimens destroyed. The doctors took refuge in the jail, where they were with difficulty protected by the hastily summoned militia. The mob swore vengeance upon all the doctors of the city, and started for the house of Dr. Cochrane, which they ransacked from cellar to garret in search of subjects. They omitted to open the scuttle and look out upon the roof, or they would have dis- covered Dr. Hicks, of whom they were in hot pursuit, snugly hiding be- hind the chimney. In the height of the frenzy they passed the house of Sir John Temple, and mistaking the name of Sir John for " surgeon," attacked it furiously, and were just barely restrained from leveling it with the ground.
As night approached the ranks of the rioters were thinned, and it was hoped the trouble had ended. But small bands patrolled the streets, and in the morning the mob was greater than ever, having been joined by sailors from vessels in the harbor; and it proceeded at once to storm the jail, breaking the windows, tearing down the fences, and threatening to drag the doctors out and hang them. Governor Clinton, Mayor Duane, Secretary Jay, Baron Steuben, Hamilton, and other prominent citizens endeavored to appease the popular fury, but in vain. Jay, in driving to the scene, was severely wounded in the head from a stone thrown through the glass of his chariot. The mayor hesitated to give the order to fire upon the mob ; Baron Steuben, in the benevolence of his heart, was re- monstrating with the governor against attempting to quell the riot with fire-arms, when he was hit in the forehead with a brick-bat, and fell bleeding to the pavement, crying loudly, "Fire, governor, fire !" The sol- diers did fire, and five persons were killed and seven or eight badly wounded ; upon which the crowd fled. Steuben was carried to Duer's house, and there being no surgeon at hand, and none daring to show themselves, Lady Kitty stanched his wound and bound up his head.
The site of the hospital was a five-acre lot purchased from the Rutgers estate. The marshes in the region of Chatham Square caused so much fever and ague, that it is said Rutgers at one time prayed the king for a better title to his property, that he might sell it to somebody willing to make drains, " because the inhabitants lost one third of their time by
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sickness." There were but few houses as yet above that of William Ax- tell, which, being sold under the confiscation act about this time, became the residence of Lewis Allaire Scott, son of John Morin Scott, who was secretary of the state of New York for a considerable period.1 Near Hanover Square were several fine old mansions ; that of Gerard W. Beekman had been occupied in 1782 by Admiral Digby, who entertained Prince William Henry, afterwards William IV. of England. Andrew Hamersley's residence was nearly opposite, all the appointments of which were in a style of costly elegance. The homes of the Gouverneurs, the Hoffmans, the Van Hornes, and the Clarksons were in that immediate vicinity. Gerardus Duyckinck, proprietor of the "Universal Store " whose advertisements and display of wares were the most curious and unique of the period, lived on Pearl Street ; he married the daughter of Dr. Henry Livingston. Samuel Hake, claimant to the title of Lord Hake, a wealthy importer who had remained in New York during the war, built a house a little out of the city, on the Bowery Road; his wife was the daughter of Robert Gilbert Livingston, and their daughter married Frederic, eldest son of James and Sarah Reade De Peyster. General John Lamb established his residence in Wall Street when he returned from the wars. Shortly after his election to the Assembly he was appointed Collector of the Port, the emoluments of which office, together with the results of investing his depreciated debt certificates in forfeited lands, as a speculation, rendered him comfortably opulent. He was of a kind, benevolent nature, and opened his doors hospitably to every soldier of the Revolution, whatever his rank. But no acts or argu- ments could modify his inflexible antipathy to the loyalists. He blamed them indiscriminately for the course they had taken in the Revolution, and said they deserved punishment. He was as positive as he was hon- est in his convictions ; but reasoning from arbitrary premises he followed rigidly a single line of thought, like a railway in its grooves, and fearful of the revival of aristocratic influences, became the determined opposer of every movement towards the union of the States in empire under a specific constitution.
Foremost on this plane stood Governor George Clinton, whose long and faithful services at the helm of affairs had given him a strong hold upon the affections of the people of New York. He had made his mark,
1 See page 207 (Vol. II.) for sketch of the Rutherford and Axtell houses, upon the corner of Vesey Street, where the Astor House now stands, which together formed a uniform build- ing of brick. Mrs. Axtell was a beautiful woman, the sister of James De Peyster, and of Mrs. Dr. Charlton and Mrs. Clarkson ; her portrait, by Copley, is preserved in the De Peyster family of the present generation.
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and his clear, logical brain and great decision of character inspired con- fidence in his political judgment ; he possessed, moreover, the power of distributing the patronage of the government. He was ably supported by John Lansing, Robert Yates, Melancthon Smith, and other men of importance, and the State rights party thus represented was largely in the majority.
Meanwhile General Philip Schuyler, with magnanimity similar to that which characterized his treatment of the conquered Burgoyne in 1777, was striving for the restoration of the loyalists to full citizenship. Ham- ilton was his son-in-law, and, having recently acquired special influence through the operations of the bank established under his auspices, was elected, in spite of the strength and magnitude of the opposition, to the Assembly of 1787. He at once attacked the vexed subject of the con- tinued exclusion of the loyalists from participation in the elections, and with such bold strokes - lessons which touch the American heart more deeply than the most stirring memories of Greece and Rome -that on the last day of January he secured the passage of a bill repealing the disfranchising act, which, aided by the efforts of Schuyler, was carried through the Senate on the 3d of February. But an attempt to surrender the control of the imposts to Congress was a total failure. New York was conscious of her prospective importance, and resisted every encroach- ment upon her sovereignty. Jealousy of the national scheme took pos- session of the New York soul, and fear of an elective despotism sharpened her sagacious vision. In connection with Schuyler and Hamilton the leading spirits who looked beyond the special interests of the State to a more positive union on some definite grounds were Secretary Jay, Chan- cellor Livingston, and the Van Rensselears. They spent the month of February in striving for the assent of the Legislature to the appointment of delegates to the Convention. This bill was carried March 6, notwith- standing the Federal party was in what seemed a hopeless minority. But of the three delegates chosen, John Lansing and Robert Yates were nota- bly of the governor's mind, and although Hamilton was the third choice, the anti-Federalists thought they could safely trust the interests of New York to a delegation of which the majority were in favor of preserving her individual powers, and whose action was confined specifically by a legisla- tive resolution to the business of amending the Articles of Confederation, instead of creating a new Constitution.
New York little dreamed that the boldness, energy, acute sense, and well-balanced intellect of the youthful Hamilton was to overbear by eloquence, interpret essential needs by illustration, usurp powers with imperious will, and then convince by argument a large proportion of her
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population that he was in the right, and finally compel a public recogni- tion and justification of the wisdom of his conduct. But such were the facts, as the reader will soon learn. The whole story reads like fiction.
The character and genius of Hamilton furnish a never-failing source of food for captivating study.1 He was not yet thirty, and almost as boyish- looking as when he was the confidential companion of Washington. There was, perhaps, more gravity resting upon his expressive countenance at times, but intelligent vivacity predominated. He was frank, amiable, and high-bred, and attracted his friends irresistibly ; while his enemies both hated and stood in awe of him. He had a mind of immense grasp, and could endure more unremitted and intense labor than any other man in New York. His thought flashed forth like a calcium light, illuminat- ing the broad scene, and placing him in the front rank of artists in government-making. He had been ripening for his work through patient. attention to facts and a grand generalization of their subtle principles, until he could see into consequences yet dormant in ideas. His growth in the science of practical statesmanship had been pushed to its full stature by the forces of that remarkable age; and his versatility and creative gifts had been sharpened by the peculiar social and political conditions of the community in which his lot was cast. He was never fully up to the tide of popular sympathy in all things, or responsive to its
1 The following letter, never before published, written by Hamilton to Miss Schuyler three weeks before their marriage - dated October 13, 1780 - will be read with interest by every student of Hamilton's career. The original copy is treasured by one of the family, through whose courtesy the author has been permitted to make this copy : -
" I would not have you imagine Miss that I write to you so often either to gratify your wishes or to please your vanity ; but merely to indulge myself and to comply with that rest- less propensity of my mind, which will not allow me to be happy when I am not doing some- thing in which you are concerned. This may seem a very idle disposition in a philosopher and a soldier ; but I can plead illustrious examples in my justification. Achilles had like to have sacrificed Greece and his glory to his passion for a female captive ; and Anthony lost the world for a woman. I am sorry the times are so changed as to oblige me to summon antiquity for my apology, but I confess, to the disgrace of the present age, that I have not been able to find many who are as far gone as myself in suchi laudable zeal for the fair sex. I suspect, however, if others knew the charms of my sweetheart as well as I do, I should have a great number of competitors - I wish I could give you an idea of her - you have no conception how sweet a girl she is -it is only in my heart that her image is truly drawn. She has a lovely form and a mind still more lovely ; she is all goodness, the gentlest, the dearest, the tenderest of her sex - Ah, Betsey, how I love her !
"Two days since, I wrote to you my dear girl and sent the letter to the care of Colonel Morris : there was with it a bundle to your mamma, directed to your father, containing a cloak which Miss Livingston sent to my care. I enclosed you in that letter, the copy of a long one to my friend Laurens with an account of Arnold's affair. I mention this for fear of a miscarriage as usual.
" Well, my love, here is the middle of October ; a few weeks more and you are mine ; a
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pulse-beat; but he could give more point to a discussion than any one of his contemporaries, and he was unsurpassed in the electricity of his make.
The Convention assembled at Philadelphia in May. Congress had regarded the movement with coldness, questioning its constitu- 1787. tionality until aroused by the alarming condition of affairs in May. Massachusetts. A riotous insurrection, caused by public and private debts, scarcity of money, and decline of trade during the autumn of 1786 and winter following, threatened the whole country with anarchy and ruin. The people, imbued with wild notions of liberty, headed by Daniel Shays, resisted the payment of obligations and taxes, and obliged the courts of law to adjourn. The rebellion extended into New Hampshire, where the legislature convened at Exeter was besieged, and imprisoned for several hours, the object of the insurgents being to force an issue of paper money agreeably to a petition signed by thirty towns which had not been granted. "I am mortified beyond expression," wrote Washington to Henry Lee in Congress, "at such a melancholy verification of what our transatlantic foes have predicted, and of another thing more to be re- gretted, that mankind when left to themselves are unfit for their own government." This pressure for reform in the general governing system was finally made effective through the action of the New York Legislature,
sweet reflection to me -is it so to my charmer ? Do you find yourself more or less anxious for the moment to arrive as it approaches ? This is a good criterion to determine the degree of your affection by. You have had an age for consideration, time enough for even a woman to know her mind in. Do you begin to repent or not ? Remember you are going to do a very serious thing. For though our sex have generously given up a part of its prerogatives, and husbands have no longer the power of life and death, as the wiser husbands of former days had, yet we still retain the power of happiness and misery ; and if you are prudent you will not trust the felicity of your future life to one in whom you have not good reason for implicit confidence. I give you warning - don't blame me if you make an injudicious choice - and if you should be disposed to retract, don't give me the trouble of a journey to Albany, and then do as did a certain lady I have mentioned to you, find out the day before we are to be married that you ' can't like the man' ; but of all things I pray you don't make the discovery afterwards - for this would be worse than all. But I do not apprehend its being the case. I think we know each other well enough to understand each other's feelings, and to be sure our affection will not only last but be progressive.
" I stopped to read over my letter - it is a motley mixture of fond extravagance and sprightly dullness ; the truth is I am too much in love to be either reasonable or witty ; I feel in the extreme ; and when I attempt to speak of my feelings I rave. I have remarked to you before that real tenderness has always a tincture of sadness, and when I affect the lively my melting heart rebels. It is separated from you and it cannot be cheerful. Love is a sort of insanity and every thing I write savors strongly of it; that you return it is the best proof of your madness also.
"I tell you, my Betsey, you are negligent ; you do not write to me often enough. Take more care of my happiness, for there is nothing your Hamilton would not do to promote yours."
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which instructed her delegates in Congress to move for an act to sanction a revision or change; thus Congress advised the States to confer power upon a convention, which should comprehend the highest civil talent of the country - representing every interest, and every part of the Union.
The members numbered fifty-five. Washington, the heart and hand of America, towards whom all eyes turned in dire emergencies, came from Mount Vernon, and, with his usual punctilious observance of eti- quette, paid an immediate visit to the President of Pennsylvania, Dr. Franklin. The philosopher was in his eighty-second year, but his health had improved since his return from France, and he attended the Con- vention regularly, five hours a day, for more than four months. Robert Morris, whose personal credit had proved such a valuable element in securing independence, George Read, a signer of the Declaration, Edmund Randolph, the governor of Virginia, and Gouverneur Morris, who had resided in Philadelphia since the termination of his service as Assistant Financier, were conspicuous delegates. New Jersey sent Governor Wil- liam Livingston, one of the most forcible and elegant writers, and prob- ably the best classical scholar in the assemblage. The reader has known him best as a soldier and a statesmen, but he had great tact and talent as an essayist, his satirical powers were unrivaled, he was a poet of no mean ability, and his literary taste was singularly refined for the day.
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