USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 58
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The metropolis had grown restless while waiting for the action of the Convention, and on Monday, three days before the great event just recorded, proceeded to carry out the plan of an imposing celebra- July 23. tion, matured by a committee, and arranged under the special supervision of Major L'Enfant. It was thought that an exhibition of the popular feeling would materially influence the obstinate body at Poughkeepsie, and bring matters to a crisis. The morning was ushered in by a salute of thirteen guns from the Federal ship Hamilton, moored off the Bowling Green. This vessel had been built for the occasion and presented by the ship-carpenters. It was equipped as a frigate of thirty-two guns, twenty- seven feet keel and ten beam, with everything complete in proportion, both in hull and rigging, and was manned with upwards of thirty sailors, and a full complement of officers, under command of the veteran Commo-
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dore James Nicholson. It was drawn through the streets by ten beautiful horses.
The procession was formed upon a scale of vast magnitude, and it being the first of the kind in New York -or in America - which nothing since has excelled in magnificence of design or splendor of effect, a brief outline of its principal features will vividly illustrate the spirit of the age. It was marshaled in ten divisions, in honor of the ten States that had already acceded to the Constitution. The Grand Marshal was Colonel Richard Platt. His associate officers were Morgan Lewis, Nicholas Fish, Aquila Giles, James Fairlie, William Popham, and Abijah Hammond.
First came an escort of light-horse preceded by trumpeters and a body of artillery with a field-piece. Then foresters with axes, preceding and following Christopher Columbus, on horseback. Farmers came next, Nich- olas Cruger, in farmer's costume, conducting a plow drawn by three yoke of oxen. John Watts, also in farmer's dress, guided a harrow drawn by oxen and horses, followed by a number of gentlemen farmers carrying implements of husbandry. A newly invented threshing-machine was manipulated by Baron Pollnitz and other gentleman farmers in farmers' garb, grinding and threshing grain as they passed along. Mounted upon a fine gray horse, elegantly caparisoned, and led by two colored men in white Oriental dresses and turbans, Anthony Walton White bore the arms of the United States in sculpture, preceding the Society of the Cincinnati in full military uniform. Gardeners followed in green aprons, with the tools of their trade; and then the tailors, attended by a band of music, making a brilliant display. The measurers of grain were headed by James Van Dyke, their banner representing the measures used in their business, with the lines: -
" Federal measures, and measures true, Shall measure out justice to us and to you."
The bakers were headed by John Quackenboss and Frederick Stymetz. Ten apprentices, dressed in white with blue sashes, each carrying a large rose, decorated with ribbons, and ten journeymen in like costume, carry- ing implements of the craft, were followed by a large square platform mounted on wheels, drawn by ten bay horses, bearing the " Federal Loaf," into which was baked a whole barrel of flour, and labeled with the names in full length of the ten States that had ratified the Constitution. Their banner represented the decline of trade under the old confederation. The brewers paraded horses and drays with hogsheads ornamented with hop-vines and barley. Upon the first, mounted on a tun of ale, was a beautiful boy of eight years, in close-fitting flesh-colored silk, representing Bacchus, with a silver goblet in his hand.
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THE FEDERAL CELEBRATION.
The second division was headed by the coopers, led by Peter Stouten- burgh. Thirteen apprentices, each thirteen years of age, dressed in white shirts and trousers, with green ribbons, on their ankles, carried kegs under their left arms. They were followed by forty-two more in white leathern aprons, with green oak branches in their hats, and white oak branches in their right hands ; upon a car drawn by four bay horses decorated with green ribbons and oak branches were coopers at work under John Post, as boss, upon an old cask, the staves of which all their skill could not keep together ; and, in apparent despair at their repeated failures, they suddenly betook themselves to the construction of a new, fine, tight, iron- bound keg, which bore the name of the "New Constitution." Butchers followed with a car drawn by four horses, each mounted by a boy dressed in white, upon which was a stall neatly furnished, and butchers and boys busily at work; it also bore a fine bullock of a thousand pounds' weight, which was presented to the committee by the butchers and roasted on the ground during the afternoon. This car was followed by one hundred of the trade in clean white aprons. The banners were carried by William Wright and John Perrin. The tanners and curriers carried a picturesque emblem with the motto, "By union we rise to splendor." The skinners, leather-breeches makers, and glovers were dressed in buckskin waistcoats, breeches, gloves, and garters - with bucks' tails in their hats. James Mott was the standard-bearer, their motto being, " Americans, encourage your own manufactures." To these William C. Thompson, the parchment manufacturer, attached himself, with a standard of parchment, inscribed, " American manufactured." The third division was happily and ingen- iously conceived, and most effective in the novelty of its display ; the cordwainers led, headed by James McCready, bearing a flag with the arms of the craft, inscribed, "Federal Cordwainers," followed by twelve masters ; then came the car of the Sons of St. Crispin, drawn by four milk-white horses with postilions in livery, upon which was a shop with ten men diligently at work ; in the rear of the main body of three hun- dred and forty workmen Anthony Bolton bore a similar flag to the one in front. The fourth division commenced with the carpenters, who numbered, altogether, upwards of two hundred ; each carried a rule in his hand, and a scale and dividers hung from his neck with a blue ribbon. The furriers attracted great attention, their leader bearing a white bear- skin ; he was followed by an Indian in native costume loaded with firs, notwithstanding it was one of the hottest days in July ; a procession of workmen, clad in fur-trimmed garments, and a horse led by an Indian in a beaver blanket with two bears sitting upon packs of furs upon his back, terminated the show, together with the unique figure of one of the prin-
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cipal men dressed in a superb scarlet blanket, wearing an elegant cap and plumes, and smoking a tomahawk pipe.
The hatters wore blue cockades and blue sashes ; they numbered about seventy. The peruke-makers and hair-dressers, forty-five in all, displayed the arms of the trade - a wig in quarters, with three razors for a crest. The artificial florists carried a white flag ornamented with flowers ; the whitesmiths, an elegant pedestal of open scroll-work supporting the arms of the trade - Vulcan's arm and hand with hammer; the cutlers wore steel breastplates and green silk aprons ; the confectioners bore Bacchus's cup in sugar, four and one half feet in circumference, and an enormous "Federal Cake." The stone-masons displayed the Temple of Fame sup- ported by thirteen pillars, ten finished and three unfinished, with the inscription : -
" The foundation is firm, the materials are good, Each pillar 's cemented with patriots' blood."
The decorations of the societies were of the greatest variety and sig- nificance, and the image of Hamilton was carried aloft on banners in every part of the procession, the Constitution in his right hand and the Confederation in his left. He had to all appearances turned the scale for the Union, and fame was indeed crowning him with well-earned and en- during laurels.
The upholsterers displayed upon a superbly carpeted car, drawn by six horses, the Federal chair of State, prepared by William Mooney, after- wards Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society, above which was a rich canopy nineteen feet high, overlaid with deep-blue satin, hung with fes- toons and fringes, gold and glitter ; on the right of the chair stood John De Grushe, representing the Goddess of Liberty, with a scroll, inscribed " Federal Constitution, 1788," and on the left was a figure in the charac- ter of Justice, blindfolded and bearing the sword and balance.
The picture of the scene will not be perfect without the bricklayers, with their motto, "In God is our trust; " the painters and glaziers, with various specimens of their handicraft ; the cabinet-makers, with a car drawn by four beautiful horses, upon which a table and a cradle were completed during the march; the chair-makers, sixty or more, with the motto upon their standard, -
" The Federal States in union bound, O'er all the world our chairs are found";
the ivory-turners and musical-instrument makers, their standard repre- senting Apollo playing on a lyre, with a border of musical instruments festooned in the manner of trophies ; the lace and fringe weavers, bearing orange colors elevated on a gilt standard, with the device of an angel
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" When opposite Bowling Green, the president and members of Congress were discovered standing upon the fort, and the Ship instantly brought to, and fired a salute of thirteen guns, followed by three cheers, which were returned by the Congressional dignitaries. " Page 325.
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THE SHIP "HAMILTON."
bearing a scroll, inscribed, "Federal Constitution," and underneath, "O, never let it perish in your hands, but piously transmit it to your chil- dren "; the paper-stainers, with standard borne by John Colles ; the civil engineers, carrying a design of a dock for building and repairing men-of- war; the shipwrights, with Noah's ark upon their banner; the blacksmiths and nailers, numbering one hundred and twenty, who began and completed an anchor upon their stage during the march, while their motto floated in the breeze, -
"Forge me strong, finish me neat, I soon shall moor a Federal fleet " ;
the ship-joiners ; the boat-builders ; the block and pump makers, with a stage upon which they made a complete pump on the route ; the sail- makers, who, in picturesque attire, with pine branches in their hats, con- structed a ship's foretopsail upon a car drawn by four horses, and sewed about fifty-six yards on a steering sail; and the riggers, to the number of forty-one, headed by Richard Clark, bearing a standard representing a ship in process of being rigged, with the motto, -
"Fit me well, and rig me neat, And join me to the Federal fleet."
But by far the most imposing part of the gorgeous pageant was the Federal ship with Hamilton's name emblazoned upon each side of it, heading the seventh division, its crew going through every nautical prep- aration and movement for storms, calms, and squalls, as it moved slowly through the streets ; when abreast Beaver Street the proper signal for a pilot brought a pilot-boat, eighteen feet long, upon a wagon drawn by a pair of horses, from its harbor to the ship's weather-quarter, and a pilot was received on board ; when opposite Bowling Green the president and members of Congress were discovered standing upon the fort, and the ship instantly brought to and fired a salute of thirteen guns, followed by three cheers, which were returned by the Congressional dignitaries ; when in front of the house of William Constable, in Pearl Street, Mrs. Edgar came to the window and presented the ship with a suit of colors ; while abreast of Old Slip, the Spanish Government vessel saluted the Hamilton with thirteen guns, which was returned with as much promptness as though actually a ship of war upon the high seas. The Marine Society followed in the wake of the pilot-boat, the president wearing a gold anchor at his left breast. The printers, book-binders, and stationers came next, preceded by Hugh Gaine and Samuel Loudon on horseback. Upon a stage drawn by four horses was a printing-press, with compositors and pressmen at work, several hundred copies of a song written by Duer being struck off and distributed among the crowd during the march.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
The eighth division consisted of three hundred cartmen in gay equip- ments ; a horse-doctor bearing a standard with a curious device ; a band of mathematical instrument makers, with banner encircled by ten stars, exhibiting a Hadley's quadrant telescope, compass, and hour-glass, with the motto, "Trade and Navigation "; a few carvers and engravers ; coach and harness makers, preceded by a stage drawn by ten black horses, with men at work; coppersmiths, with a significant standard; tin-plate work- ers, exhibiting "The Federal Tin Warehouse," raised on ten pillars, with the motto, -
" When three more pillars rise, Our union will the world surprise ";
pewterers ; gold and silver smiths ; potters ; chocolate-makers, with the device upon one side of their banner of a man with thirteen heads look- ing different ways, and upon the other ten men supporting "one presi- dential head "; tobacconists, numbering forty-five, with their arms encompassed by thirteen tobacco-plants, and each carrying a hand of tobacco with ten leaves bound closely together ; dyers dressed in various colors, their motto being, " Give glory to God"; brush-makers with a beau- tiful banner, and carrying a large brush called a Turk's head, upon staves twelve feet long; tallow-chandlers, bearing a flag with thirteen stripes, beneath which was a picture of Washington on one side, and of Hamilton on the other - anticipating the administration of the first President of the new nation - and over the arms of the trade were thirteen candles, ten burning and three not lighted; and the saddlers, harness, and whip makers, followed by a richly caparisoned horse led by a groom with an elegant whip in his hand, and ten stable-boys dressed in character.
Every class of the population participated in this remarkable pro- cession. In the ninth division marched the judges and lawyers in their robes, preceded by the sheriff and coroner; John Lawrence, John Cozine, and Robert Troup bore the new Constitution elegantly engrossed on vellum, and ten students of law followed, bearing in order the ratifi- cations of the ten States. The Philological Society, headed by its presi- dent, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, came next, the standard, with its arms, borne by William Dunlap; Noah Webster, the great American lexicographer, was in the procession. The Regents of the University, and the president, professors, and students of Columbia College, all in their academic dresses, next appeared, their banner emblematical of science. Then the Chamber of Commerce, merchants and traders, John Broome, president of the Chamber, and William Maxwell, vice-president of the Bank of New York, in a chariot, and William Laight on horseback, bearing a standard with thirteen stars about an oval field, and Mercury surrounded by em-
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THE GREAT FEDERAL BANQUET.
blems of commerce supporting the arms of the city. The tenth division embraced clergymen, physicians, scholars, gentlemen, and strangers, pre- ceded by a blue flag with the motto, " United we stand, divided we fall." In the rear of the whole was a detachment of artillery.
The spectacle furnishes a broader view of the various elements and industries, and teaches us more of the real character of the inhabitants of the city at that time than any chapter of description extant. No occasion better deserves a place in history. It was not the triumphal entry of a conqueror, with trophies of war, and captives in chains, as in the days of antiquity, but an exhibition of all the implements of the useful arts, in which the trades vied with the merchants and scholars in celebrating the victory of Hamilton for the Constitution, and in manifest- ing the rapturous attachment of an intelligent people to a powerful yet free government, which should preserve peace and concord among the States, and promote individual happiness and national glory - a gov- ernment that has had vitality enough within itself to quell one of the greatest rebellions in the civilized world; a government which, in its moment of direst peril, when its chief head had been struck down by an assassin's hand, was so perfect in its machinery that not a wheel was clogged, and which, proving itself sufficient for its continually ex- tending territory, justly commands the respect of every nation on the globe. Well might New York do honor to Hamilton by these peculiar festivities.
The city was pervaded by a singular stillness as the novel procession moved along its chief streets- watched by multitudes even to the house- tops - no sounds being heard save that of horses' hoofs, carriage-wheels, and the necessary salutes and signals. It disappeared beyond the trees and over the hills towards Canal Street and Broadway, the point where the Lutheran Church had been offered a plot of six acres, which the trus- tees decided "inexpedient to accept as a gift, since the land was not worth fencing in." The line was over a mile and a half long, and contained more than five thousand persons. A great banquet had been prepared at the Bayard country-seat near Grand Street, beneath a rus- tic pavilion temple; and the ship Hamilton clewed her topsails, and came to anchor in fine style. Tables were spread for six thousand per- sons, the president and members of Congress, and other distinguished personages, occupying one in the centre elevated a little above the others. Above their heads the pavilion terminated in a dome sur- mounted by a figure of Fame, with her trumpet proclaiming a new era, and holding a scroll, emblematic of the three great epochs of the War, " Independence, Alliance with France, and Peace." The colors of the
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
different nations who had formed treaties with the United States, and escutcheons inscribed with the names of the ten States which had rati- fied the Constitution, added greatly to the brilliancy of the scene. At four o'clock a salute of thirteen guns gave the signal for return to the city. The march occupied somewhat over an hour. At half past five the ship Hamilton anchored once more at the Bowling Green, amidst the acclamations of thousands. In the evening there was a display of fireworks under the direction of Colonel Bauman, city postmaster and commander of artillery, " whose constitutional irascibility," writes Pres- ident Duer, "was exceedingly provoked by the moon, which shone with pertinacious brilliancy, as if in mockery of his feebler lights."
On the following Saturday, about nine o'clock in the evening, news reached the city of the adoption of the Constitution by the Convention at Poughkeepsie on Thursday. The bells pealed one long, loud cry of joy, and from the fort and the Federal ship Hamilton the discharge of artillery was deafening. Merchants and citizens, headed by some of the first characters, went to the houses of Hamilton, Jay, Livingston, Duane, and other members of the Convention, and testified their approval by giving three cheers before each. The general excitement was so great that many of the anti-Federalists also drank and shouted for the Consti- tution.
The immediate result was a cessation of rancorous party strife. The doctrine of State rights fell into disrepute. All eyes were turned towards the consummation of union, since it was no longer to be defeated. The public mind wondered at its own obstinacy as the prospect brightened ; and the general satisfaction was increased by speculations upon what might have been the condition of the country as thirteen independent sovereignties eternally counteracting each other. Congress publicly an-
nounced the adoption of the Constitution on the 13th of Septem- Sept. 13. ber, and appointed the first Wednesday of the coming January for the people of the United States to choose electors for a chief magistrate under its provisions ; the first Wednesday of February following was the day fixed for the electors to meet and make choice of a President. Wednesday, the fourth day of March, was designated for the meeting of a new Congress under the Constitution, and the general organization of the new government.
New York City was hilarious with anticipation, and began to extend her borders. The autumn of 1788 was emphatically one of sunshine. The elements favored every enterprise. The air was mild and balmy until December, the breezes blew softly, and the skies seemed to have adopted a new order of blue. In short, the city breathed a fresh atmos-
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FEDERAL HALL IN WALL STREET.
phere of promise, and every project prospered. The utmost activity pre- vailed. Houses sprung into sudden notice along the country roads above Chambers Street, more particularly in the vicinity of the rivers, and numerous costly warehouses arose in the lower part of the town. Indus- trious mechanics and tradesmen were finding means to procure modest homes of their own, and places of business multiplied in rapid ratio. All the trades bristled with new life. An electrical current seemed to have passed through every department of business.
Prominent citizens hastened to contribute thirty-two thousand dollars for the enlargement and adornment of the old City Hall, preparatory to the novel event which was about to thrill the whole civilized world. The most intense anxiety was manifested by all classes concerning the settlement of the question as to the future seat of the national government. But it was hoped that liberality on the part of New York would determine the issue in her favor. The Federal Hall, when completed, presented quite a stately appearance. The first or basement story was in the Tuscan style, with seven openings; four massive pillars in the centre supported heavy arches, above which rose four Doric columns ; the cornice was ingeniously divided to admit thirteen stars in the metopes, which, with the eagle and other insignia in the pediment, and the sculptures of thirteen arrows sur- rounded by olive branches over each window, marked it as a building set apart for national purposes. The entrance fronting on Broad Street was through a lofty vestibule paved with marble and elegantly finished. The Hall of Representatives was of slightly octangular shape, sixty-one by fifty-eight feet in dimension, with an arched ceiling forty-six feet high in the centre. It had two galleries, a speaker's platform admirably ar- ranged, and a separate chair and desk for each member. Its windows were large, and some sixteen feet above the floor, under which were the quaintest of fireplaces.
The Senate Chamber was a smaller apartment, forty by thirty feet in extent and twenty feet high, with an arched ceiling of light blue - a sun and thirteen stars in the centre. It was finished and decorated most artistically, and its numerous fireplaces were of highly polished varie- gated American marble. The President's chair, under a rich canopy of crimson damask, was elevated three feet above the floor. The chairs of the senators were arranged in semicircles, and covered with the same bright material as the canopy and curtains. It had three windows open- ing upon Wall Street, and a balcony twelve feet deep, guarded by an iron railing, where the President was to take the oath of office.
One of the finest mansions in the city stood on the corner of Cherry Street and Franklin Square. It was built by Walter Franklin, who had
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
in his lifetime been esteemed one of the richest merchants in New York, with, it is said, as much money in Russia as in America. In 1783 his widow, a lady of great beauty, was married to the distinguished Samuel Osgood, of the Treasury Board, who became the owner of the edifice, as also of the property in its vicinity where the Harper Brothers subsequently erect- ed their world-renowned pub- lishing establishment. This dwelling was selected as the official residence of the Pres- ident, Osgood removing else- where that it might be bur- nished anew for its distin- guished occupancy.1
While these and other prep- Washington's Residence. [The Walter Franklin House.] arations were being pushed with vigor, Gouverneur Mor- ris sailed for France, arriving in Paris early in February. His first dinner
Dec. 18. was with Jefferson, and the second with Lafayette. He was re-
ceived with charming cordiality by Lafayette's family, and one of his little daughters sang a song after they left the table which happened to be one of Morris's own composition. But the republicanism of Lafay- ette and the revolutionary projects and principles which were lighting up the whole French horizon were, in the view of Morris, greatly to be deplored. A sense of equality was maddening the French mind, and it struck Morris as irrational. Every man was giving advice to every other man; and each one in the high-colored pride of freedom thought it a great pity that
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