USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 8
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Parker preferred to cast his fortunes into the popular groove; the governor's order was disregarded, and the order of the Assembly obeyed. The remonstrance appeared in the next issue of the paper. Clinton was furious ; cutting messages and sharp threats were shot in both directions. The controversy was maintained with fiery intensity for many days, in the course of which the House coolly directed Parker to reprint the offensive document, and furnish each member with two copies, "that their constituents might know that it was their firm resolution to preserve the liberty of the press."
A series of disagreements followed. It was whispered that Clinton was interested in privateers ; that he had granted extravagant tracts of land in remote parts of the province (reserving shares to himself under ficti- tious names), which greatly weakened the frontiers ; that he had demanded subsistence for certain companies under officers of his own appointing, which really never existed; that he had embezzled the presents pro- vided for the Indians; that Saratoga was lost through his injudicious withdrawal of troops; that he obstructed the course of justice by delay- ing proceedings ; that he sold offices, civil and military, and the rever- sions of the same; in short, that he was putting forth every energy to make the government a post of profit to himself. Clinton became so exas- perated, that finally, on the 25th of November, he summoned the House before him, and in a long and exhaustive speech accused the gentlemen of having, in their continued grasping for power, encouraged disobedience throughout the colony, by willfully giving currency to notorious false- hoods which must necessarily cast contempt upon the king's representa- tive ; and dissolved the body.
A committee from the House were at the moment preparing another remonstrance for his delectation,- a formidable paper, sufficient to fill one hundred pages of an ordinary octavo, and which evinced no mean talent for reasoning and analysis. As it was nipped in the bud, so far as its offi- cial character was concerned, it was shortly published in the form of a letter to the governor, which did not improve his temper.
Oliver De Lancey in a fit of indignation asked his brother, the chief justice, if the affairs of the province could not be conducted without an Assembly ; and he was reported to have recommended the utility of hanging three or four people, and establishing an independent govern- ment. Clinton was determined to make an example of him, and at last obtained several depositions to the effect that he had used disrespectful words, and called the governor " an arrant villain, scoundrel, and rascal." When the depositions were read in council, the chief justice expressed his abhorrence of such words, and desired leave to withdraw. Clinton proceeded to prosecute the offender.
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THE DE PEYSTER MANSION.
Clinton made a strenuous effort all at once to prevail upon the Lords of Trade to suppress the office of treasurer ; he wished the public funds to go directly into the hands of the receiver-general. If the laws might be repealed whence the treasurer derived his authority, it would compel the Assembly to obey his requirements, in the manner of issuing money. De Peyster, the treasurer, was as difficult to manage as the chief justice himself. He dared to neglect orders, when the governor demanded sight of accounts for the purpose of confuting the malice of the Assembly, and proving that instead of his having converted large sums to private uses, Speaker Jones had actually drawn a considerable amount for secret ser- vices connected with the House. "It shows," said Clinton, " how abso- lutely the treasurer and the treasury are under the control of the Assembly ; I can neither oblige De Peyster to obey, nor appoint another treasurer in his place."
Abraham De Peyster, to whom frequent reference has been made during the last twenty-seven years, was not an active politician. He was connected by marriage and on intimate social terms with the leading men of the colony, but he held himself aloof from special controversies. He had fewer enemies, probably, than any other man connected with the government. His integrity was not questioned. He was immensely rich, - a fact which went far towards satisfying the community that he was a proper custodian for the colony's purse. He was a tall, handsome man, of pleasing address and aristocratic habits. He lived in a stylish manner in the old De Peyster mansion on Queen Street, which was built by his father in 1695.1 His coach was silver-trimmed, emblazoned with the family arms, and drawn by four beautiful grays; the livery of his ser- vants was a blue coat, with yellow cape, cuffs, and lining, and yellow small-clothes ; the button-holes worked with yellow, and the buttons plain velvet.2
De Peyster's numerous children were already reaching years of maturity and settling about him. James, the elder son, was married early this spring to Sarah, daughter of Hon. Joseph Reade. He was a 1748.
1 After the death of the treasurer (in 1767), the De Peyster mansion, described on page 420, was purchased (in 1769) by Hon. Henry White, member of the governor's Council, and one of the founders and fourth president of the Chamber of Commerce. He married Eve, daugh- ter of Frederick Van Cortlandt and Frances Jay. He was attached to the royal cause during the Revolution, and his estates were among the earliest confiscated in 1779. He left the city with the British army in 1783. His wife did not accompany him, and, his death following soon, she continued to reside in New York, taking up her abode at No 11 Broadway (her own inheritance from her father), where she lived for more than half a century, and where she died August 11, 1836, aged ninety-eight. Chamber of Commerce Records, Sketches of Colonial New York, Biographical and Historical, pages 36, 39. By John Austin Stevens.
2 Miscellaneous Works of J. Watts de Peyster, p. 108.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
merchant, and at one time (prior to their capture in the French war) had many vessels of his own at sea. He was also a gentleman of leisure and genius, and of dashing, impetuous military proclivities.
The De Peyster Mansion in Queen Street.
He built a castle-shaped, quaintly attractive country-house upon an eminence a little to the east of where Anthony Street now intersects Broadway ; he furnished it expensively, importing a rare and valuable library, and a collection of pictures from the old masters. He laid out open groves, wooded walks, and extensive lawns and gardens. This beautiful and retired home, where the dignitaries of state and celebrities from abroad were often entertained, was called "Ranelagh."1
The new Assembly was composed of the same members, with only one or two exceptions, as its predecessor. Jones was again the chosen speak- er. Indeed, things went on very much as they had done. The Indians
1 Margaret De Peyster, the eldest daughter of James De Peyster, married Col. Thomas James, who commanded the royal artillery at New York in the time of the stamp act riot, and who was afterwards stationed at Gibraltar, concerning which fortress he wrote a noted work. James De Peyster, Jr., the fourth son of James De Peyster, was an officer in the British army under the Duke of York, and was killed in front of the lines of Menin, May 18, 1793. Frederic, the fifth son-see page 420. Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, born Jan. 17, 1768, became the wife of Dr William Hamersley. De Peyster Genealogy.
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PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 629
were less ardent in their attachment than before the failure of the Cana- dian enterprise, and must be courted. But a letter from the Duke of Newcastle unexpectedly proffered all the necessary money for Indian presents, and the House beamed with good-nature, and expressed itself quite willing to unite with the other colonies in any well-concerted scheme for the destruction of Crown Point.
Clinton began to flatter himself that things were going to move more smoothly, when he received another hit. The House appointed Robert Charles its agent to the Court of Great Britain, without saying " by your leave, sir." It was through the recommendation of Admiral Sir Peter Warren. The ostensible object in view was to oppose the royal confirma- tion of a late act in New Jersey respecting the partition line, although Clinton detected sinister designs in such a procedure. The House author- ized Speaker Jones to instruct the agent and correspond with him re- specting all matters of importance; and the honorable gentleman de- spatched a letter to Charles the same day.
Meanwhile a Congress convened in Aix-la-Chapelle, to restore tranquil- lity to the civilized world. After eight years of reciprocal annoy- ance, the conditions of peace between France and England were to May.
return to the state before the war. Nothing was gained by either nation. The treaty, negotiated by the ablest statesmen of Europe with all the pomp of monarchical diplomacy, left the American boundary along its whole line determined only by the vague agreement that it should be as it had been. Henceforth both French and English hurried to occupy in advance as much territory as possible, without too openly compromising their respective governments. There was no cessation of hostilities until the conclusion of the treaty in October.
The tidings reached New York of what was in contemplation, just as Clinton and some of the gentlemen of his council were about starting for Albany, to meet Governor Shirley and the Mohawk sachems in grand council. Clinton sent messages to Shirley and to Sir William Johnson, and proceeded as far as the manor of Livingston, where he awaited replies. On the 20th of July the largest assemblage of persons which had July 20. ever yet convened in America crowded the city of Albany. Groups
of picturesquely attired savages, with nodding plumes and variegated blan- kets, wandered up and down on every side. The proceedings of the con- ference were neit er new nor important. The scouring process (the brightening of the covenant chain) was the chief topic of oratorical dis- play. There were preparations, however, to be made for the coming peace, for the enemy had not yet suspended their murderous operations. The troops at Albany and at several points were suffering for the want of
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supplies. Men were deserting and officers resigned their commissions, flatly refusing to serve longer. The governor ordered the Commissioners to forward provisions to the garrisons, and they declined because they had not been authorized by the Assembly.
Clinton advised with Shirley in regard to the course to be pursued with his republican Assembly. The two governors had been for some time in correspondence with the great masters of English jurisprudence, and both pinned their faith to the supremacy of Parliament.
The Ministry were disposed to experiment upon New York, and the return of peace was chosen as a favorable epoch. It was resolved to extort from the Assembly fixed salaries and a permanent revenue at the royal disposal, or by producing extreme disorder compel the interposition of Parliament. Clinton was the unwelcome instrument through whom the disciplining process was to be accomplished. He met the Assembly October.
in October, and began his work by demanding what had been so often denied, a revenue for five years. This was indignantly refused. As for the more recent practice of naming the officers provided in the salary bills, the House not only justified it, but intimated that if the course had been earlier adopted, Justice Horsemanden of the Supreme Court, "a gentleman of learning and experience in the law," could not have been removed by the governor " without any color of misconduct " on his part. Clinton threatened. He declared higher power across the water would not overlook such unwarranted disobedience. The House calmly replied : "We are fully convinced by experience that the method of annual support is most wholesome and salutary, and we are confirmed in the opinion that the faithful representatives of the people will never depart from it." 1
Clinton wrote to Bedford that the people of New York had become the high court of appeal, and that he could not meet the Assembly with- out danger of exposing the king's authority and himself to contempt ; he begged England to make a good example for all America by straightening the government of New York.
Halifax had recently entered (November 1, 1748) upon his long period of service as First Commissioner for the Plantations. He 1749. saw in them a half-hemisphere subject to his supervision. He resolved to elevate himself by enlarging the dignity and power of his employment. With the self-reliance of a presumptuous novice, he rushed towards an arbitrary solution of the accumulated difficulties in the ad- ministration of the colonies, by reviewing the scheme of augmenting the authority of the crown and making all orders of the king the
1 Journals of New York Assembly, II. 246.
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NEW YORK UNDER DISCIPLINE.
highest law in America. Such a bill actually passed Parliament, March 2, 1749.
Clinton and the Assembly met again in May, and the momentous struggle inaugurated the preceding autumn between the republican and the monarchial principle, was renewed with increased vigor. "Consider," said the governor, " the great liberties you are indulged with ; and what may be the consequences should our mother country suspect you of de- signing to lessen the prerogative of the crown in the plantations."
The House did consider, and replied accordingly : "The faithful repre- sentatives of the people can never recede from the method of an annual support ; . governors are entire strangers to the people they are sent to govern ; . . . as they know the line of continuance in their government to be uncertain, all methods are used to raise estates to themselves. Should the public money be left to their disposition, what can be expected but the grossest misapplication under various pretenses, which will never be wanting." 1
New York was at this time the central point of political interest in English North America. "Nowhere," says Bancroft, "had the relations of the province to Great Britain been so sharply controverted, or the Legislature, by its method of granting money, so nearly exhausted and appropriated all executive authority." No other colony was tinctured with such a fearlessness of monarchial power. The people were self- reliant. Few of the leading families were of pure English descent. The blood of other nations coursed through their veins. There was a happy blending of the free spirit of Holland and the polish of France with the pride of England. There was, moreover, a well-developed intelligence in respect to the workings of the various European governments. The idea was not wholly unfamiliar to the New York mind that existence was practicable without England. Why might not ten or a dozen English colonies join of their own free choice in a confederacy, as well as for Six Nations of unlettered savages to form and execute a scheme of union which had survived for generations ?
Clinton was disgusted with the determined opposition which he en- countered upon every side. He charged much of it to De Lancey, who had advised him in the beginning to accept the annual-support bill. He had - withdrawn his confidence in a measure from Colden, because the latter had remonstrated with him in great heat concerning some of his proceedings. Robert Hunter Morris 2 was about to sail for England on
1 It has been said that Clinton accumulated £ 80,000 while in the government of New- York.
2 Robert Hunter Morris was Chief Justice of New Jersey.
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business connected with the New Jersey boundary line, and Clinton secretly charged him with his own defense, hoping to bring the resent- ment of the crown upon his adversaries. If victory was obtained over the Assembly, Morris was to be rewarded with the lieutenant-governor- ship of the province. The governor confidently expected, with the help of the Lords of Trade, to come off conqueror, and he prorogued the obdurate Assembly from one time to another, waiting and hoping for the crisis, until the clam- ors of the public creditors forced him to dissolve the House and order a new election. In the halls of state across the water months slipped by, yea, two years passed, and yet the case of New York was not fully di- gested. A commission was prepared appointing Robert Hunter Morris lieutenant - governor of New York, and it lay for some time in the Secre- tary of State's office. It was afterwards annulled, the De Lancey influence St. George's Chapel, 1752. at court having turned the scale.
Rev. Henry Barclay had been rector of Trinity Church since October, 1746. Clinton signed his certificate of induction, although his Excellency was rarely ever seen in the sanctuary ; he was not a religious man. In 1748 the subject of building St. George's Chapel was agitated, and six lots fronting on Nassau, near Fair Street, were selected as a site, and bought of David Clarkson for £500. Shortly after, some lots belonging to Colonel Beekman, fronting Beekman, near Cliff Street, were esteemed more suitable. They were accordingly purchased for £ 645. The corner- stone of the edifice was laid in 1749, a few weeks prior to the marriage of the minister (Mr. Barclay) to the daughter of Anthony Rutgers. The very next evening, Mr. Barclay's assistant, Rev. Mr. Auchmuty, was
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A GLIMPSE OF NEW YORK IN 1752. 633
married to Mrs. Tucker. Both ladies were spoken of in the highest terms of praise by the journals of the day. The chapel was not com- pleted until 1752, and was consecrated in July of that year. Its aisles were flagged with gray stone, and its decorations were very unique. It was ninety-two by seventy-two feet upon the ground; the steeple was lofty, about one hundred and seventy-five feet high, but irregular. It was a striking object so far from the town and regarded with no little in- terest. A parsonage was subsequently built adjoining the chapel edifice, but for a time it stood almost alone upon the pretty elevation, with only an occasional house here and there in the neighborhood.1
The Moravians had become so numerous that they built a small chapel in Fulton Street, about the same time. A number of stores and pri- vate houses sprang into existence ; the mayor, Edward Holland, was 1751. active in laying out new streets, and several of the old thoroughfares were paved. Professor Kalm, a Swedish traveler, gossips about the metropolis of that date, as follows :-
" In size New York comes nearest to Boston and Philadelphia ; but, with re- gard to its fine buildings, its opulence, and extensive commerce, it disputes the preference with them. The streets do not run so straight as those of Philadel- phia, and have sometimes considerable bendings ; however, they are very spa- cious and well built, and most of them are paved, excepting in high places, where it has been found useless. In the chief streets there are trees planted, which in summer give them a fine appearance, and during excessive heat afford a cooling shade. I found it extremely pleasant to walk in the town, for it seemed like a garden. Most of the houses are built of bricks, and are generally strong and neat, and several stories high ; some have, according to the old archi- tecture, turned the gable end toward the street, but the new houses are altered in this respect. Many of the houses have a balcony on the roof, upon which the people sit at evening in the summer time ; and from thence they have a pleasant view of a great part of the town, and likewise of part of the adjacent water, and the opposite shore. There is no good water to be met with in the town itself ; but at a little distance there is a large spring of good water, which the inhabi- tants take for their tea, and for the uses of the kitchen. Those, however, who are less delicate on this point make use of the water from the wells in town, though it is very bad. This want of good water lies heavy upon the horses of the stran- gers that come to this place, for they do not like to drink the brackish water from the wells.
1 Admiral Sir Peter Warren gave £ 100 to the building of St. George's Chapel, and a pew was assigned to him for his liberality. The Archbishop of Canterbury contributed also to the undertaking. The chapel was burned in 1814, excepting the walls, but was rebuilt the fol- lowing year. Rev. Mr. Milnor preached in it for many years, as did also Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, first president of Columbia College. Rev. Dr. Tyng occupied the pulpit at a later date, even until he removed to his magnificent church in Stuyvesant Park.
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"New York probably carries on a more extensive commerce than any town in the English North American provinces. Boston and Philadelphia, however, come very nearly up to it. The trade of New York extends to many places. They export to London all the various sorts of skins which they buy of the In- dians, sugar, logwood, and other dyeing woods ; rum, mahogany, and many other goods which are the produce of the West Indies. Every year they build several ships here which are sent to London and there sold ; and of late years they have shipped a great quantity of iron to England. In return for these they im- port from London stuffs, and every other article of English growth and manu- facture, together with all sorts of foreign goods. England, and especially Lon- don, profits immensely by the trade. There are two printers 1 in the town, and every week some gazettes, in English, are published, which contain news from all parts of the world."
That New York was conscious of her growing importance in a com- mercial point of view is evidenced by a significant enterprise in the beginning of the last half of the eighteenth century. It was the 1752. building of the Royal Exchange for merchants, at the foot of Broad Street, nearly on the line of Water Street. It was supported upon arches,
A.BOBBETT . 50
The Royal Exchange.
leaving the lower part entirely open. One room was specially arranged for the meeting of merchants, and the remainder of the building was ap- propriated to various uses ; a coffee-room was opened at one end. The " Long Room " was the favorite place for societies to hold their annual
1 William Bradford, the first printer and founder of the first newspaper in New York, died this year. The Weekly Journal of Zenger was discontinued. The Weekly Post-Boy and the Weekly Gazette and Mercury were the two newspapers of the city.
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REV. AARON BURR.
elections, and it was where dinners and other entertainments were given to persons of distinction. The edifice was completed in 1754.
Another writer, Rev. Mr. Burnaby, lifts the curtain to give us a passing glimpse of the people of that decade, as they appeared to his view :-
"The inhabitants of New York in their character very much resemble the Pennsylvanians. Being, however, of different nations, different languages, and different religions, it is almost impossible to give them any precise or determinate character. The women are handsome and agreeable, though rather more reserved than the Philadelphia ladies. The amusements are balls and sleighing expedi- tions in the winter, and, in the summer, going in parties upon the water and fishing, or making excursions into the country. There are several houses, pleas- antly situated up the East River, near New York, where it is common to have turtle-feasts. These happen once or twice a week. Thirty or forty gentlemen and ladies meet and dine together, drink tea in the afternoon, fish, and amuse themselves till evening, and then return home in Italian chaises, a gentleman and lady in each chaise."
In the summer of 1752, quite a sensation was created by the announce- ment in the papers of the marriage of President Aaron Burr, of the New Jersey (Princeton) College, to the daughter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, with hints that the wedding was a very odd affair. The romance was ere long in the possession of the social world. The excellent, accom- plished, and brilliant divine had recently made a journey to the Stock- bridge wilderness, and spent three days in the family of the distinguished preacher, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, with whom he had had a previous and intimate friendship. Henceforward the beautiful and vivacious Esther made no more lace and painted no more fans for the ladies of Boston. Burr returned to Newark, and presently sent a college boy to conduct his bride-elect and her mother to New York City. They arrived on Saturday, and on the following Monday the nuptial ceremonies were celebrated between the bachelor of thirty-seven and the charming maiden of twenty- one. And all the gossips wondered.
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