USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 13
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Philip Van Rensselaer, only brother of the patroon, born 1766, for many years mayor of Albany, married Anı, daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt. Elizabeth, only sister of the patroon, born 1768, married, John Bradstreet Schuyler, the grandfather of Mr. John Schuyler of New York City ; (2) John Bleecker, whose only. daughter married Cornelius Van Rensselaer.
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private disposal; and the Directory would listen to propositions only after $ 13,000,000, or thereabouts, had been loaned or donated ! Talley- rand intimated that the penalty of refusal would be war. "War be it, then !" exclaimed Pinckney. " Millions for defense, sir, but not a cent for tribute !"
Vigorous measures were at once adopted by Congress for the raising of an army. President Adams appointed Washington commander-in-chief, who accepted and made Hamilton his second in command.
To check an abuse of the liberty of speech and of the press, and also to put a stop to interference from foreign powers in the internal regula- tions and policy of America, Congress during this session passed several acts which caused the administration of Adams to be stigmatized in the severest terms. The country swarmed with French spies and alien fugitives from justice, who aided by ambitious politicians, were employed in reviling the authorities and stirring up strife. In the event of a war the mischief would be appalling. The Alien and Sedition Laws were projected as a system of defense, and even before their passage revealed their worth through the flight of some of the most notorious disturbers of the peace. But they soon became excessively unpopular.
The joy was great in America at hearing of the release of Lafayette from the Austrian dungeon in which he had been so long confined. Con- gress had already appropriated to the pecuniary relief of his family the full amount of his pay as a major-general in the American service. But pleasurable emotions of any character were of short duration while war, with all its complications and horrors, seemed approaching with such appalling certainty. Governor Jay convened a special session of the legis- lature in the month of August, at Albany, to take measures for fortifying the harbor of New York ; $ 1,200,000 was appropriated, the sum to go towards liquidating the Revolutionary balance due from the State to the general government - according to the offer of Congress - and a further sum was voted for the purchase of arms.
The sentiment of the country concerning war was variable. It might bring about an intimate alliance with Great Britain which was exceed- ingly distasteful to even the great mass of the Federalists. Some be- lieved that the British government would be overthrown within two years. Others ridiculed such an idea. The Aurora and other organs of the Republicans boldly declared it better to pay the money demanded by France than to run the risk of war. Why not purchase peace of the French nation as well as that of the Indians and Algerines ? But the impulse to sustain the dignity of America was overwhelming. Petitions against any hostile preparations were followed by addresses to the Presi-
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dent from all parts of the country in support of his policy. Vice-Presi- dent Jefferson as president of the Senate became seriously alarmed, and wrote to Madison that several of the prominent Republican senators had "gone over to the war-hawks."
A subscription was opened in the principal towns of the Union to raise means for building and equipping additional ships of war. Even in the then infant city of Cincinnati a sum was subscribed towards a galley for the defense of the Mississippi River.
Unable to make any effectual combined resistance to these measures for defense, the baffled and astounded leaders of the Opposition each did what he could after his own fashion. Albert Gallatin's strong point was the dependence of the revenue on commerce. A war would dry up that resource. Edward Livingston adopted the policy of voting for the highest sums proposed for whatever military objects, hoping to frigliten the people by the expense. Such was the warmth of party feeling that violent personal assaults were of frequent occurrence. Edward Livingston had been re-elected to Congress in the spring by a majority nearly as large as that which placed John Jay for the second time in the governor's chair. Shortly afterward the young men of New York met to concert an address of approbation to President Adams. In The Argus, edited by Greenleaf, appeared the next day a paragraph ridiculing the meeting. The assemblage was styled the "Youth of the City," and the writer went on to say : "Colonel Nicholas Fish, a stripling of about forty-eight years, was made chairman, and, notwithstanding his green years, is said to have acquitted himself with all the judgment which might have been expected from a man full grown. We also hear that master Jemmy Jones, another boy not quite sixty, graced the assem- bly with his presence; what pleasure it must afford to the sincere friends of America to observe the rising generation thus early zealous in its country's cause ! ! ! "
Mr. James Jones, the object of this satire, was not present at the meeting, and in great indignation called upon the printer and exacted from him a disclosure of the name of the author. It proved to be Judge Brockholst Livingston, the brother of Mrs. Jay. During the same after- noon Mr. Jones, while walking on the Battery with Mr. Henderson, met Judge Livingston promenading with his wife and others, and asked to speak with him aside. Livingston immediately complied with the re- quest, and Jones inquired if he wrote the offensive paragraph. Livings- ton said that he did write the paragraph, but meant no harm, nor should he be offended if any one took the like liberty with him. A few more words passed, when Jones attempted to seize Mr. Livingston by the nose,
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and gave him several strokes with his cane. Mr. Henderson interfered, and prevented further violence. But a challenge followed, and a duel, in which Mr. Jones was killed. It was an event which produced great excitement at the time, and one which left on Judge Livingston's mind a gloom from which he never recovered, although afterward rewarded for his party services by high political preferment.
Edward Livingston achieved national fame by the conspicuous elo- quence and vigor of his opposition to the Alien and Sedition Laws. His speech on the 21st of June was printed upon satin, and reached all classes, producing a thrilling effect. Hamilton himself no sooner saw the Sedition Bill in print than he wrote a letter of admonition and criti- cism. He thought it exceedingly exceptionable, and feared it might pro- duce civil war. "Let us not establish tyranny," he said. "Energy is a very different thing from violence."
The precautions deemed necessary against French invasion and a slave insurrection excited angry opposition. Appropriations were made, but the minority denied any danger whatever from invasion, and ridi- culed as visionary the idea of an insurrection, complaining loudly at the same time of the vast discretion given the President. The news- papers attacked the government, statesmen, citizens, and each other in a style of vulgar ferocity. The epithets of rogue, liar, scoundrel, and villain were bandied about between the editors without the least ceremony. Although the power and influence of the press as a whole, and its impor- tance as a political agent, has materially increased since that period, yet the effect which any individual journal can produce has very greatly diminished. A newspaper then penetrated to localities where no other printed sheet, in a multitude of instances, ever appeared. Thus its false- hoods and its calumnies were uncontradicted, and produced the effect of sober truth. At present the mischief that can be done by misrepresenta- tion is comparatively limited, since detection and exposure are always hovering in its wake. New York sustained the ablest daily Federal paper in the country, first issued on the 9th of December, 1793, and called The Minerva, its editor being the distinguished lexicographer, Noah Webster. With it was connected The Herald, a semi-weekly paper, made up with- out recomposition for country circulation, the first of that character, of which now nearly every daily has its weekly or semi-weekly edition pre- pared in the same way. The name of the paper was shortly changed from Minerva to Commercial Advertiser, which it still bears, and the semi-weekly edition was called The New York Spectator instead of Herald.
Noah Webster was forty years of age in 1798, tall, slender, graceful,
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with keen gray eyes and sharply cut features, and was remarkable for his erect walk and perfection of neatness in dress. He was never seen on the street without a broad hat and a long cue. The first publishers of The Commercial Advertiser were George Bunce and Co.
The news of the capture of Bonaparte's fleet in the battle of the Nile was received in New York with open joy on the part of the Federalists, and with ill-concealed vexation by the Opposition. It was the first English victory for a quarter of a century which had been thus welcomed. Some one remarked, in the presence of Greenleaf, with surprise upon the quick voyage of an English vessel just arrived in the harbor. " It is not at all surprising, sir," was the sharp retort. "This country has been drawing nearer to Great Britain ever since the treaty was ratified, and of course vessels will have shorter passages."
Meanwhile Aaron Burr had been maturing plans to extricate New York from the hands of Hamilton and the Federalists. His first step was to secure his own election to the Assembly. He took great care in all his movements to shape trifling matters in such a way as to produce certain results upon the minds of men whose partisan feelings were weak and easily influenced. He would go to some country member who was panting with desire per- haps to hear his own voice in the Chamber, or to show his constituents his name in the newspaper, and ask him to introduce a resolution, or do some other formal business that would flatter his sense of personal con- sequence. He knew the political importance of every man from the recently organized western counties, and was assiduous in his polite attentions to them. For a while he was extremely anxious that the presidential electors should be chosen directly by the people, as he sup- posed the State could be more easily revolutionized in that way.
In the city there were only two banks, and these were under the man- agement and control of the Federalists. One was a branch of the United States Bank, the other the Bank of New York. Both were to a consider- able degree the creation of Hamilton, and both were charged with being influenced in their discounts by political considerations. Burr deter- mined to found a bank which should equally accommodate the Opposi- tion. But a chronic prejudice in the public mind against banks made the enterprise difficult to accomplish. Taking advantage of the investigations regarding the cause of the terrible ravages of yellow fever in the city, and of the impression that the brackish wells contributed largely to the spread of the pestilence, Burr adroitly organized a company for the ostensible purpose of supplying the city with pure and wholesome water, but which was to use and exercise all the privileges of a bank. In applying to the legislature for a charter, authority was asked to raise two millions of
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dollars, although it was uncertain how much money was needed. And as the amount named might possibly be too much, the projectors proposed to insert in the charter a provision that "the surplus capital might be em- ployed in any way not inconsistent with the laws and Constitution of the United States, or of the State of New York." While under discussion it was proposed in the Senate to strike out of the bill this clause. Burr promptly explained that it was intended the directors should have liberty to found an East India Company, a bank, or anything else they deemned profitable, since merely supplying a city of fifty thousand inhabitants with water would not of itself remunerate the stockholders. But the reference to an East India Company or a bank being generally regarded as chimerical or visionary, little notice was taken of it. None except those in the secret suspected that the name "Manhattan Company " meant Manhattan Bank, and a large portion of the members who voted for the bill never even so much as read it. When referred to the chief justice of the State, its rejection was recommended because of the un- limited powers conferred by the surplus clause. These objections were, however, overruled, and Governor Jay signed the bill. The Republicans lauded Burr for his consummate address and success ; but the effects injured the party, for a great clamor arose, the dexterous manœuver by which one object had been secured under cover of another was denounced in pamphlets and by the newspapers far and wide, and 1799. Burr lost his election to the Assembly in 1799 by an ominous majority ; the ticket headed by his name was totally defeated. The bank, however, was immediately established, and became an institution of the first impor- tance. It does not appear that even a show was ever made of bringing the water into the city.
The amount of personal insult and abuse which members of opposing parties heaped upon each other during the two last years of the adminis- tration of John Adams is not easily conveyed to the readers' comprehen- sion by language. Jefferson wrote, " Men who have been intimate all their lives cross the street to avoid meeting." Again, he said, " All the passions are boiling over, and one who keeps himself cool and clear of the contagion is so far below the point of ordinary conversation that he finds himself insulated in every society." It was the era of bad feeling, and no one came out of the storm quite unscathed. "I do declare it was a pleasure to live in those good old days, when a Federalist could knock a Republican down in the streets and not be questioned about it," said a New York gentleman, then in Congress, to one of the prominent politi- cians of the present day while in his boyhood.
The following ludicrous incident, related by an eye-witness, forcibly
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illustrates the prevailing spirit of the times. At one of the public meet- ings of politicians a respectable Republican, who was a tailor by trade, came before the audience, announcing his intention to make "a bit of a speech." Thereupon a famous Federal orator sprang to his feet, exclaiming, " The speaker is a tailor, and a tailor, as we know, is the ninth part of a man. Now, if the ninth part of a man makes 'a bit of a speech,' I put it to you all, gentlemen, to say how much of a speech will that be which is but a bit of the ninth part of a man !"
During the summer of 1799 Burr was scandalized by a rumor, that for Legislative services rendered the Holland Land Company had can- 1799. celled a bond against him for twenty thousand dollars. John B. Church had spoken with so much freedom about the matter that Burr challenged him to mortal combat. They met at Hoboken. Abijah Hammond attended Church, and Judge Burke, of South Carolina, at- tended Burr. A laughable incident varied the routine of the proceed- ings, and furnished New York with a joke and a byword for a long time to come. When Burr, before leaving home, handed the judge his pistol- case, he explained that the balls were cast intentionally too small, and that chamois leather cut, to the proper size, must be greased and put round them to make them fit. Leather and grease were within the case. After the principals had taken their stand, the judge tried to hammer in the ramrod with a stone, which Burr, observing, drew the ramrod as soon as the pistol was placed in his hand and told the judge the ball was not home. "I know it," was the quick reply of the judge, " I forgot to grease the leather ; but don't keep your man waiting -- just take a crack at him as it is, and I'll grease the next." Burr bowed graciously, and shots were exchanged without effect. Church made the requisite apology, and the parties returned to the city in the highest good-humor.
The scenes of a man's life are as requisite to an adequate view of his character as the frame of a picture and the proper distance and light whereby to examine it. Thus the reader who seeks correct intellectual and moral portraiture must become familiar with the place where and the people among whom a life drama has been enacted. It was a pecul- iar age. A new power was on trial. Political society was in the crude pro- cess of formation. And the career of the architect and organizer of this new power looms above the details of feud and controversy with all the charms of romance. Hamilton's acts had already gone deeply into the life of the nation, and as the leader of the dominant party, and confidential adviser of the Cabinet, he was playing a great part in national affairs. President Adams declared that while he was the nominal head of the na- tion, "Hamilton was commander-in-chief of the Senate, of the House of
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Representatives, of the heads of departments, of General Washington, and last, and least, if you will, of the President of the United States."
But Hamilton had a rival in political consequence, of matchless au- dacity and unconquerable persistence, who was to teach the Opposition how to conquer. The rise of Aaron Burr to eminence in the political arena was more rapid than that of any other man who has played a conspicuous part in the affairs of the United States. Over the heads of influential men and able politicians in the State of New York, where leading families had for nearly a century and a half monopolized the offices of honor and emolument, Burr was advanced from a private station to the highest place at the bar, to a seat in the national councils, and, even, within four years, to a competition with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and George Clinton for the presidency itself. The world wondered, for all this happened without his having originated any political idea or measure. President Adams attributed it to the prestige of Burr's father's and grandfather's name, Hamilton to his wire-pulling, others to his military reputation, and some to good luck. Burr's own circle of friends regarded his elevation as the legitimate result of superiority in knowledge, culture, and talents. In his law-practice, he is said never to have lost a case which he personally conducted. His tact was marvelous. In speaking, he was never diffuse. His language was that of a well-bred and thoroughly informed man of the world, clear, concise, and precise, and his style that of conversation rather than oratory. Thus it was extremely difficult to report his speeches. When arrayed against each other, Hamilton would exhaust a case, giving ample statement to every point, anticipating every objection, saying everything that could be fairly said in the fullest man- ner, often speaking for two or three hours with court and jury fasci- nated by his lofty eloquence. In replying, Burr would choose two or three vulnerable yet vital points, and quietly demolish them, leaving every other part of his antagonist's argument untouched; thus he some- times neutralized the effect of one of Hamilton's brilliant orations in a twenty minutes' speech, always observing strictly the proper courtesies of the bar, with complaisant air, and singular composure and courtliness of bearing.
Both Hamilton and Burr were more or less the subjects of local influ- ences, and their habits and peculiarities were colored by their surround- ings. It is well known that the law of the pistol was then in full force, and that duels were of frequent occurrence. Hamilton had been bred, if not born, in New York, and connected as he was by marriage with families thoroughly identified with her foundation and development, he had natu- rally imbibed all the feudal proclivities and prejudices which had been
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handed along from generation to generation. In private interest and public spirit he was essentially a New-Yorker. And the elements of which New York was composed, acting upon his peculiar temperament and powers, helped to make him what he was to the national government. Nor should New York forget how largely his breadth of vision and crea- tive talent contributed to the growth, multiplication, and prosperity of her educational institutions. His success at the New York bar at a time when all legal problems were more difficult of solution than ever be- fore or since won universal and deserved renown. On the retirement of Jay, the office of Chief Justice of the United States was offered him, which he declined on the ground that his " ambition and duty lay else- where in the public service." He was a conscientious believer in the system of government he had helped to found, was indifferent to the accumulation of wealth, and his thoughts and acts were constantly directed to intricate questions and interests of vast magnitude. Talley- rand said that he had known nearly all the marked men of his time, but had never known one, on the whole, equal to Hamilton.
The death of Washington on the 14th of December, 1799, threw the whole nation into the deepest mourning. Public testimonials of 1799. grief and reverence were displayed on every hand. The vestry of Trinity Church assembled at the house of the Right Reverend Bishop Provost, to give expression to sorrow, and the record, entered alone on the broad page of a large folio and surrounded by a black border, reads as follows : " Ordered, that in consideration of the death of the late Lieu- tenant George Washington, the several churches belonging to this cor- poration be put in mourning."
These sentiments of sorrow were by no means confined to the United States. When the news reached England, Lord Bridport, commanding a fleet of sixty ships of the line, lying at Torbay, lowered his flag half mast, every vessel following his example. Bonaparte announced Washington's death to the French army, ordering black crape suspended from all the standards and flags throughout the public service for ten days.
The mourning in America was universal. It was manifested by every token which could indicate public sentiment and feeling. Eulogy ex- hausted the resources of language. The "Grand Council " of the nation, orators, divines, journalists, and writers of every class employed their talents in honoring his memory. "Silence would best become our grief," spoke an eloquent senator to a tearful audience, " but it would not be- come our love. As our love is even greater than our grief, we must speak. We must express our gratitude, we must show our admiration. It is the consolation left us to proclaim to a listening world his deeds of matchless
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merit. .... When there was danger, he was the first to meet it, when labor, the first to share it, when distress, the first to feel it, when merit, the first to praise it, and when service, the first to perform it. . . Had he been a Cæsar, his army would have made him an emperor. But being Washington, he brought that army to respect the civil authority, and to obey the laws of its country."
And not only the land of his birth but the whole civilized world paid respectful tribute to the greatness of the man, who, more than any other in ancient or modern history, is entitled to the affectionate appellation of THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY.
The present century opened inauspiciously. At no period of Washing- ton's long and useful life could his loss have been a greater pub- lic affliction. His death hushed for a moment even the violence 1800. of the political whirlwind, but the Federalists felt that in that pause the sheet-anchor of the ship of State had parted its fastenings. Clear- sighted politicians knew too well how much depended upon the influence of a single name and on the popularity of a single individual. President Adams was not in harmony with his cabinet or his party. His feeling towards Hamilton was revealed by his neglect to appoint him to the command of the army in place of the deceased chief; and Hamilton was resolved to prevent the re-election of Adams to the Presidential chair. The period long hoped for by the Opposition had arrived. The disagree- ments between the President and a large division of the Federalists widened into an irreparable breach.
Adams had appointed envoys a few months before to discuss and settle all controversies between the French government and this country, the Directory having made a fresh proposal of negotiation. Oliver Ells- worth, the foremost man in Connecticut, who had succeeded Jay as chief justice of the United States in 1796, Patrick Henry, late governor of Virginia, and William V. Murray, minister to the Hague, were the chosen diplomatists. Three of the cabinet ministers objected to the mission on the ground that the French were insincere, and that the honor of America would not allow any further advances on our part, at least while the piratical French decrees against American commerce remained unrepealed - objections in which Hamilton and a large number of the Federalists concurred. The President acted in this connection without consulting his cabinet ministers, knowing their sentiments. The three gentlemen were deeply offended. Presently Adams had reason to believe, or imagined, that they were disposed to clog all his measures which did not meet their approval, and removed two of them, Secretary McHenry and Secretary Pickering, from their offices.
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