USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 23
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The Federalists denounced the measure in the most violent terms. They said it was one which would not and could not produce the desired result of compelling the belligerents to rescind their orders and decrees. Both England and France had distinctly intimated that if the United States would side with them every advantage should be given to her commerce ; and they had both resolved that the United States should not be permitted to remain neutral, but should be forced to go to war with one or other of the contending powers. It was not believed that either nation would be seriously affected by a suspension of American com-
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merce. As for France, the emperor, after the peace of Tilsit, wielded the chief resources of the European Continent and directed them to the avowed purpose of conquering the British Empire; and the United States was greatly desired as an ally.
Napoleon's minister, Champagny, wrote in January : " War exists, in fact, between England and the United States; and his Majesty considers it as declared from the day in which England published 1808. her decrees." The Federalists insisted that France was the principal aggressor, and if America must have a war it ought to be with the French, and not with the British.
Meanwhile England dispatched a special minister to adjust the diffi- culty with the United States which had arisen from the assault on the frigate Chesapeake. On arriving at Washington he informed Secretary Madison of his instructions requiring President Jefferson's proclamation, interdicting British vessels of war from the harbors of the United States, to be withdrawn before he could enter upon the subject of reparation. Jefferson declined, and insisted upon bringing into review other cases of aggression, even the whole question of impressment itself, and the further progress of the negotiation was interrupted. In March the British min- ister re-embarked for England in the same frigate which had brought him out.
This event excited afresh the animosity of the two political parties. The Republicans sustained Jefferson, and claimed that the settlement of the one point in dispute would have been of no real consequence in the present position of affairs. They said the embargo policy prevented the loss of ships, and avoided an entanglement of the nation in a war that was waged solely for conquest and empire. The Federalists in turn charged the President and his party with hatred of England and a desire to further the wishes of France; and contended that other and more effi- cient measures less injurious to the nation, and especially to the grain- growing and commercial States, than an embargo for an indefinite period of time, might have been adopted.
At a public meeting in New York of which De Witt Clinton was chairman, resolutions were adopted disapproving the embargo. The Clin- tonian paper, edited by Cheetham, decidedly opposed the measure. The new council of appointment chosen in February proceeded to restore De Witt Clinton to the mayoralty of New York City, he having been removed in 1807, and Marinus Willett elevated to that office. It also restored Pierre Cortlandt Van Wyck to the office of recorder, who had been displaced the year before by the appointment of Maturin Livingston. Thirteen other removals and appointments were made on the same day.
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Of these were Dr. Thomas Tillotson, the secretary of the State since 1801 (with the exception of one year), removed, and Elisha Jenkins appointed in his stead. "Such was the power," writes Hammond, " of this strange and formidable machine called the council of appointment, that new general commissions of the peace were sent into many of the counties, and in the course of a few months brought almost an entire change of persons hold- ing civil offices in the State." On the 20th of March, Martin Van Buren, then a bright, promising young lawyer of twenty-six, was appointed sur- rogate of the county of Columbia.
Daniel D. Tompkins had been elected governor of New York in 1807. From the time he first became a voter he had identified himself with the Republican party, and was one of Jefferson's most enthusiastic admirers. He had been selected as a gubernatorial candidate by the Clintonians, bent upon defeating Morgan Lewis, who represented the Livingston interest. Tompkins was a young and very popular man. Edu- cated at Columbia and ad- mitted to the bar early, he had, in 1804, when only thirty years of age, been ele- vated to the bench as asso- ciate justice of the Supreme Court of New York, at the same time that the great jurist, James Kent, was made chief justice. His pleasing manners, not less than his fine, manly, mag- netic presence, were great- ly in his favor, and there was depth to his learning and strength in his charac- ter which gave him wide influence. Governor Lewis Daniel D. Tompkins. [Governor of New York ; Vice-President of the United States.] was supported by the Liv- ingstons, and by many of the Federalists; but the report having been circulated that he had gone over to the Federalists, Tompkins received the respectable majority of four thousand and eighty-five votes. In his first speech to the Legislature at the commencement of the annual session, in Albany, January 26, 1808, he defended in a clear, forcible manner the foreign policy of the adminis-
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THE FIRST WOOLEN MILLS IN NEW YORK.
tration of Jefferson, and justified the embargo act : and his views were sustained in the answers of both houses.
Ex-Governor Lewis retired to his country-seat at Staatsburg on the Hudson, and interested himself in agricultural pursuits. The mania for merino sheep was at its height, and he was soon possessed of a flock. Chancellor Livingston had wintered successfully a large number at Clermont the year before, and was writing a volume on sheep-raising. The importation of the animal was prohibited by the laws of Spain, but adventurers were every now and then landing some which sold at fabu- lous prices ; one lamb easily brought a thousand dollars, and not infre- quently fifteen hundred. " At such ruinous rates there will be men to import them from the very jaws of the infernal regions," exclaimed John R. Livingston, who had escaped the contagion.
The interruption of foreign traffic naturally turned attention to home industry. American wools had not been supposed suitable for fine cloths, and the woolen fabrics hitherto produced had been largely the product of household labor and private looms. Capital had not been expended to any considerable extent in the building of factories. But the wool from merino sheep, unwashed, sold for one and two dollars per pound, and the manufacture of fine broadcloth was seriously contemplated in many parts of the land. Dr. Seth Capron, who erected and put in operation the first cotton manufactory in the State of New York, at Whitesborough, Oneida County, formed a wool company and established the Oriskany Woolen Mills, not only the first of the kind in the State, but believed now to be the oldest existing wool-making institution in the United States. He was a man of known sagacity, integrity, and moral worth, and in taking the lead in an enterprise of such importance, located in the commanding geographical avenue of intercourse between Albany and the region of the lakes, was regarded with curious interest.1 1809 is the date of the
1 Dr. Seth Capron was born in Rhode Island about 1760, died at Walden, Orange County, in 1835 (New York Commercial Advertiser ; Niles Register, October 3, 1835). He served under Washington during nearly the whole period of the Revolution. He settled in Whites- borough, Oneida County, New York, soon after Slater established the first successful cotton mill in this country at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1790, and was the pioneer of the cotton industry in New York. He established also both cotton and woolen mills at Walden, where he spent the later years of his life. The account of the establishment of the Oriskany Woolen Company in the Annals and Recollections of Oneida County, by Pomeroy Jones, fixes the date of the act of incorporation as 1811, referring to the general act of incorporation for man- ufacturing companies. Dr. Seth Capron was the father of General Horace Capron, who while at the head of the Agricultural Department of our national government at Washington, in 1870, was invited by the Mikado of the great and ancient Empire of Japan to teach his people the science of agriculture. As commissioner and adviser of the Kattakushi, General Capron spent several years in developing the resources of Yesso and its dependent islands, - a task without precedent, and performed amidst the most novel difficulties and surroundings.
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charter of the Company, which included such men as Stephen Van Rens- selaer, Ambrose Spencer, De Witt Clinton, John Taylor, James Platt, Nathan Williams, Newton Mann, and Theodore Sill; but the mills had then been in operation some months. The satinets first made sold readily at four dollars, and broadcloth for ten and twelve dollars per yard. For the first four years the wool used cost an average price of one dollar and twenty cents per pound.
The beautiful estates of the various members of the Livingston family on the shores of the Hudson at this period would have made a village of villas, indeed, if they could have been collected. John R. Livingston disputed with his brother, the Chancellor, the honor of having the show place; his stately house covered so much ground, and was esteemed so perfect in architectural symmetry, that drawing-masters made sketches of it and gave it to their pupils to copy. The design was by Brunel, after the château of Beaumarchais in France. His establishment in the city was unrivaled for style, and both himself and family mingled in fashion- able life with great zest. Henry Beekman Livingston inherited his grand- father Beekman's estate at Rhinebeck. He was a fine-looking man, and by many thought to surpass even the Chancellor in the manly courtesy of his address. He married Miss Shippen, niece of Henry Lee, president of the first Congress. Montgomery Place, the residence of their oldest sister, the widow of Richard Montgomery, stood upon an elevation nearly opposite the Catskills, with picturesque views on every hand. It em- braced a great number of valuable acres in a high state of cultivation. Mrs. Thomas Tillotson was the mistress of Linwood ; from the piazza of her dwelling the river had all the effect of a lovely lake, enclosed by gently sloping hills adorned with pretty villas half hidden in the groves. Briercliff, Mrs. Garretson's country-seat, was within a mile of Linwood; she was said to have more genius and imagination than either of the sis- ters. Her husband, Rev. Freeborn Garretson, was one of the pioneers of the early Methodist Church in America.
Rokeby, the country-seat of Mrs. Armstrong, was one of the ornaments of the river. The house was of stone and very spacious, and the beau- tiful, well-planned grounds elicited general admiration. She was the youngest of the sisters, and the most striking in personal appearance, with queenly manners, and large, dark, expressive eyes. When her brother, the Chancellor, retired from his mission to France, her husband, General John Armstrong, was appointed to the post in his stead, and she, with her family, accompanied him to Paris, residing there seven years. She was a special favorite among the distinguished men and women at the court of Napoleon, where her intelligence, animation, overflowing good-
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LIVINGSTON HOMES ON THE HUDSON.
humor, and tact in conversation were unrivaled. In knowledge of the French language she was in nowise inferior to her brother Edward, who found his acquirements of such practical value in New Orleans ; and who had, when a boy, so captivated Lafayette, while at one time domesticated for a season in the family, that he was urged by the Marquis to run away with him to Europe. "I will adopt you for my brother, and you shall have every advantage of education that Europe can afford," Lafay- ette argued persuasively ; "we will write from the other side to be for- given." It is needless to add that the temptation was resisted. Mrs. Armstrong's only daughter married William B. Astor.
Still another handsome property not far from Clermont was Grasmere, left Mrs. Montgomery by her deceased husband, but which had been pur- chased by her sister Joanna, who married Peter R. Livingston, the brother of Maturin Livingston.1 The house was of French architecture, and furnished with many costly articles imported from France, such as red morocco sofas and Turkey carpets. Maturin Livingston sold his New York house in Liberty Street upon being removed from the office of recorder - at the close of the governorship of his father-in-law, Morgan Lewis -and bought Ellerslie, a valuable estate near Rhinebeck, upon which he erected an elegant mansion, the same that was subsequently owned and occupied by Hon. William Kelly.
These fine domains, as the reader will observe, belonged simply to one of the branches of the extensive and opulent Livingston family, and they were clustered within a few hours' drive of each other in the neighbor- hood of Clermont. The Livingston manor property was further to the north ; and other estates of magnitude, located between Clermont and the metropolis, were equally illustrative of the development of the rich coun- try bordering the Hudson, and of the wealth and consequence of the dominant political party in New York at this epoch. The Clintons eclipsed the Livingstons in will-power if not in moneyed influence, and an irreconcilable feeling of hostility existed between them. But they were of one mind in sustaining the administration. Mayor De Witt Clinton renounced his opposition to the embargo laws after mature reflec-
1 Peter R. and Maturin Livingston were sons of Robert James Livingston, born 1729, whose wife was Susan, daughter of the famous lawyer and judge, Hon. William Smith (see Vol. I. 567, 568), and sister of the equally famous William Smith, the historian, who be- came Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and who married Janet Livingston, her husband's sister. Robert James Livingston was the son of James Livingston, born 1701, who married Elizabeth Kierstede. And James Livingston was the son of Robert, nephew of the first Lord of the Manor, who, coming from Scotland in 1696, married Margaretta Schuyler in 1697 ; their daughter Janet married Colonel Henry Beekman ; and another daughter, Angelica, married Johannes Van Rensselaer.
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tion, for which he was charged with bad faith by Cheetham, who adhered to the stand he had first taken, his paper thereby losing its party caste. And both the Livingstons and the Clintonians disclaimed with energy the charge of the Federalists that they were under French influence.
But the election of a new President was drawing near, and old feuds broke out afresh. Jefferson declared his fixed determination to retire. Many wished to see Vice-President George Clinton elevated to the Presidential chair, and were displeased, when, according to the fashion of the day, a congressional caucus nominated James Madison. James Monroe would have better suited a considerable number of the Virgin- ians, on the special ground that Madison was so identified with the exist- ing system of foreign policy that with him for President no change could rationally be expected. In New York some overtures were made and a meeting held for the purpose of transferring the Federal vote to Vice- President Clinton. This arrangement, however, failed, and the Federal candidates were Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King. When the electors were chosen by the Legislature, they were distributed six to Clinton and the remaining thirteen to Madison, through a compromise between the Clintonians and Livingstons. At the same time a most vigor- ous personal opposition to Vice-President Clinton was prosecuted quite as persistently by some of his own party as by the Federalists, and great efforts were made to impair the public confidence in Mayor De Witt Clinton.
Before the results of the Presidential election were known, Jefferson became uneasy about the unpopular embargo. It did not work well. Indeed, it had proved a total failure in bringing England and France to terms. While it bore heavily upon England, it was far more injurious to the United States. England could obtain supplies elsewhere - cotton from Brazil, tobacco from South America, naval stores from Sweden, lumber from Nova Scotia, and grain from the Baltic. The United States was deprived of the trade of all nations, and must do without silks, linens, woolens, hardware, pottery, and many other articles to which. the people were accustomed, and had not the facilities to manufacture at home.
The insolence of the French was even more humiliating than the arro- gance of England. To Minister Armstrong's remonstrances when Ameri- can vessels were seized because they had merchandise of British origin on board, Napoleon craftily answered that since the passage of the em- bargo act no American vessel had a legal right on the ocean, thus any pretending to be American must either be British or subservient to British orders. Of course there were American vessels abroad at the
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time the law was enacted ; and many of these, instead of returning to their native wharves, conducted a hazardous traffic from one European port to another, contriving to evade the French prohibitions by forged documents; and the Bayonne decree was chiefly aimed at the suppression of this trade. But it subjected to confiscation innocent vessels as well, for which there was no remedy.
Jefferson had no intention of going to war with England. With noth- ing but a handful of useless gunboats, no army, and almost no fortifica- tions, the idea of actual hostilities was scouted rather than entertained. He had summarily and cavalierly rejected the treaty negotiated by James Monroe and Pinckney, and looked with equanimity upon the distresses of the merchants and the multitudes dependent upon trade for support, fondly imagining that agriculture would be benefited thereby. He had in earlier times expressed the abstract opinion that it would be happy if the United States could be shut out from the rest of the world, like China, and her inhabitants be all husbandmen.
He was amazed to see how much of secret evasion and open resist- ance the embargo encountered at home. It even became necessary to send troops to check the traffic on Lake Champlain, a convenient outlet for the produce of portions of New York and New England. Some bloody encounters took place in that quarter, leading to trials for murder and treason. It was exceedingly difficult to obtain verdicts of guilty from jurors, and the treason cases came to nothing in every instance. Judge Livingston held that no resistance to law, however extensive or violent, could amount to treason where mere private advantage was the object, and not the overthrow of the government. In New England prosecutions were defended by the celebrated Samuel Dexter, and other eminent lawyers, on the ground of the unconstitutionality of the embargo. It was impossible, with such extensive coasts and numerous ports, to enforce an odious law which every knave violated, however scrupulously honest men might obey and suffer. And it was found productive of mischief in an infini- tude of ways. The richer the merchant, the less he objected to the cessa- tion of his business, which was sure to furnish him with the opportunity of buying up, at a great discount, the ships and produce of smaller men. Those of moderate means were the victims. The very poor were not hesitant about demanding food and shelter when labor was denied them.
The mayor of New York, for instance, called a special meeting of the common council, on one occasion, to advise in relation to a significant notice published in the Daily Advertiser, inviting the idle seamen in the vicinity of the city to assemble in the Park at eleven o'clock the next morning, for the purpose of inquiring of the mayor what they were to do
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for their subsistence during the winter. A resolution was entered upon the minutes, and also inserted in the evening papers, to the effect that the mayor disapproved of the mode of application, but informed the public that "the corporation would in the emergency, as they had done on for- mer occasions, provide for the wants of all persons, without distinction, who might be considered proper objects of relief." 1
Josiah Quincy was the champion of the principles and policy of the Federalists at Washington in 1808, and in his vehement and pe- 1808. culiar style of oratory declared it would be as reasonable to under- take to stop the rivers from running into the sea, as to keep the people of New England from the ocean. It was all very well to talk about the patriotism and quiet submission of such as dwelt in the interior, who had no opportunity to break the embargo; but when those whose ships lay on the edge of the ocean loaded with produce, with the alternative before them of total ruin or a rich market, and they risked the latter, they could not for any length of time be identified with common smugglers. Already the suspension of imports had imposed a loss of thirty mil- lions of dollars, principally on the maritime interest of America ; and it was not to be expected that such ruinous sacrifices would be long borne with patience.
In one of Quincy's letters to his wife in March he said, "We are tired of one another, and Jefferson of us. The only difficulty to be surmounted is, that those who voted for the embargo do not like to go home with it on, and yet they dare not take it off. We meet and adjourn, do ordinary business, wrangle, and then the majority retire to intrigue for the Presi- dency." A glimpse of his manner of life is afforded through a passage in an earlier letter during the same session : "At half past six in the morn- ing my servant comes into my room, makes my fire, gets my dressing apparatus, and at half past seven I am out of bed, and dressed for the day. My servant, not content with tying my hair simply with a ribbon, works it up into a most formidable queue, at least three inches long, and as big as a reasonable Dutch quill. He says this is the mode in New York, and as I do not wear powder, and it looks a little more trig, I acquiesce."
Although John Jay in one of his letters speaks of the French Revolu- tion as having abolished silk stockings and high breeding from the land, and Jefferson was making a study of carelessness in personal attire to illustrate his notions of equality and democracy, old-school fashions had by no means become obsolete. The carriage dress worn by Mrs. Quincy while visiting the home of her brother, General Jacob Morton, in New York, the year before, was a short pelisse of black velvet, edged round the
1 Minutes of Common Council in Manuscript. 1808, Vol. XVIII. p. 18.
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skirt with deep lace, and trimmed with silk cord and jet buttons, while her hat was of purple velvet and flowers ; her costume worn in Washington the same winter at a ball given by the British Minister was of rich white silk embroidered in gold, with train, and a corresponding head-dress, orna- mented with a single white ostrich feather.
Peter Parley tells an amusing story of a leading New York barber, who was shaving a gentleman on the evening Madison's nomination for the Presidency was announced. "Dear me!" he exclaimed. "Surely this country is doomed to disgrace and shame. What Presidents we might have had, sir! Just look at Daggett of Connecticut, or Stockton of New Jersey ! What queues they have got, sir- as big as your wrist, and powdered every day, sir, like real gentlemen as they are. Such men, sir, would confer dignity upon the chief magistracy ; but this little Jim Madison, with a queue no bigger than a pipe-stem ! Sir, it is enough to make a man forswear his country !"
The winter of 1808 - 1809 was one of intense anxiety and excitement throughout the country. Madison was found to have received one hun- dred and twenty-two votes for President; and George Clinton one hundred and thirteen votes for Vice-President, thus both were declared elected. The question of preparing for war agitated the public mind almost equally with that of repealing the embargo act. Many of Jefferson's partisans became alarmed at the condition of affairs, and sided with the Federalists. After much caucusing Jefferson consented to a compromise, and non- intercourse was substituted for embargo, which was the last act of his administration.
By the new law all nations except France and Great Britain were re- lieved from the arbitrary provisions of the former act, and the coasting trade was in a great measure set free. Men breathed 1809. with more ease, and business began to revive. But the restraints still subjected honorable merchants to serious embarrassments, and evasions by the dishonest were ten times as frequent as during the fourteen months' embargo. Jefferson laid down the scepter with hearty good-will. He had discovered a wide difference between author-
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