USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 42
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He drew about him a host of friends, and was alive to every social courtesy. He was often in general society, accompanied usually by the two young clergymen of Trinity Parish, Benjamin T. Onderdonk, conse-
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crated bishop in 1830, and William Berrian, rector of Trinity from 1830 to 1862; and he was on terms of cordial intimacy with the clergy of other denominations. "Generally he had some controversy on hand, and I often jested with him on his being such a man of war from his youth up," wrote Dr. Mathews. His temperament was, however, adapted to the times. It seems a little remarkable that the great champion of Episcopacy in New York should have been of Puritan an- cestry, but such was the fact. Edmund Hobart, one of the founders of Hingham, Massachusetts, came from Hingham, England, in 1633; his second son was an emi- nent Puritan divine, who had five clerical sons, preachers among the Con- gregationalists, also two grandsons, Rev. Noah Hobart and the distin- guished missionary, Rev. David Brainard. Hon. John Sloss Hobart, so frequently mentioned in Right Reverend John Henry Hobart. [Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York.] former pages, was the son of Rev. Noah Ho-
bart. One of the grandsons of the eminent Edmund Hobart, to whom an army of divines and scholars trace their pedigree, was John Hobart, the grandfather of the bishop.
His favorite theme was the proper education of the clergy. He pro- posed a school of theology in New York as early as 1813, the germ of the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Ninth Avenue, established under his immediate auspices in 1819, in which he was an active professor of pas- toral theology and pulpit eloquence. The board of trustees were all bish-
ops - one from every diocese in the Union. A theological li- 1830 brary was speedily instituted ; and scholarships to furnish education for the impecunious. This noble institution has ever since been sending out its ministerial candidates to every part of the land. The cause of Sun-
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day schools and of missions, charities of every character, the circulation of Bibles and of tracts, and the authorship of almost numberless important works, engaged in turn Bishop Hobart's attention and efforts. His valu- able life, however, came to a sudden termination in September, 1830, in the prime of his intellectual vigor, at the age of fifty-five.
New York City by this time appeared like a youth much overgrown for his years. It had shot up with a rapidity that defied calculation. Wealth was increasing faster than sobriety was inclined to measure. Swarming multitudes from every quarter of the globe were rendering the community in a certain sense unformed. Keen-sighted, far-seeing men had acted upon the principle that no good citizen should be without the privilege of a public library ; educational and charitable institutions were multiplying; but a strong desire was manifested to lift intelligence up- ward and onward by creating a university in the city - a seat of learning on a broad scale, with the widest range of liberal education, that should benefit the nation as well as the commercial metropolis of the land. Among the merchants who aided munificently were George Griswold and John Delafield ; Albert Gallatin was concerned in all the delibera- 1831. tions, and Morgan Lewis and Edward Livingston brought their well-matured judgment to the aid of the scholars and clergymen enlisted in the enterprise. The University was virtually established in 1831; professors were inaugurated to fill the various chairs in 1832; the corner-stone of a fine edifice one hundredand eighty feet long by one hundred feet wide, front- ing on Washing- ton Square, then quite a long dis- tance from the city, was laid in 1833, which was soon completed, and opened in 1835.
University of the City of New York. (Washington Square.) It was a Gothic structure of white freestone modeled after King's College, England, and was esteemed a masterpiece of pointed architecture, with its octangular turrets rising at each of the four corners.
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Rev. Dr. Mathews was the first Chancellor of the University. He was the scholarly pastor of the Garden Street Dutch Reformed Church, tall, of fine presence, elegant address, with a noble, well-poised head, and handsome, magnetic features. He was one of the most genial of men, animated and witty in conversation, fond of story-telling, and eloquent in debate. He was an author as well as a preacher and instructor ; and his two daugh- ters, Joanna and Julia Mathews, have enriched the juvenile literature of America with sixty-five entertaining and successful volumes of the high- est religious and moral character. His increased duties, however, led to the installation of a colleague in the church, Rev. Mancius S. Hutton ; and the great fire of 1835 destroying the old edifice, a new and elegant structure was erected near the University, and opened in 1837. Washing- ton Square - the old Potter's Field - was being improved, and soon be- came one of the most quiet and fashionable portions of the city. Among the wealthy merchants who built handsome residences overlooking this new park were George Griswold, Thomas Suffern, Saul Alley, John Johnston, James Boorman, and William C. Rhinelander - who recently died leaving upwards of fifty millions. The street bounding Washington Square on the east was called University Place.
The Union Theological Seminary, in contemplation as the infant uni- versity began to show symptoms of life, was established in 1836. Twenty- eight trustees from the Presbyterian Church, half of whom were clergymen, managed its affairs - but the new theological school was open to every denomination of Christians. A plain brick edifice was constructed along- side the University opposite Washington Square. The basis of a rare and valuable library was also laid by the purchase in 1839 of the library of Leander Van Ess, of Germany, editor of the Septuagint and Vulgate, consisting of about fifteen thousand distinct works. It has steadily in- creased to some thirty-five thousand volumes, in 1880, with nearly the same number of choice and rare pamphlets, including the original edi- tions of the reformers, Luther, Melancthon, and others, the earliest Bibles printed, and valuable collections of church history.
A society was incorporated in April, 1831, for the purpose of founding an institution for the education of the blind. Among the foremost in this enterprise were Dr. Samuel Akerly, brother-in-law of Dr. Mitchill, who had been so zealous in the interests of the deaf and dumb, 1831. and Samuel Wood, Theodore Dwight, and Dr. John Dennison Russ. The first attempt at instruction ever made in this country was in 1832. Dr. Russ invented a phonetic alphabet of raised letters, and taking six blind children into his household demonstrated the practica- bility of the experiment. The work went forward slowly but with marked
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success. In 1839 an elegant Gothic edifice was erected, through legisla- tive and private donations, in Ninth Avenue, corner of Thirty-fourth Street.
The population of New York City at this epoch was upwards of two hundred thousand. But stages were the only means of public convey- ance from one point to another. The subject of railway travel was in agitation ; also the peculiar adaptation of horse-railroads for the streets of cities. The New York and Harlem Railroad Company was in- corporated in 1831, for the purpose of constructing a railroad from the central part of the city to Harlem. Two years later the road, with a single track, was in operation as far as Murray Hill, and the new horse- cars were a great novelty as well as a convenience.
The introduction of steam as a moving power for land-carriages was painfully slow. A steam-engine built by George Stephenson at his works in England arrived in New York in the spring of 1829 and was exhibited for some time in the yard of Edward Dunscomb in Water Street, its wheels raised above the ground and kept running for the benefit of the curious. C. E. Detmold received that year a premium for construct- ing a horse locomotive able to carry twelve passengers at the rate of twelve miles an hour - the horse working on an endless chain platform. The next year he made drawings of the first American steam locomotive, which, built in New York, was placed on a South Carolina road late in the summer of 1830. Peter Cooper, the philanthropist, in the midst of the great excitement created by the progress of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - of which the first stone was laid July 4, 1828 -invented and built a small locomotive in Baltimore to demonstrate to the stockholders that the cars could be drawn around short curves. It was placed upon the road in 1830, and its success induced the half bankrupt and quite disheartened company to press forward with the work. The railroad from Albany to Schenectady was commenced the same year, for which a char- ter had been granted in 1826 ; the trial trip was made in 1832. Other railroads were undertaken in various parts of the country; but it was a long while before they became a business success.
Washington Irving returned from his travels of a dozen or more years in foreign lands in May, 1832. New York welcomed him home with pride and affection. Honors of every description were accorded him. Enthusiasm pervaded all classes. No author had ever 1832. been so much read in the city of his birth. His felicities of theme, thought, and expression, together with his irresistible drollery, fullness of invention, and refined humors, gave him a place in the public heart never to be superseded. While abroad, his genius had won for him distin-
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guished consideration, and he had been on terms of intimacy with the most notable and worthy of all countries. For two years he was secre- tary of the American legation in London, and received one of the fifty- guinea gold medals provided by George IV. for eminence in historical compositions. Standing once more among his kindred and countrymen, the same erect, dignified, healthful figure of modest proportions, with the same thoughtful air varied with captivating surprises of animation, he unconsciously charmed, while adoring New York above all the places he had seen beyond the seas. A great banquet was given him on the May 30.
30th, at the City Hotel in Broadway; three hundred gentlemen were seated at the tables. Chancellor Kent presided, and James K. Paulding was placed at the right hand of the long-absent traveler. Philip Hone, William A. Duer, Professor Renwick, Thomas L. Ogden, and Samuel Swartwout were the vice-presidents of the entertainment.1
The summer following was marked by the appearance of that terrible scourge, the Asiatic cholera. Over three thousand persons died in New York City between the 4th of July and the 1st of October. The pecu- liarities of the fearful visitation excited universal notice; and not least among the contributions to medical literature it elicited was a valuable paper from Dr. John W. Francis. In the autumn President Jackson was re-elected by a large vote, and Martin Van Buren became vice- president. Again New York furnished a Secretary of State, in the person of Edward Livingston. He had just begun to feel at ease in his sena- torial chair, when elevated to the cabinet. He wrote to his wife at their beautiful seat on the Hudson - Montgomery Place, inherited from his sister - saying: "Here am I in the second place in the United States, some say the first ; in the place filled by Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe ; and my brother, who filled it before any of them; in the place filled by Clay at so great a sacrifice; in the very easy-chair of Adams ; in the office which every politician looks to as the last step but one in the ladder of his ambition; in the very cell where the great magician, they say, brewed his spells." The duty of doing the honors of the Executive Man- sion having devolved upon President Jackson's young niece, Mrs. Liv- ingston, as the wife of the premier, was sought for aid and assistance on all occasions. And she was abundantly competent. Her gifts in conver-
1 Among those who gave this dinner were Francis B. Cutting, Ogden Hoffman, William Gracie, Charles Fenno Hoffman, James G. King, Peter Schemerhorn, Henry Ogden, Jacob Morton, Charles F. Grim, Dr. John W. Francis, Cornelius Low, Richard Ray, Judge John Duer, Thomas R. Mercein, Charles Kent, J. Fenimore Cooper, Thomas W. Ludlow, Charles King, John A. King, Charles Graham, General Augustus Fleming, James J. Jones, Abraham Schemerhorn, Gulian C. Verplanck, David E. Colden, William Bard, Peter G. Stuyvesant, Beverley Robinson, W. B. Lawrence, and Peter Irving.
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sation, her distinction of manners, and remarkable beauty are historical. Their house in Washington had long since become the resort of all that was notable in statesmanship and letters ; and national hospitalities were never dispensed with more elegance.
In April, 1833, Cora Livingston, the beautiful daughter and only sur- viving child of Edward Livingston, was married to Thomas P. Barton, and immediately after the ceremony President Jackson, while offering 1833.
his congratulation, announced that Livingston was appointed Min- ister to France, and that his newly wedded son-in-law had been selected as secretary of legation. At the same period Auguste Davezac, the brother of Mrs. Livingston, was Chargé d'Affaires of the United States at The Hague.
The first election of a mayor of New York by the votes of the people, in conformity with a re- cent amendment of the State constitution, occurred in 1834. The candidates were 1834. Gulian C. Verplanck and Cornelius W. Law- rence. Some stirring scenes occurred, but the Democrats were successful, and Lawrence was Cornelius W. Lawrence. [From a Miniature presented the author by the late Mrs. Lawrence.] placed in the mayor's chair. Governor William L. Marcy, at this time controlled the executive department of the State government, a man of talents of the highest order, of great decision of character, and of acknowledged honor and integrity. The Democratic party was well organized, had the full benefit of Jackson's popularity, and was basking in the sunshine of his patronage; while its favorite, Martin Van Buren, was the heir-apparent to the Presidency.
In June, 1835, Edward Livingston and his family returned to New York from France - in the Constitution, commanded by Commodore Elliott - where his conduct of affairs had given universal satisfaction. Crowds of people greeted him at the landing and followed his carriage to the house of his brother in Greenwich Street, in 1835. front of which they remained, calling for him until he appeared at the door and made a short speech. A request came presently from the common council of the city for him to hold a public reception in the governor's room of the City Hall; and during the same day he received an invitation to a public dinner to be given in his honor at the City Hotel, signed by Mayor Lawrence, Enos T. Throop, Samuel Jones, Thomas ' J. Oakley, William Leggett, J. Fenimore Cooper, Theodore Sedgwick, and others, which took place on the 16th of July. The mayor presided, and among the toasts was -"Edward Livingston. As a patriot
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and statesman he belongs to America; as a jurist and philosopher, to the world." 1
It had been discovered in 1834 that New York City contained a dis- orderly element of a formidable character, and in April of that year the civil authorities were for the first time obliged to call for military aid in maintaining the peace of the city. The municipal election gave rise to a series of brawls and riots. Three months afterwards another riot was created through hostility to the antislavery movement. The meetings of the Abolitionists were attacked and broken up, and the mob sacked the dwellings of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, in Rose Street. Mayor Law- rence called out the National Guard, which marched and countermarched in front of the City Hall ; word suddenly came that several of the churches were about to be destroyed by the rioters, and the troops were ordered to the rescue.2 The streets were filled with angry-looking multi- tudes, and near the Spring Street Church a barricade of carts, barrels, and ladders chained together was planted across the way, and the parsonage of Rev. Dr. Cox had already been attacked. The troops were assailed
1 The name of Edward Livingston had become illustrious all over the world through his great scheme of philanthropy, the Livingston Code, which was no sooner published in America in 1823 than it was reprinted in England, in France, and in Germany. ( Westminster Review for January, 1825 ; Project of a New Penal Code, London, 1824 ; Jeremy Bentham's Works, edited by Bowring, XI. 37 ; Revue Encyclopedique, tom. XLIV. 214, 215 ; Cambridge Essays, 1856, p. 17.) Victor Hugo wrote to the author "You will be numbered among the men of this age who have deserved most and best of mankind." The new law-giver received autograph letters from the Emperor of Russia and the King of Sweden on the subject of his work. The King of the Netherlands sent him a gold medal, with a eulogistic inscription. The government of Guatemala translated one of his codes - that of Reform and Prison Dis- cipline - and adopted it word for word (Codigo de Reforma y Disciplina de las Prisiones. Guatemala, 1834) ; and in his honor gave to a new city and district the name of Livingston. Many of the most prominent statesmen of the world wrote to him in terms of appreciative commendation. When Kossuth was entertained at a public dinner by the bar of New York City, in 1852, he said "that America had a great authority for codification - Livingston - one of the three or four American names best known and most respected in Europe."
2 Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence (born 1791, died 1861), mayor of New York City, mem- ber of Congress from 1832 to 1834, president of the Democratic Electoral College in 1836, collector of the port of New York under President Polk, and for twenty years president of the Bank of the State of New York, was descended from William Lawrence who settled on Long Island about two hundred years prior to this period (see Vol. I. 231), and married Eliza- beth, daughter of Richard Smith, the patentee of Smithtown - the lady who afterwards mar- ried Sir Philip Carteret. Mayor Lawrence married his cousin, Lydia A., daughter of Judge Effingham Lawrence, and widow of Edward N. Lawrence. The Lawrence family is widely known and prominently connected throughout the country. Walter Bowne (born 1771, died 1846), mayor of New York City four years prior to the election of Lawrence, and who represented the city in the State senate three successive terms, traced his ancestry to the same source in the maternal line, the Lawrences and Bownes having intermarried in many gen- erations. Mary, the daughter of Walter Bowne, became the wife of John W. Lawrence (born in 1800), member of Congress and president of the Seventh Ward Bank in New York.
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with stones and every offensive missile, but with admirable coolness they were able to quell the disturbance and disperse the mob without firing a shot. Scarcely another month had elapsed ere a riot occurred among the stone-cutters. In building the University, the contractors purchased marble at Sing Sing, and employed the State prisoners, for economy's sake, to cut and hew it before bringing it to the city. Three or four private dwellings were also in process of erection from the Sing Sing marble. This was no sooner known than the stone-cutters banded together, held meetings, and paraded the streets with incendiary placards, and even went so far as to attack several houses. The troops were called out, and, after dispersing the malcontents, lay under arms in Washington Square four days and four nights. The third, or "Five Points Riot," occurred on Sunday, June 21, 1835. It was an Irish brawl. A regiment of Irishmen was about to be organized, to which some native Ameri- 1835. cans took exception. Two or three fights began in different quarters of the town, one in Grand Street, another in Chatham, and a third in Pearl. The latter was between two Irishmen, but the affray soon became general and serious. Citizens interfered and were pelted with brick-bats. Finally Mayor Lawrence appeared on the scene with a large force of police, and, having arrested the principal ringleaders, dispersed the mob for the time. On Monday the riots were renewed by parties of Irish and Americans, a public house in the Bowery was sacked, and several prominent citizens dangerously injured. The mayor and police again came to the rescue ; but the next day and the next witnessed a repetition of outrages, and finally public notice was given that there would be no meeting of the O'Connell Guards ; and peace thereby was restored.
A terrible calamity befell New York City in the following December. On the bitter cold night of the 16th, as the tempestuous winds
were howling through the snow-clad streets, the people below Dec. 16. City Hall were suddenly startled by an alarm of fire. Upon looking out they saw a volume of lurid light streaming into the sky below Wall Street. Firemen hastened to the scene of the conflagration, but water could only be obtained from the river, and that presently froze in the pipes before it could be used. The brave men beat their hose and tried every means to prevent the formation of ice without avail; it was the coldest weather known for many years ; finally they drew their " machines " out of the way and boldly tried to save property. Many of the stores were new, with iron shutters and doors and copper roofs, and in burning presented the appearance of immense iron furnaces in full blast. The heat at times melted the copper roofing, and the liquid ran off in great drops. The gale blew towards the East River. Wall after wall was
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heard tumbling like an avalanche. Fiery tongues of flame leaped from roofs and windows along whole streets, and seemed to be making angry dashes at each other. The water of the bay looked like a vast sea of blood. The bells rang for a while and then ceased. Both sides of Pearl Street and Hanover Square were at the same instant in the jaws of the hungry monster. Seventeen blocks were consumed, and upwards of twenty millions of property converted into smoke and ashes. The burnt district embraced some thirteen acres, and nearly seven hundred buildings were swept away, occupied chiefly by New York's largest shipping and wholesale dry-goods merchants and grocers. The marble exchange, supposed fire-proof, in which had been stored books, papers, and costly goods, disappeared like a dissolving-view ; and the Garden Street Church, in the midst of its tombs, with its fine organ, and immense quantities of merchandise placed within and about it for safety, was quickly a shapeless pile of ruins. Mayor Lawrence appeared with his officers, and it was resolved to blow up buildings. But there was a want of powder; Charles King volunteered to visit the navy-yard for a supply, and returned with a band of marines and sailors. About two o'clock in the morning several structures were mined, and the explosions went on fearfully but successfully until the progress of the fire was arrested.
The day dawned upon a wild waste. And, to add to the distress, every insurance company in the city was made bankrupt by the same disaster. As soon as the first excitement had subsided, a public meeting of Dec. 19. the citizens was convened by the mayor at the City Hall, and reso- lutions, offered by James G. King, to unite in vigorous exertions to repair the loss, were unanimously adopted. On motion of Dudley Selden, a committee of one hundred and fifty citizens was appointed to ascertain the origin and cause of the fire and probable extent of losses.
T SI OSTENDO NON TIACTO
Ogden Arms.
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CHAPTER XLIX.
1835 - 1845.
INTRODUCTION OF CROTON WATER.
NEW YORK SUFFERING FOR WATER. - INTRODUCTION OF GAS. - THE CROTON AQUEDUCT. - MURRAY HILL RESERVOIR. - CROTON RIVER FLOWING INTO THE CITY. - CELEBRA- TION OF THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT. - ELECTION OF MARTIN VAN BUREN TO THE PRESIDENCY. - FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 1837. - FAILURES. - SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS BY ALL THE BANKS IN AMERICA. - INFLUENCE OF JAMES G. KING. - ENGLAND SENDING GOLD TO NEW YORK. - THE COUNTRY RELIEVED. - BANKS OF 1880. - MONEYED INSTITUTIONS. - PRISONS. - THE TOMBS. - CITY CORRECTIONAL AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. - PENNY JOURNALISM. - THE GREAT NEWSPAPER SYSTEM. - FOUNDING OF THE PROMINENT NEW YORK JOURNALS. - THE ITALIAN OPERA. - POETS OF 1837. - COLUMBIA COLLEGE ANNIVERSARY. - DEDICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY. - INVENTION OF THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH. - ADOPTION OF THE MORSE SYSTEM. - PROFESSOR SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. - HONORS OF THE WORLD. - GREAT POLITICAL EXCITEMENT OF THE DECADE. - VICTORY OF THE WHIGS. - THE GREAT FIRE OF 1845 IN NEW YORK CITY.
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