USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 7
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The perils to which American commerce was exposed induced the government on the 26th to lay an embargo for thirty days on all March 26. vessels bound to foreign ports. Measures were also taken for in- creasing the regular military force, and for organizing eighty thousand troops. Thus were the relations between the two countries rapidly approaching a state of open hostility.
At this juncture Chief Justice Jay was called to Philadelphia by the term of the Supreme Court. He wrote to his wife on the 9th of April 9. April : "Yesterday I dined with the President. The question of war or peace seems to be as much in suspense here as in New York
when I left you." On the 10th he wrote again : "Peace or war April 10. appears to me a question which cannot be solved. Unless things should take a turn in the mean time, I think it will be best on my return to push our affairs at Bedford briskly. There is much irritation and agitation in this town and in Congress. Great Britain has acted unwisely and unjustly ; and there is some danger of our acting intemperately."
The President turned to the chief justice in this moment of painful anxiety, while preparations for the expected war were in progress, and before the decisions on the various commercial propositions had been reached, urging his acceptance of a mission to England for the purpose,
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" BEDFORD HOUSE."
if possible, of averting the calamities of war. Between Washington and Jay the most confidential and uninterrupted intercourse had existed since the beginning of the Revolution; and such was the President's faith in the integrity, good judgment, and executive ability of the chief justice, that he promised him exceptional powers. Jay hesitated. He had other plans and pleasures in prospect ; and yet he felt the impulse of duty strongly. He wrote to his wife on the 15th: "The object is so interesting to our country, and the combination of circumstances April 15. such, that I find myself in a dilemma between personal and public con- siderations." The question was, however, speedily settled by the receipt of some conciliatory explanations from Lord Grenville, accompanying the news of the revocation of the offensive order of the 6th of November by the British government ; and thus an opportunity seemed to offer itself for the amicable adjustment of existing difficulties. " I venture to assure you," wrote Oliver Ellsworth to Governor Oliver Wolcott, senior, " Mr. Jay will be sent to the court of London. He is now here, and has this moment informed me of his determination to accept the appointment if it shall be made. This, sir, will be a mortifying movement to those who have endeavored by every possible means to prevent reconciliation be- tween this country and Great Britain." On the same date Chief Justice Jay was nominated envoy extraordinary to the British Court. Aaron Burr sharply opposed his confirmation by the Senate, but April 16. the vote was, nevertheless, in his favor, at the ratio of eighteen to eight.
The Opposition boldly criticised the appointment as tending to teach judges to aspire to executive favors. The Jacobin or democratic societies abused the President with renewed acrimony. Their newspapers vilified the mission and his minister. The House determined if possible to ren- der the journey of Jay void of results, and succeeded in passing a bill on the 21st, cutting off all commercial intercourse with England, which was, however, lost in the Senate by the casting vote of Vice-President Adams. The chief justice sailed on the 12th of May, accom- May 12. panied by his eldest son, Peter Augustus, and by John Trumbull
as his secretary. About the same time John Quincy Adams was com- missioned resident minister to The Hague.
" Bedford House," the home of Chief Justice Jay for twenty-eight years after he retired from public life, was in process of erection at the time he was called into the diplomatic field, together with numerous other im- provements upon his Bedford estate. A large landed property had de- scended to him through his mother, Mary Van Cortlandt, located in the Bedford region some forty-five miles north of New York City, and about
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
midway between the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, where they are thirty-one miles apart. The mansion was placed upon an eminence overlooking the whole beautiful rolling region between the two great bodies of water- a landscape varied with sunny slopes, circles of hills, charming valleys, and bits of river peeping through rich foliage. It was not finished and occupied until half a dozen years later. But in 1801 wings were added, one of which, conspicuous through its garment of clambering vines, contained the library; thenceforward to the end of his life the chief justice enjoyed his family, his books, and his friends in this delight- ful retreat, where notable Europeans sought him as a species of homage to public virtue. It was then a two days' journey from the metropolis, and a mail coach was not seen oftener than once a week.
The mansion is now the summer residence of the grandson of the
S.
"Bedford House." Home of Chief Justice Jay.
chief justice, Hon. John Jay, late United States Minister to Austria. It has undergone comparatively few alterations. Although railways have cut their way through the country on either hand, it is still four miles from a car-whistle. The estate at the present time comprises at least seven hundred acres. The dwelling is a half-mile from the main road, from which it is reached by a private avenue, winding among forest trees up a gentle elevation, deftly illustrated in the accompanying sketch, and which finally cuts a circle in a wide velvet lawn, and terminates under the shadow of four superb lindens in front of the edifice.
Upon a picturesque wooded height in the rear is a pretty school or
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FAMILY OF CHIEF JUSTICE JAY.
summer-house of stone, which the chief justice1 built for the use and amusement of his children. His library, twenty-five feet square, with windows on three sides, remains to the present time as originally fash-
1 The children of Chief Justice John (born December 12, 1745, died May 17, 1829) and Sarah Livingston Jay were : 1. Peter Augustus, born at "Liberty Hall," Elizabethtown, January 24, 1776 ; 2. Susan, died young ; 3. Maria, born at Madrid, Spain, February 20, 1782, married Goldsboro Banyer ; 4. Anne, born at Passy, France, August 13, 1783 ; 5. William, born at New York, June 16, 1789, died 1858 ; 6. Sarah Louisa, born at New York, February 20, 1792.
Peter Augustus Jay, the eldest son, who was his father's private secretary in London, became a distinguished lawyer of New York, was Recorder of the city, in 1819, served in the Assembly, and was President of the New York Historical Society. He married, in 1807, Mary Rutherford, daughter of General Matthew Clarkson. Their children were : 1. John Clarkson Jay, M. D., married Laura, daughter of Nathaniel Prime ; 2. Mary, married Frederick Prime ; 3. Sarah, married William Dawson ; 4. Helena, married Dr. Henry Augustus Du Bois ; 5. Anna Maria, married Henry Evelyn Pierrepont ; 6. Peter Augustus, married Josephine Pierson, and their son, Augustus, married Emily, daughter of De Lancey Kane ; 7. Elizabeth Clarkson ; 8. Matilda, married Matthew Clarkson. Children of Dr. John Clarkson and Laura Prime Jay : 1. Laura, married Charles Pemberton Wurtz ; 2. Augustus ; 3. John ; 4. Mary, married Jonathan Edwards ; 5. Cornelia ; 6. Peter Augus- tus, married Julia, daughter of Alfred C. Post ; 7. John Clarkson Jay, Jr., M. D., married Harriet, daughter of General Vinton ; 8. Alice ; 9. Sarah ; 10. Matilda.
William Jay, the second son of the chief justice, was distinguished as a jurist, philan- thropist, and author. He married Augusta, daughter of John McVickar. Their children were : 1. Augusta, married John Nelson ; 2. Maria Banyer, married John F. Butterworth ; 3. John Jay, statesman and author ; 4. Louisa, married Dr. Alexander M. Bruen ; 5. Eliza, married Henry Edward Pellew, of England ; 6. William, died young; 7. Augusta, after the death of her sister Eliza, married, at the American Legation, Vienna, May 14, 1873, Henry Edward Pellew. John Jay, born June 23, 1817, late United States Minister to Austria and Hungary, the third child and only surviving son of Judge William Jay, succeeded to the Bedford estate ; he married Eleanor Kingsland, daughter of Hickson W. Field. Their chil- dren : 1. Eleanor, married Henry Grafton Chapman ; 2. William Jay, Colonel U. S. A., born February 12, 1841, married Lucie, daughter of Henry Oelrichs ; 3. John, died young ; 4. Augusta, married Edmund Randolph Robinson ; 5. Mary, married Major William Henry Schieffelin ; 6. Anna, married H. E. Lieutenant-General Hans Lothar Von Schweinitz, Ger- man ambassador at Vienna, and later at St. Petersburg.
Eve, the sister of Chief Justice John Jay, married Rev. Harry Munro. (See Vol. I. 602, 603. ) Frances Jay, the daughter of Augustus Jay, married Frederick Van Cortlandt, whose daughter Eve married Henry White ; and their daughter Margaret married Peter Jay Munro ; whose daughter Frances was the wife of Bishop De Lancey. (See Vol. I. 552.) Edward N. Bibby married Augusta White, one of the great-granddaughters of Frances Jay. For refer- ences to the ancestry of the Jay family, see Vol. I. 696, 697 ; Vol. II. 163, 164. Through the wife of Augustus Jay, whose mother was the daughter of Govert Loockermans (Vol. I. 137, 138, 251), and through the wife of Peter Jay, one of the distinguished family of Van Cortlandts (Vol. I. 61, 90) whose mother was the daughter of Frederick Philipse (Vol. I. 226, 270, '271, 272), and through the wife of Chief Justice John Jay, who was a Livingston (Vol. I. 275, 319), the careful reader will trace the family thread which connects the past with the present, and brings into review a whole line of public characters, reaching backward to the earliest settlement upon Manhattan Island.
A graphically interesting memoir of the Jay family, with a special sketch of Chief Justice
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
ioned. One division contains the favorite tomes first placed upon its shelves, weighty folios of Grotius, Puffendorf, Vattel, and other masters of the science of international law, standard theological and miscellaneous works, and the classic authors of antiquity. The table used by the chief justice, and four quaint high-backed chairs which graced Federal Hall in Wall Street while New York was the capital of the nation, lend a pecu- liar charm to the apartment.
Mrs. Jay, during her husband's absence in Europe, assumed the charge of domestic affairs, assisted occasionally by his nephew, Peter Jay Munro,
Library of Chief Justice Jay, "Bedford House."
and her letters were filled with practical matters, such as particulars of moneys paid in and reinvested in the new national bank, and in stocks, with quotations of their rise, the sale of lands, and the progress of the Jay, was read in December, 1878, before the " Académie des Belles Lettres, Science, et Arts de La Rochelle," in France, by " Monsieur de Richemond Archeviste de la Charente Inférieure, et Officier de l'Instruction Publique," at their public session, entitled " La Rochelle d'outre mer." The Jay family was described as one whose hospitable mansion had sheltered the first religious reunions of the Protestants of La Rochelle ; and the device upon the Jay seal was quoted, "Deo duce perseverandum," as having guided the family in the New World. (See Vol. II. 387.) The paper, while testifying to the interest with which the Academy of Rochelle has followed the course of its former citizen beyond the seas, has added to our knowledge of the family trials in its ancient home "when the last of the five churches of La Rochelle had been demolished, when the Protestants had lost in Colbert their last defender, and when Louvois had let loose the Royal dragoons to wage a war of extermination." - Family Archives.
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THE WHISKEY REBELLION.
mill and dam, and other improvements on the Bedford estate. In one instance she describes the horses brought to the city by their farmer at Bedford, and relates her experience in finding a man to break them for use before her carriage. " He has undertaken it," she adds, " but he says the coachmen of the city require as much breaking as the horses." The schools of New York, particularly those for girls, were as yet of an indif- ferent character, and Mrs. Jay placed her two daughters, Maria and Anne, aged twelve and eleven, at the celebrated Moravian school for girls at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where, it has been said, " were educated a large proportion of the belles who gave the fashionable circles of New York and Philadelphia their inspiration during the last twenty years of the century."
This summer was signalized by an insurrection in the western counties of Pennsylvania; the population scattered thinly over a frontier country was composed largely of foreigners, many of whom were wild and lawless characters - and a great amount of whiskey was distilled in that region. The tax imposed upon domestic spirits in 1791 had been resisted from the first, and in many instances barbarous outrages were perpetrated upon the revenue officers - such as whipping, tarring, and branding. Congress revised the law in 1792, modifying its most obnoxious features, hoping to avoid all reasonable objections, and the general opposition abated. But with the French fever local discontent broke out afresh, and the enemies of the administration attempted to turn the excitement to political advantage, by coupling censures of other measures with decla- mation against the excise law. In July an armed mob attacked the house of the revenue inspector, General John Neville, one of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, living near Pittsburg, who defended it so well that the assailants retired to increase their force. The combination swell- ing to five hundred men, Neville was obliged to fly for his life, and his house, barns, and granaries were burned. The marshal of the district was seized and compelled to enter into stipulations to forbear the execu- tion of his office; and both the inspector and the marshal made their escape down the Ohio and by a circuitous route to the seat of govern- ment.
The effect was electrical. Mails were seized, liberty poles erected, seditious hand-bills circulated, armed meetings held, all occupation, even the course of law, was suspended, and the country launched into open rebellion.
An outbreak so violent had not been contemplated by the instigators, who only aimed for the political embarrassment of the government. They were themselves alarmed at the fury of the storm. Several talented men
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
of great personal popularity, who had hitherto stimulated opposition to the law, exerted their utmost influence to quell the excitement and pre- serve order. But without avail. As soon as it was discovered that the civil force and local militia were powerless, that the property and even the lives of those who were willing to obey the law were in peril, harsher measures were adopted. "Every circumstance indicates that we must have a contest with those madmen," wrote Wolcott. The President issued a proclamation on the 7th of August, commanding the Aug. 7. insurgents to disperse before a given time. To prevent bloodshed if possible, commissioners were sent both by the President and Governor Mifflin of Pennsylvania, offering a general amnesty on condition of peacea- ble submission. The insurrectionary spirit still continuing at its height, Sept. 25. the militia assembled with alacrity from the different States at
the call of the President, and Hamilton, whom nothing could deter from continuing to recommend measures for the support of the public credit, was given the direction of the army.
Committing the management of the Treasury to Wolcott, Hamilton marched into the disorderly country, and fulfilled his task with such prudence and moderation that not one life was sacrificed. Jefferson, from his retirement at Monticello, ridiculed the force employed as greatly disproportioned to the object; but other leading men of the same party who accompanied the army believed that a less force would have proved inadequate. The flight of the principal leader removed the great obstacle to a pacification, and a general submission followed the arrival of the militia. A few arrests were made, and a few obscure persons convicted, who were, however, subsequently pardoned. A small body of troops was. left during the winter as a precautionary measure.
The turbulent societies which had adopted the absurdities and extrava- gances of the French to an almost incredible extent throughout the United States, and were captious about heraldic bearings, and scandalized at the sight of a spread eagle on the coin, and upon the printed acts of Congress, received a deadly blow in the mean while. The remnant of the French Convention, rendered desperate by the ferocious despotism of the Jacobins, sought safety from their wholesale butcheries by confronting danger. Robespierre himself was doomed ; the form of trial was quickly enacted, and early in the evening of July 28, the guillotine terminated his existence. Thus fell the Jacobin clubs in France; and as the boldest streams must disappear when their feeders are drained, the Jacobin soci- eties in America sunk into disgrace, as if their destinies were suspended by the same thread.
During Hamilton's absence Wolcott was unremitting in his devotion
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HAMILTON'S RETIREMENT FROM THE TREASURY. 405
to the business of the department, and evinced remarkable capacity for continued hard work. He wrote to his father on the 25th of October : "Europe is hastening to ruin; the Dutch will probably resign them- selves to their fate without any great struggle. This I hear in a Oct. 25. way which I credit. We have reason to fear the French have reversed the plan of commercial depredation. Several of our vessels trading to the British dominions have been captured and carried into France. We must, however, persist in the idea that we will not engage in the war. Mr. Jay's mission will probably issue favorably, but it is not safe to encourage sanguine expectations." Soon after the opening of the winter session of Congress, Thomas Pinckney was sent to the Spanish Court as envoy extraordinary, to conclude a treaty with that government ; thus the prospects of peace were improving, notwithstanding the temper of the Opposition.
Hamilton had for some time intended retiring from the Treasury, and on the 31st of January, 1795, sent in his resignation. His last offi- cial reports comprehended his plans for supporting the public 1795. credit on the basis of the actual revenues, and for the improve- Jan. 31. ment of the revenue. The first reviewed all the previous legislation upon the subject of public credit; the last entered at length into the con- sideration of the objects and principles of taxation generally, and the alterations required in the existing laws. This completed his fiscal sys- tem. The assumption of the debt, the creation of a bank, the imposition of a tax, each involving questions of infinite political moment, had been accomplished, and the Treasury could henceforth take its natural level in point of national importance. During the six years since the forma- tion of the new government most of the problems likely to arise had been solved and settled, and a general adherence to the principles thus established was henceforward to be expected. On the 2d of February, Wolcott, who had fully entered into the views of Hamil- Feb. 2. ton, with no favorite schemes to engraft on that which seemed perfect in itself, and well acquainted with the resources of the country, as well as versed in the business of the department, was appointed his successor.
The original Cabinet was thus entirely changed. Knox had already resigned, and been succeeded by Timothy Pickering. Edmund Randolph was the successor of Jefferson in the Department of State, and William Bradford was Attorney-General.
New York was shaken by all these great events. No place in America was so much affected by the changeable affairs and " hypocrisy of morals " in France. No other community watched the movements of Great Britain with deeper interest, or were more sharply divided in opinion
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
as to what constituted the dignity of a republic in the great emergency. And the merchants of no city were more vitally concerned in all that related to commerce with the different nations of Europe.
The six-year-old government stood firm, a great recognized power among the powers of the world. Internal agitations were to be expected. Jefferson said truly, "The people cannot be all and always well informed ; the part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the impor- tance of the facts they misconceive." But the massive framework of the structure, skillfully fitted and balanced, awaited developing processes. Ideas might clash regarding its prospective stability, and thousands of architects might rise to declare they could have fashioned it better. Wings, balconies, minarets, pinnacles, domes, and all manner of modern improvements might be added, yet the original achievement would, through it all, be shorn of none of its glory.
Hamilton returned to New York and the practice of law. His first case of importance was a libel suit, in which he submitted his famous definition of a libel, still accepted in the courts. Although an orator by natural gifts, and accustomed to public speaking, this pioneer effort at the bar, even after he had infused life and vigor into the national govern- ment with such success, was attended with singular embarrassment. He was actually so overcome with emotion when he arose to deliver his masterly argument, says James Cochrane, who was an eye-witness of the scene, " that he covered his face with his hands, and stood in that atti- tude before court and jury until the paroxysm passed."1 He cultivated a warm personal friendship for Talleyrand, recently arrived from France. Dissimilar in many respects, there was much to draw them together. Each had been employed by his respective government in the regulation of national finance, each cherished confirmed opinions concerning the science of popular government, and each had devised a system of public school education.
Rufus King was re-elected in January to the Senate of the United States for the six succeeding years. About the same time Governor George Clinton published an address to the people of New York declining to be a candidate again for the office of governor, which he had filled without interruption since 1777. He said he " withdrew from a situation never solicited by him, with real pleasure "; and that having held for nearly thirty years elective offices, and been compelled to devote almost all of his time to the discharge of the duties connected with them, his health
1 James Cochrane was the son of Dr. John Cochrane, and not only an ardent admirer and political devotee of Hamilton, but personally intimate through the relationship existing, his mother being the sister of General Schuyler, and he thus the first cousin of Mrs. Hamilton.
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LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT. 407
IN COMMON
CO
SEPTEMI
Lo: 1820
Recorder
Resolved
Resented of Letter Rom
THAT THE COMMON COUNCIL RECURS
Jeneneral Philip Van Courtland
to the hoffeflawed for thesolution when underthe Buying of Himingen Gos
a Bust of his Father Lieutenant God Van Comiland.
Sences Washington as the Commander in Chief of the Wenty
The Recorder presented the following. Resolutions Lo same
Georgeof the United States intowas hes lovernor of the State of How Work!
And Phere Dan Courtlandiante Lieu Governor . President of the Senateof the State.
conducted the Evil & Military Cultureties into the City on the 25. of November& # 89. Fr
restored the Gailed Bilyensu feran absence of more then years to theer Mars Vises
That the Corporation of the City of New York, recept with every suitable consideration, the presentation of the Bust of the late Guerre lane Courtlandt, Lieutenant Governor of the State ofnew York
that the thanks of the Common Council benderned to Jen"Chaly Yan Coulant
during the Manof the Revolution
You the presentation,which he has made to the City of New york
That,cherishing, as the City of New york does, the Monamop of all those?
of the Bust of his Father, Cherie Van Courtlandt Lieu! Licu Joven
STATESMEN AND HEROES
of the Rate of New york, during the War of the Revolution
who defended the Republic by their Councils arther Melou's And the time that tried Mon's Souls,
Is associated with General Washington and George Clinton
the ofring modelo the City ofwhichones of the Second Magistraleof the state who active in these days of Danger
asto real to Posterity one of the proudest Events in the Unnat
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