USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 17
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until his successor had actually landed in New York, in October, 1753, did he hand it over to the appointee.
In the midst of these conflicts of a political character, imbittering the leading participants quite sufficiently, events were occurring in other directions which brought in more of a personal element than was already at hand. Oliver De Lancey, a brother of the Chief-Jus- tice, was somewhat of a roisterer and man about town, fond of race- horses and a habitue of taverns. In the summer of 1749 he got into an altereation in a tavern with a Dr. Calhoun, in which knives were drawn, and Oliver stabbed the doctor, as Clinton wrote to the Lords of Trade. How could the offender be brought to justice in a court over which his brother presided? There was no lawyer of ability enough to cope with the Justice. Attorney-General Bradley, of the Zenger trial days, was now old and feeble. It was Clinton's desire, therefore, to remove him, and put in his place William Smith, whom De Lancey had disbarred in the course of the same trial, whereby we observe how completely these men had shifted their political affiliations. The next summer. 1750, a relative of the Governor's made himself obnox- ious to the laws of peace and good order. There was a man-of-war lying off the city, in the channel separating it from Governor's Island. It was the " Greyhound." commanded by Captain Robert Roddam. who had married Clinton's daughter. One Colonel Ricketts, with wife and family and servants, was on his way in a sailboat from the city to Elizabethtown, carrying a flag. It had come to the ears of the lien- tenant in charge on the " Greyhound " that this Ricketts had boasted that he would not observe the mule requiring passing craft to sahite the flag of a man-of-war by lowering their colors. Captain Roddam being ashore, the lieutenant acted on his own responsibility when he failed to see the regulation followed by the passing sloop. He first sent a shot across its bows, and when even yet the Colonel remained obstinate, the command was given to fire directly into the little craft. It crashed through the sail and struck a servant girl. Returning at once to shore, the woman expired almost before landing. The whole city was in an uproar. Captain Roddam placed the lientenant under arrest, and sent the gunner ashore. He was arrested by Chief-Justice De Lancey's directions, and as the provincial courts had no right to try a man-of-war's man, which was reserved to the admiralty courts in England, and as, in spite of this, the trial went on, this action be- came the basis of another complaint against the Chief-Justice. Clin- ton inquired if his usurpation of the powers of an admiralty judge would not invalidate his commission as Chief-Justice. hoping thus to be rid of him.
A considerable part of Clinton's administration was contemporane- ous with the War of the Austrian succession in Europe, terminated by the Treaty of Aix-la-chapelle in 1748. Such wars in Europe, in- volving France and England, carrying with them also, both in 1715
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and 1745, attempts on the part of France to restore JJames IL's de- scendants to the throne of England, brought down upon the colonies the French of Canada and their Indian allies. The best defense against these assailants was the Federation of Five Nations in West- ern New York. Frequently did Governors leave their comfortable quarters in the fort at New York to travel into the wilderness abont the Mohawk River to hold pow-wows with the savages, in order by all means to retain and cement the alliance with this powerful league. Clinton had had his share of these politic efforts. But in June, 1753, there was a variation in the program. A conference was appointed to be held in New York. Thither came Hendricks, one of the tive " Kings " who had been taken over to England by Philip Schuyler, of Albany, in 1710. Other chiefs attended him, and the usual inter- change of presents and pledges took place. It was just as well that the Indians should obtain some idea of the strength and stability of the colony, from a view of the city by the sea with its handsome houses and fifteen thousand inhabitants.
The history of that contest for prerogative between Governors and assemblies in New York, which prepared the way for revolution and independence, has in it one tragic incident which deserves more em- phasis than it usually obtains in general histories. Governor Sir Danvers Osborn came to relieve Clinton of his onerons duties in 1753. He arrived in the Bay on Saturday, October 6. The next day. Sunday. the 7th, he landed at the foot of Whitehall Street. Clinton was away at his country-seat at Flushing. L. I .. but the Provincial Conucil met him, and a banquet was given him. As the mansion in the fort was undergoing repairs, Mr. Joseph Murray, of the Council, invited him to his elegant home on Broadway. Murray had married one of Gov- ernor Cosby's daughters, a niece of the Earl of Halifax, and as Sir Danvers's deceased wife was also a relative of that nobleman, it was but natural he should be welcomed as a guest at that house. Ou Monday, October 8, Clinton came into town, and there was a private conference between the two. On Tuesday, the 9th, Clinton made a formal call on the new Governor at his host's, and the freedom of the city was presented to him. Ou Wednesday, October 10, 1753, 0c- eurred the ceremonies of inanguration. A procession was formed which marched from the mansion in the fort np Broadway aud dowu Wall Street to the City Hall. The crowds that lined the streets gave vent to their enthusiasm at sight of a new Governor, but they could not refrain from coarse, ill-natured expressions against the retiring incumbent. This feature of the proceedings seemed to depress Os- born very much; he said that he fully expected to have the tide of favor turn against him in the same way. On Thursday, the 11th, he received an address from the city corporation, in which was uttered the hope that the Governor would be as " averse from conutenancing as we from brooking any infringements of our inestimable liberties."
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These words jarred upon the seusitive ears of Sir Danvers. He knew that his instructions with redoubled emphasis charged him to demand what had hitherto been vainly urged by his predecessors,-to sup- press or curtail the liberties which the Assembly had been quietly arrogating to themselves. After the corporation had departed, he asked one of the Royal Council how the presentation of these instruc- tions would be responded to. It was plainly told him that not an iota would the Assembly yield in the way of voting money in annual grants for specified purposes, or even in voting salaries to officials by name, thereby wielding practically the appointing power. This an- swer seemed to overwhelm him with gloom'and dismay. " What then," he exclaimed, " am I sent here for?" That same evening (Thursday, 11th) there was no public function, and Osborn dined quietly at his friend's home. His depression of spirits during and after the meal was so alarming that Mr. Murray sent for the best phy- sician in town, a Dr. Magraw. The Governor retired early to his room, ordering some broth to be brought up to him. Early on Friday morn- ing, October 12, the body of the unhappy man was found suspended by a handkerchief from a picket in the fence of Mr. Mur- ray's garden. His reason had once before been upset by grief at the death of his wife. The hopelessness of the political situation that so early opened before him had again unset- tled his mind, and death by his own hand was the startling re- BATTERY IN 1746. sult. Nothing more vividly illustrates the determination of the representatives of the colonists to assert their rights and liberties against the repressive measures of the British Crown. If the Royal Georges were obstinate in asserting their prerogatives over England and the colonies, their obstinacy found a match in that of their subjects across the Atlantic; for fifty years of continnous exercise of their prerogatives had made them invincible in the purpose of maintaining them. It was a pity it drove Sir Dan- vers to suicide; but his act was a splendid testimony to the immovable resolution of the colonists to be free and independent.
It was fortunate that Clinton had finally yielded to necessity and had handed his commission as Lieutenant-Governor to De Lancey upon the arrival of his successor, so that there was no confusion re- garding the succession as Chief Magistrate added to the consterna- tion eansed by Osborn's unhappy end. For about two years the Lieu- tenant-Governor exercised the functions of this office, the first of the colonists, and a native of the province besides, to be thus recognized and kept in the place by the authorities at home. His position was a
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peculiar one, set favorable to harmony between himself and the As- sembly. Having been so strennons in his opposition to Governor Clin- ton's attempts to carry into effect his instructions, it would seem as if he were brought into an awkward dilemma, forced as he was to carry ont the similar and even more urgent instructions to Osborn. But the Assembly knew he acted as the more channel of these instruc- tions, and in an official way. As he was known to be in entire sympa- thy with their position upon the annual grants and salaries, they were little afraid to yield a point now and then on these questions, having entire confidence that the Lientenant-Governor would carry ont their intentions in their own spirit. The appointment of Sir Charles Hardy as Governor in 1755 did not canse any serions inter- ruption to De Lancey's management of affairs. The new incumbent was so thorough a sailor that he wanted to be nothing else. From the first days of his arrival at his post he began to importune the authori- ties at home to send him on some naval expedition, and from the first he was only too glad to leave the duties of administration to De Lan- cey's capable and willing hands. In 1757 Hardy's wish was gratified ; he was made Rear Admiral of the Blue, and the Liontenant-Governor was again left the sole responsible head of the province. While he was still acting in this capacity, in 1760, he was suddenly stricken by apoplexy and died in a few hours, whereupon Clinton's wish was ful- filled at last, and Dr. Colden assumed the government. He did so at first as President of the Council, like Rip Van Dam nearly thirty years before: but a year later, in 1761, the commission of Lieutenant- Governor was made ont for him. He was then seventy-two years old. but for fifteen years longer he bore with undiminished powers the burdens of office, occasionally giving place to Governors who came and went with bewildering frequency, so that most of the time the power was practically in his hands.
The " half century of conflict " between France and England in America,-which so aptly summarizes the occasional but freqnent and more or less systematic attacks upon the English colonies by the French in Canada during the former half of the 18th century .- had its enlmination at last. after fifty years of desultory warfare, in the " French and Indian War." lasting seven or more years. It would be impossible, under any circumstances, to avoid mention in a history of our city of a war which swept over the whole of the colonial empire on the Atlantic coast. engaging the attention and demanding the participation of the people of every province. But aside from this general interest, New York came to be specially concerned in its con- duet in many partienlars. The province itself, by the very conforma- tion of nature, was of necessity the center of operations against the foe. After Braddock's expedition had come to ntter ruin in its march toward Pittsburg in July, 1755, still more was all effort concentrated here. A highway to Canada was laid by nature along the banks of
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the Undson, over the waters or along the shores of Lakes George and Champlain; and this plan of campaign always made New York City the base of military operations. General Lord London came to the city, in June, 1756. He had been appointed Commander-in- Chief of the British armies in America, the union of all the forces un- der one head being intended to consolidate the several colonies for more effective defense. The title was bigger than the man. In New York he proved himself a bully and blusterer, such as cow- ards and incapables are apt to be. He had sent arrogant commands ahead to the corporation that they must find quarters for his soldiers in the people's homes. The forced quartering of soldiers upon a popu- lation is not usually a measure adopted in a friendly country. The authorities built hasty barracks along the line of the present Cham- bers Street, well out into the country, just beyond the " Fields " or " Commons " (later City Hall Park). There the men of the rank and file could have their quarters, but for the officers no provision was made. Loudoun demanded that free quarters be instantly given to officers also, and threatened to bring all his ten thousand troops to New York and quarter them upon the inhabitants if the city officers refused the demand. Governor Hardy supported the Generalissimo; the corporation hesitated. The citizens, however, with Lieutenant- Governor De Lancey at their head, stood out for their rights, and flatly refused to obey the insulting and belligerent behest. A com- promise was finally effected. It was arranged that the officers' lodg- ing and board should be paid, and Mayor Cruger started a private subscription among the wealthier citizens to meet the expense. But the exasperation caused by the incident put the people of the city into an excellent frame of mind for the pending revolution. Nevertheless, whatever might be the objection to giving them free quarters, New York was the place that naturally suggested itself for the landing of the troops, and for the concentration of the naval forces sent from England. De Lancey, with an eye to the commercial benefit as well, pointed out to the British ministry the advantageous location of the city for " a general magazine of arms and military stores," and for the source of supplies for the commissary department. This was too ob- vious to be gainsaid. Hence, whatever of that nature was transmitted to America was ordered to " be lodged in a storehouse at New York, subject to the controul and direction " of the Commander-in-Chief, or of the Governor or Commander of New York. This gave immense stimulus to business; trade in arms and in farm products, vegetables, horses, cattle, increasing, of course, very greatly. In connection with the most famous episode of the French and Indian war- the victory by Wolfe over Montcalm on the plains of Abraham, and the taking of Quebec in September, 1759-the plan of campaign, as formerly, in- cluded a movement up toward the St. Lawrence from New York, and in conducting it the Commander-in-Chief, General Amherst,-as effi-
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The Youth Prospects of the City of New york, in North AmericaQ_
VIEW OF NEW YORK IN 1761.
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cient as his predecessor was incapable, and that is saying much, -- began and ended his operations at New York City. When the task of the Conquest of Canada was finally completed by the taking of Mon- treal, just a year after Quebec, in September, 1760, and Amherst re- turned to New York, the importance of the achievement called forth a cordial and enlogistic address from the city corporation. In this, while they dilated courteously upon the glory won by the Major-Gen- eral for himself and his country, they particularly emphasized the advantages secured for the colonies by the removal from the north of the ever-threatening danger of invasion and massacre. " The numer- ons settlements," they said, " abandoned to the relentless fury of an insatiable foe, were soon redneed to dismal and undistinguishable min. Husbandry felt the fatal effects of such a waste of country, and this city, famous for its commerce, beheld and wept the dimiuntion of its staple. . . But Canada is no more. The peasant may return in security to his fields; husbandry will soon revive; the face of nature smile with the blessings of peace, and this flourishing city in the plenty of its markets." This address accompanied the presentation of the freedom of the city in a gold box, and was graciously responded to by General Amherst, it being his " most hearty wish that this city may reap all the advantages it can desire from this conquest, and that it may prosper and flourish to the latest time." On Wednesday, No- vember 26, 1760, a public dinner was tendered the Commander-in- Chief, and the whole city put itself in gala attire, and by booming cannons and flying flags and illuminations at night, gave expression to its joy and gratitude for the fortunate termination of so prolonged and terrible a war.
Meanwhile this war, as already seen, had but served to point out the fact that New York was made by nature and Providence to be the colonial capital. Troops and generals seemed there to concentrate, and expeditions to emanate thence, as by a common confession of its fitness to be a center. In the early days of Clinton's administration Stephen Bayard, a son of Nicholas Bayard, was Mayor of the city. Ile held the position for three successive years. Then followed two long terms, one of nine years from 1747 to 1756, with Mayor Edward Holland in the chair; and one of eight years, with John Cruger, Jr., the son of the John Cruger who retired from the position in 1743. It was a little remarkable that Mr. Holland should have retained the position so long. He owed the appointment by Clinton to his friend- ship for that Governor, by reason of which he had suffered a bit of political persecution. In 1745 he had been elected a member of the Provincial Assembly for Schenectady, although a resident of New York City. Perhaps to avoid a precedent like this, of electing men non-resident in the counties to be represented, but mainly because he was an adherent of Clinton's, he was refused admission to his seat. Yet De Lancey continued him in the Mayoralty, which he occupied till
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his death in 1756. He, like Colden, may have finally disapproved of Clinton's course. Mayor Cruger had to bear the brunt of displeasure from the Commander-in-Chief Londonu for refusing free quarters; and he also showed a spirited regard for the citizens under his care by imitating his father's resistance to the press gangs. When they proposed to come ashore and capture men for unwilling service in the navy, the corporation invariably forbade it. But the Mayor could not prevent the same arbitrary proceedings far out in the Bay, where repeatedly boatloads of sailors from men-of-war were sent to board merchant vessels and force men to enlist. In August, 1760, a ship arriving from Lisbon, a gang was sent from a British frigate to im- press a number of her sailors. The crew, on seeing them approach, seized captain and mates (possibly not without cordial consent on their part) and imprisoned them in their cabin. The officers, through the cabin windows, informed the press gang, whom the crew did not allow to board, that they were prisoners and could do nothing in the matter. Thereupon fire was opened upon the crew, resulting in the killing of one man and the wounding of several.
Just before Cruger became Mayor a regular ferry was established between the city and Staten Island. The one previously in operation does not seem to have had sufficient business for regular daily trips. But now the island contained twenty-three hundred inhabitants, and intercourse with the city had become more brisk. Nevertheless, cross- ing the Bay was a serions undertaking. especially in unfavorable weather; indeed, it was in coming home from Staten Island after a dinner at the country-seat of a friend there, that James De Lancey caught a cold that fatally aggravated his chronic asthma, and the next morning he was found dead in a chair iu his library. The next year, 1756, the beginning of Mayor Cruger's term, was made memorable by two other events in the history of transpor- tation. A line of stages was started, advertised to run between New York and Philadelphia in three days only. In 1733 or 1734 Solomon and James Moore had begun to carry passengers per stage from Burlington on the Delaware to Perth Amboy, the re. mainder of the journey being by water. But three days, all per stage, from Philadelphia to New York, was a transit uucommonly quick. About the same time a packet service was initiated between New York and Falmouth, England. Mails were carried for four pennyweights in silver per lefter. A census in Mayor Holland's time. in 1749, revealed the fact that the city conuted 13,294 sonls; in 1756 another ceusus brought the figure somewhat nearer fourteen thon- sand, but the historian Smith for some reason discredits that compu- tation, and puts the population at the round number, 15,000. The city's revenne on the same contemporary anthority amounted to [2,000. The town militia had grown to a body of twenty-three hun- dred men; and there were one thousand stands of arms held in ro-
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serve for arming the poor or the sailors in case of an emergency, at the City Hall.
While the city had been increasing in population, the commercial statistics do not furnish as favorable a record during the two decades ending 1760; for while the figures indicating imports and exports are larger than they were during the three previous decades, the balance of trade is against, instead of for, New York, the exports being less than the imports. Thus from 1740 to 1750 the imports amounted to £812,647; the exports to £708,943, while from 1750 to 1760 the disparity between the two amounts was still larger, and again on the wrong side of the sheet-imports being $1,577,419, and exports £802,691. This state of affairs was doubtless dne to the wars; there would be less opportunity for manufactures or products to be dispensed to a for- eign market. There would be call for more consumption at home, and larger quantities of supplies would be brought in from abroad. As these would pass mainly through the hands of the New York mer- chants, there need be no ques- tion but that commercial pros- perity attended the conduet of the war, to counteract its drain upon the pockets of the colonists. Smith gives as a reason for the little mannfact- uring done in the colony that there was too much land in proportion to the small num- ber of people. He states that about this time felt was largely manufactured in the city, and ROYAL EXCHANGE, 1752. that felt hats were exported in large numbers to the West Indies. This was a state of things which the manufacturers at home could not permit to continue, and pretty soon the new article was placed upon the list of forbidden exports by Parliament. Between December 9, 1755, and February 23, 1756, 10 less than 12,528 hogsheads of flaxseed were shipped to Ireland to be converted into linen. The sowing of flax in the vicinity of the city had been somewhat of an experiment, but the success of it is evinced clearly by this statement. Undressed skins were sent to Ilolland, of course in English bottoms, and a trade in duck was kept up with Holland and Hamburg both. About the year 1761 it was estimated that for some time previous one hundred thousand dollars' worth of dry-goods had been imported into the city and province from England per year. There was now a Royal Exchange, somewhat in keeping with these portentous transactions. It stood not far from the spot where merchants were wont to meet, the bridge over the canal in Broad Street, but at the foot of Broad now, hard by the great dock or basin
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that ran out into the East River. It was built in 1752, a substantial brick structure, two stories high, with a pointed roof, or, to be pre- cise, a " hip " roof. A enpola rose from the center of the ridge whence the bell ring to call the merchants together, as is done in Dutch cities to this day. The lower story was open to the view, being merely brick arches to hold up the rest of the building. Here business was done, withont inch shelter from either cold or wet. The markets affected by transactions in this exchange were not so various as at present, when almost every kind of merchandise has its own exchange, and there is a Stock Exchange besides. It was mainly a " Produce Ex- change," like that which almost overshadows the ancient spot. Some prices of provisions in 1761 are preserved: beef was quoted at 4 1-2 pence per pound; pork at 5 1-2 pence; veal at from + 1-2 to 6 pence. Butter was 15 pence per pound, and milk sold for " six coppers the quart." Bread was held at four pence per loaf of one pound. Vege- tables were plentiful and delicions, thanks to the world-renowned skill of the Dutch farmers, and the taste of the Dutch families, which had passed over to the English in the city. Potatoes, once grown in city gardens for their flowers, soon became valned as a food. In 1748 a specimen was shown in the New York market weighing 7 1-2 pounds. Asparagus was brought from Coney Island in stalks white as snow, veined with delicate pink, and topped with bright green heads. Before the Revolution several large sugar houses had been built in the city. The Bayard's stood in Wall Street, in a line with the City Hall and the Presbyterian Church, perhaps about where the Manhattan and Merchants' Bank building is now. The Livingston's was located in Crown (Liberty) Street, near the Nassan Street Church; Van Cortlandt's to the northwest of Trinity, about where the rear of " Trinity Building" stands on Trinity Place. The wars with France stimulated young men of spirit again, as formerly, to enter npon perilous, but profitable, privateering enterprises, mer- chants in the city fitting ont the ships. In 1761 a petition was sent in to the Assembly asking that a lighthouse be set up on Sandy Hook. It being granted, a lottery furnished the funds, but not till 1763 did its light flash forth upon the sea.
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