USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 38
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things that happened in New York in the olden times, too apt to be forgotten amid the novel modern conditions that were just starting upon their career. The New York Historical Society since obtained possession of the statue, and secured also some fragments of the lead- en George III., complimented in a similar way by the American soldiers.
Theatrical entertainment had kept pace with the progress of the city in wealth, and while Italian opera had been but a brief and doubt- ful experiment in the previous period, one of the handsomest play- houses in the city at this time was the Italian Opera House on Astor Place, in the building afterward known as Clinton Hall, on the site of the present Mercantile Library. But unfortunately, its name and
TEREHOUSE
BABREADY
ASTOR PLACE RIOT, 1849.
fame this day rest more upon a great riot which took place in its vicin- ity, by reason of a play that was going on within it, than on any special histrionic triumphs, although it was by no means without these. Professional jealousies and national antipathies combined to produce this unhappy affair. One of the most celebrated tragedians, the Edwin Booth of his time, was the American actor, Edwin Forrest. Contemporary with him, the finest interpreter of Shakespeare the English stage produced, was W. C. Macready. The latter had been in America, and had met with great success, being received and ap- plauded with great cordiality everywhere. When Mr. Forrest visited England he was received with anything but cordiality, even without an approach to decency, and Macready was responsible for the treat- ment. In Paris, too, the rivals came into hostile contact. Under
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those circumstances. it was a bad move on the part of Macready to at- tempt to tour America again. During the latter part of 1848 he en- tered upon a series of engagements in various parts of the country. and in May, 1849, came to New York to finish with a number of nights at the Astor Place Opera House. The New York native American populace, however, determined to punish him for his ungenerous treatment of the American actor, and to prevent his playing in New York. The play upon the boards for the first night was Macbeth, and the house was about half filled with the enemies of the actor. His appearance was the signal for a deafening uproar, made up of hisses. groans, insulting remarks, and cries of "Down with the English hog." "Remember how Edwin Forrest was used in London." The actors kept on as best they could, but not a syllable of what they said was heard. Before the final act, therefore. the performance was aban- doned. Many gentlemen of the city, headed by Washington Irving himself, felt that the honor of the city was at stake, and begged Mac- ready to appear once more, and they would guarantee his not being molested. He consented, but the invitation and its acceptance were looked upon as a challenge by the mob, and now nmich more serious consequences followed. On May 10 Macready again appeared; there was, as before, a serions disturbance inside the house, and the police made many arrests. A rumor that the crew of one of the Cunarders was to be on hand to protect the English actor had excited the popu- lace and the Mayor had called out the militia in the afternoon to pre- vent trouble. This only provoked the populace the more. Crowds col- lected in the vicinity of the Opera House, exposed on all sides to at- tack, as it stood at the junction of three streets. Eighth Street. Astor Place, and Lafayette Place. A shower of paving stones was the first notice of their presence. These crashed through window glass and barred shutters and fell among the audience. Now the time for the military to act had come, and a troop of horse rode into the mob from Broadway, scattering them for the moment. But soon they rallied. As usual, there were too great reluctance and hesitation to fire. The first fire of the soldiers was over the heads of the people, which only emboldened them to resistance. A volley of paving stones was the reply, whereby many of the militia were badly hurt. These missiles happened to be on hand in abundance. as one of the streets was being paved. Seeing their mistake, the officers gave the command to "fire low." and soon the desired effect was obtained. the mob quickly dis- persing; but as the result of the professional rivalry between the American and English tragedians twenty-two lives had been sacri- ficod.
A pleasant contrast to this display of national hatred and mob violence was the visit of Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian Patriot in 1851. He came to aronse the American people to an interest in his cause, as he had already done in England. He had made himself ob-
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noxious to the Austrian government by his agitations in Parliament and in the press, for reforms for his country, demanding self-govern- ment for the subject and oppressed realm of Hungary. For this he was imprisoned by the Austrians on a charge of treason, but the in- dignation awakened thereby was so intense that they were forced to release him. Finally resort was taken to arms, but on the field of battle the Hungarian cause suffered defeat, and Kossuth was com- pelled to flee the country. He took refuge in Turkey. His extradi- tion was demanded by both Russia and Austria. The Sultan was de- livered from a painful dilemma by the United States, who sent a steam frigate to Constantinople to convey Kossuth to this country. A
THE FOUNTAIN IN CITY HALL PARK.
great reception was tendered him on his arrival at New York, on De- cember 6, 1851. Crowds filled all the streets, and functionaries civil and military vied to do him honor. A curious incident is recorded, illustrative of manners and customs of the day. The military compan- ies were in the habit then of assuming gorgeous uniforms, in imita- tion of those of the most famous regiments of Europe. The City Guard bedecked itself with the glittering accoutrements of the Eng- lish " Coldstream Guards "; and the Light Guards, another fashiona- ble organization, arraved themselves in the superb regalia adorning the Body Guard of the Austrian Emperor. Now these same Light Guards, just because they were so magnificent, were de- tailed to escort Kossuth as his close and special attendants. It was the poor man's fortune, therefore, to be met face to face at the very instant of landing upon American soil by the uniform worn by
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his most determined foes at home. An eyewitness assures us that "he started back with an involuntary shudder." Besides Kossuth, many distinguished foreigners came about that time to have a habit of visiting New York: Dickens, Marryat. Louis Napoleon. later Em- peror, and the ex-King of Spain. Indeed, it led Gulian C. Verplanck to remark in an article in the Talisman, speaking of this fact regarding New York: " It is a sort of thoroughfare, a spot where almost every remarkable character is seen once in the course of his life."
Much has already been said concerning the conditions of trade and commerce during this period. The telegraphs and railroads of the country had a most telling effect upon the business of New York, not only in angmenting it, but in modifying the manner of its conduct. It had been the custom of merchants of the interior, located at Pitts- burg or Buffalo or Cleveland or St. Louis, to pay a visit to New York once a year and buy up a stock of goods for the year. Now this was no longer necessary. At any moment that a want was felt for a particular line of goods, the telegraph made it known at the source of supplies in a few minutes, and in a day or two. or at most a week, the railroad brought the material to the mer- chant's door. Further to facilitate these quick demands for par- ticular goods, and because the dealings in them largely increased as the interior country developed. merchants in New York ceased to carry a miscellaneous stock. Different houses limited themselves to special lines. A New York paper of 1855 gloried in the circumstance that " the wealth of the great Northwest was poured into the lap of New York. St. Louis formerly bought goods at New Orleans, now it comes to us. Illinois bought at St. Louis, now it purchases on the Atlantic Coast. Ohio went bodily to Cincinnati for its supplies. Cin- cinnati itself now seeks them in the metropolis of the Empire State." The panic of 1857 has been described. It was produced by those new methods and this vast augmentation of business, too sudden to be soberly borne, and in its turn brought business back again to a solid basis, making a foundation for another advance. It was of great ben- efit to finance that the Clearing House was in existence at the time of the panic. It opened its doors for business on Tuesday, October 11. 1853, at 14 Wall Street. The London bankers had established sneh an institution in the last decade of the eighteenth century. and it was greatly needed in New York. In the Association fifty-two banks were represented at its beginning, and their capital combined amounted to $46.721,262. It was largely owing to it that the banks of New York were able to resume so shortly after the suspension of October. 1857. If Harriet Martinean, famous for her tales on Political Economy. and therefore an authority, could say. after the fire of 1835. " the commer- cial credit of New York can stand any shock short of an earthquake like that of Lisbon." surely a compliment even more pointed than this was due to the city in 1857, and with the Clearing House as an addi-
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tional rock amid the breakers. The markets of the city had grown to the number of fifteen, among them now those so familiar to us all: Jefferson and Washington and Fulton and Essex and Center and Clinton; but also some of those then in existence are gone, others hav- ing taken their places in other localities. In 1846 Howe invented the sewing machine, and a perceptible effect followed upon the clothing and furnishing trade. Like almost every other important invention, of course, there were prior claims. A very well-founded one seems to be established for one Walter Hunt, who in a workshop on Amos (now West 10th) Street, New York, invented, builts and put into success- ful operation, between the years 1832 and 1834, a machine for sewing, stitching, and seaming cloth. By formal testimony it was shown that in New York alone the machines saved $75,000 on every $200,000 paid for sewing labor. The business of manufacturing machine-sewn clothing in this city, as early as 1858, involved the expenditure of $100,000,000 per an- num, the cost of the sewing alone reaching $20,000,000.
The Democratic party was accustomed to carry the election of the Mayors by aid of the foreign vote. mainly Irish, which, as we noticed in a pre- vious chapter, resulted in the bestowal of many local offices upon persons of that extrac- ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, FORDHAM. tion. This state of things produced a reaction, giving new zest to the " Native Ameri- can " party, and in 1844 that party in the charter election car- ried their nominee, Mr. James Harper, of the great publishing firm, into the Mayor's chair. He was the son of a farmer at Newtown, L. I., and in 1818 with three brothers beside himself established a printing business in New York. But in 1845 the Democrats were again successful, as those who are in politics for business are always apt to return to the spoils. They elected Mr. William F. Havemeyer. He was of German parentage, but born in New York in 1804. He graduated from Columbia College, and en- gaged in the sugar business, his father having founded the con- cern which has since acquired such gigantic proportions. In 1848 he was elected again, and, what is more remarkable, nearly a generation later. in 1872, when he was almost seventy years of age, he was again made Mayor by the suffrages of his fellow citizens. In 1849 an
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amendment was made to the City Charter providing that elections for city offices and the national elections should be held on the same day. In 1830 the reverse of this had been effected, but it seems that the separation of the two did not have the desired results, and hence in 1849 the citizens returned to what those of the present day would like to abrogate once more. A change of a more striking nature was the division of the city government into nine great departments: 1. the Police Department, under the care of the Mayor, assisted by a bureau, the head of which was called " Chief of Police "; II. the De- partment of Finance, with a Comptroller, and three subdivisions under a Receiver of Taxes, Collector of City Revenues, and City Cham- berlain; III. a Street Department, having a Commissioner of Streets, with two bureaus, under a Collector of Assessments and Superintend- ent of Wharves; IV. a Department of Repair and Supplies, in four bureans; V. a Department of Streets and Lamps, with three bureans. one having superintendence of markets; VI. the Croton Aqueduct Board; VII. a Department of City Inspection; VIII. the Almshouse Department; and IX. the Law Department, its chief known as Cor- poration Counsel. The heads of these departments were all to be elected by the people and to hold office for three years. The Common Council had power of legislation over all; the charter of 1830 had given also the appointment of the heads of departments to the Coun- cil. The charter of 1849 still retained for the people the right to vote on important questions of municipal policy. Between 1849 and 1857 a popular vote was taken on the free school question; on the act estab- lishing the police; on the Croton water question; and also on the es- tablishment of the Free Academy, now the City College.
A change gradually came over the character of city officers. At the beginning of the era now under discussion it could still be said that aldermen, assistant aldermen, delegates to city conventions, and all kinds of municipal officers, were men of note and weight in business or law. By reason of obligations to certain undesirable portions of the community, at first some of the minor offices went into questionable hands. But such men as Lawrence and Havemeyer and Mickle and Morris, were still placed in the Mayor's chair. But we have already seen that street railway franchises in 1850, and later, were obtained by bribes. In 1857, says one chronicler not inclined to harsh views of his fellow men, " bribery was common; political influence often shielded great criminals; the aldermen were no longer reputable," and as if to cap his climax, he observes, " the Mayor was Fernando Wood." A historian acenstomed to more forcible language says of the city officials of this period: " Fernando Wood, an unscrupulous and cunning demagogue, whose financial honesty was more than doubtful, skilled in manipulating the baser sort of ward politicians, became the ' boss ' of the city, and was finally elected Mayor." This dreadful event ocentred in the year 1855, and the man was re-elected.
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so that he held the place also in 1856 and 1857, and was put in again in 1860 and 1861. It was probably on account of the composition of the municipal government that New York lost so much of its " home rule " by the charter of 1857. Some writers lament the loss of the city's independence, since not even in the matter of an amendment to the charter, or a new charter, the people now have a voice. Even Prof. Fiske grows indignant over the dependence of our city upon the arbitrary will of a state legislature as established in 1857. " A man fresh from his farm on the edge of the Adirondacks," he argnes, " knows nothing about the problems pertaining to electric wires in Broadway, or to rapid transit between Harlem and the Battery." But then his bucolic freshness might act as a brake upon certain proceed- ings likely to come from Fernando Wood and his confrères. In reply to this, however, Fiske pointedly urges that " it did not prevent the shameful rule of the Tweed Ring."
Mr. Wood distinguished his reign in 1857 by organizing a riot, an affair which other Mayors usually sought to suppress at the risk of their lives, and hardly ever without receiving personal injury. In 1844 the legislature passed the Municipal Police Aet; but as the Com- mon Conneil did not harmonize in politics with the State body, the act was not seconded by the necessary city ordinance until 1845. Then was begun the regular uniformed police. The riots of 1834 and 1837 had proved how inadequate were the previous constabulary arrange- ments, even with such an efficient chief as the notable and redoubt- able High Constable, Jacob Hays. He was appointed when Edward Livingston was Mayor of the city, or about 1802, and up to his death, at the age of seventy-eight, he was reappointed by every successive Mayor. He grew to be a feature of the city itself; if any place was given to the town in story or essay or book of travel, Constable Ilays was sure to figure in the pages. In a street brawl his great physical strength made him a terror, and by his shrewdness and intelligence he supplied a whole Detective Bureau in one. No misereant could escape him; and he did not know the name of fear. He could deal with a mob as well as any one man can, and yet he was universally liked by the populace. He was himself, or his parents before him, converted from the Jewish faith, and having married a Baptist lady from New Brunswick, N. J., he connected himself with that denomina- tion. But with the uniformed municipal police, the High Constable's occupation was gone. This new body now undertook to guard the city's peace, under the partial control of the Mayor, and in 1857 " the Mayor was Fernando Wood." Perhaps for that reason the Legisla- ture in the Spring of that year created another kind of police, called the Metropolitan, and gave its management into the hands of five commissioners, appointed by the Governor and Senate. To this ar- rangement Fernando Wood would not submit. He defied the new Commissioners, claiming that the law was unconstitutional. He col-
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lected his own " Municipals " around him, and prepared for war. A Commissioner appointed by the Governor was forcibly ejected from the City Hall. The latter, obtaining two warrants for the arrest of the Mayor, came back with fifty " Metropolitans." There was a pitched battle between the " Municipals " and the " Metropolitans " (something like twiddle-dees and twiddle-dums), and many men were badly womided, so that the City Hall actually ran with blood, a thing to make a law-abiding citizen shiver. At the very moment when the battle was fiereest, the gallant Seventh Regiment was marching by on its way to take the boat for Boston. General Sandford, the hero of the Astor Place riots, being informed of the situation, turned the Regi- ment at once into the Park, and proved himself quite as capable of dealing with a riotous Mayor as with a riotous populace, for Mr. Wood, alarmed at the turn matters might take, agreed to allow the war- rants to be served on him. The vic- torious Seventh went on to Boston, not having been delayed long enough to miss the boat; but nine other regi- ments were placed under arms to overawe Mayor Wood's respectable adherents and partisans. The Court of Appeals deciding that the new law was constitutional, dismissed the Mayor's plea, and the Metropolitan Police took the place of the other force. 1
1
In 1840 the population of New York was 312,700; in 1850 it had in- 11IGH CONSTABLE JJACOB HAYS. creased to 515,547; and in 1855 it was about 630,000. While the city extended in a manner as far as 34th Street, the habitations were greatly scattered; yet in 1855 the population above 40th Street was estimated at 58,000. In 1849 the city had eighteen wards; there were nineteen in 1851. and twenty in 1852. In 1857 tene- ment-honses were in use, and produced already their evil results. but the lower-middle class was not yet housed in its apartment- honses or " flats." These came down to our age from Rome in the days of the Empire, being revived in Edinburgh and Paris, and thence brought over to New York somewhere near the seventies. The emigration from Europe between 1847 and 1858 ran up to 2.486.463 persons. Of these Ireland contributed 1.027.002. and Germany 913 .- 370. In one year, 1854, alone. 318.438 persons arrived at our port from abroad. This vast influx of humanity. however deleterions in some of the elements, contributed to make the Metropolis of the Empire State an imperial city herself. Its population was only one of the measures
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of its vastness. There were great suburbs on all sides of her: Brook- lyn and Williamsburg nobly flanked her on the east, consolidated now into one city, and constituting soon the third city in the Union, a rank it held until Chicago began to annex the upper part of Illinois. Like- wise Jersey City and Hoboken and even Newark were growing to great size as suburbs of New York, owing existence to her, nourished by her commerce, giving residence to her men of business. It was in reality but one great city that clustered about the mouths of the Hud- son and East Rivers.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE CITY'S HIGHER LIFE.
FTER a brief account of the public events that fill up the few years between the period last treated and the beginning of the Civil War. it will be a pleasant diversion to devote our thought to a consideration of our city's higher life-i.c .. its interest in education, art, science; the asthetic life of the people; the advancement of the nobler instincts of the individual; the ministra- tion to chaste and elevating pleasures; the writing of books and the
CASTLE GARDEIS
THE BATTERY AND CASTLE GARDEN IN 1850.
reading of books. Of this higher life, amid all the intensities of her business and all the magnificence of her commerce -sometimes por- haps too exclusively emphasized -there are happily many evidences.
As already intimated, the recovery from the panie of 1857 was very rapid, owing to the solid financial backbone, preserved to a great de- gree by the Clearing House system. In two months' time the banks were resuming payments, and at once confidence was restored. As a Frenchman told a merchant with whom he had invested a few thon- sand dollars: " Suppose you no got de money, den I vant him ver much. Suppose you got him. den I no vant him at all. Vous com- prenes, eh? " Since the people were assured the banks had their money, they did not care to trouble the banks about it. and it was left
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for them to circulate it again among the channels of trade and indus- try. Somehow the drygoods trade showed the evidences of the late trouble longer than any other business. At least quantities of goods were being offered for sale at wonderfully reduced prices all through the winter. It must have been some prudent people who had cash enongh left to buy at ruinously low prices when the crash came, who now were enjoying a big profit out of the cheap prices they could still offer. The unemployed, too, were much in evidence around the region of Tompkins Square. But as one chronicler shrewdly observes, they could not have been greatly in want of bread. for once when a baker went by during one of the open air meetings, he was rudely knocked about and his loaves were kicked and thrown around as if they were footballs instead of necessaries of life.
The lively times occasioned by the conflict between Mayor Wood's Municipal and the State's Metropolitan Police, were followed up by that description of citizens and voters who were most closely allied with the Mayor. A number of residents in the Five Points organized themselves into a band or gang, styling themselves by the euphonions and savory epithet of " Dead Rabbits," or the " Roach Guard." Not to be outdone, either in name or organization, dwellers in and about the Bowery formed the " Atlantic Guard." or " Bowery Boys," a title which has perhaps not quite departed yet. The gentlemen composing these gangs frequently had trials of strength and fighting qualities. The evening of the 3d of July, 1857, was deemed an appropriate occa- sion for warfare, and a battle was fought in Bayard Street, near the Bowery. This only warmed them up to more heroic efforts on the glorions Fourth itself, when another battle royal was fought with stones, sticks, and knives, and men, women, and children, indiffer- ently, were wounded right and left. The " Dead Rabbits " of the Five Points carried the day, and marched in triumph to the City Hall to call upon their friend, the Mayor, on this day devoted to patriotism. They must have liked the looks of things there, for on another occa- sion, when the courts were sitting. they came and took possession of the building for a whole honr. When their rivals of the Bowery at- tempted to join them, they were beaten off, one of them within an inch of his life; and then the " Dead Rabbits " reveled in glory amid the precinets of justice, stopping its course by shonts and objurgations. Mayor Wood really had too much of it; his own police had too many friends among the mob to be useful, and so the militia had to be called in again. The Seventh was still visiting Boston and was telegraphed for, and several other regiments were called into action. A regular siege was laid to the stronghold of our Municipal dignity, and not till fire had been opened upon the rioters and a record of six killed and a hundred wounded had attested the serionsness of the disturbance. was peace once more restored. The only good that flowed from the emente was that citizens of all political stripes were determined to ac-
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