USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 39
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code to the State's bill creating a Metropolitan Police. There was also a reaction against officials like Mayor Wood. A citizens' party was organized. with the Democrat Havemeyer ranged side by side with the indignant opposition leaders. Hence at the charter election in December (which had again beeu separated from the national elec- tion) the citizens' ticket prevailed, and Daniel T. Tiemann was chosen Mayor, defeating Wood, who was the candidate of the " regular " Democrats. The reaction to better government. for a wonder, lasted longer than a year, and Tiemann was elected again in 1859. But then the inevitable " wallowing in the mire " could no longer be postponed. and Fernando Wood ascended the chair again in 1860 and in 1861. giving him a chance to distinguish himself once more when the crisis of war came on.
There were more than fluitterings in the air here as the tempest of civil strife was coming on. although New York was quite on the edge of the cyclone that was whirling around the capital. When news came to this city of the execrable conduct of the cowardly Southern brute who beat Senator Sumner into insensibility. the excitement was intense. An indignation meeting was held at the Broadway Taberna- (le. one of the largest andience-rooms in the city, and resolutions passed expressive of New York's opinion of Sonthern " honor " as thus exemplified. It gave the city and the country a taste of the temper of the South. It illustrated what little confidence they had in their own position on the slavery question, when in this way they replied to arguments showing the injustice of foisting the " institution " upon an unwilling State. When men can no longer meet reason with roa- son, they resort to brute force to maintain their side and hide its weakness. Freedom of speech was but a small affair to those by whom freedom of person was systematically denied to so many. " The crime against Kansas," so far as attempted or perpetrated, was de- plored and deprecated by our citizens, yet it was not thought in New York that such a serions result as war for the existence of the Union would follow. Kansas was far off, things were apt to be somewhat turbulent in border States, the threats of the South were considered to defeat themselves by their very extravagance, and affairs were get- fing into such a fine condition of prosperity again in 1858, that it may have contributed to keep the generality of the citizens, not nsnally possessed of exceptional foresight. in a sort of fool's paradise.
During the summer of that same year the attention and interest of New York were absorbed in a new enterprise, another annihilation of time and space, intended to make Europe our very next-door neighbor. within a few minutes' speaking distance. The project of laying a cable across the Atlantic Ocean had engaged the thought and labor and means of many public-spirited men. Cables had been laid across narrow seas and gulfs in various parts of the world, and had worked successfully; but it took Yankee genius and phuck to make so exten-
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sive an application of it as was involved in bridging a distance of three thousand miles. It may well serve to excite a pardonable pride in our own city, that the main movers in the project were Cyrus W. Field and Peter Cooper, both reckoned among her denizens. They in- terested Englishmen of science and means in the undertaking, and in 1857 the cable was constructed and ready for laying along the bed of the ocean. Two points nearest to each other on either side of the water, and reasonably accessible, were selected. One-half the cable was coiled on board the United States steamship Niagara, the other on board the English steamship Agamemnon. In mid-ocean, on June 26, the two ends were made fast, when the Niagara started for America and the Agamemnon for Ireland. Three times the cable broke and the attempt was abandoned. In Angust a different plan was attempted. The cable was made fast at Valentia Bay, the Niag- ara began to pay out, the Agamemnon to take up the work when the first half was laid. The cable broke again on August 11, when over three hundred miles had been paid out. There was no renewal of the attempt that year, but in 1858 the two vessels were again called into service, and the first plan once more put into opera- tion. They met in mid-ocean on July 29, and on August 6 each arrived at its destination, and the shore ends were made fast. Telegraphic communication was attempted and was achieved with perfect success. The fact was announced to the country. and President Buchanan was notified that the Queen would send him a message. The excite- ment all over the country was JENNY LIND. tremendons. We are so accus- tomed to the wonders of our day that we have no feeling left for the surprise, delight, awe, wherewith a former generation first realized that in a few moments they could know what was going on on the other side of the ocean; that merchants might send orders for goods to-day to be ready for shipment on a steamer that might sail to-morrow. In scores of cities throughout the land rejoicings and celebrations honored the happy event, and people sent their congratulations to the Metropolis whose sons had con- ferred so great a boon on humanity. On August 17 the mes- sage of the Queen arrived (rather long in coming), and the President replied, and both seemed to have been transmitted satisfactorily.
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Before this Mr. Field had been given a banquet ; the choir and organ in Trinity had sung a Te Deum in thanksgiving for the event ; the City Hall was made brilliant with fireworks and illuminations, which, how- over, resulted in ruining its handsome front, setting the roof on fire. cracking its windows, and leaving it in a sorry plight generally. Its fate may have been an anticipation of the mourning that was soon in order for the same cable which had set the city thus jubilating. After the messages of the Queen and President had been exchanged. the citi- zens supplemented the previous festivities with a general celebration. consisting of a parade with bands and banners and floats and all. just like those on previous great occasions already described, and of which each latest was always " the grandest over seen in New York." Sad to say, however, the hopes of an established communication per telegraph with Europe were doomed to disappointment for a while as vet. In September it was known that the cable was broken again. and messages failed to " transmit." Field. Cooper and the others felt the blow keenly. but it did not erush them. Eight years later, with war overpast and peace again making ready for prosperity, their proi- ect was crowned with success. " Tout vient à point, pour qui peut at- tendre."
A reminder of the Doctor's Riot occurred almost at the same time that New York was in gala attire for the cable celebration. We have not yet forgotten with what dislike the people near Fire Island re- garded the purchase of that place as a temporary Quarantine Station to receive the passengers detained upon steamers coming from Ham- burg during the cholera visitation of a few years ago. For many years the quarantine had been established upon Staten Island, and its resi- dents had never looked upon it with a friendly eve. It discouraged the purchase of property on the island, being supposed to spread there the diseases which it was meant to keep from the city. Thus the pres- once of the hospital and other buildings gave great offense. In An- gust. 1858, the people gathered to the number of over a thousand. and despite the remonstrances of the officials, and the interference of the military from the neighboring forts, they attacked the station and burned the buildings to the ground. It was of course not a very intel- ligent view of the situation which indneed such a summary and riotons proceeding, but it was entirely natural. The State at least respected the prejudices of the residents and removed the Quarantine hospitals far ont upon an island built upon some shallow ground. The result to Staten Island rather justified the conduct of its people. as thenceforth many persons of wealth bought lands for conutry-seats and villas, and many came to settle on the island as permanent resi- dents.
The year 1860 -- let us linger over it as the last year of peace before so sanguinary a war-was made notable by three important events. two of them visits to our shores of distinguished personages, and the
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third that of a remarkable specimen of human ingenuity. On June 16, 1860, there landed at Castle Garden an embassy from the Empire of Japan. Since the early part of the seventeenth century Japan had eut herself off (after a brief and not very pleasant experience of inter- course with them) from all communication with the nations of Chris- tendom. and had excluded their representatives from her soil, with the single exception of the Hollanders, whom they permitted to retain a " factory." or mercantile station. at the city of Nagasaki. In 1852 Commodore M. C. Perry, of our navy, had boldly broken in upon this reserve, and in course of time Japan had reopened intercourse with the rest of the world. In 1860 the Japanese Court resolved to place this intercourse upon a specially amicable and advantageous basis with the United States by means of a treaty, and they sent out a dele- gation or embassy to convey the treaty to our shores. On March 27. 1860, they landed at San Francisco. Thence they went to Washing- ton, and in June they reached New York. They were received at Cas- tle Garden by the Mayor and Corporation, and escorted by regiments of the militia to the Metropolitan Hotel. on Broadway and Prince street. A grand serenade was given them in the evening. and illuminations adorned the hotel and the buildings in the vicinity. Two days later a ball was given in their honor. Every effort was made to give them a favorable im- pression of the city, whose mer- chants were eager to take advant- age of the treaty to open new channels of trade. The Japanese THE GREAT EASTERN. dignitaries remained nntil July 1. when they started on their journey to Europe and the other capitals of Christendom.
While they were still in the city there arrived what was fondly called one of the wonders of the world-or to be precise, the Eighth Wonder- the newspapers of the day diligently setting forth what the other seven wonders were, so that the people might by no means miss the point of the designation. Yet it was no greater wonder than the little Clermont of 1807. The Great Eastern was a monster applica- tion of the principle that created the Clermont, it was a stage in the evolution that might be regarded as the mastodonic. Its construction was begun in 1858. and the progress of the work kept before the peo- ple by pictures in the Illustrated London News, eagerly devoured by young and old in New York. The question was asked again and again. " When will she come?" At last she was known to be on the ocean, and men waited breathlessly for her appearance in the harbor. wondering whether she could get over the bar at Sandy Hook. On
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June 28, 1860, she arrived, passed through The Narrows and lay at anchor in the North River, the cynosure of all eyes. Perhaps some not old among us remember her on a later visit, when we were school- boys, but a younger generation would naturally like to be told of her dimensions and capacities. She was fitted with paddle wheels and screw both. The wheels were fifty-six feet in diameter, the screw pro- peller twenty-four feet. The horse-power developed by the screw en- gines was about six thousand, that of the wheel engines about font thousand. There were five smoke stacks. Of her six masts, the three in the center were ship-rigged; one in front and two at the stern were small and arranged for fore-and-aft sails. The sides of the ship were of iron. Its length was six hundred and eighty feet. It was ar- ranged to carry eight hundred first-class passengers, two thousand of the second class, and one thousand two hundred third class. On June 17 she sailed from Southampton, the highest number of miles run in one day being three hundred and twenty-five; as she went by the long Southern course in order to avoid the ice, she did not make a very quick passage. All the city was on the qui rire as she came up the Bay. Ilaving had to wait till high tide at 2 o'clock P.M., to cross the bar, it was about 6 o'clock when she reached her dock. After dis- charging her passengers and cargo, she made ready to receive visits of inspection, and thousands availed themselves of the opportunity. In order to give people an experience of her sea-going qualities, an ocean excursion was arranged to Cape May. The excursion took place on August 2, but was somewhat of a disappointment, being poorly man- aged, so that the people complained they had no place to sleep in, and that they were almost starved. The Great Eastern served a good pur- pose when employed in later days to lay the Atlantic Cable, but on the whole she was not a success, except as a curiosity of the first order. It was too early in the history of steamship construction to make her practically serviceable. The modern ocean greyhounds are approach- ing her in size, with the greater advantage of attaining twice her speed.
One other visitor came this year. In October. 1860. under the mod- est title of Baron Renfrew, the eldest son of Queen Victoria passed through the United States, and was welcomed also in New York City. He was only about eighteen or nineteen years old, and his title ex- cused the nation from paying him houors due to a royal personage. But society was wild over the chance of dancing with the Prince of Wales de facto, if not in name, and the good feeling toward the excel- lent woman, his mother, made civic and military honors an appro- priate and heartfelt tribute without servility. Trinity Church entered upon the race to do the young Prince honor, with magnificent decora- tions of the pews set apart for him, and exquisite prayer books spe- cially bound and ornamented for his use, and presented to him. It was an acknowledgment of what Trinity corporation owed to the
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munificence of the Crown of England, from Queen Anne down. After receptions by the city authorities, a ball was given at the Academy of Music on October 12. Over three thousand persons were present; a floor was laid embracing parquet and stage, one hundred and thirty- five feet long and sixty-eight feet wide. It was pronounced to be the greatest ball that had ever been given in this country. Being the day of the capacious and expansive crinoline, the rustle of the circular garments must have been immense, and " all went merry as a mar- riage bell."
And then came the rumbling of the distant thunder. Less than a month after this gay assembly in honor of the youthful heir of a throne which he has not yet attained, even now that he is getting old. there passed to the chair of the Chief Executive of this Nation a man much more truly a king among his fellow creatures. In Novem- ber, 1860, took place the election which made Abraham Lincoln President. New York had seen him and heard his voice. The year before the city had been rudely shaken out of its security and optimism. It learned that all was not well, that a conflict and clash must sooner or later come. when it heard of the raid on Har- per's Ferry, a bold, rash, ill-ad- vised step on the part of the en- thusiast, John Brown. Yet his bold endurance of death-the car- rying to the bitter end of the tech- mical justice in the case and the braving of such an issue-showed the intensity of feeling. the irre- concilableness of the conflict on the question that must have a settlement soon. On October 18, 1859, the news of this strange episode reached New York. In that same month a few gentlemen, among them William Cullen Bryant, sent an invitation to Abraham Lincoln to speak in New York some time during the winter. Lincoln's fame had gone all through the country as the re- sult of the famous debates with Douglass during the summer of 1858. He was already looming up as the inevitable presidential candidate, but when he came to New York the nomination had not yet been made. On Saturday, February 25, 1860, he arrived in the city. On the next Monday it is recorded that he was found " dressed in a sleek and shining snit of new black, covered with very apparent creases and wrinkles. Of course the great Westerner felt he must be a little
William Cullen Bryant.
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particular as to his outward man in such a fashion center as the Me- tropolis, and the careful packing had preserved the novelty of his gar- ments in a painfully noticeable manner. When he appeared before the great audience " he felt uneasy in his new clothes and a strange place." Matters were not improved by the rather cool introduction by Bryant as " an eminent citizen of the West, hitherto known to you only by reputation." The friends of the cause in the great city on the sea were a little uncertain as yet regarding this rough Western dia- mond. But when Lincoln fairly got into his subject, clothes and em- barrassment were soon forgotten, and the audience were entranced by a lucid exposition of questions that had agitated and divided the minds of men. These were discussed with a power of argument in support of that which was best in human liberty, combined with an emphasis upon what was most imperative in the duty of federal union, such as they had never experienced before. " The rough fellow from the crude West," says Prof. Morse, " had made a powerful im- pression npon the enttivated gentlemen of the East." In the conven- tion for nominating presidential candidates, which met on May 16. 1860, the first ballot gave a considerably larger number of votes to one of New York's honored sons, ex-Governor Seward, than to Lincoln. Seward was still in the race at the second ballot. but now only about three votes ahead; while at the third Lincoln had passed him and was within one and one-half votes of the required number, wherenpon a transfer of four votes made Lincoln the Republican nominee. In the election in November, 1860, New York State gave him fifty thousand more votes than Stephen A. Douglass, the Democratic candidate. The result of the election meant war, but first it meant disunion In December, 1860, the first State, South Carolina. stepped out of the compact; others followed month by month and week by week. New York City found its gunshops empty of guns and pistols; they had been shipped South on big orders. Thus was the cloud of war rising upon the horizon of disunion. The business of the commercial capital now awoke to what was coming, and another panie was on hand; credit refused; gold hoarded and kept ont of cirenlation; the banks helpful but cantious. As the year 1860 took its departure, destined to take peace with it for many a year, the city numbered 814,000 souls, a motley multitude not easily manageable, and apt to prove refractory in the crisis of war. But we shrink from the calamities so nearly due. and fondly stop to linger among the proofs the last decade was affording that New York, as a commercial city, with bread-winning and money-getting so prominent in its make-up. yet had many among her citizens who owned it true that " man shall not live by bread alone." and that there is a higher life than that of the workshop or the counting-house.
Yet those who had been most successful in money-getting, whose particular genins had been the amassing of enormons wealth, showed
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how that higher life was not ignored by them, and how wealth conld be made the minister to better things. The most conspicuous instance of this was the erection of the Astor Library. At his death, in March, 1848, John Jacob Astor was found to have bequeathed $400,000 for the purpose of establishing a free public library. It was incorporated in January, 1849, Washington Irving and Fitz-Greene Halleck being among the trustees, as well as William B. Astor, the millionaire's son,
THE ASTOR LIBRARY.
and Charles Astor Bristed, his grandson. Mr. Astor had always shown an interest in art and letters. His encouragement of the drama has been noticed. His grandson, Bristed, who was a writer of no mean ability, was a great favorite of his, and he was upon terms of the most familiar friendship with Irving, who lived at his villa near the East River while he was writing " Astoria." the story of Astor's at- tempt to establish a fur station in Oregon. The ground selected for the library was part of the old Vauxhall Garden property, bought by Astor in 1803, where Lafayette and Astor places had now been laid ont. It was built in the style of the royal palace at Florence, but on a very much smaller scale than the structure now upon the spot. In 1858, and again later, by the munificence of William B. Astor, addi- tions were made to the building, more than doubling its size. Early in February. 1854, the Library was opened to the public. In 1864 there were one hundred thousand volumes upon its shelves. The aid this library has afforded to scholars, writers, scientists, students of
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art of all kinds, it would be vain to attempt to estimate. Every one has free access to its treasures, and to-day it is hard to mention a book on any topie not found in its collection. No book is allowed to be taken home from the library; but from nine o'clock in the morning to four or five o'clock in the afternoon all facilities for the study of its volumes are given there. Upon recommendation from some person or firm of re- pute, the privilege of studying in its alcoves is granted to the student, in which case he is permitted to roam all over the building at his pleasure, and collect himself the books he needs upon his table, to be left for as long a period as he needs daily to return to the study in hand. It was here that Captain Mahan spent a considerable portion of his time in 1891 laboring on his celebrated work " Sea Power in History," and many another epoch-making volume has had its learning hived here.
The beginnings of the Society Library in the eighteenth century have already been duly noticed in the proper place. We saw it last established in the first home of its own on the corner of Cedar and Nassau streets in 1795. Thence the pressure of business drove it in 1836, when a building was erected on Broadway at the corner of Leonard Street, to which the books were removed in 1840. But an- other move was necessary in the decade we have now reached. In 1853 the Broadway building was sold, the books temporarily pre- served in the Bible House, and in May, 1856, removed to their present home on University Place, between 12th and 13th streets. To derive the benefits of the institution one must pay a membership fee. Nevertheless it stands a monument to the early appreciation in the community of the value and necessity of encouraging the intellec- tual life. The happy thought of a few young men in 1754, it goes still farther back and is the memorial of the city's estimate of the value of learning as long ago as 1700, when its nucleus was formed by the books given to the city by the Rev. John Sharpe, which the city gladly accepted and cherished as a library for the people's use.
There was, however, an evidence of a still closer connection be- tween business and books in our commercial town. On November 3, 1820, young clerks and office boys downtown read this notice on a prominent bulletin board: " Notice to Merchants' Clerks and Appren- tices. Those young gentlemen who are disposed to form a Mercantile Library and evening reading-room, are desired to attend a meeting for that purpose at the Tontine Coffee House, on Thursday evening next at seven o'clock, when a plan of a Library and Association will be presented for their consideration. The young men of South Street. Front, Water, Pearl, Maiden Lane, and Broadway, are particularly desired to attend." It need cause no surprise that the original of this poster, the beginning of its history, is sacredly preserved at the Mer- cantile Library to this day. Its constitution gave the management of the library when organized to merchants' clerks, while member-
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ship was accorded to all upon the payment of a fee, slightly larger for the general public than for clerks. On February 12, 1821, the library opened its doors at 49 Fulton Street, occupying one room, and pos- sessing just seven hundred volumes, most of them presented. Its growth and migrations are interesting. In 1826 its six thousand books and enlarged membership needed larger quarters, which were furnished in the Harper Brothers' building on Cliff Street. When prosperity seem to justify the erection of a building, a modification of the constitution needed to be made, as men of property had to take the place of merchants' clerks. Accordingly an association of mer- chants was now organized to purchase and hold the property and building needed. This company took the name of the " Clinton Hall Association." The building erected, Clinton Hall, stood on the corner of Nassau and Beekman streets (where Temple Court is now), facing the old Brick Presbyterian Church. It was dedicated November 2. 1830. With the movement of dwell- ings and churches before the swell- ing tide of business, the libraries had to migrate upward also, and in 1854 (five years after the famous riot), the Italian Opera House on Astor Place was bought by the As- sociation, and the name of Clinton Hall transferred to it. In 1890- 1891 that historie building was torn down and a magnificent modern edifice reared on the site, the pres- ent home of the Library. A very large portion of the collection is de- voted to light reading, mainly fic- FITZGREENE HALLECK. tion, as reading must be a recreation rather than a labor for young men weary with the duties of the day. But the library is rich also in works on every other subject, history, theology. science, art. Opportunities for scholarly work are afforded by the reference department, where books are furnished to members to be used in the reading-room, the part of that room set aside for such work being also lined with shelves containing dictionaries and ency- clopedias of all kinds. Certain valuable books that are rare 'or out of print are not allowed to circulate, but can be consulted in the refer- ence-room. Another library in existence at this period had in view the mental improvement of youthful workers. The Mechanics' or Ap- prentices' Library was established in 1820 by a society which had be- fore secured schooling for the children of deceased mechanics and tradesmen. It opened on Chambers Street, removed to 472 Broadway in 1832, where it remained till after the war. and has since removed to
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