USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 5
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DUER, WILLIAM-ALEXANDER, eldest son of Colonel William Duer-and Lady Catherine Alexander; was born in Rhinebeck, N. Y., September 8, 1780, and died in New York City, May 30, 1858. He was bred to the law, and was the partner of Edward Livingston, both in this city and for a time at New Orleans. He was also at one time law partner of his brother-in-law, Beverly Robinson. For a time he removed his practice to Rhinebeck, and was elected to the Assembly. From 1822 to 1829 he was a Judge of the Supreme Court. From 1829 to 1842 he was President of Columbia College. He wrote and lectured extensively, and in 1847 published a life of his grandfather, William Alexander, Earl of Stirling. He married a daughter of William Den- ning, of New York City, and had a son, the late William Denning Duer.
DUER, JOHN, second son of Colonel William Duer and Lady Cath- erine Alexander, was a distinguished jurist of this city. He was born in Albany, October 7, 1782, and died on Staten Island, August S, 1858. Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen he was in the United States Army, subsequently studying law with Alexander Hamilton. He practiced in Orange County at first, and distinguished himself as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1821. He revised the statutes of the State in conjunction with Benjamin F. Butler and John C. Spencer. In 1827 he was appointed United States Attorney at New York City, and subsequently became one of the prominent corporation lawyers of the city. He was elected to the Superior Court of the city in 1849, and in 1857 succeeded Thomas J. Oakley as Chief Justice. Hle edited five volumes of reports and was author of two vol- umes of an exhaustive " Treatise on the Law and Practice of Marine Insurance." He married Anna Bunner, and had a son, Hon. William Duer, who became prominent in public life.
DUER, WILLIAM DENNING, son of Hon. William Alexander Duer and a daughter of William Denning, was born in 1812, and died in 1891. He married Caroline, daughter of James Gore King, the mer-
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chant of this city, and granddaughter of the celebrated Rufus King, and had two danghters and five sons-Edward Alexander, James Gore King, a well-known banker of New York; Rufus King, an officer of the United States Army, now dead; William Alexander, a well- known lawyer of New York, and Denning Duer, of New Haven, Conn.
DUER, WILLIAM, while born in New York City, May 25, 1805, and while a resident during his declining years, from 1858 until his death, August 25, 1879, pursued his more active career elsewhere. He was the son of the late Chief Justice John Duer and Anna Bunner, and having been graduated from Columbia College in 1824, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Oswego, N. Y. In 1832 he removed to New York City, in 1833 removed to New Orleans, and in 1835- returned to Oswego, where he was District Attorney from 1845 to. 1847, was elected to Congress in 1847, and re-elected in 1849. Subse- quently, for several years, he was United States Minister to Chile. Having practiced law in San Francisco, from 1854 to 1858, he retired to this city. He married his cousin, Lucy, daughter of Beverly Chew, of New Orleans, and Maria Theodora, daughter of Colonel William Dner. She still survives him, with three danghters and three sons- John Duer, a well-known New York lawyer; Beverly Chew Duer, and Alexander Duer.
DUER, JAMES GORE KING, who has been long engaged in the banking business in this city, is a Director of the Long Island Railroad Company, the Manhattan Beach Company, and the Manhattan Beach Hotel and Land Company. He was born in this city, was educated at Columbia College, and is a member of the Union and Westminster Kennel clubs, aud the Columbia College Alumni Association. He married in 1864 Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of Orlando Meads, of Albany, and has three daughters, one of whom is Mrs. Joseph La- rocque, Jr. He is the son of the late William Denning Duer and Caro- line, daughter of James Gore King, the New York merchant, and granddaughter of Rufus King, the statesman; is the grandson of Will- iam Alexander Duer, President of Columbia College from 1829 to 1842, and is great-grandson of the famous Colonel William Dner and Lady Catherine, daughter of William Alexander, titular Earl of Stir- ling.
DUER, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, has long been engaged in the practice of law in New York City, and is prominent in its social life. Ile is a trustee of the Union Trust Company, and is a member of the Union, Knickerbocker, City. Riding, Manhattan, and Lawyers' clubs, the City Bar Association, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Colum- bia College Alumni Association. The son of the late William Denning Dner and Caroline, daughter of James Gore King, he was born in New
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York City, and in 1869 was graduated from Columbia College, of which his grandfather was long president. He married Ellen, daugh- ter of William R. Travers, and granddaughter of Reverdy Johnson. They have one child, Katherine Alexander, who, in May, 1898, became the wife of Clarence W. Mackay, only surviving son of John W. Mackay.
DUER, JOIN, who, for many years, has been engaged in the prac- tice of law in New York City, is the Treasurer of the Lawyers' Title Insurance Company, and is a director of the E. S. Higgins Carpet Company. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, City, and other clubs, the Bar Association of the city, the St. Nicholas So- ciety, the Downtown Association, and the Columbia College Alumni Association. He was born in the City.of New York, and in 1859 was . graduated from Columbia College. He married in 1871 Sara, daugh- ter of Henry Du Pont, of Wilmington, Del. Son of the late Hon. Will- iam Duer, and his wife, Lucy, daughter of Beverly Chew, of New Orleans, and Maria Theodora, daughter of Colonel William Duer and Lady Catherine Alexander, he receives a double strain from the fonder of the Duer family of New York, and from Lord Stirling, the Revolutionary Major-General, as well as from the first Johannes de Peyster, and the first and second lords of Livingston manor. Beverly Chew, his maternal grandfather, was a prominent New Orleans mer- chant, Collector of the Port there from 1817 to 1829, President of the branch bank of the United States at New Orleans, and Vice-Consul of Russia; while through him Mr. Duer is seventh in descent from John Chew, a. cadet of the ancient family of Chew, of Chewton, Somerset- shire, England, who emigrated to Virginia in 1620, and became a wealthy merchant and planter, a member of the House of Assembly, and of the House of Burgesses.
DUER, BEVERLY CHEW, Cashier of the Bank of the State of New York, was born and educated in New York City, and is the son of the late Hon. William Duer and of his wife, Luey, daughter of Bev- erly Chew, of New Orleans, granddaughter of Colonel William Duer, and great-granddaughter of Lord Stirling, Major-General in the Revo- lutionary Army. From the two last-mentioned ancestors he also lin- eally descends through his father, as well as from the founders of the de Peyster and Livingston families in this country. Hon. John Chew, of Virginia in 1620, is a maternal ancestor. He is a member of the Union and City ehibs. He married Sophie Lawrence Pool, and has a son, Beverly Duer.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (see steel engraving, Volume I. of this work, facing page. 296), wielded an influence in shaping the United States Government which singles him ont among all the citi-
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
zens of New York City. He was born on Nevis, West Indies, January 11, 1757, and was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr at Weehawken opposite New York, July 11, 1804. At thirteen years of age he held a responsible position with a West India merchant, while his con- tributions to a local newspaper led friends to send him to New York to be edneated. Here he interested himself in the agitation in re- sistance of the right of Great Britain to levy taxes in the colonies at discretion. At a mass meeting in the city, July 5, 1774, he made an eloquent address. He was then seventeen years of age and a stu- dent at King's College, now Columbia University. Soon after he pub- lished two brilliant pamphlets against British oppression, " A Full Vindication " and " The Farmer Refuted." When the Revolution began, he entered the patriot service in command of a company of artillery, and in this capacity participated in the battles of Long Is- land and White Plains. "He was then appointed to Washington's personal staff, serving until a reprimand from Washington led him to resign in 1781. He studied law and began practice in New York City, rapidly winning a reputation in the courts. Soon after the Revo- lution he was elected to the Congress of the Thirteen Colonies, as con- stituted under the Articles of Confederation, and at once became con- spicuous in this body. Realizing that a stable future could be hoped for only through the united action of the Colonies, whereas this Con- gress could only make recommendations, the execution of which was merely optional with the various States, Hamilton strenuously la- bored for the formation of a Constitution which would compact the Colonies into a nation. He was the leader of the element which la- bored for a powerful centralized Government, and had his ideas pre- vailed to a still greater extent than was the actual fact, the central- ization of power would have been still greater than the Constitution of the United States made it, and the question of State rights which was settled by the Civil War, might, perhaps, have been settled from the beginning. On the other hand, it is of course possible that greater power might have proved a temptation to some of our Presidents. Hamilton founded the Federalist, and his articles contributed to it were influential in bringing about the adoption of the Constitution. Having accepted the office of Receiver of Taxes at New York City un- der the Confederation, he made a careful study of financial questions, and upon the election of Washington as President, he entered his cabi- net, becoming the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. Not alone did he solve the great problem of placing the new Gov- ernment upon a sound financial basis, but his influence was power- ful, if not dominant, in every department of executive administration. Ile established the eredit of the new Government at home and abroad by defeating the project to repudiate the domestic debt of $42,000,000, and by inducing Congress to assume the various State debts, aggre- gating $25,000,000. There was also a foreign debt of $12,000,000,
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France, Holland, and Spain being the creditors. Direct taxation be- ing unpopular, he devised a schedule of tariffs on imports and a tax upon the domestic manufacture of distilled liquors. With the res- toration of credit, commercial and industrial trade revived, while the revenue soon exceeded the need for current expenses and to meet the interest on the national debt, funds accruing for the liquidation of the principal. Hamilton also secured the establishment of a National bank in 1791, and of a Government mint in 1792. But, despite his practicable and resourceful statesmanship, and the keenness of in- tellect, in which he had no peer among his brilliant contemporaries, he had defects of character which can not be extenuated. He was proud, autocratic, and selfish, and unwilling either to curb his ambi- tion or to temper his dislikes and animosities for the sake of the pub- lic good. His rupture with Thomas Jefferson, who was Secretary of State in the same cabinet in which he was Secretary of the Treas- ury, was a grief to Washington, who found it impossible to reconcile the rivals. Their rancor descended to their adherents, causing the stirring up of party spirit to the perilous pitch which caused Wash- ington to deplore it as a danger to the Republic in his famous address at the close of his administration. In apportioning censure, there is little to choose between Hamilton and Jefferson. Both were ambi- tious to dominate Washington's administration, while they were ex- ponents of quite opposite theories of government. But nothing can be said in extenuation of Hamilton's intrigues against John Adams, whereby he disrupted the Federalist party. In 1788 he employed his influence to make the vote for Adams as Vice-President as small as possible. Yet. as President of the Senate. Adams cast the deciding ballots which alone saved from defeat many of Hamilton's projects to establish the credit of the United States. In fact, the importance of Adams's support of Washington's administration can scarcely be exaggerated. At the end of Washington's second administration, Adams being the Federalist choice for President and Thomas Pinck- ney for Vice-President, Hamilton unsuccessfully attempted to elect Pinckney to the first office by urging Adams's New England sup- porters to divide their votes equally between Adams and Pinekney, while he knew some Southern Federalist electors would withhold votes from Adams so as to give Pinckney a majority. The scheme only succeeded in creating a feud which placed the Federalist party permanently out of power. Hamilton's life finally paid the penalty of his political rancor. Aaron Burr had long been his rival in law practice at the New York bar, and had defeated his father-in-law, Gen- eral Philip Schuyler, for the United States Senate in 1791. Hamilton had several times retaliated by laying obstacles in the way of Burr's ambition, and when Burr ran for Governor of New York in 1804, Ham- ilton was active in securing his defeat. During the campaign he had voiced insinuations against Burr's trustworthiness of character (no
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doubt justifiable, in point of mere fact), and, under the sting of de- feat, Burr took up these reproaches, challenged Hamilton to a duel, and killed him. We must add that it was undoubtedly Hamilton's influence which secured the election of Jefferson as President when the tie between Jefferson and Burr in the Electoral College threw the decision into Congress. The brillianey of Hamilton's ca- reer is the more remarkable when we reflect that he was bnt forty- seven years of age at the time of his death. As a practitioner at the New York bar he had no peer. IIe was made Inspector-General of the United States Army, with the rank of Major-General, in 1798. Two years later he was elected President of the Society of the Cinein- nati. He married, in '1780, Elizabeth, daughter of General Philip Schuyler, and had a mimber of children. Three of his sons, James Alexander, John Church, and Philip Hamilton, practiced law in-New York City. Another son was killed in a duel at Weehawken, prior to his father's death from Burr's bullet.
HAMILTON, WILLIAM GASTON, the well-known civil and me- chanical engineer, is a son of the late Colonel John Church Hamil- ton, and a grandson of the famous Alexander Hamilton. He has been prominently connected with many business enterprises and many publie institutions of this city. At the present time he is President of the Ramapo Wheel and Foundry Company. and a di- rector of the Mexican Telegraph Company and the Central and South American Telegraph Company. He was formerly President of the Jersey City Locomotive Works, as well as engineer, and was President of the Hamilton Steeled Wheel Company. He was Vice- President of the Mexican and Central Telegraph Company, as he was also of the South American Telegraph Company. He was Con- sulting Mechanical Engineer to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Under the administration of Mayor Strong he was Chairman of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Publie Baths. He is a Manager of the Woman's Hospital, of the New York Cancer Hospital, and of the New York Blind Asyhun. is Vice-President of the Demilt Dispen- sary. and is Vice-President of the New York Association for Improv- ing the Condition of the Poor. He is a member of the Metropolitan. Tuxedo. Century, City. Players', and Church clubs, the St. Nicholas Society. the American Society of Engineers, and the Sons of the Revolution. He married Charlotte (Jeffrey) Pierson, and has two daughters and a son-William Pierson Hamilton. The latter is Treasurer of the Manhattan Trust Company. a Trustee of St. John's Guild, and married Juliet P., daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan.
JAY, JOHN (see steel engraving in Volume I. of this work, facing page 196), second Governor of the State of New York, was born in New York City, December 12, 1745, and in 1764 was graduated from
;
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King's College ( now Columbia University). He was admitted to the bar in 1768, and practiced in partnership with Robert R. Livingston, afterward Chancellor. Jay early and actively espoused the cause of the colonists against Great Britain, and, next to Alexander Hamil- ton, was the most able and influential citizen of New York during the Revolution and the formative period of the United States. He was a member of the Committee of Fifty appointed in 1774 to link the colonies together through correspondence. He was a member of the New York Provincial Congress in 1776 and 1777, as he was of the first Continental Congress, in which he drafted the address to the people of Great Britain. He was similarly active in the second Con- tinental Congress. In 1777 he drafted the first Constitution of the State of New York, and the same year became the first Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court. While upon this bench he was elected to the Continental Congress of 1778, and became its President. The following year he was appointed Minister from the Thirteen Colo- nies to Spain. He was one of the four Commissioners who negotiated the treaty of peace with Great Britain, November 30, 1782, Franklin, John Adams, and Laurens being the others. He served five years as. Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Confederation of the Colonies, and was one of the great leaders who assisied in framing the Con- stitution of the United States. He divided with Hamilton the honor of the authorship of the brilliant articles in the Federalist, which were so potent in influencing the adoption of that document by the Colo- nies, creating the United States of America. By appointment by President Washington, Jay became the first Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court of the United States in 1789. He resigned this position in 1794 to accept his appointment as United States Minister to Great Britain, to avert. if possible, the threatened war on account of dis- criminations against American commerce. A treaty with Great Brit- ain was negotiated by him and concluded, November 19, 1794. While it did not cover all the causes of grievance, it was the best that could then be obtained, and averted war at a time when peace was of super- lative importance to the young nation. In April, 1795, Jay was elected Governor of the State of New York. In this capacity he se- cured the mitigation of the criminal laws, secured the establishment of institutions for the employment and attempted reformation of erininals, and brought about the abolition of slavery in the State of New York, signing the bill which abolished this institution in 1799. ITe served a second term, and then determined to retire to private life, having inherited an estate at Bedford, Westchester County, N. Y. Adams desired to reappoint him to the Chief Justiceship of the United States Supreme Court, but he declined. He died in 1829. He was the great-grandson of Pierre Jay, a Huguenot merchant of Rochelle, France, whofled to England upon the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. The latter's son, Angustus, grandfather of John Jay, immi-
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grated in turn to New York. Augustus Jay was a wealthy New York merchant, and married the daughter of Balthazar Bayard, an elder brother of Colonel Nicholas Bayard. His business passed to his son, Peter Jay, father of John Jay. The latter's mother was Mary, daugh- ter of Mayor Jacobns Van Cortlandt, the second son of the original Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt. John Jay married Sarah Van Brugh, daughter of Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey, and great- granddaughter of the first Robert Livingston in America. She was also great-granddaughter of Philip French, Mayor of New York City in 1702.
JAY; WILLIAM, one of the sons of Chief Justice John Jay, prac- ticed law in New-York City, and for about a quarter of a century was first Judge of Westchester County. He was one of the earliest influ- ential advocates of the abolition of slavery in the United States, and se- enred its abolition in the District of Columbia. He also championed the cause of international arbitration of differences, and obtained recognition of the principle in a substantial way by various European nations. The progress since made in this direc- tion is chiefly due to his efforts. He was one of the founders of the Amer- ican Bible Society in 1816. The true attitude of France toward the Amer- ican Colonies during the Revolution was first made public by his publi- cation of the " Life and Writings of John Jay " in 1833. He also pub- lished an " Inquiry into the Character JUDGE WILLIAM JAY. and Tendency of the American Colon- ization and American Anti-Slavery Societies " (1834), a " View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery " ( 1837 ), " The Condition of the Free People of Color in the United States " (1839), an " Address to the Non-Slaveholders of the South, on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery " (1849), " War and Peace: the Evils of the First, with a Plan for Securing the Last " (1848), and "Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War " (1849).
JAY, JOHN. next to his famous grandfather and namesake, the most distinguished member of the Jay family, was the son of Judge William Jay, and was born in New York City, June 23, 1817. He died May 5, 1894. He was graduated from Columbia College at the head of his class when nineteen years of age, while, as a student, he had
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been for two years manager of the New York Young Men's Anti-Slav- ery Society. He studied law with Daniel Lord, Jr., engaged in prac- tice in this city, and enjoyed a large and lucrative practice. He was ever the zealous champion of the fugitive slaves, and, in addition to numerous cases of less note, appeared in the slave cases of Kirk, Da Costa, Lemon, and Long. He opposed the admission of Texas into the Union. In 1848 he visited Europe. In 1834 he became President of the Free Democratic Club of this city, an organization which opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He became one of the active founders of the Republican party, supporting Fremont for the Presi- deney in 1856, while his address on " America Free or America Slave," was extensively used as a campaign doemment. He predicted Lin- coln's election in 1860, and the consequence that slavery would be abolished, in an address on " The Rise and Fall of the Pro-Slavery Democracy and the Rise and Duties of the Repub- lican Party." By appointment of Pres- ident Grant he succeeded the historian Motley as United States Minister to Austria in April, 1869, holding the office until his resignation in the fall of 1874. He was President of the Union League Club of New York City from 1866 to 1869, and again in 1877. He was President of the American His- torical Society of America, and was President of the National League for the Protection of American Institu- tions. He was for many years Man- ager and Corresponding Secretary of HON. JOHN JAY. the New York Historical Society. He was one of the founders of the Freedman's Aid Union, and was a manager of the Freedman's Aid Society of New York. He was one of the incorporators of the Ameri- can Geographical Society. As President of the Union League Chib, he was active in the organization of the Metropolitan Musemn of Art. He was a member of the Century, University, and Reform clubs, and of many societies of America and Europe. He married, in 1837. Eleanor, danghter of II. W. Field. The present Colonel William Jay is their only son.
JAY, WILLIAM, only son of the late Hon. John Jay and Eleanor Field, was born in New York City, was graduated from Columbia Col- lege, and has been engaged in the practice of law in this city since the Civil War. He served with distinction from the beginning of that conflict to the end, being attached, at various times, to the staff's of
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General Wool, General Morrell, General Sykes, and General Meade, and attaining the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He is President of the New York Cab Company, and a director of the Continental Trust Company, the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company, the Com- mercial Cable Telegraph Company, and the American Horse Ex- change. He is a well-known whip, and has been President of the Coaching Club. He is now President of the Meadow Brook Club. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Century, Knickerbocker, City, Church, Lawyers', and other clubs; the Bar Association of the city, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Columbia Alumni Association.
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