USA > New York > New York in the nineteenth century. A discourse delivered before the New York Historical Society, on its sixty-second anniversary, November 20, 1866 > Part 3
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into imperial dignity, and a true merchant cannot be a churl or a dunce. Business itself here teaches large ideas, and breathes a brave spirit and a gener- ous fellowship. The trades catch something of the same temper, and the mechanics of this city, so emi- nent for skill and thrift, have much sense of their part in the work of their time, as well as their craft.
The earnings of labor rise here into grandeur, and not only count up by millions in our Savings Banks, but defend the country and build up the city. New York was built up largely by money loaned to our merchants from our Savings Banks; and, when the nation's life was threatened, the-e husbanded wages, as will be seen by Colonel War- . ner's statement," were transferred into loans to our Government, and thus our hard-handed industry sent its money as well as its men to the war; and, therefore, New York labor is imperial in its work, and has done a noble part in giving our America her place among the nations. How mightily New York labor, capital, and skill, met together in our iron-clad fleet ! When the brave little Monitor steamed into Chesapeake Bay and struck the rebel bully, the Merrimac, the deadly blow that stopped its piratical work, the mechanics and merchants of New York were there in their might, and Ful- ton and Ericsson led them to their triumph under the good old flag of the Union. Our business surely rises into imperial proportions, and is train- ing us to a certain sense of our belonging to the great empire of industry that is so vitally con-
* See Appendix.
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nected with the republic of letters. It does some things that have a romantic grandeur, and read like chapters of a poem. What was it in the main but the business spirit, that carried through the last wonder of the world ? It was not abstract philanthropy, nor priestly ambition, nor missionary zeal, nor scientific pride, nor intellectual curiosity, but simple business enterprise, far-seeing and plucky, that laid the Atlantic Cable, and gave the two hemispheres of the globe one pulse and brain. In the Great Eastern, Cyrus W. Field brought our Fulton and Morse to work together in a wonderful way, and Fulton's steam carried the cable, and Morse's lightning sent through the thought. So the spirit of business joined together the engine that carries bulk with the battery, that discharges brain; and New York has had a mighty hand in that organism of liberty of the nineteenth century, that emanci- pates man from the weight of his burdens and the bonds of distance and of time.
As to the bearing of New York upon govern- ment, which is part of the great work of life, there is much to say in various directions, lights, and shades. Yet this is surely true, that this city in its real historical life has been the guardian of liberty. order, and union, and the great scandals that have sometimes fallen upon its good name, have not been its own home production. The city has been wonderfully free from disorder, and when mobs have appeared, the fact that they have showed their heads reads less conspicuously in our history, than the fact that they were at once put down,
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and the heads disappeared more quickly than they came. The last of these mobs and the worst, be- cause against the few and unoffending negroes, was most effectually put down, and the city at large applauded the magistrate whose decision was most conspicuous in giving the rioters their due, and he is now our honored Mayor. The logic of our his- tory and conviction as to mobs, is simple and suf- ficient. It says to all assemblies that threaten per- son or property, " Disperse ! " and if they do not go, then it says, "Fire!" In mercy, as well as in justice, that logic has worked well, and is not like- ly to die out.
The marvellous growth of population, within twenty years, has added half a million to our num- bers, and called, of course, for new measures, and ought to be some excuse for some mistakes and disappointments. The charter bears the mark of many changes, and is destined to bear more. The original charter was given by James II. in 1686; was amended by Queen Anne in 1708; further enlarged by George II. in 1730, into what is now known as Montgomerie's Charter, and as such was confirmed by the General Assembly of the Province in 1732, and made New York essentially a free city. The Mayor was appointed by the Provincial Governor and Council, till the Revolution ; by the State Governor and four members of the Council of Appointment, till 1821; by the Common Council, until 1834, and afterwards by the people. In 1830, the people divided the Common Council into two boards, and, in 1849, the government was divided
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into seven departments, the heads of each being chosen by the people, and the Mayor's term of of- fice being extended to two years. In 1853, the Board of Assistant Aldermen was changed to a Board of sixty Councilmen, and the term of Alder- men extended to two years. In 1857, the number of Aldermen was reduced from twenty-two to seven- teen, and the sixty Councilmen to twenty-four; and the present complex system of government was es- tablished, with its many disconnected branches and equivocal division of power between the city, coun- ty, and state. Strangely is the Mayor shorn of power, and the office which De Witt Clinton pre- ferred to his place in the National Senate, is now little more than a name and position. Still, the essence of Montgomerie's old charter remains, and the true spirit can redress the new corruptions.
There are some ugly aspects of our city govern- ment that make it difficult to treat the subject in the dignified light of history, and difficult to keep silent upon the manifest wickedness of some of our officials and their accomplices. It is not necessary to take partisan ground to rebuke the wrong; for no party has the monopoly of the offence. Fair men of both parties now say that our citizens are robbed and our city is disgraced. It is clear that whilst we have many honest and effective men in office, we have also a set of knaves in power, whose conduct violates every principle of justice and pa- triotism. May I not say, that whilst this city is intensely American in feeling, we are afflicted with one institution peculiarly foreign ? We have a royal
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family, whose maintenance is very dear, and whose title to their state and income it is hard to discover. They abound in brass and gold; but whilst the brass on their faces is their own, the gold in their pockets is stolen from yours. They have the cost- liest signet ring in Christendom, and it makes the dirtiest mark, and sullies the sacred motto of Lib- erty which it bears. It puts the stain of iniquity even upon the seat of judgment, and the millions ($2,243,310 60) expended on the unfinished Court. House, prove that the work has been managed in part by thieves. What to do is the universal ques tion, and we all ask it with perplexity. The prin- ciple is clear, and the method will ere long show itself. The principle of our redemption is to be found in the sacred idea of freedom. It is not in party spirit, nor aristocratic pride, nor property pre- rogative ; but in intelligent liberty and public spirit. We are oppressed, degraded, and robbed, and we ask to be liberated, and we shall be, if we trust more in the spirit of Zenger and his Liberty Boys than that of Lord Howe with his dragoons. The city belongs to the State, nation, and world, and not to any clique or ring or party; yet whatever is done, should aim to give our citizens self-respect, to train them as much as possible to manage their own affairs. Our people are intelligent, industrious, honest, and brave, and mean to have their right -. and shall. Careful legislation, with intelligent suf- frage and a city government more on the plan of the national, and taking from the Common Council its temptations to base jobs, will set us right, and
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free us from being subject to the dynasty of dirt and sovereignty of sots. Of parties merely, as such, little is to be hoped. Of the people of the city and the State, all may be expected that is right, when existing wrongs are clearly seen, and all honest men are banded against them by the true principle of impartial suffrage, and universal liberty and law. Then, as elsewhere in America, liberty becomes con- servative, and is settled into law, whilst law rises into liberty. Let all honest men take as much in- terest in our city affairs as thieves now take, and our city is saved.
With all the drawback of defective municipal government, the city is a great power in the Union, and gave its wealth and men to the nation. Nay, its very passion has been national, and the mass who aeplored the war never gave up the Union, and might, perhaps, have consented to compromise rather than to disunion, and have gone beyond any other city in clinging to the Union as such, whether right or wrong. The thoughtful mind of the city saw the true issue, and, whilst little radical or doc- trinaire in its habit of thinking, and more inclined to trust to historical tendencies and institutional discipline for the removal of wrong than to abstract ideas it did not waver a moment after the die was cast, and the blow of rebellion and disunion was clear. The ruling business powers of the city gave money and men to the nation, when the Government was halting and almost paralyzed. The first loan was hazardous and the work of patriotism, and when our credit was once committed, the wealth of
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the city was wholly at the service of the nation, and the ideas of New England, and the enthusiasm of the West, marched to victory with the mighty concurrence of the money and the men of the Em pire City and State. The State furnished 473,443 men, or, when reduced to years of service, 1,148,604 years' service ; equal to three years' service of 382,- 868 three years' mnen ; and the city alone furnished 116,382 men, equal to 267,551 years' service, at a net cost of $14,577,214 65. That our moneyed men meant devoted patriotism, it is not safe to say of them all. In some cases, their capital may have been wiser and truer than the capitalist, and fol- lowed the great current of national life. Capital, like water, whose currents it resembles, has its own laws, and he who owns it cannot change its nature, any more than he who owns a water-power can change the power of the water. The capital of this city is bound, under God, to the unity of the nation, and, therefore, has to do a mighty part in organ- izing the liberty of the nineteenth century. Led by the same large spirit, and true to the Union policy which has been the habit of the community from the old Dutch times, the dominant thought of our people will be sure to vindicate the favorito idea of States Rights in the Union against States Wrongs out of it; and the seceded States will be restored as soon as they secure the States that have never seceded the just fruits of the war for the national life-and guarantee them against all repeti- tion of the treason. The end shall be liberty for
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all; for the white man and the black man, every- where ; for the South as well as the North.
It might be shown that the business mind of our city has had great aptitude for the organization and government of institutions of charity and re- form, and that, with all their defects, these institu- tions are, in many respects, as remarkable for their efficiency as their extent. Here, moreover, where crime rises into gigantic proportions, our safeguards are by no means of pigmy shape, and our police system is justly a matter of pride with our good citizens, and makes their walks safe by day and their pillow tranquil at night. That 68,373 arrests were made for offences of all grades in the year 1865, and, of these arrests, 53,911 were for offences of violence or other harm towards the person, proves the vigilance of our police; and that so many who were arrested were discharged on insufficient grounds, has raised in some observers the suspicion that some of our judges are either not wise or not honest, and too near the interests of the culprits. Our police, although established by the State authority, repre- sents the historical, legitimate mind of the city in itself and its rural connections ; for the country and city are, in important respects, one, and a large part of our true democracy who have genuine and just intere t in the city, live in the country. Aristotle " was wise, and seems to have had a foresight of our day, when over two thousand years ago he wrote : " When a country happens to be so situated, that a great part of the land lies at a distance from the
* Aristotle, Politics, B. ok vi., ch. iv.
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city, there it is casy to establish a good democracy or a free State ; for the people in general are obliged to form their settlements in the country." Our rural or territorial democracy may carry their jurisdiction too far; but their leading acts have tended to or ganize our liberty, not to bring us under the yoke of bondage. It is not the party, but the great heart of the people, that we must trust. Surely, viewing our city in all its public institutions, under the two- fold aspect of urban and rural control, they present a great monument of organizing sagacity and force ; and even the frauds that pervert their functions cannot blind us to the largeness of the organization and the frequent fidelity and effectiveness of the management. We must not exaggerate our miseries, nor allow a ring of thieves to shut us out from the knowledge of our faithful servants. Remember that if New York has rogues in office, other cities are not spotless, nor wholly frugal; that London prints ponderous volumes on municipal frauds, and Paris # has a yearly Budget, that, of late, approaches
* That Paris is like us in financial trouble, is evident from this passage from Kolb's admirable Handbook of Comparative Statistics, Leipsie, 1885. "TI .. city of Paris alone has a Budget like an empire; but like one that finds itself in financial decline. In 1847, its levy was limited to 46,000,000 frs. In 1853, the impost was raised to 55,000,000 at the highest ; but there was actually a demand, ordinary and extraordinary, for 90,000 000; on account of which a loan of 50,000,000 was negotiated. The Budget for 1859 closes with the figures 77.619,031 frs. The sun actually needed reached 97,720,513 frs. The Budget for 1861 is fixed at 81,586,376 frs. ordinary, and 52, 714,956 extra- ordinary; to which were added 153 millions supplementary, and 1,387,650 special appropriations ; amounting in all to the sum of 151,408,942 fra. The actual account in 1862 reaches the enormous sum of 175,712,560 frs." Kolb, page 68. I have seen a statement that sets the Budget of 1863 at 193 million fre. Yet for all this, Paris taxes property less than New York, and so does not drive her residents away by over taxation. She puts most of the burdens on
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$40,000,000 in gold. Believe it, that we have the groundwork of a noble municipal order; and the poorest service that the citizen can render, is to despair of the republic or its metropolis. Its insti- tutions of charity and reform have the outlines of imperial greatness, and need only to be filled up with an imperial mind and energy. Already muni- ficent, voluntary associations have done a great work and given nobler promise. Their history would fill volumes.
Do not disdain to look upon our city upon another side, and consider how the great brain of business refreshes itself with what is generally called amusement. Rehearse all the records of excess and folly and utter wickedness that you can, and yet there is something else, and not by any means dis- heartening to say. Allow that in this city, in the year ending October 31, 1865, over 16,000 persons were arrested for intoxication, and over 7,000 more for intoxication and disorderly conduct ; that there are some 10,000 places for intoxicating drinks, and dens of licentiousness in proportion. Let us not forget that there is something encouraging in the demand for the higher forms of recreation, the beau- tiful arts, sculpture, painting, music, the higher drama, and, above all, for that gift of God, fair and great Nature, as presented in our noble Park under the sagacious and powerful hand of art. We must rest our minds as well as our bodies, and beautiful
imports and sales, and in 1864 the Octroi tax was estimated at 84,281,000. New York would be a cheaply governed city, if we had our whole revenue from customs, &c., to draw from.
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art gives the rest that soothes without stupefying, and cheers without maddening. God himself is opening a new world of loveliness. It is He that offers us the musical scale, after our brains are weary of the multiplication-table, and to man as to child he bids us to the drama that is called play, after we are worn down with the drama that is called work. Remarkable and interesting it is to see that beautiful tastes are rising with our utilita- rian pursuits, and music and its sister arts follow in the track of mathematics and its severe paths. It is surely something to thank Heaven for, that we have so much beautiful art within our reach ; that gifted men and women bring hither their choice works of sculpture and painting, and that we have heard Jenny Lind and other spirits of song, and seen the Keans and Kembles, Rachel, Ristori, and their peers in the higher walks of the drama. There is a Providence in it, and our city, with all its viees and follies, sets an example to the nation of the higher pleasures that cheer labor with recreation, and throw over care the charm of poetry and art. Happy will be the day when society learns the true lesson, and abandons its semi-barbarous extravagance and dis- sipation, for true companionship and exalting graces. Society is not well with us now, and the true union of men and women, social and domestic, is broken by an alarming secession. The men have, in great numbers, seceded to the clubs, and the women, in alarming array, have abandoned themselves to dress and jewels, in a devotion which makes the clothes primary, and the woman secondary; in a fashion
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that renders most visiting intolerable to sensible men, and ranks the lady according to the wardrobe, and the sociality according to the cook and dancing. master. We wait for the heroine, the feminine Grant or Sherman, who shall reduce the seceders to sub- mission, plant the banner of Union on the Fort Sumters of their rebellion, and bring them to terms by force of such combined loveliness and goodness, as to make their loval yoke more charming than their boasted and disloyal liberty. Then, perhaps, mod- ern New York might recall, without blushing, what Mrs. Grant wrote long years ago of old New York : " These unembellished females had more comprehen- siveness of mind, more variety of ideas, more, in short, of what may be called original thinking, than could be easily imagined."
And how shall we estimate the education of our people in its various forms; by schools, colleges, newspapers, books, churches, and, not least, by this great university of human life which is always before our eyes ? Think of the 208,309 scholars reported in 1865 in our public schools, and the average attend- ance of 86,674 in those schools, and over 100,000 scholars in regular attendance in all our schools, both public and private. Think of our galleries of art, private and public, and our great libraries and read- ing-rooms like the Astor, the Mercantile, the Society, and the Cooper Union. Consider the remarkable increase of private libraries, such as Dr. Wynne has but begun to describe in his magnificent volume. Think of our press, and its constant and enormous issues, especially of daily papers, which are the pecu-
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liar literary institution of our time, and alike the common school and university of our people. Our 350 churches and chapels, 258 of them being regular churches of all kinds, can accommodate about 300, 000 hearers, and inadequate as in some respects they are as to location and convenience, they can hold as many of the people as wish to attend church, and far more than generally attend.# Besides our churches and chapels, we have powerful religious instrumen- talities in our religious press, and our city is the centre of publication of leading newspapers, maga- zines, and reviews, of the great denominations of the country. In these organs the best scholars and thinkers of the nation express their thought in a way wholly unknown at the beginning of the cen- tury, when the religious press of the country was not apparently dreamed of. The higher class of re- "igious and theological reviews that are published here, are, perhaps, the best specimens of the most enlarged scholarship and severe thinking of America, and are doing much to educate an enlightened and
* The fullest statistics of New York religion that we can obtain, are given in the excellent Report of the City Mission for IRCC, and give a list of 550 churches, chapels, and synagogues; 171 of them being below Fourteenth Street, and 179 above Fourteenth Street. The list of clergy resilent num- bers 537, and the number of pastors is 298: being of Baptists So, Congre- gationalists 5, Dutch Reformed 21, Lutheran 9, Methodists 41, Prestito. rians 56, Episcopaliaus 79, Roman Catholic 36, Unitarian 3, MEcollaneou- 14. The number of Roman Catholic pastors is understated, by numing ouly one in connection with each church ; whereas there are often several. The State Census of 1865 returns 258 churches in the city, valued at $12,559,300 ; with other real estate, to thie amount of $8,477,800; with capacity for scating 266,980 persons, and with a usual attendance of 161,403. The salaries of the clergy, including use of real estate, are estimated at £301,400-being an average of $1,935 each.
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truly catholic spirit and fellowship. If the question is asked, in view of all these means of education, what kind of mind is trained up here, or what are the indications of our New York intelligence, it may not be so easy to say in full, as to throw out a hint or two by way of suggestion. There is, certainly, what may be called a New York mind and character, and there must be from the very nature of the case. Some characteristics must mark each community, as the results of birth and breeding; and however great the variety of elements, some qualities must predomi- nate over others in the people, as in the climate and fruits of a country. Where two tendencies seem to balance each other for a time, one is sure, at last, to preponderate, and to gain value and power with time, and win new elements to itself. It is not hard to indicate the essential New York character from the beginning. It is positive, institutional, large-hearted, genial, taking it for granted that all men are not of one pattern, and that we are to live by allowing others to have their liberty as we have ours.
Perhaps we make the portrait more distinct by comparing New York with New England; the Knick- erbocker with the Yankee. There is this great dif- ference in their antecedents. The old New Yorker began with his European national and church life, and was Dutch or English in church and state, without any radical non-conformity. The New Eng. lander began with separation, and whilst bringing the noblest elements of European character, he started as a dissenter from church and state. Hence the obvious and remarkable difference. The New Yorker
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rested in the old institutions, and still rests in them, -in the Heidelberg Catechism and Dutch Church or in the Prayer Book and Anglican Church or Westminster Confession and Presbyterian Church ; and, moreover, in civil matters, he trusts more in ancient and fixed law, than in radical principles. The New Englander was busy with reconstructing society and religion, according to his own convic- tions, and so became subjective, introversial, and doctrinaire ; sometimes to such a degree as sadly to puzzle and annoy his old Dutch-English neighbors, and as still to draw from their representatives here the accusation of being over-subjective, opinionated, and dictatorial, if not over-fond of turning the world of institutions upside down, at the mercy of his remorseless ideas. One other difference marks the two in a way that is not often acknowledged, and may not be sufficiently appreciated. New England at first seceded not only from old England, but from old Europe, and undertook to give up the dominant Japhetic or Indo-European idea of God in history, and to return to Shem and the Law of Moses, with the idea of God over us rather than with us, and to reject or slight the European Christian year and round of worship that is based upon the Incarna- tion. The Puritan, of course, believed in the Gospel and its great truths of Incarnation and Atonement ; but he made the expiatory Atonement and its sub- jective work more conspicuous, and was suspicious of the old church habits that are built upon the objective Incarnation, and keep the Christmas jubi- lee and its sequel. He was distrustful of the method
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