USA > New York > New York City > Old New York : a journal relating to the history and antiquities of New York City, Vol. II > Part 37
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Of these Bayard was the principal sufferer, the one most harshly treated. He was in prison a year, and with a chain on his leg. A man who could not be "let go," and who could not be trusted to the fidelity of common soldiers. His treatment shows the intensity of feeling that existed, and especially towards him. For all that a blot and an impolicy ; a humiliation and a treatment that made vindictive a man who would not forget it,
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and greatly angered his many personal and party friends. That " something more mild could have been done " in such cases was thought by Rev. Mr. Daille, Leisler's good friend throughout, and he went to and exhorted him to it. Such cases must stand as, on that side, instances of unhappy party spirit, of undue rigor. Seething and passionate times all around, in 1690! And yet withal, what strikes us as most remarkable is this, that in a city, 'as we find it said, "ruled by the sword," under an "insolent" tyrant backed by soldiers and an inflamed and ignorant "rabble " -"a perfect reign of terror"; with at least one man in their power as obnoxious to the common people as Bayard ; that during two years of such rule there was not an execution real or demanded, not a drop of blood shed ; nor yet a Libby prison with its scenes of starvation and death ; only a comparatively few men of the opposite party imprisoned in a garrisoned fort and fewer yet chained by the leg. Marvellous self restraint in "the rabble !" I turn to New York in 1775. Again news from Boston ; again of the wealthy class, the coterie bred and brooded by royal gov- ernors, a large part opposed to the popular side, tories-among them names the same as in 1689 ! There is likewise a committee of safety looking after patriot interests. The prisons are full, including as such the churches ; with an overflow into the jails of Connecticut. Among the prisoners is "Parson " Seabury, of Westchester, carried to New Haven and imprisoned. Aud so in- tense is party feeling that up at Kingston two respectable men, men with families, are hung out of hand simply as tories! I return to the year 1691. Bayard and his party are now back again in power, with Leisler and his "Hon. Council " prisoners. It takes but a few days and they are condemned to death ; a few more and two of them, Leisler and his son-in-law Milborne, are executed ; first hung, then beheaded ; the rest remain in prison for sixteen months thereafter as the " condemned six." Against that execution Rev. Mr. Daille (the same who had exhorted Leisler to mildness) pleaded and protested with the Governor personally ; he then presented to the Governor and Council a largely signed petition. In vain. Indeed for the act, one of mere humanity, he was cited before Sloughter's General Assembly and narrowly escaped imprisonment! Such comparisons are fair ; and when
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made, how tips the beam of justice, for or against Leisler, his council and party, buried by their opponents under a lasting ignominy ? Say what one may of Leisler, that he was choleric and at times unduly severe, this remains, that in most exciting scenes he shed no blood. In this bitter struggle, this social and political convulsion, let us remember that Leisler and his party were ultimately the defeated ones. His opponents, the success- ful party, have had the field. History has not yet climbed over the manifest exaggerations of party spirit, nor let fall the sun- light of justice upon characters and events which those exaggera- tions have blackened and defaced. Can we but view it as a sig- nificant fact that none of the charges over which we have thus far passed, things deemed monstrous in Leisler, were made the subject matter of the indictment under which he was tried and condemned and executed ? Party spirit was the deadly ingredi- ent in that business, without which his execution would not have been possible. But party spirit had to find something bearing the semblance of law and justice, some monk's cowl wherewith to hide the features of its deed, and it found it not in the things thus far examined. The ground of his indictment is yet to come, and to it, the closing scene, we now pass.
In January, 1691, Captain Ingoldsby entered the bay ; nearly three months, as it proved, in advance of Governor Sloughter, from whom he had been parted in a storm. Of course he had no orders looking to the present emergency ; none from William, none from Sloughter; no orders, no business to decide upon the king's letter or Leisler's right to the Lieutenant Governorship-the all important question, nor did he wait for Sloughter. But he was immediately visited by Philipse, Van Cortlandt and others, and from their representations took his course. He made an instant demand for the fort. Leisler, in reply, requested to see his orders either from the king or Governor. And here let us recall the vital fact, the key to his position and action, that in his own esti- mation he was for the time being rightfully Lieutenant Governor by virtue of the king's letter, and had, therefore, a right to ask of any man, even the king's officer, his credentials before deliv- ering to him a king's fort. Ingoldsby's answer was curt, and at . once shewed his bias: " Possession of his Majesty's fort is what I
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demand." Whereupon the issue was made with Ingoldsby, and here begins the indictment against Leisler. Since Ingoldsby showed no credentials, he refused to deliver up the fort, other- wise he offered him "all courtesy and accommodation " for his troops. But the people, their passions were running high; they saw the old party back in power reinforced by Ingoldsby, and therefore when he landed-I quote from Dominie Varick, who was there-" they ran from all the houses to the fort as against a public enemy." "They opened a brisk fire." Unfortunately two were killed, a negro and a soldier-the first in this history. To an angry letter from Ingoldsby about it, Leisler the next day replied : "I have forthwith examined and find it a matter of fact" that shots had been fired at the troops. He offered to punish the offenders if they could be found. "God forbid," he says, "that any man under my command should be countenanced in an ill act;" and he publicly reproved it. Nevertheless, it was in the indictment, " murder, one Josias Browne." And so proceeded matters for about three months, with threatened war and excite- ment at fever heat, but no bloodshed, Leisler's council and party the meanwhile standing firmly by him, except that Dr. Beekman, fearing bloodshed and the result, endeavored to organize a third party for neutrality till Sloughter's arrival. It was impossible, and did not save him from being condemned to death with the rest. But at last, during the evening of March 19, Sloughter himself arrived in the bay ; was rowed in his barge to the landing and proceeded to the City Hall; there heard Ingoldsby and the rest, and installed a council ; Leisler's messengers he arrested and pocketed a letter he also sent, and finally ordered Ingoldsby " to arrest Leisler and the persons called his council." Summary proceedings but effective; he was the long looked for royal Governor and had the power, whatever his character or bias or acts. History has written his epitaph with entire consensus : " weak, avaricious, immoral and notoriously intemperate "-" a profligate, needy and narrow-minded adventurer." With such a man, the important thing was "the power behind the throne." In the morning, therefore, with the proper order now in his- pocket, Ingoldsby proceeded to the fort; Leisler, Milborne, and such of the council as were there, quickly became prisoners ;.
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the rest dispersed to their homes, and the revolution, after two years' existence, was ended. Say of Leisler and his council, if one pleases, foolishly obstinate to hold out so long! But short of the present, where? Lieutenant Governor by virtue of the king's letter-that was Leisler's position, conviction and claim.
To that position and conviction he and his council remained consistently firm to the end. After a year's imprisonment, and while still condemned to death, when offered pardon and release (under Gov. Fletcher) if they would sue for it as criminals guilty of high treason and crime, members of that council refused, my own ancestor among them ; they had committed no crime. Un- happy for them, then, as was the ending through Sloughter's hasty condemnation-Sloughter, who had been ordered by the king to investigate-what shall we say of them ? Brave men, with the courage of their convictions-men who would not shirk in battle, who would not flinch nor quit the deck though the breakers were reached and their lives in deadly peril ! It is amazing they should · have reached the end with but one defection. But prisoners they now are-Leisler (so says the account) with " the same chain on his leg that Bayard had worn." How long to the trial ? Ten days. Upon what charges to be tried ? "Traitorously levying war, felo- niously murdering Josias Browne ;" holding the fort against the Governor, " in the reducing of which lives had been lost." In other words, the whole period of three months from Ingoldsby's arrival is in this indictment treated as one, as opposition to the Governor, who was " reducing the fort." Hence the charges, treason and murder. Who prepare the evidence for the prosecu- tion ? Bayard, Van Cortlandt and Pinhorne. Who are the se- lected judges? Ten men "the least prejudiced against the prisoners ;" or, as truthful Sloughter writes, " unconcerned with the late troubles"-including Ingoldsby, also Pinhorne, who had just prepared the evidence. Who are the government counsel ? The Attorney General " reputed the ablest lawyer in America" and four specials to assist him. But on the other side ? None. All the forms of law observed, till one examines the personnel. And now the trial begins. Leisler and Milborne at once refuse to plead till the court shall decide one question ; had or had not the king's letter to Nicholson given him authority to take upon him-
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self the government? The whole case in a nutshell! That granted and it swept away the entire indictment. How was it decided ? This learned court of Oyer and Terminer, with Chief Justice Dudley presiding ; with the Attorney General and four eminent counsel to assist; itself composed of men selected as " the least prejudiced against the prisoners;" refused to decide this just and all important question. They referred it to the Gov- ernor and council. With what result? A result easily to be predicted. The Governor and council were Sloughter, Philipse, Van Cortlandt, Bayard, Minvielle and one or two more; sitting in judgment upon their own case ; a case upon which turned the legality of Ingoldsby's acts, of this present trial, and of all the council had done and claimed since December, 1689. Upon their decision, also, depended the lives of eight men ; and they gave it against Leisler. So the trial proceeded to its end, Leisler and Milborne being tried as mutes, and being with six of his council condemned to death. One scene more in this doleful tragedy. They have asked reprieve till the king can be heard from, and this Sloughter ostensibly grants. Will it be carried out ? A very weak man is Sloughter. A great "clamor of the people " be- sieges his Excellency-Rev. Mr. Daille's appeals on the other side and his petition of 1800 names (the number given by Gouv- erneur) being of no account. A great " clamor of the people ; " and so his Excellency leaves it to his council. And on their part the council-Philipse, Bayard, Van Cortlandt, Nicolls and Min- vielle (May 14)-declared it " absolutely necessary " that the exe- cution of " the principal criminals" (Leisler and Milborne) should take place. For what reasons? First (as recorded) "for the satisfaction of the Indians"-of the Mohawk valley ; who had doubtless received and eagerly read the New York morning pa- pers, and were to be conciliated in no other possible way! Sec- ond, for " the assertion of the government and authority, and the prevention of insurrections and disorders for the future." Such were their recorded reasons-to conciliate savages and strike ter- ror at home ! The next evening (Thursday, May 15), there was an entertainment at the house of Bayard, and there the " weak" Sloughter signed the death warrant. From Thursday till Satur- day, no longer ; but Leisler is ready, Milborne it may be not so
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much so; and in his last address Leisler still declared that he would have yielded the fort to Ingoldsby had he presented his credentials. In a northeast rain storm, near the old Tammany hall, they were both hung, then beheaded. The young Patroon of Albany, Jeremias Van Rensselaer, was not on the popular side, but he wrote to the Lords of Trade " revengefully sacrificed."
It is all over then, since Leisler is dead. No, there remains the vindication ; it is not all over. As Julius Cæsar " at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted," so Leisler ghosted the opposite party. Years did not see the end of the bitter feud, social and political, between the Leislerians and anti-Leislerians, parties that arose out of his grave ; but that we pass. In England, his enemies had till now very successfully turned influential minds around the seat of power. The good and reliable Sloughter, after his official in- vestigation, had also informed the king that doubtless "never - greater villains lived" than Leisler and his council. But other influences were beginning to work. In particular a strong peti- tion came to their Majesties from young Leisler, his mother and sister, the widow of Milborne. The Lords of Trade to whom it was referred reported the execution "according to law;" i. e., the military offense charged against Leisler bore in law the death penalty. How, indeed, could they venture to declare William's first Governor and council and a court of Oyer and Terminer, with Chief Justice Dudley at its head, guilty of judicial murder ? Not yet. They, however, petitioned their Majesties to restore the estates of the deceased ; and Mary in council "approved their re- port " and so ordered-an act, so far, of executive "mercy." But in 1695, through the efforts of young Leisler, of Gouverneur and others, and with William's assent, the case came before Parlia- ment. A committee was appointed and the whole history ex- amined anew. That history was embodied in a bill, and though opposed to the utmost by Chief Justice Dudley and others, it was passed by Parliament and William signed it! It reversed the attainder in full ; and as the legitimate corollary the " condemned six " were likewise pardoned and their estates restored. Vindi- cated at last ; Leisler and Milborne, also, receiving from the Gen- eral Assembly, the State legislature, under Gov. Bellomont, public and honorable interment under the old Dutch Church.
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May I be permitted to say, in conclusion, that when I under- took this subject for the course of papers before the Oneida His- torical Society, I had only the most general impressions concern- ing it? On examination I found the histories relating to the matter variant and confused, but the larger part of them adverse to Leisler ; and I felt obliged to analyze for myself from the very beginning. The result is now a definite opinion : that by their early and stubborn resistance to a popular and inevitable out- break, necessarily involving their own authority, the old govern- ment seeded the future crop-a resistance on both sides growingly stubborn and full of the caloric of passion in that con- tracted city. They should, at least, have accepted the temporary solution of a committee of safety, but lost their opportunity. For the rest, the action of Parliament, the fulness of the bill, with William's signature thereto, covers, and settles all. questions back to the interpretation of the king's letter. Leisler was not a usurper, but had rights which Ingoldsby and Sloughter and the rest grievously and wrongly invaded. That scaffold with all its ignominy was reared upon a miserable technicality, a subterfuge- resistance to a king's officer, the Governor's representative ; but one who had no credentials from his superior, who only afterwards chose to adopt his acts. Upon that technicality, that subterfuge, eight men condemned to death, two of them actually executed ! How could such a thing be done? We must remember the age and the example of England ; that moral sentiment on the subject of life and executions was not the keen sentiment of the present day, which would render another such event on New York soil impossible. Above all, however, what does history tell us by many examples of the blinding, almost dehumanizing effects of party spirit, of class prejudice and passion ! Some of these were good men. Dominie Selyns was such, though he did not inter- fere-perhaps could not. I think Van Cortlandt to have been such, in other matters an honorable gentleman. But they began with the idea of " the rabble," and ended by thinking their oppo- nents through the loom and the fog phenomenal " villains "-than whom "never greater villains lived." As such they judged, as such condemned them, shedding their blood without compunction, who in two years of agitating strife, of mutual partisanship, had
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never shed any. So may even good men harden at times into rock and wrong-excusing themselves by many subtle mental de- vices. But in California is a town where one may walk, himself among orange orchards, roses, the cactus, banana and palm trees- In the distance, between two hills of green, is a mountain of rock, in Summer ugly and grim, fit object for God's thunderbolts ; but in Winter there comes from the skies a soft veil of snow which hides its unseemliness from the far off walker among the pleasant orange trees. Let us do as the skies do-cast the white mantle of charity over this tragic and ugly event of the distant past, one of such intense passion and partisanship. But Leisler, relegated as an official of New York to the dust and opprobrium of two centuries -concerning him what does this review make the fitting conclu- sion ? Is it not this-that as we praise the faithful sentinel of Pompeii, whom the enshrouding ashes had so long concealed ; as in our day we are raising to pedestals of honor men, whom the passions of the past had alone consigned to oblivion or ignominy ; so should be restored to honorable place in the annals of New York the name of Lieutenant Governor Leisler. Let us turn his face from the wall.
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THE APPRAISER OF THE PORT OF NEW YORK.
The Appraiser's office is on the block bounded by Laight, Hu- bert, Greenwich and Washington streets, being the whole space except one small building, and comprising about an acre and a quarter. It is near the river, and is thus well situated in that respect, but is some distance from the dry goods district and from the commercial centre of New York. This would probably be at Canal street and Broadway. The extreme south end of the island is taken up with the exchange of commodities on paper. Here are the Custom House, the Produce, Oil, Cotton, Coffee and Stock Exchanges, the principal banks, the Sub-Treasury, the principal lawyers and twenty thousand brokers. Their upper region is per- haps Fulton street. Above these on the west side are hardware, dry goods, boots and shoes, groceries and manufacturers of dry goods articles for consumption ; on the east side are the manu- ufacturers of machinery, furniture and a countless number of other things that go to make up New York's trade. Above Fourteenth street are both retail stores and manufacto- ries. These trades do not remain in the same place. Dry goods, before the Revolution, were sold on Pearl street, below Wall; after the Revolution they swelled out into William street, and there was no great change till after the great fire of 1835, which was in the centre of the dry goods district, as it was then. Pine street, William street, Exchange place and Pearl street continued the centres until about 1855, when Claflin leaped over Broadway and established himself on the west side. llis accommodations becoming cramped he again removed to Church street, and the trade followed him.
Originally the Custom House of New York was at the Battery, the Colonial governors appointing the collectors and appraisers. Governor Dongan, who seems to have been a man of sense and judgment, wrote to England in 1687 a long letter respecting the revenues and the method of collecting them. On a gallon of
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rum, brandy or other distilled liquor the duty was fourpence a gallon ; on each pipe of sweet wine, such as Madeira and sherry, forty shillings ; upon sugar, molasses, coals, West India hides and tobacco, two per cent .; Indian goods, such as blankets or manu- factured articles for Indians' use, ten per cent. ; powder twelve shillings a barrel, and lead six shillings a pound. There were excise duties also. The collector of the port was Lncas Santon, who did not enjoy the respect and confidence of the Governor. He had two assistants ; one was John Smith, a deputy bookkeeper and surveyor, and "John Harlow, a servant of his, waiter and searcher." Santon had £200 a year sterling; Smith £50, as his deputy, £40 as his accountant, £30 as copyist and £20 for board. Harlow had £30 as waiter, £48 as being in the King's service. £20 for board, and £162 for expenses of two voyages. The net rev- enues, after expenses, amounted to but little over £3,000 in eighteen years.
The number of officials steadily grew as the city increased in size. This was owing to the importations becoming greater, and to the increased complexity of articles in commerce. Smith, in his history, says that the importations from the West Indies were chiefly rum, sugar and molasses. Mules came from the Spanish main. The importation of dry goods from England was very great, so that they were obliged to betake themselves to all possible arts to make remittances. For this purpose they imported cotton from St. Thomas's and Surinam, lime juice and Nicaragua wood from Curacoa, and logwood from the bay. The annual amount purchased from Great Britain was not less than £100.000 sterling. They had a trade with Holland and Hamburg for duck, checkered linen, cordage and tea.
The system of collection of revenues on foreign goods that we now have is substantially the same as that formerly existing in Great Britain, modified by time and the exigencies of our posi- tion. All the colonies had before the Revolution tariffs for the collection of duties. When the war broke out, and the colonies assumed the position of sovereign States, this power of taxing for- eign commodities was exercised by them until the formation of the Constitution of the United States and the setting of the machinery of the Federal Government into operation, on the fourth of March,
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1789, when this prerogative was taken from the States and given to the United States. The first act passed was in relation to the taking of oaths, and the second was for laying a duty on goods, wares and merchandises imported into the United States. The third act was in relation to imposing duties on tonnage, the fourth . established a Department of Foreign Affairs, and the fifth was a supplementary act in relation to the duties. Chapter XI was in respect to registering and clearing vessels, and Chapter XII was to establish the Treasury Department. This bill, proposed by Hamilton, took advantage not only of what had before been done in England and America, but also availed itself of the recent studies of French economists, who were then endeavoring to patch up the finances of France, hoping thus to escape the disas- ters which shortly after followed. They were unsuccessful, but Hamilton's system, planned with his unequaled genius, has proved to work well in practice, and has not been materially altered. It provided for each of the larger ports a Collector, who estimated the duties and collected the duties ; a Naval Officer, who scrutinized and checked every account, as if he only were responsible ; and a Surveyor, who boarded vessels and examined them. The Ap- praiser's office, which we shall describe, was then contained with- in the Collector's, and was not separated until our revenues became great. All these early acts, except the one establishing the Treas- ury Department, were shortly repealed, and other enactments made instead, and the first permanent one in relation to the col- lection of duties was that known as Chapter XXXV of the second session of Congress, passed August 4th, 1790. It covers eighty- two pages in Folwell's edition. There were to be two collection districts in New York, Sag Harbor and New York. The latter was to include all except the east end of Long Island, and the towns and landing places of New Windsor, Newburgh, Pough- . `keepsie, Esopus, Hudson, Kinderhook and Albany ; these latter as ports of delivery only. A Naval Officer, Collector, and Surveyor for the port were to be appointed, to reside in the City of New York. An additional surveyor was to reside in the City of Hud- son and another in the City of Albany. The Collector was to estimate the amount of duties on each invoice, and to employ proper persons as weighers, gaugers, measurers and inspectors,
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