USA > New York > New York City > Old New York : a journal relating to the history and antiquities of New York City, Vol. II > Part 7
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And yet there is room within the city for more than twice this aggregate. If the one-third now built up has 800,000, the whole island fully occupied would
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hold nearly 3,000,000. The increase from 100,000 to 800,000 in fifty years may not, indeed cannot be maintained; but children are now living who will doubt- less see this metropolis greater in population and far exceeding in trade and power the London of the present day. The settlement of the upper portion of the island has been temporarily checked by the creation of the Central Park, an event which put the price of adjacent lots beyond the reach of men of small means, and gave them the strongest of all reasons for going to the suburbs. But a wealthier class has taken up the property, and will soon surround the Park with palaces, while all who can afford it will get as near as possible to our new and soon to be magnificent breathing place. Twenty years hence a return of the improved and vacant lots in that section of the city will be very likely to show twenty thousand more under the title "improved."-Dispatch, 1860.
THE NEW TRACT HOUSE .- There are few things which give one a better idea of the progress of this City than the almost daily completion of new buildings. The last edifice which has risen up in our midst as a prominent landmark is the new Tract House, corner of Nassau and Spruce streets. Twenty years ago that spot was occupied by an old rickety wooden building, which was used as a tavern of the lowest class. It was then considered too far "up town " to be looked upon as a business location. A few long-headed individuals clubbed together and raised the sum of $25,000, with which they purchased a number of lots and erected a number of buildings, and upon these the new Tract House now stands. The exterior of this building extends 80 feet on Nassau street and 70 feet on Spruce street ; it is five stories high ; and it contains fifteen presses and one hun- dred and thirty persons, all in the employment of the Society. The whole building is heated from top to bottom by steam pipes, and is supplied with water and gas in every apartment. Beside containing a number of convenient stores it also contains rooms occupied by the American Board of Foreign Missions, the American Home Missionary Society, and a variety of committee rooms ; the second story being occupied by the Tract Society .- Tribune, Dec. 22, 1847.
ANTI-SLAVERY ADVERTISEMENTS .- Boarding House for the Accommodation of Genteel Persons of Color (at the corner of Leonard and Church streets, New York). The proprietor of the above house returns his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for their liberal patronage during the past season, and solicits a continuance of their favors ; he assures them that no pains shall be spared to render satisfaction to the most fastidious. JOHN RICH.
New York, March 24, 1832.
Genteel Boarding .- Respectable persons of color can be accommodated with board, in a pleasant and healthy situation, where there are no small children, by A, Ramsey, No. 155 Church street, New York.
Garrison's Thoughts on Colonization. - A few copies for sale by P. A. Bell, No. 73 Chambers street, New York .- Boston Liberator, Sept. 20, 1832.
THE BRICK CHURCH .- The fortieth anniversary discourse of Rev. Gardiner Spring, Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, was delivered on Sunday morning, before a crowded audience. The statements of the condition of this old established congregation, during the forty years of Dr. Spring's pastoral connection with it, were of remarkable interest. The numbers added to the
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communion of the church during this period have been 2,092 ; the numbers baptized, 1,361 ; the number of couples married by the pastor, 875. Of the number of deaths no authentic record has been kept until within a late period of Dr. Spring's ministry. The number of sermons preached by the pastor has been 6,000, of which above 4,000 were written discourses -- while in the intervals of his other labors he has found time for the publication of eleven octavo volumes. Of his own family, eleven children, including the dead and the living, are en- rolled as members of the church. As regards the length of ministerial service, Dr. Spring is now the oldest pastor in our city .-- Times, August 4, 1850.
PROPOSED BURNING OF . NEW YORK .- It is not, we believe, generally known that Gen. Washington seriously contemplated the destruction of this city, after the disastrous defeat of our troops on Long Island, with a view to prevent it becoming the headquarters of the enemy. Such, however, is the fact, as appears from the following extract from one of his official letters to Congress, dated Sept. 2d, 1776 : " If we should be obliged to abandon the town, ought it to stand as winter quarters for the enemy ? They would derive great conven- ience from it on the one hand, and much property destroyed on the other. It is an important question, but will admit of but little time for deliberation. At present, I dare say, the enemy means to preserve it if they can. If Congress therefore should resolve upon the destruction of it, the resolution should be a profound secret, as the knowledge of it will make a capital change in their plans."
From a subsequent letter, dated the 8th of Sept., 1776, it appears that Congress were unwilling to run the hazard of so dangerous an expedient for defense. Gen. Washington says : "That the enemy mean to winter in New York, there can be no doubt : that, with such an armament, they can drive us out is equally clear. The Congress having resolved that it should not be destroyed, nothing seems to remain but to determine the time of their taking possession."-Long Island Star, 1830.
JERSEY CITY .- My first acquaintance with this place was some thirty-six · years since, at which time it contained but a few houses and a tavern, whereas it has now become a place of much business, containing an active, numerous and thriving population. In 1802, Major Hunt and family, John Murphy and wife, and Joseph Bryant, constituted the sole number of inhabitants, occupying one house and its outhouses.
The present city of Jersey covers a peninsula or neck of land which juts out from Jersey shore into the bay of New York, immediately opposite the most dense and business part of the city of New York. This neck of land was granted by letters patent from William Kieft, Director-General of the Dutch West India Company, to Abraham Isaacsen Plank, in the year 1638. It was then called (and is so called now) by the Dutch, Paulus Hook, and in the language of the natives (Iroquois), Areseek-houck. In 1698 it was conveyed by the heirs at law of Isaacsen Plank to Ido Cornelisse Van Vorst. The title to this neck remained in him and his descendants until March 26, 1804, when Cornelius Van Vorst, one of his descendants and the sole owner, conveyed the whole of Paulus Hook to Anthony Dey, who, in April of that year conveyed the same to
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Abraham Varick, and he conveyed it to Richard Varick, Jacob Radcliff, and Anthony Dey. On the 10th November, 1804, "The Associates of the Jersey Company " were created a body corporate by the Legislature of New Jersey, and by deed bearing the same date Richard Varick, Jacob Radcliff and Anthony Dey conveyed this property to " The Associates of the Jersey Company," who laid out the whole of Paulus Hook into blocks or squares of two hundred by four hundred feet, with intervening streets, and subdivided the blocks into building lots of twenty-five by one hundred each, besides laying out commodious public grounds.
In 1838 it was incorporated a city, and from that time it has rapidly improved in appearance and increased in population. All the streets have been graded and paved, the sidewalks ornamented with shade trees, and the streets supplied with spirit gas lamps. The houses are generally of brick, and some are very handsome, and it has the appearance of being an orderly and well conducted city, with an industrious and thriving population. There are six houses of public worship within the limits of Jersey City, viz. : Reformed Dutch Church, Episcopal, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Congregationalist and Presbyterian, The latter is a large and handsome building, with a tall spire, which adds great- ly to the appearance of the city. It is built of the old materials, and precisely in the same form of the Presbyterian Church which formerly stood in Wall street, of this city. Some of the other churches are capacious and handsome. There is a large public school, which cost $10,000, and a number of excellent private seminaries. The present population is about 6,000, and is rapidly in- creasing.
That your readers may have some idea of the business and prosperity of this place, I will enumerate some of the principal works which are in operation. Glass manufactories, which employ 220 men ; American pottery, 50 hands ; D. & A. Kingsland's extensive oil factory ; C. Knouse's foundry ; Gilbert's car factory ; a silver fork and spoon manufactory that turns out $60,000 a year ; Colgate's soap factory ; Slater & Steele's cast iron foundry ; Hudson Iron Co .; Prentiss & Frink's steam planing mill ; Hill's floating dock. Here is the term- inus of the great New Jersey Railroad, which, with the connecting branches, diverges into different parts of the State to Paterson, Morristown, &c. The depot of the railroad at Jersey City now occupies the site of the old windmill erected by one of the early settlers, and which was for many years a prominent object on the Jersey shore. The Morris Canal also terminates here in a large and valuable basin, with a pier extending into the Bay of New York, affording sufficient depth of water for the access of vessels of considerable tonnage.
But the most interesting improvement now going on in this place is the con- struction of three large wharves and warehouses for the accommodation of the Cunard line of steamers, which will commence running from Liverpool to this city early in January next. There is a strong bulkhead built of crib and stone, and 45 feet deep, projecting 300 feet from Hudson street. From this there are two outer piers, extending into the river 300 feet, built on crib-work and piles, and are forty feet in width. Inside of these is a middle pier 160 feet in length and 70 in breadth. The outer piers form a basin for the reception of the steam- ers and other vessels. The mud has been excavated by a machine of a peculiar
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construction, so as to leave 22 feet at low water, and about 50,000 square yards has been deposited back of the bulkhead to fill up the space between that and Hudson street, and to form a communication with the stores. On the centre pier is a building 145 feet by 40, two stories high. Along on the bulkhead is a building 150 feet by 100 as a depot for boats, etc. Adjoining this building at the end is a brick warehouse 50 feet by 25, three stories high, for the reception of goods from the steamers immediately on their arrival. These are designed to be placed in the custody of the Government, as they are in Boston, so that goods may be immediately landed under the inspection of the United States officer, in case the steamer should arrive after the Custom House is closed, in order to give great dispatch in discharging the cargo. These improvements have been made by the enterprise of the Associates of Jersey City, who rent the property at the rate of $4,000 per annum. The wharves, stores, etc., will cost about eighty thousand dollars when completed. From Jersey City across the ferry to Cortlandt street is seventeen hundred and ninety-seven yards, or one mile and one forty seventh of a mile, where a boat crosses from eight to ten minutes. The boats are good, but the fare is enormously high ; and I am certain it would be for the interest of the Associates to reduce it to a much lower rate.
Harsimus adjoins Jersey City ; and although it is a separate township, it may be considered as a suburb of that city. It contains about four thousand inhabi- tants, has three churches, viz: Reformed Dutch, Baptist, and Episcopal, and is a very flourishing village. It has several manufactories, which employ a large number of persons. Morrison's dyeing establishment, Dixon's black-lead cru- cible manufactory, Savery's iron foundry, Colgate's and Kingsford's starch fac- tories, Westcott's large brewery, and a large carpet factory. In 1835 a company was formed in New York to fill up the extensive flats at Harsimus for building lots ; but, like many other good projects, failed in the panic of 1837. The owner, Mr. Coles, has now commenced filling them, and in due time, when this is completed, this waste of water will furnish a large number of valuable lots, which will be greedily purchased by our citizens, on account of its proximity and easy access to New York .- Globe, Nov. 24, 1847.
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OLD NEW YORK.
MARCH, 1890.
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NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF PRINTING IN NEW YORK.
VIII.
On the 4th of August, the court being seated, Zenger was brought in. Mr. Chambers then said :
I humbly move your honors that we may have justice done by the Sheriff, and that he may return the names of the jurors in the same order they were struck.
Chief Justice .- How is that ? Are they not so returned ?
Chambers .- No, they are not ; for some of the names that were last set down in the panel are now placed first.
Chief Justice .- Make that out, and you shall be righted.
Chambers .- I have the copy of the panel in my hand, as the jurors were struck, and if the clerk will produce the original, signed by Mr. Attorney and myself, your honor will see our com- plaint is just.
Chief Justice .- Is it so? Look upon that copy; is it a true copy of the panel as it was struck ?
Clerk .- Yes, I believe it is.
Chief Justice .- How came the names of the jurors to be mis- placed on the panel ?
Sheriff .- I have returned the jurors in the same order in which the clerk gave them to me.
Chief Justice .- Let the names of the jurors be ranged in the order they were struck, agreeable to the copy here in court.
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This was accordingly done, and the jury, whose names were as follows, were called and sworn :
Hermanus Rutgers,
Egbert van Borsom,
Stanly Holmes,
Thomas Hunt, foreman,
Edward Man,
Benjamin Hildreth,
John Bell,
Abraham Keteltas,
Samuel Weaver,
John Goelet,
Andries Marschalk,
Hercules Wendover.
The Attorney General opened the information, which was as follows :
NEW YORK SUPREME COURT.
Of the term of January, in the eighth year of the reign of our sovereign lord King George IId, &c.
New York, ss. : Be it remembered that Richard Bradley, Esq., Attorney General of our sovereign lord the King, for the pro- vince of New York, who for our said lord the King in this part prosecutes, in his own proper person comes here into the court of our said lord the King, and for our said lord the King gives the court here to understand and be informed, that John Peter Zen- ger, late of the city of New York, printer (being a seditious per- son, and a frequent printer and publisher of false news and sedi- tious libels, and wickedly and maliciously defaming the govern- ment of our said lord the King of this his Majesty's province of New York, under the administration of his excellency William Cosby, Esq., Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of the said province, to traduce, scandalize and vilify ; and his excellency the said Governor, and the ministers and officers of our said lord the King, of and for the said province, to bring into suspicion and the ill opinion of the subjects of our said lord the King residing within the said province), the twenty-eighth day of January, in the seventh year of the reign of our sovereign lord George the Second, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ire- land, King, Defender of the Faith, &c., at the city of New York, did falsely, seditiously and scandalously print and publish, and caused to be printed and published, a certain false, malicious, seditious, scandalous libel, entitled the New York Weekly Jour- nal, containing the freshest advices foreign and domestic, in which libel (of and concerning his excellency the said Governor,
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Notes on Printing in New York.
and the ministers and officers of our said lord the King, of and for the said province), among other things therein contained are these words; " Your appearance in print at last gives a pleasure to many, though most with you had come fairly into the open field, and not appeared behind entrenchments made of the sup- posed laws against libeling, and of what other men have said and done before ; these entrenchments, gentlemen, may soon be shown to you and all men to be weak, and to have neither law nor reason for their foundation, so cannot long stand you in stead ; therefore, you had much better as yet leave them, and come to what the people of this city and province (the city and province of New York meaning) think are the points in question (to wit) They (the people of the city and province of New York meaning) think, as matters now stand, that their LIBERTIES and PROPERTIES are pre- carious, and that SLAVERY is like to be entailed on them and their posterity, if some past things be not amended, and this they col- lect from many past proceedings" (meaning many of the past proceedings of his excellency the said Governor, and of the minis- ters and officers of our said lord the King, of and for the said prov- ince). And the said Attorney General of our said lord the King, for our said lord the King, likewise gives the court here to under- stand and be informed, That the said John Peter Zenger afterwards (to wit), the eighth day of April, in the seventh year of the reign of our said lord the King, at the city of New York aforesaid, did falsely, seditionsly and scandalously print and publish, and cause to be printed and published, another false, malicious, seditious and scandalous libel, entitled the New York Weekly Journal, containing the freshest advices foreign and domestic. In which libel (of and concerning the government of the province of New York, and of and concerning his excellency the said Governor, and the ministers and officers of our said lord the King, of and for the said province), among other things therein contained are these words : " One of our neighbors (one of the inhabitants of New Jersey meaning) being in company, observing the strangers (some of the inhabitants of New York meaning) full of com- plaints, endeavored to persuade them to remove into New Jersey ; to which it was replied that would be leaping out of the frying pan into the fire ; for, say he, we both are under the same Gov-
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Notes on Printing in New York.
ernor (his excellency the said Governor meaning), and your Assembly has shown with a witness what is to be expected from them ; one that was then moving to Pennsylvania (meaning one that was then removing from New York, with intent to reside at Pennsylvania), to which place it is reported several considerable men are removing (from New York meaning), expressed, in terms very moving, much concern for the circumstances of New York (the bad circumstances of the province and the people of New York meaning), seemed to think them very much owing to the influence that some men (whom he called tools) had in the ad- ministration (meaning in the administration of government of the said province of New York), said he was now going from them, and was not to be hurt by any measures they should take, but could not help having some concern for the welfare of his countrymen, and should be glad to hear that the Assembly (meaning the General Assembly of the province of New York) would exert themselves as became them, by showing that they have the interest of their country more at heart than the grati- fication of any private view of any of their members or being at all affected by the smiles or frowns of a Governor (his ex- cellency the said Governor meaning), both which ought equally to be despised when the interest of their country is at stake. You, says he, complain of the lawyers, but I think the law itself is at an end. WE (the people of the province of New York meaning) see men's deeds destroyed, judges arbitrarily displaced, new courts erected without consent of the Legislature (within the province of New York meaning), by which it seems to me trials by juries are taken away when a Governor pleases (his excellency the said Governor meaning), men of known estates denied their votes, contrary to the received practice, the best ex- positor of any law. Who is then in that province (meaning the province of New York) that call (can call meaning) anything his own, or enjoy any liberty (liberty meaning) longer than those in the administration (meaning the administration of government of the said province of New York) will condescend to let them do it, for which reason I have left it (the province of New York meaning), as I believe more will." To the great disturbance of the peace of the said province of New York, to the great scandal
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of our said lord the King, of his excellency the said Governor, and of all others concerned in the administration of the govern- ment of the said province, and against the peace of our sovereign lord the King, his crown and dignity, etc. Whereupon the said Attorney General of our said lord the King, for our said lord the King, prays the advisement of the court here, in the premises, and the due process of the law, against him the said John Peter Zenger, in this part to be done, to answer to our said lord the King of and in the premises, etc.
R. BRADLEY, Attorney General.
It will be noted that this indictment only mentions two out of the four numbers of Zenger's paper which were said to be sedi- tious. After its conclusion, Mr. Chambers pleaded not guilty for Zenger, and declared that they were ready to prove it. He did not afterwards lend Zenger his notes, so that the only report given was from memory. He set forth very clearly the nature of a libel and the great allowances that ought to be made for what men speak or write. In all libels there must be some par- ticular persons so clearly pointed out that no doubt could remain about who was meant. He was in hopes that the prosecution would fail in his proof as to this point, and therefore desired that the Attorney General would go on to examine his witnesses.
There evidently was very little to be gained by this. The Journal had published matter of a personal enough nature to have satisfied any jury of that day, when so instructed by the court, that there was a libel there. Nor does it seem that Cham- bers possessed abilities or skill enough to have sustained any new theory in mitigation of the offense. But there were those in America who were fully informed as to their rights, and had studied the genius of English institutions. The leading man of the Philadelphia bar at that time, Andrew Hamilton, was one of these. Uniting a tireless ardor in the cause of freedom with a deep knowledge of both the written and the unwritten law, he had thrown himself into the breach for Zenger. He was now in court, having been retained by friends of the New York printer, and although he had reached a ripe old age he had traveled from Philadelphia to New York that he might defend him. At this stage of the proceedings he took up the defense.
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Mr. Hamilton .- May it please your Honor, I am concerned in this cause on the part of Mr. Zenger, the defendant. The in- formation against my client was sent me a few days before I left home, with some instructions to let me know how far I might rely upon the truth of those parts of the papers set forth in the information, and which are said to be libelous. And, though I am perfectly of opinion with the gentleman who has just now spoke, on the same side with me, as to the common course of proceedings, I mean in putting Mr. Attorney upon proving that my client printed and published those papers mentioned in the information ; yet I cannot think it proper for me (without doing violence to my own principles) to deny the publication of a complaint which I think is the right of every freeborn subject to make, when the matters so published can be supported with truth, and therefore I'll save Mr. Attorney the trouble of ex- amining his witnesses to that point; and I do (for my client) confess that he both printed and published the two newspapers set forth in the information, and I hope in so doing he has com- mitted no crime.
Mr. Attorney .- Then, if your Honor pleases, since Mr. Hamil- ton has confessed the fact, I think our witnesses may be dis- charged ; we have no further occasion for them.
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