USA > New York > Old New York : or, Reminiscences of the past sixty years > Part 17
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REVOLUTIONARY WORTHIES.
New York, which throughout her whole progress has been faithful to constitutional law, and may examine with a bold front her conduct both in peace and in war, had furnished noble intellect and strong muscle in the vast work of colonial dis- franchisement. She could boast of patriots who now found their homes as citizens among us, in the residence of their choice. The Clintons, the Livingstons, the Morrises, Jays-Hamilton, Fish, Gates, Steuben, M'Dougal, Rufus King, Duer, Ward, Williamson, Clarkson, Varick, Pendleton, and hundreds of others, who had done service in the times that tried men's souls, were now domi- ciliated here. How often have I cast a lingering look at many of these worthies in their movements through the public ways, during the earlier period of this city, with here and there a Continental tri- cornered hat over their venerable fronts, a sight no less gratifying to the beholder than the fragrant wild rose scattered through the American forest. I am not now to tell you what species of knowl- edge these men diffused among the people, and what doctrines on liberty they espoused ; versed as they were in the school of experience, they could utter nothing but wisdom. Suffice it to remark, that they led to that accumulation of manuscripts of revolutionary documents, with which your libra- ry is especially enriched.
Other circumstances urged the propriety of or-
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ganizing some institution which might enhance the patriotic object of a broad foundation, avail- able for the promotion of historical knowledge. It has been demonstrated in numerous instances, as I have in part intimated, that the story of our Revo- lution, if ever honestly related, must be derived from domestic sources, and from the informed mind of the country. The prejudice abroad which had nullified facts, as in the proceedings instituted to suppress the work of Dr. Rawsey, and cut off its circulation in Europe ; the war of crimination which originated from General Burgoyne's publi- cations ; the difficulties which arose from Sir Hen- ry Clinton's statements ; the Gallaway letters and documents, all could be cited in proof of the ex- pediency of a native historian assuming the re- sponsible trust. And when still further it was ascertained that Gordon's work, on which such strong hopes were fixed, arising not only from the general reputation of the writer, but strengthened by a knowledge of the opportunities he enjoyed for information, and the labor and devotion he had paid to his subject : when, I remark, it was ascer- tained that that work was subjected to purification by British authority, because it contained asper- sions (so called) on the British character, that it recorded too many atrocious truths to assimilate well with the digestive functions of John Bull ; further, that audacious threats were held out that,
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BRITISH DISCIPLINE.
if published as written by the honest author, from its faithful representations of the aets of many of the renowned characters of the British army and navy, it would lead to libel upon libel, damages upon damages, and thus impoverish the writer, as truth ever so well grounded, even if permitted to be adduced, could not, according to statute, plead in mitigation, thus defeating that integrity at which Gordon had arrived ; facts of this notorious nature, comprehended even by the masses, could be produetive of no other result than to strengthen the general opinion that the American mind must be up and doing, if ever the seal of truth was to stamp her imprimatur on the history of the Ameri- ean Revolution. *
* Dr. Waterhouse, in his work on Junius and his Letters, has very explicitly given us a brief statement of these nefarious trans- actions. I quote from his preliminary view the following extraet : " A very valuable and impartial history of the American Revolution was written by the Rev. William Gordon, D. D., an Englishman ; who resided about twelve years in Massachusetts, and had access to the best authorities, including that of Washington, Greene, Knox, and Gates, and the journals of Congress and of the Legisla- tures of the several States. IIe injudiciously returned to England, there to print his interesting history. He deemed it prudent to submit his manuscript to a gentleman learned in the law, to mark such chapters and passages as might endanger prosecution, when the lawyer returned it with such a large portion expurgated as to reduce about four volumes to three. The author being too aged and too infirm to venture upon a voyage back to America, and too poor withal, he submitted to its publication in a mutilated state; and thus the most just and impartial history of the American war,
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Our friend Pintard repeatedly gave wings to these abuses of foreign writers, as preparatory to his movements for an historical society. He was too full of knowledge, both by observation and by reading, not to feel himself doubly armed on the subject ; and your intelligent Librarian, Mr. Moore, can point out to you how ample is your collection of volumes on the Indian, the French, and the Revolutionary wars, chiefly brought together by the zeal and research of your enlightened founder.
Will you allow me now to come more closely at home, and offer a few remarks on the occurrences in our midst, which in the end swelled the tide of popular feeling in behalf of your institution. " No people in the world," says a late lamented citizen, Herman E. Ludwig, " can have so great an interest in the history of their country, as those of the United States of North America ;" "for there are none," adds this learned German, " who enjoy an equally great share in their country's his- torical acts." Glorious New York has, from the beginning of her career down to the present hour,
and of the steps that led to it, on both sides of the Atlantic, was sadly marred, and shamefully mutilated. My authority is from my late venerable friend John Adams, the President of these United States, who perused Gordon's manuscript when he was our Minister at the Court of London, and from my own knowledge, having been shown a considerable portion of the History before the author left this country to die in his own, and having corre- sponded with him till near the close of his long life."
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FRENCH REVOLUTION.
ever been the theatre of thought, of action, and of results, and so I presume she is to continue. Her adventurous character has rendered her the acknowledged pioneer of the Republic, and her thousand examples of improved policy in muni- cipal affairs, in building, in domestic economy, in the several departments of arts and of commerce, have yielded by their adoption blessings untold to other cities of the Union. From the time of that great improvement, as it was called, the construc- tion of side walks for foot passengers in the streets, only one hundred and thirty-four years after the streets themselves were first paved, (a long Rip Van Winkle torpor,) at which service we find Pin- tard struggled with the corporate authorities in 1791-2, down to that mighty achievement, the in- troduction of the Croton water, by the genius of Douglass, she has been the exemplar for other cities of the Republic, and approved by the en- lightened foreigner, from every nation, who has visited our shores.
Common observation has repeatedly confirmed the fact, that the greatest and the smallest events are often synchronous. With the birth of the Revolution of France in 1789, I made my first appearance on this planet ; and the arrival of l'Embuscade four years after, from the notoriety of the event and its consequences, enables me to bring to feeble recollection many of the scenes
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
which transpired in this city at that time : the popular excitement and bustle, the liberty cap, the entrée of citizen Genet, the Red Cockade, the song of the carmagnole, in which with childish ambition I united, the rencontre with the Boston frigate, and the commotion arising from Jay's treaty. Though I cannot speak earnestly from actual knowledge, we must all concede that these were the times when political strife assumed a for- midable aspect, when the press most flagrantly outraged individual rights and domestic peace -- when the impugners of the Washington admin- istration received new weapons with which to inflict their assaults upon tried patriotism, by every arrival from abroad, announcing France in her progress. The federalists and the anti-federal- ists now became the federal and the republican party ; the carmagnole sung every hour of every day in the streets, and on stated days at the Bel- videre Club House, fanned the embers and en- kindled that zeal which caused the overthrow of many of the soundest principles of American free- dom. Even the yellow fever, which from its novelty and its malignancy struck terror in every bosom, and was rendered more lurid by the absurd preventive means of burning tar and tar barrels in almost every street, afforded no mitigation of party animosity, and Greenleaf with his Argus, Freneau with his Time Picce, and Cobbett with his Porcu-
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FEDERAL AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES.
pine Gazette, increased the consternation which only added to the inquietude of the peaceable citi- zen, who had often reasoned within himself, that a seven years' carnage, through which he had passed, had been enough for one life. The arrogance of party-leaders was alike acrimonious toward their opponents, and reasoning on every side seemed equally nugatory. Nor could Tammany, ostensibly the patron saint of aboriginal antiquities, calm the multitudinous waves of faction, though her public processions were decorated with the insignia of the calumet, and the song of peace was chanted in untold strains, accompanied by the Goddess of Liberty with discolored countenance and Indian trappings ; and patriotic citizens, such as Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Cadwallader D. Colden, and William Mooney, as sachems, with many others, followed in her train.
I have not the rashness to invade the chair on which is seated with so much national benefit and renown the historian Bancroft, or approach the sphere of the historical orator of the nation, Ed- ward Everett ; still, as your association is historical in all its aims, I shall present a few additional circumstances which signalized the spirit of those memorable times in New York. Much I saw- much has been told me by the old inhabitants, now departed. When the entire American nation, nay, when the civilized world at large seemed electrified
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
by the outbreak of the revolution of France, it necessarily followed, as the shadow does the sub- stance, that the American soul, never derelict, could not but enkindle with patriotic warmth at the cause of that people, whose loftiest desire was freedom ; of that people who themselves had, with profuse appropriation, enabled that very bosom, in the moment of hardest trial, to inhale the air of liberty. Successive events had now dethroned the monarchy of France, and the democratic spirit was now evolved in its fullest element. It was not surprising that the experienced and the sober champions who had effected the great revolution of the Colonies should now make the cause of struggling France their own ; and as victors al- ready in one desperate crisis, they seemed ready to enter into a new contest for the rights of man. The masses coalesced and co-operated. Cheering pros- pects of sympathy and of support were held out in the prospective to their former friends and bene- factors abroad. Jealousy of Britain, affection for France, was now the prevailing impulse, and the business of the day was often interrupted by tu- multuous noises in the streets. Groups of sailors might be collected on the docks and at the ship- ping ready to embark on a voyage of plunder ; merchants and traders in detached bodies might be seen discussing the hazards of commerce ; the schools liberated from their prescribed hours of
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RIVINGTON AND GAINE.
study, because of some fresh report of the Ambus- cade or of Genet, the schoolmaster uttering in his dismissal a new reason for the study of the classics, by expounding with oracular dignity to his scholars, Vivat Respublica, now broadly printed as the cap- tion of the play-bill or the pamphlet just issued. The crew of the French frigate moored off Peck Slip were now disgorged on shore, and organized to march in file, increased by many natives, bear- ing the liberty cap with reverence, to the residence of the French Consul, in Water street, and thence proceeding to the Bowling Green, patriotically to root out, by paving stones thrown in showers, the debris of the old statue of George III. The tri- color was in every hand or affixed to every watch- chain, while from every lip was vociferated the carmagnole. Meanwhile the two old notorious arch-tories, who had fattened on lies and libels, and before whose doors the procession passed, were snugly ensconced behind their shop counter ; Rivington in rich purple velvet coat, full wig and cane, and ample frills, dealing out good stationery to his customers ; and Gaine, in less ostentatious costume, ready with religious zeal to dispose of his recent edition of the Book of Common Prayer to all true worshippers.
Political clubs abounded everywhere. The fraternity of the two nations was the great theme. They deliberated on the doctrine of Lafayette in
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
the national Assembly-" When oppression ren- ders a revolution necessary, insurrection is the most sacred of duties." The democratic principle as- sumcd a more vigorous form, and the Democratic Society, the first in this city, and perhaps the first in the Union, was organized, with Henry Rutgers, an affluent and distinguished citizen, as its presi- dent.
But the time was near at hand when this flood in revolutionary affairs was about to find its ebb, so far as concerned the universal sympathy which America had cherished for struggling France. She had contemplated the overthrow of the monarchy, the destruction of the privileged orders, the execu- tion of the king, with more or less approval ; and, from the freedom of the press, and the diffusion of knowledge, our citizens were perhaps as copiously enlightened in the transactions of Paris as most of the inhabitants of that capital in the midst of all its doings. But fresher and still morc portentous intelligence now poured in among us. All knew that the tree of liberty had been planted in human blood ; yet the delights at its growth were some- times checked by the means of its nutrition. Nor was this virtiginous state of public opinion long to last. Some of the hitherto most factious and sturdy jacobinical advocates took alarm at the rapid march of foreign events. In the public assemblies graver deliberations filled the speaker's mind, and
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FANATICAL TIMES-GENET.
the fulminations of anarchy gave way to the per- suasive logic of rule and right. History was now, indeed, teaching philosophy. So far as concerned the war itself, nothing abroad so effectively chilled the ardor of the American people as the sanguinary measures of Robespierre, while at home the ex- traordinary career of Genet increased the dissatis- faction to the cause of Republican France, and added to the anxiety which the predominance of jacobinical principles might occasion.
Amidst these momentous events, others scarcely less alarming were seen approaching, aggravated by the rebellious tendencies of foreign interference and the malign career of Genet," the lawless spirit of the times, and the increase of popular disaffec-
* I have spoken of Genet with severity : he labors under re- proach by every historian who has recorded his deeds, and by none is he more chastised than by Judge Marshall; yet withal, Genet possessed a kindly nature, was exuberant in speech, of live- ly parts, and surcharged with anecdotes. His intellectual culture was considerable ; he was master of several living languages, a proficient in music as well as a skilful performer. To a remark I made to him touching his execution on the piano, he subjoined : "I have given many hours daily for twelve years to this instru- ment, and now reach some effective sounds." He had a genius for mechanics, and after he had become an agriculturist in this country, wrote on machinery and on husbandry. He assured me (in 1812) the time would arrive when his official conduct as min- ister would be cleared of its dark shades. To other shoulders, said he, will be transferred the odium I now bear. In a conver- sation with him on the vicissitudes and events of the French Re- volution, he said, "Their leaders were novices: had they been
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
tion towards England. The appointment of Jay as minister extraordinary to Great Britain, the debates in Congress on the Treaty which he had negotiated, and the local turmoil which found en- couragement elsewhere as well as in this city, are facts strongly within the memory of the venerable men still alive among us. As might be inferred, the provisions of the treaty were assailed with the greatest vehemence by jacobinical or demno- cratic clubs, and the disciples of the most spotless of patriots decried in language which can scarcely find a parallel in the vocabulary of abuse. The disorganizing multitude, segregated in divers parts of the town, soon found a rallying point at the Bowling Green, opposite to the Government House, and signalized themselves by burning a copy of the Treaty amidst the wildest shrieks of demoniac fury,-while some of the Livingstons, (among whom the most grateful associations clustered for revolutionary services in behalf of dear America,) with more than thoughtless effrontery fanned the embers of discontent, and William S Smith (a son-in-law of old President Adams) presided with
versed in Albany polities but for three months, we would have es- caped many trials, and our patriotism been erowned with better results." It is to be regretted that the papers of Genet have not yet seen the light : they embrace letters from Voltaire and Rous- seau, and years of correspondence with eminent American states- men, down to the close of his eventful life. He died at Jamaica, Long Island, in 1834, aged 71 years.
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JAY'S TREATY.
magisterial importance at a formidable meeting of the malcontents, who passed resolutions depre- catory of the stipulations of the negotiation and of the principles and acts espoused by the advo- cates of the great measure. To give a still more alarming aspect to affairs, Hamilton and Rufus King, occupying the balcony of the City Hall, in Wall street, and addressing the people in accents of friendship and peace and reconciliation, were treated in return by showers of stones levelled at their persons by the exasperated mob gathered in front of that building. "These are hard arguments to encounter," exclaimed the noble-hearted Hamil- ton. Edward Livingston, (afterwards so celebrated for his Louisianian Code,) was, I am informed, one of this violent number. What Washington called a counter-current, however, actually took place at a meeting of the old Chamber of Com- merce, at the head of which was Comfort Sands, an experienced man who had been long before a member of the Committee of Safety in the days of the Liberty Boys. This important body on trade and commerce voted resolutions declaring their ap- probation of the treaty. But let me refer you to the history of that time-honored association writ- ten by Charles King, LL. D., for further par- ticulars.
I believe old Tammany was then too intent in effecting their original design, with their charter
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
before them, of gathering together the relics of na- ture, art, beads, wampum, tomahawks, belts, earthen jugs and pots, and other Indian antiqui- ties, with all that could be found of Indian litera- ture in war songs, and hieroglyphical barks, to take any special movement in this crisis of public solicitude for the safety of the Union. Tammany, to her honor, adhered together by a strong con- servative Americanism, and stood aloof from the influence of foreign contamination. That these assertions are founded on more than conjecture, is deducible from contemporaneous events. One of the beloved idols among their members, was the erudite Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill. Early after the organization of the Society, he discoursed be- fore the Society of Black Friars, on the character of St. Tammany, the Incas of Peru, and the be- nignant aspect of our Republic. Nothing had reference to our domestic trials. Still later, at a season of much agitation among us, as Sachem, in another address on the Red Man of the New World, he congratulated the members on their patron saint, with the hope that their squaws and papooses were all well.
Public opinion, as I have already intimated, had become somewhat doubtful as to the wisdom which marked the French revolution. Many, once seem- ingly secure in the light of nature alone, now felt themselves led into a delusion, the results of which
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SKEPTICAL DOCTRINES.
threatened more than temporal inconvenience. The middle and the best classes of society, the responsible citizen, who had at one time frater- nized with these apostles of liberty, now foresaw that certain doctrines ingrafted on and interwoven with the political dogmas of the day, were more serious in their intent than avowed, and penetrated deeper into the inward parts than the stripes of partisan leaders and the acts of military chieftains. Equivocation only rendered more noxious the skep- ticism which was too prominently rearing its head. Few were so blind as not to see that infidelity, wrapt in the mantle of the sovereign rights of the people, indulged the hope of her triumphant es- tablishment, and the downfall of the strongest pillars of the Christian faith.
As the darkness which had shrouded the actual state of things broke away, new light shone upon the conduct of the revolutionists. A devouter feeling was in progress, and circumstances were better comprehended. The Gospel of charity, of peace, and of good will to all men, it was safely inferred, was not to be advanced by existing trans- actions, nor its dignity elucidated with advantage by the foulest blasphemies. It was further seen that the pestilential exhalations of Paris had not merely polluted all France, but that they had widely diffused themselves throughout the Con- tinent ; that Germany had her Illuminati ; that
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
England breathed the noxious vapor with spas- modic vehemence ; that Scotland was tainted ; that Ireland was ready for a change of elemental life.
Enough had now transpired abroad to awaken alarm at home. New York, which, to her ever- lasting honor be it said, had been founded and reared under her original settlers, the Dutch, and with the exception of some slight misrule on the part of certain of her English masters (see our faithful and distinguished historian Brodhead *), had uniformly sustained religious toleration down to the present moment ; New York, which had with the nobleness of freemen looked with sym- pathizing eyes on revolutionary France in her in- cipient warfare on behalf of a persecuted and trodden-down nation, could no longer continue in- credulous as to the mischief and abuse which afflicted others, or skeptical as to the disorder and moral degradation which threatened even her own domestic fireside.
" A change came o'er the spirit of her dream."
I have said already that her revolutionary heroes wavered in their hopes that our people were swayed by anticipated benefits ; that the
* History of the State of New York : by John Romeyn Brod- head. First period, 1609-1664. New York : Harper & Brothers, 8vo., 1853.
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ATHEISTICAL TIMES.
political clubs took alarm ; in short, among men of all orders and professions, Doubting Castle stood before them. Liberty, the attractive god- dess, once decorated in her robes of resplendent purity, was now transformed into a hideous mon- strosity. The professing Christians stood aghast when they learned that in France every tenth day was appointed for the Sabbath ; that death was pronounced an eternal sleep ; that it was resolved by the Corresponding Society of Paris that the belief of a God was so pernicious an opinion, as - to be an exception to the general principle of toler- ation. The clergy, with us, could no longer with- stand these atrocious sentiments. " Better," said they, "abandon the cause of liberty, so dear to our humanity, than adhere to it at such a sac- rilegious cost. Better abandon France than aban- don our God." The balance was struck, and many of that exalted order of men who had been the advocates of the revolution, were now turned and became its most implacable enemies. The Rev. John McKnight, a professor in Columbia College, fortified by the patriotic Witherspoon, had issued a series of Discourses on Faith, and William Linn, of the Collegiate Dutch Church, an eminent divine and accomplished preacher, was of the number of the converts. He had published the Signs of the Times in behalf of Liberty and France ; his troubled bosom now gave relief to
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