USA > New York > Old New York : or, Reminiscences of the past sixty years > Part 27
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In order to render the fragmentary records of this address less imperfect in relation to the social features of New York, a sentence or two may find a place here concerning a peculiarity which early took its rise in our cosmopolitan city. Our Dutch annals of domestic society and manners are not entirely free of this distinctive feature, and our undying historian, Deiderich Knickerbocker, seems to glance at this circumstance amid all the turmoil and vicissitudes of our early Dutch governors, as one which at times lightened the cares of official
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station, and rendered the duties of office less bur- thensome : I allude to the formation or the estab- lishment of those social compacts called Clubs. The curious and instructive contents of the work recently published, entitled the Huguenot Family, by Miss Maury, depict lights and shades of social relationship that awaken reminiscences of illus- trative value. Not many years after English pos- session of Manhattan, we find that our royal gov- ernors and their immediate dependents were wont to assemble together, the better to discuss public affairs and enjoy the temporal benefits of the social board. We find a convivial club of professional gentlemen in New York about 1750, and that John Bard, Cadwallader D. Colden, Leonard Cut- ting and others were of the membership. Frank- lin occasionally honored them with his presence. Still later, and about the time the revolution of "76 broke out, the Social Club was created in New York, and continued its existence in this city until the capture of Cornwallis led to their sudden dis- solution. This club, it is almost superfluous to say, was composed chiefly of the tory party ; the most eminent in the law and in the other liberal pursuits were of the number : Lieutenant Gov- ernor Moore, Colden, S. Bard, Myles Cooper, and Dr. Clossy, are included in the list. After the peace of 1783, several years appear to have elapsed without any special organization of a private or
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social kind, when, in 1789, St. Tammany crected her standard on the broad and popular grounds of American rights, and secured by legislation her charter powers. I was well acquainted, at a juvenile period of my life, with William Mooncy, their first sachem, and in after years knew many of their primary and most efficient members, as C. D. Colden, J. O. Hoffman, and others. The Belvidere Club took its origin upon the arrival of the Ambuscade with the memorable citizen Genet. By many he is reported to have founded the Jacobin Clubs, but he was a Girondist. The Belvidere was an hilarious association. The names of Atkinson, Gouveneur Kemble, Barctto, Seaton, Marston, White, Fish, are to be found in their list of mem- bers. It was strong in the promulgation of popu- lar rights and in vindication of the democratic cle- ment. John Reed, a well-known bookseller of that period had, as the prominent decoration of his store, the sign of the head of Thomas Paine, an index of the reigning spirit of the time. The Friendly Club, under the presidency of General Laight, cx- isted for some few years about this period of politi- cal agitation ; but I am ignorant whether political discussion absorbed any of its carcs. A literary confederarcy about the same period, viz., 1792-3, was formed, the design of which was of an intel- lectual rather than of a social or festive nature. It was called the Drone. The particular aim of
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its members seems to have been the cultivation and diffusion of letters, constituting a sort of society for mutual mental advancement. Every member, I believe, was to be recognized by proofs of authorship ; and when we turn over the cata- logue of their names we must be ready to allow they were tenacious of their specific intent. I have already mentioned in other parts of this Dis- course many of this Association. Law, physic and divinity had each their representatives among them. The old Chancellor Samuel Jones, who died recently, was on this recorded list, and proved their last survivor. Our famous Dr. Mitchill was of the number, and with that remarkable pecu- liarity which so often characterized him, he ad- dressed the ladies through the medium of the Drones on the value of whitewashing, as among the most important of the Hygienic arts in house- keeping, thus perpetually vindicating the saving efficacy of the alkalis, most effectually to eradicate that evil genius, Septon, the destroyer of the physical world. Samuel Miller, John Blair Linn, and William Dunlop, were for a time associates, and Josiah Ogden Hoffman, who occasionally fur- nished a law decision, sometimes an Indian frag- ment, and sometimes a poetic stave. Charles Brockden Brown, I have reason to think, was an associate. John Wells, afterwards the great and eloquent lawyer, here, I apprehend, first commu-
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nicated his lucubrations on the importance of a steady cultivation of the Lombardy poplar for American agriculture, at the very time when the indignation of the community was waxing warm touching the pernicious tendency of this wide- spreading exotic.
- The Bread and Cheese Club originated in 1824, through the instrumentality of James Feni- more Cooper. Shortly after his renown burst forth as the author of the Spy. The selection of mem- bers for nomination to this fraternity rested, I be- lieve, entirely with him : bread and cheese werc the ballots used, and one of cheese decided ad- versely to admittance, so that in fact a unanimous vote was essential to membership. This associa- tion generally met at the Washington Hall once, if I remember rightly, every fortnight, during the winter season. It included a large number of the most conspicuous of professional men, statesmen, lawyers, and physicians. Science was not absent. I cannot in this place attempt any thing like an enumeration of the fellows. Our most renowned poet was Halleck, our greatest naturalist was De Kay : William and John Duer were among the representatives of the bar; Renwick, of philos- ophy ; letters found associates in Verplanck and King ; merchants, in Charles A. Davis and Philip Hone ; and politicians, who had long before dis- charged their public trusts, were here and there
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chronicled in fellowship. The meetings of the Club (or Lunch) were often swelled to quite a formidable assembly by members of Congress, senators, and representatives, and in this array were often found Webster and Storrs, W. B. Lawrence, and the French minister, Hyde de Neuville. To alleviate the dryness of detail, I may here perhaps invade the sanctity of social transaction ; but the occur- rence to which I allude is innocent, and may be deemed curious as well as rare. A theatrical benefit had been announced at the Park, and Hamlet the play. A subordinate of the theatre at a late hour hurried to my office for a skull ; I was compelled to loan the head of my old friend, George Frederick Cooke. " Alas, poor Yorick !" It was returned in the morning ; but on the en- suing evening, at a meeting of the Cooper Club, the circumstance becoming known to several of the members, and a general desire being expressed to investigate phrenologically the head of the great tragedian, the article was again relcased from its privacy, when Daniel Webster, Henry Wheaton, and many others who enriched the meeting of that night, applied the principles of craniological science to the interesting specimen before them ; the head was pronounced capacious, the function of animal- ity amply developed ; the height of the forehead ordinary ; the space between the orbits of unusual breadth, giving proofs of strong perceptive powers ;
A
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the transverse basilar portion of the skull of corre- sponding width. Such was the phrenology of Cooke. This scientific exploration added to the variety and gratifications of that memorable meet- ing. Cooper felt as a coadjutor of Albinus, and Cooke enacted a great part that night.
The Sketch Club, originally intended as an ar- tistic fraternity, yet gradually including gentlemen of other professions but interested in art, still flourishes and boasts as original members Ver- planck and Bryant. A sketch of its history ex- ists, if I mistake not, from the facile pen of one of its founders, the late gifted Robert C. Sands. The Sketch Club meets bi-monthly at the mem- bers' dwellings during the winter. The luxury of the Union and the social enterprise of the Century Club are on a larger scale, and partake of the metropolitan spirit of the day.
I shall terminate these hasty notices of those social compacts denominated Clubs, which, as before stated, seem to have very early constituted a striking feature in New York society, and, at different eras in its progress, marked its advance in refinement and affluence, with a brief account of the last organization of that nature which had its existence among us : I allude to the Hone Club, founded some twenty-two years ago, the original projector being the late distinguished Philip Hone. It was circumscribed in numbers,
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and was rarely permitted to include more than twenty members. It abjured discussions on theo- logical dogmas, on party politics, and individual personalities. Its themes were the American Revo- lution and its heroes ; the framers of the Consti- tution, the United States judiciary, New York and her improvements, Clinton and the canal, the mercantile advancement of the city, banks, Wash- ington and Hamilton, Hancock and Adams, the Union and its powers. It justly boasted of its strong disciples, and gathered at its festivals the leading men of the Republic. Webster was cherished as a divinity among them, and in this circle of unalloyed friendship and devotion his absorbed mind often experienced relief in the cheer- ing views of busy life imparted by his associates and in the estimates formed of national measures ; while he himself proved the great expositor of characters deceased, something after the manner of another Plutarch, the instructive chronicler of historical events lost in the mysticism of conflict- ing accounts, and the vindicator of the genius and wisdom of government founded on cautious legis- lation and conservative polity. I never heard a breath in this Club of South or North : it had broader views and more congenial topics. Web- ster talked of the whole country-its seas, its lakes, its rivers ; its native products, its forests, from the pinus Douglassii to the willow at the
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brook ; from the buffalo of the prairie to the fire- fly of the garden. I have seldom encountered a naturalist who had so prompt a knowledge of the kingdom of nature. The gatherings of the Hone Club were cordial communions of a most at- tractive character ; they were held at intervals of a fortnight, and they only ceased upon the demise of their benevolent founder. Their festivals were of the highest order of gustatory enjoyment,-the appetite could ask no more,-and a Devonshire duke might have been astounded at the amplitude of the repast, and the richness and style of the entertainment. When I have conned over the unadorned simplicity of our ancestors, and had authentic records for the fact that at their more sumptuous demonstrations of hospitality, corned beef might have been decorating the board at both ends, constituting what the host called a tautology, and that old Schiedam imported by Anthony Doyer, made up the popular exhilarating bever- age, and compared what I now witnessed in these my own days, the canvass backs and grouse hardly invoking . appetite ; that "nabob" would stand without reproach, and Bingham alone receive the attention due its merit, I am irresistibly led to the conclusion arrived at on a different occasion, by my friend Pintard, that there is a great deal of good picking to be found in this wicked world, but that the chances of possession are somewhat rare.
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And yet this ratio of things is not perhaps dispro- portionate to other circumstances. Within less than a century the city's progress in the com- forts and luxuries of existence is a noticeable oc- currence : New York in that interval, from the scattered village has become the metropolis of the Union ; the solitary carriage of Lieut. Governor Colden and the little carry-all of Dr. John Bard, (the only doctor of the day who was not a pedes- trian,) have multiplied into their tens of thousands of vehicles ; and the doctor's fee of half a crown has augmented to the tangible value of a one pound note. When calling to mind the Hone Club memory dwells with gratitude on the accom- modating functions of the gastric powers and the beneficent means which seem provided for their normal continuance.
My most excellent friend, and I may call him the friend of mankind, Philip Hone, died of pro- tracted illness at his residence in this city, in May, 1851, in the 71st year of his age, to the deep regret of the community. I cannot find a more appropriate opportunity than this place of giving some record of his life and character. His career is an event which blends itself with the civil progress and history of New York. The Histori- cal Society were not indifferent at his death, as he was long associated with them as member and in several offices of trust and responsibility. As an
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old and intimate friend of Mr. Hone, my relations to him are among the most cherished of my pro- fessional experience. The urbanity and high tone of sentiment which distinguished him endeared his name as a true gentleman ; his great industry in the cultivation of his mind, and the acquisition of knowledge amid the absorbing cares of mercan- tile life, is an example worthy of the highest re- spect ; while the steadfast integrity which was the noblest element of his character will secure for it enduring honor. Philip Hone, in addition to these claims upon our affection as a man, possessed others none the less rare as a citizen. He was a thorough American in feeling and principle, and a genuine Knickerbocker in local attachment and in public spirit. He watched with most intelligent zeal over the fortunes of this growing metropolis, identified himself with every project for its ad- vancement, and labored with filial devotion in her behalf. Our most useful as well as most orna- mental changes won his attention and enlisted his aid. From the laying a Russ pavement to the elab- oration of a church portico ; from the widening of a street avenue to the magnificent enterprise that resulted in the Croton Aqueduct, Mr. Hone was the efficient coadjutor of his fellow-citizens. He was eminently conspicuous among the most eminent of our active and exalted men. Several of our most important and useful institutions are
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largely indebted to him for their successful estab- lishment. With the late John Pintard, and Wil- liam Bayard and Theodore Dwight, he assiduously devoted his best energies in rearing the Savings Bank ; and the Clinton Hall Association, with its important branch the Mercantile Library, are in- debted to him as its founder and benefactor. He also, with others of the Hone family, gave support to the canal policy of his persecuted friend, De- witt Clinton. I believe it is admitted without a dissentient voice, that, as Mayor of New York, he is to be classed among the most competent and able Chief Magistratcs our city ever possessed.
At the period of Mr. Hone's birth his native city contained about twenty thousand inhabitants, and at the time of his exit five hundred thousand had been added to that number. It can be easily understood that so active a spirit in deeds of good report, for some thirty years and upwards, must have largely contributed to the promotion of the numerous works of beneficence and knowledge which have marked the career of so progressive and enterprising a population, amid whom he lived and labored. Your records will point out the service he rendered your Historical Society ; but I forbear to be more minute.
Mr. Hone's career as a merchant precluded ex- tensive triumphs of scholarship. His mind was but partially imbued with classical lore ; but its
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ceaseless activity, elegant tone, and judicious di- rection, rendercd it not only a delightful resource to its possessor, but a blessing to the community. There can be little doubt that his Private Diary, embracing the records of his life and associations for a long number of years, will prove an historical document of permanent value. Through transla- tions Mr. Hone had grown familiar with the spirit and imagery of classical and Italian literature. Homer and Tasso he rcad with delight ; but his favorite department of study was history, and here he was thoroughly at home and a credit to the Historical Society. Thus his public spirit, his private character, gentlemanly address, studious habits, and fiscal integrity, combine to form a har- monious and noble specimen of character of which our city is proud, and around which will ever hang the incense of our undying remembrance. To these feeble expressions of my estimate of Mr. Hone, I may be permitted to add that his personal appearance was of an elegant and commanding order ; that his physical infirmities for some time, though they invaded not his intellectual faculties, gradually prepared him to foresee his earthly departure was at hand. Sustained by the consolations of religion, and surrounded by his family, he closed his useful life, sensible to the last, composed and resigned.
Coincident with the increase of our social and
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artistic resources, those of literature and science began to exhibit a magnitude and permanence worthy of a great and growing metropolis. By the munificent bequest of John Jacob Astor, and the wise self-devotion of Dr. Cogswell, a Library now exists here second to none in the world for the choice, conveniently arranged, and most re- quisite books for the scholar and general inquirer. The building, the exquisitely filled alcoves, the dis- tribution and the gradual increase of the Astor Library, are admired by each visitor in proportion to his erudition, taste, and familiarity with other institutions of a kindred character. Foreign scholars, of whom political exigencies have driven hundreds to our shores, find the Astor Library, free as it is, the most charming resort in New York. The additional gift of the son of the founder will soon double the space, treasures, and usefulness of the noble institution which will bear his father's name in grateful remembrance to the latest posterity.
I cannot dwell upon the several benefits arising to the youth of the city from the Mercantile Li- brary ; from the Apprentices' Library ; the Franklin Library, the offspring of the Typographical Asso- ciation ; from the rising Institute of the philan- thropic Cooper ; from the conservative enjoyment derived from the Society Library : but I must refer to the precious collection of Egyptian an-
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tiquities brought hither by Dr. Abbott, of Cairo, and now awaiting the purchase money destined, I am confident, sooner or later to secure them to our city. The renowned Egyptologist, Seyfforth, has borne testimony to the distinctive value of this unique collection ; one of your most learned cler- gymen, Rev. Dr. Thompson, has elucidated thereby the specialities of Biblical history ; an artist, Eu- genio Latilla, has illustrated the origin and growth of early art from the same materials. Professor Felton, of Harvard University, recently read a paper before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston, detailing his examination of a Greek inscription on one of the venerable tablets conserved in this museum, and then urged upon the Academy its rare worth, assuring them that, having visited the chief Egyptian Museums of Europe, he found objects in that of New York not elsewhere preserved. We must deem it a for- tunate circumstanee that, now when the collection of Egyptian antiquities is so difficult, and the entire series so rare, our city boasts so complete and authentic a museum in a department of ines- timable importance as illustrating the domestic economy, arts, manufactures and sepulchral in- signia, as well as the lore and the actual history of the land of the Ptolemies.
A striking characteristic of New York which reflects signal honor on the benevolence and hu-
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manity of her people, was early visible in her civic progress. The wholesome axioms of her primitive Dutch settlers and her cultivated Huguenots, soon led to the formation of schools for the cultivation of knowledge and the advancement of sound morals ; and shortly after the commencement of her career, indecd as far back as the year 1699, when her population scarcely exceeded six thou- sand, Dr. McCready in his late historical address assures us, on the authority of our city's chronicler, David Valentine, that the poor received partial relief in their own houses or in lodgings specially provided. Some twenty years after, an almshouse was erccted near the spot where the City Hall now stands. This institution held its locality for some seventy years or more ; with the collateral aid of a dispensary, which owed its origin chiefly to Dr. John Bard, the indigent found succor and relief. The almshouse yielded medical instruction by the clinical talents of Dr. William Moore, Dr. Richard S. Kissam, and Dr. Nicholas Romayne. In 1769 a pest-house was established for the reception of diseased emigrants, and the organization of a med- ical society in 1788, placed John Bard at its head as president. Through the efficient instrumental- ity of Drs. Peter Middleton, John Jones, and Sam- uel Bard, we find the New York Hospital took its rise and was chartered in 1771. In 1790 we find the first of our city dispensaries in operation ;
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five years after commenced the rebuilding of the great city almshouse on the site of the old edifice in the Park, and which in 1812 was con- verted to other purposes, literary and historical, and destroyed by fire some three or four years ago. From historical data, I am authorized to state, that these several institutions yielded curative and saving benefits to multitudes of the indigent and the afflicted, under the direction of a wise super- vision and the talents of able clinical direction, medical and surgical. The original faculty of physic organized by King's (subsequently Colum- bia) College, were among the prominent teachers and prescribers, and Bard and Clossy, and after- wards Bayley, Hosack, Mitchill, Post, Crosby, and Nicholls, are to be enumerated.
In 1811 was projected the ample Bellevue Hospital and Almshouse, which was rendered fit for the reception of its inmates in 1816 ; Dr. Mc- Cready tells us, from official records, at a cost of nearly half a million of dollars. The medical government of this great establishment was placed under a visiting or consulting physician, while the immediate attendance was confided to one or two physicians who resided in the institution. A malignant typhus or hospital fever breaking out, which made great havoc both with the patients and the doctors themselves, led to the appointment of a special committee of inquiry into errors and
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abuses, when Dr. Joseph M. Smith and Dr. Isaac Wood assumed the medical management. The occasion gave origin to the Fever Hospital at the recommendation of Dr. David Hosack, to which charity the febrile cases were transferred, when within a month the pestilence was happily at an end. Dr. Isaac Wood now received the appoint- ment of resident physician of the Bellevue Hos- pital, and held the office seven years, with signal benefit to the public interests and to humanity, when his resignation led to the acceptance of the trust by Dr. B. Ogden. The tortuous policy of politics, however, now led to party appointments, and the evils incident to such policy flowed in with increased force ; inexperience betrayed her incom- petency, and the soundest whiggism and most radical democracy often proved equally ignorant of the principles of hygiene and curative measures. Typhus again resumed her work, and change be- came imperative. In the midst of revolutionary struggles, in order to rectify this deplorable condi- tion the government of this great institution was at length placed under the medical discipline of Dr. David M. Reese, as physician in chief. Jus- tice demands that it be recorded, that this appoint- ment led to a great reformation. Dr. Reese, during his term of office, stood forward the champion of innovation and improvement, and displayed in a
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noble cause a perseverance and ability which have proved of lasting benefit.
In 1849 the office of Resident Physician was abolished by the Board of Governors of the Alms- house, to whom the control of the establishment had passed, and the administration of the medical department of the Bellevue given over entirely to a Medical Board. Enlargements of this vast charity have from time to time been made com- mensurate to the wants of an increasing popula- tion, and advantageous improvements have been adopted, characteristic of the enlarged policy of our municipal authorities ; and, were I to dwell longer on the subject, I might adopt with benefit the eulogistic language which Dr. McCready cm- ploys when speaking of the present renovated state of the edifice, its ample dimensions, the conve- nient disposition of its large and airy wards, sup- plied with every essential want for the afflicted, and its peculiarly sanative location on the borders of the East River.
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