USA > New York > New York City > Recollections of persons and events, chiefly in the city of New York; being selections from his journal > Part 12
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hore an aspect somewhat new. The convention included men distinguished for their sage wisdom and their long experience in the world of letters. They believed as we believed, that the time has gone by when self-styled conservatives can affect to smile at progress. Progress is the word of our age, as it has been of every age which promised good for the future. The first spread of Chris- tianity was an age of progress. The reformation of religion and learning from the delusions of the dark ages was an age of progress. Nothing in our world is stationary. Every thing created is con- stantly going either backward or forward, is in a state either of improvement or decay. It is so in the products of the earth, and in every power or faculty that belongs to man himself. No wise man, then, will cling to every thing that is old, simply because it is old. An Egyptian mummy is very well in its place, as a mummy ; but we would be far from keeping it in our drawing room, when we could obtain in its stead a statue or a bust from the hands of a Canova or a Greenough. We would rather leave the old thing in its crypt, to be examined by the curious lover of relics who has nothing else to do.
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Such mouldering antiquities, however, are not the worst things in our world. So far as we know, they have inflicted no evil on their gener- ations. But there are enormous abuses which are the growth of time-abuses in States, in Churches, and in Seminaries of learning ; abuses which become oppressive and injurious wrongs upon the human race; and it is our privilege to live at a period when many of these grievous enormities, whether civil, religious, or literary, are shaking and tottering toward their fall. Not a few of them, indeed, have fallen already. The nations of the Old World feel the spirit of reform and change becoming stronger and stronger within them; and much that we have seen of thrones overturned, and aristocracies sinking from their once high estate, is but the beginning of the end. Cloisters and the mosques of superstition are no longer able to keep their doors barred against the progressive. and inquisitive spirit of our day ; and when we have found our way within, and see the hollow deceit which had held the world so long in spiritual bondage, we come forth animated with new zeal for the spread of an intelligent and life-renewing faith. The shrines
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of learning, too, are made subject to this same spirit of scrutiny, which goes on weighing every thing before it in the balances of truth and right. Eved Oxford and Cambridge, though sur- rounded with thousands of hallowed memories, having with their untold wealth, too long con- fined their highest prizes to faultless Prosody or speculative Mathematics, now find the hand of the Reformer reaching them, and requiring them to give an account of their stewardship. Indeed, all the oldest seats of learning are gradually ap- proximatimg a state of transition, or have already entered it. Science throughout the civilized world is required to lay aside her stateliness, and to come forward, and even stoop down to see what she can devise and do for the practical benefit of man. The loud and earnest cry of Bacon when he asked, " Is knowledge ever barren ?" begins to be heard far and near, among the high and the low; and in no land on_ which the sun shines is the cry so loud, so earnest, and so pro- longed as in our own. The nation has risen up, and conscious of her giant strength, though yet in her youth, she has announced to the nations her lofty purpose to create a new era in history : a new era
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in the knowledge and assertion of civil and social rights; a new era in the wider extension of an education that will liberate, elevate, and stimulate the whole mass of mind in a nation, qualifying them both for self-government and self-protection ; a new era in the cultivation of science by scientific men, giving them both the will and the means to discover the yet secret powers of every element in nature, and to draw them forth in new applications to the service of man.
See what she has already done with that subtle and most powerful element, the electric fluid. One of her sons first chained it to a rod to protect our lives and dwellings from its deadly stroke; and another has tamed down the once-dreaded thing, that seemed powerful only for evil, and has made it the obedient messenger to carry our thoughts around the world with the speed of thought itself. If I mistake not, electricity has only begun to do its destined work. Our all-wise Creator makes nothing in vain. He never wastes his own workmanship. He sees the end from the beginning. He adapts means to their ends. Nor can I suppose that He would have given such surpassing power to that wonderful agent, if He
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had not designed it to accomplish more wonderful results than we have yet seen. May not the day be coming, perhaps be at hand, when, with an increase of safety, and with an economy of time and cost as yet unknown, it will impel our ships across the ocean and our cars on the railroad; when it will drive the press that prints our books ; when it will effect new wonders in agriculture, as in every thing else, and will produce rich crops from soils now abandoned to barrenness and desolation ? And as it was under American mind that lightning received its first schooling, is it not reasonable to suppose that it will finish its education under masters of the same nation ?
What is true of the electric fluid, may be also true concerning other powers of nature; for, not- withstanding all that has been done by science in her deepest investigations, we are yet only on the surface. Fire may yet be extracted from mountains of ice, and the frozen mass thus made to liquefy itself. The very Upas-tree may yet be made to furnish a healing antidote to its own deadly poison. The noxious vapors now ascending from the putrid mass, may yet be turned into a channel that will minister to the health which they are now so
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powerful to destroy. But if in such achievements for public good, the elastic, ever active, indomitable genius of our country is either to take or keep the lead, she must have Institutions of learning and science that will dare to step beyond the usages of past centuries ; that will quicken the minds of her sons to invent, to explore, to test every thing that the Creator of earth, air, and sea has placed within their reach; Institutions embracing a sphere of instruction that leaves no one branch of Science or of Letters to stand alone, isolated from others that would tend to their mutual improvement if united ; but in which all may be grouped as in a bright constellation, where every new star that is added renders the whole sky the more brilliant and heavenly.
And if the nation needs such a seat of learning to develop her intellect and to prepare her to run the race set before her, where can she plant it with so much advantage to all she would expect from it, as in the city of New York? For its proper growth and expansion, as I have described it, its : teachers and its taught must have ready access to vast libraries, where they can converse with both the dead and the living; and to rich collections
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from nature and art, where they can survey both the various productions of the Almighty Creator and the works of human skill and contrivance. It must also be embosomed in a community where man can have free intercourse with man, where man comes into collision with man, where man can co-operate with man, where man is the study of man. It must have the bodily diseases and social wrongs of all climes and nations brought within its observation, that it may give opportunity to study their nature and origin, and how they are to be remedied. It must have a living cosmorama constantly around and before it, exhibitions of men in the widest universality, universality of pursuits, universality of tastes, universality of condition and character. So much the better if, within the walk of an hour, we could meet with men from a score of different nations, speaking as many different languages, governed by as many different instincts and objects. All these advantages should enter into the field of a University doing the work of the day and of the land in which we live.
I need not say how, in these respects, New York outstrips all other cities of the western
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world, and is every year leaving them more and more in the distance. Her wealth increases faster than sobriety is inclined to count it; and even when mines of gold are discovered on the shores of the Pacific, the treasure must first be poured into the lap of New York before it circulates through the nation. As a consequence of her facilities for the accumulation of property, she is fast becoming the increased abode of keen-sighted, far-seeing men, who impart more or less of the tone of their own spirit to every class of our inhabitants. With her numerous libraries, with her various museums, with her swarming population, she sees choice minds of the land among her divines, her lawyers, her physicians, her men of Science and Letters -- all of them tending, in their various spheres, to carry the intelligence of the city upward and onward. Through the great arteries that branch out in all directions from her as the heart of the nation, she has a free communication with every part of our vast country, drawing to herself whatever it can yield, and which tends to build up her own greatness; and with the wide Atlantic, bridged as it is at her very doors by our noble steamers, she finds herself in daily intercourse with
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the best intellects of the Old World; and as they pour their richest wisdom into this new hemi- sphere, she has the first of it, before it passes beyond her, or into the hands of others.
I cannot well conceive of a place with higher advantages than these for such an Institution as the University of the City of New York was designed to be by its founders; nor should I dismiss the subject on which they bestowed so much time and thought, without a tribute of respect to the memory of some of them now in their graves.
Mr. Gallatin had been long in public life and was widely known both at home and abroad. He was greatly distinguished for fertility of mind. While acting with his friends Adams and Clay as commissioner at Ghent to form a treaty of peace between England and America, difficulties fre- quently arose in the course of the negotiations which seemed insurmountable. It is said that Mr. Gallatin, after a brief interval, could always suggest some new measure or present some new aspect of the chief question which furnished a new starting point, while Mr. Adams, from his extensive information, would often say more in favor of Mr. Gallatin's plan than Mr. Gallatin could say
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himself; and Mr. Clay would follow up the whole with some melting appeal that would make all parties feel half ashamed that there should be so much difficulty in devising terms of pacification between two nations so intimately allied as England and America. The same diversified talent which Mr. Gallatin had discovered on other occasions we found of much service to us in our deliberations respecting the scheme of the Uni- versity.
General Lewis had served in the army of the Revolution. He had subsequently risen to the Bench as Chief Justice of our State, and afterwards filled its Executive chair as Governor. He presided at our earliest meetings when contempla- ting the establishment of the Institution, and brought his well-matured judgment to our aid.
General Tallmadge had passed many of his previous years, in the councils both of the State and the nation, and after retiring from his political relations and responsibilities, he spent the closing years of his life in promoting the cause of learning, of agriculture, and other important interests in the State to which he always avowed himself as fondly attached.
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Among our merchant princes we had such men as John Johnston, Samuel Ward, Henry I. Wyckoff, George Griswold and John Delafield, long and widely known for their large munificence and enlightened views.
Of my own Profession, we had among others one whose name I can never mention without a feeling both of affection and esteem. Dr. Mc- Murray and myself had been friends from our childhood. He came to the city while yet in 1 the early part of his ministry, and I always
considered it a high privilege to have him near me both as a counsellor and a friend. He was eminently distinguished for the soundness of his judgment, and I seldom ventured to do or to undertake any thing if it did not meet with his approbation.
With him we had Dr. Milnor, a man of large experience in public affairs and of great devotion to public good, whether in church or state. He had been highly respected as a member of the bar in Philadelphia, had served in the Congress of the United States, and when he took his place among us in the City of New York as a minister of the Gospel, he was received with a measure of confi-
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dence and respect which but seldom meets any man when he first appears among us.
But there is still another name to be mentioned from among the clergy. If I am entitled to the credit which the Council of the University have seen fit to assign me for any agency in devising the large scheme of instruction it was designed to embrace, I am indebted to Bishop (then Dr.) Wainwright for most valuable aid. He was an accomplished scholar. Liberal education had been one of his favorite studies, and he comprehended with great clearness the true bearing of the several branches of knowledge that go to train a well educated student, and to form a complete and well adjusted Institution of Learning. Every friend of the University owes a tribute of gratitude to the memory of Bishop Wainwright. It is with no ordinary emotion that I look back to the many days in which we took counsel together in draw- ing out the plan and moulding the features of the Institution.
Perhaps in this enumeration I ought not to omit the name of Edward Livingston. Though he never belonged to the Council, he was a member of the Convention when the plan of the Uni-
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versity was submitted for consideration. His fame as a jurist and statesman is well known, and his " Codes" prove how well he was acquainted with both the science and practice of his profession. He felt a special interest in the character which the University would give to its Faculty of Law, and his views were not forgotten or undervalued when the Faculty was formed. Though he was at the time a citizen of New Orleans, he still retained an active sympathy with the city of which he had once been the popular Chief Magistrate ; having borne the responsibilities of the office during one of those seasons of pestilence which tried both his fidelity to his duty and his generosity to the suffering. He was Mayor of New York in 1803, when the yellow fever broke out in a very malig- nant type, attacking all classes. As a consequence of his constant labors among the sick, he caught the disease himself, and for some days his life was supposed to be in great jeopardy. When his physicians prescribed wine for him, not a drop was to be found in his house. Whatever may have been his store previously, he had given it all to the poor who had not the means of buying it. As soon as the fact was known, our citizens vied with
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each other in sending him ample supplies of their very best; and indeed throughout his illness, the young people of the city considered it an honor to be allowed to watch by his bedside. To his latest days he was remembered with great kindness by many of our oldest and most respectable inhabit- ants, and perhaps all the more so because like Pitt, Fox, Webster, Clay, and other distinguished statesmen, he greatly overlooked his own private interests while devoting his time and his strength to the welfare of the public.
Let me add in conclusion: I have dwelt the more minutely on the cause which led to my retirement from the Chancellorship in order to enforce a caution which I would give to my brethren in the ministry, and indeed to all men who are engaged in public stations. It relates to the hazard of health and life incurred by undertaking to fulfil the duties of two laborious and responsible offices at the same time. The Chinese have a proverb, "one man, one work;" and although they carry the application of it to a ridiculous length, it contains a principle of sound wisdom. I had not sufficiently considered
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it. And here is a circumstance that greatly enhances the danger. In the excitement which at- tends constant and absorbing employment, the man is utterly unconscious of the wear and tear that are wasting his physical powers, as in the heat of battle men are said not to feel even mortal wounds till they are sinking into the sleep of death; and I have no doubt that, had it not been for the kind and seasonable advice of friends, I should before this day have been in my grave.
At my advanced age, and standing as I do not far from the close both of my life and labors, let me warn my clerical brethren on this subject. The pastor of a church, especially in a city, has enough on his hands; and though his people in their kind- ness, if he undertakes other official duties, may furnish him with an assistant or a colleague, there are labors and cares, from which he cannot be exonerated. If he feels himself called in the Providence of God, to fill some other office involving new duties, let him release himself from the responsibilities of a pastor. It may cost him many struggles to do it. He may be obliged to sever some of the tenderest ties that bind the heart of man to man; but let him do it, or his life may 17
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be the forfeit before he becomes aware of his danger. Should he persist in bearing the responsi- bilities of the two positions, self-preservation may at length constrain him to relinquish both.
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHANGES IN NEW YORK .- POPULATION .- PUBLIC PLACES .- PUB- LIC BUILDINGS. - PUBLIC MEN. - CHURCHES. - REMOVAL OF CHURCHES FROM THE FIRST SIX WARDS .- INADEQUATE SUPPLY OF CHURCHES FOR THE WHOLE CITY .-- INFLUENCE OF RELIGION IN CITIES UPON THE COUNTRY .- SPECIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSI- BILITIES OF CHRISTIANS IN SUCH A CITY AS NEW YORK.
THE changes which have taken place in New York during the last fifty or sixty years have been so rapid and wide-spread as almost to exceed the belief of those who have not been eye-witnesses of the events as they occurred. The population in 1810, was 96,373. In 1860, it was 805,651; and at this date (1864) it is estimated at above 1,100,000. Indeed, applying the rule by which the popu- lation of London is generally estimated; in- cluding places like Brooklyn and others in the vicinity of New York, the population of the city cannot be far short of 1,500,000. This extraordi- nary growth will be the more apparent by a comparison of the population with that of other cities, as may be seen in the following table :
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1810.
1860.
Boston
32,250
177,812
New York.
96,373
805,651
Philadelphia
96,664
562,529
Baltimore
46,556
212,418
Charleston
24,711
40,578
The area of what was properly the compact part of the city in 1810, was contained chiefly in the first six wards; it may now be said to spread over about one-half of the island. Much of the ground which was then occupied by country-seats or lying as a waste, is converted into the streets " and squares that now form the most brilliant and populous portions of our city. The Central Park was then a barren wild, overgrown with scraggy bushes and deformed with misshapen rocks and stones. Madison Square once formed the site and ground, alloted to the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents. Washington Square was Potter's Field, for the burial of paupers and un- claimed strangers; while the public places in the lower part of the city formerly most celebrated for their beauty and the crowds resorting to them, have now lost all their attractiveness. The grounds lying in front of the City-Hall went especially by the name of "The Park," were kept in fine order, and were covered with a verdure
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and foliage that furnished a pleasant relief to the eye during the summer, in the midst of the sur. rounding streets and buildings. But the Battery was the pride of the city as a Promenade. It covered, as it still does, the southern extremity of the island, looking directly out on our beautiful Bay, catching through the Narrows a glimpse of . the sea, the view skirted on either side by the shores of Long Island on the left and New Jersey on the right, and terminated in the distance by the bold rising ground of Staten Island. As if to correspond with these natural advantages, the place itself was laid out with great taste and kept with great care, beautiful walks intersecting it in all directions, the green sward interspersed with flowers and covered with trees, some of them highly ornamental and others venerable with age. New York may have other splendid squares and parks, but she can have but the one Battery. The site of the island forbids it. But the Battery is now gone never to be restored. No one can look upon the deformed neglected grounds, covered in many places with squalid poverty or strange look- ing emigrants, without a regret for the splendor and beauty which are now no more.
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The neighboring streets have been subjected to the same adverse changes. State street, fronting the Battery, and the lower part of Broadway and of Greenwich street, were occupied by families standing among our first inhabitants for intelli- gence and refinement; and now their elegant residences are demolished; and are succeeded by stores or tenement houses. When I pass through that once beautiful part of the city, I can scarce retrace the landmarks where friends and parish- ioners formerly lived, and I feel like a stranger where I once met a friend or an intimate acquaint- ance within almost every door.
The public buildings once seen in that region,- where are they now? The Government House stood on the street now called Bowling Green, looking up Broadway. The building itself was in good taste and had an imposing appearance. It was erected by the State, and was for some years the Executive Mansion of George Clinton and John Jay when filling the office of Governor. It afterwards became the Custom-House, and about the year 1815, the ground was sold to gentlemen who covered it with some of the most desirable residences in the city. The houses are
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still there, but are now occupied as offices and counting rooms.
But with no public edifice were such hallowed memories of public affairs connected as with the old Federal (or City) Hall. It stood at the corner of Wall and Nassau, looking down Broad street. It had been used for the sittings of Congress before their removal to Philadelphia, and had once echoed with the eloquence of such men as Madison, Ames, and others, when they were giving shape and solidity to the grand features of our civil freedom.
But it had also been the scene of a transaction which rendered the place still more memorable. Its front was ornamented by a rich and spacious balcony, and there General Washington had stood when he first took his oath of office as President of the United States. I often surveyed it and walked through it from end to end when I first came to the city sixty years ago ; and never retired from the place without fond recollections of the scene that had there been enacted. I could picture to myself the illustrious man, with his lofty stature and grave demeanor, then to be inaugurated as the Head of the Nation, stepping forth to meet the view of the people as they crowded to the
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adjacent streets, meeting their demonstrations of homage with a tearful eye, laying his hand upon his heart, and bowing to them again and again, then turning to the Chancellor of the State, who stood waiting to administer to him the Oath of Office, and when he heard the solemn adjuration addressed to him, replying to it with deep solemnity, "" I swear, so help me God;" I would recall the loud shouts of admiration which arose from the crowd as a response when the Chan- cellor stepped forward and proclaimed, "Long live George Washington, the President of the United States;" and while the air was resounding with the voice of the people, cannon were fired on the Battery, and the bells were ringing all through the city. The history of our nation, prolonged as it may be, can scarcely include a scene so solemn and imposing as that; and the place where it transpired should have been allowed to stand as a memorial to all future generations.
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