USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Settlement in the West : sketches of Rochester with incidental notices of western New-York > Part 25
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1838. March. First ward, Thomas J. Patterson, Super- visor ; Abelard Reynolds and Stephen Charles, Aldermen.
Second ward, Elijah F. Smith, Supervisor ; John Allen and J. F. Mack, Aldermen.
Third ward, E. D. Smith, Supervisor; Joseph Strong and John D. Hawkes, Aldermen.
Fourth ward, Thomas Kempshall, Supervisor ; Elias Pond and M. Warner, Aldermen.
Fifth ward, Horace Hooker, Supervisor; Samuel G. An- drews and Orrin E. Gibbs, Aldermen.
Frederic Whittlesey, Attorney and Counsel ; Theodore B. Hamilton, Clerk ; Elisha F. Marshall, Treasurer ; and Pardon D. Wright, Superintendent.
Isaac Hills is now, and has been since the first organiza- tion under the city charter, recorder of the city.
'The clerks of the Mayor's Court have been Jasper W. Gilbert, from July, 1834, to July, 1835; Patrick G. Buchan, from July, 1835, to July, 1836 ; 'and Hiram Leonard, from that period, the present incumbent.
THE MAYORS OF ROCHESTER.
Jonathan Child, Mayor .- 1834-5.
The organization of Rochester under the city charter oc- curred in June, 1834. The election for supervisors, al- dermen, and certain other officers, took place on the second day of that month, as already stated.
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THE MAYORS OF ROCHESTER.
The Common Council, on the ninth, elected JONATHAN CHILD as mayor of the city. At the inauguration on the following day, the mayor, after referring to the spirit in which the affairs of the corporation should be conducted, made some appropriate remarks on the growth and pros- perity of the city.
" The rapid progress which our place has made, from a wilderness to an incorporated city," said the mayor, " au- thorizes each of our citizens proudly to reflect upon the agency he has had in bringing about this great and inter- esting change. ROCHESTER, we all know, has had little aid in its permanent improvement from foreign capital. It has been settled and built, for the most part, by mechanics and merchants, whose capital was ECONOMY, INDUSTRY, and PER- SEVERANCE. It is their labour and skill which has converted a wilderness into a city ; and to them surely this must be a day of pride and joy. They have founded and reared a city before they have passed the meridian of life. In other countries and times, the City of Rochester would have been the result of the labour and accumulations of successive generations ; but THE MEN WHO FELLED THE FOREST that grew on the spot where we are assembled, ARE SITTING AT THE COUNCIL-BOARD OF OUR CITY. Well then may we in- dulge an honest pride as we look back upon our history, and let the review elevate our hopes and animate our exertions. Together we have struggled through the hardships of an infant settlement and the embarrassments of straitened circumstances ; and together let us rejoice and be happy in the glorious reward that has crowned our labours. We have no conflicting interests-we ought to have no hostile feelings. The competition of business or the ardour of political excitement may for a moment arouse unfriendly sentiments ; but we should be as unwise as it regards our own happiness, as we should be unjust to those with whom we differ, should we permit such sentiments to survive the contest which gave them birth. Conscious ourselves in public concerns of an honest zeal for the public good, let us concede to others the same integrity of purpose, and ascribe our different opinions to the different points from which we examine the same subject. In the intercourse of social life, and on all occasions involving the interests of our new city, let us forget our politics and our party, and remember only that our friends and fellow-citizens have conferred upon us
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confidence and power for the sole purpose of advancing the public good. Surely, in the prosperity of our young city, we have a common interest. Here the fortunes of us all are embarked in a common bottom, and it cannot be too much to expect a union of counsels and exertions to secure their safety.
" Gentlemen-The charter of incorporation invests the Common Council with powers demanding the exercise of all our wisdom, industry, and justice. The appointment of nearly all the officers exercising civil power within the boundaries of the city is devolved upon you ; the power of raising and expending annually a large amount of money ; the organization of the city police ; and, for the most part, the administration of justice within the city limits. In all these various duties I pledge the Common Council my cordial co-operation.
" The charter has made it the duty of the mayor to take care that the laws of the state and the ordinances of the Common Council be faithfully executed ; to exercise a con- stant supervision and control over the subordinate officers ; to hear and examine all complaints of neglect of duty ; to recommend such measures as shall be deemed expedient ; to execute all such as shall be resolved upon by them ; and, in general, to maintain the peace and good order, and ad- vance the prosperity of the city. With full purpose to dis- charge these important trusts with the exercise of my best understanding, I now enter upon the duties of the office you have conferred upon me."
On the 23d of June, in the following year, soon after the election of a new Common Council, Mr. Child presented his resignation of the mayoralty. This resignation was ac- companied by reasons therefor, which referred wholly to the conflicting views entertained by himself and the Common Council respecting the licensing of groceries and taverns to sell spirituous liquors. (It will be recollected that the yearly term of the mayoralty commences in January, while that of the council commences in June-the design of this arrange- ment being that there should be at least one member in every successive council, familiar with the proceedings of the Corporation.) In his letter of resignation, after referring to the fact that a majority of the newly-elected council differed from him on the license question, Mr. C. mentioned that, although the former board were opposed to licensing
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in general, four grocers had been licensed to sell ardent spirits ; and that the controlling motive in that body for thus deviating from their intention to refuse licenses was expe- diency. "They supposed," he said, " that a gradual reform on their part would meet the general sentiment better than a plenary and absolute refusal. As a member of the board, I differed from my associates, both as to the propriety and expe- diency of making any exceptions. On that occasion, howev- er, I sacrificed my own judgment and feelings to the desires of the majority, and therefore stand liable in my official capacity for a share of any censure, whether deserved or misapplied, which may be cast on the late board. But as an individual, both then and since, I have constantly objected to that meas- ure, and to every approach to it in the issuing of grocers' licenses."
After stating that the new board had granted numerous licenses, Mr. Child added, " It becomes incumbent on me, in my official character, to sanction and sign these papers. I do not, gentlemen, impugn in any respect directly or im- pliedly your motives or judgment in acceding to these and similar applications ; but I am constrained to act according to my own solemn convictions of moral duty and estimation of legal right in all cases connected with the office intrusted to me. When I find myself so situated in my official sta- tion as to be obliged either on the one hand to violate these high obligations, or on the other to stand in opposition to the declared wishes of a large majority of the board, and through them of their constituents-my valued friends and fellow-citizens-I dare not retain the public station which exposes me to this unhappy dilemma. Under these cir- cumstances, it seems to me equally the claim of moral duty and self-respect, of a consistent regard to my former asso- ciates, of just deference to the present board, and of sub- mission to the supposed will of the people, that I should no longer retain the responsible situation with which I have been honoured. I therefore now most respectfully resign into your hands the office of Mayor of the City of Rochester."
The communication of the mayor was referred to a commit- tee consisting of Aldermen Matthew Brown, H. L. Stevens, and Isaac R. Elwood. At the same time, on motion of Ald. Elwood, it was resolved, " that the recorder be authorized to sign all tavern licenses and grocery licenses granted by this board during the time the present incumbent shall hold
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the office of mayor of the city." At the next meeting of the Corporation the committee reported respecting the com- munication by which the resignation of the mayor was ac- companied. As illustrative of the spirit of the time, as well as from its connexion with the history of the city, the grounds of this difference between the mayor and council may be briefly presented here in the language of the respect- ive parties. In reply to the language of the mayor, partly quoted above, the committee, among other things, observed that-
" Your committee, claiming to be considered as friends to the cause of 'temperance,' differ, as they believe a majority of this board, as well as a large majority of the citizens of this city do, from some of the lead- ing measures which have been pursued with great energy and zeal, and, as they doubt not, with sincerity, by many of the friends of the 'tem- perance cause.'
" They have always believed, and that belief is strengthened by expe- rience, that intemperance is not to be prevented or eradicated by means of our present legislative enactments upon the subject of 'Excise and the regulations of taverns and groceries,' and which are the only laws upon the subject ; nor by any course of policy that can be pursued based upon these enactments.
" Your committee assume that to traffic in ardent spirits is legitimately the natural right of every man who sees fit to do so, although the expe- diency of the thing may be well doubted; and the Legislature have virtually recognised this natural right ; but, at the same time, to prevent the evils which might grow out of it, and also to raise a revenue from the consumption of ardent spirit, they have subjected the traffic in it to certain restrictions, which restrictions are defined in the statute, and are familiar to almost every person ; and they have also provided Boards of Excise, of which this Board of Common Council is one, whose duty it is to impose restrictions, but not to make them ; and who, as has been well said by the former attorney and counsel of this board, ' cannot legislate upon this subject.'
"Anything which savours of restraint in what men deem their natural rights is sure to meet with opposition, and men convinced of error by force will most likely continue all their lives unconvinced in their rea- son. Whatever shall be done to stay the tide of intemperance, and roll back its destroying wave, must be done by suasive appeals to the reason, the interest, or the pride of men ; but not by force.
" Persuasion, gentle as the dews of heaven, must speak of 'buried hopes and prospects faded,' of ruined fortunes, broken hearts, and desolated homes. Fashion, too, must be brought in, to exercise her all-powerful influence over deluded man, and to restrain him from moral pollution and the yawning gulf of perdition ; but every effort to re- strain or reform him by our present laws must prove not only ineffec- tual, but injurious.
"In reviewing the communication of his Honour the Mayor, your com- mittee do not consider the cause assigned sufficient to justify the course he has pursued, nor can they think a resignation was necessary to pre-
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vent a sacrifice of principle, or a compromise of duty on his part, upon the subject of granting licenses. In the discharge of his duty relating to licenses, he could only be required to do a mere ministerial act, which might as well be performed by any other officer of the board, and which would not subject him at all to any responsibility as to the legal- ity or propriety of granting the license. The Board of Common Coun- cil are alone the Board of Excise ; and the mayor, not being entitled to a vote in that body, is, of course, in no wise responsible for their acts ; nor is he even obliged to sanction the granting of licenses by the for- mality of affixing his name to such licenses.
" At all events, your committee consider the mayor as acting in over- haste in taking this step, until he had ascertained whether the board were willing to exonerate him from the only agency he could have in granting licenses, the formality of his name, and which they have al- ready done."
Jacob Gould, Mayor-1835-6.
On the second of July, 1835, Jacob Gould was chosen as the successor of Mr. Child in the mayoralty. In his inau- gural remarks, reference was made to the circumstances at- tending the conflicting views between the Commnon Council and the former mayor-to the feelings with which he ac- cepted the office conferred on him unsought and unex- pectedly-and to his determination to place it in the power of the board to elect another mayor whose term should com- mence with the ensuing Ist of January, the time contem- plated by the charter-relinquishing the right which he pos- sessed, or was supposed to possess, to hold the office for a year from the period when he was elected to fill a vacancy occasioned by resignation. Although, considering that the council, as a board of excise, had no right to refuse license to persons applying therefor in compliance with law, Gen. Gould urged that the strictest measures should be adopted for preventing or remedying abuses flowing from violations of law.
In the January of 1836 Gen. Gould was re-elected to the mayoralty. In retiring from the office at the close of that year, he alluded to some facts strongly characteristic of the condition of the city. After referring to the great improve- ment and general prosperity of Rochester, he said-
" Our city has also been remarkably distinguished for peace and good order, and happily delivered from the fire that devours the property, and from the pestilence that destroys the lives of our citizens. During the period of my office, nearly two years, I wish it to be remembered as a most extraordinary, and to me most gratifying fact, that with a popu- lation averaging 16,000, I have never been called upon to interfere, nor has there ever been occasion to do so, for the suppression of riot, mob,
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tumult, or even an ordinary case of assault. This fact speaks a most gratifying eulogy for our civil and religious institutions, and for the intelligence and morality of the community in which we live."
It should be remembered that this statement refers to a period within which too many cities and towns of the Union were disgraced by riots on several exciting topics-particu- larly on the abolition question.
A. M. Schermerhorn, Mayor-1837.
Abraham M. Schermerhorn was elected mayor for the term commencing with the first of January, 1837. Mr. S. held the office about two months, when he resigned. To fill the vacancy thus occasioned, the choice of the Common Council fell upon
Thomas Kempshall.
The election of this gentleman occurred on the 7th of March, 1837. The changes which occurred during his resi- dence in the place were briefly noticed in his inaugural ad- dress to the Common Council.
" In accepting the office to which your partiality has called me, in consequence of the resignation of our esteemed fellow-citizen, Mr. Schermerhorn, I cannot refrain from alluding to the fact that, since my residence in this place, it has grown up from a mere hamlet to its pres- ent size and prosperous condition. Though it then contained but about twenty buildings, and those of the rudest character, the streets very few of them laid out, and the country about it a perfect wilderness, we now behold a flourishing city, with about 18,000 inhabitants. This rapid increase and improvement is owing not only to the peculiar local advantages we enjoy, but in some measure at least may be attributed to the industry, enterprise, and moral virtue of our citizens."
It is a remarkable fact, that, notwithstanding all the pecu- niary difficulties of the time, the general improvement of the city was scarcely ever greater in one year than during the summer and fall of 1837. Reference to the improvements of this and previous years is made in the inaugural remarks of the gentleman who succeeded to the mayoralty on the 1st of January, 1838-Mr. Kempshall having placed it in the power of the Common Council to elect a new mayor, instead of holding on for a full term from the period of his election.
Elisha Johnson, Mayor-1838.
On the retirement of Mr. Kempshall, ELISHA JOHNSON was elected to the mayoralty. In assuming the office, Mr.
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THE MAYORS OF ROCHESTER.
3. made some remarks on the past and present condition of this region, the insertion of which may not be deemed ir- relevant here.
" The long period of my residence in your city," said Mr. J., " might well create in me strong bonds of sympathy with your fortunes and at- tachment to your interests ; but when I look back to that time when I saw the present site of your city a wilderness, when I retrace the com- mencement and progress of her growth, and when I behold her now, with her twenty thousand inhabitants, famed for their general enterprise and industry, and enjoying all the blessings of an enlightened, re- fined, moral, civil, and social community ; and when with pride I reflect that, from the earliest period of her growth, my own feelings, fortunes, and exertions have been deeply enlisted in augmenting her resources, in improving and applying to natural objects her natural advantages, and in her general welfare; when I indulge in these associations, there arises in me a feeling which strengthens that bond which binds me to your interests, and enables me to enter upon the duties of my office with a higher and bolder ambition for your future prosperity.
" For the last three years, your public improvements have assumed a new character, arising from the full powers of a city charter-the in- crease of population and the accumulated wealth of your trade, com- merce, and manufactures. To the constituted authorities of this city, for their enlarged views in projecting and executing those works which the new charter of the city required, much credit is due. The im- provement of the streets, the full equipment of an effective fire depart- ment, the erection of a public market, and many valuable minor works, testify with what efficiency they have discharged the duties of their sta- tions, and will, as works of ornament and utility to the city, confer a lasting and merited honour upon their authors.
"There yet remain to be executed many important works to answer the future demands of a large and busy city. Further improvements of your streets and avenues leading to the city should be accomplished on the present plan, so far and so soon as may be required by the peti- tion of the citizens, and their ability and wishes to meet the necessary expense. With commendable prudence and good taste, you have se- lected and purchased fifty-five acres of land for a public cemetery. This, when completed with that proper taste of which it admits, will be highly creditable to the place, and may with propriety be regarded the Mount Auburn of the city.
" The most important item that should demand your early attention, is the supply of the city with water. A supply of good water, sufficient to answer the demands for domestic use, for the fire department, and the cleansing of the streets and sewers, thus contributing largely to the common utility, safety, and beauty of the city, is of the greatest impor- tance ; and when we consider how much our greatest blessing, good health, is promoted thereby, its value becomes altogether incalculable. The location of our city admits of much variety in the plans and extent of operations for this object. The work should be commenced upon a plan, embracing provisions for reservoirs, ample and sufficient for all future demands, and should be conducted in such a manner as would best and soonest supply our immediate wants. Annual appropriations
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should be made to ensure its advancement and final accomplishment without a change of plan. The amount necessary to the completion of this work must be large, but still of a minor consideration when com- pared with the great benefits, public and private, arising from its proper expenditure. For securing the necessary rights and interests in real estate, the present time is the most favourable, and arrangements may well be made, and a stock created with proper provision securing the annual payment of the interest and final payment of the capital.
" The various public buildings which will be required for the offi- cers and archives of the city, and for various other objects, and which will require from the citizens, from time to time, large disbursements, should be completed as the resources of the city will allow. At this period of your duties, the state of your finances should be inspected, and correct reports of the fiscal concerns of each department required. This will enable you to operate within your means, to prevent embar- rassment, and to project plans for future operations with safety.
" Among all our various public and private duties, there is none more incumbent upon us than the fostering and cherishing those associations for intellectual and moral improvement which are springing up among all classes in our city. The attention and efforts of our citizens have been laudably directed in establishing institutions of learning, and pro- viding them with instructers of talent and acquirement. Societies and associations for universal improvement are in operation among all classes of our young men. The mechanics, from whom so much is to be expected for our future prosperity, are doing much honour to them- selves in organizing societies for their instruction and improvement in those departments of the arts and sciences connected with these trades, and in establishing libraries for the dissemination of useful information among them ; thus inculcating good habits, preparing themselves for general usefulness, and for filling important stations in your community. From these the happiest influences will be felt throughout our whole political and social relations. By expanding the mind, elevating the views, cultivating the better feelings, and exciting the energies and pub- lic spirit of our citizens, these measures tend alike to the promotion of our wealth, the rapid advancement of all our public interests, and the purity and refinement of our social circles. It is from these principles and qualities that must emanate that union of interest and feeling, that sacrifice of all selfish and minor objects, and that combination of energy and talent, which are so indispensable to our future prosperity.
" The location of our city as a frontier commercial depôt, and our cit- izens being extensively engaged as a commercial people, enjoying rights secured to them by national treaties, demand of us high and honourable duties, in being obedient to the laws in matters involving our national faith, and in strict obedience to those principles of justice upon which depends the complexion of our national character. The reputation of our city for the intelligence, good sense, and honourable feeling of its citizens, and their regard to law, justice, and good order, should stimulate all to preserve unsullied her fame, and to prevent the innocent from suffering from any acts of our citizens committed in secret, and beyond the knowledge and control of a proper authority."
[The concluding remarks referred to the irregularity of some movements connected with the Canadian difficulties.]
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS OF ROCHESTER.
The misapprehensions prevalent in foreign lands concern- ing the political condition of the United States are apparently surpassed by the ignorance frequently manifested touching the religious and social institutions of our people. The defi- ciency of an " established" church-the perfect freedom from all entangling alliances between politics and religion- seemingly indicates to multitudes dwelling under the sys- tems of the Old World, that government and religion in these republics are mutually weakened by the absence of those connexions which have distinguished, and too frequently disgraced, the history of most nations through all time.
Before sketching the progress of the religious and social institutions of Rochester for the twenty-two years which have elapsed since the first church was formed in this then wilderness, it may not prove uninteresting to glance at some opinions published in Europe touching the condition of the new settlements generally in the United States. The brief review may enable us to appreciate more fully the advan- tages of our country, while the facts that will be presented may aid the European inquirer in estimating correctly the worthlessness of theories propagated abroad to the dispar- agement of American institutions and character.
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