USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 35
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" Before the Constitution was ratified I had been opposed to it ; it is now mine and every other man's duty to support it."
But it was not long before party strife became more violent than ever throughout the country, especially in the State of New York, where party lines were sharply drawn between the Federalists and Anti-Feder- alists. Washington identified himself with the former. The Constitu- tion was not all that he could have wished, yet he regarded its adoption as a real blessing to the country. In a letter to General Schnyler on the subject he wrote :
" That invisible Hand which has so often interposed to save our country from impending destruction seems in no instance to have been more remarkably exerted than in that of disposing the people of this
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continent to adopt, in a peaceable manner, a constitution which, if well administered, bids fair to make America a happy nation."
The choice of the first President of the United States under the National Constitution was done very quietly, for there was no partisan- ship displayed. The eyes and the hearts of the whole people were instinctively turned toward Washington, the " Saviour of his Country,"' as the fittest man to guide the vessel of State, with its precious freight, on
THE CITY HALL IN WALL STREET, 1789.
its first necessarily perilous voyage. He received every vote in the Elec- toral College. John Adams was chosen Vice-President.
The Continental Congress had decreed that the city of New York should be the residence of the National Government. The City Hall, in Wall Street, fronting the head of Broad Street, was fitted up for the use of the National Legslature. March 4th (1790) was the day designated for the organization of the new government. That auspicious day was ushered in by the ringing of bells and the booming of cannons ; but the members of Congress were tardy in their journeys to the capital, owing to the wretched state of the roads. On the appointed day only a few of them were present. It was April 6th before a quorum was assembled,
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INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON.
when the two Houses proceeded to count the votes for President and Vice-President and declare the result.
The Vice-President reached New York on April 21st. The President arrived two days later. His journey from Mount Vernon had been an almost continuons ovation. A committee of Congress met him at Eliza- bethtown, N. J., and from its port he was conveyed in a barge to the foot of Wall Street, at the East River, where he was met by the governor, the municipal anthori- ties, and a vast concourse of citi- zens, who formed a procession and conducted him to the mansion in Cherry Street, near Franklin Square, prepared for his residence. That was then the most fashion- able part of the city. That even- ing the whole town was illumi- nated.
At noon on April 30th, after religions services had been held in all the churches in the city, Washington left the presidential mansion, escorted by a procession ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. formed of members of Congress and heads of departments in carriages, led by the City Cavalry, and pro- ceeded to the City Hall, where, in its street gallery, in the presence of a vast multitude of people, the inaugural ceremonies were performed. The oath of office was administered by Robert R. Livingston," the first Chancellor of the State of New York. Returning to the Senate Cham- ber, the President read his inaugural address, after which the whole assembly went on foot to St. Paul's Chapel, on Broadway, where prayers
* Robert R. Livingston was born in New York City November 27th, 1747 ; died at the Livingston Manor-House February 26th, 1813. He was graduated at King's (now Columbia) College, became a successful lawyer, and was recorder of the city of New York in 1773. He was elected a member of the Continental Congress in 1775 ; was one of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, but necessary absence from Philadelphia prevented his voting for and signing it. He was appointed the first chan- cellor of the State of New York, which position he held until 1801. He was secretary for foreign affairs of the General Government from 1781 to 1783 ; a member of the com- mittee that framed the National Constitution ; minister of the United States to France in 1801-1804, and negotiated for the purchase of Louisiana, and was the efficient coadjutor of Robert Fulton in perfecting navigation on the Hudson River by steanı.
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were read by the chaplain of the Senate. Then the President was escorted to his residence. The ceremonies of the day were concluded by a display of fireworks in the evening.
General Schuyler, John Jay, and Colonel Alexander Hamilton were the chief leaders of the Federal Party in New York, and had great influ- ence with President Washington. Schuyler and Hamilton were uncom- promising partisans, as all men of strong moral convictions are apt to be, and they induced the President to bestow Government patronage upon men who were, either personally or politically, opposed to Governor Clinton. Jay was appointed Chief Justice of the United States ; James Duane, Judge of the District of New York ; Richard Harrison, United States Attorney ; and William S. Smith, Marshal. Hamilton, who was the soul of the Federal Party, was called to the Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury.
The spirit of the Constitution of New York was less democratic than that of any other State. It placed an enormous amount of power and patronage in the hands of the governor. With this advantage Clinton and his friends were enabled to carry on a political warfare with great vigor and success for a very long time ; but the Constitution afforded a check upon an undue exercise of that power when bearing upon the control of offices by the provision of a Council of Appointment. That Council, as we have observed, was created by the choice of the Assembly, of one Senator each year ont of each Senatorial district, and these, witlı the governor, formed the Council. The governor had a right to give a casting vote, but had no vote for any other purpose. He was ex- officio president of the Council, and was required, " by the advice and consent of the Council, to appoint all officers" whose appointment was not otherwise provided for.
After the inauguration of Washington political parties in New York became mixed. The Federalists determined to form a coalition for the purpose of breaking the Anti-Federalist ascendency. They induced the Anti-Federalist Judge Yates to accept from them the nomination for governor in opposition to Clinton. The coalition was unsuccessful, and Clinton was re-elected by a strong majority. The election was warmly contested. The whole number of votes cast in the State was 12,343. The census of 1790 certified the number of the population then in the State to be 340,120, an increase of more than 85,000 in five years. This increase had been caused largely by emigration into the northern and western parts of the State. The city of New York then contained a population of 33,131.
The subject of improving the internal navigation of the State now
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INLAND NAVIGATION OF NEW YORK CONSIDERED.
engaged the earnest attention of thoughtful men. General Schuyler saw, when in England in 1761, the canal constructed by the Duke of Bridgewater. He was deeply impressed with what he saw and heard, and as opportunities offered he urged the importance of improving the navigation of the Mohawk River by short canals around rifts and shallows. He suggested that by a short canal between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, which flows into Oneida Lake, and the improvement of the navigation of that stream and the outlet of Oneida Lake into the Oswego River, continuous navigation between the Hudson and Lake Ontario might be effected. At Schuyler's suggestion. Governor Sir Henry Moore presented the subject to the Colonial Legislature in 1768.
So early as 1772 Christopher Colles # lectured in New York and Albany on Inland Lock Navigation, and warmly advocated Schnyler's project. Schuyler also urged the construction of a canal between the Hudson and Lake Champlain so early as 1776. In 1784 Colles presented a memorial to the Legislature proposing the improvement of the naviga- tion of the Mohawk, and that year he penetrated the country to Wood Creek, published an account of his observations in a pamphlet, and in the winter of 1786 the Legislature made a report favorable to his project. Nothing more seems to have been done.
At about that time Washington made a tour in the interior of the State of New York. He was then much interested in the subject of internal navigation in his own State. He passed over Lake George and down Lake Champlain as far as Crown Point. Returning to Schenec- tady, he went up the Mohawk to Fort Schuyler (now Rome), and visited Otsego Lake and its vicinity. He observed the feasibility and com- mended the importance of inland navigation in the State of New York.
Soon after this Elkanah Watson appears upon the scene as a most earnest advocate of a continuous water communication between the
* Christopher Colles was born in Ireland about the year 1737, and was educated by Richard Pococke, the Oriental traveller. After the death of his patron, in 1765, he came to America, and, as we have observed, became an earnest advocate of canal navigation. He was a skilful engineer. He proposed plans for supplying the city of New York with pure water so carly as 1774. In 1797 he proposed to bring the waters of the Bronx River, in Westchester County, into the city. He constructed a series of sectional road maps for the use of travellers. His active mind kept his hands busy in a variety of employments. At one time he was the actuary of the Academy of Fine Arts. He was also a notable inventor, and enjoyed the friendship and esteem of De Witt Clinton, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, Dr. Hosack, Jarvis, the painter, and other distinguished men of New York. The effigy of Colles was borne in the grand procession in New York which cele- brated the completion of the Erie Canal. He had then been in his grave about four years, having died in the autumn of 1821. His remains lie unhonored in the burying-ground of the Episcopal Church in Hudson Street.
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Hudson River and Lake Ontario. In this project he spent much time for years, and was a most efficient supporter of General Schuyler's canal projects. He made journeys westward from Albany to gather up facts, and he penetrated the country to Seneca Lake .*
The final result of the endeavors of these public-spirited men was the passage of an act by the Legislature of New York, in January, 1792, for chartering two inland lock naviga- tion companies. One was called the Western Inland Lock Naviga- tion Company, and the other the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company. These companies were formed, and General Schuyler was unanimously chosen president of each company. Thomas Eddy, an enterprising Quaker, was appointed treasurer of the Western Company.
Accompanied by Goldsbrow Ban- yer and Elkanalı Watson and sur- veyors and engineers, Schuyler made a thorough exploration of the whole route for the western enter- prise, from Schenectady to the waters of Lakes Seneca and Onta- They also explored the route
ELKANALI WATSON.
rio, in August and September, 1792. for the northern canal, from the head of tide-water of the Hudson, just above Albany, to the head of Lake Champlain, at (present) White- hall. These explorations were satisfactory to both companies, and in the spring of 1793 the Western Company began work at the Little Falls, in Herkimer County, with artificers and about three hundred laborers.
* Elkanah Watson was born at Plymouth, Mass., in January, 1758, and died at Port Kent, Essex County, N. Y., in December, 1842. He was a clerk in the employ of John Brown, of Providence, R. I., who sent him to Boston with a large amount of powder for the patriot army besieging it in 1775. Before he was nineteen years of age Brown sent him to Charleston and other Southern ports with $50,000, to buy cargoes for the Euro- pean markets. At the age of twenty-one Congress sent despatches by him to Dr. Franklin, in Paris. He remained in France until 1784, engaged in a commission business at Nantes in connection with Mr. Brown. He went to Albany in 1789, and became greatly interested in General Schuyler's canal projects. He afterward travelled in Europe, and in 1807 settled at Pittsfield, Mass., as a farmer, and made many improvements in agriculture. After a visit to the lake region in the North-west he settled at Port Kent, on the west side of Lake Champlain, where he resided until his death. His autobiog- raphy was completed and published by his son, Winslow C. Watson, in 1856.
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CONSTRUCTION OF CANALS IN NEW YORK.
The Northern Company began work at Stillwater the same year. Delays followed, chiefly on account of a want of funds, and yet so vigorously did the president and his associates, especially Mr. Watson, push on the work when means were at command, that boats of sixteen tons burden passed over the whole route, from Schenectady to Oneida Lake, in 1796, without interruption. There were only about six miles of canalling altogether.
Unfortunately, the locks in the canals had been constructed of wood, and were too perishable. William Weston, a distinguished canal engineer, came to this country from England early in 1795. He was employed to examine the whole work of the companies with General Schuyler, and the result was an order for him to reconstruct the locks of stone. This operation exhausted the funds of the company.
In 1793 Isambert Brunel, a distinguished French engineer, arrived with a letter of introduction to General Schuyler. He was employed in 1794 in a survey of the Northern or Champlain Canal. That was almost fifty years before he completed the famous tunnel under the Thames, at London, and received the honors of knighthood from the then young Queen of England.
In 1796 Mr. Weston, under the direction of the Western Company, made an exploration of a route for a canal between the Mohawk and Seneca rivers. A canal was speedily constructed, and became the living germ of the grand Erie Canal which was afterward built by the State. It led Gouverneur Morris, in 1801, to conceive the greatest of canal projects-namely, the connection of Lake Erie with the Hudson by an artificial river, a work that was completed a little more than twenty years afterward. This great work will receive special notice presently.
The interest of General Schuyler in canal navigation never flagged during his life. So late as the summer of 1802, when he was almost sixty-nine years of age, he endured the hardships incident to an explora- tion of the whole line of the Western Canal route, and gave his personal attention to the construction of new locks, repairing old ones, and removing obstructions. His manuscript journal kept during that explo- ration is before me, and is filled with vivid pictures of the labors and privations which he then endured. To General Schuyler is undoubtedly due the honor of the paternity of the canal system of New York, which contributed so much to its prosperity.
Immediately after the war for independence the city of New York- the commercial metropolis of the State-began the task of recuperation. Fire had consumed a vast number of its dwellings ; its churches had been desecrated and laid waste ; its commerce had been destroyed by
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the war, and its people had been estranged from each other by differ- ences in political opinions. New York was compelled to begin life anew, as it were. The tribute which it paid to the cause of human freedom was large, but had been most freely and cheerfully given.
The Whig refugees returned to the city, many of them to find their dwellings in ruins. The old charter was resumed, and municipal govern- ment was soon re-established. In February, 1784, James Duane,* an ardent Whig, was chosen mayor. He had found his dwelling on his farm, near (present) Gramercy Park, in ashes and his fortune wrecked. Although the vitality of the city had been paralyzed, yet men-" high-minded men" who " constitute a State," were left, and their influence was soon mani- fested in the visible aspects of pub- lic spirit and the revival of com- merce. But not much was done in the way of public improvements before the close of the century.
One hundred years ago there was only here and there a house JAMES DUANE. above Murray Street on the west side of the city of New York, and above Chatham Square on the east side. Not a bank or insurance company existed in the city. Wall Street was the seat of wealth, elegance, and fashion. Its dwellings were chiefly of wood and roofed with shingles, and the sides of many of them were of the same materials. Between Broadway and the Hudson River above Reade Street might be seen scores of cows belonging to the citizens grazing in the fields. In 1790 the first sidewalks in the city were laid on each side of Broadway,
James Duane was born in New York City in February, 1733. He inherited a large estate in the lower Mohawk region, and began a settlement there in 1765. Duanesburg was the product. He married a daughter of Colonel Robert Livingston. A member of the first Continental Congress, he was an active patriot all through the war that ensued. lle was residing in New York City at the breaking out of the war ; left it when the British took possession of it, but returned immediately after the British evacuated it. He . was made the first mayor under the new order of things. He was a member of the State Council of Appointment and of the Senate, also of the convention that ratified the National Constitution. He was United States District Judge from 1789 to 1794. Judge Duane died at Duanesburg in February, 1797.
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FEDERAL CELEBRATION IN NEW YORK.
between Vesey and Murray streets. They were of stone and brick, and so narrow that only two persons might walk abreast.
The city was the seat of the National Government from 1785 until 1790, when it was transferred to Philadelphia. During the session of the State Convention at Poughkeepsie in the summer of 1788 the city was much excited by the discussions of opposing factions. Congress was then in session at New York. On July 8th, eighteen days before the Constitution was ratified, its ardent friends in New York, feeling confident of success, fitted up a little frigate on wheels, and called it
NEW
CONSTI
UTTON
SEP17778
TABLES AT THE FEDERAL DINNER.
the Federal Ship Hamilton. It was commanded by Commodore Nicholson and manned by thirty seamen and mariners. Accompanied by a great procession, it was drawn by ten horses from the Bowling Green to Bayard's Farm, near Grand Street and the Bowery, where tables were spread and dinner was provided for four or five thousand people. At a circular table, which was a little elevated, were seated members of Congress, heads of departments, foreign representatives, and other dis- tingnished persons. From this table thirteen other tables diverged, at which sat the multitude.
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An Anti-Federal newspaper (Greenleaf's Patriotic Register) lam- pooned the procession and its promoters. The Federalists were greatly irritated, and when the Constitution was ratified a mob broke into the office of the offending newspaper and destroyed the press and types. They then attacked the house of General Lamb, the Collector of the Port,* in Wall Street. IIc had been forewarned, and was forearmned. He had barricaded the lower story of his house, and with two or three friends with muskets, in the second story, and his daughter, a young lady from Connecticut, and a colored servant in the attie well supplied with tiles and glass bottles to shower on the heads of the rioters, they so well defended the castle that the assailants were compelled to raise the siege and retire discomfited.
The city of New York was several times scourged by yellow-fever. It appeared there in 1742, but its most frightful ravages occurred during the closing decade of the last century. It broke out in 1791, but it was so late in the season that frosts soon checked it. In 1795 it slew 772 persons. Its most fearful visit was in 1798, when it raged from July until November, and killed 2100 persons in the city and 300 residents who had fled from it. In 1799 and 1800 this plague prevailed, but in a mild form ; but in 1803 the disease slew about 600 persons. When it again broke out in 1805 with much violence, so great was the panic that one third of the population, then numbering 75,000, fled to the country.
The city was almost entirely exempted from this dreadful scourge from 1803 until 1819, when yellow-fever raged there to a considerable extent. It again appeared in 1822 and 1823, but in a comparatively mild form. Since the latter year only sporadic cases have been known. It has never appeared in the form of an epidemic. This disease never originates or scarcely ever exists north of the latitude of the city of New York, unless the seeds of the malady shall be carried by fugitives from the plague in lower latitudes.
* A part of Lamb's residence was used for the Custom House, the business of the port of New York not then being extensive enough to need the space or warrant the expense of a separate building.
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THE FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLICANS.
CHAPTER XXV.
GEORGE CLINTON, the Republican governor, was re-elected in the spring of 1792, with Pierre van Cortland as lieutenant-governor. The opposing candidates were John Jay and Stephen van Rensselaer, the latter a son-in-law of General Schuyler and the last of the patroons. In the autumn of the same year presidential electors were chosen, and Washington was re-elected by the unanimous vote of the Electoral College.
The dividing line between the two great political parties-Federalists and Republicans-was now more distinctly drawn than ever, owing to the influence of the French Revolution. When that great movement began, and until it had progressed some time, there was only one feeling among Americans in regard to it, and that was earnest sympathy for their old ally. But when the movement fell under the control of violent demagogues, and conservative men like Lafayette were driven from their country ; when the civilized world was shocked by the terrible excesses of the Jacobins, many of the leaders of opinion in America paused. Apprehending that the intrigues of the French and the generous sym- pathy of the Americans might involve the young Republic in a European war, they not only withdrew their sympathies, but soon went so far as to denounce the original revolution. These were chiefly Federalists.
The Republicans, on the other hand, advocated the French Revolution with great warmth, hailing its authors and promoters as friends and brothers. They wrongly charged the Federalists with hostility to the principles of the French Revolution, with friendship for their late enemy, Great Britain, and even with anti-republican and monarchical tendencies. This antagonism of opinion grew more and more intense when, in the spring of 1793, E. C. Genet-" Citizen" Genet, as he was styled-arrived in this country as the representative of the French Republic.
Mr. Jefferson, a member of Washington's Cabinet as Secretary of State, was in France when the revolution there broke out, and he had come home filled with admiration and love for the cause, which had not then been stained by the outrages of the Jacobins. He expected to find equal enthusiasm among his countrymen ; but when he reached New York he was chilled by the frigidity which he encountered. He was
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cordially received by the wealthier and more refined classes of society at New York, but these were composed largely of members of the old Tory families, whose opinions, frankly spoken, often shocked him. He became painfully sensitive, and he soon regarded the conservatism of Washington, Adams, Ilamilton, and other conspicuous Federalists as evidence of their unfaithfulness to the cause for which they had so zeal- ously contended. Toward Ham- ilton he indulged positive dislike, and considered him a dangerous citizen.
By common consent Mr. Jef- ferson became the leader of the rapidly growing Republican Party, which hailed with enthusiasm the tidings of the death of the French King, the proclamation of the Republic with all its horrors, the virtual declaration of war by France against all monarchical Europe, and its actual conquest of a part of the Netherlands, a friend of the United States. Perceiving
the danger with which such blind EDMUND C. GENET. enthusiasm menaced the Repub- lic, Washington issued a proclama- tion of neutrality in the spring of 1793. It was bitterly denounced by the French Party, as the Republicans were now called.
It was in the midst of this excitement in the public mind that Citizen Genet arrived * at Charleston, S. C., and in defiance of the proclama- tion, proceeded to fit out privateers (which were manned chiefly by American citizens) to prey upon British commerce in our waters. One
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