USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 57
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Late in the seventeenth century Frederick Philipset bought of the
Clermont. The house is yet standing, and is preserved in its original style by its present owners, the Clarkson family, relatives of the Livingstons. It has a river front of one hundred and four fect, with very extensive and beautiful grounds around it.
* Stephen van Cortlandt was a son of Orloff Stevens van Cortlandt, who emigrated to New Amsterdam in Van Twiller's time. Orloff came from South Holland, and was soon engaged in public employment, holding alternately several civil offices. He was a burgo- master several years, and being " diligent in business," became wealthy. His wife was a sister of Govert Loockermans. His daughter Maria married Jeremiah van Rensselaer, the second Lord of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck. At the time of his death, about 1688, his son Stephen was a prosperous merchant. The family name was Stevens, van (from) Courtlandt, descendants of the Dukes of Courtlandt or Courland, in Russia. The first Lord of the Manor married Gertrude Schuyler, and died in the year 1700.
+ The Philipse (Phillips) family descended from the Viscounts Felyps, of Bohemia. The first emigrant to New Netherland, Frederick Philipse, spelled his name Vrederyck
565
THE PHILIPSE MANOR.
Indians large tracts of land on both sides of the Po-can-te-co Creek, in Westchester County, fronting on the Hudson River, and comprising about three hundred and ninety square miles of territory. In 1693 the domain was, by royal authority, erected into the " Lordship and Manor of Philipseburg," with all its privileges, subject to an annual tribute to the crown of a little less than five dollars. The manor house was
PHILIPSE LOWER MANOR HOUSE.
strongly built of stone in 1680, at the mouth of the Po-can-te-co at Tarrytown, with port-holes for cannons in the high cellar walls, and was called Philipse Castle. There the family lived until the lower manor house, yet standing, was built at Yonkers in 1745. Its interior exhibits some fine specimens of architecture executed nearly a century and a half ago.
Felypsen. The initials of his name-V. F .- may be seen on the wind-vane of the Sleepy Hollow Church, near Tarrytown. He arrived at New Amsterdam in 1658, purchased a large estate there and on the shores of the Hudson, and became one of the founders of the city of New York.
The last " Lord of the Manor" was Frederick Philipse, who was at one time a mem- ber of the Colonial Assembly and colonel of militia. A+ the breaking out of the old war for independence, he took the position of a firm supporter of the Crown. He finally felt compelled to abandon his home and take refuge with the British army in New York, whence he embarked for England. His estates were confiscated. The British Govern- ment gave him about $300,000 as a compensation for his losses. Colonel Phillips was an extremely large man. On account of his bulk, his wife seldom rode in the same carriage with him.
566
THE EMPIRE STATE.
The city of New York, which had been scathed by flame and had lain prone under the heel of British military power for more than seven years, at once began its marvellous march toward greatness after peace was restored. It very soon became the chief commercial mart of the nation. It was the political capital of the State for several years,* and the first seat of the National Government. At the close of the war it was, in population, only an unusually large village ; at the beginning of this century it embraced over sixty thousand inhabitants.
New York City has doubled its original territorial area within a few years, and has now (1887) fully a million and a half of inhabitants. It
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
has become a mighty magnet, attracting everything, hence its marvellous growth by accretion. Possessors of wealth, of genius, and of enterprise have come to it from all parts of the republic to enjoy its manifold advan- tages of education for their children, the cultivation of æsthetic tastes, the blessings of scientific instruction, the facilities of commercial life, thie chances of winning fortunes, and the pleasures of almost boundless social privileges and enjoyments.
Before and around New York City spreads out a magnificent harbor, spacious enough to float the navies of the world. One of the most
* On the south-east side of the Bowling Green a spacious and elegant mansion was built in 1790, for the purpose of a residence for the President of the United States. It was then supposed New York City would be the permanent seat of the National Govern- ment. When that Government was transferred to Philadelphia, this mansion was devoted to the use of the governors of the State of New York, while the city was the seat of the State Government. In it Governors George Clinton and John Jay resided, and it was known as the Government House. It was built of red brick, with Ionic columns forming a portico in front. The building stood on slightly elevated ground.
567
THE METROPOLITAN CITY.
wonderful results of modern engineering skill-a suspension bridge- unites the city in loving embrace to Brooklyn, its superb offspring, of eight hundred thousand inhabitants. Near the portals of the city seaward stands the stupendous statue of LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD, wrought by Bartholdi, of Paris, and presented by the people of France. She bears aloft a mighty torch blazing with electric light,
LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD.
which spreads illumination over the broad bay, the great city, and its suburban municipalities.
"New York City is now the metropolis of the republic. By the close of this century it will probably be, in population, wealth, cultivation, and every element of a state of high civilization, the second city in the world. To the eye of the optimist the time appears not far distant when it will be the cosmetropolis."*
* Lossing's History of New York City, p. 866.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
CHAPTER XLI.
LET us here take a brief retrospect of the life of the Empire State.
The Dutch, who first settled in the territory of New York and founded the city by the sea, gave special attention to the nurture of religion and learning. As we have observed on page 34, a clergyman and a school-teacher came from Holland to Manhattan together. It was ordered in the charter of the Dutch West India Company that the minister and schoolmaster should walk hand in hand in the high employ- ment of educating the head and heart.
There were members of the Dutch Reformed Church among the early traders at Manhattan, and a congregation was formed by Rev. Jonas Michaelas in 1628. The functions of both minister and schoolmaster were performed by him until he was succeeded by Dominie Bogardus, in 1633, when Adam Roelandsen became the schoolmaster. The Dutch had been accustomed to the blessings of free schools in their fatherland, and they at once established one at Manhattan, which has survived until now, and is a very flourishing parochial school of the Collegiate (Dutch Reformed) Church of New York City."
* This school is the oldest educational institution in the United States. It was founded in 1633, and has been in continual operation, excepting from 1776 to 1783 (when the British troops occupied New York), until now. It was supported by the Colonial Govern- ment for thirty years. The conquest of New Netherland by the English in 1664 did not materially affect the Dutch Church and its school. The latter then came under the ex- clusive control of the church. The petty tyrant Lord Cornbury gave them a little temporary trouble. Until 1748, when it was one hundred and fifteen years old, the school had no permanent habitation. In that year a small house was built for it in Garden Street, now Exchange Place. A new and more spacious house was erected on this site in 1773. Up to that time no one presumed to teach any but the Dutch language in this school. From the beginning until 1808 it was under the exclusive control of the minis- ters and deacons of the Church. The first feminine teacher was employed in 1792. It was not until 1804 that English grammar was taught in this school. Four years later the deacons gave up the control of the school to the rule of a board of trustees. For several years it was conducted on the Lancastrian plan.
This school has had, during its two hundred and fifty-six years of existence, only sev- enteen head teachers. James Forrester was the principal from 1810 until 1842, when Henry Webb Dunshee was appointed to take his place, and yet (1887) occupies that exalted station, having filled it for forty-three years consecutively. The present location of the school is in a building known as De Witt Chapel, at 160 West Twenty-ninth Street. That building was completed and the school first occupied it in 1861.
569
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
The doctrine and discipline of the Reformed Church was the " State religion" of New Netherland until the province was seized by the English in 1664, when the Church of England became dominant, through official influence, and so remained until the Revolution in 1775. Previous to the latter period the principal denominations in the colony, in numbers, as we have observed, were the Episcopalians (Church of England and Moravians), Dutch and English Presbyterians, Independents or Congregationalists, and Lutherans. The latter were among the earlier settlers at Manhattan, but had no minister ; and when they were numerons enough to support a minister, Stuyvesant would not allow them to have one. They had full liberty under English rule, and built their first house for worship in New York in 1671. There were large accessions to their number from the emigration of the German Palatines, to the State in 1710 .*
Although the Episcopalians in the province were as one to fifteen in numbers compared with other denominations, attempts were made from time to time to transplant into the province of New York the ecclesias- tical establishment of the Anglican Church. To this end some of the colonial governors bent their energies, and often produced violent tem- porary excitements and permanent uneasiness. But the steady and determined opposition of the great body of the " dissenters," as the other sects were collectively but erroneously called, prevented such a calamity. As the quarrel before the breaking out of the old war for independence waxed hotter and hotter, the subject assumed a political aspect, and one of the most significant slogans of the patriots of the early period of the Revolution was :
" A Church without & bishop, A State without a king."
The political condition of New York before the old war for indepen- dence was that of a dependent of the British crown, governed by the laws
* Early in the eighteenth century many of the inhabitants of the Lower Palatinate, lying on both sides of the Rhine, in Germany, were driven from their homes by the perse- cution of Louis XIV. of France. England received many of these Protestant fugitives. In the spring of 1708, on the petition of Joshua Koekerthal (evangelical minister of a body of Lutherans), for himself and thirty-nine others to be transported to America, an order was issued by Queen Anne in council for such transportation, and their naturaliza- tion before leaving England. The Queen provided for them at her own expense. This first company of Palatines landed on Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York, and afterward settled near the site of Newburgh, on the Hadson, in the spring of 1709. In 1710 a larger emigration of Palatines to America occurred, under the guidance of Robert Hunter, Governor of New York, as we have observed on page 137.
570
THE EMPIRE STATE.
of Parliament, and compelled to suffer taxation and oppressive commer- cial regulations without the privilege of representation in the imperial legislature. The governor and his eleven councilmen were appointed by the monarch, but their salaries were paid by the colonists out of the revenue created by customs receipts. The freeholders elected a General Assembly of representatives, but the great mass of the " commonalty" had really no political privileges or powers. The relative position of the Council in legislation was that of the British House of Lords. They also had some judicial power, and were a sort of Privy Council, with the governor at their head during sessions. They assumed much dignity. Each was entitled " The Honorable," and the Council sent messages to the Assembly by one of their own members, when the "lower house" would rise to receive him.
The General Assembly consisted of twenty-seven members (in 1760), representing the several counties, two boroughs, and the three manors of Rensselaerwyck, Livingston, and Cortlandt. They met in the Assembly Chamber in the city of New York. Thirteen constituted a quorum for business. After they had taken the prescribed oath they were called before the governor, who recommended their choice of speaker, who was, of course, elected. They presented him to the governor in the Council Chamber, when the latter approved their choice. Then the. speaker addressed the governor, and on behalf of the Assembly prayed " that their words and actions might have favorable construction ; that the members might have free access to him, and that they and their servants be privileged with freedom from arrests." After promising these things the governor read his speech to both Houses, and gave it to the speaker for the use of the Assembly. Then the latter proceeded to business.
The Assembly made the British House of Commons the model for their proceedings, and seldom varied from it. All bills were sent to the governor, who submitted them to his Council. When they were signed by him they were published by being read to the people in front of the City Hall, or State House, in the presence of the governor and both Houses. The continuance of the Assembly was unlimited until early in the administration of Governor Clinton, when it was restricted to seven years .*
* The pay of the members of the Assembly varied with the locality represented. It was as follows : City and county of New York, and the counties of Westchester, Kings, Queens, Richmond, Ulster, Duchess, and Orange, sir shillings a day ; city and county of Albany, ten shillings ; Suffolk County, nine shillings ; the borough of Westchester, the town of Schenectady, and the Manors of Rensselaerwyck, Livingston, and Cortland, ten shillings a day.
571
THE COURTS, TRADE AND SETTLERS.
The laws were administered by justices, Sessions and Common Pleas courts ; a Supreme Court ; a Court of Admiralty, which had jurisdiction in all maritime affairs ; a Prerogative Court, the business of which related to wills, administrators, etc., the emoluments of which were perquisites of the governor, who acted ordinarily by a delegate ; the Court of the Governor and Council, which was a sort of court of appeals, and the Court of Chancery, which was absolutely under the control of the governor. This court was an exceedingly obnoxious tribunal. All the courts were modelled after those of the same grade in England.
The trade and manufactures of New York before the Revolution suffered, in common with that of other colonies, from unwise navigation laws and oppressive restrictions inflicted by Great Britain ; yet the very favorable geographieal and topographical position of its fine seaport and commercial mart gave the province great advantages over other colonies for the prosecution of foreign trade. Its people grew rich and pros- perous in spite of governmental obstruetions.
The population of the province at near the close of the colonial period was not as large as many imagined it to be. Scarcely one third part of its tillable land was under cultivation. Its vast agricultural and mineral resources were almost entirely unsuspected. Connecticut, the area of which was one tenth that of New York, had forty thousand more inhab- itants than its immediate neighbor on the west in 1760. There had been many discouragements to settlements in New York, the chief of which were the frequent and fearful incursions of the French and Indians, and the making of it a sort of penal colony by the British Government, which sent swarms of its criminals hither .*
All things were changed by the results of the war for independence. New York became a component part of a vigorous young nation. The fetters which had so long bound its industries and its commerce had been removed. It was an independent though not a sovereign state. It had a Constitution which guaranteed to its citizens political and religious freedom. Like a giant rising from refreshing slumbers, it went forth on its bounding career the very moment the clarion of peace was sounded. There was then assured safety for life and property within its border,
* " It is too well known," wrote William Livingston in 1752, " that, in pursuance of divers acts of Parliament, great numbers of felons, who have forfeited their lives to the public for the most atrocious crimes, are annually transported from home to these planta- tions. Very surprising, one would think, that these burglars, pickpockets, and cut-purses, and a herd of the most flagitious banditti upon earth, should be sent as agreeable com- panions to us !" Allusion has been made to the character of the people of the province at that time in Chapter XI.
572
THE EMPIRE STATE.
and a tide of emigration flowed steadily in. The wilderness speedily began to " blossom as the rose."
Able statesmen and jurists have been abundant in New York from the time of its political organization. Among the most conspicuous names appear those of John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, Alexander Hamilton, De Witt Clinton, Chancellor Kent, Ambrose Spencer, Samnel Jones, Martin Van Buren, Silas Wright, William II. Seward, and Thomas J. Oakley.
Literature has had its representatives at every period in the history of the Empire State. John de Laet, one of the most active of the directors of the Dutch West India Company, and a resident of New Netherland for a while, gave to Enrope a History of the West Indies (which included New Netherland) in 1640. In 1670 Daniel Denton wrote the first (it is supposed) Description of New York, with the Country of the Indians, in the English language ; and in 1697 Daniel Leeds issued a pamphlet at New York against the Quakers of Philadelphia.
One of the most learned men of the province during the first half of the eighteenth century was Dr. Cadwallader Colden, anthor of a history of the Iroquois Confederacy and many scientific essays. William Smith wrote a history of the province down to his time, which was published in 1757. Mrs. Ann Eliza Bleecker, daughter of Brant Schuyler, wrote poetry and stories for the press, and Dr. Myles Cooper, President of King's College, and Dr. Auchmuty, on one side, and William Livingston on the other, were vigorous and prolific political and theological con- troversialists with the pen in the last colonial decade. There were also, during the stormy discussions before the kindling of the old war for independence, younger but equally able writers, such as Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and Gouverneur Morris ; while James Rivington was an able journalist.
The " Poet of the Revolution" was Philip Freneau, a native of New York City. Lindley Murray, a resident of New York since 1753, published his English Grammar and English Reader for the edification of millions, before the close of the century. At that period William Dunlap, painter, playwright, theatre manager, and historian, began his career. He wrote a History of New York, a History of the American Theatre, and a History of the Arts of Design in America.
Great intellectual activity was manifested in New York early in the present century. The most conspicuons of the many writers at that time were Washington Irving," his brother, Peter, and James K. Paulding,
* Washington Irving was born in New York City, April 3d, 1783 ; died at Sunny- side, his seat on the Hudson, November 23d, 1859. His father was a Scotch emigrant,
573
LITERARY MEN.
their brother-in-law. They were joined by James Fenimore Cooper a little later. Irving began authorship in 1802 as a writer for his brother's journal, The Morning * Chronicle. His work of rare hu- mor, Knickerbocker's History of New York, appeared in 1808. Paulding had lately joined him and his brother in writing the Sal- magundi papers. His Sketch Book charmed readers in both hemispheres. Later in life he became an eminent biographer and historian. Cooper began liis lit- erary career as a novelist about 1820, and produced over thirty volumes of fiction distinctly Am- erican in character.
Contemporary with Irving and Cooper* were De Witt Clinton, William L. Stone, Gulian C. Ver- WASHINGTON IRVING. planck, Fitz-Greene IIalleck, Joseph Rodman Drake, and Henry R. Schoolcraft, all (excepting Halleck) natives of New York. Stone, the
and his mother an Englishwoman. At the age of nineteen he wrote a series of papers for The Morning Chronicle, over the signature of " Jonathan Oldstyle," which attracted much attention. His Knickerbocker's History of New York, a most humorous caricature of the Dutch dynasty on Manhattan Island, set everybody laughing, and much irritated some of the descendants of the first Dutch settlers at New Amsterdam. Irving was tnen only twenty-six years of age. He edited the Analectic Magazine during the War of 1812-15. Failing healthı induced him to go to Europe, where he resided seventeen years, and gained a great literary reputation. He was Secretary of the American Lega- tion in London from 1829 to 1831, and received the fifty-guinea gold medal provided by George IV. for eminence in historical composition. In May, 1832, Mr. Irving returned to New York, and kept busy with his pen. He was appointed Minister to Spain in 1842, where he remained four years. On his return he revised all his works for publication. His last and greatest work was a Life of Washington in five octavo volumes. The hon- orary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Harvard College, Oxford (Eng.) University, and Columbia College.
* James Fenimore Cooper was born at Burlington, N. J., September 15th, 1789 ; died at Cooperstown, N. Y., September 14th, 1851. He was a son of Judge William Cooper, one of the first settlers in Central New York. For six years he was in the United States Navy, and in 1811 he married a sister of the late Bishop De Lancey. His life was chiefly devoted to literature. His first novel was Precaution, published in 1821, which was rather coldly received. Then followed his Spy, The Pioneers, and the Leather- stocking Tales in quick succession, which gave him great fame as an American novelist.
574
THE EMPIRE STATE.
eminent journalist, wrote lives of Brant, Red Jacket, and Sir William Johnson, the latter finished by his son. Verplanck was an accomplished essayist and one of the best-known men in the social circles of New York for fifty years. Drake was a gentle poet, of whom Halleck at his death wrote :
" None knew thee but to love thee ;
None named thee but to praise."
Schoolcraft became high authority concerning the Indians. The name of Samuel Woodworth, author of "The Old Oaken Bucket" and "The House I Live In," deserves special mention in this connection.
One of the most painstaking and trustworthy of the historians of New York was John R. Brod- head,* who died in 1873. By direction of the Legislature of New York, as its agent, he search- ed the historical archives of Hol- land, England, and France for documents relating to the colonial period of this State, and brought home copies of more than five JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. thousand valuable papers, which the State published in cleven quarto volumes. He had published two volumes of an elaborate history of New York State, which he was preparing, when death ended his earthly career. Among the names of historians of portions of the State, those of W. W. Campbell, Jeptha R. Simms, Robert Bolton, Jr., Dr. Franklin B. Hough, Henry B. Dawson, and Martha J. Lamb appear
Mr. Cooper went to Europe in 1826, and remained there until 1833. He wrote a History of the United States Navy, Lives of American Naval Officers, in two volumes ; also wrote a comedy, which was performed in New York in 1850.
* John Romeyn Brodhead, son of Rev. Jacob Brodhead, was born in Philadelphia January 2d, 1814 ; died in New York City, May 6th, 1873. He was graduated at Rutgers College in 1831 ; admitted to the bar in 1835 ; was attached to the American Legation at the Hague in 1839, and procured for the State of New York copies of impor- tant documents, mentioned in the text. Mr. Brodhead was Secretary to the American Legation at London from 1846 till 1849. On his return he began the preparation of an exhaustive history of the State of New York, but did not live to complete it. The first volume was published in 1853 and the second in 1871, which brings the history down to the close of the seventeenth century.
575
ARTS AND ARTISTS.
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