USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume II > Part 35
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1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 6 : 951.
2 William Smith's " History of the Late Province of New York" (in 2 vols., New-York, 1830), 2: 274 - 276.
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Meantime the French and Indian war was in progress, giving Gov- ernor Hardy much work of a nature more congenial to his training. Indeed at last he grew so tired of merely playing governor, while the sphere that he loved was affording such fine opportunities for the dis- play of his aptitudes, that he begged to be relieved from the govern- ment of New-York and to be transferred to some post in the royal navy. In the year 1757 that re- quest was granted, and on June 3 he placed the chief direction of I have this Moment secunda fase frankmoralthirty by which I found that he too odo@ bolmal Sambar & proceed with the Tomas under his fromde to atory and & Out & Enproud by the Prince & transport Renkier may take them om houd at andy I am with the best of spoolly related og to these Promotions and thanhatting from now Bok babary and therefore can my nothing affairs once more in the hands of Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey. Sir Charles Hardy was made rear- admiral of the white, took part in the taking of Louisburg in 1758, and, after attaining the rank of vice-admiral, on retiring from ac- tive service he was appointed gov- ernor of Greenwich Hospital in 1771, and died in 1780, at the age of seventy-five.
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It may be readily appreciated from De Lancey's superior talents as well as experience, by the side of And your Streching I am Hardy's cheerfully avowed incapa- city, that the close friendship and Chas Hardy entire harmony between governor and lieutenant-governor meant the ascendancy of the latter in the ad- ministration of affairs throughout the brief period of Sir Charles's presence in New-York. There was thus practically no change in the government when De Lancey again acted as chief magistrate. He retained this prominent position for exactly three years and two months, or until the day of his death, August 4, 1760. The opulent De Lanceys occupied many fine mansions in the city and vicinity. The founder of the family built that which later became Fraunces' Tavern, on the corner of Pearl and Broad streets. This passed into Oliver De Lancey's hands, being bought by Samuel Fraunces of the latter. Stephen De Lancey also built a large house on Broadway, just above Trinity Church, which later became the City Arms, and on the site of which stood till within the recollection of many now living the City Hotel. Here James De Lancey resided when in town; but about a "mile out of town," above Grand street on the Bowery Road, or between Grand and Rivington streets, at some distance from the road, whence a long lane of venerable trees led up to the house,
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stood the lieutenant-governor's country-seat. It was here he died. He was a sufferer for many years from asthma. On the day previous to his decease he had had a conference with the governor of New Jersey on Staten Island. Crossing the broad bay in an open boat in the damp night air, and then riding out, probably on horseback, to his country-house, brought on a violent attack of his trouble, and on the morning of August 4, 1760, he was found dead in his chair in his library. He was but fifty-seven years of age, but his career had been a successful and brilliant one. He doubtless had his faults, but it is to be remembered that the historian William Smith, the ever exhaust- less source for recent historians of the city, was a violent partizan against him, and therefore has doubtless taken care that his faults should not fail to appear for the edification of posterity.
The oldest member of the provincial council, first appointed in 1722, and whom for that reason Governor Clinton recommended as lieutenant-governor, was Dr. Cadwallader Colden. As president of the council he became ruler of the province on De Lancey's death. The son of a Scotch clergyman, born in 1688, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1705, studied medicine in London, and came to America in 1710. In 1715 he returned to England, married, and settled in Philadelphia a few years later, practising his profession. In 1718 he came to New-York. His intellectual capacity and his scientific and literary attainments were great and various, one biogra- pher saying of him that he was "known in the scientific and literary world as a physician, botanist, astronomer, and historian."' He was the first to suggest the formation of the American Philosophical Society. At the time he succeeded De Lancey he was already seventy- two years of age; and he was destined to occupy this exalted place with only brief intervals for fifteen years more, dying in 1776, at the age of eighty-eight. When De Lancey went over to the opposition Governor Clinton's main reliance was Dr. Colden. But even the latter became alienated by reason of his chief's unreasonable conduct in seeking to force the assembly into compliance with his demands. Yet he was not too cordial in his relations with the lieutenant-governor, who had in a measure usurped the place which by length of service belonged to himself. It came to him now as president of council, and thus he governed the province for one year, when a commission as lieutenant-governor reached him. But after three months arrived also the new governor, General Robert Monckton, and for a time Colden retired from the chief direction of affairs.
We have purposely hurried over these later events affecting the suc- cession of chief magistrates of the province, because it is more than time to glance at the local incidents which distinguished their several
1 " Documentary History of New-York," 3 : 829; note by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan.
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administrations. Prominent among these was the founding of Colum- bia (then King's) college, and the erection of its first buildings. Almost in the midst of the consternation produced by Sir Danvers Osborn's death, during the autumn of 1753, matters had advanced so far in the history of the college that its first president, Dr. Samuel Johnson, rector of the Episcopal Church at Stratford, Connecticut, was called to assume the duties of that office. Before this the wardens and vestry of Trinity Church, under the inspiration of the Rev. Henry Barclay, the rector, had granted to the trustees of the college a large piece of ground, part of their "farm," for the purpose of putting up suitable buildings, sit- uated, as a contempo- rary historian asserts, "in the suburbs of the capital."1 Upon this ground the first college hall was erected, in the shape of a quadrangle, the longest side of which faced the river. It formed a prominent : COLUMBIA COLLEGE IN 1758. object in the view of the city from the opposite shores of New Jersey. The money for the institution was raised in the first place, according to the custom of the time, by lottery. The act authorizing this received Governor Clinton's approval on December 6 (St. Nicholas's Day), 1746, and the sum fixed upon was twenty-two hundred and fifty pounds (say $11,200) .? But individual gifts of large sums were also contributed, both in England and in the province. Among the largest donors appears the name of Sir Charles Hardy. It was while he was governor that the condition of the finances and the prospects of attendance at the lectures seemed to warrant a beginning with building, and accordingly the corner-stone was laid by his Excellency himself in August, 1756. While the found- ing of such an institution augured well for the future of the city, insuring an increasing element in the population possessing the ad- vantages of mental cultivation, it is unfortunate that it also became the occasion of initiating family feuds and fomenting religious or sectarian jealousies. As if the political arena had not sufficiently drawn lines of bitter hostility, two families not hitherto hostile on that ground, the De Lanceys and the Livingstons, divided upon questions connected with the terms of the charter. These seemed
1 Smith's History of New-York, 2: 233. We can by Murray and Barclay streets, Church street, and hardly reflect without a smile that these grounds College Place. were about identical with the blocks bounded now 21b., 2 : 112.
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inclined to give a preponderating influence in the management of the college to the Episcopal Church; the Livingstons were Presbyte- rian, and objected to the charter as it read. As De Lancey, although personally convinced of the propriety of the objection, had deemed it best to let the document pass the seals, the Livingstons conceived a bitter enmity against him and his adherents; and, the quarrel being on denominational grounds, the members of the other sects, whose numbers were preponderating both in the city and province, were encouraged in their rancor against the Church of England. These animosities would be too trivial to deserve mention here, were it not that the great struggle of the Revolution was approaching. All these minor and local incidents gave color to the larger strife to come, de- termined the taking of sides, aided to inflame hearts, and thus are lifted into some significance by the dignity of the nobler sequel.
From the first college in the city to its earliest library is a very natural transition; yet in this case again the merest outline is alone permitted, as the subject extends through several administrations as well as into the next century, and will receive special and exhaustive treatment in another volume. It must be observed, however, that during the period now under consideration the foundation of the So- ciety Library was really laid, although the Corporation Library, ab- sorbed by it later, had already come into existence. The aim and spirit of this undertaking, as conceived by the projectors, are excel- lently set forth by William Smith, the historian, and his words are es- pecially of weight and interest as expressing the feeling of the need of such an institution by an educated and enlightened citizen living at the time and deploring the lack of its advantages in an opulent but all too commercial city. He says: "In the Month of March, 1754, nearly six hundred pounds were raised toward promoting a spirit of inquiry among the people, by a loan of the books to non- subscribers. The project was started at an evening convention of a few private friends." The names of that company are worth pre- serving : "Messrs. Philip. Livingston, William Alexander [afterward known by the title of the Earl of Stirling], Robert R. Livingston, William Livingston, John Morin Scott, and one other person." It may be strongly suspected that this "one other person " was the his- torian himself, who thus modestly leaves his name unmentioned. For it is deserving of attention that, as the four Livingston brothers had been sent to Yale, where William Smith, Jr., also graduated, the pleasant circumstance reveals itself that three of these young college- bred men (and with Smith, four) were now in this practical manner giving proof of their zeal in the interest of education and popular en- lightenment. As the historian further remarks: "A foundation was laid for an institution ornamental to the metropolis, and of utility to
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the whole colony; for the remote object of the projectors was an in- corporation by royal charter, and the erection of an edifice, at some future day, for a museum and observatory, as well as a library."' The charter was granted under Governor Tryon in 1772, and the history of the succession of its edifices, until the present one in University Place, must be reserved for a succeeding volume.
The municipal government of New- York, during the period of this fivefold succession of incumbents of the provincial chief magistracy, was presided over by two IRON CROWN FORMERLY ON COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 2 gentlemen. One of these was Edward Hol- land, whose term as mayor extended from 1747 to 1756, when he died; the other was John Cruger, mayor from 1757 to 1765. Mr. Holland owed his appointment to a species of po- litical persecution. He had been elected a member of the assembly to represent Schenectady, in 1745, which throws an incidental light upon the fact that the qualifications of members did not necessarily include residence within the district represented, for it is distinctly stated that he was a resident of New-York city. Under pretext that he was thus disqualified, however, but chiefly because he was known to be friendly to Governor Clinton, he was rejected by the assembly. Less than two years later the governor rewarded him by making him mayor of the city and a member of the royal council.3 He must have been able to maintain a position of neutrality among the factions which then dis- tracted city and province both, or else he would not have been con- tinued in the office under De Lancey and Hardy. When he had been two years in office (1749) a census of the city was made, and it was found that (with the addition of the outlying districts, or county, coterminous in fact with the city as per charter) the number of in- habitants, white and black, reached 13,294 souls. In 1757 the familiar name of John Cruger figured once more in the records of the city as that of its highest officer, the same office having been occupied from 1739 to 1744 by the father of the mayor now appointed. For ten years the younger Cruger directed municipal affairs, and though by virtue of his position a member of the governor's council, in the trying times that then came upon the people he was ever found their champion as against the encroachments of the king and parliament.'
It may not seem worth while to turn aside from the course of events, in a period so stirring as that of the French and Indian war, 1 Smith, New-York, 2: 207, 208. 3 Smith, New-York, 2: 92, 93.
2 This interesting relic is now mounted and preserved in the library of the college. It sur- mounted the cupola of the original college build- ing, an illustration of which is given on a previous
+John Austin Stevens, "Colonial New-York : Biographical Sketches," pp. 6, 7. He was the first president of the Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1770, and died in 1791, aged 82.
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to note the erection of a private dwelling. But the " Walton" house, celebrated by many historians of the city, merits that distinction. Its elegance, and the splendor of its hospitalities, even bore a part in determining parliament to inflict the stamp act upon the colonies, and thereby it assumes a national importance. In the middle of the eighteenth century William Walton had acquired great wealth in trade with the Spanish West Indies and South America. He enjoyed special privileges from the Spaniards, according to Lieutenant-Gov- // ernor Clarke, who in 1738 informed the home author- ities that Captain Walton was "the only person in this place whom the Spaniards permit to trade at Augustine, where he has a Factor who has resided there many years."1 He was living then in a house located on . Hanover Square. THE WALTON HOUSE. In 1754 he determined to build himself a home in a style and of a cost commensurate with his increasing fortune, and he selected for its site a locality "well out of town." It was where Queen street rose into a hill, whence the garden could slope down gracefully toward the East River bank, and whence a fine prospect might be gained from the rear windows over that river, across to the green hills of Long Island, and adown the bay over Governor's Island and as far as Staten Island. From the front windows it is more difficult to im- agine what the view must have been. It may have embraced the depression where the waters of the placid Collect reflected the skies and the surrounding woods. Directly across from it the eye would light upon the King's Farm; and possibly the flat shores of Jersey or the bold cliffs of the Bergen Heights may have been included in the prospect. The house is no more, and were it still in existence how different the prospect! The building at 324 to 328 Pearl street, on Franklin Square, opposite Harper & Brothers' publishing-house, occupies the site. As late as 1867 an inscription still announced to the curious that this was "The Old Walton House." It was then
VOL. II .- 20. 1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 6: 128.
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utilized as a boarding-house or hotel for sailors. Another step back, and we find in 1832 that the noble mansion, after nearly eighty years, was still intact as to its interior arrangements. In the "New-York Mirror" of March 17 of that year, the following description occurs : "It is a brick edifice, fifty feet in front, and three stories high, built with Holland bricks relieved by brownstone water-tables, lentils, and jams, with walls as substantial as many modern churches. The superb staircase in its ample hall, with ma- hogany handrails and bannisters, by age as dark as ebony, would not disgrace a noble- man's palace."' Another writer of about that HALL IN THE WALTON HOUSE. time, whose mother had seen it illuminated in celebration of the repeal of the stamp act, says of it: "It has even now an air of ancient stately grandeur. It has five windows in front; has a double pitched roof covered with tiles, and a double course of balustrades thereon. Formerly its garden extended down to the river."" Garden and house have both disappeared ; there is not even that inscription, "coarsely painted in dingy white on its muddy red walls," to mark the spot where "the nonpareil of the city in 1762" had fallen from its greatness. It was torn down in 1881.
Three notable events in the history of transportation took place during the period covered by this chapter. Taking them in the order of the distances to which passengers were to be conveyed, the first to be mentioned is the ferry to Staten Island, established in 1755. The population of that island had risen to a considerable figure for those days (about 2300 souls), and it was necessary to accommodate the residents both of city and island, as in many ways their mutual depen- dence upon one another for the supplies of the necessaries or conve- niences of life demanded regular means of intercourse. On a fair day, with a good breeze blowing, the trip was not a formidable one; but in calms or storms, in fog or rain, the length of the time consumed and the hardships to be endured made the journey quite a serious under- taking. Fortunately that same winter (of 1755) presented no obstacles to the passage of the boats to and fro, as it proved to be very mild, so that the Hudson was entirely free from ice. The next "event " was V the establishment of a stage route to Philadelphia in 1756. It was
1 John Austin Stevens, " Biographical Sketches," pp. 61, 62.
3 " Historic Tales of Olden Time in New-York City," by John F. Watson (New-York, 1832), p. 192.
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not the first, as Solomon and James Moore had begun to carry pas- sengers between Burlington on the Delaware and Amboy, opposite Staten Island, in 1733-34, performing the task only once a week. The feature of the present enterprise was its unparalleled celerity. " Three days through only!" was its proud announcement. It is a slow train to-day that does not convey us to Philadelphia in less than that number of hours. In this same year (1756) the first British packet-boat began its voyages from New-York to Falmouth, Eng- land. It carried the mails, and the charge for each letter was four pennyweights in silver.1
While De Lancey, Hardy, again De Lancey, and finally Colden, ruled the province between the years 1753 and 1761, the cloud of war was not only hanging over the country, but burst in storms of considerable violence upon cer- tain parts of it. New-York prov- ince and New-York city, from their central position, necessarily played an important part in the French and Indian war; and hence there Senge Berkeley arises the necessity of obtaining a clear view of the circumstances attending its conduct, though mainly from the standpoint of the city's interest and participation therein. The peace of Aix-la-chapelle, putting an end in 1748 to the general European war known as that of the "Austrian Succes- sion," was still in force in Europe, so far as the surface of things went, when it had already been infringed for a year or two in America. In 1756 Frederick the Great of Prussia could restrain his ambition no longer, and precipitated the "Seven Years' War." But in 1754, or even earlier, the movements of the French in America had become so distinctly hostile in intent, if not in open action, that a general alarm spread throughout the English colonies, and emphasized the necessity of concerted action on the part of all. From the mouth of the Mississippi along the Ohio to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, it was the plan of the French to establish a chain of forts, to hem in the English upon the sea-border. It might thereafter be only a question of time to drive them off this territory also. The scheme was a mag- nificent one, and cannot but compel admiration. It was near enough
1 "Old New-York," April, 1890, pp. 179, 180. In 1766 the journey to Philadelphia was reduced to two days (Ib., p. 181).
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realization, too, to merit more than admiration in those days, and to lift it above a mere visionary dream. But often do our enemies teach us our best lessons; and the French chain of forts led to the eventual confederation of American States. In 1754 delegates from all the colonies met in Albany, New-York. The congress met mainly to conclude an alliance with the Six Nations against the French. It assembled in the court-house on Wednesday, June 19, 1754; Lieu- tenant-Governor De Lancey of New-York presided. There were twenty-three delegates: New-York being represented by four; New Hampshire by four; Massachusetts by four; Connecticut by three; Rhode Island by two; Maryland by two; and Pennsylvania by four, one of whom was Benjamin Franklin.1 Conferences were duly held with the Indians, and the usual flowery speeches exchanged; but Jou Cyper at the session of Monday afternoon, June 24, "a motion was made, that the Commission- ers deliver their opinion whether a Union of all the Colonies is not at present absolutely necessary for their security and defence."> The motion being put, it was carried unanimously, Franklin was made chairman of the committee to draft a plan, and on July 10 the plan he proposed was adopted, and ordered to be laid before the several colonial governments represented at the congress, as also before those not represented. It provided for a president-general, appointed by the crown, assisted by a grand council composed of forty-eight repre- sentatives chosen by the several provincial assemblies; none of the colonies to have less than two, but otherwise in proportion to their population, so that Massachusetts and Virginia were each to have seven, the highest number.3 Strange to say, this "Plan of Union," the forerunner of that confederation and federation which Franklin contributed so much to effect later, was equally distasteful to the colonies and to England. The latter apprehended too great power in the provinces; the provinces were jealous of the too greatly cen- tralized power it would give the crown. But such a seed could not fail of fruitage, for it was laid within exactly the right kind of soil.
Though political consolidation was not yet to be for many a year, and then only at the expense of British dominion, the idea of military combination was put into practical shape by the British ministry in 1756, when the Earl of Loudoun was made commander-in-chief of the army throughout British North America. His chief recommendation for the post must have been, as it almost always was in the case of the colonial governors, eminent and signal unfitness for the position. He was, says Bancroft, "utterly wanting in the qualities of a military
1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 6 : 853. 2 Tb., 6 : 859. 3 Ib., 6 : 889; Bancroft, "Hist. United States," (ed. 1883) 2 : 387.
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officer, or of a statesman, or of a man in any sort of business." But the secret of the blunder made in the appointment lay in the fact that he was " a friend of Halifax, passionately zealous for the subordina- tion and inferiority of the colonies." This might have been a fine state of mind for a man sent to fight the colonists already in rebellion. But the effect of this temper in dealing with the people he came to defend was to hasten on their insubordination, and thereby to raise them from a state of inferiority to one of national independence and equality. His pres- ence in New-York city was attended by nothing THE EAST RIVER SHORE IN 1761. but friction, by insult and tyranny on his part, by resistance and de- fiance on the part of both people and magistrates. Some of the chief events of the war had already taken place before the commander-in- chief appeared upon the scene. In 1755 four campaigns had been planned by General Braddock, a narrow-minded, opinionated soldier, but then, at least, a soldier and a brave one, and not a mere puppet or figurehead like Loudoun. Braddock's expedition against Fort Du- quesne ended in disastrous failure and his own death. The second expedition depended upon cooperation with the first, as Governor Shirley of Massachusetts was to effect a junction with General Brad- dock after the reduction of Fort Duquesne, in order to proceed with combined forces against Fort Niagara. The third expedition was placed in charge of Colonel William Johnson, the famous Indian agent, and was to be directed against Crown Point. This alone was followed by the discomfiture of the French. It brings the blush of shame upon the cheek of one who feels for the honor of Englishmen that a fourth exploit planned for 1755 was also successful. We need only mention that it was directed against the harmless and unresist- ing families of French farmers living in Acadia. That this outrage, which words fail to denounce as it deserves, has given us "Evange- line" is the single good that has come to the English name out of this disgraceful evil, only less infamous than the massacre of Glencoe.
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