USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 11
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The conservatism of the corporation was illustrated in October, 1791. At the aldermanic elections of September 29, William S. Liv- ingston, chosen an assistant assessor, was said to be neither a freeman nor a freeholder. Summoned before the board (October 12), Livingston urged that though he was not a freeman he ought to be, as his father and grandfather were; and that he had served a regular clerkship in the city as attorney-at-law. He also expressed the opin- ion "that this Board could not legally enter into the consideration or determination of any question with respect to the qualification of a member elect whose time of service did not commence until the four- teenth inst., when he supposed the present Board would die a politi- ral death." The board overruling these pleas, Livingston declared that he was a freeholder, but could not prove it except by his oath. The board unanimously declared that the unsupported oath was insufficient, and Livingston's name was dropped. The seat was awarded to John Van Dyke, who had the largest number of votes next to Livingston. Colonel Livingston was a municipal reformer, and introduced into the legislature a bill for making the office of
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mayor elective. In the same month (March 14, 1792) he secured the incorporation of the "General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New-York"-the delay of which, since the foundation of the society in 1785, had angered its members.
The commencement of Columbia College took place on May 7, 1791, and there is found among the speeches of the young graduates some reflection of public issues. Pierre E. Fleming speaks on "Arbitrary Power"; William T. Broome on "The Late Revolution in France"; John W. Milligan on "Faction "; Thomas L. Ogden on "The Rising Glory of America." All of these were of New-York city. The pro- vincial youth seem to have maintained the old commencement themes, among which are found on this occasion, "The Improve- ment of Time," "Sympathy," "The Beauties of Nature," "On the Importance of the Fair Sex."
Among the notable institutions of this period was the Tontine Association-a sort of mutual insurance and loan company formed by the merchants. On March 12 John Watts and others petitioned ' for the privilege of adding to the Tontine Coffee House (corner of Wall and Water streets) a piazza, which must extend over the side- walk. This was refused, but on May 11 permission was given for a piazza to extend six feet over Wall street sidewalk. The leading citizens appear to have been generous. Abijah Hammond presented the council with a well-boring machine, which he had imported from Boston. The council was much concerned about wells, and had an- nounced that it would contribute for every well sunk by its consent at the rate of one dollar per foot. It accepted Hammond's gift, and ordered that sixty pounds should be advanced to try the apparatus in sinking a well near the City Hall. The Hon. John Jay presented the city council with the free right to regulate streets through his land on Great George street, and offered to release any part of his land that might be encroached on in cutting a canal from Fresh Water Pond to the North River.
Washington's Birthday, 1792, witnessed a revolution in a branch of Columbia College, which now had one hundred and fifty-six students, besides fifty-six medical students. The medical students offered their resignation in a body, because they were not "protected and cherished in the prosecution of their studies." The trustees refused to accept their resignation, but were notified by the students that they no longer considered themselves connected with the college, and if in- terfered with would appeal to the justice of their country. Dr. Samuel Bard was dean of the medical college, of which, indeed, he was the founder. The trouble may have been due to some enthusiasm for Dr. Nicholas Romaine, who, for some reason (perhaps his religious liberalism), had been left out of the faculty. This physician appears
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to have founded a school of his own. On April 30 the city council granted the use of a room in the City Hall to Dr. Romaine for medical lectures, though a similar request of Dr. Micheau (May 16) was refused. Of Micheau, a French refugee who came to New-York in 1791, a lively account is given in Dr. Francis's "Old New-York."
Given under our Hands at the said office of the Secretary of this state in the City of New york the fourth Day of June in the thistenth year of the Independence of this State and in the year of our lord one thousand leven hundred and lighty nine.
Samuel Jones
Ja Duanes
Krist Jappen
Lohn Watherm.
word Morris
Faut Livingston JohnBay
Q Lofinlandeist
Samuel Townsimo
He seems to have been unpopular among the doctors, one of whom persuaded Dunlap to have him caricatured on the stage, for which that dramatist received a severe personal assault.
The great event of the city in 1792 was the celebration of the third centenary of the discovery of America. The following is from a con- temporary report:
The 12th inst. (October, 1792), being the commencement of the IVth Columbian Centuary, was observed as a Centuary Festival by the Tammany Society, and celebrated in that style of sentiment which distinguishes this social and patriotic institution. . . . An elegant oration was delivered by Mr. J. B. Johnson, in which several of the prin- cipal events of the life of this remarkable man were pathetically described, and the
The above fac-simile is that of a part of the cer- tificate of election of George Clinton as governor, Pierre Van Cortlandt as lieutenant-governor, and of the various State senators in 1789. The gentle-
men whose names are appended were a joint com- mittee of the senate and assembly to canvass and count the votes. The original is in the possession of General J. Watts De Peyster. EDITOR.
VOL. III .- 6.
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interesting consequences to which his great achievement had already and must still conduct the affairs of mankind, were pointed out in a manner extremely satisfactory. During the evening's entertainment, a variety of national amusement was enjoyed. The following toasts were drank :
1. The memory of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of the new world. 2. May the new world never experience the vices and miseries of the old ; and be a happy asylum for the oppressed of all nations and of all religions. 3. May peace and liberty ever pervade the United Columbian States. 4. May this be the last Centuary Festival of the Columbian Order that finds a slave on this globe. 5. Thomas Paine. 6. The Rights of Man. 7. May the IVth Centuary be as remarkable for the improvement and knowledge of the rights of man as the first was for discovery and the improvement of nautic science. 8. Lafayette and the French nation. 9. May the liberty of the French rise superior to all the efforts of Austrian despotism. 10. A Burgoyning to the Duke of Brunswick. 11. May the deliverers of America never experience that in- gratitude from their Country which Columbus experienced from his King. 12. May the Genius of Liberty, as she has conducted the sons of Columbia with glory to the commencement of the IVth Century, guard their fame to the end of time. 13. The Day. 14. Washington, the deliverer of the new world.
Among the patriotic songs was an ode composed for the occasion, -beginning :
Ye sons of freedom, hail the day That brought a second world to view ; To Great Columbus' mem'ry pay The praise and honor justly due. Chorus-Let the important theme inspire Each breast with patriotic fire.
There was set up in the hall an illuminated obelisk. At the base a globe, emerging from clouds and chaos, presented a rude sketch of America as a wilderness. At the top stood History drawing up a curtain and revealing: 1. A commercial port, and Columbus instructed by Science, who presents him with a compass and points to the set- ting sun. 2. The landing of Columbus, the natives prostrate around him. 3. Columbus at the court of Spain, pointing out on a map his discovery to Ferdinand and Isabella. 4. Columbus in chains; Liberty appears to him, the emblems of despotism and superstition crushed under her feet. She intimates the gratitude of posterity by pointing out the monument set up by the Sons of Tammany, or the Columbian Order. On its pedestal Nature is seen caressing her various progeny. The Indians are seen mourning over the urn of Columbus. Near the chained Columbus is seen the inscription, "The Ingratitude of Kings." On two sides the eagle is seen prone, supporting the arms of Isabella and the arms of Genoa. But above the eagle soars, grasping in its talons a scroll inscribed "The Rights of Man." A year later this transparency was announced for display in Bowen's Museum and Wax Works, at the Exchange, where it was "surrounded with four beautiful female figures." 1
1 Dr. George H. Moore, in the " Magazine of American History," October, 1889.
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It will be observed by the large place given in the Columbian "Centuary" toasts to Paine and the "Rights of Man," that Tammany had become enthusiastic for democracy. The radicalism of Jeffer- son - afterward entitled Great Grand Sachem - was represented by Governor George Clinton. In the year 1792 occurred the famous contest for the governorship between Clinton and Chief Justice Jay. One of the principal polling-places was Trinity Church, and it is probable that the sacred edifice was never before or since surrounded by so many raging citizens as in that conflict. Although the "democ- racy," as the republicans were called by enemies, said much about the rights of man, one of the points urged against Jay was his anti- slavery sentiments; his adherents had to protest against the slander that he wished to liberate the slaves in New-York. It was also circu- lated that he had said there ought to be two classes- the rich and the poor. Another point against Jay was that he still held on to his place on the supreme bench while run- ning for governor. The acrimonious character of the contest was inten- sified by its result in a disputed election. It turned on the ques- tion whether an annually appointed sheriff could continue to fulfil his functions as protector and deliverer of the ballot-box and votes after his term of office had ended, his suc- cessor having not yet qualified. It was agreed to refer the question to the New-York senators, Aaron Burr and Rufus King, who were to Jos Brand choose a third if they could not agree. They selected the attorney- general of the United States, Edmund Randolph, who decided that, as the office of sheriff was governed by English law, it would have to be determined by English precedents. These were against Jay. The canvassers were thus compelled to throw out the votes of Otsego County, and Clinton was declared the governor. The fed- eralists were furious, and New-York city was on the verge of civil war. Public meetings were held in the City Hall, - where they were allowed between twelve and four in the afternoons only,- but
1 .Joseph Brant's Indian name was Thayenda- negea. He fought vigorously against the Ameri- cans during the Revolution, but afterward was largely instrumental in pacifying his Indian
brethren. In 1793, at Washington's earnest solici- tation, he used his influence to effect a treaty with the Miamis. EDITOR.
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they overflowed into the streets. A great dinner was given to Jay. It was generally felt that Jay's presidential aspirations depended on the result of this election, and a determined effort to unseat Clinton was made by his opponents in the legislature. But Clinton was be- lieved to have been ill used, and carried the entire vote of the State for the vice-presidency, which he nearly gained. Hamilton had during the summer of 1792 written in Fenno's paper (the "Gazette ") terribly severe attacks on Jefferson and Madison. They were anony- mous, but their authorship was well known. They were replied to by (as is now known) Edmund Randolph. At the center of this excit- ing controversy was the struggle between France and England to gain the support of the United States administration. New-York was in ferment. Secret political clubs were formed by the republi- cans (called "Jacobin" by the federalists), and the democratic party reached an organization it has never lost.
But meanwhile the city council seemed to incline to intrench itself anew in virtue and piety. It ordered in the beginning of 1793 that the current expenses, fifteen thousand pounds, should be raised by taxation (not lottery), and that the law of Sabbath observance should be published in the papers, and the police admonished to take care that it should be more strictly enforced. This may have been partly due to the large number of Frenchmen who had come to New-York since the disturbances in their country, and brought with them new customs. These new inhabitants greatly influenced the politics of the city. But it is due to the corporation to say that during this agi- tated period of the city's history, which reached a frantic pitch with the triumphal reception of the French ambassador, Citizen Genet, the mayor and council maintained their creditable traditions for industry and justice.
5
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City Hall New York
MILE-STONES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.1
1 These mile stones remind us of a past century, when the Bowery and Third Avenue were the Boston Post Road. Strange to say. these relics of an earlier period still remain. The one-mile stone is in the Bowery opposite Rivington street;
the two-mile stone stands near Sixteenth street; the four-mile stone, near Fifty-seventh street; and the five-mile stone, near Seventy-seventh street. They are all of granite, and the inscriptions are faint on some, but still legible. EDITOR.
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THE FRANKLIN FAMILY.
The interest that attaches to the Franklin House, the first official residence of President Washington, and which was thus the earliest executive mansion, justifies some curiosity as to its inmates or owners, before it was honored by this distinguished occupancy. We quote, therefore, an extract from the personal reminiscences recorded by Mrs. Mary Robinson Hunter, the wife of the United States minister to Brazil, written at Rio de Janeiro in 1845. Mrs. Hunter was the daughter of Sarah Franklin (who married William T. Robinson), a daughter of Samuel Franklin, one of the brothers of Walter Franklin, who built the house named after him:
"My mother's grandfather on her father's side [the father of Walter Franklin] was a wealthy farmer of the State of New-York, born of an English father and a Dutch mother. They had a large family of sons of whom my grandfather [Samuel] was the youngest, and two daughters. Of five sons I can speak, having known them all as a child, and all treating me with overweening love and indulgence. James, the eldest, followed the occupation of his father, and inherited the homestead. He married a lady of high breeding, who used to come down from the country once a year to visit the families of her husband's brothers, who were settled as merchants, three in New- York, and one in Philadelphia. I well remember the awe her presence inspired among us children; the rustling of her silk, and her high-heeled shoes making her figure more commanding, and the reproach her never-ending knitting cast upon us idle and in- dulged children.
"Walter, John, and Samuel resided in New-York. They inherited large fortunes from their parents, which they put into trade, and the produce of China and other countries was wafted to our shores in their ships. Walter retired with an immense fortune from the firm, lived in the style of a nobleman, and drove an elegant chariot. On an excursion to Long Island, driving by a country house, he saw, milking in the barnyard, where thirty cows had just been driven in at sunset, a beautiful young Quaker girl. He stopped, beckoned her, and asked who occupied the house. With great simplicity, and without embarrassment, she replied, 'My father, Daniel Bowne. Wilt thou not alight and take tea with him ?' My uncle accepted the invitation, intro- duced himself, was well known by reputation. He conversed with the farmer on the appearance of the farm, on his fine cows, etc., but not a word about the fair milkmaid. Presently the door opened, and she came in to make tea for the 'city friend,' when her father said, 'Hannah, this is friend Walter Franklin, from New-York.' She blushed deeply, finding he made no allusion to having seen her before. The blush heightened her loveliness. She had smoothed her hair, and a fine lawn kerchief covered her neck and bosom. After three visits he asked her in marriage, and the fair milkmaid was seated by his side in the chariot on her way to take possession as mistress of the most elegant house in the city, in Cherry street, near the corner of Pearl. She had a nu- merous family of beautiful daughters. They swerved from the simplicity of Quaker- ist, and became worldly and fashionable belles. The eldest, Sally, married a very wealthy man of the name of Norton, I believe of English birth, who was heir to an immense fortune, left him by a Mr. Lake, who lived near New-York. The second, Maria, was the wife of De Witt Clinton. The third, Hannah, married his brother, George Clinton. They all had children. Their mother was left a widow just before the third daughter was born,-my uncle Walter dying and leaving a rich young widow and twenty thousand pounds to each of his daughters. His widow afterwards married a very respectable Presbyterian named [Samuel] Osgood, who held some post under government [postmaster-general]- commissary of the army in Washington's time, I believe. She had a number of children by Osgood. The eldest, Martha, married a
:
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brother of the famous Genet [minister from the French Republic]. My uncle Walter's house is now [1845] the Franklin Bank, named after its builder and owner."
It is a matter of regret that there is no vestige of the house left to-day. The only link to connect this historic mansion with the present is the name of the triangular space formed by the junction of Pearl and Cherry streets. This is the well-known "Franklin Square," made famous by Harper and Brothers' publishing house, and is overshadowed by the lofty and vast structure of the Brooklyn Bridge.
EDITOR. .
CHAPTER III
SOCIETY IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE REPUBLIC
HE choice of New-York for the sittings of Congress gave to that old home of the Dutch and Huguenots, hardly re- covered from the war, a new dignity, and enlarged oppor- tunities for social intercourse with senators, members, and high officials coming from the various States of the American Union, whose differing colonial antecedents were associated with the best blood and the eventful history of Europe.
There is within reach an opportunity of gaining an exact and mi- nute acquaintance with social events, and the personages who made them what they were, in the early days of our republic. By a happy chance there has been preserved Mrs. John Jay's "Dinner and Supper List for 1787 and '8"-a period when her husband was secretary for foreign affairs for the Continental Congress. The names which the list furnishes, together with the memoranda afforded by occasional private correspondence, and the published notes of European travelers touch- ing that interesting period, contribute to give a picture, that already possesses an historic interest, of the social circles of New-York during its brief existence as the national capital under the articles of confed- eration, and for two sessions of the first Congress under the constitu- tion. Armed with this list, and some concomitant documentary or printed aids, we can look in upon the banquet-halls of the substantial, spacious mansions of that day,-owned or occupied by magnates of the republic, of the State, of the city, of the diplomatic circles, and of society itself,-and people them again with those who were accustomed to gather there. We can glance along the festive boards, and observe who of note at home or abroad met in those days around them.
The society of New-York at that time, despite the comparative insignificance of the city in extent and population, and all that it had suffered during the war, presented more strikingly than in after years, when domestic and foreign immigration had made it a common center, those distinguished characteristics, derived from its blended ancestry
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and colonial history, that are still discernible in the circles of the Knickerbockers, and which recall alike to Americans and to Euro- peans the earlier traditions of the national metropolis. While here and there might be found members of a family which, misled by mistaken convictions, had during the war sided with the mother-country, or
General Washington presents his mostrespectfulcom plements to th? Say - Honoured in her request by General S. Olais hetakes pleasure in projecting the enclosed with thanks fordo polite a testimony of her approve tion verteen _Hoursher mackder vently, that prosperous galer_an unzufed Sea & every thing flea sinpoderinable , may mouththe fatt the is about to walk in . -
Westpoint Ochot 3th 1779
+ A. look of the Generali Kaw _
WASHINGTON'S NOTE TO MRS. JAY ON HER DEPARTURE FOR SPAIN.
. had timidly endeavored to preserve an inglorious neutrality, the tone of society was eminently patriotic, and worthy of the antecedents of an ancestry representing, in the words of an English historian, "the best stock of Europe who had sought homes in the Western world, and in whose forms of government, charter, provincial and even pro- prietary, may be discerned the germs of a national liberty." With the culture and refinement of a class thus happily descended and fortu- nately situated was blended that love of country which lends dignity to wealth, and respectability to fashion.
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SOCIETY IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE REPUBLIC
As host and hostess at the dinners and suppers for which the list before mentioned was composed, Mr. and Mrs. John Jay would de- serve to be singled out for notice before we devote attention to the other social luminaries. But there was another reason why they figured so centrally in the social events of that day. John Jay was now secretary for foreign affairs. To relate his previous services as patriot, chief justice of the State, minister to Spain, and commis- sioner for peace, would be superfluous in this chapter. But it is worth while to emphasize the significance of his position as foreign secretary. In the inchoate condition of continental government, when Congress was at the head, but was itself without very clearly defined powers; when there was not any one person endowed with the chief executive functions -the secretary for foreign affairs was really the only concrete expression of the government by, of, and for the people, which had just. been wrested from Great Britain, to which other nations could at all clearly address themselves. He, too, was the person to whom the several States must look as the link for communi- cation between themselves and that delusive thing- the general gov- ernment. Hence, John Jay's position made him in effect the chief of state. It was not very unlike that of John of Barneveld or John De Witt in the days of the Dutch republic, whose various members would not resign their sovereignty to a chief or president, whose stad-holder mainly led the national armies, but whose land's advo- cate or grand pensionary - i. e., the principal civil functionary - was the man who received the ambassadors of foreign princes and in- structed the republic's ministers at foreign courts, and thus to all the world abroad was conspicuously first among all her citizens. Being thus similarly placed, it became John Jay's duty to do the honors for his country, and his wife was eminently fitted to assist him in the per- formance of that duty. As there has been no occasion in previous chapters to give an account of her, it will be proper to do so here.
Her maiden name was Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, her father being William Livingston, governor of New Jersey, and he the grand- son of Robert Livingston, the founder of the family in America. Her mother was Susanna French, the granddaughter of Philip French, mayor of New-York in 1702, and who joined Colonel Nicholas Bayard in that address which caused the latter's conviction of high treason. Sarah was the fourth daughter, born in August, 1757. She inherited some of her father's finest traits, intellectual and moral, which were developed by a very careful education. But with the father's stern patriotism and resolution she blended features of gentleness, grace, and beauty peculiarly her own. The delicate sensibility occasionally exhibited in her letters seems to have come from her mother. Her marriage to John Jay took place on April 28, 1774, in the midst of
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