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 15
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there was no government in France except that represented by Genêt, there was no objection to receiving his credentials. But the citizen seemed to look upon this simple and entirely non-committal act of international comity as a complete surrender of the Ameri- can republic to the cause of her sister across the sea; as if a league offensive and defensive was thereby concluded against all the latter's enemies, which then meant a large portion of the European world. Genêt proceeded to issue letters of marque and reprisal for privateers, and undertook not only to convert American vessels with their Ameri- can crews into French vessels of war, but he forthwith encouraged attacks on British vessels actually within our waters, and claimed them as prizes of war. When Washington indignantly objected, the French minister insolently replied to his strictures, and continued his out- rageous work. He dared to appeal 66 Genes to the people against their presi- dent. But now came a reaction. Misled by the senseless adulation of himself as the representative of the bleeding republic of France, Genêt had allowed himself to go to the extent of defying Washing- ton. Genêt's most violent admirers then began to open their eyes to the falsity of their position. Washington demanded his recall, and the request was acceded to. But, while Genet the minister was no more, Genêt the man remained, and settled in New-York. He had married a daughter of Governor Clinton, who, as a republican, was of course one of his partizans. As he had been sent out by the Girondist faction, who in 1794 were exterminated by the Jacobins of the Mountain, it was not quite safe for him to return to France. In retirement and obscurity, he passed his days in his adopted country, residing in this city, and dying here in 1836.
It was to be expected that amid this ferment of feeling, preva- lent throughout the country, in regard to events in France and the actions of the French minister in America, some striking episodes would occur in New-York city, the principal harbor of the Union. The ship that had conveyed Genet to these shores, the frigate L'Ambuscade, left Charleston soon after landing him there, and proceeded northward. She varied the monotony of her coastwise passage by chasing British merchant vessels. Entering the Dela-
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ware, she found a British ship, the Grange, lying far up the bay, waiting for a favorable wind to put to sea. The Frenchman sent a solid shot into her rigging, which induced the English captain to strike his colors, and the Grange was taken as a prize to Phila- delphia. The government promptly ordered her to be restored. L'Ambuscade, after spending some weeks at Philadelphia, went to New-York, arriving there in June, 1794. The citizens here had had no opportunity as yet of manifesting their esteem for Minister Genêt; but now all their pent-up enthusiasm for the French republic was devoted to a warm reception of Citizen Bompard, the captain of L'Ambuscade, and his officers and crew. At the same time it fanned into fresh flames the antagonism between the political parties. As the one became ultra-French in the presence of the Frenchmen, the other became more than reasonably excited against the li- cense of republicanism. "The peace of the coffee-houses was destroyed," is the sententious and significant observation of a recent historian.
At the Tontine Coffee-house in Wall street, near Water, a liberty-cap made of crimson silk was displayed, bearing the inscription "Sacred to Liberty." This in itself was a sufficiently innocent action ; but there went a defiance with it. The "democrats," as the French party called MME. EDMOND C. GENET. themselves, dared the "aristocrats" to take it down; the aristocrats, by the way, being such no further than that they upheld the administration, and wished it continued under the guidance of the "best men," instead of a Jacobin rabble. This party were not slow to respond with a declaration that down the cap would have to come. The threat and the defiance produced no actual altercations; but the two parties closely watched each other, and crowds of men, hundreds at a time, kept constantly near or in front of the building. Doubtless it would have taken but a slight spark to ignite the magazine.1 In fact, though violence was avoided in the present instance, the news- papers of the day record frequent brawls at other occasions and times. The sailor element of New-York had always been a turbu- lent one, from the good old days of the "protected" pirates down; and amid these stirring times they were not likely to be more quiet than usual. One day, at the Tontine, a British naval officer, who
1 "History of the People of the United States," John B. McMaster, 2: 105, 106.
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had doubtless taken something stronger than coffee, launched out into a tirade against the French and their republic. The dignified merchants, who most did congregate there, took decided umbrage, and the offending Englishman was "hustled into the street." A little later, on a Sunday morning, a company of British tars, off on furlough, encountered a number of French man-of-war's-men, also on recreation bent. A conflict was inevitable, and there might have been some fatalities had not the bystanders interfered.
The French frigate L'Ambuscade figures once more in an episode , that has a great deal of the chivalrous and dashing about it, such as we naturally associate with men who follow the sea. While she lay at anchor in the bay, a report came that a man-of-war had come to an anchorage off Sandy Hook. Ere long the bulletin-boards of the Tontine Coffee-house bore words of warlike import. The French republicans, as is well known, then scorned all titles of distinction. The royal family were now merely Capets. Even "monsieur " or "ma- dame" was an insult to the perfect equality now established among all men. The absurdity was carried even into the army and navy. Minister Genêt was only Citizen Genêt, and Captain Bompard re- pudiated that distinctive epithet, which one would think almost indispensable on board ship, and called himself Citizen Bompard. The practice had been caught up by the enthusiasts of the republi- can party in the United States, and there were serious discussions as to what should constitute the feminine counterpart to citizen, as Mr. and Mrs. were no longer to be tolerated. With fine irony the captain of the English frigate lying at Sandy Hook, adopting the mode of address now in vogue, announced that he-neither Captain nor Citizen, but Subject Courtney- would be glad to meet Citizen Bom- pard outside the legal limit of three leagues at sea within ten days. The challenge was, of course, accepted. People flocked to the shores of Long Island, Staten Island, and New Jersey to observe the com- bat, which took place beyond the range of vision, but not beyond that of hearing. The French frigate remained the victor ; Courtney was killed, but his vessel, outsailing L'Ambuscade, escaped capture. It may be imagined that the result highly excited the friends of France in the city. To add to their enthusiasm, a French fleet of fif- teen sail entered the harbor while L'Ambuscade was still in pursuit of her defeated antagonist. Thereupon for many days there were fêting and the singing of the many stirring patriotic songs of republi- can France, some of which were now sung also to English words.
International relations at this period furnished another cause for excitement, agitation, and partizan bitterness. The love of France involved the hatred of England. That antipathy to the old mother- country was, of course, a legacy also of the Revolution; and it was
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not strange that friction growing out of mutual misunderstanding or partial violation of treaty obligations should have kept alive hostile feelings. Yet it is obvious that, in the very nature of things, success for the government and prosperity for the people lay in the direction of English methods and English commerce far more than in the direction of those of France. At heart, essentially, the daughter could not repudiate her origin and expect to live as a nation. The friends of strong government, the federalists, knew this very well; and whatever dislike of England may have possessed them, they were not blind to the advantages of her political principles, or of a well-established commercial con- nection with her. This entirely consistent position afforded a fine field for the demagogues, and to call the federalists the friends of England was their common cus- . tom, and the easiest as well as surest way of exciting the anger of an unthinking multitude against them. This charge would be espe- Sacred to the Memory of SisJONN TEMPLE Bart cially calculated to arouse popular CONSUL GENERAL. 10 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA fury in the midst of the excite- ments produced by the actions of Minister Genêt.
Just at this juncture, in the spring of 1794, President Wash- ington sent Chief Justice John Jay as special envoy to England, to THE TEMPLE MONUMENT. negotiate a treaty of commerce. A special mission was a necessary expedient, as complete diplomatic relations with our republic had not yet been assumed on the part of England. Her official representative in America was still Sir John Temple, consul-general at New-York.1
1 Sir John died in 1798, and was buried in St. Paul's Church on Broadway, where was also erected the monument of which an illustration appears in the text. His father was Captain Robert Temple, of the English army, who came to New England in 1717, married Mehitabel Nel- son, of Boston, and at his death in 1754 left three sons, of whom John was the second. The latter was born in Boston in 1732, became surveyor- general of the customs and lieutenant-governor of New Hampshire, and just before the breaking
out of the Revolutionary War was recalled be- cause of his sympathy with the colonists. His marriage with Governor Bowdoin's daughter has been noticed in the previous chapter. In 1786 he succeeded a distant kinsman in the ancient bar- onetcy of his family. Sir John left four children, of whom the second, Elizabeth Bowdoin, married the Hon. Thomas Lindall Winthrop. Of her nu- merous children, the only survivor at present is the well-known patriot and statesman, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, of Boston.
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The task before Jay was a difficult and delicate one; it would have been so under any circumstances, but knowing what was the state of feeling in his own country, the work intrusted to him was peculiarly trying. But perhaps no better man could have been chosen to do it than he; his purity of motive so transparent, his patriotism so lofty and unselfish, his judgment so clear and just, his desire to promote the good of his country so R.VARICK ESOR completely absorbing any meaner or MAYOR 1796 narrower ambitions of a personal na- ture, that these qualities irresistibly impressed even English statesmen with the conviction that what he felt to be just and advantageous for both coun -. tries must in reality be so. Indeed, the marvel was that Jay ob- tained so many concessions, which were really of more immediate advantage to the United States, although, in the end, the profit of them to both countries would become apparent. But the mortal offense had been committed of retaining the friendship of England, of having conciliated instead of exasperating her by a useless display of impo- tent anger. France, the ancient ally, had been deserted; and England, the oppressor and foe, had been courted.
A storm of indignant abuse rewarded the distinguished and high- minded negotiator for his pains, and met him on his arrival in New- York in the summer of 1795. He was accused-it was hardly possible to conceive a man more incorruptible by gold than he-of having sold his country. He was represented in caricatures, and burned in effigy at Philadelphia and New-York. In New-York and Boston mass-meet- ings were held and resolutions passed condemning the treaty before those presuming to sit in judgment had even had an opportunity to read it. The mass-meeting in New-York was held in front of the City Hall, and both Mayor Varick and Secretary Hamilton attempted to control it, or bring it to reason. Edward Livingston, afterward mayor, was called to preside. When there was offered a motion for adjournment, the wildest confusion prevailed. Hamilton, who had never failed to command attention or to sway a crowd by his elo- quence, attempted to address the people from the front steps of his own house, on the corner of Wall and Broad streets. But the popu- lace was too greatly excited to listen to him; stones began to fly, and
The above is an illustration of a stone found in digging a trench along the north wall of the City Hall, on July 19. 1892. It is about two feet long. eighteen inches wide, and about one foot deep. Its significance is doubtful. The inscrip- tion " R. Varick. Esqr., Mayor. 1796." cannot be
meant for a tombstone, as he did not die till 1831. Nor was this site even thought of for a City Hall till after 1801, when he yielded the chair to & suc- cessor. It may have formed part of a wall of one of the buildings near this spot, such as the Bride- well, which was taken down later.
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as one struck the immovable secretary on the forehead, he quietly observed: "If you use such striking arguments, I must retire." And retire he did, the mob also soon hastening away from the spot to the Bowling Green, where they burned copies of the treaty and unfurled the French flag. But Hamilton was not so easily overcome; in & characteristic manner he set himself to the task of arguing down this senseless opposition. "Publius," once of the "Federalist," was transformed into "Camillus" four days after the unruly mass-meet- ing; and the essays that came from his powerful brain soon brought the nation back to reason.
The treaty was ratified by the senate. Then the president was as- sailed by petitions from all parts of the land not to sign it. Wash- ington, however, was not to be confused by the noise, nor to be moved by the violence of this storm of thoughtless opposition, any more than he was wont to be by the noise and fury of a battle. He saw the country's good clearly before him; he knew that this treaty, with whatever imperfections it might be burdened, would certainly secure that good, and his duty thus standing out undimmed before him, he was not the man to swerve from it. And reason, too, began to reassert herself among the people. The merchants of the country, laying aside political prejudice and perceiving the great advantages to American commerce which the terms of the treaty secured, every- where expressed their approval, and their petitions, sent in to the president, served to offset the previous condemnation. The New- York Chamber of Commerce was among the first to place itself on record in favor of the measure. A special meeting was called for July 21, 1795, to consider that "which particularly agitated the public mind, the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation between the United States and Great Britain." In the minute-book the meeting is described as "the most respectable ever held in the Chamber of Com- merce (upwards of seventy members being present). After the treaty was read, resolutions approving thereof were adopted with only ten dissenting voices." The president, as is well known, finally signed the treaty, and its provisions became law, with some important modifications, and the omission of the article on West India trade.
In the midst of the violent discussions about the treaty, Jay was nominated and elected governor of the State; this important event taking place before his return from England. On May 28, 1795, he arrived in the city, and on July 1 he was duly inaugurated. On July 2, by a breach of senatorial etiquette, or the violation of his oath of secrecy by one of the senators of the United States, the text of the treaty was published in the newspapers. But Jay was now secure in his seat of honor; and it is doubtful whether the knowledge of the actual text would have injured him more than the misrepresentations
NEW-YORK IN 1798.1
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based on mere rumors in regard to its provisions. Perhaps one reason why the election went against Governor Clinton was the shameful counting out of Jay in 1792. It is a trite saying that history repeats itself. Is it of the fall of 1891, or the spring of 1792, that we read: " At the election it was soon discovered that the votes for Jay outnum- bered those for Clinton. But a returning board, a joint committee of the legislature of whom the majority were Clintonians, found the re- turns from three counties, which notoriously had gone Federalist, were technically defective"?1 The majority thus secured for Clinton showed but a paltry figure of one hundred and eight votes. In 1795 Jay's majority over Robert Yates was nearly sixteen hundred; and on his reelection in 1798 he was victorious over Robert R. Livingston by nearly twenty-four hundred.
.
These gubernatorial contests and their results were of much more consequence to New-York city as a part of its history then than now, because it was still the State capital. It involved no change of resi- dence to the governor now elected, therefore, except from one end of the same street to another. In the directory for 1789, Jay's house is placed at 133 Broadway, the last or highest number on that thorough- fare then. As governor he would be obliged to transfer his house- hold gods to the government mansion opposite the Bowling Green, whose noble proportions closed the pleasing vista as one looked down Broadway toward the bay, and from whose windows in turn a view would be gained up that street, terminated by the green fields and spreading shade-trees of the common or the park. During the whole of Jay's first term he occupied this mansion. The headquarters of the federal government had been removed to Philadelphia toward the close of 1790, even before this building intended for the use of the chief of the nation was completed. Therefore the governor and Mrs. Jay reassumed the leading position in the social life of New-York which had been theirs while Jay was secretary for foreign affairs under the Continental Congress, which made him the chief entertainer of the diplomatic corps. But even the subordinate glory-if it were a glory - of being the capital city of a State was taken away from New-York, and in January, 1798, the seat of government was re- moved to the more centrally located city of Albany.
Some matters enacted by the governor and legislature during this period are of such profound interest or vital importance that no apology will be needed for a brief reference to them in this history. Treating them cumulatively from less to greater, it is to be noted that the proclamation of a Thanksgiving Day was initiated for this State by Governor Jay. It was announced as an expression of grati- tude for the cessation of the yellow-fever plague of 1795, of which
1 "John Jay," by George Pellew, p. 276.
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more anon, and appointed for Thursday, November 26. Political opponents, on the alert for faultfinding, bitterly censured this act of Jay's. It was deemed of a piece with his aristocratic or federalist notions of government-much in excess of his prerogatives as an executive officer. Perhaps it was; perhaps it is such on the part of the president from year to year. It may be an infringement upon the rights of conscience of those who believe in no God. But as long as we are not a nation of atheists, public sentiment will sustain the proclamation, though it be extra-constitutional. There is no record that the political cavil of 1795 interfered with its hearty observance by the people.
Another singular instance of the repetition of history, even in our own city, is furnished by the following citation: "The governor in- curred still further odium by refusing to order the flags to be hoisted on Governor's Island and the Battery on the anniversary of the Tam- many Society; the reason he gave was, that 'if such a compliment be paid to the Tammany, it ought not to be refused to any other of the numerous societies in this city and State.'"' Yet Tammany was then still an American society, insisting upon the display of no foreign flag. In spite of the federalist governor of 1796, and a Democratic mayor nearly a hundred years later, the very last St. Patrick's Day proved the futility of common sense and fairness in the face of influ- ences that govern votes to-day. In this same year (1796) was built a penitentiary in this city, on the model of that in Philadelphia; while, equally under the directing thoughtfulness of the governor, the idea was given shape of establishing a safe retreat for sufferers from con- tagious disease. Bedlow's Island was deemed a favorable spot for establishing a hospital for such. But what was of a more permanent influence upon morals and manners-a change was made in the penal code. Governor Clinton had suggested a reduction in the number of offenses that were to have the punishment of death at- tached to them. Jay took up this good work and pushed it to final action, so that a revision of the code was accomplished.
In the governor's message to the legislature in January, 1796, in which the building of the penitentiary was recommended, there was no recommendation of the abolition of slavery. Jay was known, however, to be in favor of that cause, was identified with men in France who were agitating abolition, and M. Brissot de Warville, the French patriot and journalist, who was guillotined with a number of fellow-Girondists in 1793, came to America in 1789, specially com- mended to Jay as a friend of the blacks (ami des noirs). In the ses- sion of January, 1796, a bill was introduced by a near friend of the governor's which called for abolition. It is a remarkable circum-
1 Pellew's "Jay, " p. 325.
VOL. III .- 9.
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stance that it obtained a tie vote in committee of the whole. The chairman's casting-vote was against it, and hence it was lost. But in 1799 the subject was revived, and the cause of emancipation in New- York was carried to success. In April a bill was brought before the legislature providing that all negro children born after July 4 ensuing should be free. They must serve an apprenticeship till a certain age -twenty-eight in the case of males, and twenty-five in that of females. Meantime the exportation of slaves from the State was prohibited. The rock upon which all former efforts of this kind had suffered ship- wreck had been the difficult and delicate question of compensation for the dissolution of human chattels with a price into human beings representing no price. But the scheme of gradual emancipation avoided this peril and secured the great and noble end.
Washington's first term ended in March, 1793; the close of his second falls within the limit of this chapter. The election of candi- dates took place in 1796, and the removal of the great name of Wash- ington at once wrought confusion. The federalist candidates, John Adams and Thomas Pinckney, failed together to exceed the votes of the republicans. Adams received only three more votes than Thomas Jefferson, and Pinckney was left out. Thus John Adams, the fed- eralist, became president, and Jefferson, the republican, vice-presi- dent. But in all this New-York city bore no part of special signifi- cance. It was different with the next presidential election; then some of her most brilliant citizens wrought mightily to turn the scale of events within her borders, and city and State became the pivot on which the results for the nation turned. Now, too, rises into national prominence for the first time the name of Aaron Burr. His father was the Rev. Aaron Burr, president of Princeton College; his mother was a daughter of the famous divine, Dr. Jonathan Edwards. But when scarce three years old death had deprived him of both parents. Somewhere and somehow a wrong moral twist was given to his edu- cation. Yet he was a man of brilliant parts and fascinating manners. He had served with distinction in the Revolution, was for a brief period a member of Washington's official family, but resigned from the army in 1779, and devoted himself to the law. He was sent to the State legislature; he was United States senator from 1791 to 1796; now in 1800 he comes forward as a presidential candidate.
Jay, the federalist, had secured the election of governor twice, in 1795 and in 1798. But in the latter year the republicans gained largely in the elections for the legislature, there being a majority of twenty- eight for their side in the assembly, and having reduced the federalist majority in the senate to eight. This result was attributed to the skill and astuteness of Burr. By means of a wide personal acquain- tance and a shrewd estimate of men, he knew how to use their very
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