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 46
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Most of the gentlemen invited responded. David C. Colden was elected chairman. Mr. Chapman presented the draft of a constitution, which was adopted. The society was organized, and was, on motion of Edward S. Van Winkle, called the Century, because its member- ship was restricted to one hundred persons. A committee of manage- ment was appointed, composed of Gulian C. Verplanck, John L. Stephens, Asher B. Durand, John G. Chapman, David C. Colden, and Charles M. Leupp. Daniel Seymour was appointed secretary, and Thomas S. Cummings treasurer.1
The managers first secured rooms at No. 495 Broadway for the meetings of the club. These were well attended. A journal filled with contributions from the members was read once a month, a reading-room James Harper. and the nucleus of a library were es- tablished. Receptions were also given to men who had distinguished themselves in art, letters, statesmanship, and science. The later his- tory of the club will be found on subsequent pages.
One of the most important events of this period was the passage by the legislature, on April 2, 1849, of an amended charter for the city, which was to take effect on the first day of June following. The amended instrument provided that the mayor and aldermen should hold office for two years instead of one, and that the charter election should be held on the first Tuesday in November, the same date as the State election. Its most important provision, however, was the estab- lishment of nine executive departments, the heads of which were to act as the constitutional advisers of the mayor, after the federal plan of government. The nine departments thus created were:
I. The Police Department, under the especial care of the mayor, with a bureau, the head of which was to be called the chief of police. II. The Department of Finance, under control of the comptroller of
1 The original members of the Century were: William C. Bryant, Rev. Henry W. Bellows, Henry K. Brown, John G. Chapman, Abram M. Cozzens, David C. Colden, John D. Campbell, Lewis Gaylord Clark, Thomas S. Cummings, Asher B. Durand, Rev. Orville Dewey, Francis W. Edmonds, Charles L. Elliott, Thomas Addis Emmet, Dudley B. Fuller, Thomas H. Faile, George Folsom, Alban Goldsmith, John H. Gour- lie, Henry Peters Gray, Daniel Huntington, Ogden Haggerty, William J. Hoppin, Charles C. Ingham, Gouverneur Kemble, William Kemble, Shepherd Knapp, Robert Kelly, Charles M. Leupp, Samuel E. Lyon, Christian Mayr, Dr. William J. MacNeven, Eleazer Parmly, Thomas P. Rossiter, Daniel Seymour, Jonathan Sturges, John L. Stephens, Joseph Trench, Henry T. Tuckerman, Henry P. Tappan, Gulian C. Verplanck, and Ed- gar S. Van Winkle. Mr. Cummings, Mr. Hoppin, and Mr. Huntington are believed to be the only survivors.
EDITOR.
2 James Harper, founder of the firm of Harper and Brothers, publishers, was born April 13, 1795, and was the son of Joseph Harper, a farmer at Newtown, L. I. Having, with his three brothers John, Wesley, and Fletcher, established a printing business in New-York, they soon began publish- ing, issuing first "Locke on the Human Under- standing," in 1818. The present firm - sons and grandsons of the four brothers - continue the business in Franklin Square, in buildings cover- ing half an acre of ground, absolutely fire-proof, having all the operations necessary to the mechan- ical production of a book carried on under one roof, and giving employment to about one thousand persons. Mr. Harper was elected mayor of the city, in 1844, by the Native American party -the only occasion upon which that organization was successful ; he was thrown from his carriage while driving in Fifth Avenue, and died a few days afterward at St. Luke's Hospital, New-York. March 27, 1869. EDITOR.
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the city. Its three departments were to be presided over by the re- ceiver of taxes, collector of the city revenues, and city chamberlain respectively .
IL A Street Department, to be presided over by an official called the commissioner of streets, and to have two bureaus, the heads of which were to be known as the col- lector of assessments and superin- - tendent of wharves.
Jew. J. Audubon
IV. Department of Repair and Supplies, presided over by a com- missioner of repairs and supplies. The heads of its four bureaus were to be known as superintendents of roads, of repairs to public buildings, of permits, and chief engineer of the Fire Department.
V. Department of Streets and Lamps, under a commissioner with three bureaus, presided over by superintendents, respectively, of lamps and gas, of streets, and of markets.
VI. The Croton Aqueduct Board, under a president, engineer, and assistant commissioner, with one bureau, the head of which was to be known as the water register.
VII. Department of the City Inspector, to be presided over by an officer of that name.
VIII. Almshouse Department, the chief officials to be known as governors of the almshouse.
IX. Law Department, its chief officer to be called the counsel for the corporation, with one bureau, to be administered by the corpora- tion attorney.
The heads of the various departments, with the exception of the Aqueduct Board, were to be elected by the people, and were to hold office for the term of three years. They were all under the legislative authority of the common council.
New-York suffered two visitations in the summer and autumn of 1849, from either of which it might well have prayed to be delivered- the Astor Place riot and the Asiatic cholera. The riot startled the city by showing what dangerous and explosive elements were shel- tered in its bosom. It was caused primarily by the ill feeling existing between two well-known and talented actors - Edwin Forrest, an American, and William Charles Macready, an Englishman ; but later,
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national prejudices were invoked. Forrest had made the tour of the English play-houses a short time previously, where he had been the rival of Macready for popular favor. The latter, Forrest charged and believed, visited the theater in London where he was playing, and publicly hissed him; and the fact, having been made known in America, caused great indignation among the friends of Forrest, who were numerous and influential. Unaware of this feeling, Macready returned to New-York in September, 1848, and appeared in tragedy at the Astor Place opera-house, which had been erected the year be- fore by subscription, with John Sefton as manager. After filling his engagement Macready went to other cities, but returned for a farewell ap- pearance early in May, 1849. Forrest was then playing "Macbeth" at Wal- lack's Broadway theater, and the two rivals were soon advertised on the bill-boards to appear on the same night, in the same play, "Macbeth." This was taken as a gage of defiance thrown down by Macready, and great- ly incensed the friends of the Amer- ican actor. They determined that Macready should not play. On the AUDUBON'S RESIDENCE. 1 night in question, a typical New-York crowd gathered before the opera-house in Astor Place an hour before the doors were opened. There were laborers from the streets and public works, hoodlums, respectable mechanics, and fashionably dressed gentlemen and ladies. Some were in tattered garb, some in their shirt-sleeves, some in evening dress. When the doors were thrown open, the motley crowd, which had been supplied with tickets, poured in and quickly filled the pretty interior. Soon the curtain rose upon a weird scene - the three witches on the blasted heath performing their incantations in "light- ning, thunder, and in rain." The scene awed the populace, and it re- mained silent until Macbeth appeared and entered upon his rôle, when it at once drowned his voice in hisses, cat-calls, and every manner of boisterous disapproval. Macready became angry, but continued through the act, although not a word that he said could be heard amid the tumult. Lady Macbeth (Mrs. Pope) then came upon the stage, but was received with such ribaldry and abuse that she fled to her dress- ing-room. Macbeth again appeared, and was met by such a shower of
1 John James Audubon, the eminent naturalist, whose work on "The Birds of America" forms such a noble monument to its author, resided in the midst of a beautiful grove of trees situated just above One Hundred and Fifty-fifth street.
The house is now included in the tract known as Audubon Park, through which a thoroughfare to be known as Audubon Avenue will soon be opened. This park formed a part of the scene of the battle of Harlem Heights. EDITOR.
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addled eggs and still more dangerous missiles that, believing his life to be in jeopardy, he fled behind the curtain. The play was suspended, whereupon the disturbers, having accomplished their task, quiety withdrew. Macready proposed to his managers to throw up his - gagement; but on this becoming known, the better class of citizen feeling that the city had been disgraced by the affair, and would still more deeply dishonored were the actor prevented from filling hc engagement, addressed to the latter an open letter,' regretting the ci cumstance, promising protection if he would again appear, asking hi not to yield to the spirit of lawlessness so suddenly and unexpected developed, and begging that he would grant the city an opportunit __ to wipe out the disgrace inflicted upon its character. Macready re sponded favorably, and name - Thursday, May 10, as the dat for his appearance in the same play. When the announce ment was made, placards bilZ ing Forrest for the same play on the same night at the Broadway were posted beside the Macready bills; at the same time a handbill appeared on every prominent point in the city, bearing this appeal : ST. JAMES LUTHERAN CHURCH.2 "Workingmen ! Shall Ameri- cans or Englishmen rule in this country ! The crews of the British steamers have threatened all Americans who shall dare appear this night at the English aristocratic Opera House. Workingmen ! free-
1 NEW-YORK, Wednesday, May 9, 1849. William C. Macready, Esq. :
Dear Sir: The undersigned, having heard that the outrage at the Astor Place Opera House on Monday evening is likely to have the effect of preventing you from continuing your perform- ances and from concluding your intended fare- well engagement on the American stage, take this public method of requesting you to reconsider your decision, and of assuring you that the good sense and respect for order prevailing in this community will sustain you on the subsequent nights of your performances.
Ambrose I .. Jordan, Wessell S. Smith, William M. Prichard.
Edward Sandford, Willis Hall, Benjamin D. Silliman,
James Foster, Jr., David Austin,
Duncan C. Pell, Mordecai M. Noah, Ogden Hoffman. Francis R. Tillou, Howard Henderson, Samuel B. Ruggles, 1 James Collis, Henry J. Raymond, Charles A. Davis, Pierre M. Irving, Moses H. Grinnell, Edward S. Gould. William Kent, John W. Francis, Henry A. Stone, George Bruce,
Washington Irving, Francis B. Cutting, David Graham, Joseph L. White, Edward Curtis, James Brooks, Matthew Morgan, David C. Colden, James E. De Kay,
Ogden P. Edwards, John R. Bartlett, Hickson W. Field,
Richard Grant White, Evert A. Duyckinck,
William C. Barrett,
Jacob Little,
J. Beekman Finlay. Denning Duer, Simeon Draper,
J. Prescott Hall, Robert J. Dillon, Herman Melville, Ralph Lockwood, Cornelius Mathews.
So far as known, Mr. Silliman is the sole sur- vivor among the forty-eight gentlemen who signed the above letter. EDITOR.
2 The first Lutheran church in New-York wu built in 1702, at Rector street and Broadway. and was destroyed by fire in 1776. In 1767 the build ing reproduced above was erected at the corner of Frankfort and William streets, and was known as the Swamp Church. The present St. James Lutheran Church is a handsome stone edifice erected in 1891 at the corner of Madison Avenue and East Seventy-third street. EDITOR
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men ! stand up to your lawful rights !" This incendiary appeal was taken as presaging violence. The friends of Macready appealed to the chief of police, who promised to detail a large force to preserve order, while two regiments of the city militia were ordered to be ready to march at the word of command. To keep out the adher- ents of Forrest, tickets were sold only to those known to be in sympathy with Macready.
Early on the evening of the 10th, three hundred policemen were placed inside and outside the opera-house, while, as on the previous night, a large and motley crowd gathered outside. When the doors were opened the police allowed only those having tickets to enter, and as soon as these were within, the doors were closed and barred, the windows having previously been secured by nailing planks across them. Doors and windows were assailed by the mob with paving- stones which were piled in heaps along the street preparatory to being laid, and with chips from a neighboring marble-yard; but the rioters were repulsed by the police.
The curtain rose, and Macready appeared. Notwithstanding all precautions, however, many lawless persons had penetrated the play- house, and were about to rush forward by preconcerted action and seize Macready, when, at a signal, the police, who had learned their plans, rushed in and soon overpowered them. The ringleaders were secured inside, and the others were ejected. When this became known without, the mob attacked the police, and had nearly over- powered them when the famous Seventh Regiment, under Colonel Abram Duryee, appeared, having marched up Broadway, under orders, from its armory near Centre Market, preceded by its troop of horse. The latter was ordered to charge the mob, and did so, spurring down upon them from Broadway, but was met with such a shower of mis- siles, that it retreated toward Third Avenue, leaving quite a number bleeding on the street. Evidently the mob was in earnest, and re- quired to be met in the same spirit. Colonel Duryee now ordered his men to load with ball-cartridge. Finding that he could not move in column because of the density of the crowd, he led his men in file un- der shelter of the rear wall of the opera-house, and thus gained the front. They were met with stones, yells, and execrations from the mob. Many of the soldiers were wounded, and nearly forty stand of muskets were battered in their hands.
Recorder Frederick A. Tallmadge, who represented the city authori- ties in the absence of Mayor Woodhull, was told that unless the men were allowed to fire a retreat would be ordered. He addressed the
1 Jacob A. Westervelt was chosen mayor by the Democratic party in 1853, succeeding Mayor Kingsland. He was a shipbuilder, and constructed the United States steam-frigate Brooklyn. EDITOR. VOL. III .- 28.
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mob, begging it to retire, but without result. Finally, after consulta- tion with the division commander, General Charles W. Sandford, Sheriff John J. V. Westervelt, the highest civil officer present, gave the order to fire, but to aim at the dead wall of a house opposite, over the heads of the crowd. This, instead of in- timidating the mob, only excited it> contempt. The leaders argued tha the authorities were afraid to fi are upon them, and defied them to d so, responding to the harmless fir volley with a shower of missilee By order of General Hall, a second volley, aimed low, immediately fol-I. lowed the first, killing and wounding many of the rioters, and causing the 1 mob to retreat in haste. The soldiers. pursuing, soon cleared the neighbor -- hood of the opera-house and provi -- Anna Gora Mowa sion was made against a return of the mob by stationing large detach __ ments at each end of Astor Place. Another attack on the regiment was made by a portion of the rioters who had rallied their forces in Third Avenue, and who, advancing from that direction toward Astor Place, injured several of the members of the Seventh by throwing stones and bricks. This assault was met by a third volley, which proved fatal to the mob, and it was dispersed.
One hundred and forty-one members of the Seventh were wounded, including Colonel Duryee and Captains Henry C. Shumway and Wil- liam A. Pond; Generals Sandford and William Hall and Lieutenant- Colonel Andrew B. Brinckerhoff also were hurt. Thirty-four of the mob were killed and many wounded. Meantime all was excitement and alarm within the opera-house. Until the troops arrived it was feared that the rioters would tear the building to pieces. The play, however, was performed, with the exception of the after-piece, which was omitted. Macready was then assisted to escape by one of the rear exits, and, after being secreted in a private house for two days, was driven in a carriage in disguise to Boston, whence he sailed for England.
The affair caused great excitement in the city when, next morning, the full extent of the occurrence became generally known. Early in
1 Anna Cora Mowatt was the daughter of Samuel Gouverneur Ogden, a New-York merchant. In 1841 she gave readings in New-York and Boston ; wrote plays ; and on June 13, 1845, appeared as Pauline in the "Lady of Lyons" at the Park Theater. Her husband, James Mowatt, having
died in 1851, she married William F. Ritchie in
1854. She was the author of "Twin Roses," "The Clergyman's Wife and other Sketches," "Pelayo," and several other popular works; frequently using the pen-name of "Helen Berkley." Mrs. Ritchie died in 1870, aged fifty-one. EDITOR.
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the morning posters were scattered throughout the city, calling upon all opposed to the destruction of human life to assemble in the park at six o'clock that evening, "to express public opinion upon the lamen- table occurrence of last night." A great multitude assembled at the hour appointed, speeches were made denouncing the city authorities for their efforts to maintain order, although no word of condemnation was uttered against those who had broken the law and led their fellows to riot and destruction. Resolu- tions of censure having been passed, the John Jacob Aston beable meeting quietly adjourned without at- tempting any hostile demonstration, and although the Seventh remained on guard duty during the 11th and 12th, no further call was made upon their steadiness and bravery. The mob spirit was quelled for the time.
The first case of cholera during the visitation of 1849 appeared on May 14 in the Five Points, then one of the pest-holes of the city. A sanitary commission, composed of James Kelly, Robert T. Hawes, Alexander H. Schultz, Charles Webb, George H. Franklin, Edwin D. Morgan, Robert A. Sands, Jacob F. Oakley, and Oscar W. Stur- tevant, was at once appointed by the Health Department, and every effort made to hold the dreaded scourge at bay. The commission was invested with the full powers of the Board of Health, and had the ad- vice of three eminent surgeons, Drs. John B. Beck, Joseph M. Smith, and Samuel W. Moore, who were officially connected with it as medi- cal counselors. A large three-story building on the corner of Monroe and Pearl streets was secured, and soon transformed into a hospital to which all cholera patients were transferred. About the same time the board published in all the city papers an address to the people stating that Asiatic cholera was present in the city as an epidemic, and warning all that cleanliness of streets, dwellings, and persons was imperative to secure immunity from it. It was then held that cholera was not contagious, but was communicated through the atmosphere.
As the epidemic spread, the Board of Health proposed using the public-school buildings for hospitals. There was much opposition from the Board of Education and from the citizens; public meetings were held to protest against taking such action; but in the end the buildings were thus appropriated, and did good service. To these hos- pitals 1901 patients were admitted, of whom 1021 died. How many perished in their own homes was never known, but it was estimated that three thousand persons died in New-York from the malady.
While the city was thus growing in wealth and population, certain philanthropic and charitable organizations and institutions were founded, whose beneficent influence on the city's life and character can- not be overestimated. John Jacob Astor, the richest merchant of the
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city, died on March 29, 1848, and by will left the sum of four hundred thousand dollars for the establishment of a free public library in the city of New-York. The library was incorporated January 13, 1849, the first board of trustees comprising Washington Irving, Fitz-Greene Halleck, James G. King, Samuel Ward, Samuel B. Ruggles, Daniel Lord, Joseph G. Cogswell, William B. Astor, son of the founder, his grandson Charles Astor Bristed, and the chancellor of the State and the mayor of the city ex officiis. Dr. Cogswell, then editor of the "New-York Review," was appointed superintendent of the library, and visited all the literary centers of Europe, selecting books for the various departments of the new library. The institution was first opened to the public early in Feb- ruary, 1854.1
The New-York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was incorporated in 1848, having been organized in 1843. Its first president was James Brown, the banker. Its vice-presidents 2 were Horatio Allen, John G. Green, James Lenox, Apollos R. Wetmore, and John David Wolfe; the record- ing secretary, Joseph B. Collins; the corresponding secretary, Robert M. Hartley; the treasurer, Robert B. Minturn. The board of mana- gers comprised Jonathan Sturges, Stewart Brown, George Griswold, and Erastus C. Benedict. In 1851 the New-York Juvenile Asylum was incorporated chiefly through the efforts of Robert M. Hartley, Benjamin F. Butler, Luther Bradish, Horatio Allen, Apollos R. Wet- more, Thomas Denny, Joseph B. Collins, and Dr. John Dennison Russ, secretary of the Prison Association, the latter becoming its first superintendent.
The Five Points Mission was founded during this period through the efforts of devoted Methodist women, and has wholly transformed the appearance and character of a locality which was once one of the city's vilest slums. The Five Points is an open area of about one 1
1 The later and more complete history of the Astor Library will be given by Frederick Saunders in a monograph in the concluding volume. EDITOR.
2 Charles Astor Bristed was born in New-York, October 6, 1820, and was the son of the Rev. John Bristed, who married a daughter of John Jacob Astor. He traveled in Europe after his marriage
with Henry Brevoort's daughter, and wrote many articles for the magazines, over the pen-name of "Carl Benson." He was one of the original trus- tees of the Astor Library, and the author of " The Upper Ten Thousand," sketches of New-York so- · ciety life, " Five Years in an English University," and other works. He died in Washington, D. C., January 15, 1874. EDITOR.
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acre of ground at the intersection of Mulberry, Orange, Anthony, Cross, and Little Water streets. Charles Dickens, who visited it in 1841 under protection of the police, has given a vivid description of it as it then existed and continued to be up to 1850-51:
These narrow ways diverging to the right and left and reeking everywhere with dirt and filth. . . . Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old. .. . Nearly every house is a low tavern. . . . Here are lanes and alleys paved with mud knee-deep; underground chambers where they dance and game; . . . ruined houses open to the street, whence through wide gaps in the walls other ruins loom upon the eye; . . . hideous tenements which take their name from robbery and murder : all that is loathsome, drooping, and decayed is here.
This place the New-York Ladies' Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church began in 1850 to cleanse and reform. At their request the New-York Con- ference detailed the Rev. Lewis M. Pease as a missionary to the Five Points, and a mission was opened in a little room, about twenty by forty feet in size, at the corner of Little Water and Cross streets, which would accommodate about two hundred per- sons. The ladies began their efforts by organizing a Sunday-school of about seventy pupils. Soon after a day-school was opened, for it was quickly found that the children, run- ning wild during the week, forgot all the lessons of self-restraint, cleanli- FONT HILL, FORREST'S CASTLE. 1 ness, and morality taught them on the Sabbath. Next, the old brew- ery, a huge dilapidated structure standing in the midst of the square, a haunt of vice for generations, was purchased and fitted up as a mission-house. This soon became the stronghold of the reformatory movement. An employment bureau was established. The pledge was circulated, drunkenness being the besetting sin of the neigh- borhood; and on each recurring Thanksgiving Day a notable dinner was given the children of the mission. By December, 1852, the society thought itself strong enough to build a new mission-house, and the old brewery was demolished to make room for it. The cor- ner-stone of the new mission was laid on the 27th of January, 1853, the address of the day being delivered by the Rev. Dr. Thomas De
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