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 49
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believed to be in league with them; the mayor was distrusted; panic spread among the citizens such as had never been known be- fore, and all the horrors of a Parisian rising seemed to threaten New York. But once more the Seventh Regiment, summoned from Bostor appeared on the scene, and several other regiments joined it. No mercy was shown to the bands of thieves and ruffians who were gath. - ered in their vile haunts to defy the law; they either fled or were shot down. Six were killed, a hundred wounded, and the riot seemed suppressed. It broke out the next day in a disturbance in Anthony and Centre streets, but the militia soon checked it. The rioters are Gamand Wood said to have been chiefly Irish, but later, on July 13 and 14, another disturbance arose among the Germans of the Seventeenth Ward, which was suppressed by the new police. From this time the metro- politan police has ruled over its extensive domain, and has proved itself usually capable of maintaining good order.
Soon after, in the midst of apparent prosperity, a commercial panic fell upon the city and country, almost wholly unlooked for. In the summer of 1857, business was active, the harvests were excellent, and every one looked forward to a long period of active progress. Credit was extended, new projects of speculation were formed, every one seemed full of employment and hope, when suddenly there fell upon the country an almost unprecedented disaster. Some of us may re- member the swiftness of the fall of our whole commercial system. It began with the failure in August of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, long supposed to be one of our wealthiest and most trustworthy insti- tutions. It was found to have been badly managed, was wholly bank- rupt, and failed, owing seven millions of dollars. Soon the Philadelphia banks suspended. A panic ran over the land. Merchants failed; per- sons of high reputation were found to be insolvent. A run upon the banks in Wall street was begun, and the eager crowds who pressed for their money in that once busy thoroughfare were in marked contrast to its usual occupants; men and women, young and old, filled the narrow street. At last the legislature authorized the banks to suspend specie payment for one year. The Massachusetts banks also suspended, and Europe and America were plunged in a common ruin. Many factories were closed, work ceased, destitution fell upon the laboring classes; unemployed workmen in crowds were every- where clamoring for bread, and New-York, as the winter came on, was full of sorrow and distress. Families who had once been wealthy were reduced to want; homes of splendor and ease were abandoned for privation and poverty ; many of the strongest business houses, long known for probity and good faith, yielded to the financial storm. The peculiarity of this commercial panic was its suddenness. In vain
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the newspapers of the city urged calmness and forbearance; all con- fidence was lost. In Philadelphia, where the banks first suspended, the wildest excitement prevailed; the streets were filled with eager crowds; people from the country flocked into the city to save, if possible, something of their lost fortunes. The New-York banks for some time longer main- tained their solvency. "The city banks," said the "Tribune," October 5, "have no thought of suspending." But now on all sides the greatest mercantile firms fell before the panic. The Bowery Bank gave way. Then, on Tuesday, October 13, the fiercest excitement ever known in Wall street began. The crowds who filled the sidewalks and pressed into the banking- houses for their money; the varying passions that filled the Elyan & Joe multitude; the news of failure after failure of the largest houses, the gloom, the despair, made this the most sorrowful day in the annals of New-York. The banks paid out nearly all their coin, and were at last obliged to suspend. Boston was equally unfortu- nate. "The towering fabric of our mercantile credit," wrote the "Tribune," "lies in ruins."
A fearful shipwreck this autumn added to the general gloom. The steamer Central America (once the George Law), with five hundred and seventy-five passengers and $1,500,000 in specie, sank in a hur- ricane on her way from Havana to New-York. The newspapers of the time are filled with the sad tales of the survivors. More than three hundred persons went down with the wreck; one hundred and seventy were saved by passing ships. It is said that the vessel was unseaworthy. Meantime, when the winter came on, the sufferings of the poor deepened as the cold advanced. Never were the charitable feelings of the people of New-York more deeply stirred, or their lib- erality more conspicuous; each one gave as he was able. Soup- kitchens were established ; work was given by the corporation to the unemployed workmen on the Central Park and other public improve- ments; but still many perished slowly of cold and starvation; others rose in riotous assemblies, threatening to break open the flour and pro-
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vision stores, and were only repressed by the vigor of the law. The har- vests had been abundant; the corn was stored in the granaries of the West; but the want of money and of confidence prevented it from being brought to New-York. The poor starved in the midst of abundance because the public credit was gone.
Thus, in various fortunes, through "sunlight and shade," our city passed on with unequal step; but it still advanced. One of the dis- appointments of the year had been the failure of the Atlantic cable. For a brief period the connection seemed ready to be formed between the Old World and the New, but now we were told that the current had ceased to flow; the cable was broken. "What caused the break of the cable ?" asks the "Tribune" on Au- gust 29; and it suggests the weakness of the coil of wire. It is not discouraged, and the promoters of the undertaking at once set themselves to renew the effort that was so nearly successful. But eight years laden with strange events were to pass before Cyrus W. Field and his asso- ciates attained their end. As the suffer- ings of the community deepened, religious impulses became powerful : the Fulton street prayer-meeting in the North Dutch Church began its useful career; crowds filled the lecture-room, and a general religious interest spread over the city. Various changes had meanwhile taken place in different parts of the town. Columbia College was removed to Forty-ninth street and Madison Avenue, and its pleasant grounds in College Place were sold for business purposes. The public cemetery, or Potter's Field, was taken to Ward's Island; its site was given by the city to the State Woman's Hospital. The Broad- way Tabernacle, long known as the scene of religious anniversaries and various public meetings, the most convenient hall in the city, was now sold, and its congregation removed soon after to their new build- ing on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Thirty-fourth street. In 1857 was laid the corner-stone of the Roman Catholic cathedral on Fifth Avenue, with appropriate ceremonies, by Archbishop Hughes. All these changes show the gradual advance of the business wants of the city, and the activity of its trade. Fine stores were built on the site of Columbia College; the price of land along Broadway and in its neighborhood became excessive; luxury and extravagance marked the new mercantile buildings, and the plainer habits of our ancestors, who often lived over their stores, were laid aside forever. Slowly the
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city and the country began to recover from their alarm and depression, and soon again prosperity returned to New-York. It is quite remark- able how swiftly the change was effected; yet the country still labored under many disadvantages. An intolerable currency com- posed of bank-notes of every variety in value; a system of banks whose solvency was always in doubt; a wide use of credit, and an excessive speculation, gave to the mercantile transactions of the period a general uncertainty. The money used in 1857-58 was of a kind that might well astonish a modern broker. It came often from the wildest regions of the West; it bore a large discount; it was never safe; even the bank-bills of the neighboring States were often dis- credited, and no one but an experienced hand could form a tolerable opinion as to their value. New-York was filled with uncurrent money; and the working-classes chiefly suffered because they were not able to complain. We who have a currency that is never doubt- ful can scarcely conceive of the perils of the unlucky holders of un- current bills. Besides this, the credit system prevailed in all branches of trade. Prices were made to anticipate losses, and scarcely any one paid in ready money. Few mercantile houses knew what were their real profits and losses. It was a game of chance for every merchant; he relied on the solvency of his customers. But such were the vigor and enterprise of the trading-classes that the panic soon passed over.
The New-York banks suddenly, to the surprise of the community, resumed specie payment on December 14. The Boston and New Haven banks followed their example; and so complete was the re- turn of public confidence that no one seemed to care for gold. The wild scene of excitement that had only two months before filled the city with a strange alarm was now perfectly subdued. The only trace of the recent calamity was the sale of great quantities of dry-goods at retail, at low prices, by the largest wholesale houses; and the clam- orous meetings of the unemployed workmen in Tompkins Square. They were evidently not in want of food, for when a German baker passed by with a tray filled with loaves of bread, they threw him down and pelted one another with the loaves. It was a period of crime and disorder. In one day, five or six murders and deeds of violence oc- curred; a suicide, a mutiny on shipboard, and robberies in the public streets. On one occasion, the "Dead Rabbits," as they were called, took possession of the City Hall for an hour, nearly beat to death one of their opponents in front of the mayor's office, and filled the courts of justice with their shouts and execrations. Mayor Wood was obliged to call upon the police to protect him from his friends and drive them off. It was plain to all good citizens that some change must be made in the government of the city, if its good name was to be preserved. A citizens' party was formed; great meetings were held of the op-
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ponents of Mayor Wood and his followers; the growth of crime and disorder brought out even the indifferent and the impartial. At the immense gathering at the Merchants' Exchange, November 20, we read the names of Havemeyer, Sturges, Barker, Field, Hunt, Lee, and a long list of persons of all parties. The city election came on De- cember 1, and at its close Daniel F. Tiemann, "a worthy man," was found to have a majority of the votes. It was thought an enormous number when above ninety thousand votes in all were polled; now, New-York city has more than three hundred thousand voters. Mayor Wood, it was asserted, had enlarged his constituency by unfair prac- tices. He passed from office, soon to return to it again in the year of civil convulsion. At this time, England and France were swept by a commercial panic; the Bank of England's charter was suspended; great firms and banks failed in both countries; the working-classes suffered, and the sad cry of the unemployed was heard in many lands.
The year 1858 began with a rapid revival of the various interests of the city. One of its most pleasing events was the enlargement of the Astor Library, an institution founded by John Jacob Astor, at the suggestion of Washington Irving and other literary men, and which had already proved its usefulness. Scholars, scientific men, and me- chanics had begun to profit by its extensive collections. It was now nearly doubled in size, and made more accessible to the student. The liberality of William B. Astor enabled the trustees to complete the earlier plan of the building. It has since been still further enlarged. But New-York still needs a library equal in size and excellence to those of the European capitals, and its students are too often driven into exile to London or Berlin to complete their researches. We want the best means of acquiring knowledge. Another excellent institution for the encouragement of art New-York owed at this time to Peter Cooper. His liberal gift and prudent management founded the Cooper Institute, a school of art and science. Here free lectures were given, classes formed for young men and women to study, with good models and careful instruction. Cooper Institute has enabled many to earn a living by their talents, who, but for its free tuition, must have lingered in poverty. Its plain brownstone building, at the cor- ner of Eighth street and Fourth Avenue, has long been a noted seat of intelligence; its free library and reading-room have benefited thou- sands. New-York, in the winter of 1858, was full of intellectual en- tertainments. At the New-York Historical Society great crowds filled the lecture-room when Dr. Francis L. Hawks, Rembrandt Peale, and George W. Curtis read their addresses; even the aisles were thronged, and Dr. Hawks was induced to recite his paper on Washington's pe- riod a second time to an equally large and delighted audience. Ed-
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ward Everett, the most refined of orators, gave his address on "Char- ity," at the request of many of the noted men and women of the city, the names of Mrs. Bancroft and Mrs. King, Washington Irving, and Charles King leading the list of those who invited him; and it marks the good taste of our citizens that his audiences were always large, and never weary of listening. Mrs. Fanny Kemble read " Romeo and Juliet" and other plays to large assemblies at Dodworth's Rooms on Broadway, where she was re- ceived with intense interest and applause. At Wallack's Theater the "Vicar of Wake- field" was performed, and gen- 0 erally the plays of the time were not without literary merit. At the Central Park large numbers of workmen were employed; the winter was mild, and they did good work. Mr. Olmsted instituted among them a sick-fund so- ciety that was generally pop- ular, nearly every workman giving ten cents weekly to the cause. The religious interest continued to spread from the city to the country. The papers were filled with the accounts of meetings, revivals, and crowded churches,-all de- WASHINGTON CHAIR. 1 nominations joining in the general progress. A very unfortunate in- cident was the withdrawal of the Collins Line of steamers from the Liverpool trade, and the complete success of their rival, the Cunard Line. Two of the Collins steamers had been lost; the others proved unprofitable. One of the traits of the mild winter was the great number of charitable entertainments, which were attended by many prominent people, Mayor Tiemann always conspicuous among them. He was also employed in many less pleasing duties. It was found that peculation and public robbery had invaded nearly all the civic depart- ments; and we fear the "good old times" were not quite as honest as our own. Crime and public robbery still flourished vigorously in the city.
1 Oak chair made from the timbers of "the first presidential mansion" in Franklin Square, a house erected in 1770 by the rich Quaker merchant Wal- ter Franklin. Washington, who was sworn into office April 30, 1789, selected this house for his res-
idence, and was much complained of for "going so far out of town." The chair was made for Benjamin R. . Winthrop, and by him presented to the New-York Historical Society, November 3, 1857.
EDITOR.
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A cloud in the West still hung over the political future of New- York, but no one seemed to think it of any real importance. The dis- pute of the rival factions in Kansas had already produced a destruc- tion of the old political parties, and a more dangerous, because more radical, difference in the new. The question was whether the vast territory extending from the Mississippi to the Pacific should be occu- pied by slaves and their masters, or whether it should be thrown open freely to the farmers of Europe and America. But slavery had al- ready reduced the eastern side of the continent to poverty and decay. Virginia was sunk into ruin; her sister States were fast following her; when, therefore, the effort was made to carry slavery into Kansas, every reasonable man saw that the success of the movement would be fatal to the welfare of the country and of mankind. The Republican party arose and swallowed up all the other parties in opposition : its aim was to secure the whole West to free labor. In the Democratic party, both in the South and North, there were many who were equally op- posed to the spread of slavery. It would be impossible here to review the various accounts of the history of the settlement of Kansas. We may merely notice that the violent political agitation that had arisen in the West was now fully reflected in the politics of New-York. Many of the leading citizens were engaged to support the Free-soil party; large meetings were held, at which earnest and vigorous speeches were made, and resolutions adopted; slavery, always odious and repulsive to the principles of democracy, was painted in severe colors; the threats of the violent politicians in the South were looked upon as idle and unmeaning, and no one in New-York in 1858 looked forward to civil war. Its people, as a new prosperity dawned upon them, were engaged in other thoughts. To them the wild deeds of the border ruffians seemed only the natural results of an uncultivated and lawless society; they fancied that the cloud would soon pass away. Business was active; the city filled with new hope. The mer- cantile class cared little for the strife of politics and the rage of fac- tions; yet it is worthy of notice that many of the most prominent merchants of New-York were the strongest opponents of slavery, and made great sacrifices, and gave largely in support of freedom and an entirely free West.
A contemporary gives an interesting picture of the Broadway of 1858. Once the seat of pleasant residences, shaded with trees and famous for its drives and walks, it was now become a street of shops, offices, hotels, and theaters. The business houses in the retail trade reached far up-town; the finer dwelling-houses were above Fourteenth street and around Union and Madison squares. "Broadway in 1858," says the "Crayon" of that year, "has become not unlike the Strand in London and a Paris boulevard. Early in the morning the street be-
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gins to fill with carts and vehicles bringing supplies from the country to the market. From all the by-streets which connect Broadway with the river crowds of men, women, and wagons and horses emerge from the Brooklyn, Hoboken, Williamsburgh, Staten Island, and New Jersey ferries. It is still very early in the morning; the shops are still closed; only here and there an omnibus makes its reluctant appearance, its driver and horses not having yet shaken off the sloth of the night. There are also some carriages stopping before the Astor House, St. Nicholas, Metropolitan and other hotels, with a load of travelers just coming in from the east, west, north, or from European and California steamers. At this early hour Broadway looks thoroughly respectable, like a big ball-room." The writer then goes on to paint its various changes : "Soon after a crowd of clerks and business men rush down the famous thorough- fare. Then comes later the stream of fair women PIERREPONT ARMS. shoppers from the upper part of the town, filling the sidewalks; next, in the afternoon, the tide of business men rushes back along the same thoroughfare; and in the evening the street is again crowded with persons going to theaters and the various amusements of the night." In the later hours the street was no longer "respectable": it was filled with disreputable and noisy revelers; now the police and watchmen were on the alert, and the noise of wild songs and gross revelry dis- turbed the peace of Broadway. Later it sank into dull silence as the chimes of Trinity told the early hours of the morning. Such was our favorite Broadway thirty-five years ago. How different now! The theaters are gone; the retail shops are moved up-town; a stately range of office buildings and wholesale stores lines the street, and but a few of the old hotels still linger on their early sites. In the day no market-carts, no omnibuses, no crowds of fair women, no gallant pedestrians fill Broadway; at night no cries of revelry. It is silent and abandoned after eight o'clock. One is almost startled by its soli- tude. Broadway has become the business center of the continent- perhaps of the world.
As the summer came on a new excitement passed over the city and the country, but seemed chiefly to extend over the North. The labors of Cyrus W. Field and his associates had apparently ended in perfect success. The Atlantic cable fixed the attention of the world. In June it had broken, and disappointment and doubt seemed to follow it. Eminent engineers declared the plan impracticable; no current of electricity, they said, could be carried to so long a distance; the iron and the copper were certain to produce corrosion at the bed of the sea. But again in July the Niagara and the Agamemnon met in mid- VOL. III .- 30.
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ocean, joined their wires, and set sail over the uncertain waves; and again news came to New-York that the cable was broken. Even the most ardent in favor of the project were now filled with doubt. "Sup- pose," said the "Tribune," July 14, "the attempted laying of the At- lantic cable should prove a failure, is there not a land route?" and the London "Times" advocated one. In the midst of these fears and dis- appointments, on August 6 came a despatch from Mr. Field that filled the country with wonder and strange joy. The ships had again met, had sailed over the ocean, and the cable was already in use. "The electric signals," said the ardent projector, August 5, 1858, "sent and received through the whole cable are perfect." To President Buchanan he said, "Queen Vic- toria will send you a message." It is quite im- yours i Fuld. possible for us to conceive of the enthusiastic joy of the moment - we who have been so long familiar with the cables and telegraphs that encircle the globe. It was an electric shock that seemed to promise peace and good will to man. From cities and towns, from the wild West and the far East, from Europe and the Islands, came congratula- tions and expressions of sincere joy that the New World and the Old could now speak to each other, though far away; a new era had come; it was the finest thing done for America since its discovery. Salutes of a hundred guns were fired; towns and cities were illumi- nated; Rochester, Syracuse, Newport, and Boston replied to New-York; Newark also was illuminated. But the people of our city resolved to wait until the queen's message arrived before giving its grand cele- bration of the wonderful event. In the mean time, Mr. Field was the hero of the hour, and the telegraph drove out all other thoughts. Kansas and its trials, and the political dangers of the moment, were forgotten. The City Hall was illuminated, and fireworks set off in the park. A banquet was given to Mr. Field; a Te Deum was sung in Trinity Church; a salute of a hundred guns was fired; and Mr. Field spoke with rare eloquence. Still the message from the queen was mys- teriously delayed, and it was not until August 17 that a part of it arrived. "Her Majesty," it said, "desires to congratulate the President on the successful completion of this great international work, in which the Queen has taken the deepest interest." The president replied in suitable terms; and the success of the great undertaking seemed assured. Then New-York prepared to give one of those great celebra- tions for which it has always shown a hereditary fondness - borrowed, perhaps, from its Flemish and Dutch ancestors of Ghent, Bruges, and Amsterdam. It could not hang its streets with cloth of gold, or rival
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the splendors of a Flemish cortège, but it had often shone with ban- ners, crowds, processions, and rare illuminations. In 1788, at the adop- tion of the constitution; in 1789, at the reception of Washington; in 1815, at the news of peace; in 1825, when the Erie Canal had joined the ocean and the lakes-New-York had given up its streets to rejoi- cing crowds of spectators and countless visitors. But, according to a contemporary, this last was "the grandest celebration ever seen in the city of New-York." The bells rang, cannon were fired, the Crystal Palace was crowded; splendid fireworks and an illumination followed in the evening; the vessels in the harbor were covered with flags; speeches, addresses of congratulation, a torch-light procession, and fifty or a hundred thousand strangers from across the rivers made up the unprecedented display. One may compare the number of visitors in 1858 with the millions who came in recently to assist at the Columbus celebration. All over the country the rejoicings continued. Nashville answered to Syracuse, Chicago to Boston. The Richmond papers alone, probably occupied with deeper thoughts, scoffed at the excite- ment of the North and West. It is painful to remember how soon the revulsion came. For many days the people waited to hear the news from abroad; within three weeks, they were assured, the cable would be open to the public. But days and weeks passed on, and the promise was not fulfilled. The queen's message was completed, the president's given in full; but a strange rumor spread that they had not been carried by the cable. The telegraph was silent. On September 25 some weak movements were felt; then the current failed. De Sauty telegraphed to Peter Cooper, September 28, from Trinity Bay: "There were no sig- nals from Valentia to-day"; and soon it was known that the cable was broken, and lay, a costly and apparently useless wire, on the bed of the sea. It had cost £365,000 sterling,-about $1,800,000,-and was a complete loss to its projectors. All the opponents of the plan, all who favored other routes, now joined in declaring it hopeless; the failure of the cable laid in the Red Sea, about the same time, was a new proof, they thought, of the impossibility of using a wire two thousand miles long. A writer in Blackwood's magazine denied the existence of the telegraphic plateau, and asserted that the bed of the ocean was no more level than the surface of England and Wales. It was proposed to carry a cable from the Orkneys to Iceland, to Greenland, and thence to Labrador. Sir Leopold Mcclintock lent his approval to the plan. But, in the mean time, Messrs. Field, Cooper, and their English and American associates never faltered in resolution, and only awaited a favorable time for once more testing the telegraphic plateau.
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