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 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
.
0
The Hon, He the Mayor,
Recorder, aldermen & Community of the City of New York.
Gentlemen,
receive your address; and the freedom of the City with which you have been pleased to preventione In a golden box with the sensibility and gratitude which such distinguen ad Konors have a claimte. _ The flattering expression of beth, stamps value on the act, a call for shepper Lasquage than Iam masterofto con very my sense of the obligation in ade quate terms .-
To have has the good for: time amidst the vygestures ofa long and arduous contest " never " to haveknown a momentalex! " did ner pofiets the confidence and " esteem of my Country "_ and that my conduct should have met the af- pretation, and obtained the affectionate Depand of the State of new York(where difficulties avere numerous +comple exter may be aforbes more to the efec of divine wisdom, which had dishes led the minds of the people , harrafse ox aktides, to make allowance for the embarsafements of my situatica, whier with fortitude & patience they bothin ed the loss of their Capital and a valu able part of the territory - and to the
.
24
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
liberal sentiments, and greatexer ties of her virtuous Citizens , Man to any ment of mine .- The reflection of these things now, after the many hours of arxiom Imlicitude which all of us have has, is as pleasing as our embarrafoment at the moment we encountered them ware distresscap- and must console as for fast sufferings & perplexities. I pray that Heaven may be:
when its choicesh blessing, on your City - That the devastation of war, in which you found it may loon he without a trace_ That a wehrepula tod & beneficial Commerce may on when your Citizensand that your hate ( at present the seat of the Empire) may set such examples of wisdom de liberality , as that have a tendency to themthen & que ferme hercy to the Union at home - and are dit & respectability to it abroad. - The accomplishment whereofisa Remaining wich, & the primary of: fect of all my desires
Graphington
dreds of citizens had their houses burned down while the British army lay in New York? Are not multitudes obliged to take up money upon interest to build a little hut or else pay rent superior to their earnings ? Is there not a general complaint of the unhappy situa- tion of our merchants, of the distress attending our commerce, and
25
NEW-YORK CITY UNDER AMERICAN CONTROL
of the balance of trade being heavily against us - heavily in impor- tations not only of necessaries, but also of articles of luxury, and scarce anything to make a remittance with? And is a play-house proper for a city in such a situation? Are our taxes paid up? Are not the wheels of government clogged for want of money? Have you a single ship of war to guard your coasts or even defend your city from the in- sults of one armed vessel?" And in all this there is much to read between the lines. The theater, nevertheless, was reestablished. Of SLEIGH OF 1788. course there were the usual jugglers, mountebanks, waxworks, and harlequin farces about town to amuse shilling sight-seers.
As to recreations and resorts, nothing irresistibly inviting offered. The heats of summer found most New-Yorkers at home; but there were pleasant excursions on the island. A small party could ride out to Murray Hill in a hired carriage, and be gone half a day, for four- teen shillings; two shillings more if they kept on to Gracie's Point, opposite Hell Gate. Sixteen shillings to go up the west side to Apthorpe's, at Ninety-second street, lately Elm Park. From that point one could walk a mile beyond, along the old Bloomingdale road, and find himself on "Harlem Heights battle-field," about One Hun- dred and Fifteenth to One Hundred and Twentieth street, just west of present Morningside Park. The fine orchard through which Knowlton's rangers, and Leitch's Virginians, and other troops under Greene, Clinton, and Putnam, chased the choicest of the redcoats on September 16, 1776, was still standing; so also was Jones's stone house at One Hundred and Seventh street, near Riverside drive, where the British Adjutant-General Kendall tells us the fighting first began, and near where we know it ended. To go to Harlem, a day's excursion, would cost thirty-eight shillings; to Kingsbridge, forty. As to Long Branch and Saratoga, their attractions were known and were beginning to draw. In 1789, about a dozen respectable persons, including two or three New-Yorkers, were stopping at a wretched tavern at Saratoga. "There is no convenience for bathing," writes Elkanah Watson, the traveler, "except an open log hut, with a large trough, similar to those in use for feeding swine, which receives the water from the spring. Into this you roll from off a bench." About the same time an advertisement appeared in one of the New-York papers, offering an elegant farm for sale "at the place called Long Branch, near Shrewsbury, in Monmouth County, in the State of New Jersey." It was described as most charmingly situated for a gentle- man's country-seat, or for a house of entertainment for "the great concourse of people that every year fly to this sweet spot from the
26
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
fatigues of business and the want of health to inhale pure air and taste true delight."
In its exterior appearance the city steadily improved upon the con- dition in which the British left it in 1783. The burned districts, the ruined churches and public buildings, the dilapidated residences, stores, and docks, and the wretched streets, were for months a con- stant eye-sore. By 1786 much had been done in the way of clearing up, repairing, and building; much more by 1789. The greater portion. of the town still lay east of Broadway and stretched out to Grand street. As the houses were not very high, and garden fronts and open spaces inter- vened, Broadway commanded a delightful prospect of the Hudson. There were as yet few stately residences on it. "In this street," says Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, in 1787, "the gentry ride every morning and afternoon in their carriages, which are generally very grand and are principally coaches, chariots, and phaetons. The common people ride in open Noah Webster. chairs." Wall street was much more "elegant." William was the dry-goods street. Pearl street, then Queen, surpassed any in the city, being wide, and more than a mile and a half long. "The build- ings are grand, from four to six stories high, and the sides of the street within the posts are laid principally with free-stone sufficiently wide for three persons to walk abreast." Noah Webster tells us that in 1786 not many houses remained "built after the old Dutch style." The new houses going up were frame or brick; or, as the insurance statements represent, most of them were "framed buildings, with brick or stone fronts and the sides filled in with brick." Water privileges were limited. "Most of the people," says Webster, "are supplied every day with fresh water conveyed to their doors in casks from a pump near the head of Queen street, which receives it from a pond almost a mile from the city." This pond was the "Collect," long since filled in, and on the site of which now stands the Tombs.
Public buildings were few. The City Hall stood on the northeast corner of Wall and Nassau streets, having been erected in 1700. When Congress assembled in New-York in 1785, the city authorities
27
NEW-YORK CITY UNDER AMERICAN CONTROL
gave up the use of the greater part of it to that body. The main hall, or "Congress chamber," was at the east end of the second floor. On an elevated platform on the southern side stood the president's chair, lined with red damask silk, and over it a curious canopy fringed with silk, with damask curtains falling to the floor and gathered with silken cords. The chairs for the members were mahogany, richly carved, and trimmed with red morocco leather. In front of each chair · stood "a small bureau table." The walls were hung with the portraits of Washington and the king and queen of France. The mayor's office was on the first floor ; the common-council chamber at the west end of the second floor. Upon the adoption of the federal constitution by the several States, or in the fall of 1788, the "city fathers " resolved to appropriate the entire building to the use of the new government, and Major L'Enfant, a French engineer, was intrusted with the work of remodeling it. Thereafter it was known as the "New Federal Hall," and passed criticism as the most imposing structure in the country. It cost about $65,000. At the other end of the city, or on the common, stood the jail, now the Hall of Registry ; the almshouse, on the site of the present court-house; and west of it, on Broadway, the bridewell, or main prison for criminals. Near the jail had been erected, apparently in 1784, a gallows tastily inclosed in a kiosk-like structure, which a stranger took to be a summer-house. Six persons could be executed in it at a time without exposure to the public gaze. In 1785 the death sentence was passed on a negro horse-thief, a noted burglar, and a city watchman found guilty of robbery while on duty at night. Mentioning the first execution, without giving details, the editor of the "Packet" observed that the criminal, in his taking off, "had relieved many worthy inhabitants from unremitted apprehen- sions of occult danger."
Inns, taverns, coffee-houses, were scattered about the city, some of them associated with stirring local events, as the headquarters of the "Sons of Liberty " and political societies. The City Tavern, Fraunces' or Francis' Tavern, Cape's, the Bull's Head, Luggett's and Day's, near Harlem, were all well patronized. At Fraunces', at Pearl and Broad streets, occurred the parting scene between Washington and his offi- cers, as he was leaving New-York on December 4, 1783, to surrender his commission to Congress at Annapolis. Since Evacuation Day he had been the guest of Chancellor Livingston. One of his favorite officers, Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, as already cited in the preced- ing volume, describes the farewell moment in a feeling manner.
The first American post-office in the city opened November 28, 1783, at No. 38 Smith street, in the house formerly occupied by Judge Horsmanden. William Bedlow was postmaster, being a deputy under Postmaster-General Ebenezer Hazard, then at Philadelphia.
·
28
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
The first American newspapers were the New-York "Weekly Journal," published by John Holt, who returned with his paper to the city in the fall of 1783, and was succeeded by Thomas Greenleaf; the semi- weekly "Packet," published by Thomas Loudon, January, 1784; the "Daily Advertiser," by Francis Childs, begun in the spring of 1785. In January, 1788, Noah Webster established his monthly " American Magazine," devoted to essays on all subjects, "particularly such as relate to this country."
From fires, crime, and the negligence of officials the city was only passably protected. There were some fourteen or fifteen old-style fire-engines, each pumped by about a dozen men, while citizens with buckets supplied the water from wells. . Watchmen patrolled the streets at night, but robberies and knock-downs were not uncommon, and, in the absence also of good lamps, there was not much passing at late hours. The ordinary city force was inadequate to cope with a mob, as appeared in the case of the "Doctors' Riot," which suddenly broke out on April 13, 1788, when the militia and citizens alone could restore quiet. The mob had been excited to violence by a boy's re- port that he had seen physicians or medical students dissecting dead bodies in the hospital, a practice which stirred up a general revulsion. Several persons were killed or wounded during the riot, among the latter John Jay, who with others endeavored to quell the disturbance.
Our earliest local political disputes in the American period were the immediate outgrowth of the war. It was a case where feelings and sensibilities were keenly touched, and as time sooner or later softens human nature in this regard, the issue did not long continue. Plainly stated, it was a question whether the Tories who remained in the city had any rights the Whigs were bound to respect. Chancellor Living- ston clearly defined the parties as they stood in January, 1784. First, the Tories themselves, who "still hope for power under the idea that the remembrance of the past should be lost, though they daily keep it up by their avowed attachment to Great Britain." Second, the violent Whigs, who were for "expelling all Tories from the State, in hopes by that means to preserve the power in their own hands." Third, those who wish "to suppress all violences, to soften the rigour of the laws against the loyalists, and not to banish them from that social inter- course which may, by degrees, obliterate the remembrance of past misdeeds; but who, at the same time, are not willing to shock the feelings of the virtuous citizens that have at every expense and hazard fulfilled their duty " to the country in the recent struggle. The more determined Whigs organized a "Whig Society," whose object was to urge the removal of certain influential, offensive Tories from the State. The society's president was Lewis Morris, and its secretary, John Pintard. Outspoken views, public meetings, and petitions to the
29
1
NEW-YORK CITY UNDER AMERICAN CONTROL
legislature followed, but the status of the Tories was not eventually disturbed. The measure which affected them most seriously was the trespass act, by which all Whigs who had been obliged to fly from their homes in consequence of the enemy's invasion could bring an action of trespass against those who may have entered and occupied their houses under the enemy's protection. Many Tories had done
At a very numerous and respectable Meeting, held at Corre's Hotel, on Monday Evening the 23d April,
JOSEPH HALLETT, Efq. Chairman,
R ESOLVED, unanimoully, That this meeting do concur in the following nomi- nation of GOVERNOR, LIEUT GOV. SENATORS for the fouthern dif- trift, and ASSEMBLY.MEN, for the city and county of New-York, to be fup- ported at the enfuing election.
GEORGE CLINTON, Elq. Gov. PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT, Efq, Lieut. Gov. S E N A T 0 R S.
EZRA L'HOMMEDIEU, PAUL MICHEAU, JOHN SCHENCK. ASSEMBLY - M E N.
JOHN WATTS, WILLIAM DENNING,
WILLIAM W. GILBERT, MELANCTON SMITH,
WILLIAM S. LIVINGSTON, SAMUEL OSGOOD,
MORGAN LEWIS.
By Order of the Meeting, JOSEPH HALLETT, Chairman.
FROM A CONTEMPORARY BROADSIDE.
this, and were held to be liable. In one case, however, that of Eliza- beth Rutgers against Joshua Waddington, a wealthy Tory, a decision was rendered in favor of the latter in the mayor's court, on the gen- eral ground that the State act was in violation of the provisions of the treaty of peace, under which Tories were protected in property rights. This caused great excitement, especially as Waddington's counsel was none other than Alexander Hamilton, who, as a distin- guished officer in the continental army, could be supposed to have none but the most pronounced Whig sympathies. But with Hamilton the war was over, and he discountenanced harsh measures toward
30
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
those who would in time assimilate with and be lost in the mass of the people. This position he maintained in some able articles contributed by him to the press, over the signature of "Phocion," and to which Isaac Ledyard replied over the signature of "Mentor." Hamilton's broad, statesmanlike views left their impression, though his professional course excited the anger of his opponents. So bitter were the feelings of some of the more violent among them, that they secretly determined to challenge him one by one to a duel until he fell. When Ledyard heard of this, he immediately prevented the exe- cution of the scheme. This extreme hostility to the Tories died out in the course of a year or two, and soon disappeared in the greater question of the national constitution which was beginning to engage public attention.
State issues or politics were yet to become prominent. The war governor, Clinton, had held office for eight years, and opposition in- terests were bound to show their strength in time. The first attempt was quietly made in 1785, when General Schuyler sounded John Jay as to his willingness to run against Clinton for the governorship at the next election. The general charged that Clinton was striving to maintain his popularity "at the expense of good government," and that reform demanded a change in the office. "But who," he asks, "is to be the person ? It is agreed that none have a chance of suc- ceeding but you, the chancellor or myself. The second, on account of the prejudices against his family name, it is believed, would fail. . .. I am so little known in the southern part of the State that I should fail there." Jay was accordingly the only available candidate, and Schuyler believed he would secure the election by "a great majority." But Jay declined. That he was then the most distinguished citizen in New-York would have been conceded. The many services he had rendered the State as a member of conventions and committees; in the wider sphere of the Continental Congress, of which he was once president; his diplomatic labors abroad as minister to Spain and as one of the commissioners to conclude the treaty of peace in 1783; his present position as the secretary for foreign affairs of Congress ;- all combined to put the State under a special obligation to him as a public character. At this juncture, however, he stood aloof from local or State controversies, and thereby rendered another service in not precipitat- ing a party issue which would have worked unfavorably upon the constitutional problem of the near future. "If the circumstances of the State were pressing," he replied to Schuyler, "if real disgust and discontent had spread through the country, if a change had in the general opinion become not only advisable but necessary, and the good expected from that change depended on me, then my present objections would immediately yield." He was not impressed with the
.
31
NEW-YORK CITY UNDER AMERICAN CONTROL
necessity in the case, and furthermore felt that it was his duty to con- tinue in the service of Congress at that time. At a later date the gov- ernorship will be his.
In the larger field of national politics or of national reorganization, the city played a conspicuous part and exercised a decisive influence. It will ever be to her honor that in the emergency through which our federal constitution passed at its adoption, New-York kept the State true to its best interests by powerfully assisting in bringing its unwilling con- vention to ratify that instrument and insure the formation of our "more per- fect" Union.
The issue in New-York, at its cul- mination in 1788, took a sectional turn. The city and its environs favored con- centration of authority in a strong na- tional government; the State at large preferred the Confederation, with such amendments or revision as immediate exigencies demanded. In the contest for the new constitution as finally pre- sented, the city triumphed by convert- ing the State; she triumphed through the wise and well-directed action of her merchants, through the superior ability, Geo: Clinton O persistence, and unremitting zeal of her delegates, and through the moral sup- port of both on the part of a large ma- jority of her citizens. One of the toasts offered at the first public dinner in the city after the war-that given by Governor Clinton on Evacuation Day-seemed to serve as the key-note of local sentiment through the following years : "May a close Union of the States guard the temple they have erected to Liberty."
The history of the national movement in this State may be traced to the action of the legislature on July 21, 1782, when, in response to a resolution of Congress of May 22 preceding, it gave expression to certain decided views and convictions on "the state of the nation." It resolved that the general situation respecting foreign and financial matters was "in a peculiar manner" critical, threatening the subver- sion of public credit and exposing the common cause to "a precarious issue." It resolved further that "the radical source of most of our embarrassments is the want of sufficient power in Congress to effec- tuate that ready and perfect cooperation of the different States, on which their immediate safety and future happiness depend "; and it
32
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
proposed to Congress "to recommend, and to each State to adopt the measure of assembling a general convention of the States, specially authorized to revise and amend the Confederation, reserving a right to the respective legislatures to ratify their determinations." Con- gress postponed action upon this recommendation, which operated unfortunately in New-York; for during the next five years delega- tions and opinions underwent a change throughout the State, and it was only by the most strenuous efforts that it was kept true to its first professions. Those were the gloomy, distracting years after the war, when the weakness of the Confederation made it impossible to regulate trade and commerce, and its defects opened up the question of the reconstruction of the Union under cir- cumstances which made it difficult to discuss it dispassionately. The situa- tion was not an unnatural one. It was a transitional period. The States had been living together for seven years on a war basis; peace, with its new require- ments, now called for a readjustment of the supports, and this could not be done without a disturbing effort. In New- York a variety of influences combined COLONEL LAMB'S MANSION. to complicate the difficulties in the case. A strong State pride developed as the question of surrendering further powers to the Union was agitated; jealousy and fear of such a Union increased; persons and parties in power held tenaciously to the sov- ereignty which they were enjoying in a practically independent State; and the State's legislation looked toward autonomy. All this was more or less true of every State. In New-York it was marked. Not that any such thing as a disunion sentiment found expression; but, in the absence of a binding national tie, local predilections governed.
For this state of feeling the governor, George Clinton, and his large body of friends and supporters were mainly responsible. The gov- ernor himself was a strong character. A partizan in one sense, he was eminently public-spirited in another. He was loyal to the Union and the Confederation, but his hopes and his pride centered on his State. To make that great and prosperous was his first ambition; and his policy and wishes were reflected in the proceedings of the State legislature. By the year 1788 New-York was exercising all but national sovereignty. She had a well-organized militia; she ap- pointed boundary commissions; she issued a paper currency ; she levied duties; she maintained custom-houses. Under the act of No- vember 18, 1784, one custom-house was established at the port of New-
33
NEW-YORK CITY UNDER AMERICAN CONTROL
York and another at Sag Harbor, on Long Island. Collectors, surveyors, gaugers, weighers, and tide-waiters were appointed. The first collector for New-York was Colonel John Lamb, who com- manded the first regiment of continental artillery during the war; and the surveyor was Colonel John Lasher, of one of the early city regiments of levies. Under the impost act of the same. date, many articles were made dutiable. Sixpence duty was levied on every gallon of Madeira wine brought into the State, and threepence on other wines; twopence on every gallon of rum, brandy, or other spirits, if imported in vessels owned by citizens of any of the United States, but a double duty for vessels with British registers. There were duties on carriages, chariots, sulkies, gold and silver watches, scythes, saddles, hollow ironware, women's leather or stuff shoes, starch, hair-powder, cocoa, teas, coals, bricks, wools, furs, and similar importations.
But this system had serious defects-defects that were the most sensibly felt by the commercial element throughout the country. A prosperous trade was wanting. There was no power to regulate it. Congress might propose treaties of commerce with foreign powers, but lacked ability to enforce them. No uniform system of duties could be imposed when each State was devising a tariff of its own. New- York might draw up an elaborate schedule, but this did not establish the New-York merchant's credit in London; it failed to open the West India ports to his vessels. The one remedy in the case was to confer the necessary powers upon Congress-"let Congress, and Con- gress alone, regulate foreign trade and commerce."
It is here that New-York city followed the course that reflects so creditably upon her. As between the policy which the State as such was pursuing and the policy which the general government should be empowered to pursue, she set herself in line with the latter. Her merchants and her distinguished lawyers and statesmen were the salvation of both city and State. The merchants agitated trade re- quirements. There was an abundance, indeed a surplus, of foreign goods in town during those early years from 1784 to 1787, but they were largely the importation or consignments of British merchants of ample means, who could wait for a market. The American Whig merchant, entering mercantile life anew, found himself at a disad- vantage, and he saw little relief under the existing system. The merchants in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston were in the same predicament, and all expressed themselves alike. By the spring of 1785 the situation had become all but unendurable. On March 7 a memorial was published, to be signed by residents of New-York, praying the legislature to pass the impost act of Congress and to recommend the regulation of commerce by that body. Under VOL. III .- 3.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.