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 7
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Yet it is to be remembered that while the citizens of New-York were thus celebrating the forming of the nation, their own State was not yet a part thereof; it was three days after this ere they knew that the constitution had been adopted at Poughkeepsie. An elabor- ate ode published at the time, in commemoration of the services and in recognition of the personal greatness of Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton, expressed the prevailing sentiment and hopes of
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NEW-YORK CITY UNDER AMERICAN CONTROL
the people of New-York. To Hamilton, it addressed itself with these lines :
And thou, Our City's boast, to whom so much we owe,
In whom, the last and youngest of the three, No common share of excellence we see, In every grateful heart thou hast a place, Nor time nor circumstance can e'er erase !
All hail, ye champions in your country's Cause! Soon shall that country ring with your applause.
Discord shall cease and perfect Union reign, And all confess that sweetly powerful chain, The Fed'ral system, which at once unites The Thirteen States and all the people's rights.
Under this inspiration, with its union feeling deepened by the course of events, the city now entered, in the year 1789, into the constitutional period of its history-the period of nationality and of commercial prosperity.
DUTCH MEDALS ON THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
The medals of which representations appear on this and the next page are preserved in the Royal Museum at The Hague, Holland. By reason of their interest to the citizens of the United States, our Minister Plenipotentiary there, Samuel R. Thayer, Esq., re- quested and was courteously granted permission to have copies of each medal struck off in zinc. These he sent to the Department of State at Washington, D. C., accom- panied with a despatch to Secretary Blaine, giving an historical and descriptive ac- count of each medal, and asking the privilege of presenting one set to the department, and one to each of several historical societies of the country. During his recent visit to the United States, Mr. Thayer presented the editor of this work with a set of the
medals. The description of them, as cited from the despatch to the State Department, is as follows:
I. "The first medal in the series referred to was designed to commemorate the recognition of MDOC LALKH American Independence by the SOGE DE BURGER SOCIETEIT Province of Friesland on the 26th of February, 1782, a description of which is as follows: On the obverse side is a male figure personating a Frisian in ancient costume, joining right hands with an American, represented by a maiden in aboriginal dress, standing on a scepter with her left hand resting on a shield bearing the inscription [in Dutch]: 'The United States of North America'; while with his left hand the Frisian signals his rejection of an olive branch offered by a Briton, represented by a maiden accompanied by a tiger, the left hand of the maiden resting on a shield having the inscription: 'Great Britain.' On the reverse side is the figure of an arm projecting from the clouds holding the coat of arms of the
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
province of Friesland, under which is the inscription [in Dutch]: 'To the States of Friesland in grateful recognition of the Acts of the Assembly, in February and April, 1782, by the Citizens' Club of Leeuwarden. Liberty and Zeal.'" II. "The second medal in the series was struck off by order of the States General in commemoration of its recognition of the Indepen- dence of the United States. On the obverse side of the medal will be found the United PULSA States and the Netherlands, LIBERA SOROR represented by two maidens equipped for war, with right SOLEMNI DEER AG SUB GALLIA AUSPICIIS hands joined over a burning altar. The Dutch maiden is placing an emblem of freedom on the head of the American, whose right foot, at- tached to a broken chain, rests on England, represented by a tiger. In the field of the medal are the words: 'Libera Soror. Solemni Decr. Agn. 19 Apr. MDCCLXXXII.' On the reverse side is the figure of a unicorn lying prostrate before a steep rock against which he has broken his horn; over the figure are the words: 'Tyrannis virtute repulsa,' and underneath the same the words: 'Sub Gallis auspiciis."" III. "The third medal in the series was made to commemorate the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation entered into between the United States and the Netherlands the 7th of October, 1782. On its obverse side stands in relief a monumental needle bearing the Amsterdam Coat of Arms, FORD upon which a wreath is being placed by a figure representing Mercury ; underneath the coat of arms is a parchment bearing the inscription : 'Pro. Dro. Mvs.' France, symbolized by a crowing cock, stands beside the needle AFO ATY oc pointing with a conjurer's wand SACRVA SSt to a horn of plenty and an an- chor. Over all are the words: 'Justitiam et non temnere divos.' On the reverse side is an image of Fame riding on a cloud and carrying the arms of the Netherlands and the United States, surmounted by a naval crown; the figures are covered by the fol- lowing words: 'Faustissimo foedere junctae Die VII. Octob MDCCLXXXII.'"
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CHAPTER II
NEW-YORK THE FEDERAL CAPITAL, AND WASHINGTON'S FIRST TERM 1789-1793
HE fourth day of March, 1789,-the day set for the assem- bling of the first Congress,-found the city of New-York with about thirty thousand inhabitants. It was alive to the honor and advantages of being the first national cap- ital, but had not been given sufficient notice of the approaching dig- nity to make itself at once perfectly presentable for the inauguration. At this distance of time there is, for the historic imagination, a certain picturesqueness in the contrast between the splendor of the presiden- tial pageant and the antiquarian frame in which it was set. The streets, poorly paved and sparsely lighted; the uncleanly wharves; the freedom of the city enjoyed by pigs and dogs; the ragged rows of wooden or brick-faced houses; the blackened ruins lingering from the great fire of 1778; dilapidated Fort George, used for stables, and its filthy earthwork, the Battery: these and other dismal features suddenly became conscious of themselves on the eve of the inaugura- tion of the republic. A sardonic bit of gaiety was visible in the Chinese pagoda enshrining the gallows, which stood between the jail and the almshouse, with stocks and whipping-post adjacent, in a beautiful grove, where now stands the City Hall. It was to be a good many years before the laws could become conscious of their barbarism. John Shelvey, the public whipper, had enough lashing to do for his $87.50 per annum; ten different offenses were punished with death; the slave-market was active. There were more than two thousand slaves in the city. "The sewerage system of the City," says Mr. Thomas E. V. Smith, "consisted of the negro slaves, a long line of whom might be seen late at night wending their way to the river, each with a tub on his head."1 The inevitable accompaniment of sla- very, a large pauper population, was represented in crowded quarters with many pallid and barefoot women.
Amid these somber things stood a few mansions, familiar to us in old pictures, with a dignity and charm of their own. In them dwelt
1 "The City of New York in the year of Washington's Inauguration, 1789," p. 9.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
the gentlemen who did their best to improve the city, and among other things generously raised thirty-two thousand dollars to turn the old City Hall into a capitol. This edifice (where the subtrea- sury now stands) was a monument of both British vandalism and British benevolence. In it had been the public library whose nucleus was (as has been related on a previous page) of English origin (1700), and which during the British occupation was plundered and scattered. In 1789 the charter was confirmed, and the Society Library, now located in University Place, founded anew. The State and municipal authorities were unwearied in their services for the emergency. The city records - carefully kept, and now politely shown to the investi- gator - should be printed as an instruction to modern councils in the amount of good work that may be achieved in a brief time. It is not quite pleasant, indeed, to find that these extraordinary expenses were met by lotteries, even though the highest prize of the first (three thousand pounds, a pound then being equal to $2.50) was won by two poor girls. And it is sad to know that although the public-spirited gentlemen who advanced thirty-two thousand dollars were repaid, the artist who planned and superintended the work was never paid at all, though mainly by his own fault. This was Major Pierre L'Enfant, a French engineer, who in the American Revolution had been an aide of Baron Steuben. On October 12, 1789, the common council, in acknowledgment of the major's architectural and decorative services, conferred on him the freedom of the city, and ten acres near the city, in the region where now Third Avenue crosses Sixty-eighth street. It was a remote territory, and Major L'Enfant declined such poor compensation. He desired money, but scorned the $750 offered him, and in the end got nothing; which was a pity, for few foreign names stand so well in our national history as that of Major L'Enfant. He came to America in 1777, fought gallantly throughout the war, was severely wounded in 1779 at Savannah, and received the rank of major in 1783. He is credited with having designed the steeple of St. Paul's (New-York); he did design the medal of the Cincinnati; and assisted in planning Washington city. He died June 14, 1825, in Prince George's County, Maryland.
Federal Hall possessed considerable beauty. It had a grand ves- tibule, paved with marble, with arches and pillars in front; the senate chamber had an azure ceiling resplendent with the sun and thirteen stars (though North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet entered the Union); the vice-president's chair was under a canopy of crimson damask, above it the United States arms. From this chamber three windows opened on a balcony overlooking Wall street. The hall of representatives was larger, and had symbolic decorations; but the plainness of the speaker's chair, compared with the canopied
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NEW-YORK THE FEDERAL CAPITAL
seat of the vice-president, and other items, were enough to make the building symbolical to the anti-federalists of aristocracy. One party declared it the finest building in the world, the other described it as a mongrel affair paid for by lottery. On May 15, 1812, Mr. Jin- nings bought for four hundred and twenty-five dollars the materials of the edifice which, twenty-two years before, had been repaired at a cost of over sixty-five thousand dollars.
On February 2 the corporation was authorized to raise by taxation six thousand pounds for the poor, the street improvements, and the bridewell; also four thousand pounds for watchmen and street-lamps. On February 28 regulations for ferries were formed and passed by the legislature. There were to be boats always ready on both sides of the rivers, each passenger to pay two pence, infants free. Women were al- lowed to carry as much as their aprons could hold of the articles scheduled, as nearly all articles were. Meantime the common council attempted to clear the streets of pigs by their forfeit- THE FRANKLIN HOUSE. ure if found therein; grappled with footpads; repaired the fire- engines, attended to the markets, ordering that they should be opened daily except on Sundays; increased penalties on unwhole- some provisions; in fact, did all that such public-spirited and com- petent men as Mayor James Duane, Recorder Richard Varick, Sheriff Robert Boyd, and Chamberlain Daniel Phoenix were expected to do in view of the great emergency.
Edmund Randolph, the first attorney-general, having come on from Williamsburg, Virginia, in advance of his family, writes to his wife: "I have a house at a mile and a half or thereabouts from the Federal Hall; that is, from the most public part of the city. It is, in fact, in the country, is airy, has seven rooms, is well finished and gentleman- like. The rent, £75 our money ($250). Good water is difficult to be found in this place, and the inhabitants are obliged to receive water for tea, and other purposes which do not admit brackish water, from hogsheads brought about every day in drays. At our house there is an excellent pump of fresh water. I am resolved against any com- pany of form, and to live merely a private life. I confess I [torn] our house in Williamsburg [torn] pleasing to me than [torn]." This defi- ciency in the water-supply was formidable. The city depended chiefly on a pump in Chatham street fed from a pond (the "Collect") where
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
the Tombs prison now stands-a pond of uncanny reputation in New- York folk-lore. Early in the year 1789 a correspondence took place between the common council and the State legislature concerning the invention of Rumsey for supplying towns with water. It was proposed by the Rumseyan Society of Philadelphia to apply the invention to New-York. The steamboat which Washington saw launched by James Rumsey on the Potomac was little thought of compared with his steam-pump; but the city could not afford the expense of it, and the "tea-water" carts continued their rounds.
The ambition of men in 1789 was provincial. They looked upon a migration to New-York as expatriation. Remote congressmen came reluctantly, and their complaints after arrival savor of homesickness. "This town," grumbles Governor Page, "is not half as large as Phila- delphia, nor in any manner to be compared to it for beauty and elegance. Philadelphia, I am well assured, has more inhabitants than Boston and New York together. The streets are badly paved, dirty and narrow, as well as crooked and filled up with a strange variety of wooden, stone, and brick buildings, and full of hogs and mud. The College, St. Paul's Church, and the Hospital are elegant buildings. The Federal Hall in Wall street is also elegant." Senator Maclay, of Pennsylvania, finds the streets ripped up, the climate variable, the wealthy citizens inhospitable, the people vile; but he wrote very dif- ferently when he was going away next year.
March 4, the day appointed for the opening of Congress, had brought to New-York eight senators and thirteen representatives. From day to day the two chambers met only to adjourn. The pro- longed failure to obtain a quorum was disheartening to Washington. " The delay," he writes to Knox, "is inauspicious, to say the least of it, and the world must condemn it." On April 1 the house had a quorum of thirty, and elected Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, speaker. On April 4 twelve senators appeared, and John Langdon, of New Hampshire, was chosen presiding officer. Washington received the whole sixty-nine electoral votes for presi- dent, and John Adams thirty-four for vice-president. Charles Thom- son was sent to inform Washington, and Sylvanus Bourne to inform Adams, of the result. Three days later a noisy conflict took place in New-York city and Westchester County, which made one congres- sional district, for this seat, in which the federalist, John Lawrance (lawyer), was elected over John Broome (merchant). The city vote for Lawrance was 2255 against 280; in Westchester County 163 against 92. The anti-federalists, as they were called, could have shown larger numbers against a less popular man. For this first congressman of New-York city had been on Washington's staff as judge advocate in the Revolution; had served in the Continental
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NEW-YORK THE FEDERAL CAPITAL
Congress (1785-87), and was a State senator at the time of his election to Congress in 1789. John Lawrance, a native of England, who came to this country at seventeen, was subsequently United States circuit judge and United States senator (1796-1800). He died in New-York, November 7, 1810.
John Adams left Boston, April 13, and was met on the 20th at Kingsbridge by members of Congress and a civic escort of Light Horse (Captain Stakes), his arrival being announced by guns at the Battery. He was escorted to the residence of John Jay, 133 Broad- way, where he was for some time a guest. On the 21st, Senators Caleb Strong, of Massachusetts, and Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, conducted Adams to Federal Hall. Adams's coachman assumed ma- jestic airs toward the common folk, and unluckily affronted some youths of Columbia College, who happened to be Southerners-John Randolph of Roanoke, and his brother Richard. Adams was met at the senate door by Langdon, and conducted to the chair, where he made an unprepared address. The constitution having only pro- vided a presidential oath, neither the vice-president nor the senators took any oath until June 3.
On March 30 Washington wrote to Madison, in New-York, that he had declined an invitation to stay with Governor Clinton,-"As I mean to avoid private families on the one hand, so on the other I am not anxious to be placed early in a situation for entertaining." The president was already beset by office-seekers, all politely put off, and was anxious to incur no personal obligations. As he declined Gov- ernor Clinton's invitation, so he declined that of John Jay. Congress requested Mr. Osgood to prepare the Franklin House, which had been used by presidents of Congress, for Washington's reception.
On April 16 the president left Mount Vernon, -"with feelings," as he wrote General Knox, "not unlike those of a culprit who is go- ing to his place of execution,"- and, retarded by ovations, a week later entered New-York. Among those who crowded around Wash- ington, on his triumphal progress through Philadelphia, was a newly naturalized mechanician from England, John Hall. In a letter of his, now before me, to a friend in England, Hall says: "The General, now our King by the name of George the First, has passed through this City to New York in the most popular manner. I hope your King will never more cry out on the distraction of these colonies. It has come home to him with a vengeance. And the Bishop of Canterbury says the Lord has smitten him for the sins of the people! I hope neither thee nor thine are concerned in the affair : if you are, the Lord mend you ! The prayer from the synagogue is more sublime than the above Canterbury tale." This young radical could little imagine the historic coincidence marking that St. George's Day, April 23, in VOL. III .- 4.
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England and America. While George III. was moving in grand pro- cession to St. Paul's, London, to offer thanksgiving for the restoration of his sanity, the American George was moving toward a St. Paul's in New-York, where thanksgivings were also to be offered. The
PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S RECEPTION AT NEW-YORK, APRIL 23, 1789.
widely parted processions moved to the same anthem, so far as the music was concerned. Beside the decorated barge on which Wash- ington crossed to the city sailed a sloop on which a large choir of gen- tlemen and ladies sang the ode prepared by Mr. Low, containing the much-admired lines :
Far be the din of arms, Henceforth the Olive's charms Shall War preclude : These shores a head shall own, Unsullied by a throne,- Our much loved Washington, The Great, the Good!
If in the spectators witnessing the London procession there were mis- givings that the king's recovery might be followed by the nation's relapse, similar misgivings were not absent from many who witnessed
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the entrance of the unanimously elected president. But they were strongest in his own breast. In his diary he wrote: "The display of boats which attended and joined us on this occasion, some with vocal and some with instrumental music on board; the decorations of the ships, the roar of cannon and the loud acclamations of the people which rent the skies, as I passed along the wharves, filled my mind with sensations as painful (considering the reverse of the scene, which may be the case after all my labors to do good) as they are pleasing."
The president had been received on the Jersey shore by a com- mittee of Congress and representatives of the State and city. These were distributed on six barges, the gay fleet being under command of Commodore Nicholson. The president's barge, fifty feet long, hung with red curtains, festooned, was rowed by thirteen pilots in white. The display of decorated ships, their yards manned, the salutes from foreign flags, the thunder of guns, the Spanish man-of-war Galveston suddenly displaying the twenty-eight colors of all nations, the shores crowded with gaily dressed people, the companies with their banners, made this the most memorable pageant in the early history of New- York. Washington was at times overcome with emotion, especially when he stepped on the carpeted wharf (Murray's) near the foot of Wall street; for there he was met by old comrades, who had struggled in "the times that tried men's souls," and who could share with him the joy of this consummation of their sufferings and courage. The president was dressed in the same "blue-and-buff " which John Adams remarked when the Virginia colonel appeared in Congress, before he was made commander. It had then no martial significance, such as some historians have ascribed to it; it was the uniform in which he had served his king, and was still ready to serve him if he were faith- ful to freedom and justice. But time had given the costume historic meaning : for it is to be noted that the lovers of liberty in England were called "the Blue-and-Buffs."
The president was welcomed at the wharf by the governor and State and municipal officers, the whole military and civic resources of the city being drawn on for the grand procession which accompanied the president. The French and Spanish ambassadors rode in their carriages, in homage to the president, who was on foot: weary of riding, he declined the carriage awaiting him. The procession escorted him to the Franklin House (3 Cherry street), where the president found but brief repose, for he presently went off to dine with the governor.1
A letter from Sarah Robinson to Kitty F. Wistar," dated "New-York, 30th of the fourth month 1789," gives an account of the arrange-
1 In the De Peyster House, Queen street, nearly opposite Cedar.
: The Sarah Robinson mentioned in the text was a daughter of a brother of the owner of the Frank-
lin House, married to Rowland Robinson, a mer- chant of New-York. The Kitty F. Wistar to whom the letter was addressed was a daughter of Mary Franklin and Caspar Wistar, of Pennsylvania.
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ments made in the Franklin mansion for the president and his family: "Great rejoiceing in New-York on the arrival of General Washington; an elegant barge decorated with an awning of satin, twelve oarsmen dressed in white frocks and blue ribbons, went down to E. Town [Elizabeth Point] last fourth day [Wednesday] to bring him up .... Previous to his coming, Uncle Walter's house in Cherry street was taken for him, and every room furnished in the most elegant manner. Aunt Osgood and Lady Kitty Duer had the whole management of it. I went the morning before the General's arrival to look at it. The best of furniture in every room, and the greatest quantity of plate and china I ever saw; the whole of the first and second stories is papered and the floors covered with the richest kind of Turkey and Wilton carpets. The house did honor to my Aunts and Lady Kitty, they spared no pains nor expense on it. Thou must know that Uncle Os- good and Duer were appointed to procure a house and furnish it, accordingly they pitched on their wives as being likely to do it better. I have not yet done, my dear. Is thee not almost tired ? The evening after His Excellency arrived, there was a general illumination took place, except among friends [Quakers] and those styled Anti-Feder- alists. The latter's windows suffered some, thou may imagine. As soon as the General has sworn in, a grand exhibition of fireworks is to be displayed, which, it is expected, is to be to-morrow. There is scarcely anything talked about now but General Washington and the Palace."1 The latter term was no doubt a republican sarcasm.
From the time of the president's arrival until his oath of office, his time was occupied with receptions. Meanwhile Congress had been torn with dissensions as to how he should be received, and with what title, the disputes being continued to the very moment of the presi- dent's appearance at their door. Old Fort George had thundered its salute - nearly its last - to the sunrise of April 30, the church bells had rung, prayers had been offered. At noon the official escort had gathered at the president's door. Congressmen, cavalry, artillery, grenadiers, light infantry, Scotch Highlanders, German companies, gentlemen in carriages, people on foot, made a vast procession, which at one o'clock formed an avenue up to the Federal Hall, through which Washington passed in his carriage, in which also sat Colonel Humphreys and Tobias Lear. Arriving in the senate chamber,
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