USA > New York > New York City > The Union defence committee of the city of New York. Minutes, reports, and correspondence; with an historical introduction > Part 9
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General Wadsworth leaves a brilliant name in our national an- nals. His memory will be cherished in this his native State for his public services and his eminent personal worth.
The undersigned sincerely hope it may not be incompatible with other obligations of duty to comply with the suggestion of General Dix.
With high respect,
Your obedient servants,
HAMILTON FISH, C. H. MARSHALL,
R. H. MCCURDY, M. H. GRINNELL,
EDWARDS PIERREPONT, WILLIAM M. EVARTS,
SAMUEL SLOAN, ISAAC BELL,
R. M. BLATCHFORD,
J. J. ASTOR,
P. M. WETMORE.
The chairman adjourned the Committee.
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MEETING AT OFFICE OF SUN INSURANCE COMPANY, WALL STREET, February 10, 1865.
AT A JOINT meeting of the General and Executive Committees, held this day, the following members were present :
Hamilton Fish, William M. Evarts,
C. II. Russell,
John J. Astor, Jr.,
I. Bell,
Moses H. Grinnell,
S. Sloan, Charles H. Marshall,
Moses Taylor,
William E. Dodge,
A. T. Stewart, Prosper M. Wetmore, Acting Secretary.
The question was submitted in regard to recognizing the claim presented by Mr. Meyer for lodging and supplies for the 41st Regi- ment Volunteers (De Kalb), whereupon it was
Resolved, That this Committee does not recognize any liability for supplies of any kind furnished to regiments of volunteers.
Resolved, That an adjourned joint meeting of these Committees be held at this place on Monday, the 13th instant, at 12 o'clock. Adjourned.
NOTE .- Here end the Minutes of the General Committee. There seems to have been no formal dissolution of the organization.
EDITOR.
UNION DEFENCE COMMITTEE OF THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK. NEW YORK, December 17, 1867.
Under authority granted and confirmed by a written instru- ment * bearing date November 27th, 1867, signed by a majority of the surviving members of this Committee, a Commission was created, composed of Messrs. Hamilton Fish, A. A. Low, Alexander T. Stewart, and Charles H. Russell, empowered to ."audit, adjust, settle and pay all outstanding claims against the Union Defence Committee," and also " to close up all accounts, affairs and busi- ness of the Committee, and to take charge of the books, papers, etc., and to dispose of the balance remaining in the hands of the Treasurer."
After due notice in writing being served on each member of the said Commission, the three first named members, Messrs. Fish, Low
* This instrument was not found among the papers of the Committee. The above minute of December 17, 1867, was received from Mr. A. A. Low, the Treasurer.
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and Stewart, met at the room of the Chamber of Commerce, this day at two o'clock P. M.
The following resolutions, submitted by Mr. Stewart, were . unanimously adopted :
1. Resolved, That Mr. A. A. Low, Treasurer, be authorized and in- structed to dispose of three of the five bonds or notes held by him, amounting to three thousand dollars, with any accrued interest or premium, and out of the proceeds thereof to pay the following claims :
Samuel J. Glassey, for legal services .. . $1,230 00
R. A. Witthaus, for advance to Nicholas Myer . 650 00
Evarts, Southmayd & Choate, for legal ser- vices, etc 324 52
Jesse Payne, copyist. 33 65
Telegraph charges 17 72
$2,255 89
2. Resolved, That the remaining two bonds or notes of one thousand dollars each be deposited in the New York Life and Trust Company in the names of the members of this Commission as trus- tees, subject to disposition by the said Commission, or a majority of them.
3. Resolved, That in consideration of the services rendered by Prosper M. Wetmore, as Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Union Defence Committee, the Treasurer be authorized and instructed to pay to him whatever balance may remain of the funds in the hands of the Treasurer, after compliance with the conditions in the first and second resolutions.
4. Resolved, That the check book and bank book, when fully . balanced, the original authority for this action, and a certified copy of these proceedings be deposited with Mr. A. A. Low, and that all other books, papers and documents relating to the said Union Defence Committee be placed in a fitting trunk or box and deposited for safe keeping in the vaults of the Bank of Commerce.
Ordered, That copies of these records and proceedings be placed in the hands of the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Hamilton Fish. And the Commission adjourned sine die. Attest :
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REPORTS
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REPORTS
FIRST REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
NEW YORK, May 20, 1861.
IN conformity with the usual practice of Committees, and from a sense of duty to their constituents, the Executive Committee respectfully submit the following
REPORT
A mass meeting of the citizens of New York was convened on a general call of the people at Union Park on Saturday the 20th day of April last.
The cause of this assemblage was both unusual and remarkable. A great exigency had arisen in the public affairs of the country. The Constitution and laws had been infringed ; a contest had com- menced which threatened the very existence of the national author- ity; civil war in the shape of an armed rebellion was about to be waged under such fearful auspices that every loyal citizen felt it to be his bounden duty to rally in some way to the support of his country.
The appeal for aid in the emergency came from the executive head of the nation, and the answer was that of a united people, jealous of the rights and faithful to the principles which had given to them a long career of prosperity and a name conspicuous among the nations of the earth.
The meeting of the citizens of New York gave the impulse to a gen- eral uprising in the loyal States of the North and East, which in con- nection with the patriotic spirit simultaneously evinced in the West has already retarded the progress of rebellion, and to a great extent restored the confidence recently so seriously shaken in the strength and permanency of our institutions. Millions of sympathizing friends of constitutional government have joined in this great · movement of patriotism, and a strong array of loyal States and com- munities now stand side by side with New York in a resolute deter- mination to put down rebellion, and, despite all peril and at what- ever cost, to maintain the honor and uphold the flag of the country.
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A great change in public feeling and in the condition of public affairs has been wrought in one short month. It may not be deemed out of place or unprofitable to review briefly the causes which have led to this sudden reaction ont of which has grown so confident a hope in the future.
By the action of the people of New York in mass meeting assembled a Committee was appointed consisting of twenty-six citizens, to whose numbers six others were subsequently added. The objects sought to be accomplished by the appointment of this Committee, as stated in the resolution adopted by the meeting, were "to represent the citizens in the collection of funds, and the transaction of such other business in aid of the movements of the Government as the public interests may require."
At the moment of their appointment the Committee found a civil war raging ; portions of the army and navy seriously demor- alized ; treason working its will upon the property and flag of the country, and the capital of the nation, with all its treasury of archives and history, lying almost at the mercy of an unscrupulous assailant. Arsenals had been pillaged; public vessels had been surrendered without a shot fired in their defence ; bodies of troops had laid down their arıns in dishonor, and in the judgment of the world serious apprehensions were entertained that an unjustifiable rebellion might become a successful revolution.
The Union Defence Committee entered upon their duties at this fearful juncture. Their first act was to invite the necessary con- tributions to sustain their efforts in the public service. The re- sponse was given with a cheerful alacrity and generous public spirit characteristic of the commercial community of New York whenever a just appeal is made to its patriotic munificence.
But another response was promptly made to the call for aid which struck the key-note of patriotism throughout the country. The city of New York, in its corporate capacity, through the action of its municipal authorities, upon the recommendation of its chief magistrate contributed a million of dollars to be applied to the equipment and outfit of its soldiers for the field, and for a limited period to the support of the families of those who should go forth in the cause of the country. No citizen of New York will ever turn the page which records that beneficent act without feeling more strongly than ever before his pride justified in, and his affection deepened for the noble city which has thus honored its name and illustrated its annals.
The next act of the Union Defence Committee was to create of
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its number an Executive Committee of ten members, which was subsequently extended to thirteen. To this stated body was assigned the responsible trust of rendering available to the public service the large resources placed in the treasury of the Committee. The con- fidence reposed by this proceeding calls for an acknowledgment to the constituent body, a faithful discharge of all delegated duties and responsibilities, and reports from time to time of the progress and results of their labors.
In this their first formal report, the Executive Committee have deemed it not out of place to recur to the circumstances under which they entered upon their onerous duties, or to allude briefly to the success which has thus far crowned their exertions. Since their organization as a Committee twenty-nine days have elasped, during which period they have held forty-eight meetings, the proceedings at all of which are matters of record. They have divided the various subjects of labor among their number in sub-committees, from which special reports have been made in detail, and may be considered in connection with this more general statement of facts.
Three deputations from the Committee have at different times visited the seat of the National Government to express with respect- ful deference the views they entertained, to communicate informa- tion of importance to the public service, and to perform other duties which could not safely be committed to other hands. They have at times employed special agents to obtain and communicate infor- mation to stimulate and keep alive the growing spirit of loyalty, and thus to accomplish effectually the work intrusted to them.
But there is a view to be submitted which goes beyond the mere details of business and becomes matter for grateful reflection and for the records of history.
The executive authorities of the State, actuated by a similar im- pulse with that which marked the city government, had united with the moving masses of the people in giving their aid and encourage- ment to the patriotic efforts of the country. It will not, however, be deemed arrogant if the Committee state that, mainly owing to the exertions of the city and citizens of New York and to the zeal and efficiency of eminent military officers, an army has been placed in the field, armed and equipped for the defence of the national cause, in a shorter space of time, and with less expenditure of money, than, so far as any record shows, has ever before been accom- plished by any government, no matter how great its power, how abundant its resources, or however powerful the motive for its action.
With a generous frankness which confers honor upon the exalted .
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stations they fill, the Chief Executive Officers of the National Govern- ment, and the distinguished Commanding-General of its army have been pleased to say that the safety of the National Capitol and the preservation of the archives of the Government, at a moment when both were seriously menaced, may fairly be attributed to the prompt and efficient action of the State and City of New York, united with the vigorous efforts of the noble Commonwealth of Massachusetts, devoted to the same disinterested and patriotic objects.
The condition of public affairs is now materially changed. The Military and Naval Departments of the country are in the hands of competent and loyal officers ; order has been restored, vigor and a proper sense of the obligations of duty prevail in the public coun- cils ; the people, jealous of their own rights and liberties, are con- tent to leave the duties of Government in the hands of trusted authorities; and the time approaches when the Union Defence Committee may properly consider the propriety. of asking to be relieved from a duty which was unsought, yet cheerfully accepted.
The consciousness of having endeavored to discharge efficiently and faithfully a responsible trust more than repays the Executive Committee for the great amount of labor imposed upon them. While the cause exists which calls for continued effort on their part, the demand will be met, in the hope and expectation that, by vigor and prompt decision of action at any pressing emergency, the unjust and indefensible aggressions on the public authority of the country may be checked, and peace, order, prosperity, and national honor survive the dangers of an armed rebellion.
The Executive Committee, in placing before the Union Defence Committee of the citizens of New York this general statement of their proceedings and the results obtained by them, venture to ask approval of their action, and feel no greater satisfaction than will arise from the sanction of the body from whom their authority was derived.
Respectfully submitted.
SIMEON DRAPER, Chairman,
THEO. DEHON, ex officio, HAMILTON FISH, ex officio,
ABIEL A. Low, ex officio,
JOHN A. DIX,
MOSES H. GRINNELL,
JAMES S. WADSWORTH,
A. C. RICHARDS, ISAAC BELL,
RICH. M. BLATCHFORD, CHARLES H. MARSHALL,
SAMUEL SLOAN, JOHN JACOB ASTOR,
P. M. WETMORE, Secretary.
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SECOND REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
NEW YORK, June 29, 1801.
AT A MEETING held this day the following Report was received, and adopted.
The Executive Committee, in the discharge of the duties con- fided to them, submitted a Report to the Union Defense Committee on the 20th day of May last, and resuming the record of their labors, now ask leave to present the following
REPORT
The routine business of the Committee had continued unin- terrupted in its daily performance until the 8th instant, on which day an order was made to hold weekly meetings on each Wednes- day, and on other days whenever convened by the Chairman in con- nection with two members. Up to and including the Sth inst. the number of meetings held by the Executive Committee was seventy- three, of which thirty-five were evening meetings, held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. These have been discontinued since the 28th of May. The total number of meetings to date is seventy-eight.
The duties confided to the Union Defence Committee, though not very clearly defined in the terms of the resolutions adopted at the Meeting of Citizens, were understood to have special reference to providing means for creating and sustaining a military force, to be used in the public service of the country.
Early in the progress of their labors the Union Defence Com- mittee appointed a subordinate body, which has been known as the Executive Committee, to whose hands the details of the business have been mainly confided, and upon whom must naturally rest a large portion of the responsibility incurred in the discharge of duties alike important, multifarious and burdensome. This fact may perhaps justify the Executive Committee in entering at some length upon a statement of the course and progress of their labors.
In tracing the transactions of the Committee it is necessary to recur for a moment to the condition of the country, when the citizens of New York felt themselves called upon to take part in instituting measures of public safety.
The national authorities had made an earnest appeal to the loyal feelings of the people for aid in defending the Constitution and ex- ecuting the laws. The response of the City and State of New York was prompt and effectual. Money was freely contributed, as well from private as from public sources ; citizen soldiers and masses of
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the people engaged in the ordinary occupations of civil life sprang to arms, as if every man's home was endangered ; and the hearts and hands of female benevolence, inspired and actuated by motives of patriotism, were instantly occupied in preparations to soften the hardships of camp life and to mitigate the sufferings of the hospital.
In the midst of such an unusual outburst of public sentiment the labors of the Committee commenced, and have been assiduously continued. There was one great need apparent to every mind that considered the emergency, which was the necessity of placing an effective military force at the National Capital in the shortest possi- ble time. That this necessity was fully appreciated and promptly met, as well by New York as by other loyal States, the public annals will show. Massachusetts may justly claim the merit of having placed the first regiment of citizen defenders of the Con- stitution in the field, but her patriotic soldiers were soon followed and speedily outnumbered by those of New York. The 7th Regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Marshall Lefferts, so long the pride of the city of New York, abandoned the ties of home and business, and with an alacrity that has scarcely a parallel in military history, marched its thousand disciplined men steadily to the capital, where it performed efficiently and faithfully all its duties, and whence it has returned, at the close of its full term of service, distinguished by the grateful commendation of the President and the Command- ing General of the Army. A detachment of 200 men of the reserve of this regiment, led by Captain E. L. Viele, was the first military body which opened the passage and passed to the city of Washing- ton by the Potomac River. Much credit was justly accorded to that officer, for the skill, spirit and perseverance evinced by him on the occasion referred to.
Following the Seventh were the regiments of State Militia, aided and encouraged by the contributions of the citizens, and stimulated by the exertions of the Committee. The 71st, led by the gallant and lamented Vosburgh ; the 6th, 12th, Sth, 69th and 5th, were speedily in the field, and were followed at short intervals by the 2d, 9th and 79th. These corps are a portion of the standing quota of the State Militia. With these, also, went forward from our neighboring city of Brooklyn the 13th, 2Sth and 14th, comprising a well-equipped and efficient body of three thousand citizen soldiers, led by accomplished and skillful officers.
Thirteen regiments of the State Militia have thus passed into the public service under the anspices of the Committee, and they confidently trust and believe that loyal gallantry will be the dis-
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tinguishing characteristics of these soldiers while bearing the National flag.
From Ulster the 20th Regiment of Militia, commanded by a New York merchant, was also greatly commended for its discipline and efficiency while encamped in this city, preparatory to its departure for the South.
But the exigency in which the country found itself, at the out- break of the Rebellion, rendered it an indispensable duty on the part of the President to summon volunteer soldiers to the field. The quota of the State of New York was fixed at thirty-eight regiments; to this number others were added as a special act of courtesy to this Committee, on the part of the President and the War Department. The total number of volunteer regiments, including the 25th, carries up the quota of the State of New York to the noble aggregate of fifty-six regiments, or about fifty thousand men.
In glancing over the list of these hastily organized defenders of liberty and public law, the attention of the Committee will doubtless be attracted to the various corps, which from time to time have excited an interest more or less deep in the community on their departure from the city. To none will this interest attach more closely than to the effective body of men, composed of a selection from the Fire Department of New York, led by a young and gallant officer, who has already redeemed with his life the obligations of duty and patriotism which he owed to his country. The name of Elmer E. Ellsworth will be remembered, his chivalrous bearing as a soldier admired and honored, and his premature death at the hands of an assassin deplored, whenever the writer of our history shall depict the events of the contest in which we are engaged.
Another high-spirited and accomplished officer, the commander of the second Militia Regiment which entered the field, Colonel Abraham Vosburgh of the 71st, is also numbered with the dead. Highly esteemed as a citizen, conspicuous for his military capacity and his earnest devotion to the service he had chosen, the city, whose local annals his patriotic conduct has illustrated, will not suffer his self-sacrificing example to pass without a fitting record of his merit.
For the information of the Committee a table has been prepared, giving the number or title of each of the regiments forming the quota of the State of New York, the name of its commanding officer, and its location at the present time, either in the field or in cantonment, so far as can be accurately ascertained. This table will appear in the appendix to the Report.
Of the fifty-six regiments actually accepted for service by the
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proper authorities of the State or National Government, the aid of the city and citizens of New York, have up to the present time been extended through this Committee to thirty-six regiments, and en- gagements have been made in regard to others. The names or numbers of these regiments, together with the amount of appropri- ation to each, will form the subject of a further report, as early as it can be completed. The time has not arrived for ascertaining with certainty whether the means thus appropriated in aid of regi- ments have always been wisely applied. That they have been applied with an earnest desire to accomplish the best results, to in- sure the greatest amount of public usefulness, and to furnish the aid required by the Government with the least possible waste of time, the Committee can venture to assert with a confident reliance on the correctness of the statement. That no instance of want of fidelity on the part of those in whom they have been compelled by circum- stances to repose trust and confidence has come to the knowledge of the Committee, or has been matter of suspicion to them, is a source of unalloyed and most grateful satisfaction.
In the outfit and equipment of the numerous regiments which have occupied the attention of the Committee and shared in the bounty of the citizens, it was not to be expected that anything like an equality of expenditure for each could be obtained. In some cases the regiments, when brought to the notice of the Committee, were far advanced in their preparation for service ; in others no progress had been made ; while in a few instances private contribu- tions to a considerable amount had preceded those of the Commit- tec. In all cases brought to their notice, the one great object was kept steadily in view-that of placing the required force in the field for action at the earliest moment compatible with a due prep- aration for effective service. That service has been commenced- active operations in the field have already become matters of record, and it cannot but be a subject of grateful reflection to our people that no portion of the army has performed its duties more effectually, or stands higher in the judgment of the public authorities, than that which the State of New York has sent forth, as the evidence of her fidelity to the Constitution and her devotion to the Union.
Fifty thousand soldiers have been freely contributed by the State of New York from its masses of loyal and faithful citizens to the public service of the country in a time of war. These thousands have passed into the great aggregate of the national forces, in every instance, as detached regiments. Upon their arrival at the various scenes of action, or while awaiting the
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proper orders for entering on active duty, they have been mustered and brigaded under officers of the United States Government. One general officer of the State Militia, Major-General Sandford, has fol- lowed that portion of his command detailed for service, into the field; and his commission has been recognized, and he is now on duty at the national capital. The Committee have recently learned, with much satisfaction, that a General Officer, commanding a divi- sion of Volunteers, Major-General Dix, has been called into service from this State, to whom an important command has been confided. These are the only General Officers thus far placed in the field from the Sate of New York.
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