USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. II > Part 17
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The delegates nominated by the two parties for the convention to decide on the federal constitution, were the following :
FEDERAL.
Abraham Ten Broeck, Jacob Cuyler, Francis Nicoll, Jeronemus Hoogland, Peter Gansevoort junior, James Gordon, John W, Schermerhorn.
. ANTI-FEDERAL. Robert Yates, John Lansing junior, Henry Oothoudt,
Peter Vrooman,
Israel Thompson,
Anthony Ten Eyck, Dirk Swart.
17
1
206
Notes from the Newspapers.
Jan. 26. CHARLES R. and GEORGE WEBSTER and Co., published a quarto paper, called the Albany Journal, or Montgomery, Washington and Columbia Intelligencer, which was published twice a week during the session of the legislature.
Feb. 11. CLAXTON and BABCOCK, lately from Lansing- burgh, published The Federal Herald. They returned to Lansingburgh the same year.
March 11. A law was passed by the legislature, author- ising the corporation to raise £2000 for the construction of a new jail (the old one being found inadequate to the safe custody of prisoners), and repairing the court-house. Clinton county was taken from Albany county at this session of the legislature.
May 27. The election of members of assembly termi- nated in the success of the anti-federal party, and seems to have been the first party struggle growing out of the dissension on the question of the constitution. The vote of the two parties in the county of Albany, as canvassed on this day by the supervisors, stood as follows. John Younglove seems to have had the votes of both, or there is a mistake in the figures.
" ANTI-FEDERAL,
John Lansing, 3048
Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, 3042
John Duncan, 2990
Cornelius Van Dyck,. 3033
John Thompson, 3006
Henry K. Van Rensselaer, 2911
John Younglove, . ..
. 4807
FEDERAL.
Stephen Van Rensselaer, . 1953
Leonard Gansevoort, . 1888
Richard Sill, .. 1877
Hezekiah Van Orden, 1871
John Knickerbacla, 1868
Isaac Vrooman, 1851
The Albany Register was begun this year, by ROBERT BARBER.
The impolicy of imprisonment for debt is aptly illus- trated in the following case, where a rich and popular citizen incarcerates a humble artisan for his inability to liquidate his rent, who thereby becomes a charge upon the county, and a defaulter to all the rest of his creditors.
" Whereas the subscriber (a master of shoemaking) is now confined in the City Hall, upper loft, for twenty pounds back rent which he is owing Gen. Schuyler ; and as he is desirous of working for his living, and not to be
-
Notes from the Newspapers. 207
chargeable to the good people of this city, he therefore humbly requests such of the citizens and others as are desirous of having well made shoes on the most reasonable terms, to favor him with their custom, and they may de- pend on being served on the shortest notice, and every favor shall be thankfully acknowledged by the public's humble servant THADDEUS LAWRENCE."
Aug. 8. The city of Albany, not to be behind her sister cities, set apart a day for public rejoicings, to celebrate the ratification of the constitution of the United States by the convention of the state of New York. Every trade and profession seems to have united in the jubilee, with appropriate emblems, and formed a truly imposing pro- cession under the conduct of Gen, SCHUYLER. (See vol. i, 330.)
November. The citizens werc entertained with the ex- traordinary sight of an " uncommon bird," killed at Sa- ratoga, and sent down as a rarity. "The distance from the tip of one wing to the other, when both were extended, was nine feet two inches ; the mouth was large enough to contain the head of a boy ten years of age, and the throat so capacious as to admit the foot and leg of a man, boot and all." No one could decide what species the stranger belonged to, till the counsel of Dr. Mitchell of New York being called in, it was decided to be a pelican : perhaps the only one that ever extended his discoveries to this region.
PETER VAN DEUSEN and JACOB VAN DE BILT established for the convenience of the citizens, a soap and candle factory, which useful branch of business, they say in their advertisement, had been long wanted in the city. To induce the citizens to encourage these domestic manufac- tures, they offer their articles at New York prices, thus making a saving of freight and cartage; and further to promote economy, manufactured for those who provided their own tallow, at 2} pence per pound, and furnish the cotton wick themselves.
-
1
208
Notes frow the Newspapers.
1789.
Jan. 1. The thermometer at noon indicated 18° above zero ; and on the following morning, at six o'clock, it was 24° below, being six degrees colder than had ever been known in the city.
Jan. 5. The freeholders of Vanderheyden's or Ashley's Ferry, situate on the east bank of the Hudson's river, about seven miles above Albany, met for the purpose of establishing a name for the place; when, by a majority of voices, it was confirmed that in future it should be called and known by the name of Troy. From its important state, and natural advantages, it was anticipated "at no very distant period to see Troy as famous for her trade and navigation as many of our first towns."
The journals of the legislature for the session of 1789 were printed by S. and J. LOUDON, at the house of Mr. Thomas McMurray, in Barrack (now Chapel) street, they being printers to the state.
May. The Albany Gazette, on entering upon its sixth volume, began to be published twice a week.
The following is given in the Register, as a particular statement of the votes of the several towns in Albany county for governor. The election was opened on the 28th April, for governor, lieutenant governor, senators and assemblymen.
Towns.
G. Clinton.
Yates
Towns
G Clinton.
Yates.
Hoosick,
34
33
Stillwater,
76
59
Saratoga,
14
67
Cambridge, .... 100
118
Steventown,
21
173
Albany (3 wards), 55
153
Ballstown.
168
76
Rensselaerwyck,
23
188
Katskill,
39
33
Schagheticoke, . .
7
54
Watervliet,
50
294
Halfmoon, .
73
47
Schenectady,
71
132
Coxsackie,
40
53
Schoharie, .
129
30
Pittstown, .
56
31
Duanesburgh, ..
14
9
Eastown,
30
27
1000
1577
The returns were very imperfectly given by the papers, the adjoining counties being seldom reported, and never accurately. The poles were closed in the city, we are told, in the middle of the week ; but in the east and west
209
Notes from the Newspapers.
districts of the manor of Rensselaerwyck, ballots continued to be received until Saturday afternoon. The election of Governor Clinton was carried by the heavy majority from Ulster eounty, which gave him 1039 out of 1145.
July 6. The legislature met at Albany. The message of Gov. Clinton, at the opening of the session, occupied thirty-two lines in the newspapers.
On the first of June, the thermometer stood at 40°; on the 30th, at 80 ; on the 14th July, at 56; on the 24th, at 84; on the 12th August, at 80; on the 30th, at 47: these being the highest and lowest ranges for those months.
At the July term of the Supreme Court, held in Albany, Elihu Smeeds of Pittstown in the county of Albany, in- dicted for the murder of Ezekiel Mitchell, and convicted of manslaughter, was adjudged to receive thirty-nine lashes at the public whippingpost, and be imprisoned three ca- lendar months. Six others, convicted of stealing, were condemned to receive thirty-nine lashes each ; while about the same time, Francis Uss, convicted of breaking open and robbing a store in Poughkeepsie, was publicly hanged.
There was a scarcity of bread stuffs this year, through- out the country, and complaints were made of monopo- lizers. Flour sold at New Orleans for twelve dollars a barrel. Complaints were frequent of the scarcity of pro- visions in the western part of the state, on account of the flood of immigrants. In the vicinity of Niagara, it was difficult to subsist the new comers. A letter from "Cooper's Town, Otsego Lake," May 7, says : "The vast multitude of people that come daily to this country have caused a scarcity of provisions almost to a famine. In the Genesee it is quite so. Corn will bring ten shillings in cash, and six shillings at Albany ; and it is said potatoes at Niagara arc twenty shillings. However alarming this may be, it proceeds from no other cause than that of an innumerable quantity of people flocking in. I have had thirty in a day seeking land of me."
Nov. 3. A snowstorm commenced at ten in the morning, and continued during the day ; and the weather was re- markably eold, having every appearance of winter : a eireumstance not before recolleeted by any of the inhabit- ants at so early a period.
210
Notes from the Newspapers.
The amount of receipts and disbursements of the city of Albany for the first six years succeeding the revolution, was as follows ;
Received.
Disbursed. £589 11s. 3d.
1784-5
. . . .
£625 7s. 5d. 277 6 1
334 13 9
1785-6
. . ..
476 17 8
. ..
482 6 2
1786-7
. . ..
2392 10 10
. ... 2465 10 2
1787-8
. . . .
1421
5 11
. . 1348 14 £ 4
1788-9
. . .
547
7
9
· 443 10 11
1790.
January. It was decmed "indispensably necessary" by Mr. Cornelius J. Wynkoop, that there should be in the city " an auctioneer and vendue master for dry goods, houschold furniture, &c." Whereupon he opened at No. 8 Market street, " a licensed auction office."
Feb. 1. The legislature granted Ananias Platt the exclusive right of running a stage between Albany and Lansingburgh.
April 2. The legislature passed au act for the improve- ment of the navigation of the Overslaugh, by allowing the proprietors of Mills and Papskni islands to erect a dam to prevent the passage of the water between them, and throw it into the main channel. This, it was thought, would more effectually benefit the navigation, than the employment of "an unwieldy machine, which at best only affords a temporary relief."
The prisoners confined for debt in the city hall, which was the jail, celebrated the 5th July (the 4th being Sun- day). There was an allusion to the fifteenth year of American independence, and their confinement for debt. Their fifth toast was : "May the time come when, no honest man shall be confined for debt." The time did arrive, in less than half a century, when dishonest men even were seldom confined for debt.
October. The mail stage between Albany and New York, which seems to have been suspended, was announced to commence running twice a week as formerly.
The synod of New York and New Jersey erected a new
1
1783-4
·
211
Notes from the Newspapers.
presbytery in the northern part of this state, under the name of The Presbytery of Albany ; to which they com- mitted the care of all the congregations in this state in connection with them, which lie north of the Catskill mountains on the west side, and of the southern boundary of Columbia county on the east side of Hudson's river. It was appointed to meet for the first time on the ninth November, in the city of Albany ; and to be opened with a sermon by Rev. William Schenck, the senior pastor. In the absence of Mr. Schenck, Rev. John Warford of Salem preached from Luke xiv, 23. Rev. John McDonald of Albany was appointed stated clerk.
There were but two mails which reached the city of Albany at this time ; onc from New York, and the other from Springfield, Mass. (Sce vol. i, p. 56).
The revenuc of the city for six months preceding the twelfth October, was £918 16s. 101d .; the expenditures, £728 9s. 7d. Among the expenditures is an item of £3 10s. paid constables for patrolling the streets on Sundays. £25 3s. 4d. was received of P. S. Van Rensselaer, for ground in Barrack street.
December. The state of the weather is thus given for a part of this month :
8th. Thermometer indicated 4 degrees below 0.
9th. 10 deg. below 0 ; the barometer higher than had been observed in four years, and the weather colder for the season than had ever been known in the city.
17th. 2º below 0.
18th. 8 66
19th. 16 66
20th. 20 above 0.
22d. 0.
28th. 4 below 0.
30th. 3 31st. 8 Jan. 2d. 10 66
.
212
The Lancasterian School.
LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL.
In the year 1810, the common council had under con- sideration the project of establishing a free school, on the plan of Joseph Laneaster. As yet there were no public schools in the city. The Mechanics' Society had, a num- ber of years previous, erected a building on the corner of Chapel and Columbia streets, and maintained a school, which was not altogether confined in its privileges to the children of its own members. On the 26th May, 1812, the legislature passed a law incorporating the Albany Lancasterian School Society, which had then been some time in operation. The petition stated that Philip S. Van Rensselaer, John Lansing junior, Simeon De Witt, and others, had associated themselves for the laudable purpose of establishing a school in the city of Albany, for the diffusion of common education ; and presented a petition to the legislature, setting forth the benefits that would result to society from such an institution, by im- planting in the minds of children the principles of religion and morality, and by assisting their parents in providing suitable situations for them, where habits of industry and virtue may be acquired; and that it would enable them more effectually to accomplish the benevolent objects of their institution, if their association was incorporated. The trustees named in the law to serve the first year, were Philip S. Van Rensselaer, Simeon De Witt, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Elisha Jenkins, Archibald M'Intyre, John M. Bradford. William Neill, Timothy Clowes, John Mac Jimpsey, John Lansing junior. James Kent, John V. Henry and Charles R. Webster. The members of the common council were made members of the society by virtue of their office ; and any person contributing twenty-five dollars to its benefit, was entitled to send one child to be educated gratuitously. The school was conducted in the upper part of the building of the Mechanics' Society, until the completion of the school-house on Eagle street in 1817. Mr. William A. Tweed Dale was appointed preceptor. His report of the business of the year 1814 was as follows :
EP
PEASE_MAN
LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL.
215
Lancasterian School in Albany.
Salary of the teacher, $700.00
Rent of school room, 82.50
Fitting up Pettibone stoves, and ventilating, 91.00
Incidental expenses,
331.03
$1204.53
The income of the society arose from the following sources ?
Allowance by the corporation out of the excise receipts, $500.00
School fund appropriation, 487. 66
Tuition fees from scholars, 400.00
$1387.66
The number of scholars instructed during the year was 400, half of whom were new pupils, or such as had not previously attended the school.
On Monday, April 5, 1817, the ceremony took place of opening the new school-house, the building now occupied by the Medical College, of which the woodcut on the pre- ceding page is a correct representation, The house was built by order of the common council, at an expense of $23,918.93 It was capable of accommodating 450 chil- dren, and a large infant school ; and afforded a residence for the principal, A procession, consisting of the trustees, principal, and four hundred scholars, formed at the house of the president of the society, Philip S. Van Rensselaer, corner of State and Chapel streets, and moved to the Capitol, where it was met by the governor of the state, mayor and recorder of the city, and the clergy and citi- zens; whence it moved to the school-house. There the exercises consisted of a prayer by Rev. Mr. Bradford, an address by Dr. T. R. Beck, and prayer and benediction by Rev. Mr. De Witt. From the address we learn that during the six years the school had been in operation, 1149 scho- lars had been educated in it. The institution was designed to gather in the poor and neglected children of the city, who were growing up in idleness and ignorance. Of the thousands who were educated within its walls, many doubtless owe a life of happiness and prosperity, in some instances of eminence, to the teachings there imparted. It continued in operation until about 1834, when it was
216
Lancaster School in Albany.
abandoned. Mr. Tweed Dale, who superintended the sehool from its foundation till that time, a period of about twenty three years, was now advaneed in life. He was, before his arrival in this country, a pupil of both Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster, the rival claimants of the honor of having established the system. Inealculable benefits were rendered to the children of the poor in England and Ame- rica, by the establishment of similar institutions, at a time when education was mostly confined to the higher elasses.
This institution was superseded by the schools which went into operation in every part of the city, under the common school system. of the state. The edifiee was vacant for several years, when it was appropriated to the use of a medical college, of which notice will be taken.
ANCIENT FUNERAL CUSTOM.
The following is copied from a memoir read by Judge Benson before the New-York Historieal Society in 1816 :
A family in Albany, and from the earliest time, of the name of WYNGAARD. The last, in the male line, LUCAS WYNGAARD, died about sixty years ago, never married, and leaving estate : the invitation to his funeral very general. Those who attended, returned after the interment, as was the usage, to the house of the deceased at the close of the one day, and a number never left it until the dawn of the next. In the course of the night a pipe of wine, stored in the eellar for some years before for the occasion, drank ; dozens of papers of tobacco consumed ; grosses of pipes broken ; scaree a whole deeanter or glass left; and, to crown it, the pall-bearers made a bonfire of their searves on the hearth-bordering on barbarism! not to be denied. We are more temperate, wholly free from excess and riot - admitted.
( 217 )
THE DUTCH LANGUAGE.
Since the memorable era of Col. Dongan's administra- tion, the descendants of the ancient families which peopled the manor of Rensselaerwyck and the city of Albany have not only suffered the decadence of the institutions and language of their fathers, but have, generally, sought to unlearn and forget every thing that was Dutch ; and thus virtually contributed, in no small degree, to render their paternity a bye-word. The ancient language of the city has been so wholly neglected, that, although spoken in some families, we know of but one scion of the ancient stock who thought it worth his while to cultivate it for literary purposes. Hence an impression prevails of the general stupidity of the people and the meagreness of the language. Nor is this impression in regard to the Dutch, notwithstanding the respectable figure they have made in the world for several centuries, confined to this country. It is not a little remarkable, says a British writer, that of a people whose national character runs in many respects parallel with ours ; who have been animated by a similar spirit of industry, commercial enterprise and maritime ardor, even the language should be hardly at all known in this country, notwithstanding the study of it is calculated to throw so much light upon our own, which has not only the same common origin, but has immediately borrowed a great number of words and expressions from it. So far from meriting that contempt with which the insolence of ignorance has branded them, there are few nations which have contributed more towards the civilization of Europe, and to learning and science, than the people of the Nether- lands. The country that has produced an Erasmus and a Grotius, a Swammerdam, a Leeuwenhoek, and a Boer- haave ; that has done so much for the physical sciences, for medicine, jurisprudence, philology, classical and orien- tal literature ; that can boast of such writers as a Vondel
18
218
The Dutch Language and Literature.
and a Bilderdijk ; that has done so much for the cultiva- tion of its language ; that possesses so many literary societies and institutes, together with others for the en- couragement of the fine arts, ought not to be stigmatized as one inhabited by a dull, plodding race of merchants.
One circumstance, which, if it has served to diffuse over Europe the labors of its learned men, has also merged their celebrity in that of continental literature generally, has been the practice of employing Latin ; a circumstance which has rendered an acquaintance with the Dutch lan- guage unnecessary for the purpose of profiting by their studies or discoveries. Most probably, too, the universal celebrity of the Dutch scholars throughout the learned world has in no small degree tended to divert attention from, and excite a prejudice against the vernacular lan- guage and literature, as being rude and uncultivated, and unfitted for any nobler purpose than that of carrying on the intercourse of daily life. Yet so very far is this from being the case, that there is scarcely any modern tongue which either contains within itself more plastic clements, or which has been more carefully wrought up and polished ; nor have any people paid greater attention to purity of style and elegance of diction, than the writers of Holland of late years. It can not be said that the difficulty of acquiring it has deterred us from attempting to form any acquaintance with the literature of this country ; because, of all foreign idioms, it is that which bears the strongest family resemblance to our own ; so much so, that flippant and ignorant travellers have sometimes described it as a sort of bastard English; which is just as correct as it would be for a Hollander to call English a bastard jargon of Dutch. Those who decide that the language in which Vondel wrote is a barbarous one, would be capable of pronouncing with equal effrontery that the language em- ployed by Milton is altogether rude and unpolished. It certainly has its defects, but they are those of our own language, which sounds equally harsh to European ears, and is condemned as being clogged with consonants and abounding with monosyllables. At the same time it pos- sesses far greater homogeneousness, and, like the German,
219
The Dutch Language and Literature.
the power of combining out of its own elements and roots, that class of words which we borrow immediately from the Latin and the Greek; for instance, onnavolgbare, in- imitable ; vereeningen, to unite ; veelomvattende, compre- hensive, &c .; whereas we have only a very few of the kind, such as unchangeable, wherein the Saxon root is employed.
It is not pretended that the literature of the Dutch language contains so much to reward the student as that of Germany, but it certainly contains a very great deal, and much too that is equally or even more worthy of finding translators in this country than many of the pro- ductions which have come from Germany. There is a current of sound and healthy feeling in the literature of Holland ; a devotional fervor, and a regard for the hal- lowing influences of domestic life ; a beautiful simplicity ; together with a nobleness and independence, pervading many of the poetical productions of that country.
We copy from the Encyclopedia Americana, its article on the Language, Literature and Poetry of the Nether- lands, at the risk of being thought to depart from our province, in the hope that it may have the effect to inspire more favorable opinions on this subject even among those who ought more highly to reverence the language and literature of their fatherland.
The language spoken in the northern part of the late kingdom of the Netherlands, and generally called Dutch, is derived from the Old Saxon, from which have also sprung the Anglo-Saxon (of which again the English lan- guage is a descendant), the Low German (Niedersächsisch, Plattdeutsch), and the Flemish. The Flemish language, in its chief features and radical words, coincides with the Dutch, though it borrows many words from the French. It differs, however, from the Dutch, by a more nasal pro- nunciation, while that of the Dutch is more guttural. There is, however, in the Netherlands, a dialect totally different from the Dutch ; that is, the Walloon, a corrup- tion of the French. In all Flanders, Northern Brabant, and a part of Southern Brabant, the Flemish is the com-
220
The Dutch Language and Literature.
mon language. The line of division is in Brussels, where the people of the lower city speak Flemish ; in the upper city, Walloon. To the south of Brussels, in the (so called) Walloon Brabant, in Hainault, Namur, Liege, and part of Limburg, the Walloon continues to be the popular lan- guage. It is worthy of remark, that, even in that part of Flanders which has been under the French sceptre for a long series of years, the Flemish, nevertheless, is the popular language as far as Dunkirk; while, to this mo- ment, Walloon is spoken in Hainault, Brabant, and par- ticularly in Liege, though so long united to Germany. The dialects of the Low German, spoken in the Nether- lands, may be divided into five : ]. the proper Dutch, which, as early as towards the end of the fifteenth century, was elevated to a literary language in the northern pro- vinces ; 2. the (so called) Peasant-Frisian (once the literary language of Gysbert Japix), an idiom which is gradually disappearing ; 3. the Gelders dialect, or the (so called) Lower Rhenish; 4. the Groningen dialect, to which also belongs the Upper Yssel dialect; and, 5. the Flemish, which has remained the literary language in the southern provinces, though much poorer than the Dutch, and over- loaded with all the mongrel words, of which Coornhert, Spiegel and Hoost have purified the Dutch. As to Bel- gium, the French sovereignty there of nearly twenty years has greatly narrowed the bounds of the Teutonic lan- guages, particularly in the cities, and especially in Brabant. The commencement of the independent development of the Dutch language also marks the beginning of the Dutch literature. As early as towards the end of the fifteenth century, the language was already fixed by numerous translations of the Bible, controversial writings, poems and popular works. Gansfort and Agricola, in Groningen, were among the first who distinguished themselves as divines and scholars. Erasmus, of Rotterdam, made far greater progress. A still greater genius, Hugo Grotius, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when science, repressed during the long struggle for liberty, began again to revive, embraced, at the same time, philology and an- tiquities, poetry, history, philosophy, theology, and juris-
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