USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol IX > Part 22
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The hotels are not many in number, but they are on a large scale, and have the reputation of being among the most comfortable in the country. Of the boarding houses we heard also a very favorable account; and if they at all resembled the one in which we had the good fortune to be placed, they must be of the best description, as we had found nothing so much like a comfortable English home, as the house of Mrs. Lockwood, at 59 Pearl street, where we remained for several weeks, and enjoyed ample ac- commodation in rooms, good fare, and, above all, great kindness and courtesy, and genteel and agreeable society.
There is a large Temperance hotel in North Market street, well furnished, supplied with baths, and conducted, as we had heard from competent and impartial authorities, in a manner to afford great satisfaction to all who fre- quented it.
In connection with the state of education in Albany, it should be mentioned, that in addition to an ample number of the common schools, for the general instruction of the humbler classes, and Sunday schools attached to every church in the city, there are two first-rate institu-
Albany Academy
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tions ; one called the Albany Academy, for the education of male youths only ; and the other called the Albany Female Academy.
The Albany Academy was first instituted by the mu- nicipal body of the city, about the year 1813; and the munificent grant of 100,000 dollars was made from the city funds, for the purpose of erecting the building. This is a large and substantial edifice of stone, with a centre and two wings, occupying a front of 90 feet, of three stories in height; the centre is surmounted by a turret or small steeple, and the whole is surrounded by an open space of green lawn. Its position is advantageous and commanding, occupying a portion of the hill on the north, while the Capitol occupies a corresponding site on the same hill on the south, with the great avenue of Washington street running between them.
The mayor and recorder of the city are trustees, ex- officio, to whom are added others from the gentry and clerg 7 of the city to the number of sixteen in all; and thes constitute the governing body of the institution.
The faculty consists of the principal, a professor of Latin and Greek, a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, a professor of English literature, and a pro- fessor of modern languages; to which are added the assistants and tutors in each department, and these are bound to adhere to the printed statutes, of which a copy is put into the hands of every student on entering.
The students are admitted from the age of six years and upwards, and are taught such branches of learning as their parents or guardians may prescribe. For this purpose, the course of tuition is divided into four branches. In the fourth class or department, the one into which the pupil first enters, he is taught reading, writing, arith- metic, grammar, geography, natural history, and general history. In the third class are taught the higher branches of geography, and grammatical construction of style, in prose and verse-the belles lettres, and elements of criticism, and exercises, composition and declamation.
In the second class are taught the higher branches of
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arithmetic, book-keeping, algebra, mathematics, natural philosophy, architecture, mathematical geography, and drawing. In the first class are taught Latin and Greek, Roman and Grecian antiquities, mythology, ancient his- tory, and biography.
The expense of each pupil, of which there are now about 300 in the several classes, is as follows : 28 dollars per annum for the first class; 20 dollars per annum for the second and third class; and 16 dollars per annum for the fourth class; and, as the building was provided by the funds of the state, it is found that this low scale of expense, from £3. 3s. to £5. 12s. per annum, is quite sufficient to remunerate handsomely the principal, the professors, and the tutors, besides admitting the gratu- itous education of a certain number of the best scholars of the common or district schools, who are selected from year to year, according to their merit, by the trustees of the institution.
The Albany Female Academy, was commenced about the year 1817. The funds for its establishment were raised in shares of proprietors, amounting to 30,000 dollars; with this a very fine and commodious building . was erccted in North Pearl street, where its noble projecting portico, of the Ionic order, the pillars of which are about 6 feet in diameter, and 50 feet in height, add greatly to the architectural beauty of the street.
This institution was intended to give to female youths all the advantages of the best classical and mathematical education which is afforded in other institutions to male youths only ; and its whole arrangement is well adapted to this end.
It is under the goverment of 13 trustees who are elected annually by the stockholders, and who according to the charter, for both of these academies are incorporated, have the general management of its affairs. Its officers are, a president, secretary, and treasurer ; and its faculty consists of a professor of mental philosophy and rhetoric, a professor of natural philosophy, chemistry and botany, a professor of the French and Spanish languages, and a professor of elocution and composition, in addition to
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ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. ERECTED 1834.
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which are teachers of sacred music, of the organ, harp, and piano forte, of drawing, and of Latin and Greek.
There is a large and well chosen library attached to the institution with maps, charts, globes, models, and an excellent chemical and philosophical apparatus. It contains also a cabinet of specimens in natural history, mineralogy and botany ; and the principal, Dr. Campbell, who lectures on Biblical and Jewish antiquities, and the professor who lectures on physiology, have each an extensive set of well executed transparent drawings for the illustration of their respective subjects.
There are two classes of pupils-those who come from the country, and board with the family of the principal or with the teachers-and those whose families reside in town. The former consist of about 140; and the expense of their board and education is from 200 to 225 dollars per annum. The number of the latter is about 250; and the cost of their education is from 12 to 32 dollars per annum, according to the class in which they may be; the lowest or 6th class being 3 dollars per quarter, and the highest or first class being 8 dollars per quarter.
This experiment, which has now been continued for upwards of twenty years, has proved abundantly what many still affect to disbelieve or doubt, that the female intellect is in no degree whatever inferior, in its capacity to receive and retain instruction; in the highest and most difficult branches of learning, to the male; that their powers of application, and their zeal for information, is also quite equal to that of the other sex; and that such differences as have hitherto existed between the intellect- ual condition of male and female youths, have been wholly owing to their being subjected to different modes of education.
The same defect which belongs to every plan of schol- astic training that I have yet witnessed, characterizes this, namely : that no portion of time seems to be allotted to physical training. There is neither walking, riding, gymnastics, nor any other fixed and regular exercises for the body. The consequence is, that among the 400
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pupils of the Academy there did not seem a single example of vigorous or robust health. Slender forms, pale cheeks and feeble physical powers, were the general characteristics : were the constant drain upon the mental powers, in the study of most of the subjects taught in the Academy, and particularly in geometry and the mathematics tended still more to enfeeble frames of great delicacy: and was calculated, as it seemed to me, to shorten life, as well as to make that portion which re- mained less healthy for the individuals themselves, and less favorable for their offspring, than if they had two or three hours less of learning per day, and two or three hours of walking, riding, or gymnastic exercises, suited to their years and sex, in the open air.
It is a very general belief among the more elderly people of America, that the present race of female youths are greatly inferior in physical stamina to the preceding generation; and considering the mode of life they lead, with little or no systematic plan of exercise in the open air; with very early and severe application to studies while at school; correspondingly early introduction into life, passing fron 15 to 17 amid the late hours and dissipation of fashionable parties, thinly clad, and es- pecially during the most inclement parts of the winter; early marriages, from 16 to 18; and early bearing of children, with the drain upon the strength, of nursing; insufficient sleep, ill-prepared food, hasty and unmas- ticated meals, profusion of pastry, sweetcakes, and ice- creams, which destroy the appetite for more simple, and more nourishing food, and require frequent recourse to medicine; it is hardly to be wondered at, when all these deteriorating causes are considered, and their accumu- lated force from generation to generation, taken into account, that the effect should be a declining stamina in every succeeding race.
Next to the establishments for education, those for religious worship deserve attention; and these are here, as everywhere that we had yet visited, numerous, well furnished, and well sustained. The Methodists have the
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greatest number of churches, there being six belonging to that body of Christians. The Presbyterians come next, having five churches. The Dutch reformed relig- ion has three, and the Baptist, three. The Episcopalians have two, St. Peter's and St. Paul's; the Catholics have two, one of them a very fine building, and the German Lutherans, the Universalists, and the Quakers, one each.
There are thus 24 large churches, containing, in the whole, perhaps, accommodation in seats for 24,000 per- sons out of a population of 30,000, of which, taking into account the infants, the very aged, the sick, and the infirm, there will be always at least 6,000 or one-fifth that could not attend public worship; so that the means of religious observances are amply sufficient for every individual, who could possibly profit by them; and it is believed that at least 20,000 persons out of the 30,000, do really attend the places of public worship on the Sabbath in Albany.
The contrast which this offers to England is very remarkable. I have seen estimates, by which it appeared that not more than one in one hundred attended public worship in London; and I think that in Norwich, where the churches are very numerous, and much zeal exerted to procure attendance, not more than twelve in one hundred, or about an eighth of the whole population fre- quented any church. It is probable, that in no part of England is there accomodation in the churches or chapels of the towns or districts for one half the population of such places; and it is doubtful where there is any town in England in which one third of the entire population really attend regularly any place of worship; while here at Albany, two thirds of the whole community are found in attendance in one or other of the churches every Sun- day. The whole of these establishments are sustained by the voluntary system of support-each congregation first choosing, and then maintaining, its own pastor, which they do with great liberality-no minister receiving less than 1,000 dollars, or 2001. per annum as regular stipend, besides presents at baptisms, weddings, &c., sometimes [ Annals, ix.] 26
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equal, on the whole, to the salary itself; and others receiving 2,000 dollars per annum, with the sam addi- tional perquisites; the scale of which may be inferred from the fact, that while we were at Albany, a marriage was solemnized between two members of the same congre- gation, and a present of 500 dollars, or 1001. was sent to the minister on this occasion. The voluntary system of supporting religion, while it is certainly more agreeable to the parties who have to make the payments, is, on the whole, more uniformly beneficial to those who are paid; as the average incomes of religious teachers in America greatly exceeds the average incomes of the established clergy in England. Besides this, it leads to great care and circumspection on the part of the people who are to choose and pay their pastor, to see that he is in every respect an honor to their choice and worthy of their reward.
The estimation in which the clergy are held here, and the influence which they consequently exercise over the taste and conduct of the community, is much greater than it is in England; and thus it is that the churches are more uniformly filled, the services are altogether more decorous, more impressive, and more efficient; the seats more commodious, the furniture more substantial, the singing and music more refined, as well as devotional; the prayers more earnest, the sermons more searching and the congregations more influenced by religious mo- tives or respect to religious principles and observances in their general conduct in society.
I remember to have heard here a curious anecdote of one of our distinguished legislators, which is worth re- cording. In a conversation, which I had with one of the state judges, resident in Albany, as to the opposite opinions entertained in England, on the subject of support- ing religion by a state establishment, or by the voluntary system, I mentioned that I had myself heard debates in the English House of Commons, in which it was boldly asserted on the one side, that the flourishing condition of the churches of every sect in America, was sufficient proof of the excellence of the voluntary system of
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support for religion ; while on the other hand, it was as warmly contended by those who were in favor of a state establishment, that the voluntary system had entirely failed in America, where there was a great deal less of religion and religious observances, than in England. I added, that these counter assertions stag- gered the doubting, who could not decide on the relative value of the conflicting evidence, especially when a nobleman of great talents, one of the ablest supporters of the state church, and who, in addition to his rank, station, and ability, added the advantage of having traveled in America, allied himself to the latter party.
Upon hearing this, the learned judge said,"I do not wonder that this noble lord saw so little of the religion and the religious observances of the Americans, when he traveled among them; because I happen to remember being at Utica, where the court was then sitting at the period of his arrival in that city, accompanied by two other gentlemen now in the British legislature; and on the Sunday when our religious observances are most apparent, these young English statesmen, and friends and advocates of an established church, set off in their carriage to the West, with their dogs and guns on a shooting or sporting excursion, to the no small surprise of those who thought they might have all been much more appropriately employed."
To every one of the churches in Albany, a Sunday school is attached, in which are educated and trained up in respect for religion, about 5,000 children; the duty of teachers in these schools is performed by young persons of the first families of the city, of both sexes, who appear to take a great delight in this pure exercise of benevolence, by gratuitously instructing those who would otherwise remain ignorant, and devoting themselves for years to this service.
It appears from the ancient records of the corporation, that the first church in Albany was erected in the year 1656, the corner stone of which was laid by Rutger Jacobson. It was of course a Dutch church. The bell and pulpit were sent from Holland in April, 1657.
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Previous to this time, divine service was performed in "The Fort," and afterwards in a small block house erected for the purpose. This church, for which the bell was sent, continued to be used till the year 1715, a period of 59 years. At that time the church was found too small, and the inhabitants determined on erecting a larger one. But with characteristic fondness for preach- ing, and for divine service generally, it was resolved that the old church should be used during the period that the new church was erecting over it. it was accordingly so managed, that while the new church was in progress, enclosing the old one, not a single Sunday was lost in preaching in the latter. In 1806, the new church was opened, and the old one demolished; and it is stated, that a Dutchman of the name of Onderkirk, was the first person christened in that church, and the last one buried at the sound of its bell.
The next oldest place of worship in Albany, was St. Peter's church, the foundation of which was laid in 1705, in the reign of Queen Anne, who presented it with plate . for the communion service. The inscription on the new one erected in its stead in State street, is as follows: "Glory to the Lord, for he is good-for his mercy endureth for ever-Saint Peter's Church-formerly standing in the centre of State street, at its intersection with Barrack street; built A . D. 1705-incorporated A. D. 1802."
Of the other public buildings, the Capitol, or Legisla- tive Hall, is one of the most prominent. It stands on the summit of the hill, or highest part of the city of Albany, and terminates the upward vista of State street, from the river, as the Albany Academy terminates the vista of Steuben street, each having their foundations at an elevation of 130 feet above the Hudson. It is a fine building of stone, 115 feet in front, 90 feet in depth, and 50 feet in height, independently of the small tower arising from the centre, on the summit of which stands a figure of justice. It has a basement of 10 feet and two stories above that. The east front looking down State
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street, towards the river, has an Ionic portico of 4 pillars, about 33 feet in height; and in the interior are the two halls of legislation, for the senate and the assembly, with the Supreme court of justice, and the court of Chancery for the state, the State Library consisting of 30,000 vol- umes, and other rooms for committees and public bus- iness. The various rooms are well proportioned, and well adapted to their respective purposes : they are adorned with full length portraits of Washington, of the several governors of the state, in succession, of the several chancellors of the state also, with portraits and busts of other public characters of America.
The City Hall which is not far from the Capitol, and which is used for municipal business transacted by the mayor and corporation, who form the local government of the town, is also a fine edifice, built of white marble, and surmounted by a dome, which is gilded, and is a conspicuous object from afar on approaching the city.
A new State Hall is now in progress of building, constructed also of white marble, and in the neigh- borhood of the Capitol, the Academy, and the City Hall.
This is to contain all the public offices for the various state officers, such as the secretary of state, comptroller, treasurer, surveyor-general, attorney-general, and others.
Of newspapers, there are four in Albany-three daily, and one weekly. Of the daily, there are two morning and one evening paper. "The Argus," published in the morning, is conducted by the gentleman who holds the office of state printer, which is very lucrative; and he, of course supports the existing administration, or is in other words, highly democratic, the local government of the state according with the general government of the Union, it being in the hands of the democratic party at present. The other morning paper," The Daily Adver- tiser," is Whig, or opposed to the present administration, so is "The Evening Journal," while " The Family Week- ly Newspaper" is on the democratic side; so that in number of organs, the forces are well balanced; and in ability, the talent appears as equally divided. Here, however, as everywhere else in America, the most
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violent language is used by the writers of one party towards those of another; and so entirely partial are both, that no stranger could ever arrive at the truth, without comparing the statements of the one side with those of the other, which, however, are often so directly opposite, even in matters of fact, that it is difficult to know how much to allow for misrepresentation in both.
As an instance, the following may be cited. The state authorities being in want of a house for some public purpose, and the state printer (the editor of the Argus) having one well adapted to such purpose, it was pur- chased of him by the authorities for what was considered a fair and just price. If the house had belonged to any person else, the matter would, perhaps, never have been heard of more ; but belonging to the democratic editor, it became the subject of the most unsparing attacks, and imputations of corruption, bribery, fraudulent misappli- cation of the public money, and so on, for days and weeks, in succession; the papers on each side making it the subject of a bitter partisan warfare throughout the state.
The following, from a neighboring journal, is the shortest specimen that can be given of the sort of lan- guage used by the editors, of and towards each other in this criminating and recriminating kind of controversy:
"The Cooperstown Freeman's Journal concludes a brief notice of the misrepresentations on this subject, with the following remark :
" 'We ought not to close our passing notice of this without, at least, adverting to the character of the source whence these black and damning charges, upon gentle- men equal-in integrity and respectability to any in this or any other state, proceed. They have their origin with the Albany Evening Journal; a paper which, in its dealings with the character and conduct of others, and with matters of fact repudiates as well the binding force of the received obligations of honorable courtesy, as the still higher obligation of a sacred regard for truth. With such characteristics, it is not surprising that it has earned the contempt of all honorable men.' "
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The population of Albany was, at the last census of 1830, ascertained to be 28,109; and at present it is estimated to exceed 30,000. Among these there are fewer colored persons than we had yet seen in any part of America, the domestic servants being mostly Irish, from among the emigrants who pass through this city on their way to the West.
There is also less of inequality in the condition of the families residing here, than in the larger cities on the sea coast. There are much fewer who are very rich- and scarcely any who are very poor. The individual of the greatest wealth, perhaps, in the state, it is true, re- sides here, but he is only one : the fortunes of most of the other wealthy men here being much more moderate.
This is the celebrated Stephen Van Rensselear, known by the name of the Patroon, a word derived from the Dutch and corresponding in its meaning, it is said, to our English phrase of "lord of the manor." This gentleman's ancestor was one of the earliest of the Dutch settlers here; and had a grant of land, extending for 24 miles along the banks of the river, and 24 miles inland, at that time an uncleared wilderness, but now a princely domain. This has descended, by the custom of primo- geniture, to the present possessor : but a law of the state of New York, passed some time since, having prohibited such custom in future, the property will, at his death, be divided among his children.
In addition to his territorial and patrimonial wealth, the Patroon some years since was obliged to take, in payment of a bad debt of 50,000 dollars then owing to him, a tract of land near New York; and another in the west of this state, which he then considered a great hardship, as it was comparatively valueless. Increased population, and the progressive improvement of the country, have made these tracts, however, so valuable, that, it is said, his whole property, patrimonial and otherwise, yields him a clear income of more than a million of dollars, or £200,000 sterling per annum. I have no means of ascertaining whether this is strictly
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