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After the expiration of eight days from the date here of In" Ross has permits con to go into The City of new York , and hose tarn again. .
Given at Brunswick This Sixth day of July 1778.
Inn Rops.
AUTOGRAPH PERMIT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.
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It is well to recount these sufferings-the price of liberty-to the boys of to-day, that they may value their birthright accordingly.
New York was not a pleasant place of residence during these seven years. Martial law, with its rigors, bore heavily upon the people. They were in constant fear, too, of an attack from the Americans. Then the burned district, added to by another great fire in August, 1778, was covered with a city of tents and cabins that sheltered the vilest banditti of the British enemy, so that no citizen felt himself safe in the streets after dark, while the presence of the hos- pitals and prison-houses harrowed the souls of the pitiful. Business was suspended; many were in want. No one could leave without a pass from Lord Howe or his subordinates. No one could enter from within the American lines without a permit from General Washington, like that shown in the illustra- tion. Only the wealthier royalists were sad when, on the 25th of November, 1783, the rear-guard of the British army embarked at the Battery, and with crest- fallen air rowed away to their ships. At the same hour there marched down from the Bowery the army of occupation. This column was composed of the picked men of the army, heroes of a score of bloody fields ; in the van Captain Stokes' troop of dragoons, next an advance guard of light infantry, then, in order, artillery, a battalion of light infantry, the Sec- ond Massachusetts Regiment, and a rear-guard, the whole under the command of Major-General Knox. The line of march was down the. Bowery to Chatham, through Chatham to Queen (now Pearl),
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then the principal thoroughfare; through Queen to Wall, and up Wall to Broadway, where, opposite Cape's tavern, at Rector Street, the column halted to receive the civic procession soon to follow. At the same moment, a company of light infantry and one of artillery were detailed to proceed to Fort George, hoist the American colors on its flag-staff, and fire a salute of thirteen guns. The men hurried away, gained the parapet, and, looking on the bay, saw it covered with the boats of the British and Hessians, en route to their ships. But they soon found that the latter had played them a most un- manly trick-the flag-staff had been greased, and the halyards cut, so that it was impossible to hoist their colors. A sailor-boy volunteered to climb the pole, but, after several attempts, was obliged to desist. What was to be done? The flag must be raised be- fore the salute could be fired, and there were the red-coats on the bay laughing at their plight. A happy thought struck the sailor-boy. He called for hammer, nails, a saw, and boards. The latter he cut up into cleats, nailed on the staff above him as he ascended, and so reached the top, where halyards were quickly reeved, and the colors hoisted.
Meantime, in the city, a larger, more imposing pro- cession had been following the route of the military. It started from the Bull's Head tavern, on the present site of the Thalia Theatre, Captain Delavan's West- chester Light Horse in advance ; General Washing- ton and George Clinton, Governor of New York, with their suites on horseback; the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor and members of the City Council, pro tem,
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four abreast ; Knox, Steuben, James Clinton, Mc- Dougall, and other general officers, eight abreast ; citizens on horseback, eight abreast ; and lastly, the Speaker of the Assembly, and citizens on foot. The greatest enthusiasm greeted this body, and, when it halted before Cape's tavern, the military presented arms, the drums beat, and Fort George thundered a salute. Addresses were then made to General and Governor by prominent citizens, and in the evening a grand dinner was given by the Governor at Fraunces' tavern, at which a distinguished company gathered. Governor Clinton chose for his residence the De Peyster mansion, on Queen Street near Cedar, and the government of the new State of New York went into operation without friction. Two months later the Governor's council appointed James Duane the first mayor, and the city govern- ment was complete. Thus New York came under the folds of the last flag that was to wave over her.
An army other than that in scarlet uniform fol- lowed the retreating British to their ships-the American loyalists, who, having adhered to the crown, had now no part in the new country, and whom the bitter resentment of the Whigs, if not their own pride, would have forced into exile. Ac- cording to British official reports, dated November 24; 1783, 29,244 men, women, and children had, up to that date, been furnished transportation to Cana- da. Not all were loyalists, however; there were soldiers with their families among them, and 3,000 negro slaves which were taken by their masters.
One other scene in the great drama of the Revo-
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FRAUNCES' TAVERN.
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lution remained to be enacted before the curtain could be rung down for the last time-the leave- taking by the Commander-in-Chief of the officers of his army. This occurred in the "great room " of Fraunces' tavern, the fashionable hostelry of the day, and where Washington had fixed his head- quarters. On Thursday, December 4, 1783, the principal officers assembled at the tavern for the final parting. It was a time of farewells. They were never to meet again as soldiers. Washington is said to have been affected to tears. He entered the room where the true and tried comrades were assembled, and, taking a glass of wine in his hand, spoke as follows :
" With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." Having drank, he continued. "I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each will come and take me by the hand." Knox, Washington's favorite officer, who stood nearest him, turned and grasped his hand, and while the tears rolled down the cheeks of each, the Com- mander-in-Chief kissed him. This he did to each one in turn, while tears and sobs stifled utterance. Soon repressing his emotion, however, Washington left the room and walked in silence to Whitehall, followed by a great multitude, and there, at two o'clock, military rank and state laid aside, he entered a barge to proceed to Paulus Hook on his way to Virginia.
XVII.
CONSTITUTION MAKING.
THE colonies were now free, but they were by no means a nation. They were in fact separate, dis- tinct sovereignties, each with prejudices and inter- ests, rights and privileges of its own, which were jealously guarded. The Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777, were but temporary expedients, and weak at the best. The Continental Congress was little more than an advisory council ; it might make laws but it had no power to execute them ; it could neither impose duties, nor lay taxes, nor make treaties, nor conduct other necessary diplomatic
business. Manifestly some strong central power, general in scope, must be organized to perform these functions. To create that power, to construct a strong, national government and yet preserve un- impaired the rights of the States, was the problem presented to the statesmen of that period ; fortu- nately they were equal to the task. That Washing- ton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Morris, Randolph, Luther Martin, and their confrères were statesmen indeed, the strain of a hundred years has proved.
In February, 1787, in answer to a request from a
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convention which had been held at Annapolis, Mary- land, the preceding September, Congress called a con- vention of delegates from the several States to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, " for the sole and ex- press purpose of revising the Articles of Confedera- tion, and reporting to Congress and the various Legislatures such alterations and new provisions as should be necessary to meet the exigencies of gov- ernment and preserve the Union." A " revision " was all that the framers of this call contemplated.
The delegates from New York were the eminent lawyers John Lansing, Robert Yates, and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton favored a strong Federal gov- ernment, while Lansing and Yates were bitterly opposed to it. The majority in the State Legisla- ture, which elected them, was also opposed to it. New York, as a State, was opposed to any scheme of a national government. Under the Confederacy her great commercial advantages and vast extent of territory gave her a preponderance of power, where- as under a federal form of government she would in some important respects possess no more power than the smallest State. The convention met in May. Fifty-five members were present, representing every State except Rhode Island. A body of men pos- sessing equal genius, learning, and wisdom had prob- ably never before met. Washington was President. Benjamin Franklin, eighty-two years of age, was a delegate from Pennsylvania ; Robert Morris, the great financier, and George Read, one of the signers of the Declaration, were his colleagues. South Carolina sent three accomplished lawyers -- John Rutledge
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CONSTITUTION MAKING.
and the two Pinckneys-Charles C. and Charles -- the two first-named educated at Oxford and the Temple. From Virginia came, in addition to Washington, George Wythe, her Chancellor, and his pupil, James Madison, a handsome, graceful man of thirty-seven, who proved himself a leading mind in the convention. Luther Martin, afterward counsel for Aaron Burr in his famous trial for treason, and John Dickinson, who had also been trained in law in the Temple, were the central figures of the Maryland delegation. Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey ; Caleb Strong, Elbridge Gerry, and Rufus King, of Massa- chusetts ; William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, and Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, were the greatest minds and purest patriots of their respective States. Hamilton, not yet thirty, with slight, grace- ful form and boyish face, is generally admitted to have been one of the leading spirits of the body. He had made a study of the science of government ; he had a definite plan and matured ideas on the sub- ject to present, while the others, with the possible exception of Madison, had not. The convention sat nearly four months before it could complete its labors. It was soon found to be composed of three parties-ultra Federalists, ultra Republicans, and a third moderate party occupying middle ground be- tween the two. The Federalists, led by Hamilton, submitted a scheme for a central government, mak- ing the States subordinate, and modelled somewhat after the English plan. There was to be a Senate and House of Representatives to make the laws, and a President to execute them. Senators and the
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President were to be elected for life or during good behavior. Governors of States were to be appointed by the Senate and President, and were to have the power of vetoing the acts of the State Legislatures. The Republicans, or Democrats as we should now call them, led by Franklin, opposed this plan. They wished the States to retain all the powers they then possessed, and to have the old Confederation, altered to meet present needs, continue in force. There was much heated discussion between the advocates of the two plans, and for a time it seemed probable that the convention would agree on nothing. At last James Madison, leader of the moderate party, came forward with a plan which combined portions of both systems, and which was the framework of the present Constitution of the United States. This compromise plan was opposed at first by both parties, but, at last, enough of the extremists on both sides to pass it were won over, and on Septem- ber 17, 1787, it was adopted. It had next to be ratified by nine of the thirteen States, and here came the tug of war. In New York the contest was fierce and bitter. The Republicans, led by Governor George Clinton, opposed even the modified plan. Her delegates, Yates and Lansing, had withdrawn from the convention before it had passed, saying that Hamilton, in advocating it, had exceeded his powers. The objections of the Republicans to the instrument were, that it robbed the States of their sovereignty ; that it clothed the President with too much power; and that the people were not suffi- ciently protected by a Bill of Rights. To these
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objections Hamilton, Jay, and Madison responded in a series of celebrated papers called The Federalist, which showed with convincing logic and wonderful force and clearness of statement that the American States could never hope to become any thing more than a group of petty, jealous, warring provinces, unless they consented to waive a few of their rights for the public good and unite as one powerful, puissant nation.
A State convention was called for ratifying the Constitution, and met in Poughkeepsie June 17, 1788, with Governor. George Clinton as President. From New York City were sent as delegates, Jay, Hamilton, Chancellor Livingston, Richard Morris, the Chief-Justice of New York, and James Duane, the Mayor. The city was in favor of the Constitu- tion. There the influence of Hamilton, Jay, Chan- cellor Livingston, and other liberal minds was para- mount, but in the State at large the prevailing sentiment was against it. Four counties, it was found, had elected Federalists, eight had elected Republicans, and two were divided. There were in all sixty-seven delegates. A long and acrimonious discussion followed. The majority of the delegates were strongly opposed to New York's giving up her advantages as the Empire State. Perhaps they would not have consented at this time had not news come that New Hampshire had adopted the Constitution. New Hampshire made up the requi- site majority of nine States ; the Constitution had been adopted. New York must therefore accept it, or secede from the Confederation. She chose the
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former alternative, and agreed to ratify the instru- ment, July 26, 1788. A great popular demonstration in favor of it, held in New York City, July 23d, is said to have had its influence. This was one of the grandest and most elaborate occasions the city had as yet seen, and was the first instance, it is believed, of trades' guilds appearing as such in public proces- sion in the city. We condense a description of it from the newspapers of the day, which the reader may contrast with those of some modern proces- sions.
At ten in the morning thirteen guns from the federal ship Hamilton gave the signal for the pro- cession to move, the different bodies composing it being already assembled in the City Hall Park. The route was down Broadway to Great Dock Street, thence through Hanover Square, Pearl, Chatham, Division, Arundel, and Bullock streets, to the Bay- ard House, near Grand Street, where, beneath a rus- tic temple, a banquet for six thousand guests had been spread. Ten divisions, representing the ten States which had adopted the Constitution, com- posed the procession. First marched a body of light horse in full regimentals, preceded by a band of trumpeters and a company of artillery with a field- piece. Next came Christopher Columbus on horse- back, preceded and followed by foresters with axes. . The farmers came next, Nicholas Cruger in farmer's dress guiding a plow to which three yoke of oxen were attached, while John Watts, also in farmer's costume, conducted a harrow drawn by both oxen and horses; many farmers followed. Then came a
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newly invented threshing machine, under the care of Baron Polnitz, threshing and winnowing grain, cap- able, the old chroniclers say, of threshing and clean- ing seventy-two bushels of grain per day. On a splendid gray horse, elegantly caparisoned and led by two colored men in Oriental costume, Anthony White bore the sculptured arms of the United States, and following in full military uniform marched the local Society of the Cincinnati. Then came gardeners in green aprons, tailors attended by a band of music, grain measurers, with banners depicting brimming measures, and underneath the lines :
" Federal measures and measures true Shall measure out justice to us and you.'
The bakers made a handsome appearance. First came ten apprentices, clad in white aprons with blue sashes, each carrying a large rose decorated with ribbons ; then ten journeymen in similar garb pre- ceding a large square platform on wheels drawn by ten bay horses, on which was mounted the federal loaf, which bore the names in full of the ten con- senting States, and in the baking of which a whole barrel of flour had been used.
Next marched the brewers and coopers, the latter presenting a striking appearance with their thirteen apprentice boys, each thirteen years of age, dressed in white shirts, trousers, and stockings, and in hats ornamented with thirteen pillars, colored green and white. After the boys came forty-two apprentices, with green oak branches in their hands, and then a
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stage drawn by four bay horses, with workmen upon it at work on a new cask, which was completed as the procession moved, and long preserved as the " federal cask."
After the stage came one hundred and thirty- eight masters and journeymen coopers, each carry- ing green oak branches in their right hands, and wearing oaken boughs in their hats. After these came the butchers, the tanners and curriers, the breeches-makers and glovers, the cord-wainers, the carpenters, the furriers, the hatters, the peruke makers and hair-dressers, the florists, whitesmiths, cutlers, confectioners, stone-masons, bricklayers, painters, cabinet-makers, chair-makers, ivory turners, and musical-instrument makers, drum-makers, up- holsterers, weavers, paper stainers, civil engineers, shipwrights, blacksmiths, ship-joiners, boat-builders, block and pump-makers, sail-makers and riggers, each with their appropriate emblems.
Heading the seventh division was the " federal ship Hamilton," the great feature of the procession, "a frigate of thirty-two guns, twenty-seven feet keel, and ten feet beam, with galleries, and every thing complete and in proportion, both in hull and rigging, manned with thirty seamen and marines in uniform. commanded by Commodore Nicholson, and drawn by ten horses." This gallant craft played an impor- tant part in the procession. Thirteen guns from her deck, as we have seen, gave the signal for the procession to move.
"She then got under way," continues the chronicler, " with her top-sails a-trip and courses in the brails, pro-
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CONSTITUTION MAKING.
ceeding in the centre of the procession. "When abreast of Beaver Street she made the proper signal for a pilot by hoisting a jack at the fore-top mast-head and firing a gun. The pilot-boat appeared upon her weather quarter ; the frigate threw her main-top-sail to the mast ; the boat hailed and asked the necessary questions ; the pilot was received on board, and the boat dismissed. The frigate then filled, and moved abreast of the fort, where the crew discovered the President and Members of Congress. She immediately brought to, and fired a salute of thirteen guns, which was followed by three cheers, and politely answered by the gentlemen of Congress. The proces- sion then moved. When the ship came opposite Mr. Constable's, the crew discovered at the window Mrs. Edgar, who had generously honored the ship with the present of a suit of silk colors. Immediately they manned ship, and gave three cheers. When she arrived abreast of Old Slip she was saluted with thirteen guns from his Most Catholic Majesty's packet, then in the harbor, which was politely returned. She then made sail, and proceeded through Queen Street to the fields (City Hall Park), when squalls coming on, and the wind ahead, she beat to windward by short tacks, in which the pilot displayed his skill in navigation, heaving the lead, getting ready for stays, putting the helm a-lee, etc. In the fields she had to descend several hills, in raising which she afforded a delightful prospect to the specta- tors, her top-sails appearing first, and then her hull, in imitation of a ship at sea, exhibiting an appearance be- yond description, splendid and majestic. When she
arrived at her station abreast of the dining station, she clewed up her top-sails, and came to, in close order with the rest of the procession, the officers going ashore to dine. At four o'clock she gave the signal for marching
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by a discharge of thirteen guns, when the procession moved by the lower road .* The manner in which the ship made her passage through the narrow part of the road was highly interesting and satisfactory, being obliged to run under her fore-top-sail in a squall and keep in the line of the procession. This was accom- plished with great hazard by the good conduct of the commander and the assiduity of the seamen and pilot. She arrived at her moorings abreast of the Bowling Green at half-past five, amidst the acclamations of thousands, and the different orders of procession, as soon as they were dismissed, honored her with three cheers as a mark of approbation for the good conduct of the commodore and crew." .
After the frigate, which was near the centre of the procession, came a handsome pilot-boat full manned. Then the Marine Society, with its white silk banner, and after it more guilds-the printers, bookbinders. stationers, cartmen, carvers and engravers, coach and harness - makers, coppersmiths, tin - plate workers, pewterers, goldsmiths and silversmiths, potters, tobacconists, dyers, brushmakers, tallow chandlers, and saddlers, each with banners, devices, and emblazoned symbols of its craft, and with hun- dreds of its craftsmen clad in gala attire and bearing green oak branches in their hands and boughs in their hats. The ninth division was formed of the gentlemen of the bar in their robes, "two and two," of the Philological Society, faculty and students of the university, and of the merchants of the city. In the tenth and last division marched the physicians,
* Broadway.
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CONSTITUTION MAKING.
distinguished strangers and gentlemen, and, bringing up the rear, a section of artillery.
"The line of procession," to again quote our chronicler, "containing nearly five thousand persons, extended upwards of a mile and a half. The march was slow and majestic, and the appearance of the scene as far sur- passed every one's expectation as mere description must fall short of it. While numberless crowds were pressing on every side, the doors and windows of houses were thronged by the fair daughters of Columbia, whose ani- mated smiles and satisfaction contributed not a little to complete the general joy. As this splendid, novel, and interesting exhibition moved along, an unexpected silence reigned throughout the city, which gave a solemnity to the whole transaction. No noise was heard but the deep rumbling of carriage wheels, with the necessary salutes and signals. . The whole body having arrived at Bayard's house, were disposed in a line and reviewed ; after which, the varied insignia of the procession being left upon the fields, the citizens were conducted to their several dining tables, where they were honored by the company of Congress, of many foreigners of dis- tinction, and the patriotic and respectable clergy of the city."
The building provided for the entertainment con- sisted of three large pavilions connected by a col- onnade of one hundred and fifty feet front, and beautifully decorated with the arms and colors of the nations in alliance with America. Thirteen toasts followed the grand dinner in order as follows : Ist. The United States. 2d. The States which have ratified the new Constitution. 3d. The Convention
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of the State of New York: may it soon add an eleventh pillar to the federal edifice. 4th. General Washington. 5th. His Most Christian Majesty. 6th. His Catholic Majesty. 7th. The States-Gen- eral of the United Netherlands. 8th. The friendly powers in Europe. 9th. The patriotic framers of the present national Constitution. 10th. The mem- ory of those heroes who have fallen in defence of American liberty. IIth. Success to agriculture, manufactures, and the sciences. 12th. May trade and navigation flourish. 13th. The day : may the union of the States be perpetual. After each toast ten cannon were fired, and in order "to diffuse the joy to all classes of citizens, an ample proportion of the entertainment was despatched to the prisoners in gaol. The repast ended, the procession returned in the same manner to its place of setting out ; and the citizens were dismissed by half-past five o'clock." A grand display of fireworks in the evening closed the pageant.
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