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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A 
 COLLECTION MADE BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 1854-1919 
 
 AND BEQUEATHED TO 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
HISTORY ^ 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, 
 
 FBOM THE 
 
 li!SiC0ve«g t0 il&t ^xmni §^. 
 
 By WILLIAM L. STONE. 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE <» UFE AND TIMES OF SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON, BART."; 
 
 " LIFE AND WRITINGS OF COL, WM. L. STONE," 
 
 Etc., Etc., Etc. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 R. D. COOKE, 
 
 32 NEW CHURCH STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
 1876. 
 
 A- 
 
HISTORY 
 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
 The histosy of new york naturally divides itself into three pebiodf? of TnoE: — First — 
 
 FROM IT6 SETTLEMENT BY THE DUTCH TO ITS PERMANENT OCCtPANCY BY THE ENGLIBH ; SeCOnd 
 — FROM THE ENGLISH CONQUEST TO THE CLOSE OF THE HEVOLUTIONAEY WAH ; AND, Third— THOK 
 ITS EVACUATION BY THE BRITISH DOWN TO THE PREBENT DAY. 
 
 FIRST PEEIOD. 
 1598-1674. 
 
 The •ettlement of New York Island by the Dutch, and its permanent occupancy 
 
 by the English. 
 
 It is the general belief tliat the first landing made on New York 
 Island, or the "Island of Manhattan," as it wasthencalled,wasby Hendrick 
 Hudson, in 1609. This, however, is not the case ; since the earliest records 
 extant state that as early as 1598, a few Hollanders, in the employ of a 
 Greenland Company, were in the habit of resorting to New Netherlands 
 (»'. e. New York), not, it is true, with a design of effecting a settlement, 
 but merely to secure a shelter during the winter months. With this view 
 they built two small forts, to protect themselves against the Indians. 
 Nevertheless, the fact remains undisputed, that to Hudson belongs the 
 honor of being the first one who directed public attention to the Island 
 of Manhattan as an advantageous point for a trading port in the New 
 World. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1609, the great navigator sailed out of the har- 
 bor of Amsterdam, and "by twelve of ye clooke" of the 6th he was two 
 leagues off the land. He was in the employ of the Dutch East India 
 Company, who had commissioned him to seek a passage to the East Indies 
 by the north side of Nova Zembla. Having, however, found the sea at 
 that part full of ice, he turned the prow of his little vessel, the Ifalf- 
 Moon, westward, and, after a month's cruise, reached the great Bank of 
 , Newfoundland, on the 2d of July. Thence he sailed southward to the 
 James River, Virginia, and again altering his course — still in pursuit of a 
 
new channel to India — he coasted along the shores of New Jersey, and on 
 the 2d of September, 1609, cast anchor inside of Sandy Hook. 
 
 The topography of New York Island, as it was first seen by Hudson, 
 was as follows : 
 
 " The lower part of it consisted of wood-crowned hills and beautiful 
 grassy valleys, including a chain of swamps and marshes and a deep 
 pond. Northward, it rose into a rocky, high ground. The sole inhabit- 
 ants were a tribe of dusky Indians, — an off-shoot from the great nation 
 of the Lenni Lenape, who inhabited the vast territory bounded by the 
 Penobscot and Potomac, the Atlantic and Mississippi, — dwelling in. the 
 clusters of rude wigwams that dotted .here and there the surface of the 
 country. The rivers that gird the Island were as yet unstirred by the 
 keels of ships, and the bark canoes of the native Manhattans held sole 
 posses.sion of the peaceful waters. 
 
 " The face of the country, more particularly described, was gently 
 undulating, presenting every variety of hiU and dale, of brook and rivulet. 
 The upper part of the Island was rocky, and covered by a dense forest ; 
 the lower part grassy, and rich in wild fruit and flowers. Grapes and 
 strawberries grew in abundance in the fields, and nuts of various kinds 
 were plentiful in the forests, which were also filled with abundance of game. 
 The brooks and ponds were swarming with fish, and the soil was of lux- 
 uriant fertility. In the vicinity of the present " Tombs " was a deep, 
 clear, and beautiful pond of fresh water (with a picturesque little island in 
 the middle) — so deep, indeed, that it could have floated the largest ship in 
 our navy, — which was for a long time deemed bottomless by its possessors. 
 This was fed by lar^e springs at the bottom, which kept its waters fresh 
 and flowing, and had its outlet in a little stream which flowed into the 
 Eist E,iveT, neaT the foot of James street. SmaWer ponds dotted the 
 Island in various places, two of which, lying near each other, in the vicinity 
 of the present corner of the Bowery and Grand street, collected the waters 
 of the high grounds which surrounded them. To the northwest of the 
 Fresh Water Pond, or " Kolck," as it afterwards came tobe called, beginning 
 in the vicinity of the present St. John's Park, and extending to the north- 
 ward over an area of some seventy acres, lay an immense marsh, filled 
 with reeds and brambles, and tenanted with frogs and water-snakes. A 
 little rivulet connected this marsh with the Fresh Water Pond, which 
 was also connected, by the stream which formed its outlet, with another 
 strip of marshy land, covering the region now occupied by James, Cherry, 
 and the adjacent streets. An unbroken chain of waters was thus stretched 
 across the Island from James street at the southeast to Canal street at the 
 northwest. An inlet occupied the place of Broad street, a marsh covered 
 the vicinity of Ferry street, Eutgers street formed the center of another 
 marsh, and a long line of meadows and swampy ground stretched to the 
 northward along the eastern shore. 
 
" The highest line of lands lay along Broadway, from the Battery to 
 to the northernmost part of the Island, forming its backbone, and slop- 
 ing gradually to the east and west. On the corner of Grand street and 
 Broadway was a high hill, commanding a view of the whole Island, and 
 falling ofif gradually to the Fresh Water Pond. To the south and west, 
 the country, in the intervals of the marshes, was of great beauty — roll- 
 ing, grassy, fertile, and well watered. A high range of sand hills traversed 
 a part of the Island, from Varick and Charlton to Eighth and Greene 
 streets. To the north of these lay a valley, through which ran a brook, 
 which formed the outlet of the springy marshes at Washington Square, 
 and emptied into the North River at the foot of Hammersly street." * 
 
 Meanwhile, Hudson, having explored the river that bears his name 
 as far as the present City of Albany, set sail on the 4th of October for 
 Europe, bearing the news of the discovery of a new country — the opening 
 for a new commerce ; for although his patrons were disappointed in finding 
 a short road to the land of silks, teas, and spices, still, his great discovery 
 was destined to open in future time mines of wealth, more valuable than 
 all the imagined riches of the Celestial Empire. 
 
 At that period, Holland carried on a lucrative trade with the East 
 Indies and Russia. Every year they dispatched nearly one hundred ships 
 to Archangel for furs ; but Hudson's glowing accounts of the rich peltry 
 he had seen in the newly discovered regions soon turned the attention of 
 the busy Dutch to a country where these articles could be purchased with- 
 out the taxes of custom-houses and other duties. Accordingly, in the 
 year 1610, a few merchants dispatched another vessel, under the com- 
 mand of the Ilaff-Moon's former mate, to traffic in furs with the Indians. 
 This venture met with such success, that two years after, in 1612, the 
 Fortune and the Tiger, commanded, respectively, by Hendrick Christiaen- 
 sen and Adrien Block, sailed on a trading voyage to the '-Mauritius River," 
 as the Hudson was first named. The following year, also, three more 
 vessels, commanded by Captains Da Witt, Volckertsen, and Wey, sailed 
 from Amsterdam and Hoven on a similar adventure. These were the 
 beginnings of the important fur trade, which was, ere long, to be a 
 chief source of wealth to Holland and America. It was now deter- 
 mined to open a regular communication with the newly-discovered region, 
 and to make the Island of Manhattan the dep3t of the fur trade in 
 America. It was also resolved to establish permanent agents here for the 
 purchase and collection of skins, while the vessels were on their voyages 
 to and irom Holland. Captain Hendrick Christiaensen became the first 
 agent, and built a redoubt, with four small houses, on ground which, it ia 
 said, is now the site of No. 39 Broadway. 
 
 A little navy was commenced about the same periodj by Captaii) 
 
 • Mis? M, L. Pppth'e Hibtorj' of New Yofk, 
 
Adrien Block, one of the vessels of which was accidentally burned, just on 
 the eve of his departure for Holland. Having abundant materials, 
 however, in the Island of Manhattan, he finished another ; and in the 
 spring of 161-1, launched the first vessel ever built in New Amsterdam. 
 She was named the Restless, a yacht of sixteen tons — a name prophetic of 
 the ever-busy and future great city. The entire winter passed in build- 
 ing the vessel, the Indians kindly supplying the strangers with food. 
 Such were the earliest movements of commerce in New Netherlands two 
 centuries and a half ago ! 
 
 A few months before Captain Block's return to Holland, the States- 
 General of the Netherlands, with a view of encouraging emigration, 
 passed an ordinance granting the discoverers of new countries the exclusive 
 privilege of trading at Manhattan during four voyages. Accordingly, 
 the merchants who had sent out the first expedition had a map made of 
 all the country between Canada and Virginia, as the whole new region 
 was called, and, claiming to be the original discoverers, petitioned the 
 Government for the promised monopoly. Their petition was granted ; 
 and on the 11th of October, 1614, they obtained a charter for the exclusive 
 right of trade on the territory within the 40th and 45th degrees of north 
 latitude. The charter also forbade all other persons to interfere with 
 this monopoly, in the penalty of confiscating both, vessels and cargoes, 
 with a fine also of 50,000 Dutch ducats for the benefit of the charter's 
 grantees. The new province first formally received the name of New 
 Netherhnd in this document ; and Dutch merchants, associating themselves 
 under the name of the " iJnited New Netherland Company,'' straightway 
 prepared to conduct their operations on a more extensive scale. Trading 
 parties to the interior hastened to collect furs from the Indians, and 
 deposit them at Forts Nassau (Albany) and Manhattan. Jacob EeUdns, 
 a shrewd trader, received the appointment of agent at the former place, 
 where the first one, Captain Christiaensen, had been murdered by an 
 Indian. This was the first murder ever recorded in the new province. 
 
 In the year 1617, a formal treaty of peace and alliance was concluded 
 between the Dutch and the powerful nation of the Iroquois. The pipe 
 of peace was smoked, and the hatched buried in the earth, on the present 
 site of Albany. This treaty, as may readily be imagined, greatly increased 
 the prosperity of the Dutch traders, who had hitherto occupied Manhat- 
 tan merely by the sufferance of the Indians. Their agents accordingly 
 at once extended their trips further into the interior, obtaining on each 
 trip valuable furs in exchange for the muskets and ammunition so much 
 coveted by the natives. This trade became so profitable, that when the 
 charter of the United New Netiierland Company expired, in 1618, they 
 petitioned for a renewal, but failing to obtain it, they continued their trade 
 two or three years longer, under a special license.- 
 
 Up tQ this period, the Hollanders had considered Manb.atta,n a,s a 
 
9 
 
 trading post only, and dwelt in mere temporary liuts of rude construction. 
 But the British now explored the American coast, claiming the whole 
 region between Canada and Virginia, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
 Oceans ; and the Dutch, consequently, began to realize the importance of 
 securing their American possessions in the new province. The English 
 Puritans, hearing glowing accounts of NeAV Netherland, requested per- 
 mission to emigrate there with their families. But the States-General, 
 having other plans in view, declined the prayers of the Puritans. They 
 thought it better policy to supply the new province with their own country- 
 men, and on the 3d of June, 1621, granted a charter to the West India 
 Company for twenty years, which conferred upon them the exclusive 
 jurisdiction over New Netherland. It may well be questioned whether the 
 States-General acted wisely in the course thus pursued. Had it filled the 
 land, as the English were doing, M'ith crowds of hardy, moral emigrants and 
 pioneers — farmers, with their cattle and husbandry — the Dutch settlements 
 would have advanced with far greater rapidity. Be this, however, as it 
 may, the West India Company no sooner became possessed of the charter, 
 than it at once became a power in the new countrj'. Having the exclusive 
 right of trade and commerce in the Atlantic, from the Tropic of Cancer to 
 the Cape of Good Hope, upon the eastern continent, and from Newfound- 
 land to Magellan Straits, on the western, their influence over this im- 
 mense teri'itory was almost boundless in making contracts with the Indians, 
 building forts, administering justice, and appointing public officers. In 
 return, the chartered Company pledged itself to colonize the new territory. 
 The government of this association was vested in five separate chambers 
 or boards of management, in five principal Dutch cities : Amsterdam, 
 Middleburg, Dordrecht, one in North Holland, and one in Friesland. 
 The details of its management were intrusted to an executive board of 
 nineteen, commonly called the AssemMi/ of Nineteen. The States-General 
 further promised, on its part, to give the Company a million of guilders, 
 and in case of war, to supply ships and men. Meanwhile, the Puritans, 
 not disheartened, reached Plymouth Eock, and thus conveyed their faith 
 and traffic to the shores of New England, where they continue to this day. 
 
 The West India Company now began to colonize the new province 
 with fresh zeal. The Amsterdam Chamber, in 1623, fitted out a ship of 
 250 tons, the Neio Netherland, in which thirty families embarked for the 
 distant territory whose name she bore. Captain Wey commanded the 
 expedition, having been appointed the first Director of the province. 
 Most of these colonists were Walloons, or French Protestants, from the 
 borders of France and Belgium, and sought a home from religious perse- 
 cutions in their own land. 
 
 With the arrival of the Neio Netherland, a new era in the domestic 
 history of the settlement began. Soon saw-mills supplied the necessary 
 timber for comfortable dwellings, in the place of the bark-huts built after 
 II 
 
10 
 
 the Indian fashion. The new buildings were generally one-story high^ 
 with two rooms on a iioor, and a thatched roof garret. From the want 
 of brick and mortar, the chimneys were constructed of wood. The inte- 
 rior was, as a matter of course, very scantily supplied with furniture — the 
 great chest from Fatherland, with its prized household goods, being the 
 most imposing article. Tables were generally the heads of barrels 
 placed on end ; rough shelves constituted the cupboard, and chairs were 
 logs of wood rough-hewn from the forest. To complete the furniture, there 
 was the well known " Sloap Banck" or sleeping-bench — the bedstead — 
 where lay the boast, the pride, the comfort of a Dutch housekeeper, the 
 feather-bed. Around the present Battery and Coenties Slip and the 
 Bowling Green were the houses, a few of which were surrounded by gar- 
 dens. The fruit-trees often excited the thievish propensities of the 
 natives, and one devastating war followed the shooting of an Indian girl 
 while steahng peaches from an orchard on Broadway, near the present 
 BowUng Green. Meanwhile, commerce kept pace with the new houses, 
 and the staunch ship, the New Netherlands returned to Holland with a 
 cargo of furs valued at $12,000. 
 
 Anxious to fulfill its part of the agreement, the "West India Company, 
 in 1625, also sent out to Manhattan three ships and a yacht, containing 
 a number of families, armed with farming implements, and 103 head of 
 cattle. Fearing the cattle might be lost in the surrounding forests, the 
 settlers landed them on Nutten's (Governor's) Island, but afterward con- 
 veyed them to Manhattan. Tw o more vessels shortly after arrived from 
 Holland, and the settlement soon numbered some 200 persons, and gave 
 promise of permanency. 
 
 In the year 1624, Wey, returning to Holland, WUliam Verhulst suc- 
 ceeded him in the Directorship. The latter, however, did not long enjoy 
 the emoluments of office, for at the end of a year he also was recalled, 
 and Peter Minuit appointed, in his place, Director-General of NewNether- 
 land, with full power to organize a provisional government. He arrived 
 May 4, 1626, in the ship Seamen, Adrian Jovis, captain. The first seal 
 was now granted to the province, having for a crest, a beaver, than which, 
 for a coat of arms, nothing could have been more appropriate. It was 
 fitting that the earliest Hollanders of the "Empire City" should thus 
 honor the animal that was so fast enriching them in their newly-adopted 
 home. 
 
 To the credit of Director Minuit, be it said, the very first act of his 
 administration was to purchase in an open and honorable manner the Island 
 of Manhattan from the Indians for sixty guilders, or twenty-four doUara. 
 The Island itseK was estimated to contain 22,000 acres. The price paid, it is 
 true, was a mere trifle, but the purchase itself was lawful and satisfactory 
 to the aboriginal owners — a fact which cannot be truly said in regard to 
 other regions taken from the Indians. 
 
11 
 
 To assist him in carrying out his instructions, the Director was fur- 
 nished with an Executive Council. The latter body was, in turn, assisted 
 by the Koopman, who acted as Secretary to the province and book-keeper 
 of the public warehouse. Last of all, came the Schout-Fisod, a civil facto- 
 tum, half sheriff and attorney-general, executive officer of the Council, 
 and general custom-house official. Thus early had the Dutch an eye 
 to the " main chance," the export of furs that year (1626) amounting to 
 $19,000, and giving promise of a constant increase. 
 
 Some thirty rudely-constructed log-houses now extended along the 
 shores of the East River, and these, with a block-house, a horse-mill, and 
 a " Company's" thatched stone building, constituted the settlement two 
 hundred and forty-two years since of the present City of New York. 
 Clergyman or schoolmaster was as yet unknown in the infant colony. 
 Every settler had his own cabin and cows, tilled his land, or traded with 
 the Indians — all were busy, like their own emblem, the beaver. 
 
 In the year 1629, the "Charter of Privileges and Exemptions" was 
 granted in Holland, and patroom were allowed to settle in the new colony. 
 This important document transferred to the free soil of America the old 
 feudal tenure and burdens of Continental Europe. The proposed Patroon- 
 eries were only transcripts of the Seigneiiries and Lordships so common at 
 that period, and which the French were, at the same time, establishing in 
 Canada. In that province, even at the present day, the feudal append- 
 ages of jurisdiction, preemption rights, monopolies of mines, minerals, 
 and waters, with hunting, fishing, and fowling, form a part of the civil law. 
 Pursuing, however, a more liberal poKcy, the grantees of the charter to 
 the New Netherland patroom secured the Indian's right to his native 
 soU, at the same time enjoining schools and churches. 
 
 Meanwhile, the settlement in New Netherland continued to prosper, 
 and soon became the principal depot for the fur and coasting trade of the 
 patroom. The latter were obliged to land all their cargoes at Fort 
 Amsterdam ; and in the years 1629-30, the imports from old Amsterdam 
 amounted to 113,000 guilders, and the exports from Manhattan exceeded 
 130,000. The Company reserved the exclusive right to the fur trade, and 
 imposed a duty of five per cent, on all the trade of the patroom. 
 
 The inhabitants, in order not to be idle, turned their attention, with 
 fresh zeal, to ship-building, and with so much success, that as early as 1631, 
 New Amsterdam had become the metropolis of the New World. The 
 New Nethsrland, a ship of 800 tons, was built at Manhattan, and dispatched 
 to Holland — an important event of the times, since the vessel was one of 
 the largest merchantmen of the world. It was a very costly experiment, 
 however, and was not soon repeated. Emigrants from all nations now 
 began to flock into the new colony. They were principally induced to 
 come by the liberal ofiers of the Dutch Company, who transported them 
 in its own vessels at the cheap rate of twelve and a half cents per diem for 
 
12 
 
 passage and stores ; giving them, also, as a still further inducement, as 
 much land as they could cultivate. Nor were these the only reasons 
 which caused so many to leave their Fatherland. With a wise and liberal 
 policy, totally different from that of its eastern neighbors, the Dutch 
 province granted the fullest religious toleration. The Walloons, Cal- 
 vinists. Huguenots, Quakers, Catholics, and Jews, all found a safe and 
 religious home in New Netherland, and here laid the broad and solid 
 foundation of that tolerant character ever since retained by the City of 
 New York. In our streets and along our broad avenues may be seen on 
 any Sabbath, Jews, Gentiles, and Christians, all worshipping God in their 
 sacred temples, and " according to the dictates of their own consciences." 
 In the meantime, the Directors of the West India Company calcu- 
 lated, with the strong aid of ihe patroons, upon colonizing the new country, 
 and, at the same time, securing the important free trade in their own 
 hands. But they were met, almost at the outset, with serious opposition 
 from that class who, not content with a negative policy, took active 
 measures to seriously injure this traffic. From the first, the object of 
 the pairoons had seemed to be a participation in the Indian trade, rather 
 than the colonization of the country ; and they had even claimed the 
 privilege of trafficing with the Indians from Elorida to Newfoundland, 
 according to their charter of 1629. This extensive trade the West India 
 Company justly considered an interference with their vested rights and 
 interests, and no time was lost in presenting their complaints to the 
 States-General. That body thereupon adopted new articles, the effect of 
 which wag essentially to limit the privileges already granted to the 
 patroons. This misunderstanding had the effect of interrupting, for a 
 time, the efforts making to colonize and advance the new country. At 
 length, in 1632, both parties became in a complete state of antagonism, as ■ 
 to their privileged charters ; and, for a little time, a civil war seemed 
 inevitable. In the same year (1632), Peter Minuit, the Director, it will 
 be remembered, of New Netherland, was suspected of favoring the 
 patroons, and was recalled from his Directorship. He returned to Hol- 
 land in the ship Eendragt (which had brought over his dismissal), which 
 carried, also, a return cargo of 5,000 beaver-skins — an evidence of the 
 colony's commercial prosperity. The vessel, driven by stress of weather, 
 put into the harbor of Plymouth, where she was retained, on the ground 
 of having illegally interfered with English monopoHes. This arrest of 
 the Dutch trader led to a correspondence between the rival powers, in 
 which the respective claims of each were distinctly set forth. The 
 Hollanders claimed the province on the following grounds : 1st. Its dis- 
 covery by them in the year 1609 ; 2d. The return of their people in 1610 ; 
 3d. The grant of a trading charter in 1614 ; 4th. The maintainance of a 
 fort, until 1621, when the West India Company was organized ; and, 
 5th, Their purchase of the land from the Indians. The English, on the 
 
13 
 
 contrary, defended their right of possession from the prior discovery of 
 Cabot, and the patent of James I. to the Plymouth Company. The 
 Indians, they argued, as wanderers, were not the bona fide owners of the 
 land, and hence, had no right to dispose of it ; consequently, their titles 
 must be invalid. But England, being at this period just on the eve of 
 a civil war, was in no condition to enforce her claims ; and she, therefore, 
 having released the Fjcndragt, contented herself with the mere assump- 
 tion of authority — reserving the accomplishment of her designs untQ g, 
 more convenient season. 
 
 At length, in the month of April, 16-33, the ship Southherg reached 
 Manhattan with Wouter Van Twiller, the new Director-General (or 
 Governor), and a militaiy force of one hundred and four soldiers, 
 together with a Spanish caraval, captured on the way. Among the pas- 
 sengers, also came Dominie Everadus Bogardns and Adam Eoolansen, the 
 first regular clergyman and schoolmaster'to New Amsterdam. A church 
 now became indispensable ; and the room over the horse-mill, where 
 prayers had been regularly read for seven years, was abandoned for 
 a rude, wooden church, on Pearl, between Whitehall and Broad streets, 
 on the shore of the East River. This was the first Eeformed Dutch 
 Church in the city; and near by were constructed the parsonage and the 
 Dominie's stables. The grave-yard was laid out on Broadway, in the 
 vicinity of Morris street. 
 
 Van Twiller occupied " Farm No. 1" of the Company, which ex- 
 tended from Wall to Hudson street. " Farm No. 3, " at Greenwich, he 
 appropriated as his tobacco plantation. The new Governor and the 
 Dominie did not harmonize. Bogardus having interfered in pubHc con- 
 cerns, which Van Twiller resented, the former, from his pulpit, pronounced 
 the Governor a " Child of Satan." This, doubtless, was very true, but the 
 " Child of Satan " became so incensed, as never to enter the church-door 
 again. Early times had their own peculiar ways of doing things, the 
 same as ourselves. In 1688, "for slandering the Rev. E. Bogardus," an 
 old record states, " a woman was obliged to appear at the sound of a beU, 
 in the fort, before the Governor and Council, and say that she knew he was 
 honest and pious, and that she had lied falsely." 
 
 Van Twiller had been promoted from a clerkship in the Company's' 
 warehouse, and seepis to have been a very incompetent Governor. He 
 probably obtained the place, not from fitness, but from the same means 
 which act in similar cases at the present day, viz. : political influence, 
 arising from the fact that he had married the daughter of Killian Van 
 Rensselaer, the wealthy ^fliroow. 
 
 The Company had authorized him to fortify the depots of the fur trade. 
 Accordingly, the fort on the Battery, commenced in the year 1626, was 
 rebuilt, and a guard-house and barracks prepared for the soldiers. Several 
 brick and stone dwellings were erected within the fort, aad. three -ffind- 
 
14 
 
 mills, used to grind the grain necessary for the garrison, on the southwest 
 bastion of the fort. African slaves were the laborers principally engaged 
 upon these improvements. At a subsequent period, when these slaves 
 had grown old, they petitioned the authorities for their freedom, and 
 recounted their services at the time mentioned in support of their applica- 
 tion, in proof of which they presented a certificate, given them by their over- 
 seer : " That, during the adminstration of Van TwiUer, he (Jacob Stoffel- 
 sen), as overseer of the Company's negroes, was continually employed with 
 said negroes in the construction of Fort Amsterdam, which was finished 
 in 1635 ; and that the negroes assisted in chopping trees for the big house, 
 making and splitting palisades, and other work." The " big house" here 
 referred to was the Governor's residence. It was built of brick, and was, 
 no doubt, a substantial edifice, as it is found to have served for the resi- 
 dence of successive chiefs of the colony during all the Dutch era, and 
 for a few years subsequent. 
 
 In respect to the walls of the fort, they were in no wise improved by 
 the incompetent Van TwOler, except the northwest bastion, which was 
 faced with stone. The other parts of the waUs were simply banks of 
 earth without ditches ; nor were they even surrounded by a fence to keep 
 off the goats and other animals running at large in the town. When 
 Governor Kief arrived, in 1638, as Van Twiller's successor, he found the 
 fort in a decayed state : " opening on every side, so that nothing could 
 obstruct going in or coming out, except at the stone point." Nevertheless, 
 there is no doubt that the fort exercised a very salutary influence in keep- 
 ing the Indians at a respectful distance.* 
 
 In 1633, the commercial importance of New Amsterdam was increased 
 by the grant of the " Staple Eight," a sort of feudal privilege similar to 
 the institutions of Fatherland. By it, aU vessels trading along the coast, 
 or sailing on the rivers, were obhged either to discharge their cargoes at 
 the port, or pay certain duties. This soon became a valuable right, as it 
 gave to New Amsterdam the commercial monopoly of the whole Dutch 
 province. 
 
 A short time before the arrival of Governor Van TwUler, De Vries, 
 whose little colony at Suaaendael, Delaware, had been cut off by the 
 
 * In 1641, an Indian war broke out, and raged for many months, resulting in the 
 complete devastation of most of the farms and exposed settlements, even those lying 
 within a stoneVthrow of Fort Amsterdam. The frightened settlers fled to the fort ; 
 but the accommodation in the fort not affording them an adequate shelter, they estab- 
 lished their cottages as close as possible to the protecting i-amparts. Thus it was 
 that two or three new streets were formed around the southern and eastern walls of 
 the fort. After the danger had passed, these buUdings were allowed to remain, and 
 grants of land were made to the possessors. Thus was formed that portion of the 
 present Pearl street west of Whitehall street, and also a portion pf the latter 
 street, — VeienUn^s Manual, . 
 
15 
 
 Indians, returned to America on a visit, in the mammoth ship. New Neiher- 
 land. A yacht, about this time, also arrived — the EngUsh ship, Wniiam, 
 with Jacob Eelkins, who had been dismissed as supercargo by tlio 
 Company, in 1632. Enraged by this dismissal, he had entered the service 
 of the English, and had now returned to promote their interests in the 
 fur trade on the Mauritius (Hudson) Eiver. 
 
 This was a bold act, and contrary to the poUcy of the West India 
 Company. Accordingly, Van T.willer, who, though an inefficient Governor, 
 was a thorough merchant, and understood the important monopoly of the 
 fur trade, refused permission for the vessel to proceed further on its way. 
 His demand upon Eelkina for his commission was refused by the latter, 
 on the ground that he occupied British territory, and would sail up the 
 river at the cost, if need be, of his life. Thereupon, the Director, ordering 
 the national flag to be hoisted, and three guns fired in honor of the Prince 
 of Orange, forbade him to proceed further in the name of his master, 
 the Dutch Government. But, far from being daunted by this prohibition > 
 Eelkins answered by running up, in his turn, the British colors, firing a 
 salute for King Charles, and coolly steering up the river in defiance of 
 Eort Amsterdam. The amazement of Van Twiller at the audacity of the 
 ex-Dutch Agent may be easily imagined. Astonished, as he was, at this 
 daring act, the Director, nevertheless, proceeded verj- philosophically : 
 First, he summoned all the people in front of the fort, now the Bowling 
 Green ; next, he ordered a cask of wine, and another of beer ; then, 
 filling his own glass, he called on aU good citizens Avho loved the Prince 
 of Orange to follow his patriotic example, and drink confusion to the 
 English Government. The people, of course, were not slow in obeying 
 this reasonable request ; indeed, what more could they do, for the EngUsh 
 ship was now far beyond all reach, safely pursuing her way up the Hud- 
 son. Still, while they drank his wine, they were deeply mortified at the 
 Governor's cowardice. De Vries openly accused him with it, and plainly 
 told him, if it had been his ease, he should have sent some " eight-pound 
 beans " after the impudent Englishman, and helped him down the river 
 again ; but it being now too late to do this, he should send the Soidhherg 
 after him, and drive him down the river. The effect of this advice was 
 not lost upon the Governor, for in a few days after. Van Twiller screwed 
 up his courage sufficiently to dispatch an armed force to Eort Orange 
 (Albany), where Eelkins had pitched his tent, and where he was found 
 busily engaged in trading with the Indians. The Dutch soldiers quickly 
 destroyed his canvas store, and, reshipping the goods, brought the vessel 
 back to Fort Amsterdam. Eelkins was then required to give up his 
 peltry ; after which, he was sent to sea, with the warning never again 
 to interfere with the Dutch Government trade. 
 
 Meanwhile, the settlement at Fort Amsterdam — the New York 
 embrj-o continued to increase and prosper, men of enterprise and wealth 
 
16 
 
 often arriving. Most of these came from the Dutch Netherlands, and 
 tkus transferred the domestic economy and habits of Holland and. the 
 Ebine to the banks of the Hudson. Ships were loaded with bricks, 
 burnt in Holland ; and at first, every dwelling was modeled after those 
 they had left, and with store-rooms for trade, Uke those of Amsterdam 
 and other trading towns in Fatherland. Thus, at New Amsterdam and 
 Fort Orange (Albany), rows of houses could be seen built of imported 
 brick, with thatched roofs, wooden chimneys, and their gable ends always 
 toward the street. Inside were all the neatness, frugality, order, and 
 industry which the inmates brought from their native land. A few of 
 these original, venerable Dutch homes were to be seen, till within a year 
 or two, in this citj- ; but we do not know of a single one now. Several 
 yet remain in Albany ; and it is almost worth a trip there to see these 
 striking relics of " ye olden time." Until the year 1642, city lots and 
 streets were unknown, adventurers and settlers selecting land wherever 
 most convenient for their purpose. Hence the crooked courses of some 
 of our down-town streets.* 
 
 Cornelius Dircksen owned a farm by the present Peck Slip, and 
 ferried passengers across the East River for the small price of three 
 stivers, in wampum. At that time, Pearl street formed the bank of the 
 river. Water, Front, and South streets have all been reclaimed for the pur- 
 pose of increasing trade and commerce. The old wooden, shinyled house, 
 one of the last venerable relics of the olden time, on the comer of Peck 
 Slip, was so near the river, that a stone could easily be thrown into it. 
 Pearl, it is thought, was the first street occupied, the first houses being 
 built here, in 1633. Bridge street came next ; and a deed is still in exist- 
 ence for a lot on it, thirty-four by one hundred and ten feet, for the sum of 
 twenty-four guilders, or nine dollars and sixty cents. This is the earliest 
 conveyance of city property on record. Whitehall, Stone, Broad, Beaver, 
 and Marketfield were opened soon after. In the year 1642, the first grant 
 of a city lot, east of the fort at the Battery, was made to Hendricksen 
 Rip. During the next year, several lots were granted on the lower end of 
 " Heese Straat," as Broadway was then named. Martin Krigier -(vas the 
 first grantee of a lot in this section, opposite the Bowling Green, which 
 contained eighty-six rods. There he built the well-known " Krigier' s 
 Tavern," which soon became a fashionable resort.f 
 
 Nor during all this time did the fur trade fail to keep pace. with the 
 growing local prosperity of the- place. During the year 1635, the Directors 
 
 * Pearl street, for instance. 
 
 f Upon the demoliahment of this tavern, the " King's Arms' Tavern" occupied its 
 place, which in after years was the headquarters of the British Greneral Gi<>«. 
 Subsequently, it became the " A.tlantic Grarden," No. 9 Broadway, where it loa"- 
 reroain^d one of the striking mementoes of the olden time. 
 
17 
 
 in Holland received returns from this province to the amonnt of nearly 
 135,000 guilders. But the traffic in furs was not the only source of gain. 
 Besides that monopolj', they had commenced a profitable commerce with 
 New England. Dutch vessels brought tobacco, salt, horses, oxen, and 
 sheep from Holland to Boston. An old account says they came from the 
 Texel in five weeks and three days, " and lost not one beast or sheep." 
 Potatoes from Bermuda were worth two pence the pound ; a good cow, 
 twenty-five or thirty pounds ; and a pair of oxen readily brought forty 
 pounds. In Virginia, corn rose to twenty shillings the bushel during the 
 year 1637 ; a shepel, or three pecks of rye, brought two guilders, or 
 eighty cents ; and a laborer readily earned, during harvest, two guilders 
 per diem. These were high prices for those times, and were probably 
 caused, in a measure, by the sanguinary war which the New England 
 Puritans* were carrying on with their Indian neighbors. The Pequods, 
 failing to deliver the murderers of Stone, according to treaty, had tendered 
 an atonement oi wampum, but Massachusetts demanded " blood for blood" ; 
 and they obtained it in the wars that followed. Winthrop says : " Scarcely 
 a sannup, a woman, a squaw, or a child of the Pequod name, survived.' 
 An aboriginal nation had been exterminated. It is the fashion to indulge 
 in much panegyric about these ancestral doings, but here we can calmly 
 trace the first attempt of the white race to extirpate the red men from 
 their ancestral birthright of the northern regions of America. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the large prices obtained for its wares, 
 the year 1688 found the condition of New Netherland very unpromising. 
 Although its affairs had now been administered for fifteen years by that 
 powerful body, the West India Company, stUl, the country was scarcely 
 removed from its primitive wilderness state, and, excepting the Indians, it 
 was inhabited by only a few traders and clerks of a distant corporation. 
 Its rich, virgin soil remained almost entirely uncultivated, and the farms 
 did not amount to more than half a dozen. Doubtless, the Directors of 
 the West India Company governed New Netherland chiefly to promote 
 their own special interests — to advance which, large sums had been 
 expended. But no efforts had been made as yet to introduce, on a large 
 scale, a sound and industrious emigration. The patroon system also, to 
 which reference has already been made, greatly retarded the settlement 
 of the colony. A monopoly, its patroons neglected their most important 
 duties as planters, and used their energies and means to compete with 
 the Company in the Indian trade ; consequently, misunderstandings and 
 disputes followed which became almost fatal to the prosperity of the new 
 settlement. 
 
 * Piifikim, not Pilgrims. These terms, though generally used synonomoualy, 
 refer to two entirely different classes of men. The Pilgrims never practiced religious 
 persecution ; the Puritans did. The Pilgrims came over some fifteen years earlier 
 than the Puritans. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 At this critical moment, William Kieft, the third Director-General 
 and Governor, arrived March, 1638, as the successor of the weak Van 
 TwiUer. His first step was to organize a Council, retaining, however, its 
 entire control. Dr. Johannes La Montagnie, a learned Huguenot, was 
 appointed by him a member of this new board ; Cornelis Van Tieuhoven, 
 from Utrecht, one of the oldest settlers, was made Colonial Secretary, with 
 a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars per anmtm ; while Ulrich Leopold 
 continued as Schout-Fiscal, or Sheriff and Attorney-General, Adrian 
 Dircksen was made Assistant-Commissary, because he spoke correctly 
 the language of the Mohawks, and was " well versed in the art of trading 
 with them." The Eev. Mr. Bogardus continued the Dominie, and Adsim 
 Eoolansen the Schoolmaster.* 
 
 The new Governor found the town in an extremely dilapidated con- 
 dition. The fort, rebuilt only three years before, under a government 
 contract, had lasted about as long as work generally does that is performed 
 by army or government contractors, either of the past or present day. It 
 had faJlen completely into decay ; all the guns were ofi" their carriages ; 
 and the pubUc buildings, as well as the church, were all out of repair ; 
 only one of the three wind-mills was in operation; and the Company's fine 
 farms had no tenants — not even a goat remaining upon them. But the 
 new Governor came charged with more onerous duties than simply the 
 repair of houses ; he was the bearer of a decree that no person in the 
 Dutch Company's employ should trade in peltry, or import any furs, 
 under a penalty of losing their wages, and a confiscation of their goods. 
 Abuses also existed in all the departments of the pubhc service, which 
 Kieft vainly attempted to remedy by proclamations. Death was threat- 
 ened against all who should sell guns or powder to the Indians ; after 
 nightfall, all sailors were to remain on board their vessels ; no persons 
 could retail any liquors, " except those who sold wine at a decent price, 
 and in moderate quantities," under penalty of twenty-five guilders (ten 
 doUars), and the loss of their stock. Tobacco, then as now, was greatly 
 in demand, the rich, virgin soil about New Amsterdam suiting the plant 
 well; consequently, plantations for its cultivation increased so fast, that the 
 plant was now also subjected to excise, and regulations were published 
 by the Director to regulate its mode of culture, and check certain abuses 
 which was injuring "the high name" it had "gained in foreign countries." t 
 But the new Governor did not confine himself to correcting official abuses 
 solely ; he issued also, proclamations to improve the moral condition of 
 
 * Here are some of the salaries of tliat early day, which we give for the benefit 
 of some of our city officials : La Montagnie, as Member of the Council, fourteen 
 dollars a month ; book-keeper, fourteen dollars and forty cents, with eighty dollars 
 for his yearly board ; the mason, eight dollars ; joiner, six dollars and forty cents ; 
 carpenter, soYen dollars and fifty cents, and forty dollars a year for board ! 
 
 t Albany Records, II., 3—13. 
 
19 
 
 the settlement ; and all persons were seriously enjoined to abstain from 
 " fighting, calumny, and all other immoraUties," as the guilty would be 
 punished, and made a terror to evil-doers. Eightly judging also, that 
 public worship would be a peaceful auxiliary to his labors, and the old 
 wooden church built by Van Twiller having fallen to pieces, he deter- 
 mined to erect a new one inside the fort. Jochem Pietersen, Knyter, Jan. 
 Jansen Damen, with Kieft and Captain Vries, as " Kirke Meesters," super- 
 intended the n^w work, and John and Eichard Ogden were the masons. 
 The building was of stone, seventy-two by fifty-two feet, and sixteen high, 
 and cost 2,500 guilders ; its legend, translated from the Dutch, read ; 
 "Anno Domini, 1642, Wilhelm Kieft, Director-General, hath the Com- 
 monalty caused to build this temple." New Amsterdam had a town- 
 bell ; this was now removed to the belfry of the new church, whence it 
 regulated the city movements, the time for laborers, the courts, merry 
 wedding peals, toUed the funerals, and called the people to the Lord's 
 House.* 
 
 Hardly, however, had Kieft got his plans for the moral reformation 
 01 his people fairly under way, when, as before hinted, the patroom began 
 to give fresh trouble ; that class now (1938) demanded " new privileges" — 
 " that they might monopolize more territory — be invested with the largest 
 feudal powers, and enjoy free trade throughout New Netherland." Nor 
 was this all. In their arrogance, they also demanded that aU " private 
 persons" and poor emigrants should not be allowed to purchase lands 
 from the Indians, but should settle within the colonies under the jurisdic- 
 tion of the manorial lords — /. e., themsehes. 
 
 These grasping demands of the patroons were reserved for future 
 consideration by the States-General ; and it was determined to try free 
 competition in the internal trade of New Netherland. A notification was 
 accordingly published by the Amsterdam Chamber, that all the inhabit- 
 ants of the United Provinces, and of friendly countries, might convey to 
 New Netherland, " in the Company's ships," any cattle and merchandise, 
 and might " receive whatever returns they or their agents may be able to 
 
 * At this period (1638), the settlers in New Amsterdam obtained their supplies 
 from the Company's store at fifty per cent, advance on prime coat, a list of prices 
 being placed in a conspicuous position in some place of public resort. Here are 
 some of the rates : Indian com, sixty cents per schepel of three pecks ; barley, two 
 dollars ; peas, three dollars and twenty-five cents ; flour, one dollar ; pork, five stivers ; 
 fresh meat, five ; butter, eight ; tobacco, seven ; dried fish, twelve (two York shillings) 
 per pound ; hard-bread, fifteen ; rye, five ; wheaten, seven ; cabbage, twelve dollars 
 per hundred ; staves, thirty-two dollars per thousand ; a hog, eight dollars ; ordinary 
 wine, thirty-one dollars per hogshead ; Spanish wine, four stivers ; French wine, ten 
 per quart ; sugar, seventeen and twenty-four per pound ; flannel, one dollar and 
 twenty cents per ell ; cloth, two dollars ; white linen, eighteen to twenty stivers ; 
 red flannels, one dollar and twenty cents ; children's shoes, thirty-six stivers, or six 
 York shillings ; a pair of brass kettles, forty cents each. 
 
•20 
 
 obtain in those quarters therefor." A duty of ten per cent, was paid t© 
 the Company on all goods exported from New Netherland with the 
 freight. Every emigrant, upon his arrival at New Amsterdam, was to 
 receive " as much land as he and his family could properly cultivate." 
 This Uberal system gave a great impulse to the prosperity of New 
 Netherland, by encouraging the emigration of substantial colonists, not 
 only from Holland, but from Virginia and New England. Conscience had 
 ever been free in New Netherland, and. now trade and commerce were 
 also made free to all. Political franchise in Massachusetts was limited 
 to church members, and now '' many men began to inquire after the 
 Southern ports," not from the climate there, or the necessary wants of 
 life, but, in the language of the old chronicler, " to escape their insup- 
 portable government." The only obhgation required of emigrants was 
 an oath of fidelity and allegiance to the colony, the same as imposed upon 
 the Dutch settlers. Both parties enjoyed equal privileges. 
 
 This free internal trade, however, produced some irregularities j and 
 a new proclamation now became necessary to warn all persons against 
 selling guns or ammunition to the Indians. Still another edict prohibitfed 
 persons from saihng to Fort Oraage (Albany), and the South Eiver (Fort 
 Hope), and returning without a passport. Another very unpopular 
 edict also, was shortly after issued by Kieft. His extreme anxiety to 
 serve his patrms caused him to " demand some tribute" of maize, furs, or 
 sewant, from the neighboring Indians, " whom,'' he said, " we have thus 
 faj defended against their enemies ;" and in case of their refusal, proper 
 measures were to be taken to " remove their reluctance." 
 
 In regard, however, to the Governor's proclamation against selling 
 guns, &c., to the Indians, nothing can be said against it. The case 
 demanded it. Freedom of trade with the savages had, indeed, run into 
 abuses and injurious excesses. 
 
 The colonists neglected agriculture for the quicker gains of traffic ; 
 and at times by setthng " far in the interior of the country," and, by great 
 familiarity and " treating," brought themselves into contempt with the 
 Indians. Evil consequences, as a matter of course, followed this unwise 
 conduct— the most unfortunate of which wa.s supplying the savages with 
 new weapons of defense. They considered the gun, at first, " the Devil," 
 and would not even touch it ; but, once discovering its fatal use, eagerly- 
 sought the fire-arms of the whites. They would wiUingly barter twenty 
 beaver-iikins for a single musket, and pay ten or twelve guilders for a 
 pound of powder. As no merchandise became so valuable to the red 
 men, the West India Company foresaw the evil of arming the savages, 
 and declared the trade in fire-arms contraband. It even forbade the sup- 
 ply to the New Netherland Indians, under penalty of death. But the 
 prospect of large profits easily nuUified this law of prudence and 
 wisdom. 
 
21 
 
 In 1640, Director Kieft determined upon another unwise measure, 
 "viz. : the exaction of a contribution, a tax of corn, furs, and wampum from 
 the Indians about Fort Amsterdam. This and other improper acts 
 entirely estranged them from the settlers, and laid the foundation of a 
 bloody war, which, the next year (1641), desolated New Netherland. 
 Meanwhile, Kieft, continuing stubborn, sent sloops to Tappan to levy 
 contributions ; but the natives indignantly refused to pay the novel 
 tribute. In their own plain language, they wondered how the Sachem at 
 the fort dared to exact such things from them. He must be, they said, 
 a very shabby fellow ; he had come to Uve in their land, where they had 
 not invited him, and now came to deprive them of their corn, for no 
 equivalent. They, therefore, refused to pay, adding this unanswerable 
 argument : " If we have ceded to you the country you are living in, we 
 yet remain masters of what we have retained for ourselves !" 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the many injudicious acts of Governor 
 Kieft, it cannot be denied that, during his administration, the trade of 
 New Amsterdam began to be better regulated. The streets of the town 
 also, were better laid out in the lower section of the city.* In 1641, 
 Kieft instituted two annual fairs, for the purpose of encouraging agri- 
 culture — one of which was held in October, for cattle, and the other the 
 next month, for hogs, upon the Bowling Gfreen, The holding of these 
 fairs opened the way for another important addition to the comfort of 
 the town. No tavern, as yet, had been started in the Dutch settlement ; 
 and the numerous visitors from the interior and the New England col- 
 onies had to avail themselves of the Governor's hospitalities. The fairs 
 increasing in number, Kieft found them a heavy tax upon his politeness, 
 as well as his larder ; and, in 1642, he erected a large, stone tavern, at 
 the Company's expense. It was situated on a commanding spot, near 
 the present Coenties Slip, and was afterward altered into the " Stadt 
 Muys," or City Hall. 
 
 The Governor now succeeded better, not |only in enforcing law and 
 restraining contraband trade, but in checking the importation of bad 
 wampum, which had become a serious loss to the traders, by reducing its 
 value from four to six beads for a stiver. 
 
 This wampum or sewant, from its close connection with the early trade 
 of New Netherland, requires special notice. This kind of money, or cir- 
 culating medium, embraced two kinds, the wampum or white, and the 
 Sackanhook Suei, or black sewant. The former was made from the peri-- 
 winkle, and the latter from the purple part of the hard clam. These, 
 rounded into beads and poKshed, with drilled holes, were strung upon the 
 sinews of animals, and woven into different size belts. Black beads were 
 twice as valuable as the white, and the latter became, therefore, naturally, 
 
 *The price of lota, 80x135 feet, averaged at this period about $14. 
 
22 
 
 the standard of value. A string, a fathom long,* was worth four guilders. 
 The best article was manufactured by the Long Island Indians; and,, 
 until a comparatively late period, the Montauks on that Island, or rather, 
 their descendants, manufactured this shell money for the interior tribes. 
 A clerk of John Jacob Astor many years ago informed the Hon. G. P. 
 Disosway that he had visited Communipaw, and purchased, for his- 
 employer from the Dutch this article by the bushel, to be used by the 
 great fur dealer in his purchases among the distant savages. It might, 
 perhaps, be a curious question, how many bushels of wampum is 
 invested, for example, in the hotel which bears the name of the great fur 
 mUhonaire ? The New England Indians, imitating their whiter- faced 
 neighbors, made a cheaper wampum, rough, of inferior quality, and badly 
 strung. Nor was it long before the New Englanders introduced large 
 quantities of their imperfect beads iato New Netherland for the Dutch- 
 man's goods ; next, beads of porcelain were manufactured in Europe, 
 and circulated aniong the colonists, until the evil finally became so great, 
 that the Council, in 1641, pubUshed an ordinance, declaring that a large 
 quantity of bad sewant, imported from other places, was in circulation, 
 while the good and really fine sewant, usually called " Manhattan Sewant,^'' 
 was kept out of sight, or exported — a state of things which must event- 
 ually ruin the country. To cure this public evil, the ordinance provided 
 that all coarse sewant, well stringed, should pass for one stiver. This 
 is the first ordinance, on record, to regulate such currency. In the year 
 1647, they were again reduced from six to eight for a stiver, and thus 
 became the commercial greenbacks of the early Dutch. 
 
 About this period, the increasing intercourse and business with the 
 ErigUsh settlements made it necessary that more attention should be paid 
 to the English language. Governor Kieffc had, it is true, some knowl- 
 edge of the EngUsh tongue ; but his subordinates were generally ignorant 
 of it — a circumstance which often caused great embarrassment. George 
 Baxter was accordingly appointed his EngUsh Secretary, with a salary of 
 two hundred dollars per annum ; and thus, for the first time, the English 
 language was officially recognized in New Amsterdam. 
 
 As the colony grew stronger, the Dutch scattered themselves more 
 over the interior ; established themselves more firmly at Manhattan ; and 
 in this way gave to the City of New York its first incorporation two hun- 
 dred and fifteen years ago. The ferries received early attention from the 
 corporation. No one was permitted to be a ferryman, without a license 
 from the magistrates. The ferryman also was required to provide proper 
 boats and servants, with houses, on both sides of the river, to accommo- 
 date passengers. All officials passed free of toll ; or, to speak more in 
 
 * A " fathom" was estimated, at " as much as a man could reach witli his arms 
 outstretched." The savages, consequently, were shrewd enough (in trading with the 
 whites) to choose their largest and tallest men for measuring sticks or standards. 
 
23 
 
 accordance with the language of the present day, were dead-heads. But 
 the ferryman was not compelled to cross the river in a tempest. Foot- 
 passengers were charged three stivers each, except the Indians, who 
 paid six, unless two or more went over together.* The annual salary of 
 the Burgomasters was also, at this period, fixed at three hundred and 
 fifty guilders (think of that, oh, City Fathers!), and the Shepens at two 
 hundred and fifty. A corporate seal was now granted to the city, in 
 which the principal object was a heaver, as was also the case, as has been 
 seen, with the seal of the New Netherlands. 
 
 The first charter of New Netherland restricted, as we have seen, the 
 commercial privileges of the patroons ; but in the year 1640, they were 
 extended to " all free colonists," and the stockholders in the Dutch 
 Company. Nevertheless, the latter bodj' adhered to onerous imports, for 
 its own benefit, and required a duty of ten per cent, on all goods shipped 
 to New Netherland, and five upon return cargoes, excepting peltry, 
 which paid ten at Manhattan, before exported. The prohibition of manu- 
 factures within the province was now abolished, and the Company renewed 
 its promise to send over " as many blacks as possible." 
 
 In 1643, the colonists easily obtained goods from the Company's ware- 
 house, whither they were obliged to bring their fur purchases, before 
 shipment to Holland. The furs were then generally sold at Amsterdam, 
 under the supervision of the patroon, whose share, at first, was one -half, 
 but was afterward reduced to one-sixth. Under this system, the price of 
 a beaver's skin, which before 1642 had been six, now rose to ten " fathoms." 
 It was, therefore, considered proper for the colonial authorities to 
 regulate this traffic ; and they, accordingly, fixed the price at nine 
 "fathoms " of white wampiim, at the same time forbidding all persons to 
 " go into the bush to trade." Another proclamation also declared that 
 no inhabitants of the colonies should presume to buy any goods from the 
 residents. It would appear, however, that these ordinances could not 
 be enforced ; for a sloop, soon after, arriving with a cargo, the colonists 
 purchased what they wanted. The commissary was then orc'ered to 
 search the houses for concealed goods. But the old record naively says : 
 " The Schout gossipped, without making a search." How closely do the 
 custom-house officers of the present day follow in the steps of their ances- 
 tral colleagues ! 
 
 In 1644, the ever-busy New Englanders — imagining that the beavers 
 came from " a groat lake in the northwest part" of their patent — began 
 to covet a share in the fur trade on the Delaware. Accordingly, an ex- 
 pedition was dispatched from Boston to " sail up the Delaware, as high as 
 they could go; and some of the company, under the conduct of Mr. 
 
 * On the 19th of Marc}i, 1658, the ferry was put up at auction, and leased to 
 Hermanns Van Bossung, for three years, at three hundred guilders per annum. 
 Compare this with the price recently paid by Mr. Stevens for a lease of the Hoboken 
 Ferry. 
 
24 
 
 William Aspinwall, a good artist, and one who had been in those parts, 
 to pass by small skiffs or canoes up the river, so far as they could." 
 Connected with this exploring party two centuries and a quarter ago, we 
 accordingly notice a name of world-wide fame among us — that of one of 
 our noblest and most honored merchants. The expedition failing, another 
 bark " was sent out the same year from Boston, to trade at Delaware." 
 Wintering in the bay, during the spring she went to the Maryland side, 
 and in three weeks obtained five hundred beaver-skins — a " good parcel." 
 But this second Boston trading voyage was ruined by the savages ; for, 
 as the bark was leaving, fifteen Indians came aboard, " as if they would 
 trade again," and suddenly drawing their hatchets from under their coats, 
 kiUed the captain, with three of the crew, and then rifled the vessel of all 
 ier goods. 
 
 This continued interference of New England adventurers with the 
 Delaware trade, at length became very annoying to Kieft, as well as to 
 Printz, the Swedish Governor of the Delaware colony. The Dutch at 
 New Amsterdam, as the earliest explorers of South River, had seen their 
 trading monopoly there invaded by the Swedes ; but when the New 
 Englanders made their appearance in pursuit of the same prize, the 
 Swedes made common cause with the Dutch to repel the new intruders. 
 The question of sovereignty was soon raised abroad by the arrival of two 
 Swedish ships, the Key of Calmar and the Flame, sent home by Priutz with 
 large cargoes of tobacco and beaver-skins. Bad weather, and the war just 
 begun between Denmark and Sweden, made these vessels run into the 
 Port of Harhngton in Priesland. There they were seized by the West 
 India Company, which both claimed sovereignty over all the regions around 
 the South Eiver and exacted the import duties that their charter granted 
 it. The Swedish Minister at the Hag^ue protested against these exactions ; 
 and a long correspondence ensued, which resulted in the vessels being 
 cLisoharged the following summer upon the pajTnent of the import duties. 
 Duriug the year 1644, Kieft, headstrong and imprudent as usual, 
 became involved in a war with the New England Indians. At this jimc- 
 ture of affairs, a ship arrived from HoUand with a cargo of goods for 
 Van Eensselaer's pairoon^y, and Kieft, the Dutch forces being in want 
 of clothing, called upon the supercargo to furnish fifty pairs of shoes for 
 the soldiers, offering fuU payment in silver, beavers, or wampum. The 
 supercargo, however, zealously regarding his patroorCs mercantile iaterests, 
 refused to comply, whereupon the Governor ordered a levy, and obtained 
 enough shoes to supply as many soldiers as afterward killed five hundred 
 of the enemy. The Governor, much provoked, next commanded the ves- 
 sel to be thoroughly searched, when a large lot of guns and ammunition, 
 not in the manifest, were declared contraband, and the ship and cargo 
 confiscated. Winthrop says that he had on board 4,000 weight of pow- 
 der and seven hundred pieces to trade with the natives. For such acts 
 
25 
 
 as these, Kieft seems to have been equally detested by Indians and Dutch, 
 the former desiring his removal, and daily crying " "Wouter ! Wouter !" 
 meaning Wouter Van Twiller, his immediate predecessor. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Indian war continued ; the Dutch settlers were in 
 danger of utter destruction ; and the expenses of the soldiery could not 
 be met. Neither could the West India Company send aid to its unfor- 
 tunate colony, as that body had been made bankrupt by its military oper- 
 ations in Brazil. A bill of exchange, drawn by Klieft upon the Amster- 
 dam Chamber, came back protested. The demands for public money 
 were too pressing to await the slow proceedings of an Admiralty Court. 
 Accordingly, soon after this, on the 29th of May, 1644, a privateer, the 
 La Gmrce, Captain Blauvelt, having been commissioned by the Governor 
 to cruize in the West Indies, returned to Manhattan with two rich Span- 
 ish prizes. 
 
 Director Kieft now proposed to replenish the Provisional Treasury 
 by an excise on wine, beer, brandy, and beaver-skins. This was opposed 
 by his official advisers, or the so-called " Eight Men," because they 
 thought such an act would be oppressive, and the right of taxation 
 belonged to sovereignty, and not to an inferior officer in New N§therland. 
 An old account says that the Director was " very much offended," and 
 sharply reprimanded the people's representatives, declaring, " I have 
 more power here than the Company itself ; therefore I may do and suffer 
 in this country what I please ; I am my own master." * * * 
 
 Eemaining immovable, however, he three days afterward arbitrarily 
 ordered " that on each barrel of beer tapped, an excise duty of two 
 guilders should be paid, one-half by the brewer, and one-half by the pub- 
 licum." But those burghers who did not retail it were to pay only one- 
 half as much. On every quart of brandy and wine also, four stivers 
 were to be paid, and on every beaver-skin one giiilder. Besides the 
 excise on the beer, the brewers were also required to make a return of 
 the quantity they brewed ; but upon their sternly refusing to pay the 
 unjust tribute, judgment was obtained against them, and their beer 
 " given as a prize to the soldiers." 
 
 About this time, the ship Blue Cock arrived from Curacoa with one 
 hundred and thirty Dutch soldiers, quite a reUef to the New Nether- 
 landers against their savage foe. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the efforts to restrain illicit traffic, it still con- 
 tinued at Eensselaerswyck (Albany), where three or four thousand furs 
 had been carried away by unlicensed traders. Van Eensselaer, now 
 determined, " as the first and oldest" pairoon on the river, that no one 
 should " presume to abuse" his acquired rights, erected a small fort on 
 Beelen Island. A claim of " staple right" was there set up, and Nicho- 
 las Koorn was appointed " watoh-meester," to levy a toll of five guilders 
 upon all vessels passing by, except those of the West India Company, 
 
26 
 
 and to make them also lower their colors to the merchaat pa(roon^» 
 authority. This annoyance soon manifested itself, for while the Good 
 Hope, a little yacht, Captain Lookermans, was passing down from Fort 
 Orange to Manhattan, " a gun without ball" was fired from the new fort, 
 and Koorn cried out, " Strike thy colors !" "For whom ?" demanded 
 the captain of the vessel. " For the staple right of Rensselaer !" was the 
 reply. " I strike for nobody but the Prince of Orange, or those by whom 
 I am employed !" retorted the testy Dutchman, as he slowly steered on. 
 Several shots followed. " The first," according to the old account, "went 
 through the sail, and broke the ropes and the ladder; a second shot 
 passed over us ; and the third, fired by a savage, perforated our princely 
 colors, about a foot above the head of Loockermans, who kept the colors 
 constantly in his hand." 
 
 For this daring act, Koorn was forthwith called to answer before the 
 Council at Fort Amsterdam, when he pleaded his patroon^s authority. 
 Van der Kuygens, the Schout-Fiscal (Sheriff), also protested against " the 
 lawless transactions" of the patromi's watch-meester. Still the patroon's 
 agent tried to justify his course, " inasmuch as this step had been taken 
 to keep the canker of free-traden off his colonies. Nevertheless, he was 
 fined, and forbidden to repeat his offence. 
 
 At length the pitiable condition of the New Netherland colony 
 attracted the attention of the Dutch Government. Its originators, as 
 before mentioned, had become nearly, if not entirely, bankrupt. 
 
 To use their own official words, " the long-looked-for profits thence" 
 had never arrived, and they themselves had no means to relieve " the 
 poor inhabitants who have left their Fatherland •''' accordingly, the bank- 
 rupt Company urged the " States-General " for a subsidy of 1,000,000 of 
 guilders to place the Dutch province in good, prosperous, and profitable 
 order. 
 
 This body directed observations to be made into the affairs of New 
 Netherland, and also into the propriety of restricting its internal trade to 
 residents, with the policy of opening a free one between Brazil and Man- 
 hattan. Upon making this investigation, it was found that New Nether- 
 land, instead of becoming a source of commercial profit to the Company, 
 had absolutely cost that body, from the year 1626 to 1644, " over 550,000 
 guilders, deducting returns received from there." StiU, " the Company 
 cannot decently or consistently abandon it." The Director's salary, the 
 report continues, should be 3,000 guilders, and the whole civil and mili- 
 tary estabhshment of New Netherland 20,000 guilders. As many African 
 negroes, it thought, should be brought from Brazil as the patroom, farmers, 
 and settlers " would be williug to pay for at a fair price." It would thus 
 appear that our Dutch forefathers had something to do with the slave 
 trade, as well as the Southern colonies. Free grants of land should be 
 offered to all emigrants on Manhattan Island ; a trade allowed to Brazil 
 
27 
 
 and the fisheries ; the manufacture and exportation of salt should be 
 encouraged, and the duties of the revenue officers " be sharply attended 
 to." Such was the business condition of New Netherland in the year 1645. 
 The five previous years of Indian wars had hardly known five months 
 of peace and prosperity. Kieft, perceiving his former errors, now con- 
 cluded a treaty of amity with the Indians, August 30, 1645. In two 
 years, not less than 1,600 savages had been killed at Manhattan and its 
 neighborhood, and scarcely one hundred could be found besides traders. 
 The insufficient condition of the fort as a place of defense became the 
 subject of serious consideration after this war, and the authorities in Hol- 
 land, listening to the importunities of the colonists, gave directions for its 
 improvement, requiring, however, that the people should contribute, to 
 some extent, towards the labor and expense involved. In 1647, the sub- 
 ject was discussed in the Council of the Director-General, and a resolution 
 was passed that the fort should be repaired with stone laid in mortar, 
 " by which means alone," it was stated, " a lasting work could be made," 
 inasmuch as the earth to be procured in the neighborhood was entirely 
 unfit to make it stable with sods, unless it were annually renewed, nearly 
 at the same expense ; and as this project required a considerable disburse- 
 ment for labor in carrying the stone, etc., it was found expedient to 
 consult the inhabitants, to learn the extent to which assistance would be 
 afforded by them. In communicating their resolve to the people, the 
 authorities referred to " this glorious work, which must increase the 
 respect for the Grovernment, as well as afford a safe retreat to the inhab- 
 itants in case of danger." The suggestion was, that every male inhabitant, 
 between the ages of sixteen and sixty years, should devote, annually, twelve' 
 days' labor, or, in lieu thereof, contribute for each day two guilders 
 (eighty cents). But the project was found too expensive for the means 
 at hand, and the completion of the work with stone was abandoned for 
 the time, the work being repaired with earth, as before. Nor does it appear 
 that it was, as yet, protected by an inclosure from the inroads of the 
 vagrant cattle, as the Director is found, from time to time, expostulating 
 with the city authorities against permitting swine, goats, and other animals, 
 to run at large in the town, from which great destruction to the works of 
 the fortress ensued.* 
 
 Soon atter the peace, in 1647, Kieft, having been recalled, embarked 
 for Holland, carrying with him specimens of New Netherland minerals 
 
 * This matter came to be considered of so great importance, that, in 1656, Governor 
 Stuyvesant again commp.nioated with the Holland authorities respecting the improve- 
 ment of the fort, and received from them a favorable response, stating that they had 
 no objection to have the fort surrounded -with a stone-wall, and were willing, in the 
 ensuing spring, to send " a few good masons and carpenters to assist in the work," 
 enjoining the Governor, in the meanwhile, to have the necessary materials prepared 
 and in readiness when the mechanics should arrive. — Valentine's Manual. 
 
28 
 
 (gathered by the Earitan Indians in the Neversink Hills), and a fortune, 
 -which his enemies estimated at 400,000 guilders. Dominie Bogardus 
 and Van der Kuygens, late Fiscal, were fellow-passengers in the richly- 
 laden vessel. By mistake, the ship was navigated into the Enghsh 
 Channel ; was wrecked upon the rugged coast of Wales, and went to 
 pieces. Kieft, with eighty other persons, including Bogardus and the 
 Fiscal, were lost ; only twenty were saved. Melyn, the patroon of Staten 
 Isl3,nd, floating on his back, landed on a sand-bank, and thence reached 
 the main-land in safety. 
 
 On the 11th of May, 1647, Governor Stuyvesant, as " redresser- 
 general" of all the colonial abuses, arrived at Manhattan, to enter upon 
 an administration which was to last until the end of the Dutch power 
 over New Netherland. Well might the new Governor write home that 
 he " found the colony in a low condition." Disorder and discontent were 
 everywhere apparent ; the public revenue was in arrears, and smuggUng 
 had nearly ruined legitimate trade. Such were the auspices — sufficiently 
 gloomy — under which the last of the Dutch Governors entered upon his 
 administration. Far from despairing, however, the sturdy Dutchman put 
 Tiis shoulder at once to the wheel. Publicans were restrained from sell- 
 ing liquor before two o'clock on Sundays, " when there is no preaching," 
 and after nine in the evening ; to the savages, none was to be sold.* The 
 revenue, greatly defrauded by smuggling furs into New England and 
 Virginia, for shipment to England, was now to be guarded by stringent 
 laws. The introduction of foreign merchandise by vessels running past 
 Fort Amsterdam during the night, was also to be stopped ; all vessels 
 were obliged to anchor under the guns of the fort, near the present Bat- 
 tery. For the purpose of replenishing the treasury, an excise duty was 
 now, for the first time, levied on wines and liquors ; the export duties on 
 peltry also increased ; and the unpaid tenths from the impoverished 
 farmers were called in, although a year's grace was allowed for payment, 
 in consequence of the losses by the Indian wars ; and, in addition to all 
 this, two of the Company's yachts, still further to increase the revenue, 
 were sent on a cruise to the West Indies, to capture, if possible, some of 
 the richly-laden Spanish vessels returning to Spain. 
 
 Stuyvesant also, seems to have been the first Governor who took 
 pride in improving the town itself. He found the infant city very unat- 
 tractive — fences straggling, cattle running around loose, the pubhc ways 
 crooked — ^many of them encroaching on the lines of the street, and half 
 the houses in a " tumble-down" condition. All these evils he at once set 
 about to remedy ; and one of his earliest acts was to appoint the first 
 " Surveyors of Buildings," whose duties were to regulate the erection of 
 new houses in New Amsterdam. 
 
 * It thuB appears that the Dutch themselves first introduced the excise law ; 
 they should not, therefore, complain so bitterly of the one now (1868) in operation ! 
 
29 
 
 The Dutcli Company " now resolved to open to private persons the 
 trade which it had exclusively carried on with New Netherland, the 
 Virginia, the Swedish, English, and French colonies, or other places 
 thereabout;" and the new Director and Council were ordered to be vigilant 
 in enforcing all colonial custom-house regulations. All cargoes to New 
 Netherland were to be examined, on arrival, by the custom-house officers, 
 and all who were homeward-bound were to give bonds for the payment 
 of duties in Holland. Nor was it long before Stuyvesant had an oppor- 
 tunity of showing his zeal. The St. Bmicio, an Amsterdam ship, was 
 found trading at New Haven, without the license of the West India 
 Company ; but the owners of the cargo applied for permission to trade at 
 Manhattan, upon the payment of the proper duties, This permit obtained, 
 Stuyvesant learned that the ship was about to sail directly to Virginia, 
 without any manifest or duties paid. The case having thus assumed an 
 open violation of the colonial revenue laws, the Governor embarked a 
 company of soldiers, who, saiUng up the sound, captured the smuggler 
 in New Haven harbor. This bold act naturally produced a great sensa- 
 tion ; and Eaton, the Governor of the New Haven Colony, protested 
 against Stuyvesant, as a disturber of the peace. In reply, Stuyvesant 
 claimed all the region from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod, as a part of 
 New Netherland, with the right to levy duty upon all Dutch vessels trad- 
 ing at New Haven. A sharp correspondence ensued between the " State 
 Right" parties, which resulted in the Dutch Governor issuing a pro- 
 clamation, which declared : " If any person, noble or ignoble, freeman or 
 slave, debtor or creditor — yea, to the lowest prisoner included, run away 
 from New Haven, or seek refuge in our limits, he shall remain free, under 
 our protection, on taking the oath of allegiance." The Dutch colonists, 
 however, objected to this unwise measure, as tending to change their 
 province into a refuge for vagabonds from the neighboring Enghsh settle- 
 ments, and the obnoxious proclamation was thereupon revoked. 
 
 About this period, 1 648, it became necessary to regulate the taverns, 
 as almost one-fourth part of the town of New Amsterdam had beome 
 houses for the sale of brandy, tobacco, or beer. No new taverns, it was 
 ordained, should be Keensed, except by unanimous consent of the Director 
 and his Council ; and those established might continue four years longer, 
 if their owners would abstain from selling to the savages, report all 
 brawls, and occupy decent houses — ■" to adorn the town of New Amster- 
 dam." Notwithstanding, however, all these precautions, the Indians 
 were daily seen " running about drunk through the Manhattans." New 
 York, now the metropoUtan city, witnesses every day and night crowds 
 of such drunken savages in her streets ; and it would almost seem that 
 our wise legislators have not wisdom or strength enough to frame laws 
 to subdue or prevent this public evil of all evils. At last, at New Amster- 
 dam, in addition to the former penalties, offenders against the temper- 
 
30 
 
 ance laws were now " to be arbitrarily punished, without any dissimula- 
 tion." 
 
 In the year 1648, no person was allowed to carry on business, ex- 
 cept he wa J a permanent resident, and had taken the oath of allegiance, 
 was worth from two thousand to three thousand guilders, at least, and 
 intended to " keep fire and light in the province." This was an early 
 expression of permanent residence in the Dutch province. Old residents, 
 however, not possessing the full trading qualifications, were allowed the 
 same privilege, provided they remained in the province, and used only 
 the weights and measures of " Old Amsterdam," and "to which we owe 
 our name." Scotch merchants and peddlers were not forgotten in these 
 business arrangements, for it was also ordained that " all Scotch mer- 
 chants and small dealers, who come over from their own country with 
 the intention of trading here," should " not be permitted to carry on any 
 trade in the land" until they had resided here thi-i?e years. They were 
 also required to build a '' decent, habitable tenement'' one year after their 
 arrival. Every Monday was to be a market-day, and, in imitation of 
 fatherland, an annual '• keemls," or fair, for ten days, was established, 
 commencing on Monday after St. Bartholomew's Day, at which all per- 
 sons could sell goods from their tents. The trade on the North and the 
 South Elvers was reserved for citizens having the requisite qualifications. 
 It was declared, however, that the East River should be " free and open 
 to any one, no matter to what nation he may belong." All vessels under 
 fifty tons were to anchor between the Capsey " Hoeck" (which divided 
 the East and North rivers) and the "hand," or guide-board, near the 
 present Battery. No freight was to be landed, nor any boats to leave the 
 vessels from sunset to sunrise. These regulations were strictly enforced, 
 and the high customs duties exacted from the colonists amounted to 
 almost thirty per cent., " besides waste." " The avidity of the Director 
 to confiscate," says an old account, " was a vulture, destroying the prop- 
 erty of New Netherland, diverting its trade, and making the people 
 discontented." This " bad report" spread among the English, north and 
 south, and even reached the West India and Oaribee Islands. Boston 
 traders declared that more than twenty-five vessels would every year 
 reach Manhattan from those Islands, " if the owners were not fearful of 
 confiscation." Not a ship now dared come from these places. Difficulties 
 constantly arising between the au{;horities of the fatherland and New 
 Netherland, the " Presiding Chamber" now plainly perceived that they 
 must make concessions, or lose all control over their distant colony. 
 Accordingly, the " Commonalty of Manhattan" was informed that the 
 Amsterdam Directors had determined to aboKsh the export duty on 
 tobacco, to reduce the price of tobacco, and to allow the colomsts to pur- 
 chase negroes from Africa — all this being designed to show their " good 
 intentions." They also informed Goyemor Stuyvesant of their assent to 
 
31 
 
 a " burgher government" in Manhattan, which should approach as nearly 
 as possible to the custom of " the metropolis of Holland." At the time 
 that the colonists had obtained this concession (165'2) of the long-desired 
 burgher government, New Amsterdam numbered a population of seven 
 hundred or eight hundred souIb. 
 
 At last, a naval war, long brewing, broke out between England and 
 the United Provinces, and, without warning, Dutch ships were arrested 
 in English ports, and the crews impressed. Martin Harpertsen Tromp 
 commanded the Dutch fleet. His name has no prefix of • Van," as many 
 writers insist. Bancroft and Broadhead are among the few who have 
 not adopted the common error. The Dutch Admiral was no more "Van 
 Tromp" than the English was " Van Blake," or our brave American 
 "Van Farragut." Tromp, in a few days, met the British fleet, under 
 Admiral Blake, in Dover Straits, and a bloody but indecisive fight fol- 
 lowed. BrilUant naval engagements ensued, in which Tromp and De 
 Euyter, with Blake and Ayscue, immortalized themselves. But the first 
 year of hostilities closing with a victory, Blake sought refuge in the 
 Thames, when the Dutch commander placed a broom at his masthead — an 
 emblem or token that he had swept the British Channel free from British 
 ships. These hostilities between Holland and England encouraged 
 pirates and robbers to infest the shores of the East River, and perpetrate 
 excesses on Long Island and the neighborhood of New Amsterdam. 
 Several yachts were immediately commissioned to act against the pirates. 
 A reward of one hundred thalers was offered for each of the outlaws, and 
 a proclamation issued prohibiting all persons from harboring them, under 
 the penalty of banishment and the cojitiscation of their goods. Forces 
 had even been collected to act against New Netherland, but the joyful 
 intelligence of peace sent them to dislodge the French from the coast of 
 Maine; and thus, for ten years longer, the coveted Dutch-American 
 province continued under the. sway of Holland. The peace was pub- 
 lished "in the ringing of bell" from the City HaU, and the 12th of 
 August, 1654, appointed, piously, by Stuyvesant, as a day of general 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 During the same month, 1654, Le Moyne, a Jesuit father and mis- 
 sionary to the Indians, immortalized his name by a discovery which 
 afterward formed one of the largest sources of wealth in our State. 
 Beaching the entrance of a small lake, filled with salmon-trout and other 
 fish, he tasted the water of a spring, which his Indian guides were afraid 
 to drink, saying that there was a demon in them which rendered it 
 offensive. But the Jesuit had discovered " a fountain of salt-water," 
 from which he actually made salt as natural as that of the sea. Taking 
 a sapiple, he descended the Oneida, passed over Ontario and the St. Law- 
 rence, and safely reached Quebec with the intelligence of his wonderful 
 discovery. To the State of New York it has sine 3 been more valuable 
 than a mine of silver or gold. 
 
82 
 
 During the year 1654, the Swedish and the Casimir colonists on the 
 Delaware had taken the Dutch fort there ; soon after, Stuyvesant had an 
 opportunity of retaking the Golden Shark, a Swedish ship, bound to South 
 Eiver, which, by mistake, entered Sandy Hook, and anchored behind 
 Staten Island. His error discovered, the captain sent a boat to Manhat- 
 tan for a pilot, when the Governor ordered the crew to the guard-house, 
 and dispatched soldiers to seize the vessel. The Shark's cargo wa& 
 removed to the Company's magazine, until a reciprocal restitution should 
 have been mad^. The Swedish agent sent a long protest to Governor 
 Stuyvesant, complaining of his conduct. 
 
 In the year 1656, there were in New Amsterdam one hundred and 
 twenty houses and one thousand souls. A proclamation now forbid the 
 removal of any crops in the town or colony, until the Company's tithes 
 had been paid. The authorities of Eensselaerswyck refusiag to publish 
 this notice, the tapsters were sent down to New Amsterdam, pleading 
 that they acted under the orders of their feudal officers. This defense 
 was overruled, and one fined two hundred pounds, and another eight 
 hundred guilders. 
 
 The cities of Holland, for along time, had enjoyed certain municipal 
 privileges, oaUed "great" and " small" burgher rights. In Amsterdam, 
 all who paid five hundred guilders were enrolled "great burghers,'' and 
 they monopolized all the offices, and were also exempt from attainder and 
 confiscation of goods. The " small burghers" paid fifty guilders for the 
 honors, and had the freedom of trade only. This burghership became 
 hereditary xa. Holland, and could pass by marriage, and be acquired by 
 females as well as by males. Foreigners, after a year's probation, could 
 also become burghers ; and the burghers were generally the merchants 
 and tradesmen. The various trades and professions formed separate 
 associations, or "yMj7(fe," and their meml^rs were bound to assist each 
 other iu distress or danger. In fatherland, each guild :■ enerally inhab- 
 ited a separate quarter of the town, was organized as a nuhtary company, 
 and fought under its own standard, having its own " dekken," or dean. 
 
 In the year 1657, " in conformity to the laudable custom of the City 
 of Amsterdam in Europe," this great burgher right was introduced into 
 New Amsterdam. This was an absurd imitation of an invidious policy, 
 and the mother city herself was soon obliged to abandon it, notwithstand- 
 ing Governor Stuyvesant attempted to establish in New Amsterdam this 
 most offensive of aU distinctions — an aristocracy founded on a class, or 
 mere wealth. 
 
 In Mr Paulding's '' Affairs and Men of New Amsterdam in the Time 
 of Governor Peter Stuyvesant," we find a lis,t of the recorded Gheat 
 
33 
 
 CiTizEifSHip, in the year 1657. As a rare matter of the olden time, it is 
 here given entire : 
 
 Joh. La Montagnie, Junior, Jan Gillesen Van Burggh, Hendrick 
 Kip, De Heer General Stuyvosant, Dominie Megapolensis, Jacob Gerritsen 
 Strycker, Jan Virge, The wife of Cornehs Van Teinhoven, Hendrick Van 
 Dyck, Hendrick Kip, Junior, Capt. Martin Crigier, Carel Van Burggh, 
 Jacob Van Couwenhoven, Laurisen Cornelisen Van Wei, Johannes 
 Pietersen Van Burggh, Cornelis Steenwyck, Wilb. Bogardus, Daniel 
 Xiitschoe, Pieter Van Couwenhoven. 
 
 These twentj' names composed the aristocracy of Ne\v York two 
 hundred and nine years ago, when umbrellas and carriages were unknown. 
 In our Fifth-Avenue-day of stocks, petroleum, and " shoddy," happy is 
 the man who can possibly trace his pedigree to this pure, unadulterated 
 Dutch-blooded stock ! 
 
 We have also before us the names of the " small" citizenship, which 
 number two hundred and sixteen. In a few short years it was found 
 that this division of the citizens into two classes produced great incon- 
 venience, in consequence of the very small number of great burghers who 
 were eligible to office. It now became necessary for the Government to 
 change this unpopular order. The heavy fee to obtain it frightened most 
 foreigners away, so that it was purchased but once during a period of six- 
 teen years. In the year 1668, the difference between " great " and " small " 
 burghers was abolished, when every burgher became legally entitled to all 
 burgher privileges. 
 
 During the year 1659, it was discovered that the Dutch colony had 
 as yet produced no returns, and was already seven thousand guilders 
 in arrears. It was therefore determined that, to prevent further loss, 
 such colonists only as had left Holland before December, 1658, should be 
 supplied with provisions. Goods were to be sold only for cash, and 
 exemptions from tithes and taxes were to cease several years before the 
 original stipulated period, and merchandise thereafter was to be con- 
 signed to the City of Amsterdam exclusively. The colonists remonstrated 
 against this new restriction of trade, which had the appearance of gross 
 slavery, and of fettering the free prospects of a worthy people. This 
 remonstrance was well-timed, and the City Council consented that all the 
 traders on the South Eiver might export all goods, except peltry, to 
 any place they wished. 
 
 In the year 1660, a second survey and map of New Amsterdam was 
 made by Jacques Cortelyou, and the city was found to contain three hund- 
 red, and fifty houses. It was sent to the Amsterdam Chamber, in case 
 it should, be thought " good to make it more public by having it engraved." 
 This early map has probably been lost. 
 
 The restoration of Charles the Second, in 1661, did not produce in 
 England more friendly feelings towards the Dutch ; and the two nations 
 3 
 
34 
 
 now became commeroial rivals. The Act of Navigation had already: 
 closed the ports of New England, Virginia, and Maryland, against Hol- 
 land and its Colony of New Netherland. Such at that time was the 
 narrow spirit of British statesmen ; and many Independents and Dissenters- 
 desired to seek new homes, where they would be alike free from mon- 
 archy, prelacy, and British rule. 
 
 Nor were these considerations overlooked in Holland. The West 
 India Company now determined to invite emigration to New Netherland 
 by larger inducements ; accordingly, a new charter was drawn up, which 
 granted to " all such people as shall be disposed to take up their abode 
 in those parts," fifteen leagues of land along the sea-coast, " and as far in 
 depth in the continent as any plantation hath, or may be, settled in New 
 Netherland."' Emigrants were also to have "high, middle, and low 
 jurisdiction," " freedom from head-money " for twenty years, property in 
 mines, freedom for ten years from taxes, the right to use their own ships, 
 and freedom in the fishing trade. " Therefore,'' added the Company, " if 
 any of the English, good Christians, who may be assured of the advantage' 
 to mankind of plantations in these latitudes to others more southerly, and 
 shall rationally be disposed to transport themselves to the said place, 
 under the conduct of the United Provinces, they shall have full liberty to 
 Uve in the fear of the Lord, upon the aforesaid good conditions, and shall 
 • be hkewise courteously used." A proper act, under seal of the Company, 
 was issued at the Hague, which granted to " aU Christian people of tender 
 conscience, in England or elsewhere oppressed, full liberty to erect a 
 colony in the West Indies, between New England and Virginia, in 
 America, now within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant, the States- 
 General Governor for the West India Company." How many " Christian 
 people of tender conscience" avaUed themselves of these advantageous 
 offers, does not appear ; but the metropolis prospered. A better currency 
 was now found to be indispensable, and the burgomasters wrote to Hol- 
 land for authority to establish a mint for the coinage of silver, and to 
 constitute wampum (needed for trade with the savages) an article of sale. 
 But the Amsterdam Directors refused to grant this improvement of the 
 colonial currencj'. 
 
 A number of breweries, brick-kilns, and other manufactories, carried 
 on a successful business ; and the potteries on Long Island, some persons 
 esteemed equal to those of Delft. Dirck De Wolf having obtained from the 
 Amsterdam Chamber, in 1661, the exclusive privilege of making salt 
 for seven years in New Netherland, began its manufacture upon Coney 
 Island ; but the Gravesend settlers, who claimed the spot, arrested the 
 enterprise ; and this, too, notwithstanding Governor Stuyvesant sent a 
 military guard to protect him. 
 
 In the year 1664, the population of New Netherland had increased 
 to " full ten thousand," and New Amsterdam contained one thousand five 
 
35 
 
 hundred, and wore an appearance of great prosperity. English jealousy 
 evidently increased with the augmenting commerce of the Dutch. James, 
 Duke of York, was the King's brother, and also the Governor of the 
 African Company, and he denounced the Dutch West India Company, 
 which had endeavored to secure the territory on the Gold Coast from 
 English speculators and intruders. England now resolved to march a 
 step farther, and, at one blow, to rob Holland of her American province. 
 The King granted a sealed patent to the Duke of York for a large terri- 
 tory in America, including Long Island, and all lands and rivers from 
 the west side of the Connecticut to the east side of the Delaware Bay. 
 This sweeping grant embraced the whole of New Netherland. 
 
 The Duke of York, that he might lose no time in securing his 
 patent, dispatched Captain Scott, with one hundred and fifty followers, 
 to visit the Island of Manhattan, the value of which was now 
 estimated at three thousand pounds. On the 11th of January, 
 1664, the valorous Sccrtt made his appearance at " Breuolen " 
 Ferry Landing, and, with a great flourish of trumpets, demanded 
 submission to the English flag. Governor Stuyvesant, dispatching 
 his Secretary, politely asked Captain Scott, " Will you come across 
 the river ?" and the reply was, " No ; let Stuyvesant come over with one 
 hundred soldiers ; I wiU wait for him here !" " What for ?" demanded 
 the Secretary. " I would run him through the body !" was the Captain's 
 courteous answer. " That would not be a friendly act," replied the 
 Governor s deputy. Thus they parted ; Scott retiring to Michout (Flat- 
 bush) with his forces, with drums beating and colors flying, while the 
 people " looked on with wonder, not knowing what it meant." Scott told 
 them that they must abandon their allegiance to the Dutch, and promised to 
 confer with Governor Stuyvesant. But when he reached the river, on his 
 way to New Amsterdam for this purpose, he declined crossing it. Still 
 he felt very brave, threatening to go over, proclaim the English King at 
 the Manhattans, and " rip the guts, and cut the feet from under any man 
 who says, ' This is not the King's land.' " This was, certainly, very 
 bloodthirsty ; but the good people of Manhattan all escaped with whole 
 feet and bowels. The valiant Captain then marched to New Utrecht ; 
 ordered the only gun of which the block-house boasted to be fired in 
 the King's honor ; and continued his triumphant march to Amersfort, for 
 another bloodless victory. 
 
 Governor Stuyvesant now ordered a new commission to confer with 
 Captain Scott, at Jamaica, and Comehs Steenwyck* — one of the fathers 
 of New Amsterdam, residing on his farm at Harlem — was one of the 
 commission. It was here agreed that the English captain should here- 
 after desist from disturbing the Dutch towns. The latter, however, 
 
 * There is a portrait of Mr. Steenwyck in the collection of the N. Y. His. Soc. 
 
36 
 
 insisted that the basis of future negotiations should recognize Long 
 Island as belonging to Great Britain. He also hinted that the Duke of 
 York intended to reduce, in time, the whole province of New Nether- 
 land — a declaration which was to prove true sooner than the Dutch 
 Governor anticipated. 
 
 In September of the same year (1664), Colonel NichoUs anchored 
 before New Amsterdam with a fleet and soldiers. His imperious message 
 to Governor Stuyvesant, was : " I shall come with ships and soldiers, raise 
 the white flag of peace at the fort, and then something may be consid- 
 ered." The Dutch colony was entirely unprepared for such a warlike 
 visit, and capitulated at eight o'clock on the morning of September 8th, 
 1664. Stuyvesant, at the head of the garrison, marched out of the fort 
 with the honors of war, pursuant to the terms of the surrender. His 
 soldiers were immediately led down the "Bever's Paatj'e," or Beaver Lane, 
 to the shore of the North Eiver, where they embarked for Holland. An 
 English "corporal's guard" immediately entered and took possession of the 
 fort, over which the English flag was at once hoisted. Its name. Fort 
 Amsterdam, was then changed to " Fort James," and New Amsterdam 
 was henceforth known as " New Yoke." This was a violent and trea,ch- 
 ■erous seiznire of territory at a time of profound peace — a breach of private 
 justice and public faith ; and by it, a great State had imposed on it a 
 name which is unknown in history, save as it is connected with bigotry 
 and tyranny, and which has ever been an enemy of political and religious 
 liberty.* 
 
 Before following further the course of events, a rapid retrospect of 
 the commercial prosperity of New Netherland seems desirable. At the 
 period when Governor Stuyvesant's administration was so suddenly ter- 
 minated by the arrival of the Duke of York's forces, the population of 
 New Netherland was established at " full ten thousand." When New 
 Amsterdam was first surveyed, in 1656, it contained one hundred and 
 twenty houses and one thousand souls, which increased to fifteen hund- 
 
 * As the surrender of Fort Amsterdam involTed the loss of the entire Dutch 
 possessions in New Netherland, the conduct of Governor Stuyvesant, in not main- 
 taiaing its defense, was severely criticised by his superiors in Holland. In his justi- 
 fication, he explained that the fort was encompassed only by a slight wall, two to 
 three feet in thickness, backed by coarse gravel, not above eight, nine, :ind ten feet 
 high, in some places ; in others, higher, according to the rise and fall of the ground. 
 It was for the most part crowded all around with buildings, and better adapted for 
 a citadel than for defense against an open enemy. The houses were, in many 
 places, higher than the walls and bastions, and rendered those wholly exposed. 
 Most of the houses had cellars not eight rods distant from the wall of the fort ; in 
 some places, not two or three feet distant ; and at one point scarce a rod from the 
 wall ; so that whoever should be master of the city, could readily approach with 
 scaling-ladders from the adjacent houses, and mount the walls, which had neither a 
 wet nor a dry ditch. — Valentines Manual. 
 
37 
 
 red in 1664. Not quite two hundred and fifty of these were 
 male adults ; and the rest, -women, and children below eighteen 
 years of age. The same city now numbers about a million of people ! 
 New York, on an average, has about doubled its population every twenty- 
 three years. Be it remembered that trade and commerce became the 
 great stimulus of population, and their regulation of the utmost import- 
 ance. The damages incurred by the West India Company duringl645-6, 
 in Brazil, and estimated at one hundred tons of gold, rendered some 
 measures necessary to retrieve its condition. Trade with that country- 
 was therefore opened in the year 1648 to the New Netherlanders, who 
 were permitted to send thither their produce, and return with African 
 slaves, whose subsequent exportation from the Dutch Province was for- 
 bidden. Four years afterward, the province obtained the privilege of 
 trading to Africa for slaves and other articles. In the same year, the 
 monopoly of the carrying trade between Holland and this country ( before 
 in the hands of the Amsterdam Chamber) was abolished ; " for the first 
 time," private vessels were now entered at Amsterdam ; and in 1659 the 
 privilege of exporting produce to France, Spain, Italy, and the Caribbean 
 Islands, was obtained. Thus, the markets of the world, except those of 
 the East, were opened to New Netherland ships. From this regulation, 
 however, furs alone were an exception, as these were to be sent exclu- 
 sively to Amsterdam. 
 
 The duties were fixed by the tariff of 1648, at ten per cent, on imported, 
 and fifteen upon exported go,ods ; but some difference existed in favor of 
 English colonial buttons, causing them first to be sent to New England, 
 and thence imported into New Netherland at a low rate. To obviate' 
 this, in 1651 the duties on such goods were raised to sixteen per cent., 
 tobacco excepted, its eight per cent, tax being taken off. In the year 
 1655, the duties on imports again were reduced to ten per cent., and in 
 1659; owing to the demand for lead to be used in window-frames, this 
 article was placed on the free-list. As we have noticed, the industry of 
 the Dutch colonists was early manifested in ship-building. At the close 
 of Stuyvesant's. administration, a number of distilleries, breweries, and; 
 potasheries, were in operation, with several manufactories of tiles, bricks,, 
 and earthenware. An attempt was also made, in 1657, to introduce the 
 silk culture ; two years after, mulberry-trees were exported to Ouracoa ; 
 and, as before stated, the making of salt was attempted ; but the in- 
 habitants of Gravesend, claiming Coney Island under their patent, 
 destroyed the houses and improvements, burnt the fences, and threatened 
 to throw the workmen into the flames. 
 
 Although wampum or " zeawam" had become almost the exclusive 
 currency of New Netherlands (1664), still, beaver remained the standard 
 of value. During the years 1651-2, Director Stuyvesant tried to introduce 
 a specie currency, and applied to Holland for twenty-five thousand guilders 
 
38 
 
 in Dutch shillings and four-penny pieces, but the Directors there disap- 
 proved of his project. The people were thus entirely dependent on wam- 
 pum, as we are now upon " greenbacks," and the value of wages, prop- 
 erty, and every commodity, was, in consequence, seriously disturbed. So 
 it is in this day, and ever will be, with an irredeemable currency, whether 
 of clam-shells, thin paper, or anything else, not equal to specie. At first 
 wampum passed at the rate of four black beads for one stiver ; next, it 
 was lowered to six, and in 1657 to eight, and then ordered to be eonsid- 
 «red a tender for gold and silver. To a similar level our wiseacre finan- 
 ciers would now reduce our paper-money. But Stuyvesant wisely 
 objected, as it would bring the value of property to naught. In the year 
 1659, the white wampum was next reduced from twelve to sixteen, and 
 "the black from six to eight for a stiver. .What was the result ? 
 The holder was obliged to give more wampum for any article he pur- 
 chased of the trader, who, in return, allowed the natives a large quantity 
 of it for his beavers and skins; and, to use the plain record of the day, 
 ■" little or no benefit accrued." Nominally, prices advanced, when beavers 
 which had sold for twelve and fourteen (guilders) rose to twenty-two and 
 twentyfour, bread from fourteen to twenty-two stivers — eight-pound 
 loafs— beef nine to ten stivers per pound, pork fifteen to twenty stivers, 
 shoes from three and a half guilders to twelve a pair, and wrought-iron 
 from eighteen to twenty stivers the pound. Beavers and specie remained 
 all the while of equal value ; but the difference between these and 
 wampum was fifty per cent. The effect op wages was almost ruinous. 
 An old record says: "The poor farmer, laborer, and public officer, being 
 paid in zeawan, are almost reduced to the necessity of living on alms." 
 
 Those in the employ of the Dutch Company asked that their salaries 
 might be paid in beavers, but this was refused ; as well might pubHc ofii- 
 cers in our day desire to receive gold and silver for their services. This 
 depreciation of the currency, and the consequent disturbance of prices, 
 caused much popular clamor, and various expedients were adopted to 
 amend the unfortunate state of things. The Directors of New Nether- 
 land would have the colonists consider wampum as " bullion," but would 
 only receive beavers in payment of duties and taxes. We adopt some- 
 thing of the same theory in our Custom-House pa\Tnents. Governor 
 Stuyvesant raised the value of specie in the country twenty to twentr^'- 
 five per cent. " to prevent its exportation,^'' and our Secretary of the Treasury 
 has been striving, after a fashion, to imitate the now two-hundred-year 
 time-honored financial example of the long-buried old Dutch Governor. 
 Finally, however, the price of beaver in 1663 fell from eight guilders 
 (specie) to four and a half, white wampum from sixteen to eight, black 
 from eight to four for a stiver. What a fall ! This was the state of 
 the public finances when the English came in possession of New Nether- 
 land. Some persons are met with at the present time who fear a similar 
 
39 
 
 financial crash sooner or later in our enlightened land with its hundreds 
 of millions in paper-money operations and promises. 
 
 The pubhc revenue in New Netherland embraced two descriptions, 
 provincial and municipal : the former consisting of the export duty on furs, 
 the impost on European goods, with the tenths of agricultural produce, but- 
 ter, cheese, etc. ; the latter of an excise duty on Uquore and slaughtered cat- 
 tle. In the year 1655, the duty on exported furs is stated at twenty-two 
 thousand guilders, or eight thousand dollars. The expenses of the Gov- 
 ernment became very large, especially from the Indian wars, which also 
 cut off the suppHes of furs ; so that by the close of Stuyvesant's adminis- 
 tration, there was a deficit of fifty thousand florins, or twenty thousand 
 dollars. The municipal revenue arising from the liquor excise was of two 
 kinds, the tapsters and the burghers — the first paying a duty of four florins 
 a ton on home-brewed, and sis on foreign beer ; eight florins a hogshead on 
 French ; and four on Spanish wine, brandy, or other spirits. These rates 
 were doubled in 1662. The income of New Amsterdam from these 
 sources was estimated at twenty-five thousand guilders. The Company 
 in Holland had now expended twelve tons of gold in the settlement of 
 New Netherland over aU the public receipts ; and now (1664), when some 
 return was expected for this large outlay, foreigners seized and pos- 
 sessed themselves of all the benefits resulting from such expenditures. 
 
 We again resume the thread of our narrative. The war which broke 
 out in 1672 between the English and the Dutch, and which was chiefly 
 carried on by the navies of the two powers, occasioned apprehensions for 
 the safety of the Province of New York ; and Governor Lovelace the suc- 
 cessor of NichoUs, the first English Governor, made preparations for a 
 demonstration of that character on the part of the Dutch. Nor were his 
 fears unfounded, although, some months elapsing without any appear- 
 ance of the enemy, he allowed himself to fall into a fatal sense of security, 
 and accordingly disbanded the levies, while he himself departed on a 
 visit to the Eastern colonies, leaving the fort in charge of Captain John 
 Manning. The Dutch, however, were not asleep ; nor had they relin- 
 quished their design. Determined to regain New Amsterdam, at all haz- 
 ards, they fitted out a fleet of five ships, commanded by Admirals Benckes 
 and Evertsen, with Captains Colve, Boes, and Van Zye. On the 29th 
 of July, 1673, they appeared off Sandy Hook ; and quietly saihng up the 
 bay, and anchoring before Staten Island, soon appeared opposite the Bat- 
 tery. The fleet then opened a heavy cannonade upon the city, at the same 
 time that Captain Colve, landing with six hundred men, drew up in order 
 of battle on the Commons, ready to march into the city. At a given signal 
 the men marched down Broadway, whereupon Captain Manning surren- 
 dered the fort, on condition that its garrison should march out with all 
 the honors of war. This condition having been granted, the Dutch 
 troops again possessed the fort and city. New York received the name 
 
40 
 
 of New Orange, and the fort itself the name of Fort William Hendrick. 
 Governor Lovelace, who, meanwhile, had hastened back from his pleasure 
 tour, was allowed to return with the Dutch Admiral only ; however, to 
 receive from the English Government a severe reprimand for cowardice 
 and treachery, and to learn that his estates had been confiscated to the 
 Duke of York. 
 
 Captain Colve, now in command of the Province of New Netherlands 
 received a commission from Benckes and Evertsen to govern the new 
 territory. His rule, though brief, was energetic. He at once took meas- 
 ures to improve the defenses of the fort ; and in October, 1673, we find 
 it stated in one of his orders, that the fortifications had then, at great 
 expense and labor to the citizens and inhabitants, been brought " to per- 
 fection." Anthony De MUt was appointed Schout, with three burgo- 
 masters and five schepens. The entire city assumed the appearance of 
 a military post, the Commons (the present park) becoming the parade- 
 ground. A ^vall or paKsade was placed around it, running from Trinity 
 Church along Wall street — hence its name — and block-houses protected 
 the settlement on every side. Every day the Schout reviewed the mili- 
 tary, before the " Stadt Huys," at the head of Ooenties SUp. At six in 
 the evening he received the city keys, and with a guard of six men locked 
 the public gates, and stationed the sentinels. He unlocked the gates at 
 sunrise. The city at this period numbered three hundred and twenty- 
 two houses. 
 
 But the second administration of the Dutch was destined to be of 
 short duration. On the 9th of February, 1674, the treaty of peace 
 between England and the States-General was signed at Westmuiister ; and 
 the Dutch, having discovered and possessed the beautiful country of New 
 Netherlands for almost sixty years, were now, once and forever, dis- 
 possessed of it. On that day the old fort again became " Fort James," 
 having surrendered to Sir Edmund Andrews, who had been appointed 
 Governor by the Duke of York. 
 
 Before closing this section, and bidding farewell entirely to New 
 York under the Dutch rule, it seems fitting to glance somewhat minutely 
 at the social manners and customs of our early Dutch ancestors. 
 
 The Dutch of New Amsterdam were distinguished for their good 
 nature, love of home, and cordial hospitality. Fast young men, late 
 hours, and fashionable dissipation were unknown. There was, neverthe- 
 less, plenty of opportunity for healthful recreation. Holidays were abund- 
 ant, each family having some of its own, such as birthdays, christenings, 
 and marriage anniversaries. Each season, too, introduced its own 
 peculiar and social festivals — the "Quilting," " Apple-Eaising," and 
 " Husking Bees." The work on such occasions was soon finished, after 
 which the guests sat down to a supper, well suppHed with chocolate and 
 waffles — the evening terminating with a merry dance. Dancing was a 
 
41 
 
 favorite amusement. The slaves danced to the music of their rude 
 instruments, in the markets ; while the maidens and youths practiced the 
 same amusement at their social parties, and around the annual May-Pole, 
 on the " Bowling Green." 
 
 Besides such holidays, five public or national festivals were observed. 
 These were, Kersteydt, or Christmas ; Niemv Jar, or New Tear ; Paas, or 
 Passover; Pinkter, Whitsuntide; and Santa Chm, St. Nicholas, or Cris- 
 Kinkle Day. The morn of the Nativity was hailed with universal saluta- 
 tions of a " Merry Christmas" — a good old Knickerbocker custom which 
 has descended unimpaired to us. Next, in the day's programme, came 
 " Turkey Shooting" — the young men repairing either to the "Beekmail 
 Swamp," or on the Common (Park), for this amusement. Each man 
 payed a few stivers* for a " chance," when the best shot obtained the 
 prize. The day was also commem^orated, as it is at the present day, by 
 family dinners, and closed with domestic gayety and cheerfulness. 
 
 New-Tear's Day was devoted to the imiversal interchange of visits. 
 Every door in New Amsterdam was thrown wide open, and a warm wel- 
 come extended to the stranger as well as the friend. It was considered a 
 breach of established etiquette to omit any acquaintance in these annual 
 calls, by which old friendships were renewed, family differences settled, 
 and broken or neglected intimacies restored. This is another of the 
 excellent customs of the olden times that still continues among New 
 Torkers ; and its origin, Uke many others, is thus traced exclusively to 
 the earhest Hollanders. 
 
 Paas, or Easter, was a famous festival among the Dutch, but is now 
 almost forgotten, except by the children, who stiU take considerable 
 interest in coloring eggs in honor of the day. The eggs were found then 
 on every table. This old festival, however, is rapidly passing away; and 
 like Pinkter will soon be forgotten. 
 
 Santa Clam, however, was the day of all others with the little Dutch 
 folk, for it was sacred to St. Nicholas — the tutelar divinity of New 
 Amsterdam, who had presided at the figure-head of the first emigrant 
 ship that reached her shores. The first church erected within her fort 
 was also named after St. Nicholas. He was, to the imagination of the 
 httle people, a jolly, rosy-cheeked, littie old man, with a slouched hat, 
 large Flemish nose, and a very long pipe. His sleigh, loaded with aH 
 sorts of Christmas- gifts, was drawn by swift reindeer ; and, as he drove 
 rapidly over the roofs of the houses, he would pause at. the chimneys, to 
 leave presents in the stockings of the good children ; if had, they might 
 expect nothing but a switch or leather-strap. In this way the young 
 Knickerbockers became models of good behavior and propriety. They 
 used to sing a suitable hymn on the occasion, one verse of which is here 
 
 * A stiver was equal to nearly two cents in U. S. money. Forty of them made a 
 guilder. 
 
42 
 
 given, for the benefit of those readers who may wish to know how it 
 sounded in Dutch : 
 
 " Sint Nicholaas, myn goden vriend, 
 Ik heb u altyd wel geiiend ; 
 Ala gy my nu wot wilt geben, 
 Fal ik dienen als myn leven." 
 
 TEANSLATION. 
 
 " Saint Nicholas, my dear, good friend, 
 To serve you ever was my end ; 
 If you me now something will give. 
 Serve you, I will, as long as I live." 
 
 "Dinner parties" in these primitive days were unknown; but this 
 seeming lack of social intercourse was more than made up by the well- 
 known and numerous tea parties. To " take tea out " was a Dutch insti- 
 tution, and one of great importance. The matrons arrayed in their best 
 petticoats and linsey jackets, " home spun " by their own wheels, would 
 proceed on the intended afternoon visit. They wore capacious pockets, 
 with scissors, pin-cushion, and keys hanging from their girdle, outside 
 iheir dress ; and, reaching the neighbor's house, the visitors industriously 
 used knitting-needles and tongues at the same. time. Now, the village 
 gossip was talked over, neighbors' affairs settled, and the stockings finished 
 by tea-time, when the important meal appeared on the table precisely at six 
 o'clock. This was always the occasion for the display of the family plate, 
 with the Lilliputian cups, of rare old family china, out of which the 
 guests sipped the fragrant herb. A large lump of loaf-sugar invariably 
 accompanied each cup, on a little plate, and the delightful beverage 
 was sweetened by an occasional nibble, amid the more solid articles of 
 waffles and Dutch dough-nuts. The pleasant visit finished, the visitors, 
 donning cloaks and hoods — as bonnets were unknown — proceeded home- 
 ward in time for milking and other necessary household duties. The 
 kitchen fire-places were of immense size, large enough to roast a sheep 
 or whole hog ; and the hooks and tramm.els sustained large iron pots and 
 ketdes. In the spacious chimney-corners the children and negroes 
 gathered — telling stories and cracking nuts by the light of the blazing 
 pine knots, while the industrious vrows turned the merry spinning-wheel, 
 and their lords, the worthy burghers — mayhap just returned from an 
 Indian scrimmage — quietly smoked their long pipes, as they sat watching 
 the wreaths curliag above their heads. At length, the clock, with its 
 brazen tongue, having proclaimed the hour of nine, family prayers were 
 said, and aU retired, to rise with the dawn. 
 
 A model housekeeper rose at cock-crowing, breakfasted with the 
 dawn, and proceeded to the duties of the day ; and when the sun reached 
 the meridian or " noon mark," dinner, which was strictly a family meal, 
 was on the table. This domestic time-piece answered every purpose, so 
 
43 
 
 Tegular were the hours and lives of the people. At one time there were 
 not more than half a dozen clocks in New Amsterdam, with about the 
 same number of watches. But they were strikingly peculiar in one 
 respect : they were scarcely ever known to go, and hence were of very 
 little practical utility. No watch-maker had yet found it profitable to 
 visit the settlement ; and this was a period two centuries before the inven- 
 tion of Yankee clocks. For a long while, time was marked by hour-glasses 
 and sun-dials. 
 
 "We have already seen the interior of the kitchen, and will now go 
 up stairs into the parlor of the early Dutch dwellings. Stoves were never 
 dreamed of, but in their place was the cheerful fire-place, sometimes in 
 the corner, but more generally reaching nearly across the back of the 
 room, with its huge gum back-log and glowing fire of hickory. The 
 shovel and tonges occupied each corner of the fire-place, keeping guard, 
 as it were, over the famUy brass-mounted andirons which supported the 
 blazing wood. Marble mantles had not yet been invented, but chim- 
 ney-jambs, inlaid with party colors, imported Holland tiles, representing 
 all kinds of Scriptural stories, were quite ornamental as well as instructive. 
 Many a youngster has received categorical instruction from these silent, 
 venerable teachers. 
 
 In one corner of the room always stood the huge oaken iron-bound 
 chest, brimful of household linen, spun by the ladies of the family, who 
 delighted to display these domestic riches to their visitors. Later, this 
 plain wardrobe gave place to the " chest of drawers" one drawer placed 
 upon the other, until the pile reached the ceiling, with its shining brass 
 rings and key-holes. The book-case, too, with its complicated writing- 
 desk, mysterious secret drawers and pigeon-holes came into use about 
 the same period, though both were unknown to the early Knickerbockers. 
 Side-boards were not introduced into New Amsterdam untU after the 
 American Revolution, and were entirely of English origin. The round 
 tea-table also occupied a place in a corner of the parlor, while the large 
 square dining-table stood in the kitchen for daily use. In another corner 
 stood the well-known Holland cupboard, with glass doors, conspicuously 
 displaying the family plate and porcelain. Little looking-glasses in nar- 
 row black frames, were in common use ; two or three only of the wealth- 
 iest burghers possessing larger mirrors, elaborately ornamented with 
 gilding and flowers. About 1730, the sco7ice came in fashion — a hanging 
 or projecting candlestick, with a mirror to reflect the rays. This was a 
 very showy article, giving a fine light to the rooms.* After this period, 
 
 * Two of these quaint fixture.?, a hundred and fifty years old, hung, until 
 a vear or two since, in the parlor of the Union Hall, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 
 Old Tisitors will readily recall them. They now adorn the parlors of Mrs. Wash- 
 ington Putnam, of Saratoga Springs, the widow of the late Washington Putnam, for 
 many years the genial host and owner of the " Union." 
 
44 
 
 pier and mantle glasses came into fashion. Pictures, such as they were, 
 abounded ; but they were for the most part poor engravings of Dutch 
 cities and naval engagem^ents. Chintz calico of inferior quality formed 
 the only window curtains, without any cornices. There were no carpets 
 among the early Dutch, nor any in general use among New Yorkers 
 until up to the period of the Revolution. The famous Captain Kidd, it 
 is said, owned the first modem carpet in his best room, and the pirate's 
 house was the best furnished in the city. It was made of Turkey work, 
 at a cost of twenty-five dollars, and resembled a large rug. The custom 
 of sanding the floor of the principal room, or parlor, was universal, and 
 much taste was displayed in the many fanciful devices and figures made 
 in the sand with the brooms of the smart Dutch matrons and daughters. 
 Our Holland ancestors knew nothing of lounges or sofas, or even that 
 comfortable American invention, the rocking-chair. Their best chairs 
 were straight and high-backed, covered with Russia leather, and elabo- 
 rately ornamented with double and triple rows of brass naUs. In addi- 
 tion to these, the parlor was decorated with one or two chairs having 
 embroidered seats and backs, the handiwork of the daughters. Some of 
 the oldest families also displayed in their best rooms two chairs with, 
 cushions of tapestry, or velvet, trimmed with lace. About the year 1700, 
 cane seats became fashionable, and thirty years after came the leather 
 chairs, worth from five to ten dollars each. These led the fashion about, 
 thirty years more, when mahogany and black walnut chairs, with tljeir 
 crimson damask cushions, appeared. 
 
 But the most ornamental piece of furniture in the parlor was the 
 bed, with its heavy curtains and valance of camlet. No mattresses then, 
 but a substantial bed of live geese feathers, with a very light one of down 
 for the covering. These beds were the boast and pride of the most 
 respectable Duteh matrons, and, with their well-fiUed chests of home- 
 made linen, supplied their claims to skill in housekeeping. A check 
 covering cased the beds and pOlows ; the sheets were made of homespun 
 liuen, and over the whole was thrown a bedquQt of patehwork, wrought 
 into every conceivable shape and pattern. 
 
 The " hetsU " (bedstead) was at this period a part of the house. It 
 was constructed something like a cupboard, with closing doors, so that 
 by day when unoccupied, the apartment could be used for a sitting- 
 room. In more humble houses, the " shop lanck," or " bunk," was the 
 sleeping place. In Duteh taverns, the good vrow or her maid opened 
 the doors of the " betste " for the traveler, and, like a kind mother, bade 
 him "mel U /««!!««" — " good-night," and always, as an old friend, 
 "Aoo-y r^s"— " good-by." To this day, in HoUand, travelers meei; 
 similar receptions at the taverns; and aU the guests, assembling in one 
 room, eat, drink, and smoke. 
 
 Our Dutch forefathers were fond of pure, good milk— a luxury 
 
46 
 
 unknown to their unfortunate descendants. It was the common practice 
 for all who could aiford stable' room to keep their own cows, and thus 
 furnish their families with milk and butter. Eip Van Dam, in 1748, 
 kept two cows ; and Abraham De Peyster, one of the wealthiest mer- 
 chants, owned the same number. Good pasturage, too, surrounded the 
 town, no further off than the present Pari; A man with a beU came 
 along early in the morning for the cows, driving them through Wall to 
 the city-gate, at the corner of that street and Water ; thence to the fields 
 about the Collect, where the Tombs now stand ; in the evening, he brought 
 them back to their owners. 
 
 In the earHer period of New Amsterdam, the grain was made into 
 flour by pestle and mortar, every famUy adopting this method. Coin 
 then as now (1868) was exceedingly scarce ; nor was there even any paper 
 currency. Hence, grain became as much the circulating medium as 
 " greenbacks " are at the present day with us. From this circumstance) 
 the pestle and mortar constituted the real mints of the people ; the 
 pounded grain passing current for goods and labor, like bank-notes. 
 
 The horses of those days were bred wild in the woods and pastures 
 which covered the upper part of Manhattan Island. Thousands of them 
 ran at large, their owners, at certain seasons, branding them with their 
 names, when they were turned loose again, until winter rendered a shelter 
 for them necessary. Such was their great increase, that it is said the 
 Island was overrun by the animals, now become as wild and dangerous 
 as the buffaloes of the prairies ; the breed was, consequently, inferior, the 
 price of a horse ranging from ten dollars to forty dollars, according to 
 the strength, and not the speed, of the animal. This great plenty of 
 horseflesh, hoWever, afforded ample opportunity for the fair Dutch dames 
 to indulge in their favorite pastime — riding on horseback. The ladies, at 
 this period, however, did not ride on horseback, alone, as is now the fashion, 
 but were mounted upon a pilhon, or padded cushion, placed behind 
 the gentleman's saddle (or a servant's), upon whose support they depended. 
 This was the common custom, as the roads were unbroken, being, in fact, 
 httle better than bridle-paths. Early in the eighteenth century, side- 
 saddles came into partial use. The gentlemen's housings were made of 
 bright-colored cloths or velvet, often trimmed with silver lace ; holsters 
 were common. 
 
 The Hterature of New Amsterdam was entirely different from that 
 of modern times. In the place of the novels, magazines, and light read- 
 ing which now fill the center-tables, there was to be found httle else than 
 Bibles, Testaments, and psalm-books. The matrons' church books 
 were generally costly bound, with silver clasps and edgings, and some- 
 times of gold. These were suspended to the girdle by silver and gold 
 chains, and distinguished the style of the families using them, on the 
 Sabbath days. 
 
46 
 
 The Sundays in New Amsterdam were, moreover, better observed 
 by its inhabitants than at the present day. ' All classes, arrayed in their 
 best, then attended the pubhc services of reUgion ; and the people, almost 
 exclusively Calvinists, attended the Dutch Reformed Church. The 
 '■^ Koeck" or beU-ringer and sexton, was an important personage on the 
 Sabbath. He not only summoned the congregation by the sound, of the 
 church-going beU, but formed a procession of himself and his assistants 
 to carry the cushions of the burgomasters and schepens from the City 
 Hall to the pews appropriated to these officials: At the same time, the 
 Schout went his rounds, to see that quiet was kept in the streets during 
 Divine worship, and also to stop the games of the negro slaves and 
 Indians — to whom the Sabbath was allowed as a day of recreation, except 
 during church hours. 
 
 Small pieces of wampum were obtained by the deacons, and sold at 
 great value to the heads of the Dutch famihes. These, having been 
 distributed among the different members of families, were then taken to 
 church, and deposited in the collection- bags, which were attached to long 
 poles. Such was the custom a long while ; nor, in some of the interior 
 Dutch settlements, has it been entirely abandoned at the present day. 
 Formerly, a small bell was attached to the bottom of the bags, to remind 
 the drowsy of the collection. The deacons, being thus prepared to receive 
 the benefactions of the congregation, presented themselves in front of the 
 pulpit, when, the Dominie having addressed a few appropriate words to 
 them, they forthwith proceeded to coUect the contributions. At that day, 
 also, the " Koorleser" or Clerk, occupied a httie pew in front of the pulpit, 
 holding in his hand a rod, on the end of which all notices were placed, 
 and thus passed up to the Dominie. The moment the minister reached 
 the pulpit stairs, he offered a private prayer, holding his hat before his 
 face, until, having sought the aid of his Lord and Master, he ascended 
 the sacred desk. 
 
 It was, also at this time, the custom to publish from the pulpit the 
 ham three times before a marriage covdd be solemnized. 
 
 The Dutch Church was, at this period, within the fort at the Battery > 
 and the present Bowling Green, an open field, exhibited many country 
 wagons, arranged in regular order, while thefr horses were allowed to 
 graze on the green slopes that led down to the Hudson Eiver. And 
 here, in the old Church of St. Bickohs, for half a century, from 1642 to 
 1693, the early Dutch worshipped God in His Holy Temple. 
 
 Every house in New Amsterdam was surrounded by a garden, suf- 
 ficiently large to accommodate a horse, a cow, two pigs, fowls, a patch of 
 cabbages, and a tulip-bed. Indeed, the love of flowers seems to have 
 been inherent to the Dutch dames. While the head of a family 
 carefully watched the growth of some ancient household tree, planted in 
 accordance with a universal custom in New Amsterdam directiy before 
 
47 
 
 the door-way, the matron might have been eeen with her large calash 
 over her shoulders, and her little painted basket of seeds in her hand, 
 going to the labors of the garden. Nor is this figurative. It was the 
 universal custom for a Dutch lady in independent circumstances, gentle 
 of form and manner, to sow, plant, and cultivate. These fair gardeners 
 were also good florists. Where has there ever been found choicer 
 hyacinths and tulips than among the Hollanders? Indeed, all New 
 Yorkers may well feel proud of their great-great-great Holland grand- 
 mothers. They were fair and unblemished religious dames, with great 
 grasp of mind and of exemplary industry. The important task of religious 
 instruction chiefly devolved upon them ; and the essentials, especially the 
 ceremonials of piety, were instilled upon the minds of their children. 
 Hence mothers among the early Dutch were always regarded with 
 peculiar reverence. 
 
 The Dutch ladies wore no bonnets, as is still the fashion with some 
 of the German emigrants who now arrive at Castle Garden. At New 
 Amsterdam the fashionable dress was a colored petticoat, rather short (for 
 ease in walking), waist jacket, colored hose of homespun woolen, and 
 high-heeled shoes, suitable to a city destitute of pavements or sidewalks 
 of any kind. The Dutch burghers wore long-waisted coats, with skirts 
 reaching almost to their ankles, and adorned with large silver buttons 
 The wardrobe of a prominent burgomaster at the transfer of New 
 Amsterdam to the British, was as follows : A cloth coat, with silver 
 buttons, worth fifteen dollars ; a stuff coat, ten dollars ; cloth breeches, 
 ten shillings ; a cloth coat, with gimp buttons, seven doUars and fifty 
 cents ; a black cloth coat, seven dollars ; a black velvet coat, fifteen 
 dollars ; a silk coat, breeches, and doublet, six doUars ; a silver cloth 
 breeches and doublet, five dollars ; a velvet waistcoat, with silver lace, 
 five dollars ; a buff coat and silk sleeves, five doUars ; three grass-green 
 cloaks, six dollars each ; besides several old suits. To these, also, must 
 be added Knen, hose, shoes with silver buckles,- a cane with an ivory 
 head, and a hat. It may be doubted if Mayor Hoffman, with all his 
 cloths and cassimers, can " begin " to "turn out" such an assortment of 
 coats, pants, and vests, as this official Dutchman, his predecessor, in "ye 
 olden time." * 
 
 In the good old Dutch times respectable tradesmen worked hard ; 
 none were drones or mere lookers-on. There existed but little competi- 
 tion among tradesmen, as with us. No tempting display of goods in 
 show-windows attracted the attention and excited the desire of passers- 
 
 * A little later, in 1690, we find among a fashionable gentleman's apparel, green 
 ailk breeches, flued -with silver and gold ; eUver gauze-breeches, scarlet and blue 
 silk stockings, laced shirt, a blue cloth stuff and frieze coat, a gun and a pair of 
 pistols, a silyer-hilted sword, a silver spoon and fork, a lacku hat, a campaign, shut- 
 bob, old-bob wigs, and periwigs. 
 
48 
 
 by to go beyond their means.- Content to sell their goods at a fair profit, 
 they secured both good customers and a reputation for probity and fair 
 dealing. It was the English who first introduced display, fashion, and 
 extravagance. It was they who first introduced the custom of keeping 
 the shops open at night — a needless and expensive fashion, and greatly 
 injurious to the health and morals of the clerks. In these early days, 
 however, the diligent closed their stores and shops at an early hour. All- 
 classes went on foot, for carriages and wheeled vehicles were very scarce. 
 Even physicians paid all their visits on foot ; and in another respect they 
 differ widely from the doctors of the present day — their charges were 
 very moderate. 
 
 At funerals, it was the custom to give hot wine in winter, and wine- 
 sangaree in summer. Ladies generally attended on such mournful occa- 
 sions, especially if the deceased was a female, when burnt wine was 
 served in silver tankards. At a later era, on the death of Mrs. Daniel 
 Phoenix, the wife of the City Treasurer, all the pall-bearers were ladies. 
 
 The workingman always wore his leather-apron, no matter what 
 his employment. Tradesmen were accustomed to saw their own wood ; 
 and a most healthful exercise it was. Nor did any man in middle cir- 
 cumstances fear to carry home his " one hundred weight " of meal from 
 market. On the contrary, it would have been considered a disgrace to 
 have avoided such a burden. 
 
 A greater change, however, in the habits of the people, cannot be 
 named than in that of hired servants or " help." The female servants 
 formerly wore short gowns of green baize, with petticoats of linsey- 
 woolsey, receiving only half a dollar a week for their wages. Now, they 
 demand from eight to fourteen dollars a month, and dress like fashion- 
 able ladies, displaying all their pride and show. 
 
 In these primitive days, also, when a man " set up business," he 
 invariably took down his own shutters, opened the door, swept the store, 
 and dusted the goods himseK by the gray dawn. Then men grew rich 
 by early rising, economy, and industry, and by attending to their own 
 business themselves, and not leaving their interests in the charge of boys, 
 agents, or clerks. The only capital of most young men then was industry 
 and punctuality ; and labor and honesty were as fashionable at this early 
 day as stylish young men, defaulting cashiers, fast living, and fast horses 
 are now. Neither would any sensible matron permit her daughter to 
 encourage the attentions of any young man who was not his own servant. 
 
 Shortly before the cession of New Amsterdam to the British rule, 
 the settlement was celebrated for its number ol young people, as the 
 children of the early emigrants had then reached adult age. Several 
 daughters of the wealthy burghers were married to young Englishmen 
 whose visits were only of a temporary character. Many romantic rural 
 spots, everywhere surrounding the settlements at New Netherland, were 
 
49 
 
 naturally favorable to the important business of courtship, and there 
 were several places of pleasant resort famed for this business, even at 
 that early day. The Looust- Trees was one, upon a bluff on the shore of 
 the North Eiver, a little back of the present Trinity Church-yard. From 
 this commanding and shady eminence, the eye could wander over an 
 extensive vista of river, bay, islands, and the bold, distant hills of New 
 Jersey. Here, too, was the West India Company's beautiful garden, on 
 the site of the present Trinity Church, with its rich flowers and vegetable 
 productions. A little beyond the town was Maiden^s Valley, now Maiden 
 Lane, a rural, shady walk, with a charming little rivulet meandering 
 through it. The original name of this rustic walk was TMaagde Paatje, 
 or the " Maiden's Path." South of this lane stretched the Clover Waytu, 
 or " Pasture Field ;" and from the present Gold street, hidden in the 
 foliage, a little stream, fed by a living spring, came tumbling down the 
 rooks. From John, near Gold, a longer walk led to the enchanting lake- 
 let, the Koleh, or Collect, nestling within a circle of forest hills. Like 
 many such ponds in the vicinity of old villages, this, traditionally, had no 
 bottom, and was said to be haunted by the spirits of some old native 
 sachems, the paddles of whose canoes could be heard at night, though 
 nothing was seen visibly to disturb the crystal waters. All these spots 
 were famous trysting-places of the youthful New Netherlanders. But 
 how changed the scene ! Where those sparkling and beautiful waters 
 once flowed, and the morning carols of the birds were heard, the dark, 
 sorrowful, and sinful abodes of the " Five Points" now stand in close 
 proximity to the gloomy prison-cells of the " Tombs." 
 
 But although New York City, two hundred years ago, passed over 
 to British rule, still the inhabitants remained Dutch in their manners, 
 costumes, modes of thought, and religious ideas, for many subsequent 
 years. Sleighing was a fashionable amusement ; and a ride to Harlem 
 became the longest drive among the " city folk." Parties, however, often 
 turned aside to visit " HeU Gate," influenced, doubtless, by the fact that 
 on this road, over the Tamkill (a little stream emptying into the East 
 Eiver, opposite Blackwell's Island), was the ^'Kissing Bridge,''^ so laid 
 down on the old maps, and named from the old Dutch custom of the 
 gentlemen saluting their lady companions whenever they crossed the 
 bridge. That was the day also of the " cocked hats " and " cues," 
 which stuck out from behind the head "stiff as a poker." The most 
 fashionable gentleman made his appearance before the fair one who 
 was to be his companion in the ride, in a large camlet cloak with a very 
 large cape, snuff-colored coat and small clothes, and stockings drawn over 
 the shoes to keep out the snow- In addition, a woolen tippet warmly 
 protected his neck, and domestic-knit mittens his hands. People then 
 showed their good sense by dressing according to the weather. 
 
 An old chronicle tell us that an Ethiopian, named Caesar, had great 
 4 
 
50 
 
 fame as a driver, fiddler, and waiter. The ladies, once upon a time, 
 appeared in 'linsey-woolsey cardinals, with hoods of immense size ; and 
 at noon away went the party in high glee, to the jingle of sleigh-bells, tO' 
 take a dish of tea and a dance at Harlem. Beaching there, Cajsar tuned 
 his three-stringed fiddle ; and the gentlemen appeared in their snare-toed 
 shoes, and the ladies in peak-toed, high-heeled slippers. Dancing and' 
 skipping the " light, fantastic toe " immediately begun, and continued 
 until eight o'clock in the evening, when they again hastened back to the 
 city ; for " to be out" after nine, on common occasions, was considered a cer^ 
 tain sign of bad morals. 
 
 To sum up, the earliest Dutch emigrants to New York left their deep 
 impress upon the city and upon the State. Par-reaching commerce, 
 which immortalized Old Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, soon 
 provoked the envy of New Amsterdam's neighbors, and in the end made 
 our city the emporium of the Western World. Our ancestors left chil- 
 dren and children's children, who were well fitted to act important parts 
 in the great work of opening the American continent to European and 
 Christian civilization. They brought with them honest maxims, industry, 
 and the liberal ideas of their Fatherland — their schoolmasters, their 
 dominies, and their Bibles. In the course of events, however, New 
 Netherland passed over to British rule, when new customs, new relation- 
 ships, and new habits of thought, were introduced.* 
 
 * It may be amusing to many of the pre.sent generation, so little accustomed to 
 the old Dutch namea, to read some titles once very familiar in New Amsterdam and 
 New York, hut now so seldom thought of or understood : 
 
 De iferr— Officer ; or Hoofd-Sdwul, High-Sheriff. 
 
 De Fiscoll — Attomey-G-eneral. 
 
 Groot BingeiiecM, and Klein Biyogenecht, the p:reat and small citizenship, early 
 marking the two orders of society. 
 
 The Schout (Sheriff), Burgomeestera, and Schepens, then ruled the city, " as in- 
 all cities of the Patlierland." 
 
 Gefieim Sclmyner — Recorder of Secrets. 
 
 Wees-Meesters — Guardians of Orphans. 
 
 Roy-Meester — Regulator of Fences. 
 
 Eyek-Meenter — The Weigh-Master. 
 
 The word Bo» stiU in use, a century ago was written Bom, and literally means^ 
 " master" — not a very popular name for Democrats to use, though they all greatly 
 desire to become a Bos. 
 
SECOND PERIOD. 
 
 1674-1783. 
 
 From the Englisli Conquest to the Revolutionary War and the Termination of 
 
 British Rule. 
 
 Before entering upon the history of this period, it seems desirable 
 to take a ramble about the limits of New Amsterdam and see for our- 
 selves how it appeared at the time that the Dutch surrendered it to the 
 English. In our walk we will take as our guide a map of the " Towne 
 of Wambados, or [Neiv Amsterdam, as it was in September, 1661," a copy of 
 ■which now lies before us. This is, so far as known, the only plan of the 
 city executed in the early Dutch times, and was found a few years since 
 in the British Museum. 
 
 The town wind-mill stood on a bluff, within our present Battery, 
 opposite Greenwich street. ^On Water, between Whitehall and Moore 
 streets, was the " Government House,' built, by Stuyvesant, of stone, and 
 the best edilice in the town. When Governor Dongan became its 
 owner he changed its name from the " Government House " to " White- 
 hall," and hence the name of the street. It was surrounded by a large 
 inclosure, one side of which, with the garden, was washed by the river. 
 A little dock for pleasure-boats ran into the stream at this point. Here, 
 also, was located the Governor's house, between which, and the canal in 
 Broad street, was the present Pearl street, then the great center of trade — 
 known as the " Water-side," and sometimes as the " Strand." Near the 
 Governor's house was the " Way-House," or Weigh-House, at the head 
 of the public wharf at the foot of the present Moore street. A very short 
 distance off, and parallel with Pearl, ran the Buryh Straat (the present 
 Bridge street), so named from the fact of its leading to the bridge across 
 the canal in Broad. There was a small passage-way running through 
 this block and along the side of the " Old Church," for convenient 
 access to a row of houses, laid down on the map. These, five in num- 
 ber, belonged to the Company, and were built of stone. In front of 
 them was a beautiful sloping green. The canal in Broad street was, in 
 truth, but a narrow stream, running toward Wall street for a quarter of 
 a mile. Both sides were dyked with posts, in the fashion of Fatherland^ 
 
52 
 
 at the distance of tirelre feet from the houses. On each side, as houses 
 line a canal in Holland, stood a row of buildings in the ultra Dutch style, 
 low, high-peaked, and very neat, with their gables toward the street. 
 Each had its stoop, a vane or weather-cock, and its dormer-window. 
 From the roof of one, a little iron crane j)rojected, with a small boat at 
 its end, as a sign of this being the ■' Ferry-House." The landing was at 
 the head of the canal, in Broad street, at the point where Garden united 
 with it. This canal or little stream originally went up to " Yerlettenberg 
 Hill" (Exchange Place), afterward corrupted into " Flottenbanck." This 
 was the head of tide-water ; and here the country people from Brooklyn, 
 Gowanus, and Bergen brought their marketing to the center of the city. 
 Many of the market-boats were rowed by stout women, without hats or 
 bonnets, but wearing in their place close caps. There were generally two 
 rowers to each craft. 
 
 Farther along the East Eiver or " Water-side " a building of con- 
 siderable pretension appeared — ^the Stadt Huya or City Hall, first erected 
 as a tavern, but afterward taken by the municipal government. In 
 front of the &tadi Huys was placed a battery of three guns. Proceeding 
 along the river-shore we pass Hanover Square, where two boats are lying, 
 and approach the '' City Gate," at the foot of Wall street, sometimes 
 called the " Water Gate," to distinguish it from the '■ Land Gate " at 
 that end of the road on the Sheer a SiraM (Broadway). The Water Gate 
 seems to have been quite an imposing structurej doubtless because Pearl 
 street was the great thoroughfare and main entrance to the town. Most 
 of the strangers or visitors to New Amsterdam came from Long Island. 
 
 Continuing our walk toward Long Island Ferry, or "Passage-Place," 
 and passing by Maiden Lane, we come to another public way, leading 
 to " Shoemakers' Land " and " Vandercliff's Orchard," both places of 
 noted resort. This was the present John street, from Pearl to Cliff. 
 
 At a very early day the tanneries in Broad street were declared a 
 nuisance, and their owners ordered to remove beyond the city limits. 
 This they did, and established themselves along Maiden Lane, then a 
 marshy valley. Four of the number, shoemakers by trade, purchased a 
 tract of land bounded by Broadway, Ann, WiUiam, and Gold streets, and 
 here commenced their business. This region was thenceforth known as 
 the Shoemakers' Zand, a name which it retained so late as 1696, when it 
 was divided into town-lots. The tanners were next driven from this 
 locality into what is even now known as the " Swamp." The Vandercliff's 
 Orchard was bounded by the East Eiver, Shoemakers' Land, and Maiden 
 Lane. Its original owner was Hendrick Eyker, who sold it in 1680 
 to Dirck Vanderchff. During the Eevolution this tract received the 
 more pleasant-sounding name of Golden Hill so named, it is said, from 
 the fine wheat grown on it. Cliff street yet preserves a part of the old 
 title. Proceeding past Golden Hill we come to a large edifice, close to 
 
53 
 
 the present site of Fulton Market, and marked on the map as 
 " Aldertou's Buildings," surrounded by a fence. This is supposed to be 
 the store-house of Isaac Allerton, who resided at New Amsterdam and 
 carried on an extensive trade with the New England colonies. He was 
 one of the emigrants in the May Flower, and a notable character in our 
 early history. His business was the importation of tobacco from Virginia, 
 and this edifice was probably his great tobacco depot. 
 
 Continuing our tour we reach the ." Passage-Place," the present 
 Peck Slip, known for a long time as the " Old Ferry." This was the 
 earliest Brooklyn ferry, the city authorities in 1654 regulating its rates 
 at three stivers for foot-passengers, except Indians, who paid six, unless 
 there were two or more. Here Cornells Dircksen, the ferryman, who 
 owned a farm near by, at the sound of a horn hanging on the tree from 
 the passengers, ferried them over in Ms little skiff. Still further on 
 there was a little stream, on the bank of which stood a water-mill. This 
 brook ran into Walphafs Meadow, which covered the present Eoosevelt 
 street and vicinity. This stream, known as " Old Wreck Brook," ran 
 from the meadow into the Kolch (Collect), a bridge crossing it on the 
 highway in Chatham near Pearl. 
 
 The " Commons" (the present Park) was a well-known spot in early 
 New York. Through it passed the post-road to Boston, the present 
 Chatham street, and for many years this was the place for public execu- 
 tions, North of the Commons, or the Vlaokte (the " Flat"), lay the Fresh- 
 Water Pond (to which allusion has already been made) with its neighboring 
 district Kolch Rook, or CoUect, below the Commons.* Near the Collect 
 rose Potter's Hill. At its foot followed the " Owl's Kill," leading the 
 waters of that pond through the marshes of " Wolfert's Valley" to the 
 East River. Toward the river was the Swamp, the present Ferry street 
 and neighborhood, a low marshy place, covered with bushes and briars. t 
 
 * As the city gradually extended its limits, the powder-house, at first built ou 
 the Commons, was considered unsafe, and a new magazine was built in 1738 upon 
 a secluded little island in the Fresh-Water Pond. Not far from this place, in the 
 course of the following year, Noe Willey, of London, gave to his three sons in New 
 York the ground for a Jewish cemetery. It was bounded by Chatham, Catherine, 
 and Oliver streets, and was to be held forever as a burial-place for the Israelites. 
 But the wishes of the old Hebrew have been violated long since, for Chatham street 
 now runs through the sacred enclosure, and Mammon has erected a bank and stores 
 upon the spot. Some tomb-stones, however, still stand, like grim sentinels, to keep 
 guard over this once hallowed and venerable grave-yard. 
 
 f In 1744, this tract was sold for £200 to Jacobus Eoosevelt, who divided it 
 into fifty lots and established on them several tanneries. This indicated its future 
 destiny, and over since it has been the center of the large leather trade of the city. 
 More immense fortunes have been made about that region than any other of the 
 same extent in the city. It was originally called Beekman's Swamp, and leased to 
 Rip Van Dam, a member of the Council, for twenty-one years, at a yearly rent of 
 twenty shillings. 
 
54 
 
 The city wall, called the " lingel" or ramparts, was a row of pali- 
 sades, with embankments nine feet high and four wide, on which several 
 cannon were mounted on bastions. Two large stone points were after- 
 ward added — one on the corner of Broadway and Wall, called "Hollandia" 
 and the other on the northwest corner of Wall and William, known as 
 " Zealandia.'" These completely commanded the whole front of the city 
 
 wall. 
 
 Retracing our steps into town, we have now leisure to examine more 
 carefully the canal, which is laid down as running through the entire 
 length of Broad street. Thirty years later this canal was filled up. 
 It had a little branch running toward the west through Beaver street. 
 The Sieeregrajt, or main canal, appears to have been crossed by two prin- 
 cipal bridges, one at Bridge and the other at Stone street, with smaller 
 ones, evidently designed for foot-passengers. Near Beaver street, small 
 boats or canoes lie moored in the canal. 
 
 Pearl street then, and for many j'ears afterward, formed the river 
 bank. Water and South streets have both been reclaimed from the 
 wrater.* On the west side of Broadway, above the grave-yard, at the 
 present Morris street, were the country-seats of Messrs. Vandergrist and 
 Van Dyck. On Whitehall street stood the parsonage of the Dutch 
 Dominie, with its garden of beautiful tulips and hyacinths, and its paths 
 of cedar and clipped box. Close at hand stood the bakery, brewery, and 
 warehouse of the Company. In William, near Pearl, was the old horse- 
 miU, erected, it will be remembered, by Director Minuit, and which did 
 good service until superseded by the three wind -mills of Van Twiller. 
 One of these stood on State street, and was the most prominent object 
 seen in approaching the city from the bay. The old fort itself was 
 bounded by Bridge, Whitehall, and State streets, and the Bowling Gh-een. 
 
 Two main roads led from the fort at the Battery toward the northern 
 part of the Island. One of these, afterward the " Boston, or the old Post 
 Head," followed Broadway to the Park, and then extended through 
 Chatham, Duane, WiUiam, and Pearl streets to the Bowery.f Along the 
 Bowery road lay '■ Steenwyck's" and " Heerman's" orchards, with the 
 well-known Stuyvesant's " Bowerie" (farm), whence the name. Near the 
 last, and in the neighborhood of Grammercy Park, came " Crumraashie 
 Hill," while beyond were the " Zantberg" hiUs, witli " Minetta" brook, 
 which found its way through a marshy valley into the North Eiver. Still 
 further toward the north, near Thirty-sixth street and Fourth avenue, 
 
 * One of the last rclirs of these early days still (1868) stands on the comer of 
 Peek Slip and Water street, and is -well ■worth a visit. At the time of its erection 
 the river flowed alongside of it. 
 
 f In the year 1096 the first haokney-coaoh was introduced upon the Bowery 
 Toad. Previous to this time, with the exception of the G-ovemor's, private coaches 
 were unknown. • 
 
55 
 
 rose the " Incleherg^^ or "Beacon Hill," the Murray Hill of later times. 
 From this latter point there was a commanding view of the whole Island. 
 The other main road also started from the fort, and passing through 
 Stone street to Hanover Square, led along the East Elver to the Brooklyn 
 ferry. 
 
 Thus much for the outward appearance of New York at this time. 
 In regard to its manners and interior life we are enabled — thanks to 
 the late researches of the Hon. Henry C. Murphy, the Foreign Corre- 
 sponding Secretary of the Brooklyn Historical Society — to speak even 
 more definitely. Toward the middle of the seventeenth centurj' a pecu- 
 liar religious sect existed in Westphalia. They were known as Labadists, 
 and professed a kind of mysticism, holding, nevertheless, to the tenets of 
 the Dutch Reformed Church. In the summer of 1679 two of their num- 
 ber were sent over to America, with the view of ascertaining the nature 
 of the country and government, and selecting a suitable place for the 
 establishment of a colony of the religious community to which they 
 belonged. The journal which they kept during their stay in America is 
 of great interest, particularly that portion having reference to their visit 
 to New York ; for, aside from the quaintness and originality of the nar- 
 rative, it is of peculiar value, as giving an inside view of the people of 
 New Amsterdam at this time. As there were but a very small number 
 of copies printed, and the circulation is therefore extremely Hmited, we 
 shall take the liberty of quoting somewhat extensively from the work 
 itself.* 
 
 " Havm<>- then fortunately arrived, by the blessing of the Lord, before the City 
 of I^ew York, on Saturday, the 23d day of September, we stepped ashore about four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, in company with Gerrit, our fellow-passenger, who would 
 conduct us, in this strange place. He had lived here a long time, and had married 
 his wife here, although she and his children were living at present at ZwoUe. "We 
 went along with him, but as he met many of his old acquaintances on the way, we 
 were constantly stopped. He first took us to the house of one of his friends, who 
 welcomed him and us, and offered us some of the fruit of the country, very fine 
 peaches and full-grown apples, which filled our hearts with thankfulness to God. 
 This fruit was exceedingly fair and good, and pleasant to the taste ; much better 
 than that in Holland or elsewhere, though I believe our long fasting and craving of 
 food made it so agreeable. After taking a glass of Madeira, we proceeded on to 
 Gerrit's father-in-law's, a very old man, half lame, and unable either to walk or stand ' 
 who fell upon the neck of his son-in-law, welcoming him with tears of joy. The 
 old woman was also very glad. This good man was born in Vlissingen, and was 
 named Jacob Swart. He had been formerly a master-carpenter at Amsterdam, but 
 had lived in this country upwards of forty-five years. After we had been here a 
 little while, we left our traveling-bag, and went out to take a walk in the fields. It 
 was strange to us to feel such stability under us, although it seemed as if the earth 
 itself moved under our feet like the ship had done for three months past, and our 
 
 * This journal was found in manuscript, a few years since, in Holland, by Mr. 
 Murphy, who, perceiving its value, presented it a few months ago to the Brooklyn 
 Historical Society, by whom a few copies were printed for the members in 1807. 
 
56 
 
 tody also still swayed after the manner of the rolling of the sea ; but this sensation 
 gradually passed off in the course of a few days. As we walked along we saw in 
 different gardens trees full of apples of various kinds, and so laden with peaches and 
 other fruit that one might doubt whether there were more leaves or fruit on them. 
 I have never seen in Europe, in the best seasons, such an overflowing abundance. 
 When we had iinished our tour and given our guide several letters to deliver, we 
 returned to his father-in-law's, who regaled us in the evening with milk, which 
 refreshed us much. We had so many peaches sot before us that we were timid 
 about eating them, though we experienced no ill effects from them. We remained 
 there to sleep, which was the first time in nine or ten weeks that we had lain down 
 upon a bed undressed, and able to yield ourselves to sleep without apprehension of 
 danger. 
 
 " 24th, Sunday. Wc rested well through the night. I was surprised on waking 
 up to find my comrade had already dressed himself and breakfasted upon peaches. 
 We walked out awhile in the fine, pure morning air, along the margin of the clear 
 running water of the sea, which is driven up this river at every tide. As it was 
 Sunday, in order to avoid scandal and for other reasons, we did not wish to absent 
 ourselves from church. We therefore went, and found there truly a wild, worldly 
 world. I say wild, not only because the people are wild, as they call it in Europe,, 
 but because most all the people who go there to live, or who are bom there, partake 
 somewhat of the nature of the country, that is, peculiar to the land where they Uve, 
 We heard a minister preach who had come from the up-river country, from Fort 
 Orange, where his residence is, an old man named Dominie Schaats, of Amste rdam." * * 
 * * " This Schaats then preached. He had a defect in the left eye and used such 
 strange gestures and language that I think I never in all my life heard anything 
 more miserable ; indeed, I can compare him with no one better than with one Do. 
 Van Ecke, lately the minister at Armuyden, in Zeeland^ more in life, conversation, 
 and gestures than in person. As it is not stitinge in these countries to have men as 
 ministers who drink, we could ima.gine nothing else than that he had been drinking 
 a little this morning. His text was. Come unto me aU ye, &c., but he was so rough 
 that even the roughest and most godless of our sailors were astonished. 
 
 " The church being in the fort we had an opportunity to look through the latter, 
 as we had come too early for preaching. It is not large ; it has four points or batter- 
 ies ; it has no moat outside but is inclosed with a double row of palisades. It is built 
 from the foundation with quarry stone. The parapet is of earth. It is well pro- 
 vided with cannon, for the most part of iron, though there were some small brass 
 pieces, all bearing the mark, or arms of the Netherlanders. The garrison is small. 
 There is a well of iine wate* dug in the fort by the English, contrary to the 
 opinion of the Dutch, who supposed the fort was built upon rook, and had, there- 
 fore, never attempted any such^ thing. There is, indeed, some indication of 
 stone there, for along the edge of the water below the fort there is a very large 
 rock extending apparently under the fort, which is buUt upon the point formed by 
 the two rivers, namely, the Ea.st river, which is the water running between the 
 Mahattans and Long Island, and the North river, which runs straight up to Fort 
 Orange. In front of the fort, on the Long Islana side, there is a smaU island, called 
 Noten island (Nut island), around the point of which vessels must go in sailing out 
 or in, whereby they are compelled to pass close by the point of the fort, where they 
 can be flanked by several of the batteries. It has only one gate, and that is on the 
 land side, opening upon a broad plane or street, called the Broadway or Beaverway. 
 Over this gate are the arms of the Duke of York. During the time of the Dutch 
 there were two gates, namely, another on the water side ; but the EngUsh have 
 closed it and made a battery there, with a false gate. In front of the church is 
 
57 
 
 inscribed the name of Governor Kyft, who caused the same to be built in the year 
 1642. It has a shingled roof, and upon the gable towards the water there is a small 
 wooden tower with a bell in it but no clock. There is a sun-dial on three sides. 
 The front of the fort stretches east and wefit, and consequently the sides run north 
 and south. 
 
 " After we had returned to the house and dined, my companion, not wishing to 
 go to church, sat about writing letters, as there was a ship, of which Andre Bon 
 was master, about to leave in a few days for London ; but in order we should not be 
 both absent from church, and as the usual minister was to preach in the afternoon, I 
 went alone to hear him. He was a thick, corpulent person, with a red and bloated 
 face, and of very slabbering speech.* His text was ' the elders who serve well,' &c. ,, 
 because the elders and deacons were that day renewed, and I saw them admitted. 
 After preaching, the good old people with whom we lodged, who, indeed, if they 
 were not the best on all the Manathans, were at least among the best, especially the 
 wife, begged we would go with their son Gerrit, to one of their daughters, who 
 lived in a delightful place, and kept a tavern, where we would be able to taste the 
 beer of Hew Netherland, inasmuch as it was also a brewery. Some of their friends 
 passing by requested Gerrit and us to accompany them, and so We went for the pur- 
 pose of seeing what was to be seen ; but when we arrived there, wo found ourselves 
 much deceived. On account of its being to some extent a pleasant spot it was 
 resorted on Sundays by all sorts of revelers, and was a low pot-house. Our com- 
 pany immediately found acquaintances there and joined them, but it being repug- 
 nant to our feelings to be there, we walked into the orchard to seek pleasure in con- 
 templating the innocent objects of nature. Among other trees we observed a mul- 
 berry-tree, the leaves of which were as large as a plate. The wife showed us pears 
 larger than the fist, picked from a three years' graft which had borne forty of them. 
 A great storm of rain coming up in the evening compelled us to go into the house, 
 where we did not remain long with the others, but took our leave of them against 
 their wishes. We retraced our steps in the dark, exploring a way over which we 
 had gone only once in our life, through a valey (salt meadow) and over water upon 
 the trunk of a tree. We nevertheless reached home, having left the others in their 
 revels. While in their company we conversed with the first male bom of Euro- 
 peans in New Netherland, named Jean Vigne. His parents were from Valefl- 
 ciennes and he was now about sixty-five years of age. He was a brewer and a 
 neighbor of our old people." 
 
 * * « * ♦ * * **«* 
 
 "25th Monday. We went on board the ship this morning in order to obtain 
 our traveling bag and clothes for the purpose of having them washed, but when we 
 came on board we could not get ashore again before the afternoon, when the passen- 
 gers' goods were to be delivered. All our goods which were between decks were 
 taken ashore and carried to the public storehouse, where they had to be examined, 
 but some time elapsed before it was done, in consequence of the examiners being 
 elsewhere. At length, however, one Abraham Lennoy, a good fellow apparently, 
 befriended us. He examined our chest only, without touching our bedding; or any 
 thing else. I showed him a list of the tin which we had in the upper part of our 
 cheat, and he examined it and also the tin, and turned up a little more what was in 
 the chest and with that left off, without looking at it closely. He demanded 
 four English shillings for the tin, remarking at the same time that he had observed 
 some other small articles, but would not examine them closely, though he had not 
 seen either the box or the pieces of Unen. This being finished we sent our goods in 
 
 ♦ The minister here referred to was the Rev. Willjam Nieuenhuisen. 
 
58 
 
 a cart to our lodgings, paying for the two heavy chests and straw beds and other 
 ^oods from the public store-house to the Smit's valey, sixteen stivers of zea wan, equal 
 to three stivers and a half in the money of Holland. This finished the day and we 
 retired to rest. 
 
 " 26th Tuesiay. We remained at home for the purpose of writing, but in the 
 afternoon, finding that many goods had been discharged from the ship, we went to 
 look after our little package, which also came. I declared it and it was examined. 
 I had to pay twenty-four guilders in zeawan or five guilders in the coin of Holland. 
 I brought it to the house and looked the things all over, rejoicing that we were 
 finally rid of that miserable set and the ship, the freight only remaining to be paid, 
 which was fixed at four guilders in coin. We went first to Margaret in relation to 
 the freight, who said she had nothing more to do with it, and that we must speak 
 to her husband about it, which it was not convenient to do that evening, and we 
 therefore let it go, waiting for an opportunity to speak to her and her husband with 
 the captain, and perhaps also Mr. Jan. 
 
 ******* 
 " As soon as we had dined we sent off our letters, and this being all accom- 
 plished we started at two o'clock for Long Island. This island is called Long 
 Island, not so much because it is longer than it is broad, but particularly because it 
 is the Lon°-est island in this region, or even along the whole coast of New Nether- 
 land, Virginia and New England. It is one hundred and forty-four miles in leng^ 
 and from twenty-four to twenty-oight miles wide, thoiigh there are several bays and 
 points along it, and consequently it is much broader in some places than others, 
 On the west is Staten Island, from which it is separated about a mile, and the great 
 bay over which you see the Neceainrke. With Staten Island it makes the passage 
 through which all vessels pass in sailing fi'om or to the MaluUans, although they can 
 eo through th9 Kil Van Kol, which is on the other side of Staten Island. The ends 
 of these islands opposite each other are quite high land, and they are therefore 
 called the Hoof den (Headlands), from a comparison with the Hoof den of the channel 
 between England and France in Europe. On the north is the island of Mahalam 
 and a part of the mainland. On the east is the sea, which shoots' up to New 
 England, and in which there are various islands. On the south is the great ocean. 
 The outer shore of this island has before it several small islands and broken land, 
 such as Coney Island,* a low, sandy island of about three hours' circuit, its w^esterly 
 point forming with Sandy Hook on the other side the entrance froni the sea. It is 
 oblong in shape, and is grown over with bushes. Nobody lives upon it, but it is 
 used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs and others, which are able to 
 obtain there suf&cient to eat the whole winter, Eind to shelter themselves from the 
 cold in the thickets. This island is not so cold as Long Island or the Mahatans, or 
 others, like some islands on the coast, in consequence of their having more sea breeze, 
 and of the saltness of the sea breaking upon the shoals., rocks and reefs with which 
 the coast is beset. There is al^o the Bear's Islandf and others, separated from Long 
 Island by creeks and marshes overflown at high water. There are also on this sea 
 coast various miry places like the Vlaeckl and others, as well as some sand bays and 
 hard and rocky shores. Long Island stretches into the sea for the most part east by 
 south and cast-southeast. None of its land is very high, for you must be nearly 
 opposite Sandy Hook before you can sec it. There is a hill or ridge running length- 
 
 * ■( Canijnen Eylanl, Rabbit's island. 
 
 i 'I Beeren £ylant. Now called Barren Mand. 
 
 i The "Wieringen shoals in the Zuyder Zee are probably meant. 
 
59 
 
 "wise tlirough the island, nearest the north side and -west end of the island. 
 The south side and east end are more flat. The -water by which it is 
 separated from the Mahatans, is improperly called the East River, for it 
 IS nothing else than an arm of the sea, beginning in the bay on the west and ending 
 in the sea on the east. After forming in this passage several islands, this water is 
 as broad before the city as the Y before Amsterdam, but the ebb and flood tides are 
 stronger. There is a ferry for the purpose of crossing over it which is farmed out 
 by the year and yields a good income, as it is a considerable thoroughfare, this island 
 being one of the most populous places in this vicinity. A considerable number of 
 Indians live upon it, who gain their subsistence by hunting and fishing, and they, 
 as well as others, must carry their articles to market over this ferry or boat them 
 over, as it is free to every one to use his own boat, if he have one, or to borrow or 
 hire one for the purpose. The fare over the ferry is three stivers* in zeawan for 
 each person. 
 
 Here we three crossed over, my comrade Gerrit, our guide and myself, in a row- 
 boat, as it happened, which, in good weather and tide, carries a sail. When we 
 came over we found there Jan Teunissen, our fellow-passenger, who had promised 
 us so much good. He was going over to the city to deliver his letters and transact 
 other business. He told us he would return home in the evening and we would 
 find him there. We wont on up the hill along open roads and a little woods, through 
 the first village, called Breukelen, which has a sm ill and ugly little church standing 
 in the middle of the road.-]- Having passed through here, we struck off to the right 
 in order to go to Gouanes. We went upon several plantations where Gerrit was 
 acquainted with most all of the people, who made us very welcome, sharing with us 
 bountifully whatever they had, whether it was milk, cider, fruit, or tobacco, and 
 especially and first and most of all, miserable rum or brandy which had been brought 
 from Barbadoes and other islands, and which is called by the Dutch kill-devil. All 
 these people are very fond of it, and most of them extravagantly so, although it is 
 very dear and has a bad taste. It is impossible to tell how many peach-trees we 
 passed all laden with fruit to breaking down, and many of them actually broken 
 down. We came to a place surrounded with such trees from which so many had 
 fallen off that the ground could not be discerned, and you could not put your foot 
 down without trampling them, and notwithstanding such largo quantities had fallen 
 off, the trees still were as full as they could bear. The hogs and other animals 
 mostly feed on them. This place belongs to the oldest European woman in the 
 country. We went immediately into her house where she lived with her children. 
 We found her sitting by the fire smoking tobacco incessantly, one pipe after another. 
 We inquired after her age, which the children told us was a hundred years. She 
 •was from Luyck (Liege), and still spoke good Waalsche (old French) with us. She 
 could reason very well sometimes, and at other times she could not. She showed us 
 several large apples as good fruit of that country and different from that of Europe. 
 She had been about fifty years now in the country and had above seventy children 
 
 * Less than half a cent in our money. 
 
 t Breukelen, now Brooklyn, yraa so called irom the village of that name in the province of 
 Utrecht. Tlie church here referred to was built in 1660, and was the flrat one in Brooklyn. TVhen it 
 wits taken down does not appear. " A second church," says Funnan, in his A'/ites relatlvg to ISmoklyn, 
 76, " wa.s erected on the site of that built in 16GG, which second church continued standing until about 
 1810, when a new and substantial church was erected on Joralemon street, and the old one taken 
 down. This old church was a very gloomy-looking- building- with small windows, and stood in the 
 middle of the highway about a mile from Brooklyn ferry." Of this second church a view is given in 
 the Brooklyn Manual of 1863. 
 
60 
 
 and grandchildren. She saw the third generation after her. Her mother had attended 
 women in childbed in her one hundred and sixth year, and was one hundred and eleven 
 or twelve years old when she died. We tasted here for the first time, smoked twaelft* 
 (twelfth), a fish so called because it is caught in season next after the dft^i (eleventh). 
 It was salted a little and then smoked, and although it was now a year old, it was 
 still perfectly good and in flavor not inferior to smoked salmon. We drank here, 
 also, the first new cider, which was very fine. 
 
 " We proceeded on to Gouanee, a place so called, where we arrived in the even- 
 ing at one of the best friends of Gerrit, named Symon. He was very glad to see 
 us, and so was his wife. He took us into the house, and entertained us exceedingly 
 well. We found a good fire, half-way up the chimney, of clear oak and hickory, of 
 which they made not the least scruple of burning profusely. We let it penetrate us 
 thoroughly. There had been already thrown upon it, to be roasted, a pail-full 
 of Grouanes oysters, which are the best in the country. They are fully as good as 
 those of England, and better than those we eat at Falmouth. I had to try some of 
 them raw. They are large and full, some of them not less than a foot long, and 
 they grow sometimes ten, twelve, and sixteen together, and are then like a piece of 
 rock. Others are young and small. In consequence of the great quantities of themr 
 everybody keeps the shells for the purpose of burning them into lime. They pickle 
 the oysters in small casks, and send them to Barbadoes and the other islands. We 
 had for supper a roasted haunch of venison, which he had bought of the Indians for 
 three guilders and a half of seewant, that is, fifteen stuivers of Dutch motiey (fifteen 
 cents), and which weighed thirty pounds. The meat was exceedingly tender and 
 good, and also quite fat. It had a slight spicy flavor. We were also served with 
 wild turkey, which was also fat and of a good flavor ; and a wild goose, but that 
 was rather dry. Every thing we had was the natural production of the country. 
 We saw here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of watermelons, which were as large as 
 pumpkins, and which Symon was going to take to the city to sell. They were very- 
 good, though there is a difference between them and those of the Caribly islands ; 
 but this may be owing to its being late in the season, as these were the last pulling. 
 It was very late at night when we went to rest in a Kermis bed, as it is called, in 
 the comer of the hearth, along side of a good fire. 
 
 " 30th, Saturday. Early this morning the husband and wife set oflf for the city 
 with their marketing", and we, having explored the land in the vicinity, left after 
 breakfast. We went a part of the way through a woods and fine, new-made land, 
 and so along the shore to the west end of the island, called Najack.l As we pro- 
 ceeded along the shore, we found, among other curiosities, a highly-marbled stone, 
 very hard, in which we saw Muscovy glass lying in layers between the clefts, and 
 how it was struck or cut out. We broke off a small piece with some difficulty, and 
 picked out a little glass in the splits. Continuing onward from there, we came to 
 the plantation of the Najack Indians, which was planted with maize, or Turkish 
 wheat. We soon heard a noise of pounding, like thrashing, and went to the place 
 whence it proceeded, and found there an old Indian woman busily employed beating 
 T-urkish beans out of the pods by means of a stick, which she did with astonishing 
 force and dexterity. Gerrit inquired of her, in the Indian language, which he spoke 
 perfectly well, how old she was, and she answered eighty years ; at wliich we were 
 still more astonished that so old a woman should still have so much strength and 
 
 * The striped bass. 
 
 t The shad. 
 
 J Fort Hamilton, which is surrounded, in a great measure, by a marsh, and hence is here called 
 an island. 
 
61 
 
 courage to work as she did. We went from thence to her habitation, where we 
 found the whole troop together, consisting of seven or eight families, and twenty or 
 twenty-two persons, I should think. Their house was low and loiig, about sixty 
 feet long and fourteen or fifteen feet wide. The bottom was earth, the sides and 
 roof were made of reed and the bark of chestnut trees ; the posts, or columns, were 
 limbs of trees stuck in the ground, and all fastened together. The top, or ridge of 
 the roof, was open about half a foot wide, from one end to the other, in order to let 
 the smoke escape, in place of a chimney. On the sides, or walls, of the house, the 
 roof was so low that you could hardly stand under it. The entrances, or doors, 
 which were at both ends, were so small that they had to stoop down and squeeze 
 themselves to get through them. The doors were made of reed, or flat bark. In 
 the whole building there was no lime, stone, iron, or lead. They build their fire in 
 the middle of the floor, according to the number of families which live in it, so that 
 from one end to the other each of them boils its own pot, and eats when it likes, not 
 ■only the families by themselves, but each Indian alone, according as he is hungry, 
 •at all hours, morning, noon, and night. By each fire are the cooking utensils, con- 
 sisting of a pot, a bawl, or calabash, and a spoon also made of a calabash. These 
 are all that relate to cooking-. They lie upon mats, with their feet towards the fire 
 ■on each side of it. They do not sit much upon any thing raised up, but, for the 
 most part, sit on the ground, or squat on their ankles. Their other household 
 •articles consist of a calabash of water, out of which they drink, a small basket in 
 -which to carry and keep their miize and small beans, and a knife. The implements 
 are, for tillage, a small, sharp stone, and nothing more ; for hunting, a gun and 
 pouch for powder and lead; for fishing, a canoe without mast or sail, and without a 
 nail in any part of it, though it is sometimes full forty feet in length, fish-hooks and 
 lines, apd scoop to paddle with in place of oars. I do not know whether there are 
 not some others of a trifling nature. All who live in one house are generally of one 
 stock or descent, as father and mother, with their offspring. Their bread is maize, 
 pounded in a block by a stone, but not fine. This is mixed with water, and made 
 into a cake, which they bake under the hot ashes. They gave us a small piece when 
 we entered, and although the grains were not ripe, and it was half-baked and coarse 
 grains, we nevertheless had to aat it, or, at least, not throw it away before them, 
 which they would have regarded as a great sin, or a great affront. We chewed a 
 little of it with long teeth, and managed to hide it so they did not sea it. We had 
 also to drink out of their calabashes the water which was their drink, and which 
 was very good. We saw here the Indians who came on board the ship when we 
 arrived. They were all very joyful at the visit of our Gerrit, who was an old 
 .acquaintance of theirs, and had heretofore long resided there. We presented them 
 with two jews-harps, which much pleased them, and they immediately commenced 
 to play upon them, which they could do tolerably well. Some of their j'l^i'oons 
 (chiefs), some of whom spoke good Dutch, and are also their medicine-men and sur- 
 geons as well as their teachers, were busy making shoes of deer-leather, which they 
 ■understand how to make soft by continually working it in their hands. They had 
 dogs, fowls, and hogs, which they learn by degrees from the Europeans how to 
 manage better. They had, also, peach trees, which were well laden. Towards the 
 last, we asked them for some peachea, and they answered : ' Go and pick them,' 
 which showed their politeness. However, in order not to offend them, we went off 
 -and pulled some. Although they are such a poor, miserable people, they arc, never- 
 theless, licentious and proud, and given to knavery and soof&ng. Seeing a very old 
 woman among them, we inquired how old she was, when some young fellows, 
 laughing and jeering, answered twenty years, while it was evident to us she was not 
 less than a hundred. We observed here the manner in which they travel with their 
 
62 
 
 children, a woman having one which she carried on her back. The little thing- 
 clung tight around her neck like a cat, where it was kept secure by means of a piece 
 of daffels, their usual garment. Its head, back, and buttocks, were entirely flat. 
 How that happened to be so we will relate hereafter, as we now only make mention 
 of what we saw. 
 
 ******** 
 " 4th, "Wednesday. We slept for the night in our old place. In the morning 
 the horses were harnessed to the wagon for the purpose of carrying us to the 
 city, and bringing back some medicines which had arrived for him (Jaques) 
 from Holland in our ship. We breakfasted to our full, and rode first to the bay, 
 where we had left our traveling bag. Seeing there was nothing to be accomplished 
 with our Jan Theuniasen, all his great promises having vanished without the least 
 result, though they had cost us dearly enough, we let that rest quiet, and taking 
 our leave, rode on to 't Vlacke Bos, a vUlage situated about an hour and a half's dis- 
 tance from there, upon the same plain, which is very large. This village seems tO' 
 have better farms than the bay, and yields fuU as much revenue. Hiding through 
 it, we came to the woods and hills, which are very stony and uncomfortable to ride 
 over. We rode over them, and passed through the village of Breiikelen to the ferry, 
 and leaving the wagon there, we crossed over the river and arrived at home at noon, 
 where we were able to rest a little, and where our old people were glad to see us. 
 We sent back to Jaques half of our tincture calimanaris, and half of owx balsam 
 sulphureous, and some other things. He had been of service to us in several 
 respects, as he promised to be, and that with perfect willingness. 
 »** ***** 
 
 " 6th, Friday. We remained in the house during the forenoon, but after 
 having dined we went out about two o clock to explore the island of MnJiathans. 
 This island runs east and west, or somewhat more northerly. On the north side of 
 it is the North river, by which it is separated from the main land on the north ; on 
 the east end it is separated from the main land by a creek, or rather a branch 
 of ^e North river, emptying itself into the East river. They can go over this 
 creek at dead low water, upon rocks and reefs, at the place called 8pyt den duyvd. 
 This creek coming into the East river forms with it the two Barents islands* 
 At the west end of these two running waters, that is, where they come together to 
 the east of these islands, they make, with the rocks and reefs, such a frightful eddy 
 and whirlpool that it is exceedingly dangerous to pass through them, especially 
 with smaU. boats, of which there are some lost every now and then and the persons 
 in them drowned ; but experience has taught men the way of passing through them 
 with less danger. Large vessels have always less danger because they are not 
 capable of being carried along so quickly. There are two places where such whirl- 
 ing of the stream occurs, which are on account of the danger and frightfulness 
 called the Great and Little Hellgate. After these two streams are united, the 
 island of Manathans is separated on the south from Long Island by the East river, 
 which, beginning at the bay before New York, runs eastwardly, after forming several 
 islands, again into the sea. This island is about seven hours distance in length, 
 but it is not a full hour broad. The sides are indented with bays, "coves, and creeks. 
 It is almost entirely taken up, that is, the land is held by private owners, but not half 
 of it is cultivated. Much of it is good wood land. The west end, on which the city 
 lies, is entirely cleared for more than an hour's distance, though that is the poorest 
 ground ; the best being on the east and north side. There are many brooks of fresh 
 
 * Kow called Great and Little Sam Islands. 
 
63 
 
 water running through it, pleasant and proper for man and beast to drink, as well 
 as agreeable to behold, affording cool and pleasant resting-places, but especially 
 suitable places for the construction of mills, for although there is no overflow of 
 water yet it can be shut off and so used. A little eastward of Nieu Haerlsm there 
 are two ridges of very high rocks, with a considerable space between them, display- 
 ing themselves very majestically, and inviting all men to acknowledge in them the 
 majesty, grandeur, power, and glory of their Creator, who has impressed such marks 
 upon them. Between them runs the road to Spyt den duyvd. The one to the north is 
 most apparent ; the south ridge is covered with earth on its north side, but it can be 
 seen from the water or from the main land beyond to the south. The soil between 
 these ridges is very good, though a little hilly and stony, and would be very suitable, 
 in my opinion, for planting vineyards, in consequence of its being shut off on both 
 sides from the winds which would most injure them, and is very warm. We found 
 blue grapes along the road which were very good and sweet, and as good as any I 
 have tasted in the Fatherland. 
 
 We went from the city, following the Broadway, over the valey, or the fresh 
 water. Upon both sides of this way were many habitations of negroes, mulattoes, 
 and whites. These negroes were formerly the proper slaves of the West India 
 Company, but, in consequence of the frequent changes and conquest- of the country, 
 they have obtained their freedom and settled themselves down where they have 
 thought proper, and thus on this road, where they have ground enough to live on. 
 with their families. We left the village called the Boywerij, lying on the right 
 band, and went through the woods to New Harlem, a tolerably large village sit- 
 uated on the south side of the island, directly opposite the place where the north- 
 east creek and the East river come together, situated about three hours' journey 
 from New Amsterdam, like as old Harlem in Europe is situated about three hours 
 distance from old Amsterdam. As our guide, G-errit, had some business here, and 
 found many acquaintances, we remained over night at the house of rne Oei-esolveert,* 
 scout (sheriff or constable) of the place, who had formerly lived in Brazil, and whose 
 heart was still full of it. This house was constantly filled with people all the time 
 drinking for the most part that execrable rum. He had also the best cider we have 
 tasted. Among the crowd we found a person of quality, an Englishman, named 
 Captain Cartaret, whose father is in great favor with the king, and he himself had 
 eissisted in several exploits in the king's service. He was administrator or captain- 
 general of the English forces which went, in 1660, to retake St. Kitts, which the. 
 French had entirely conquered, and were repulsed. He had also filled some high 
 office, in the ship of the Duke of York, with two hundred infantry under his com- 
 mand. The king has given to his father, Sir George Cartaret, the entire govern- 
 ment of the lands west of the North river, in New Netherland, with power to 
 appoint as governor whom he pleases ; and at this present time there is a governor 
 over it by his appointment, another Cartaret, his nephew, I believe, who resides at 
 Elizabethtown, in New Jersey.f From this Cartaret in England the Quakers have 
 purchased the privilege of a government of their own, over a large tract of terri- 
 tory which they have bought and settled within his dominion ; and it is but little 
 different from their having bought the entire right of government of the whole of 
 
 * Resolwdj a Christian name. 
 
 t Philip Cai-taret, the brother, not the nephew, of Sir George, is the person here meant. He 
 was appointed governor of New Jersey, under the joint proprietorship of Lord Berkeley and Sir 
 Geoi^e Cavtaret, in 1664, and of East Jersey in 1674, under the sole grant to Sir George. He resigned 
 in 1682, and died in December of that year, in this country, leaving a widow, the daughter of Richard 
 Smith, Smithtown, on Long Island.— Whitehead's East Jersey under the Proprietorf:^ 36, 84. 
 
64 
 
 his land. This son is a very profligate person. He married a merchant's daughter 
 here, and has so lived with his wife that her father has been compelled to take her 
 home again. He runs about among the farmers, and stays where he can find most 
 to drink, and sleeps in barns on the straw. If he conducted himself properly, he 
 could be, not only governor here, but hold higher positions, for he has studied the 
 moralities, and seems to have been of a good understanding ; but that is all now 
 drowned. His father, who will not acknowledge him as his son, as before, allows 
 him yearly as much only as is necessary for him to live. 
 
 " 7th, Saturday. This morning, about half-past six, we set out from the village 
 in order to go to the end of the island ; but before we left we did not omit supply- 
 ing ourselves with peaches, which grew in an orchard along the road. The whole 
 ground was covered with them and with apples, lying upon the new grain with 
 which the orchard was planted. The peaches were the most delicious we had yet 
 eaten. We proceeded on our way, and when we were not far from the point of 
 Spyt den duyvd we could see ou our left hand the rocky clifEs of the main land on 
 the other side of the North river, these cliffs standing straight up and down, with 
 the grain, just as if they were antimony. We crossed over the Spyl den duyvel in a 
 canoe, and paid nine stuivers fare for us three, which was verj- dear. We followed 
 the opposite side of the land, and came to the house of one Valentyn, a great 
 acquaintance with our Grcrrlt. He had gone to the city, but his wife, though she 
 did not know G-srrit or us, was so much rejoiced to see Hollanders that she hardly 
 knew what to do for us. She set before us what she had. We left after breakfast- 
 ing there. Her son showed us the way and we came to a road entirely covered 
 with peaches. We asked the boy why they left them to lie there and they did not 
 let the hogs eat them. He answered, we do not know what to do with them, there 
 were so many ; the hogs are satiated with them, and will not eat any more. From 
 this we may judge of the quantity of them. We pursued our way now a small 
 distance through the woods and over the hiUs, then back again along the shore to a 
 point, where one Webblingh, an Englishman, lived, who was standing ready to cross 
 over. He carried us over with him, and refused to take any pay for our passage, 
 offering us at the same time some of his rum, a liquor which is everywhere. We 
 were now again at New Harlem, and dined with Gerosolveert, at whose house we 
 slept the night before, and who made us welcome. It was now two o'clock ; and 
 leaving there we crossed over the island, which takes about three-quarters of an 
 hour to do, and came to the North river, which we followed a little within the 
 woods, to Sajypokanikke* &errit having a sister and friends there we rested our- 
 selves, and drank some good beer which refreshed us. We continued along the 
 shore to the city, where we arrived in an hour in the evening, very much fatigued, 
 having walked this day about forty mUes. I must add, in passing through this 
 island we sometimes encountered such a sweet smell in the air that we stood still, 
 because we did not know what it was we were meeting]" 
 
 " 14th, Saturday. Being under sail, as I have said, it was so entirely calm that 
 we could only float with the stream until we came to the SchuUers island, where 
 we obtained the tide again. It was now about four o'clock. In order to protect 
 ourselves from the air, which was very cold and piercing, we crept under the sail, 
 which was very old and full of holes. The tide having run out by daylight we 
 came under sail again, with a good wind, which brought us to the city at about 
 eight o'clock, for which we were glad, and returning thanks to Grod, betook our- 
 selves to rest. 
 
 * According to Judge Benson this was the Indian name of the point, afterward known as 
 Greenwich, on the north side of the city. — New York Historical CoUectionSt second series, M. 
 
65 
 
 " 15th, Sunday. We went at noon to-day to hear the English minister, whose 
 services took place after the Dutch church was out. There were not above twenty- 
 five or thirty people in the church. The first thing that occurred was the reading 
 of all their prayers and ceremonies out of the prayer-book, as is done in all Episcopal 
 churches. A young man then went into the pulpit and commenced preaching, who 
 thought he was performing wonders ; but he had a little book in his hand out of 
 which he read his sermon, which was about a quarter of an hour or half an hour 
 long.* "With this the services were concluded, at which we could not be suffi- 
 ciently astonished. This was all that happened with us to-day." 
 
 From the year 1674, under Edmund Andross, commenced the new 
 regime in New York. Andross was a pubUc officer of ability, but well 
 known for his imperious and despotic disposition. The people imme- 
 ■diately petitioned their royal master, the Duke of York, for an Assembly 
 of Eepresentatives ; but James, who regarded popular bodies as dan- 
 gerous, refused their prayer, with the question : " What do they want 
 with Assemblies ? They have the Court of Sessions presided over by the 
 Governor ; or, if this is not enough, they can appeal to me !" Such was 
 the English spirit of oppression a century before it was resisted in blood 
 at Golden and Bunker Hills. Upon learning of this reply of Andross, 
 Sir William Berkly, Governor of Virginia, " thanked God that there were 
 neither free-schools nor printing-presses in the colony," fervently adding, 
 " God keep us from both !" 
 
 Governor Andross, however — much as he may in after years have 
 merited from the people of the Eastern Colonies the title of the 
 " Tyrant of New England" — governed New York with wisdom and 
 moderation. Desirous of establishing himself on a popular basis with 
 the people, one of his first official acts was to appoint, in 1676, a native 
 Hollander — Nicholas Meyer — Mayor of the city. The selection was a 
 good one. Meyer was one of the most enterprising of traders, and a most 
 respectable burgher ; and although the duties of his oflfice could not have 
 been particularly onerous at a time when only three hundred and one names 
 were recorded upon the list of tax-payers, yet what little he did was done 
 honestly and well — a fact that cannot truthfully be stated of New York 
 Mayors of later generations. Nor did Andross strive to be popular alone . 
 Aware that no government can be a stable one unless placed on a basis of 
 sound morality, he at once established ordinances for regulating the fjublic 
 morals and promoting the welfare of the city. ' ' The city -gates were ordered 
 to be closed at night at nine o'clock, and to be opened at daylight. The 
 citizens were required to keep watch by turns, and were fined for absence 
 or neo-lect of duty ; and all profanity and drunkenness were strictly for- 
 bidden. Every citizen was ordered to provide himself with a good musket 
 
 * The only English minister in the whole province at this t,im3 was attachnd to tho r^arri-ion at 
 the City of New York. This was the Rev. Charles Wooley, a graduate of Emanuel CoUegc, Cam- 
 bridge, in 1677. He came to New York in August, 1678, and left there for England in July, 1680. 
 He was the author of a small volume with the title of A Two Tears^ Journal in New York, f£c. 
 published in 1701, and recently republished, with notes by Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, in Mr. Oowans> 
 interesting aeries of early works on the colonies.— JVoie to the Labidisis. 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 or firelock with at least six charges of powder and ball, and to appear ■ 
 with good arms before the Captain's colors, at the first beating of the 
 drum." 
 
 In 1677 the first native-bom Mayor was appointed to the Mayoralty. 
 This was Stephanus Van Cortlandt, a large property-holder, and after 
 whom Cortlandt street is named. Under his administration seven public 
 wells were placed in difierent parts of the city, chiefly as a protection 
 aga'nst fires. 
 
 Meanwhile the necessity of conciliating the Iroquois — the most 
 powerful Indian confederacy, at that time, in America — had received 
 little or no attention from the people of New York or their Government. 
 The first three English Governors of the colony, or rather lieutenants of 
 the Duke of York, viz.: Colonels NichoUs, Lovelace, and Major, after- 
 ward Sir Edmund Andross, bestowed but inconsiderable attention upon 
 the Five Nations, not seeming to appreciate either the importance of their 
 trade or of their friendship. Still the moral hatred they had borne for 
 the French inclined them rather to prefer the friendship of the English. 
 But the Duke of York, in his affection for the Church of Home, shutting 
 his eyes to what unquestionably should have been the true policy of 
 the English toward the Indians, had conceived the idea of handing the 
 Confederates over to the Holy See, as converts to its forms, if not to its 
 faith. Hence the efforts to mediate the peace between the Iroquois and 
 the French of 1667, which were followed by invitations to the Jesuit 
 missionaries from the English, to settle among the Confederates, and by 
 persuasions to the latter to receive them. The Mohawks were either too 
 wise, or too bitter in spirit toward the French, to listen to the proposal. 
 But not so with the other nations of the aUiance ; and the Oneidas, Ononda- 
 gas, Cayugas, and Senecas opened their arms to the insidious stangers in 
 holy garb, causing infinite mischief in after years, as will appear in. the 
 sequel. 
 
 This peace of 1667 continued several years, during which time both 
 the English and French prosecuted their trade with the Indians to a 
 great and profitable extent. The French, especially, evinced a degree of 
 energy, and a spirit of enterprise, almost unexampled in the history of 
 colonization — planting their trading-posts, under the lead of the adven- 
 turous La SaUe, at aU the commanding poiats of the great lakes, and 
 across the country]of the Hhnois to the Mississippi ; and stealing the hearts 
 of the Indians through the arts of the crafty ministers of the order of Jesus, 
 whom they sprinkled among the principal nations over the whole country 
 of the exploration. By these bold advances deep into the interior, and the 
 insiduous wiles which everywhere characterized their movements, the 
 French acquired a decided advantage over the English colonists in the 
 fur trade, which it was evidently their design exclusively to engross ; 
 while the direct tendency of the Duke of York's policy, originating in 
 blindness and bigotry, was to produce exactly the same result. 
 
07 
 
 The error was soon perceived by Colonel Dongan, who arrived in the 
 colony as the successor of Major Andross, in 1683. Though his religious 
 faith was in harmony with that of his royal master, he nevertheless 
 possessed an enlarged understanding, with a disposition, as a Civil Gov- 
 ernor, to look more closely after the interests of the crown than those of the 
 crosier. He had not been long at the head of the colony before he per- 
 ceived the mistakes of his predecessors in the conduct of lis Indian relations. 
 In fighting-men, the Five Nations at that time numbered ten times more 
 than they did half a century afterward ; * and the Governor saw at once 
 their importance as a wall of separation between the English colonies and 
 the French. He saw, also, the importance of their trade, which the 
 Jesuit priests were largely influential in diverting to Canada. He saw 
 that M. de Courcelles had erected a fort at Cadaraqui, within the terri- 
 tory of the Iroqaols, on the north side of Lake Ontario, t and that La 
 Salle had built a bark of ten tons upon that lake, and another of fifty 
 upon Lake Erie, planting also a stockade at Niagara. He saw that the 
 French were intercepting the trade of the English upon the lakes, and 
 that the priests had succeeded in seducing numbers of the Mohawks and 
 river Indians away from their own country, and planting their colonies 
 upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, in the neighborhood of Montreal, 
 through whose agency an illicit trade had been established with the City 
 of Albany, by reason of which Montreal, instead of Albany, was becom- 
 ing the principal depot of the Indian trade. He saw, in a word, the subtle 
 followers of Ignatius Loyola were rapidly alienating the afi^ections of 
 the Confederates from the English and transferring them to the French, 
 and that uale.9S ths policy rdsp33ting them was changed, 'the influence of 
 the English would, at no distant day, ha at an end with thsm. Nor had 
 the prie.9ts confined their efforts simply to miral suasion ; but, as though 
 aiming to separate the Confederates from the English at a blow, and by 
 a gulf so wide and deep as to ba impassable, they had instigated them to 
 commit positive hostihties upon the frontier settlements of Maryland 
 and Virginia. 
 
 Having made himself thoroughly acquainted with these matters, 
 Colonel Dongan lost no tima in sesking to countervail the influence of 
 the French, and to bring back the Indians to a cordial understanding 
 with his own paople. His instructions from home were to encourage the 
 Jesuit missionaries. These hs not only disregarded, but he ordered the 
 missionaries away, and forbade the Five Nations to entertain them. It 
 is true this order was never enforced to the letter, the priests, some of 
 them at least, maintaining a foothold at several points of the Confederacy 
 — dubious at timss, certainly — but yet maintaining it for three-quarters 
 
 * Memoir o£ Dr. Golden, conoernmj the fur trade, preseutoi to G-jyarmr Bur- 
 nett in 1734. 
 
 f The site of Kingston, Canada West. 
 
68 
 
 of a century afterward. Still, the measures of conciliation adopted by 
 Colonel Dongan made a strong and favorable impression upon the 
 
 Indians. 
 
 Availing himself of the difficulty between the Confederates and Vir- 
 ginia, consequent upon the outrages just adverted to as having been in- 
 stigated by the priests, Colonel Dongan was instrumental in procuring a 
 convention of the Five Nations, at Albany, in 1684, to meet Lord Howard, 
 of Effingham, Governor of Virginia, at which he (Dongan) was likewise 
 present. This meeting, or council, wa? attended by the happiest results. 
 The difficulties with Virginia were adjusted, and a covenant made with 
 Lord Howard for preventing further depredations.* But what was of 
 yet greater importance, Colonel Dongan succeeded in completely gaining 
 the affections of the Indians, who conceived for him the warmest esteem. 
 They even asked that the arms of the Duke of York might be put upon 
 their castles, a request which it need not be said was most readily com- 
 pUed with, since, should it afterward become necessary, the Governor 
 might find it convenient to construe it into an act of at least partial sub- 
 mission to English authority, although it has been asserted that the 
 Indians themselves looked upon the ducal insignia as a sort of charm 
 that might protect them against the French. t 
 
 There was likewise another fortunate occurrence of events just at that 
 time, which revived all the ancient animosity between the Iroquois and 
 the French. While the conferences between Lord Howard and the 
 Indians were yet in progress, a message was received from M. de la Barre, 
 the Governor of Canada, complaining of the conduct of the Senecas in 
 prosecuting hostilities against the Miamies and other western nations in 
 alliance with the French, and thus interrupting their trade. Colonel 
 Dongan communicated the message to the Iroquois chiefs, who retorted 
 by charging the French with supplying their enemies mth all their muni- 
 tions of war. " Onontio]; calls us children," said they, " and at the same 
 time sends powder to our enemies to kill us !" This collision resulted in 
 open war between the Iroquois and the French, the latter sending to 
 France for powerful reinforcements, with the design of an entire subju- 
 gation of the former in the ensuing year. Meantime the French Catho- 
 lics continued to procure letters from the Duke of York to his. lieutenant 
 commanding him to lay no obstacles in the way of the invaders. But 
 these commands were again disregarded. Dongan apprised the Iroquois 
 of the designs of the French, not only to march against them with a strong 
 army, but simultaneously to bring down upon them the western Indians 
 
 * Smith's History of Netc York. 
 
 f Colden's Hintory of the Five Nations. 
 
 X The name by which the Iroquois were wont to speak of the French Governors 
 of Canada. 
 
69 
 
 in their interest. The English Governor also promised to assist them if 
 necessary. 
 
 Thus by the wisdom and the strong sense of justice of Colonel Don- 
 gan, was the chain of friendship between the English and the Five 
 Nations brightened and the most amicable relations re-estabUshed. Yet 
 for the course he had taken, he fell under the displeasure of his bigoted 
 master on his accession to the throne in 1685. 
 
 It is not, of course, within the purpose of this history to trace the 
 progress of the long and cruel wars that succeeded the negotiations 
 between Colonel Dongan and the Confederates. Briefly it may be said 
 in respect to the expedition of M, de la Barre, that it failed by reason of 
 sickness in his army at Oadaraqui, before crossing the lake. He was 
 succeeded in the government of Canada by the Marquis Denonville, who 
 invaded the Seneca country in 1687 with a powerful force, gaining, how- 
 ever, such a victory over the Indians in the Genessee Valley as led to an 
 inglorious retreat. This invasion was speedily recompensed by the Con- 
 federates, who descended upon the Ereuch settlements of the St. Law- 
 rence like a tempest, and struck a blow of terrible vengeance upon Mon- 
 treal itself. 
 
 New York was at tliis time torn by tiie intestine commotions inci- 
 dent to the revolution which drove the Stuarts from the English throne, 
 and ended the power of the Catholics in the colony. It was a conse- 
 quence of these divisions that the English could afford the Indians no 
 assistance in their invasion of Canada at that time, else that country 
 would then doubtless have been wrested from the Crown of France. But 
 the achievements of the Indians were, nevertheless, most important for 
 the Colony of New York, tlie subjugation of which was at that precise 
 conjuncture meditated by France, and a combined expedition, by land 
 and sea, was undertaken for that jinrpose — Admiral Oaffniere command- 
 ing the ships which sailed from Eochefort for New York, and the Count 
 de Frontenac, who had succeeded Denonville, being the General of the 
 land forces. On his arrival at Quebec, however, the Count beheld his 
 province reduced to a field of devastation, and he was therefore con- 
 strained to abandon the enterprise. 
 
 Nor was Governor Dongan's administration in the government of the 
 colony itself characterized by less wisdom than his deaUngs with the 
 Indians. He was highly respected as Governor — being upright, discreet, 
 and of accomplished manners, added to which his firm and judicious 
 poUcy, and his steadfast integrity, soon won for him "the affections of 
 his people, and made him one of the most popular of the Royal Governors." 
 Two years previous to his arrival, the aldermen of New York, and the 
 justices of the peace of the Court of Assize, in consequence of the tyranny 
 of Andross, had petitioned the Duke that the people might be allowed 
 to participate in the affairs of the government by the construction of a 
 
70 
 
 General Assembly, in which they might be represented. Through the 
 interposition of William Penn, who enjoyed the favor both of the King 
 and the Duke, the point was yielded, and Colonel Dongan was instructed 
 to allow the people a voice in the government. Greatly to the joy of the 
 inhabitants, therefore, who had become turbulent, if not disaffected, under 
 the rule of Andross, writs were issued to the sheriffs summoning the 
 freeholders to choose representatives to meet the new Governor in 
 assembly. He thus gave the colony its first legislative assembly, which, 
 "meeting for the first time in the City of New York, on the 17th of 
 October, 1683, consisted of the Governor, ten councillors, and seventeen 
 representatives elected by the people. Henceforth, and up to the period 
 of the American Revolution, the history of New York City as the legis- 
 lative capital of the province, consists, for the most part, in a series of bitter 
 scenes between the Assembly and the Eoyal Governors. The first act 
 of the Assembly was to give to the province its first " Charter of 
 Liberties," by which it was ordained " that supreme legislative power 
 should forever reside in the Governor, Council, and people met in General 
 Assembly ; that every freeholder and freeman might vote for representa- 
 tives without restraint ; that no freeman should suffer but by judgment 
 of his peers, and that all trials should be by a jury of twelve men ; that 
 no tax should be assessed on any pretense whatever but by the consent 
 of the Assembly ; that no seaman or soldier should be quartered on the 
 inhabitants against their will ; that no martial law should exist ; and that 
 no person professing faith in God, by Jesus Christ, should at any time be 
 in any way disquieted or questioned for any difference of opinion in 
 matters of religion." Three assembUes, at least, were to be held every 
 year ; and should any seat become vacant, a new election was to be at 
 once ordered by the Governor. One of the first acts of the Assembly was 
 to divide the Province into twelve counties — New York, Eichmond, Kings, 
 Queens, Suffolk, Orange, Ulster, Albany, Westchester, Duchess, Dukes, 
 and Cornwall — all of which names, with the exception of the last two, 
 stall remain at the present day. 
 
 The Assembly, also, lost no time in bettering the condition of the 
 city itself. " New pohce regulations were at once estabUshed. Sunday 
 laws were enacted ; tavern-keepers were forbidden to seU liquor except 
 to travelers, citizens to work, children to play in the streets, and 
 •Indians and negroes to assemble on the Sabbath. Twenty cartmen 
 were licensed by - the municipal authorities, on condition that they 
 should repair the highways gratis whenever called on by the Mayor, 
 and cart the dirt from the streets, which the inhabitants were required to 
 sweep together every Saturday afternoon beyond the precincts of the city. 
 The rate of cartage was fixed at three pence per load to any place within 
 the bounds of the city; beyond which, the price was doubled. The 
 cartmen, however, soon proved refractory, and a few weeks after, the 
 
71 
 
 license system was abandoned, and all persons, with the exception of 
 slaves, were allowed to act as cartmen. 
 
 " On the 8th of December, 1683, the city was divided into six wards. 
 Tne First or South Ward, beginning at the river, extended along the 
 west side of Broad to Beaver street ; thence westward along Beaver street 
 to the Bowling Green ; thence southward by the fort to Pearl street ; and 
 thence westward along the river-shore to the place of starting. The 
 Second or Dock Ward, also beginning at the river at the southeast corner 
 of Pearl and Broad streets, extended along the shore to Hanover Square ; 
 thence northward through William to Beaver street ; thence along Beaver 
 to Broad street ; thence back through Broad to the river-shore. The 
 Third or East Ward formed a sort of triangle, beginning at the corner of 
 Pearl and Hanover Square, and extending along the shore to the Half- 
 Moon Fort at the foot of Wall street ; thence stretching along Wall to the 
 corner of WilHam, and thence returning along the east side of William 
 to the river. The Fourth or North Ward, beginning at the northwest 
 corner of WiUiam and Beaver streets, extended through the former to 
 the corner of Wall ; thence westerly along the palisades to a line a little 
 beyond Nassau street ; thence southerly to Beaver street ; thence easterly 
 along Beaver to the first-named point. The Fifth or West Ward, 
 beginning at the junction of the Fourth Ward with Beaver street, 
 extended northerly along the boundary line of the latter to Wall street ; 
 thence along the palisades to Broadway ; thence southerly to Beaver 
 street ; thence easterly to the point of starting. The Sixth or Out Ward 
 comprised all the farms and plantations outside the city walls, including 
 the Town of Harlem. Each of these wards was authorized to elect an 
 .alderman and councilman annually to represent them in the city govern- 
 ment. The Governor and Council retained the appointment of the Mayor 
 in their own hands ; it was not, indeed, until long after the Eevolution 
 
 that this office was made elective by the people. 
 
 If******* 
 
 " In 1686, the Dongan Charter was granted to the city. This 
 instrument, which still forms the basis of the municipal rights and 
 privileges of New York, confirmed the franchises before enjoyed by the 
 corporation, and placed the city government on a definite footing. The 
 Governor retained the appointment of the mayor, recorder, sheriff, 
 coroner, high-constable, town-clerk, and clerk of the market in his own 
 hands ; leaving the aldermen, assistants, and petty constables to be 
 chosen by the people at the annual election on St. Michael's Day. This 
 charter which was dated April 22, 1686, declared that New York City 
 should thenceforth comprise the entire Island of Manhattan, extending 
 to the low-water mark of the bays and rivers surrounding it. 
 
 " In the same year, the city received a new seal from the home 
 government. This still preserved the beaver of the Dutch, with the 
 
72 
 
 addition of a flour-barrel and the arms of a wind-mill, in token of the 
 prevailing commerce of the city. The whole was supported by two 
 Indian chiefs, and encircled with a wreath of laurel, with the motto, 
 
 SlGItLTTM ClYITATIS NoVI EbOEACI. 
 
 " In 1687, Stephanus Van Cortlandt was again appointed Mayor. 
 During his Mayoralty, it was determined to enlarge the city by building 
 a new street in the river along the Hne of Water street, between Whitehall 
 and Old Slip, and water-lots were sold by the corporation on condition 
 that the purchasers should make the street toward the water, and protect 
 it by a substantial wharf from the washing of the tide, in imitation of 
 Waal or sheet pile street, extending along the Une of Pearl street, from 
 Broad to William streets, in front of the City Hall. It was not, however, 
 until some years after, that this scheiae was carried into effect, and the 
 projected street rescued from the waters. 
 
 " Measures were also taken to enlarge the city still further by placing 
 the fortifications further out, and laying out Wall street thirty-six feet 
 wide. The fortifications, indeed, were now worse than useless. The 
 palisades which had been erected in 1653 along the Une of Wall street 
 had fallen down, the works were in ruins, the guns had disappeared from 
 the artillery-mounts, and the ditches and stockades were in a ruinous 
 condition. Their immediate removal was determined on and ordered, but 
 was delayed by the revolution which followed soon after. When war 
 broke out between France and England in 169-3, they were again repaired 
 to be in readiness for the expected Erench invasion, and it was not until 
 1699 that, their demoUtion was finally accomplished. Wall street, how- 
 ever, was laid out immediately, and it was not long before it became one 
 of the most important thoroughfares in the city. During the same year, 
 a valuation was made of the city property, which was estimated on the 
 assessor's books at JE78,:231.''* 
 
 Many other municipal regulations concerning hucksters, bakers, 
 butchers, and others, were estabhshed — then esteemed of vital importance, 
 but a repetition of which would only weary. A single item, however 
 deserves notice, as illustrating the punishments practiced in olden times. 
 A pillory, cage, whipping-post, t and ducking-stool, were set up in the 
 vicinity of the City Hall, and hither were brought all vagrants, slanderers, 
 pilferers, and truant children, to be exposed to the pubhc gaze, and to 
 receive su(;h chastisement as their offenses might warrant. It is to be 
 regretted, in view of the present army of such people in the City of New 
 York, that a similar ordinance is not now in force. 
 
 Meanwhile, William and Mary had been proclaimed King and Queen 
 
 * Miss Mary L. Booth's History of New York. 
 
 t A whipping-post, put up in 1030, is still standing on the Village Green, in 
 Fairfield, Connecticut. 
 
73 
 
 of England in place of James 11, who, having abdicated the throne, 
 had become a wanderer on the Continent. This change in the home 
 government from a Catholic to a Protestant one, necessitated a corre- 
 sponding change in the Governor at New York. Colonel Sloughter was, 
 accordingly, commissioned to the government of New York in January, 
 1689, but did not arrive until the 19th of March, 1691. The selection 
 of Sloughter was not fortunate. According to Smith, he was utterly 
 destitute of every qualification for government : licentious in his morals, 
 avaricious, and base. Leialer, who had administered the government 
 after a fashion, since the departure of Dongan, intoxicated with power, 
 refused to surrender the government to Sloughter, and attempted to 
 defend the fort, in which he had taken refuge, against him. Finding it 
 expedient, however, very soon to abandon the fort, he was arrested, and, 
 with his son-in law, Milburne, tried and executed for treason. Still, on 
 the whole, the conduct of Leisler during the revolution had been con- 
 sidered patriotic, and his sentence was deemed very unjust and cruel. 
 Indeed, his enemies could not prevail upon Sloughter to sign the warrant 
 for his execution until, for that purpose, they got him intoxicated. It 
 was a murderous affair. Sloughter's administration was short and tur- 
 bulent. Ho died July 23d, 1691. 
 
 On the death of Sloughter, Richard Ingoldsby, the captain of an 
 independent company, was made president of the council, to the exclusion 
 of Joseph Dudley, who, but for his absence in Boston, would have had 
 the right to preside, and upon whom the government would have devolved. 
 But although Dudley very soon returned to New York, he did not contest 
 the authority of Ingoldsby, who administered the government until the 
 arrival of Colonel Fletcher, with a commission as governor, in August, 
 1692. In the preceding month of June, Ingoldsby met the Five Nations 
 in council at Albany, on which occasion they declared their enmity to the 
 French in the strongest possible terms. Their expressions of friendship 
 for the English were also renewed. " Brother Corlaer," said the sachem, 
 " we are all the subjects of one great king and queen ; we have one head, 
 one heart, one interest, and are all engaged in the same war." They 
 nevertheless condemned the Enghsh for their inactivity, " telling them 
 that the destruction of Canada would hot make one summer's work, 
 against their united strength, if ingeniously exerted." 
 
 In conducting the Indian affairs of the colony. Colonel Fletcher 
 took Major Schuyler into his councils, and was guided by his opinions. 
 " No man understood those affairs better than he ; and his influence over 
 the Indians was so great, that whatever Quider,* as they called him, 
 either recommended or disapproved, had the force of a law. This power 
 over them was supported, as it had been obtained, by repeated offices of 
 
 * Quider, the Iroquois pronunciation of Peter. Having no labials in their 
 language, they could not say Peter. 
 
74 
 
 tindness, and his single bravery and activity in the defense of his coun- 
 iry." * Through the influence of Quider, therefore, Colonel Fletcher was 
 placed upon the best footing with the Indians, by whom was conferred 
 upon him the name of Cayenguinago, or " The Great Swift Arrow," as a 
 compliment for a remarkably rapid journey made by him from New York 
 ±0 Schenectady on a sudden emergency.! 
 
 Desparing, at length, of accomplishing a peace with the Five Nations, 
 'Count Frontenac determined to strike a blow upon the Mohawks in their 
 •own country — which purpose was securely executed in the month of 
 February, 1693. For once this vigilant race of warriors were taken by 
 rsurprise, two of their castles being entered and captured without much 
 resistance — the warriors of both having been mostly absent at Schenec- 
 tady. On assailing the third, or upper castle, however, the invaders met 
 with a different reception. The warriors within, to the number of forty, 
 were engaged in a war-dance, preparatory to some military expedition 
 upon which they were about entering ; and though inferior in force, yet 
 they yielded not without a struggle, nor until thirty of the assailants had 
 been slain. About three hundred of the Mohawks were taken prisoners 
 in this invasion, in respect to which the people of Schenectady have been 
 charged with bad conduct. They neither aided their neighbors, nor even 
 apprised them of the approach of danger, although informed of the fact 
 in due season themselves. But Quider, the fast friend of the Indians, 
 took the field at the head of the miHtia of Albany, immediately on hear- 
 ing of the invasion, and harassed the enemy sharply during their retreat. 
 Indeed, but for the protection of a snow-storm, and the accidental resting 
 of a cake of ice upon the river, forming a bridge for their escape, the 
 invaders would have been cut off. 
 
 Fletcher was by profession a soldier, a man of strong passions and 
 inconsiderable talents ; very active, and equally avaricious. His adminis- 
 tration was so energetic and successful the first year, that he received 
 large supphes, and a vote of special thanks from the Assembly. He was 
 a bigot, however, to the Episcopal form of church government, and 
 labored hard to introduce into the province the English language, to 
 encourage English churches and schools. On this account he was soon 
 involved in a violent controversy with the Assembly, who were at first 
 incluied rather to favor the Dutch churches. But in 1693 an Assembly 
 was found, who, more phant, passed an act " Providing for the building 
 of a church in the City of New York, in which was to be settled a Pro- 
 testant minister " — the word Protestant being tacitly understood to mean 
 Episcopal. This was the origin of Trinity Churdh,! which was forthwith 
 
 * Smitli's History of New York. 
 
 f Colden's Hix Natiorm. 
 
 X This church was destroyed by flre in 1776, and lay in ruins until 17S8, when it 
 was rebuilt. In 1839 it was torn down to build the present edifice, which was 
 opened in 1846. 
 
75 
 
 begun in 1696, and finished and opened for public worship in February, 
 1697, under the auspices of the Eev. WiUiani Vesey. The church itself, 
 which was a very insignificant building, resembled its present namesake 
 on the same site in nothing save in having a very tall spire. Certainly 
 it did not resemble the present Trinity in having set apart in it (as it did) 
 a' pew for the Mayor and Common Council, to whom a sermon was annu- 
 ally preached, on the day of the city election. What a pity it is, how- 
 ever, that this good old custom cannot be revived — for, of all persons, 
 who need religious instruction more than our worthy Mayors and Alder- 
 men ? Was the setting apart of this pew intended as a deUcate piece of 
 sarcasm, or were the city officials of that day really men of a difierent 
 stamp ? 
 
 Fletcher was succeeded by Richard, Earl of Bellamont, who was 
 appointed Governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, 
 in May, 1695, but did not arrive in New York until May, 1698. He was 
 appointed by King William with a special view to the suppression of 
 piracy in the American seas — New York, at that time, having been a 
 commercial depot of the pirates, with whom Fletcher, and other officers in 
 the colony, had a good understanding. Kidd was fitted out with a ship 
 by Bellamont, Robert Livingstone, and others, including several English 
 noblemen. Turning pirate himself, Kidd was afterward arrested in Bos- 
 ton by the Earl, and sent home for trial. The Earl was a nobleman of 
 polite manners, a great favorite of King William, and very popular 
 among the people both of New York and Boston. He had been dissipated 
 in his youth, but afterward became penitent and devout. He died in New 
 York, in March, 1701. 
 
 On the death of Earl Bellamont, the government devolved upon Mr. 
 Nanfan, the Lieutenant-Governor, until the appointment of Lord Corn- 
 bujy, in 1702. A public dinner was given in honor of his arrival; he 
 was presented with the freedom of the city, in a gold box ; and a con- 
 gratulatory address was tendered him by the city authorities. It was 
 not long, however before his true character appeared. He was a very 
 tyrannical, base, and profligate man, and was appointed to the government 
 of New York by King William, as a reward for his desertion of King 
 James, in whose army he was an officer. He was a savage bigot and 
 an ungentlemanly tyrant. He imprisoned several clergymen who were 
 dissenters, and robbed the Eev. M. Hubbard, of Jamaica, of his house 
 and glebe. He was wont to dress himself in women's clothes, and thus 
 patrol the fort. His avarice was insatiable, and his disposition that of a 
 savage. 
 
 The only things worthy of note during his administration are : First, 
 the establishment by the corporation of the city of a free grammar- 
 school ; and second, the raging of a malignant epidemic, which strongly 
 resembled the yellow-fever. The terror-stricken citizens fled to the shores 
 
76 
 
 of New Jersey and Staten Islaoid ; and Lord Combury, with his councU, 
 took up his quarters at Jamaica, Long Island. But the inhabitants of 
 New York had a worse plague, than even the pestilence, in Combury ; who, 
 at length, becoming an object of universal abhorrence and detestation, was 
 superseded by Queen Anne, who, in the autiimn of 1708, appointed John, 
 Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, in his place. 
 
 Lovelace, however, did not long enjoy either the cares or pleasures 
 of office. He died on the 5th of May in the next year, of a disorder 
 conti-acted in crossing the ferry at his first arrival in New York. On the 
 death of his lordship, the government once more devolved upon Richard 
 Ingoldsby, the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, until the arrival of 
 Governor Hunter, in the summer of 1710. 
 
 Hunter was a Scotchman, and when a boy, an apprentice to an 
 apothecary. Leaving his master, he entered the army, and being a man 
 of wit and beauty, gaiaed promotion, and also the hand of Lady Hay. In 
 1707 he was appointed LiJutenant-Govemor of Virginia, but being cap- 
 tured by the French on his voyage out, on his return to England he was 
 appointed to the government of New York and New Jersey, then united 
 in the same jurisdiction. Governor Hunter was the man who brought 
 over the three thousand Palatines from Germany, by whom the German 
 settlements in the interior of New York and Pennsylvania were founded. 
 He administered the government of the colony " well and wisely," as was 
 said to him in an affectionate parting address by the General Assembly, 
 until the summer of 1719, when lie returned to England, on leave of 
 absence, as well on account of his health as to look after his private affairs. 
 He intimated, upon his departure, that he might return to the government 
 again, but did not. The chief command on his departure devolved on 
 the Hon. Peter Schuyler, as the oldest member of the council, but only 
 for a brief period. He, however, held a treaty with the Six Nations at 
 Albany, which was considered satisfactory ; yet it would have been more 
 so, had his efforts to induce the Confederates to drive Joncaire, the artful 
 agent of the French, out of their country, been successful. This Jesuit 
 emissary had resided among the Senecas from the beginning of Queen 
 Anne's reign. He had been adopted by them, and was greatly beloved 
 by the Onondagas. He was incessant in his intrigues in behalf of the 
 French, facilitatiQg the missionaries in their progress through the country, 
 and contributing greatly to the vacillating course of the Indians toward 
 the EngHsh. Schuyler was aware of all this ; but notwithstanding his 
 own great influence over the Six Nations, he could not prevail upon them 
 to discard their favorite. In other respects the government of Schuyler 
 was marked by moderation, wisdom, and integrity. 
 
 About this period a ''new market was established at the upper end 
 of Broad street, between the City Hall and Exchange Place, and per- 
 mission was given to the residents of the vicinity to erect stalls and sheds 
 
77 
 
 to suit their convenience, under the direction of the Clerk of the Market. 
 Country people were also permitted to sell meat at wholesale or retail, as 
 they pleased, subject to the same supervision; and bakers were required 
 to brand their loaves with their initials, under penalty of forfeiture of 
 the bread. In the spring of the same year (1711) it was resolved that a 
 meeting of the Common Council should be held at the City Hall on the 
 first Friday of every month ; and the treasurer was also ordered to pur- 
 chase eighteen »-«sA-bottomed chairs and an oval table for their accom- 
 modation."* 
 
 William Burnet, son of the celebrated prelate of that name who 
 flourished in the reign of William and Mary, succeeded Hunter in the 
 government of the colony, in the year 1720 ; and of all the colonial 
 Governors of New York, with the exception of Colonel Dongan, his 
 Indian and colonial policy was marked by the most prudent forecast and 
 the greatest wisdom. Immediately after the peace of UtrScht a a brisk 
 trade in goods for the Indian market was revived between Albany and 
 Montreal, the Caughnawaga tribe of the Mohawks residing near Mon- 
 treal serving as carriers. The chiefs of the Six Nations foresaw the evil 
 and inevitable consequences to result from allowing that trade to pass 
 round in that direction, inasmuch as the Indians would of course be 
 drawn exclusively to Montreal for their supplies, to be received immedi- 
 ately at the hands of the French, and they cautioned the English 
 authorities against it. Mr. Hunter had indeed called the attention of 
 the General Assembly to the subject at an antecedent period ; but no 
 action was had thereon until after Mr. Burnet had assumed the direction 
 of the colonial administration. The policy of the latter was at once to 
 cut off an intercourse so unwise and dangerous with Montreal, and bring 
 the entire Indian trade within the limits and control of New York. To 
 this end an act was passed at his suggestion, subjecting the traders with 
 Montreal to a forfeiture of their goods, and a penalty of one hundred 
 pounds for each infraction of the law. It likewise entered into the 
 policy of Mr. Burnet to win the confidence of the Caughnawagas, and 
 reunite them with their kindred in their native valley. But the ties by 
 which the Roman priesthood had bound them to the interests of the 
 French, were too strong, and the efibrts of the Governor were unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 In furtherance of the design to grasp the Indian trade, not only 
 of the Six Nations, but likewise that of the remoter nations of the upper 
 lakes, a trading-post was established at Oswego in 1722. A trusty agent 
 
 * It is to this day quite a knotty question whether the.se " rush-hottomed 
 chairs" were designed merely to encourage "plain Republican simplicity," or 
 ■whether there was not an intention to make the damage as small as possible, in case 
 of the members throwing them at each other's heads — as is said to have been the 
 case within the last few months. 
 
78 
 
 was also appointed to reside at the great council-fire of the Onondagas, 
 the central nation of the Confederates. A congress of several of the 
 colonics was held at Albany to meet the Six Nations, during the same 
 year, which, among other distinguished men, was attended by Governor 
 Spottswood, of Virginia, Sir William Keith, of Pennsylvania, and by 
 Governor Burnet. At this council the chiefs stipiilated that in their 
 southern war expeditions they would not cross the Potomac, and in their 
 marches against their southern enemies, their path was to lie westward 
 of the great mountains — the Alleghanies meaning. Mr. Burnet again 
 brightened the chain of friendship with them on the part of New York, 
 notwithstanding the adverse influences exerted by the Chevalier 
 Joncaire, the Jesuit agent residing alternately among the Senecas 
 and Onondagas. 
 
 The bei^ficial effects of Mr. Burnet's policy were soon apparent. 
 In the course of a single year more than forty young men plunged 
 boldly into the Indian country as traders, acquired their languages, and 
 strengthened the precarious friendship existing between the English and 
 the more distant nations ; while tribes of the latter previously unknown 
 to the colonists, even from beyond the Michilimackinac, visited Albany 
 for purposes of traffic. 
 
 The establishment of an English post at Oswego was a cause of 
 high displeasure to the Erench, who, in order to intercept the trade from 
 the upper lakes that would otherwise be drawn thither, and thus be 
 diverted from Montreal, determined to repossess themselves of Niagara, 
 rebuild the trading-house at ,that point, and repair their dilapidated 
 fort. The consent of the Onondagas to this measure was obtained 
 by the Baron de LongueU, who visited their country for that purpose, 
 through the influence of Joncaire and his Jesuit associates. But the 
 other members of the Confederacy, disapproving of the movement, 
 declared the permission given to be void, and dispatched messengers to 
 Niagara to arrest the procedure. With a just appreciation of the 
 importance of such an encroachment upon their territory, the Confed- 
 erates met Mr. Burnet in council upon the subject at Albany in 1727. 
 "We come to you howhng," said the chiefs; "and this is the reason 
 why we howl, that the Governor of Canada encroaches 'upon our land 
 and biiilds thereon." Governor Burnet made them a speech on the occasion 
 beautifully expressed in their own figurative language, which gave them 
 great satisfaction.* The [chiefs declaring themselves unable to resist 
 this invasion of the French, entreated the Enghsh for succor, and formally 
 surrendered their country to the great king, "to be protected by him 
 for their use," as heretofore stated. But Governor Burnet being at that 
 period involved in political difiiculties with an Assembly too short-sighted 
 
 * Smith's History of New York. 
 
79 
 
 or too factious to appreciate the importance of preserving so able a hea(i 
 to the colonial government, was enabled to do nothing more for the 
 protection of the Indians than to erect a small military defense at 
 Oswego ; and even this work of necessity he was obliged to perform at 
 his own private expense. Meantime the French completed and secured 
 their works at Niagara without molestation. 
 
 In the course of the same year, having been thwarted in his enlarged 
 and patriotic views, by several successive assemblies, Mr. Burnet, the 
 ablest and wisest of the colonial administrators, retired from the govern- 
 ment of New York, and accepted that of Massachusetts and New 
 Hampshire. His departure, personally, was universally regretted. He 
 was not only a man of letters, but of wit — a believer in the Christian 
 religion, yet not a serious professor. A variety of amusing anecdotes 
 has been related of him. When on his way from New York to assume 
 the government at Boston, one of the committee who went from that 
 town to meet him on the borders of Ehode Island, was the facetious 
 Colonel Tailer. Burnet complained of the long graces that were said 
 before meals by clergymen on the road, and asked when they would 
 shorten. Tailer answered : " The graces will increase in length till you 
 come to Boston ; after that they will shorten till you come to your gov- 
 ernment of New Hampshire, where your excellency wiU iind no grace 
 at all." 
 
 Colonel John Montgomery succeeded Mr. Burnet in the government 
 of the colonies of New York and New Jersey in the month of April, 
 1728. • He was a Scotchman and bred a soldier. But quitting the pro- 
 fession of arms, he went into parhament, serving, also, for a time, as 
 groom of the bed-chamber to his majesty George II, before his accession 
 to the throne. He was a man of moderate abilities and slender literary 
 attainments. He was too good-natured a man to excite enmities ; and 
 his administration was one of tranquil inaction. He was an indolent 
 man, and had not character enough to inspire opposition. 
 
 The French perceiving this, and enraged at the erection of a fort at 
 Oswego, were now menacing that post. The new governor thereupon 
 met the Six Nations in councU at Albany, to renew the covenant chain, 
 and engage them in the defense of that important station. Large 
 presents were distributed among them, and they declared their willing- 
 ness to join the reinforcements detached from the independent companies 
 for that service. Being apprised ot these preparations, the French 
 desisted from their threatened invasion. 
 
 Much of the opposition to the administration of Governor Burnet 
 had been fomented and kept aUve by the Albanians, who, by the shrewd- 
 ness of his Indian policy, and the vigorous measures by which he had 
 enforced it, had been interrupted in their illicit trade in Indian goods with 
 Montreal, and also by the importers of those goods residing in the City 
 
80 
 
 of New York. Sustained, however, by his council-board, and by the 
 very able memoir of Doctor Oolden upon that subject, Mr. Burnet, as 
 the reader has already been apprised, had succeeded in giving a new and 
 more advantageous character to the inland trade, while the Indian rela- 
 tions of the colony had been placed upon a better footing, in so far, at 
 least, as the opportunities of the French to tamper with them had been 
 measurably cut off. But in December of the succeeding year, owing to 
 some intrigues that were never clearly understood, aU these advantages 
 were suddenly relinquished by an act of the Crown repealing the -meas- 
 ures of Mr. Bitmet ; reviving, in effect, the execrable trade of the Alba- 
 nians, and thus at once reopening the door of intrigue between the 
 French and the Sis Nations, which had been so wisely closed. 
 
 The three principal events, however, of Montgomery's administration 
 affecting the city itself, were the grant of an amended city charter in 
 1730, by which the jurisdiction of the city was fixed to begin at King's 
 Bridge, the establishment of a line of stages to run between New York 
 and Philadelphia once a fortnight during the winter months, and the 
 founding of the first public library. 
 
 For more than a century there had been no public library in the 
 city, but in the year 1729 some sixteen hundred and twenty-two volumes 
 were bequeathed by the Rev. John Millington, rector of Newington, 
 England, to the " Venerable Society for the propagation of the Gospel in 
 Foreign Parts," by whom the books were in turn immediately presented 
 !to the city. To this number also was added another collection, the gift 
 of the Rev. John Sharp, chaplain to Lord Bellamont, when both, collec- 
 tions, now one, was opened to the pubhc as the " Corporation Library." 
 The hbrarian dying soon after, the books were neglected until 17-54, when 
 a few public-spirited citizens founded the Society Library, at the same time 
 adding the Corporation collection and depositing the whole in the City 
 Hall. The undertaking prospered and in 1772 George HI granted it a 
 charter. During the Revolutionary struggle the library was neglected ; 
 but when peace was restored in 1783, the society revived their charter 
 and again set themselves to work collecting those volumes that had been 
 scattered and replacing those irretrievably lost by new ones. Their efforts 
 were so far successful as to warrant them in erecting a library building 
 on Nassau street, opposite the Dutch church, a building that for a long 
 time was considered one of the finest specimens of architecture of which 
 the city could boast. Thence it was removed to the Mechanics' Society 
 building on Chambers street, where it remained until the completion of 
 their new and fine edifice in 1840 on the corner of Broadway and Leonard 
 street. This spot was next vacated and quarters were obtained for it in the 
 new Bible House, Astor Place, whence, in 1857, it once more removed to 
 its beautiful edifice in University Place, between Twelfth and Thirteenth 
 streets. Such is a bird's-eye view of the first pubUc library of New York, 
 commenced one hundred and thirty-nine years ago. 
 
81 
 
 On the decease of Colonel Montgomery, in 1731, the duties of the 
 colonial executive were for a brief period exercised by Mr. Rip Van 
 Dam, as President of the Douncil.* His administration was signalized by 
 the memorable infraction of the treaty of Utrecht by the French, who 
 then invaded the clearly-defined territory of New York, and built the 
 fortress of St. Frederick, at Crown Point, a work which gave them the 
 command of Lake Champlain — the highway between the English and 
 Prench colonies. The pusillanimity evinced by the government of New 
 York on the occasion of that flagrant encroachment upon its domains, 
 excites the amazement of the retrospective reviewer. Massachusetts, 
 alarmed at this advance of the rivals, if not natural enemies, of the 
 English upon the settlement of the latter, first called the attention of the 
 authorities of New York to the subject ; but the information was received 
 with the most provoking indifference. There was a regular military 
 force in the colony abundantly sufiicient, by a prompt movement, to 
 repel the aggression, yet not even a remonstrance was uttered against it. 
 With the exception of this infringement upon the territory of New York, 
 nothing worthy of special mention occurred during the administration of 
 Mr. Van Dam. In August, 1732, Colonel William Cosby arrived in New 
 York as his successor. 
 
 The first act of the new Governor was one, which, having its 
 rise at first in a mere personal quarrel, was destined to establish, for all 
 time in America, the question of the liberty of the press. The act of the 
 Governor here allnded to, was the institution of proceedings against Eip 
 Van Dam to recover half of the salary which the latter had received 
 during his occupation of the Governor's chair. The suit was decided 
 against Van Dam, who was consequently suspended from the exercise of 
 his functions as President of the Council. This unfair decision naturally 
 aroused the indignation of the people, who gave vent to their feelings in 
 squibs and lampoons hurled without mercy at the Governor and his 
 party. These were, in turn, answered by the New York Gazette, a paper 
 published by William Bradford in the interest of the Government ; and 
 the controversy finally grew so bitter that John Peter Zenger, a printer 
 by trade, was induced, under the patronage, as was supposed, of Eip 
 Van Dam, to start a new paper, the New York Weekly Jownal— 
 the columns of which were to be devoted to opposing the colonial 
 administration of Governor Cosby. The columns of the new paper 
 teemed with able and spicy articles assailing the acts of the Governor — 
 written, probably, by William Smith and James Alexander, the two 
 prominent lawyers of New York. The Governor, and those members of 
 his council who were his satellites, were not long in bringing themselves 
 
 *Mr. Van Dam was an eminent merchant in the City of New York, " of a fair 
 estate," says Smith, the historian, " though distinguiahed more for the integrity of 
 his heart, than his capacity to hold the reins of government." 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 into the belief that these articles were actionable ; and thus it happened, 
 that the first great libel suit tried in this city was instituted by the Govem- 
 ment, in 1734, against Zenger. The latter, in a pamphlet which he 
 wrote afterward upon his trial, quaintly says :* "As there was but one 
 Printer in the Province of New York that printed a pubHc News Paper, 
 I was in Hopes, if I undertook to pubhsh another, I might make it worth 
 my while, and I soon found that my Hopes were not groundless. My 
 first paper was printed November 15th, 1733, and I continued printing 
 and pubUshing of them (I thought to the satisfaction of every body) till 
 the January following, when the Chief Justice was pleased to animadvert 
 upon the Doctrine of Libels in a long charge given in that term to the 
 Grand Jury." 
 
 Zenger was thereupon imprisoned on Sunday, the 17th of Novem- 
 ber. 1734, by virtue of a warrant from the Governor and Council ; and a 
 concurrence of the House of Representatives in the prosecution was 
 requested. The House, however, declined by laying the request of the 
 Council upon the table. The Governor and Council then ordered the 
 hbelous papers to be burned by the common hangman or whipper, near 
 the pillory. But both the common whipper and the common hangman. 
 were officers of the Corporation, not of the Grown, and they declined 
 officiating at the illumination. The papers were therefore burned by the 
 Sheriffs negro servant at the order of the Governor.! An ineffectual 
 attempt was next made to procure an indictment against Zenger, but the 
 
 *Thi9 pamphlet, which is exceedingly rare, is a large 8to. {o}4 x 9]y£ inches) of 
 39 pages. It is entitled : '^A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter 
 Zenger, Printer of the New York Weekly Journal : — New York Printed : Lancaster 
 re-printed, and sold by W. DurUap, at the New Printing Offices, Queen Street, 1736. 
 
 f In the pamphlet before alluded to, Zenger gives .the following account of this 
 proceeding : 
 
 " At a council held at Fort George in New York the 2d of November, 1734> 
 present, His Excellency William Cosby, Captain-trcneral and GrOvemor-in-Chief, &c., 
 Mr. Clark, Mr. Harrison, Dr. Golden " [a note says Dr. Colden wets that day at Esopus, 
 ninety miles away], " Mr. Livingston, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Cortlandt, 
 Mr. Lane, Mr. Horsmanden : 
 
 " Whereas, By an order of the Board of this day, some of John Peter Zenger's 
 journals, entitled the New York Weekly Journal, Nos. 7, 47, 48, 49, were ordered to 
 be burned by the hands of the common hangman or vrhipper, near the pillory of this 
 city, on Wednesday, the 6th inst., between the hours of eleven and twelve, It is 
 therefore ordered that the Mayor and Magistrates of this city do attend at the burn- 
 ing of the several papers or journals aforesaid, numbered as above-mentioned. 
 
 " Fred. Morris, D. CI. Con. 
 
 " To KoBERT LuRTiNG, Esq., Mayor of ilie City of New York, <fo." 
 
 (The Aldermen protested vigorously against the execution of this order, and 
 refused to instruct the Sheriff to execute it. The Sheriff burned the papers, however, 
 or " delivered them into the ftands of his own negro and ordered him to put them into 
 the fire, which he did." 
 
83 
 
 Grand Jury refused ito find a bill. The Attorney-General was then 
 directed to file no information against him for printing the libels, and he 
 was consequently kept in prison until another term. His counsel ofiered 
 exceptions to the commissions of the judges, which the latter not only 
 refused to hear, but excluded his counsel, Messrs. Smith and Alexander, 
 from the bar. Zengfer then obtained other counsel — John Chambers of New 
 York, and Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia. The trial at length came on 
 and excited great interest. The truth, under the old English law of libel, 
 could never be given in evidence, and was of course excluded on the 
 present trial. Hamilton, nevertheless, tried the case with consummate 
 ability. He showed the jury that they were the judges as well of the 
 law as the fact, and Zenger was acquitted. " The jury," says Zenger in 
 relating the result of the trial, " withdrew, and in a small time returned^ 
 and being asked by the clerk whether they were agreed upon their 
 verdict and whether John Peter Zenger was guilty of printing and 
 publishing the libels in the information mentioned, they answered by 
 Thomas Hunt, their foreman, not guilty, upon which there were three 
 huzzas in the hall, which was crowded with people, and the next day I 
 was discharged from imprisonment." 
 
 Immediately after the trial the Corporation voted the freedom of the 
 city in a magnificent gold box* to Andrew Hamilton " for the remarkable 
 service done to this city and colony, by his defense of the- rights of man- 
 kind and the liberty of the press." 
 
 Twenty years afterward, however, the Government organ itself fell 
 under the displeasure of the reigning powers. Upon the reUnquishment 
 of his paper in 1743, it was resumed by James Parker under the double 
 title of the New York Gatette and Weeklg Pod Boy. In 1753, ten years 
 afterward, Parker took a partner by the name of WiUiam Wayman. 
 But neither of the partners, nor both of them together, possessed the 
 indomitable spirit of John Peter Zenger. Having in March in 1756, 
 published an article reflecting upon the people of Ulster and Orange 
 Counties, the Assembly, entertaining a high regard for the majesty of the 
 people, took offense thereat, and both the editors were taken into custody 
 by the sergeant-at-arms. What the precise nature of the insult upon the 
 sovereign people of those counties was, does not appear. But the editors 
 behaved in a craven manner. They acknowledged their fault begged 
 
 * This gold box ■was five ounces and a half in weight and inclosed the seal of 
 the said Freedom. On its lid was engraved the arms of the City of New York and 
 these mottoes : On the outer part of the lid, Dembrsa Leges — Limefacta 
 
 LiBKKTAS HcBC Tandem Emebgunt. On the inner side of the lid, NoN NuMMis — 
 
 ViRTDTE Pakatuk. On the front of the rim, ITA CuiQUE Eveniat.ut Db Eepublica 
 Mkbdit. "Which freedom and box," naively adds Zenger, " was presented in the 
 manner that had been directed, and gratefully accepted by the said Andrew Hamil- 
 ton, Esquire." 
 
84 
 
 pardon of the House, and paid the costs of the proceedings, in addition 
 to all which they gave up the name of the author. He proved to be none 
 other than the Eev. Hezekiah "Watklns, a missionary to the County of 
 Ulster, residing at Newburg. The reverend gentleman was accordingly 
 arrested, brought to New York, and voted guilty of a^ high misdemeanor 
 and contempt of the authority of the House. Of what persuasion was 
 this Mr. Watkins does not appear. But neither Luther, nor Calvin, nor 
 Hugh Latimer would have betrayed the right of free discussion as he did 
 by begging the pardon of the House, standing to receive a reprimand, 
 paying the fees, and promising to be m.ore circumspect in future — for the 
 purpose of obtaining his discharge. This case aifords the most singular 
 instance of the exercise of the doubtful power of punishing for what are 
 called contempts on record. A court has unquestionably a right to 
 protect itself from indignity while in session, and so has a legislative 
 body, although the power of punishing for such an ofiense without trial 
 by jury, is now gravely questioned. But for a legislative body to extend 
 the mantie of its protection over its constituency in such a matter is an 
 exercise of power of which, even in the annals of the Star Chamber, when 
 presided over by Archbishop Laud, it is difficult to find a parallel. Sure 
 it is that a people, then or now, who would elect such members to the 
 Legislature deserve nothing else than contempt. From the estabHsh- 
 ment, however, of the independence of the country \intil tiie present day 
 there has been no attempt to fetter the press by censors or by law, while 
 the old English law of Ubel, which prevailed until the beginning of the 
 present century, has been so modified as to allow the truth in aU cases to 
 be given in evidence. For the attainment of this great end the country 
 is indebted, more than to aU other men, to the early and bosom friend of 
 the late venerable Dr. Nott — Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 At length the incessant quarrels of the weak and avaricious Cosby 
 with the people and their representatives was suddenly terminated by his 
 death in March, 1736. On his decease, Mr. George Clarke, long a member 
 of the Council, after a brief struggle with ilr. Yan Dam for the presi- 
 dency, succeeded to the direction of the government, and, being shortly 
 afterward commissioned as Lieutenant-Governor, continued at the 
 head of the colonial administration from the autumn of 1736 to that of 
 1743. Mr. Clarke was remotely connected by marriage with the family 
 of Lord Clarendon, having been sent over as Secretary of the colony in 
 the reign of Queen Anne. Being, moreover, a man of strong common 
 sense and of uncommon tact, and by reason of his long residence in the 
 colony, and the several official stations he had held, well acquainted with 
 its affairs, his administration — certainly, until toward its close — was 
 comparatively popular, and, all circumstances considered, eminentiy suc- 
 cessful. Li the brief struggle for power between himself and Mr. Van 
 Dam, the latter had been sustained by the popular party, while the 
 
85 
 
 officers of the Crown and the partisans of Cosby, with few, if any 
 exceptions, adhered to Mr. Clarke. This difficulty, however, had been 
 speedily ended by a royal confirmation of the somewhat doubtful author- 
 ity assumed by Mr. Clarke. His own course, moreover, on taking the 
 seals of office, was conciliatory. In his first speech to the General 
 Assembly, he referred in temperate language to the unhappy divisions 
 which had of late disturbed the colony, and which he thought it was 
 then a favorable moment to heal. The English flour-market having been 
 overstocked by large supplies furnished from the other colonies, the 
 attention of the Assembly was directed to the expediency of encouraging 
 domestic manufactures in various departments of industry. To the 
 Indian affairs of the colony Mr. Clarke invited the special attention of 
 the Assembly. The military works of Fort Hunter being in a dilapi- 
 dated condition, and the object of affording protection to the Christian 
 settlements through the Mohawk Valley having been accomplished, the 
 Lieutenant-Governor suggested the erection of a new fort at the carry- 
 ing-place between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek,* leading into 
 Oneida Lake, and thence through the Oswego Eiver into Lake Ontario ; 
 and the transfer of the garrison from Port Hunter to this new and com- 
 manding position. He likewise recommended the repairing of the block- 
 house at Oswego, and the sending of smiths and other artificers into the 
 Indian country, especially among the Senecas.f 
 
 During the greater part of the year 1738 — if we except the estab- 
 lishing of a quarantine on Bedloe's Island and the opening of Rector 
 street — but little attention was paid to local affairs — the principal histori- 
 cal incident of that year being the memorable contested election betweeu 
 
 * The site, afterward, of Fort Stanwix, now the opulent town of Rome. 
 
 f In the course of this session of the General Aaaembly, Chief Justice De 
 Lancey, Speaker of the Legislative Council, announced that his duties in the Supreme 
 Court would render it impossible for him to act as Speaker through the session. It 
 was therefore ordered that the oldest Councillor present should thenceforward act as 
 Speaker. Under this order, Dr. Cadwallader Golden first oanie to the chair. 
 
 On the twenty-sixth of October, the Council resolved that they would hold 
 their sittings in the common council chamber of the City Hall. The House imme- 
 diately returned a message that they were holding their sessions, and should 
 continue to hold them, in that chamber ; and that it was conformable to the consti- 
 tution that the Council, in its legislative capacity, should sit as a distinct and separate 
 body. During the same session, also, the Council having sent a message to the House 
 by the hand of a deputy-clerk, a message was transmitted back, signifying that the 
 House considered such a course disrespectful. Until that time messages had been 
 conveyed between the Houses, with bills, resolutions, &c., by the hands of their 
 members respectively. The House considered the sending of a clerk an innovation 
 upon their privileges ; and Colonel Phillipse, Mr. Verplank, and Mr. Johnson were 
 appointed a committee to wait upon the Council and demand satisfaction. The 
 Council healed the matter by a conciliatory resolution, declaring that no disrespect 
 had been intended. 
 
86 
 
 Adolphe PKilipse and G-erret Van Home, in connection with which, 
 owing to the extraordinary skill and eloquence of Mr. Smith, father of 
 the historian, and of counsel for Van Home, the Hebrew freeholders of 
 the City of New York, from which place both parties claimed to have been 
 returned to the Assembly, were most unjustly disfranchised, on the ground 
 of their religious creed, and their votes rejected. The colony was greatly 
 excited by this question, and the persuasive powers exerted by Mr. Smith 
 are represented to have been wonderful — equaling, probably, if not sur- 
 passing, those of Andrew Hamilton, four years previously, in the great 
 iibel case of Zenger — and possibly not excelled even by Patrick Henry 
 a few years afterward, when he dethroned the reason of the court, and 
 led captive the jury, in the great tobacco case in Virginia. 
 
 The years 1738 and 1739, were marked by increasing political ex- 
 citement; and the dividing line of parties, involving the great principles 
 of civil liberty on the one side and the prerogatives of the Crown on the 
 other, were more distinctly drawn, perhaps, than at any antecedent 
 period. The administrations of the earlier English Governors, Nicholls 
 and Lovelace, were benevolent and almost parental. Andross, it is true, 
 was a tyrant ; and during his administration parties were formed, as in 
 England, upon the mixed questions of politics and religion, which 
 dethroned the last and most bigoted of the Stuarts, and brought William 
 and Mary upon the throne. Dongan. however, the last of the Stuart 
 Governors in New York, although a Roman Catholic, was nevertheless 
 mild in the administration of the government, and a gentleman in his 
 feelings and manners. It was upon his arrival in the autumn of 1683, 
 that the freeholders of the colony, as we have seen, were invested with 
 the right of choosing representatives to meet the Governor in General 
 Assembly. For nearly twenty years subsequent to the revolution of 
 1689, the colony was torn by personal, rather than political factions, 
 having their origin in the controversy which compassed the judicial 
 murder of the unhappy Leisler and his son-in-law, Milbume. These 
 factions dying out in the lapse of years, other questions arose, the princi- 
 pal of which was that important one which always, sooner or later, 
 springs up in every English colony — involving, on the one hand, as I 
 have already remarked, the rights of the people, and on the other the 
 claims of the Crown. Invariably, almost, if not quite, the struggle is 
 originated upon some question of revenue — either in the levying thereof, 
 or in its disposition, or both. Thus in the origin of those political parties 
 in New York, which continued with greater or less acrimony until the 
 separation from the parent country, Sloughter and Fletcher had both 
 endeavored to obtain grants of revenue to the Crown for life, but had 
 failed. Subsequently grants had been occasionaUy made to the officers 
 of the Crown for a term of years ; but latterly, especially during the 
 administration of Governor Cosby, the General Assembly had grown more 
 
87 
 
 lefractory upon the subject — pertinaciously insisting that they would vote 
 the salaries for the officers of the Crown only with the annual supplies. 
 This was a principle which the Governors, as the representatives of the 
 Crown, felt bound to resist, as being an infringement of the royal prerog- 
 ative. Henceforward, therefore, until the colony cast off its allegiance, 
 the struggle in regard to the revenue and its disposition, was almost per- 
 petually before the people, in one form or another ; and in some years, 
 owing to the obstinacy of the representatives of the Crown on one side, 
 and the inflexibility of the representatives of the people on the other, 
 supplies were not granted at all. Mr. Clarke, although he had the 
 address to throw off, or to evade, the difficulty, for the space of two years, 
 was nevertheless doomed soon to encounter it. Accordingly, in his speech 
 to the Assembly at the autumnal session of 1738, he complained that 
 another year had elapsed without any provision being made for the sup- 
 port of his Majesty's government in the province — the neglect having 
 occurred by reason of " a practice not warranted by the usage of any 
 former General Assemblies." He therefore insisted strongly upon the 
 adoption of measures for the payment of salaries; for the payment of 
 public creditors ; and for the general security of the public credit by the 
 creation of a sinking-fund for the redemption of the bills of the colony. 
 
 The Assembly was refractory. Instead of complying with the demands 
 of the Lieutenant-Governor, the House resolved unanimously that they 
 would grant no supplies upon that principle ; and in regard to a sinking 
 fund for the redemption of the bills of credit afloat, they refused any 
 other measure than a continuance of the existing excise. These spirited 
 and peremptory resolutions gave high offense to the representative of the 
 Crown ; and on the day following their adoption, the Assembly was sum- 
 moned to the fort, and dissolved by a speech, declaring the said resolu- 
 tions " to be such presumptuous, daring, and unprecedented steps that he 
 could not look upon them but with astonishment, nor could he with honor 
 suffer their authors to sit any longer." 
 
 The temper of the new Assembly, summoned in the spring of the 
 succeeding year, 1739, was no more in unison with the desires of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor than that of the former. The demand for a perma- 
 nent supply-bill was urged at several successive sessions, only to be met 
 with obstinate refusals. The second session, held in the autumn, was 
 interrupted in October, by a prorogation of several days, for the express 
 purpose of affording the members leisure " to reflect seriously " upon the 
 line of duty required of them by the exigencies of the country ; for, not 
 only was the Assembly resolutely persisting in the determination to make 
 only annual grants of supplies, but they were preparing to trench yet 
 further upon the royal prerogative, by insisting upon specific applications 
 of the revenue, to be inserted in the biU itself. Meantime, on the 
 13th of October, the Lieutenant-Govenor brought the subject of his 
 
differences with the Assembly formally before his privy council. In 
 regard to the new popular movement of this Assembly, insisting upon a 
 particular application of the revenues to be granted in the body of the 
 act for the support of the government, the lieutenant-Govenor said they 
 had been moved to that determination by the example of New Jersey, 
 where an act of that nature had lately been passed. He was unwilling 
 to allow any encroachment upon the rights of the Crown. Yet, in con- 
 sideration of the defenseless situation of the colony, he felt uneasy at such 
 a turn of affairs, and not being disposed to revive old animosities, or to 
 create new ones by another summary dissolution, he asked the advice of 
 the council. The subject was referred to a committee, of which the Hon. 
 Daniel Horsmanden, an old member of the council, was chairman. This 
 gentleman was one of the most sturdy supporters of the royal preroga- 
 tive ; but, in consequence of the existing posture of affairs, and the 
 necessity of a speedy provision for the public safety, the committee 
 reported unanimously against a dissolution. They believed, also, that 
 the Assembly, and the people whom they represented, had the disputed 
 point so much at heart that it would be impossible to do business with 
 them unless it was conceded; and besides, it was argued, should a 
 dissolution take place, there was no reason for supposing that the next 
 Assembly would be less tenacious in asserting the offensive principle. 
 Since, moreover, the Governor of New Jersey had yielded the point, the 
 committee advised the same course in New York.* The point w(K con- 
 ceded ; and the effect, for the moment, was to produce a better state of 
 feeling in the Assembly. Supplies were granted, but only for the year ; 
 and various appropriations were made for placing the city and colony in 
 a posture of defense. 
 
 But it is seldom that the wheels of revolution roU backward, and 
 the concession which allowed the General Assembly to prescribe the 
 application or disposition of the supplies they voted, ever before claimed 
 as the legal and known prerogative of the Crown, appeased the popular 
 party only for a very short time. Indeed, nothing is more certain, 
 whether in monarchies or repubUcs, than that the governed are never 
 
 *See the old minutes of the executive or privy council, in manuscript, in the 
 Secretary of State's office in Albany. To avoid confusion hereafter, it may be -well 
 to state in this connection, that the Council acted in a two-fold capacity : first, as 
 advisary ", second, as legislative. "lu the first," says Smith, in his chapter, entitled 
 PoUtioal State, " they are a privy council to the Governor." Wben thus acting they 
 are often called the executive or majesty's conncil. Hence, privy council and exe- 
 cutive council are synonymous. During the session of the legislature, however, the 
 same council sat (without the presence of the Governor) as a legislative council ; and 
 in buch capacity exercised the same functions as the Senate of the present day — so 
 far as regards the passing of laws. The journals of this last or legislative council 
 have recently been published by the State of New York under admirable editorship 
 and the supervision of Dr. E. B. O'CaHaghan. 
 
89 
 
 satisfied with concessions, while each successful demand only increases 
 the popular clamor for more. Thus it was in the experience of Mr. 
 Clarke. It is true, indeed, that the year 1740 passed without any 
 direct collision upon the question of prerogative ; although at the second 
 short session of that year, the speech alleged the entire exhaustion of the 
 revenue, and again demanded an ample appropriation for a term of years. 
 But the controversy was reopened at the spring session of the following 
 year — 1741 — on which occasion the Lieutenant-Governor delivered a 
 speech, long beyond precedent, and enumerating the grievances of the 
 Crown by reason of the continued encroachments of the General Assem- 
 bly. The speech began by an elaborate review of the origin and progress 
 of the difficulties that had existed between the representatives of the 
 Crown and the Assembly, in respect to the granting of supplies, evincing 
 — such, indeed, is the inference — a want of gratitude on the part of the 
 latter, in view of the blessings which the colony had enjoyed under the 
 paternal care of the Government since the revolution of 1688. But it was 
 not in connection with the supplies, onlj', that the Assembly had invaded 
 the rights of the Crown. It was the undoubted prerogative of the Crown 
 to appoint the Treasurer. Yet the Assembly had demanded the election 
 of that officer. Not satisfied with that concession, they had next claimed 
 the right of choosing the Auditor-General. Failing in that demand, they 
 had sought to accomplish their object by withholding the salary from that 
 officer. These encroachments, he said, had been gradually increasing from 
 year to year, until apprehensions had been seriously awakened in Eng- 
 land " that the plantations are not without thoughts of throwing ofl' their 
 dependence on the Crown." He, therefore, admonished the Assembly to do 
 away with such an impression " by giving to his Majesty such a revenue, 
 and in such a manner, as will enable him to pay his own officers and 
 servants," as had been done from the Eevolution down to the year 1709 
 during which period the colony was far less able to bear the burden 
 
 than now."* 
 
 Thus early and deeply were those principles striking root in America, 
 which John Hampden had asserted and poured out his blood to defend, 
 in the great ship-money contest with Charles I — which brought that 
 unhappy monarch to the block — and which — fulfilling the apprehensions 
 of Mr. Clarke — thirty-five years afterward, separated the colonies from 
 the British Crown — although in the answer of the House to the " insinua- 
 tion of a suspicion " of a desire for independence, with real or afi'ected 
 gravity, they " vouched that not a single person in the colony had any 
 such thoughts ;" adding — " for under what government can we be better 
 protected, or our liberties or properties so well secured ?" 
 
 *Vide Journals of the Colonial A$sejnbly, vol. 1, Hugh Gains' edition. This 
 (1741) -was the year in which the chapel, barracks, Secretary's office, &c., at Fort 
 Greorge (the Battery) were humt, and the speech referred to in the text asked an 
 apropriation for their rebuilding — but without success. 
 
90 
 
 But the popularity of Mr. Clarke was rapidly on the wane. Chief 
 Justice De Lancy, the master-spirit of the Council, having rather aban- 
 doned him, and attached himself to the popular party, managed to preserve 
 a considerate coolness on the part of that body toward their executive head, 
 while the House heeded but little his recommendations. 
 
 The only subject of local excitement, however, during the year 1741, 
 was the celebrated plot supposed to have been discovered on the part of 
 the negroes, to murder the inhabitants of New York, and ravage and 
 burn the city— an affair which reflects Uttle credit either upon the dis- 
 cernment or the humanity of that generation. 
 
 African slavery had existed from an early period in New Netherland. 
 It was encouraged as the most certain and economical way of introducing 
 slavery in a new country, where there was no surplus population. 
 The slave-trade was brought into the Dutch Colony by the Dutch 
 West India Company, and, shortly after its introduction, became a con- 
 .siderable and profitable branch of its shipping interest. A "prime 
 slave" was valued from one hundred and twenty dollars to one hundred 
 and fifty dollars, and below this price he could not profitably be purchased 
 from Africa or the "West Indies. In 1702, there were imported one hun- 
 dred and sixty-five African slaves; in 1718, five hundred and seventeen. 
 After that year, however, the traffic began to fall off, the natural 
 increase being large.* 
 
 Aa far back as 1628, slaves constituted a portion of the population 
 of New Amsterdam ; and to such an extent had the traffic in them 
 reached, that, in 1709, a slave-market was erected at the foot of Wall 
 street, where all negroes who were to be hired or sold stood, in readiness 
 for bidders. Their introduction into the colony was hastened by the 
 colonial establishment of the Dutch in Brazil and upon the coast of 
 Guinea, and also by the capture of Spanish and Portuguese prizes with 
 Africans on board. The Boere-kneehts, or servants, whom the settlers 
 brought over with them from Holland, soon deserted their field-work for 
 the fur traffic, thus causing European laborers to become scarce and 
 high ; and, as a natural result, slaves, by their cheapness, became one of 
 the staples of the new country. In 1652, the Directors at Amsterdam 
 removed the export duty of eight per cent., which had been hitherto paid 
 by the colonists on tobacco. The passage-money to New Netherland 
 was also lessened from fifty to thirty guilders ; and besides trading to the 
 
 * Almost every family in the colony owned one or more negro servant? ; and 
 among the richer clashes their number was considered a certain evidence of their 
 master's easy circumstances. About the year 1703 — a period of prosperity in wealth 
 and social refinement with the Dutch of New Amsterdam —the Widow Van Cort- 
 landt held five male slaves, two female, and two children ; Colonel De Peyster had 
 the same number; William Beekman, two ; Rip Van Dam, six ; Mrs. Stuyvesaut, five ; 
 Mrs. Kip, seven ; David Provooatd, three, etc. 
 
91 
 
 Brazils, the settlers were allowed " to sail to the coast of Angola and 
 Africa to procure as many negroes as they might be willing to employ."* 
 Several outbreaks had already happened among the negroes of New 
 Amsterdam ; and the whites lived in constant anticipation of trouble and 
 danger from them. Rumors of an intended insurrection, real or imaginary, 
 would circulate (as in the negro plot of 1712), and the whole city be 
 thrown into a state of alarm. Whether there was any real danger on 
 these occasions, cannot be known, but the result was always the same, 
 viz. : the slaves always suffered, many dying by the fagot or the gallows. 
 The " Negro Plot" of 1741, however, forms a serious and bloody 
 chapter in the history of New York. At this distance of time it is hard 
 to discover the truth amid the fears and prejudices which attended 
 that public calamity. The city then contained some ten thousand 
 inhabitants, about one-fifth of whom were African slaves, called the 
 " black seed of Cain." Many of the laws for their government were 
 most unjust and oppressive. Whenever three of them were found 
 together they were liable to be punished by forty lashes on the bare 
 back, and the same penalty followed their walking with a club outside 
 of their master's grounds without a permit. Two justices could inflict 
 any punishment except amputation or death, for any blow or assault by a 
 slave upon a Christian or a Jew. Such was the outrageous law. New York 
 swarmed with negroes, and her leading merchants were engaged in the 
 slave trade, at that time regarded fair and honorable. New York then 
 resembled a Southern city, with its calaboose on the Park Commons and 
 its slave market at the foot of Wall street. 
 
 The burning of the public buildings, comprising the Governor's 
 residence, the Secretary's office, the chapel and barracks, in March, 1741, 
 was first announced to the General Assembly by the Lieutenant-Governor 
 as the result of an accident — a plumber who had been engaged upon some 
 repairs having left fire in a gutter between the house and chapel. But 
 several other fires occurring shortly afterward in different parts of the 
 city, some of them, perhaps, under circumstances that could not readily 
 be explained, suspicions were awakened that the whole were acts of 
 incendiaries. Not a chimney caught fire — and they were not at that day 
 very well swept — but the incident was attributed to design. Such was 
 the case in respect to the chimney of Captain Warren's house, situated 
 near the ruins of the public buildings, by the taking fire of which the 
 roof was partially destroyed ; and other instances might be enumerated. 
 Suspicion, to borrow the language of Shakspeare, " hath a ready tongue," 
 and is " all stuck full of eyes," which are not easily put to sleep. Inci- 
 
 * In the year 1755 a census of slaves was taken in all the colonies except 
 Albany, New York, and Suffolk. Borough numbered 91 ; Manor of Pelham, 24 ; 
 Westchester, 73 ; Bushwick, 43 ; Flatbush, 35 ; New Utrecht, 07 ; Newtown, 87 
 Oyster-Bay, 97 ; etc., etc. 
 
92 
 
 dents and circumstances, ordinary and extraordinary, were seized upott 
 and brought together by comparison, until it became obvious to all that 
 there was actually a conspiracy for compassing such a stupendous act of 
 arson as the burning of the entire town and murder of the people. Nor 
 was it long before the plot was fastened upon the negro slaves, then 
 forming no inconsiderable portion of the population. A negro, with 
 violent gesticulation, had been heard to>tter some terms of uniateUigible 
 jargon, in which the words " fire, fire, scorch, scorch," were heard articu- 
 lated, or supposed to be heard. The crew of a Spanish ship brought 
 into the port as a prize, were sold into slavery. They were suspected of 
 disaffection— as well they might be, and yetbe innocent— seized and thrown 
 into prison. Coals were found disposed, as was supposed, for burning a 
 hay-stack ; a negro had been seen jumpiag over a fence and flying from 
 a house that had taken fire in another place, and in a word a vast variety 
 of incidents, trifling and unimportant, were collated and talked over 
 until universal consternation seized upon the inhabitants, from thfr 
 highest to the lowest. As Hume remarks of the Popish plot in the reign 
 of Charles II, " each breath of rumor made the people start wth anxiety ; 
 their enemies, they thought, were in their bosoms. They were awakened 
 from their slumbers by the cry of Plot, and Uke men affrighted and in 
 the dark, took every figure for a specter. The terror of each man became 
 a source of terror to another, and an universal panic being diffused ; 
 reason, and argument, and common sense, and common humanity, lost 
 all influence over them."* A Titus Gates was found in the person of a 
 poor weak servant-girl in a sailor's boarding-house, named Mary Burton, 
 who, after much importunity, confessed that she had heard certain negroes 
 in the preceding February, conferring ia private, for the purpose of 
 setting the town on fire. She at first confined the conspirators to blacks^ 
 but afterward several white persons were included, among whom were 
 her landlord, whose name was Hughson, his wife, another maid-servant, 
 and a Roman Catholic, named Ury. Some other information was obtained 
 from other informers, and numerous arrests were made, and the several 
 strong apartments in the City HaU, called " the jails," were crowded vs^th 
 prisoners, amounting in number to twenty-six whites and above one hund- 
 red and sixty slaves. Numerous executions took place upon the most 
 frivolous and unsatisfactory testimony, but jurors and ma^strates were 
 alike panic-stricken and wild with terror. Among the sufferers were 
 Hughson, his wife, [and the maid-servant, as also the Eomanist Ury, 
 who was capitally accused, not only as a conspirator, but for ofiioiating 
 as a priest, upon an old law of the colony, heretofore mentioned as having 
 been passed at the instance of Governor BeUamont, to drive the French 
 
 * Quoted by Duulap, who has given a good collection of facts respecting this 
 remarkable plot, though not rendered into a well-digested narrative. See chap, 
 xxi. of his History. 
 
93 
 
 missionaries from ainoag tho Indians. " The whole summer was spent 
 in the prosecutions ; every new trial led to further accusations ; a coinci- 
 denc,e of slight circumstances was magnified by the general terror into 
 violent presumptions ; tales collected without doors, mingling with the 
 proofs given at the bar, poisoned the minds of the jurors, and this san- 
 guinary spirit of the day suffered no check until Mary, the capital 
 informer, bewildered by frequent examinations and suggestions, began 
 to touch characters which malice itself dared not suspect." Then, as in 
 the ease of the Popish plot and the prosecutions for witchcraft in Salem, 
 the magistrates and jurors began to pause. But not until many had 
 been sent to their final account by the spirit of fanaticism which had 
 bereft men of their reason, as innocent of the charges laid against them 
 as the convicting courts and jurors themselves. Thirteen negroes were 
 burnt at the stake, eighteen were hanged, and seventy transported.* 
 
 The year 1742, if for no other reason, is memorable in the annals 
 of the city from the fact that in that year was built the house now stand- 
 ing on the site of No. 1 Broadway, now known as the Washington 
 Hotel, and the oldest house in the City of New York. Previous to this 
 year (1742) the site was occupied by an old tavern kept by a Mrs. Kocks, 
 built a century previous by her husband, Pieter Kocks, an officer in 
 the Dutch service and an active leader in the Indian war of 1693. Mr. 
 David T. Valentine — to whom New York is indebted more than to any 
 other man for the preservation of its local history, and for which she can 
 never be sufficiently grateful — usually remarkably accurate, states that 
 the building. No. 1 Broadway, was built by Archibald Kennedy (after- 
 ward Earl of Oassilis), then Collector of the Port of New York. This, 
 however, is an error. It was built by Sir Peter, afterward Admiral, 
 Warren,! K. B. — whose name is so identified with the naval glory of 
 England, during his residence in New York City. Neither pains nor 
 expense were spared to make it one of the finest mansions in this coun- 
 try. The plans were all sent out from Lisbon — the exterior and interior 
 
 * Daniel Horsmanden, the third Justice of the Supreme Court, published the 
 history of this strange affair in a ponderous quarto. He was concerned in the 
 administration of the judicial proceedings, however, and wrote his history before 
 the delusion had passed away. Chief-Justice De Lanoey presided at least at some 
 of the trials, and he, too, though an able and clear-fninded man, was carried away 
 by the delusion. James De Lancey was the son of Stephen De Lancey, a French 
 Huguenot gentleman from Caen, in Normandy, who fled from persecution in France. 
 Settling in New York in 1686, he married a daughter of M. Van Courlandt, and 
 -was thus connected with one of the most opulent families in the province. He was 
 also an active member of the House of Assembly during the administration of Gov- 
 ernor Hunter. His son James was sent to Cambridge University (England), for his 
 education, and bred to the profession of the law. On being elevated to the bench, such 
 were his talents and application, he became a very profound lawyer. — Sniith, 
 t After whom Warren street is named. 
 
94 
 
 being similar in every respect to that of the British ambassador residing- 
 at the Portu 'uese capital. The house was fifty-six feet on Broadway, and 
 when erected, the rear of the lot was bounded by the North River. 
 Greenwich street was not then opened or built — the North River wasTiing 
 the shore. One room of this edifice deserves particular notice, being the 
 banqueting-room, twenty-six by forty, and used on all great^occasions. 
 After the British forces captured New York, in the war of the American 
 Revolution, as the most prominent house, it was the headquarters of 
 the distinguished British commanders. Sir William Howe, Sir Henry 
 Clinton, and Sir Guy Carlton, afterward Lord Dorchester, all in succes- 
 sion occupied this house ; and it is a memorable fact that the celebrated 
 Major Andre, then Adjutant-General of the British forces, and aid to 
 Sir Henry Clinton, resided in this house, being in the family of Sir 
 Henry, and departed from its portals never to return, when he went up 
 the North River and arranged his treasonable project with, the traitor 
 Arnold at West Point. 
 
 The administration of Lieutenant-Governor Clarke was ended in the 
 autumn of 1743, by the arrival of Admiral George Clinton, uncle of the 
 Earl of Lincoln, and a younger son of the late Earl, who had been 
 appointed to the government of New York through the interest of his 
 friends, to afford him an opportunity of mending his fortunes. Mr. 
 Clarke, who, in the commencement of his administration, had succeeded 
 in conciliating the leaders of both poHtical parties, had contrived before 
 the close of his career to lose the confidence of both, so that his retire- 
 ment from the Government was regarded with universal satisfaction.* 
 Especially had he incurred the resentment of the Chief-Justice, De 
 Lancey ; who, strangely enough, though usually a staunch supporter of 
 the prerogatives of the Crown, had now became, to some extent, a favor- 
 George Clarke, Esq., who, in "various of&cial stations, was for almost half a 
 century connected with the colonial government of New York, was an Englishman 
 by birth. " His uncle, Mr. Blaithwait, procured the Secretaryship of the colony 
 for him early in the reign of Queen Anne. He had genius, but no other than a 
 common writing-school education; nor did he add to his stock by reading, for he 
 was more intent upon improving his fortune than his mind. He was sensible, artful, 
 active, cautious ; had a perfect command of his temper, and was in his address 
 specious and civil. Nor was any man better acquainted with the colony and its 
 affairs." He successively held the offices of Secretary, Clerk of thj Council, Coun- 
 cillor, and Lieutenant-Governor ; and from his official position he had every oppor- 
 tunity of enriching himself by obtaining grants and patents of land, which, from 
 his knowledge of the colony, he was enabled to choose in the most advantageous 
 locations. He was a courtier, and was careful never to differ with the governors of 
 the colony ; although during Oosby's stormy career he usually kept himself quiet 
 at his country viUa upon the edge of Hempstead plains. " His lady was a Hyde, 
 a woman of fine accomplishments, and a distant relation of that branch of the 
 Clarendon family. She died in New York. Mr. Clarke returned to England in 
 m^, with acquisitions estimated at one hundred thousand pounds. He purchased 
 
95 
 
 ite of the General Assembly. The new Governor had spent most of 
 his life in the navy ; and, according to the earliest English historian of 
 New York, " preferring ease and good cheer to the restless activity of 
 ambition, there wanted nothing to engage the interest of his powerful 
 patrons in his favor, more than to humor a simple-hearted man, who had 
 no ill-nature, nor sought anything more than a genteel frugality and 
 common civility while he was mending those fortunes, until his friends at 
 court could recall him to some indolent and more lucrative station." 
 
 Mr. Clinton arrived in New York on the 22d of September; 
 and was received with demonstrations of universal satisfaction by the 
 people. Finding that the General Assembly stood adjourned to meet in 
 a few days, and ascertaining that the people would be pleased with an 
 opportunity of holding a new election, the Assembly was dissolved on 
 the twenty-seventh, and writs for the return of another Assembly is.sued 
 the same day. The elections were conducted without political acrimony, 
 and all the old members, with but seven exceptions, were returned. The 
 session opened on the 8th of November. Meantime, the Governor 
 had fallen into the hands of De]Lancey, who doubtless had the moulding 
 of his excellency's speech. Its tone was conciUatory, although the 
 sore subject of a permanent revenue was opened afresh. But this was 
 done in gentle terms, the Governor asking for a grant " in as ample a 
 manner, and for a time as long as had been given under any of his 
 predecessors." The Assembly was informed that, owing to the critical 
 state of affairs in Europe, and the doubtful attitude in which Great 
 Britain and France stood toward each other, a large supply of military 
 stores for the defense of the colony had been received from the parent 
 government; and the Governor hoped the Assembly would show their 
 thankfulness by making an adequate provision for the purchase of 
 others. The usual recommendations in regard to the Indian intercourse 
 of the colony were renewed, and an appropriation was asked for rebuild- 
 ing the barracks and public offices, together with the house of the Gov- 
 ernor, which had been destroyed by fire. The latter recommendation 
 was insisted on as being necessary for the comfort of the Governor's 
 family. 
 
 an estate in Cheshire, where he died about the year 1761. George Clarke, his 
 grand-son, and the heir to Ms estates, after a residence in America of about thirty- 
 five years, died at Otsego about the year 1835. His eldest son, Greorge HydeClarker 
 with his young wife, was lost in the ship Albion, wrecked on the coast of Ireland, 
 in the summer of 1820, on his passage from New York to England. His second 
 son then returned to England and entered into possession of the fortune of his 
 father's estates situated in that country. By the vast increase in price of his Amer- 
 ican lands, Mr. Clarke's estates in this country became of princely value before his 
 death. They are inherited by his youngest son, George Clarke, Esq., who at present 
 resides in the noble mansion erected by his father a few years before his decease, upon, 
 the margin of Otsego Lake. 
 
96 
 
 " An humble address " was voted by the Council in reply, drawn up 
 by De Lancey. The appointment of the new Governor was received " as 
 an additional evidence of his Ma,iesty's affection for his people, and his 
 zeal for the liberty of mankind, lately most evidently demonstrated in 
 his exposing his sacred person to the greatest dangers in defense of the 
 liberty of Europe." In all other respects the answer was an echo of the 
 speech. The address of the House was more than an echo ; it was 
 couched in language of excessive flattery to the new Governor, and of 
 fawning adulation toward the sovereign, who was designated " the 
 darling of his own people, and the glorious preserver of the liberties of 
 Europe." There was, however, a disposition on all sides to be pleased. 
 The Assembly responded to the demanded appropriations, voting the 
 Governor fifteen hundred pounds for his salary, one hundred pounds for 
 house-rent, four hundred pounds for fuel and candles, one hundred and 
 fifty pounds to enable him to visit the Indians, and eight hundred pounds 
 for the purchase of presents to be distributed amongst them. Other 
 appropriations were made upon a scale of corresponding liberality ; and 
 the Governor was so well pleased with the good temper of the Assembly, 
 that he signed every bill presented for his approbation, without a 
 murmur of disapprobation, not even excepting the supply-biU, which, 
 notwithstanding his demand to the contrary, in the opening speech, was 
 limited to the year. 
 
 But, notwithstanding these reciprocal manifestations of good feeUng ; 
 and notwithstanding also the amiable traits of the Governor's natural 
 disposition, it will be seen in the progress of events that the bluff char- 
 acteristics of the sailor were not always to be concealed ; and his admin- 
 istration, in process of time, became as tempestuous as the element upon 
 which he was certainly more at home than upon the land. 
 
 Advices of the intended invasion of his majesty's dominions, in 
 behalf of a " Popish Pretender," were communicated to the General 
 Assembly of New York by Governor Clinton, in April, 1744. In con- 
 nection with this anticipated act of hostUity, which would of course 
 extend to the contiguous colonies of the two countries, efficient measures 
 were urged for placing the country in a posture of defense. The temper 
 of the colony, in regard to this movement of France, may be inferred 
 from the immediate action of the Assembly. In the Council, Chief-Justice 
 De Lancy, in moving an address of thanks for the speech, offered also 
 a resolution expressive of the abhorrence of that body of the designs of 
 France in favor of the Pretender, and declaring that the civil and religi- 
 ous rights of his majesty's subjects depended on the Protestant succesion. 
 The House was invited to join in the address, which request, though a 
 -very unusual procedure, was readily acquiesce.d in, and the address was 
 prepared by a joint committee of the two houses. From aU this it was 
 •evident that a war was very near at hand, and that the frontiers of the 
 
97 
 
 colony might again, very soon, be subjected to the ravages of a foe than 
 whose tender mercies nothing could be more cruel. 
 
 In 1746, the small-pox drove the Assembly from the city to Green- 
 wich ; but soon appearing there, also, produced a panic that for several 
 days entirely arrested the course of business. The Assembly prayed for 
 a recess from the 9th of March to the 12th of April, and also for leave to 
 adjourn their sittings to some other place. Jamaica and Brooklyn were 
 suggested ; but in the opinion of the Governor the demands of the pub- 
 lic service forbade so long an interregnum, and he therefore directed their 
 adjournment for a week, to meet in the borough of Westchester. They 
 convened there accordingly ; but the inconvenience of the locality was such 
 that the members begged permission to adjourn even back to the infected 
 city again, rather than remain where they were. In the end the 
 Governor directed them to transfer their sittings to Brooklyn, at which 
 place the transaction of business was resumed on the 20th of March, when 
 an address to the Governor was ordered to be prepared, in answer to that 
 of the Council respecting the rejection of the before-mentioned revenue- 
 biU. 
 
 Before the introduction of the bUl, the Assembly had inquired of the 
 Governor whether he had any objection to an emission of paper money 
 to meet the exigencies of the country ; to which question the proper 
 answer was given by Mr. Clinton, that " when the bill came to him he 
 would declare his opinion." The bill was therefore introduced and 
 passed by the Assembly ; but the Council, disapproving of certain of its 
 provisions, requested a conference. The Assembly, however, declared 
 that inasmuch as it was a money bill, they would consent to no such course 
 upon the subject. The Council thereupon summarily rejected the bill, and 
 sent up an address to the Governor, written by the Chief Justice, 
 De Lancey, setting forth their reasons, by which their course had been 
 governed. One of the objections to the bill, according to this representa- 
 tion, was found in the fact, " that the money proposed to be raised by the 
 bill was not granted to his Majesty, or to be issued by warrants in council, 
 as it ought to have been, and as has usually been done." This objection 
 involved the old question of the royal prerogative — nothing more. On 
 the subject of the right claimed by the Assembly of exclusive power over 
 the details of money bills, the address asserted " the equal rights of the 
 Council to exercise their judgments upon these bills." ' Various other 
 objections of detail were suggested ; but the two points specified above) 
 were the only grounds of principle upon which the Council relied in justi- 
 fication of its course. Yet the unreasonableness of the assumption of the 
 House, that the Council should not be allowed even to point out and rectify 
 the defects of anything which they chose to call a money bill, was argued 
 at considerable length. 
 
 There was yet another cause of irritation on the part of the House 
 
 7 
 
98 
 
 So early as the year 1709, the General Assembly had found it necessary, in 
 providing ways and means for the public service — especially ia the prose- 
 cution of the several wars in -which the colony had been involved by the 
 parent government — to issue a paper currency called bills of credit. The 
 operation had been repeated from time to time, in emejgent cases— some- 
 times with the approbation of the Crown, and sometimes not — until these 
 paper issues had become a part of the policy of the colony. Others of 
 the colonies, laboring under the same necessities, had resorted to the same 
 measures of finance ; but to which the Crown, jealous of its prerogative 
 in all matters of currency, had uniformly been opposed. For many years, 
 therefore, antecedent to this period, the royal governors had arrived in 
 the colony clothed with instructions against allowing farther emissions of 
 bUls of credit — instructions, however, which the stern law of necessity 
 had seldom allowed them to enforce. Still, the Crown, keenly alive to every 
 step of independent action on the part of the colonies, was persisting in 
 its war against a colonial currency even of paper; and a bill was row 
 before parliament, upon the subject, which gave great alarm to the people- 
 Professedly, its design was merely for preventing these bills of credit 
 from being made a legal tender ; but it was discovered that the bill was 
 to have a far more extensive operation — " obliging and enjoining the 
 legislatures of every colony to pay strict obedience to all such orders and 
 instructions as might from time to time be transmitted to them, or any of 
 them, by his majesty or his successors, or by or under his or their 
 authority." Such an act, it was justly held, " would establish an absolute 
 power in the Crown, in all the British plantations, that would be inconsis- 
 tent with the liberties and privileges inherent in an English, man, while he 
 is in a British, dominion." 
 
 Incensed at this stubbomess on the part" of his little parliament, 
 the sailor-Governor determined, in the Assembly, which met on the 12th 
 of October, 1748, to reassert the prerogative in the strongest terms, by 
 bringing the subject of a permanent supply to a direct issue ; choosing, 
 as Mx. Bancroft has remarked. New Yobe " as the opening scene in the 
 £nal contest that led to independence." Accordingly, on the 14th he sent 
 down his message to the house, in which he demanded e permanent support 
 for five years. The message stated that on coming to the administration 
 of the government, he had been disposed to do aU he could, consistently 
 with his duty to the king, for the care and satisfaction of the people. 
 Hence, reposing confidence in the. advice then given him, he had given 
 his assent to various acts of the Assembly, the tendency of which, as 
 experience had taught him, was to weaken the authority of his majesty's 
 government. Still, as the country was very soon afterward involved in 
 war, he had forborne to take that attitude in the premi .es which duty to 
 his sovereign seemed to require. But with the return of peace, he deemed 
 it to be his indispensable duty to put a stop to such innovations. Promi- 
 
99 
 
 nent among these was^the practice whicli had been growing up, of making 
 only an annual provision for the payment of the officers of the Government. 
 He also alluded to the modern practice of naming the officers for who^e 
 benefit the appropriations were made in the act, thus interfering with the 
 prerogative in the appointing honor. He admonished the Assembly that 
 he should give his assent to no acts of that character for the future ; and 
 demanded an appropriation for the payment of the Governor's secretaries, 
 judges, and other salaried officers, for the term of five years, according to 
 the practice that had prevailed during the administration of his four 
 immediate predecessors, namely, Governors Hunter, Burnett, Mont- 
 gomery, and Cosby. The inconvenience of these annual grants of salaries 
 and allowances was adverted to, and objections further urged against the 
 recent method of intermixing matters of an entirely different nature with 
 the •provisions of the salary-bills, and tacking new grants for other pur- 
 poses to the Governor's own support. 
 
 The Assembly, in its reply, justly regarding the request for a perma- 
 nent supply as a direct attempt to render the Crown independent of the 
 people, with great indignation refused to grant it. As to the more 
 recent practice of naming the officers provided for in the salary bills, it 
 not only justified it, but intimated that if this course had been adopted at 
 an earlier day, his Excellency would not have been able to remove the 
 third Justice of the Supreme Court " without any color of misconduct" 
 on his part— who was " a gentleman of learning and experience in the 
 law.'*'" The result can readily be seen. After continual bickerings for 
 several weeks, Mr. Clinton, in great wtath, prorogued the Assembly. 
 
 Thus the parties separated, and thus again commenced that great 
 struggle between the Republican and Monarchal principle, which in the 
 onward progress of the former was destined at a day not even then far 
 distant, to work such mighty results in the "Western Hemisphere. 
 
 Although, from a very early date in the history of this protracted 
 controversy, it became inexcusably personal, yet it is not difficult to per- 
 ceive that it was in reality one of principle. On the one hand, the infant 
 Hercules, though still in his cradle, was becoming impatient of restraint. 
 The yoke of colonial servitude chafed the necks, if not of the people, at 
 least of their representatives. The royal Governor was not slow to per- 
 ceive what kind of leaven was fermenting the body-politic ; and hence he 
 became perhaps over-jealous in asserting and defending the prerogatives 
 of his master. Doubtless, in the progress of the quarrel, there were 
 faults on both sides. Of an irascible and overbearing temperament, and 
 accustomed in his profession to command rather than to persuade, he was 
 ill-qualified to exercise a limited or concurrent power with a popular 
 
 *Alludiii'' to the removal, the year before, of Justice Horsmanden. This act 
 ■was again imputed to the influence of " a person of a mean and despicable charac- 
 ter" — meaning, as it was well understood, I>r. Golden. 
 
100 
 
 Assembly equally jealoas of its own privileges and of the liberties of the 
 people; watching with sleepless vigilance for every opportunity to 
 circumscribe the influence of the Crown ; and ready at every moment to 
 resist the encroachments of arbitrary power. Still, however patriotic the 
 motives, under the promptings of De Lanoey, their opposition to Mr. 
 Clinton became factious ; and it is not difficult even for a republican to 
 believe that he was treated, not only with harshness, but with great 
 injustice, especially in regard to his measures, and his personal exertions 
 for the pubUc defense and the prosecution of the Indian war. 
 
 At length, worn out in health and spirits by his struggle against a 
 powerful opposition, Clinton, in 1753, sent in his resignation to the home 
 government, and Sir James Osborne was appointed in his stead. 
 
 The character of Mr. Clinton has not, I think, been fairly drawn. 
 Those upon whose opinions his character rests, were persons living at 
 the same day, and who, influenced by party strife, were not in a position 
 to judge impartially. He was an uncouth and unlettered Admiral, who 
 had been, through the Newcastle interest, appointed to the chair of Gov- 
 ernor. He was evidently unsuited to his position ; and his former pro- 
 fession, in which he had always been accustomed to command, iUy fitted 
 biTTi to brave the rebuffs and the opposition of party faction. His 
 manner, too, was not such as to win friends. Having to depend entirely 
 upon the advice of those around him, he was often the dupe of those 
 better versed in the arts of diplomacy than himself. But I look in vain 
 for that love of ease, to the neglect of his official duties, of which he is 
 accused by his enemies. On the contrary, although he relied too much 
 on the advice of others for his own good, yet it was caused more by a 
 consciousness of a lack of education, than by a desire to shirk action. 
 In the care of the Indians he was indefatigable, as appears by his large 
 correspondence with Colonel, afterwards Sir Wm. Johnson, and the offi- 
 cers of the different frontier posts. He labored incessantly with his 
 Assembly to make them realize the condition of the colony ; and had 
 they met his views half-way, or even manifested a tithe of his energy, 
 the Province of New York would not have presented such an inviting 
 field for the encroachments of the French. He is accused of amassing 
 by unfair means a large fortune while Governor, yet he freely advanced 
 out of his private purse large sums for the exigencies of the Indian 
 affeirs, and many times saved the Six Nations from defection, and the 
 province from the horrors of a predatory warfare, when it was impossi- 
 ble to rouse the Assembly to a sense of danger. Indeed, I think it may 
 ' safely be said, that had it not been for the untiring effiirts of Mr. Clinton 
 and Colonel Johnson, the Six Nations would have been completely won 
 over by the French, and the fire-brand and tomahawk carried down to 
 the very gates of New York. 
 
 Meanwhile, several pubUc edifices had been erected, and various 
 
101 
 
 improvements taken place in the city. In 1747, tlie Presbyterian Church 
 in Wall street, which had been erected by Hunter, was rebuilt. "In 
 the course of the .next two years, Beekman and the contiguous streets 
 were regulated. Ferry street was ceded to the city ; Beekman, Dey, and 
 Thames streets were paved ; Pearl street was dug down near Peck Slip, 
 and graded from Pranklin Square to Chatham street ; and John street was 
 paved and regulated. In 1751, a Moravian Chapel was built in Fulton 
 street ; the following year, the first Merchants' Exchange was erected at 
 the foot of Broad street ; and St. George's Chapel was built by Trinity 
 Church on the corner of Cliff and Beekman, and was consecrated on the 
 1st of (Tuly by the Eev. Mr. Barclay, a former missionary among the 
 Mohawks, but now the rector of Trinity Church. This building yet 
 remains in good preservation, arid is well known as one of the few original 
 landmarks. This is, next to the Post-Offioe, the oldest church edifice 
 now standing in the city, and its quaint old chandeliers, and aisles flagged 
 with gray stone, still remain as relics of days of yore." Washington, it 
 is said, was a frequent attendant of this church during his residence in 
 this city in the early part of the Revolutionary War.* But alas ! this 
 old landmark is about to share the fate of so many other structures of a 
 similar character, and is to be torn down to make room for another altar 
 to the god Mammon. Workmen are, as we write, employed in removing 
 the wood- work and other articles of furniture, preparatory to the destruc- 
 tion of the church. It is said that the owners of the vaults underneath 
 the sacristy are about to contest the right of the recent sale in the courts ; 
 but their efforts will probably have little effect in saving the doomed 
 building from the grasp of sacrilegious hands. In speaking of the 
 history of this edifice, a writer in the New York JForld, of March 17th, 
 1868, recalls the following interesting facts : 
 
 " One hundred and twenty years ago, New York City had not attained its 
 majority, and Broadway was hut a oow-path aboye Canal street. The Right Honor- 
 able Greorge Clinton, ' Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the 
 Province of Kew York and the Territories thereon, Depending in America, Vice- 
 Admiral of the Same, and Vioe-Admiral of the Red Squadron of His Majesty's 
 Fleet,' as that most doughty and right honorable personage was wont to sign himself 
 in proclamations to the fat burghers of New York, sat in the chair now filled by 
 Reuben E. Fenton. In that day, New York City was a nest for privateers, which 
 sailed hence to destroy French and Spanish commerce. According as their destina- 
 tion might be, these vessels, with a fair quantity of rum, molasses, and sea-provisions, 
 would be piloted to the Hook, and there take on board an India, Mediterranean, or 
 
 * Another impcrrtant event occurred at this time, which should not be omitted 
 by one who attempts to give a history of the city — inasmuch as it gives us the 
 ori"in of the yearly appropriation made by the Common Council for the City Manual, 
 viz. : that in 1747 the Common Council appropriated /owr pounds for the publication 
 of fifty copies oi An Essay on the Duties of Vestrymen! Some ill-natured cynic 
 may here suggest that it would have been better if the Common Council had con- 
 fined themselves to publications of a similar kind. 
 
102 
 
 other pilot, to carry them to their destioation. Small negro boys and Jamaica men 
 in parcels were sold at auction where now the Custom-House rears its lofty pillars. 
 Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungaria, wielded 
 the scepter of the Ceesars ; George the Second, Fides Defensor, twiddled his thumba 
 in Windsor Park and played bowls with his Hanoverian mistresses ; and wheat was 
 six shilUngB a bushel; flour, eighteen shillings a hundred; beef, forty shilUings a 
 barrel ; West India rum, three and eight -peuce a gallon ; salt, three shillings a 
 bushel ; and single-reiined sugar, one and ' tuppence ' a pound in New York City. 
 Manus Carroll had boen hung at the old powder-house, which still stands on an 
 eminence at the upper end of the Central Park, for a cruel and most ' un-Christian'- 
 like murder which he had committed two years before in Albany, then a thriving 
 town. Counterfeiters were at that time amenable to the death-penalty, and the 
 Bamnm of that day exhibited wax-figures in Dock street, and the editor of the New 
 York Weekly Post Boy was in the habit of receiving presents of baskets of Bermuda 
 potatoes from the masters of vessels bound into Ihe goodly port of New York. One 
 day the editor received a potato weighing seven pounds from the master of the Good 
 Delight, from Plumb Island, in the far-off ' Bermoothes,' and, out of sheer joy at the 
 prodigy, he went and made himself drunk on ' arrack-punch,' the most aristocratic 
 tipple of our forefathers' days. The City and County of New York had at that early 
 day a population of twelve thousand, two thousand of which number were negroes- 
 " On the 15th of April, 1748, a number of gentlemen met in the. vestry of King's 
 Chapel or Trinity Church, then situated where the present church stands in the Broad- 
 way, but at the time referred to, overhanging the banks of the Hudson, whose 
 limits have since been pushed back a quarter of a mile by the contractors and dust- 
 collectors ; and these gentlemen being of the opinion, after a deliberate consultation, 
 that it was necessary to have a chapel of ease connected with Trinity, it was then 
 and there ordained that the Church- Wardens, Colonel Moore, Mr. Watts, Mr. Living- 
 ston, Mr. Chambers, Mr, Horsmanden, Mr, Keade, and Mr. Lodge, be appointed a 
 committee to select a place for the erection 'of ye ' Chapel of St. George's. Another 
 meeting was held on the 4th of July, 1748. Colonel Kobinson, one of the committee, 
 reported that he had agreed with a Mr. Clarkson for a number of lots, for which 
 that person had asked the sum of £500, to be paid in a year, and several persons in 
 Montgomerie Ward had stated to him that the lots of Colonel Beekman, fronting 
 Beekman and Van Cliff streets, would be more commodious for building the said 
 chapel, and proposed that if the vestry would agree to the building of the chapel on 
 Colonel Beekman's property, the inhabitants of Montgomerie Ward would raise 
 money among themselves to purchase the ground, and that if Mr. Clarkson insisted 
 on the performance of the agreement with him for his lots, they would take a con- 
 veyance for them, and pay the purchase-money ; which was agreed to after many 
 hot words. For these respectable vestrymen, in a manner like all vestrymen from 
 time immemorial, had tempers of their own, and no doubt they were exercised at, 
 the fact that the doughty Kobinson had taken upon himself to make an agreement 
 to purcliase lots for £500, a very large sum in those days when the gold-board had 
 not been established, while on the other hand the inhabitants of Montgomerie Ward, 
 which was afterward called the 'Swamp' in the memory of man, were, without whip 
 or spur, eager for the honor and glory of the future, to furnish the lots and build upon 
 them a church. Well, the vestrymeu went home and drank more arrack-punch, 
 sweetened with Muscovado sugar, and punished ' oelykoeks,' greasy with oil and other 
 substances, and then returned to the bosoms of their respective famUios. Donations 
 poured in to the committee, and the first subscription, of £100, was made by Sir 
 Peter Warren, who desired, if not inconsistent with the rules of the church, that 
 they would reserve a pew for himself and family in perpetuity. The Archbishop of 
 
103 
 
 Canterbury contributed ten pounds. This, the second building in the city erected 
 for the purpose of worship being completed, notice was given to the Governor, and 
 the installation services were held on the lat day of July, A. D., 1753 ; but there 
 being no bishop in the country at the time, it was consecrated agreeably to the 
 ancient usages of the church. The Rev. Henry Barclay, D. D., at this time, was 
 the rector, and Rev. Samuel Auclimuty, D. D., assistant minister of Trinity Church. 
 Being firiiahed in the fi.ne.st style of architecture of the period, and having a hand- 
 some and lofty steeple, "this edifice was justly deemed a great ornament to the city. 
 It first stood alone, there being but few other houses in its vicinity. Shortly sub- 
 sequent, however, the streets were graded and built upon, and now the immense 
 warehouses of enterprising merchants and handsome private residences surround it 
 on every side. When first constructed, the interior arrangement of St. George's dif- 
 fered considerably from the present, the chancel, at that time, being contained in the 
 circular recess at the rear of the church, and the altar standing back against the 
 rear-wall in full view of the middle-aisle. There was also some difference in the 
 arrangement of thfe desk, pulpit, and clerk's-desk. An interesting relation is told 
 concerning the material of which this part of the church-furniture was made, and it 
 may be thus condensed : In one of the voyages made by a sea-captain, whose vessel 
 was unfortunately wrecked, he sustained, among other injuries, the loss of the 
 vessel's masts. This disaster occurring on a coast where no other wood than 
 mahogany could be procured, the captain was obliged to remedy the loss by replac- 
 ing the old masts with masts made of mahogany. This .ship, thus repaired, returned 
 to this port about the time St. George's was building, when more suitable masts 
 were substituted, and those made of mahogany were donated to the Church. The 
 pulpit, desk, and chancel-rails were removed some years afterward, and it may be 
 interesting to state that they can now be seen answering a like capacity in Christ 
 Church, in the little town of Manhasset, on Long Island. 
 
 " There is an incident connected with the beautiful font of this church, which 
 will also bear repetition. Originally intended for a Catholic church in South 
 America, it was shipped on a French vessel to be carried to its destination ; but 
 whilst on the voyage it was captured by the English during the old French war and 
 brought to this city. This font is made of white marble, and is a masterly piece of 
 workmanship. In 1814, when St. George's was burned, this font was supposed to 
 have been destroyed, but it was found about thirty years ago in a remote part of 
 the church, where it had been removed during the conflagration. It was somewhat 
 damaged, but not enqugh, however, to prevent its further use, and after being 
 cleaned and repaired it was replaced in front of the chancel, where it now stands, an 
 interesting feature of the time-honored building. 
 
 " One of the melancholy events associated with this old church was the sudden 
 death of the Rev. John Ogilvie. On the 18th of November, 1774, whilst delivering 
 one of the lectures he was in the habit of holding on Friday evenings, he was 
 struck with apoplexy. He had given out his text : ' To show that jthe Lord is 
 upright : he is my rook, and there la no unrighteousness in him.' — Psalms, xoii., 15 ; 
 and after repeating a sentence or two he sank into the reading-desk, > and was 
 deprived of speech. He suffered thus for eight days, when he was relieved by 
 death. It was in this chapel, in July, 1787, that the Right Rev. Samuel Provost, 
 the first bishop of the Diocese of New York, held his first ordination, at which time 
 the la*b Right Rev. Richard C. Moore, D. D., Bishop of Virginia, and the Rev. 
 Joseph G. I. Bend, of Baltimore, were made Deacons. In the year 1811, arrange- 
 ments were made for a separation between the congregation of St. George's and the 
 corporation of Trinity Church, after which the latter became duly organized as a 
 separate parish, known as St. George's Church. 
 
104 
 
 " The folio-wing persons composed the first vestry: Church- Wardens — Gerrit Van 
 "Wag'eneu and Henry Peters. Vestrymen — ^Francis Dominick, Isaac Lawrence, 
 Isaac Carow, Robert Wardell, Cornelius Schemmerhom, John Onderdonk, Edward 
 "W. Laight, and William Green. After St. George's became a separate parish, its 
 first minister was the Rev. John Brady, who afterward became an assistant under 
 the Rev. John Kewly. St. George's was entirely consumed by fire in the month of 
 January, 1814, nothing being saved but the bare walls. After a proper eiamination, 
 these walls were decided to be safe enough to bear another reof, and when this was 
 put on the whole interior of the building was renewed. The interior of the church 
 is much more handsomely finished than the exterior; the carved capitals of the 
 Corinthian order presenting a fine specimen of architectural beauty. The ground- 
 floor is divided into three aisles, and on either side a r.ommodious gallery ia sup- 
 ported by massive columns. At the west end, and connecting these two, there is 
 another gallery, in the middle of which is located a handsome mahogany organ. 
 Above this end gallery there are two smaller ones, which are used by the Sunday- 
 school pupils. From the center of the ceiling three large magniflteent glass chande- 
 liers depend, and these are among the few articles that were saved from the fire. 
 Over the side galleries three smaller, but very beautiful chandeliers are hung above 
 the arches. When St. George's was completed a second time, it was placed by the 
 vestry under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Dr. ililnor, who continued to fill the 
 rectorship untU the 8th of April, 1845, when he died. This venerable minister was 
 held in high esteem by his parish, and Ms death was sincerely lamented. He had 
 been a lawyer in Philadelphia in early life, and for several terms represented that 
 city in Congress. In 1813, he abandoned secular pursuits, and was admitted to 
 priests' and deacons' ordeiS by Bishop White. 
 
 " One hundred years after the consecration of St. George's, a grand centenary 
 celebration was held in the church, and hundreds of worshippers knelt in the shadow 
 of the pulpit from which George Washington had often heard the sacred text read 
 and expounded. Dr. Tyng held the rectorship until the new edifice in Sixteenth 
 street was finished, when the communion service was removed to the new church, 
 and a number of old relics carried away. Now the venerable pile is being gutted 
 from organ-loft to altar, and the hungry doors stand open that all may see the 
 nakedness of the edifice. The old gray flag-stones, worn by the feet of Schuylers, 
 Livingstons, Reades, Van Cliffs, Beekmans, Van Rensselacrs, Cortlandts, Moores, 
 and others, well known and respected in the infancy of the metropolis, are to be 
 torn up and coarerted into lime, the pulpit will go to a junk-shop, and the rest of 
 the furniture to the wood-yard. At present the graves of revolutionary herot.s 
 servo as a depository for ashes and rubbish, and vessels are emptied daily from the 
 windows adjoining on places where, a hundred years ago, was carved the sacred 
 words never to be effaced, "Requieacat in pace." The old church has to be torn down, 
 and the six lots will be sold to the highest purchasers. The church was the oldest 
 in the city but one, the building occupied as a post-office having been the first 
 building erected as a place of worship. The property purchased from Colonel Beek- 
 man for £500 is now worth, it is said, half a million of dollars." 
 
 Mr. Clinton was at his country seat at Mushing, L. I., when his 
 successor, Sir James Osborne, arriyed. This was on Sunday, the 7th of 
 October, 1753. The Council, Mayor, Corporation, and the chief citizens 
 met the new Governor on his arrival, and escorted him to the Cfouncil- 
 Chamber. The following day Mr. Clinton called upon him, and they 
 both dined with the members of the Council. On Wednesday morning 
 Mr. Clinton administered to him the oath of office, and delivered to him 
 
105 
 
 the seals ; at 1(Jie same time delivering to James De Lancey tis commis- 
 sion as Lieutenant-Governor. As soon as these forma were finished, 
 Governor Osborne, attended by the Council and Mr. Clinton, set out for 
 the Town-Hall, where the new commission was usually read to the people. 
 Scarcely, however, had the procession advanced a few steps, when the 
 rabble, incited, it is said, by the De Lancey faction, insulted Mr. Clinton 
 so grossly as to compel him to leave the party, and retire into the fort. 
 In the evening cannon were fired, bonfires Ughted, fireworks displayed, 
 and the whole city was given up to a delirium of joy. Amid all these 
 rejoicings, the new Governor sat in his room gloomy and sad ; and, seem- 
 ingly averse to conversation, retired early. On Thutsday morning he 
 informed the Council that his strict orders were to insist upon an indefinite 
 support for the Government, and desired to have the opinion of the Board 
 upon the probabilities of its success. It was universally agreed by the 
 members present that the Assembly never would submit to this demand, 
 and that a permanent support could not be enforced. Turning to Mr. 
 Smith, who had hitherto remained silent, he requested his opinion, which 
 being to the same effect as that just expressed, Mr. Osborne sighed, and, 
 leaning against the window, with his face partially concealed, exclaimed, 
 in great mental distress ; " Then what am I sent here for !" That same 
 evening he was so unwell that a physician was summoned, with whom 
 he conversed for a little time, and then retired to his chamber, where he 
 spent the most of the night in arranging his private aflaLrs. In the 
 morning he was found suspended from the top of the garden-fence, dead.* 
 Sir Dan vers Osborne had lost a wife to whom he was passionately 
 attached, shortly before coming to New York. This acting upon a mind 
 morbidly sensitive, had thrown him into a melancholy, bordering upon 
 insanity. He came to the government charged with instructions much 
 more stringent in their tone than those given to his predecessor ; and 
 knowing the difficulty which Mr. Clinton experienced during his admin- 
 istration, he saw before him only a succession of storms and tempests. 
 Almost the first words of the City Corporation in their address to him in 
 the Town-Hall — " that they would not brook any infringement of their lib- 
 erties, civil and religious" — convinced Mr. Osborne of the utter impos- 
 sibility of the task assigned to him. All these causes working upon a 
 morbid state of mind — wishing to carry out his instructions on the one 
 hand, yet seeing its utter hopelessness on the other — produced a tempo- 
 rary insanity, in which state he committed the rash act. Party rage, it 
 is true, threw out suspicions of unfair play ; and the Council even thought 
 it worth while to appoint a committee to investigate more fully the cir- 
 cumstances of his death; but these suspicions, it was made clearly 
 evident, were entirely without foundation. 
 
 * Manuscript affidavits of Philip Crosby and John Milligan before the Council. 
 Sworn to, October 13, 1753, and now preserved in the Secretary of State's Office, 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 
106 
 
 Immediately on tlie death, of Governor Osborne, Mr. <De Lancey, by 
 virtue of h.is commission as Lieutenant-Governor, assumed the reins of gov- 
 ernment. The role which he was henceforth to play, though difficult, was 
 acted with his usual shrewdness and address. He had now to convince 
 the Ministry that he was zealous in the promotion of the interests of the 
 Crown ; while at the same time, if he would retain his own popularity, 
 he must show the Assembly that he was true to his former principles, 
 and b3' no means required a compliance with the instructions, which, on 
 the part of his Majesty, he should present to them. " As his Majesty's 
 representative, he was obliged to urge their compliance with seeming 
 sincerity and warmtli ; but as James De Lancey, their old friend and 
 best adviser, it was his real sentiment that they never ought to submit." 
 The change in the administration, however, was productive of one good 
 result — that of infusing into the Assembly a desire to take active 
 measures for the defense of the province, now threatened with a desolat- 
 ing Indian war. Before the close of the session, an elaborate complaint 
 to the Crown, and a representation to the Board of Trade against Mr. 
 Clinton were drawn up, and forwarded through Mr. De Lancey to the 
 home government. The Assembly was then prorogued to the first Tues- 
 day of the following March — the Lieutenant-Governor tenderly remark- 
 ing before they parted, that they "must be sensible they had not acted 
 with his Majesty's royal instructions." 
 
 In the General Assembly which met on the 15th of October, 1754, 
 was first manifested the want of that harmony which had hitherto been 
 so flattering to Mr. De Lancey' s administration. The reluctance of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor at the congress to accede to the plan of imion, first 
 awakened suspicion in the pubUc mind that his sympathies were on the 
 side of the Crown, and that the aflfeetion which he professed for the people 
 was only a cover to his own ambition. There were also a few of Mr. 
 Clinton's friends left, around whom were gathered a small opposition ; 
 and the partiality which Mr. De Lancey had shown to his partisans since 
 coming into power, disgusted others and added to the discontent which 
 was now quite general. To this was added another source of dissatisfac- 
 tion, viz. : the course he had taken in the founding of the college. To 
 understand this latter point more clearly, it is necessary to glance at the 
 origin of the controversy which was now raging fiercely, and which had 
 already divided the Assembly into two parties. 
 
 The province of New York at this period was divided in its religious 
 views into two sects — the EpiscopaUan and the Presbyterian — the former 
 being led by James De Lancey, and the latter by William Livingston. 
 The Presbyterians, though outnumbering ten to one the Episcopalians, 
 had not fairly recovered from the oppressions of the early Governors, 
 Fletcher and Combury ; and they would probably have remained quiet 
 had not the Episcopalians, with great lack of judgment, stirred up anew 
 the embers of controversy. 
 
107 
 
 The people of New York, awakened to the importance of stimulating 
 education, raised, by successive lotteries, the sum of three thousand 
 four hundred and forty-three pounds for the purpose of founding a col- 
 lege ; and in the fall of 1751 passed an act for placing the money thus 
 raised in the hands of ten trustees. Of these, seven were Episcopalians, 
 two belonged to the Dutch church, and the tenth was William Living- 
 ston, an English Presbyterian. This manifest inequality in favor of the 
 Church of England, at Once raised a well-founded alarm in the minds of 
 the other sects, who very justly perceived in this an attempt to make the 
 college entirely sectarian, by which only those in the Episcopal church 
 could participate in its benefits. Nor were they left long in suspense ^ 
 for it soon became well understood that the majority of the trustees 
 were to have the college under their control, and were intending shortly 
 to petition the Lieutenant-Governor for a charter, in which it was to be 
 expressly stipulated that no person out of the communion of the Enghsh 
 church should be eligible to the office of president. Far-seeing men 
 uttered gloomy forebodings ; and a belief soon diffused itself through the 
 minds of intelligent dissenters, that this was only the foreshadowing of 
 an attempt to introduce into the colony an established church. 
 
 This idea was to a majority of the colonists repugnant in the extreme. 
 The union of church and state, with its tithes and taxes, was, like the 
 " skeleton in armor," ever present to their imaginations, stimulating them 
 to the utmost resistance. Mr. Livingston, therefore, partietlly with a view 
 to expose the evUs of a college founded upon such sectarian principles, 
 established a paper called the Independent Reflector. The articles which 
 successively appeared from his pen on this subject were able and pungent. 
 Under his lash the leaders of the church-party winced; and, in their 
 agony, charged him with the design of breaking up the plan of any col- 
 lege whatever, and dreaded lest he should obtain a charter " for constitut- 
 ing a college on a basis the most catholic, generous, and free." These 
 attacks of the church-party were returned with redoubled violence, and 
 the controversy had now risen to. fever-heat. 
 
 But the efforts of Mr. Livingston and other able writers to prevent 
 the incorporation of King's (Columbia) College under these principles 
 were fruitless ; and Mr. De Lancey accordingly granted the charter. Eev. 
 Samuel Johnson, from Stratford, a worthy man, was called to the presi- 
 dent's chair, and Mr. Livingston was appointed one of the governors, in 
 the hope of silencing his opposition. 
 
 The granting of this charter was so displeasing to the majority of the 
 people, that the Lieutenant-Governor thought it advisable, in order to win^ 
 back their former confidence, to urge at the present session the passage 
 of several popular acts. Among them was one for supplying the garri- 
 son at Albany and the fortifications along the frontiers, and another for 
 the discharge of the claims of the pubUc creditors, especially the one of 
 Colonel, afterward Sir William Johnson. 
 
108 
 
 The granting of a charter to the new college, however, had not utterly 
 crushed out opposition to its obnoxious principles. The House still had 
 the disposal of the money which had been raised ; and the sectarians 
 having a majority, the trustees were ordered to report their transactions 
 by virtue of the act under which they had been appointed. The latter 
 accordingly on the first of November handed in two separate reports, 
 Wm. Livingston reading one, and James Livingston and Mr. Nichol the 
 other. After the two reports had been considered, the House unani- 
 mously resolved "that it would not consent to any disposition of the 
 moneys. raised by lottery for erecting a college within this colony in any 
 other manner than by an act of the Legislature hereafter passed for that 
 purpose." Permission at the same time was given Mr. Eobert Livingston 
 to bring in a bill for incorporating a college, which he introduced that 
 same afternoon. 
 
 The introduction of this bill astonished both Houses. It was vain to 
 suppose that the Council would give its assent to an act so distasteful to 
 its religious prejudices; nor was the Lieutenant-Governor likely to 
 directly contradict the letters-patent which, on behalf of the Crown, he 
 himself had granted ; while the Assembly, composed chiefly of dissenters, 
 dared not reject it. In this predicament, a motion was made by Mr. 
 Walton — prefaced with the remark " that the subject was of the utmost 
 consequence to the people they represented, with the respect both to 
 their civil and religious Uberties " — that the consideration of the biU 
 be deferred until the next session, by which time the sentiments of their 
 constituents could be obtained. This motion was gladly seized upon as 
 the only mode which presented an honorable retreat from the position 
 they had so hastily assumed, and was therefore immediately carried. 
 
 Thus, with the close of the year, -practically terminated the college 
 controversy, a controversy which, considered in itself, was not perhaps of 
 much importance ; but which should not be omitted by the historian, 
 who would show the progress which the citizens of New York were 
 m.aking toward that civil and religious freedom which they afterward 
 attained. 
 
 Sir Charles Hardy, the person whom the Ministry had appointed to 
 succeed Clinton, arrived in New York in 1755. He was, like his imme- 
 diate predecessor, an unlettered British Admiral, and he had not landed 
 long before it was apparent that, hke him also, he had not suflficient 
 executive talent to govern without a leader. He therefore soon resigned 
 himself into the hands of De Lancey, who thus again became Governor. 
 Sir Charles Hardy, however, soon became tired of his inactive life ; and 
 having, like a sensible man, asked and received permission to resign the 
 government and return to his former profession, he hoisted his flag as 
 Hear- Admiral of the Blue, and leaving his government in the hands of 
 the Lieutenant-Governor, De Lancey, he sailed on the 2d of July, 1757) 
 to take command of an expedition against Lewisburg. 
 
109 
 
 The year before his departure, however, was signalized by an out- 
 rage upon the citizens of N'ew York, which was long treasured up, and 
 undoubtedly had its fuU weight in the catalogue of grievances which a 
 few years later was to precipitate the colony into revolution. At this 
 time the colonists were engaged in a bloody war with the Indians and 
 French; and Lord Loudoun, who had been appointed Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Army in America, arrived in New York'm December, 1756, 
 with twenty-four hundred men. His first act after landing was to insist 
 that his officers should have free quarters upon the city. This, it will be 
 remembered, was in direct opposition to the Charter of Liberties, framed 
 by the first Assembly under Governor Dongan ; and the citizens, who 
 saw in this an attempt to burden them with a standing army, became 
 excited, and warmly pleaded their rights as Englishmen. But Loudoun 
 was not to be moved. Six men were billeted upon the brother of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor — Oliver De Lancey. The latter threatened, if they 
 were not removed, to leave the country. '■' I shall be glad of it," replied 
 his lordship, at the same time quartering half-a-dozen more upon him, 
 "for then the troops will have the whole house."* The Corporation 
 insisted that free quarters were against the common law and the petition 
 of rights. " God damn my blood!" exclaimed Loudoun to Mayor Cruger, 
 who presented the opinion of the Corporation ; " if you do not billet my 
 officers upon free quarters this day, I'll order all the troops in North 
 America, under my command, and biUet them myself upon this city !/' 
 All argument being thus at an end, a subscription was raised for the 
 quartering of the officers ; and Loudoun, having rendered himself an 
 object of detestation, went to Boston to breathe the same threats, and to 
 talk of the rigor which was to characterize the next year's campaign. 
 
 Three years after the departure of Governor Hardy, the City of 
 New York was thrown into deep mourning by the death of its former 
 Chief-Justice and present Lieutenant-Governor, James De Lancey. On 
 the 30th of July, 1760, he died very suddenly from an attack of asthma, 
 a malady to which he had for many years been subject. Tlie day 
 previous to his decease, he had visited Staten Island, and dined with 
 Governor Morris,- General Prevost, and several other distinguished men 
 of the day. Late in the evening he crossed the bay, seemingly laboring 
 under great depression of spirits, and drove to his country-seat in the 
 
 * " Sir : Am just now informed that 2,400 men are arrived in New Torlc. 
 My Lord Loudoun set a billetting tliem and sent only six to his old acquaintance, 
 Mr. 01. De Lancey ; he zounzed, and blood-and-zounzed at the soldiers. This 
 was told my lord ; he sent Mr. 01. half-a-dozen more. He sent my lord word if 
 matters were to go so he would leave the country. My lord sent him word he would be 
 glad of it ; then the troops would have the whole house. I really thought this so 
 extraordinary, I must communicate it to you." — M. S. Letter in t/ie author's poasear 
 don. Wm. Colby tor Si Wm. Johmon, Jan. 15th, 1757. 
 
110 
 
 suburbs.* The next morning he was found by one of his little childrenf 
 sitting in his library in the last agonies of death. 
 
 By his violent political enemies Mr. De Lancey has been represented 
 as a most unprincipled demagogue, -while by his satellites, he has been 
 lauded to the skies as a disinterested citizen and patriot. Neither of 
 these views is ''correct ; and the truth, as is generally the case, lies 
 between the two extremes. Mr. De Lancey, undoubtedly, was very 
 ambitious and fond of notoriety ; and his love of power and the emolu- 
 ments of office often led him into the commission of acts from which 
 otherwise he would have shrunk. While he has been praised for his 
 " broad and popular principles," and for his " political skill in success- 
 fully preserving to the Assembly the right of annual appropriations,' 
 yet he assumed this position more from a determination to displace 
 CUnton, that he himself might rule, than from any love for the people. 
 His course in 1754, in relation to the college charter, alienated his warm- 
 est friends; and, although h3 subsequently bitterly repented of giving 
 his sanction to the act of incorporation, yet it was more on account of 
 his loss of popularity than from any feeling of liberality. He was, 
 however, possessed of many amiable and noble qualities, and private 
 virtues; his disposition was social and genial, and he was withal a good 
 classical scholar and a profound lawyer. His conduct upon the bench 
 was generally irreproachable ; and his decisions, in those cases in which 
 the feelings of the political partisan did not enter, wore characterized by 
 fairness and discrimination. His death, occurring at this time, was a 
 great loss to the province ; for numerous as were his faults he was a man 
 of unquestioned ability. During his long administration he had made 
 himself thoroughly conversant with Indian relations; and since the 
 departure of Clinton had heartily co-operated with Sir "William Johnson, 
 the Indian Superintendent, in all his effisrts in that department. By his 
 death the political complexion of the province underwent a material 
 change ; and Doctor Golden, by virtue of being President of the Council, 
 took the charge of the Government until the wishes of the Ministry 
 were known. 
 
 Scarcely had the gloom resulting from the death of Mr. De Lancey 
 been dispelled, when the city was again thrown into excitement — ^this 
 time, however, from a pleasurable cause. In the October that succeeded the 
 Lieutenant-Governor's death. General Amherst, covered with laurels on 
 account of his conquest of Canada, visited New York. So overjoyed were 
 the citizens at the successful termination of the protracted struggle, that it 
 
 * On the east side of the Bowery, a little above Grrand street. 
 
 f The little child who discovered him was the grandfiiiher of the late Bishop De 
 Lancey, of New York. Miss Booth, in her generally accurate and exceedingly valu- 
 able work, states that James De Lancey was the great grandfather of the late 
 Bishop. This, however, is a mistake. He was his grandfather. 
 
Mail Stage, 
 
 From fVhitefioian to Canajobarrie^ 
 
 THE Mail Uteult Whitefio-wn evuf 
 Monday andThurfday, at /tup t'clotk 
 P. M. and froeeedt to Old Fori &ebuyier Ht 
 famt fuening ; -next KUmiMg ftart: at ftttr 
 o^tlock, a.nd arri'ou at Canujaharrie in the 
 Wening : et,ehan^t! fajjengen •with iiie Al 
 bany and Cooperfleiwit JiagtJ, and the next 
 day rcturnt ts Old Fort Schuyler- 
 
 Fare for pajjingers, Tiuo Dollars ; nvay 
 pajfaigtrs. Four Penet per mile; 14/A. bag- 
 £^' graiii I l^Owt. rated the fame at a 
 paj/inger. 
 
 Stats nay it hadly atf lying at the Poft- 
 Ojfice, Wbittjloiun, at tht hmtft »f the fub- 
 crihtr. Old Fort Sehuyltr, or at Captain 
 Riaf^i, Canajobarrie- 
 
 JASON PARKER. 
 Auguft, 1795. 8.1 
 
 ^♦f PHOTO-lf, 
 
 ' osaofiN£s fvocess ' 
 
Ill 
 
 seemed as if they could not do too much, for him whom they regarded in 
 the light of their preserver from the tomahawk and scalping-knife. 
 Accordingly, upon the arrival of Amherst a public dinner was given him, 
 the freedom of the city presented in a gold box, salutes fired, and the 
 whole city illuminated. Nor, as is too frequently the case with ovations, 
 were these honors undeserved by their recipient, who was as modest as 
 he was brave. 
 
 Meanwhile, the work of improving the city rapidly advanced. In 
 the spring ot 1761 new streets were opened and paved, among which 
 was Partition street, now Fulton. At the same time the first theater was 
 opened in Beekman street, under the patronage of the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, although the project was strenuously opposed by the Assembly 
 as tending to vitiate and lower the standard of public morals. "During 
 this year, also," says Miss Booth, " the old plan of lighting the streets by 
 lanterns suspended from the windows, was [definitely abandoned ; and 
 pubHc lamps and lamp-posts were erected in the principal streets, and 
 lighted at the pubhc expense." Laws were also passed regulating' the 
 prices of provisions, some of which the same author gives as affording 
 an idea of the prices at that time. Beef was sold at four pence half- 
 penny per pound ; pork, five pence half-penny ; veal, six pence ; butter, 
 fifteen pence ; milk, six coppers per quart ; and a loaf of bread, of a 
 pound and twelve ounces, four coppers. 
 
 Li June, 1764, a hght-house was erected on Sandy Hook and lighted 
 for the first time. Two ferries were also established the same year; one 
 between Paulus Hook (Jersey City) and New York, and another between 
 Staten Island and Bergen. At the same time the mail between New 
 York and Philadelphia was changed from once a fortnight to twice a 
 week, the distance between the two cities being made in three days. 
 
 At an early period in New York the mails, now of such vital 
 importance, were a very insignificant affair.* Even since the American 
 Revolution a saddle-bag boy on horseback, without any protection, car- 
 ried the mail three times a week between New York and Philadelphia. 
 People wondered at seeing the bags next placed upon a sulky ; and were 
 lost in amazement when a four-horse stage became necessary for the 
 increasing load and bulk. Now a large car, several times a day, 
 is found insufiicient for the amount of mail matter that passes between 
 those two cities. Then, the post went and returned by way of " Blazing 
 Star," Staten Island. In process of time several new routes were 
 opened to Philadelphia. One crossed the bay to Staten Island in a 
 perogiw, commonly called a periagua, a little open boat with lee-boards, and 
 steered by one man. Eeaching the Island the traveler proceeded to 
 the ferry at " Arthur EoUs' " Sound, crossed in a scow to New Jersey, 
 
 * On the opposite page will be found a fac simile of an advertisement cut out 
 of an old newspaper kindly given me by the Hon. Theodore Faxton, of Utica, N. Y. 
 
112 
 
 and shortly reached the " Blazing Star," near Woodbridge. Journeying 
 slowly to the Raritan River, New Brunswick was reached by a scow, and 
 in the same manner Trenton on the Delaware, until by the third or fourth 
 day the " City of Brotherly Love " made its appearance. Another route 
 advertised a commodious " stage-boat" to start with goods and passengers 
 from the City Hall Slip (Ooenties) twice a week, for Perth Amboy Ferry, 
 and thence by stage-wagon to Cranberry and Burlington, from which 
 point a stage-boat continued the line to Philadelphia ; ' this trip generally 
 required three days. This was long before the days of steam-boats ; and 
 these " stage-boats " were small sloops, sailed by a single man and boy, 
 or two men, and passing " outside," as it is stiU called, by the Narrows 
 and through the " Lower Bay," these small passage-vessels, at times, 
 were driven out to sea, thus oftentimes causing vexatious delays. In 
 very stormy weather the " inside route," through the Kills, was chosen. 
 The most common way to Philadelphia, however, was to cross the North 
 River in a sail-boat, and then the Passaic and Hackensack by scowsj 
 reaching the " Quaker City" by stages in about three days. But tliese 
 passages had their perils. The " Blazing Star Inn " (sign of a comet) 
 lay four or five miles from the Staten Island ferry, and Baron De Kalb, 
 then a Colonel, crossing over here in January, 1768, was the only one of 
 nine passengers not frozen so as to lose life or Umb. Th6 open scow sank 
 on a sand-bank and left the whole party exposed all night. When res- 
 cued, he alone refused to be warmed by the fire, but placing his feet and 
 legs in cold water, went to bed and arose uninjured. One of his com- 
 panions died on the scow before succor arrived. 
 
 In 1756, the first stage started between New York and Philadelphia 
 — three days through. In 1765, a second stage was advertised for Phila- 
 delphia — a covered Jersey wagon — at two pence a mile. The next year 
 another line was begun called the " Flying Machine," with good wagons 
 seats on springs, time two days, and fare two pence a mile, or twenty 
 shillings through. John Mercereau, at the "Blazing Star," "notifies 
 that persons may go from New York to Philadelphia and back in 
 five days, remaining in Philadelphia two nights and one day; fare, 
 twenty shillings through. There will be two wagons and two drivers, 
 and four sets of horses. The passengers will lodge at Paulus Hook 
 Ferry the night before, to start thence the next morning early." 
 
 During the year 1785, the first stages commenced their trips between 
 New York and Albany, with four horses, at four pence a mile, on the 
 east side of the North River, under a special act of the Legislature, for 
 ten years. Ten years afterward this hue was extended as far as White- 
 stone, just beyond Fort Schuyler (Utica).* 
 
 * In this connection it may be mentioned that, during the year 1756, the first 
 British packet-boats commenced sailing from Now York to Falmouth, each letter 
 
113 
 
 What a contrast between that day and our own. TJien news from 
 England five months old was fresh and racy. Now we must have it in 
 two hours, and then grumble at the length of time taken by the Atlantic 
 Cable to convey the intelligence. Then news seven days old from New 
 York to Boston was swift enough for an express. Wow if we cannot 
 obtain the news from Washington in less than the same number of min- 
 utes, we become almost frantic, and talk of starting new telegraph com- 
 panies. 
 
 " In 1766, the Methodist denomination was first organized in the city 
 by Philip Embury and others ; and in 1767, the first church of this sect 
 was erected upon the site of the present one in John, near Nassau street, 
 and Uke it, christened Wesley Chapel. Several new streets were opened 
 about the same time, among others Cliff street and Park place. For the 
 better prevention of fires, an ordinance was passed directing that all the 
 roofs in the city should be covered with slate or tiles. For some years> 
 however, tiles alone were used, the first building roofed with slate being, 
 it is said, the City Hotel in Broadway, erected about 1794." 
 
 It wiU be recollected that on the death of Mr. De Lanoey, the Gov- 
 ernment had devolved on Dr. Cadwallader Colden, as President of the 
 Council, until the wishes of the Ministry could be ascertained. Shortly 
 after his first speech to the Assembly on the 22d of October, 1760, news 
 arrived of the death of George the Second and the accession of his grand- 
 son, and as it was the unanimous opinion of the Provincial Council that 
 the demise of the King dissolved the Assembly, writs were issued for a 
 new one, returnable upon the 3d of March, 1761. Meanwhile, various 
 were the conjectures respecting the name of the future Governor. At 
 one time rumor gave the gubernatorial chair to General Gage ; again 
 the public were confident that Thomas Pownal would be the fortunate 
 man. Some few suggested Colden, and others General Monckton. All 
 surmises were at length set at rest. Pownal received the Governorship 
 of Jamaica, Gage remained at Montreal, and Colden, having been 
 appointed Lieutenant-Governor, announced to the Assembly that his 
 Majesty had been pleased " to distinguish the services of Major-General 
 Monckton by constituting him his Captain-General and Governor-in- 
 Chief of the Province." The new Governor, however, did not long 
 occupy the gubernatorial chair, for, preferring the excitement of arms to 
 the cares and troubles of office, he, like Governor Hardy, requested to 
 be allowed to resume his old profession. Accordingly, having produced 
 his commission to the council and taken the oaths of office, he sailed from 
 
 ■carried " to pay four-penny weight of silver." It is also worth noticing here, that 
 the earliest voyage to China from New York, was jnade during the year 1785, 
 ia the ship Empress, Captain Greene. The same year Captain Dean performed the 
 same voyage in an Albany sloop — a feat at that day more remarkable than the sail" 
 iugof the little " Red, White and Blue," across the Atlantic a few months since. 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 New York on the last day of November, 1761, leaving the government 
 in the hands of Doctor Golden. 
 
 The administration of Doctor Golden was at first m.arked by no event 
 of special moment, and the intercourse between himself and his Assembly, 
 if we except the slight opposition against the theater in Beekman street, 
 was of the most amiable character. But this calm was to be of short 
 duration, for shortly after receiving his commission of Lieutenant-Gover- 
 nor, he was instrumental in an act which set not only the Assembly, but 
 the whole province in a blaze. As by the death of Mr. De Lancey, 
 the seat of Chief-Justice had become vacant, a general wish was expressed 
 by the community that the vacancy should at once be fiUed. The three 
 remaining judges, Horsmanden, Chambers and Jones, having doubts as 
 to their ability to issue processes under their old commissions since the 
 death of the King, "likewise urged the Lieutenant-Governor to appoint a 
 successor without delay. Golden, however, was more concerned for his 
 own and his family's advancement than for the welfare of the colony. 
 In the same letter in which he announced to the Lords of Trade the 
 death of De Lancey, he had recommended his eldest son for the seat at 
 the Council Board, made vacant by the Lieutenant-Governor's death, and 
 in the same fawning and grasping spirit he now desired the Earl of 
 Halifax, the Colonial Secretary of State, to nominate a Chief-Justice. 
 The result was, not only the nomination, but the actual appointment of 
 Benjamin Pratt, a Boston lawyer, to the seat, not, as had been usual 
 before the death of his late Majesty, " during good behavior," but " at 
 the pleasure of the King." 
 
 The appointment, in this manner and at this time, was peculiarly 
 unfortunate. The sister colony of Massachusetts was now writhing under 
 the " writs of assistance," which the British Ministry had so recklessly 
 determined to force upon the colonies. These " writs" had been requested 
 by the custom-house officers to enable them the better to enforce the 
 revenue. They were in effect search-warrants, and whoever held them 
 might with impunity break open a citizen's house and violate the sanc- 
 tity of his dwelling. The inhabitants were justly incensed at this exer- 
 cise of arbiti-ary power, and the more so, as they saw no disposition on 
 the part of those in authority to resist this infringement upon their 
 liberties. Bernard, the Governor of Massachusetts, scrupled not to 
 become the tool of the Earl of Egremont, Pitt's successor, and boldly 
 declared himself in favor of adopting the odious plan of the Crown for 
 increasing the revenue. Hutchinson, the Chief-Justice of the province, 
 was equally subservient to the royal authority. An opportunity, how- 
 ■ ever, soon came in which the temper of the people found vent. A peti- 
 tion having been presented to the Superior Court by the oflficers of the 
 customs that "writs of assistance'' might ensue, the question was argued 
 at length in February (1761) before the Chief-Justice and his four asso- 
 
115 
 
 ciate justices. Jeremiali Gridley, on belialf of tlie Crown, argued for the 
 legality of the writ, on the ground that as the writ was allowed to the 
 revenue officers in England, to refuse the same powers to the colonial 
 officers, would be to deny that "the Parliament of Great Britain is the 
 sovereign legislature of the British empire." 
 
 The fearless and impulsive James Otis, who had resigned his office 
 as Advocate-General, that, untrammeled, he might argue this case against 
 the Crown, appeared for the people of Boston. " These writs," he 
 exclaimed, " are the worst instruments of arbitrary power, the most 
 destructive of. English liberty and the fundamental principles of law." 
 With impassioned eloquence, he showed to the court the nature of these 
 writs. " In the first place," he said, " the writ is universal, being directed 
 to all and singular justices, sheriffs, constables, and all other officers and 
 subjects, so that, in short, it is directed to every subject in the King's 
 dominions. Every one with this writ may be a tyrant ; if this commis- 
 sion be legal, a tyrant in a legal manner. Also may control, imprison, 
 or murder any one within the realm. In the next place, it is perpetual. 
 A man is accountable to no person for his doings. * * * 
 
 In the third place, a person with this writ, in the day time may enter all 
 houses, shops, &c., at will, and command all to assist him. Now, one of 
 the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's 
 house. A man's house is his castle, and whilst he is quiet he is as well 
 guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be declared 
 legal, would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom-house officers may 
 enter our houses when they please. We are commanded to permit their 
 entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, bars, and 
 everything in their way, and whether they break through malice or 
 revenge, no man, no court may inquire. Bare suspicion without oath is 
 sufficient ; and," continued he, " I am determined to sacrifice estate, ease, 
 health, applause, and even life to the sacred calls of my country in oppo- 
 sition to a kind of power which cost one King of England his head and 
 another his throne, and to my dying day I will oppose, with all the 
 power and faculties that God has given me, all such instruments of slavery 
 on the one hand and villainy on the other !" 
 
 At the next term of the court, the writ of assistance was granted, 
 but such was the feeling of the people that the custom-house ofScers, 
 although having the writs in their pockets, dared not in a single instance 
 carry them into execution. But although the arguments of Otis failed to 
 procure a decision in favor of the people, yet they did not die within the 
 walls of the court-house. Caught up by his hearers, they were borne, as 
 if on the wind, throughout the length and breadth of the land. " I do 
 say in the most solemn manner," writes Mr. Adams, " that Mr. Otis' 
 oration against writs of assistance, breathed into this nation the breath 
 of life." " 
 
116 
 
 With these stirring appeals of James Otis ringing in their ears, it 
 may readily be supposed that the people of New York were in no mood 
 for this further encroachment upon their liberties. " To make the King's 
 will," said they, " the term of office, is to make the bench of judges the 
 instrument of the royal prerogative." Chambers, Horsmanden, and 
 Jones refused to act longer unless they could hold their commissions 
 during good behavior. Champions at once arose to do battle for the 
 people. Conspicuous among these were William Livingston, John Morin 
 Scott, and William Smith, all prominent lawyers and vigorous thinkers 
 and writers ; and they protested through the public prints against this 
 attempt to render the judiciary dependent upon th» Crown. Nor were 
 their efforts entirely fruitless, for in the answer of the Assembly on the 
 17th of December, to the request of Dr. Golden that the usual salary of 
 three hundred pounds to the Chief-Justice should be increased, it was 
 resolved " that as the salaries allowed for the Judges of the Supreme Court 
 have been and still appear to be sufficient to engage gentlemen of the 
 first figure, both as to capacity and fortune in the colony, to accept of 
 these offices, it would be highly improper to augment the salary of Chief- 
 Justice on this occasion ;" nor would they allow even the usual salary 
 unless the commissions of the Chief-Justice and the other Judges were 
 granted during good behavior. To this Colden refused to accede, and 
 Chief-Justice Pratt, having served several terms without a salary, was 
 finally reimbursed out of his Majesty's quit-rents of the province. 
 
 Thus were the people of New York following in the wake of their 
 Puritan neighbors. Colden himself, as if he had some glimmerings of 
 the future, began to doubt the result. " For some years past," he wrote 
 to the Board of Trade, " three popular lawyers educated in Connecticut, 
 who have strongly imbibed the independent principles of that country, 
 calumniate the administration in every exercise of the prerogative, and 
 get the applause of the mass by propagating the doctrine that all 
 authority is derived from the people." 
 
 It was in the fall of 1763 that George Grenville and Lord North first 
 devised the plan of raising a revenue by the sale of stamps to the colonists. 
 Grenville, however, hesitated long before pressing this measure ; and it 
 was not until the 22d of March, of this year, that the Stamp Act passed, 
 and received the signature of the King. The Act declared that thence- 
 forth, no legal instrument sho)ild possess any validity in the colonies 
 unless it was stamped by the Government.* Long before the passage of 
 the Act, the rumor that such a project was even meditated by the Ministry 
 produced a universal outburst of indignation. If Parliament wished to 
 raise any sum, said the colonists, let them employ the usual method of 
 
 * " By this act, a ream of bail bonds stamped waa £100 ; a ream of common 
 printed ones before, was £15; a ream of stamped policies of insurance was £190 ; of 
 common ones, without stamps, £20." — Bradford, Mass., i., 12. 
 
117 
 
 ■wnting circular letters to the provinces, requesting supplies according to 
 the ability of each. When thus applied to heretofore, the King had 
 never found them remiss, but on the contrary — as their loyal obedience 
 to these requisitions during the last war had fully shown — they had 
 always responded with alacrity. Taxation, however, without representa- 
 tion in Parliament, was tyranny, to which they would not submit. These 
 views were advocated with great power by James Otis in a series of 
 pamphlets ; and the public prints teemed with similar discussions, all of 
 which were read with care and reflection. The Assemblies of Virginia 
 and New York especially, by their protests, took firm ground against 
 the passage of the Act, but the petition of the former body was not 
 received in England until it was too late, while that of the latter was so 
 intemperate in its expressions against the newly-assumed pretensions of 
 the Parliament, that the agent, Mr. Charles, was unable to find any 
 member of that body bold enough to present it. 
 
 It may, therefore, readily be seen, that if the mere intimation that 
 such an odious measure was in contemplation, produced so much solici- 
 tude, the passage of the Act itself was not calculated to allay the growing 
 apprehensions of the people. But it was no sudden ebullition of indigna- 
 tion that first manifested itself. Indeed, so amazed were the colonists at 
 the presumption of Parliament, that when the news was first received 
 their feelings were too deep for utterance. Hutchinson, the Chief-Justice 
 of Massachusetts, mistaking this for submission, hastened to write to the 
 Ministry that " his countrymen were waiting, not to consider if they must 
 submit to a stamp-duty, but to know when its operation was to com- 
 mence." He knew not that this calm was but the stillness which 
 preceded the tornado that was to sweep with such desolating fury 
 throughout the land ! He was shortly undeceived. Mutterings began 
 to be heard in every province, which, in New England and New York, 
 soon grew into acts of violence. On the 14th of August, Andrew Oliver^ 
 the brother-in-law of the Chief-Justice, who had received the appointment 
 of Stamp-Distributer for Massachusetts, was, together with Lord Bute, 
 suspended in effigy from a tree in one of the streets of Boston. In reply 
 to the command of the Chief-Justice to take down those figures, the 
 Sheriff gave a flat refusal ; and the Council of the Province likewise 
 declined to interfere. That same night, the mob, taking the images 
 down, carried them to the newly-erected Stamp-Ofiice, which they imme- 
 diately razed. Oliver's dwelling was next assailed, the windows and 
 furniture demoUshed, and the effigies burned on Fort Hill. The next 
 day, Oliver resigned ; but he was obliged, the same evening, to make a 
 public recantation at a bonfire which the populace had kindled. But, 
 having once given vent to their long pent-up exasperation, they did not 
 stop here. Urged on by a popular preacher, Jonathan Mayhew by name, 
 who had taken for his text the previous day, " I would they were even 
 
118 
 
 cut off wMcli trouble you," they destroyed, on the 26th, the records and 
 files of the Court of Admiralty, and breaking into the house of Hallowel, 
 the Comptroller of Customs, broke the furniture, and freely drank of the 
 choice wines in the cellar. To their just anger were now added the 
 fumes of liquor, and proceeding forthwith to the residence of Hutchinson, 
 they tore the paintings from the walls, destroyed the plate, and scattered 
 his large and valuable library of books and manuscripts to the winds ; 
 nor did they depart until the interior of the building, even to the partition- 
 walls, was completely demolished. Happily, Hutchinson and his innocent 
 family, having received timely notice of their danger, had escaped before 
 the arrival of the rioters — otherwise, the crime of murder might have 
 been added to these violent and disgraceful proceedings. 
 
 In Connecticut, Ehode Island, and New Hampshire, the popular 
 indignation showed itself in similar demonstrations, though not of so 
 violent a character. The effect, however, in those provinces was the 
 same ; each of the Stamp-Distributers being forced to resign to save him- 
 self from, odium, if not from death. 
 
 Meantime, the Assembly of Massachusetts resolved, on the 6th of 
 June, that "it was highly expedient there should be a meeting, as soon 
 as might be, of committees from the Houses of Eepresentatives or 
 Burgesses in the several colonies, to consult on the present circumstances 
 of the colonies, and the difficulties to which they were and must be 
 reduced, and to consider of a General Congress — to be held at New York 
 the first Tuesday of October." To this invitation the colonies heartily 
 responded, and in the Convention, held at the time and place designated, 
 they were all represented, except New Hampshire, Virginia, North 
 Carolina, and Georgia. The three latter, however, although prevented 
 by their Governors, by continued adjournments, from sending delegates, 
 signified by letters their willingness to acquiesce in whatever measures 
 the Convention might adopt ; so also, wrote New Hampshire. Lieutenant- 
 Governor Colden, who had from the beginning pronounced the Conven- 
 tion unconstitutional and unlawful, likewise endeavored, by successive 
 adjournments, to prevent the Assembly of New Tork from electing 
 delegates. But an Assembly that had driven Clinton from his chair, and 
 had successfully fought through so many years against a permanent 
 support, was not to be thus easily foiled ; and a committee appointed by 
 them in October, 1764, to correspond with their sister colonies upon 
 recent acts of ParUament in relation to trade, now took their seats in the 
 Congress as the representatives of the people of New York. 
 
 Timothy Euggles, who had been sent by Bernard, the Governor of 
 Massachusetts, to thwart the patriotic efforts of his colleagues, was chosen 
 President of the Congress, and John Cotton, Clerk. No time was 
 lost. Committees were immediately appointed to draft petitions to 
 Parliament, having for their burden the Stamp Act ; and after a har- 
 
119 
 
 monious session of fourteen days, the Convention dissolved, having 
 adopted a declaration of rights, a petition to the King, and a memorial 
 to both Houses of Parliament — the latter being drawn by James Otis. 
 
 As before remarked, the people of New York were among the most 
 bitter opponents of the Stamp Act. While the riota were going on in Bos- 
 ton, the Act itself was reprinted and hawked about the streets of New 
 York City, as " The folly of England, and ruin of America." Secret 
 organizations styling themselves the " Sons of LibertJ'," met to discuss 
 plans of resistance. Warned by the example of his brother appointees, 
 in the neighboring colonies, MoEvers, the Stamp-Distributer, resigned. 
 General Gage, at the solicitation of Golden, ordered down, in July, from 
 Crown Point, a company of the Sixtieth Regiment, for the defense of 
 ■ Fort George, the guns, of which were remounted, new ordnance ordered, 
 and the magazine replenished with a bountiful supply of ammunition. 
 On the arrival of the first cargo of stamps in the harbor, toward the end 
 of October, placards were posted up in the streets and at the Merchants' 
 Coffee-House, of which the following is a copy : 
 
 "pro tateia. 
 
 " T}w first man that either distributes or makes use of stampt paper, let him 
 taJie care oj his house, person, and effects. ' 
 
 " vox POPULI. 
 " WE DAHE." 
 
 Terrified at signs he could not misunderstand, the Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor had the stamps conveyed for greater security to the fort ; and in 
 great trepidation summoned the members of his privy council for their 
 advice. But notwithstanding lie sent repeated messages, and notwith- 
 standing also, that seven members were in the city, only three, Hors- 
 manden. Smith, and Beid, responded to his call, and they declined giving 
 any advice unless there was a fuller Board. In this state of affairs, 
 nothing was left to Golden but to shut himself up in the fort, and await 
 the result. He was not long in suspense. 
 
 On the 1st of November, the day appointed for the Stamp Act to go 
 into operation, the popular indignation, which had been so long smould- 
 ering, burst forth. Early in the evening, the Sons of Libert}', numbering 
 several thousand, appeared before the fort and demanded the stamps. 
 On being refused, they proceeded to the open fields — a portion of which 
 is now the Park — and having erected a gibbet, they hung the Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor in effigy, and suspended by his side a figure, holding in 
 his hand a boot, representing Lord Bute.* The images after hanging 
 
 *Colden, it is true, ia a letter under date of November 5th to Secretary Con- 
 way, says that the image suspended by the 8ide of his effigy was intended to repre- 
 sent the devil. In a manuscript letter, however, now before me, written by- 
 
120 
 
 some little time, were taken down and carried, ijogether with the scaflfold, 
 in a torch-light procession to the gates of the fort. Having in vain 
 knocked on the gates for admission, the mob broke into Colden's carriage- 
 house, brought forth the famUy-coach, placed inside of it the two effigies, 
 and having again paraded them around the city, returned to within one, 
 hundred yards of the fort-gate, and hung the figures upon a second gal- 
 lows erected for that purpose. A bonfire was then made of part of the 
 wooden fence, which, at that time, surrounded the Bowling Green, and 
 the effigies, together with the Lieutenant-Governor's coach, a single-horse 
 chair, two sleighs, and several light vehicles were cast into the flames 
 and entirely consumed. While the flames were lighting up the black 
 muzzles of the guns of the fort, another party, having spiked the cannon 
 on the Battery, proceeded to the house of Major James, an artillery offi- 
 cer, who had made himself especially obnoxious by his having aided in 
 putting the fort in a suitable posture for defense, and having burned 
 everything of value, returned in triumph, bringing with them the colors 
 of the Royal Artillery Regiment. 
 
 When McEvers resigned, Colden had sneered ; but even he was now 
 compelled to give way. The day after the riot, he caused a large placard 
 to be posted up, signed by Goldsbrow Banyar, the Deputy-Secretary of 
 the Council, stating that he should have nothing more to do with the 
 stamps, but would leave them with Sir Henry Moore, Bart., who was then 
 on his way from England to assume the government. This declaration, 
 however, did not satisfy the Sons of Liberty. Through their leader, Isaac 
 Sears, they insisted that the stamped paper should be immediately deli- 
 vered into their hands, threatening, in case of a refusal, to storm the fort 
 where it was deposited. The Common Council, alarmed at the uncontrol- 
 able fury of the mob, and fearing an efiFusion of blood, added, likewise) 
 their solicitation that the stamps might be deposited in the City Hall. In 
 answer to this latter request, the cause of the dispute was delivered up, 
 after considerable negotiation, to the Corporation — the Board giving a 
 pledge to make good all the stamps that might be lost. 
 
 But if the spirit of the mob could not be subdued, it might at least 
 be guided. On the 6th of November, a meeting of the more conservative 
 citizens was called, and Sears, with four others;* was authorized to corre- 
 spond with the several colonies upon the new and alarming feature of thff 
 
 Alexander Colden, his son, to Sir William Johnson, a month after, and when the, 
 facts therefore could he hetter ascertained, the excitement having partially subsi- 
 ded, the writer says that the second imag-e was designed for Lord Bute. The boot 
 has now significance as a rebus of Lord Bute which before it had not. " His Lord- 
 ship's [John Stewart, Earl of Bute] established type with the mob was a jack-boot 
 a wretched pun on his Christian name and title." — MacfMuky'g Ssiay on the Earl of 
 ChaHuun. 
 
 * These were John Lamb, Gushom Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas Eobinson. 
 
121 
 
 prerogative of Parliament. The committee thus appointed entered into their 
 work with zeal, the fruits of which soon become apparent. A resolution^ 
 emanating from New York and adopted by the other colonies, directed 
 the English merchants to ship no more goods to America, and declared 
 that no more goods coming from England should be sold on commission in 
 the colonies after the first day of January, 1766. Nor did the patriotism of 
 the people end here. The wearing of cloth of British manufacture was 
 dispensed with, coarse home-spun garm.ent8 taking its place. ' Marriages 
 were no longer performed by licenses, upon which the Stamp Act had now 
 laid duty, but were solemnized by being proclaimed in church. Every- 
 where resistance to kingly oppression was the watch-word. 
 
 The new Governor, Sir Henry Moore, Bart., who had been appointed^ 
 in June, to succeed General Monckton, arrived in New York the beginning 
 of November, 1765, after a tedious passage of ten weeks. "When he first 
 landed he was disposed to assume a haughty tone in relation to the Stamp 
 Act. The Corporation oflFered him the freedom of the city in a gold box, 
 but he refused to accept it unless upon stamped paper. The custom- 
 house cleared vessels, but the men-of-war ran out their guns and refused 
 to allow them to leave the harbor, unless they produced a certificate from 
 the Governor that no stamps were to be had. This the latter dechned to 
 give, and the vessels remained at the wharfs. The spectacle, however, of 
 Colden quaking with fear in the fort, and the judicious advice of his coun- 
 cil, soon convinced him of the folly of any attempt to carry the Act into 
 execution ; and before his first meeting with the Assembly, he openly 
 announced that he had suspended his power to execute the Stamp Act. 
 To still further appease the people he dismantled the fort, very much to 
 the disgust of the Lieutenant-Governor, who, not having been consulted, 
 retired in chagrin to his country-seat at Flushing. 
 
 Owing to the successive adjournments by Colden, the General 
 Assembly met, for the first time this year, on the 13th of November. 
 Only fourteen members, however, answering to their names, the Speaker 
 announced the appointment of Sir Henry Moore to the government, and 
 adjourned the Assembly to the 19th. 
 
 The severest test, perhaps, of public opinion at this time, is to be 
 found in the Governor's opening address, which was brief and general, 
 and contained not the slightest allusion to the existing troubles. The 
 answer of the House was equally guarded ; each party seeming to be 
 averse to broach a topic that was so unpleasant to the other. But if the 
 Assembly were unwilling to allude in their address to that which was now 
 upon every mind, they showed no indisposition to handle it among them- 
 selves. Among their first resolutions was one, not only approving the 
 action of the committee in meeting with the Congress in October, but 
 tendering them also, their warmest thanks for the part which they had 
 taken in the deliberations of that body. In connection with this resolu- 
 
122 
 
 tion they further resolved, nemine oontradteente, " that for obtaining relief 
 from the operation and execution of the Act of Parliament called the 
 Stamp Act, humble petitions be presented to his Majesty, the House of 
 Lords, and the House of Commons, as nearly similar to those dra-wn up 
 by the late Congress as the particular circumstances of the colony 
 will admit of." A committee was therefore appointed to draw up the 
 three petitions, which, signed by WiEiam NicoU, the Speaker, were for- 
 warded, in the name of the House, to Mr. Charles and John Sargeant, 
 the colony's agents in London. 
 
 But the action of the Assembly did not ke^p pace with the public 
 requirements; at least, so thought the Sons of Liberty. On the 
 26'th, a sealed letter was handed by an unknown person to Mr. Lott, 
 Clerk of the House, directed " to me. lott, meech't. in new toek," and 
 
 ran as follows : 
 
 " On receiving you are to read the in closed in the open Assembly of this 
 Province New York as you are dark and -whare of fail not on your perrel. 
 
 (Signed) " freedom." 
 
 The inclosed letter was directed " To the General AssemUy of the 
 Frovime of JSew York" and was in the following words : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, you are to Consider what is to be 
 Done first Drawing of as much money from the Lieut. Grovemor's Sallery as will 
 Eepare the fort & on Spike the Guns on the Battery & the nex a Repeal of the Gun- 
 ning Act & then there will be a good Militia but not before & also as you are 
 asetting you may Consider of the Building Act as it is to take place nex yeare 
 which it Cannot for there is no supply of Some Sort of materials Required this Law 
 is not Ground on Reasons but there is a great many Reasons to the Contrary so 
 Gentlemen we desire you will Do what lays in your power for the Good of the 
 public but if you take this ill be not so Conceited as to Say or think that other 
 People know nothing about Government you have made their laws and say they are 
 Right but they are Rong and take a way Leberty. Oppressions of your make Gen- 
 tlemen make us Sons of Liberty think you are not for the Public Liberty this is 
 the General Opinion of the People for this part of Your Conduct. 
 " 17G5 " by order " Sign'd, one & all. 
 
 "Nov'r26 
 
 " FREEDOM." 
 
 Both of those letters — ^which, by the way, bear on their face unmis- 
 takeable evidence of their being designedly written in this illiterate man- 
 ner, probably for the greater disguise* — ^were laid before the House by 
 the Clerk, who dared not refuse. But the Assembly were not disposed 
 to have any such gratuitous advice ; nor was their patriotism yet attuned 
 to the same accord with that of the writer. However much, moreover, 
 hey might be disposod themselves, to criticise the unpopular Colden, 
 tthey did not choose to be instructed by the ironical suggestion in rela 
 tion to the Lieutenant-Governor's salary and the spiked guns. They 
 
 * The entire absence of punctuation in the same letter, with the correct abbre- 
 viation of Sign'd and Noy'r., and the correct spelling of the more difficult words, 
 show clearly the marks of design. 
 
123 
 
 therefore resolved, tliat the said letters were rebellious, scandalous, and 
 seditions ; that they were designed to inflame the, minds of the good 
 people of the colony against their representatives ; and that an address 
 should be presented to the Governor requesting him to offer a reward 
 of fifty pounds for their author or authors, that they might be brought 
 to " condign punishment; " pledging themselves, at the same time, to 
 provide the means of defraying the above reward. 
 
 On the 3d of December, the Governor, by Mr. Banyar, sent doAvn 
 a message to the House, in which the latter was informed that by the 
 Mutiny Act, passed during the last session of Parliament, the expense of 
 furnishing the King's troops in America with quarters and other necessa- 
 ries, was to be defrayed by the several colonies. In consequence thereof 
 the Commander-in-Chief had demanded that provision be made for the 
 troops, whether quartered within or marching through the province ; and 
 it was now requested to make provision accordingly. 
 
 This request was at this time exceedingly inopportune. It involved a 
 question which, in Lord Loudoun's time — when the country was engaged 
 in a disastrous war, and when, therefore, there was a seeming necessity 
 for such provision — had been productive of ill-feeling, and almost of riots. 
 It may readily be seen, therefore, that when no such necessity existed, 
 and when the public mind was in such an excited state, the Assembly 
 were in no mood to comply. The message was accordingly referred 
 to a committee of the whole House, of which Eobert E. Livingston was 
 the chairman. On the 19th they reported against it, on the following 
 grounds : that when his Majesty's forces were quartered in barracks 
 belonging to the King, they were always furnished with necessaries with- 
 out any expense to the counties in which they were quartered ; and that 
 if any expense was necessary for quartering troops on their march, and 
 supplying them with what was required by the Act, the House would 
 consider thereof after the expense was incurred. Sir Henry Moore was 
 too prudent a man to press the matter further ; and having satisfied his 
 duty to the Crown by the formal demand for quarters, he allowed the 
 matter to drop for the present. 
 
 The Sons of Liberty were still in the ascendant. The last week in 
 November, two hundred of them crossed over to Mushing, and compelled 
 the Maryland Stamp-Distributer, who had fled thither for safety, to sign 
 a resignation of his office. In December, ten boxes of stamps were seized 
 on their arrival in port and consumed in a bonfire. " "We are in a shock- 
 ing situation at present," wrote Alexander Golden to Sir William John- 
 son, with whom the former was on terms of intimacy, "and God 
 •knows how it will end. Its not sale for a person to speak, for their is no 
 knowing friend from foe." 
 
 Opposition to the Stamp Act still continued. In January, 176G, a com- 
 mittee from the Sons of Liberty waited upon six persons in Albany and 
 
124 
 
 requested them to take an oath that they would not accept the oflSce of 
 Stamp-Distributer. All but Henry Van Schaack, the Albany post-master, 
 having complied, the mob went to the latter's house, a little below the 
 city, broke the windows, furniture, and the piazza, and taking his pleasure- 
 sleigh into town, consumed it in a bonfire. Alarmed at these demonstra- 
 tions, Van Schaack took the required oath, and the mob dispersed. 
 
 In New York City, the committee, of which Isaac Sears was chair- 
 man, were still active. Having astertained by their secret agents in 
 Philadelphia that a merchant, Lewis Pintard, had sent to that city a 
 mediterranean pass and a bond on stamped paper, they waited upon the 
 merchant and also upon the naval officer who had given the pass, on the 
 12th of January, and compelHng them to appear on the Common, forced 
 them to swear before a crowd of eight thousand people, that the passes 
 which they had signed and delivered were not stamped to their knowl- 
 edge. Not satisfied, however, with this declaration, the committee con- 
 ducted them to the coffee-house, before which a bonfire had been kindled, 
 and obliged Pintard to commit the passes to the flames with his own 
 hands. On the following day, Governor Moore, who, being of a timid 
 and "amiable nature, had a dread of becoming unpopular, sent for one of 
 the committee, and said, in the course of the conversation, that he hoped 
 the "gentlemen, his associates," did not suspect him of being cognizant 
 of the mediterranean passes. Upon being informed that they did noti 
 the Governor further stated, that he had solicited this interview to assure 
 the Sons of Liberty, that not only was he ignorant of that transaction, 
 but that he would have nothing to do with any stamps whatever. 
 
 Alarmed at the rapid growth of republican principles in America, 
 the seeds of which had been sown by its own folly. Parliament, on the 
 18th of March, repealed the obnoxious Act. The British Legislature, 
 however, yielded not with a good grace. " The colonists," wrote Sir 
 William Baker to the Baronet, " must not think that these lenient 
 methods were brought about by the inducements of their violence."* 
 Fearing, therefore, that their action would be misconstrued. Parliament 
 hastened, almost simultaneously with the repeal of the Stamp Act, to pass " 
 a bill, declaring the absolute right the King and Parliament "to hind the 
 colonies and people of America, mlJecU of the Crown of Great Britain in all cases 
 whatsoever.'''' 
 
 In the first delirium of delight at the repeal, the news of which was 
 
 * " I tope the last seBsion of Parliament has conciliated the North Americans to 
 their mother country ; but at the same time it must be expected from them obedience 
 to the laws of this government. The colonists must not think these lenient methods 
 made use of by that administration were brought about by the inducement of their 
 violence ; but was really the effect of conviction that the rash act past the two pre- 
 ceding sessions was unwarrantable and oppresalve," — M. S. ; Sir WHliam Baker to 
 Johnson, Nov. 7th, 1766. 
 
125 
 
 communicated to the colonists by their agents, on the 16th of May, 
 the tendency of the Declaratory Act was not heeded. In New York City, 
 especially, the populace seemed wild with joy. Bells were rung, a royal 
 salute of twenty-one guns fired, and the city illuminated. On the 4th 
 of June, the King's birthday, the Governor had an ox roasted whole, a 
 hogshead of rum and twenty-five barrels of beer opened, and the people 
 invited to join in the feast. On the same day a mast was erected, 
 inscribed " To his most Gracious Majesty, George the Third, Mr. Pitt, 
 and Liberty." But the enthusiasm of the people did not end here. On 
 the 23d of June a meeting was held, at which a petition was signed 
 by a majority of the citizens, requesting the Assembly to erect a statue 
 to William Pitt, as a mark of their appreciation of his services in 
 repealing the Stamp Act. That body entered fully into the feeUngs of the 
 people ; and besides complying with the wishes of their constituents, in 
 relation to Pitt, they made provision for an equestrian statue to his 
 Majesty, George the Third ; and also voted their thanks, and a piece of 
 plate, to John Sargeant, " for his services as special agent," during the 
 Stamp Act controversy. 
 
 The opening speech of Governor Moore to the Assembly, on the 
 12th of June, began by adverting to the -general satisfaction diffused 
 among the people by the repeal of the Stamp Act. It was the impression 
 made on the minds of the people by this act of his Majesty's favor, that 
 had induced the Governor, so early, to call the Legislature, in order to 
 give them the earliest opportunity of making those acknowledgments of 
 duty and submission, which, on such an occasion, his Eicellency thought 
 must arise in the bosom of every individual. It then spoke of the 
 impositions upon the credulity of the people by the misrepresentations of 
 artful and designing men. " Let it be your concern," it continued, " to 
 undeceive the deluded, and by your example, bring back to a sense of 
 their duty, those .who have been misled, that nothing which can carry with 
 it the least resemblance of former heat and prejudice may be suffered to 
 prevail, and the minds of those who are too easily agitated be again dis- 
 posed too a cheerful obedience to the laws, and to sentiments of respect- 
 ful gratitude to the mother country." Their attention was next directed 
 to the care of those unfortunate persons who had suffered from the 
 'licentiousness of the populace for their deference to the British Legisla- 
 ture," and they were requested to make full and ample compensation for the 
 goods and effects of the sufferers, that had been destroyed. This latter 
 suggestion was owing to circular letters from the Minister to the provin- 
 cial Governors, requesting the colonial AssembUes to show their " respect- 
 ful gratitude for the forbearance of Parliament," by indemnifying those 
 who had suffered injury in attempting to execute the late Act. In con- 
 nection with the opening speech, petitions were handed in by Lieutenant- 
 Governor Golden and Major James, praying the Assembly to make good 
 
126 
 
 their losses by the recent riots. These petitions were thereupon referred 
 to a committee of the whole House, who reported favorably upon the 
 claims of Major James, but passed over in silence those of the Lieutenant- 
 Governor — very much to the chagrin of the latter, who forthwith wrote 
 a letter to Conway, begging him to lay his case before the King, that his 
 losses might be recompensed by a pension. 
 
 The Governor now ventured again to request of the Assembly its 
 compliance with the demands of the Ministry in relation to the quartering 
 of troops, a large body of whom was shortly expected from England. 
 But, although the House had joined with the Council in an humble 
 address to the King, thanking him for the repeal of the Stamp Act, and 
 although, moreover, it was perfectly wiUing to vote statues to his Majesty 
 and WUliam Pitt, it was no more disposed to comply with this demand, 
 now that Parliament had yielded to its wishes, than it was at the pre- 
 vious session, when the Stamp Act was in full force. The House accord- 
 ingly voted a series of resolutions similiar in tone to those passed ?sovein- 
 ber, 1765, and postponed further discussion on the subject until the 
 troops had arrived. A second message, however, from Sir Henry Moore, 
 induced it to alter its determination so far, as to state that the appropria- 
 tions of 1762 were at his disposal, and might be applied towards providing 
 barracks, fire-wood, and candles for two battalions and one company of 
 artillery for one year. Beyond this, however, it would not go ; and the 
 Governor, while he was obliged to be content with this decision, wrote at 
 the same time to the Lords of Trade, that its partial compliance was more 
 the result of compulsion, than of gratitude for recent favors ; and that, in 
 his opinion, every act of Parliament, unless backed by a sufficient power 
 to enforce it, would meet with the same fate. 
 
 Meanwhile, troubles had arisen in Dutchess County, which, 
 although in no way connected with the issues between the colonies and the 
 mother country, at first threatened serious consequences. In the begin- 
 ning of 1766, the Stockbridge Indians, feeling aggrieved by the intrusions, 
 as they claimed, of some of the people of Dutchess upon their lands, 
 broke into the houses of the alleged trespassers, and turned their fami- 
 lies out of doors. As is generally tlie case on such occasions, several 
 of the vagabond class of whites, very ready for a fray, joined the rioters, 
 and committed acts of violence throughout the country. The excitement 
 now extended into Albany County ; and the mob, now grown to formida- 
 ble dimensions, threatened to attack New York City, and, indeed, actually 
 began their march thither. In this exigency, General Gage (at that time 
 Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's troops in America) ordered up, to 
 meet the insurgents, the Twenty-eighth Regiment, which had just arrived 
 from. England. The appearance of the troops soon brought the rioters 
 to reason ; and having succeeded — though not without bloodshed — ^in 
 restoring order, they returned to New York with the chief ringleaders 
 of the rebellion. 
 
127 
 
 The joyous feelings, which had followed the repeal of th% Stamp Act, 
 was of not long continuance. Hardly had the first gratulations of vic- 
 tory passed, and sober reflection taken its place, when the Declaratory 
 Act, in aU its ominous proportions, loomed up, overshadowing the public 
 mind with gloomy forebodings. The persistent attempt, moreover, to 
 force the province into a compliance with the Mutiny Act — an act, 
 which, to thinking men, seemed intended to provide the nucleus of a 
 standing army — alarmed all classes ; and secret leagues were at once 
 formed in most of the colonies, the object of which was to further union of 
 council in resisting oppression. The partial compUance of the Assembly 
 to the requisition of the Governor for quarters, had been exceedingly 
 distasteful to the Sons of Liberty, who, upon the arrival of the troops, 
 made no disguise of their feelings. Mutual animosities accordingly arose 
 between the citizens and soldiery, which soon culminated in open acts of 
 hostility. On the 10th of August, 1766, some of the troops, exasperated 
 at the people, to whose influence they attributed the action of the Assem- 
 bly in depriving them of liquor, cut down the flag-staff, which, with so 
 much apparent unanimity, had been dedicated to " Pitt and Liberty." 
 The following evening, while the citizens were preparing to re-erect the 
 pole, they were assaulted by the soldiers with drawn bayonets, and sev- 
 eral of them, among whom was Isaac Sears, were wounded, Governor 
 Moore, who heartly wished the troops away, attempted, with General 
 Gage, to restrain these outrages, and, to some extent, succeeded ; but the 
 officers, intent upon gratifying their private malice, winked at the con- 
 duct of their men, who, thus encouraged, became more violent than ever. 
 Several dwellings of the poorer class, situated in the suburbs of the 
 city were broken into on the 23d of October ; and, on he 3d day of 
 November, the domestic sanctuary of an honest drayman was entered 
 by a soldier, who, while he wounded its occupant, hesitated not to ham.- 
 string his horse, upon which he relied for his daUy bread. 
 
 These licentious proceedings were not calculated to dispose the 
 Assembly any more favorably to the attempt to quarter the oboxious red- 
 coats at their expense, Accordingly, when, on the 17th of November, 
 Governor Moore laid before that body instructions from the Minister, 
 informing them of the King's displeasure at their conduct ; their absolute 
 duty to obey the Acts of Parliament ; and of his wish that provision for 
 the troops should be immediately made, they refused outright to make 
 further provision, choosing to interpret the Act as referring solely "to 
 soldiers on the march." On this refusal. Governor Moore waited upon the 
 House, and endeavored tc prevail upon them to alter their determination. 
 His efforts, however, were unavailing ; and having, by the defiant attitude 
 thus assumed, no other alternative left, he prorogued the Assembly on the 
 19th of December. 
 
 Already the British Cabinet regretted the repeal of the Stamp Act ; 
 
128 
 
 aad the projact of taxing A.merica -was again resumed. The extravagant 
 demonstrations of delight, manifested by the colonists at the repeal, had 
 been regarded by British statesmen with ill-concealed disgust ; and when, 
 in May, 1767, the news was received that Georgia, following the example 
 of New York, had also decUned obedience to the Mutiny Act, the chagrin 
 at having yielded became open and .undisguised. Accordingly, in the 
 same month, Tounshend introduced a biU into the House of Commons, 
 imposing a duty on all paper, glass, tea, and painters' colors imported into 
 the colonies. In its passage through Parliament the biU met with 
 scarcely any opposition, and on the 28th of June it received the cordial 
 assent and signature of the King. This was shortly followed by another, 
 " to establish Commissioners of Customs in America," and also by one 
 " to compensate the stamp officers who had been deprived by the people." 
 But by far the most important in its consequences was another, which 
 received the royal assent on the 29th, and which declared tha.t the functions 
 of the Assembly of New York were henceforth annttlled — the Governor and 
 Council being forbidden to give their assent to any act passed by that 
 body, " until the Mutiny Act was unequivocally acknowledged and sub- 
 mitted to." The rebellious people of the colonies, said the authors of this 
 Act, must be brought to unqualified submission, and the supremacy of 
 Parliament be maintained. 
 
 This latter Act, by far the deadliest blow that had yet been struck at 
 their liberties, excited the utmost consternation throughout the American 
 provinces. It was at once seen that if Parliament could, at pleasure, dis- 
 franchise a sister colony, the same fate might, at any time, overtake the 
 others. " This Act," wrote Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, " hangs 
 like a flaming sword over our heads, and requires, by all means, to be 
 removed." The citizens of Boston, sympathizdng deeply with the people 
 of New York, expressed, in no measured terms; their indignation at what 
 they styled ministerial tyranny. TyTan,ny it indeed was, and of the most 
 inexcusable kind, inasmuch as it was not, as some have supposed, a tyranny 
 into which the British Ministry were led blindly, or through ignorance 
 of the consequences. "It is strange," says an elegant English 
 writer,* " that the British Goverment should not have been apprehensive 
 of the g^eat and increasing danger in which its colonial dominion was 
 involved." It is not, however, strange. The British government did it 
 with open eyes, and clearly foresaw the results toward which its colonial 
 policy was fast tending ; for while, in the spring of this year, the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer was pushing forward his schemes of taxation^ 
 General Gage was putting Fort George, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point on 
 a thorough war footing, and Oarleton, the Lieutenant-Giovernor of Canada, 
 was adding new defenses to Quebec. "These measures," wrote the latter to 
 the Commander-in-Chief, "will link these two provinces — ^New York and 
 
 * Oraham. 
 
129 
 
 Qaebeo — so strongly together, as will add great security to both, and will 
 facilitate the transfer of ten or fifteen thousand men, in the beginning of 
 a war, from one to another, as circumstances may require ; " and in the 
 same letter the writer suggests that a " place of arms " should be imme- 
 diately established in New York, " for," he adds, " no pains, address, nor 
 expense is too great, that wUl give security to the King's magazines ; 
 divide the Northern and Southern colonies ; and afford an opportunity of 
 ti-ansporting our forces into any part of the continent." 
 
 The Assembly having expired by its septennial limitation on the 6th 
 of February, 1768, writs were issued for a new election, returnable on 
 the 22d of the following month. Owing, however, to the Governor having 
 no special business to lay before the House, the new Assembly was not 
 convened untU the 27th of October. The opening speech of the Governor 
 related chiefly to the Indian trade, which his Majesty had been pleased 
 henceforward to confide to the colonies. " The advantages," said the 
 Governor, "arising, not only from the intercourse of trade with the 
 Indians, but from the maintenance of that tranquility among them which 
 subsists at present, are so obvious, as to require no arguments to enforce 
 them. I shall, therefore, only recommend to you, that, to avoid any 
 future cause of dissatisfaction or jealousy being given, you wdl, by the 
 most effectual laws, prevent any settlements being made beyond the line 
 which shall be agreed on by the Indians." In their reply, on the 3d of 
 November, the House expressed its willingness to co-operate with the 
 Grovernor in any measures for the better regulation of the Indian trade ; 
 and, indeed, for the first two weeks of the session, nothing occurred to 
 ruffle the general harmony of its proceedings. The critical posture of 
 the province to the mother country, however, forbade that this state of 
 quiescence should be lasting ; and it was not long before a direct issue 
 arose between the Governor and his Assembly. 
 
 The right of Parliament to tax America was stUl discussed with 
 great freedoin in all the colonies, but in none with more vigor than in 
 Massachusetts. In February, the Assembly of that province had addressed 
 a circular letter, drafted by Samuel Adama, to her sister colonies, in 
 which the " great evils to which the inhabitants of America were sub- 
 jected from the operation of several acts of Parliament imposing taxes 
 upon them," were set forth, and their co-operation sohcited in obtain- 
 ing redress. This proceeding, as may readily be imagined, gave great 
 offense to the Ministry ; and Lord Hillsborough forthwith addressed a 
 letter upon the subject to the several colonial Governors, requesting that 
 their Assemblies should treat the circular letter with silent contempt. 
 But the resentment of the mother country toward Massachusetts was not 
 satisfied. It was determined to stiU further disgrace her, by detaching 
 a strong military force to occupy her capital. The rumor that such a 
 step was meditated by the Crown caused considerable comment, and 
 9 
 
130 
 
 ■when, on the 28tli of September, two British regiments, accompanied hy 
 seven men-of-war, arrived at Boston from Halifax, the indignation, not 
 only in Massachusetts, but in those colonies that sympathized with her, 
 became intense. In Connecticut numerous town-meetings were held, in 
 which it was resolved, first, " to seek the Lord, by general fasting, prayer, 
 and hunuUation, and then to caU a convention of ninety-two persons to 
 determine what was to be done in the present difficulties and distress.' 
 In New York City, especially, the Sons of Liberty felt deeply the indignity 
 offered to their sister colony ; and in their first ebullition of anger, indig- 
 nation meetings were held, and Governor Bernard and his Sheriff burned 
 in effigy. 
 
 Such was the state of public sentiment, when, on the 14th of Novem- 
 ber, Sir Henry Moore laid before the House the Earl of Hillsborough's 
 letter, forbidding correspondence with Massachusetts, and called upon it 
 to render a cheerful obedience to the ■wishes of the Secretary. This action 
 of the Governor was met by a warm remonstrance from the Assembly ; 
 and when, a few days after, the former threatened to dissolve it in case 
 of its not complying, it unhesitatingly refused obedience. The bold stand 
 thus assumed was warmly seconded by public opinion, as appears con- 
 spicuously in the newspapers and private correspondence of the day. A 
 series of articles, which had recently appeared under the title of " Letters 
 from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," 
 had paved the way for a fearless utterance against ministerial oppression. 
 "Let these truths," said the leaders of the people in New York, "be 
 indeUbly impressed upon our minds, that we cannot be free without 
 being secure in our property ; that we cannot be secure in our property 
 if, without our consent, others may, as by right, take it away ; that taxes 
 imposed by Parliament do thus take it away ; that duties, laid for the 
 sole purpose of raising money, are taxes ; and that attempts to lay such 
 should be instantly and firmly opposed." 
 
 While, however, the Assembly were thus firm in maintaining its 
 constitutional rights and privileges, it evinced no disposition to counte- 
 nance acts of lawless violence ; and in reply to a message from the 
 Governor on the 23d, asking its aid in bringing to punishment the ring- 
 leaders in a recent riot, it reported a series of resolutions which distinctly 
 set forth, that although it felt deeply the course of ParKament toward 
 them, yet, so far from approving of any violent proceedings, it would on 
 all occasions endeavor to support the dignity and authority of govern- 
 ment. The riot, to which allusion is here made, had occurred on the 14th 
 of November, and had been the result of new exactions, by way of imposts, 
 of the Parliament upon the colonies ; and while the reply of the House, 
 as intimated, strongly censured the rioters, yet it also condemned the new 
 duties in terms equally severe. This address gave little satisfaction to- the 
 representative of the Crown ; and on the last day of the year it was fol- 
 
131 
 
 lowed by a series of strong constitutional resolutions, among -whicli was 
 one declaring that it -was the opinion of the Committee " that the House 
 had an undoubted right to correspond and consult with any of the neigh- 
 boring colonies on any matter, subject, or thing whatever, whereby they 
 should conceive the rights and liberties of the House to be in any way 
 affected." 
 
 These resolutions gave high displeasure ; and Sir Henry Moore, 
 having convened the Assembly in the City Hall on the afternoon of the 
 3d of January, 1769, dissolved it by a speech of evident irritation, yet of 
 affected regret and sorrow at the occasion demanding the summary 
 measure. Writs for a new election were immediately issued, returnable 
 on the 14th of February. The people, however, sustained the action of 
 their representatives, and all the former members, with the exception of 
 six, were returned by overwhelming majorities. Such was the result of 
 the first direct appeal of the Crown to the people on the subject of the 
 groat constitutional principles of liberty, which were now beginning to 
 agitate the political waters to their deepest fountains. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the fact that most of the old members 
 were returned, the election was hotly contested. " I hear," wrote Sir 
 William Johnson, jocularly, to a friend in New York, " that you are likely 
 to have a hot election, and probably there will be work for shillalahs." 
 Nor was the writer far out in his conjecture. At no time for many years 
 had the excitement been more intense, and every means and device was 
 made use of to secure votes. In New York City, especially, the 
 contest was between the church-party and the dissenters* — the for- 
 mer being led by the De Lanceys and the latter by the Livingstons. 
 " It is surprising," writes Peter Van Sohaak to his brother Henry, under 
 date of January 27, 1769, " what trifles can be turned to the greatest 
 advantage in elections and be made to captivate the passions of the vul- 
 gar. A straw, a fire-brand, have severally answered this purpose in a 
 recent instance. It was said during the last election, that T. Smith had 
 said that the Irish were poor beggars, and had come over here upon a 
 bunch of straw. The whole body of Irishmen immediately joined and 
 appeared with straws in their hats. Mr. Kissam, who summed up the 
 evidence for Mr. Scott in the late charge against Mr. Jauncey, happened 
 to say that the passions of the Germans were fire-brands. A whole con- 
 gregation were, in consequence of that, resolved to vote with them in 
 their hands, but being dissuaded, they however distinguished themselves 
 by the name of the lirehrands. These gentlemen have also made them- 
 
 * And not between the lawyers and the merchants as such, as stated by Miss 
 Booth. This writer also, makes the prorogation of the Assembly, by Governor Moore, 
 occur in 1768, a vear previous. This is, however, probably a typo^aphical error. 
 
132 
 
 selves remarkable by a song in the German language, the chorus of which 
 
 is, 
 
 " Maester Cruger, De Lancey, 
 
 Maeater Walton and Jauncey." 
 
 " 'Twas droll to see some of the first gentlemen in town joining in 
 singing these songs, while they conducted the members to the Ooffee- 
 House." " I arrived here St. John's day," writes another person at the 
 same time from New York to a friend, " when there was a grand proces- 
 sion of the whole Masonic fraternity, and a very excellent sermon preached 
 by Dr. Auehmuthy, at Trinity Church, on the occasion. At the same 
 time a collection was made for the city, which I think amounted to £200. 
 Would you think it, but it is true, that the Presbyterians immediately 
 labored to convert this charitable affair to the disadvantage of the Church 
 of England and the part which they take in the election ensuing ? WiU- 
 Smith and W. Livingston got an old rascally sermon, called ' Masonbt, 
 THE suKE Guide to Hell,' reprinted, and distributed it with g^eat assi- 
 duity, * * and there is this day an extraordinary Lodge 
 held on the occasion in order to consxilt means to resent the affront. " The 
 church-party, having the support of the mercantile and Masonic interests, 
 was triumphant, and John Cruger, James De Lancey, Jacob Walton, and 
 James Jauncey, were elected by the city. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1769, the new Assembly met. John Cruger 
 was immediately chosen Speaker, and it was not long before another 
 proof was afforded of the strength of the church-party in the House. 
 " The De Lancey interest," wrote Hugh Wallace, a member of the Coun- 
 cil, to Sir WHUam Johnson, " prevails in the House greatly, and they have 
 given the Livingston interest proof of it by dismissing P. Livingston the 
 House as a non-resident." The Livingstons, however, were not entirely 
 crushed, for the same writer adds : " It is said he will be returned again 
 and again, and so become another Wilkes." 
 
 The opening speech of Governor Moore contained not the remotest 
 reference to the difficulties which had caused the recent dissolution, but 
 referred only to the manner in which the the colony's agent in London 
 was appointed, a mode which his Excellency thought objectionable, he 
 being of the opinion that the appointment of an agent should 
 be made by an act of the Governor, CouncU, and Assembly, specially 
 passed for that purpose, as had formerly been the case. The change in 
 the manner of appointing the colonial agent had heen first introduced 
 during the administration of Governor Clinton in 1747, in the appoint- 
 ment of Robert Charles, without the former's privity or consent. Clinton 
 had complained bitterly at the time of the innovation, but without effect ; 
 it was, therefore, not likely that an Assembly, having had their own way 
 in this matter for upward of twenty years, would now yield. Accord- 
 ingly, in their reply, they utterly declined adopting the mode which his 
 
133 
 
 Excellency had recommended. This, of course, gave great dissatisfaction 
 to the Governor, who on the 20th of May prorogued the Assembly to the 
 month of July ; not, however, until that body had voted, with a very ill 
 grace, £1,800 for the support of his Majesty's troops quartered in the 
 colony. 
 
 The death of Sir Henry Moore on the 11th of September, 1769, 
 threw a gloom over the entire city. His polished manners, courteous 
 address, and genial disposition had endeared him to many in the colony. 
 Although forced oftentimes as the representative of the Crown to come 
 in collision with the popular sentiment, yet such occasions were evidently 
 so distasteful to him that many who were his bitter poHtical enemies 
 regarded him with cordial good-wLU. By his death the reins of govern- 
 ment fell, for the, third time, into the hands of Doctor Golden, who, as 
 Lieutenant-Governor, opened the fall session of the Assembly on the 22d 
 of November. 
 
 Appearances seemed to indicate a stormy session. Massachusetts 
 had just passed a series of spirited resolutions against the military and 
 naval force stationed at her capital. The Assembly of Virginia, late in 
 the spring, had been dissolved by the new Governor, Lord Botetourt, for 
 its presumption in sending Massachusetts words of encouragement and 
 support. The refusal, moreover, of the House of Commons, in March, to 
 receive the representative of the New York Assembly, had excited the 
 apprehensions of those of the colonists who had hitherto been warmly 
 attached to the Crown. " I must confess," wrote Sir William Johnson, 
 in September, " that the aspect of affairs at home is very unpleasing, and 
 ought to give concern to every well-wisher of his country, because what- 
 ever reason or justice there may be in the late steps, there is a probability 
 of their being carried further than a good man can wish for." 
 
 Contrary, however, to general expectation, during the fall and winter 
 session, there were no coUisions between the Executive and the Legisla- 
 ture, although the spirited resolutions of Virginia, of the preceding May, 
 were unanimously concurred in. On the first day of the session a bill 
 was introduced for emitting one hundred and twenty thousand pounds in 
 bills of credit, to be put out on loan, as a means of revenue. The bill 
 was at first hailed with delight by the leaders of the popular party, who 
 thoufht they discerned in it a desire, on the part of the Executive, to 
 gratify the wish of the people. When, however, it was followed on the 
 15th of December, by a motion to grant two thousand pounds for the 
 support of his Majesty's troops in the colony, which sum was to be taken 
 out of the interest arising from the loan bill when it should become a law, 
 a complete revulsion of feeling took place ; and they now saw only an 
 attempt, on the part of the Lieutenant-Governor, to compel the Assembly 
 into an unconditional submission to the Mutiny Act. Accordingly, the 
 first sight that greeted the citizens, on the morning of the 17th, was a 
 
134 
 
 flaming placard posted up in the most conspicuous portions of the city, 
 addressed, " To the Betuated Inhabitants of the Citt and Colony of 
 New Yoek," and signed " A Son of LiuErar." This placard declared 
 that the granting of money to the troops was implicitly acknowledging 
 the authority that had enacted the revenue acts, which had been passed 
 for the express purpose of taking money out of the pockets of the colo- 
 nists without their consent ; that what made the granting of money the 
 more grevous was, that it went to the support of troops kept, not to pro- 
 tect, but to enslave them ; that this was the view taken of the Mutiny 
 Act by the Assemblies of Massachusetts and South Carolina — therefore, 
 let not the Assembly of New York tell their disgrace in Boston, nor 
 publish it in the streets of Charleston ! The Assembly, moreover, had 
 not been attentive to the liberties of this continent, nor to the prosperity 
 of the good people of this colony. This sacrifice of the public interest 
 it attributed to a corrupt source which it scrupled not to affirm, in plain 
 words, was an infamous coalition recently entered into between the Execu- 
 tive and the De Lancey family for this very object. In conclusion, the 
 placard advised aU the people to assemble the following day in " the 
 fields" (the Park), there to express their sentiments upon a point so vital 
 to colonial liberty. 
 
 The large concourse of people gathered in " the fields " at the time 
 appointed, clearly showed how in unison with the public feeling were the 
 sentiments uttered in the placard of the previous day. The object of 
 the gathering was set forth by John Lamb, one of the most prominent 
 of the Sons of Liberty, and the question asked, whether the citizens 
 would uphold the recent action of the Assembly. The emphatic " No " that 
 at once arose from the vast throng was a sufficient answer to this ques- 
 tion ; and a committee of seven was immediately appointed to carry this 
 public expression of feeling to' the Legislature. But however much that 
 body may have regretted their partial committal to the loan bill, they did 
 not choose to be dictated to by a meeting which they considered little 
 better than a mob. Accordingly, the consideration of the placard having 
 been made the first order of the following day, James De Lancey moved 
 that " the sense of the House should be taken whether the said paper was 
 not an infamous and scandalous libel." The question being put, aU the 
 members voted in the affirmative, except Colonel Schuyler, who, when his 
 name was called, with admirable moral courage, fearlessly answered in 
 the negative. A series of resolutions was then passed condemning 
 the paper as false, seditious, and infamous, and requesting the Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor to ofier a reward of one hundred pounds for its author or 
 authors. Immediately after the passage of these resolutions, Mr. De 
 Lancey laid before the House another hand-biU, in which the late pro- 
 ceedings of that body were strongly condemned, signed " Legion." 
 Resolves were at once passed, similar in tone to those just noticed, and 
 an additional reward of fifty pounds ofiered for the writer of this also. 
 
135 
 
 Nothing worthy of special mention occurred during the remainder of 
 this session. John Lamb, it is true, three days after the passage of 
 the resolutions, was arraigned before the House on suspicion of being 
 the author of the libelous hand-bill ; but nothing being proved against 
 him he was immediately discharged. The General Assembly having 
 now been convened more than two months, and its members being now 
 anxious to return to their homes, Lieutenant-Governor Golden signed 
 several acts among them one for appointing commissioners from the 
 neighboring colonies to agree upon a plan for regulating the Indian 
 trade, and on the 27th of January, 1770, prorogued it to the second Tues- 
 day in March, and from time to time afterward to the 11th of December. 
 
 Meanwhile, the hatred between the soldiers and the Sons of Liberty 
 daily gained strength. The former had long writhed under the undis- 
 guised disgust with which they were treated by the latter, and only waited 
 for an opportunity to repay this scorn with interest. Hitherto, they had 
 been restrained through motives of policy ; and now that the supplies 
 were granted, they threw off all restraint, and resolved to insult their 
 enemies in the most tender spot. Accordingly, on the 13th of January, a 
 portion of the Sixteenth Regiment attempted to destroy the liberty-pole, 
 by sawing of its spars and blowing it up with gunpowder. A knot of 
 citizens having gathered round while they were thus engaged, they 
 desisted for the present from the attempt, and .charging upon the group 
 with fixed bayonets, drove them into a tavern, kept by Montagnie, and a 
 favorite resort of the Sons of Liberty, broke the windows, and demoUshed 
 a portion of the furniture. Three days afterward, however, they suc- 
 ceeded in their design, and having, on the night of the 16th, cut the 
 obnoxious symbol in pieces, piled its fragm.ents in front of Montagnie's 
 door. Incensed at this daring insult, three thousand citizens assembled 
 early the following morning at the scene of the outrage, and adopted, 
 among others, a resolution that aU soldiers found in the streets after roll- 
 call, " should be treated as enemies to the peace of the city ; " mutually 
 pledging themselves to see that this resolve was vigorously enforced. 
 Early the next morning insulting placards were found posted up in vari- 
 ous parts of the city, ridicuUng the resolutions of the previous day, and 
 daring the citizens to carry them into execution. In the course of the 
 day three soldiers were discovered by Sears and others in the act of post- 
 ino- up more of these hand-bills ; and a skirmish ensuing, the citizens 
 having obtained the upper hand, were conducting the offenders to the 
 offlce of the Mayor, when they were met by a band of twenty additional 
 troops. A general fight with cutlasses and clubs now followed, the 
 military slowly retreating to Golden Hill.* At this point they were met 
 by a party of officers, who immediately ordered their men to the barracks, 
 
 * John street, between Cliff street and Burling Slip. 
 
136 
 
 and the riot was quelled. In this brush, several citizens were wounded 
 and one killed, although the soldiers were generally worsted. The fol- 
 lowing day witnessed a number of frays, none of which, however, were 
 attended with loss of life ; and on the 20th, the Mayor having issued a 
 proclamation forbidding the soldiers to come out of the barracks unless 
 accompanied by a non-commissioned officer, the excitement was quieted 
 and order once more restored.* On the 5th ot February another pole 
 was erected, inscribed " Liberty and Property," on ground purchased for 
 the purpose, where it remained until cut down in 1776, by the British 
 soldiery, at that time occupying the city. 
 
 Meanwhile the Sons of Liberty were undaunted. In February, one 
 hundred of them purchased of Colonel Morris a house for six hundred 
 pounds— each of them contributing six pounds— in which to celebrate the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act ; and having, on the 19th of March, drank forty- 
 five popular toasts, they proceeded to the jail where Captain McDougall 
 was confined for being the author of the Hbelous hand-bill of the pre- 
 vious December, saluted him with forty-five cheers, and quietly dispersed. 
 In Boston the feeling between the citizens and soldiery was even 
 more embittered. The news of the recent occurrences iu Neiw York was 
 not calculated to sooth this mutual animosity ; and when, on the 2d of 
 March, an affray took plack at Gray's rope-walk, between a citizen and a 
 soldier, in which the latter was worsted, it required but a small degree of 
 forecast to anticipate an approaching explosion. Three days afterward, 
 on the evening of the 5th, a sentinel, who had wantonly abused a lad, was 
 surrounded in Kiag street by a mob of boys, and pelted with snow-baUs, 
 made of the lightsnowthat had just fallen. "They are killing the sentiuell" 
 shouted a bystander to the main guard. Instantly a file of six soldiers, headed 
 by a corporal and followed by Preston, the officer of the day, rushed to 
 the rescue, at a double-quick step, with fixed bayonets. A crowd gathered 
 round, and the musket of a soldier being hit by a stick thrown from the 
 throng, Preston gave the order to fire. Montgomery, the man whose mus- 
 ket had been hit, immediately fired, and Attucks, a mulatto, who had been 
 quietly looking on, fell dead on the spot. Sis others, thereupon, taking 
 deliberate aim, fired in succession at the crowd, who were already begin- 
 
 * " We are all in confusion in this city ; the soldiers have cut and blowed up 
 tlie Liberty Pole, and have caused much trouble between the inhabitants. On 
 Friday last, between Burling Slip and Fly Market, was an engagement between the 
 inhabitants and the soldiers, when much blood was spilt ; one sailor got run through 
 the body, who since died ; one man got his skull cut in the most cruel manner. On 
 Saturday the Hall-bell rang for an alarm, when was another battle between the 
 inhabitants and soldiers ; but the soldiers met with rubbers, the chiefest part being 
 sailors with clubs to revenge the death of their brother., which they did with courage, 
 and made them all run to their barracks. What will be the end of this, God 
 knows." — Letter from " New York, Jan. 22d, 1770," in St. Jamea Chronicle, or the 
 British Evening Post, March 15th, 1770. 
 
137 
 
 ning to disperse. Three of the citizens, including the mulatto, were 
 instantly killed, and of eight others who were wounded, two died shortly 
 afterward from their injuries. 
 
 It has usually been asserted by historians, that the first blood in the 
 war of the American Revolution was shed at Lexington ; but such ia not 
 the fact. The Battle o^ Golden Hill, on the 18th of January, 1770, was 
 the beginning of that contest; so fearful in its commencement, so doubt- 
 ful in its progress, and so splendid in its results. The storm had now 
 been gathering for several years, and the public mind had become exceed- 
 ingly feverish, not only in respect to the conduct of the parent govern- 
 ment, but in regard to the language and bearing of the officers of the 
 Crown stationed in the colonies. The destruction of the Liberty Pole 
 increased the mutual exasperation ; and the fight that followed was but the 
 natural consequence. To the Cut of New Yoke, therefore, must ever be 
 given the honor of striking thejirst blow. The town was thrown into com- 
 motion, the bells rang, and the news, with the exaggerations and embel- 
 lishments incident to all occasions of alarm, spread through the country 
 with the rapidity of lightning. Everywhere, throughout the wide extent 
 of the old thirteen colonies, it created a strong sensation, and was received 
 with a degree of indignant emotion, which very clearly foretold that blood 
 had only comm^enced flowing. The massacre in King street, two months 
 later, added intensify to the flame ; and although five years intervened be- 
 fore the demonstration at Lexington, there were too many nervous pens 
 and eloquent tongues in exercise to allow these feelings to subside, or the 
 noble spirit of liberty that had been awakened to be quenched. " Such 
 stirring orations as those of Joseph Warren were not uttered in vain ; 
 and often were the people reminded by him, or by his compatriots of 
 kindred spirit — ' The voice of your brethren's blood cries to you from the 
 ground ! ' The admonition had its efiect, and the resolutions of ven- 
 geance sank deeper and deeper, until the fuUness of time should come ! " 
 
 On the 18th of October, 1770, John, Earl of Dunmore, arrived in 
 New York to occupy the gubernatorial chair, left vacant by the lamented 
 Sir Henry Moore. The new Governor is described, in a letter to Sir 
 William Johnson, as " a very active man, fond of walking and riding, and 
 a sportsman." This description affords a clue to the character of the man 
 — easy in his disposition, and one who preferred the delights of the chase 
 to controversies with his Legislature. There was httle likelihood, however^ 
 of his being troubled with a body that had of late grown very subservient. 
 The news, moreover, which he brought with him of his Majesty's con- 
 sent to the bill authorizing the emission of a colonial currency, increased 
 the spirit of loyalty; and when, in his opening speech on the 11th of 
 December, he expressed his pleasure that the example of the loyal sub- 
 jects of the province had been the means of restoring friendly feehngs and 
 confidence between the parent country and the colonists, the address of the 
 
138 
 
 Assembly, in reply, was a simple echo. During the entire session, there- 
 fore, the wheels of government rolled sm.oothly ; and at its close, on the 
 16th of February, 1771, the loan bill was passed, as was also the one 
 for appropriating two thousand pounds for the support of the troops. 
 The Crown had seemingly triumphed ; but the end was not yet. 
 
 On the 8th of July, 1771, Sir WiUiam Tryon, Bart., having rendered 
 himself odious to the people of North Carolina by his petty tyranny, 
 arrived in New York, bearing his Majesty's commission as Governor and 
 Commander-in-Chief, in the place of Lord Dunmore, who was transferred 
 to the Government of Virginia. 
 
 The General Assembly, which had been prorogued to the 7th day of 
 August, 1771, was now further prorogued from time to time to the 7th 
 of January, 177'2, when it again met, and on the 8th, the session was 
 opened for business by a speech from the new Governor, of a mild and 
 conciliatory character. His arrival had been greeted by affectionate 
 addresses of congratulation, to which he referred with apparent warmth. 
 His recent cruel conduct in North Carolina was then justified as a m^erito- 
 rious effort to preserve the constitution and the laws ; and in seeming 
 mockery, his late wonderful achievement in that province — of dispersing 
 with over one thousand armed troops an unarmed and inoffensive crowd — 
 was attributed to the special favor of a kind Providence. The necessity 
 of passing a good militia biU was then pointed out ; and the thorough 
 repairing of the fortifications of the city, which had become greatly injured 
 by the weather, was also recommended as worthy of immediate attention. 
 " Influenced only," he added, with consummate flattery, " by principles 
 that flow from an honest heart, I feel an ardent desire to co-operate with 
 you in every measure that wiU best promote the honor and dignity of his 
 Majesty's government, and advance the real felicity of a people eminently 
 distinguished by their loyalty to the best of sovereigns, and affectionate 
 disposition to their mother country." The address sent in to the Governor 
 by the House, on the 17th, was conceived in the same spirit that dictated 
 the opening speech. It accorded high praise to the brief administration 
 of the Earl of Dunmore, for its equity, impartiality, and disinterestedness; 
 and expressed strong confidence in the wisdom which was to mark that 
 of his Lordship's immediate successor, as shown more particularly in his 
 beneficent administration of his former government ! 
 
 Indeed, it seemed as if in this address the last lingering embers of 
 resistance to m i nisterial tyranny in the Colony of New York had expired. 
 A few staunch patriots, such as Phihp Schuyler, it is true, still remained 
 in the Assembly, but their voices were powerless to turn back the tide 
 which now rolled in from the ocean of ministerial patronage. William 
 Tryon, a man fully as subservient as HutcHnson, without his abiUty, 
 backed by the Upper House, and rendered, moreover, independent of the 
 colony by a recent order of the Crown that his salary should hereafter 
 
139 
 
 be paid from the revenue cliest, was well fitted for the purpose for which 
 he had been transferred to the chair lately occupied by the mild but 
 passive and inefficient Dunmore. Indeed, if anything was wanting to 
 show the subserviency of the present Assembly, it was supplied by the 
 utter indifference with which this attempt to render the Executive 
 independent of the people was received. In former Assemblies, such 
 an announcement would have been met with an outburst of indig- 
 nation before which no Governor could have stood ; but now a 
 message from Tryon in February, refusing to receive a salary from 
 the people, produced not a word of comment, and the removal of this 
 strong bulwark of their liberties was quietly acquiesced in. Far differ- 
 ent, however, was the action of the Assemblies of Massachusetts and the 
 other colonies, to whom the ministerial instruction in relation to salaries 
 also extended. In the former body, especially, the recent Act of Parlia- 
 ment was boldly denounced ; other colonial Legislatures did the same. 
 New York was silent. True men looked on in amazement, and in anxious 
 expectation strained their eyes for the first rays of the day-star of hope. 
 
 But while the representatives of the people were thus unmindful of 
 their liberties, they were more attentive to the local interests of the 
 colony. At the close of the present session many praiseworthy acts were 
 passed; and among them one for founding the present New York Hos- 
 pital, and another for dividing Albany County into three counties, Albany, 
 Tryon, and Charlotte. 
 
 Meanwhile, blind to their own interests, the Ministry thought only 
 of reducing their " rebellious subjects" into submission. Mortified and 
 exasperated at the signal failure to foist the Stamp Act upon the colo- 
 nists, they were ready to embrace any scheme which promised to soothe 
 their wounded pride. An opportunity for doing this soon came. The 
 East India Company were now suffering severely from the effect of the 
 non-importation agreements. Unable to make their annual payments to 
 the Government of £1,400,000, they found themselves in the spring of 177.3, 
 with 17,000,000 chests of tea on their hands, on the very verge of bank- 
 ruptcy. In this state of affairs, the Company in AprU petitioned Parlia- 
 ment for permission to export their teas to America, and other countries, 
 free of duty. This request, however, the Ministry, jealous of relinquish- 
 ing in the least their right to tax the colonies, would not grant, but, by a 
 special Act of Parliament passed on the 10th of June, allowed the Com- 
 pany to ship their tea to America free of any export duty — thus putting 
 it in the power of the Company to sell their tea at a lower price in 
 America than in England. No Act that the home government had hith- 
 erto passed, showed more plainly its utter inabihty to comprehend the 
 great principle for which the colonists were contending, than this. It 
 was clear that the Ministry supposed that the motive of the colonists in 
 resisting taxation was merely of a sordid nature. This idea was in itself 
 
140 
 
 sufficiently humiliating ; and now, when by making concessions to the 
 East India Company, a direct attempt was made to buy them ofif by an 
 appeal to their pockets, the indignation of the colonists was raised to the 
 highest pitch. 
 
 The plan of union as proposed by Virginia, and which had now been 
 adopted by all the New England colonies, rendered concert of action 
 m^uch easier than heretofore. Accordingly, as soon as it was known, that 
 the tea ships were on their way to America, measures were immediately 
 taken to prevent the landing of their cargoes. The non-importation 
 agreements, which had of late grown lax, became again stringent ; 
 and the correspondence between the vigilant committees of the several 
 colonies was renewed with greater activity than ever. On the 18th of 
 October, 1773, the inhabitants of Philadelphia assembled in the State 
 House ; and having in several spirited resolutions denied the right of 
 ParUament to tax America, and denounced the duty on the tea, compelled 
 the agents of the East India Company, by the mere force of public 
 opinion, to resign. In Boston the patriots were no less active. Town 
 meetings were constantly held, and committees appointed to confer with 
 committees from the neighboring towns, upon the best method of " pre- 
 venting the landing and sale of the teas exported from the East India 
 Company." Unlike, however, the excitement produced by the Stamp Act, 
 everything was now done "decently and in order." The burning of the 
 Gasp§ in the waters of the Naragansett, on the night of the 17th of 
 June, 1772, was suggestive. On the night of the 16th of December, 
 1773, three tea ships, which lay moored at Griffin's Wharf, were boarded 
 by a party of men disguised as Mohawk Indians, and their cargoes, con- 
 sisting of three hundred and forty chests of tea, thrown into the waters 
 of the bay. 
 
 Nor was New York behind her sister colonies in resisting this new 
 feature of ministerial oppression. Two days after the meeting in Phila- 
 delphia, the Sons of Liberty held a public meeting, in which they 
 denounced in unequivocal terms the importation of the hateful article ; 
 and declared with such effect that tea-com^naissioners were fully as obnox- 
 ious as stamp-distributers, that the commissioners appointed for New 
 York forthwith resigned. Public sentiment, moreover, was not confined 
 merely to resolves. A remark of Governor Tryon that " the tea should be 
 deUvered to the consignees, even if it was sprinkled with blood," was not 
 calculated to pour oil upon the troubled waters ; and so soon as it wa's 
 known that consignments of tea would shortly reach the city, another 
 mass-meeting of the citizens was held at their old rendezvous — " the 
 fields" — to devise measures for preventing the landing of the tea from 
 a vessel which was hourly expected. Hardly had the people assembled, 
 when Whitehead Hicks, the Mayor, hastened to the meeting, charged 
 with a message from the Governor, to the effect that when the vessel 
 
141 
 
 atrived, the tea should be publicly taken from the ship into the fort, and 
 there kept until the advice of the Council could be taken, or the King's 
 order could be known. The moment was critical, but John Lamb — by 
 whose influence undoubtedly the meeting had been called — at once saw 
 through the artifice. He immediately arose and addressed the Assembly. 
 After giving a summary of the grievances which had brought them 
 together, he read the Act of Parliament which prescribed the payment 
 of the duty if the article was landed, and then asked, " Shall the- tea be 
 landed ?" A unanimous " NO ! " repeated three times, clearly showed the 
 mind of his audience. 
 
 But this spirit of resistance to Parliamentary usurpatiop. was not 
 shared in by the Assembly, whose members were more subservient than 
 ever. Notwithstanding the conduct of the Governor, they did not hesi- 
 tate in the spring session to vote five thousand pounds toward rebuilding 
 the government house, which had been recently destroyed by fire ; and 
 in response to his opening speech, in which they were informed that he 
 had been called home to confer with the Ministry in relation to the New 
 Hampshire grants, they expressed the hope that his return to a grateful 
 people would be speedy. Indeed, as Mr. Dunlop remarks, if the number 
 of compliments paid him upon his departure was any test, it would seem 
 as if he was very much beloved. Several of the loyalists residing in the 
 city gave him a public dinner ; General Haldimand, who had succeeded 
 Gage as Commander-in-Chief, honored him with a ball ; corporations and 
 societies vied in presenting addresses ; King's College created him a 
 doctor in civil law ; and the General Assembly tendered him an address, 
 in which, after expressing their appreciation of the uprightness and integ- 
 rity of his conduct, they added, in yet more fulsome eulogy, that they 
 thought it their duty, as the representatives of a free and happy people, 
 to pay this tribute of applause and acknowledgment to a Governor who 
 had so eminently distinguished himself by his constant attention to their 
 care and prosperity. The Governor, in return, thanked them for 
 their " truly loyal and aflectionate address ;" and having, on the 19th of 
 March, summoned the General Assembly to his house, gave his assent to 
 the acts that had been passed, and closed the session by prorogation. 
 
 Thus ended the third session of the Legislature of the colony and 
 the administration of Governor Tryon, without having in a single 
 instance come into collision with his Excellency, or even with the Legis- 
 lative Council, save in the matter of a disagreement between the two 
 bodies in respect to an amendment to the militia biU, proposed by the 
 Council, but to which the House disagreed. An attempt was made in 
 the Council, on motion of Mr. Smith, to obtain a conference, but the 
 proposition was voted down. The amendment referred to, according to 
 the reasons of dissent recorded by Mr. Smith, was an invasion of the royal 
 prerogative ; and had the bill been passed in the shape insisted upon by the 
 
142 
 
 House, Mr. Smith maintained that it would have received the Governor's 
 negative. According to the reasons of dissent, the rejection of the amend- 
 ment of the Council evinced a determination by the House to contro 
 the action of the Governor in commanding the services of the militia, while 
 there were indications that their services would be required to quell insur- 
 rection in the New Hampshire grants. Mr. Smith set forth that a sim- 
 ilar amendment sent to the House in 1772 had been concurred in by 
 that body, and that no reason was perceptible justifying a change of sen- 
 timents upon the question ; and he thought a friendly conference might 
 induce the House to yield. Other reasons for his assent were given ; and 
 he referred to open surmises abroad, that the Legislature was losing its 
 confidence in the Governor, and the loss of the bill mth the provision in 
 question might be viewed as an evidence that the Legislature had not 
 been " sincere in tlie testimonials they had given and justly awarded to his 
 Excellency for an administration wise and impartial, fair and generous, 
 and steadily conducted upon principles unbiased by party feuds, and 
 acknowledged to be equally friendly to the rights of the Crown and the 
 weal of the colony." But the conference was not asked, and in fact there 
 was no collision. 
 
 This profound tranquility which had succeeded the election of the 
 present General Assembly in 1770, was the more remarkable from the 
 raging of the political elements all around New York, and from the cir- 
 cumstances under which the preceding Assembly had been dissolved, and 
 the feelings attending the new election. The preceding Assembly had 
 been dissolved for its strong declaration of those constitutional principles 
 which had been planted in the bosoms of the colonists from their settle- 
 ment, and which were striking deeper root every hour and yet, neither 
 under Sir Henry Moore, who had dissolved the preceding, and summoned 
 the present Legislature, nor under Lord Duninore, nor under Governor 
 Tryon, had a breeze moved upon the political waters, so far as the Legis- 
 lature was concerned, save only by its concurrence in the Virginia resolu- 
 tions of May, 1769 ; nor did that act of concurrence occasion any visible 
 agitation. But it was the deep, solemn calm, which often precedes the 
 Ughtning and the whirlwind ! 
 
 But the storm was to break sooner than was anticipated. The utter- 
 ances of James Otis and Patrick Henry had created a tide of public feel- 
 ing which onlinary barriers were powerless to resist. Events followed 
 each other in startUng rapidity. On the night of the 22d of April, 1774, 
 the Sons of Liberty, following the example of their Boston neighbors, 
 and Uke them also disguised as Mohawks, threw over a cargo of tea, 
 brought by the Nancy, into the waters of New York Bay. New York, 
 imitating the example of her sister colonies, formed a Provincial Con- 
 gress in opposition to the regular Assembly, whose members still 
 remained lukewarm, and appointed five delegates to the Continental 
 
143 
 
 Congress wliich. had already convened in Philadelphia. Tryon, in a 
 maze at the turn affairs had taken, sailed, as we have seen, for England 
 on the 7th of April, 1774, to represent to the Ministry the alarming state 
 of things in the colonies. The Province of New York was ordered by 
 the Continental Congress to contribute her quota of three thousand men 
 to the general defense. The battle of Lexington had been followed by 
 the battle of Bunker Hill ; the brave Montgomery was preparing to under- 
 take his iU-fated expedition against Quebec ; and Putnam, and Heath, and 
 Pomeroy, and a score of brave spirits laid close siege to Boston. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when Washington, on the 21st of 
 June, 1775, set out from Philadelphia for Boston, with the purpose of 
 taking New York in his way. All disguise had now been thrown off; 
 and it was his purpose to place that important post under the command 
 of one of his generals upon whom he could rely. But the approach of 
 Washington toward the city threw the Provincial Congress into a quan- 
 dary. It had usurped the powers of Governor Tryon in his absence, 
 while professing at the same time a semi-loyalty to the parent govern- 
 ment. To add also to its perplexity, Tryon, who had just arrived from 
 England, was in the lower bay and might arrive at the wharf at any 
 moment. A middle course was therefore adopted. The militia was 
 ordered out and the commanding officer directed " to pay military honors 
 to whichever of the distinguished functionaries should first arrive." As 
 it chanced, Washington arrived first on the 25th, and was escorted into 
 the city by a committee of the Provincial Congress, by whom he had 
 been met at Newark. As soon as the customary military honors had 
 been paid, Peter Van Burgh Livingston, as President of the New York 
 Congress, advanced and delivered a congratulatory address. " Confiding 
 in you, sir," said the speaker, " and in the worthy generals under your 
 command, we have the most flattering hopes of success in the glorious 
 struggle for American liberty, and the fullest assurances that whenever 
 this important contest shall be decided by that fondest wish of each 
 American soul, an accommodation with our mother country, you will 
 cheerfully resign the important deposit committed into your hands and 
 resume the character of our worthiest citizen." 
 
 Hardly had these honors been paid to Washington when, at eight 
 o'clock of the same evening, Tryon landed, and was in turn greeted by 
 the same militia, and in addition, by the Mayor and Common Council, 
 who, by their transports of loyalty, seemed anxious to neutrahze, as far 
 as possible, the reception given a few hours previous to Washington. 
 Meanwhile, the latter, having placed the city under the command of 
 General Schuyler, departed for Boston, leaving the citizens in great 
 doubt as to the future steps which would be taken by Tryon. 
 
 Their suspense, however, was to be short. The Provincial Congress 
 regarding the guns in the battery as a standing menace to the patriot 
 
144 
 
 party, and wishing them for the defense of the Highlands, ordered their 
 removal. The indomitable Lamb, at the head of his Liberty Boys, among 
 whom was Alexander Hamilton, at once volunteered for this service, and 
 in the face of the guns of the Asia, which opened her batteries upon the 
 party, succeeded in carrying away to a place of safety the whole of the 
 pieces of cannon, twenty-one in number. This event at once brought 
 things to a crisis ; and the Governor, alarmed for his personal safety among 
 an incensed populace, took refuge on board of the Asia. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Assembly of New York, not wishing to join in the 
 radical action of the Provincial Congress, and yet feeling keenly the course 
 of the parent government, had prepared and sent to the Crown a memo- 
 rial for a redress of their grievances — a fact which the Ministry soon 
 learned, and not without mortification. " We claim," the address said in 
 conclusion, " but a restoration of the rights which we enjoyed by general 
 consent before the close of the last war ; we desire no more than a con- 
 tinuation of the ancient government to which we are entitled by the prin- 
 ciples of the British Constitution, and by which alone can be secured to 
 us the rights of EngUshmen." The address was presented to the House 
 of Commons by Mr. Burke, but was never called up. Incensed at this 
 insult to themselves, those faint hearts in the Assembly who had hereto- 
 fore wavered, now boldly joined the patriots ; and when, on the 10th of 
 July, 1776, the news was received in the city of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, the enthusiasm was well nigh universal — almost all hasten- 
 ing to aid General Putnam (who had succeeded Lee in the command) 
 in fortifying the city. The principal fortifications were as follows : A 
 grand battery of twenty-three guns was erected directly south of the Bowl- 
 ing Green ; McDougaU's Battery of four guns stood on a little eminence to 
 the west of Trinity Church. On the East Eiver side were Coenties' Battery, 
 Waterbury's Battery, Badlam's Battery of eight guns near the Jewish 
 burial-ground on Chatham street, and the Independent Battery on a slight 
 elevation on the comer of the present Grand and Centre streets. " Breast- 
 works were also erected at Peck, Beekman, Burling and Old SHps ; at 
 the Coffee-House, the Exchange, and in Broad street." Ditches were 
 cut across the island from the East to the North Eiver, and at the 
 same time strong fortifications were thrown up on Governor's Island, 
 Paulus Hook (.Jersey City), Brooklyn Heights, and Long Island. 
 
 These fortifications were erected at the suggestion of the Commander- 
 in-Chief, who, rightly anticipating, on the evacuation of Boston by 
 General Howe, that his next point of attack would be New York, detached 
 General Greene, with a portion of the army, to put Long Island and the 
 harbor of New York in a posture of defense. Washington followed soon 
 afterward himself, and established his headquarters in the city. Having 
 been joined by his brother. Lord Howe, as commander of the fleet at 
 Halifax, General, afterward Sir William Howe, arrived with his rein- 
 
145 
 
 forcements o£E' Sandy Hook, the latter on the 25th of June, 1776, and the 
 former on the 12th of the following month. General Chnton arriving at 
 about the same time from the unsuccessful attempt against Charleston 
 with Admiral Hotham, the combined forcos of the enemy now amounted 
 to nearly twenty-four thousand men, including the Hessians. 
 
 On the 22d of August, the British army was landed upon Long 
 Island at Gravesend. The American army, consisting of fifteen thou- 
 sand men, under Sullivan, was encamped in the neighborhood of Brook- 
 lyn. The battle of Long Island, which was severely, though ineffect- 
 ually, contested by the American forces under Sullivan and Lord 
 Stirling, was fought on the 27th of August. In this action, the loss of 
 the enemy was reported at from three hundred to four hundred and 
 fifty. The loss of the Americans was far greater. General Washington 
 admitted it to be one thousand, but he is believed only to have referred 
 to the loss of the regular troops. General Howe claimed one thousand 
 and ninety-seven prisoners, among whom were Generals Sullivan, 
 Stirling, and Woodhull. On the 30th, the Americans effected a masterly 
 retreat across the East Eiver to New York. The enemy made immediate 
 dispositions for attacking the city ; and so prompt and skillful were his 
 movements, that, in a council of general officers, an immediate evacuation 
 was deemed the only means of saving the army. The British fleet was 
 divided into two squadrons, one of which entered the East and the other 
 the North Eiver. Under cover of the former, Sir Hepry Clinton crossed 
 from Long Island and landed at Kipp's Bay with such celerity that the 
 Americans fled in disorder. Indeed, the evacuation resembled rather a 
 flight than a retreat — all the heavy artillery, military stores, baggage, and 
 provisions, faUing into the hands of the enemy. A large portion of the 
 American forces, at that time, consisted of militia, the conduct of which 
 was scandalous beyond endurance. They deserted, not only in small 
 numbers, but in companies and squadrons, whenever they could ; and 
 their conduct, in the face of the "enemy, or rather when running from the 
 faces of the enemy, was most cowardly. So disorderly was their demeanor) 
 and so like poltroons did they behave when flying from Sir Henry 
 Clinton, that even Washington himself lost his patience, and was excited 
 to a degree of hot exasperation. In writing from Harlaem Heights to a 
 friend. General Greene said that " two brigades of mihtia ran away from 
 about fifty m.en, leaving the Commander-in-Chief on the ground, within 
 eighty yards of the enemy, so vexed with the conduct of his troops that 
 he sought death rather than life. His attempts to stop them were fruit- 
 less. He drew his sword and threatened to run them through, and 
 cocked and snapped his pistols.* But all his exertions were to no purpose.'' 
 
 * Mr, Bancroft, it is true, discredits this statement ; but, it seems to me, with- 
 out 8ufB.oient reason. 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 In a letter upon the subject of this infamous conduct of the militia, to the 
 President of Congress, the Commander-in-Chief declared that, " were he 
 called to give his opinion upon oath, he should say that militia did more 
 injury to the service than good.'' 
 
 General Greene strongly urged the destruction of the city by fire — a 
 measure afterward so effectively adopted by Count Rostopchin, Governor 
 of the ancient "capital of Muscovy, to arrest the career of Napoleon — that 
 the enemy might be deprived of the advantage of establishing their 
 winter-quarters therein. His reasons for this measure were sound, and 
 ought, doubtless, to have been adopted. Washington, also, was 
 believed to be of the same opinion, especially as two-thirds of the property 
 which it was proposed to destroy, belonged to undisguised loyalists. But 
 Congress would not allow the sacrifice ; and on the 15th of September, 
 1776, the City of New York was in full possession of the British — General 
 Washington having retired with the army to King's Bridge. 
 
 It would seem, however, as if the idea of firing the city — though 
 given vip by Washington and Greene — was stiU cherished by some of the 
 residents of the city. Scarcely had the British fairly taken posession, 
 when on the night of the 20th of September — only six days after they had 
 marched in — a terrific fire broke out, which was not subdued until one 
 thousand housas, or about one-fourth of the city, was reduced to ashes.* 
 The fire was first discovered in a low dram-shop, tenanted by abandoned 
 men and women ; but in a few minutes afterward flames were seen to 
 break forth from several other buildings, lying in different directions, at 
 the same moment. For some time previous the weather had been dry, 
 and at the moment a brisk southerly wind prevailing, and the buildings 
 being of wood and covered with shingles, the flames soon caught the 
 neighboring houses and spread with inconceivable rapidity. The fire 
 swept up Broad and Beaver streets to Broadway and thence onward, con- 
 suming all that portion of the town lying on the North River, until the 
 flames were stopped by the grounds of King's (Columbia) CoUegeat Mortkile 
 street, now Barclay. St. Paul's Charch, at one time, was in great danger. 
 Fortunately, however, the roof was flat, with a balustrade on the eaves. 
 Taking advantage of this circumstance, a number of citizens went into the 
 balustrade and extinguished the flakes of fire as they fell on the roof. 
 Trinity Church, with the Lutheran Chapel, on the opposite comer of 
 Rector street, was also destroyed. The Rev. Dr. Inglis was then rector 
 of Trinity, and with this sacred edifice, his parsonage and the Charity 
 School — two large buildings — were consumed, entailing a loss of church- 
 property to the value of twenty-five thousand pounds. The organ of 
 Trinity, alone, cost eight hundred and fifty pounds. 
 
 * Hugh Gaine, in his Tlnir.erml Register for 1787, states that before this fire, the 
 city contained 'about four thousand two hundred houses, and thirty thousand 
 inhabitants. 
 
147 
 
 At the present day it is difficult to say whether the fire was or was 
 not the result of incendiarism on the part of disaffected Americans. Even 
 reliable contemporaneous writers differ widely in their opinion on the 
 subject, some affirming positively that the city was set on fire, and others 
 again quite as positively affirming the contrary. For ourselves, we are 
 inclined to believe that the fire was the result of a dehberate design ; nor, 
 if the newspapers and private correspondence of the day can be believed, is 
 there much room left for doubt. According to these authorities, one 
 man was seized in the act of setting fire to the College, who acknowledged 
 that he had been employed for the purpose. A New England captain, 
 who was seized at the same time, with matches in his pocket, also 
 acknowledged the same. One White, a carpenter, was observed to cut 
 the leather-buckets which conveyed the water. " The next day, Satur- 
 day,'' says Steadman, in his history of the American War, " a great many 
 cart-loads of bundles of pine-sticks dipped in brimstone were found con- 
 cealed in cellars of houses to which the incendiaries had not had time to 
 set fire." " The rebels," says the Eev. Charles Inghs, in writing on 
 the same subject, a few days after, to the ■ Venerable Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' " carried off all the bells in 
 the city, partly to convert them into cannon and partly to prevent notice 
 being given speedily of the destruction they meditated against the city by 
 fire, when it began. * * Several rebels secreted themselves in the 
 houses to execute the diabolical purpose of destroying the city." Not- 
 withstanding, however, this seeming mass of testimony, it was found 
 impossible to obtain legal proof sufficient to fasten the act upon anj' par- 
 ticular individual — for all who had been caught a the time with matches, 
 &c., had been killed on the spot by the enraged soldiery — and the result 
 was, that several of the citizens, who had been arrested and imprisoned 
 on the charge of being the incendiaries, were acquitted. 
 
 The history of New York City during its occupation by the British 
 is not one that Americans can recall with pleasure. True it is that this 
 period has invested a few of the old buildings, yet standing, with interest ; 
 but these very associations are of a saddening, melancholy nature, and 
 only calculated to make Americans, even at the present day, blush at the 
 remembrance of the fact that British officers— having their blood, and the 
 same ancestry, and speaking the same tongue— could ever have been guilty 
 of such horrid atrocities upon the persons of inoffensive captives. Of the 
 numerous prison-pens in the city during the Eevolution, only two yet stand 
 
 like charred and battered monuments of cruelty and tyranny — the North 
 
 Dutch Church, on Wilham street, and the Middle Dutch Church— the 
 present Post-Office. In the former edifice, eight hundred prisoners were 
 ncarcerated, without fuel or bedding, during two of the coldest winters 
 
148 
 
 New York has ever" known.* Their provisions were scant}', and of the 
 poorest quality ; and, as a natural and probably anticipated consequence, 
 many died from cold and starvation. " We never," says Oliver Woodrufi; 
 one of the prisoners, " drew as much provisions for three days' allowance 
 as a man would eat at a common meal. I was there three months during 
 that inclement season, and never saw any fire, except what was in the lamps 
 of the city. There was not a pane of glas»in the windows, and nothing to 
 keep out the cold, except the iron grates." " The aUowance," says Adolph 
 Meyer, another prisoner, " was one loaf of bread, one quart of peas, half a 
 pint of rice, and one and a half pounds of pork for six days. Many pris- 
 oners died from want ; and others were reduced to such wretchedness as to 
 attract the attention of common prostitutes, from whom they received 
 considerable assistance. No care was taken of the sick, and if any died 
 they were thrown at the door of the prison, and lay there tiU the next 
 day, when they were put on a cart and drawn out to the entrenchments, 
 beyond the Jews' burial-ground, where they were interred by their fellow- 
 prisoners, conducted thither for that purpose. The dead were thrown 
 into a hole promiscuously, without the usual rites of sepulcher." But 
 the state of things was even worse in the Middle Dutch Church — the 
 present Post-Office— into which three thousand prisoners were crowded. 
 " Here," says John Pintard, an eye-witness of these scenes, "the prisoners 
 taken on Long Island and at Tort Washington — .sick, wounded, and 
 well — were aU indiscriminately huddled together by hundreds and 
 thousands, laige numbers of whom died by disease; and many were 
 undoubtedly poisoned by their inhuman attendants for the sake of their 
 watches and silver buckles." " The beds of the prisoners," says Dunlop, 
 writing at the time, "were straw, intermixed with vermin. For many 
 weeks, the dead-cart visited the prison every morning, into which from 
 eight to twelve corpses were flung and piled up, then dumped into ditches 
 in the outskirts of the city." The bones of the unfortunate victims of 
 British cruelty, thus disposed of, were collected after the Revolution, and 
 buried with proper funeral rites. t 
 
 But while the American prisoners were thus languishing in chains, 
 the British officers and their wives were passing their time in a round of 
 gayety and frivoUty. The best view, perhaps, of the interior and social 
 life of New York at this time — now become in reaUty a British city — is 
 
 * During one of these winters — that of 1779-80 — the river between Cortlandt 
 street and Jersey was frozen over for forty days. Hundreds of people crossed daily 
 on the ice, which was so thick that artillery was also convoyed across. 
 
 •f It is very true that, at times, the British themselves were often in want of 
 food, and suffered from cold — and also that provisions were dear — still, that need no t 
 have prevented them from giving the prisoners hed-clothes, and ministering to their 
 necessities, and alleviating their condition as far as possible. 
 
149 
 
 given in the letters of Mrs. General Riedesel,* This lady was the wife 
 of the German general who commanded the Brunswick troops at the 
 battle of Saratoga, where he was captured with Burgoyne. After her 
 husband was exchanged she spent nearly two years in New York City— 
 1779-80^and her letters to her mother at this time are of great interest. 
 From these lotters, recently published in book-form, we make the follow- 
 ing extracts : 
 
 "Finally, late one evening, at the end of November, 1779, we 
 reached New York, where my husband, who had gone ahead of 
 us, had , already arrived before me. A soldier who, at the gate- 
 way, had been ordered to show us the way, conducted us to a very 
 great and beautiful house, where we found everything prepared for 
 our reception, and, better than all, a good supper. I was too much 
 occupied in putting the children to bed, and too tired to inquire 
 where I was, and supposed I was in a public-house. My husband, 
 who had taken tea with General CornwaUis, came home late. The next 
 morning a servant came in to ask me what I desired for dinner, and how 
 many visitors I would probably have daily at table. I replied that as my 
 husband did not dine at home, I should not need more than three dishes 
 for six persons, namely : myself, my children, my women-servants, and the 
 pastor, Mylius, the chaplain of my husband's regiment, whom we retained 
 in our family, and who gave my children instruction in everything useful. 
 He was a man of piety and of excellent character and good humor, and 
 the children and we all loved him very much. I was then told that the 
 order had been given to serve up on my table every day six large and 
 four small dishes. Being still under the impression that I was in a tav- 
 ern, I decidedly forbade this profusion, as I dreaded the bill. But I soon 
 discovered that I was stajdng at the house of the Governor, General 
 Tryon, who had forbidden them to tell me where I had been taken, through 
 fear that I would not accept of his house. t This noble-minded man, 
 
 * Letters and Journals relatinr/ to tfie War of the American Hewlution, and tlie 
 Cii.pture of the German Troops at Saratoga, hy Mrs. General Biedesel. Translated 
 from the orif/inal German, by William L. Stone. Albany: J. Munsell. 1867. 
 
 t The site of the present [1868] Bank of New York. 
 
 " On tlie night of December 29th, 1773, the government house accidentally 
 caught fire. So rapid was the progress of the flames that in a few moments after 
 the alarm was given, a thick cloud of smoke and flame pervaded the whole building, 
 and in less than two hours it was entirely consumed. From this dreadful conflagra- 
 tion, nothing in the building, except a few articles of furniture taken from one of 
 the parlors, was saved. The manner in which the fire originated was not discov- 
 ered. The deep snow which covered the roofs of the other buildings in the city, 
 contributed toward their protection, and the fire department of the city showed 
 great activity in preventing the progress of the flames. Governor Tryon was a resi- 
 dent of the government house in the fort at the time of its destruction, and was a 
 heavy loser by the event. He afterward resided in a house on the comer of Wall 
 
150 
 
 moreover, in order to avoid my thanks, crossed over to Long . Island, 
 ■where he had a provisional command. All my wishes were anticipated, 
 and I was only in continual fear lest I should abuse so much kindness. 
 I also received a call from General Patterson, the commandant of the 
 city, who told me that they were still busy with the arrangement of the 
 house, which we were to have as our own residence. Lord ComwaUis 
 and General Clinton hkewise came to see me. The former went off soon 
 afterward upon an expedition. The latter offered me a country seat, of 
 -which he had the disposal, where I might have my children inoculated 
 with the small-pox, an operation which it would be dangerous to have 
 performed in the city, as that disease was raging there violently. I 
 accepted his offer with much satisfaction, and we made all necessary 
 preparations to go there. I gave our cook ten guineas to purchase all 
 kinds of provisions. But when he very soon came back and asked for 
 more money, I learned to my surprise that the money I had given him 
 would scarcely last for two days, so dear was everything, even the com- 
 monest thing. For example, one pound of meat, reckoning according to 
 our money, cost twelve groschen ;* one pound of butter, eighteen groschen ; 
 one turkey, four rix-thalers ; a fowl, twenty groschen ; an egg, four 
 groschen ; a quart of milk, six groschen ; a bushel of potatoes, two rix- 
 thalers ; a half bushel of turnips, two florins ; ten oysters, eight groschen ; 
 and six onions, one rix-thaler. But what was there left for me to do but 
 to bear it with patience r't 
 
 One day a general was announced. I received him, and in the 
 course of conversation he asked me, among other things, whether I was 
 satisfied with my quarters ? My heart was too full of thankfulness for 
 
 and William streets, the same house having been subsequently, and until late years, 
 occupied by the Bank of New York." — Valentine's Manual far 1864, page 643. 
 
 * A ^oschen, as has been mentioned in a preceding note, is a fraction over 
 three Anierican cents. 
 
 f All contemporaneous accounts fully corroborate the statement of our authoress. 
 The rich in the city at first strove to keep up their six courses, their three-side 
 services, and their profusion of fish, flesh, and fowl, but at length their resources 
 failed ; many articles of food could no longer be obtained, and others were so dear 
 as to exhaust the means of the wealthiest. A turkey was cheap at four dollars. 
 Good meat could seldom be procured, and vegetables were extravagantly dear. 
 Pifty dollars, says an eye-witness, would not feed a fafdily for two days. Sir Henrj' 
 Clinton entreated the farmers of the vicinity to bring in provisions, but in vain. 
 Nor was he more successful in the foraging-parties he sent out. At sight of the 
 enemy the alarm was given. The farmers of "Westport and Southport, of Elizabeth- 
 town and Rahway, hastily buried their corn and oats beneath the snow, and old 
 family furniture was carried off at midnight and hidden in the depths of the forest- 
 The British foraging-parties accordingly found the bams empty, the cattle driven 
 oft', and the farm-houses deserted. In their rage the foragers set fire to the old 
 homesteads and desolated whole districts, thus increasing the general misery without 
 accomplishing the least good. 
 
151 
 
 aU the kindness that had been shown me, not to give full vent to my 
 feelings in this regard ; and I at last expressed the wish to know person- 
 ally my noble benefactor who had treated me with so much deUcacy. He 
 laughed, and just at that moment my husband stepped in and said to me, 
 " That is the man who has shown us so much kindness !" I was so 
 delighted at seeing him that I could not find words to express my feeUngs. 
 Upon seeing mj' emotion the man was very much affected. I have inva- 
 riably received from him the greatest proofs of his friendship. 
 
 The country residence of General Clinton, where we went, was an 
 hour's ride from the city. The grounds were beautiful, as was also the 
 house, but the latter was arranged more for a summer residence, and as 
 we had come there in the month of December, we suffered much from 
 the cold. Notwithstanding this, however, the inoculation was perfectly 
 successful. Accordingly, as it was now completed, and we had nothing 
 more to fear from the infection, we got ourselves in readiness to return 
 to the city, and sent our cook and the rest of our servants ahead to pre- 
 pare everything for our arrival, which we expected would be upon the 
 foUowing day. During the night, however, we had such a terrible storm 
 that we believed the whole house would be overturned. As it was, an 
 entire balustrade actually feU down with a dreadful crash, and on getting 
 dp the next morning, we saw that on account of snow having fallen during 
 the night four or five feet on the level, and eight feet in drifts, it would 
 be utterly impossible to venture forth without sledges. I therefore went 
 ■to work to hunt up all that I could find for our dinner. An old hen that 
 liad been forgotten served us for soup, and some potatoes which the 
 gardener gave us, with some salt meat that stiU remained over from our 
 stock of provisions, made up the entire meal for more than fourteen per- 
 sons, which number we then were. 
 
 On our return to New York I found, to my great amazement our new 
 dwelling fitted up throughout with mahogany furniture. 1 was at first 
 frightened at the expense which this would occasion. But Captain 
 Willoe informed me that the entire cost would be defrayed by the Gov- 
 ernor and that the Commandant, General Patterson, considered himself 
 fortunate in being able to justify the confidence which I had placed in 
 the English nation.- To render this remark intelligible, I must here state 
 that I had assured him, when he consulted me upon the arrangement of 
 our house, that I would leave everything entirely to the English, from 
 whom, up to the present time, I had received sincere kindness and 
 courtesy, and who certainly would still preserve toward us that full con- 
 fidence which they had shown toward us. 
 
 They overwhelmed us with distinguished marks of courtesy and 
 friendship, for which we had, in a great measure, to thank General 
 Phillips, who in New York was very much beloved, and was so strong a 
 friend of ours, that he declared that whatever was done for^ us, would 
 
152 
 
 flatter him more than as if done for himself. I had also the good fortune 
 during our stay to make many friends on my own account. 
 
 As the birthday of the Queen of England was approaching (which 
 reaUy comes in summer, but as the King's birthday also comes in that 
 season, is celebrated in winter, to give more custom to the trades-people 
 (as every one upon those days appears at court in gala-dress, they wished 
 to celebrate the day with a great /e^e; and as it was the general wish- 
 partly to please General Phillips, and partly to make me forget my own 
 suffering— to confer on me a distinguished honor, they desired me to be 
 queen of the ball. In order to bring this about they persuaded the wife 
 of General CornwalUs' adjutant— who as an English lady of noble birth, 
 would have had precedence over me— to remain at home on the ground 
 that she was near her confinement. When at length the great day 
 arrived, aU the ladies assembled at Governor Tryon's, where they received 
 me with all ceremony. The General introduced me to all the ladies, some 
 of whom were envious of the honor which was shown me. But I imme- 
 diately declared that I received this distinction only on account of the day, as 
 they had conferred on me the^honor of representing the Queen, and that 
 in future I would give place to those ladies who were older than I. As 
 there were quite a number present who were my elders, my explanation 
 conciHated them. Their countenances, accordingly, quickly brightened 
 up, and I was soon upon a pleasant footing with the whole company. 
 
 At six O'clock in the afternoon I was obliged to seat myself in a 
 carriage with Generals Tryon and Patterson to be driven to the ball, 
 where we were received with kettle-drums and trumpets. 
 
 At supper, I was obUged, as I represented the Queen, to sit under a 
 canopy, and drink the first toast. I was certainly much touched at aU 
 the marks of friendship I received, although extremely tired ; still, in 
 order to show my gratitude, I cheerfully stayed as long as possible, and 
 remained until two o'clock in the morning. Not only on this occasion, 
 but during the whole of my sojourn in this place, I was loaded with kind- 
 ness ; and I passed the remainder of the winter very pleasantly, with the 
 exception of suffering very much from^ the cold, as the commissary had 
 not had a sufficient quantity of wood cut. To save expense, he had this 
 work done by his negro slaves ; and the winter setting in earlier than 
 usual, and being impossible, as the river was frozen half over, to bring 
 in wood either by boats or sledges, many of the garrison suffered for fuel. 
 We, indeed, received an order for it ; but how did that help the matter 
 since there was no wood to be had ? We were, therefore, often obliged 
 to borrow wood of General Tryon for Saturday and Sunday, which we 
 would return on Monday if we received any. The cold was so intense, 
 that I frequently made the children lie in bed in order to keep them 
 warm. Wood could not often be purchased for money ; and if by chance 
 a little was for sale, it cost ten pounds by the cord. I have myself paid 
 
153 
 
 one piaster (which is a crown with us) for a single stick. The poor were 
 obliged to burn fat, in order to warm themselves and cook their meals.* 
 
 One day I was at the house of the lady of General Comwallis' aid- 
 de-camp, who had been confined, and complained bitterly of this lack of 
 wood ; whereupon, she promised to send me some coals, which I could 
 return at my own convenience. I showed so much joy at this, that a 
 certain Major, named Brown, who happened to be present, and was 
 attached to the commissariat, and who had already expressed much 
 sympathy at our want of wood, was so much affected that he immediately 
 left the room. 
 
 The next day, as I was looking out of the window, I saw quite a 
 number of wagons full of chopped trees standing still in the street. Each 
 wagon contained two cords of wood. I went into the room where the 
 pastor, Mylius, sat with the children before the fire-place in which the 
 last stick was burning, and said to him : ' Never before have I been 
 envious ; but now the' distress and pain which these poor children sufier, 
 m^ake me so : for just now there has come to our very door four wagons 
 filled with wood. How happy would I be if I only had some of it !' 
 Scarcely had I thus spoken, when a servant brought me a message from 
 Major Brown, stating that he had sent me these loads of wood with his 
 compliments, and begging us to send to him whenever we should again 
 be out of fuel. Imagine my joy, and my eagerness to thank our guardian 
 angel. I had scarcely seen his face, as the lying-in chamber of milady 
 had been so dark. Some days after I was at a ball where he also 
 was expected to be present. He had been described to me as a man with 
 a very prominent tumed-up nose. For such a person, therefore, I looked 
 attentively ; but I was obliged to look for a long time, because flie excel- 
 lent man kept continually out of the way, that I might have no oppor- 
 tunity to thank him. At last, however, I found him, and thanked him 
 right heartily. He then told me that up to that time he had known 
 nothing of our necessity, but that when he heard my story he had not 
 been able to go to sleep quietly the whole night, through fear that the 
 dispositions which he had already made for our rehef would not arrive 
 sufficiently speedy. These ' dispositions ' consisted in giving the order to 
 cut down some of the trees in the great avenue in front of the city ; t 
 
 * " The wealthy," writes a contemporary, " shivered for cold in their splendid 
 apartments. In vain did Sir Henry Clinton issue proclamations to the farmers of 
 Lon-r Island to send in their wood. In vain did he dispatch foraging-parties to cut 
 down the forests on the large estates of the patriots William Floyd and William 
 Smith, the patroons of Long Island. The demand for fuel could not he supplied^ 
 and the Baroness Eiedesel, the caressed of all the army, suffered severely in that 
 inclement winter." 
 
 f Probably, the present Wall street. All the principal highways of the city 
 were adorned at this period with luxuriant shade-trees. A celebrated traveler, who 
 
154 
 
 and when this proceeding was objected to on the ground that it would 
 make considerable damage, he replied, that it was much better to spare 
 a few trees than to have a family, who had served the King with so 
 much zeal, suffer from want. He further told me that in future we 
 must, under aU circumstances, whenever anything was wanting that it 
 belonged to the commissary to supply, apply directly to him. This 
 •acquaintance was of great advantage to us. My husband was supplied 
 with many kinds of provisions ; with Indian meal, part of which we used 
 for bread and part for cake, and also with salted meat, which latter 
 article, however, was entirely useless to us, as we received more than we 
 could consume ; and it often was so uneatable that I gave it away to get 
 rid of it, especially since our servants were also supplied with the same 
 kind of food. The Major, accordingly, advised us to pursue the same 
 plan in this regard as the other generals, viz. : to exchange our meat 
 for boxes of tallow and candles of spermaceti (which burn better and are 
 more beautiful than those of wax), and also for butter, which they did 
 gladly, as they were obliged to supply the soldiers with meat. By this 
 means, we saved considerable. We were now no longer troubled for the 
 want of wood, for they broke to pieces an old and worthless ship in order 
 to furnish us with fuel, and from this time we received weekly two cords 
 of fire-wood. 
 
 Throughout the whole winter, Generals Phillips, Tryon, and Patter- 
 son were our constant friends and guests, and every week we gave a gen- 
 tleman's dinner party. This was all that we could afford to do, as every- 
 thing was so terribly high in the city. At the end of the winter General 
 Tryon sailed for England, but just before his departure, he sent to my 
 house unbeknown to me, magnificent furniture, tapestry, carpets, and 
 curtains, besides a set of silk hangings for an entire room. Never shall 
 I forget the many marks of friendship which I have received from almost 
 every one of this excellent nation, and it will always be to me a source of 
 satisfaction to be able at any time to be of use to the English, as I have 
 learned by experience how pleasant it is to receive kindness from 
 foreigners. 
 
 visited New York, just prerious to the arrival of Governor Tryon, thus describes the 
 various kinds then growing in the city : " In the chief streets there are trees planted, 
 which in the summer give them a fine appearance, and during the excessive heat at 
 that time, afford a cooling shade. I found it extremely pleasant to wait in the 
 to-BTi, for it seemed quite like a garden. The trees which are planted for this pur- 
 pose are chiefly of two kinds ; the water-beech is the most numerous, and gives an 
 agreeable shade in summar by its large and numerous leaves. The locust-tree is 
 likewise frequent ; its fine leaves and the odoriferous scent which exhales from its 
 flowers, make it very proper for being planted in the streets near the houses and in 
 the gardens. There are likewise lime-trees and elms in these walks, but they are 
 not, by far, so frequent as the others. One seldom meets with trees of the same sort 
 adjoining each other, they being in general placed alternately." 
 
155 
 
 About this time our friendly relations began with our excellent 
 friend General OUnton, who was the general-in-chief of the English army 
 in the southern pro-vdnces of America. As is the case with every Enghsh- 
 man, it was at first very difficult for our acquaintance to ripen into inti- 
 macy. His first call upon us was one of ceremony, as he came as general- 
 in-chief, attended by his entire staff. As his general appearance and 
 conversation were agreeable, I said to his friend, General PhiUips, that I 
 regretted that he had treated us with so much ceremony, and that a 
 more friendly manner would have better accorded with our feelings. 
 Afterward he invited us out to his country seat to spend the sum- 
 mer, an invitation which was accepted. His country residence was 
 magnificent, a most beautiful situation, orchard and meadows, and 
 the Hudson Eiver running directly in front of the house. Every 
 thing was placed at our disposal, including fruits of the most deli- 
 cious flavor; indeed, of this latter article we had more than we 
 could eat. Our servants feasted on peaches even to satiety, and our 
 horses, which roamed through the orchards, eagerly ate the fruit from 
 the trees, disdaining that upon the ground, which every evening we had 
 gathered up and given to the pigs to fatten them. It seems almost 
 incredible, but nevertheless it is true, that with nothing but this fruit we 
 fattened sis pigs, the flesh of which was capital, only the fat was some- 
 what soft. Peach, apricot, and other fruit-trees are raised here without 
 espaliers, and have trunks as thick as those of ordinary trees. 
 
 Not far from us were the Hell Gates, which are dangerous breakers 
 for those ships that pass through them up the river. We often saw ships 
 in danger, but only one was wrecked and went to pieces during our stay 
 at this place. 
 
 General Chnton came often to visit us, but in hunter's dress, accom- 
 panied by only one aid-de-camp. On one of these occasions he said to 
 us : ' I feel confldent that you look upon me more as a friend than a 
 stranger, and as I feel the same toward you, you shall always be regarded 
 by me as such.' The last time he came to see us, he had with him the 
 unfortunate — as he afterward became — Major Andre, who, the day after- 
 ward, set out upon the fatal expedition in which he was captured by the 
 Americans and afterward hung as a spy. It was very sad that this 
 pre-eminently excellent young man should have fallen a victim to his zeal 
 and his kind heart, which led him to undertake such a precarious errand 
 instead of leaving it to older and known ofiicers, to whom properly the 
 duty belonged, but whom on that very account (as they would be more 
 exposed to danger) he wished to save. 
 
 We passed much of our time at this most agreeable place, but our 
 contentment was broken in upon by a malignant fever that prevailed in 
 New York, and of which in our family alone, twenty fell ill, eight danger- 
 ously. Among these eight were my husband and my daughter Gustava. 
 
156 
 
 One can imagine my grief and apprehension ; day and night I did nothing: 
 but divide my nursing between my husband and daughter. The former 
 was so iU that we often thought he would not survive the day, and Gus- 
 tava had such violent paroxysms of fever that she entreated me, when she- 
 was shivering with the ague, to lay myself upon her, at which times she 
 violently shook me together with her bed, although she was only nine 
 years old. It frequently happened that those sick of the fever died in 
 these fits of shaking, and every day persons would tell me of fifty or sixty 
 fresh burials, which certainly did not tend to raise my spirits. The heat 
 which the sick suffered was so intense that their pulse beat one hundred 
 and thirty-five times in a minute. All our servants were sick, and of 
 course I was obliged to do everything. I was then nursing my Httle 
 America, and had neither opportunity nor desire to lie dovm, except while 
 giving her the breast. At such times I laid down upon the bed and. fell 
 asleep. At night I was often busied in making for my patients a lemon- 
 ade of salts of Avormwood, mixed with lemon-juice, sugar and water. By 
 which means, as all the sick in the house had them, I used up in the 
 space of two weeks, two full boxes of lemons, each box containing five 
 hundred. 
 
 We remained the entire summer of 1780 upon this lovely estate. 
 Two Miss Eobinsons came to share our loneliness and enliven our little 
 company. They remained with us a fortnight previous to our return to 
 the city, when the news of the arrival of a ship from England bringing over 
 the latest fashions, took them back again to the town. On our return to the 
 city I scarcely recognized them in their odd and actually laughable garb, 
 which a very pretty woman just over from England, had imposed upon 
 them and the other New York ladies. This lady was with child and did 
 not Avish it to be known. Accordingly, she made them think that in 
 England they wore bodices that were parted in the middle, whereby the 
 points stuck upward, hoops as large around as those of a hogshead, and 
 very short cloaks tied up "svith ribbons, all of which they believed implic- 
 itly and copied after.* 
 
 Upon our return to New York we were received in the most friendly 
 
 * The taste for fashionable frivolity and display seems to have been the only 
 thing unaffected by the privations of that gloomy -winter. Eugene Lawrence, in 
 speaking of Ne-w York City at this time, in a paper read before the Ne-vv York His- 
 torical Society, January 6th, 18.57, says ; " Mean-while, in the midst of all this suffer- 
 ing and want, the city streets were filled with the fashions and the luxuries of 
 Europe. The ladies c rowded William street, and the merchants spread out the most 
 costly -wares. French silks captured in some unlucky vessels, sold readHy at extrav- 
 agant rates. Lutestrings and poplins, brocades, and the best broadcloth of England, 
 were shown on the counters of William street and Wall, and it is a curious circum.- 
 stance, that through all the war, William Prince, of Blushing, continued his adver- 
 tisement of fruit and flowers, of magnolias and apricots, and of the finest grafts, and 
 the rarest seeds." 
 
157 
 
 manner, and our friends vied with each other in making the winter pass 
 most pleasantly. My husband, General Phillips, and their aid-de-camps, 
 were linalJy exchanged in the autumn of 1780, but the rest of the troops 
 captured at Saratoga remained prisoners. 
 
 General Clinton, partly through friendship to my husband, and 
 partly out of attachment to our present duke, wished to place General 
 Eiedesel in active service where he could serve to advantage. He, there- 
 fore, by virtue of the power which an English general has in his own 
 army, appointed him Lieutenant-General and gave him the correspond- 
 ing English allowance ; which, on account of the dearness of everything 
 (by reason of which we had difficulty in making both ends meet), proved 
 very acceptable to us. At the same time he gave him a command at Long 
 Island, which island lies opposite New York, being separated from it by 
 only a narrow channel called the East River. I was not able during the 
 winter to be with him, as the house in which he had his quarters, was 
 not habitable for me, as it was possible to heat only a few rooms in it. 
 My husband, accordingly, went back and forth, which he easily did all 
 winter, as everything was quiet. The autumn before he was appointed 
 to this post, he had a severe relapse of his old complaint, caused probably 
 by a cold which he caught by going in sea-bathing while heated. He 
 suddenly became perfectly stiff and could not speak, and had it not been 
 for friend Colonel Wurmb, who fortunately was in his room, it might 
 j)erhaps have been aU over with him. The doctor immediately opened a 
 vein and rubbed him strongly, and God once more spared him to me ; but 
 his cramps, oppressions, headaches, and drowsiness increased. All the 
 physicians gave it as their opinion that the climate thoroughly disagreed 
 with him, and that he never would be any better as long as he remained 
 in the southern provinces of North America. StiU there was nothing else 
 for us to do. My husband could not think of receiving permission to 
 leave, and was, therefore, obUged to remain at his post. 
 
 In the spring of 1781, 1 also settled down on Long Island, where we, 
 although pretty lonesome, might have Uved perfectly contented if we 
 only could have been without soUoitude ; but as the river was not frozen 
 over, the Americans constantly attempted surprises in order to take pris- 
 oners. Major Maybaum was drawn out of his bed, and we knew that 
 they aimed to do the same thing with my husband. Our house was sit- 
 uated close to the shore and was perfectly isolated, so that if they had 
 overcome the watch they could easily have carried him away. Every one 
 was therefore constantly on the watch. Throughout the entire night at 
 the slightest noise, he would wake up and place himself in readiness for 
 an attack, and thus he lost considerable sleep. I also became so accus- 
 tomed to watching that daylight would often surprise me when I would 
 lie down and catch a few hours sleep, for it was only when my husband 
 believed that I was wide awake and on guard, that he would allow him- 
 
158 
 
 self to sleep, so terrible was to Mm the thought that he might again be 
 taken prisoner. We had from our house a magnificent prospect. Every 
 evening I saw from my window the City of New York, entirely lighted up, 
 and as the city is built close to the shore, I saw its reflection in the water. 
 We heard also the beating of the drums, and, if everything was particu- 
 larly still, even the calls of the sentinels. We had our own boat, and 
 could cross over in it to New York in a quarter of an hour." 
 
 At length, a definite treaty of peace was entered into by the United 
 States and Great Britain, on the 3d of September, 1783 ; and on the 25th 
 of November, of the same year — just seven years, two months, and ten 
 days from the time the British had occupied New York in triumph — 
 Washington entered the city at noon — at the same time that the British 
 troops, having, as tJiey supposed, prevented the immediate hoisting of 
 American colors, by knocking off the cleats and greasing thQ flag-staff on 
 Fort George — evacuated the city and sailed slowly down the bay. But 
 this device availed them little. New cleats were at once nailed on to the 
 pole ; and before the British disappeared in the offing they heard the 
 thunders of American cannon, proclaiming — as the Stars and Stripes 
 were run up — the downfall of British supremacy in America ! 
 
 A history of this period would be incomplete without an allusion to 
 the newspapers published in the City of New York before and during 
 the American Revolution. 
 
 The first newspaper pubUshed in New York City was the New York 
 Gazette, established by WilUam Bradford in October, 1725, just twenty- 
 one years subsequent to the establishment at Boston of the first newspaper 
 pubhshed in America — the Newsletter. It was printed on a half-sheet of 
 foolscap, with a large and almost worn-out type. There is a large volume 
 of these papers in the New York Society Library, in good preservation. 
 The advertisements do not average more than three or four a week, and 
 are mostly of runaway negroes. The ship-news was diminutive enough — 
 now and then a ship, and some half-dozen sloops arriving and leaving in 
 the course of the week. Such was the daily paper published in this, the 
 commercial metropoHs of America, one hundred and forty-one years ago ! 
 
 Eight years after the establishment of Bradford's Gazette, the New 
 York Weekly Journal was commenced by John Peter Zenger, and was 
 distinguished for the raciness of its advertisements.* 
 
 The third paper published in New York was called the Eve^iing Post. 
 It was commenced by Henrj' De Forest in 1746. It was remarkable 
 
 * One of these advertisements was as follows : 
 
 WJiereas, tlie wife of Peter Smith has left his bed and board, the public are 
 cautioned against trusting her, as he will pay no debts of her contracting. 
 
 N. B. — The best of garden-seeds sold by the same Peter Smith, at the sign of 
 the G-olden Hammer. 
 
159 
 
 chiefly for stupidity, looseness of grammar, and worse orthography, and 
 died before it was able to walk alone. 
 
 In 1752 the New York Mercury was commenced, and in 1763 the title 
 was changed to the New York Gazette and Weehly Mercury. This paper was 
 established by Hugh Qaine, at the sign of the Bible and Crown, Hanover 
 Square. It was conducted with taste and ability, and became the best 
 newspaper in the colonies. In 1763 Gaine was arraigned by the Assembly 
 for publishing a part of the proceedings without permission, and withal 
 incorrectly. He was a gentleman of a kind spirit, and never had the 
 power to withhold an apology when it was asked ; he accordingly apolo- 
 gized, was reprimanded, and discharged. 
 
 As the storm of war drew on in 1775, the ifsz-citf'j/ contained a series 
 of patriotic papers, under the signature of the " Watch-Tower." But as 
 the British drew near to New York, the patriotism of Gaine began to 
 cool ; and during the whole course of the Revolutionary War his Mercury 
 afforded very accurate indications of the state of the contest. (When 
 with the Whigs, Hugh Gaine was a Whig ; when with the Royalists, he 
 was loyal.) When the contest was doubtful, equally doubtful were the 
 politics of Hugh Gaine. In short, he was the most perfect pattern of the 
 genuine non-committal. On the arrival of the British army he removed to 
 Newark, but soon returned to the city, and published a paper devoted to 
 the cause of the Grown. His course was a fruitful theme for the wags 
 of the day ; and at the peace, a poetical petition from Gaine to the Senate 
 of the State, setting forth his life and conduct, was got up with a good 
 deal of humor, His paper closed with the war. 
 
 Another paper, called the Netv York Gazette, was commenced by 
 Wayman, the former associate of Parker. In 1766 Wayman was arrested 
 and imprisoned for a contempt of the Assembly, upon no other charge 
 than that of two typographical errors in printing the speech of Sir Henry 
 Moore, the Governor of the Colony. One of these errors consisted in 
 printing the word never for ever, by reason of which the meaning of the 
 sentence was reversed. The Assembly, however, was more rigid in this 
 case, from the suspicion entertained that this error was intentional ; but 
 such was clearly not the case. 
 
 A paper called the New York Chronicle was published during the years 
 1761-62, and then died. The New York Pacqmt was next published in 
 1763, but how long it lived is not known. In 1766, Holt established the 
 New York Journal, or General Advertiser, which in the course of the year 
 was united with Parker^s Gazette, the Journal being printed as a separate 
 paper. John Holt edited the first Whig paper pubhshed in this city ; 
 nor, as in the case of Hugh Gaine, did his patriotism come and go, as 
 danger approached or receded from the city. In 1774, Holt discarded 
 the King's arms from the title of his paper, substituting in place of it a 
 serpent, cut in pieces, with the expressive motto, '^ Unite or die." In 
 
160 
 
 Januaiy, 1775, the snake was united and coiled with the tail in his 
 mouth, forming a double ring. On the body of the snake, beginning at 
 the head, were the following lines : 
 
 " United now, alive and free — 
 Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand, 
 And, thus supported, ever bless our land. 
 Till Time becomes Eternity." 
 
 The designs both of 1774 and 177.5 were excellent — the first by a 
 visible illustration, showing the disjointed state of the colonies ; and the 
 second presenting an emblem of their strength when united. Holt main- 
 tained his integrity to the last. When the British took possession of 
 New York he removed to Esopus, now Kingston, and revived his paper. 
 On the burning of that village, by the enemy, in 1777, he removed to 
 Poughkeepsie, and pubUshed the Journal there until the peace of 1783, 
 when he returned to New York and resumed his paper under the title of 
 the Independent Gazette, or the New York Journal revived. Holt was an 
 unflinching patriot, but did not long survive the achievement of his 
 country's freedom. He fell a victim to the yellow fever in 1798. The 
 paper was continued by his widow for a little while, but ultimately fell 
 into the hands of that celebrated political gladiator, James Cheetham. 
 
 The celebrated James Eivington began his paper in 1733, under the 
 formidable title of Jiivington's New York Gazette ; or, the Ccmnectieut, New 
 Jersey, Hudson River, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser. The imprint read as 
 follows : " Printed at his ever open and uninfluenced press, fronting Han- 
 over Square." It is well known that Eivington was the royal printer 
 during the whole of the Eevolutionary War ; and it is amusing to trace 
 the degrees by which his toryism manifested itself as the storm gathered 
 over the country. The title of the paper originally contained the cut of 
 a large ship under full saQ. In 1774 the ship sailed out of sight, and 
 the King's arms appeared in its place — and in 1775 the words ever open and 
 uninfluenced were withdrawn from the imprint. These symptoms were dis- 
 liked by the patriots of the country ; and in November, 1775, a party of 
 armed men from Connecticut entered the city on horseback, beset his 
 habitation, broke into his printing office, destroyed his presses, and threw 
 his types into pi. They then carried them away, melted, and cast them 
 into buUets. Eivington's paper was now effectually stopped — omitted, 
 like the case of the Oneida editor, for want of room, until the British army 
 took possession of the City. Eivington himself, meantime, had been to 
 England, where he procured a new printing apparatus, and returning, 
 established the Neiv York Royal Gazette, pubUshed by James Eivington, 
 printer to the King's most excellent Majesty. During the remaining five 
 years of the war Eivington's paper was the most distinguished for its 
 lies and its disloyalty, of any journal in the colonies. It was pubUshed 
 
161 
 
 twice a week ; and four other newspapers were published in this city at 
 the same time, under the sanction of the British officers — one arranged 
 for each day, so that, in fact, they had the advantages of a daily 
 paper. It has been said and believed that Eivington, after all, was 
 a secret traitor to the Crown, and, in fact, the secret spy for General 
 Washington. Be this, however, as it may, as the war drew to a close, 
 and the prospects of the King's arms began to darken, Eivington's loyalty 
 began to cool down ; and by 1787 the King's arms had disappeared ; the 
 ship again sailed into sight ; and the title of the paper, no more the Roya^ 
 Gazette, was simply Rivington^s New York Gazette and Universal Advertiser. 
 But although he labored to play the republican, he was distrusted by the 
 people, and his paper was relinquished in the course of that year. 
 
 From this brief sketch of the history of newspapers, from their 
 first introduction into the city, down to the period of the Eevolution, an 
 idea may be formed of the germ of the newspaper press, which is now one 
 of the chief glories of our country. The public press of no other coun- 
 try equals that of New York City and the United States, either on the 
 score of its moral or its intellectual power, or for the exertion of that 
 manly independence of thought and action, which ought ever to charac- 
 terize the press of a free people. 
 
 What a prophet would the great wizard novelist of Scotland have 
 been, had the prediction which he put into the mouth of Galeotti Marti- 
 valle, the astrologer of Louis the Eleventh, in the the romance of Quentin 
 Darward, been written at the period of its date ! Louis, who had justly 
 been held as the Tiberius of France, is represented as paying a visit to 
 the mystic workshop of the astrologer, whom his Majesty discovered to be 
 engaged in the then newly-invented art of multiplying manuscripts by the 
 intervention of m.achinery — in other words, the apparatus of printing. 
 
 "Can things of such mechanical and terrestial import," inquired the 
 Kino-, "interest the thouffhts of one before whom Heaven has unroUed 
 her own celestial volumes i' " 
 
 " My brother," replied the astrologer, " believe me that in considering 
 the consequences of tfiis invention, I read with a certain augury, as by 
 any combination of the heavenly bodies, the most awful and portentous 
 chann-es. When I reflect with what slow and limited supplies the stream 
 of science hath hitherto descended to us ; how difficult to be obtained by 
 those most ardent in its search ; how certain to be neglected by all who 
 love their ease ; how liable to be diverted or altogether dried up by the 
 invasions of barbarism, — can I look forward without wonder and astonish- 
 ment to the lot of a succeeding generation, on whom knowledge will 
 descend like the first and second rain — uninterrupted, unabated, iimbotmded ; 
 fertilizin'T some grounds and overflowing others ; changing the whole form 
 of social life; establishing and overthrowing religions; erecting and 
 destroying kingdoms — " 
 
162 
 
 " Hold ! Hold, Galeotti!" cried the King; " shall these changes come 
 in our time ? " 
 
 " No, my royal brother," replied MartivaUe ; " this invention may be 
 likened to a young tree which is now newly planted, but shall, in suc- 
 ceeding generations, bear fruit as fatal, yet as precious, as that of the 
 Garden of Eden — the knowledge, namely, of good and of evU.." 
 
THIRD PERIOD. 
 
 1783—1868. 
 
 From the, Evacuation of New York City by the British to the present day. 
 
 " The city is ruined by the war, but its future greatness is unques- 
 tionable." So wrote a citizen of New York, at the close of the Revola- 
 tionary War, to a friend ; and never was there a truer prophecy uttered. 
 The trade of the city was indeed " ruined ;" her treasury was empty ; and 
 her people were yet divided by domestic feuds. Still, this state of things 
 could not last long. The position of New York among the Colonies 
 had already become too important to be ignored for any length of time ; 
 and the same causes which, at an early period, made New York the 
 center of the Colonial interest, were to continue in operation, until she 
 should become that, which she now is — the metropolis of America. 
 The Colonial Congress of 1765, the Provincial Congress of 1776, the 
 selection of herself as the seat of the General Government in 1788, and 
 the inauguration of Washington in 1789, were "all hints of the empire 
 that was to be." 
 
 On the 13th of September, 1788, the adoption of the Federal Con- 
 stitution was publicly announced ; and New York was chosen, as the 
 seat of the General Government. This action of the Convention was 
 peculiarly gratifying to the citizens of New York, who at once took steps 
 to celebrate the occasion with fitting ceremonies.* 
 
 * The account given In the text of the procession in honor of the adoption of 
 the Federal Constitution, as well as the narrative of the Inaugdka.tion Bali,, is taken 
 from the writings of the late Col. Wm. L. Stone, for thirty years the editor of the 
 New York Commercial AdBertiser. It is believed to comprise the only faithful 
 historical record, political, festive, and fashionable, of the adoption of the Federal 
 Constitution, the organization of the Governineut, the pageantry attending it, and 
 the demonstrations which followed that important epoch in our national history. 
 The particulars were collected by Col. Stone, with much care and labor, from such 
 printed accounts as could be found in the scattered remnants of the little dingy 
 newspapers of that day, and, also, such facts as were yet dimly floating in the 
 recollections of those few who were then surviving, and had been actors in the 
 scenes described. 
 
164 
 
 It is well that the festivities attendant upon such a momentous 
 occasion should be embalmed for American generations yet unborn. The 
 adoption of the Federal Constitution — the instrument which was to bind 
 the almost disjointed members of the Eepublic together, as one people — 
 was the most important event that the citizens of New York had ever 
 been called upon to commemorate. The period intervening between the 
 formation of the Constitution by the Convention, and its adoption by the 
 number of States requisite to give it validity, was one of deep anxiety to 
 the patriots of that day, not unmingled with fears as to the final result. 
 A violent opposition sprang up in various parts of the Confederation, 
 which was so successfully fomented by demagogues, and by those who 
 feared they might lose weight in the national scale, should the new 
 Federal edifice be erected, that the friends of the Constitution seeing 
 nothing better than civil tumult and anarchy in the prospective, should 
 that instrument be rejected, entertained the niost lively apprehensions 
 upon the subject. There were, likewise, among the opponents of the 
 proposed Constitution, some good men, and real patriots, who honestly 
 believed that, in the event of its adoption, too n;uch power would pass 
 from the States to the Federal Congress, and the Executive. The ablest 
 tongues and pens in the Union were brought into action ; and it was 
 that contest which combined the united wisdom of Hamilton, Jay, and 
 Madison, in the Federalist — the ablest exposition of the Constitution that 
 ever has been, or, perhaps, ever will be written. 
 
 The action, however, of the respective States was slow. The pro- 
 ceedings of their conventions were watched with absorbing interest ; and 
 when it was found that the voice of New York would turn the scale — 
 the Convention being in session in Poughkeepsie — all eyes were 
 eagerly turned toward that quarter. The chief reason of New York's 
 reluctance to come into the Constitutional Union was the fear — in view 
 of the rising destiny of their city and State — of making over too much of 
 their local power to the central government ; especially their great share 
 of revenue from imports, and their commanding position between New 
 England and the South and West.* The contest, however, was not long 
 in doubt. Hamilton redoubled his wonderful efibrts, and Livingston 
 put the whole energies of his capacious mind in requisition, and the 
 Federalists triumphed. The news was received in New York City with 
 unbounded dehght; the clubs celebrated the event with dinners and 
 great festivity, and the citizens gave themselves up to the most unequivocal 
 evidences of gratification. But private manifestations of the public feel- 
 ing was held not to be worthy of the occasion, and no time was lost in 
 concerting the necessary measures for a public commemoration of the 
 event, upon the most extensive and splendid scale that the public means 
 
 * Dr. Osgood's New York in the Nineteenth Century. 
 
165 
 
 would allow. Nor has the pageantry of any American celebration since 
 that day — not even excepting the Atlantic Cable Celebration of 1859 — 
 excelled it in the ardor of its enthusiasm, or in the splendor of its effect. 
 In describing the procession on this occasion, Colonel Stone says : 
 
 " The procession was organized ' in the fields,' above the city ; thence 
 it moved down Broadway to Great Dock street ; thence through Hanover 
 Square and Queen — now Pearl street — up to Chatham ; through Chatham 
 to Division, and thence across, through Bullock street, to the grounds 
 surrounding the country seat of Nicholas Bayard, near the present junc- 
 tion of Broadway and Grand street. 
 
 A volume would scarce suiRce to detail the particulars necessary to 
 a full description of the flags and emblems, and patriotic decorations, 
 which graced the many divisions and subdivisions of this brilliant pageant 
 — altogether exceeding anything of a kindred character previously ex- 
 hibited in the New World. After a brilhant miUtary escort came Captain 
 Moore, in the character and ancient costume of Christopher Columbus, 
 preceded and followed by a band of foresters, with axes, suitably appar- 
 eled. The next division con.sisted of a largo number of farmers, among 
 whom were Nicholas Cruger, driving a six-ox team, and the present 
 venerable John Watts holding a plough. All the implements of husbandry 
 and gardening were borne in the procession, and the Baron Poelnitz 
 attended a threshing-machine. Their horses were handsomely caparisoned, 
 and led by boys in white uniforms. The tailors made a very brilliant 
 display of numbers, uniforms, and decorations, of various descriptions. 
 In the procession of the bakers were boys in beautiful dresses, represent- 
 ing the several States, with roses in their hands. There were likewise 
 an equal number of journeymen in appropriate uniforms, with the imple- 
 ments of the calling, and a loaf of bread was borne in the procession ten 
 feet long and- three wide, on which were inscribed the names of the several 
 States. The display of the brewers was happily conceived, and appro- 
 priate. In addition to their banners fluttering gayly in the air, they 
 paraded cars with hogsheads and tuns, decorated with festoons of hop- 
 vines, intertwined with handfuls of barley. Seated on the toji of a tun 
 was a living Bacchus — a beautiful boy of eight years old — dressed in 
 flesh-colored silk, fitted snugly to the limbs, and thus disclosing all the 
 fine symmetrical proportions of his body. In his hand he held a silver 
 goblet, with which he quaffed the nut-brown, and on his head was a 
 garland of hops and barley-ears. The coopers appeared in great numbers. 
 Their emblem of the States was thirteen boys, each thirteen years of age, 
 dressed in white, with green ribands at their ankles, a keg under their 
 left arms, and a bough of white-oak in their right hands. Upon aa 
 immensely large car, drawn by horses appropriately adorned, the coopers 
 were at work. They had a broken cask, representing the old confederacy, 
 the staves of which all their skill could not keep together. In despair at 
 
166 
 
 the repeated nullification whieli their work experienced, they all at once 
 betook themselves to the construction of an entirely new piece of work. 
 Their success was complete, and a fine, tight, iron-bound keg arose from 
 their hand, bearing the name of the New Constitution. The procession 
 of butchers was long, and their appearance highly respectable. Upon 
 the car in their procession was a roasted ox, of a thousand pounds, which 
 was given as a sweet morsel to the hungry multitude at the close of the 
 day. The car of the sons of St. Crispin was drawn by four milk-white 
 steeds, beautifully caparisoned. The tanners, curriers, and peruke- 
 makers followed next in order, each with various banners and significant 
 emblems. The furriers, from the novelty of their display, attracted great 
 attention. It was truly picturesque. Their marshal was followed by an 
 Indian, in his native costume and armor, as though coming wild from, 
 the wilderness, laden with raw furs lor the market. A procession of 
 journeymen furriers followed, each bearing some dressed or manufactured 
 article. These were succeeded by a horse, bearing two packs of furs, and 
 a huge bear sitting upon each. The horse was led by an Indian, in a 
 beaver blanket, and black plumes waving upon his head. In the rear 
 came one of their principal men, dressed in a superb scarlet blanket, 
 wearing an elegant cap and plumes, and smoking a tomahawk pipe. 
 After these, in order, marched the stone-masons, bricklayers, painters, 
 and glaziers, cabinet and chair-makers, musical-instrument makers, and 
 he upholsterers. The decorations of the societies vied with each other 
 in taste and variety, but that of the upholsterers excelled. The federal 
 chair of state was borne upon a car superbly carpeted, and above which 
 was a rich canopy, nineteen feet high, overlaid with deep blue satin, hung 
 with festoons and fringes, and gUttering in the sun as with ' barbaric 
 pearl and gold.' It was sufficiently gorgeous to have filled the eye of a 
 Persian emperor, in the height of oriental splendor and magnificence. 
 Twelve subdivisions of various trades succeeded in the prescribed order, 
 after which came the most imposing part of the pageant. It was the 
 federal ship Hamilton, a perfectly constructed frigate of thirty-two guns, 
 twenty-seven feet keel, and ten feet beam, with galleries and everything 
 complete and in proportion, both hull and rigging. She was manned by 
 thirty seamen and marines, with officers, aU in uniform, and commanded 
 by that distinguished Eevolutionary veteran. Commodore Nicholson. The 
 ship was drawn by ten horses ; and in the progress of the procession went 
 through every nautical preparation and movement, for storms, calms, and 
 squalls, and for the sudden shifting of winds. In passing Liberty street, 
 she made signal for a pilot, and a boat came off and put one on board. 
 On arriving before Constable's house, Mrs. Edgar came to the window, 
 and presented the ship with a suit of rich silk colors ; the yards were 
 instantly manned, and the sailors gave three hearty cheers. When 
 passing Old Slip, a Spanish government ship gave her a salute of 
 
'J 
 
 1^ 167 
 
 thirteen guns, which was retui'ned by the Hamilton with as much prompt- 
 ness as though she had actually been a ship of war upon the wide ocean. 
 Next after the ship came the pilots, and the Marine Society. To these 
 succeeded the printers, bookbinders, and stationers, led by those veterans 
 of the type and quill, Hugh Gaine and Samuel Landon. They had a oar, 
 upon which the printers were at work ; the press was plied briskly, and 
 impressions of a patriotic ode distributed as they were taken among the 
 multitude. Their banners were worthy of their proud vocation. To these 
 succeeded twenty-one subdivisions, of as many different trades, each 
 moving under its own banners ; after which followed the learned profes- 
 sions and the literary societies. The lawyers were preceded by John Law- 
 rence, Esq., supported by John Cozine and Eobert Troup. The Philolog- 
 ical Society, headed by Josiah Ogden Hofifman, Esq., the president, was 
 the next. One of the founders of this Society was Noah Webster, LL.D. 
 the great American lexicographer, who was in the procession. The 
 standard was borne by WUliam Dunlap, Esq. These three gentlemen 
 yet survive. The officers and members of the university came next, and 
 their successors were the Chamber of Commerce and merchants, headed 
 by John Broome, presidents William Maxwell, vice-president of the 
 Bank, followed in a chariot, and William Laight, the secretary, was 
 mounted upon a noble steed.,; Physicians, strangers, and gentlemen who 
 were members of Congress, then in session in New York, closed the civic 
 procession ; and the whole was brought up by a detachment of artUlery, 
 
 The procession contained nearly five thousand people ; and the spec- 
 tacle was more solemn and imposing, and more truly splendid, than had 
 ever before been presented to the eye of man on the American Continent. 
 It was, indeed, a pageant of indescribable interest, and to most, of double 
 attraction ; the occasion being one in which the deepest sympathies were 
 enlisted, and it being also the first display of pomp and circumstance 
 which they had ever witnessed. The whole population of the city had 
 given themselves up to the enjoyment of the occasion, and gladness, in all 
 its fullness, was depicted in every countenance, while a noble enthusiasm 
 swelled every bosom. The bond of union was complete, and every man 
 felt as though his country had been rescued, in the last hour, from the 
 most imminent peril. 
 
 When the procession reached the country seat of Nicholas Bayard, a 
 noble banquet was found already spread for the whole assemblage beneath 
 a grand pavilion temple, covering a surface of eight by six hundred feet, 
 with plates for six thousand people. This splendid rural structure had 
 been erected in the short space of four days, and the citizens were 
 indebted for it to the taste and enterprise of Major L'Enfant, by whom 
 it was designed, and under whose direction the work was executed. 
 The two principal sides of the building consisted of three large 
 pavilions, connected by a colonnade of about one hundred and fifty feet 
 
168 
 
 front, and forming two sides of an obtuse angle ; the middle pavilion, 
 rising majestically above the whole, terminated with a dome, on the top 
 of which was Fame and her trumpet, proclaiming a new era, and holding 
 in her left hand the Standard of the United States and a roll of parch- 
 ment, on which was inscribed, in large characters, the three remarkable 
 epochs of the War of the Eevolution : the Declaration of Independence, 
 the Alliance with France, and the Peace of 1783. At her side was the 
 American eagle, with extended wings, resting on a crown of laurel gracing 
 the top of the pedestal. Over six of the principal pillars of this colonnade 
 escutcheons were placed, inscribed with the ciphers of the several powers 
 in alliance with the United States, viz. : France, Spain, Sweden, Prussia, 
 Holland, Morocco ; and over these were displayed the colors of these 
 respective nations, which added greatly to the brilliancy of the entablature, 
 already decorated with festoons and branches of laurels. The extremities 
 of this angle were joined by a table forming part of a circle, and 
 from this ten more colonnades were extended, each four hundred and 
 forty feet in length, radiating hke the rays of a circle ; the whole having 
 one common center, which was also the center of the middle pavilion, 
 where sat the President of Congress. At the extremity of each colonnade 
 was a pavihon, nearly similar to the three hefore mentioned, having their 
 outsides terminated in a pediment crowned with escutcheons, on which 
 were inscribed the names of the States now united. The whole of the 
 colonnades were adorned with curtains elegantly folded, and with wreaths 
 and festoons of laurels dispersed with beautiful and tasteful effect. The 
 various bands of music which had enlivened the inarch of the procession 
 were concentrated in the area within the angle first described, during the 
 banquet, but so disposed as not to intercept the prospect from the seat of 
 the President, through the whole length of the ten colonnades. The 
 repast concluded, the procession was reorganized, and marched again 
 into the city, and Avere dismissed at the Bowling Green, Avhere the Federal 
 ship fired a closing salute. 
 
 Thus passed the 23d of July, 1788, in the City of New York — a day 
 which deserves to be remembered by the patriot, the poUtician, and the 
 philosopher, as that on which the people of the first city in the western 
 world gave simultaneously the strongest and most enthusiastic demon- 
 stration of their attachment to the great principles of " our Federal 
 Union," as those principles were understood by the distinguished 
 architects who formed the civil structure. On that occasion all narrow 
 and bigoted distinctions were lost, and absorbed in that noblest of 
 passions, the love of country, and the determination to secure and 
 preserve the blessings of civil and religious Uberty. Esio peepetua. ! 
 
 The winter festivities of 1788-89, however, were succeeded by 
 matters of a public nature, which quickened the pulse of the politician, 
 and excited a lively degree of attention, not only in the City of New 
 
169 
 
 York, but tkroughout tlie borders of the young republic. Tlie electiona 
 under the new Constitution had been held ; — Washington — the man of 
 all others ' first in the hearts of his countrymen' — had been spontaneously 
 designated by the people as their first Chief Magistrate under 
 the new system ; and the constituted authorities elect were about to 
 assemble in New York, to give action to the new political machinery. 
 Congress, consisting for the first time of two branches — a Senate and 
 House of Eepresentatives — was to meet on the 4th day of March, 1789, 
 and the thoughts of all were directed with deep solicitude to the period 
 at which their labors were to be commenced. 
 
 The day, ' big with the fate of Eome,' at length arrived ; but it 
 brought not a quorum of either House ; for although the men of those 
 days cannot be safely charged with a deficiency of patriotism, y^t they 
 had no sinister or ambitious purposes to accomplish, and therefore did 
 not assemble in organized bodies of partisans at the first tap of the 
 political drum. Adjourning over from day to day, until nearly the " ides 
 of March" had arrived, without any accession being made to their 
 numbers ; on the 11th of that month, the Senators present jointly 
 addressed a circular letter to the absentees, urging their prompt atten- 
 tion to assist in putting the government into operation. The request was 
 repeated by letter on the 18th. 
 
 The House of Eepresentatives was similarly circumstanced. Only 
 thirteen members appeared on the day appointed, and these were from 
 the five" States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
 and South Carolina — a commonwealth, which, though always proud and 
 high-spirited, was then as anxious to come into the Union, as she seems 
 since to have been to break out of it. The members gathered in by 
 degrees, though slowly, and the House, like the Senate, adjourned over 
 daily, until the 1st of April, when a quorum appeared, and Frederick 
 Augustus Muhlenburgh, of Pennsylvania, was elected Speaker. Among 
 the most distinguished patriots then present were Eoger Sherman, Pisher 
 Ames, Kichard Bland Lee, James Madison, Elias Boudinot, and Thomas 
 Tudor Tucker. 
 
 The members of the Senate came in still more tardily ; but on the 6th 
 of April, the arrival of Eichard Henry Lee, of Virginia, enabled them to 
 form a quorum, and commence their labors. John Langdon was elected 
 President of the Senate, pro tern., and Samuel A. Otis, Secretary. Both 
 Houses thus being organized, they proceeded to business — their first act 
 being to canvass the votes returned for President and Vice-President, as 
 prescribed in the new Constitution. At the time the election by the people 
 was held, but ten States had placed themselves within the pale of the new 
 Constitution. The whole number of votes cast was sixty-nine ; and so 
 entirely did the Father of his Country enjoy the affection of his children, 
 that without the aid of caucuses, or nominating conventions, every vote 
 
170 
 
 was given for Geoege Washingtoit. ' If we look over the catalogue of 
 the first magistrates of nations, whether they have been denominated 
 presidents or consuls, kings or princes, where shall we find one whose 
 commanding talents and virtues, whose over-ruling good fortune, have so 
 completely united all hearts and voices in his favor ? Who enjoyed the 
 esteem and admiration of foreign nations and his fellow-citizens with 
 equal unanimity ? QuaUties so uncommon are no common blessing to the 
 country that possesses them. But it was by these great qualities, and 
 their benign effects, that Providence had marked out the first head of this 
 great nation, with a hand so distinctly visible, as to have been seen by all 
 men and mistaken by none.' * By the Constitution, while it bore the 
 unadulterated impress of the wisdom of its framers, and before it had been 
 impaired by amendment, the candidate receiving the second highest num- 
 ber of votes was to be declared the Yiee-President. The lot fell upon one 
 who, during the whole combat of the Revolution, had been in the halls of 
 legislation what his illustrious compeer had been in the field — first in wis- 
 dom and foremost in action, t 
 
 The gratifying result having been thus ascertained agreeably to the 
 constitutional forms, Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the old Congress, 
 was dispatched to Mount Vernon, as a commissioner to notify the chief- 
 tain of his election. Meantime a discussion arose in both houses, resulting 
 in an irreconcilable difference between them, of a character at once deli- 
 cate and interesting. It called forth great talent, and first awakened those 
 feelings of democratic jealousy and distrust of titles and power,- of which 
 we have seen so much since. Not that our modern republicans are 
 opposed per se, to titles of a subordinate character, since for this species 
 of distinction no people on earth appear so fond, or in fact enjoy so 
 much, or adhere to it with greater tenacity. Many of the most respect- 
 able citizens were constant listeners to the debates of which we have just 
 been speaking ; for they were not only interested in the principle involved, 
 but loved to study the characters of those noble spirits who were now 
 assembled to consummate the revolution which their wisdom and valor 
 had achieved, by reducing the discordant members of the republic to 
 order, and adjusting the details of a government, under the firm but 
 harmonious action of which, complicated as it was, it was hoped the 
 principles of civil and rehgious freedom would for ages find shelter and 
 protection. The question at issue was upon the adoption of some respect- 
 ful title by which the President of the United States should be addressed 
 in their official intercourse with him. The first proposition in the Senate 
 
 * Inaugural Address of the first Vice-President — the elder Adams. 
 
 t The votes stood as follows— George Washington, 69; John Adams, 34; John 
 Jay, 9 ; Robert H. Harrison, 6 ; John Eutledge, 6 ; John Hancock, 4 ; George Clinton, 
 3 ; Samuel Huntington, 2 ; John Milton, 2 ; and one each for James Armstrong, 
 Edward Telfair, and Benjamin Lincoln. 
 
171 
 
 was, that the official address should be ' His Excellency.' But this was 
 not considered as sufficiently elevated. It was at length determined by 
 that body, that the address should be — ' His Highness the President 
 OF THE United States, and the Pkotectok of theie Libekties.' But the 
 House of Eepresentatives obstinately refused to sanction any title what- 
 ever, and declared that the constitutional address—' To the Peesident,' 
 — was the only title which, as consistent republicans, they could sanction. 
 Committees of conference were appointed, but to no purpose. The 
 indomitable spirit of the House of Eepresentatives was not to be moved. 
 The Senate finally resolved ' that it would be proper to address the Presi- 
 dent by some respectful title ; but, for the sake of harmony, they would 
 for the present act in conformity with the House of Eepresentatives.' 
 And thus the matter has rested to this day. 
 
 Summoned by the worthy messenger of Congress to repair to the 
 seat of government and assume the high trust which had been conferred 
 upon him by the people, the progress of the President elect, from the 
 shades of Vernon to New York, was like a triumphant procession along 
 the whole distance. At Philadelphia he was met by Governor St. Clair, 
 General Mifflin, and other distinguished citizens, with the most rapturous 
 enthusiasm. A grand banquet was prepared, of which he partook, and 
 addresses were presented to him from all classes of the people, expressive 
 of their gratitude for his past services, their joy for hia present elevation, 
 and their confidence in his future administration. As he passed through 
 the streets, the welkin rang with their joyous acclamations, and shouts 
 of ' Long live George Washington, the father of his people,' resounded 
 from thousands of voices. But however flattering would have been 
 these spontaneous marks of popular affection to ordinary mortals, the 
 conduct of the great chief on the occasion illustrated the republican 
 virtue of dignified humility, and showed how excellent is glory when 
 earned by virtue. Instead of assuming the pomp of royalty, or of any 
 personal superiority, he sought throughout to prove himself, not only the 
 friend of the people, but one of them. 
 
 An escort attended him from the hospitable city of Penn, until he 
 was received by the citizens of Trenton, into which place he was conducted 
 by the civil and military authorities of New Jersey, with every patriotic 
 demonstration of respect and joy. This place had been rendered memor- 
 able by the capture of the Hessians, and by the repulse of the British 
 troops near the bridge over the Delaware, the night before the battle of 
 Trenton. Eecollecting these circumstances, the ladies of that city formed 
 and executed the design of testifying their gratitude to the chieftain for 
 the protection of their daughters, by celebratirg those actions in their 
 pageant. For this purpose a triumphal arch was raised on the bridge, 
 of twenty feet span, supported by thirteen pillars, each of which was 
 entwined with wreaths of evergreens. The arch was covered with 
 
172 
 
 branches of laurel, and decorated on« the inside with evergreens and 
 flowers. Suitable inscriptions were tastefully disposed, intertwined with 
 flowers of various hues. On the center of the arch above, stood a dome, 
 bearing the dates of the glorious actions referred to, inscribed in letters 
 of gold, and enwreathed with flowers. The summit of the dome displayed 
 a large sun-flower, which, directing to the sun, signified, in the language 
 of Flora, " To you alone "—an emblem of the unanimity of the people in 
 his favor. Assembled beneath the arch were many ladies, surrounded 
 by their daughters, to welcome thoir former deliverer and defender. As 
 the chieftain passed beneath the arch, a choir of girls, dressed in white, 
 and crowned with wreaths and chaplets of flowers, sung a sonata composed 
 lor the occasion, commencing — 
 
 " Welcome mighty chief once more." — 
 
 Each of the white-robed misses carried a basket of flowers, which, as the 
 concluding line — 
 
 " Strew your hero's way with flowers," — 
 
 were scattered in his path as he advanced. The pageant was simple and 
 beautiful ; and the General returned thanks for the compliment in a card 
 which was published at the time, and in which the white-robed maidens 
 were particularly mentioned. 
 
 Thence to Eliaabethtown, the journey of the chieftain was a con- 
 tinued pageant, in which no means were left untried by the people to 
 testify their attachment to the ruler of their choice. At this point, prepa- 
 rations had been made to receive their illustrious fellow-citizen by the 
 authorities of New York. A splendid barge, constructed for the occasion, 
 and elegantly decorated, had been dispatched thither to receive the 
 beloved soldier and statesman, in a manner corresponding with his 
 exalted character, and the dignity of the station he was about to fiU. The 
 barge was rowed by thirteen masters of vessels, Thomas Eandall, Esq., 
 acting as cockswain, and commanded by Commodore Nicholson. A 
 deputation from the Senate and House of Eepresentatives, together with 
 the Chancellor of the State, the Adjutant-General, and the Recorder of 
 of the City, proceeded to Elizabethtown in the barge, which was accom- 
 panied by two others, one being occupied by the Board of the Treasury, 
 and the other by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of 
 War. 
 
 The embarkation took place on the morning of April 23d — as clear 
 and beautiful a day as could have been desired. A salvo of artQlery 
 announced the departure of the flotilla from the Jersey shore, and the 
 spectacle, as the fleet of boats which had joined the procession emerged 
 from the narrow pass of the Elills into the noble bay of New York, was 
 of the most animating description. From every point, the smaller craft 
 
173 
 
 of all kinds and degrees, sped their way thither to join in the fleet. All 
 the flags and nautical decorations upon -which hands could be laid for the 
 occasion, were put in requisition, and were now fluttering in the breeze, 
 as the thousand boats danced lighty over the blue waters, and the many 
 thousands of oars, briskly plied, flashed in the sunbeams, as with every 
 stroke they were lifted from the foam. Every ship in the harbor was 
 gayly dressed for the occasion, excepting the Galveston, a Spanish man- 
 of-war, which lay at anchor, displaying only her own proper colors. The 
 contrast which she presented when compared with the splendid flags and 
 streamers floating from every other vessel in the bay, especially the 
 government ship, the North Carolina, was universally observed, and the 
 neglect was beginning to occasion unpleasant remarks ; when, as the 
 barge of the General came abreast, in an instant, as if by magic, the 
 Spaniard displayed every flag and signal known among nations. This 
 handsome compliment was accompanied by a salute of thirteen guns. 
 Salutes were also fired from the North Carolina and the Battery, of 
 thirteen guns each. 
 
 Stairs for the landing of the chieftain had been prepared upon Murray's 
 "Wharf, on arriving at which a salute was fired by a detachment of artil- 
 lery commanded by Captain Van Dyck. He was there received by 
 Governor Clinton, who made a congratulatory address on the occasion, 
 together with the principal officers of the State, and the Mayor and Cor- 
 poration of the city. There was a very large assemblage of people at the 
 dock, waiting anxiously — but not impatiently — for the moment when 
 they could greet the arrival of the great object of their proudest hopes 
 and affections, and gratify their desires of looking — many of them again, 
 and many others for the first time — upon that noble form and godlike 
 countenance. There was no crowding for rank, or struggle for places, 
 but all were respectful and decorous in their demeanor. One old man, 
 whose head was frosted by upward of seventy winters, standing upon 
 the wharf, was particularly noted as laboring under deep and evident 
 emotion. He succeec'ed in grasping the hand of the chieftain, and, as 
 he passed along, audibly but involuntarily expressed himself as follows : — 
 ' I have beheld him when commanding the American armies ; I saw him 
 at the conclusion of peace, returning to the bosom of his family in his 
 primeval habitation ; and now I behold him returring to take the chair 
 of the Presidentship. I have not now another wish but that he may die 
 as he has lived, the beloved of his countky !' 
 
 From tlie landing, the chief was conducted by a numerous proces- 
 sion, civil and military, through Queen street to the quarters of Governor 
 Clinton, in the large and ancient structure yet standing in Pearl street, 
 near the intersection of Pine.* The military portion of the procession 
 
 * Now called tlie TJuited States Hgtel. 
 
174 
 
 consisted of Captain Stokes' dragoons, Captain Van Dyck's artillery, the 
 German Guards of Captain Scriba, a detachment of infantry under Cap- 
 tains Swartwout and Steddiford, and the artillery of Colonel Bauman. 
 Next came the Corporation, with the pubhc officers ; the President elect 
 walked with Governor Clinton, his old companion in arms. The clergy 
 followed in a body. The foreign ambassadors in their carriages came 
 next, and the citizens promiscuously brought up the rear. The whole 
 "were under the direction of Colonel Morgan Lewis (who yet survives, 
 fuU of years and honors), marshal of the day, assisted by Majors Morton 
 and Van Home, the former of whom is yet the active Major-General of 
 the New York artillery. 
 
 The day was one of unmingled joy. No foimer event of a civic 
 character had more deeply arrested the public attention. The hand of 
 labor was suspended, and the various pleasures of the city were concen- 
 trated into a single enjoyment. All ranks and professions, with one 
 universal acclaim, joined in the loud welcome to ' The Father of his 
 Country.' The city was illuminated in the evening ; and many beautiful 
 and appropriate transparencies were exhibited, creditable at once to the 
 citizens who displayed them and to the artists by whom they were 
 executed. 
 
 The 30th day of April, 1789, was appointed by Congress for the 
 august ceremony of inducting the first President of our Federal Union 
 into his exalted station. Pursuant to previous notice and concert, all the 
 churches in the city were opened at nine o'clock on the morning of that 
 day, and their respective congregations repaired to them, to unite in 
 imploring the blessing of Heaven on the new government. In these 
 enlightened days, when chaplains are voted out of legislative halls from a 
 sensitive regard to the rights of conscience and the people's money, it 
 may, perhaps, appear strange that such a concerted ceremony should 
 have preceded the other duties of the day. But the truth is, our Eevolu- 
 tionary forefathers were a race of men sui generis, and they had a way of 
 doing things peculiar to themselves. They were in the habit of imploring 
 the blessing of Heaven on all their important undertakings, and of 
 returning thanks for all signal blessings ; and at the time of the estab- 
 lishment of the Federal Government, the march of mind had not yet been 
 80 rapid as altogether to have left this custom in forgetfulness. 
 
 At twelve o'clock a procession was formed imder the conduct of 
 Colonel Lewis, consisting of the same detachments of the State troops 
 which had been detailed for the reception of the President elect on his 
 landing. The President's house was then in Cherry street, a few doors 
 from Franklin Square — which was at that period the court end of the 
 town. The procession moved thence through Queen, Great Dock and 
 Broad streets, until they arrived in front of the building called Federal 
 Hall — it having been determined that the ceremony of administering the 
 
175 
 
 oath should take place in the open space in front of the Senate Chamber, 
 which was on the second story of the building, and in full view of the 
 people who should assemble in Wall and Broad strbets as spectators 
 Stopping at the proper distance, the procession was divided into two 
 parallel lines, facing inwardly, and the ' observed of all observers ' passed 
 through with stately and solemn tread, attended by John Jay, General 
 Knox, Chancellor Livingston, and other distinguished gentlemen. They 
 were conducted first to the Senate Chamber, where the President elect 
 was introduced to both Houses, assembled in convention to receive him. 
 Thence the illustrious individual was conducted to the gallery or terrace 
 before mentioned, overlooking the two streets in which the multitude had 
 assembled. 
 
 As the building under whose lofty pediment this imposing scene was 
 exhibited has been so long swept from the face of the earth that few of 
 the present generation have any distinct recollection of it, a description 
 of it may aid our attempt to depict the subUme ceremony, which it is the 
 principal design of the present chapter to bring before the reader. On 
 the site of the old City Hall, which had served the provincials for a 
 Court-House, and was a mean, unsightly object, projecting awkwardly 
 into Wall street from the north, a noble edifice had been erected for the 
 accommodation of Congress, on a plan and under the direction of Monsieur 
 L'Enfant, a French architect, at that time in high repute, whose name 
 we had occasion to mention in a preceding page. This building, like the 
 first, projected into Wall street, but permitted foot-passengers to continue 
 their promenades through an arched way. Over this arcade was a 
 balcony, the pediment projecting over, which was supported by four 
 massive Doric pillars, dividing the open space into three parts, and form- 
 ing an area similar in that respect to the divisions in Raphael's 'Beautiful 
 Gate of the Temple.' After the adoption of the Constitution, this build- 
 ing was called Federal Hall.* Its front was upon Broad street, which 
 was terminated by it. Persons on the balcony would consequently be in 
 full view from that street ; and it was there, within a few yards of the 
 HaU, that a few select spectators took their stand. 
 
 The volunteer companies of infantry were paraded in front of the 
 Hall on Wall street. A troop of horje, uniformed and equipped much 
 after the manner of Lee's and Sheldon's dragoons (as may be seen in 
 the picture of Jack Laughton, the hero of Cooper's ' Spy,' as painted by 
 our distinguished countryman, Dunlap), were prominent %ures. Of the 
 foot-soldiers, the most conspicuous were two companies of grenadiers, 
 one of which was composed of the tallest youths of the city, and the 
 other was the company of Germans, commanded by Captain Seriba, 
 many of whom had been the slaves of the Prince of Hesse Cassel, and 
 
 * In later years, succeeded by the Custom-House, whicli is now (1808) the 
 United States Sub-Treasury. 
 
176 
 
 other petty sovereigns in the German states, but who now gloried in the 
 liberty purchased for them, and secured to them by those whom they had 
 been forced from their own country to assist in subduing. The first were 
 dressed in blue, with red facings and gold-laced ornaments, cocked hats 
 with white feathers, with waistcoats and breeches, and black gaiters or 
 spatterdashes; close buttoned from the shoe to the knee, and covering the 
 shoo-buckle. The second, or German company, wore blue coats, with 
 yellow waistcoats and breeches, black gaiters, similar to those already 
 described, and towering caps, cone-shaped, and faced with black bear- 
 skin. A company in the full uniform of Scotch Highlanders, with the 
 national music of the bagpipe, were seen among the military of the day, 
 as also were several well disciplined and well equipped corps of light 
 infantry and artillery. Colonel Lewis, the Marshal, was assisted by 
 Major Morton, acting aid-de-camp, as on the occasion of the landing one 
 week before. 
 
 Both Houses of Congress having left their respective chambers to 
 witness the ceremony, now quite filled the balcony and the space behind 
 it. Every part of the building wa« thronged. From the balcony the 
 view of Broad street was as of one mass, a silent and expectant throng ; 
 with faces upturned they gazed upon the great object of their regard, as 
 he came forth from the interior of the Hall, and took his place in the 
 center of the balcony, between the two pillars which formed the bounda- 
 ries of the middle compartment of the picture. He made his appear- 
 ance in a plain suit of brown cloth, coat, waistcoat, and breeches, white 
 silk stockings, and buckles of the simplest fashion in his shoes, and 
 every article of his dress was of American manufacture.* His head was 
 uncovered, his hair powdered and dres.sed in the prevailing fashion of 
 that day, completed the costume in which his tall, fine figure was pre- 
 sented to view, at the moment which formed that epoch in the history of 
 nations. 
 
 John Adams, the Vice-President, who had a few days previously been 
 inducted into offioe without parade in the Senate, a short, athletic figure, 
 in a somewhat similar garb, but with the old-fashiuned Massachusetts 
 wig, dressed and powdered, stood upon the right of the chieftain. Eoger 
 Sherman was seen in the group, a little behind, standing with Hamilton, 
 and many other sages and warriors, among whom was the American 
 artillerist, Knox, and the accomplished Baron Steuben. 
 
 Opposite to the President elect stood Chancellor Livingston, in a full 
 suit of black, ready to administer the oath of office. Between them the 
 Secretary of the Senate, a small, short man, held the open Bible upon a 
 rich crimson cushion. The man on whom all eyes were fi.^ed, stretched 
 
 * It is a fact that Washington and Adams were entirely clad in American 
 fabrics on the occasion here described. 
 
177 
 
 forth his hand with simplicity and dignity. The oath of office was 
 administered. The Bible was raised, and his head bowed upon it to 
 kiss the sacred volume. The Chancellor then proclaimed that it was 
 done, in a full distinct voice, and in the following words : ' Lokg live 
 George Washington, President op the United States !' The silence 
 of thousands was at an end — the air was rent with acclamations, dictated 
 by reason, and bursting from the hearts and tongues of men who felt 
 that the happiness of themselves, their posterity, and their country was 
 secured. 
 
 The President bowed and retired to the Hall of the Representatives, 
 where the Senate also assembled, and he delivered his inaugural speech. 
 Thence, the President, accompanied by the Vice-President, the Speaker 
 of the House of Representatives, and the members of both Houses, 
 repaired in procession to St. Paul's Church, where Divine service was 
 performed by Bishop Provost, the Chaplain of the Senate ; and before 
 the adjournment of Congress, they passed a resolution requesting the 
 President to issue his proclamation, recommending to the people of the 
 United States to observe a day of thanksgiving and prayer, on account of 
 the successful organization of the new government. Strange to say, 
 although Washington himself had been the President of the Convention 
 which formed the Constitution, he had not discovered that such an act 
 was unconstitutional ! He issued the proclamation, and the day was 
 observed by the people accordingly. But we, of the present generation 
 having had more time to study that instrument, know better its true 
 intent and meaning than those who made it — not only on religious sub- 
 jects, but divers and sundry others. 
 
 To return from this digression, however — such was the spectacle ; 
 so simple, so dignified was this august ceremony ! Contrast it with the 
 impious mockery of Heaven and the degrading pageantry displayed to 
 mislead the chUdren of earth, which attends the coronation of European 
 potentates, and every American must feel proud, and justly proud, when 
 he contemplates the picture it presents of the institutions and manners of 
 his own country ! ' It seemed,' said a young gentleman in a letter to a 
 distant father, ' to be a solemn appeal to Heaven and earth at once. 
 Upon the subject of this great and good man,' he added, ' I may, 
 perhaps, be an enthusiast ; but I confess I was under an awful and 
 religious persuasion that the Gracious Ruler of the Universe was look- 
 ing down at that momertt with peculiar complacency upon an act which, 
 to the American portion of his creatures, was so very important. Under 
 this impression, when the distinguished Chancellor of New York 
 announced, in a very feeling manner, the words Long live Geoegb 
 Washington, my sensibility was wound up to such a pitch, that I could 
 do no more than wave my hat with the rest, without the power of joining 
 in the repeated acclamations which rent the air.' 
 12 
 
178 
 
 The proceedings of the day had all been marked by that gravity and 
 solemnity befitting the importance of the occasion. It was, however, a day 
 of unmingled rejoicing ; and after the more imposing civic and religious 
 ceremonies were over, the popular feeling broke forth in the usual mani- 
 festations of gladness. The festivities closed by an illumination in the 
 evening of unparalleled splendor, and by a display of fireworks under the 
 direction of Colonel Bauman, of the artillery, which had only been equaled 
 on this side the Atlantic by the memorable pyro technical exhibition which 
 took place at West Point during the Revolution, when our French allies 
 were celebrating the birth of the Dauphin — the unfortunate youn.'; 
 prince who subsequently, after his father's execution, himself fell a victim 
 to that spirit of freedom which those French officers imbibed ia this 
 country, and which running to riot after their return, drenched the 
 whole surface of France in blood. 
 
 Great pains had been taken by the principal citizens and the public 
 authorities in the preparation of appropriate transparencies. At the foot 
 of Broadway a splendid painting was exhibited, representing the Virtues 
 of FoMiirBE, Justice, and Wisdom, intended as emblems, the first of the 
 President, the second of the Senate, and the third of the Hottse of 
 Eepresen'tatives. Of the propriety of the first the world had had the 
 fullest evidence ; and the two others were well applied then, however 
 great would be the solecism of such an appropriation of those attributes 
 in later and more degenerate days. The Federal Hall was illuminated 
 with great splendor, and attracted universal attention. The Theater, 
 then situated at the comer of Fly-Market SHp, was likewise tastefully 
 illuminated by various patriotic and attractive paintings. The ship Nwth 
 Carolina, lying off the Battery, displayed a glorious pyramid of stars, 
 lustrous and beautiful as the lamps of heaven. 
 
 The illuminations of private residences which attracted the greatest 
 attention, were those of the French and Spanish Ministers — the Count 
 Moustier and Don Gardoqui. These Ministers both felt a lively interest 
 in the rising destinies of the young republic, and lost no suitable occa- 
 sion for testifying their friendship. Their houses were situated in Broad- 
 way, near the Bowling Green, and they seem to have exerted a generous 
 rivalship in their preparations for celebrating this event. The illumina- 
 tions of both were in a style of elegance and splendor alike novel, attrac- 
 tive, and beautiful. The doors and windows of Count Moustier displayed 
 splendid borderings of lamps, with fancy pieces in each window of tasteful 
 and complimentary designs. But the decorations of the Spaniard's mansion 
 excelled. The tout ensemhh formed a superbly briUiant front. The prin- 
 cipal transparency represented the figures of the Graces, exceedingly well 
 executed, among a pleasing variety of patriotic emblems, together with 
 shrubbery, arches, flowers, and fountains. The efiect was greatly height- 
 ened by the disposition of moving pictures of persons and figures in the 
 
179 
 
 background, so skiUfully devised and executed as to present the illusion 
 of a living panorama in a little spot of fairy land. 
 
 But we will not dwell too long upon the incidents of this joyful 
 evening, as other objects crowd upon our attention. The inauguration 
 was succeeded by a round of Jetes of a different description, the recollec- 
 tion of which it is our design briefly to revive, before concluding the 
 present chapter of reminiscences. 
 
 For several subsequent days, the time of the President was much 
 occupied in receiving visits, official and unofficial, of individuals, societies, 
 and public bodies, calling to pay their respects to the first magistrate. 
 In an instances, their reception was such as still more to endear the 
 illustrious man in their affections ; for although inured to the camp, and 
 in earlier life to the still rougher service of border warfare in the wilder- 
 ness, po one could dispense the courtesies of the drawing-room, or the 
 ceremonies of state with more true dignity, blended with a just measure 
 of affability and condescension, than Washington. 
 
 - Extensive preparations had been made by the subscribers to the city 
 dancing assemblies, to pay the President the compliment of an inaugu- 
 ration baU. The honored lady of the chieftain, however, had not accom- 
 panied her august husband to New York, but was to follow in a few 
 days. The anxiety for her arrival was, therefore, great, though of 
 course proportionably less than it had been for the President elect him- 
 self. But a short time intervened before her approach to EHzabethtown 
 was announced, accompanied by the lady of Robert Morris, of Philadel- 
 phia — then in the Federal Senate. She was met by the President at EUza- 
 bethtown Point, who proceeded thither, with Eobert Morris and several 
 other gentlemen of distinction, in the barge already described, rowed, as 
 before, by thirteen eminent pilots, in handsome white dresses. The 
 passage through the bay again presented a brilliant spectacle ; a salute 
 was fired on passing the Battery, and on her landing she was welcomed 
 by crowd? of citizens who had assembled to testify their joy. 
 
 The ball was truly an elegant entertainment, and is recollected as 
 such by a few who yet survive of the brilliant circle that graced it. The 
 old 'City Assembly Rooms,' in which it took place, was in a large wooden 
 building standing upon the site of the present City Hotel. In addition 
 to the distinguished pair for whom it was given, it was honored by the 
 Vice-President, the Speaker of the House, and most of the members of 
 both branches of Congress ; Governor (George) Clinton, Chancellor Liv- 
 ingston, Chief-Justice Yates, of New York ; the Hon. John Jay, General 
 Knox, the Commissioners of the Treasury, James Duane, Mayor of the 
 city ; the Baron Steuben, General Hamilton, the French and Spanish 
 Ambassadors, and many other distinguished gentlemen, both Americans 
 and foreigners. Never was a lady, either in public or private life, more 
 popular than Mrs. Washington, and from the moment of her arrival, the 
 
180 
 
 most respectful attentions had been paid to her by the principal ladies of 
 the city, and by those Hkewise of celebrity from a distance. A numerous 
 and briUiant collection of ladies consequently graced the saloon with their 
 presence, and the decorations were such as in all respects comported with 
 their presence and the proud occasion. Among the leading circle were 
 the lady of his Excellency Governor Clinton, Lady Sterling, Lady Mary 
 Watts, Lady Kitty Duer, La Marchioness de Brehan, Mrs. Langdon, Mrs. 
 Dalton, Mrs. Duane (the Mayoress), Mrs. Peter Van Brook Livingston, 
 Mrs. Livingston, of Clermont ; Mrs. Chancellor Livingston, the Misses 
 Livingston, Lady Temple, Madame de la Forest, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. 
 Knox, Mrs. Thomson, Mrs. Gerry, Mrs. Edgar, Mrs. McComb, Mrs. Lynch, 
 Mrs. Houston, Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Provost, the Misses Bayard, and many 
 others of the most respectable families in the State and from abroad. The 
 whole number of ladies and gentlemen at the fete exceeded three hundred. 
 
 There was more of etiquette in the arrangements for this compli- 
 mentary ball than was thought by some to be exactly consistent with our 
 republican institutions, and more, in fact, than was altogether agreeable 
 to the feelings of him in whose honor it was observed. In connection 
 with the managers of the assemblies, Colonel Humphries and Colonel 
 William S. Smith were selected to adjust the ceremonies, and their 
 arrangements were reported to have been as foUows : At the head of the 
 room, upon a platform handsomely cai-peted, and beneath a rich drapery 
 of curtains and banners, was placed a damask-covered sofa, upon which 
 the President and Lady Washington were to be seated. The platform 
 was ascended by a flight of three or four steps. The costume of the gen- 
 tlemen was prescribed ; their hair was to be dressed in bags, with two 
 long curls on the sides, with powder, of course, and all were to appear and 
 dance with small swords. Each gentleman, on taking a partner to dance 
 was to lead her to the sofa and make a low obeisance to the President 
 and his lady, and repeat the ceremony of respect before taking their seats 
 after the figure was concluded. The decorations of the assembly room 
 were truly splendid and very tastefully disposed. 
 
 At that time there had been no more brilliant assemblage of ladies in 
 America than were collected on this occasion. Few jewels were then worn 
 in the United States, but in other respects their dresses were rich and 
 beautiful, according to the fashions of the day. We are not quite sure 
 that we can describe the full dress of a lady of rank at the period under 
 consideration bo as to render it intelligible. But we will make the attempt. 
 One favorite dress was a plain celestial blue satin: gown, with a white satin 
 petticoat. On the neck was worn a very large Italian gauze handker- 
 chief, with border stripes of satin. The head-dress was a pouf of gauze, 
 in the form of a globe, the creneaux or head-piece of which was composed 
 of white satin, having a double wing, 'in large plaits and trimmed with a 
 wreath of artificial roses falling from the left at the top to the right at 
 
181 
 
 the bottom in front, and the reverse behind. The hair was dressed all 
 over in detached curls, four of which, in two ranks, fell on each side of 
 the neck, and was relieved behind by a floating chignon. 
 
 Another beautiful dress was a perriot, made of gray Indian taffeta, 
 with dark stripes of the same color, having two collars, the one yellow 
 and the other white, both trimmed with a blue silk fringe, and a reverse 
 trimmed in the same manner. Under the perriot they wore a yellow 
 corset or boddice, with large cross stripes of blue. Some of the ladies 
 with this dress wore hats a I'Espagnole of white satin, with a band of the 
 same material placed on the crown, like the wreath of flowers on the 
 head-dress above-mentioned. This hat, which, with a plume, was a very 
 popular article of dress, was relieved on the left side, having two hand- 
 some cockades, one of which was at the top and the other at the bottom . 
 On the neck was worn a very large plain gauze handkerchief, the ends of 
 which were hid under the boddice, after the manner represented in 
 Trumbull's and Stuart's portraits of Lady Washington. Eound the 
 bosom of the perriot a frill of gauze, a la Henri IF, was attached, cut in 
 points around the edge. 
 
 There was still another dress which was thought to be very simple 
 and pretty. It consisted of a perriot and petticoat, both composed of the 
 same description of gray striped silk, and trimmed round with gauze, 
 cut in points at the edges in the manner of herrisons. The herrisons were 
 indeed nearly the sole trimmings used for the perriots, caracos, and petti- 
 coats of fashionable ladies, made either of ribands or Italian gauze. With 
 this dress they wore large gauze handkerchiefs upon their neck, with 
 four satin stripes around the border, two of which were narrow and the 
 others broad. The head-dress was a plain gauze cap, after the form of 
 the elders and ancients of a nunnery. The shoes were celestial blue with 
 rose-colored rosettes. 
 
 Such are descriptions of some of the principal costumes of the ladies 
 who graced the inauguration ball of Washington, and although varied in 
 divers unimportant particulars, by the several ladies, according to their 
 respective tastes and fancies, yet, as with the peculiar fashions of all other 
 times, there was a general correspondence of the outlines, the tout ensemble 
 was the same. 
 
 The President and his lady were introduced and conducted through 
 the saloon to the seat provided for them by Colonel Humphries, a man 
 of fine accompUshments and manners. General Knox had just been 
 appointed Secretary of War, and his lady had been charged with so far 
 resembling Osesar, as to have been somewhat ' ambitious.' Be that 
 as it may, it was said in those days that she so arranged her own 
 movements as to enter the saloon with the President and his lady, follow- 
 ing them to their station and ascending the steps, with the evident design 
 of obtaining an invitation from the President to a seat upon the honored 
 
182 
 
 sofa. Unluckily, however, the seat was too narrow for the accommoda- 
 tion of three persons, and the lady of the war minister, with deep and 
 apparent mortification, was compelled to descend to the level of those 
 who had shown themselves to be less openly aspiring. No other incident 
 worthy of especial note occurred during the evening, or none which 
 attracted particular attention. 
 
 Among the gayest and most courteous of the cavaliers present was 
 the Baron Steuben. Well educated and bred in a German court, having 
 also mingled much in the splendid court circles of Louis XV, in Paris, 
 where he had usually passed his winters previous to his emigration to 
 America, the manners of this gallant officer were formed upon the best 
 model of graceful ease, affability, and dignity. He was thus, perhaps, 
 as well qualified to teach the tactics of the drawing-room as those of the 
 field. But, too much of the real gentleman to appear in the least degree 
 assuming, he was a universal favorite. His dress was of rich black silk 
 velvet, with the star of his order upon his breast, and he had ever some 
 witty or playful remark for every person and every occasion, which was 
 received with additional interest from his German accent and the Uttle 
 and often ludicrous mistakes to which he was liable from his imperfect 
 knowledge of the EngHsh idioms. 
 
 The salutatory exercises were such as were usual in those times and 
 on great occasions. There are a few of both sexes yet living who then 
 mingled in the dance, but the incidents of the festive night Unger in their 
 m.emories like the fragments of a broken vision in times that are passed- 
 They remember only that the exercise went on 
 
 ' With smooth step 
 Disclosing motion in its every charm, 
 To swim along and swell the mazy dance,' 
 
 presenting to the eye, as in Milton's beautiful description of the dances 
 of the angels — 
 
 ' Mazes intricate, 
 Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular 
 Then most, when most irregular they seem.' 
 
 The illustrious chieftain himself did not hesitate to countenance the 
 elegant amusement by participation, as the heroes and statesmen of anti- 
 quity, the demi-gods of the Greeks and Romans, had done before him. 
 Mrs. Peter Van Brook Livingston and Mrs. Hamilton were successively 
 honored by the chieftain's hand in a cotiUion. He afterward danced a 
 minuet with Miss Van Zandt, subsequently the ladj* of William Maxwell, 
 Esq., vice-president of the Bank. There was dignity and grace in every 
 movement of this incomparable man. But in the minuet, which is held 
 to be the perfection of aU dancing, he appeared to more than his wonted 
 advantage. The minuet contains in itself a compound variety of as many 
 
183 
 
 movements in the serpentine, -which is the line of beauty, as can -well be 
 put together in distinct quantities, and is, withal, an exceedingly fine com- 
 position of movements. It is, therefore, the best of aU descriptions of 
 dancing to display the graces of person and attitude, and never did the 
 majestic form of Washington appear to greater advantage than on the 
 present occasion of elegant trifling. There was, moreover, youth and 
 • beauty in the. countenance, grace in the step, and heaven in the eye of 
 his fair partner. 
 
 Shortly after the brilliant spectacle which we have thus attempted but 
 imperfectly to describe, the President was complimented by another sim- 
 ilar fete, which he also honored by his presence, given by the French 
 Minister. The pageant was one of uncommon elegance, both as it 
 respected the character of the company and the plan of the entertainment. 
 As a compliment to the aUiance of the United States and France, there 
 were two sets of cotillion dances in complete uniforms. The uniform of 
 France was worn by one set, and that of the United States, the Eevolu- 
 tionary blue and buff, by the other. The ladies were dressed in white, 
 with ribands, bouquets, and garlands of flowers, answering to the uni- 
 forms of the gentlemen. But it would be alike weari8om.e and unneces- 
 sary to enter into further particulars. 
 
 The levees of President Washington were far more select and rational 
 than are those of the same officer at tne present day. They were nume- 
 rously attended by all that was fashionable, elegant, and refined in 
 in society, but there were no places for the intrusion of the rabble in 
 crowds, or for the mere coarse and boisterous partisan, the vulgar elec- 
 tioneerer, or the impudent place-hunter, with boots, and frock coats, or 
 roundabouts, or with patched knees and holes at both elbows. On the 
 contrary, they were select and more courtly than have been given by any 
 of his successors. 
 
 Proud of her husband's exalted fame and jealous of the honors due 
 not only to his own lofty character, but to the dignified station to which 
 a grateful country had called him, Mrs. Washington was careful in her 
 drawing-rooms to exact those courtesies to which she knew he was^ 
 entitled, as well on account of personal merit as of official consideration. 
 Fortunately, moreover, democratic rudeness had not then so far gained 
 the ascendancy as to banish good manners, and the charms of social inter- 
 course were heightened by a reasonable attention in the best circles to 
 those forms and usages which indicate the well-bred assemblage, and 
 fling around it an air of elegance and grace which the envious only 
 aflfect to decry, and the innately vulgar only ridicule and contemn. None 
 therefore, were admitted to the levees but thoae who ha,d either a right by 
 
184 
 
 official station to be there, or were entitled to the privilege by establisheii 
 merit and character, and full dress was required of all.* 
 
 Mrs. Washington was a pleasing and agreeable, rather than a splen- 
 did woman. Her figure was not commanding, but her manners were 
 easy, conciliatory and attractive. Her domestic arrangements were 
 always concerted under her own eye, and everything within her house- 
 hold moved forward with the regularity of machinery. No daughter of • 
 Eve ever worshipped her lord with more sincere and affectionate venera- 
 tion ; and none had ever cause to render greater or more deserved homage. 
 When absent, he was ever in her thoughts, and her mild eyes kindled at 
 his presence. She was well educated, and possessed strong native sense, 
 guided by all necessary prudence and discretion. She rarely conversed 
 upon political subjects, and when the most expert diplomatists would 
 attempt to draw her out, she had the faculty of turning the course of 
 conversation with equal dexterity and politeness. At all the President's 
 entertainments, whether at the table or in the drawing-room, notwith- 
 standing the regard to etiquette heretofore adverted to, there was neverthe- 
 less so much kindness of feeling displayed, and such an unaffected degree of 
 genuine hospitality, that golden opinions were won alike from the foreign 
 and domestic visitors. 
 
 In those days, late hours were not necessary to fashion ; and many 
 of our fair metropolitan readers, who are in the habit of dressing at ten 
 to enter a distant drawing-room at eleven, will doubtless be surprised to 
 learn that Mrs. Washington's levees closed always at nine ! This was a 
 rule which that distinguished lady established on the occasion of holding 
 her first levee, on the evening of January 1, 1790. The President's 
 residence was in the Franklin House, at the head of Cherry street. 
 "The day," says a letter* of our venerable and estimable friend, John 
 Pintard, Esq. — who was then in the heyday of youth and life, mingling 
 with the fashionable world — " was uncommonly mild and pleasant. It 
 was about full moon, and the air so bland and serene, that the ladies 
 attended in their light summer shades. Introduced by the aids and 
 gentlemen in waiting, after being seated, tea, coffee, plain and plum cake 
 were handed round. Familiar and friendly conversation ensued, and 
 kind inquiries, on the part of Mrs. Washington, after the families of the 
 exiles, with whom she had been acquainted during the Revolutionary 
 War, and who always received marked attention from General Washington 
 
 * Some show, if not of state, at least of respect for the high ofBcer they were to 
 visit, was exacted down to the close of Mr. iladison's administration. Mr. Monroe 
 required le3< formality and attention to dress, and the second President Adams less 
 still. But respect and reverence for the office still kept the multitude, who had no 
 business there, from the President's drawing-rooms until the year 1829, when — but 
 tempora mutantur ! 
 
 * To Colonel Morris, of the Neio York Mirror. 
 
185 
 
 Mrs. "Washington stood by the side of the General in receiving the respects 
 of the visitors. * ♦ * * ^^^-^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ chit-chat of the company, the' 
 Hall clock struck nine. Mrs. Washington thereupon rose with dignity 
 and, looking around the circle with a complacent smile, observed : ' The 
 General always retires at nine, and I usually precede him.' At this hint 
 the ladies instantly rose, adjusted their dresses, made their salutations, 
 and retired." 
 
 General Washington had, on that day, been waited upon by the 
 principal gentlemen of the city, according to the ancient New York custom . 
 of social and convivial visiting on that day. " After being severally intro- 
 duced, and paying the visual compliments of the season," says Mr. Pintard, 
 " the citizens mutually interchanged their kind greetings, and withdrew, 
 liighly gratified by the friendly notice of the President, to most of whom 
 he was personally a stranger." In the course of the evening, while 
 speaking of the occurrences of the day, Mrs. Washington remarked : " Of 
 all the incidents of the day, none so pleased the General," by which title 
 she always designated him, " as the friendly greetings of the gentlemen 
 who visited him at noon." To the inquiry of the President, whether it 
 was casual or customary, he was answered that it was an annual custom, 
 derived from our Dutch forefathers, which had always been commemorated. 
 After a short pause, he observed : " The hiffhly-favored situation of Nero York 
 will, in the process of years, attract numerous emigrants, who will gradrnlhj change 
 its ancient customs and manners; hut, let whatever changes take place, neveb 
 
 FOKGET THE COBDIAI., CHEERPtTL OBSERVANCE OE NEW YEAk's DAY." The WOrds 
 
 made an indelible impression on the mind of the writer, and, at this 
 distance of time, are here recorded,' to preserve them, if possible, from 
 total oblivion. 
 
 On the 12th day of May, 1789, about two weeks after General 
 Washington had taken the oath of office, the oldest political organization 
 in the city now in existence — the Tammany Society, or Columbian Oebee — 
 was instituted. The year following (1790), a most interesting event in 
 the history of this organization occurred, which, at the time, excited con- 
 siderable interest among the citizens of New York. The United States 
 had long been desirous of forming a treaty of friendship and alliance 
 with the Creek Indians, and various unsuccessful attempts had been made 
 to effect this object. At length. Colonel Marinus Willet went to that nation 
 and induced Alexander McGilvery, a half-breed, with about thirty of the 
 principal chiefs, to come to this city. The Tammany Society determined 
 to receive them with great ceremony. The members, at that day, were 
 accustomed to dress in the Indian costume, and on this occasion they 
 wore feathers, moccasins, leggings, painted their faces, and sported huge 
 war-clubs and burnished tomahawks. When the Creeks entered the 
 wigwam, they were so surprised to see such a number of their own race, 
 that they sef up a whoop of joy, which almost terrified the people present. 
 
186 
 
 On the occasion of this interview, Governor George Clinton, Chief-Justice 
 Jay, Mr. Duane (the Mayor), Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, and other 
 distinguished men were present. The Creeks were overjoyed with their 
 reception. They performed a dance, and sang the E-tho song. Mr. 
 Smith, the Grand Sachem of the Society, made a speech to the Indians, 
 jn which he told them that although the hand of death was cold upon 
 those two great Chiefs, Tammany and Colum.bus, their spirits were walk- 
 ing backward and forward in the wigwam. The Sagamore presented 
 the Chiefs with the calumet, and one of them dubbed the Grand Sachem, 
 " TtTLivA Mice, or Chief of the White Town." In the erening they went 
 to the the.ater, attended by the Sachems and members. Before they left 
 the city, they entered into a treaty of friendship with " Washington, the 
 Beloved Sachem of the Thirteen Fires," as they were pleased to call him- 
 
 In June of the same year, the Society established a museum for the 
 purpose of collecting and preserving everything relating to the history of 
 the country. A room was granted for its use in the City Hall, and 
 Gardiner Baker was appointed to take charge of the collection. In 1794, 
 it was removed to a brick building standing directly in the middle of the 
 street, at the intersection of Broad and Pearl streets, called the Exchange. 
 The lower part was used as a market but the upper part, being light 
 and airy, was weU calculated for displaying the many curiosities which 
 now by the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Baker had been collected. On 
 the 25th of June, 1795, the Society passed a resolution rehnquishing to 
 Gardiner Baker aU their right and titie to the museum. He had taken 
 so much pains and incured so much expense in getting it up, that he 
 could, with good reason, make a claim upon it. It was therefore given 
 up to him, upon condition that it should be forever known as the " Tam- 
 many Museum," in honor of its founders, and that each member of his 
 family should have free access to it. This Museum, after the death of 
 Baker, was sold to Mr. W. I. Waldron, and, after passing through 
 various hands, formed the foundation of what was afterwards called the 
 " American" or " Scudder's Museum," in Chatham street.* 
 
 The opening of the nineteenth century found New York vastly 
 improved. As commerce and trade revived, it was found necessary to 
 enlarge the grounds of the city and give it a more presentable appear- 
 ance to the many foreigners who had already begun to flock thither for 
 trade. The city now numbered twenty-three thousand souls exclusive of 
 a floating population, large even for that early day. Eeade and Duane 
 streets were laid out and opened to the public in 1794. The waste 
 grounds around the Collect were filled in and graded ; a canal, following 
 the present Canal street (whence the name), was out through from the 
 Collect to the North Eiver with a view of draining the Lispenand 
 
 * History of the Tammany Society, by K. G. Horton. 
 
187 
 
 meadows ; the beautiful lake was filled up and made firm ground ; the 
 grade of Broadway, from Duane to Canal street, was determined upon 
 by the city authorities ; the streets had received numbers ; the United 
 States Navy Yard, at Brooklyn, had been begun ; the plan of the present 
 modern city, with its parallel streets and broad avenues, had been 
 adopted; Washington, Union, Madison, and Tompkins Squares, had 
 been laid out ; the great salt meadow on the eastern side of the city had 
 been drained, and already, in imagination, divided into building-lots ; 
 and as the grand step in this march of improvement, New York received 
 in 1790, her first sidewalks, which were laid on both sides of Broad- 
 way, from Vesey to Murray street. True, these sidewalks were only 
 narrow pavements of brick, scarcely allowing two lean men to walk 
 abreast or one fat man alone ; stUl they were far preferable to walking 
 in the middle of the streets on cobble-stones — especially if a person had 
 corns. At this time, also, Nassau and Pine streets were what the upper 
 part of Fifth avenue is now. Pearl (then Queen) street, from Hanover 
 square to John s^eet, was the abode of wealth and fashion. Wall street, 
 now given over to the sordid purpose of Mammon, was the gay prome- 
 nade on bright afternoons, and there many a gallant's heart has been 
 pierced by glances shot from beneath the frizzled locks of the fair sex ; 
 while the beaux with their powdered curls before, and their neat black 
 silk bags behind the head, their laced ruffles and desperately square-toed 
 shoes, were equally comme il faut. The City Hall stood at the foot of 
 Nassau street. Just below it was the elegant mansion of Mr, Verplanck 
 and immediately opposite, on the corner of Broad street, was the Watch- 
 House ; while further down, at the corner of New street, stood Becker's 
 Tavern — then a place of great resort. In Nassau street resided the Jays, 
 Waddingtons, Eadcliffes, Brinckerhoffs, and other prominent families. 
 Where the Merchants' Exchange now stands were the residences of 
 Thomas Buchanan, Mrs, White, and W. C. Leffingwell ; while in Pearl 
 street were the fashionable dwellings of Samuel Denton, John Ellis, John 
 J. Glover, John Mowatt, Eobert Lennox, Thomas Cadle, John B, Murray, 
 Lieutenant-Governor Broome, Andrew Ogden, Governor George Clinton, 
 and Richard Variok. Near the location of the present City Hall was the 
 Aims-House, with the bridewell on one side and the prison on the other, 
 Grenzeback's grocery stood were French's Hotel now does. There were 
 but three or four buildings on the block where Tammany Hall lately 
 stood, one of which, nearly on the present site of the Tribune buildings, 
 was a place of great resort for military men. The only remainmg rem. 
 nants of the neighborhood in that time are the wooden shanties, with 
 their moss-covered roofs, which now disfigure Chatham street, opposite 
 Centre.* 
 
 * R. Gr. Horton's History of the Tammany Society. 
 
188 
 
 THE FIKE OP 1804. 
 
 One event, however, was to impede for a short time the progress- 
 which the city was making on the road to prosperity. This was the fire 
 of 1804. About two o'clock on the night of the 18th of December, of 
 that year, a serious fire commenced in a grocery store on Front street. 
 The air was cold, and a high wind blowing and the engines late in their 
 appearance, the devouring clement extended with unexampled rapidity, 
 destroying many valuable stores and dwellings, with their contents. 
 The buildings from the west side of Coffee- House BKp, on Water street, 
 to Governeur's Lane, and thence down to the East Eiver, were swept 
 away, and crossing Wall street, the houses upon the east side of the slip 
 were also burned. Among them were the old Tontine Coffee-House, so 
 celebrated in its way, with several brick stores. Most of the buildings 
 being of wood, their destruction caused new and fire-proof brick edifices 
 to be built in their places. About forty stores and dwellings were con- 
 sumed — fifteen on WaU street, seventeen on Pront, and eight in Water 
 street. The value of the property destroyed amounte<? to one or two 
 millions of dollars, and the fire was supposed to be the work of incen- 
 diaries, from anonymous letters sent to a merchant previous to the event. 
 Five hundred dollars reward was offered by the Mayor for the appre- 
 hension of the incendiaries. This same region, thirty-one years after- 
 ward, was to witness the greatest conflagration which ever took place in 
 this city. 
 
 The year 1804 was indeed a memorable date in the anuals of the 
 City. In that year the Historical Society was founded, with De Witt 
 Clinton for its first vice-president ; the present City Hall began to rise 
 from its foundation ; and the Public School Society was virtually deter- 
 mined upon. It was marked also by dark signs ; for, besides bringing 
 the dreadful fire, which we have already described, it brought the death 
 of Hamilton — ^killed in a duel by Burr — " and the loss of his brilliant 
 gifts and guiding intellect." 
 
 The year 1807 is also one yet more memorable, not only in the City'a 
 history, but in that of the United States and the globe. In that year was 
 witnessed the successful introduction of steam navigation. " Who shall 
 say what steam navigation has done to emancipate mankind from drudg- 
 ery, and construct society upon the basis of liberty ? It is science turned 
 Hberator; and the saucy philosophy of the eighteenth century became 
 the mighty and merciful helper of the nineteenth century. To us, indi- 
 vidually and generally, how marvelous has been the gift ! Wherever 
 that piston-rod rises and falls, and those paddles turn, man has a giant 
 for his porter and defender. The liberty of the nation has been organ- 
 ized under its protection ; and the great States of the Mississippi valley 
 and the Pacific coast are brought within one loyal afiinity, and build their 
 new liberties upon the good old pattern of our fathers. Clinton and Pul- 
 
189 
 
 ton, the one identified with the rise of steam navigation, the other with 
 the Brie Oanal, are names that belong to universal history, as having given 
 America its business unity, and brought its united wealth to bear upon 
 the industry and commerce of the world." * 
 
 On the 7th of August, 1807, the first steam-boat, the Clermont, con- 
 structed and finished under the genius of Robert Fulton, encouraged by 
 Chancellor Livingston, stood in the stream opposite Jersey City, ready at 
 a signal to start on her way to Albany. Thousands of citizens lined both 
 banks of the river, and filled every kind of available water-craft with the 
 expectation of witnessing the utter failure of "Fulton's Folly" — as they 
 had tauntingly christened the new boat — and of having the satisfaction 
 ■of saying, " I told you so." But that sentence was never to be uttered i 
 for, at the word from the inventor, the wheels began to revolve, slowly at 
 first, then faster and faster, until " Fulton's Folly" vanished up the river, 
 leaving the scoffers staring after it with blank visages and open mouths. 
 The triumph was complete. 
 
 A year ago, in the summer of 1867, the writer chanced to be a pas- 
 senger on board of the swift and fairy-like steamer, the Chauncey 
 Vibbard, of the Albany Day-Line.* While passing Oatskill the birth- 
 place of Thurlow Weed, the latter, who was also a passenger, was 
 reminded of an incident of his boyhood, connected with the first trip of 
 the Clermont, which he related to the little circle gathered round him • 
 " Sixty years ago, this very day," said Mr. Weed, " the first steam-boat 
 passed up the Hudson from New York to Albany. The news spread 
 like wild-fire, although there was then no telegraph, and the banks of 
 the entire river were almost literally lined with people, to whom the first 
 steam-boat was a much greater wonder than the Great Eastern to the 
 present generation." To be on the bank, however, was not enough for 
 Mr. Weed ; so, stripping off his clothes and placing them on a rude raft 
 improvised for the occasion, he swam out into the stream, pushing the 
 raft before him; and from an island (now forming the main-land) he 
 
 Dr' Osgood's Mew York in the Nineteenth Century. 
 * The Cluiuncey Vibbard — owned by J. McB. Davidson, Esq., of New Tork, and 
 Alfred Van Santvoord, Esq., of Albany ; superintended by the latter, and com- 
 manded by the genial and experienced seaman, Captain Hitchcock — ii probably the 
 fastest boat in existence. In the course of the trip mentioned in the text, the dis- 
 tance between West Point and Newburg — ten miles — was made in twenty minutes 
 and a half, nearly thirty miles an hour. The speed of the boat on this occasion was 
 timed by Mr. Weed, Mr. Erastus Brooks, of the JSxjiress, and Mr. Wilkes, of the 
 Spirit of the Times. This time becomes the more remarkable when it is stated that 
 at the time the steam-boat had five hundred ani fifty passengers on hoard. The 
 speed of Fulton's boat was about six miles an hour ! 
 
190 
 
 watched, in actual fear and trembling, the singular, and to him weird, 
 spectacle — 
 
 " A peaceful bark o'er the waters sped, 
 As this monster form drew near ; 
 From his perilous post the helmsman fled. 
 And the hailing captain bade with dread 
 From her demon-wake to steer. 
 ^ * * * * * 
 
 •' From the fishermen's cabins the inmates burst, 
 And were moved in their panic to say. 
 That the ghosts of the Dutchmen had risen fi-om dust 
 To smoke their great pipes with a terrible gust, 
 And hasten from Gotham away."* 
 
 But before New York City was to attain to its present high position- 
 it was destined to pass through another period of darkness and depres- 
 sion — the war of 1812 — a period, moreover, which was to be rendered 
 additionally trying by the crippUng of its resources by the terrible con- 
 flagration of 1811. The Hon. G. P. Disosway, who, with a lew others 
 yet living, passed through this fiery ordeal, gives his personal reminis- 
 cences of this fire as follows : 
 
 THE PIRE OF 1811. 
 
 " An extensive fire broke out in Chatham street, near Duane, on Sunday morn- 
 ing, May 19, 1811, raging furiously several hours. A brisk north-east wind was 
 blowing at the moment, and the flames spreading with great rapidity, for some time 
 seemed to baffle all the exertions of the firemen and citizens. Between eighty and 
 one hundred buildings, on both sides of Chatham street, were consumed in a few 
 hours. 
 
 " We well remember that conflagration. The writer was then a Sabbath-School 
 boy, and a teacher in a public school-room near by, at the comer of Tryon Row. The 
 school was dismissed, and, as usual, proceeded to old John Street Church, thick 
 showers of light burning shingles and cinders falling all over the streets. That was 
 the day of shingle roofs. When the teachers and scholars, their number very large, 
 reached the church the venerable Bishop McEendall occupied the pulpit, and seeing 
 the immense clouds of dark smoke and living embers enveloping that section of the 
 city, he advised the men ' to go to the fire and help in its extinguishment, and he 
 would preach to the women and children. This advice was followed. 
 
 By this time the scene had become very exciting, impressive, and even fearful. 
 We have not forgotten it, and never will. The wind had increased to a gale, and 
 far and wide and high flew the blazing flakes in whirling eddies, throwing burning 
 destruction wherever they lit or fell. 
 
 The lofty spires near by of the ' Brick Meeting,' St. Paul's, and ' St. Greorge's 
 Chapel,' enveloped in the rapidly passing embers, soon became the especial objects of 
 watchfulness and anxiety. Thousands of uplifted eyes, and we doubt not prayers, 
 were directed toward these holy tabernacles, now threatened with speedy destruc- 
 tion. And there was cause for fear. Near the ball at the top of the ' Brick Church 
 a blazing spot was seen outside, and apparently not larger than a man's head. 
 
 * Mrs. Sigourney's poem, entitled, " The First Steam-boat." 
 
191 
 
 Instantly, a thrill of fear evidently ran through the boioms of the thouaanda crowd- 
 ing the Park and the wide area of Chatham street. Tliey feared the safety of an old 
 and loved temple of the Lord, and they feared als:), if the spire was onue in flames, 
 with the increasing gale, what would be the terrible consequence on the lower part 
 of the city, 
 
 ' What can we do W was the universal question — ' what in the world can be done ?' 
 was in everybody's mouth. The kindling spot could not be reached from the inside 
 of the tall steeple, nor by ladders outside ; neither could any fire-engine, however 
 powerful, force the water to that lofty height. With the deepest anxiety, fear and 
 trembling, all faces were turned in that direction. At this moment of alarm and 
 dread, a sailor appeared on the roof of the cliurch, and very soon was seen climbing up 
 the steeple, liand over hand, by the lightning-rod ! — yes, by the rusty, slender iron ! 
 Of course, the excitement now became most intense ; and the perilous undertaking of 
 the daring man was watched every moment, as ho slowly, step by step, grasp after 
 grasp, literally crawled upward, by means of his slim conductor. Many fears were 
 expressed among the immense crowds, watching every inch of hi.'' ascent, for there 
 was no resting-place for hands and feet, and he must hold on, or fall and perish ; and 
 should he succeed in reaching the burning spot, how could he possibly extinguish it, 
 as water, neither by hose nor buckets, could be sent to his assistance ? ' But where 
 there is a will, there is a way,' says the old maxim, and it was at this fearful crisis 
 he reached the kindling spot, and firmly grasping the lightning-rod in one hand, 
 with the other he removed his tarpaulin hat from his head, and with it, literally, 
 blow after blow, thick, strong, and unceasing, extinguished or beat out the fire ! 
 Shouts of joy and i^hanks greeted the noble fellow, as he slowly and safely descended 
 to the earth again. The ' Old Brick' was thus preserved from the great conflagration 
 of that Sunday morning. Our hero quickly disappeared in the crowd, and, it was 
 said, immediately sailed abroad, with the favorable wind then blowing. A reward 
 was offered for the person who performed this daring, generous act ; but it is said 
 that some imposter passed himself o£B for the real hero, and obtained the promised 
 amount. 
 
 The cupola of the ' Old Jail,' which stood on the spot now occupied by the 
 ' Hall of Records,' also took fire. This was extinguished through the exertions of a 
 prisoner, ' on the limits.' This was the famous, generous institution, where unfor- 
 tunate debtors formerly were confined and barred in with grated doors and iron 
 bolts, deprived of liberty, and without tools, books, paper or pen, expected to pay 
 their debts. It was a kind of ' Calcutta Black -Hole,' and the inmates having no 
 yard-room, the prisoners frequented the top of the building for open-air exercise. 
 Her; they might be seen every hour of the day. Generally discovering fires in the 
 city, they gave the first alarm, by ringing the ' Jail-Bell.' This became a sure signal 
 of a conflagration, and on this occasion they saved the legal pest-house from quick 
 destruction. The Corporation rewarded the debtor who fortunately extinguished 
 the threatened cupola. 
 
 If the building had been destroyed and its inmates only saved, there would not 
 have been much public regret, for it had been a sort of ' Calcutta Black-Hole ' to 
 American prisoners of war during the Revolution. After General Washington's 
 success during 1777, in New Jersey, a portion of these poor prisoners were exchanged, 
 but many of them, exhausted by their confinement, before reaching the vessels for 
 embarkation home, fell dead in the streets. These are some of the historical reminis- 
 cences of the ' Old Debtor's Prison,' which so narrowly escaped burning in the great 
 fire of May, 1811." 
 
 Scarcely had the citizens of New York recovered from the disheart- 
 ening effects of tliis fire, when, on the 20th of June, 1812, the news was 
 
192 
 
 received in the city, of President Madison's declaration of war against 
 Great Britain, issued a few days previous. A meeting was immediately 
 called at noon of the same day, in the Park, and at which the citizens 
 pledged themselves to give the Government their undivided support. 
 
 This resolution, in view of tho severe blow which it was perceived 
 would at once be given by the war to the prosperity of New York, was 
 no slight proof of patriotism ; and many who at the beginning of the war 
 were rich, found themselves, when the treaty of peace was signed on the 
 24th of December, 1814, ruined. The condition in which New York was 
 at the close of the war, as well as the extravagant demonstration of 
 joy with which the news of the termination of hostilities was received, 
 is thus graphically described by the late Francis Wayland, who was an 
 eye-witness of the scene : 
 
 " It so chanced that at the close of the last war with Great Britain 
 I was temporarily a resident of the City of New York. The prospects of 
 the nation were shrouded in gloom. Wo had been, for two or three 
 years, at war with the mightiest nation on earth, and as she had now 
 concluded a peace with the continent of Europe, wo wore obliged to copo 
 with her single-handed. Our harbors were blockaded, communications 
 coast-wise between our ports was cut off ; our ships were rotting in every 
 creek and cove where they could find a place of security ; our immense 
 annual products were mouldering in our warehouses. The sources of 
 profitable labor were dried up ; our currency was reduced to irredeemable 
 paper ; the extreme portions of our country were becoming hostile to 
 each other ; and differences of political opinion were embittering the 
 peace of every household f the credit of the Government was exhausted ; 
 no one could predict when the contest would terminate, or discern the 
 means by which it could much longer be protracted. 
 
 It happened that on a Sunday afternoon, in Pebruary, 1815, a ship 
 was discerned in the offing, which was supposed to be a cartel, bringing 
 home our Commissioners at Ghent, from their unsuccessful mission. The 
 sun had set gloomily before any intelligence liad reached tho city. 
 Expectation became painfully intense, as the hours of darkness drew on. 
 At length, a boat reached the wharf, announcing the fact that a treaty of 
 peace had been signed, and was waiting for nothing but the action of our 
 Government to become a law. The men, on whose ears these words first 
 fell, rushed in breathless haste into the city, to repeat them to their friends, 
 shouting as they ran through the streets, ' Peace ! Peace ! PEACE !' 
 Every one who heard the sound repeated it. From house to house, 
 from street to street, tho news spread with electric rapidity. Tho 
 whole city was in commotion. Men bearing lighted torches, were 
 flying to and fro, shouting like madmen, ' Pe von ! PEACE !' When 
 the rapture had partially subsided, one idea occupied every mind. 
 But few men slept that night. In groops they were gathered in the 
 
193 
 
 streets, and by the fireside, beguiling the hours of midnight by reminding 
 each other that the agony of war was over, and that a worn-out and dis- 
 tracted country was about to enter again upon its wonted career of pros- 
 perity." 
 
 In 1818, the Legislature of New York— De Witt Clinton, Governor- 
 ordered the remains of General Montgomery to be removed from Canada 
 to New York. This was in accordance with the wishes of the Continental 
 Congress, which, in 1776, had voted the beautiful cenotaph to his memory 
 that now stands in the front waU of St. Paul's Church, in Broadway. 
 When the funeral cortege reached Whitehall, N. Y., the fleet stationed 
 there received them with appropriate honors ; and on the 4th of July 
 they arrived in Albany. After lying in state in that city over Sunday, 
 the remains were taken to New York, and on Wednesday deposited, with 
 military honors, in their final resting-place at St. Paul's. Governor 
 Clinton, with the delicacy for which he was always remarkable, had 
 informed Mrs. Montgomery when the steamer Richmond, with the body 
 of her husband, would pass her mansion on the North Eiver. At her 
 own request, she stood alone on the portico at the moment that the boat 
 passed. It was now almost forty years since she had parted from her 
 husband, and they had then been married only two years ; yet she had 
 remained as faithful to the memory of her " soldier," as she always called 
 him, as if aHve. The steam-boat halted before the mansion ; the band 
 played the "Dead March;" a salute was fired; and the ashes of the 
 venerated hero and the departed husband passed on. The attendants of 
 the Spartan widow now appeared, but, overcome by the tender emotions 
 of the moment, she had swooned and fallen to the floor.* 
 
 In the successive years of its existence, the City of New York had 
 been visited by war, and fire, and famine, and now the scourge of pestilence 
 was to be added. In 1819, the city was visited by yellow-fev.er, which 
 
 * Janet Livingston, the sister of the distinguished Chancellor Livingston, the 
 wife of G-eneral Richard Montgomery, met the latter when he was a Captain in the 
 British Army and on the way to a distant frontier post. The meeting left mutual 
 tender impressions. Returning to England soon after, Montgomery disposed of his 
 commission, and, emigrating to New York, married the object of his attachment. 
 But their visions of anticipated happiness upon a farm at Ehinebeck were soon 
 ended. He was called upon to serve as one of the eight brigadier-generals in the 
 Continental Army. He accepted sadly, declaring that " the will of an oppressed 
 people, compelled to choose between liberty and slavery, must be obeyed." His 
 excellent wife made no opposition, and, accompanying him as far as Saratoga, 
 received his last assurance : " You shall never have cause to blush for your Mont- 
 gomery." Nor did she ; for he fell bravely at Quebec. Having reduced St. Johns> 
 Chambly, and Montreal, he eifeoted a junction with Arnold before the walls of 
 Quebec, where he was shot through both his thighs and head, while leading his 
 men, on the 31st of December, 1775. In person. General Montgomery was tall# 
 graceful, and of manly address. At the time of his death, he was only thirty-nine 
 years of age. 
 
 1.3 
 
194 
 
 shortly disappeared, only, however, to return with increased violence in 
 the fall of 1822. " As to the fever," writes Colonel W. L. Stone, at that 
 time editor of the Commercial Advertiser, under date of October 10th, 1822, 
 to a friend, " I cannot say that it is any better. In the contrary it rages 
 sadly, and grows worse every hour. There are many sick and dying, 
 especially in the lower parts of the city, who would not move, and the 
 physicians will not visit them. I know several who have died without a 
 physician. Old Mr. Taylor, for instance (Soap and Candles, Maiden 
 Lane), would not move, and is now in his grave;" Even the cold weather 
 of 1822 and 1823 failed to check it, and the succeeding summer its 
 ravages became so firightftd, that all who could, fled the city. Business 
 was entirely suspended, and the place presented the appearance literally 
 of a deserted city — with no sounds except the rumbling of the hearses asj 
 at the dead of night, they passed through the streets to coUect the tribute 
 of the grave. By the 2d of November, however, the fever had disap- 
 peared ; the inhabitants again returned to their homes ; the banks and 
 Custom-House which had been removed, during the fever, to Grreenwich 
 Village on the outskirts of the town, moved back to their customary 
 places ; and business and social intercourse once more flowed in their 
 accustomed channels. 
 
 The two following years were to witness two august celebrations in 
 New Tork. The first was in 1824, on the occasion of the visit of General 
 Laiayette to Am.erica in his eighty-sixth year ; and the second was in 
 honor of the completion of the Erie Canal, by which the waters of Lake 
 Erie were connected with those of the Atlantic. 
 
 It was most fitting that the city which had so nobly supported the 
 enterprise from the beginning, should take the chief part in the ceremo- 
 nies attending its realization. Probably no project of internal improve- 
 ment ever met with such bitter and malignant opposition as that of the 
 Erie Canal, and great as was the assistance given to the canal project by 
 the Act of the New Tork Legislature of April, 1811, the obstacles in the 
 way of its successful completion were by no means removed. The same 
 incredulity as to the practicability of the canal, and the same apprehen- 
 sions as to the capacity of the State, continued to raise a fierce opposition 
 in the Legislature against any appropriations for carrying out the work 
 which it had itself authorized. Many attempts were accordingly made 
 to arrest, or at least curtail and arrest the project ; and often during the 
 progress of the undertaking it seemed as if it would be utterly aban- 
 doned. Party spirit at that time ran high, and the greatest effort on the 
 part of its supporters was required to persuade the people of the State to 
 give it their support at the polls. In accomplishing this result, the Com- 
 mercial Advertiser, the oldest paper of New York City, gave powerful aid. 
 That paper, which had always been the organ of the Federalists, became, 
 upon Mr. Stone's assuming its management in 1820, a staunch advocate 
 
195 
 
 of the Cliatonians. A strong personal friendship for Mr. Clinton on the 
 part of its editor, together with a firm conviction of the necessity for a 
 canal through the interior of New York State, led to the position thus 
 assumed. The trials and rebuffs experienced by Governor Clinton and 
 his supporters in pushing the canal project, and the energy which fought 
 it through to a triumphant end, are matters of history. The Erie Canal 
 was completed in the fall, of 1825. At ten o'clock on the morning of the 
 26th of October of the same year, the first canal-boat, the Seneca Chief, 
 left Buffalo, having on board Governor CHnton, Joshua Foreman, and 
 Colonel Stone, and the booming of cannon, placed at intervals of a few 
 miles along the entire line of the canal from Buffalo to Albany, and thence 
 along the banks of the Hudson to Sandy Hook, announced the successful 
 termination of the enterprise. In New York City, especially, this event 
 was celebrated by extraordinary civic and military ceremonies, and the 
 citizens gave themselves up to the wildest demonstrations of joy. Nor 
 was this joy ill-timed or excessive. " For a single State to achieve such 
 a victory, not only over the doubts and fears of the wary, but over the 
 obstacles of nature, causing miles of massive rocks at the mountain ridge 
 yield to its power, turning the tide of error as well as that of the Tonne- 
 wanda, piling up the waters of the mighty Niagara as well as those of 
 the beautiful Hudson, in short, causing a navigable river to flow with 
 gentle current down the steepy mount of Lockport, to leap the river of 
 Genesee, to encircle the brow of Irondequoit as with the laurel's wreath, 
 to march through the rich fields of Palmyra and of Lyons, to wend its 
 way through the quicksands of the morass at the Cayuga, to pass 
 unheeded the delicious licks at Onondaga, to smile through Oneida's 
 verdant landscape, to hang upon the arm of the ancient Mohawk, and 
 with her, after gaily stepping down the cadence of the Little Falls and 
 the Cohoes, to rush to the embrace of the sparkling Hudson, and all in 
 the space of eight short years, was the work of which the oldest and 
 richest nations of Christendom might be proud."* Colonel Stone, as one 
 of the most zealous champions of the canal, was appointed to write the 
 Naerative or the Celebkation, receiving a silver medal and box from 
 the Common Council of New York City, together with the thanks of that 
 body.t 
 
 * Stone's Narrative. 
 
 f Mr. Stone's narrative of the celebration was publislied by the Common Coun- 
 cil under the title of the Grand Erie Canal Celebration, acuompanied by a 
 memoir of the great work by Cadwallader D. Golden : 
 
 In connection with the Erie Canal and its influence in building up the interior 
 towns of this State, Mr. Stone was wont to relate the following anecdote : In 1820 
 he visited Syracuse with Joshua Foreman, the founder of that city and one of the 
 earliest and most zealous friends of the Erie Canal. " I lodged for the night," says 
 Mr. Stone, "at a miserable tivern, thronged by a company of salt-boilers fr .m 
 
190 
 
 The land procession in the city on this occasion, while being very 
 fine, was modeled after the procession in honor of the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution in 1788,* and does not present any very striking 
 features. The naval procession, however, was so unique, and withal was 
 projected and carried out on such a magnificent scale, that we quote ihe 
 description from Stone's Narrative, a work that is now exceedingly rare 
 and difficult to obtain : 
 
 " At half-past eight o'clock, the Corporation and their invited guests 
 assembled in the Sessions Room at the City Hall, and at a quarter before 
 nine proceeded to the steam-boats Washington, Fulton, and Providence, 
 stationed at the foot of Whitehall street. At the same place was also 
 stationed the Cmnmerce, Captain Seymour, with the elegant aafety-bargej 
 Lady Clinton. This barge, with the Lady Van Rensselaer, had been set 
 apart by the Corporation for the reception of the invited ladies, with their 
 attendants. The Lady Clinton was decorated with a degree of taste and 
 elegance which was equally delightful and surprising. From stem to 
 stern she was ornamented with evergreens hung in festoons and inter- 
 twined with roses of various hues, China astres, and many other flowers 
 alike beautiful. In one of the niches below the upper deck was the 
 bust of Chnton, the brow being encircled with a wreath of laurel and 
 roses. Mrs. Clinton, as well as many other distinguished ladies, was on 
 board of the barge, which, though the party was select, was much 
 crowded. Capt. Seymour, however, paid every attention to his beautiful 
 charge ; every countenance beamed with satisfaction and every eye 
 sparkled with delight. 
 
 A few minutes after nine o'clock, the whole being on board, the 
 fleet from Albany, as before mentioned, led by the flag-ship of the Admi- 
 ral, came round from the North and proceeded up the East Eiver to the 
 Navy Yard, where salutes were fired, and the sloop of war Cyane, was 
 dressed in the colors of all nations. While here the flag-ship took on 
 board the officers of that station, together with their fine band of music. 
 The officers stationed at West Point, with the celebrated band from that 
 place, having been received on board on the preceding evening, were like- 
 
 Salina, forming a group of aboat as rough-looking specimens of humanity as I htid 
 ever seen. Their wild visages, heards thick and long, and matted hair, even now 
 rise up in dark, distant, and picturesque effect before me. It was in October, and a 
 flurry of snow during the night had rendered the morning aspect of the country 
 more dreary than the evening before. The few houses, standing upon low and 
 marshy ground, and surrounded by trees and tangled thickets, presented a very 
 uninviting scene. ' Mr. Foreman,' said I, ' do you call this a tiUage ? It would make 
 an owl weep to fly over it.' ' Never mind,' said he in reply, ' you wiU Uve to see it a 
 city yet!'" Mr. Stone, did, indeed, live to see it a city, when he wrote the above in 
 1840, with a Mayor and Aldermen, and a population of more than twelve thousand 
 
 * See pau-e 165. 
 
197 
 
 "Wise on board of the Chancellor Livingston. On returning from the Navy 
 Yard, the steam-boat Ousatomc,oi Derby, joined the fleet. The wharves and 
 chores of Brooklyn, the Heights, and the roofs of many of the buildings, 
 ■were crowded with people to an extent little anticipated, and only exceeded 
 hy the thick masses of population which hned the shores of New York, 
 as far as Corlaer's Hook. The fleet having arrived between the east end 
 •of the Battery and Governor's Island, was joined by the ship Hamlet, 
 "before mentioned. While the commander was signaling the various 
 vessels, and they were maneuvering about to take their stations, the spec- 
 tacle was beautiful beyond measure. Long before this time, however, 
 our city had been pouring forth its thousands and tens of thousands ; 
 Castle Garden, the Battery, and every avenue to the water, were thronged 
 to a degree altogether beyond precedent. The ships and vessels in the 
 harbor were filled, even to their rigging and tops. And the movements 
 in forming the order of the aquatic procession, gave opportunity to all 
 to observe the several vessels in every advantageous and imposing situa- 
 tion. Loud cheers resounded from every direction, which were often 
 returned. Everything being in readiness, and every boat crowded to the 
 iitniost, the fleet taking a semi-circular sweep toward Jersey City, and back 
 obliquely in the direction of the lower point of Governor's Island, pro- 
 ceeded down the bay in the order detailed in the official report of the 
 Admiral, each boat and ship maintaining the distance of one hundred 
 feet apart. 
 
 The ship Samlet was taken in tow by the Oliver Ellsworth and 
 Bolivar, and assumed and maintained its place in splendid style. Four 
 pilot-boats were also towed by other steam-boats, together with the fol- 
 lowing boats of the Whitehall Watermen, all tastefully decorated, viz. : 
 The Lady of the Lake, Dispatch, Express, Brandywine, Sylph, Active, and 
 Whitehall, Junior. 
 
 The sea was tranquil and smooth as the summer lake : and the mist 
 which came on between seven and eight in the morning having partially 
 floated away, the sun shone bright and beautiful as ever. As the boats 
 passed the Battery they were saluted by the military, the revenue cutter, 
 and the castle on Governor's Island ; ond on passing the Narrows, they 
 were also saluted by Forts Lafayette and Tompkins. They then pro- 
 ceeded to the United States schooner Porpoise, Captain Zantzinger, 
 moored within Sandy Hook, at the point where the grand ceremony was 
 to be performed. A deputation, composed of Aldermen King and 
 Taylor, was then sent on board the steam-boat Chancellor Livingston, to 
 accompany his Excellency, the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, and 
 the several committees from Bulfalo, TJtica, Albany, and other places, on 
 board the steam-boat Washington. 
 
 The boats were thereupon formed in a circle around the schooner 
 preparatory to the ceremony : when Mr. Ehind, addressing the Governor, 
 
198 
 
 remarked ' that he had a request to make which he was confident it 
 would afford his Excellency great pleasure to grant. He was desirous of 
 preserving a portion of the water used on this memorable occasion, in 
 order to send it to our distinguished friend and late illustrious visitor, Major- 
 General Lafayette; and for that purpose Messrs. Dummer & Co. had pre- 
 pared some bottles of American fabric for the occasion, and they were to 
 be conveyed to the General in a box made by Mr. D. Phyfe from a log of 
 cedar brought from Erie iu the Seneca Chief.' The Governor repUed that 
 a more pleasing task could not have been imposed upon him, and 
 expressed his acknowledgments to Mr. Rhind for having suggested the 
 measure. 
 
 His Excellency, Governor Clinton, then proceeded to perform, the 
 ceremony of corn-mingling the waters of the Lakes with the Ocean, by 
 pouring a keg of that of Lake Erie into the Atlantic ; upon which he 
 delivered the foUowiag address : 
 
 ' This solemnity, at this place, on the first arrival of vessels from 
 Lake Erie, is intended to indicate and commemorate the navigable com- 
 munication, which has been accomplished between our Mediterranean 
 Seas and the Atlantic Ocean in about eight years, to the extent of more 
 than four hundred and twenty-five miles, by the wisdom, public spirit, 
 and energy of the people of the State of New York ; and may the God 
 of the Heavens and the Earth smile most propitiously on this work, and 
 render it subservient to the best interests of the human race.' 
 
 Doctor MitchiU, whose extensive correspondence with almost every 
 part of the world enables him to fiU his cabinet with everything rare and 
 curious, then completed the ceremony by pouring into the briny deep 
 bottles of water from the Ganges and Indus of Asia ; the Nile and the 
 Gambia of Africa ; the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube, 
 of Europe ; the Mississippi and Columbia of North, and the Oronoko, 
 La Plata, and Amazon, of South America. The learned doctor availed 
 himself of this occasion to deUver the pecuHar and interesting address 
 which will be found in this collection, and which so happily illustrates 
 the uses of types and symbols. The Honorable Cadwallader D. Colden 
 then presented to the Mayor the able Memoir upon the subject of Canals 
 and Inland Navigation in general, which forms the first part of the 
 present volume. 
 
 Never before was there such a fleet collected, and so superbly deco- 
 rated ; and it is very possible that a display so grand, so beautiful, and 
 we may even add, sublime, wiU never be witnessed again. We know of 
 nothing with which it can be compared. The naval fete given by the 
 Prince Eegent of England, upon the Thames, during the visit of the 
 Allied Sovereigns of Europe to London, after the dethronement of Napo- 
 leon, has been spoken of a.s exceeding everything of the kind hitherto 
 witnessed in Europe. But gentlemen who had an opportunity of wit- 
 
199 
 
 nessing both, have declared that the spectacle in the waters of New York 
 so far tracBcended that in the metropohs of England, as scarcely to 
 admit of a comparison. The day, as we have before remarked, was 
 uncommonly fine. No winds agitated the surface of the mighty deep, 
 and during the performance of the ceremonies, the boats with their gay 
 decorations, lay motionless in beauty. The orb of day darted his genial 
 rays upon the bosom of the waters, where they played as tranquilly as 
 upon the natural mirror of a secluded lake. Indeed the elements seemed 
 to repose, as if to gaze upon each other, and participate in the beauty 
 and grandeur of the sublime spectacle. Every object appeared to pause 
 as if to invite reflection and prepare the mind for deep impressions — 
 impressions which, while we feel them steahng upon the soul, impart a 
 consciousness of their durability. It was one of those few bright visions 
 whose evanescent glory is allowed to Ught up the path of human life — 
 which, as they are passing, we feel can never return, and which, in dif- 
 fusing a sensation of pleasing melancholy, consecrates, as it were, all 
 surrounding objects, even to the atmosphere we inhale ! 
 
 While the fleet was here at anchor, a deputation from the members 
 of the Assembly from different parts of the State, who were on board 
 one of the steam-boats as guests of the Corporation, preceded by Clarkson 
 CroHus, Esq., their Speaker, paid a visit to the Seneca Chief, to reciprocate 
 congratulations with the Buffalo committee on the completion of the 
 Grand Canal, to which the Legislature, of whom they were members, had 
 made the last and finishing appropriation. 
 
 Every thing being made ready for returning to the city, salutes were 
 fired from the revenue cutter, the pilot-boats, several of the steam-boats, 
 and from the " Young Lion of the West," who having prepared himself 
 with a pair of brazen lungs at Rochester, often mingled his roar with 
 that of the artillery with which he was saluted on his passage down. 
 While passing up the Narrows the passengars on board of the different 
 boats partook of elegant collations. The Corporation, with their guests, 
 dined on board of the Washiryton, the Mayor presiding, assisted by 
 Aldermen King and Taylor. 
 
 When approaching the British armed vessels before mentioned, the 
 latter fired another salute. In consequence of this compliment, a signal 
 was immediately made from the flag-ship, and the whole squadron passed 
 round them in a circle. The United States schooner Porpoise manned 
 her yards and gave the Britons three cheers, which were returned. 
 While performing this circular maneuver, the British bands struck up 
 ' Yankee Doodle ;' in return for which act of courtesy the American bands 
 as they passed the other side, successively played ' God save the King.' 
 Another circumstance connected with these demonstrations of good feel- 
 ing must not be omitted : On board of the Swallow an elegant breakfast 
 was given in honor of the occasion, by her commander, Lieutenant 
 
200 
 
 Baldock, to a numerous company of ladies and gentlemen, on which, 
 occasion was tastefully displayed a series of elegant and appropriate 
 drawings, in water colors, representing Britannia, Columbia, the Eagle 
 the Lion, and an English and American Sailor, Neptune, Liberty, and the 
 flags and shields of both nations, all classically arranged, denoting good 
 feeling, fellowship, and union of sentimert. There were also round one 
 of the devices for a tower two designs of canal basins, with double locks 
 — one as coming through Welch mountains, the other as through Amer- 
 ican mountains of granite ; and on their basements were conspicuously 
 inscribed, ' Clinton,' and ' Bridgewatee,' in honor of men whose pursuits 
 in each country were so similar. The whole was designed by J. E. 
 Smith, and executed by him and an assistant. 
 
 One reflection occurred to us when the fleet was below the Narrows, 
 which, although it has no immediate relation to the time or the occasion, 
 it may not be amiss to mention : When we viewed the number and ton- 
 nage of the steam-boats employed, and the countless multitude of passen- 
 gers borne upon their spacious decks, we could not but reflect upon the 
 facilities of defense which, by means of steam navigation, our city would 
 possess in the event of hostilities with any maritime power, and an 
 attempt upon our Uves and property from this direction. There were out 
 upon this occasion, besides other craft of magnitude, no less than twenty- 
 nine steam-boats, each capable of carrying from twelve to twenty-four 
 guns, and from one to five hundred men. And from the readiness with 
 which this force assembled, and from the rapid multiplication of vessels 
 of this description with the increase of business in our metropolis, there 
 is no doubt that even at the present moment fifty boats, with ten thou- 
 sand men and six or seven hundred guns, might be collected, prepared, 
 and sent to repel an approaching naval armament, in one, or at most, 
 two days. Neither winds nor tides could stay their progress, or control 
 their movements. They could choose their own time, position, and points 
 of attack ; and tremendous must be the power that could successfully 
 oppose and superhuman the skUl that could baffle an expedition of this 
 kind, directed by the hand of valor and sustained by the unconquerable 
 spirit of freemen ! 
 
 The head of the land procession, under Major-General Fleming, 
 Marshal of the day, assisted by Colonels King and Jones, Major Low, 
 and Mr. Van Winkle, had already arrived on the Battery, where it was 
 designed the whole should pass in review before the Corporation and 
 their guests, and the spectators on board of the other boats, which lay to 
 near the shore, to afford an opportunity of witnessing the cars, and banners, 
 and other decorations of the several societies, professions, and callings, who 
 had turned out in the city in honor of the event commemorated. The 
 Washingtoti and Chamelhr Livingston ran into the Pier No. 1, in the East 
 Elver, and landed the Corporation and their friends, at the proper time 
 
201 
 
 for them to fall into the rear of the prooessioa. The fleet then dispersed, 
 ■each vessel repairing to its own moorings. 
 
 ** + + ** 
 
 Thus passed a day so glorious to the State and city, and so deeply 
 interesting to the countless thousands who were permitted to behold and 
 mingle in its exhibitions. We have before said that all attempts at des- 
 cription must be utterly in vain. Others can comprehend the greatness 
 of the occasion ; the Grand Canal is completed, and the waters of Lake 
 Erie have been borne upon its surface, and mingled with the ocean. But 
 it is only those who were present, and beheld the brilHant scenes of the 
 day, that can form any a,dequate idea of their grandeur, and of the 
 joyous feelings which pervaded all ranks of the community. Never 
 before has been presented to the sight a fleet so beautiful as that which 
 then graced our waters. The numerous array of steam-boats and barges 
 proudly breasting the billows and dashing on their way regardless of 
 opposing winds and tides ; the flags of all nations, and banners of every 
 hue, streaming splendidly in the breeze ; the dense columns of black 
 smoke ever and anon sent up from the boats, now partially obscuring the 
 view, and now spreading widely over the sky and softening down the 
 glare of light and color ; the roar of cannon from the various forts, 
 accompanied by heavy volumes of white smoke, contrasting finely with 
 the smoke from the steam-boats ; the crowds of happy beings who 
 thronged the decks, and the voice of whose joy was mingled with the 
 sound of music, and not unfrequently drowned by the hissing of the 
 steam ; all these, and a thousand other circumstances, awakened an inter- 
 est so intense, that ' the eye could not be satisfied with seeing nor the 
 ear with hearing.' We rejoiced, and all who were there rejoiced ; 
 although as we looked upon the countless throng, we could not but 
 remember the exclamation of Xerxes, and feel that ' an hundred years 
 hence, not one of aU that vast multitude will be alive.' The splendor of 
 beauty and the triumph of art, serve to excite, to dazzle, and often to 
 improve the condition and promote the welfare of mankind ; but the 
 ' fashion of this world passeth away ;' beauty and art, jvith all their 
 triumphs and splendors, endure but for a season ; and earth itself, with 
 all its lakes and oceans, is only as the small dust of the balance, in the 
 sight of Him who dwells beyond the everlasting hills." 
 
 That this joy was not ill-timed and excessive, the steady increase of 
 the productiveness of the State afi'ords conclusive proof. 
 
 The following statistics have been kindly furnished me by my friend, 
 the Hon. Nathaniel S. Benton, for many years an able Canal Auditor : 
 
 The amount of tolls in 1823 was $199,655.08 ; in 1866, $3,966,522.52 ; 
 and the total amount of tolls, from 1823 to 1866 inclusive, $90,153,279.19. 
 The amount of tons going to tide-water is given in the report only as far 
 back as 1836. In 1836, the number of tons going to tide-water over the 
 
202 
 
 Canal was only 419,125; in 1866, 2,523,664, and the total amount 
 between these two years inclusive was 52,761,967. It also appears that 
 in 1837 the estimated value of all property transported on the Canal was 
 $47,720,879 ; in 1865, 8186,114,718; and between these years inclusive, 
 $3,439,407,522. The amount of tons that came to this city in 1857, with- 
 out breakLag bulk, was 381,390 ; ia 1866, 1,633,172 ; and between those 
 years, 11,775,396. This ratio of increase seems to be broken ia upon 
 only in one particular, viz., in the amount of tons — the product Of the 
 State itself — arriving at tide-water. In 1836, this was 364,901 ; and in 
 1865, 173,538. Here the previous rule is reversed, and instead of a gain 
 there is a considerable faUiag off. This, however, is not to be attributed 
 to a decrease in production, but in the fact that the channels by which 
 produce is conveyed to the city are becoming more numerous each suc- 
 ceeding year. This is evident, if the amount brought down by the 
 Champlain Canal for 1866 (561,053) be added, which gives a total of 
 734,591, And if to this could be added the amount of tons that now go 
 by way of the Central and other rail-roads of the State, which otherwise 
 would have gone by the Canal, the sum would be very greatly increased. 
 Indeed, this element of transportation by rail must be taken into calcu- 
 lation ia forming a correct estimate of the importance of the Canal. It 
 wiU be seen by the figures given above, that, with the exception just 
 mentioned, the Canal shows a steady increase in its toUs and tonnage, 
 notwithstanding the vast amount of freight yearly diverted from it by the 
 raU-roads, and by vessels which now convey considerable freight from 
 Buffalo direct to Europe, which formerly was brought to this city for 
 shipment abroad. And to this must also be added the large amount of 
 trade which has been directed by various channels into the Western States. 
 Many who at the time regarded the supporters of the " Big Ditch " 
 as enthusiastic and visionary, have Uved to see their most sanguine pre- 
 dictions more than realized. These figures, also, refute the opinion which 
 one of our greatest statesmen, whose zeal for internal improvements could 
 not be questioned, was known to have expressed, that this enterprise had 
 been undertaken a hundred years too soon, and that, untiL the lapse of 
 another century, the strength of our population and our resources wotild 
 be inadequate to such a work. 
 
 The report of the Auditor gives also the cost of the enlargement up 
 to the close of 1866, viz., $33,080,613.80. The original cost was $7,143,- 
 789.86 ; the total cost, therefore, up to the present time, is $40,224,403.66. 
 Two years after the Erie Canal Celebration (in 1827), the Merchants) 
 Exchange in WaU street, begun in 1825, yp-as completed; and ia the 
 same year. Masonic HaU, opposite the New York Hospital, the Arcade 
 in Maiden Lane, and other buildings of more or less interest, were also 
 erected. It has been the fashion of late years to speak of the changes 
 that have taken place ia New York City as of recent date. This, how- 
 
203 
 
 ever, is a mistake. Modern New York begins in reality, about the year 
 1820, at which time the "march of internal improvement" (so called' 
 began to levelthe most interesting of our city landmarks. Indeed, as 
 late as 1827, Exchange Place was Garden street, Beaver street was 
 Exchange street, and Hanover street was unknown. Garden street, 
 ending in what is now Hanover street, was connected with Exchange 
 street, and Pearl street by Sloat Lane. This narrow lane was afterwards 
 widened and extended through to Wall street, forming Hanover street. 
 The triangular block, now bounded by Beaver, Pearl, and Hanover, was 
 then boimded on the north by Exchange street, on the east by a private 
 alley, connecting the east end of that street with Pearl at a point some 
 fifty feet this side of the present junction, on the south by Pearl as now, 
 and on the west by Sloat Lane. Beaver street was subsequently opened 
 through on its present line, and the private alley was closed up and built 
 upon. 
 
 In 1829, an old resident of New York, returning to the city, after an 
 absence of several years, was so struck with the changes which had taken 
 place, both in the people and in the buildings, that he gave tbem to -the 
 public in two very interesting letters.* The reminiscences contained in 
 them are of great value, as tending to preserve that which otherwise 
 must hav,e fallen into oblivion. New York has, it is true, reached a proud 
 mercantile position ; but it must not be supposed that, on this account 
 she has no traditions other than those associated with trade. To assume 
 this would be as unjust as it is untrue. Many memories she has, both 
 of a pleasant and a saddening nature. And while there are many, in 
 this intensely practical age, who profess to sneer at everything in which 
 they can " see no money," yet there are a few from whose hearts all 
 sentiment has not been entirely crushed out. It is for the benefit of this 
 latter class that we here reproduce a portion of the reminiscences just 
 alluded to. The writer says : 
 
 " New York is full of old reminiscences. Some are consecrated by' 
 religious feeling, and some by their connection with the poHtical destinies 
 of our country. My father used to show me, when a boy, the spot on 
 the North Eiver, just above the present Barclay Street Ferry, where, 
 Jonathan Edwards, when temporary pastor of Wall Street Church, used 
 to walk backward and forward on the solitary pebbly shore, sounding the 
 depths of his own conscience, and drawing ' sweet consolation' from the 
 reHgion which he taught. Here he ruminated on the mysteries of eternal 
 preordination and free-will, while fell upon his ear the murmurs of that 
 ocean which is the symbol of eternity and power, and whose motions are 
 controlled, hke the events of our own lives, by the word and will of the 
 Most High. Then likewise he showed me the little church, back to the 
 
 * Francis Hertert, in the Talisman for 1829—1830. 
 
204 
 
 site of the present Methodist Chapel, in John street, where Whitfield, 
 as my father expressed it, used to ' preach like a lion,' with a searching 
 power that made the sinner quail, and shook and broke the infidel's 
 stony heart. It was in Wall street that the apostolic Tennant lifted up 
 his melodious voice, and sounded the silver trumpet of the Gospel. 
 
 * + :(: + + + 
 
 On the site of the present Custom House,* where the commerce 
 of the world pays its tribute to the great treasury of the nation, stood the 
 old City HaU, commanding a view of the wide and winding avenue of 
 Broad street. Here, in a species of balcony, in the second story of the 
 building, such as the Italians call a loggia, mean in its materials of wood 
 and brick, but splendid in the taste and proportions given to it by the 
 architect L'Enfant, the inauguration oath of the chief magistracy of the 
 Union was administered, by Chancellor Livingston, to Washington, the 
 first of our Presidents. In front of the building an innumerable and 
 silent crowd of citizens, intently gazing on the august ceremony, thronged 
 the spacious street in front, and fiUed WaU street from William street to 
 Broadway. Behind the President elect stood a group of the illustrious 
 fathers of the nation — Hamilton and Knox, and the elder Adams and the 
 venerable and learned and eloquent Johnson, and Ellsworth and Sherman 
 of Connecticut, and Clinton and Chief-Justice Morris and DuanB of New 
 York, and Boudinot of New Jersey, and Eutledge of South Carolina, 
 and less conspicuous in person, though among the foremost in fame, the 
 Virginian, Madison. There, too, stood the most revered of the clergy of 
 New York — the venerable Dr. Eodgers, of the Presbyterian Church ; 
 the wise and mild and suasive Dr. Moore, of the Episcopal ; the dignified 
 and eloquent Dr. Livingston, of the Dutch ; and the learned Dr. Kunze 
 and the patriotic Dr. Gh-ose, of the German churches. Back of these 
 stood younger men, since scarcely less illustrious than the elder statesmen 
 I have mentioned — Ames, and Cabot, and Gouverneur Morris, majestic 
 and graceful in spite of his wooden leg. But why should I attempt to 
 describe this great occasion by words ? I lately looked over the port- 
 foUo of my friend Dunlap, and found, among many other fine things, 
 sketches which present this scene vividly to the eye, with the features 
 of the great fmen who figured in it, and their costumes and attitudes, 
 such as he himself beheld them, I wish somebody would employ him 
 to paint a noble picture, such as he is capable of producing, on this 
 magnificent subject. The pride of a New Yorker, the feeUngs of a 
 patriot, the ambition of an artist, and the recollections of this interesting 
 ceremony, which still live in his memory, would stimulate him to do it 
 ample justice. 
 
 ' Now (1868) Sub-Treasury. 
 
205 
 
 Cedar street, since that day, has declined from its ancient conse- 
 quence. I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Jefferson in au old two-story 
 house in that street, unbending himself in the society of the learned and 
 polite from the labors of the bureau. And there was Talleyrand, whom 
 I used to meet at the houses of General Hamilton and of Noah Webster, 
 with his club-foot and passionless immoveable countenance, sarcastic and 
 malicious even in his intercourse with children. He was disposed to 
 amuse himsself with gallantry, too ; but who does not know? — or rather, 
 who ever did know Talleyrand ? About the same time I met with 
 Priestley — grave and placid in his manners, with a slight difficulty of 
 utterance — dry, polite, learned, and instructive in his conversation. At 
 a period somewhat later, I saw here the deputy Billaud de Varennes, 
 who had swayed the blood-thirsty mob of the Fauxbourg St. Antoine, 
 turned the torrent of the multitude into the hall of the Legislative 
 Assembly, and reanimated France to a bolder and more vigorous resist- 
 ance against her foreign enemies. I visited him in the garret of a poor 
 tavern in the upper part of WiUiam street, where he lived in obscurity. 
 But why particularize further ? We have had savans, Uterateurs, and 
 politicians by the score, all men of note, some good and some bad — and 
 most of whom certainly thought that they attracted more attention than 
 they did — Volney and Cobbett and Tom Moore, and the two Michaux, 
 and the Abbe Correa, and Jeffrey, and others ; the muster-roll of whose 
 names I might call over, if I had the memory of Baron Trenck, and my 
 readers the taste of a catalogue-making librarian. Have we not jostled 
 ex-kings and ex-empresses and' ex-nobles in Broadway ; trod on the toes 
 of exotic naturalists, Waterloo marshals, and great foreign academicians 
 at the parties of young ladies ; and seen more heroes and generals all 
 over town than would fill a new Iliad ? 
 
 Pensive memory turns to other worthies, no less illustrious in their 
 way. There was Billy the Fiddler and his wife, whom no one having 
 seen, could ever forget, and no one who had music in his soul, remember, 
 without regretting that such a fiddle should ever have been hanged up. 
 Billy had been a favorite of Mozart, at Vienna, and used to say that he 
 had composed one (I forget which) of his six celebrated sonatas ; though 
 I believe he drew rather too long a bow when he made this 
 statement. He was about four feet six inches in height, with a 
 foot as long as a fourth of his stature. His head was not 
 disproportionate, as those of dwarfs usually are ; but he had 
 their characteristic petulance ; and the irritability of his temper 
 was certainly not improved by the enforced attendance of a retinue of 
 idle boys, who always formed his suite when he walked forth in the 
 streets. His wife was a suitable companion for him as to personal 
 appearance and height; and it seemed, on looking at the couple, to be not 
 at all wonderful how the Germans came by their wild and droll concep- 
 
206 
 
 tions of goblins and elves. But I never heard of any other magic prac- 
 ticed by BUly, except that the sweet and enlivening strains of his violin 
 made the young masters and misses, at whose juvenile parties he 
 officiated, dance off the soles of their shoes and stockings ; and that they 
 ■would have begun upon their tender skins, if they had not been discreetly 
 carried home. 
 
 There was also the family of the Hewletts, which, from tradition or 
 observation, I may say I know for four generations, — cotemporaries of 
 the successive Vestrises. Indeed, according to the family record, the 
 first Hewlett was a pupil of the first Vestris, and a favorite disciple of 
 that great master; who only complained that he was not sufficiently 
 liger in his accents, nor quite de plonib enough in his descents ; but certi- 
 fied, that for grace, agility, and science, he was the prince of his eleves. 
 The opinions of those, successively educated under the successive dy- 
 nasties of these masters of aerial gymnastics, as fashion controlled both 
 teachers and scholars, ' and as longer puffs and louder fiddles' 
 brought other professors of the graces of motion forward, varied 
 as to the distinctive characteristics of their several excellencies ; 
 still the Hewletts kept their ground. They out-lived the Revolution of 
 Seventy-Six ; — Trinity Church was pulled down — the Governor's Court 
 fled from the Battery ; but they kept the field, like the trumpeters of 
 chivalry. They taught dancing to the belles, who captivated the Mem- 
 bers of the first Congress ; and tried to teach some of the Members 
 ■themselves. Then came the horrible French Revolution ; and in that 
 ■terrible storm which overthrew the landmarks of the old world, new 
 manners and new teachers were drifted on our shores, and the Hewletts 
 went out of vogue. There must be few who have dwelt in this now all- 
 be-metamorphosed city, even for six years last past, who have not had 
 occasion to observe the dapper legs and silken hose of the last of this 
 line. But they ■will be seen no more. David Hewlett is dead ! and as 
 he trod lightly upon the earth, may the earth lie lightly on him. He 
 ■was a gentleman, every inch of him. He was the last of the anti- 
 Revolutionary dancing-masters; a kind, good, humble man. At St. 
 Paul's I always found him, repeating the service ■with a formality, 
 whiph was the- result of decorous habit, and a fervor which could only 
 have come warm from the heart. Again I say, light be the earth above 
 him ! and he must have a stern, hard heart, who can scoff at my honest 
 tribute to the memory of my old dancing-master. 
 
 My reminiscences of New York, or rather the people that have been 
 in it, come before my mind in pretty much the same order that ' jewels 
 and shells, sea- weed and straw,' are raked by ' old father Time from 
 the ocean of the past,' according to Milton or Bacon, or some other 
 ancient writer of eminence. I had an uncle, who was a prudent 
 man, in all his transactions ; and who, from patriotic considerations 
 
207 
 
 ■waited lor the development of events, before he took any part in the 
 Revolutionary War. He had many of what might be called Tory recollec- 
 tions of that period. He knew the Duke of Clarence, when he came here 
 as a midshipman ; skated with him on the Collect, where now stands 
 the arsenal and the gas manufactory, and helped out of a hole in the ice 
 him who is now ofl&cial head of the English navy, and who may probably 
 wield ere long the scepter of the British Empire. In walking along 
 Broadway, he has often pointed out to me the small corner-room in the 
 second story in the house in Wall street, opposite Grace Church, then 
 and long after occupied by Dr. Tillary, a Scotchman (formerly a surgeon 
 and afterward an eminent physician), and told me how he used, at the 
 period referred to, to eat oysters there, in the American fashion, with his 
 Eoyal Highness, who preferred them to the copper-flavored productions 
 of the British Channel. 
 
 Pine street is now full of blocks of tall, massive buildings, which 
 overshadow the narrow passage between, and make it one of the 
 gloomiest streets in New York. The very bricks there look of a darker 
 hue than in any other part of the city ; the rays of the sun seem to come 
 through a 'yellower and thicker atmosphere, and the shadows thrown 
 there by moonlight seem of a blacker and more solid darkness than else- 
 where. The sober occupations of the inhabitants also, who are learned 
 members of the bar nearest Broadway, and calculating wholesale mer- 
 chants as you approach the East Eiver, inspire you with ideas of sedate- 
 ness and gravity as you walk through it. It was not thus thirty or forty 
 years ago. Shops were on each side of the way — low, cheerful-looking 
 two-story buildings, of light-colored brick or wood, painted white or 
 yellow, and which scarcely seemed a hindrance to the air and sunshine. 
 Among these stood the shop of Auguste Louis de Singeron, celebrated 
 for the neatness and quality of its confectionary and pastry, and for the 
 singular manners of its keeper, who was at once the politest and most 
 passionate of men. He was a French emigrant, a courtier and a war- 
 rior, a man of diminutive size, but of a most chivalrous, courteous, and 
 undaunted spirit. He might be about five feet two inches in height ; 
 his- broad shoulders overshadowed a pair of legs under^the common size, 
 his fiery red hair was tied into a club behind, and combed fiercely up in 
 .front; the upper part, of his cheek-bones, the tip of his nose, and the 
 ' peak of his chin, were tinged with a bright scarlet ; his voice was an 
 exaggeration of the usual sharp tones of his nation, and his walk was 
 that of a man who walks for a wager. He was the younger son of a 
 noble family ; and having a commission in the French army, was one of 
 the officers who defended the TuUlieries on the melancholy night of the 
 10th of August, 1792, when the palace streamed with blood, and the 
 devoted adherents of the King were bayoneted in the corridors, or 
 escaped only to be proscribed and hunted down Hke wolves. Auguste de 
 
208 
 
 Singeron made his way to L'Orient, took passage to the United States, 
 and landed at New York without a penny in his pocket. His whola 
 inventory consisted of a cocked hat, a rusty suit of black, a cane, a small 
 sword, a white pocket-handkerchief and shirts, if I am justified in speak- 
 ing of them in the plural, the exact number of which cannot now be 
 known, as he never chose to reveal it, but looked as if they had never 
 been brought acquainted with the nymphs of the fountains. He at first 
 betook himself to the usual expedient of teaching French for a livelihood ; 
 but it would not do. He lost all patience at correcting, for the twentieth 
 time, the same blunder in the same pupil ; he showed no mercy to an 
 indeUcate coupling of different genders ; and fell upon a false tense with 
 as much impetuosity as he had once rushed upon the battery of an 
 enemy. But if he got into a passion suddenly, he got out of it as 
 soon. His starts of irritation were succeeded by most vehement fits of 
 politeness ; he poured forth apologies with so much volubility, and so- 
 many bows, and pressed his explanation with so much earnestness and 
 vigor, and such unintelligible precipitation, that his pupils became giddy 
 with the noise, and at the end of his lesson were more perplexed than 
 ever. In short, to apply the boast of a celebrated modem instructor, his- 
 disciples were so well satisfied with their progress, that they declined 
 taking lessons a second quarter, and the poor Frenchman was obliged 
 to think of some other way of getting a Uving. But what should it 
 be ? He had no capital and scarcely any friends. Should he become a. 
 barber, a shoe-black, a cook, a fencing-master, a dentist, or a dancing- 
 master ? Either of these occupations was better than to beg, to starve, , 
 or to steal, and the French nobility have figured in them all. The flexi- 
 bility of the national character adapts itself in mature age to any situation 
 in life with the same ease that people of other nations accommodate 
 themselves to that in which they were born. French marquises have 
 sweltered in the kitchens of English private gentlemen, in greasy caps, 
 and aprons — French counts have given the polish to the nether extremities 
 of the stately Dons of Madrid — and French dukes have taken German 
 ones by the nose. The graceful courtiers, who led down the dance the 
 high-born dames of France, have exhausted themselves in the vain effort 
 to teach Torkshiremen to shuffle cotillions ; the ofiicers of his Most Chris- 
 tian Majesty's household have drawn teeth for cockneys ; and the chevaliers 
 of the Order of St. Louis have given lessons in the use of the broadsword ' 
 to men who afterward figured as Yankee corporals. In the midst of 
 his perplexity, a more accident determined the future career of Monsieur 
 de Singeron : He had politely undertaken to assist in the manufacture of 
 some molasses-candy for a little boy, the son of his host; and, after a 
 process attended with some vexations, during which the lad thought, two 
 or three times, that his French acquaintance would swallow him aUve, he 
 produced the article in such delicious and melting perfection, that his 
 
209 
 
 fame was quickly spread abroad among the boys of the neighborhood as 
 an artist of incomparable merit. He took the hint, got his landlord to 
 assist him with a small credit, turned pastry-cook and confectioner, set 
 up at first in a small way, enlarged his business as he got customers, and 
 finally took a handsome shop in the street I have mentioned. The French 
 have as great a talent for comfits as for compliments ; and the genius that 
 shines in the invention of an agreeable flattery, displays itself to no less 
 advantage in the manufacture of a sugar-plum. Auguste Louis de 
 Singeron was no vulgar imitator of his clumsy English and Dutch brethren 
 in the art. I speak not of the splendor of his crystallizations, of the 
 briUiant frost-work of his plum-cakes, nor of the tempting arrangement 
 he knew how to give to his whole stock of wares, though these were admi- 
 rable. But the gilt ginger-bread I used to buy of him, — instead of King 
 Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, — was graced with the stately figures of 
 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the Queen standing bolt upright — as 
 became the conqueror of hearts and the mistress of the finest kingdom in 
 the world — and the monarch holding her hand with a delicate inclination 
 of his royal body, as if acknowledging the empire of beauty. He, I believe, 
 first introduced the practice of stamping the New Year's cake with figures 
 of Cupids among roses, and hearts transfixed by an arrow in honor of la 
 belle pO'^don. His marchpane bore an impress of the facade of the 
 Tuilleries, with its pilasters, columns, and ourvings ; and his Uanc-mange 
 was adorned with a bas-reHef of warriors in bag-wigs and cocked hats, 
 tilting fiercely at each other on its quivering and glancing surface. 
 
 I shall never forget the courtly and high-bred civility with which M. 
 de Singeron used to welcome me to his shop, and bow me out of it. I 
 have since seen the nobles of the court of Marie Antoinette, and was no 
 longer at a loss to account for the graceful manners of my old friend, the 
 confectioner. It was not, however, quite safe to presume too much upon 
 his forbearance, for he knew no medium between the most violent irrita- 
 tion and the most florid politeness. He had no patience with these 
 people who stood in his door on a keen windy day, and would neither 
 come in nor go out. They always got from him a hearty curse in French, 
 followed, as soon as he could recoUect himself, by something civil in 
 Enghsh. ' Peste soil de la bete ' — he used to say — 'fermez done la — I beg 
 pardon, sare, but if you vill shut de door, you saU merit my eternel 
 gratitude !' The fellows who went about the streets crying ' good 
 oysters,' and ' fine Rockaway clams,' avoided his ill-omened door in the 
 winter mouths, taught by bitter experience, and sundry ungracious and 
 unexpected raps on the knuckles. He at first tried the plan of making 
 them come in, shut the door, and deHver their errand, and then sending 
 them about their business. This not succeeding, he tried the shining 
 old lignum-vitpe cane, with which he used to promenade in the gardens 
 of the Tuilleries, and with much better efiect. On one occasion, howeverj 
 14 
 
210 
 
 he happened to bestow it rather rudely upon the nasal organ of a sailor- 
 The fellow's proboscis was originally of most unnatural and portentous 
 dimensions ; it swelled terribly from the effect of the blow ; and, meeting 
 with a pettifogger, who told him it was a good case for damages, he 
 brought an action against the confectioner. Monsieur de Singeron in 
 vain offered an apology and a plaster of bank-notes ; the sailor was inex" 
 orable, and insisted on producing his injured member before the seat of 
 justice. He did so, but unluckily the effect on the jury was rather 
 ludicrous than pathetic, and the impression it made was against the 
 plaintiff, who got only ten shillings b}' his suit. M. de Singeron thought 
 it was not enough, and gave the fellow a five-dollar note besides, which 
 he had the meanness to accept, though I believe he blushed as he did it. 
 
 Monsieur de Singeron afterward sold cakes and confectionary in 
 William street and then in Broadway, and finally was one of that joyful 
 troop of returning exiles that flocked back to France on the restoration 
 of the Bourbons. He was provided for by being made a Colonel of 
 Cuirassiers, and in the decline of his life his gallant and courteous spirit 
 was no longer obliged to struggle with the hardships and scorns of 
 poverty. I have lately heard, though indirectly, so that I cannot vouch 
 for the fact, that he has been promoted to be one of the Marshals of 
 France. 
 
 There was another Frenchman of distinction, also of the old school of 
 French manners, but less fortunate than Monsieur de Singeron, and who 
 used daily to take his sohtary walk through Broadway. I allude to 
 Admiral Pierre de Landais, a cadet of the famUy of a younger son of the 
 youngest branch of one of the oldest, proudest, and poorest families in 
 Normandy. He had regularly studied in the Ecoh de la marine^ and was 
 thoroughly instructed in the mathematical theories of sailing and building 
 a ship, although, like the rest of his countrym.en, he always found some 
 unexpected difficulty in applying his theory to practice. For a Frenchman, 
 however, he was a good sailor ; but in consequence of his grandfather 
 having exhausted his patrimony in a splendid exhibition of fire-works for 
 the entertainment of Madame de Pompadour, he had neither interest at 
 court nor money to purchase court favor. He was therefore kept in the 
 situation of an aspirant or midshipman, until he was thirty-two years old, 
 and was kept, I know not how many years more, in the humble rank of 
 sous lieutenant. He served his country faithfully, and with great good 
 will, until in the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI, a page of the 
 mistress of the Count de Vergennes came down to Cherbourg to be his 
 captain. While he was boiling with indignation at this atiiont, the war 
 between England and America broke out, and he seized that opportunitj- 
 to enter the service of the United States. There he at once rose to the 
 command of a fine frigate, and the title of Admiral. Soon afterward 
 came the briUiant affair of the Serapis and the Bon Momme Ricliard, in 
 
•211 
 
 Tvhich Paul Jones, by his imi^etuous and undisciplined gallantry, earned 
 the reputation of a hero, and poor Landais, by a too scrupulous attention 
 to the theory of naval science, incurred that of a coward. I believe that 
 naval authority is against me ; but I venture to assert, meo periculo, and 
 on the authority of one of my uncles, who was in that action as a 
 lieutenant to Paul Jones, that Landais erred, not j through any defect of 
 bravery, but merely from his desire to approach his enemy scientifically^ 
 by bearing down upon the hypothenuse of the precise right-angled 
 triangle prescribed in the thirty-seventh ' manoeuvre ' of his old text-book. 
 
 The naval committee of Congress unfortunately understood neither 
 mathematics nor French ; they could not comprehend Landais' explana- 
 tions, and he was thrown out of service. After his disgrace he constantly 
 resided in the City of New York, except that he always made a biennial 
 visit to the seat of government, whether at Philadelphia or at Washing- 
 ton, to present a memorial respecting the injustice done him, and to claim 
 restitution to his rank and the arrears of his pay. An unexpected 
 dividend of prize-m.oney, earned at the beginning of the Revolutionary 
 War, and paid in 1790, gave him an annuity of one hundred and four 
 dollars — or rather, as I think, a hundred and five — for I remember his 
 telling me that he had two dollars a week on which to subsist, and an odd 
 dollar for charity at the end of the year. 
 
 Although Congress, under the new Constitution, continued as 
 obdurate and as impenetrable to explanation as they were in the time of 
 the confederation, the Admiral kept up to the last the habits and exterior 
 of a gentleman. His linen, though not very fine, nor probablj' very 
 whole, was always clean ; his coat threadbare, but scrupulously brushed, 
 and for occasions of ceremonious visiting, he had a pair of paste knee- 
 buckles and faded yellow silk stockings with red clocks. He wore the 
 American cockade to the last, and on the Fourth of July, the day of St. 
 Louis, and the anniversary of the day on which the British troops evacu- 
 ated the City of New York, he periodically mounted his old Continental 
 Navy uniform, although its big brass buttons had lost their splendor, and 
 the skirts of the coat, which wrapped his shrunken person like a cloak, 
 touched his heels in walking, while the sleeves, by some contradictory 
 process, had receded several inches from the wrists. He subsisted with 
 the utmost independence on his scanty income, refusing all presents, even- 
 the most trifling ; and when my naval uncle on one occasion sent him a 
 dozen of Newark cider, as a small mark of his recollection of certain 
 hospitalities at the Admiral's table when in command, while he himself 
 ■was but a poor Lieutenant, Landais peremptorily refused them, as a 
 present which he could not receive, because it was not in his power to 
 reciprocate. 
 
 He was a man of the most punctihous and chivalric honor, and at 
 the same time fuU of that instinctive kindness of heart and that nice 
 
212 
 
 sense of propriety, which shrinks from doing a rude thing to anybody on 
 any occasion. Even when he met his bitterest enem.y, as he did shortly 
 after he came to New York, the man whose accusation had destroyed his 
 reputation and blighted his prospects, whose injuries he had for years 
 brooded over, and whom he had determined to insult and punish when- 
 ever he fell in with him, he could not bring himself to offer him an insult 
 unbecoming a gentleman, but dehberately spitting on the pavement, 
 desired his adversary to consider that pavement as his own face, and to 
 proceed accordingly. 
 
 Thus, in proud, solitary, and honorable poverty, lived Pierre de 
 Landais for some forty years, untU, to use the language of his own 
 epitaph, in the eighty-seventh year of his age, he ' disappeared ' from life. 
 As he left no property behind him, and had no relations and scarcely any 
 acquaintances in the country, it has always been a matter of mystery to 
 me who erected his monument — a plain white marble slab, which stands 
 in the church-yard of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, and on which 
 is read the following characteristic inscription : 
 
 t 
 
 A LA MEMOIRE 
 
 de 
 PIEERE DE LANDAIS, 
 
 ANCIEN CONTEE-AatER-U., 
 
 au EL-rvicc 
 DBS ETATS-UNTS. 
 
 Qui Bi^pwrut 
 
 Juin 1818, 
 Age b" ans. 
 
 Who would suppose that the exploded science of alchemy had ever 
 its professors in the United States, where the easy transmutation of the 
 sou of the wilderness into rich possessions, renders unnecessary the art 
 of converting dross into gold ? Yet such is the fact. Everybody who 
 has been a frequent walker of Broadway, in any or all of the forty years 
 preceding the last five, must reeoUect often meeting a man whom at first 
 he might not have particularly noticed, but whose constant appearance in 
 the same part of the street at the same hour of the day, and the pecu- 
 liarities of whose dress and person must at length have compelled atten- 
 tion. He was a plump-looking man, somewhat under the middle size, 
 with weU-spread shoulders, a large chest, a fair, fresh complexion, a 
 clear but dreamy eye, and a short, quick stride, and had altogether the 
 signs of that fullness of habit which arises from regular exercise and a 
 good appetite, while a certain ascetic expression of countenance, at once 
 forbade the idea that it owed anything to festivity or good cheer. His 
 
213 
 
 age, which never appeared to vary, might, from his looks, be estimated 
 at five years on the one side or other of fifty. His dress was that of an 
 old-fashioned respectable citizen, educated before the age of suspenders, 
 pantaloons, and boots, and who had never been persuaded to countenance 
 those innovations of modern effeminacy. Notwithstanding its obsolete 
 cut, it showed no signs of poverty, except perhaps to those, and those only, 
 who occasionally met him sweltering, with a laudable contempt for the 
 Tveather, in a full suit of thick Prussian blue or Dutch black broadcloth 
 in a hot August day ; or striding through a snow-storm in nankeen 
 breeches and white cotton stockings in December. His name was Jan 
 Max-Liehenstein ; he was a Pomeranian by birth, who early in life, going 
 to Amsterdam to seek his fortune, became employed as a clerk in the 
 great Dutch banking and commercial house of Hope & Co., where he 
 proved himself a good accountant, and rendered himself useful in their 
 German and Swedish correspondence. 
 
 Afterward, by some accident or other, he found himself an adven- 
 turer at St. Petersburg. What led him to that city, I cannot say ; I have 
 never heard it accounted for among his acquaintances in this city ; at 
 Amsterdam I forgot to inquire, and St. Petersburg I have never visited. 
 But thither he went ; and having the good fortune to become known to 
 Prince Potemkin, received an employment in his household, and finally 
 came to be intrusted with the management of his finances. The Prince ^ 
 as everybody knows, Uke many others who have millions to dispose of, 
 had constantly occasion for millions more ; and, as everybody also ought 
 to know who knows anything of his private history, when his funds were 
 so reduced that he had nothing left but a few millions of acres and a few 
 thousand serfs, took most furiously to gambling and alchemy. These 
 liberal employments were divided between him and his treasurer ; the 
 Prince rattled the dice-box in the gilded saloons of Tzarzko Zelo, and the 
 Pomeranian, in spite of his remonstrances and his own better judgment 
 was set to compounding the alkahest, or universal menstruum, in the 
 vaults under the north wing of Potemkin's winter palace. We soon get 
 attached to the studies in which we are obhged to employ ourselves, and 
 Lichenstein gradually found his incredulity yielding, and a strange interest 
 stealing over him, as he read the books and sweltered and watched over 
 the operations of alchemy. The result was, that at length he became a 
 believer in the mysteries of imbibition, solution, ablution, sublimation, 
 cohabation, calcination, ceration, and fixation, and all the martyrizations 
 of metals, with the sublime influences of the Trine Circle of the Seven 
 
 Spheres. 
 
 Lichenstein, however, with all his diligence and increase of faith, 
 could neither coin gold nor get it out of the Prince's tenants in such 
 quantities as it was wanted, and he was now destined to learn how much 
 the favor of the great depends upon the state of their stomachs. One 
 
214 
 
 morning Potemkin, after a run of bad luck, plenty of good champagne, a* 
 sleepless night, and an indigestible breakfast of raw turnips and quass, 
 called upon him for an extraordinary sum, and not finding it easily fur- 
 nished, flew into a passion and discharged him on the spot. As the 
 Prince never paid any debts but those of honor, Lichenstein knew that it 
 would be in vain to ask for his salary, and walked into the streets without 
 a penny in his pocket. The late Chief-Justice Dana, of Massachusetts, 
 then our Minister at the Court of St. Petersburg, was about to return to 
 America. Lichenstein had heard the most flattering accounts of the 
 prospects held out in the United States to active and intelligent adven- 
 turers from the Old World, and readily beUeved all he heard, which, for 
 a believer in alchemy, was no great stretch of credulity. He had some 
 httle acquaintance with the American Minister, in consequence of once or 
 twice negotiating for him small bills on the bankers of the United States 
 at Amsterdam. He threw himself upon his generosity, and requested a 
 passage to this country — a favor which was as readily granted. Here he 
 was fortunate enough, almost immediately on his arrival, to be employed 
 in the first mercantile house in New York, to answer their Dutch, German, 
 and northern correspondence, with a salary which, though not half so- 
 large as that allowed by Prince Potemkin, he liked twice as well, because 
 it was regularly paid. He had scarcely become well settled jn New York, 
 when his old dream of alchemy returned upon him. He carefully hoarded 
 his earnings imtil he was enabled to purchase, at a cheap rate, a small 
 tenement in Wall street, where he erected a furnace with a triple chimney, 
 and renewed his search of the arcanum magnum. Every day, in the morn- 
 ing, he was occupied for two hours in the couhting-room ; then he was 
 seen walking in Broadway ; then he shut himself in his laboratory until 
 the dusk of the evening, when he issued forth to resume his soUtary walk. 
 
 Year after year passed in this manner. Wall street, in the mean- 
 time, was changing its inhabitants : its burghers gave way to banks and 
 brokers ; the city extended its limits, and the streets became thronged 
 with increasing multitudes — circumstances of which the alchemist took no 
 note, except that he could not help observing that he was obliged to take 
 a longer walk than formerly to get into the country, and that the rows 
 of lamps on each side of Broadway seemed to have lengthened wonder- 
 fully toward the north ; but whether this was owing to the advance of 
 old age, which made his walk more fatiguing, or to some other unknown 
 cause, was a problem which I believe he never fully solved t» his own 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Still the secret of making gold seemed as distant as ever, until it 
 presented itself to him in an unexpected shape. His lot in Wall street, 
 which measured twenty-eight feet ia front and eighty-seven in depth, and 
 for which he had paid three hundred and fifty pounds New York cur- 
 rency, had become a desirable site for a newly chartered banking com- 
 
pany. One day Liclieiistein was called by the president of this company 
 from his furnace, as he was pouring rectified water on the salt of Mer- 
 cury. He felt somewhat crusty at the interruption, as he hoped by 
 reverberating the ingredients in an athanor, to set the hquor of Mars in 
 circulation ; but when this person had opened to him his errand and 
 offered him twenty-five thousand dollars for the purchase of his lot, his 
 ill-humor was converted into surprise. Had he been offered five thousand, 
 he would have accepted it immediately ; but twenty-five thousand ! the 
 amount startled him. He took time to consider of the proposition, and 
 the next morning was offered thirty thousand by a rival company. He 
 must think of this also, and before night he sold to the first company for 
 thirty-three thousand. He was now possessed of a competency ; he 
 quitted his old vocation of clerk, abandoned his old walk in Broadway, 
 and like Admiral Landais ' disappeared,' but ,not, I beheve, like him to 
 another life. I have heard that his furnace has again been seen smoking 
 behind a comfortable German stone house in the comfortable borough of 
 Easton — a residence which ho chose, not merely on account of its cheap 
 ness of living nor its picturesque situation, but chiefly, I believe, for its 
 neighborhood to Bethlehem, where dwelt a Moravian friend of his, 
 attached to the same mysterious studies, and for its nearness to the inex- 
 haustible coal-mines of Lehigh. 
 
 As I write, my recollections of the past, both ludicrous and melan- 
 choly, crowd upon me. I might amuse my readers with a liistory of the 
 ' Doctors' Mob,' which happened some forty years ago, when the multi- 
 tude, indignant with the physicians and surgeons for having, as was sup- 
 posed, violated the repose of the dead, besieged them in their dwellings 
 with an intention to inflict justice upon them according to their own sum- 
 mary notions, obhging them to shp out at windows, creep behind beer- 
 barrels, crawl up chimneys, and get beneath feather-beds, and when the 
 grave gentlemen of the heahng art were fed in dark places Uke hunted 
 rebels or persecuted prophets, for three days and three nights. I might 
 give my readers a peep into the littlg dark room in Pine street, where 
 Brown used to frame his gloomy and interesting fictions without any aid 
 from the picturesque, and entangle his heroes in one difficulty after 
 another without knowing how he should extricate them. I might show 
 residing in that part of Pearl street now enlarged into Hanover Square, 
 but then a dark and narrow passage, the famous General Moreau, who, 
 when told that the street was not fashionable, replied that he ' hved in 
 de house and not in de street' — a conceited grammarian, talking absurdly 
 of that science, and magnifying his supposed discovery of three thousand 
 new adverbs, but otherwise gentlemanly, intelligent, and aggreeable, and 
 fortunate in his beautiful and accomplished wife. While I spoke of great 
 men, I might touch upon the tragic and untimely end of one of our 
 greatest — Hamilton, brought over from the fatal spot where he fell to 
 
216 
 
 expire in the hospitable mansion of Mr. Bayard, on the green shore of the 
 Hudson. I well recollect the day of his death, a fine day in July ; and 
 the bright sunshine, the smiling beauty of the spot, the cheerful sound 
 of birds and rustling boughs and the twinkling waters of the river, con- 
 trasted strangely and unnaturally with the horror-struck countenances 
 and death-like silence of the great multitude that gathered round the 
 dwelling. I will not attempt to describe the scene. 
 
 In this city especially, it is of more importance to preserve the recol- 
 lection of these things, since here the progress of continual alteration is 
 so rapid, that a few years effect what in Europe is the work of centuries, 
 and sweep away both the memory and the external vestiges of the 
 generation that precedes us. 
 
 I was forcibly struck with this last reflection when not long since I 
 took a walk with my friend, Mr. De Viellecour, during his last visit to 
 New York, over what I recollected as the play-ground of myself and my 
 companions in the time of my boyhood, and what Mr. De VieUecour 
 remembered as the spot where his contemporaries at an early period used 
 to shoot quails and woodcocks. We passed over a part of the city which 
 in my time had been hiUs, hollows, marshes, and rivulets, without having 
 observed anything to awaken in either of us a recollection of what the 
 place was before the surface had been leveled and the houses erected^ 
 until, arriving at the corner of Charlton and Varick streets, we came to 
 an edifice utterly dissimilar to anything around it. It was a wooden 
 building of massive architecture, with a lofty portico supported by Ionic 
 columns, the front walls decorated with pilasters of the same order, and 
 its whole appearance distinguished by that Palladian character of rich 
 though sober ornament, which indicated that it had been built about the 
 middle of the last century. We both stopped involuntarily and at the 
 same moment before it. 
 
 ' If I did not see that house on a flat plain,' said Mr. De Viellecour, 
 ' penned in by this little gravelly court-yard, and surrounded by these 
 starveUng catalpas and horse-chestnuts, I should say at once that it was a 
 mansion which I very well remember, where in my youth I passed many 
 pleasant hours in the society of its hospitable owner, and where, after- 
 ward, when I had the honor of representing my country in the Assembly, 
 which then sat in New York, I had the pleasure of dining officially with 
 "Vice President Adams. That house resembled this exactly, but then it 
 was upon a noble hill, several hundred feet in height, commanding a 
 view of the river and of the Jersey shore. There was a fine, rich lawn 
 around it, shaded by large and venerable oaks and lindens, and skirted 
 on every side by a young but thrifty natural wood of an hundred acres 
 or more.' 
 
 Perceiving it to be a house of pubHc entertainment, I proposed to 
 Mr. Viellecour that we should enter it. We went into a spacious hall. 
 
217 
 
 "with a small room on each, side opening to more spacious apartments 
 
 "beyond. ' Yes,' said Mr. Viellecour, ' this is certainly the house I spoke 
 
 of.' He immediately, with the air of a man accustomed to the building, 
 
 opened a side-door on the right, and began to ascend a wide stair-case 
 
 with a heavy mahogany railing. It conducted us to a large room on the 
 
 second story, with wide Venetian windows in front, and a door opening 
 
 to a balcony under the portico. ' Yes,' said my friend, ' here was the 
 
 dining-room, There, in the center of the table, sat Vice-President Adams 
 
 in full dress, with his bag and solitaire, his hair frizzed out each side of 
 
 hia face, as you see it in Stuart's older pictures of him. On his right sat 
 
 Baron Steuben, our royalist republican disciplinarian general. On his 
 
 left was Mr. Jefferson, who had just returned from France, conspicuous 
 
 in his red waistcoat and breeches, the fashion of Versailles. Opposite 
 
 sat Mrs. Adams, with her cheerful, intelligent face. She was placed 
 
 between the courtly Count Du Moustiers, the French Ambassadpr, in his 
 
 red-heeled shoes and ear-rings, and the grave, polite, and formally bowing 
 
 Mr. Van Birkel, the learned and able Envoy of Holland. There, too, was 
 
 Chancellor Livingston, then still in the prime of life, so deaf as to make 
 
 conversation with him difficult, yet so overflowing with wit, eloquence, and 
 
 information, that while listening to him, the difficulty was forgotten. The 
 
 rest were members of Congress and of our Legislature, some of them no 
 
 inconsiderable men. 
 
 ' Being able to talk French — a rare accomplishment in America at that 
 time — a place was assigned to me next the Count. The dinner was 
 served up after the fashion of that day, abundant, and as was then 
 thought, splendid. Du Moustiers, after taking a little soup, kept an 
 empty plate before him, took now and then a crumb of bread into his 
 mouth, and declined all the luxuries of the table that were pressed upon 
 him, from the roast-beef down to the lobsters. We were all in perplexity 
 to know how the Count could dine, when at length his own body-cook, 
 in a clean, white linen cap, a clean, white tahlier before him, a brilliantly 
 white damask serviette flung over his arm, and a warm pie of truffles and 
 game in his hand, came brustling eagerly through the crowd of waiters, 
 and placed it before the Count, who, reserving a moderate share to him- 
 self, distributed the rest among his neighbors, of whom being one, I can 
 attest to the truth of the story, and the excellence of the pate. But come, 
 let us go and look at the fine view from the balcony.' 
 
 My friend stepped out at the door and I followed him. The worthy 
 old gentleman seemed much disappointed at finding the view he spoke of 
 confined to the opposite side of Varick street, built up with two-story 
 brick houses, while a half-a-dozen ragged boys were playing marbles on 
 the sidewalks. ' Well,' said he, ' the view is gone, that is clear enough ; 
 but I cannot, for my part, understand how the house has got so much 
 lower than formerly.' 
 
218 
 
 I explained to my friend the omnipotence of the Corporation, by 
 which every high hill has been brought low, and every valley exalted, 
 and by which I presumed this house had been abased to a level with its 
 humbler neighbors, the hill on which it stood having been Uterally dug 
 away from under it, and the house gently let down without disturbing its 
 furniture, by the mechanical genius and dexterity of some of our eastern 
 brethren. 
 
 ' This is wrong 1' said the old gentleman ; ' these New Yorkers seem 
 to take a pleasure in defacing the monuments of the good old times, and 
 of depriving themselves of all venerable and patriotic associations. This 
 house should have been continued in its old situation, on its own original 
 and proper eminence, where its very aspect would have suggested its 
 history. It was buUt upward of seventy years ago, by a gallant British 
 officer, who had done good service to his native country and to this. 
 Here Lord Amherst was entertained and held his headquarters, at the 
 close of those successful American campaigns which, by the way, pre- 
 vented haK the State of New York from now being a part of Canada. 
 Here were afterward successively the quarters of several of our American 
 Generals in the beginning of the Eevolution, and again after the evacuation 
 of the city. Here John Adams Hved as Vice-President during the time 
 that Congress sat in New York ; and here Aaron Burr, during the whole 
 of his Vice-Presidency, kept up an elegant hospitality, and filled the room 
 in which we stand with a splendid Ubrary, equally indicative of his taste 
 and scholarship. The last considerable man that lived here was Counsellor 
 Benzon, afterward Governor of the Danish islands — a man who, like you, 
 Mr. Herbert, had traveled in every part of the world, knew everything, 
 and talked all languages. I recollect dining here in company with 
 thirteen gentlemen, none of whom I ever saw before, but aU pleasant 
 fellows, aU men of education and some note — the Counsellor, a Norwegian, 
 I, the only American, the rest of every different nation in Europe, and 
 no two of the same, and all of us talking bad Prench together. 
 
 ' There are few old houses,' continued Mr. De Viellecour, ' with the 
 sight of which my youth was famihar, that I find here now. Two or 
 three, however, I still recognize. One of these is the house built by my 
 friend, Chief-Justice Jay, in the lower part of Broadway, and now 
 occupied as a boarding-house. It is, as you know, a large square three- 
 story house, of hewn stone, as substantially built within as without, 
 durable, spacious, and commodious, and, like the principles of the builder, 
 always useful and excellent, whether in or out of fashion.' 
 
 ' I believe he did not reside there long ?' said I. 
 
 ' No, he soon afterward removed into the house built by the State for 
 the Governors, and then to Albany, so that I saw Uttle of him in that 
 house beyond a mere morning visit or two. No remaining object brings 
 him to my mind so strongly as the square pew in Trinity Church, about 
 
219 
 
 the center of the north side of the north aisle. It is now, like everything 
 else in New York, changed. It is divided into several smaller pews, 
 though, still retaining, externally, its original form. That pew was the 
 scene of his regular, sober, unostentatious devotion, and I never look at 
 it without a feeling of veneration. But, Mr. Herbert, can you tell me 
 what is become of the house of my other old friend. Governor George 
 Clinton, at Greenwich T 
 
 ' It is still in existence,' I answered, ' although in very great danger 
 of shortly being let down, like the one in which we now are.' 
 
 ' When I was in the Assembly,' pursued Mr. De Viellecour, ' the 
 Governor used to date his messages at Greenwich, near "New York. 
 Now, I suppose, the mansion is no longer near, but in New York.' 
 
 ' Not quite,' I replied, ' but doubtless will be, next year. In the 
 meantime, the house looks as it did.' 
 
 ' I remember it well — a long, low, venerable, irregular, white, cottage - 
 like brick-and-wood building, pleasant, notwithstanding, with a number 
 of small low rooms, and one very spacious parlor, delightfully situated on 
 a steep bank, some fifty feet above the shore, on which the waves of the 
 Hudson and the tides of the bay dashed and sported. There was a fine 
 orchard, too, and a garden on the north ; but I suppose that if not gone, 
 they are going, as they say in Pearl street.' 
 ' It is even so — were you often there ?' 
 
 ' Not often, but I had there, too, divers official dinners, and at one 
 of them I recollect sitting next to old Melancthon Smith, a self-taught 
 orator, the eloquent opposer of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, 
 and the Patrick Henry of the New York Convention of 1788, who for 
 weeks successfully resisted the powerful and discursive logic of Hamilton, 
 and the splendid rhetoric of Robert R. Livingston. On my other side 
 and nearer the Governor, sat Brissot de Warville, then on a visit to this 
 country, whose history as a benevolent philosophic speculatist, an ardent 
 though visionary republican, and one of the unfortunate leaders of the 
 GHronde party in the French National Assembly, everybody knows.' 
 ' But you say nothing of the Governor himself ?' 
 ' Oh, surely you must have known him ! If you did not, Trumbull's 
 full-length of him in the City Hall here, taken forty years ago, and 
 Ceracchi's bust, of about the same date, will give you an excellent idea 
 of his appearance.' 
 
 ' Oh, yes — his appearance was familiar to me, and I knew him per. 
 sonally, too ; but when I was in his company I was too young to have 
 much conversation with him, and afterward, when he was last Governor, 
 and during his Vice-Presidency, I was, you know, out of the country.' 
 
 ' His conversation and manners in private corresponded exactly with 
 his public character and his looks. His person and face had a general 
 resemblance to those of Washington ; but though always dignified, and 
 
220 
 
 in old age venerable, he had not that air of heroic elevation which threw 
 such majesty around the Pather of the Republic. There was a similar 
 resemblance in mind. If he had the cabn grandeur of Washington's 
 intellect, he had the same plain, practical, sound, wholesome common- 
 sense — the same unpretending but unerring sagacity as to men and 
 measures, the same directness of purpose and firmness of decision. 
 These qualities were exerted, as Governor during our Revolution, with 
 such effect that the people never forgot it, and they witnessed their 
 gratitude by confiding to him the government of this State for twenty-one 
 years, and the second office in the Union for eight more. His behavior 
 in society was plain but dignified, his conversation easy, shrewd, sensible, 
 and commonly about matters of fact — the events of the Revolution, the 
 politics of the day, the useful arts, and agriculture. 
 
 ' Is Hamilton's house still standing ?' 
 
 ' Not that in which he labored as Secretary of the Treasury to restore 
 the ruined credit of the nation, and reduce our finances and revenue laws 
 to order and uniformity — where he wrote the federalist, and those admi- 
 rable reports which now form the most luminous commentary upon our 
 Constitution. That was in Wall street ; it has been pulled down, and its 
 site is occupied by the Mechanics' Bank. His last favorite residence was 
 the Grange, his country-seat at Bloomingdale, which, when I last saw it, 
 remained much as he left it.' 
 
 Mr. Viellecoiu' and myself ordered some refreshment, as a kind of 
 apology for the freedoms we had taken with the old mansion. On leaving 
 it, we walked down Greenwich street, moralizing, as we went, on the 
 changes which time was working, so much more visibly in this little 
 corner of the world than in any other part of it which I had seen — where 
 the flight of years seemed swifter than elsewhere, and to bring with it 
 more striking moral lessons. After an absence of thirty years from the 
 great cities of Europe, I beheld, when I revisited them, the same aspect — 
 venerable stUl, yet neither newer nor older than before — the same order 
 of streets, the same public buildings, the same offices, hotels, and shops, 
 the same names on the signs, and found my way through their intricacies 
 as if I had left them but yesterday. Here, on the other hand, when I 
 returned after an absence of two years, everything was strange, new, and 
 perplexing, and I lost my way m streets which had been laid out since I 
 left the city.' 
 
 My companion often stopped to look at houses and sites of which he 
 had some remembrance. ' There,' said he, pointing to a modest-looking 
 two-story dwelling in one of the cross-streets — ' there died my good 
 friend, Mons. Albert, a minister of our French Protestant Church about 
 twenty years ago, a very learned and eloquent divine, and the most 
 modest man I ever knew. He was a native of Lausanne, a nephew of 
 D'Yverdun, the friend of Gibbon, who figures in the correspondence and 
 
221 
 
 memoirs of the historian. Mens. Albert was much in the society of 
 Gibbon and has related to me many anecdotes of his literary habits and 
 conversation.' 
 
 ' I must not suffer you to monopolize all the recollections of the 
 city,' said I to my friend. ' Observe, if you please, that house on the 
 corner opposite the one to which you have directed my attention. There 
 lived, for a time, my old acquaintance Collies, a mathematician, a geog- 
 rapher, and a mechanician of no mean note. He was a kind of living 
 antithesis, and I have often thought that nature made him expressly to 
 illustrate that figure of rhetoric. He was a man of the most diminutive 
 frame and the most gigantic conceptions, the humblest demeanor and 
 the boldest projects I ever knew. Forty years ago, his mind was teem- 
 ing with plans of western canals, steam-boats, rail-roads, and other public 
 enterprises, which in more fortunate and judicious hands have since 
 proved fruitful of wealth to the community, and of merited honor to 
 those who carried them through. Poor Collies had neither capital to 
 undertake them himself, plausibility to recommend them to others, nor 
 public character and station to give weight and authority to his opinions. 
 So he schemed and toiled and calculated all his life, and died at eighty, 
 without having gained either wealth for himself, or gratitude from the 
 public. The marine telegraphs in this port are a monument of his 
 Ingenuity, for he was the first man of the country who established a reg- 
 ular and intelligible system of ship signals.' 
 
 My friend stopped at some of the shops to make inquiries concern- 
 ing the ancient mmates. At length I heard him asking for Adonis. 
 ' Pray,' said I, ' who is this modern Adonis for whom you are inquiring ? 
 Some smooth, rose-cheeked boy, doubtless, like him of Mount Libanus.' 
 
 ' This Adonis,' replied Mr, Viellecour, ' is neither a smooth nor 
 rose-cheeked boy, being in fact a black old man, or rather gentleman, 
 for a gentleman he is every inch of him, although a barber. I say is, 
 for I hope he is still alive and well, although I have not seen him for 
 some years. In this sneaking, fashion-conforming, selfish world, I hold 
 in high honor any man who for the sake of any principle, important or 
 trifling, right or wrong, so it be without personal interest, will for years 
 submit to inconvenience or ridicule. Adonis submitted to both, and for 
 principle's sake.' 
 
 ' Principle's sake ! Upon what head ?' 
 
 'Upon his own, sir, or upon Louis the Sixteenth's, just as you 
 please. Adonis was an old French negro, whom the convulsions attend- 
 ant in the West Indies upon the French revolution, threw upon our 
 shores, and who held in the utmost horror all Jacobinical and republican 
 abominations. He had an instinctive sagacity as to what was genteel and 
 becoming in manners and behavior, as well as in the cut of a gentleman's 
 hair, or the curl of a lady's. He had attended to the progress of the 
 
222 
 
 Prench revolution with the greatest interest, and his feelings were excited 
 to the highest pitch when he heard of the beheading of the French king 
 and the banishment of the royal family. He then deliberately renounced 
 the French nation and their canaille parvenu rulers, and in testimony of the 
 sincerity of his indignation and grief, took off his hat and vowed never 
 to put it on again until the Bourbons should be restored to the throne. 
 This vow he faithfully kept. For twenty-one years, through aU weather, 
 did he walk the streets of New York bare-headed, carrying his hat under 
 his arm with the air of a courtier, filled with combs, scissors, and other 
 implements of his trade, until his hair, which was of the deepest black 
 when he first took it off, had become as white as snow. For my part, I 
 confess I never saw him on my occasional visits to the city, walking to 
 the houses of his customers without his hat, but I felt inclined to take off 
 my own to him. Like all the rest of the world, I took it for granted 
 that thf loyal old negro would never wear his hat again. At length, in 
 
 the year 1814, the French armed schooner , with the white flag 
 
 flying, arrived in the port of New York, bringing the first intelligence 
 of the return of the Bourbons to their throne and kingdom. Adonis 
 would not believe the report that flew Uke wild-fire about the city. He 
 would not trust the translations from the French gazettes that were read 
 to liiTTi in the American papers by his customers, but walked down to the 
 battery with the same old hat under his arm which he had carried there 
 for twenty years, saw the white flag with his own eyes, heard the news 
 in French from the mouth of the cook on board the vessel, and then 
 waving his hat three times in the air, gave three huzzas, and replaced it 
 on his head with as much heart-felt pride as Louis the Eighteenth could 
 have done his crown.' 
 
 I could not help smiling at the earnest gravity of the old gentleman's 
 «ulogy upon Adonis. ' I fear,' said I, ' that your chivalric ooffeur owes 
 a httle of his sentimental loyalty to your own admiration of everything 
 generous and disinterested. When you are excited on this head, sir, you 
 often remind me of what old FuseU, in his energetic style, used to say 
 of his great idol, Michael Angelo — ' All that he touched was indiscrimi- 
 nately stamped with his own grandeur. A beggar rose from his hands 
 the Patriarch of poverty ; the very hump of his dwarf is impressed with 
 dignity.' I suspect you have been unconsciously playing the Michael 
 Angelo in Hghting up such a halo of consecrated glory round the bare 
 and time-honored head of old Adonis. I am afraid I cannot do quite 
 as much for another tonsorial artist of great celebrity who flourished 
 here in our daj's, but whom, as at that time you wore not much in the 
 habit of coming to town, perhaps you do not remember. He made no 
 claim to chivalry or romance — his sole ambition was to be witty and 
 poetical ; and witty he certainlj' was, as well as the vehicle and conduit 
 of innujnera;ble good pleasantries of other people. I mean John Des- 
 borus Huggins.' 
 
223 
 
 ' Huggins — Huggins,' said Mr. De Viellecour. I knew a young 
 lady of that name once ; she is now Mrs. , the fashionable mil- 
 liner.' 
 
 ' Oh, yes ; that incident of your life cannot easily lose its place in 
 my memory. But John Desborus Huggins was no relation of hers. He 
 was of pure English blood, and had no kindred on this side of the 
 Atlantic. At the be.anning of this century, and for a dozen years after, 
 he was the m.ost fashionable, as well as the most accomplished artist in 
 this city for heads, male and female. He had a shop in Broadway, a 
 low wooden building, where now towers a tall brick pile, opposite the 
 City Hotel. This was Uterally the headquarters of fashion ; and fortune, 
 as usual, followed in the train of fashion. But Huggins had a soul that 
 scorned to confine its genius to the external decoration of his customers' 
 heads. He panted after wider fame ; he had cut Washington Irving's 
 hair ; he had shaved Anacreon Moore, and Joel Barlow on his first 
 return from Prance ; from them, when he was here, he caught the strong 
 contagion of authorship. One day he wrote a long advertisement, in 
 which he ranged from his own shop in Broadway to high and bold satire 
 upon those who held the helm of state at Washington, mimicked Jefier- 
 son's style, and cracked some good-humored jokes upon Giles and Ran- 
 dolph. He carried it to the Evening Post. The editor, the late Mr. Cole- 
 man, you know, was a man of taste as well as a keen poHtician. He 
 pruned o£F Huggins' exuberances, corrected his English, threw in a few 
 pungent sarcasms of his own, and printed it.' 
 
 ' It had forthwith a run through all the papers on the federal side of 
 the question in the United States, and as many of the others as could 
 relish a good joke, though at the expense of their own party. The name 
 of Huggins became known from Georgia to Maine. Huggins tried a 
 second advertisement of the same sort, a third, a fourth, with equal suc- 
 cess. His fame as a wit was now established, business flowed in upon 
 him in full and unebbing tide. Wits and would-be wits, fashionables and 
 would-be fashionables, thronged his shop, strangers from north and from 
 south had their heads cropped and their chins scraped by him for the 
 sake of saying on their return home that they had seen Huggins, whUst 
 during the party-giving season, he was under orders from the ladies every 
 day and hour for three weeks ahead. But alas, unhappy man ! he had 
 now a literary reputation to support, and his invention, lively and spark- 
 ling as it had been at first, soon began to run dry. He was now obliged 
 to tax his friends and patrons for literary assistance. Mr. Coleman was 
 too deeply engaged in the daily discussion of grave topics to continue his 
 help. In the kindness of my excellent friend, the late Anthony Bleecker, 
 he found for a long time a never-failing resource. You were not much 
 acquainted with Bleecker, I think, the most honorable, the most amiable, 
 and the most modest of human beings. Fraught with talent, taste, and 
 
224 
 
 literature, a wit and a poet, lie rarely appeared in public as an author 
 Mmself, while his careless generosity furnished the best part of their 
 capital to dozens of literary adventurers, sometimes giving them style for 
 their thoughts, and sometimes thoughts for their style. Bleecker was 
 too kindly tempered for a partisan politician, and his contributions to 
 Huggins were either good-natured pleasantries upon the fashions or 
 frivolities of the day, or else classical unitations and spirited parodies in 
 flowing and polished versification. Numerous other wits and witlings, 
 when Bleecker grew tired of it, some of whom had neither his taste nor 
 his nice sense of gentlemanly decorum, began to contribute, until at 
 length Huggins found himself metamorphosed into the regular Pasquin 
 of New York, on whom as on a mutilated old statue of that name at 
 Eome, every wag stuck his anonymous epigram, joke, satire, or lampoon, 
 whatever was unseeemly in his eyes or unsavory in his nostrils in this 
 good city. I beHeve he was useful, however. K his humanities had not 
 been too much neglected in his youth to allow him to quote Latin, he 
 might have asked with Horace — Ridentem dicere verum — " 
 
 ' My dear sir,' interrupted the old gentleman, ' if you will quote, 
 and I see you are getting into one of your quoting moods, you had better 
 quote old Kats, my maternal grandmother's favorite book, the great poet 
 of Holland and common sense. He [has said it better than Horace : 
 ' Haar lagehend coysheid laert, haar spelend vormt ter deuyd.' You 
 ought always to quote old Kats, whenever you can, for I suspect that you 
 and I and Judge Benson are the only natives south of the Highlands 
 who can read him. But to return to your barber-author :' 
 
 ' Huggins became as fond and as proud of these contributious as if 
 he had written them all himself, and at last collected them and printed 
 them together in one goodly volume, entitled, Hugginiana, illustrated 
 with designs by Jarvis, and wood-cuts by Anderson. He was now an 
 author in all the forms. Luckless author ! His vaulting ambition over- 
 leaped itself. He sent a copy of his book to the Edinburgh Review^ then 
 in the zenith of its glory, and the receipt was never acknowledged. He 
 sent another copy to Dennie, whose Port Folio then guided the literary 
 taste of this land, and Dennie noticed it only in a brief and cold 
 paragraph. What was excellent in a newspaper jeu d'esprit, whilst 
 events and allusions were fresh, lost of course much of its relish when 
 served up cold, years after in a clumsy duodecimo. Besides, not having 
 been able to prevail on himself to part with any thing which had once 
 appeared under his name, much very inferior matter was suffered to 
 overlay those sprightly articles which had first given him echt. Then 
 the town critics assailed him, and that ' most delicate monster,' the public' 
 who had laughed at every piece, good, bad, and indifferent, singly in 
 succession, now that the whole was collected, became fastidious, and at 
 the instigation of the critics aforesaid, pronounced the book to be ' low.' 
 
225 
 
 Frightful sentence ! Huggins never held up his head after it. His 
 razors and scissors lost their edge, his napkins and aprons their lustrous 
 whiteness, and his conversation its soft spirit and vivacity. His affairs 
 aU went wrong thenceforward, and whatever might have been the 
 immediate cause of his death, which took place a year or two after, the 
 real and efficient reason was undoubtedly mortified literary pride. 
 ' Around his tomb,' as old Johnson says of Archbishop Laud — 
 
 ' Around his tomb, let arts and genius weep, 
 But hear his death, ye blockheads, hear and sleep.' 
 
 We had now got far down into the old part of the city, when, turn- 
 ing up Yesey street from Greenwich, Mr. De Viellecour made a sudden 
 pause. ' Ah,' said he, ' one more vestige of the past. There,' pointing 
 to a com^mon looking old house, 'there, in 1790, was the atelier of 
 Ceracohi, when he was executing his fine busts of our great American 
 statesmen.' 
 
 ' Indeed !' answered I — ' I have often thought of it as a singular 
 piece of natural good fortune, that at a time when our native prts were 
 at so low an ebb, we had such an artist thrown upon our shores to per- 
 petuate the true and living likenesses of our revolutionary chiefs and 
 sages. Ceracchi's busts of Washington, Jay, Alexander Ham.ilton, 
 George Clinton, and others, are now as mere portraits above all price to 
 tliis nation ; and they have besides a classic grace about them, which 
 entitle the artist to no contemptible rank as a statuary.' 
 
 ' It was not a piece of mere good fortune,' said my friend ; ' we 
 have to thank the artist himself for it. Ceracchi was a zealous repub- 
 lican, and he came here full of enthusiasm, anxious to identify his own 
 name in the arts somehow or other with our infant republic — and he has 
 done it. He had a grand design of a national monument, which he used 
 to show to his visitors, and which he wished Congress to employ him to 
 execute in marble or bronze. Of course they did not do so, and, as it 
 happened, he was much more usefully employed for the nation in model- 
 ing the busts of our great men.' 
 
 ' He was an Italian — I believe a Roman — and had lived some time 
 in England, where he was patronized by Reynolds. Sir Joshua (no 
 mean proof of his talent) sat to him for a bust, and a fine one I am told 
 it is. Ceracchi came to America enthusiastic for liberty, and he found 
 nothinn- here to make him change his principles or feelings. But the 
 nation was not ripe for statuary : a dozen busts exhausted the patronage 
 of the country, and Congress was too busy with pounds, shillings, and 
 pence, fixing the revenue laws, and funding the debt, to think of his 
 grand allegorical monument. Ceracchi could not Uve upon liberty alone , 
 much as he loved it, and when the French revolution took a very decided 
 character, he went to France, and plunged into politics. Some years 
 15 
 
226 
 
 after he returned to Eome, where he was unfortunately killed in an 
 insurrection or popular tumult, growing out of the universal revolu- 
 tionary spirit of those times.' 
 
 ' May his remains rest in peace,' added I. ' "Whatever higher 
 works of art he may have left elsewhere — and he who could produce 
 those fine classic, historical busts, was undoubtedly capable of greater 
 things — whatever else he may have left in Europe, here h's will be an 
 enduring name. As long as Americans shall hold in honored remem- 
 brance the memory of their first and best patriots — as long as our sons 
 shall look with reverent interest on their sculptured images, the name of 
 Ceraechi will be cherished here : 
 
 ' And while along the stream of time, their name 
 ^Expanded flies and gathers all its fame ; 
 Still shall his little barli attendant sail. 
 Pursue the triumph and partake the gale.' 
 
 We had now finished our long walk, and as the old gentleman was 
 going into his lodgings, I took leave of him, saying, that our afternoon's 
 walk had furnished me with the materials, and I was now going home to 
 record our conversation as a chapter of ' Reminiscences of New York.' " 
 
 In 1835, New York was visited by the most terrible conflagration she 
 had ever experienced — an event which was so disastrous to the mercan- 
 tile as well as to the private interests of the city that a full account of it 
 in this connection may not be omitted. Mr. Dlsosway, who was present 
 on the occasion, has kindly furnished us the following account of the 
 conflagration itself and the losses entailed by it: 
 
 FIRE or 1885, 
 
 " The fearful night of December 16, 1835, will long be remembered for the 
 most terrible conflagration that has ever visited our great city. I then resided in 
 that pleasant Quaker neighborhood, Vandewater street, and hearing an alarm of 
 fire, hastened to the front door. I immediately discovered, from the direction of 
 the flame and smoke that the fire was ' down town,' and not far off. Thousands 
 of others besides myself dreaded such an alarm that night, as it was the coldest 
 one we had had for thirty-six years. A gale of wind was also blowing. I put on 
 an old, warm overcoat and an old hat for active service ' on my own hook.' Years 
 afterward these articles, preserved as curiosities, bore marks of the heat, sparks, 
 and exposure of that fearful time. Our own store, Disosway & Brothers, 180 Pearl 
 street, near Maiden Lane, although fire-proof, naturally became the first object of 
 my attention. This was providentially located several blocks above the fire, and, 
 accordingly, having lighted the gas and leaving the clerks to watch, I hastened to 
 the building that was on fire. 
 
 This was the store of Comstock & Andrews, well-known fancy dry-goods 
 jobbers, at the comer of Pearl and Merchant streets, a narrow, new lane a little 
 below Wall street. "When I entered the building on the lower floor the fire had 
 commenced in the counting-room, having caught, as it was believed, from the stove- 
 pipe. Those few of us present had time to remove a considerable quantity of light 
 
227 
 
 lancy silk articles. The goods, however, were of a very inflammable nature, and a 
 strong current of air sweeping through the adjoining lane, we were soon compelled 
 to leave the balance of this large and valuable stock to destruction. Here, and in 
 this manner, the great fire of 1635 originated. 
 
 In a short time this tall and large brick store was enveloped in flames, which 
 burst from the doors and windows on both streets. Over half an hour had elapsed 
 before the first engine had arrived, and attempted to throw a stream upon the oppo- 
 site stores of Pearl street, against which the gale was driving the rapidly increasing 
 heat and embers. But so furious were both, that the boldest firemen retreated for their 
 lives and the safety of their machine. The street at this point is very narrow, and 
 prevented any man from reaching the lower or adjacent part of Pearl from this end. 
 A burning wall of fire now intervened, and increased every moment. The way to 
 the alarming scene was through "William and Water streets and Old Slip. After 
 a little while that which was universally dreaded, happened — the water in the 
 hydrants froze and prevented the engine from obtaining any further supply. Hav- 
 ing drawn the ' machine' to a safe place, the firemen nobly went to work, saving 
 property. It was all they possibly could do. The reader must remember that the 
 thermometer had now fallen below zero, which, added to a biting, fierce winter wind, 
 paralyzed the exertions of both firemen and citizens. All ordinary means for stop- 
 ping the rapidly increasing flames were abandoned, and the efforts of all were 
 directed to the removal of the contents of the buildings to places beyond the sup- 
 posed reach of destruction. In this way immense quantities of goods were placed 
 in the large Merchants' Exchange on Wall street, in Old Slip, Hanover Square, 
 and the Garden Street Dutch Church and its adjoining grave-yard. In a few hours, 
 however, the devouring element, reaching these areas and splendid edifices, 
 swept everything away as with the ' besom of destruction.' Millions of dollars 
 were consumed in a very short time. 
 
 I am writing my own reminiscences of that awful night, and not the expe- 
 riences of another, and must be excused if I often use the personal pronoun. By mid- 
 night it was evident that no earthly power could stay the then Etna-lik e rapid progress 
 of the raging torrent, which increased every moment most alarmingly, and spread 
 in every direction, except toward the east. Most fortunately it did not cross Wall, 
 that street having become an impassable barrier, else the eastern and upper sections 
 of the city might have shared the same fats as the lower. Who can tell where the 
 calamity would have paused, for there were immense blocks of wooden buildings 
 on Water and Cherry and Pearl streets, ' up' town more than ' down,' and inflam- 
 mable magazines which, once fired, could extend the common destruction over 
 the city. 
 
 My own course that night was to obtain voluntary aid, and entering the stores 
 of personal friends remove if possible books and papers. Such was absolutely the 
 heat in front of some stores on the south side of Pearl, near Wall street, that 
 although they were not yet on fire, it was impossible to force an onti'ance that way, 
 and we were obliged to effect it from Water street, as those buildings extended 
 through the block. A panel in the rear door was broken out, and entering 
 through this with lanterns, we reached the counting-room, and then collecting the 
 books and invoices placed them in a hand-cart and sent them away. It is impossible 
 to imagine the fervent heat created by the increasing flames. Many of the stores were 
 new, with iron shutters, doors, and copper roofs and gutters, ' fire-proof ' of first- 
 class, and I carefully watched the beginning and the progress of their destruction. 
 The heat alone, at times, melted the copper roofing, and the burning liquid ran off 
 in great drops ; at one store, near Arthur Tappan & Co.'s, I warned some firemen 
 of their danger from this unexpected source. Along here the buildings were of 
 
228 
 
 the first-class, and one after another ignited under the roof, from the next edifice, 
 downward, from floor after floor went the deyouring element. As the different 
 stories caught, the iron-closed shutters shone with glowing redness, until at last, 
 forced open by the uncontroUatle enemy within, they presented the appearance of 
 immense iron furnaces in full blast. The tin and copper bound rooie often seemed 
 struggling to maintain their fast hold, gently rising and falling and moving, until 
 their rafters giving way, they mingled in the blazing crater below of goods, beams, 
 floors, and walls. 
 
 On the north side of Hanover Square stood the fine store-house of Peter Kemsen 
 & Company, one of the largest East India firms, with a valuable stock. Here we 
 assisted, and many light bales of goods were thrown from the upper windows, 
 together with a large amount of other merchandise, all heaped in the midst of the 
 Square, then thought to be a perfectly secure place. Vain calculation ! Both sides 
 of Pearl street were soon in the furious blaze, and the ground became covered with 
 living cinders. This whole pile dissolved and mingled in the common and increas- 
 ing ruin. Water street, too, was on fire, and we hastened to the old firm of S. B. 
 Harper & Sons, grocers, on Front, opposite Gouvemeur Lane, where there appeared 
 to be no immediate danger. 
 
 The father and sons had arrived, and we succeeded in removing their valuables. 
 As we left the store after the last load, a terrible explosion occurred near by with 
 the noise of a cannon. The earth shook. We ran for safety, not knowing what 
 might follow, and took refuge on the comer of Gouvemeur Lane, nearly oppo>-ite. 
 Waiting for a few minutes, a second explosion took place, then another and another. 
 During the space, perhaps, of half an hour, shock after shock followed in rapid suc- 
 cession, accompanied with the darkest, thickest clouds of smoke imaginable. The 
 explosions came from a store on Front street, near Old Slip, where large quantities 
 of saltpeter in bags had been stored. Suddenly the whole ignited, and out leaped 
 the flaming streams of these neutral salts in their own peculiar colors, from every 
 door and window. Some might have called them firew^orks. We have never forgot- 
 ten this saltpeter eruption or explosion, and never doubted since the explosive 
 character of the article. 
 
 About midnight, the onward march of the uncontrolled riotous flames had 
 reached the East River, and could go no further beyond that impassable barrier. 
 Before this, the crowded shipping had fortunately sufficient time to be removed 
 from the docks and slips. One of the most grand and frightful scenes of the whole 
 night was the burning of a large oil store at the corner of Old Slip and South street- 
 It was four or. more stories high, and filled with windows on both sides without any 
 shutters. This was before the days of petroleum and kerosene, and the building was 
 full of sperm and other oils. These fired hogshead after hogshead, and over the 
 spacious edifice resembled a vast bonfire or giant beacon, casting its bright beams 
 far and wide on the river and surrounding region, but finally the confined inflam- 
 mable mass, from eaves to cellar, shot out with tremendoiis force through every 
 window and opening, and soon all disappeared except the cracked, tottering, and 
 falling walls. 
 
 The blazing flying timbers were carried across the East Kiver, and in one 
 instance set fire to the roof of a house in Brooklyn, which, however, was quickly 
 extinguished. Large quantities of tar and turpentine on the wharves becoming 
 ignited, ran down blazing into the stream, and floating off, made a sort of burning 
 sea, many square yards in extent. The conflagration increasing every moment, 
 also extended inward toward Broadway. Great hopes were indulged that the 
 Merchants' marble Exchange (in which, since 1827, thePost-Office had been located) 
 would escape. In the vast rotunda of the edifice stood a most beautiful white 
 
229 
 
 marWe statue of Alexander Hamilton. Accordingly, a great anxiety was manifested 
 to save this image of the great statesman. It was a masterpiece of art, and hund- 
 redif of TvilUng hands, including those of a large number of sailors, undertook its 
 removal, but to no purpose, and the finely chiseled marble, with the solid granite of 
 the Exchange, before long mingled together in comroou ruin. The letters of the 
 Post-Office were alone saved. 
 
 There was evidently now no salvation for those fine new stores on William 
 street near by, and in Exchange Place, where the auctioneers and other commission 
 houses had located. I sought the premises of Burns, Halliburton & Company, one 
 of the most popular firms of that day. They were the agents of the Merrimack and 
 other works, and had an immense valuable stock of calicos, muslin, and flannels. 
 Their large store extended from. William street to the grave-yard of the Garden 
 Street Church. Most of the stock was easily removed to this place of imagined 
 security, which, indeed, became the depot, for the time being, for millions of mer- 
 chandise. We soon cleared this store. The firm were agents also for extra flannels. 
 These, packed in small bales and light, were readily cast from the upper stories into 
 the grave-yard. In one of the upper lofts I met a member of the firm, Mr. B., one 
 of Nature's noblemen, since dead, with his other partners, and he was weeping. 
 ' Too hard,' said he, ' after all the toil of years, to see property thus suddenly 
 destroyed !' ' Cheer up,' we replied, ' the world is still wide enough for success 
 and fortune,' and so it proved to him and many other suilerers. 
 
 This row of fine new stores had very flat roofs, and, imagining that a good view 
 of the whole conflagration could be obtained from the top, we soon found our way 
 th jre. Some friends in the yard, fearing that we had been locked up and in danger, 
 screamed like wild Indiana, pointing out a way of escape. But there was no danger, 
 and what a sight now presented itself. From Maiden Lane to Coenties Slip and 
 from William street to the East River, the whole immense area, embracing some thir- 
 teen acres, all in a raging, uncontrollable blaze ! To what can we compare it ? An 
 ocean of fire, as it were, with roaring, rolling, burning waves, surging onward and 
 upward, and spreading certain universal destruction, tottering walls and falling 
 chimneys, with black smoke, hissing, crashing sounds on every side. Something like 
 this, for we cannot describe it, was the fearful prospect, and soon satisfied with the 
 alarming, fearful view, we retreated from our high look-out. The light had spread 
 more and more vividly from the fiery arena, rendering every object, far and wide, 
 minutely discernible, the lower bay and its islands, with the shores of Long Island 
 and New Jersey. Even from Staten Island the conflagration was very plainly seen. 
 A sea on fire is perhaps the best similitude I can fancy to describe this grand and 
 awful midnight winter scene. » 
 
 Not long after we left our high stand-point it was enveloped in the universal 
 blaze, and soon the Garden Street Church, with the spire, organ, and heaps of 
 goods stored within and outside, were consumed. There too was lost the venerable 
 bell which had been removed at an early period in Now York history from the old 
 St. Nicholas Church, within the present Battery. ' What more can be done to atop 
 the progress of the flames ?' becami; the anxious and general inquiry. Mr. Cornelius 
 W. Lawrence, the Mayor, appeared with his officers, and after consultation, it was 
 determined ' to blow up' some buildings, and the east comer of Coenties Slip and 
 Coenties Lane (a narrow street), was selected as the proper place to begin the neces- 
 sary work. On the opposite side was the store of William Van Antwerp & Co., 
 hardware dealers and relatives of the writer, who, engaged at this point in saving 
 goods, could see the' necessary preparations for the blast. The building to be ' blown 
 up,' I think, was occupied by Wyncoop & Co., grocers. It was large, and of brick. 
 Colonel Smith soon arrived with the powder and a gang of officers and sailors from 
 
230 
 
 the Navy Yard; and none else were permitted to interfere. They commenced 
 mining- in the cellar, and placing heavy timbers upon the powder kegs and against 
 the beams of the floors, everything was soon ready for the explosion. A friend near 
 
 by, said to an old tar, ' Be careful or you will be blown up!' ' Blow and be !' 
 
 was the careless and characteristic reply to the warning. But all having been 
 admirably and safely arranged, the crowd retreated. The touch was applied, .and 
 in an instant the report followed ; then the immense mass heaved up as if by magic, 
 and losing its fastenings, from the cellar to the I'oof, tottered, shook, and fell. A 
 shout went up from the gazing spectators ; and at this point the common danger 
 was evidently arrested, thanks to Colonel Swift, Lieutenant Reynolds, and Captain 
 Mix of the Navy, and their noble, brave sailors. Heroism can be as much displayed 
 at a terrible catastrophe of this kind, as on the' bloody field of battle, and it was 
 to-night. This party of miners arrived about two o'clock in the morning, when 
 their important work commenced. They continued it successfully in another direc- 
 tion ; indeed, it was believed that the conflagration was at last checked by this blow- 
 ing up of the buildings. 
 
 Wearied with watching, labor, and anxiety, thousands wished for the return of 
 day, and at length a dim increasing light iu the east, but enshrouded with dull, 
 heavy clouds of smoke foretold the Qoming morning. And what an unexpected 
 melancholy spectacle to thousands did New York present ! The generous firemen 
 from Philadelphia soon after made their appearance ; but the fire hsid been checked. 
 The immense remains continued to blaze and bum for many days. We could now 
 travel around the bounds of the night's destruction, but no living being could 
 venture through them. In many places there were no lines of the streets to be dis- 
 covered at all, as every foot of ground was covered with the heated bricks, timbers, 
 and rubbish of the destroyed buildings. 
 
 Many a merchant liWng in the upper section of the city went quietly to bed 
 that night, and strange as it may seem, when he came down town the next morning 
 literally could not find his store nor enough of his stock remaining to cover his hand 
 — every yard, ell, pound gone ! There were official statements of several stores in 
 each of which a quarter of a million of dollars in goods was consumed, with books, 
 notes and accounts. New York the next day sat, as it were, in sackcloth and ashes, 
 and real sorrow began to appear on men's faces as the losses and ruin were discovered 
 by the light of day. To increase, also, the public calamity, the insurance companies, 
 except the JEtna, of Hartford, and the Chatham, had all become bankrupt from their 
 severe losses, and could not pay. Uoiversal gloom prevailed, but not despondency. 
 
 There was great anxiety expressed for the preservation of the Merchants, 
 Exchange on Wall street, and a large crowd assembled in front to watch the noble 
 edifice, now in imminent danger. We have stated that the letters of the Post-Office 
 then in its basement, were saved, and the marble statue of HAMILTON, placed 
 beneath the rotunda, was lost. But now the fire-fiend had reached the solid struc- 
 ture, and all hopes of saving it were abandoned. The public gaze evidently centered 
 most upon its cupola. Higher and higher the flames reached, and after a brief con- 
 flict the roof fell. A short silence ensued in the almost breathless crowd, but what 
 a strange thing is ever a mob P Next went up — shall we call it a fiendish shout, as 
 a friend standing by did at the time ? Then came another pause, the lofty, shooting 
 fires lighting up the faces of surrounding crowds. At this moment a man was seen 
 hurrying along, crying out at the top of his voice, ' Is there a surgeon among yon, 
 gentlemen ? for God's sake is there a surgeon ?' The report soon spread that 
 hundreds were in the Exchange at the moment its cupola fell, and those dragged 
 out of the ruins needed a surgeon's care. Pi evidentially this was not the case, and 
 
231 
 
 that whicli was still more wonderful and striking, no fatal or serious accident 
 occurred during the whole of this awful December calamity. 
 
 During the conflagration, then under full headway toward Broad street, the 
 presence of mind of one man saved much property. This was Downing, the oyster 
 king, of Broad street fame. Water was out of the question, and at thi.s emergency 
 he thought of his supplies of vinegar, which were large, and with careful applica- 
 tion by pail-full after pail-full, a large amount of property was saved in that direc- 
 tion from the general destruction. To his good sense, and credit, and worthy 
 memory, we record this generous act. 
 
 We forgot to mention one circumstance connected with the destruction of the 
 Garden Street Church, and have been reminded of it by a friend, who was among the 
 very last persons to leave the sacred edifice. Many, many a solemn dirge had been 
 played upon that fine organ at the burial of the dead, and now, the holy temple on 
 fire, some one commenced performing upon it its own funeral dirge, and continued 
 it until the lofty ceiling was in a blaze — the music ceased, and in a short time the 
 beautiful edifice, with its noble instrument and immense quantities of goods stored 
 inside and out, were all irrecoverably gone, nothing escaping save the long-sleeping 
 dust and bones of the buried dead. 
 
 I forgot also to mention in its proper place some items about the old ' Tontine 
 Coffee-House.' This was the ' Exchange ' of the city. The old folks may remember 
 its rough but pleasant keeper, old Buyden. We only have heard of his fame, and it 
 is related of him, that when the first anthracite coal was offered for sale in New 
 York, he tried it in the hall of the Tontine ; but he pronounced the new article 
 worse than nothing, for he had put one scuttle into the grate, and then another, and 
 after they were consumed he took up two scuttles full of stones ! 
 
 In the great fire of 1835, this well-known public edifice came very near sharing 
 the common destruction. The engines had almost entirely ceased working, and the 
 Tontine was discovered to be on fire in its broad cornices, at the corner of Wall and 
 Water streets. This creatsd still greater alarm, for the burning of this large build- 
 ino' would destroy the hopes of saving the eastern section of the city if not more. 
 Two solitary engines, with what little water they managed to obtain, were throwing 
 their feeble and useless streams upon the flaming stores opposite, when Mr. Oliver 
 Hull, of our city, calling their attention to the burning cornice, generously promised 
 to denote one hundred dollars to the Firemen's Fund ' if they would extinguish that 
 blaze.' Seeing the threatening danger, they immediately made a pile of boxes which 
 had been removed from the adjacent stores, from the top of which, by great efforts, a 
 stream reached the spot and quickly put out the alarming flame. Mr. Hull is still 
 living, and thanks to him for his wise counsel and generosity at that trying moment, 
 and gratitude to the noble firemen who so successfully averted the awful progress of 
 the destroying element from crossing Wall street and ending, who can tell where ? 
 They were frequently told of the vital importance of preventing the conflagiation 
 extending beyond this limit, and labored accordingly, and with the happiest 
 results. 
 
 As already stated, no lives were lost during the conflagration ; still we remember 
 that shortly afterward, one of our most widely-known and respected fellow-citizens 
 passed away in death. This was John Laing, often called ' Honest John Laing,' the 
 senior partner of Laing, Turner & Co., of the old New York Gazette and General 
 Advertiser, and his last illness — of paralysis or apoplexy — was hastened by the 
 excitement and devastation of this great public calamity. He was a gentleman of 
 the old-school queiis hair style. 
 
 In the estimated thirteen acres of the burnt district, only one store escaped 
 entire. This was occupied by the well-known John A. Moore of this day, in the 
 
232 
 
 iron trade on Water street near Old Slip. Watched inside, and fire-proof, in their 
 wildest career, the rapid flames seemed, as it -were, to overleap the building, destroy- 
 ing all others. There it stood, solitary and alone, amidst surrounding entire 
 destruction, as a sad monument stands alone amid the general ruin. 
 
 As many as three or four buildings were blown np to stop the progress of the 
 fire, all other efforts having failed, and if such a measure had been resorted to 
 earlier, great destruction of property might possibly have been prevented. There 
 Tvas also a want of powder, although, unknown to the citizens, a vessel loaded with 
 the article lay anchored in the stream. At last Mr. Charles King generously volun- 
 teered to visit the Navy Yard for a supply, and returned with a band of marines 
 and sailors. The explosions went on fearfully and successfully. Up and down went 
 the mined structures, two barrels of powder under each, until no flames were left, 
 no means of spreading the fiery element to the next houses. 
 
 The extent of the fire in December, 1835, may be imagined from its several 
 limits. These, commencing at Coffee-House Slip, extended along South street to 
 Coenties Slip, thence to near Broad, along William to Wall, and down that street to 
 the East River on the south side, with the exception of No6. 51, 53, 55, 57, 59 and 
 61, along where the new splendid banking-house of Brown Brothers & Company 
 now stands. This burned district embraced some thirteen acres, in which nearly 
 seven hundred houses were leveled to the ground in a single winter's night, with a 
 loss of seventeen million dollars ; four millions, it was calculated, was the value of 
 the buildings, and thirteen of the goods. During a few hours this vast amount 
 disappeared, either in the flaming atmosphere or in ashes upon the earth — the most 
 costly goods and products from every portion of our globe. Some merchants, retiring 
 to bed wealthy in the evening, and perhaps so dreaming, found themselves the next 
 morning either ruined or their estates seriously injured. In the impressive language 
 of Scripture, their riches had taken wings and flew away in a single night, warehouse, 
 stock, notes, and books, all gone beyond recovery. 
 
 After the general consternation had somewhat subsided, a public meeting assem- 
 bled in Mr. Lawrence's office (the Mayor's), City Hall, to consider what shonld be 
 done under the circumstances. At this meeting committees were appointed to 
 provide means for the relief of the moat necessitous cases, and to ascertain the con- 
 dition of the insurance companies, and the amount of the losses as far as practicable. 
 The writer acted as secretary of this last committee, and the losses absolutely stated 
 from various firms and parties amounted to seventeen millions of dollars. In many 
 oases they were total. Some would not name their damages, and among them very 
 large houses, and although the seventeen millions were reported by the losers, still 
 the committee estimated the real loss at twenty millions of dollars. To inerea.se the 
 difficulties, all the insurance companies, except the two mentioned in a former 
 article, failed to meet the demands against them, but paid as much as they were 
 able, and this consumed all their assets, leaving them bankrupt. This result caused 
 great distress among a class who had been otherwise unharmed — old people, widows, 
 orphans, and others, whose income came from fire insurance dindends ; these were 
 now at an end, and many suffered severely in consequence. Among the first acts 
 of the public committee was to relieve this class. 
 
 In respect to the entire loss, gome accounts place the number of buildings at 
 five hundred and twenty-eight, others higher. Let us visit the 'Burnt Dis- 
 trict,' as it was then named, commencing at the eastern limits. Coffee-Honse 
 Slip, and South, Front, and Water streets, were burnt down from Wall street to 
 Coenties Slip, Pearl consumed from the same point to Coenties alley, and there, as 
 we have seen, stopped by the blowing np of a building. This was the well-known 
 crowded region of the dry-goods importers and jobbers, merchant princes in the 
 
233 
 
 granite palaces, filled with the richest merchandise, domestic and imported. The 
 destruction on Stone street, extended down from William tn then No. 32, one side, 
 and to No. 39 on the other. Beaver was destroyed half-way to Broad. Exchange 
 place was burned from Hanover street to within three doors of Broad, and here also 
 the flames were arrested by blowing up a house. The loss on William street was 
 complete, commencing at Wall and ending in South, and on both sides, including 
 the market in Old Slip. Wall street was devastated on the south side from 
 William to South, excepting, as we have noticed, Nos. 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, and 61. 
 The greatest efforts were made along here to prevent the flames reaching the banks 
 and offices on the opposite side. Here was located the Courier and Inquirer ofBce, 
 and we well remember the noble person of its editor. Col. Webb, as he stood on a 
 prominent, elevated place, exhorting the people to renewed diligence and efforts to 
 save the city. All the intermediate streets, lanes, and alleys within these limits 
 were also swept away by the destroying element. The following statement will be 
 found, we imagine, nearly accurate, of the house - and stores leveled to the earth : 
 
 On Wall street 26 On Old Slip 33 
 
 On South Btreel ......76 On Stone street 40 
 
 On Front street 80 On Mill street 38 
 
 On "Water street 76 On Beaver street 23 
 
 On Pearl strewt 79 On Hanover street 16 
 
 On Exchange place 62 On Coenties Slip 16 
 
 On Gouverneur's Lane 20 On Hanover Square 3 
 
 On Jones's Lane 10 On Cuyler'a Alley 20 
 
 On Exchange 31 — 
 
 On William street « Total 674 
 
 Six hundred and seventy-four tenements were thus consumed in a few short 
 hours, and the far greater part were occupied by New York's largest shipping 
 and wholesale dry-goods merchants, besides many grocers. 
 
 This was a terrible day for the commercial emporium of our land. The de- 
 struction had been fearful, and so were the consequences. In a few months the 
 United States Sank suspended payment ; then followed the commercial distress of 
 1837, and for a time business seemed paralyzed. Next came bankruptcy after bank- 
 ruptcy in quick succession, and soon the banks of our State stopped payment for 
 one year. The Legislature legalised this necessary public act. What a disastrous 
 moment ! what terrible reverses! what gloomy forebodings and prospects ! But the 
 most wonderful fact of all these fearful times was the energy and elasticity of the 
 New Yorkers. Not long depressed by their misfortunes, a reaction took place, and 
 before many months the city literally arose from her ashes, and acres of splendid 
 granite, marble, brown-stone, and brick stores filled the entire ' Burnt District.' Bus- 
 iness, trade, and commerce revived more briskly than ever before. How truly 
 astonishing, and how noble and praiseworthy. What shall we call our native city 
 the giant of the Western World, the queen of America, the commercial empo- 
 rium, or by what other name ? Her wharves and streets are now visited by men 
 from every region of the world, and her white canvas gladdens every ocean. In 
 vain do we search for a chapter in ancient or modern history of such a conflii|pra- 
 tion and its losses, and of rapid recovery from all its evils, with increasing pros- 
 perity, as we find in the great fire of New York in December, 1835. Well may 
 New Yorkers be proud of their noble city, her enterprise, her trade, and her 
 'merchant princes.' " 
 
 New Tork had now fairly distanced all competitors. The gas had 
 been introduced into the city in 1825; the magnificent Merchants' 
 Exchange on Wall street (the present Custom-House) and the Custom- 
 
234 
 
 House (now the Sub-Treasury), erected in 1827 ; the Croton Acqueduct 
 completed and its practical utility inaugurated by a brilliant procession in 
 1842 ; and a communication by the magnetic telegraph opened with other 
 cities. Nothing was wanting to her temporal prosperity ; her civil freedom 
 was all that could be desired ; and one thing only was necessary to place 
 her on a footing with her sister cities in breadth and Uberality of senti- 
 ment. Nor was she long in taking this last step. By the prorisions of 
 an act, passed by the New York Board of Education, on the 11th of April, 
 1842, it was declared that no school in which any religious or sectarian 
 doctrine or tenet was taught, should receive any portion of the school 
 moneys to be distributed by this act. Archbishop Hughes at once took 
 the ground that to allow the Bible to be read daily in the schools was 
 teaching a sectarian doctrine, and therefore demanded that the schools in 
 which it was read should not be included in the distribution of the 
 moneys. Colonel Stone, who for many years had been one of the School 
 Commission, and at this time (184.3-44) was Superintendent of the 
 Common Schools,* immediately protested against the promulgation of this 
 
 * The difficulty which the a,nthor experienced in endeavoring to discover the 
 year in which Col. Stone was Superintendent of Common Schools, deserves particular 
 mention, as showing the shiftless manner in which the public records are kept in 
 the City of New York. Wishing to ascertain the exact year in which Mr. Stone held 
 the office, he went to a gentleman (we will call him A) , whom he knew to be engaged 
 in writing a history of our common schools and asked the question. The gentleman 
 was unable to tell him at the moment, but referred him to the Board of Education 
 as the place where, of course, the desired information could be obtained. The author 
 went there and asked an officer of the Board the question. He could not tell him, 
 but referred him to a gentleman up stairs who would know. The latter, however, 
 was equally iu the dark, but, in his turn, referred his questioner to a gentleman down 
 stairs in still another department, who, having been connected with the Board for a, 
 long term of years, would certainly know. Upon repeating the question to this one, 
 he was informed that he did not know, as until within a few years the school records 
 had not been annually printed, and that the manuscript kept by the different secre- 
 taries before that time was mislaid. He, however, was positive that if he should go 
 to Mr. , in Wall street, he would know, as he was one of the School Commis- 
 sioners in the year designated. To him, therefore, the author went; but his astonish- 
 ment may well be imagined when that person said he had entirely forgotten, but 
 stated that if he would go to such a one — mentioning the veritable Mr. A. — he could 
 undoubtedly tell him, as he was now engaged upon a history of the common schools ! 
 This, if not " reasoning in a circle," certainly was questioning iu a circle, the ques- 
 tioner having brought up at the very point from which he started ! Finally, upon 
 the author making a second visit to the room of the Board, an attache of the place, 
 who had a dim recollection of a record-book being in the cellar, went down stairs, 
 and after much search exhumed the manuscript, from which, after patient search, 
 the desired information was brought to light. Now, if such difficulty exists in 
 ascertaining — not an insignificant fact, but one relating to the Superintendent of 
 Common Schools only twenty years since — what would be the difficulty in finding 
 the history of events which occurred thirty, forty, or fifty years ago ? 
 
 We have stated the above with no intention of throwing censure upon the 
 
235 
 
 atrocious sentiment, A lengthy public discussion upon this point fol- 
 lowed between the Archbishop and Mr. Stone, in which the latter carried 
 the day; and at a meeting of the Board of Education, held November 13, 
 1844 (two months after Mr. Stone's death), the act was amended by a 
 resolution to the effect " that the Bible, without note or comment, is not 
 a sectarian book, and that the reading of a portion of the Scriptures 
 without note or comment, at the opening of the schools, is not inculcating 
 or practicing any religious, sectarian doctrine or tenet of any particular 
 Christian or other religious sect." The catholic spirit of New York's 
 Dutch ancestors had triumphed. Henceforth, it is hoped that she wUl 
 be as cosmopolitan in her religious, as she is in her civil rights. 
 
 In 1845 New York was again visited by a conflagration second only 
 in its ravages to the one of 1835. 
 
 THE FIEE OF 1845. 
 
 The burnt district embraced Broadway, Exchange Place, Whitehall, 
 New, and Broad streets, Beaver, Marketfield, Stone, and Whitehall, and, 
 which is a striking coincidence, a portion of the same region devastated 
 by the great conflagration in '35, ten years before ! 
 
 It broke out on July 19, 1845, completely destroying Exchange 
 Place and Beaver street from Broadway almost to WUliam. Both sides 
 of Broad street, from above Exchange Place to Stone, with the east sides 
 
 officers of the present Board. The fault lies not at their door. On the contrary, 
 with great courtesy, they endeavored to aid us to the extent of their ability, and 
 realized in its fullest extent the evils of the manner in which the records had in 
 former times been kept. Indeed, it is only justice to say that it has been through 
 their exertions that the proceedings have latterly been printed. 
 
 Another remarkable illustration of the subject existed a few years ago in'the 
 basement of the City Hall under the County Clerk's Office. The ancient rolls of the 
 colonial courts were one grand pile of parchment, lying in mass, and great quanti- 
 ties were stolen and sold to gold-beaters. It would probably be impossible at the 
 present time to find the judgment-roll in any cause tried prior to the year 1787, 
 unless by chance. Possibly there has been more care of late in the preservation of 
 these records. Their value cannot be overestimated. 
 
 Althouffh there may be spasmodic attempts by Individuals to bring about a 
 reform in this regard, yet we greatly fear that it will continue so long as ihe true 
 cause of the difficulty remains, to wit, that political maxim — the bane of American 
 institutions — " to the victors belong the spoils." New office-holders care little for old 
 records; and, throwing aside all sentiment in the matter, unless this thing is 
 rectified, it will, in time, embarrass the practical business relations of every-day 
 life. More attention must be paid to preserving records. It is not necessary- to 
 make enormous job.s, such as the atrocity which was perpetrated in New York 
 City in reference to the Eegister's Office. What is needed is, a general respect for 
 the value of old records, and the adoption of preservative means. Better paper 
 to record on ; better binding to keep ; and above all, fire-proof buildings for all public 
 records. 
 
236 
 
 of Broadway and Whitehall wore consumed. Above Exchange Place 
 the flames crossed Broadway and consumed a number of buildings on its 
 west side. During the progress of the fire a tremendous explosion took 
 place, similar to that of 1835, in a building stored with saltpeter. The 
 owner contended that this article could not explode, which gave rise to 
 the long-debated question, " Will saltpeter explode ?" and for a long time 
 able and scientific men warmly took sides in the arguments. Explosive 
 or not, this was the second store filled with the article that blew up, 
 causing great alarm and destruction to the neighborhood. 
 
 Three hundred and forty-five buildings were swept away at this 
 time. Their value, with the goods, was estimated at about $5,000,000. 
 Among other things destroyed was the old "Old Jail Bell," which had 
 hung and rung in the cupola of that ancient civil pest-house and prison 
 during the American Eevolution. There, as already stated, for years it 
 was the fire-alarm or signal, and was considered especially the firemen's 
 beU, as it could be depended on at aU times. At an early period, when 
 it uttered its warning tones, citizens with fire-buckets on their arms, 
 might be seen hastening to the scene of danger and forming into par- 
 allel lines, one to pass the full buckets to fill the engines, and the other 
 to return the empty ones for refilling. Most of the New York families 
 had such leather buckets, which generally hung in some prominent part 
 of the hall or entry, ready at hand in case of need. 
 
 The signal-bell rang in the days of John Lamb and pleasant-faced 
 Tommy Franklin, and during Jameson Cox's and Wyman's and Gulick's 
 administrations. It was cherished by the firemen, and upon the destruc- 
 tion of the Bridewell the old beU was placed in the cupola of the Naiad 
 Hose Company, Beaver street, and was stiU devoted to its long-estabUshed 
 uses. But the great fire of '45 swept away this building, with its ven- 
 erable bell, and the faithful old public sentinel, sounding its last alarm, 
 succumbed to the flaming foe against which it had so many years suc- 
 cessfully warned the citizens. 
 
 THE OLD ANB NEW ITUE DEPAETMENT. 
 
 How different the Fire Department now from the one of former 
 years, when men were the horses to drag the ropes of the machine, and 
 their strong arms the motive power to work them ! Now we have in their 
 jjlaces horses to puU the engines, and the mighty giant , steam, to force 
 the water upon the raging fiery element. Still, the little old-fashioned 
 hand fire-engines did wonderful service in their day; and indeed the 
 noble bearing, bravery, endurance, and success of our New York firemen 
 had a world-renowned fame. For a long while " No. 5" on Fulton street, 
 with " 14," near St. Paul's Church, were considered the " crack compa- 
 nies" of the city, the first to reach a fire and among the last to leave it, 
 and many a race they had. Before the year 1798, the citizens of New 
 
237 
 
 York volunteered to take charge of and manage the fire-engines, but in 
 the month of March of that year the Legislature granted an act of 
 incorporation by which the firemen of the city were " constituted and 
 declared to be a body politic in fact and in the name of the Fire Depart- 
 ment." This was the origin of the system nearly seventy years ago. 
 This act continued until April, 1810, and has been renewed from time to 
 time since the Common Council appointed a " Chief Engineer, with a 
 salary of eight hundred dollars per annum," to whom was confided the 
 sole control of this department. He reported twice a year to the Com- 
 mon Council the condition of the engines, buckets, houses, and apparatus. 
 He also reported all fires and their accidents, with the n.umber of build- 
 ings destroyed or injured, the names of the sufi'erers, with the probable 
 cause of the burning, &c. 
 
 The Fire Wardens were also appointed by the Common Council, but 
 none were eligible until they had served as firemen five years. They 
 were a kind of overseers at the fires, and during the months of June 
 and December examined all fire-places, chimneys, stoves, ovens, and 
 boilers, and if found defective, ordered the owners to repair them, and if 
 neglected a fine of $25 was imposed. They also examined all buildings, 
 and would often order hemp, hay, gunpowder, and other combustible 
 articles to be removed to safe places, under a penalty of $10. 
 
 The firemen, divided into companies, chose their own foreman, 
 assistant, and clerk, from their own number. The fire-wardens wore a 
 hat, the brim of which was black, the crown white. The city arms were 
 blazoned on its front. They also carried a speaking-trumpet, painted 
 white, with " Warden," in black letters. When a building took fire in 
 the night, notice was immediately given by the watchmen to the members 
 of the corporation, fire-wardens, and bell-ringers ; they also called out 
 " Fire," and the inhabitants placed lighted candles in their windows to 
 aid the engines in their passages through the streets. Watchmen neg- 
 lecting their duties were Hable to a fine of $100. When a chimney took 
 fire the occupant of the house was fined $5. The same fine was imposed 
 upon carpenters who did not carefully remove their shavings at the end 
 of every day's work. A person using a lighted lamp or candle in a 
 store-house, unless secured in a lantern, forfeited $10. 
 
 Forty years ago, Mr. Cox, the Chief Engineer, reported forty-two 
 eno-ines in good order, five hook and ladder trucks, and one hose wagon, 
 with 10,256 feet of good hose ; also two hundred and fifty-five buckets, 
 and twenty-eight ladders and thirty hooks. The total number of men 
 belonging to the Fire Department was 1,347. What a wonderful change 
 in the system since ! In 1865, the Metropolitan Fire Department was 
 created and chartered by the Legislature, Charles E. Pinkney, president, 
 and that fine old fireman, Philip W. Engs, treasurer. Now they use 
 steam, horse, and man power, and have also the Croton water. The 
 
238 
 
 new act allows twelve steam fire-engines and hook and ladder companies, 
 the engines to have one foreman, one assistant, an engineer, stoker, 
 driver, with seven firemen. To the hook and ladders, each one foreman, 
 one assistant, a driver, and nine firemen. 
 
 Their pay is fixed at $3,000 per annum to the Chief Engineer ; 
 Assistants, §2,000; District Engineer, $1,500; Foremen, 81,100; Assist- 
 ant, $900 ; engineer of steam-engine, $1,080 ; stokers, drivers, and fire- 
 men, $840 each; Superintendent of Telegraph, $1,800 ; telegraph opera- 
 tors, $1,000 each ; battery boy, $500 ; line-man, $1,000 ; and bell-ringers, 
 each $800. The Department are uniformed, and their engines have 
 increased to forty- four, and the hook and ladders to seventeen. 
 
 Many fires have occurred since the one of 1845. Theaters, opera- 
 houses, hotels, museums, and churches have fallen before the destroyer, 
 each involving heavy losses ; but the city has never since been visited by 
 such wholesale destruction of property ; and it is fervently to be hoped 
 that New York, protected by its present efficient Fire Departmeat, has 
 experienced the last of similar calamities. 
 
 In August, 1865, the Old "Waeeen MiNsioN, one of the last of the 
 ancient landmarks that linked modern to old New York, was torn down; its 
 beautiful lawns covered with brick, and its massive locusts cut down and 
 given to the winds. This mansion, which stood near the intersection of 
 Charles street and Bleecker, was built by Sir Peter Warren about 1740. 
 Although when demolished, in the heart of the city, yet at that time it 
 stood in the open country with its lawns reaching down to the North 
 Eiver — ^long before even the first cottage had been built in the village of 
 Greenwich. It is indeed safe to say that around no other house did 
 there cluster so many associations which to New Yorkers should be 
 especially dear. Admiral, afterward Sir Peter Warren, the hero of 
 Lewisburg, is scarcely known to the present generation ; and yet aside 
 from his being so long identified with the naval glory of England, he was 
 in our colonial history the great man of an era, and at one time, during 
 the administration of Clinton, exercised more influence in the Colonial 
 Government than even the Governor himself. At that time when the 
 extreme limit of our city was Wall street, the house No. 1 Broadway, by 
 the Bowling Green — now the Washington Hotel — was built by Sir Peter 
 as his town house, in distinction from his country seat — the house of which 
 we are now speaking. In 1748, when the small-pox was raging in this 
 city, the Colonial Assembly — to getoutof reach of the contagion, accepted 
 Sir Peter's tender of his country seat and adjourned thither to escape 
 the plague by being in the country ! It indeed seemed really cruel to 
 cut down those ancient trees planted by the Admiral's own hand. A 
 tree, like a tooth, it very easUy removed but is along time in growing ; and 
 it is thus that a Spanish peasant feels when, with religious feeling, he 
 stoops down by the wayside and plants the pit or seed of the fruit which 
 
239 
 
 he has been eatiag. It -were to be wished that Americans had more 
 veneration for the ancient traditions of their own country and for the 
 vestiges of the past. A few individuals occasionally have this feeling, 
 and in a large measure ; but as a nation we have no love for the past, and 
 hence old landmarks, pregnant with hallowed associations, are continu- 
 ally being removed to make room for " modern improvement," until it is 
 to be feared that soon oral tradition will be all that will be left to inform 
 the rising generation of what once was. It is true that more attention is 
 now paid to our past history than formerly by Historical Societies ; but 
 they are powerless in very many instances to arrest the hand of vandal- 
 ism. The practice of the old country in this respect is far different. An 
 old abbey or castle, or even an old tavern, is guarded with zealous care ; 
 the government — if private liberality is in fault — pays out large sums to 
 keep them intact ; and the people, even the lowest, feel a personal inter- 
 est in the preservation of some relic which their village may perchance 
 boast of. Especially is this difference in feeling between the old world 
 and the new seen in the care with which all the mementos of a battle- 
 field are preserved. In Germany, for example, while the most ignorant 
 peasant residing in the vicinity of any of the battle-fields of the thirty 
 years' war will tell you accurately and truthfully where this and that 
 point of interest is ; where the battle raged the hottest and where the 
 turning point was reached ; a well-to-do farmer in America, residing on 
 the battle-field itself, will be unable to point out a single place of interest 
 — and he will do very well if he knows that there was a battle fought on 
 his farm at all. Even at this very time, two farmers, living in the 
 vicinity of the scene of the famous battle of Stillwater, are busily advo- 
 cating their claims to living upon the particular spot upon which the 
 famous charge of the British Highlanders was made — and yet the farms 
 lie a mile distant from each other ! Chancing, moreover, to visit, a year 
 or two since, the ruins of Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, the writer 
 was pained to find that the farmers in the vicinity had for several years 
 past been in the habit of pulling down the ruins and drawing them off 
 for the purpose of building fences. But it is not too late to prevent the 
 removal of the few old landmarks that yet remain among us. In the 
 densely settled parts of tho city where they stand, there is great need of 
 breathing-places — and why, therefore, cannot our city government buy 
 the spots and let them remain as little parks ? The public certainly 
 would feel much better satisfied with this expenditure of the public funds 
 by the City Council than voting silver services or costly badges. Or if 
 this cannot be done, will not some of our wealthy and influential citizens 
 start aad carry through a subscription for their purchase V 
 
 But we moralize in vain, for even while we are writing, and before 
 the ink is dry on the pen which wrote the last sentence, the New York 
 Eoening Post of to-day (April 4th, 1808), says : 
 
 " The widening of the Bloomingdale road into the new Boulevard, soon to be 
 
240 
 
 be^n by the Park Commissioners, will cause the removal of several old landmarks. 
 One of the most remarkable of these is an old house on Broadway, between Seventy- 
 fifth and Seventy-sixth streets, which possesses greater historic interest than is 
 generally known even to those living in its immediate vicinity. It was here that 
 Louis Phillippe, of France, taught school during his residence in America, and the 
 room in which his classes were held remains in nearly the same condition as during his 
 occupancy of it. This quaint old house was erected some time previous to the Revo- 
 lution, although no accurate record of its age can be found. The original deed of 
 transfer was executed in 1796, but the hou.se is known to be considerably older than 
 this, as it was standing several years previoiis to the sale of the farm. 
 
 It is a low two-story frame house with brick ends, covering a space fifty by 
 eighty feet square, substantially built and still habitable, thoagh it has not been 
 occupied for the past thirteen years or more. A steep, sloping, shingle roof extends 
 from the eaves of the porch in front to the extreme rear kitchen, with dormer 
 windows to light the upper rooms. In the interior, on cither side of the central 
 hall, are parlors and sitting-rooms, with low ceilings and narrow doorways. The 
 wood-work in these rooms is finished with an elaborate care not seen in houses of 
 this class now-a-days. There are comer cupboards with carved and paneled doors, 
 qua.iatly ornamented window casings, immense fire-places, surbases finished with a 
 profusion of moulding, and doors that seem to have been put together like a Chinese 
 puzzle. The stairs are narrow and steep, turning squarely at each platform, instead 
 of winding, as in more modem houses. Around the fire-place in the school-room of 
 the exiled King, is a row of blue and white Antwerp tiles, ornamented with pictures 
 from the New Testament, with the chapter and verse to which they refer indicated 
 in large characters beneath. These are probably the last that remain in New York 
 of the historic Dutch tiles that were once so fashionable. This venerable mansion, 
 which is probably the oldest in the city, was formerly the homestead of the Somer- 
 indike family, who once owned nearly all the surrounding part of the i-sland not 
 included in the extensive Harsen estate. About 1840 it was purchased by the late 
 Edward F. Cullen, a well-known and wealthy Irish citizen, and is now owned by 
 his heirs." 
 
 The history of New York City has now been brought down to a 
 comparatively recent period — a period within the recollection of almost 
 the youngest inhabitant. The limits of this work wUl not permit us to 
 speak at length of the causes which have led to the commercial and local 
 prosperity of New York ; the nature and extent of her benevolent insti- 
 tutions ; and the character of her merchant princes. Wealth, in itself, is 
 no evidence of a city's prosperity ; and, therefore, we do not refer to those 
 of her rich men who are distinguished for that alone, and whose names 
 will readily suggest themselves to the reader. But we do take pride in 
 pointing to men whose immense wealth is guided and controlled by the 
 principles of evangelical religion. Of this latter class are Marshall 0. 
 Roberts, the brothers E. L. and A. Stewart, WUliam E. Dodge, S. B. 
 Schieffelin — and others of similar character — men who are distin"-uished 
 alike for their christian virtues and purity of life, and for their unparalleled 
 business success. Nor, were there ample space, is there any inclination 
 to recall in detail that which must ever remain a foul blot on the 
 otherwise bright escutcheon of New York: the disgraceful scenes of 
 
241 
 
 the riot of the 13th, 14th, and 15th of July, 1863. We would rather 
 dwell on pleasanter themes — the establishment of that noble work, the 
 Young Men's Christian Association, under the guidance of WiUiam E 
 Dodge, Jr., and Eobert E. McBinney* — the opening of that great lung of 
 the city, the Central Park, — and the part taken by the city in the late 
 civil war — ^leading the van in every movement having for its object either 
 the support of the Government, or the relief of its brave defenders. 
 These events, however, are too well known to need recapitulation here. 
 A brief retrospective glance, or rather a comparison between old and 
 modem New York, will therefore conclude this sketch. Nor, perhaps, 
 can this be done better than by giving at length a few of the closing 
 passages of Dr. Osgood's admirable address, delivered before the New 
 York Historical Society, on the occasion of its sixty-second anniversary, 
 in November, 1866 : 
 
 " In 1796, taxes were light, being about one half of one per cent. ; 
 and in that year the whole tax raised was £7,968, and the whole valua- 
 tion of property was £1,261,585 — estimates that were probably about 
 half the real value, so that the tax was only about one-fourth of one per 
 
 * The Young Men's Christian Association, of New York City, -was 
 organized July, 1853, and incorporated April, 1860, for the " Improvement of the 
 Spiritual, Mental, Social, and Physical Condition of Young Men." The Association 
 seeks to accomplish the purposes of its organization by the employment of the fol- 
 lowing agencies, namely ; Free Keading-Rooras, a Free Circulating and a Free 
 Reference Library, Sunday Evening Sermons, Free Lectures at Rooms, Prayer- 
 Meetings, Bible-Classes, Social and Musical Meetings, Readings, a Literary Society^ 
 and a Musical Society ; by aiding in the selection of good boarding-places ; by 
 obtaining, as far as possible, situations for those who are out of employment ; by 
 visiting and rdlieving those who are sick and in want ; by introducing strangers to 
 fit persons for friends and acquaintances, and to suitable church connections, and by 
 the use of every other means, in harmony with the name it bears, that may tend to 
 cheer, aid, and guide young men, especially such as come from country homes or 
 foreign lands. 
 
 A very valuable plot of land on the south-west comer of Fourth avenue and 
 Twenty-third street has recently been purchased, at a cost of $143,000, for the 
 erection of a building worthy of the work to which the Association has devoted its 
 energies. The building will cost about $300,000. The vigor and good judgment 
 with which the Association has always conducted its work, has given to it the full 
 confidence of the very best men in the city. Its real estate is held by a Board of 
 Trustees, composed of such men as Stewart Brown, Robert L. Stuart, James Stokes, 
 Charles 0. Colgate, Robert Lenox Kennedy, Jonathan Sturges, etc. 
 
 " Hundreds of young men," writes Mr. McBinney to the writer, " from all parts 
 of our own land, as well as from Europe, come to us for advice on temporal and 
 spiritual things. We are careful not to make public the cases which come under 
 our notice, so that young men may come to us with full confidence when in difficulty. 
 Many who have been thus quietly helped are now holding prominent positions in 
 the city." 
 
 The Rooms of the Association are at 161 Fifth Avenue, 7C Variok street, and 
 13Sd street and Third avenue, and at 97 Wooster street for colored young men. 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 cent. A man worth $50,000 was thought rich, and some fortunes reached 
 $250,000. Mechanics had a dollar a day for -wages, and a genteel house 
 rented for $350 a year, and $750 additional would meet the ordinary 
 expenses of Uving for a genteel family — such as now spends from $6,000 
 to $10,000, we have good reason to believe, from such authority as Mr. 
 D. T. Valentine, Clerk of the Common Council. A good house could be 
 bought for $3,000 or $4,000, and flour was four and five dollars a barrel, 
 and beef ten cents a pound. 
 
 There were great entertainments, and men ate and drank freely — 
 more freely, apparently, than now — but nothing of present luxury pre- 
 vailed in the high classes ; and how rare the indulgence was, is proved 
 by the common saying, that ' the Livingstons give champagne,' which 
 marked their case as exceptional. Now, surely, a great many families in 
 New York besides the Livingstons give champagne, and not always 
 wisely for their own economy or their guests' sobriety. 
 
 These homely items give a familiar idea of old New York in 1801. 
 We must remember that it was then a provincial city, and had nothing 
 of its present back-country connection with the West, being the virtual 
 capital of the Hudson River Valley rather than that of the great Empire 
 State. Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, and the noted cities of Western New 
 York, were but names then, and Albany was of so little business note 
 that the main communication with it was by dUatory sloops, such as 
 Irving describes after his slow voyage in the craft that he long waited for, 
 and which gave him ample time to study the picturesque on the Hudson, 
 with such food for his humor as the Captain's talk in Dutch to his crew 
 of negro slaves. What a contrast with a trip now in the St. John or the 
 Bean Richrwni — marine palaces that float you, as in a dream by nighti 
 through the charmed passes of the Hudson to Albany ! 
 
 * * * * + He 
 
 The New York Churches were strong ; but the clergy were little 
 given to speculative thinking, and no commanding thinker appeared 
 among them, such as abounded in New England. They kept the old 
 creeds and usages with a strength that awed down dissent, and with a 
 benign temper that conciliated favor. Latitudinarian tendencies were 
 either suppressed or driven into open hostility with the popular creeds 
 under deistical or atheistical teachers. In all, the congregations num- 
 bered thirty, and the Jews had one synagogue. Even the most radical 
 congregation in the city, the Universalist, held mainly the old theological 
 views, and had only one point of peculiar doctrine, and even with this 
 single exception, and with all the orthodox habits, they had only a lay 
 organization in 1801, and were without a regular minister till 1803. 
 
 The' Dutch Reformed, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists, 
 numbered each five congregations ; the Baptists, three ; the Friends, two ■ 
 the Lutherans, two ; the Eoman Catholics, Huguenots, Moravians, and 
 
243 
 
 Universalists, one each. Some writers erroneously assign seven churches 
 instead of five, to the Episcopalians ia 1801, by claiming for them the 
 Huguenot Church Du Saint Esprit, which was established in 1704, and 
 acceded to the Episcopal Church in 1804; and Zion Church, which was 
 established by the Lutherans in 1801, and joined the Episcopal commu- 
 nion in 1810. 
 
 As far as we can judge, the Presbyterian clergy had most of the 
 new American culture of the severer kind, and Drs. Samuel Miller and 
 John M. Mason were the iateUectual leaders of the New York pulpit. 
 The only man to be named with them in popular influence was John 
 Henry Hobart, who was ordained in 1801, consecrated Bishop in 1811, 
 and who, in spite of his extreme views of Episcopal prerogative, is to be 
 named among the fathers of the American Church, and a good specimen 
 of what old Trinity Church has done to unite patriotism with religion. 
 
 The Episcopal Church had much accomplishment in its clergy, and 
 Bishop Prevoost, who received ordination in England, was a man of 
 extensive knowledge ; and Dr. Livingston, of the Dutch Church, was a 
 good match for him in learning and dignity. It is said that when these 
 clerical magnates met on Sundays and exchanged salutations, they took 
 up the entire street, and reminded beholders of two frigates imder full 
 sail, exchanging salutes with each other. 
 
 * * We may regard old New York as culminating in the year 1825, 
 with the completion of the Erie Canal ; and that great jubilee that mar- 
 ried this city to the mighty West, began a new era of triumph and 
 responsibUity, that soon proved that the bride's festival is followed by the 
 wife's cares and the mother's anxieties. New York had become the 
 national city, and was so for a quarter of a century more, and then she 
 became cosmopolitan, European as well as American, and obviously one 
 of the few leading cities of the world — the third city of Christendom. 
 We may fix this change upon the middle of the century as well as upon 
 any date, and call the time from 1850 till now her cosmopolitan era. The 
 change, of course, was gradual, and the great increase of the city dates 
 from the close of the Eevolutionary War and the evacuation of the city 
 by the British troops. The population doubled nearly in the ten years 
 after 1790, and went from 33,000 to 60,000. In 1825 it reached 166,086, 
 and in 1850 rose to 515,515. AU this increase could not but bring a new 
 sense of power, and throughout all the bewildering maze of the old New 
 York politics we can see traces of the desire of the people and their leaders 
 to dispute the palm of empire with Virginia and its old dominion. 
 
 * * The introduction of gas and of the Croton water were grand illus- 
 trations of the power. of organized industry, and mighty aids in throwing 
 light, health, and purity into the lives of the people ; and the rise of the 
 great popular daily journals that almost created the national press of 
 America, made an era in the free fellowship of public thought. The City 
 
244 
 
 pushed its triumphal march forward during that period, from Bleecker 
 street to Madison Square, and vainly tried to halt its forces at Washing- 
 ton and Union Squares, or to pause long anywhere on the way of empire. 
 The whole period would make an important history of itself, and our task 
 now is with the New York of to-day, as it has risen into cosmopolitan 
 rank since 1850 — the year which gave us a line of European steamers of 
 our own, and opened the Golden Gate of California to our packets. 
 
 Look at our city now in its extent, population, wealth, institutions, 
 and connections, and consider how far it is doing its great work, under 
 God's providence, as the most conspicuous representative of the liberty of 
 the nineteenth century in its hopes and fears. You are too familiar with 
 the figures and facts that show the largeness of the city, to need any 
 minute or extended summary of recapitulation. That we are not far 
 from a million of people on this island, that began the century with 
 €0,000 ; that the valuation of property, real and personal, has risen since 
 1805 from $25,000,000, to $736,988,058 ; that the real value of property 
 here is about $1,000,000,000, or a thirtieth part of the entire property of 
 ■Great Britain ; that our taxes within that time have risen from $127,000 
 to $16,950,767, over four and a half millions more than our whole 
 national expenditure in 1801 ; that our banking capital is over $90,000,- 
 000, and the transactions of our Clearing Houses, for the year ending 
 October 1, 1866, were over $29,000,000,000; that our Savings-Banks 
 have 300,000 depositors, and $77,000,000 of deposits ; that our 108 Pire 
 Insurance Companies and 38 Fire Agencies have a capital of $47,560,000 
 and our 18 Life Insurance Companies a capital of $2,938,000, whose 
 premiums last year were nearly $9,000,000 ; that, by the census of 1865, 
 the number of dwellings was 49,844, and the value of them was 
 ^423,096,918; that this city, by the census of 1860, returned a larger 
 manufacturing product than any other city in the Union, and more than 
 any State, except New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania — the sum 
 total of $159,107,369, from raw material worth $96,177,038 in 4,375 
 establishments, with 90,204 operatives, and $61,212,757 capital, and 
 manufactured nearly one-eleventh of the sum total of the United States 
 manufactures in 1860, which was $1,885,861,676 ; that in twenty years 
 we exported, from September 1, 1846, to September 1, 1866, to Europe, 
 over 27,000,000 barrels of flour, over 164,000,000 bushels of wheat, 127-, 
 000,000 bushels of corn, nearly 5,000,000 bushels of rye; that the 
 receipts for customs in this port for 1865 were $101,772,905 ; that this 
 City is the great gold market of the world, and in 1865 received $61,- 
 201,108, and exported over $30,000,000 abroad, and received in twelve 
 years, 1854 to 1866, from San Francisco $375,558,659 in gold ; that our 
 shipping, registered and enrolled in 1865, amounted in tonnage to 1,223,- 
 264 tons, and the number of arrivals of vessels in this port in 1865 was 
 12,634, of these, 2,078 being steamers ; that our exports for the year 
 
245 
 
 1865 were $208,630,282, and our imports were $224,742,419 ; that, on 
 an average, 35 tons of mail-matter are received here for our citizens, and 
 55 tons are sent out daily ; that the average number of mail-bags received 
 IS 885, and the average number sent out is 713 ; that within three years 
 and a half the mail correspondence of our citizens has doubled ; that the 
 number of letters and newspapers coUected by the carriers for the quarter 
 ending December 31, 1865, was over 3,000,000, and the number deUvered 
 by them was over 3,600,000, and the deUveries from Post-Office boxes 
 for the same quarter were over 5,000,000 ; that the increase of letters is 
 so marvelous that New York may soon rival London, which, in 1862, 
 received by mail 151,619,000 letters ; these and the like plain statistics 
 are sufficient to prove the imperial wealth and power of New York, and 
 to startle us with the problem of its prospective growth, when we remem- 
 ber that 4 jS^ per cent, increase, which has been generally the actual rate 
 of increase, will give us a population of some 4,000,000 at the close of the 
 century. 
 
 * * Let us pass in review the industrial army of the city, which 
 General Barlow, Secretary of State, allows me to copy from the unpub- 
 lished census of 1865, and let us imagine it divided into regiments, thus, 
 of about a thousand persons each : 
 
 Blacksmiths, over two and one-half regiments or 
 
 Bookbinders, over one 
 
 Boiler Makers, nearly one 
 
 Boot and Shoe Makers, over six 
 
 Butchers, four 
 
 Brokers, one and one-third 
 
 Barbers, one 
 
 Cabinet Makers and Dealers, two and one-half 
 
 Carpenters, over six 
 
 Cartmen and Draymen, four and one-half 
 
 Clerks, seventeen and one-half 
 
 Clergy, nearly one-half 
 
 Confectioners, nearly one 
 
 Cooks, one 
 
 Coopers, one and one-half 
 
 Dressmakers, etc., nine and one-half 
 
 Drivers, nearly two 
 
 Engineers, over one 
 
 Orocers, one 
 
 Hat and Cap Makers, one and one-half 
 
 " Jewelers, one 
 
 Laborers, twenty-one and one-quarter 
 
 Laundresses, three and one-half 
 
 Lawyers, one and one-fourth 
 
 Merchants, six 
 
 Machinists, three 
 
 Masons, three • 
 
 Milliners, one and one-third 
 
 3,621 
 
 1,134 
 
 910 
 
 6,307 
 
 8,998 
 
 1,348 
 
 1,054 
 
 2,575 
 
 6,352 
 
 4,675 
 
 17,620 
 
 429 
 
 756 
 
 906 
 
 1,401 
 
 9,501 
 
 1,895 
 
 1,196 
 
 937 
 
 1,438 
 
 925 
 
 21,231 
 
 3,590 
 
 1,332 
 
 5,978 
 
 3,108 
 
 2,757 
 
 1,334 
 
246 
 
 Musicians, nearly one regiments or ... . 809 
 
 Painters and Glaziers, four " 3,801 
 
 Peddlers, two " .... 1,988 
 
 Physicians, one and one-fourth " 1,269 
 
 Piano Makers, nearly one " 855 
 
 Plumbers, one " ..•• 1.108 
 
 Police, one and one-haM " ■ 1,546 
 
 Porters, nearly three " . . • ■ 3,729 
 
 Printers, two " 2,186 
 
 Saddlers and Harness Makers, one " 915 
 
 Sailors and Marines, over three " • • • • 3,288 
 
 Servants, thirty-three " 83,283 
 
 School-Children, one hundred " ....100,000 
 
 Ship Carpenters, one " 1,156 
 
 Stone Cutters, one and one-third " 1,342 
 
 Tailor8,ten " .... 9,734 
 
 Teachers, over one and one-half " 1,608 
 
 Tinsmiths, one " 931 
 
 These occupations and others that I might present from the volu- 
 minoTis pages of the census, reckon about 150,000 of the people, and Trith 
 school-children a quarter of a million. 
 
 * * The marvelous growth of population, within twenty years, 
 has added half a million to our numbers, and called, of course, for new 
 measures, and ought to be some excuse for some mistakes and disap- 
 pointments. The charter bears the mark of many changes, and is 
 destined to bear more. The original charter was given by James H, in 
 1686 ; was amended by Queen Anne in 1708 ; further enlarged by George 
 II in 1730, into what is now known as Montgomerie's Charter, and 
 as such was confirmed, by the General Assembly of the Province 
 in 1732, and made New York essentially a free city. The Mayor was 
 appointed by the Provincial Governor and Council, till the Revolution ; 
 by the State Governor and four members of the Council of Appointment, 
 till 1821 ; by the Common Council, until 1834, and afterward by the 
 people.' In 1830, the people divided the Common Council into two 
 boards, and in 1849 the government was divided into seven departments, 
 the heads of each being chosen by the people, and the Mayor's term of 
 office being extended to two years. In 1853, the Board of Assistant 
 Aldermen was changed to a Board of sixty CotmcUmen, and the term of 
 Aldermen extended to two years. In 1857, the number of Aldermen was 
 reduced from twenty-two to seventeen, and the sixty OounciLinen t^ 
 twenty-four ; and the present complex system of government was eatab- 
 Ushed, with its many disconnected branches and equivocal division of 
 power between the city, county, and State. Strangely is the Mayor 
 shorn of power, and the office which De Witt Clinton preferred to his 
 place in the National Senate, is now Uttie more than a name and position- 
 Still, the essence of Montgomerie's old charter remains, and the true 
 spirit can redress the new corruptions. 
 
247 
 
 * * With all the drawback of defective municipal governmentf 
 the city is a great power in the Union, and gave its wealth and men to 
 the nation. Nay, its very passion has been national, and the mass who 
 deplored the war never gave up the Union, and might, perhaps, have 
 consented to compromise rather than to disunion, and have gone beyond 
 any other city in clinging to the Union as such, whether right or wrong. 
 The thoughtful mind of the city saw the true issue, and, whilst little 
 radical or doctrinaire in its habit of thinking, and more incUned to trust to 
 historical tendencies and institutional discipline for the removal of wrong 
 than to abstract ideas, it did not waver a moment after the die was 
 cast, and the blow of rebellion and disunion was clear. The ruUng 
 business powers of the city gave money and men to the nation, when the 
 Government was halting and almost paralyzed. The first loan was 
 hazardous, and the work of patriotism ; and when our credit was once 
 committed, the wealth of the city was wholly at the service of the nation ; 
 and the ideas of New England, and the enthusiasm of the West, marched 
 to victory with the mighty concurrence of the money and the men of the 
 Empire City and State. The State furnished 473,443 men, or, when 
 reduced to years of service, 1,148,604 years' service ; equal to three years' 
 service of 382,868 three years' men ; and the city alone furnished 
 116,382 men, equal to 267,551 years' service, at a net cost of $14,577,214.65. 
 That our moneyed men meant devoted patriotism, it is not safe to say of 
 them all. In some cases, their capital may have been wiser and truer 
 than the capitalist, and followed the great current of national life. 
 Capital, like water, whose currents it resembles, has its own laws, and he 
 who owns it cannot cliange its nature, any more than he who owns a 
 water-power can change the power of the water. The capital of this city is 
 bound, under God, to the unity of the nation, and, therefore, has to do a 
 mighty part in organizing the Uberty of the nineteenth century. Led by 
 the same large spirit, and true to the Union policy which has been the 
 habit of the community from the old Dutch times, the dominant thought 
 of our people will be sure to vindicate the favorite idea of States Eights 
 in the Union against States Wrongs out of it ; and the seceded States will 
 be restored as soon as they secure the States that have never seceded the 
 just fruits of the war for the national life— and guarantee them against 
 all repetition of the treason. The end shaU be liberty for all ; for the 
 white man and the black man, everywhere ; for the South as well as the 
 North. 
 
 * * And how shall we estimate the education of our people in its 
 various forms ; by schools, colleges, newspapers, books, churches, and, not 
 least, by this great university of human Hfe which is always before our 
 eyes ! Think of the 208,309 scholars reported in 1865 in our public schools, 
 and the average attendance of 86,674 in those schools, and over 100,000 
 scholars in regular attendance in all our schools, both pubhc and private. 
 
248 
 
 Think of our galleries of art, private and public, and our great libraries 
 and reading-rooms like the Astor, the Mercantile, the Society, and the 
 Cooper Union. Consider the remarkable increase of private libraries, 
 such as Dr. "Wynne has but begun to describe in his magnificent volume. 
 Think of our press, and its constant and enormous issues, especially of 
 daily papers, which are the peculiar Uterary institution of our time, and 
 alike the common school and university of our people. Oirr 350 churches 
 and chapels, 258 of them being regular churches of all kinds, can accom- 
 modate about 300,000 hearers, and inadequate as in some respects they 
 are, as to location and convenience, they can hold as many of the people 
 as wish to attend church, and far more than generally attend. Besides 
 our churches and chapels, we have powerful religious instrumentalities 
 in our reUgious press, and our city is the center of pubhcation of leading 
 newspapers, magazines, and reviews, of the great denominations of the 
 country. In these organs the best scholars and thinkers of the nation 
 express their thought in a way wholly unknown at the beginning of the 
 century, when the religious press of the country was not apparently 
 dreamed of. The higher class of religious and theological reviews that 
 are published here, are, perhaps, the best specimens of the most enlarged 
 scholarship and severe thinking of America, and are doing much to 
 educate an enlightened and truly catholic spirit and fellowship. If the 
 question is asked, in view of all these means of education, what kind of 
 mind is trained up here, or what are the indications of our New York 
 intelligence, it may not be so easy to say in fuU, as to throw out a hint or 
 two by way of suggestion. There is, certainly, what may be called a 
 New York mind and character, and there must ha from the very nature 
 of the case. Some characteristics must mark each communitv, as the 
 results of birth and breeding ; and however great the variety of elements, 
 some qualities must predominate over others in the people, as in the 
 climate and fruits of a country. Where two tendencies seem to balance 
 each other for a time, one is sure, at last, to preponderate, and to gain 
 value and power ^th time, and win new elements to itself. It is not 
 hard to indicate the essential New York character from the beginning- 
 It is positive, institutional, large-hearted, genial, taking it for granted 
 that aU men are not of one pattern, and that we are to live by allowing 
 others to have their Uberty as we have ours. 
 
 * * How far assimilation in its various forms of thought and life 
 is to go, we can only conjecture ; for the process has but begun. Our 
 community, Hke every other community, must go through three stages of 
 development to complete its providential evolution : aggregation, accom- 
 modation, and assimilation. The first stage is aggregation ; and that 
 comes, of course, with the fact of residence. Here we are, about a million 
 of us, aggregated on this healthy and charming island, and here we most 
 of us expect and wish to stay. We are seeking our next stage, and wish 
 
249 
 
 accommodation not with entire success, and the city is distressed by 
 prosperity, and is like an overgrown boy, whose clothes are too small for 
 his limbs, and he waits in half nakedness for his fitting garments. In some 
 respects, the city itself is a majestic organism, and we have hght, water, 
 streets, and squares, much to our mind, always excepting the dirt. The 
 scarcity of houses, the costs of rent, living, and taxation are grievous, and 
 driving a large portion of our middling class into the country. Yet the 
 city is full and overflowing, and is likely to be. The work of assimilation 
 is going on, and every debate, controversy, and party, brings the various 
 elements together ; and we are seeing each other, whether we differ or 
 agree. Great progress has been made in observing and appreciating 
 our situation and population. Probably New York knows itself better 
 to-day than at any time since its imperial proportions began to appear. 
 In politics, pohce, philanthropy, education, and religion, we are reckoning 
 our classes, numbers, and tendencies, and feeling our way towards some 
 tetter harmony of ideas and interests. The whole population of the city 
 was, by census of 1860, 813,669 ; and by the census of 1865, 726,386. 
 The voters number 151,838; native, 51,500; foreign, 77,475. Over 
 twenty-one years, they who cannot read and write are 19,199. Families 
 number 148,683, Total of foreigners by census of 1860, was 883,717 ; 
 and by the census of 1865, 313,417. Number of women by census of 
 1865 was 36,000 more than of men, and of widows, over 32,000 ; being 
 25,000 more widows than widowers. The Germans, by the census of 
 1860, numbered 119,984; and by the census of 1865, 107,269. This 
 makes this city not the third, but the eighth city in the world as to Ger- 
 man population. These German cities have a larger population : Berlin, 
 Tienna, Breslau, Cologne, Munich, Hamburg, and Dresden. The Irish, 
 by the census of 1860, number 203,700 ; and by the census of 1865, 161,- 
 334. New York now, we believe, has a million of residents, and either 
 peculiar difficulties in the census commission of 1865, or peculiar influen- 
 ces after the war, led to the appearance of diminishing population. Cer- 
 tainly we have, of late, gained numbers, and have not lost in variety of 
 elements to be assimilated. The national diversities are not hostile, and 
 we are seeking out their best, instead of their worst, quaUties. Italian 
 art and French accomplishment we can appreciate without forgetting 
 that we are Americans. We are discerning in our New York Germany 
 something better than Lager Beer and Sunday Concerts, and learning to 
 appeal to the sterling sense and indomitable love of liberty of the coun- 
 trymen of Luther and Gutenberg. The Irish among us, who make this 
 the second if not the first Irish city of the world, and who contribute so 
 largely to our ignorant and criminal returns, we are studying anew, and 
 discerning their great service to industry and their great capacity for 
 organization. We find among them good specimens of the blood of the 
 Clintons and the Emmets, and are bound to acknowledge that in purity, 
 
250 
 
 their wives and daughters may be an example to any class in America or 
 Europe. Old Israel is with us too in force, and some thirty synagogues 
 of Jews manifest the power of the oldest organized religion, and the 
 example of a people that cares whoUy for its own sick and poor ; willing 
 to meet Christians as friends and citizens, and learn our religion more 
 from its own gospel of love, than from its old conclaves of persecution. 
 We often see other types of the Oriental mind in our streets and houses, 
 and it will be well for us when Asia is here represented by able specimens 
 of her mystical piety, and we learn of her something of the secret of her 
 repose in God, and give her in return something of our art of bringing 
 the wiU of God to bear upon this stubborn earth, instead of losing sight 
 of the earth in dreams of pantheistic absorption. In many ways the vari- 
 ous elements are combining to shape our ideas and society, and fill out 
 the measure of our practical education. 
 
 Yet, probably, the most important assimilation, as already hinted, is 
 that which is going on here between the various elements of our Ameri- 
 can life in this mother-city which is destined, aparently, to be to America 
 what Rome was to the tribes that thronged to its gates. What has been 
 taking place in England is taking place here, and the Independents and 
 Churchmen are coming together here as in England since the Revolu- 
 tion of 1688, when extremes were greatly reduced, and the independency 
 of Milton and CromweU began to reappear in combination with the church 
 ways of Clarendon and Jeremy Taylor. The most significant part of the 
 process is the union here of Puritan individualism and its intuitive think- 
 ing and bold ideas, with New York institutionalism, and its organizing 
 method and objective miad. The Yankee is here, and means to stay, 
 and is apparently greatly pleased with the position and reception, and 
 enjoys the fixed order and established paths of his Knickerbocker hosts. 
 It is remarkable that whilst New England numbered only some 20,000, 
 or 19,517 of her people here, which is 7,000 less than the nations of Old 
 England in the city, by the census of 1860, they are so well received and 
 effective, and fill so many and important places in business and the pro- 
 fessions. By the census of 1865, New York City has 17,856 natives of 
 New England, and 19,699 natives of Old England ; a balance of 1,843 
 in favor of Old England. Yet, in the State at large, the result is different, 
 for the population numbers 166,038 natives of New England, and 95,666 
 natives of Old England ; a balance of 70,372 ui favor of New England. 
 It is curious to note that the city had only 825 native Dutch in 1865, and 
 the State 4,254. In a philosophical point of view, it is memorable that 
 the Puritan mind is now largely in power, even in our church establish- 
 ments that so depart from New England independency, and the leading 
 Presbyterian' and Episcopal preachers and scholars are largely from the 
 Puritan ranks. Our best informed scholar in the philosophy of religion, 
 who holds the chair of theological instruction in the Presbyterian Semi- 
 
251 
 
 nary, is a New England Congregationalist, transplanted to New York. 
 Nay, even the leading, or at least the most conspicuous, Eoman Catholic 
 theologian of New York, is the son of a Connecticut Congregationalist 
 minister, and carries the lineal blood and mental habit of his ancestor, 
 Jonathan Edwards, into the illustration and defense of the Roman creed. 
 It is worthy of note that our most philosophical historian is the son of a 
 Massachusetts Congregational minister, and a lover of the old scholastic 
 thinking, and a champion of the ideal school of Edwards and Channing 
 in its faith and independency ; author, too, of perhaps the most bold and 
 characteristic word of America to Europe, the oration of February 22, 
 1866, that was the answer of our new world to British Toryism, and 
 Bomish Obscurantism, whether to the Premier's mock neutral manifesto, 
 or the Pope's Encyclical Letter. 
 
 * * It is the province of the New York Historical Society to keep 
 up the connection of the New York of the past with the New York of 
 to-day, and zealously to guard and interpret all the historical materials 
 that preserve the continuity of our pubUc life. It is to be lamented that 
 so little remains around us to keep alive the memory of the ancient time ; 
 and everything almost that we see is the work of the new days. Sad it 
 is that all the old neighborhoods are broken up, and the old houses and 
 churches are mostly swept away by our new prosperity. But how impres- 
 sive are our few landmarks ? We all could join in the Centennial Jubilee 
 of St. Paul's, and wish well to its opening future. So, too, we can greet 
 our neighbors of the John Street Church in their Centennial, and thank 
 God for the one hundred years of New York Methodism. Who of us can 
 pass without reflection by the old Middle Dutch Church, now our Post 
 Office, in Nassau street, and without recalUng the years and events that 
 have passed since 1729, when it was opened for worship in the Dutch 
 tongue ? In March, 1764, the preaching there was, for the first time, in 
 English, and in August, 1844, Dr. De Witt gave an outline of its history 
 and pronounced the benediction in Dutch ; and that old shrine of the 
 Knickerbockers is now the busy brain of the nation and the world, and 
 receives and transmits some forty tons of thought a day. What would 
 one of those old Eip Van Winkles of 1729 have thought, if he could have 
 prolonged his Sunday afternoon nap in one of those ancient pews till 
 now, and awoke to watch the day's mail, with news by the last steamers 
 and the Atlantic cable for all parts of the great continent ? Our Broad- 
 way, ever changing, and yet the same old road is perhaps our great 
 historical monument, and the historical street of America by eminence. 
 AH the men of our history have walked there, and aU nations and tribes 
 have trodden its stones and dust. In our day what have we seen there, 
 what processions, armies, pageants ? What work would be more an 
 American as well as New York history, than Broadway, described and 
 illustrated with text and portraits, from the times when Stuy vesant aston- 
 
252 
 
 ished the Duteh with his dignity to the'years that hare brought the hearse 
 of our murdered Presideut and the carriage of his successor along its 
 stately avenue ? Thank heaven for old Broadway, noble type of Ameri- 
 can civilization, from the Battery to Harlem Eiver, and may the ways of 
 the city be as straight as the hnes of its direction and as true to the march 
 of the Providence of God. 
 
 * * What the orator who ushers in the twentieth century here, or 
 who celebrates your one hundredth anniversary, may have to say as he 
 reviews the nineteenth century, I wUl not imdertake to say. What we 
 should wish and pray for is clear. Clear that we should wish the new 
 times to keep the wisdom and virtue of the old with all the new light and 
 progress ; clear that after our trying change from the old quarters to the 
 new, we may build a nobler civilization on the new base, and so see bet- 
 ter days than ever before ; that the great city that shaU be here, should 
 be not only made up of many men, but of true manhood, and be not only 
 the capital of the world, but the city of God ; its great park the central 
 ground of noble fellowship, its great wharves and markets the seat of 
 honorable industry and commerce ; its pubUc halls the headquarters of 
 free and orderly Americans, its churches the shrines of the blessed faith 
 and love that join man with man and give open communion with God 
 and heaven.