Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/historyofnewyorkOOIoss_0 OLD NEW YORK II 1ST O R Y OF NEW YORK CITY, EMBRACING AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF EVENTS FROM i6og TO 1830, AND A FULL ACCOUNT OF ITS DEVELOPMENT FROM 1S30 TO 1S84. BY BENSON J. LOSSING, LLD., AUTHOR OF ' Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," " The War of 1812," and " The Civil War ir. Ameiica ;" "Mount Vernon and its Associations ;" "Illustrated History of the United States ;" " Cyclopedia of United Stales History ;" " Our Country ;" '■ Story of the United States Navy, for Boys!' etc., etc. "JHuslnilrb will; ^aqtrnils. Tiruis of ^arks, piiilbings, zh°. T ENGRAVED ON STEEL EXPRESSLY FOR THIS WORK BY GEORGE E. PERINE A. S. BARNES & COMPANY NEW YORK AND CHICAGO Copyright, 1884, by Geo. E. Ferine. Aw. KlOUTS Keserved. PRE K A ( ' E . This work is designed to be a picture of life in New York City, and a record of its material progress, especially since the year 1830, when the impetus which produced its most marvel- lous development began to be powerfully felt. This period is prefaced by a compendious history of the city from its founda- tion* early in the seventeenth century until the beginning of that great development. No attempt has been made to give details of the commerce, finances, mechanic arts, and manufactures of the city, for the scope of the work would not permit such details. Notices of a few commercial, manufacturing, and other establishments have been given, only as illustrations of the enormous expansion of all kinds of business within the period of less than half a cent- ury. The work is essentially a social history of New York City, while its political history is not neglected. It contains an account of society there in its various aspects of home life, business activities, and social organizations, during a period of two generations. In it may be found record of the growth of the city, in area, from time to time ; changes in its architectural features; its amusements; its increase in population, commerce, manufactures, and other industries; the transformations in the aspect of society and in municipal affairs; its judiciary; its in- ventions and discoveiies ; the disturbances and disasters which have afflicted it, and other events which have made it famous; the origin and work of the principal educational, religious, scientific, literary, artistic, benevolent, and charitable institu- iv PREFACE. tions, w ith which the city abounds, together with the names of the projectors, corporators, and officers of the various institu- tions. In this work may also be found the portraits and biographical sketches of citizens who, by their enterprise, intelligence, and character, have materially assisted in the promotion of the pros- perity and good name of New York, and in its elevation to the high position of the Metropolis of the Western Hemisphere. There are also views of conspicuous buildings and of parks. They have been, like the portraits, engraved expressly for this work from original India-ink drawings, by J. Lawrence Giles. As the illustrations are distributed at equal distances apart throughout the work, they could not, as a rule, be inserted where reference is made to them in the text. The reader, by referring to the list of illustrations on the next page, may readily find their places in the work indicated, and by refer- ence to the general Index, will as readily find the related biography or description sought. It has been observed that the scope and limits of this work will not permit minute details; only a general consideration of the topics introduced. It is believed that this treatment will be more acceptable to most readers than a narrative overbur- dened witli the dry details of statistics, methods, and techni- calities. The author gratefully acknowledges the uniform kindness and courtesy of the managers of institutions, and of all others who have cheerfully aided him in gathering materials for this work; and to these he tenders his sincere thanks. » ILLUSTRATIONS. Academy of Music facing page 406 American Xews Company Building.. 843 Astok. John Jacob 88 Astor Library' 406 Baptist Home for the A<;ed 262 Barnard, F. A. P 750 Bartholdi Statue of Liberty.', title plate Battery and Castle Garden 660 Bellevue Hospital 118 Bergh, Henry 778 Bible House 262 Bloominodale Asylum 118 Brown, James '.. 290 Calvary Baptist Church 118 Central Park 628 Chemical Bank 812 Charlier Institute (1884) 406 City Hall, Court House, and Park 812 Clinton. De Witt 30 Columbia College 406 Cooper. Peter 374 Cooper Union 406 Custom-House 812 Dakota Apartment House 842 De Peyster, Frederic 176 Dodge. William E 344 Elevated Railroad title plate Equestrian Statue ok Washington. 812 Evening Post Building 842 Field, Cyrus W 234 Fish. Hamilton 208 Five Points House of Industry. . . . 262 Fr aunce*s Tavern. wherf.Washinoton Parted with his Officers, .frontispiece Fi LTON Ferry 812 Fulton Street Daily Noon Prayer- Meeting US Gramercy Park faring page 660 Grinnell, Moses II 316 Herald Building 842 High Bridge title plate Howard Mission 262 Hughes, John (Archbishop) 532 Jay, William 58 John Street Methodist Church.... 118 Lenox Library 406 Lossing, Benson J title plate Madison Square 660 Map of New York in 1728 14 Masonic Hall in 1830 frontispiece Masonic Temple 262 Methodist Book Concern 262 Metropolitan Museum of Art 406 Mills Building 842 Mount Morris Park 660 National Academy of the Arts of Design 406 New York in 1776 front i spin-, New Fulton Market 812 New York Historical Society 40(1 New York Hospital 11H New York and Brooklyn Bridge. title plate New Washington Market 812 Newsboys" Lodging-House 262 Nieuw Amsterdam in 1659. . .frontispiece Normal College 406 Obelisk. The 564 Old City Hall frontispiece Old Government House in 1810 frontispiece Old Stone Bridge, Canal Street and Broadway in 1812 frontispiece Pierrepont. Edwards 718 vi ILLUSTRATIONS. Post Office Jaciny page 812 Presbyterian Church, Fifth Avenue 118 Presbyterian Hospital 118 Produce Exchange 842 St. Luke's Hospital 118 St. Patrick's Cathedral -"iOO Seventh Regiment Armory 812 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 288 Staats Zeitung Building 842 Stewart Residenc e. The 842 Stock Exchange 842 Sturges. Jonathan 146 Stuyvesant Square 660 Sun Building 842 Taylor. Moses 688 Temple Court 812 Temple Emanu-kl 118 Tombs, The 812 Tompkins Square facing page 600 Times Building 842 Tribune Building 842 Trinity Church 118 Tyng, Stephen H .>64 Union Square 060 Union Theological Seminary 812 United Bank Building 842 Vanderbilt. Cornelius 468 Vanderbilt Mansions 842 Washington Square 660 Webb, James Watson 436 Weed. Thurlow 596 Western Union Telegraph Build- ing 842 Windsor Hotel 812 Worth Monument 812 Young Men's Christian Association Hall 262 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. CHAPTEE I. IT was a warm day in early September, 1609, when the yacht Half- Moon, of ninety tons burden, the hull of which bore many seal's of wounds received in battle with ice-floes in polar seas, anchored in a bay now known as the harbor of New York. She had a high poop after the fashion of the times, strong masts, and ample spars and sails. She was commanded by Henry Hudson, an expert English navigator, then employed by the Dutch East India Company in searching for a passage through arctic waters to far-off China and the adjacent islands of the sea. Hudson had failed to penetrate the polar ice, and now sought the " strait below Virginia," spoken of by his friend Captain Smith, which might bear his vessel to the " South Sea" or Pacific Ocean. He had failed to find it ; but now, looking up the broad stream northward from his anchorage, in which the tide ebbed and flowed, his hopes revived, and he ascended the smooth waters toward the high mountains dimly seen in the hazy distance. But as he drew near these lofty hills, and the water freshened more and more, he was satisfied that it was a great river and not a connecting strait between the two oceans. Hudson sailed up the river to the head of tidewater, more than one hundred and fifty miles, finding dusky inhabitants everywhere. He was charmed with the beauty of the country and its promise of wealth and renown to whatever people should occupy it. Returning to the ocean, he sailed away for Europe to tell his employers what a magnifi- cent prize he had Avon for them. He had not reached India by the way of the Arctic Circle, but he had discovered a great river running through a magnificent country heavily timbered, abounding with fur- bearing animals, and occupied by half-naked barbarians only. Hudson's wonderful story aroused the commercial cupidity of the Dutch merchants of Amsterdam, who had already established a very profitable fur trade with the northern Russias. Very soon Dutch ves- sels from the Texel, among them the discovery yacht, appeared in the waters where Hudson first anchored the Half-Moon ; and not long afterward Captain Christiansen, as agent for the merchants, accom- 4 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. paiiied by expert trappers and traders, built a redoubt, four log huts, and a storehouse on the slope west of (present) Broadway, just above the Bowling Green. This was the seed of the commercial metropolis of America, planted in 1612, at the southern extremity of along, rocky, and swampy island which the barbarians called Man-na-hat-ta. Among the bold Dutch navigators who came to Man-na-hat-ta or Manhattan was Adrien Block, in the schooner Tigress. When she was laden with bear-skins and was about to depart for the Texel late in 1613, she took fire and became a blackened wreck. Before the next spring, oaks that had sheltered bears where Wall Street " bulls" now contend with financial bruins, were fashioned into a trim-built yacht of sixteen tons, which was filled with skins and sailed for the Texel. She was named the On rust — the " Restless'" — a prophecy of that unresting activity which now marks the island of Manhattan. Such was the be- ginning, in 1614, of the vast merchant marine of the city of New York. In accordance with an ordinance lately passed by the Government of Holland, the Amsterdam merchants hastened to obtain a special license for trading in the newly discovered region. They procured a charter which gave them the monopoly of the trade for four years, and the region was named Xew Netherland. They enlarged their storehouse at Manhattan, built forts as trading stations near the site of Albany, and the little seed planted at the mouth of the river by Christiansen germinated into a thriving plant of empire — a village which they called Manhattan. Finally, in 1621, these merchants and others obtained from the States-General (the Congress) of Holland a charter for a Dutch West India Company. It made it a great commercial monop- oly, possessing almost regal powers to colonize, govern, and defend, not only that little domain on the Hudson, but the whole unoccupied coasts of America from Newfoundland to Cape Horn, and from the Cape of Good Hope far northward along the coast of Africa. The charter contained all the guarantees of freedom, in social, political, and religious life, necessary to the founding of a free state, and which characterized the institutions of Holland. No stranger was to be ques- tioned concerning his nativity or his creed. " Do you wish to build, to plant, and to become a citizen V was the sum of the catechism when a new-comer appeared. Before the company was fairly organized, the menacing growls of the lion of England induced them to adopt measures for making a perma- nent settlement in New Netherland, and place an industrious colony there who should found a state. In 1623 the company sent over the New Netherlands a stanch ship of two hundred and sixty tons, bearing OUTLINE HISTORY, 160!)-1830. 5 thirty families of Walloons, Protestant refugees from (present) Belgium, who spoke the French language and who had settled in Holland. They consisted of one hundred and ten men, women, and children. They brought with them agricultural implements, cows, horses, sheep, and swine, and a sufficiency of household furniture to make them com- fortable. Captain May, who commanded the X?47, where he ruled tyrannically but righteously until 1CG4, when the province was taken possession of by the English. After that event he went to Holland to report in person the misfortunes of the colony. He returned to New York, and resided on his farm, which lay along the East River on Manhattan Island. His wife was Judith Bayard, by whom he had two sons. He was dignified, honest, and brave. 10 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. first nine selected were to choose their successors, so as to prevent the people having a direct voice in public affairs. But the Nine proved to be more potent than the Twelve. They nourished the pi'olific seed of democracy, and gave Stuyvesant much uneasiness. The inhabitants of Manhattan asked the States-General for a muni- cipal government. It was granted in 1653, under the corporate title of New Amsterdam. Its government was modelled after that of old Amsterdam, but with somewhat less political freedom in its features. The soul of Stuyvesant was troubled by this " imprudent trusting of power with the people/'' The burghers wished for more power, but it could not then be obtained. A silver seal was given to the authorities of the new city, and a painted coat-of-arms was sent to them. A new trouble disturbed Stuyvesant. In the fall of the same year when New Amsterdam was incorporated, a convention of nineteen delegates, chosen by the people of eight villages or communities, assem- bled at the town-hall in the city, ostensibly to take measures against the depredations of savages and pirates. The governor tried to control their action, but failed. When they adjourned they invited the governor to partake of a collation with them. Of course he would not so sanction their proceedings, and refused, when they plainly told him he might do as he pleased ; they should hold another convention soon, and he might prevent it if he could. Stuyvesant stormed and threat- ened these incipient rebels, but prudently yielded and issued a call for another convention, and so gave legality to the measure. They met on December 10, 1653. Many English people were now settled among the Dutch, and had intermarried with them, anil of the nineteen dele- gates chosen ten were of Dutch and nine of English nativity. This was the first real representative government in the great State of New York, now an empire with a population of over five millions. Now and here was fought the first battle between democracy and despotism on the soil of New York. The convention adopted a remon- strance to the States-General against the tyrannous rule of the gov- ernor, and sent it to him, with a demand For a categorical answer to each of the several counts. He met it with his usual pluck. He denied their authority. He blustered and threatened. They told him plainly that if he refused to comply with their demand they would appeal to the States-General. At this threat, uttered by the lips of a bold messenger — Beeckman, of Brooklyn — the governor took fire, and seizing his cane ordered him to leave his presence. The ambassador folded his arms and silently defied the wrath of Stuyvesant. When his anger cooled he asked Beeckman to pardon his sudden ebullition of OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 1 1 feeling, but he ordered the convention to disperse instantly. They did no such thing, but executed their threat by sending an advocate to Holland with a list of their grievances, and asked for redress. So republicanism, like any other truth, has remarkable vitality, and is fostered by persecution. It never receded from the position it assumed in New Amsterdam at Christmas, 1653. Stuyvesant was a faithful servant of the Dutch AVest India Company, watching and defending its interests at all points. The Swedes on the Delaware became aggressive ; he made war upon them, conquered them, and as did Alfred of England with the Danes, he absorbed them politically, and they became loyal subjects of the Dutch. This accom- plished, the long peace with the Indians was suddenly broken by the murder of a squaw by a citizen of New Amsterdam, who detected her stealing his peaches. The fury of her tribe was fiercely kindled. Before daybreak one morning, about two thousand River Indians appeared before New Amsterdam in sixty canoes. They landed, and searched for the murderer of the squaw. Stuyvesant summoned their leaders to a conference at the fort. They were promised justice, and agreed to leave the island. They did not, and at midnight they invaded the city and shot the murderer, whom they knew. The people flew to arms and drove the barbarians from the city. The Indians crossed the surrounding waters and ravaged New Jersey and Staten Island. Within three days a hundred white inhabitants wei^e killed, fiftv were made captive, and three hundred estates were utterly desolated by the dusky foe. Stuyvesant finally restored order, and then issued a proclamation directing those who lived in secluded places in the country to gather themselves into villages for mutual defence. Another and more serious crisis for New Amsterdam and New Netherland came. The British always claimed the whole territory of New Netherland as their own. The British monarch granted the domain to his brother, the Duke of York. In 1664 the duke sent ships of war and troops to take possession. The people of New Amsterdam Avere quite willing to exchange Dutch rule for " English liberty," and counselled submission when the armament appeared. Stuyvesant held out, but was finally compelled to yield. The English took possession. The name of the fort was changed from Amsterdam to James, and the name of the city and province were changed to New York. The city was held temporarily by the Dutch awhile afterward, when New Netherland became a permanent English possession. But the people soon found " English liberty" not so easy to bear as " Dutch tyranny," 12 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. for their new masters taxed them almost without stint. Yet they prospered, and were comparatively happy. Republicanism grew apace in the city and province of New York. .Many of that faith had fled from pei-secution to America, and inocu- lated the people here with its doctrines. The people of New York clamored for a representative government, and in 16S3 — about thirty years after the Dutch of the same city made a similar demand — their request was granted. Governor Dongan, an enlightened Roman Catholic, favored their wishes, and on the 17th of October, 1083, was established the first General Assembly of the Province of New York, which sat three weeks and passed fourteen acts which became laws. The first of these was entitled The Charter of Liberties and Privileges granted by his Royal Highness to the inhabitants of New York and it ; Dependencies." It was ratified by the duke. The day of that assem- bling is a memorable one in the history of New York. Before we proceed further, let us take a brief glance at the social condition of New York before its surrender to the English. At that time it contained about three hundred houses and about fifteen hundred inhabitants. The city was then one of considerable wealth, and many of the inhabitants were enjoying the comforts which riches bring. But riches is a thing of relative estimate. A citizen then worth a thousand dollars was esteemed a rich man. At first their houses were of logs, the roofs thatched with reeds and straw, the chimneys made of wood, and the light of the windows entered through oiled paper. Their tables were made of rough planks ; their platters Avere of wood or pewter ; the spoons of the same ; and carpets were unknown until the time of the revolution in 1688. Finally the unsafe thatched roofs and wooden chimneys gave place to tiles and shingles and brick. The better houses were built of brick imported from Holland until some enterprising citizens established a brickyard on the island during the administration of Stuvvesant. Every house was surrounded with a garden, in which cabbage was the chief vegetable cultivated, and tulips the principal flowers. Good horses were rare until they began to import them from New England, but their cows and swine were generally of excellent quality. There were no carriages until after the revolution, and the first hackney coach was introduced into the city of New York in 1P>96. It is said that the first carpet — a big Turkey rug — seen in the city belonged to Sarah Oort, the wife of the famous Captain Kidd. The clean floors were daily strewn with white beach-sand wrought into artistic forms by the skilful motion of the broom. Huge oaken chests filled with OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 13 household linen were seen in a corner of a room in every house, and in another corner a triangular cupboard with a glass door, in which w as displayed shining- pewter or other plates. As wealth increased a few had china tea-sets, and solid silver tankards, punch-bowls, porringers, and ladles. Tea had only lately found its way to New York when the revolution of KISS occurred. Clocks and watches were almost unknown, and time was measured by sun-dials and hour-glasses. The habits of the people were so regular that they did not need clocks and watches. At nine o'clock they all said their prayers and went to bed. They arose at cock-crowing, and breakfasted before sunrise. Dinner-parties were unknown, but tea- parties were frequent. These ended, the participants went home in time to attend to the milking of the cows. In every house were spinning-wheels, and it was the pride of every family to have an ample supply of home-made linen and woollen cloth. The women spun and wove, and were steadily employed. Nobody was idle. Nobody was anxious to get rich, while all practised thrift and frugality. Books were rare luxuries, and in most houses the Bible and Pra} r er-book constituted the stock of literature. The weekly discourses of the clergymen satisfied their intellectual wants, while their own hands, industriously employed, furnished all their physical necessities. Knit- ting and spinning held the place of whist and music in these " degener- ate days," and utility was as plainly stamped upon all their labors and pleasures as is the maker's name on our silver spoons. These were the "good old days" of simplicity, comparative innocence, and positive ignorance, when the "commonalty" no more suspected the earth of the caper of turning over like a ball of yarn every day than Stuyvesant did the Puritans of candor and honesty. CHAPTER II. THE Duke of York became King- of England as James II. in 16S5. As king- he refused to confirm the " Charter of Liberties" which, as duke, he had granted to the inhabitants of New York. He ordered a direct tax, forbade the use of a printing-press in the province, and filled the public offices with Roman Catholics, whose faith he had embraced and avowed. The liberal and just Governor Dongan stood by the people as long as he could, but in the spring of 1688 he was ordered to surrender the government of Xew York into the hands of Sir Edmund Andros, a supple tool of the king, who had a viceregal commission to rule that province and all Xew England. Andros was received in Xew York by Colonel Bayard's regiment ; and in the midst of rejoicings among the royalists — the aristocracy — because of his arrival, news came that James's queen had given birth to a son and heir to his throne. The event was celebrated that evening bv a banquet at the City Hall, while bonfires blazed in the streets. At the festive table Mayor Van Cortlandt became hilarious, and testified his loyalty and joy by making a burnt sacrifice of his hat and periwig, waving the blazing offerings over the bancmet-table on the point of his straight sword. Republicanism had grown apace in Xew York, and there was great disappointment among the Protestant republicans ; for in case of failure of an heir on the part of King James, his daughter Mary, who had married the Protestant Prince William of Orange, would be his suc- cessor. Their disappointment was soon turned to joy when news came that James had been driven from the throne, was an exile in France, and William and Mary were joint monarchs of England. The people seized Fort James, at the foot of Broadway. Their leader was Jacob Leisler,* a popular and leading shipping merchant, who had come to * Jacob Leisler was a native of Frankfort, in Germany. He came to America in 1GG0, resided awhile in Albany, New York, when he became a merchant in the city of Xew York. While on a voyage to Europe in 1678, he, with several others, were made prisoners by Turks, and paid a high price for their ransom. He entered public life under Governor Dongan, and as a military leader he was at the head of an insurrec- OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 15 New Amsterdam a soldier in the service of the "West India Company, and was captain of one of the militia companies of the city. He was a warm friend of William of Orange and an ardent republican. The aristocratic party of Xew York, led by Mayor Van Cortlandt, Colonel Bayard, and other members of the council, hated Leisler because of his political principles, and when, obedient to the wishes of the people, he assumed the functions of governor of the province in the absence of a representative of royal authority, they were enraged by this democratic movement, led by " an insolent plebeian and foreigner. " They resolved on his destruction ; and when a royal governor (Sloughter) came, they procured Leister's arrest on a charge of treason. He was unfairly tried and condemned. The governor hesitated to sign his death-warrant before the pleasure of the sovereigns should be known. Sloughter was made drunk at a feast, and in that condition was induced to sign the fatal document. Before he was sober, Leisler and his son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, were hanged. His enemies thought they had crushed democracy in New York. Swift disappointment overtook them. The Earl of Bellomont came as governor, and under orders from the Privy Council and his king he gladly aided in reversing the attainder of Leisler and procuring the restoration of the victim's confiscated property to his children. The tables were nOw turned. Democracy obtained a stronger foothold in Xew York than ever. Under the very law enacted for the purpose of bringing Leisler to trial for treason, Colonel Bayard, its chief promoter, was tried for the same offence, found guilty, and saved from the gallows only by the death of Bello- mont and the accession of Edward Hyde, a profligate man and a bitter enemy of republicanism in any form. He liberated Bayard. We have now come to a period in the history of Xew York when the political and social forces known respectively as Democracy and Aristocracy were organized for the great conflict which resulted in the triumph of the former at the close of the old war for independence in 1783. From the accession of Governor Lovelace in 1708, to that of Governor Cosby in 1732, democracy prevailed in the General Assembly of New York, and the royal representatives were compelled to yield to the will of the people as expressed by that assembly. A new social element had just been introduced into the city of Xew tionary movement in the city of New York after the accession of William and Mary. He assumed the functions of governor of the colony, but on the arrival of a royally appointed governor he was arrested, condemned as a traitor, ami hanged on May 10, 1691, with his son-in-law, Milborne. Leisler purchased New Eochelle for the Hugue- nots. 1 6 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. York by Governor Hunter. Louis XIV. had caused the expulsion from their country of Protestant Rhenish Palatines, who besought the British Government to give them homes in America. It was done, and £10,000 were appropriated to defray their expenses, they pledging themselves to produce materials for the royal navy in the way of reimbursement. By command of Queen Anne, three thousand of the German Palatines accompanied Governor Hunter to New York. A considerable number of them remained in the city ; others went up the Hudson River to Livingston's manor and settled the region known as Germantown ; others went to the Mohawk Valley and founded the settlement of the German Flats ; while the greater portion made homes in Pennsylvania, and so laid the foundations of the German population which forms so large and influential an element in the social fabric of that commonwealth. These Germans were industrious and frugal. Those who remained in the city soon built a Lutheran church on Broadway, on the site of the first Grace Church, near Trinity. This was the beginning of the vast German emigration to America. In 1725 a new clement of power in the realm of opinion appeared in New York. William Bradford,* who had set up the first printing- press in the province, issued the first newspaper published in that colony in October of that year. He entitled it the New York Weekly Gazette. It became the organ of the aristocratic party. "When Governor Montgomerie died, in 1731, Rip Van Dam, the senior member of the council, took charge of public affairs until the arrival of Governor Cosby the next year. The latter was avaricious and arbitrary by nature. On his arrival he demanded of Van Dam an equal share in that officer's salary while acting as governor. It was refused, and Cosby sued him in the Supreme Court. A majority of the judges were of the aristocratic party, and gave judgment against Van Dam. The chief justice (Morris) decided against the governor, and the latter removed him and put James De Lancey in his place. The sympathies of the people were with Van Dam. They wanted an * William Bradford was a Friend or Quaker, and a printer by trade. He was born in Leicester, England, in 1659, and at the age of 23 years emigrated to America, landing on the spot where Philadelphia was begun. He had learned his trade in London, and set up a press (the first) in Pennsylvania. There was a quarrel among the chief religionists of Pennsylvania. Bradford having become unpopular with the dominant party, he removed to New York, where he introduced printing into that province in 1693. That year he printed the laws of the colony. He established the first newspaper in New York, called the Sew York Gazette, in the fall of 1725, and in 1728 he established a paper-mill at Elizabeth, N. J. He was printer to the government for fully fifty years, and the only one in the colony for thirty years. OUTLINE HISTOKY, 1609-1830. 17 organ, and they persuaded John Peter Zenger,* who had heen an apprentice with Bradford and his business partner for a while, to estab- lish an opposition newspaper. He did so in November, 1733, giving it the title of the New York Weekly Journal. Van Dam, who was a leading merchant, stood behind Zenger as his financial supporter. This organ of the democratic party made vigorous war upon the governor and his political friends, and finally it charged him and them with violating the rights of the people, the assumption of tyrannical power, and the perversion of their official stations for selfish purposes. When they could not answer nor endure these attacks any longer, Zenger was arrested on a charge of libelling the government, and the council ordered his papers containing these alleged libels to be burned by the common hangman, After lying in jail several months Zenger was brought to trial. Meanwhile a republican association called " Sons of Liberty" worked assiduously for Zenger, and his friends employed the venerable Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, then eighty years of age and the foremost lawyer in the colonies, as the prisoner's counsel. The case excited widespread interest and attention, for it involved the great question of liberty of speech and of the press. At that famous trial Chief-Justice De Lancey presided. The court- room was crowded. The citizens generally sympathized with Zenger. The prisoner pleaded " Not guilty," admitted the publication of the alleged libel, and offered full proof of its justification. The attorney- genera] rose to oppose the admission of such proofs. At that moment the venerable Hamilton entered the room. Rumors had gone abroad that he would be there. The multitude rose to their feet and welcomed him with waving of hats and loud huzzas. With his long white hair flowing over his shoulders, this Nestor of the bar in a few eloquent words scattered all the legal sophistries of the prosecution to the winds, lie declared that the jury were themselves judges of the facts and the law ; that they were a part of the court ; that they were competent to judge of the guilt or innocence of the accused ; and he reminded them * John Peter Zenger was a German, a son of a widow among the Palatines who came to New York in the reign of Queen Anne. He was apprenticed to William Bradford, the printer, became his partner, and in 1733 began a weekly newspaper in the city of New York, called the Weekly Journal. For some strictures on the conduct of the governor, Zenger was prosecuted for a libel, and was imprisoned thirty-five weeks. His trial was a famous one. He was defended by the great lawyer, Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, and was acquitted. His acquittal was regarded as a vindication of the freedom of the press. Zenger died in New York in 1746. 18 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. that they were the sworn protectors of the rights, liberties, and privi- leges of their fellow-citizens, which, in this instance, had been violated by a most outrageous and vindictive series of persecutions. The chief- justice's charge to the jury was wholly averse to this doctrine of the great advocate, but after a brief conference they returned a verdict of " Not guilty." A shout of triumph went up from the multitude, and Hamilton was borne from the court-room upon the shoulders of the people to an entertainment prepared for him. The citizens gave him a public dinner the next day, and a few weeks later the corporation of New York gave Hamilton their thanks and the freedom of the city in a gold box. lie had served a righteous cause without a fee, because it was a righteous cause. To the city of New York is due the imperishable honor of first vindi- cating the freedom of the press in the English-American colonies, and it has ever maintained the exalted position of a champion of liberty and the rights of man under all circumstances. The population, industries, and wealth of New York City had rapidly increased since the beginning of the century. In about thirty years the population had expanded from five thousand to almost nine thou- sand. Already the shipping employed in trade gave the city the char- acter of a commercial metropolis, and its merchants were noted for enterprise, intelligence, wealth, and probity. For a while they had serious difficulties to contend with. At the close of the seventeenth century the ocean SAvarmed with pirates. They entered the harbor of New York and seized vessels lying at anchor. It is believed that men in high official station there were confederated with the buccaneers, shared their booty, and shielded them from punishment. Finally a worthy shipmaster of New York, Captain Kidd,* was employed by a i: " William Kidd was a prominent shipmaster in New York at the close of the seven- teenth century. His wife was Sarah Oort. Kidd was the son of a Scotch Nonconformist minister, and had followed the sea from his youth. He was regarded as the boldest and most enterprising mariner of New York, about 1695, when he was appointed captain of a privateer, owned by King William, Governor Bellomont, Robert Livingston, and several of the English nobility, and was fitted out for the suppression of piracy. He received his commission from King William. He sailed in the Adventure Galley from Plymouth, England, in 1696, far the Indian seas, where, after scattering the pirates, he became one himself, or rather was compelled by his crew to become the commander of a pirate ship. He returned to New York with large booty in 1698. The piratical partners of the Adven- ture Qattey raised such a hubbub in England, that her owners, to escape the odium of Kidd's conduct, made him a scapegoat. With virtuous pretensions Lord Bellomont caused Kidd's arrest on the charge of piracy and murder. He was convicted and hanged at Plymouth, England, on May 24, 1701. The charge of piracy was not proven, and the killing for which he suffered was undoubtedly accidental. OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 19 company to disperse or destroy the pirates. He succeeded, but finally, through great temptation, he turned pirate himself in distant seas, and was hanged in England, an unfortunate scapegoat for his more guiltjr titled confederates. Intellectual forces of much strength were early at work in the city of New York. The third printing-press in the English-American colonies was set up there by William Bradford, and in 1693 he printed the laws of the colony in a small folio volume. This was the first publica- tion of a book in that city, where millions are now issued every year. Episcopacy had been made the leading ecclesiastical system in New York by the fiat of royal governors, and on the establishment of Trinity Church, in 1090, public worship was conducted in the English language instead of the Dutch, excepting in the Reformed Dutch Church. Trinity Church edifice — a small, square structure with a very tall spire — was completed in 1697, and in 1703 Queen Anne granted to it the " King's Farm" on the west side of Broadway— the famous " Trinity Church property 1 ' claimed by the alleged hell's of Annetye Jans-Bogardus. The first attempt had been made in 1697 to light the streets of New York by hanging a lantern from a pole projecting from a window in every seventh house. A night watch of four men had been established at the same time, and two men were appointed to inspect the hearths and chimneys of the six hundred houses in the city once a week. A public ferry between Xew York and Long Island had been established by the city authorities, and in 1707 Broadway had been first paved from the Bowling Green to Trinity Church. In 1709 it was levelled as far as Maiden Lane. In that year a slave-market had been established on the site of the old block-house at the foot of Wall Street, where most of the shipping was moored. Rigorous municipal laws concerning the slaves were strictly administered, which caused occasional out- breaks. The first hospital for the poor had been established in 1699, and in 1705 the first grammar school in New York had been authorized, but was not established for some time because a competent teacher could not be found in the city. The first Presbyterian church built in the city had been erected in 1719, on Wall Street near the City Hall ; and the previous year the first ropewalk in New York — the beginning of a very flourishing industry — had been set up on Broadway between Bar- clay Street and Park Place. Public matters in New York had presented no phase of special importance until the arrival of John Montgomerie as governor in the 20 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. spring of 1728, when he was received with more cordiality and granted more favors than any other magistrate since Bellomont. The chief event of his administration was the granting an amended charter for the city in 1730. The first charter given to the city under English rule had been "-ranted in 1686. Others have been granted from time to time. By the new charter the limits of the city were fixed ; the power of establishing ierries, and the possession of the ferries, market- houses, docks, etc., and all profits arising from them, were granted to the city. Provision was made for the establishment of courts, and the privileges and duties of all public officers were defined. The jurisdic- tion of the city was fixed to begin at the King's Bridge, near the upper extremity of the island, extending to Long Island, including small islands at the mouth of the Harlem River, thence on that side of the East River to Red Hook, and thence, embracing the islands in the harbor, up the Hudson River to Spuyten Duyvel Creek to the place of beginning:. While this charter gave the authorities of the city of New York jurisdiction over the whole of Manhattan Island and adjacent islands, the streets of the city were laid out only as far north on the west side as Courtlandt Street on the border of the King's Farm, and on the east side as far as Frankfort and Cherry Streets. There were only scat- tered houses above Maiden Lane. But the city was then so densely populated below Wall Street that in 1720 the Dutch Reformed Church, in Garden Street below Wall, was so crowded that a portion of the congregation colonized and built the " Middle Dutch Church,'' on the corner of Nassau and Liberty Streets, used (until a few years ago) for the city Post-Office for many years. Wall Street had been so named because along its line, from river to river, had extended the palisades or wooden walls of the city of New Amsterdam. Pauperism became prevalent and troublesome during Montgomerie's administration, and measures were taken for providing a public alms- house, which should also be a workhouse. One was erected in the rear of the present City Hall in 1734. It was well supplied with spinning- wheels for the women and shoemakers' tools and other implements of labor for the men. It was made a sort of self-sustaining institution. Nothing of special public importance occurred in the city of New York after the trial of Zenger until 1741, when the famous " Negro Plot" produced a reign of terror there for some time. A similar occurrence, but of smaller proportions, had taken place in 1712, when the popula- tion of the city was about six thousand, composed largely of slaves. There was a suspicion of a conspiracy of the negroes to burn the city OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1880. and destroy the inhabitants. During the panic that prevailed nineteen slaves suspected of the crime perished. In 1741 a suspected negro plot to destroy the city and its inhabitants produced great disaster. New York then contained about ten thousand inhabitants, nearly one fifth of whom were negro slaves. The city literally swarmed with them. There were growing apprehensions among the people of a servile insurrection. The slave-market was at the foot of Wall Street ; the calaboose was in the " common" or City Hall Park. The slaves were under rigorous discipline, and were keenly watched as apprehensions of danger from them increased. In the early spring of 1741 some goods and silver were stolen from a merchant. Suspicion fell upon the keeper of a low tavern to which negroes and thieves resorted, but on searching the police found noth- ing. A maid-servant of the publican told a neighbor that the goods were there, and very soon she, her master, and his family were brought before the court. Then the servant accused a negro with being the thief and his master the receiver of the stolen goods. A part of the property was found under his master's kitchen floor and returned to the owner, and here the matter rested for a while. Two or three weeks later the governor's house in the fort was laid in ashes. Within a few days afterward other fires in different parts of the city occurred. These fires, breaking out in such rapid succession, alarmed the people, and a rumor that the negroes had plotted to burn the city took wing and flew to every dwelling in the course of a few hours. For several days the slaves had been suspected of meditating the crime ; now suspicion was changed to confirmation. It was now noted that a Spanish vessel, manned in part by negroes, had recently been brought into port as a prize, and the black men had been sold at auction for slaves. They were naturally exasperated by this inhuman treatment, and had let fall some stifled threats. No one now doubted that these desperate fellows were leaders in tne horrid plot. There was a general cry of " Arrest the Spanish negroes t" They were seized and cast into prison. On the same afternoon the magistrates met, and while they were in consultation the storehouse of Colonel Phillipse was discovered to be on fire. Magistrates and people were panic-stricken, for the busy tongue of rumor positively declared the negroes were about to fire the city, murder the inhabitants, and possess themselves of their masters' property. Negroes Were seized indiscriminately, and very soon the prisons were filled with them. The Common Council offered a reward of one hundred pounds and a full pardon to any conspirator who should reveal the plot and the 22 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. mimes of the incendiaries. The imprisoned servant of the tavern- keeper spoken of took advantage of this offer to gain her liberty and fill her purse, and told a most ridiculous story of negroes whom she named bringing stolen goods to her master, and talking about their design to burn the city and destroy the inhabitants, and the riches and power they would possess afterward. The excited and credulous mag; istrates received this absurd story as truth, and persons arrested were induced to make all sorts of confessions in the hope of averting danger to themselves. There was a reign of terror throughout the city. The victims of the lying servant's pretended revelations were imprisoned, tried, condemned, and executed. Among these were her master and his wife. On her testimony alone many negroes were from time to time accused and imprisoned, and in May several of them were burned alive in a green vale on the site of the (present) Five Points. In June others were burned, and before the middle of August one hundred and fifty-four negroes and twenty-four white people had been imprisoned. Of these four white persons were hanged ; fourteen negroes were burned alive, eighteen were hanged, and seventy-one were transported. The last victim was Ury, a schoolmaster, who was accused by the lying servant (Mary Burton) of being concerned in the plot. He was sus- pected of being a Roman Catholic priest. The bigoted magistrates took advantage of an old unrepealed law for hanging any priest who should voluntarily come into the province, and Ury was doomed. They seemed to be hungry for his life. In vain he offered to prove that he was a clergjnnan of the Church of England. Mary Burton was considered infallible, and poor Ury was hanged. Then the " state's witness" became bolder, and accused " persons of quality ;" and, as in the case of " Salem witchcraft," when leading citizens, who had been active in persecuting the poor negroes, were implicated, men took meas- ures to end the tragedy — " stop the delusion." It was done, and the 24th of September was set apart as a day of thanksgiving for the great deliverance. The " Kegro Plot" may be classed among the foremost of popular delusions. It was at about this time that a few men Avho played important parts in the social and political drama of the city of Xew York appeared conspicuous upon the stage — Dr. Cadwallader Colden, James De Lancey, Philip Livingston, Peter Schuyler, Abraham De Peyster, Frederick Phillipse, William Smith the elder, and a few others. Some of these, hke Colden, were lovers of science and literature. So absorbed in trade, and in efforts to increase the wealth and material property of themselves and the city had the citizens become, that edu- OUTLINE HISTORY. IG09-1830. 23 cation was neglected. Some of these gentlemen clearly perceived the evils to be feared from such a want, and set about supplying it. There were then but few collegians in the province ; Messrs. Smith and De Lancey were the only ones in the legal profession. There was a small public library, but it was little used. The chaplain of Lord Bellomont (Rev. John Sharp) had presented to the city a collection of books in 1700, for a " Corporation Library,'' and in 1720 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts added to these, for the same purpose, 1022 volumes, which had been given to them by Rev. John Millington, of England. The first librarian appointed died ; the books were neglected, and their very existence was almost forgotten until 1751:, when some public-spirited citizens organized and founded the " Society Library.? 5 The Common Council added the " Corpora- tion Library' 1 to the institution, and for several years the books of the Society Library were kept in the City Hall. Meanwhile £'2250 had been raised by lottery for the foundation of a college. This sum was increased, and in 1754 King's (now Columbia) College was chartered. Sectarianism was then rampant in the city, and there was a sharp straggle for the denominational control of the institution between the Episcopalians, headed by James De Lancey, and the Presbyterians, led by Philip Livingston. The former gained the mastery. In 1752 the first merchants' exchange in New York was erected at the foot of Broad Street. Beekman Sti*eet was opened the same year, and St. George's Chapel was erected on it by Trinity Church corpora- tion. This period in the history of the city of New York is particularly distinguished for political and theological controversies. The lines be- tween sects in religion and politics were sharply drawn. Bigotry and intolerance were rampant. The Jews had been allowed to establish a cemetery near the present Chatham Square, east side ; now they were disfranchised. The Moravians, who closely resembled the Episco- palians in the form of their liturgical worship, and who had built a. church on Fair (now Fulton) Street * and established a mission in Duchess County, were persecuted as Jesuits in disguise. In the colonial assembly political controversies became bitter. This bitterness was augmented by the conduct of the royal governor. Admiral Sir George Clinton, who speedily made himself unpopular with the leaders of all * On the west side of Broadway it was called Partition Street, the partition line between the King's Farm and others. 24 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. parties. His best supporter at the beginning of his administration was Chief-Justice De Lancey. Clinton soon offended him and allied himself to Dr. Colden,* who was then a power in the province ; but De Lancey, who was more prominent socially and politically than Colden, made war upon the governor. He engendered a fierce contest between Clinton and the assembly. The governor soon offended Colden, who joined the opposition. At length the admiral, wearied with the contest and becoming more and more unpopular, left the office, and was succeeded by Sir Dan vers Osborne. At the first meeting of his council Osborne laid his instructions before them, when they said, " The assembly will never yield obedience." " Is this true I" he asked William Smith. " Most emphatically," replied the councillor. " Then what am I come here for V said Osborne musingly. The next morning his dead body was found sus- pended by a handkerchief from the garden wall of his lodgings. He had destroyed himself in despair. James De Lancey, f the lieutenant- governor, assumed the direction of public affairs. The political leaders had zealous partisans among the citizens, and New York for many years was a seething caldron of adverse opinions. The quarrel of De Lancey with Clinton % had caused the former to * Cadwallader Colden was a native of Scotland ; was born at Dunse, February 17, 1088, graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1705, and in 1708 emigrated to America, and died at his country seat on Long Island, September 28, 177G. He was a physician and skilful mathematician. He practised medicine in Pennsylvania a few years, and went to England in 1715. The next year, after visiting Scotland, he returned to Pennsylvania, but at the request of Governor Hunter settled in New York in 1718, when he was appointed surveyor-general, a master in chancery, and in 1720 a member of the King's Council. Obtaining a patent for lands in Orange County, he settled there. He was acting governor of New York from 1700 until his death. During the Stamp Act excitement in New York in 1705, the populace destroyed his carriage and burned him in effigy. When Governor Tryon returned to New York in 1775, Colden retired to Long Island. He wrote a history of the Five Nations of Indians. f James De Lancey was born in New York in 1703, the son of a Huguenot emigrant from Caen, Normandy. He was educated at Cambridge, England, and returned to America in 1721), soon after which he was made a justice of the Supreme Court of New York. In 1733 he was elevated to the seat of chief justice. De Lancey was acting gov- ernor for nearly seven years, from 1753 to 1700. He was an astute lawyer, a sagacious legislator, a skilful intriguer, and a demagogue of great influence and political strength. These qualities and vast estates secured to him triumphs when most other men would have failed. \ Admiral George Clinton was governor of New York for ten years -1743 -1753. He was the youngest son of the sixth Earl of Lincoln, and was appointed commodore and governor of Newfoundland in 1732. His administration in New York was a stormy one, for he did not possess qualifications for the position, or any skill in civil affairs. He found in De Lancey a most annoying opponent. Colden was Clinton's champion on all OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 25 oppose the governor's unpopular schemes, and so made himself a favor- ite with the people. The representative " aristocrat" became, by the legerdemain of party politics, the representative " democrat" of the hour ; and the late royalist faction, composed of the wealthiest and most influential citizens, was now arrayed on the side of the people's rights. 13ut De Lancey found it difficult to maintain that position and render obedience to royal instructions. He was soon relieved of the embarrassment by the arrival of Admiral Hardy as governor, when De Lancey resumed his seat as chief justice. He soon afterward became acting governor again, and was performing its duties when, on the morning of July 30, 1760, he was found dying in his study, the victim of chronic asthma. The French and Indian war then in progress had taxed the patriot- ism and the resources in men and money of the citizens of New York. The war was raging on the northern frontier of their province, and they cheerfully and generously responded to every reasonable call. At the same time, jealous of their political rights, they warmly resented any violation of them. Lord Loudoun, the commander of the British forces in America, sent a thousand troops to the city of New York with orders for the authorities to billet them upon the inhabitants. This was an infraction of their rights. The city authorities quartered the soldiers in the barracks on Chambers Street, leaving the officers to take care of themselves. The angry Loudoun hastened to New York and commanded the authorities to find free quarters for the officers, and threatened if it were not done he would bring all the soldiers under his command and billet them upon the inhabitants himself. The gov- ernor was disposed to comply, but the indignant people refused, and defied the general. The matter was finally adjusted, to avert serious trouble, by furnishing free quarters to the officers by means of a pri- vate subscription. This demand was afterward several times repeated, and was one of the principal grievances which impelled the citizens of New York to armed resistance to royal authority. On the accession of George III. in 170<>, followed by ministerial schemes for burdening colonial commerce with restrictions, the murmurs of the king's subjects in America, which had been heard in almost in- audible whispers by his immediate predecessors, became loud and menacing. As occasions for complaint multiplied, the colonists showed symptoms of absolute resistance to acts of Parliament, and in this none occasions. Clinton was made vice-admiral of the rear in 1745, and vice-admiral of the fleet in 17-">7. He died governor of Newfoundland in 1761. 26 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. were more prompt and defiant than the citizens of New York. Unwise and oppressive navigation laws were put in force, and these weighed heavily upon New York, then become a decidedly commercial city. These laws were at first mildly resisted. The collectors of customs finally called for aid, and writs of assistance were issued, by which these officers or their deputies might enter every house they pleased, break locks and bars if necessary in search of dutiable goods, and in tins way become the violators of the great principles of Magna Charta, which made every Englishman's house his "castle." These writs were denounced everywhere, and were followed soon afterward by the famous and obnoxious Stamp Act, which required every piece of paper, parchment, or vellum containing a legal document, such as a promis- sory note or a marriage certificate, to have a stamp affixed upon it, for which a specified sum was to be paid to the government of Great Britain. This indirect system of taxation was very offensive, and the scheme was stoutly opposed everywhere on the continent, but nowhere with more firmness than in the city of New York. Dr. Golden, then nearly eighty years of age, was acting governor of the province, and duty to his sovereign and his own political convictions compelled him to oppose the popular movements around him. When, late in Gctober (1765), stamps arrived at New York consigned to a u stamp distributor," the " Sons of Liberty," recently reorganized, demanded that agent's resig- nation ; Colden upheld and protected him, and had the stamps placed m the fort. This covert menace exasperated the people. Though British ships of war riding in the harbor, as well as the fort, had their great guns trained upon the city, the patriots were not dis- mayed, and appearing in considerable number before the governor's house at the fort, demanded the stamps. The demand was refused, and very soon the large group of orderly citizens was swelled into a roaring mob. They bore to The Fields (the City Hall Park) an effigy of the governor, which they burned on the spot where Leisler was hanged three fourths of a century before because he was a republican. Then they hastened back to the foot of Broadway, tore up the wooden railing around the Bowling Green, piled it up in front of the fort, dragged the governor's coach out and cast it upon the heap, and made a huge bonfire of the whole. After committing other excesses, and parading the streets with a banner inscribed "England's Folly and America's Ruin," they dispersed to their homes. Earlier in the same month a colonial convention known as the " Stamp Act Congress" assembled in New York, discussed the rights OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 27 of the colonists, and adopted a Declaration of Rights, a Petition to the King, and a Memorial to both Houses of Parliament. Already the idea of union had been suggested by a newspaper called the Constitu- tional Courcmt, bearing the device of a snake separated into several parts, each with an initial of a colony, and bearing the injunction, Join ok Die ! Only one issue of the Courcmt was made, but its suggestion was potent. The idea of the device was like an electric spark that kindled a flame which was never quenched. The merchants of New York immediately "joined" in creating a Committee of Correspond- ence instructed to solicit the merchants of other cities to join with them in a solemn agreement not to import any more goods from Great Britain until the Stamp Act should be repealed. There was general acquies- cence. This measure produced a powerful impression upon the com- mercial interests of Great Britain. The people at the centres of trade there clamored for a repeal of the obnoxious act, and in the course of three months this much-desired measure was effected. Then the citizens of New York, in the plenitude of their gratitude and joy, caused a leaden equestrian statue of the king to be erected in the centre of the Bowling Green, and a marble one to Pitt (who had effected the repeal) in the attitude of an orator, at the junction of Wall and William Streets. To New York merchants is due the honor of having invented those two powerful engines of resistance to the obnoxious acts of the British Parliament, and with so much potency at the beginning of the old war for independence — namely, the Committee of Correspondence and the No7i-im portation Leay ue. CHAPTER III. IROM the period of the Stamp Act until the beginning of the old -L war for independence, in 1775, the merchants of New York bore a conspicuous part in political events tending toward independence. They were leading " Sons of Liberty." For a while the liberal char- acter of the administration of the new governor, Sir Henry Moore,* allayed excitements and animosities ; but the stubborn king and stupid ministry, utterly unable to comprehend the character of the American people and the loftiness of the principles which animated them, con- tinued to vex them with obnoxious schemes of taxation, and kept them in a state of constant irritation. Before the echoes of the repeal rejoicings had died away, troops were sent to New York, and under the provisions of the Mutiny Act they were to be quartered at the partial expense of the province. They were sent as a menace and as a check to the growth of republican ideas among the people there. Led by the Sons of Liberty, the inhabitants resolved to resist the measure for their enslavement. The Provincial Assembly steadily refused compliance with the terms of the Mutiny Act, and early in 1707 Parliament passed an act prohibiting the gov- ernor and Legislature of New York passing any bill for any purpose whatever. The assembly partially yielded, but a new assembly, con- vened early in 1708, stoutly held an attitude of defiance, and the colony was made to feel the royal displeasure. But the assembly remained faithful to the cause of liberty down to the death of Governor Moore, in 1709. Then Dr. Colden again became acting governor, and an un- natural coalition was formed between him and James De Lancey, son of Peter De Lancey, who was a leader of the aristocracy in the assembly. Meanwhile the city had been almost continually disquieted by the insolent bearing and outrageous conduct of the troops, who were * Sir Henry Moore was a native of Jamaica, W. I., where he was horn in 1713. He became governor of his native island in 175G, and was created a baronet as a reward for his services in suppressing a slave insurrection there. From 1764 until his death, in September, 1769, he was governor of New York. He arrived in New York in the midst of the Stamp Act excitement in 1765, and acted very judiciously. OUTLINE HISTORY, 1G09-1830. 29 encouraged by their officers. On the king's birthday, in 176G, the citizens, grateful for the repeal of the Stamp Act, celebrated it with great rejoicing. On that occasion they erected a flagstaff which bore the words " The King, Pitt, and Liberty." They called it a Liberty Pole, and it became the rallying-place for the Sons of Liberty. This New York idea became popular, and liberty poles soon arose in other provinces as rallying-places for political gatherings of the patriots. "When the soldiers came to New York this pole became an object of their dislike, and they cut it down. "When, the next day, the citizens were preparing to set up another, they were attacked by the troops, and two of the leading Sons of Liberty were wounded. But the pole was set up. It, too, was soon prostrated, and a third pole was raised, when Governor Moore forbade the soldiers to touch it. The next spring the citizens of New York celebrated the first anni- versary of the repeal of the Stamp Act around the liberty pole. That night the soldiers cut it down. Another was set up the next day, pro- tected from the axe by iron bands. An unsuccessful attempt to cut it down, and also to prostrate it with gunpowder, were made. The Sons of Liberty set a guard to watch it, and Governor Moore again forbade interference with it. That liberty pole stood in proud defiance until January, 1770, when, at midnight, soldiers issued from the barracks on Chambers Street, prostrated it, sawed it in pieces, and piled them up in front of the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty. The bell of St. George's chapel was rung, and the next morning three thousand indig- nant people stood around the mutilated liberty pole, and by resolutions declared their rights and their determination to maintain them. The city was fearfully excited for three days. In frequent affrays with the citizens the soldiers were generally worsted, and in a severe conflict on Golden Hill, an eminence near Burling Slip at Cliff and Fulton Streets, several of the soldiers were disarmed. "When quiet was restored another liberty pole was erected on private ground, on Broadway near "Wall Street. This fifth flagstaff remained undisturbed until the Brit- ish took possession of the city in 1770, when it was hewn down by Cunningham, the notorious provost marshal. That fight on Golden Hill in the city of New York between its citizens and royal troops was the first battle of the Revolution. The last battle of that war was fought there between Cunningham anil Mrs. Day, at the foot of Murray Street. With the coalition between Colden and De Lancey a gradual change in the political complexion of the Provincial Assembly was apparent. The leaven of aristocracy had begun a transformation. A game for 30 HISTOKY OF NEW YORK CITY. political power, bused upon proposed financial schemes, was begun. A grant for the support of the troops was also made. These things men- aced the liberties of the people. The popular leaders sounded the alarm. Among the most active at that time were Isaac Sears, John Lamb,* Alexander McDougall, f and John Morin Scott \ — names which will be ever associated as efficient and fearless champions of liberty in the city of New York when the tempest of the Revolution was impending. In December, 1TG9, a handbill signed " A Son of Liberty" was posted throughout the city calling a meeting of " the betrayed inhabi- tants" in the Fields. It denounced the inone} r scheme and the assem- bly, and pointed to the coalition as an omen of danger to the State. The call was heeded, and the next day a large concourse of citizens assembled around the Liberty Pole, where they were harangued by John Lamb, one of the most ardent patriots of New York. By unani- * John Lamb was bom in New York on January 1, 1735, and died there May 31, 1800. He was at first an optician, but in 1700 he engaged in the liquor trade. In the ten years' quarrel between the American colonists and the British ministry, Lamb was an earnest and active patriot. He accompanied Montgomery to Quebec in 1775, where he was wounded and made prisoner. He was then a captain of artillery. Exchanged the next summer, he returned to New York, was promoted to major, and attached to tho regiment of artillery under General Knox. From the expedition to Quebec at the begin. Ding of the war to the siege of Yorktown at the end of it, Lamb was a gallant and most useful officer. He became a member of the New York Assembly. He was appointed collector of customs at the port of New York by President Washington, which office he held until his death. f Alexander McDougall was born in Scotland in 1731 ; died in New York June 8, 178G. He came to New York about 1755, and was a printer and seaman when the quarrel between Great Britain and her American colonies was progressing. He issued an inflammatory address in 1700, concerning the action of the Provincial Assembly, headed " To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the Colony," and signed " A Son of Liberty." This, the assembly declared, was an infamous and seditious libel. McDougall was put in prison, and was there visited and regaled by patriotic men and women. He was finally released, and became one of the leading men in civil and military life throughout the war for independence. He entered the army as colonel, and was a major-general in 1777. A delegate in Congress in 1781, he was soon appointed " Minister of Marine" (Secretary of the Navy), but did not hold the office long. He returned to the army. He was chosen a senator of the State of New York in 1783, and held that position at the time of his death. \ John Morin Scott was born in New York in 1730 : died there September 14, 1784. He was a graduate of Yalo College, became a lawyer, and holding a forcible pen, he joined William Livingston in writing against ministerial measures for years before the breaking out of the war for independence. He was a most active and influential member of the Provincial Congress of New Y'ork, and of committees. In 177G he was made a brigadier-general, and fought in the battle of Long Island. In 1777 he was chosen State senator ; was Secretary of the State of New York, and was a member of Congress 1780-83. OUTLINE HISTORY, 1009-1830. 31 mous vote the proceedings of the assembly were disapproved. A com- mittee presented the proceedings of the meeting to the assembly, and were courteously received. Another handbill from the same hand, signed " Legion," appeared the next day, in which the action of the assembly was denounced as " base and inglorious," and charged that body with a betrayal of their trust. This second attack was pro- nounced a libel by the assembly, only the stanch patriot Philip Schuy- ler voting No. They offered a reward for the discovery of the writer. The printer of the handbills, menaced with punishment, told them it was Alexander McDongall, a seaman, who was afterward a conspicuous olKcer in the Continental army. He was arrested, and refusing to plead or give bail, was imprisoned many weeks before he was brought to trial. Regarded as a martyr to the cause of liberty, his prison was the scene of daily public receptions. Some of the most reputable of the citizens sympathizing with him frequently visited him. Being a sailor, he was regarded as the true type of " imprisoned commerce." On the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act, his health was drank with honors at a banquet, and the meeting in procession visited him in his prison. Ladies of distinction daily thronged there. Popular songs were written, and sung under his prison bars, and emblematic swords were worn. His words when ordered to prison were, " I rejoice that I am the first to suffer for libertv since the commencement of our glorious struggle." He was finally released on bail, and the matter was wisely dropped by the prosecutors. McDougall was a true type of what is generally known as the " common people" — the great mass of citizens who carry on the chief industries of a country — its agriculture, com- merce, manufactures, and arts — and create its wealth. Comparative quiet prevailed in New York from the time of the McDougall excitement until the arrival of the news of Lord North's famous Tea Act, which set the colonies in a blaze. The people every- where resolved to oppose, and not allow a cargo of tea to be landed anywhere. The earliest public meeting to consider the reception that should be given to the tea-ships, which had actually sailed for America, was held in the city of New York on the 15th of October, 1773. Inti- mations had reached the city on the 11th that a tea-ship had been ordered to that port ; and at the meeting held at the Coffee-House in Wall Street, grateful thanks were voted to the patriotic American merchants and shipmasters in London who had refused to receive tea as freight from the East India Company. When the tea-ship \Ncmcy) arrived at Sandy Hook (April IS, 1774) the captain was informed by a pilot of the drift of public sentiment in 32 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. New York, and he wisely went up to the city without his vessel. lie found that sentiment so strong against allowing him to land his cargo that he resolved to return to England with it. While he was in the city a merchant vessel arrived with eighteen chests of tea hidden in her cargo. The vigilant Sons of Liberty discovered them and cast their contents into the waters of the harbor, and advised the captain of the vessel to leave the city as soon as possible. As he and the commander of the Saucy put off in a small boat at the foot of Broad Street for their respective vessels, ;i multitude on shore shouted a farewell, while the thunders of Qannon fired in the Fields shook the city, and the people hoisted a Hag on the Liberty Pole in token of triumph. This Xew York Tea Party occurred several months after the famous Boston Tea Party. At this juncture the state of political society in Xew York was pecul- iar. Social differences had produced two quite distinct parties among professed republicans, which were designated respectively Patrician* and Tribunes ; the former were composed of the merchants and gentry, and the latter mostly of mechanics. The latter were radicals, and the former joined with the Loyalists in attempts to check the influence of the zealous democrats. Most of the, influential merchants were with these Conservatives, and were, as usual, averse to commotions which disturb trade. They hesitated to enter into another non-importation league. They held a public meeting, and appointed a Committee of Fifty-one as "representatives of public sentiment in Xew York." They publicly repudiated a strong letter which the radicals had sent to their brethren in Boston ; and while the people of other colonies approved non-intercourse, Xew York, as represented by this Grand Committee, stood alone in opposition to a stringent non-intercourse league. The Loyalists rejoiced, and a writer in Rivington's Gazette exclaimed with exultation : " And so, my good masters, I find it no joke, For York lias stepped forward and thrown off the yoke Of Congress, Committees, and even King Sears, Who shows you good nature by showing his ears." The " Committee of Yigilance" appointed by the Radicals disre- garded the action of the Grand Committee. They called a mass- meeting of the citizens in the Fields on the 10th of June, 1774. That meeting denounced the lukewarmness of the Committee of Fifty-one, and resolved to support the Bostonians in their struggle. The port of the latter had been closed to commerce by a royal order. It was an insult OUTLINE HISTORY, 1000-18:50. 33 and an injury to the whole continent, and ought to be resented by the whole. Another meeting- was called in the Fields at six o'clock in the evening of the 6th of July, " to hear matters of the utmost importance to the reputation of the people and their security as freemen." It was an immense gathering, and was ever afterward known as The Great Meeting in the Field*. A strong resolution in favor of non-importation was adopted, and other patriotic measures were approved. In the crowd was a lad, seventeen years of age, delicate and girl-like in per- sonal grace and stature. Some who knew him as a student at King's (now Colombia) College, of much intellectual vigor, urged him to make a speech. After much persuasion he complied. With rare eloquence and logic he discussed the principles involved in the controversy, de- picted the sufferings Americans were enduring from the oppression of the mother country, and pointed to the means which might secure redress. All listened in wonder to the words of widsom from the lips of the youth, and when he ceased speaking there was a whispered murmur in the crowd, "It is a collegian ! it is a collegian !" That young orator was Alexander Hamilton. Preparations were now on foot for a general council of the English- American colonies. The citizens of New York took the first step in that direction. The Sons of Liberty, whom the Loyalists called " The Presbyterian Jesuits," moved by the injustice and menaces of the Boston Port Bill, proposed, in May, 1774, by their representative committee, a General Congress of delegates. They sent this proposition to Boston, urging the patriots there to second the proposal. They also sent the same to the Philadelphia committee, and through them to the southern colonies. There was general acquiescence, and early in September delegates from twelve of the colonies met in Philadelphia and formed the First Continental Congress. This was the beginning of a new era in the world's history. The tempest of revolution which the British king, lords and commons had engendered was about to sweep over the English-American colonies, and by its energy dismember the British Empire and create a new power among the nations of the earth. In the preliminary events which ushered in that era the inhabitants of the city of New York had home a conspicuous part. They had first planted the seeds of democracy in America, first vindicated the freedom of the press, and first suggested the use of three great forces which led in the successful DO o struggle for the independence of the American people — namely, Com- mittees of Correspondence, Non-importation Leagues, and a General Congress which, foreshadowed a permanent union. In that Congress 34 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. the city of New York was represented by James Duane,* John Jay, Philip Livingston, and Isaac Low — men who took an important part in its deliberations. One of them (John Jay), then only twenty -nine years of age, wrote the able Address to the People of Great Britain, adopted by the Congress, and formed one of those admirable state papers put forth by that body, concerning which William Pitt said in the British Parliament : ik I must declare and avow that in all my reading and study of history (and it has been my favorite study — I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world) — that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia." At that time the city of New York contained a population of about twenty-two thousand. The city had expanded northward on the narrow island. Streets were opened on the west side of Broadway as far as Reade Street, at which point had just been erected the New York Hospital It was so far out of town that nobody dreamed the little city would extend so far inland within a hundred years. Up the Bowery Lane (now the Bowery), then running through the open country to Stuyvesant's country seat, the streets were laid out as far as Hester Street, and up Division Street, then also a country road, as far as ( )rchard Street. There were three newspapers published in the city at that time — Hugh Game's New York Mercury, John Holt's X7. When the war for independence broke out, and the British took possession of the city, Gaine and Holt fled, the first to New Jersey, the second up the Hudson River to Kingston, and resumed the publication of their respective papers at the places of * James Duane was liorn in the city of Xew York, February 6, 1733 ; died in Duanes- burg, N. Y., February 1, 1797. He began a settlement in 1765 on the site of Duanes- burg, a part of a large estate which he inherited. His wife was a daughter of Colonel Robert Livingston of the " manor." An active patriot, he was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress in 1774 ; was a member of the New York Provincial Conven- tion, and was on the committee that drafted the first Constitution of the State of New York. After the British evacuation in 1783 he returned to the city of New York, and was elected the first mayor under the new Constitution. In 1783-84 he was a member of the council and State Senator, and was also a member of the convention of the State of New York which adopted the National Constitution. Mr. Duane was United States District Judge from 1789 to 1794. OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 35 their exile. At that time John Anderson, a Scotchman, was publish- ing a small "Whig newspaper entitled the Constitutional Gazette. He fled to Connecticut. Rivington, who had become zealous in the cause of the crown, remained. His vigorous, sharp, and witty thrusts at the patriotic party so irritated the Sons of Liberty that Isaac Seal's,* in the fall of 1775, at the head of a hundred light-horsemen from Con- necticut, went to the city at noonday, entered Rivington's printing establishment at the foot of "Wall Street, destroyed his press, and put- ting his type into bags carried them away and made bullets of them. The First Continental 'Congress took a strong position in opposition to the obnoxious measures of the British Government. They adopted a general non-importation league under the name of " The American Association." They denounced the slave trade, put forth some able state papers, above mentioned, and sent a copy of their proceedings to Dr. Franklin, then in England. Vigilance committees were appointed to see that the provisions of the association were not evaded. The Congress adjourned to meet again the following May, if public necessity should require them to do so. The patriotic party in the New York Assembly tried in vain to have that body officially sanction the proceedings of the Continental Con- gress. The leaven of loyalty was at work in that body, and there was much timidity exhibited as the great crisis approached. Conservatism was too strong for the patriots in that body to effect more than the adoption of a remonstrance, but it was so bold in its utterances that Parliament refused to accept it. "When the assembly adjourned in April, 1775, it was final. It never met again. The people in the city took public matters into their own hands. They had appointed a committee of sixty to enforce the regu- * Isaac Sears was born at Norwalk, Conn., in 1729; died in Canton, China, October 28, 178G. He was one of the most zealous and active of the Sons of Liberty in New York, when the war for independence was a-kindling. When political matters arrested his attention, Sears was a successful merchant in New York, carrying on trade with Europe and the AVest Indies. Previous to engaging in trade he commanded a privateer. He lost his vessel in 1761, and then settled in New York. In the Stamp Act excitement he became a leader of the Sons of Liberty, and so bold and active did he become that he received the name of "King Sears." The Tories and the Tory newspaper (Riving- ton's) maligned, ridiculed, and caricatured him without stint. Sears retaliated on Rivington. One day in November, 1775, he entered the city at the head of a troop of Connecticut horsemen, and in open day destroyed Rivington's printing establishment. He became General Charles Lee's adjutant in 1776, but did not remain long in the mili- tary service. When the war was ended his business and fortune were gone, and in 1785 he sailed for Canton as a supercargo. He sickened on the passage, and died soon after his arrival in China. 36 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. lations of the association. The assembly having refused to make provision for the appointment of delegates to the Second Continental Congress, it was determined to organize a Provincial Congress. Dele- gates from the several counties met in New York on the 2<»th of April and appointed delegates to the Congress — namely, Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, Simon Boerum, William Floyd, Henry Wisner, Philip Schuyler, George Clinton, Lewis Morris, Francis Lewis, and Robert R. Livingston. When news of the conflicts at Lexington and Concord reached New York, five days after their occurrence, the citizens were greatly excited. All business was suspended. The Sons of Liberty, who had gathered arms, distributed them among the people, and a party formed them- selves into a revolutionary corps under Captain Samuel Broome, and assumed temporarily the functions of the municipal government, for it was known that the mayor was a loyalist. They obtained the keys of the Custom-IIouse, closed it, and laid an embargo upon every vessel in port, This done, they proceeded to organize a provisional government for the city, and on the Mi of May the people assembled at the Coffee- Ilouse, chose one hundred of their fellow-citizens for the purpose, invested them with the charge of municipal affairs, and pledged them- selves to obey the orders of the committee. It was composed of the following substantial citizens : Isaac Low, chairman ; John Jay, Francis Lewis, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, James Duane, Evert Duyckman, AVilliam Seton, William W. Ludlow, Cornelius Clopper, Abraham Brinkerhoff, Henry Remsen, Robert Ray, Evert Bancker, Joseph Totten, Abraham P. Lott, David Beekman, Isaac Roosevelt, Gabriel II. Ludlow, AVilliam AValton, Daniel Phoenix, Frederick Jay, Samuel Broome, John De Lancey, Augustus Van Home, Abraham Duryee, Samuel Yerplanck, Rudolphus Ritzema, John Morton, Joseph Hallet, Robert Benson, Abraham Brasher, Leonard Lispenard, Nicholas Hoffman, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Thomas Marsten, Lewis Pintard, John Imlay, Eleazer Miller, Jr., John Broome, John P,. Moore, Nicholas Bogart, John Anthony, Victor Bicker, AVilliam Goforth, Hercules Mulligan, Alexander McDougall, John Reade, Joseph Ball, George Janeway, John AVhite, Gabriel W. Ludlow, John Lasher, Theophilus Anthony, Thomas Smith, Richard A. ales, Oliver Templeton, Jacobus Yim Landby, Jeremiah Piatt, Peter S. Curtenius, Thomas Randall, Lancaster Burling, Benjamin Kissam, Jacob Lefferts, Anthony A"an Dam, Abraham AValton, Hamilton Young, Nicholas Roosevelt, Cornelius P. Loav, Francis Bassett, James Beekman, Thomas Ivers, AVilliam Dunning, John Berrien. Benjamin OUTLINE HISTORY, 1009-1830. 37 Ilehne. William AV. Gilbert, Daniel Dunscombe, John Lamb, Richard Sharp, John Morin Scott, Jacob Van Voorhis, Comfort Sands, Edward Elemming, Peter Goelet, Gerrit Kettletas, Thomas Buchanan, James Desbrosses, Petrua Byvanck, and Lott Embree. This committee was composed of the leading- citizens of New York, engaged in various professions and industries, the bone and sinew of society at that time. Many of them were conspicuous actors in the important events which ensued ; and thousands of citizens of Xew York to-day may find among, and point with just pride to, the names of ancestors which appear upon that roll of honor. This committee immediately assumed the control of the city, taking care to secure weapons for possible use, sending away all cannon not belonging to the province, and prohibiting the sale of arms to persons suspected of being hostile to the patriots, and they were many. They presented an address to Governor Golden explaining the object of their appointment, and assuring him that they should use every effort to maintain peace and quiet in the city. It was known that royal regiments were coming to New York, and the committee asked the Continental Congress for instructions how to act in the premises. They were advised not to oppose their landing, but not to suffer them to erect fortifications, and to act on the defensive. In the Provincial Congress there was a strong infusion of Tory elements, and they exhibited a timid or temporizing policy on this occasion. The troops landed ; the Provincial Congress obsequiously showed great deference to crown officers ; the Asia man-of-war lying in the harbor was allowed supplies of provisions ; some of the acts of the Sons of Liberty were rebuked, and there seemed to be more of a dis- position to produce reconciliation than to assert the rights of the people. Edmund Burke, who had been an agent for the province, expressed his surprise " at the scrupulous timidity which could suffer the king's forces to possess themselves of the most important port in America." When, soon after this, the troops were ordered to Boston, the com- mittee directed that they should take no munitions of war with them, excepting their anus and accoutrements. Unmindful of this order, they were proceeding down Broad Street to embark with several wagons loaded with arms, when they were discovered by Colonel Marinus Willett,* who hastily gathered some of the Sons of Liberty, * Marinas Willett was born at Jamaica, L. L, July 31, 1740, and died in New York City August 23, 1830. He was graduated at King's (Columbia) College in 1700. He served under Abercrombie and Bradstreet in 1758, and when the quarrel between Great Britain and her American colonies began, Willett was one of the most energetic of the 38 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY confronted the troops, seized the horse that was drawing the head wagon, and stopped the whole train. While disputing with the com- mander, the Tory mayor of the city came up and severely reprimanded Willett for thus " endangering the public peace," when the latter was joined by John Morin Scott, one of the Committee of One Hundred, who told him he was right ; that the troops were violating orders, and they must not be allowed to take the arms away. The wagons were turned back, and the troops, in light marching order, were allowed to embark. War had now begun. Blood had flowed at Lexington. Ticonderoga had fallen into the hands of the patriots. Ethan Allen had seized it in the name "of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The battle of Bunker's Hill soon followed. The army of volunteers gathered at Cambridge was adopted by the Congress as a Continental army, and Washington was appointed commander-in-chief. With his suite he arrived in New York on the 25th of June. The royal governor Tryon had arrived the night before and been cordially received by the Tory mayor (Mathews) and the common council. Here were the representatives of the two great parties in America — Whig and Tory — face to face. The situation was embarrassing, and for a moment the people were at their wit's end. The two municipal governments were hostile to each other. The Provincial Congress then in session in the city came to the rescue by timidly presenting "Washington with a cau- tious address, containing nothing that would arouse the anger of the British lion. For a moment the patriotic heart of the city beat noise- lessly, and Washington passed on, sure of the public sympathy, which was only suppressed, and on the 3d of July he took formal command of the army at Cambridge. The Continental Congress ordered Xew York to raise regiments of troops and to fortify the passes in the Hudson Highlands. The Pro- vincial Congress directed the great guns of the Battery, in the city, to be removed and sent up the river. This order brought matters to a crisis. Captain Lamb, with some Sons of Liberty and other citizens, opponents of the ministry. A leading Son of Liberty, he was a leader in the rebellious movements in New York City. -He entered McDongaU'g regiment as captain, and partici- pated in the invasion of Canada. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he was ordered to Fort Stanwix, in May, 1777, and participated in the stormy events of that neighborhood during the summer. In June, 177fi, he joined the army under Washington, and was active in the military service during the remainder of the war. At the close he was chosen sheriff of the city of New York, and filled the office eight years. In 1807 he was chosen mayor of the city. Colonel Willett was created a brigadier-general in 1792, but never entered upon the duties of that rank. OUTLINE HISTORY, 1G09-1830. 39 proceeded to execute the order on a pleasant night in August. While so engaged, a musket was fired upon them from a barge belonging to the Asia. The fire was returned by Lamb's party, killing one of the crew and wounding several others. The Asia opened a cannonade upon the town, which caused great consternation and the flight of many of the inhabitants. Lamb and his men persisted in this work in spite of the cannonade, and took away the whole twenty-one cannon from the Battery. After that the Asia was denied supplies from the city, and Governor Try on, perceiving his danger, took counsel of his fears and fled for refuge on board a British man-of-war in the harbor, where he attempted to exercise civil government for a while. After these events the city enjoyed comparative quiet until the following spring, disturbed only by Sears's raid upon Kivington's printing estab- lishment, ah'eady mentioned. CHAPTER IV. BRITISH army commanded by General Howe had been besieged ^LJl. iii Boston during the winter of 1775-76, and in March was com- pelled to fly to Halifax, N. S., by sea, leaving New England in posses- sion of the " rebels/'' Meanwhile the British ministry had conceived a plan for separating New England from the rest of the colonies by the establishment of a line of military posts in the valleys of the Hudson and Lake Champlain, between New York and the St. Lawrence. To do this New York must be seized. Aside from this scheme, New York appeal's to have been a coveted prize for the British, and early in 177<> Howe despatched General Clinton secretly to attack it. Suspecting New York to be Clinton's destination, Washington sent General Charles Lee thither ; and on the evacuation of Boston in March, the commander-in-chief marched with nearly the whole of his army to New York, arriving there at the middle of April. He pushed forward the defences of the city begun by General Lord Stirling. Fort George, on the site of Fort Amsterdam, was strengthened, numerous batteries were constructed on the shores of the Hudson and East rivers, and lines of fortifications were built across the island from river to river not far from the city. Strong Fort Washington was finally built on the highest land on the island (now Washington Heights), and intrenchments were thrown up on Harlem Heights. In the summer "Washington made his headquarters at Rich- mond Hill, then a country retreat at the (present) junction of Charlton and Varick streets. On the 10th of July copies of the Declaration of Independence were received in New York. The army was drawn up into hollow squares by brigades, and in that position the important document was read to each brigade. That night soldiers and citizens joined in pulling down the equestrian statue of King George, which the grateful citizens had caused to be set up in the Bowling Green only six years before. They dragged the leaden image through the streets and bi'oke it in pieces. Some of it was taken to Connecticut and moulded into bullets. It was while Washington had his headquarters at Richmond Hill that OUTLINE HISTORY, 1600 1830 41 a plot, suggested, it is said, by Governor Try on, to murder him was discovered. One of his Life Guard was bribed to do the deed. He attempted to poison -his general. lie had secured, as he thought, a confederate in the person of the maiden who waited upon Washington's tal>le. She allowed the miscreant to put the poison in a dish of green peas she was about to set before the commander-in-chief, to whom she gave warning of his danger when she placed them on his table. The treacherous guardsman was arrested, found guilty, and hanged. This was the first military execution in New York. At the close of June, 177(i, a British fleet arrived at Sandy Hook with General Howe's army, which was landed on Staten Island, and soon afterward the British general, who was also a peace commissioner, attempted to open a correspondence with AVashington. He addressed his letter to " George AVashington, Esq." The latter refused to re- ceive it, as the address " was not in a style corresponding with the dig- nity of the situation which he held.'' Another was sent, addressed " George AVashington, etc., etc., etc.'' This was refused, as it did not recognize his public character. The bearer of the letters explained to AVashington their purport, which was to "grant pardons," etc. AVashington replied that the Americans had committed no offences which needed pardons, and the affair was dropped. Afterward Gen- eral and Admiral Howe met a committee of Congress on Staten Island to confer on the subject of peace, but it was fruitless of any apparent good. Soon after Howe's troops had landed they were joined by forces under Sir Henry Clinton, which had been repulsed in an attack upon Charleston, S. C. Hessians — German mercenaries hired by the British Government— also came ; and late in August the British force on Staten Island and on the ships was more than twenty-five thousand in number. On the 25th of August over ten thousand of these had landed on the western end of Long Island, prepared to attempt the capture of New York. AVashington, whose army was then about seventeen thousand strong, had caused fortifications to be constructed at Brooklyn, and he sent over a greater part of his forces to confront the invaders. The battle of Long Island ensued, and was disastrous to the Americans. AVashington skilfully conducted the remainder not killed or captured, in a retreat across the East River, under cover of a fog, to New York, and thence to Harlem Heights at the northern end of the island. The conquering British followed tardily, crossed the East River at Kip's Bay, and after a sharp battle on Harlem Plains took possession of the 42 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. city of New York, or what was left of it. The British had pitched their tents near the city, intending to enter the next morning, and were in repose. Suddenly at midnight arrows of lurid Maine shot heavenward from the lower part of the town. A conflagration had heen accidentally kindled at the foot of Broad Street. Many of the inhabitants had fled from the city, and few were left to fight the flames, which, in the space of a few hours, devoured about five hundred buildings. The soldiei-s and sailors from the vessels in the river stayed the flames before they reac hed Wall Street. The British took posses- sion^ the city of New York in September, 177(>, and held it until No- vember, 1783. Ex-Governor Colden died a few days alter the fire, aged eighty-nine years. A day or two after the occupation began. Captain Nathan Hale, of Connecticut, was brought to the headquarters of General Howe in the Beekman mansion at Turtle Bay (Forty-fifth Street and East River), where he was condemned as a spy. He was confined in the greenhouse that night, and hanged the next morning under the supervision of the notorious provost-marshal, Cunningham, who behaved in the most brutal manner toward his victim. Hale is justly regarded as a martyr to the cause of freedom ; Andre, who suffered for the same offence, was the victim of his own ambition. New York exhibited scenes of intense suffering endured by American prisoners during the British occupation of the city. It was the British headquarters throughout the war. The provost jail (now the Hall of Records) was the prison for captured American officers, and was under the direct charge of Cunningham. The various sugar-houses — the largest buildings in the city — were also used for prisons, and some of the churches were converted into hospitals. Old hulks of vessels were moored in the Hudson and East rivers, and used as floating prisons. There were five thousand Americans suffering in the prisons and prison- ships at New York at one time, and they were dying by scores every day. Ill-treatment, lack of humanity, and starvation everywhere pre- vailed. " No care was taken of the sick," wrote one of the victims, "and if any died they were thrown at the door of the prison, and lay there till the next day, when they were put on a cart and drawn out to the intrenchments, beyond the Jews' burial-ground [Chatham Square], 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 sepulture." The " prison-ships," as the old hulks were called, were, if possible, more conspicuous as scenes of barbarous treatment than the jails on OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 43 shore. The most famous (or infamous) of these was the Jersey, the largest of the group and the longest retained in that service. She was moored at the Wallabout (now the Navy-Yard at Brooklyn), and was called by the captives "the hell afloat." These captive American sailors composed the bulk of the prisoners. The most wanton outrages were suffered by the poor victims. For example .: " One night," said one of them who escaped, " while the men were eagerly pressing to the grate at the hatchway to obtain a breath of pure air while awaiting their turn to go on deck, the sentinel thrust his bayonet among them, killing twenty-five of the number ; and this outrage was frequently repeated." The number of deaths in this " hell " from fever, starva- tion, and even actual suffocation in the pent-up and exhausted air, was frightful ; and every morning there went down the hatchway from the deck the fearful cry of Rebels, turn out your dead !" Then a score, sometimes, of dead bodies covered with vermin would be carried up by tottering half skeletons, their suffering companions, when they were taken to the shore and buried in the sands of the beach. Such was the fate of eleven tJiousand American 2>riso7iers. The rem- nants of their bones were gathered by the Tammany Society of New York and deposited in a vault near the entrance to the Navy- Yard, with funeral ceremonies, in 1S0S. By arrangements made by the Con- tinental Congress for an exchange of prisoners, and the humane and energetic exertions of Elias Boudinot, commissary of prisoners, the con- dition of the captives was much ameliorated during the later years of the war. But the sufferings of the officers in the provost prison, at the hands of the brutal Cunningham, continued. lie seemed to be acting under direct orders from his government and independent of the mili- tary authorities. In his confession before his execution in England for a capital crime, he said : " I shudder to think of the murders I have been accessory to, witii and without orders from i/nrmtim-nt, especially while in New York, during which time there were more than two thousand prisoners starved in the different churches by stopping their rations, which I sold !" In July, f 777, the State of New York was organized under a consti- tution adopted at Kingston on the Hudson. George Clinton was elected governor, and continued in the office about twentv vears eon- secutively. The first session of the Legislature was held at Pough- keepsie at the beginning of 177S. In the summer of 1778 New York suffered from another great con- flagration. About three hundred buildings were destroyed in the neighborhood of Cruger's wharf, on the East River. It broke out in 44 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Pearl Street (then Dock Street), and raged for several hours. The fire companies had been disbanded, and the soldiers who tried to extinguish the flames effected but little, owing" to inexperience. The winter of 1779-SO was remarkable for intense cold. The suffer- ings in the city of New York, especially among the poor, were fearful. Sufficient fuel could not be obtained, for the city was blockaded on the land side by the Americans. Some of the citizens were reduced to great extremities. There were instances of their splitting up chairs and tables for fuel to cook their breakfasts, and the women and children lay in bed the rest of the day to keep warm. The waters about the city were frozen into a solid bridge of ice for forty days, and the British sent eighty heavy cannon over it from New York to Staten Island to repel an expected invasion. The arrest and execution of Andre produced great commotion in New York society in the fall of 17n>. The inhabitants were mostly Tories. The Whigs had left the city, and Tory refugees in different parts of the country had flocked back to the city. The Americans were anxious to obtain the person of Arnold and save Andre. Clinton would not give him up, and an attempt was made to seize him. Ser- geant Champe pretended to desert from the American army, and was warmly received by the traitor at Clinton's headquarters. It was arranged for Champe and some comrades to seize Arnold in the garden at night, gag him, take him to a boat, and carry him to "Washington's headquarters at Tappan. Unfortunately, Champe was ordered by the British commander to go south with the troops on the very day when the plot was to be executed, and it failed. On the arrival of the French allies on the banks of the Hudson the next year, the Americans prepared to attack New York, but the whole force finally marched to Virginia, and in October captured Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown. This victory virtually ended the war, but British troops continued to occupy New York for more than a year afterward. It was the last place evacuated by them. Preparations for that event caused a fearful panic among the Tory inhabitants of the city, who dreaded to face the indignation of their Whig fellow-citizens whom the}' had oppressed, and who would now return in force as victors. So more than a thousand of them left their homes and coun- try, and fled to Nova Scotia in British transports. The troops left the harbor on the 25th of November, lb73— a day yet celebrated in the city each year as " Evacuation Day." Before the troops left, under the provisions of an honorable treaty, they committed an act unworthy of the British name. They nailed OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 45 their flag to the staff in Fort George, unreefed the halliards, knocked off the cleats, and " slushed " the pole to prevent Americans ascending it and unfurling the Stars and Stripes there before the departing troops should be out of sight. They were frustrated by a young American sailor (John Van Arsdale, who died in 1836), who ascended the flagstaff by nailing on the cleats and applying sand to the greased pole. In this way he soon reached the top, hauled down the British colors, and placed those of the United States in the position. This was accom- plished while the British vessels were yet in the Lower Bay. Now occurred the closing scene of the Revolution. In the "great room' 1 of the tavern of Samuel Fraunces, at the corner of Broad and Pearl streets, Washington parted with his officers on the 4th of De- cember, 1TS3. It was a scene marked by great tenderness of feeling on the part of all present. Filling a glass with wine for a farewell sentiment, Washington turned to the assembled officers and said, " With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you, and most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable. " lie raised the glass to his hps, and continued, " I cannot come to each of you to take my leave ; but I shall be obliged if each one will come and take my hand." They did so. Xone could speak. They all embraced him in turn, when he silently left the room, walked to Whitehall, and entered a barge to convey him to Paulus's Hook (now Jersey City), on his way to Annapolis to surrender his commission to the Continental Congress sitting there. What a sublime leave-taking, under the cir- cumstances ! New York now began the task of recuperation. The evil effects of a seven years' occupation by foreign troops were seen on every side. Its buildings had been consumed by fire, its churches desecrated and laid waste, its commerce destroyed by the war, its treasury empty, its people estranged from each other by differences in political opin- ions ; feuds existing everywhere, and criminations and recriminations producing deep bitterness of feeling in society in general. New York was compelled to begin life anew, as it were. The tribute which it had paid to the cause of freedom was large, but had been freely given. The Whig refugees returned to the city, many of them to find their dwellings in ruins. There was no change made in the city govern- ment. The old charter, the organic law, was resumed, and in Febru- ary. 1784, James Duane. an ardent Whig who had left the city and had returned to his farm near (present) Gramercy Park and found his home burned and his fortune wrecked, was chosen mayor. Although 46 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY the vitality of the city had been paralyzed, yet men — high-minded and energetic men, who constitute a state — were left, and their influence was soon manifested in the visible aspects of public spirit and a revival of commerce. Public improvements Avere soon projected; but not much was done before the close of the century. The population numbered about 23,000, and there was only here and there a dwelling above Murray Street on the west side, and Chatham Square on the east side. There was not at that time a bank nor insurance company in the city. Wall Street, where they now abound, was then the most elegant part of the city, where the aristocracy resided, anil yet most of the buildings were of wood, roofed witli shingles. The sides of many were so covered. Brick and stone were seldom used. Between Broadway and the Hudson River, above Reade Street, might be seen hundreds of cows belonging to the citizens grazing in the fields. The first public improvement begun was the filling in of the " Col- lect"" or Fresh Water Bond, where the Tombs or Halls of Justice, or City Prison, now stand. This task was begun about 1790, but not completed until the close of the century. Dunne and Reade streets were opened through the southern portion of the district. At near the close of the century a canal was cut through Lispenard's meadows from the " Collect" to the Hudson River, along the line of (present) Canal Street, forty feet wide, with a narrow street on each side of it. Tin's accounts for the greater width of Canal Street. This canal was spanned at the junction of Broadway and Canal Street by an arched stone bridge, which was subsequently buried when the ground was heightened by filling in, and the canal disappeared. That bridge may be discovered in future ages, and be regarded by antiquarians as a structure belonging to a buried city older than Xew York. OCT *J The " Commons" (City Ball Park) yet lay open, and occupied only by the " New Bridewell," the " Xew Jail,"' and the Almshouse at the northern part. Between the latter and the Bridewell stood the gallows. In 1790 the first sidewalks in the city were laid on each side of Broad* way, between Vesey and Murray streets. They were of stone and brick, and were so narrow that only two persons might walk abreast. Above Murray Street, Broadway passed over a series of hills, the highest at (present) Worth Street. The grade from Duane to Canal Street was fixed by the corporation in 1797, and when the improve- ment was made Broadway was cut through the hill at Worth (formerly Anthony) Street about twenty-three feet below its surface. The streets were first systematically numbered in 1793. OUTLINE HISTORY, IfiOO 18:30. 47 During the deliberations of the State Convention of New York, at Poughkeepsie in the summer of 1788, to consider the National Consti- tution, the city Avas much excited by the discussions of opposing fac- tions. On the 8th of July, eighteen days before that instrument was ratified by the convention, a frigate called " The Federal ship Hamil- ton" manned by seamen and marines, commanded by Commodore Nicholson and accompanied by a vast procession, was drawn from the Bowling Green to Bayard's farm, near Grand Street, where tables were spread and dinner provided for about five thousand people. At the head was a table of circular form, somewhat elevated, at which were seated members of Congress, their principal officers, foreign ambassa- dors, and other persons of distinction. From this table diverged thir- teen other tables, at which the great concourse sat. It was the first procession of the kind ever seen in the city. Greenleaf's Pairnotie Register spoke so sarcastically of this " Federal procession' 1 that the friends of the Constitution were greatly irritated ; and when news came of its ratification, a mob broke into Greenleaf's office and destroyed the type and presses. They next attacked the house of John Lamb, in Wall Street, whic h was so well defended by the owner and some friends below armed with muskets, and by his daughter, a maiden sister, and a colored servant stationed in the attic with a plentiful supply of Dutch tiles and broken bottles, that the riot- el's soon raised the siege. By far the most notable event in the history of the city of New York after the Revolution was the organization of the National Gov- ernment under the new Constitution, and the inauguration of Washing- ton as the first President of the United States. The National Consti- tution, framed at Philadelphia in 17*7, had been duly ratified in 1788, and elections for electors of President and for members of Congress had been held. The first Congress under the new Constitution was called to meet at New York on the 4th of March, 1780. Only a few members wore present on that day, and it was not until the 0th of April that a sufficient number appeared to form a quorum. On that day the electoral vote was counted, and George Washington was de- clared to be elected President, and John Adams Yice- President. Adams arrived first. He was met at King's Bridge, near the north- ern extremity of the island, on the 21st of April, by both houses of Congress, and escorted into the city by several military companies. At the City Hall he delivered an inaugural address. "Washington arrived soon afterward. His journey from Mount Vernon had been a continuous triumphal march. He was greeted by the citizens everywhere with 48 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. enthusiasm, and his reception at Murray's wharf in New York was an event long- to be remembered. lie was escorted to his future residence in Cherry Street, near Franklin Square, and dined with Governor Clinton at the same house where he had parted with his officers. In the evening the city was brilliantly illuminated. On the 30th of April, upon the outer gallery of Federal Hall, overlooking "Wall and Broad streets, he took the oath of office, administered by Chancellor Livings- ton in the presence of a large multitude of citizens who crowded the two streets in the vicinity of the hall. "When Mrs. Washington arrived, a month later, she was received with a national salute of thirteen guns at the Battery. The most exciting event in New York from the evacuation of the city until the organization of the National Government was a riot known as " The Doctors' Mob." It occurred in 17SS. Graves in the Potter's Field (now "Washington Square) and the negro burial-ground (at Chambers and Reade streets, east of Broadway), and in private cem- eteries, had been rifled of their contents. The discovery created much public excitement. Rumor exaggerated the facts, and every physician in the city was suspected of the act. The hospital on Broadway, the only one in the city, suddenly became an object of horror, as the sus- pected recipients of the stolen dead bodies. One day a student there thoughtlessly exhibited a limb of a body he was dissecting to some boys playing near. They told the story. It spread over the city, and very soon an excited multitude appeared before the hospital. They broke into the building and destroyed some line anatomical prepara- tions, which had been imported. The terrified physicians were seized, and would have been murdered by the mob had not the authorities rescued them and placed them in the jail. The populace, foiled, became comparatively quiet, but the riot was renewed with more vio- lence the next morning. Hamilton, .lay, and others harangued the rioters, but were assailed with bricks and stones. In the afternoon matters became worse, and toward evening the mayor appeared with a body of militia, determined to fire on the rioters if they did not disperse or desist. The friends of law and order tried to prevent bloodshed, and beco-ed the mayor not to fire until cverv other measure had failed. Do t/ «- Again they harangued the mob, and were answered by a shower of missiles. The Baron von Steuben begged the mayor not to fire. At that moment a stone struck and prostrated him. As he was falling he shouted, " Fire ! Mayor, fire !" The mayor no longer hesitated. He ordered the militia to fire, and they obeyed. Five of the rioters were killed and several were wounded, when the rest dispersed. OUTLINE HISTORY, 1G09 1830. 19 New York was the seat of the Colonial Government until the Revo- lution, and from 178-1 to 1707 it was the State capital, when Albany- became permanently so. During that period two sessions of the State Legislature were held at Poughkeepsie, and three at Albany. From 1785 to 1790 it was the seat of the National Government, part of the time under the Confederation, and a part of the . time under the new Constitution. During the residence of President Washington in New York, from April, 1789, until the autumn of 1790, he occupied first the house of Osgood, in Cherry Street, and after February, 1790, a dwelling on Broadway, a little below Trinity Church, which was subsequently used as a hotel called " The Mansion House." His public and private life was marked by much simplicity. His house was plainly furnished ; he held public receptions on Tuesdays, had congressional dinner-parties on Thursdays, and on Friday evenings Mi's. Washington held recep- tions. On Saturday he rode in the country on horseback or in his car- riage with the family, often taking the " fourteen-mile circuit" on the island. On Sundays he usually attended divine service, and in the evening read to his family, receiving no visitors. Washington sometimes attended the theatre on John Street, a small wooden structure used by the British for amateur performances during their occupation of the city. It was then called " The Theatre Royal," and was first opened by them in January, 1777. Its playbills were headed " Charity," and sometimes " For the Benefit of the Orphans and Widows of Soldiers." The British officers were the actors, and feminine parts were played by young subalterns. When Ma jor Andre was in the city he was actor and scene-painter. The first regular theatre in New York was erected in 1750, in the rear of the church on Nassau Street, late the Post-Office. Hallam was the manager. When he left it was pulled down. A second was built on Beekman Street, near Nassau Street, which was destroyed by the Sons of Liberty during the Stamp Act excitement. Another was built in 1767 on John Street — an unsightly object painted red. It was used, as we have seen, during the Revolution ; and in it was played, in 1786, the first American drama performed on a regular sta^e by a com- pany of regular comedians. It was called The Contrast, and was writ- ten by Royal Tyler, of Boston. The first native-born American actor (John Martin) was a New Yorker, and first appeared on the sta^e in New York as Young Nerval, in the winter of 1790. The Park Thea- tre, which remained until a comparatively few years ago, was first opened early in 1798. 50 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. Tn the last decade of the eighteenth century New York City was scourged by yellow fever. It had appeared there in 1742, when many died of the disease. It broke out in 1791, near Burling Slip, but it was so late in the season that it was soon checked by frosts. It reap- peared early in August, 1795, and 702 persons died before frosts ended it. It made a more dreadful visit in 1798, beginning at the latter part of July and ending in November. About 2100 died in the city, besides almost 300 who had fled from it. The population of the city was then about 55,000. It prevailed more slightly in 1790, 1800, 1803 (when over 600 perished), 1805, 1819, 1822, and 1823. When the fever appeared in 180$, so great was the panic that one third of the popula- tion, then numbering 75,000, fled to the country. The fugitives were mostly from the four lower wards in the city. The French Revolution caused the division of the Americans into two great parties — Frth-rulixtx, and Ii<'jnihllo(tnn or Democrat*. The latter, led by Jefferson, espoused the cause of the French ; the former, led by Hamilton, opposed the influence of the revolutionists. Demo- cratic societies in imitation of the Jacobin clubs in Paris were formed, and in secret promoted violent opposition to Washington's administra- tion. These politicians encouraged l< Citizen Genet" in his defiance of our government. He met with an enthusiastic reception in New York. The liberty cap was hoisted on the flagstaff of the Tontine Coffee- House near the foot of Wall Street, tricolored cockades were worn, and the " Marseillaise" was chanted in the streets of New York. The Federalists denounced the conduct of the French minister. They were backed by the Chamber of Commerce, and warmly sustained the Presi- dent's proclamation of neutrality. When Jay's treaty was negotiated, the " French party," as the Democrats were called, opposed it with much violence. An anony- mous handbill called a mass-meeting in front of the City Hall in Wall Street, on July 18, 1795, to consider the treaty. Both parties attended in full force. Aaron Burr was the chief speaker for the Democrats ; Alexander Hamilton was the chief speaker for the Federalists. In the course of the proceedings a scene of violence ensued. Hamilton mounted the " stoop" of a Dutch house at the corner of Broad and Wall streets, and began to speak in favor of the treaty. He was dragged to the ground by the opposing party and roughly handled in the street. Then the Democrats ran to the Bowling Green, shouting and huzzaing, where the treatv was burned under the united folds of the French and American flags to the sound of the Carmagnole. These turbulent events in New York and elsewhere, and the support OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 51 given by the secret Democratic societies to the Whiskey Insurrection the year before, caused Washington to denounce secret associations as dangerous to the public welfare. The Tammany Society or Columbian Order, which had been formed at the beginning of "Washington's administration as a patriotic and benevolent institution, regarding itself as pointed at, and being largely composed of Republicans or Demo- crats, was transformed into a political organization in opposition to the Federalists. It still exists, and plays an important part in the politics of the city and State. Merchants of New York formed a Tontine Association and built the " Tontine Coffee-House" at the corner of Wall and Water Streets. It was opened in 1794 as a sort of Merchants' Exchange. The shares were #200 each. Each subscriber might select a nominee for each share held , by him, during whose lifetime he or she was to receive an equal proportion of the net profits from the investment of the fund. When the number of nominees should be reduced to seven by death, the property was to be conveyed to the survivors in fee simple. That number was reached in 187