B^*^' ¦a uu fiiA-" .¦Sn vt, •m? Els'! ORT NEW YORK CITY, EMBRACING AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF EVENTS FROM i6oq TO 1830, AND A FULL ACCOUNT OF ITS DEVELOPMENT FROM 1830 TO 1884. BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D., AUTHOR OF '¦^Pictorial Field Book of the JR evolution,'^ " The War of \%12.,'" and " The Civil War in America;" ''^ Mount Vernon audits Associations j^ ^^Illustrated History of the United States ;" " Cyclopedia of United States History ;" " Our Country /* " Story of the United States Navy, for Boys," etc., etc. [Wmixnit^ m% fnv^kmkf Ti^uis of I'arfes^ JuiJhtttgs, ^it.y ENGRAVED ON STEEL EXPRESSLY FOR THIS "WORK BY GEORGE E, FERINE. VOLUME I. NEW YORK: THE FERINE ENGRAVING AND PUBLISHING CO. Copyright, 1S84, by Geo. E. Ferine. All Eights Ebservbd. PREFACE. This "work is designed to be an outline picture of life in 'Ne'w York and of the city's material progress during the past sixty years. It is prefaced by a brief history of the city from the date of its foundation until 1830, "when the impetus "which produced its most marvellous development began to be po"wer- fully felt. No attempt has been made by the author to give details of the commerce, finances, mechanic arts, and manufactures of the city, for the scope and limits of the "work "would not permit. A fe"W notices of particular commercial, manufacturing, and other establishments have been given, only as illustrations of the enormous expansion of all kinds of business within the period of a quarter of a century. The work is essentially a social history of the city of New York. 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 brief records 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 aspects of society and in municipal affairs ; its judiciary, educational systems, and its government ; its politics and its journalism ; its inventors and discoverers ; 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 institutions with which the city abounds, together with the names of the projectors, corporators, and. present officers of the various institutions. In this work may also be found the portraits and brief bio-^^ iv PREFACE. graphical sketches of nearly one hundred citizens, who by their enterprise, intelligence, and character have materially assisted in the promotion of the prosperity and good name of New York, and in its elevation to the high position of the metropolis of the Western Hemisphere. They are tlie portraits of men whom their fellow-citizens delight to honor. These portraits and the materials for the biographical sketches have been obtained only through the earnest solicitations of the author. There are also numerous views of parks, public and private buildings, and other objects. These, like the portraits, are en graved on steel in the best manner, expressly for the work. The backgrounds of all the plates are of uniform size, causing an unique symmetry in the illustrations, particularly noticeable. The vignette views are after original India-ink drawings by Mr. J. Lawrence Giles. The illustrations are uniformly distrib uted through the work at equal distances apart, for the sake of regularity, and therefore could not, as a rule, be inserted where reference is made to them in the text. The reader, by referring to the list of portraits and other illustrations, may readily find their places in the work indicated ; and by a reference to the general index will as readily find the relevant biography or description sought. It has been observed that the scope and limits of this work would not permit minute details ; only a general view of the topics introduced. This, it is believed, will be more acceptable to the general reader than a narrative overburdened with the dry details of statistics, methods, and technicalities. The pub lisher has projected another work, in which will be given a full account of the commerce, finances, mechanic ai'ts, manufactures, and other industries, statistical and teclmical, in the city of« New York from its foundation until now. That work will be a complement to this. 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 the materials for this work, and to these he tenders h:.s sincere thanks. HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. OUTLINE HI.STORY, 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 scars 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 noAV 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 satisfled 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. Eeturning to the ocean, he sailed away for Europe to teU his employers what a magnifi cent prize he had won 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 hea"vily 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 profltable fur trade with the northern Eussias. Yery 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. panied by expert trappers and traders, built a redoubt, four log huts, and a storehouse on the slope west of (present) Broadway, just above the BoAvhng Green. This was the seed of the commercial metropolis of America, planted in 1612, at the southern extremity of a long, rocky, and swampy island Avhich the barbarians cafied Man-na-hat-ta. Among the bold Dutch navigators who came to Man-na-hat-ta or Manhattan was Adrien Block, in thq schooner Tigress. When she was laden with bear-skins and was about to depart for the Texel late in 1613, she took flre and became a blackened wreck. Before the next spring, oaks that had sheltered bears Avhere WaU Street " bulls" now contend with flnancial bruins, Avere fashioned into a trim-built yacht of sixteen tons, which Avas flUed with skins and sailed for the Texel. She Avas named the Onrust— the " Eestless" — a prophecy of that unresting activity Avhich noAV marks the island of Manhattan. Such Avas the be ginning, in 1614, of the vast merchant marine of the city of Ncav York. In accordance with an ordinance lately passed by the Government of HoUand, the Amsterdam merchants hastened to obtain a special hcense for trading in the ncAvly discovered region. They procured a charter which gave them the monopoh' of the trade for four years, and the region Avas named New Netherland. They enlarged their storehouse at Manhattan, built forts as trading stations near the site of Albany, and the httle seed planted at the mouth of the river by Christiansen germinated into a thriving plant of empire — a viUage Avhich they caUed Manhattan. FinaUy, 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 poAvers to colonize, goA'em, and defend, not only that little domain on the Hudson, but the Avhole unoccupied coasts of America from NeAvfoundland to Cape Horn, and from the Cape of Good Hope far north Avard along the coast of Africa. The charter contained aU the guarantees of freedom, in social, political, and religious life, necessary to the founding of a free state, and Avhich characterized the institutions of HoUand. No stranger was to be ques tioned concerning his nativity or his creed. " Do you Avish to build, to plant, and to become a citizen ?" Avas the sum of the catechism when a new-comer appeared. Before the company Avas fairly organized, the menacing groAvls of the hon 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 JVew Netlierlamd, a stanch ship of two hundred and sixty tons, bearing OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 5 thirty famiUes of Walloons, Protestant refugees from (present) Belgium, Avho spoke the French language and Avho had settled in Holland. They consisted of one hundred and ten men, Avomen, 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 New NetherloAid, AA^as constituted their first or temporary governor. These immigrants — the first of a vast multitude who have come to our shores in the course of .more than tAvo hundred and fifty years- landed from the Nevj Netherland in small boats, at the rocky point on Avhich Castle Garden noAV stands, and is the receptacle of thousands of emigrants who enter the harbor of Ncav York every year. It Avas a beautiful morning in May, 1623, AA'^hen they ascended the bank in their picturesque costumes, every man carrying some article of domestic use, and many of the Avomen carrying a baby or a smaU child in their arms. They Avere cordially received by the traders and friendly Indians, and Avere feasted under a tent made of sails stretched betAveen several trees. A Christian teacher accompanied them, Avho, before they partook of their first meal, offered up fervent thanks to Almighty God for his pre serving care during their long voyage, and implored his blessing upon the great undertaking before them. Captain May then read his com mission as governor of the colony and the country ; and so the germ of the city and State of Ncav York was planted in a fruitful soil. These immigrants Avere immediately scattered to different points to form settlements. Some founded the city of Brooklyn on Long Island, and near what was knoAvn as the Wallabout (now the NaAy-Yard), Sarah Eapalje, the earliest born in Ncav Netherland of European parents, first saAV the light of hfe. Some Avent up the Connecticut Eiver and built Fort Good Hope, just beloAv the site of Hartford ; others planted themselves at Esopus, in Ulster County, N. Y., and on the site of Albany ; and four young married couples went to the DelaAvare and began a settlement on the New Jersey -side of that stream, a f caa' miles below Philadelphia. New Netherland Avas constituted a county of HoUand, its official seal bearing the figure of a beaver Avith the coronet of a count for its crest. When the New Netherlcmd returned to the Texel with furs valued at over $10,000, and her commander reported the colonists in good heart and prosperous, there was as much excitement as Avas possible in the staid Dutch towns in HoUand. People longed to go to the pictured paradise. The members of the West India Company Avere dehghted. They commissioned Peter Minuit, one of their number. First Director 6 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. or governor ; sent other ships with emigrants, stock, and agricultural implements ; and when the ncAv goA^ernor arriA'"ed, in 1626, he opened negotiations Avith the barbarians for the purchase of Manhattan Island.' It contained, it was estimated, about tAventy-two thousand acres of land, and it Avas bought for the sum of twenty-four dollars, AA^hich Avas paid in cheap trinkets, implements of husbandry, and Aveapons. Each party was satisfied, for each felt it had made a good bargain. When the purchase Avas completed, an engineer staked out the lines of a fort at the southern extremity of the island, near the site of the modem " Battery." The specification called for a Avork " faced AA'ith stone, haA^ng four angles, ' ' by AA^hioh the Bay in front and the Hudson and East rivers on its flanks might be commanded by cannon. The fort, AA^iich AA^as nothing more than a strong redoubt surrounded by cedar palisades, \A^as finished the next year, and Avas named Fort Amsterdam. Each settler protected by it OAvned the house he Uved in, kept a COAT, tilled the land, and traded Avith the Indians. There were no idle persons. The traders deliA^ered all their furs at the trading- house of the company (a large stone building thatched with reeds), and the year when the fort was completed furs Avere sent to Holland A'alued at ahnost tAventy thousand dollars. As yet there Avas neither a clergyman nor a schoolmaster in the colony, but there Avere two appointed " consolers of the sick," whose duty it was to read the Script ures and the creeds to the people on Sundays, Avho were gathered in a large loft of a horse-miU. A tower was erected, in Avhich Avere hung Spanish beUs captured by the company's fieet at Porto Eico the year before— the first " church-going bells" heard on Manhattan Island. It Avas during the building of the fort that an CA^ent occurred which caused much embarrassment and misery to the colony afterAvard. An Indian, his nephcAv, and another barbarian, members of a tribe in Westchester County, came to Manhattan Avith beaver-skins to barter Avith the Dutch. The beaten trail of the Indians from the Harlem Eiver Avas along the shores of the East EiA-er to Kip's Bay, and then diverging Avestward passed by a large pond AA'here the halls of justice, or The Tombs, noAv stand. At that pond they Avere met by three farm servants of the governor, Avho robbed and murdered the men Avith the peltries. The boy escaped. This deed Avas long unknoAvn to the Dutch authorities, and the guilty men probably escaped punishment. But the young barbarian voAA^ed he Avould avenge the murder of his uncle. It was done with fearful usury years afterAvard. This atrocious deed made the surrounding Indians, Avho Avere disposed to be friendly Avith the Europeans, jealous, suspicious, and Avengeful. OUTLINE HISTORY, lCOO-1830. 7 The Uttle colony flourished, and the A^illage Avhich grew up under the protecting wing of the fort Avas called Manhattan, Avhich name it retained until Stuyvesant came in 1647. The community at Manhattan became cosmopolitan in its composition, as New York noAV is, because of the freedom enjoyed there, and finaUy gaA-e to the State and nation a race in whose veins course the blood of Teuton, Saxon, Celt, and Gaul. Their passion for far-reaching commerce and adventurous enter prise has been a characteristic of the inhabitants of Manhattan Island from that time untU the present, through aU their social and political vicissitudes. Within twenty years after Hudson's discovery of the island the people there turned their attention to ship- building, and in 1631 they actually completed a ship, named New Netherland, of six hundred or eight hundred tons, and sent it to HoUand. It AA^as probably one of the greatest merchant vessels then in the world. It Avas a costly experiment, and was not repeated ; and it was nearly tAA^o hundred years afterward Avhen the shipwrights of Manhattan began to build merchant vessels of such large proportions. The West India Company, in order to encourage emigration to NeAV Netherland and increase the population and strength of the colony, granted to some of the directors large tracts of land, and inA^ested each Avith the privileges of a "lord of the manor," on condition that he should, Avithin a specified time, have on his estates fifty bona-fide settlers. These proprietors were called patroons. One of the most extensive landholders among these directors was Killian Van Eens- selaer, a pearl merchant in Amsterdam, whose domain lay on each side of the Hudson Eiver at or near Albany. In the warehouse of the company at Amsterdam Avas a clerk named Van TwiUer, AA^ho had married Van Eensselaer's niece. He Avas narrow-minded and inexperienced, but he had served Van Eensselaer weU in shipping cattle to his American domain. Through that director's infiuence Van TAviller was appointed governor of New Netherland, to succeed Minuit. He was a sleek, rotund, bullet-headed Dutchman, who loved ease of mind and body ; was duU of intellect, yet shrcAvd and cunning ; alAA^ays courageous Avhere there was no danger, and undecided and AA'"avering. He came to New Amsterdam in 1633, and was a dead Aveight upon the prosperity of the colony for four years ; yet it flourished in spite of him. With him came EA^erardus Bogardus, the first clergyman Avho appeared in the colony ; also a schoolmaster. Bogardus Avas an able, earnest, and bold man. Faithful to his 8 HISTORY OF NE"W YORK CITY. mission, he did not hesitate to reproA'^e Van TwiUer for his short comings in his official, moral, and religious duties. On one occasion he caUed him a " child of the devil " to his face, and told him that if he did not behave himself he would "give him such a shake from the pulpit" the next Sunday as Avould make him tremble Uke a boAAd of jeUy. Van TwiUer lost the respect of aU the citizens, and Avas recaUed. This Avas a seA^ere disappointment to him, for he had dreamed of hAing in ease and dying in Ncav Netherland. He had bought Nutten Island, in the harbor, and there he proposed to retire Avhen the cares of government should become too burdensome for him, and vegetate in luxurious comfort. That little domain has been known as " Governor's Island " ever since. Van TwiUer Avas succeeded by William Keift, an energetic, rapacious, and unscrupulous man, who brought serious trouble upon the colony. He endeaA'^ored to concentrate all power in his OAvn hands, and began a tyrannous rule. A smaU colony of Swedes had settled on the Dela Avare. With these Keift quarreUed. He incurred the enmity of the English on the Connecticut, and of the Indians aU around. Under a flimsy pretence he sent an armed force to attack the Earitan Indians in Ncav Jersey. Many of them Avere killed. SaA'^age A'^engeance did not slumber long. The Earitans ravaged outlying plantations and murdered their occupants. Keift prepared for Avar. The colonists, alarmed, boldly opposed him. They held him responsible for their troubles. Hitherto they had lived peaceably with their barbarian neighbors ; noAv these were aU hostile. Keift yielded to popular clamor for the moment. He requested the inhabitants to choose twelve men, heads of famiUes, with Avhom he might consult on public affairs. It was done, and this Avas the germ of representatiA^e goA'"ern- ment in the State of New York. The Tweh'e not only refused to sanction Keift's war schemes, but took cognizance of public gricA^ances, Avhen he dismissed them. Some EiA'er Indians fled before the fiery Mohawks and took refuge with the Hackensacks at Hoboken. Keift, buming Avith a cruel desire to " chastise saA-ages," sent over a body of armed men at midnight in February, 1643, Avho feU upon the sleeping fugitiA^es and before the daAvn massacred a hundred men, women, and children, and returned to New Amsterdam with the heads of several of the slain. By this saA'age act the fierce hatred and thirst for vengeance of all the surround ing barbarians were aroused. A furious Avar Avas kindled. Villages and farms Avere desolated, and Avhite people Avere butchered Avherever the Indians found them. For two years the colony of Ncav Netherland OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 9 was threatened with destruction. The Avar finaUy ceased. The people clamored for the recaU of the governor, and he Avas summoned to HoUand. He perished by shipwreck Avhile on his Avay Avith a large fortune, and Avas succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant in 1647, late govemor of Curagoa, a soldier of eminence, and possessed of every requisite for an efficient administration of government.* Stuyvesant was too frank and bold to conceal his opinions and inten tions. At the A'ery outset he froAvned at eA^ery expression of republi can sentiment, defended Keift's rejection of the interference of the Twelve, and plainly told the people, " If any one during my adminis tration shall appeal, I avUI make him a foot shorter and send the pieces to IloUand, and let him appeal in that Avay. . . . It is treason to petition against one's magistrate, Avhether there be cause or not." With such despotic sentiments Stuyvesant began his iron rule. He AA-^as a tyrant ; yet honesty and Avisdom marked all his acts. He set about reforms Avith vigor. The morals of the people, the sale of intoxicating liquors to the Indians, the support of religion, and the regulation of trade receiA'^ed his immediate attention, and he imparted much of his OAvn energy to the citizens. Enterprise took the place of sluggishness. He treated the Indians so kindly, and so soon Avon their respect and friendship, that the foolish story Avent abroad that he Avas forming an alliance Avith the savages to exterminate the English at the eastAvard. Stuyvesant found the finances of the colony in such a wretched con dition that taxation Avas necessary. For tAvo centuries a political maxim of Holland had been, " Taxation without representation is tyranny' ' — a postulate copied by our patriots Avhen they began the old Avar for independence. Stuyvesant dared not disregard this great prin ciple, for it Avould offend his masters the States-General, so he called a meeting of citizens and directed them to choose eighteen of their best men, of Avhom he might select nine as representatives of the taxpayers, who should form a co-ordinate branch of the local government. He Avas careful to hedge this popular council about Avith restrictions. The -* Peter Stuyvesant -was the last Dutch governor of Ne-sv Netherland. He -was born in Holland in 1602, and died in the city of New York (formerly Ne-w Amsterdam) in August, 1682. Serving as a soldier in the West Indies, he became governor of Cnragoa. He lost a leg in battle. Eeturning to Holland, he was sent to Ne-w Netherland as First Director or Governor, in 1647, where he ruled tyrannically but righteously until 166i, 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 Avere to choose their successors, so as to preA'"ent the people haAing a direct A'oice in public affairs. But the Nine proA-ed to be more potent than the TavcIa'c. They nourished the prolific seed of democracy, and gaA^e StuyA^esant much uneasiness. The inhabitants of Manhattan asked the States- General for a muni cipal government. It Avas granted in 1653, under the corporate title of New Amsterdam. Its goA'ernment Avas modeUed after that of old Amsterdam, but AA'ith someAvhat less political freedom in its features. The soul of Stuyvesant AA'as troubled by this " imprudent trusting of poAver Avith the people. ' ' The burghers Avished for more poAA'er, but it could not then be obtained. A silver seal Avas giA'en to the authorities of the ncAA^ city, and a painted coat-of-arms AA'as sent to them. A ncAA"^ trouble disturbed Stuyvesant. In the fall of the same year Avhen New Amsterdam AA^as incorporated, a convention of nineteen delegates, chosen by the people of eight Anllages or communities, assem bled at the toAvn-hall in the city, ostensibly to take measures against the depredations of saA'^ages and pirates. The gov^ernor tried to control their action, but failed. When they adjourned they iuAited the goA'ernor to partake of a collation Avith them. Of course he Avould not so sanction their proceedings, and refused, Avhen they plainly told him he might do as he pleased ; they should hold another couA'ention soon, and he might prcA^ent it if he could. Stuyvesant stormed and threat ened these incipient rebels, but prudently yielded and issued a call for another conA^ention, and so gave legality to the measure. They met on December 10, 1653. Many Enghsh people Avere now settled among the Dutch, and had intermarried Avith thera, and of the nineteen dele gates chosen ten Avere of Dutch and nine of English natiAfity. This was the first real representatiA^e government in the great State of New York, noAV an empire with a population of over five millions. Now and here Avas fought the first battle between democracy and despotism on the soil of Ncav York. The couA-ention adopted a remon strance to the States-General against the tyrannous rule of the gov ernor, and sent it to him, Avith a demand for a categorical answer to each of the several counts. He met it Avith his usual pluck. He denied their authority. He blustered and threatened. They told him plainly that if he refused to comply Avith their demand they would appeal to the States-General. At this threat, uttered by the lips of a bold messenger— Beeckman, of Brooklyn— the goA^ernor took fire, and seizing his cane ordered him to leaA^e his presence. The ambassador folded his arms and silently defied the AA^rath of StuyA^esant. When his anger cooled he asked Beeckman to pardon his sudden ebuUition of OUTLINE HISTORY, 1009-1830. 11 feeUng, 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 grieA^ances, and asked for redress. So" republicanism, Uke 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. StuyA'esant Avas a faithful servant of the Dutch West India Company, Avatching and defending its interests at all points. The SAvedes on the Delaware became aggressiA^e ; he made war upon them, conquered them, and as did Alfred of England Avith 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 NeAv Amsterdam, who detected her stealing his peaches. The fury of her tribe Avas fiercely kindled. Before daybreak one morning, about two thousand EiA^er Indians appeared before NeAV 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 Avere promised justice, and agreed to leave the island. They did not, and at midnight they iuA^aded the city and shot the murderer, AA^hom they kncAV. The people flew to arms and droA^e the barbarians from the city. The Indians crossed the surrounding waters and ravaged Ncav Jersey and Staten Island. Within three days a hundred AA^hite inhabitants AA'ere kiUed, fifty were made captiA^e, and three hundred estates Avere utterly desolated by the dusky foe. StuyA'esant finally restored order, and then issued a proclamation directing those AAdio liA^ed in secluded places in the country to gather themselves into Aillages for mutual defence. Another and more serious crisis for New Amsterdam and NeAV Netherland came. The British ahvays claimed the AA'hole territory of Ne\A^ Netherland as their oAAm. The British monarch granted the domain to his brother, the Duke of York. In 1664 the duke sent ships of Avar and troops to take possession. The people of New Amsterdam AA^ere quite Avilling to exchange Dutch rule for " English liberty," and counselled submission Avhen the armament appeared. StuyA^esant held out, but Avas finally compelled to yield. The EngUsh took possession. The name of the fort Avas changed from Amsterdam to James, and the name of the city and province Avere changed to Ncav York. The city Avas held temporarily by the Dutch aAvhile afterward, AA'hen Ncav Netherland became a permanent English possession. But the people soon found " English liberty" not so easy to bear as " Dutch tyranny," 13 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. for their new masters taxed them almost without stint. Yet they prospered, and were comparatively happy. Eepublicanism grew apace in the city and province of New York. Many of that faith had fled from persecution to America, and inocu lated the people here with its doctrines. The people of New York clamored for a representative govemment, and in 1683 — about thirty years after the Dutch of the same city made a similar demand — their request was granted. Governor Dongan, an enlightened Eoman Catholic, favored their Avishes, and on the -17th of October, 1683, Avas established the first General Assembly of the Province of New York, Avhich sat three Aveeks and passed fourteen acts which became laws. The first of these Avas entitled ' ' The Charter of Liberties and Privileges granted by his Eoyal Highness to the inhabitants of New York and its Dependencies. ' ' It Avas ratified by the duke. The day of that assem bling is a memorable one in the history of New York. Before Ave proceed further, let us take a brief glance at the social condition of New York before its surrender to the EngUsh. 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 inlaabitants Avere enjoying the comforts which riches bring. But riches is a thing of relative estimate. A citizen then Avorth a thousand doUars Avas esteemed a rich man. At first their houses Avere of logs, the Toofs thatched with reeds and straw, the chimneys made of Avood, and the Ught of the windows entered through oiled paper. Their tables were made of rough planks ; their platters were of Avood or peAvter ; the spoons of the same ; and carpets were unknoAvn untU the time of the revolution in 1688. FinaUy 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 untU some enterprising citizens estabUahed a brickyard on the island during the administration of Stuyvesant. Every house was surrounded with a garden, in which cabbage was the chief vegetable cultivated, and tuhps the principal flowers. Good horses Avere rare until they began to import them from New England, but their cows and sAvine were generaUy of exceUent quality. There were no carriages until after the revolution, and the first hackney coach Avas introduced into the city of New York in 1696. 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 streAvn with Avhite beach-sand Avrought into artistic forms by the skilful motion of the broom. Huge oaken chests fiUed 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 Avas displayed shining peAvter 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 1688 occurred. Clocks and watches Avere almost unknown, and time Avas 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 unknoAvn, but tea- parties were frequent. These ended, the participants Avent 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 Unen and wooUen cloth. The women spun and wove, and were steadily employed. Nobody was idle. Nobody Avas anxious to get rich, while all practised thrift and frugahty. Books were rare luxuries, and in most houses the Bible and Prayer-book constituted the stock of literature. The weekly discourses of the clergymen satisfied their inteUectual wants, while their own hands, industriously employed, furnished aU 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 aU their labors and pleasures as is the maker's name on our silver spoons. These were the " good old days" of simpUcity, comparative innocence, and positive ignorance, when the "commonalty" no more suspected the earth of the caper of turning over like a baU of yam -every day than Stuyvesant did the Puritans of candor and honesty. CHAPTEE II. THE Duke of York became King of England as James II.. in 1685. As king he refused to confirm the " Charter of Liberties" Avhich, 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 proAance, and filled the public offices Avith Eoman Catholics, whose faith he had embraced and a\-owed. The liberal and just Govemor Dongan stood by the people as long as he could, but in the spring of 1688 he was ordered to surrender the government of New York into the hands of Sir Edmund Andros, a supple tool of the king, Avho had a viceregal commission to rule that province and aU New England. Andros Avas received in New York by Colonel Bayard's regiment ; and in the midst of rejoicings among the royalists—the aristocracy — because of his arrival, ncAvs came that James's queen had given birth to a son and heir to his throne. The event AA^as celebrated that evening by a banquet at the City HaU, Avhile 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 liis hat and periwig, Avaving the blazing offerings over the banquet-table on the point of his straight sword. Eepublicanism had groAvn apace in Ncav York, and there Avas great disappointment among the Protestant repubUcans ; for in case of failure of an heir on the part of King James, his daughter Mary, Avho had married the Protestant Prince WilUam of Orange, would be his suc cessor. Their disappointment was soon turned to joy AA'^hen news came that James had been driven from the throne, Avas an exile in France, and WiUiam and Mary were joint monarchs of England. The people seized Fort James, at the foot of BroadAvay. Their leader was Jacob Leisler,* a popular and leading shipping merchant, Avho had come to * Jacob Leisler was a native of Frankfort, in Germany. He came to America ip 1660, resided awhile in Albany, New York, when he became a merchant in the city of New 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 NeAV Amsterdam a soldier in the service of the West India Company, and Avas captain of one of the militia companies of the city. He was a AA'arm friend of William of Orange and an ardent repubhcan. The aristocratic party of New York, led by Mayor Van Cortlandt, Colonel Bayard, and other members of the council, hated Leisler because of his political principles, and Avhen, obedient to the wishes of the people, he assumed the functions of goA'ernor of the proAince in the absence of a representative of royal authority, they Avere enraged by this democratic movement, led by ' ' an insolent plebeian and foreigner. ' ' They resolved on his destruction ; and Avhen a royal gOA-^ernor (Sloughter) came, they procured Leisler's arrest on a charge of treason. He Avas unfairly tried and condemned. The goA'ernor hesitated to sign his death-Avarrant before the pleasure of the soA^ereigns should be knoAvn. Sloughter Avas made drunk at a feast, and in that condition Avas induced to sign the fatal document. Before he AA^as sober, Leisler and his son-in-laAV, Jacob Milborne, Avere hanged. His enemies thought they had crushed democracy in Ncav York. Swift disappointment oA'ertook them. The Earl of BeUomont came as governor, and under orders from the Privy Council and his king he gladly aided in rcA'^ersing the attainder of Leisler and procuring the restoration of the Anctim's confiscated property to his children. The tables Avere noAV turned. Democracy obtained a stronger foothold in Ncav York than CA'^er. Under the very law enacted for the purpose of bringing Leisler to trial for treason. Colonel Bayard, its chief promoter, Avas tried for the same offence, found guilty, and saA'ed from the gaUoAvs only by the death of BeUo mont and the accession of Edward Hyde, a profligate man and a bitter enemy of republicanism in any form. He liberated Bayard. We ha-A'e noAA' come to a period in the history of NeAV York Avhen the political and social forces knoAvn respectively as Democracy and Aristocracy Avere organized for the great conflict AA'hich resulted in the triumph of the former at the close of the old Avar for independence in 1783. From the accession of Governor LoA^elace in 1708, to that of Governor Cosby in 1732, democracy preA-ailed in the General Assembly of New York, and the royal representatives were compelled to yield to the Avill of the people as expressed by that assembly. A ncAV social element had just been introduced into the city of Ncav tionary movement in the oity of New York after the accession of AVilliam 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, and hanged on May 16, 1691, with his son-in-law, Milborne. Leisler purchased New Rochelle for the Hugue nots. 16 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. York by Governor Hunter. Louis XIV. had caused the expulsion from their country of Protestant Eheiiish Palatines, Avho besought the British Government to give them homes in America. It Avas done, and £10,000 Avere appropriated to defray their expenses, they pledging themselves to produce materials for the royal navy in the Avay 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 Avent up the Hudson EiA-er to Livingston's manor and settled the region knoAvn as GermantoAAm ; others Avent to the MohaAvk VaUey and founded the settlement of the German Flats ; Avhile the greater portion made homes in PennsylA-ania, and so laid the foundations of the German population which forms so large and influential an element in the social fabric of that commouAvealth. These Germans Avere industrious and frugal. Those Avho remained in the city soon built a Lutheran church on BroadAvay, 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 element of poAver in the realm of opinion appeared in New York. WiUiam Bradford,"* Avho had set up the first printing- press in the proAince, issued the first ncAvspaper published in that colony in October of that year. He entitled it the New Yorlc WeeUy Gazette. It became the organ of the aristocratic party. When Governor Montgomerie died, in 1731, Eip Van Dam, the senior member of the council, took charge of public affairs untU the arrival of Govemor Cosby the next year. The latter Avas aA^aricious and arbitrary by nature. On his arrival he demanded of Van Dam an equal share in that officer's salary Avhile acting as governor. It Avas refused, and Cosby sued him in the Supreme Court. A majority of the judges Avere 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 Avere Avith Van Dam. They Avanted an * William Bradford was a Priend 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 leamed 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 New 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 HISTORY, 1609-1830. 17 organ, and they persuaded John Peter Zenger,* Avho had been an apprentice Avith Bradford and his business partner for a Avhile, to estab Ush an opposition ncAvspaper. He did so in November, 1733, giving it the title of the New York Weekly Journal. Van Dam, Avho Avas a leading merchant, stood behind Zenger as his financial supporter. This organ of the democratic party made vigorous Avar upon the govemor and his political friends, and finally it charged him and them Avith Aiolating the rights of the people, the assumption of tyrannical poAver, and the perversion of their official stations for selfish purposes. When thej' could not ansAver nor endure these attacks any longer, Zenger was arrested on a charge of hbelling the government, and the council ordered his papers containing these aUeged libels to be burned hj the common hangman. After lying in jail several months Zenger Avas brought to trial. Meanwhile a repubhcan association called " Sons of Liberty" Avorked 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 Avidespread interest and attention, for it involA'ed the great question of liberty of speech and of the press. At that famous trial Chief -Justice De Lancey presided. The court room Avas croAvded. 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- general rose to oppose the admission of such proofs. At that moment the venerable Hamilton entered the room. Eumors had gone abroad that he Avould be there. The multitude rose to their feet and welcomed him Avith AA^aving of hats and loud huzzas. With his long Avhite hair floAving over his shoulders, this Nestor of the bar in a fcAv eloquent Avords scattered all the legal sophistries of the prosecution to the winds. He declared that the jur-y" Avere themselves judges of the facts and the laAV ; that they Avere 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 'Weelcly 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, hberties, and privi leges of their feUow-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 Avas AvhoUy averse to this doctrine of the great advocate, but after a brief conference they retumed a verdict of " Not guilty." A shout of triumph Avent up from the multitude, and Hamilton Avas borne from the court-room upon the shoulders of the people to an entertainment prepared for him. The citizens gave him a pubhc dinner the next day, and a few Aveeks later the corporation of New York gave Hamilton their thanks and the freedom of the city in a gold box. He 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 EngUsh- American colonies, and it has ever maintained the exalted position of a champion of hberty and the rights of man under aU 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 &ve thousand to almost nine thou sand. Already the shipping employed in trade gave the city the char acter of a commercial metropoUs, and its merchants were noted for enterprise, inteUigence, wealth, and probity. For a while they had serious difficulties to contend with. At the close of the seventeenth century the ocean swarmed 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. FinaUy a worthy shipmaster of NeAV York, Captain Kidd,* was employed by a -^ 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 hia 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 BeUomont, Eobert 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, for 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 Galley 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 BeUomont 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, 1G09-1830. 19 company to disperse or destroy the pirates. He succeeded, but finaUy, through great temptation, he turned pirate himself in distant seas, and Avas hanged in England, an unfortunate scapegoat for his more guilty titled confederates. Intellectual forces of much strength were early at work in the city of New York. The third printing-press in the Enghsh-American colonies Avas set up there by WiUiam Bradford, and in 1693 he printed the laws of the colony in a smaU foUo volume. This Avas the first publica tion of a book in that city, where miUions are now issued every year. Episcopacy had been made the leading ecclesiastical system in Ncav York by the fiat of royal goA^ernors, and on the establishment of Trinity Church, in 1696, pubhc Avorship was conducted in the English language instead of the Dutch, excepting in the Eeformed Dutch Church. Trinity Church edifice— a small, square structure Avith a very taU spire— Avas 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" claimed by the aUeged heirs of Annetye Jans-Bogardus. The first attempt had been made in 1697 to hght the streets of Ncav York by hanging a lantern from a pole projecting from a AAindow in every scA'enth 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 Aveek. A pubUc ferry between New York and Long Island had been established by the city authorities, and in 1707 BroadAvay had, been first paA'ed from the Bowhng Green to Trinity Church. In 1709 it Avas 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, Avhere most of the shipping was moored. Eigorous municipal laAvs concerning the slaves were strictly administered, which caused occasional out breaks. The first hospital for the poor had been estabhshed 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 fiourishing industry-— had been set up on BroadAvay between Bar clay Street and Park Place. PubUc matters in New York had presented no phase of special importance until the arrival of John Montgomerie as governor in the 30 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. spring of 1728, when he was received with more cordiaUty and granted more favors than any other magistrate since BeUomont. 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 EngUsh rule had been granted in 1686. Others have been granted from time to time. By the new charter the hmits of the city were fixed ; the poAver of estabhshing terries, and the possession of the ferries, market- houses, docks, etc., and aU profits arising from them, were granted to the city. Provision Avas made for the establishment of courts, and the privileges and duties of all pubhc 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 Eiver, thence on that side of the East Eiver to Eed Hook, and thence, embracing the islands in the harbor, up the Hudson Eiver to Spuyten Duyvel Creek to the place of beginning. While this charter gave the authorities of the city of Ncav York jurisdiction over the Avhole of Manhattan Island and adjacent islands, the streets of the city were laid out only as far north on the Avest 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 Avere only scat tered houses above Maiden Lane. But the city was then so densely populated beioAV WaU Street that in 1729 the Dutch Eeformed Church, in Garden Street beloAV Wall, Avas so croAvded that a portion of the congregation colonized and built the " Middle Dutch Church," on the comer of Nassau and Liberty Streets, used (until a few years ago) for the city Post-Office for many years. WaU Street had been so named because along its hne, from river to river, had extended the pahsades or wooden AvaUs of the city of Ncav Amsterdam. Pauperism became preA^alent and troublesome during Montgomerie's administration, and measures Avere taken for providing a public alms house, Avhich should also be a Avorkhouse. One was erected in the rear of the present City HaU in 1734. It Avas AveU suppUed Avith spinning- wheels for the Avomen and shoemakers' tools and other implements of labor for the men. It Avas made a sort of self-sustaining institution. Nothing of special public importance occurred in the city of Ncav York after the trial of Zenger until 1741, AA-hen the famous " Negro Plot" produced a reign of terror'there for some tune. A similar occurrence, but of smaUer proportions, had taken place in 1712, when the popula tion of the city Avas about six thousand, composed largely of slaves. There was a suspicion of a conspiracy of the negroes to burn the city OUTLINE HISTORY, 1609-1830. 31 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 sAvanned Avith them. Thera were growing apprehensions among the people of a servile insurrection. The slave-market was at the foot of Wall Street ; the calaboose Avas in the ' ' common' ' or City Hall Park. The slaA'es Avere under rigorous discipline, and Avere keenly watched as apprehensions of danger from them increased. In the early spring of 1741 some goods and silver Avere stolen from a merchant. Suspicion fell upon the keeper of a Ioav tavern to Avhich negroes and thicA^es resorted, but on searching the police found noth ing. A maid-serA^ant of the pubhcan told a neighbor that the goods Avere there, and very soon she, her master, and his family Avere brought before the court. Then the serA'^ant accused a negro Avith being the thief and his master the receiver of the stolen goods. A part of the property was found under his master's kitchen fioor and returned to the OAvner, and here the matter rested for a Avhile. Two or three Aveeks later the governor's house in the fort Avas laid in ashes. Within a fcAV days afterAvard 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 dAvelhng 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 Avas 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 Avere naturally exasperated by this inhuman treatment, and had let fall some stifled threats. No one now doubted that these desperate feUows Avere leaders in the horrid plot. There Avas a general cry of "Arrest the Spanish negroes !" They were seized and oast into prison. On the same afternoon the magistrates met, and Avhile they Avere in consultation the storehouse of Colonel Phillipse Avas discovered to be on fire. Magistrates and people AA'"ere 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 A'"ery soon the prisons were filled with them. The Common Council offered a reward of one hundred pounds and a fuU pardon to any conspirator who should reveal the plot and the 32 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. -names of the incendiaries. The imprisoned serA^ant of the tavern- keeper spoken of took adA-antage of this offer to gain her liberty and fiU her purse, and told a inost ridiculous story of negroes Avhom 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 poAver they Avould possess afterAA^ard. The excited and credulous mag istrates I'eceiA-ed this absurd story as truth, and persons arrested Avere induced to make aU 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 serA'-ant's pretended revelations were imprisoned, tried, condemned, and executed. Among these Avere her master and his Avife. On her testimony alone many negroes Avere 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 Avere bumed, and before the middle of August one hundred and fifty-four negroes and twenty-four Avhite people had been imprisoned. Of these four Avhite persons Avere hanged ; fourteen negroes Avere burned ahve, eighteen were hanged, and scA^enty-one Avere transported. The last victim was Ury, a schoolmaster, who Avas accused by the lying servant (Mary Burton) of being concerned in the plot. He Avas sus pected of being a Eoman Catholic priest. The bigoted magistrates took advantage of an old unrepealed laAv for hanging any priest Avho should A'^oluntarily come into the province, and Ury Avas doomed. They seemed to be hungry for his hfe. In A^ain he offered to prove that he was a clergj'^man of the Church of England. Mary Burton Avas 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 Avitchcraft, " Avhen leading citizens, who had been active in persecuting the poor negroes, Avere implicated, men took meas ures to end the tragedy — " stop the delusion." It Avas done, and the 24th of September was set apart as a day of thanksgiving for the great deliverance. The " Negro Plot" may be classed among the foremost of popular delusions. It Avas at about this time that a few men who played important parts in the social and pohtical drama of the city of New York appeared conspicuous upon the stage — Dr. Cadwallader Colden, James De Lancey, Philip Livingston, Peter Schuyler, Abraham De Peyster, Frederick Phillipse, WiUiam Smith the elder, and a few others. Some of these, hke Colden, were lovers of science and Uterature. 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, 1609-1830. 33 cation Avas neglected. Some of these gentlemen clearly perceived the evils to be feared from such a Avant, and set about supplying it. There AA'ere then but few coUegians in the province ; Messrs. Smith and De Lancey Avere the only ones in the legal profession. There Avas a smaU pubUc Ubrary, but it was Uttle used. The chaplain of Lord BeUomont (Eev. John Sharp) had presented to the city a coUection of books in 1700, for a " Corporation Library," and in 1729 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts added to these, for the same purpose, 1622 volumes, Avhich had been given to them by Eev. John MUhngton, of England. The first librarian appointed died ; the books were neglected, and their very existence AA'"as almost forgotten until 1754, Avhen some public-spirited citizens organized and founded the " Society Library." The Common Council added the " Corpora tion Library" to the institution, and for scA^eral years the books of the Society Library Avere kept in the City Hall. Meanwhile £2250 had been raised by lottery for the foundation of a college. This sum AA^as increased, and in 1754 King's (noAv Columbia) College Avas chartered. Sectarianism AA^as then rampant in the city, and there Avas a sharp struggle for the denominational control of the institution betAveen 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 Ncav York was erected at the foot of Broad Street. Beekman Street AA'^as opened the same year, and St. George's Chapel AA-as erected on it by Trinity Church corpora tion. This period in the history of the city of Ncav York is particularly distinguished for political and theological controversies. The lines be tween sects in rehgion and politics were sharply draAvn. Bigotry and intolerance Avere rampant. The Jcavs had been alloAved to establish a cemetery near the present Chatham Square, east side ; noAv they AA^ere disfranchised. The MoraAfians, Avho closely resembled the Episco- pahans in the form of their liturgical worship, and Avho had built a church on Fair (noAV Fulton) Street* and established a mission in Duchess County, Avere persecuted as Jesuits in disguise. In the colonial assembly political controversies became bitter. This bitterness Avas augmented by the conduct of the royal goA'"ernor, Admiral Sir George CUnton, who speedily made himself unpopular Avith the leaders of aU * On the west side of Broadway it was called Partition Street, the partition line between the King's Farm and others. 34 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. parties. His best supporter at the beginning of his administration Avas Chief-Justice De Lancey. CUnton soon offended him and alUed himself to Dr. Colden, ¦^- who Avas then a power in the province ; but De Lancey, avUo Avas more prominent socially and poUtically than Colden, made Avar upon the governor. He engendered a fierce contest between CUnton and the assembly. The goA-ernor soon offended Colden, Avho joined the opposition. At length the admiral, Avearied Avith the contest and becoming more and more unpopular, left the office, and was succeeded by Sir DanA'"ers Osborne. At the first meeting of his council Osborne laid his instructions before them, when they said, "The assembly Avill ncA^er yield obedience." "Is this true?" he asked WiUiam Smith. "Most emphatically," replied the counciUor. "Then AA'hat am I come here for?" said Osborne musingly. The next morning his dead body Avas found sus pended by a handkerchief from the garden Avall of his lodgings. He had destroyed himself in despair. James De Lancey,t the lieutenant- governor, assumed the direction of public affairs. The political leaders had zealous partisans among the citizens, and NeAv York for many years Avas a seething caldron of adA^erse opinions. The quarrel of De Lancey with Clinton 1^ had caused the former to -* Cadwallader Colden was a native of Scotland ; was born at Dunse, February 17, 1688, 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, 1776. 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 1760 until his death. During the Stamp Act excitement in New York in 1765, 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 retumed to America in 1729, 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 1760. 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. if 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 Avith 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 Avealthiest and most infiuential citizens, was noAV arrayed on the side of the people's rights. But De Lancey found it difficult to maintain that position and render obedience to royal instmctions. He Avas soon relieA^ed of the embarrassment by the arriA-al of Admiral Hardy as goA^ernor, Avhen De Lancey resumed his seat as chief justice. He soon afterAvard became acting governor again, and was performing its duties Avhen, on the moming of July 30, 1760, he Avas 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 CA'^ery reasonable caU. At the same time, jealous of their pohtical rights, they Avarmly 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 Avas an infraction of their rights. The city authorities quartered the soldiers in the barracks on Chambers Street, leaAing 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 Avould bring all the soldiers under his command and billet them upon the inhabitants himself. The gov ernor Avas disposed to comply, but the indignant people refused, and defied the general. The matter Avas finally adjusted, to avert serious trouble, by furnishing free quarters to the officers by means of a pri vate subscription. This demand was afterward scA'^eral 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 1760, followed by ministerial schemes for burdening colonial commerce Avith restrictions, the murmurs of the king's subjects in America, which had been heard in almost in audible Avhispers 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 1757. He died governor of Newfoundland in 1761. 36 HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY. were more prompt and defiant than the citizens of New York. Unwise and oppressiA^e naAngation laAvs Avere put in force, and these Aveighed heavily upon New York, then become a decidedly commercial city. These laAvs Avere at first mildly resisted. The coUectors of customs finally called for aid, and Avrits of assistance were issued, by Avhich these officers or their deputies might enter every house they pleased, break locks and bars if necessary in search of dutiable goods, and in this Avay become the A'"iolators of the great principles of Magna Charta, Avhich made cA'ery Englishman's house his ' ' castle. ' ' These Avrits Avere denounced cA^eryAA'here, and Avere followed soon afterward by the famous and obnoxious Stamp Act, Avhich required CA^ery piece of paper, jDarchment, or vellum containing a legal document, such as a promis sory note or a marriage certificate, to haA'e a stamp affixed upon it, for Avhich a specified sum Avas to be paid to the goA'^ernment of Great Britain. This indirect system of taxation Avas very offensive, and the scheme Avas stoutly opposed everywhere on the continent, but noAvhere Avith more firmness than in the city of Ncav York. Dr. Colden, then nearly eighty years of age, Avas acting govemor 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 October (1765), stamps arrived at Ncav York consigned to a " stamp distributor," the " Sons of Liberty," recently reorganized, demanded that agent's resig nation ; Colden upheld and protected him, and had the stamps placed in the fort. This coA-ert menace exasperated the people. Though British ships of Avar riding in the harbor, as AveU as the fort, had their great guns trained upon the city, the patriots Avere 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 Avas swelled into a roaring mob. They bore to The Fields (the City HaU Park) an em.gj of the goA-ernor, AA^hich they burned on the spot Avhere Leisler was hanged three fourths of a century before because he Avas a republican. Then they hastened back to the foot of BroadAvay, tore up the Avooden railing around the BoAvling Green, piled it up in front of the fort, dragged the goA-ernor's coach out and cast it upon the heap, and made a huge bonfire of the Avhole. After committing other excesses, and parading the streets with a banner inscribed "England's FoUy and America's Euin," 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 Eights, a Petition to the King, and a Memorial to both Houses of Parliament. 'Aheady the idea of union had been suggested by a newspaper called the Constitu tional Courant, bearing the device of a snake separated into several parts, each Avith an initial of a colony, and bearing the injunction. Join