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Title: The Story of Manhattan
Author: Charles Hemstreet
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THE STORY OF MANHATTAN
by
CHARLES HEMSTREET
New York
1901
[Illustration]
PREFACE
Here the history of New York City is told as a story, in few words. The
effort has been to make it accurate and interesting. The illustrations
are largely from old prints and wood engravings. Few dates are used.
Instead, a Table of Events has been added which can readily be referred
to. The Index to Chapters also gives the years in which the story of
each chapter occurs.
INDEX to CHAPTERS
CHAPTER I. The Adventures of Henry Hudson.
From 1609 to 1612
CHAPTER II. The First Traders on the Island.
From 1612 to 1625
CHAPTER III. Peter Minuit, First of the Dutch Governors.
From 1626 to 1633
CHAPTER IV. Walter Van Twiller, Second of the Dutch Governors.
From 1633 to 1637
CHAPTER V. William Kieft and the War with the Indians.
From 1637 to 1647
CHAPTER VI. Peter Stuyvesant, the Last of the Dutch Governors.
From 1647 to 1664
CHAPTER VII. New York Under the English and the Dutch.
From 1664 to 1674
CHAPTER VIII. Something About the Bolting Act.
From 1674 to 1688
CHAPTER IX. The Stirring Times of Jacob Leisler.
From 1688 to 1691
CHAPTER X. The Sad End of Jacob Leisler.
The Year 1691
CHAPTER XI. Governor Fletcher and the Privateers.
From 1692 to 1696
CHAPTER XII. Containing the True Life of Captain Kidd.
From 1696 to 1702
CHAPTER XIII. Lord Cornbury makes Himself very Unpopular.
From 1702 to 1708
CHAPTER XIV. Lord Lovelace and Robert Hunter.
From 1708 to 1720
CHAPTER XV. Governor Burnet and the French Traders.
From 1720 to 1732
CHAPTER XVI. The Trial of Zenger, the Printer.
From 1732 to 1736
CHAPTER XVII. Concerning the Negro Plot.
From 1736 to 1743
CHAPTER XVIII. The Tragic Death of Sir Danvers Osborne.
From 1743 to 1753
CHAPTER XIX. The Beginning of Discontent.
From 1753 to 1763
CHAPTER XX. The Story of the Stamp Act.
From 1763 to 1765
CHAPTER XXI. The Beginning of Revolution.
From 1765 to 1770
CHAPTER XXII. Fighting the Tax on Tea.
From 1770 to 1774
CHAPTER XXIII. The Sons of Liberty at Turtle Bay.
From 1774 to 1775
CHAPTER XXIV. The War of the Revolution.
In the Year 1775
CHAPTER XXV. A Battle on Long Island.
The Year 1776
CHAPTER XXVI. The British Occupy New York.
The Year 1776 (Continued)
CHAPTER XXVII. The Battle of Harlem Heights.
The Year 1776 (Continued)
CHAPTER XXVIII. The British Fail to Sweep Everything Before Them.
From 1776 to 1777
CHAPTER XXIX. New York a Prison House.
From 1777 to 1783
CHAPTER XXX. After the War.
From 1783 to 1788
CHAPTER XXXI. The First President of the United States.
The Year 1788
CHAPTER XXXII. The Welcome to George Washington.
The Year 1789
CHAPTER XXXIII. Concerning the Tammany Society and Burr's Bank.
From 1789 to 1800
CHAPTER XXXIV. More about Hamilton and Burr.
From 1801 to 1804
CHAPTER XXXV. Robert Fulton Builds a Steam-Boat.
From 1805 to 1807
CHAPTER XXXVI. The City Plan.
From 1807 to 1814
CHAPTER XXXVII. The Story of the Erie Canal.
From 1814 to 1825
CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Building of the Croton Aqueduct.
From 1825 to 1845
CHAPTER XXXIX. Professor Morse and the Telegraph.
From 1845 to 1878
CHAPTER XL. The Greater New York.
To the Present Time
TABLE OF EVENTS
INDEX
LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS
New Amsterdam, 1650--New York, East Side, 1746
The Half Moon in the Highlands of the Hudson
Earliest Picture of Manhattan
Indians Trading for Furs
Hall of the States-General of Holland
Seal of New Netherland
The Building of the Palisades
Old House in New York, Built 1668
Van Twillier's Defiance
Landing of Dutch Colony on Staten Island
Governor's Island and the Battery in 1850
Dutch Costumes
The Bowling Green in 1840
Selling Arms to the Indians
Smoking the Pipe of Peace
The Old Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam
Stuyvesant leaving Fort Amsterdam
Petrus Stuyvesant's Tombstone
Departure of Nicolls
The Dutch Ultimatum
Seal of New York
New York in 1700
Sloughter Signing Leisler's Death-warrant
Bradford's Tombstone
The Reading of Fletcher's Commission
Arrest of Captain Kidd
New City Hall in Wall Street
Fort George in 1740
View in Broad Street about 1740
The Slave-Market
Fraunces's Tavern
Dinner at Rip Van Dam's
The Negroes Sentenced
Trinity Church, 1760
Coffee-House opposite Bowling Green, Head-Quarters of the Sons of Liberty
Ferry-House on East River, 1746
East River Shore, 1750
Mrs. Murray's Dinner to British Officers
Howe's Head-Quarters, Beekman House
Map of Manhattan Island in 1776
View from the Bowling Green in the Revolution
Old Sugar-House in Liberty Street, the Prison-House of the Revolution
North Side of Wall Street East of William Street
Celebration of the Adoption of the Constitution
View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad Street, 1796
The John Street Theatre, 1781
Reservoir of Manhattan Water-Works in Chambers Street
The Collect Pond
The Grange, Kingsbridge Road, the Residence of Alexander Hamilton
The Clermont, Fulton's First Steam-Boat
Castle Garden
Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden
View of Park Row, 1825
High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct
Crystal Palace
CHAPTER I.
THE ADVENTURES of HENRY HUDSON
The long and narrow Island of Manhattan was a wild and beautiful spot in
the year 1609. In this year a little ship sailed up the bay below the
island, took the river to the west, and went on. In these days there
were no tall houses with white walls glistening in the sunlight, no
church-spires, no noisy hum of running trains, no smoke to blot out the
blue sky. None of these things. But in their place were beautiful trees
with spreading branches, stretches of sand-hills, and green patches of
grass. In the branches of the trees there were birds of varied colors,
and wandering through the tangled undergrowth were many wild animals.
The people of the island were men and women whose skins were quite red;
strong and healthy people who clothed themselves in the furs of animals
and made their houses of the trees and vines.
In this year of 1609, these people gathered on the shore of their island
and looked with wonder at the boat, so different from any they had ever
seen, as it was swept before the wind up the river.
The ship was called the Half Moon, and it had come all the way from
Amsterdam, in the Dutch Netherlands. The Netherlands was quite a small
country in the northern part of Europe, not nearly as large as the State
of New York, and was usually called Holland, as Holland was the most
important of its several states. But the Dutch owned other lands than
these. They had islands in the Indian Ocean that were rich in spices of
every sort, and the other European countries needed these spices. These
islands, being quite close to India, were called the East Indies, and
the company of Dutch merchants who did most of the business with them
was called the East India Company. They had many ships, and the Half
Moon was one of them.
It was a long way to the East India Islands from Holland, for in these
days there was no Suez Canal to separate Asia and Africa, and the ships
had to go around Africa by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Besides being a
long distance, it was a dangerous passage; for although from its name
one might take the Cape of Good Hope to be a very pleasant place, the
winds blew there with great force, and the waves rolled so high that
they often dashed the fragile ships to pieces.
So the merchants of Holland, and of other countries for that matter,
were always thinking of a shorter course to the East Indies. They knew
very little of North or South America, and believed that these countries
were simply islands and that it was quite possible that a passage lay
through them which would make a much nearer and a much safer way to the
East Indies than around the dread Cape of Good Hope. So the East India
Company built the ship Half Moon and got an Englishman named Henry
Hudson to take charge of it, and started him off to find the short way.
Hudson was chosen because he had already made two voyages for an
English company, trying to find that same short passage, and was
supposed to know ever so much more about it than anyone else.
When the Half Moon sailed up the river, Hudson was sure that he had
found the passage to the Indies, and he paid very little attention to
the red-skinned Indians on the island shore. But when the ship got as
far as where Albany is now, the water had become shallow, and the
river-banks were so near together that Hudson gave up in despair, and
said that, after all, he had not found the eagerly sought-for passage
to India, but only a river!
Then he turned the ship, sailed back past the island, and returned to
Holland to tell of his discovery. He told of the fur-bearing animals,
and of what a vast fortune could be made if their skins could only be
got to Holland, where furs were needed. He told of the Indians; and the
river which flowed past the island he spoke of as "The River of the
Mountains."
[Illustration: The Half Moon in the Highlands of the Hudson.]
The directors of the Dutch East India Company were not particularly
pleased with Hudson's report. They were angry because the short cut to
India had not been found, and they thought very little of the vast
storehouse of furs which he had discovered. Neither did the Company care
a great deal about Hudson, for they soon fell out with him, and he went
back to the English company and made another voyage for them, still in
search of the short passage to India. But in this last voyage, he only
succeeded in finding a great stretch of water far to the north, that can
be seen on any map as Hudson's Bay. His crew after a time grew angry
when he wanted to continue his search. There was a mutiny on the ship,
and Hudson and his son and seven of the sailors who were his friends
were put into a small boat, set adrift in the bay to which he had given
his name, and no trace of them was ever seen again. Long, long years
after that time, another explorer found the passage that Hudson had lost
his life searching for. It is The Northwest Passage, far up toward the
North Pole, in the region of perpetual cold and night. So Hudson never
knew that the passage he had looked for was of no value, and we may be
sure he had never imagined that there would ever be a great city on the
island he had discovered.
The Dutch came to think a great deal of Hudson after he was dead.
The stream which he had called "The River of the Mountains" they
named Hudson's River. They even made believe that Hudson was a
Dutchman--although you will remember he was an Englishman--and were
in the habit of speaking of him as "Hendrick" Hudson.
The Indians were scattered over America in great numbers. The tribe on
the island were called Manhattans, and from that tribe came the name of
the Island of Manhattan. All the Indians, no matter which tribe they
belonged to, looked very much alike and acted very much the same. Their
eyes were dark, and their hair long, straight, and black. When they were
fighting, they daubed their skins with colored muds--war paint the white
men called it--and started out on the "war-path". They loved to hunt and
fish, as well as to fight, and they fought and murdered as cruelly and
with as little thought as they hunted the wild animals or hooked the
fish. They held talks which were called "councils," and one Indian would
speak for hours, while the others listened in silence. And when they
determined upon any action, they carried it out, without a thought of
how many people were to be killed, or whether they were to be killed
themselves.
[Illustration: Earliest Picture of Manhattan.]
CHAPTER II
THE FIRST TRADERS on the ISLAND
For several years after the return of Hudson, Dutch merchants sent their
ships to the Island of Manhattan, and each ship returned to Holland
laden with costly furs which the Indians had traded for glass beads and
strips of gay cloth. The Indians cared a great deal more for glittering
glass and highly colored rags than they did for furs.
One trader above all others whose name should be remembered, was Adrian
Block. He came in a ship called the Tiger. This ship was anchored in the
bay close by what is now called the Battery, and directly in the course
that the ferry-boats take when they go to Staten Island.
[Illustration: Indians Trading for Furs.]
On a cold night in November it took fire and was burned to the water's
edge. Block and those who were with him would all have been burned to
death had they not been strong and hardy men who were able to swim
ashore in the ice-cold water. Even when they reached the shore they were
not safe, for there were no houses or places of shelter; the winter was
coming on, and the woods were filled with wild beasts. But Block and his
men very soon built houses for themselves; rude and clumsy buildings to
look at, but warm and comfortable within. They were the first houses of
white men on the Island of Manhattan. If you wish to see where they
stood, take a walk down Broadway, and just before you reach the Bowling
Green, on a house which is numbered 41, you will find a tablet of brass
which tells that Block's houses stood on that self-same spot.
As soon as the hard winter was over, Block and his men began to build a
new ship, and before another winter had come they had one larger than
the Tiger. It was the first vessel to be built in the new world, and was
called the Restless.
That same year the Dutch merchants decided that they were giving too
many glass beads for the furs, and that if all the merchants combined
into one company they might not have to give so many. So they did
combine, and called themselves the United New Netherland Company. It
was in this way that the name New Netherland first appeared.
When the first ships of the new company reached the island, a house was
built for the use of the fur-traders, just south of where the Bowling
Green Park is. This structure was called Fort Manhattan. It was of
wood, and did not take long to build because the traders did not intend
to live in it a great while. They felt quite sure that all the furs
would be collected in a few years, and that then the island would be
abandoned. No one thought at that time that the little wooden stockade
was the commencement of a great city.
But after a few years it was found that the new country was a much
richer place than had been supposed. Shipload after shipload of otter
and beaver skins were sent across the ocean and still there were otters
and beavers without number. The fur-traders were growing rich, and after
a few years there came a decided change, when a new company was formed
in Holland; a great body of men this time, who had a vast amount of
money to build ships and fit them out. This organization was the West
India Company, and was to battle with Spain by land and by sea (for the
Netherlands was at war with Spain) and was to carry on trade with the
West Indies, just as the East India Company carried on trade with the
East Indies. As the West Indies included every country that could be
reached by sailing west from Holland, you will see that all the Dutch
land in America, which land was called New Netherland, came under the
control of this new company.
The territory called New Netherland was the country along the Atlantic
Ocean which now makes up the States of New Jersey, New York, and
Connecticut. But its limits at this time were uncertain as it extended
inland as far as the Company might care to send their colonists.
Within a few years, the seventy ships sailing under the flag of the West
India Company, fought great battles with the Spaniards, and won almost
every one of them. There were branches of the Company in seven cities of
Holland, and the branch in Amsterdam had charge of New Netherland. So it
will be only of the doings of this branch that we shall read. Colonists
were to be carried to New Netherland from Holland; farms were to be laid
out and cultivated; cities were to be built, and the West India Company
was to have absolute control over all, and was to rule all the people.
To do these things they had authority from the States-General of
Holland, which was the name given to the men who made the laws for that
country. The Company was to make regular reports to the States-General,
and tell of the growth of the colony and the progress of the people in
it. But as the years went on the Company was not as particular as it
should have been about what it told the States-General.
[Illustration: Hall of the States-General of Holland.]
It was not until the West India Company took charge of New Netherland
that it was decided to make the settlement on the Island of Manhattan a
city. Up to this time it had been merely a trading station. In order to
build up a city, the Company knew that it would be necessary to send
people in sufficient numbers so that no matter how many were killed by
the Indians the settlement would not be wiped out. Many inducements were
offered, and men with their families soon began to flock to New
Netherland. With the ship that brought the first families was Cornelius
Jacobsen May, who was to live on the Island of Manhattan and look after
affairs for the Company. Rude houses were set up about the fort, and the
first street came into existence. This is now called Pearl Street.
Cornelius Jacobsen May cared for the colony for less than a year, when
his place was taken by William Verhulst. Before the year was out,
Verhulst decided that the new country never would suit him, and he
sailed away to Holland. Then came in his place, in the year 1626, Peter
Minuit, under appointment as the first Dutch Governor of New Netherland.
[Illustration: Seal of New Netherland.]
CHAPTER III
PETER MINUIT, FIRST of the DUTCH GOVERNORS
Peter Minuit was a large man, of middle age, whose hair was turning
gray, whose eyes were black and dull, and whose manners were quite
coarse.
The West India Company gave to this Governor absolute power over all the
Dutch lands in America. His power was equal to that of a king; much more
than some kings have had. To be sure, in matters of extreme importance
he was supposed to refer to the Company in Holland. But Holland was far
away, farther away than it is in these days of fast steamers and the
telegraph, and the Company had too many other matters to look after to
give much thought to New Netherland.
One of the first acts of Governor Minuit was to buy the Island of
Manhattan from the Indians, giving them in exchange some beads, some
brass ornaments, some bits of glass and some strips of colored cloth;
all of which seemed a rich treasure to the Indians, but were in reality
worth just twenty-four dollars.
As soon as Minuit had bought the island, he organized a government. In
authority next to the Governor was the koopman, who was secretary of the
province, and bookkeeper at the Company's warehouse, and who worked very
hard. Then came the schout-fiscal, who worked still harder, being half
sheriff, half attorney-general, and all customs officer. There was also
a council of five men who looked wise but had very little to say and did
not dare to disagree with the Governor.
Although in buying their land Governor Minuit had made the Indians his
friends, he took care to be prepared in case they should change their
minds and become warlike. He had Kryn Frederick, the Company's engineer,
build a solid fort on the spot where the fur-traders' stockade had
stood. This he called Fort Amsterdam. It was surrounded by cedar
palisades, and was large enough to shelter all the people of the little
colony in case of danger. Inside this fort there was a house for the
Governor, and outside the walls was a warehouse for furs, and a mill
which was run by horse-power, with a large room on the second floor to
be used as a church.
[Illustration: The Building of the Palisades.]
When Minuit had become fairly settled in his new colony, he divided the
lower part of the island into farms, which in those days were called
"bouweries." A road which led through these farms was named Bouwerie
Lane, and the same road is to-day known as The Bowery.
Minuit had been Governor four years, and there were 200 persons on the
island, when the Dutch West India Company, deciding that the colony was
not increasing fast enough, made a plan for giving large tracts of land
to any man who would go from Holland and take with him fifty persons to
make their homes in New Netherland. The grants of land, which were
really large farms, stretched away in all directions over the territory
of New Netherland. But no grant was made on the Island of Manhattan, as
the Company reserved that for itself. Each of these farms was called a
manor. The man who brought colonists from Holland was called a patroon.
He was the Lord of the Manor.
He had supreme authority over his colonists, who cleared the land of
the trees, planted seeds, gathered the ripened grain, and raised cattle
which they gave to the Lord of the Manor as rent.
The little town of New Amsterdam was to continue as the seat of
government, and the Lords of the Manors were to act under the direction
of the Governor. The farms established by these patroons were to belong
to them and to their families after them.
The one thing that the patroons were not permitted to do was to collect
the furs of animals, for these were very valuable and the Company
claimed them all.
Before many years had passed there was much trouble with these patroons,
who did a great deal to make themselves rich, and very little for New
Netherland. They traded in furs, notwithstanding they were forbidden to
do so, and did all manner of things they should not have done.
Governor Minuit was himself accused of aiding the patroons to make money
at the expense of the West India Company, and of taking his share of
the profit; and finally, the Company ordered him to return to Holland.
The ship in which he sailed was wrecked on the coast of England, and
Minuit was detained and accused of unlawfully trading in the territory
of the King of England. This was not the first time that the English had
laid claim to the Dutch lands in America. Charles I. was king then, and
he said that England owned New Netherland because an English king, more
than a hundred years before Hudson's time, had sent John Cabot and his
son Sebastian in search of new lands, and they had touched the American
shore.
But the Dutch called attention to the fact that it had been held, time
out of mind, that to own a country one must not only discover it, but
must visit it continually, and even buy it from any persons who should
be settled there. Even if the Cabots had discovered the land in America,
the Dutch had occupied it ever since Hudson's time and had paid the
Indians for it.
Matters were patched up for the time, and Minuit was permitted to
return to Holland. But he was no longer Governor of New Netherland,
for his place had been given to another man whose name was Walter
Van Twiller.
[Illustration: Old House in New York, Built 1668.]
CHAPTER IV
WALTER VAN TWILLER, SECOND of the DUTCH GOVERNORS
Now this Walter Van Twiller was a relative of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer,
one of the patroons. You will see why the West India Company's choice of
him for a Governor was not by any means a wise choice. For he was soon
doing exactly what Minuit had done. The only difference was that
Governor Van Twiller favored Van Rensselaer more than he did the other
patroons.
Van Twiller was a stout, round-bodied man, with a face much the shape of
a full moon. He was a sharp trader, having made two voyages to the
Hudson River in the interest of Van Rensselaer, but he knew nothing of
governing a colony.
The ship that brought the new Governor to the Island of Manhattan, had
also on board a hundred soldiers, and these were the first soldiers
ever sent to the island. There was also on the ship Everardus Bogardus,
the first minister of the colony, as well as Adam Rolandsen, the first
school-master. This school-master had a hard time of it in the new
country, for not being able to make a living by his teaching, he was
forced to do all kinds of other work. He even took in washing for a
time!
By this time negro slaves were being brought to the colony from Africa.
They did the household work, while the colonists cultivated the fields
These slaves did most of the work on a new wooden church which was set
up just outside the fort, for the new minister.
Governor Van Twiller began improving the colony by having three
windmills built, to take the place of the horse-mill. But he had them
placed in such a position that the building in the fort cut off the wind
from their sails, and the mills were almost useless.
The Governor did not neglect his own comfort, for within Fort Amsterdam
he built for himself a fine house of brick--finer than any in the little
settlement--and on one of the bouweries nearest the fort, he erected a
summer-house. On another bouwerie he laid out a tobacco plantation, and
had slaves paid by the Company to look after it.
[Illustration: Van Twiller's Defiance.]
When Van Twiller had been Governor three years, he gave to one of the
colonists a farm on the western side of the city along the Hudson River.
The colonist died the year after the farm was given him, leaving his
widow, Annetje Jans, to care for the property.
Years after, when Queen Anne ruled in England, and the English had come
into possession of New Netherland, she gave the Annetje Jans farm to
Trinity Church. That was almost two centuries ago. What was once a farm
is now a great business section, crossed and recrossed by streets.
Trinity Church has held it through all the years, and holds it still.
Close upon the time when the Jans farm was given away by Governor Van
Twiller, a sailor of note, who had visited almost every country in the
world, founded a colony on Staten Island. This sailor was Captain David
Pietersen De Vries. Staten Island attracted him because of its beauty.
After the colony was well started, De Vries travelled between New
Netherland and Holland, and he will be met with again in this story.
[Illustration: Landing of Dutch Colony on Staten Island.]
Although Governor Van Twiller did not do much for the colonists, he was
very careful to look after his own affairs. He bought from the
Indians, for some goods of small value, the little spot now called
Governor's Island; which was then known as Nut Island, because of the
many nut-trees that grew there. There is little doubt but that
Governor's Island was once a part of Long Island. It is separated from
it now by a deep arm of water called Buttermilk Channel. The channel was
so narrow and so shallow in Van Twiller's time that the cattle could
wade across it. It was given its name more than a hundred years ago,
from boats which drew very little water, and were the only craft able to
get through the channel, and which took buttermilk from Long Island to
the markets of New York.
[Illustration: Governor's Island and the Battery in 1850.]
Van Twiller bought the islands now known as Randall's and Ward's
Islands, and these, with some others, made him the richest landholder in
the colony. On his islands he raised cattle, and on his farm tobacco.
Many of the colonists did not take kindly to Governor Van Twiller's
methods, and among them was Van Dincklagen, the schout-fiscal. He told
the Governor that it was very evident that he was putting forth every
effort to enrich himself at the expense of everybody else, just as
Minuit had done. The Governor became very angry. He told the
schout-fiscal not to expect any more salary, that it would be stopped
from that minute. This did not worry the schout-fiscal much, as he had
not been paid his salary in three years! But Van Twiller did not stop
there. He sent the schout-fiscal as a prisoner to Holland, which was a
foolish thing for him to do. For the prisoner pleaded his own cause to
such good effect that before the end of the year 1637, Van Twiller was
recalled to Holland, after he had governed New Netherland for four
years, very much to his own interest, and very much against the interest
of the West India Company and everybody else.
[Illustration: Dutch Costumes.]
CHAPTER V
WILLIAM KIEFT and the WAR with the INDIANS
A dreary winter came and went, and just as the first signs of spring
showed in the fields that closed about the fort, a ship sailed up the
bay, bringing a stranger to the province.
This was William Kieft, the new Governor of New Netherland.
He was a blustering man, who became very angry when anyone disagreed
with him, and who very soon was known as "William the Testy." He made no
effort to make the Indians his friends, and the result was that much of
his rule of ten years was a term of bloody warfare.
The affairs of the Company had been sadly neglected by Governor Van
Twiller, and Governor Kieft, in a nervous, testy, energetic fashion set
about remedying them. The fort was almost in ruins from neglect. The
church was in little better condition. The mills were so out of repair
that even if the wind could have reached them they could not have been
made to do their work properly. There were smugglers who carried away
furs without even a thought of the koopman, who was waiting to record
the duties which should have been paid on them. There were those who
defied all law and order, and sold guns and powder and liquor to the
Indians, regardless of the fact that the penalty for doing so was death.
For guns and liquor had been found to be dangerous things to put in
savage hands.
Governor Kieft rebuilt the houses, put down all smugglers, and set
matters in New Amsterdam in good working order generally. The patroon
system of peopling the colony had proven a total failure. So, soon after
Kieft came, the West India Company decided on another plan. They
furnished free passage to anyone who promised to cultivate land in the
new country. In this way there would be no patroons to act as masters.
Each man would own his land, and could come and go as he saw fit. This
brought many colonists.
[Illustration: The Bowling Green in 1840.]
At this time there were really only two well-defined roads on the Island
of Manhattan. One stretched up through the island and led to the
outlying farms and afterward became The Bowery; the second led along the
water-side, and is to-day Pearl Street. Bowling Green, although it was
not called Bowling Green then, was the open space in front of the fort
where the people gathered on holidays. In the fourth year of Governor
Kieft's rule, he conceived the idea of holding fairs in this open space,
where fine cows and fat pigs could be exhibited. These fairs attracted
so many visitors from distant parts of the colony, that the Governor had
a large stone house built, with a roof running up steep to a peak, in
regular, step-like form. This was called a tavern, and could accommodate
all the visitors. In after years it became the first City Hall.
If you wish to stand where this building was, you must go to the head of
Coenties Slip, in Pearl Street. On the building which is there now you
will see a bronze tablet which tells all about the old Stadt Huys.
The church that Walter Van Twiller had built was little better than a
barn. The minister wanted a new one. So did his congregation. Governor
Kieft decided that there should be one of stone, and that it should be
built inside the fort. There was a question as how to secure the money
to build it. Kieft gave a small amount, as did other colonists, but
there was not enough. Fortunately, just at this time, a daughter of
Bogardus, the minister, was married. At the wedding, when the guests
were in good humor, a subscription-list was handed out. The guests tried
to outdo one another in subscribing money for the new church. Next day
some of the subscribers were sorry they had agreed to give so much, but
the Governor accepted no excuses and insisted on the money. It was
collected, and the church was built. Close upon this time Kieft decided
that he needed money for other work, and he told the Indians of the
province that he expected something from them. Of course the Indians had
no such money as we have in these days. They used instead beads, very
handsome and made from clam-shells. These beads were arranged on
strings. There were black ones and white ones, and the black were worth
twice as much as the white. The Indians did not see why they should give
money to the Governor. Kieft explained that it was to pay for the
protection given to them by the Dutch. Then the Indians understood less
than ever, for the Dutch had never done anything for them except to
give them as little as they could for their valuable furs. The Indians
hated Kieft, and this act of his made their hatred more bitter. A
war-cloud was gathering. The Indians were well prepared for war, for
they had been supplied with guns, with bullets, and with powder by those
greedy Dutchmen, the smugglers, who thought more of their personal
gains than of the safety of the colonists.
[Illustration: Selling Arms to the Indians.]
Over on Staten Island about this time, an Indian stole several hogs
from a colonist. Kieft's soldiers found the tribe to which the Indian
belonged, and in revenge killed ten Indian warriors. After this the
war-cloud grew darker.
Kieft was anxious that there should be war. But there were many of the
colonists who did all in their power to prevent it. The men who wanted
peace were headed by that able sailor, Captain David Pietersen De Vries,
who had founded a colony on Staten Island. A council of twelve men was
formed to decide whether there should be peace or war. This council
declared that there should be no war. They then began to look into
public affairs, for they thought it all wrong that Kieft should have
the only voice in the management. The Governor regretted having called
together the twelve men. But he soon got rid of them, and to show that
he was still absolute ruler, he decided to make war upon the Indians.
Then the war-cloud broke.
Those Indians who lived nearest New Amsterdam were fighting with another
tribe called the Mohawks. The nearby Indians thought that since Kieft
had been paid to protect them, he should do so now. So they gathered,
some on the Island of Manhattan, and some on the nearby shore of New
Jersey. But instead of protecting them, Kieft sent his soldiers against
these friendly Indians, and in the night killed them as they slept. The
soldiers came so suddenly upon the Indians, sleeping peacefully on the
Jersey shore, and slew them so quickly in the darkness, that the Indians
believed they had been attacked by the unfriendly tribe. One Indian,
with his squaw, made his way to the fort. He was met at the gate by De
Vries. "Save us," he cried, "the Mohawks have fallen upon us, and have
killed all our people." But De Vries answered, sadly, "No Indian has
done this. It is the Dutch who have killed your people." And he pointed
toward the deep woods close by. "Go there for safety, but do not come
here."
This was not war. It was murder. A cruel, treacherous act, which the
greater number of colonists condemned and the record of which is a dark
stain on the memory of William Kieft.
After this, all the Indians within the border of New Netherland
combined. Colonists were shot as they worked in the fields. Cattle were
driven away. Houses were robbed and burned. Women and children were
dragged into captivity. The war raged fiercely for three years. By this
time Indians and colonists were worn out. Then the war ended. But
scarcely a hundred men were left on the Island of Manhattan. The country
was a waste.
A strong fence had been built across the island, to keep what cattle
remained within bounds. This fence marked the extreme limit of the
settlement of New Amsterdam. The fence in time gave place to a wall, and
when in still later years the wall was demolished and a street laid out
where it had been, the thoroughfare was called Wall Street, and remains
so to this day.
While the entire province was in a very bad way, and the people
suffering on every side, Governor Kieft sent to the West India Company
in Holland _his_ version of the war. He showed himself to be all in the
right, and proved, to his own satisfaction, that the province was in a
fairly good condition; though during all the years he had been Governor
he had not once left the settlement on the Island of Manhattan to look
after other parts.
Certain of the colonists also sent a report to Holland. Theirs being
much nearer the truth, carried such weight with it, that the West India
Company decided on the immediate recall of Governor Kieft, who had done
so much injury to the colony, and had shown himself to be utterly
incapable of governing.
Kieft returned to Holland in a ship that was packed from stem to stern
with the finest of furs. The ship was wrecked at sea. Kieft was drowned,
and the furs were lost.
In the same ship was Everardus Bogardus (the minister who had married
Annetje Jans), who was on his way to Holland on a mission relating to
his church. The people of New Amsterdam mourned for their minister, but
there was little sorrow felt for the Governor who had plunged the colony
in war by his obstinate and cruel temper.
[Illustration: Smoking the Pipe of Peace.]
CHAPTER VI
PETER STUYVESANT, the LAST of the DUTCH GOVERNORS
It was a gay day for the little colony of New Amsterdam, that May
morning in the year 1647, when a one-legged man landed at the lower part
of the island, and stumped his way up the path that led to the fort. Not
only everyone that lived in the town gathered there, but everyone on the
island, and many from more distant parts. There were Indians, too, who
walked sedately, their quiet serenity in strange contrast to the
colonists, who yelled and shouted for joy, and clapped their hands at
every salute from the guns. And when the fort was reached (it was only
a few steps from the river-bank) the man with the wooden leg turned to
those who followed him. The guns were silent, and the people stood
still.
"I shall govern you," said he, "as a father does his children."
Then there were more shouts, and more booming of cannon, and the name of
Peter Stuyvesant was on every tongue. For the man with a wooden leg was
Peter Stuyvesant, the new Governor appointed by the West India Company,
and not one of those who shouted that day had an idea that he was to be
the last of the Dutch governors.
Stuyvesant had long been in the employ of the West India Company, and
his leg had been shot off in a battle while he was in their service.
He was a stern man, with a bad temper, and seemed to have made it a
point in life never to yield to anyone in anything. He ruled in the way
he thought best, and he let it always be understood that he did not care
much for the advice of others. He did what he could for the people to
make their life as happy as possible. Of course he had orders from the
West India Company that he was bound to obey, and these orders did not
always please the people. But his rule was just, and he was the most
satisfactory of all the Dutch governors.
Stuyvesant's first work was to put the city in better condition. He did
this by having the vacant lots about the fort either built upon or
cleared. The hog-pens which had been in front of the houses were taken
away. All the fences were put in repair, and where weeds had grown rank,
they were replaced by pretty gardens. These, and a great many other
things he did, until the town took on quite a new air.
Up to this time the people had been ruled by governors who did all
things just as they saw fit. They became tired of this, and complained
so much that the Company in Holland decided to make a change. So after
Stuyvesant had been Governor for a while, some other officers were
appointed to help him. There was one officer called a schout, very
much the same as a mayor is in these days. Two others were called
burgomasters, and five others were called schepens. The burgomasters
and the schepens presided over the trials, in the stone tavern which
Governor Kieft had built at Coenties Slip, and which had now become
the Stadt Huys or City Hall.
[Illustration: The Old Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam.]
With the appointment of these officers, New Amsterdam became a city.
But as Governor Stuyvesant named the officers and as he plainly told
them that they must not interfere with his orders, and as he still had
his own way, regardless of what the officers said and did, the colony
was little different as a city from what it had been before.
In the fall of this year, 1652, war was declared between England and
Holland. Stuyvesant, fearing that the English in New England, which
was on the borders of New Netherland, would attack the city, set about
fortifying it. The fence that Governor Kieft had built so that the
cattle could not wander away was changed into a wall that extended from
river to river. The fort was repaired, and a strong body of citizens
mounted guard by day and by night. Everything was prepared for an
attack. But the enemy did not come after all.
Matters went along quietly enough for three years, until some Swedes
on the Delaware River began to build houses on Dutch lands. Then
Stuyvesant, with 160 men, in seven ships, sailed around to the Delaware
River, and conquered the Swedes.
It was quite ten years since the Indian war, and Stuyvesant, by his
kindness, had made friends of the savages, and had come to be called
their "great friend," But soon after he left to make war on the Swedes,
one of the colonists killed an Indian. In a few days there was an
uprising of Indian tribes. In New Jersey and on Staten Island they
murdered colonists, burned houses, and laid farms waste. Stuyvesant
hurriedly returned. He made peace with the Indians, treating them
kindly, as though there had never been any trouble. He gave them
presents, and used such gentle measures that the war which had
threatened to be so serious ended abruptly.
In the calmer days that followed, attention was given to improvements
in the city. By this time there were a thousand persons on the island.
Streets were nicely laid out, and the city of New Amsterdam grew, day
by day. It was a tiny place still, however, for it all lay below the
present Wall Street. Some distance beyond the city wall was a fenced-in
pasture for cattle, which was later to become The Common, and still
later City Hall Park. Farther on there was a wide lake, so deep that
it was thought to be bottomless. On its banks were a vast heap of
oyster-shells, where an Indian village had been. This place was called
Kalch-hook, or Shell-point. Afterward it was shortened to The Kalch, and
in time was called The Collect. The lake was called Collect Lake. There
is no trace of it to-day, for it was filled in, and the Tombs Prison now
stands upon the spot.
The entire province was in a flourishing condition, but danger was near.
The English had long looked with covetous eye upon the possessions of
the Dutch in America. The English, it must be remembered, claimed not
only New Netherland, but a great part of the American continent, on the
plea that the Cabots had discovered it.
After all this long time, when the Cabots had been forgotten by most
persons, in the year 1664, Charles II. decided that the English claim
was just, and gave New Netherland to his brother James, Duke of York.
The Duke of York at once sent four ships filled with soldiers to take
possession of his property.
[Illustration: Stuyvesant Leaving Fort Amsterdam.]
When the English war-ships sailed up the bay, the town was
ill-protected, and the people had no desire to resist, for Stuyvesant
and the West India Company had been most strict, and they hoped to be
more free under English rule. Stuyvesant, with scarcely a supporter,
stood firm and unyielding. He had no thought of submitting to superior
force. "I would rather be carried out dead," he exclaimed. But when at
length he realized that he was absolutely alone, and that there were no
means of defence for the city, he surrendered.
On this same morning of September 8, 1664, Stuyvesant, with his head
bowed sadly, marched at the head of his soldiers out of Fort Amsterdam,
with flags flying and drums beating. And the English soldiers, who had
landed, and were waiting a little way off, entered the fort with _their_
flags flying and _their_ drums beating.
So the city of New Amsterdam became the city of New York, and the
province of New Netherland became the province of New York, and Fort
Amsterdam became Fort James--all this in honor of James, Duke of York,
who now came into possession.
Stuyvesant went to Holland to explain why he had surrendered New
Netherland. But he came back again, and years after he died in the
little Bouwerie Village which he had built. In St. Mark's Church to this
day may be seen a tablet which tells that the body of the last Dutch
Governor lies buried there.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VII
NEW YORK under the ENGLISH and the DUTCH
So now the conquered province had come into the possession of the Duke
of York, and Colonel Richard Nicolls, who was in command of the English
soldiers, took charge. This first English Governor appeared anxious to
make all the people his friends. He made Thomas Willett Mayor, and
Willett being very popular, all the citizens rejoiced, and said the new
Governor was a fine man. During three years Colonel Nicolls humored the
people so much that they were well satisfied. At the end of that time he
had grown tired of the new country, and asked to be relieved. The people
were really sorry when he returned to England and Francis Lovelace took
his place.
Governor Lovelace did not get along so well. He was a man of harsh
manner, who did not have the patience or the inclination to flatter with
fine promises. Lovelace wanted everyone to understand that he was
master. Very soon, when the people said they thought they should have
the right to control their own affairs, the Governor told them that he
did not think it was best for them to have too much to do with the
governing of the city. But he did some things that pleased the people.
For one thing, he brought about the custom of having merchants meet
once a week at a bridge which crossed Broad Street at the present
Exchange Place. There is no bridge there now, but in those days it was
necessary, for Broad Street was a ditch which extended from the river
almost to Wall Street. But though the ditch has been filled up, and the
bridge is gone, the locality has ever since been one where merchants
have gathered.
[Illustration: Departure of Nicolls.]
The Governor also had a messenger make regular trips to Boston with
letters, which was the first mail route from the city. Matters were
going along nicely when trouble arose between England and Holland again.
Then the Dutch decided that it would be a good time to get back their
lost province of New Netherland. The English in New York heard of this,
and made all sorts of warlike preparations. But the Dutch were so long
in coming that the preparations for war were given up. Finally the Dutch
ships did arrive unexpectedly, sailing up the bay one morning in the
month of July, in the year 1673. Governor Lovelace was in a distant
part of the colony, and the city had been left under the care of Captain
John Manning.
Manning was in despair. He knew full well that there was no hope of
defending the city successfully. He sent a messenger dashing off to the
Governor, and he sent another to the Dutch ships to ask what they were
doing in the bay, just as though he did not know. The Dutch sent word
back that the city must be surrendered to them that same day. And to
show they meant what was said, the Dutch admiral despatched one of his
captains, Anthony Colve by name, who landed with 600 men. The Dutch
captain agreed that if the English left the fort without a show of
resistance, they could do so with the honors of war and without
interference. Then he and his soldiers tramped down the road that is now
Broadway. The English marched out of the fort, and the Dutch marched in;
just as nine years before the Dutch had marched out and the English had
marched in.
When the King in England heard that New York had been so easily
captured, all the blame was placed on Captain Manning, and after a time
you will see what became of him.
[Illustration: The Dutch Ultimatum.]
Captain Colve took charge of the reconquered province. He began
industriously to undo all that the English had done. The province was
again named New Netherland. The city was called New Orange, in honor of
the Prince of Orange--a prince of Holland, who in a few years was to
marry a daughter of the Duke of York, and who in a few more years was
to be King of England under the title of William III.
Captain Colve put the fort in good condition, repaired the city wall,
made a soldier of every man and drilled them every day. He had the city
gates locked at night, and put a guard at them to see that no one came
in or passed out.
In less than a year, when the city was in shape to be defended, the
English and the Dutch made up their quarrel. The province of New
Netherland was returned to the English, and became again the province of
New York, and the Dutch soldiers left the Island of Manhattan, never
again to return to it in warlike array.
CHAPTER VIII
SOMETHING about the BOLTING ACT
Edmund Andros was sent to govern New York for the Duke of York.
The people complained a good deal because he acted as though he were a
king with absolute power. They asked that they have some voice in the
direction of their affairs. They got up a petition and sent it to the
Duke in England.
"What do the people want?" said the Duke. "If they are not satisfied,
they can always appeal to me." He did not see that they had just
appealed to him, and in vain.
Captain Manning, who had been in charge of the province when the Dutch
recaptured it, came again to New York with Andros. Many who had lost
their property by the coming of the Dutch, complained bitterly to
Andros. So the Governor, and his council, and the officers of the
city held many conferences, with the result that Captain Manning was
arrested. He was found guilty of cowardice, and his sword was broken
in front of the Stadt Huys in the presence of the citizens, and he was
declared, on the good authority of King Charles II., unfit ever again
to hold public office.
Although disgraced, Captain Manning did not seem to care much. He owned
a beautiful wooded island in the East River, to which he now retired.
He was wealthy, and there he lived and entertained royally during the
remainder of his life.
Andros did many things for the general good. When he had been Governor
four years, and when the most important product of trade was flour, a
law was made by which no one was permitted to make flour outside of the
city. This was called the Bolting Act. Flour cannot be made unless it
is "bolted"--or has the bran taken from it--and so the act came by its
name. The right to grind all the grain into flour may not now seem very
important, but it really was, for it brought all the trade to the city.
So you see the Bolting Act was a very good thing for the city, and very
bad for the people who did not live in the city. The city folks became
very prosperous indeed, but the others, because they could not make or
sell flour, became poorer day by day.
This went on for sixteen years, and then the law came to an end. But by
that time all the business of the entire province had centred in the
city so firmly that it could not be drawn away.
[Illustration]
So, after this, when you look at a picture of the Seal of New York,
and see a windmill and two barrels of flour, you will remember that the
windmill sails worked the mill, and the barrels were filled with flour
which laid the foundation of the city's fortunes; and were put on the
seal so that this fact would always be remembered. The beavers on the
seal suggest the early days when the trade in beaver skins made a city
possible. At one time there was a crown on the seal--a king's crown--but
that gave way to an eagle when the English King no longer had a claim on
New York.
Now that the province was prosperous, one would think that the people
would have been quite happy. But they were not. They did not like
Governor Andros because they thought that he taxed them too heavily, and
they sent so many petitions to the Duke of York that, in 1681, Andros
was recalled, and Colonel Thomas Dongan was appointed the new Governor.
A few years later, when the Duke of York became King James II., he
remembered how carefully Andros had carried out his orders, and
appointed him Governor of New England; where he conducted matters so
much to the satisfaction of his King that he earned the title of "The
Tyrant of New England."
When Governor Dongan reached the city and announced that the Duke had
instructed him to let the people have something to say as to how they
should be governed, he was joyfully received. It really seemed now that
everything was going to be satisfactory. But there came a sudden check.
Two years after Dongan became Governor, the Duke of York was made King
of England. He thereupon ordered Dongan to make all the laws himself,
without regard to what the people did or did not want. The power to make
the laws was a great power, but Governor Dongan was a fair and just man
and did not abuse it. The year after this he granted a charter to the
city, known ever since as the Dongan Charter, which was so just that it
is still the base on which the rights of citizens rest.
But while Dongan was popular with the King's subjects, he became
unpopular with the King. This was because he stood in the way of the
plans of his royal master whenever those plans interfered with the good
of the people. He must have known what the result would be. Whether he
knew it or not, it came in the year 1688. The King joined the colony of
New England and the colony of New York, and called this united territory
New England. Dongan then ceased to be Governor, having ruled the
province well.
CHAPTER IX
THE STIRRING TIMES of JACOB LEISLER
Sir Edmund Andros, who, you will remember, had been appointed Governor
of New England, had been knighted for obeying the King's commands. He
now became Governor of the united provinces. He made his home in Boston,
and left the care of New York to his deputy, Francis Nicholson. In this
year a son was born to the English King, and the people rejoiced. But
these were stormy times in England, for King James II. was a tyrant who
ordered a great many of his subjects killed when they refused to believe
in what he believed. And the people, grown weary and heartsick,
overthrew King James and put William III. on the throne. So the sights
and sounds of rejoicing over the birth of a prince were scarcely over,
when the news came that James was no longer King, and New York was soon
in a state of confusion.
In what had been New England before the provinces were united, the
people hated Andros. They arrested him. And as they had never been in
favor of uniting New England and New York, they restored their old
officers and disunited the two provinces, Andros was sent a prisoner to
England to give an account of his doings to King William, and New York
was left without a Governor. The men who had served under King James
insisted that they remain in charge of the province until King William
sent new officers to replace them. But most of them wanted to have all
who had had anything to do with King James put out of office at once. So
those who wanted this change took charge of the city, and chose as their
leader a citizen named Jacob Leisler. More than twenty years before,
this Jacob Leisler had come from Holland as a soldier of the West India
Company. He had left the service and had become a wealthy merchant. He
had a rude manner, and but little education. He looked upon as an enemy,
and as an enemy of King William, every man who did not think as he did.
The mass of the people now gathered around Leisler and became known as
the Leislerian party. They selected a number of citizens, calling them
the Committee of Safety, and the committee gave Leisler power to see
that peace was preserved. Those who were opposed to Leisler, but who,
just as strongly as he, favored King William, were called the
anti-Leislerian party. These last were headed by Francis Nicholson, who
had watched over the colony for Governor Andros. Nicholson finding that
he had few followers, sailed for England.
Leisler had the fortifications repaired, and a battery of guns set up
outside the fort. This is the battery which gave to the present locality
its name, though all signs of guns have disappeared.
Leisler had an adviser in Jacob Milborne, his son-in-law, who wrote his
letters, and counselled him in every way.
In December came a messenger from King William, with a commission for
whoever was in charge of the city, to act until further orders. Leisler
obtained possession of the commission. He became bolder after this, and
showed such a disposition to do just as he pleased, that he made enemies
of a great many of his friends. Advised by Milborne, he made laws, and
imprisoned all those who refused to obey them or to recognize his
authority. Day by day those who were opposed to Leisler and Milborne
grew in numbers. Street riots occurred, and several persons were
injured. Leisler's life was threatened, and he went about attended by a
guard of soldiers. Finally Nicholas Bayard, who had been Mayor, and who
was looked upon as leader of the anti-Leislerian party, was put in
prison with some others. Bayard would doubtless have been executed had
he not written an humble letter to Leisler saying that he had been in
the wrong and Leisler in the right. But he wrote to save his life, not
that he really believed himself to be in the wrong. He did save his
life, but he was kept in jail.
Leisler's enemies continued active. They had a powerful friend in
Francis Nicholson, who had reached England and had been received with
favor there. He hated Leisler, and denounced him as a traitor before
King William.
Leisler, after he had taken charge of the province, wrote to the King,
but his letter was written in imperfect English and was not understood.
Matters were in a bad state, and were daily becoming worse, when the
King appointed Henry Sloughter Governor of New York.
[Illustration: New York in 1700.]
CHAPTER X
THE SAD END of JACOB LEISLER
This Henry Sloughter was not a good choice. He was a worthless man, who
had travelled a great deal, and had spent other people's money whenever
he could get it. Now, when he could find no one in England to supply him
with money, he took the post of Governor of New York, and his only
thought was how much money he could wring from the people. The enemies
of Leisler rejoiced at his coming, for they knew that it meant the
downfall of Leisler.
Sloughter sailed for New York with a body of soldiers, but his ship was
tossed about by the sea, and carried far out of its course, so that the
ship of his assistant, Major Richard Ingoldsby, arrived first. But
Leisler refused to give up command until Sloughter came. This was three
months later, and during that time Ingoldsby and his soldiers did all
they could to harass Leisler, who held possession of the little fort,
and refused to give it up until he saw the King's order.
When Sloughter arrived, members of the party opposed to Leisler hurried
on board the vessel, and escorted him to the City Hall, where at
midnight he took the oath of office.
Within a few days Governor Sloughter and his friends met in the City
Hall, where the council of the new Governor was sworn in--a council
every member of which was an enemy of Leisler. Then Leisler was
arrested, with his son-in-law, Milborne, and both were condemned to
death as rebels. But the Governor was afraid of displeasing the King by
putting Leisler to death, for, after all, Leisler was the man who had
been the first to recognize the authority of King William in New York.
He refused to sign the death-warrant. But the enemies of Leisler were
not content. Nicholas Bayard, who had become more than ever bitter
because he had been kept for thirteen months in prison, was anxious for
revenge. The council urged the Governor to carry out the sentence, and
he finally signed the death-warrant. Two days later Leisler and Milborne
were led to execution. The scaffold had been erected in Leisler's own
garden, close by where the post-office is now. The people thronged about
it, standing in the cold, drizzling rain. They wept, for many of them
had been on the side of Leisler.
[Illustration: Sloughter Signing Leisler's Death-warrant.]
Leisler ascended the scaffold with firm step, and looked at the people
he had tried to serve.
"What I have done has been for the good of my country," he said, sadly.
"I forgive my enemies, as I hope to be forgiven."
And so he died; believing that he had done his duty.
Milborne was full of hate for those who caused his death. Close by the
scaffold stood Robert Livingston, a citizen who had always been strongly
opposed to Leisler. To this man Milborne pointed, and fiercely cried:
"You have caused my death. For this I will impeach you before the Bar of
God." And so he died.
The bodies of both men were interred close by the scaffold.
Four years later the English Parliament declared that Leisler had acted
under the King's command, and had therefore been in the right, after
all. So tardy justice was done to Leisler's memory.
After the death of Leisler, there was an end of open revolt, and affairs
were reasonably quiet, although it was many a long year before the
rancor of the late struggle and the bitter hatred of the friends and
enemies of Leisler died out.
Order was restored, and attention was turned to public improvement.
New streets were laid out, and markets were built. In front of the
City Hall, by the water-side of Coenties Slip, there were set up a
whipping-post, a cage, a pillory, and a ducking-block; which were to
serve as warnings to evil-doers, and to be used in case the warning
was not effective.
But Sloughter did not live to see these improvements completed. A few
months after his arrival he died suddenly, so suddenly that there was a
suggestion that he had been poisoned by some friend of Leisler. But it
was proven that his death was a natural one, and his body was placed in
a vault next to that of Peter Stuyvesant, in the Bouwerie Village
church-yard.
CHAPTER XI
GOVERNOR FLETCHER and the PRIVATEERS
When Benjamin Fletcher became the next Governor of New York, in the
month of August, 1692, the people gave a great public dinner in his
honor, and there were expressions of deep joy that so wise and good
and pious a man had been sent to rule over them.
But Governor Fletcher soon came to be disliked. He tried by every means
to enrich himself at the public expense. More than that, he wished to
make the Church of England the only church of the province, and to have
the English language the only language spoken. All of which the people
did not like, for the majority of them still spoke the Dutch language
and attended the Dutch church.
Governor Fletcher had great trouble in getting the Assembly (the body
of men who helped him to govern the province) to agree with him, but he
finally won them over in the matter of the Church of England. One of the
churches built at this time was Trinity Church. It was a quaint, square
building, with a tall spire--not the Trinity Church of this day,
although it stood on the same spot.
[Illustration: Bradford's Tombstone.]
In the year after Fletcher came, the first printing-press was set up
in the city by William Bradford, who came from Philadelphia for that
purpose. He became the public printer, and afterward issued the first
newspaper. He did a great deal for the general good, and when he died he
was buried in Trinity Church-yard. Even now you can see the stone that
marks his grave, close by the side-entrance of the present church.
During much of the time that Fletcher governed, the French in Canada
were continually threatening to fight with the English in New York.
There were fierce and bloody conflicts on the border, but no enemy
reached the city. There was also another danger that grew stronger day
by day. It came about as the result of privateering.
A privateer was a vessel which under commission from one country,
carried on war with the ships of other countries. The captains were
called privateers, as were the ships. These privateers were so
successful that they grew bold, and instead of attacking only the ships
of enemies of their country, they threw away their commissions and
attacked ships of all countries for their private gain. Then they were
called pirates. They became robbers and murderers, for they murdered as
well as robbed. These pirates bore down upon the ships of all nations,
carried off their cargoes, then sunk the vessels without knowing or
caring how many were on board, that none might escape to tell the tale.
Nowhere were the pirates more daring than near the American coast. The
vessels of New York merchants were burned within sight of shore, and the
pirates were even bold enough to enter the harbor and seize the ships as
they lay at anchor.
The officials of the province made no apparent effort to suppress these
pirates. It was thought then, and has since been believed, that they
assisted them, and were well paid for such help. Governor Fletcher
himself was suspected of sharing in the pirate booty. Merchants who
feared to carry on regular trade, as their ships were almost sure to be
seized, came, after a time, to lend their aid also to the pirates, by
buying their cargoes.
[Illustration: The Reading of Fletcher's Commission.]
Finally, very few ships dared to cross the ocean. Then the English
Government became alarmed. A new Governor was searched for--a man strong
enough to resist the bribery of pirate crews, and able to drive them off
the seas. And just such a man was found.
CHAPTER XII
CONTAINING the TRUE LIFE of CAPTAIN KIDD
In England there lived a man who had been a great friend of King
William; who had been his friend even before he had become King. This
man was Lord Bellomont. It was he who was chosen Governor in the year
1696. But it was two years after this that he reached New York. During
these two years he worked hard in the interests of the province. He knew
all about the pirates, and knew that it would take a strong force to
subdue them. He called upon the English Government to fit out men for
this purpose. But the Government had neither men, nor ships, nor guns
to spare.
So Lord Bellomont decided to raise a private armed force. He got
together a company, of which the King was a member, and they fitted out
a strong and fast-sailing vessel called the Adventure Galley. Lord
Bellomont looked about for a good captain. At last he thought he had
found just the man in Captain William Kidd. Captain Kidd just at this
time happened to be in London, where he was well known, and well liked.
His home was in New York, where his wife and daughter lived in a fine
house in Crown Street, and where he was a respected citizen. But best of
all for the Company, Captain Kidd had been in command of a privateer,
and knew a good deal about pirates and their ways.
And so it came about that Captain Kidd sailed away, commander of the
Adventure Galley, with its crew of sixty sailors, and its thirty guns,
to destroy the pirates.
Then followed a space of time during which news of the bold Captain was
eagerly awaited. It came soon enough--news that was startling. Captain
Kidd had been tempted by the adventurous life and great gains, and had
himself turned pirate! During the next two years he was heard of as the
most daring and fierce of pirates, plundering and sinking ships, until
his name became a terror on the sea. He collected great treasure, and
then decided to give up piracy. He returned to New York, and touched
first at Gardiner's Island, a bit of land at the eastern end of Long
Island. There he buried a portion of his treasure. The remainder he
divided with his crew. Then he went to Boston, took a new name, and
intended to live in quiet and luxury during the remainder of his life.
But, unfortunately, one day Lord Bellomont was in Boston, met him, and
caused his arrest. In a few months he was sent to England in chains.
There he was executed.
When it was known that Captain Kidd had made a stop at Gardiner's
Island, search was made there and the hidden treasure was dug up. There
were rumors from time to time that Kidd and his pirate crew had stopped
at points on the East River shore of the Island of Manhattan, and many
men hunted that shore and sought in many places for hidden treasure, but
none was ever found there.
During the time that Captain Kidd was roaming the sea, Lord Bellomont
was governing New York.
[Illustration: Arrest of Captain Kidd.]
The new Governor was at first much admired. He was a fine man, with
faultless manners, and a commander in every inch of his tall figure.
He had hands as soft as a woman's, a kindly eye, and a gentle voice.
But he could be stern, and was stern and unyielding, too, when occasion
required. He dressed in better taste than anyone who had ever lived in
the province, and his horses and carriage were finer than had ever
before been seen in the city.
Friends of the dead Jacob Leisler had told Lord Bellomont tales of what
a good man Leisler had been, and how he had been unjustly executed. So
Lord Bellomont, to the end of his life, favored the friends of Leisler.
He was firmly convinced that many of the city merchants had become rich
through dealings with the pirates. This belief made many enemies for
him. Then, too, there were laws which would not permit merchants to
trade with any country except England; hard laws, that were constantly
broken, for the merchants could not see why they should not trade with
anyone they saw fit. Bellomont was so strict in enforcing these laws and
in collecting duties that he made more enemies, who sought his recall.
Nevertheless many improvements were carried out while Bellomont was
Governor. A first effort was made to light the streets, which had, up
to this time, only had the light of the moon at night. This was done by
a lantern with a candle in it hung on a pole from the window of every
seventh house. A night-watch was also established, consisting of four
men.
After Bellomont had been Governor for a few years, what remained of the
city wall was removed, and Wall Street had its beginning on the line of
the old wall. The same year the old Stadt Huys was found to be in a
state of decay. Then a new city hall was erected on the new Wall Street,
close by where Nassau Street now touches it. There were dungeons in the
new building for criminals, cells in the attic for debtors, and a
court-room on the main floor.
[Illustration: New City Hall in Wall Street.]
The first library, under the name of the Corporation Library, was
opened in the City Hall. This is the library that afterward became the
Society Library. It is still in existence, and now has its home in
University Place.
All in all, Lord Bellomont was a good Governor, who did much for the
people, and much to make the city an agreeable place to live in; and
there was deep regret when he died suddenly in the year 1701. He was
buried in the chapel in the fort, and as an especial honor to his
memory his coat-of-arms was fixed on the wall of the new City Hall in
Wall Street. This was a great honor, even though the fickle people, a
few years later, when a new Governor came, did tear down the arms and
burn them in the street.
John Nanfan, the Lieutenant-Governor, took command of the province until
news reached the city that Lord Cornbury had been appointed Governor.
Nicholas Bayard, who had made such a bitter fight against Leisler, and
who had been imprisoned so long, hated Governor Nanfan, because Nanfan
was a friend of the people who called themselves the Leislerian party.
So Bayard sent an address to Lord Cornbury saying that Nanfan was an
enemy. But Nanfan arrested Bayard, and had him tried under the self-same
act under which Leisler had been tried. This act pronounced traitors
anyone who should make an effort to disturb the peace of the province.
Bayard was sentenced to death, but a reprieve was granted pending the
pleasure of the King. Before word could be got to England, Lord
Cornbury arrived. Bayard was promoted to a place of honor, and there was
a scattering of the Leislerians, who were now looked upon as enemies of
the Government.
[Illustration: Fort George in 1740.]
CHAPTER XIII
LORD CORNBURY makes HIMSELF very UNPOPULAR
It was in the year that Princess Anne became Queen of England (1702)
that Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, eldest son of the Earl of Clarendon,
was sent to govern New York. He was a cousin of the Queen, and left
England to escape the demands of those to whom he owed money.
When Lord Cornbury arrived in New York, the Mayor, with much ceremony,
presented him with a box of gold, containing the freedom of the city,
which gave to him every privilege. It was a great deal of trouble and
expense to go to, for the Governor would have taken all the privileges,
even if the Mayor had not gone through the form of giving them.
Governor Cornbury very soon let his new subjects see that he was eager
to acquire wealth, and that he intended to get it without the slightest
regard for their interests or desires.
The Queen had told him that he should do all in his power to make the
Church of England the established church of the land; that he should
build new churches, punish drunkenness, swearing, and all such vices,
and that he should keep the colony supplied with negro slaves.
There was much sickness in the town--so much that it became epidemic.
So the Governor and his council went to the little village of Jamaica,
on Long Island, and carried on the business of the city in a
Presbyterian church building. When the epidemic had passed, he gave the
church to the Episcopalians, because he remembered that Queen Anne had
told him to make the Church of England the established church. There
were riotous times in Jamaica after that, but the Episcopal clergyman
occupied the house, and the Episcopalians worshipped in the church
regardless of all protests.
Not many improvements were made during Lord Cornbury's administration.
He cared little for the good of the city or for anything else except
his own pleasures. The constant fear of war gave the people little time
to think of improvements. They did, however, pave Broadway from Trinity
Church to the Bowling Green. But do not imagine that this pavement was
anything like those of to-day. It was of cobble-stones, and the gutters
ran through the middle of the street.
The Governor came to be detested more and more by the people, for as the
years went by he spent their money recklessly. He had a habit of walking
about the fort in the dress of a woman, and another habit of giving
dinners to his friends that lasted well on toward morning, when the
guests sang and shouted so boisterously that the quiet citizens of the
little town could not sleep.
So when the people grew very, very tired of it, they sent word to Queen
Anne that her kinsman was a very bad Governor. And she, after much
hesitation, when he had been Governor six years, removed him from
office. She no sooner did this, than those to whom he owed money, and
there were a great many of them, had him put in the debtors' prison, in
the upper story of the City Hall in Wall Street. And in jail he remained
for several months, until his father, the Earl of Clarendon, died, and
money was sent for the release of the debtor prisoner, who was now a
peer of Great Britain.
[Illustration: View in Broad Street about 1740.]
CHAPTER XIV
LORD LOVELACE and ROBERT HUNTER
The new Governor arrived in the last months of the year 1708. He was
John, Lord Lovelace. As there had been so much trouble caused by the
governors appropriating money belonging to the citizens, he decided to
take a very different course. He had the public accounts looked into,
and said, "I wish it known to all the world that the public debt has not
been contracted in my time." And having said this (which made a fine
impression) the Governor asked the Assembly to set aside enough money
for him to run the affairs of the province for a number of years. This
was to be called a permanent revenue. But the Assembly would do no such
thing. In the midst of the discussion, Governor Lovelace died, five
months after his arrival.
It was quite a year after the death of Lovelace before his successor
came. This was Robert Hunter, a most exceptional man. His parents were
poor, and when a boy he had run away from home and had joined the
British army. By working very hard at his books when the army was not
fighting, by studying in the soldiers' quarters and on the battle-field,
by making friends with officers of high rank, Hunter had grown to
manhood brave, well educated, and of graceful manner. On coming to New
York he at once made friends with many influential persons. His most
important friendship was with Lewis Morris, whom he afterward appointed
chief-justice. This Morris was a son of Richard Morris, an officer in
Cromwell's army, who had come to the province, purchased a manor ten
miles square near Harlem, and called it Morrisania--by which name it is
still known.
The year after Hunter arrived, New York joined with New England in a
plan to conquer Canada (which belonged to the French) and join it to the
English colonies. Money was raised, troops were gotten together, and
ships and soldiers were sent from England. But when the attack was to
be made, the English ships struck on the rocks in a fog off the coast of
Canada, and eight of them sank with more than 800 men. This great loss
put an end to the intended invasion. The soldiers returned home, where
there was great sorrow at the dismal failure of a project that had cost
so much money and so many lives.
Governor Hunter had only been in the province a short time when he began
to urge the Assembly to grant him that permanent revenue that Lovelace
had asked for. Queen Anne had said that he was to have it. But the
Assembly would only grant him money from year to year.
About this time the first public market for the sale of negro slaves
was established at the foot of Wall Street. More and more slaves were
brought into the city, and the laws were made more and more strict to
keep them in the most abject bondage. It had come to be the law that
no more than four slaves could meet together at one time. They were
not permitted to pass the city gates, nor to carry weapons of any sort.
Should one appear on the street after nightfall without a lighted
lantern, he was put in jail and his master was fined. Sometimes a slave
murdered his owner. Then he was burned at the stake, after scarcely the
pretence of a trial; or was suspended from the branches of a tall tree
and left there to die.
[Illustration: The Slave-Market. From an Old Print.]
But although the slaves were restrained and beaten and killed, their
numbers increased so fast that the citizens were always in fear that
they might one day rise up and kill all their masters. A riot did occur
the year after the slave-market was set up. Several white men were
killed and a house was burned. Many negroes were then arrested and
nineteen of them were executed under a charge of having engaged in a
plot against the whites.
Affairs moved along quietly for a time after the riot. The next most
interesting happening was the putting up of the first public clock, on
the City Hall in Wall Street. It was the gift of Stephen De Lancey.
De Lancey was a Huguenot nobleman, who had fled from France when the
Huguenots were persecuted for their faith, and had found a home in the
new world. He lived in a mansion at the corner of what are now Pearl and
Broad Streets. The house is there yet, still called Fraunces's Tavern
from the owner who turned it into a tavern after De Lancey removed from
it.
Governor Hunter was becoming very popular with the people, when
unfortunately his health failed. So he surrendered the government into
the hands of Peter Schuyler, who was the oldest member in the City
Council, and went to Europe, having served for nine years. For thirteen
months Schuyler took charge, until William Burnet, the new Governor,
replaced him.
[Illustration: Fraunces's Tavern.]
CHAPTER XV
GOVERNOR BURNET and the FRENCH TRADERS
Governor William Burnet was the son of a celebrated bishop of England.
His early days were passed at the Court of William III., where he met
people of refinement and culture. Of an observing nature, and studying
a great deal, he came to be a man of deep learning, a good talker, with
manners that attracted attention wherever he went--so fine were they.
The city was gayly decorated in honor of his coming. Women looked from
their windows and waved their handkerchiefs. Men crowded the streets and
loudly shouted their welcome.
Soon after, he married the daughter of a leading merchant, and so
identified himself at once with the city's interests. He became the fast
friend of Chief-Justice Lewis Morris. Another friendship was that he
formed with Dr. Cadwallader Colden. We shall hear more of this man
later. Besides being a physician of note, he had a world-wide reputation
as a writer on many scientific subjects.
Along about this time the French were trying hard to get all the trade
with the Indians, not only in the province of New York, but in all the
lands as far west as the Mississippi country that was then wild and
unexplored. By this they could make a great deal of money, but, better
still, would make friends of the powerful Indian tribes. Then the French
hoped that the Indians would join with them against the English and that
they could conquer all the English lands in America.
The New York merchants were quite content to let the French do the
trading with the Indians, for the French traders bought all their goods
in New York, and the merchants in selling to them did not run the great
risk of being murdered, as they would in trading with the Indians in the
forests. But although the merchants were satisfied, Governor Burnet was
not. He realized the danger to the English provinces should the Indians
become enemies. So he decided to establish a line of English trading
stations that would enable the colonists to trade directly with the
Indians in safety. He also made it unlawful to sell goods in New York
to the French traders.
The merchants bitterly disapproved of these acts of Governor Burnet.
They believed that he had dealt a death-blow to their French trade, and
they became his bitter enemies. He tried hard to establish the line of
trading stations, but the English Government refused to help him with
money, and the project had to be abandoned, and the law against the
French trade, which had caused the trouble, was repealed. The trade was
once more carried on.
By this time George II. had become King of England, which was in the
year 1728. Influence was brought to bear, and Governor Burnet was
removed, and left the province a poorer man than he had entered it.
Toward the end of this same year Colonel John Montgomery was made
Governor.
He had been groom of the bedchamber of George II. when the latter was
Prince of Wales. He was a weak and lazy man, although he had been bred a
soldier. You may believe that he never did much in the soldiering line,
for a soldier's life is a hard one, and not likely to encourage a man
to be lazy. Montgomery was given a cordial welcome, however.
The year after he came, the first Jewish cemetery was established, the
remains of which may still be seen in the neighborhood of Chatham Square
in New Bowery Street. It has not been used as a graveyard in many a
year, and much of the ground is now occupied by buildings. But there
is still a portion, behind a stone wall, and crumbling tombstones have
stood there ever so many years longer than the dingy tenements which
hem them in on three sides.
In the days of Montgomery, New York was still a small village, for most
of the houses were below the present Fulton Street, and they were not at
all thickly built, so there was room enough for pleasant gardens around
them.
At this time the vacant space in front of the fort, which had been used
as a parade-ground and a market-place, was leased to three citizens
whose houses were nearby to be used as a Bowling Green. Its name came
from this and it still keeps it.
A fire department was organized and two engines were imported and room
made for them in the City Hall. Before this the department had consisted
of a few leather buckets and a few fire-hooks.
In 1731 Governor Montgomery died, and for thirteen months after, Rip Van
Dam, oldest member of the council, and a wealthy merchant, looked after
the province until the coming of William Cosby.
CHAPTER XVI
THE TRIAL of ZENGER, the PRINTER
Cosby arrived; a testy, disagreeable man who loved money above
everything else. The colonists received him with favor, because they did
not know these things about him. The Assembly granted him a revenue for
six years, and gave him a present of £750 besides. The Governor thought
this a very small sum and said so. He presented an order from the King
which said that he was to have half the salary that Rip Van Dam had
received for acting as Governor.
[Illustration: Dinner at Rip Van Dam's.]
But Van Dam would not part with his money, and the people sided with
him, for they had long been weary of governors who looked upon the
colony simply as a means to repair their fortunes. Cosby was determined
to get the money, so he sued Van Dam. This suit was conducted in a court
where there were three judges, and two of them were friends of Cosby.
One of them was James De Lancey, a son of that Stephen De Lancey who had
given the clock to the city. The Chief-Justice was still Lewis Morris,
who had been appointed by Governor Hunter. So with two judges, friends
of the Governor, he won his suit, and Van Dam was ordered to pay him
half his salary.
More than this, Chief-Justice Morris, who had disagreed with the other
two judges, was removed from office, and James De Lancey became
Chief-Justice.
The mass of the people disapproved of these doings, and there were
murmurs of discontent. But the Governor had his money, and had made his
friend Chief-Justice, and was running matters pretty much his own way,
so he was satisfied.
There was still only one paper, the _New York Gazette_, published by
William Bradford. As Bradford was the Government printer, it was quite
natural that he should side with Cosby. But just at this time another
paper came into existence, a rival to the _Gazette_, which took up the
people's cause. This was the _New York Weekly Journal_, published by
Peter Zenger, who had been one of Bradford's workmen. Each week it was
filled with articles assailing Cosby, and all who were in sympathy with
him. Very soon Zenger was arrested, charged with publishing libels
against the city officials and the King. He was locked up in one of the
cells in the City Hall.
The friends of Zenger secretly secured the services of Andrew Hamilton,
a distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia, who pleaded his cause to good
effect, and showed that Zenger had only spoken as any man had a right
to speak, and had pointed out wrongs where wrongs existed. Justice
De Lancey, remembering that his friend the Governor had made him
Chief-Justice, told the jury that they must find Zenger guilty. But
the jury pronounced him not guilty. Thus the freedom of the press was
established, and the jury, by their verdict, had opposed the Governor,
his council, the Assembly, and the judge before whom the accused had
been tried.
About this time Lord Augustus Fitzroy, youngest son of the Duke of
Grafton, came from England to visit Governor Cosby. The Governor thanked
him for having honored New York with his presence, and told him that the
city was open and invited him to go where he pleased. Lord Augustus did
not go far. He fell in love with the Governor's daughter. He did more
than fall in love, for one day he induced a minister to climb over the
fort wall and marry him to her, without leave or license. The friends
of the young nobleman were shocked, for the Governor's daughter was
considered beneath him in rank. Governor Cosby was accused of having
brought about this unequal match, although Lord Augustus said that it
was the lady's winning ways and pretty face.
Cosby, after the Zenger trial, did what he could to check the liberty
of the citizens, but was soon stricken with a fatal illness. On his
death-bed he called together the members of his council, and suspended
his old enemy, Rip Van Dam, who would have been his successor until
another Governor was appointed. And having done this he died, on March
10, 1736, leaving a quarrelsome state of affairs behind him.
CHAPTER XVII
CONCERNING the NEGRO PLOT
The citizens were so far from being pleased when they learned that Rip
Van Dam was not to act in the Governor's place, that, for a time, it
looked very much as though there would be a riot. There was a member of
the Assembly named George Clarke, and when his fellow-members chose him
for the place that Rip Van Dam should have had, there was more
grumbling. But as no Governor came from England for seven years, Clarke
looked after the province all that time. He was an easy-going man, who
tried by every possible means to make friends. There was one happening
in particular by which he is remembered. It was called the Negro Plot.
Slaves had been brought to the city, until now there were 2,000 of them.
The 8,000 citizens were in constant dread lest the negroes should some
day rise up in revolt. Early in the spring of the year 1741 several
fires occurred in different parts of the city, and the citizens felt
quite sure that the slaves had started them. As the hours passed, the
idea of a plot grew until it seemed a fact. Then a reward was offered to
anyone who would tell of a conspiracy or of anyone concerned in one.
Just at this time a woman was arrested for a small theft, and when she
heard of the reward, she all at once remembered that there had been
meetings of negroes at a small tavern where she had worked. She told of
a plan to kill every white person; to set all the negroes free, and to
make one of them King of the city. The woman who told this story was
Mary Burton. The tavern-keeper, his wife, and several other negroes were
hanged in short order. Still the fires kept on. There were dozens within
ten days, and among others the Governor's house in the fort was burned
to the ground.
[Illustration: The Negroes Sentenced.]
Mary Burton now began a remarkable series of confessions which grew
wilder with each passing day. Negro slaves accused by her were arrested
in numbers. Liberty was promised all who would speak the truth, and
speaking the truth was understood to mean giving information of a
conspiracy. Very soon several negroes were burned at the stake in a
little valley beyond the Collect Pond. This awful death frightened many,
who hastened to cry out that they knew all about the plot. There were
some who saved their lives by confessing things that were not true; many
more did not.
During the whole long, hot summer the hanging and burning of negro
slaves went on. Late in the year, when Mary Burton had seen every person
she had accused arrested, she grew more bold. She sought some new story
to tell, and found one in remembering for the first time that white
people had been connected with the plot. Twenty-four white citizens had
been arrested, when Mary Burton began to attack prominent townsmen; even
those who had been foremost in the prosecution of the negroes. It was
only then realized that the woman's words could not be relied upon. She
was paid the hundred pounds that had been promised her, and she
disappeared, leaving no trace.
Gradually the fury of feeling against the slaves died away. Whether
there had ever been any real plot will always remain unanswered.
Certain it is, however, that the witnesses on whose words arrests were
made were all of uncertain and unreliable character; that the evidence
was contradictory, and that most of it was extorted under pain of death.
The excitement passed away after a time, and George Clarke went on
talking finely and managing his own affairs so well that he was growing
very rich indeed when his official life came to a sudden end.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE TRAGIC DEATH of SIR DANVERS OSBORNE
In this year, 1743, Admiral George Clinton was sent by King George II.
of England to take the place of George Clarke as Governor. Then Clarke
packed up his riches and went to England and enjoyed the rest of his
life far from the little colony that he had governed so much to his own
profit.
Admiral Clinton was the son of an English earl.
When he had been Governor not yet a year, there came a man whose
influence was soon felt. He was Commodore Peter Warren, of the British
Navy, who in later years became an admiral. Before he had been in New
York long, he married Susannah De Lancey, a sister of the Chief-Justice.
They went to live in a new house in the country, in the district which
was then and is now known as Greenwich.
England was again at war with France at this time. There were tribes of
Indians who sided with the French, and there were other tribes who sided
with the English, and the result was a series of bloody border wars. Two
years after the coming of Governor Clinton, New York, with the other
English colonies, gathered troops to attack the French, and a great
force was sent against a city called Louisburg. This city was on Cape
Breton Island, which is close by the coast of Nova Scotia and was a
fortress of such great strength, that it was called the Gibraltar of
America. Commodore Warren led the English fleet, and the combined forces
by sea and land captured the fortress.
You will remember James De Lancey, who was still Chief-Justice.
He was very rich, and as he showed at all times that he considered the
interests of the citizens above all things, they naturally thought a
great deal of him. For a time he acted as adviser to Governor Clinton,
but the two had a falling out.
For the ten years that Clinton remained Governor he had great trouble
with the people, who sided with De Lancey. At the end of that time
Governor Clinton, finding that his power grew less and less, and that De
Lancey became more and more popular, resigned his office. A few months
went by, and then came Sir Danvers Osborne to be Governor. On the third
day after reaching the city he walked out of the fort at the head of the
other officials, with Clinton by his side, to go to the City Hall, where
he was to take the oath of office. The people, all gathered in the
streets, shouted when they saw the new Governor. But at the sight of
Clinton, whom they hated, they hissed and shook their fists and yelled,
until Clinton became alarmed and hurried back to the fort, leaving the
new Governor to go on without him. And Sir Danvers Osborne was much
surprised and a little frightened.
"I expect," said he to Clinton that same day, "I expect the same
treatment before I leave the province,"
For all the shaking fists and for all the angry shouts, the new Governor
was well entertained that day. The church-bells rang, cannon boomed, and
at night the town was illuminated. But the citizens did not do this so
much for the new Governor as they did for De Lancey, who had now been
made Lieutenant-Governor.
Two days after Sir Danvers took the oath of office he called his council
before him and told them that the King had said he was to have the
permanent revenue about which there had been so much trouble with the
other governors. And the council members told him, as they had told
others, that this command would never be obeyed. On hearing this Sir
Danvers became sad and gloomy. He covered his face with his hands.
"Then what am I come here for?" he cried.
The very next morning there was an uproar in the city. The Governor
had been found dead, hanging from the garden-wall of his house. Then
the people learned that his mind had been unsettled for a long time,
and that he had accepted the governorship hoping to be cured by a change
of scene. But the knowledge that his rule would be one of constant
struggling to gain his ends had doubtless proven too much for his
wrecked brain. So he killed himself, and the government of New York was
left in the hands of James De Lancey, and you will see how he still
further won the hearts of those around him.
CHAPTER XIX
THE BEGINNING of DISCONTENT
Two years James De Lancey acted as Governor, and the citizens were
really sorry when Admiral Sir Charles Hardy was sent to take his place.
Sir Charles was not slow to see and to admit that while he was a good
sailor, he did not make a good Governor, so after a year he resigned,
and the province was once more left to the care of De Lancey.
At this time there was much being said about the need for schools, and
for many years plans had been under way for building a college in the
city.
Money had been raised by means of lotteries--which were popular and
lawful then--and finally the college was established. It was called
King's College. It is still in existence, but is now Columbia
University. A tablet at West Broadway and Murray Street tells that the
college once stood close by.
It was near this time that William Walton, a very rich merchant, built
the finest house that the city had yet known. This was in Queen Street,
not a great way from the Stadt Huys, and the furniture and fittings were
in keeping with the elegance of the exterior. It was so fine that the
fame of it spread to England, where it was spoken of as a proof that the
colonists were very, very rich indeed. This house stood for 129 years.
When it was torn down it had become a tenement that showed scarcely a
trace of its early grandeur. Queen Street is now Pearl Street and the
building numbered 326 is on the site of the famous old house.
There was another war with the French now, and four expeditions were
sent out against them. On one of these a young officer with the troops
from Virginia distinguished himself. He was cool and daring in the midst
of battle. The soldiers, who were themselves fearless fighters, strove
to be as brave as he. This officer was only twenty-three years old, and
his name was George Washington. He had a glorious career before him.
There came from England in the year following this a burly, blustering
man, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the British forces in
America. This Lord Loudoun very soon proved to everybody's satisfaction
except his own that he was not fit to be a commander. The people of New
York detested him heartily, and were glad when after three years he was
recalled because he was not successful in the war against the French.
The new commander-in-chief did better. He was General Jeffrey Amherst,
and under him the English were gradually successful. Town after town
held by the French fell, until the capture of Montreal, in 1760, secured
to the English the conquest of Canada, and so ended a conflict which had
for many years drained the energies of the colonists.
Soon after this Lieutenant-Governor James De Lancey was found dead in
his library-chair at his country home (now a closely built-up part of
the city at Delancey Street, near the Bowery). In a few days his body
was taken from there, followed by a great concourse of people, and
buried under the centre aisle of Trinity Church. Up to the last day of
his life De Lancey remained much beloved.
[Illustration: Trinity Church, 1760.]
The death of De Lancey left the care of the colony to Cadwallader
Colden, whom you will remember as the friend of Governor Hunter. He had
been so long concerned in public affairs that he knew how to please.
Before the year was ended England's King, George II., died. When the
news reached New York, the city was draped with mourning. But in another
week all signs of sadness had disappeared in honor of the new King,
George III.
Then General Robert Monckton, who had been in command of the English
forces on Staten Island, was made Governor. He was a young man, somewhat
careless, but, as was the case with all the new governors, he was
welcomed with glad shouts of approval.
England at this time needed men in her navy, and the captains of
war-ships were in the habit of boarding any vessel that sailed from the
colonies in America and taking sailors by force to serve on the English
ships. This increased a bitter feeling that the colonists were beginning
to have against England. The city had now 14,000 inhabitants and was in
quite a flourishing condition.
After two years Monckton tired of the cares of government, and sailed
away to England, with never a thought of the wild scenes that were to
take place in the land he left behind.
CHAPTER XX
THE STORY of the STAMP ACT
The colonists were becoming more and more dissatisfied, not only in New
York, but in all of the thirteen English colonies in America. For they
strongly objected to the way in which money was being taken from them in
the form of taxes. The English had spent much money in the wars which
led up to the conquest of Canada, and thought that it should be returned
to them. So they taxed the colonists in every possible way. Protest was
made against these taxes, but in vain. Matters became worse and worse.
After two years, when it had come to be the year 1765, the British
Parliament passed what was called the Stamp Act. This compelled the
people to buy stamps and put them on every sort of legal paper. No one
could be married, no newspaper could be printed, nothing could be
bought, nothing could be sold, no business of any sort could be carried
on without these stamps. No one could evade the use of them, and in this
way all would have to contribute directly to the King.
More than any other form of tax, more than anything the British
Government had done, the people opposed this Stamp Act. The colonists
had no one to represent them in the British Parliament, no one to
present their side, no one to plead for them and tell what a drain this
tax was, so they declared that they would not use a single stamp, unless
they were allowed to have someone to represent them; and they set up the
cry, "No Taxation Without Representation."
Very soon a company of men called the Sons of Liberty began to be heard
of throughout all the thirteen colonies. They were foremost in opposing
the Stamp Act. In many towns they held meetings, and it was not long
before the people were aroused from one end of the country to the other.
Not many months had passed before men were sent from each of the
colonies and met in the City Hall at New York. This meeting was called
a Colonial Congress. For three weeks these men conferred, and during
that time decided that in good truth the Stamp Act was unjust, and that
everything in their power should be done to prevent it.
[Illustration: Coffee-House opposite Bowling Green, Head-Quarters of
the Sons of Liberty.]
In this same year the house which Stephen De Lancey had built close by
Trinity Church, and which James De Lancey had lived in until his death,
had become a hotel. It was called Burns's Coffee-House. It was a solid
structure, with high beams, great fireplaces, and wide halls. If you
go now to look for the spot where it stood, you will find a crowded
business section; but in those days there were open spaces all about,
and a handsome lawn swept away to the river. One October night the
merchants of the city gathered in this coffee-house, and here, late at
night, they signed a paper which bound them one and all to buy no goods
from England so long as the English King should compel them to use the
stamps. By this agreement people could, of course, only wear clothing
that was made in the colonies, and even the wealthy refused to buy silk
and broadcloth that were sent from England. Tea and coffee, being
imports, were not drunk, and in their place were used preparations made
from fragrant wild herbs of the American soil.
The merchants who had assembled in the coffee-house were called the
Non-Importation Association, branches of which spread throughout all the
colonies. The paper they signed was the non-importation agreement. Next
day, which was the first on which the stamps were to be distributed, the
city seemed to sleep. The shops were closed and the citizens remained
indoors. The flags were hung at half-mast and the bells tolled dismally.
But at night the silence changed to noise. The citizens gathered in
numbers. They broke into the stable of Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader
Golden and dragged out his coach of state. In it they put a figure made
of sticks and rags to represent the owner. They marched the streets,
shouting as they went, and finally surrounded the fort. The soldiers
were drawn up on the ramparts with cannon and gun directed toward the
Bowling Green. But no shots were fired. The rioters being denied
admission to the fort, into which they were anxious to get because the
stamps were stored there, tore down the wooden railing around the
Bowling Green, and, kindling a huge fire, burned the coach and the
figure in it.
As the flames blazed high, the fury of the mob increased. They rushed
away toward Vauxhall on the outskirts of the town (where Greenwich and
Warren Streets now cross). Vauxhall at this time was occupied by a major
of the British army named James. He had said that the stamps ought to be
crammed down the throats of the people with the point of a sword. In
revenge for this his house was broken into, his handsome furniture, his
pictures and treasures of every sort dragged out, and kindled into a
bonfire around which the mob danced and howled.
The people were quite determined to take the law into their own hands
and destroy every trace of the hated stamps. You shall know presently
what prevented them.
CHAPTER XXI
THE BEGINNING of REVOLUTION
On the morning after the night of rioting--dark and dreary day that was
quite in keeping with the gloomy feelings of the people--Cadwallader
Colden, the Lieutenant-Governor, decided that he would do away with the
stamps that had caused so much trouble. So he had them delivered to the
Mayor, who was in accord with the citizens, and the Mayor put them in
the City Hall amid many cheers. A few days after this Sir Henry Moore
(who had been appointed Governor of the province) arrived from England,
and immediately won the hearts of the citizens by saying that he would
have nothing to do with the stamps. During the next few months
excitement in New York and in the other colonies increased, and efforts
to keep the stamps in use caused riots everywhere.
When the King saw that he could not enforce the Stamp Act, and that
serious trouble was likely to occur from every attempt to do so, he
repealed the act, the year after it had become a law.
The people were overjoyed at this.
The King's birthday coming soon after, there was in his honor a great
celebration, and a liberty pole was planted on the Common, which in
after years played an important part in the history of New York; and
a marble statue of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was erected. This
William Pitt had done more than any other man in England to secure the
repeal of the Stamp Act, and had time and time again spoken strongly
against it. His statue was set up in Wall Street, and at the same time
a statue of King George III., seated upon a horse, was erected on the
Bowling Green. It fared ill with these statues later, as you will see.
There was no longer a stamp act, but there was another act quite as
disagreeable. It was called the Mutiny Bill, and it required that food
and drink and sleeping-quarters be given to all the British soldiers.
Now the Mutiny Bill fell hardest upon New York, for New York was the
head-quarters of the British army in America. The people refused to
comply with this law, because they feared that it was the first step
toward compelling them to support a great army in America.
So the soldiers and citizens were again continually at odds.
Four years after the Stamp Act was repealed, during which time affairs
were in a most unsettled state and the bitter feeling between the
colonists and England was growing stronger with each passing day, the
English Parliament declared that no tax was to be put on anything except
tea. Tea was to be taxed, not so much for the money that would thus go
to the King, but to show that he had the right to tax the colonists.
This did not settle matters in the least. The colonists had sworn to
resist all taxes, and to have a tax on one article was as bad, to their
minds, as having taxes on all. But the merchants were not prospering,
for, not importing goods from England, they had none to sell. So a
committee of 100 men was appointed to see what could be done. This
committee decided that it would be right for the merchants to import
everything they needed except tea. And the merchants welcomed this
decision and agreed to it.
But the fiery Sons of Liberty refused to listen to any such compromise.
They insisted on keeping the non-importation agreement until the duty
on tea, as well as all other duties, should be done away with once and
for all. So they determined to maintain it until the end, and they did
maintain it well. Day by day the soldiers of King George III. and the
citizens became greater enemies. Although the soldiers tried many times
to drag down the liberty pole, it was well defended, and it stood until
one night in January, 1770, when they tore it down and chopped it into
pieces. This act led to the battle of Golden Hill, which was the first
real battle of the American Revolution.
CHAPTER XXII
FIGHTING the TAX on TEA
A bit of rising ground, not a great way from the Common, was called
Golden Hill. Here there was an inn. To this day the elevation of ground
can be seen (where John Street crosses William), and the inn still
stands. While the thought of the wrecked liberty pole was still fresh
in mind, some of the Sons of Liberty came suddenly upon a number of
soldiers close by this inn. There was a running fight, the soldiers
using their guns and cutlasses and the others beating them back with
staves and sticks. More soldiers came and the fight grew in fury.
Already one man had received his death-blow and a dozen had been
injured, when several officers came galloping up the road and the
soldiers were ordered back to their barracks. This was the battle of
Golden Hill.
Very often after this the soldiers and the citizens clashed and
sometimes came to blows, and progress was at a standstill because of the
turbulence of the times. Public improvements were neglected and very
little business was carried on.
In the third year after the battle of Golden Hill, the British
Government decided to make the colonists buy tea whether they wanted to
or not. So the price was put down until tea could be bought in New York
cheaper than it could be bought in England. This did no good, for though
the tea was cheap the tax was on it and it was the tax and not the price
of which the people complained. The Sons of Liberty, when they heard
that ships loaded with cheap tea were on the way from England, said they
would not even permit it to be landed. The first ship in port was under
the command of a captain named Lockyer, who, when he learned of the
strong efforts made to prevent the landing of the tea, determined to
return to England with his cargo. He anchored his ship in the bay and
came in a small boat to the city. The people, joyful over his decision,
decided to give him a public leave-taking.
Within a few days another ship sailed into the bay, commanded by Captain
Chambers, who insisted that he had no tea on board. When told that his
vessel would be searched, he admitted that he had a few chests. That
same night the citizens who had all day thronged the wharf, suddenly
swarmed aboard the vessel. The hatches were ripped up, and the eighteen
chests of tea hauled on deck. There they were torn into pieces and the
contents scattered into the river. Having done this the crowds dispersed
and all was quiet again.
Next day came the public leave-taking of Captain Lockyer. He had spent
the night at the coffee-house in Wall Street, and here, early in the
morning, there was a great assembly. The bells of the city chimed
merrily; flags floated from the houses, and the ships in the bay were
decorated with gay colors.
From the balcony of the coffee-house the Captain bowed while the crowds
cheered him. Finally a committee escorted him to the foot of Wall
Street, where he embarked in a pilot-boat which took him to his ship.
Another committee, with far less ceremony, escorted Captain Chambers to
the same boat, and the two captains sailed away.
[Illustration: Ferry-House on East River, 1746, from an Old Print.]
Even before this had happened in New York, the citizens of Boston had
dumped a cargo of tea into their harbor, and the British Parliament had
closed the port of Boston; which meant that no ships were permitted to
sail in or out of it. By this it was hoped to stop all business in
Boston, and really it did put an end to a great part of it. And General
Thomas Gage, who now had charge of the British troops in America,
undertook to see that the orders of the King were properly enforced.
This closing of the port of Boston aroused the thirteen British colonies
in America. After a great deal of letter-writing it was decided to have
men from each of these colonies meet and talk matters over. In September
of this year (1774) they met in Philadelphia. At this meeting, which was
called the First Continental Congress, it was decided that laws were
made in England that were unjust to America, that the colonists objected
to taxes that were fixed by Parliament and would buy no more goods from
England while a tax was upon them; and that they objected to the support
of a large British army in the colonies.
And this First Continental Congress sent a petition to King George III.,
saying that the unjust laws should be done away with.
How the King received this petition is soon told.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SONS of LIBERTY at TURTLE BAY
Now in New York almost everybody was anxious to carry out the decision
of this First Continental Congress.
But the Assembly said that the Congress had not been a lawful gathering
and must not be obeyed. The colonists replied that they would do as they
thought best, no matter what the King's Assembly ordered.
You must know that some of the people supported the royal cause and were
called Royalists or Tories. The others were called Patriots or Whigs.
The English called the patriots rebels.
It had now come to be the year 1775, and matters in Boston where the
port had been closed were growing worse and worse. In the month of April
some British soldiers passing through Lexington shot down a number of
patriots. Messengers on horseback sped through the colonies carrying
news of this massacre. It was the first serious encounter of the
Revolution and the colonists realized that they were now at war with the
British. Men rushed to arms. Farmers left their homes. Professional men
hurried from the towns. Within a few days an army surrounded Boston and
penned in the British troops there.
When the messenger reached New York with the news of the Lexington
massacre, a Provisional Assembly was formed which was to look after the
city without regard to the Assembly which already existed. And this is
the way it came about that there was a king's government and a people's
government. Shops were closed and armed citizens paraded the streets.
Matters went on in this fashion for a month, when a Second Continental
Congress met at Philadelphia.
As it was now seen that there was to be a serious conflict with Great
Britain, the army gathered about Boston was adopted as the beginning of
the forces to be assembled and was termed the Continental Army, and
George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief.
[Illustration: East River Shore, 1750, from an Old Print.]
Knowing that they would soon need guns and powder, the Sons of Liberty
seized those held by the royal troops in New York. There was quite a
quantity in a storehouse at Turtle Bay, a quiet little cove three miles
above the town, that curved into a wild and rocky part of the East River
shore. Nowadays the city extends for miles and miles above it. If you go
to Forty-ninth Street and the East River you will see all that remains
of it. Although the houses are built thick about it, there is still an
air of seclusion. Everywhere else along the shore are piers and
bath-houses and wharves and ships and shipping.
So at this Turtle Bay, far from the town, the royal troops had a
storehouse for their arms. A small band of the Sons of Liberty, one dark
night, floated down the river, guided their vessel into the bay,
overpowered the guards before they were fairly aroused, and loaded their
boat with the enemy's powder and guns. Then they made off, and before
the morning dawned had placed the stores safe in the hands of the
patriots.
Then the War of the Revolution broke in full fury.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE WAR of the REVOLUTION
In this month of June, in the year 1775, there were quite a number of
British soldiers in the city, and many of the patriots believed that
they should be made prisoners. But the Provisional Assembly decreed that
the orders of the Second Continental Congress must be obeyed. And these
orders were not to molest the soldiers as long as they did not try to
build fortifications or remove powder and guns from the city.
But early in this month of June it was learned that the soldiers were
about to go to Boston. More than that, it was known that there was a
secret order under which they were to take guns and powder with them.
The Sons of Liberty were hastily called to a meeting. One of them,
Marinus Willett, was hurrying through Broad Street toward the
Coffee-House where the meeting was to be held, when he came upon the
soldiers moving silently along with five carts loaded with chests of
arms. Alone, and without an instant's hesitation, Willett clutched at
the bridle of the first horse. The company stopped. There was an angry
parley, the officers claiming the right to leave the city with the arms,
and making an effort to do so without raising a general alarm. But
friends of Willett came to his assistance. The five carts were driven
away by the patriots and the soldiers went on but without the arms. Long
years afterward a bronze tablet was placed on a house in Broad Street
close by Beaver (and is there now), to mark the spot where the brave
Willett stopped the ammunition wagons.
In this same month a battle was fought between the British army in
Boston and the Continental army which was encamped outside of Boston.
It was fought on a bit of high ground near the city, and was called
the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Just at this time word came that General George Washington, the newly
appointed commander-in-chief, was on his way from Philadelphia to the
Continental army, and would pass through New York City. Washington with
his aides and a company of soldiers were hurrying across New Jersey on
horseback, and when they reached the city they were met by a committee
from the Provisional Assembly, with a number of patriot soldiers.
The next morning Washington set out for Boston. He had not yet left the
town when a ship appeared in the bay having on board Governor William
Tryon, who had been visiting in England for nearly a year. Governor
Tryon did not remain long in the city though, as it was not a
comfortable place for a royal Governor just then. He hurriedly left one
night and went aboard one of the British ships in the bay.
At the close of this year Washington was still before Boston with the
Continental army. Another section of the army was in the North, fighting
against the British in Canada. This last branch was encamped about the
walls of Quebec in the last month of the year. It was under the command
of General Richard Montgomery, of New York, a brilliant soldier who had
fought in the French and Indian wars. Quebec was stormed, but was too
strong to be taken. Montgomery fell crying, "Men of New York, you will
not fear to follow where your general leads." He was buried with
military honors in Quebec, for the British honored him as a brave man.
Forty-three years later his remains were removed to New York, and placed
beneath the portico of St. Paul's Chapel, where his tomb may now be
seen.
Fighting by the side of Montgomery when he fell was a youth who was
singled out for his bravery. His name was Aaron Burr. You are to hear
more of him, for many and many a time in after years the eyes of the
entire country were turned upon him.
CHAPTER XXV
A BATTLE on LONG ISLAND
And now, early in the next spring, George Washington came again to
New York, having at last forced the British troops from Boston. The
city, which was under the control of the patriots, was in a state of
excitement, as it seemed probable that this was to be the next point
of attack. Every person who favored the cause of the King, or who was
suspected of favoring it, was looked upon with distrust. One-third of
the citizens had fled. The soldiers of the Continental army were
arriving daily. Women and children were rarely seen upon the streets.
Many of the royalists' houses, which had been closed when their owners
fled, were broken open to give sleeping quarters to the soldiers.
At the outbreak of the war the people's grievance had been simply
taxation without representation, but by this time the desire for
complete independence had taken fast hold of them. This feeling swept
through the colonies, and when the Continental Congress met in June of
this year, it voted that the united colonies should be free and
independent States and have no further political connection with Great
Britain. A declaration of independence was adopted on July 4th, and the
British colonies became the United States of America.
A horseman brought the news to New York, and there was great rejoicing.
The soldiers of the new Union then in the city were ordered to the
Common, and there, early in the evening, standing in a hollow
square--close by where the City Hall is now--and surrounded by a great
concourse of people, Washington read the address that proclaimed the
birth of a free and independent nation.
Following the reading the great throng applauded and then, filled with
enthusiasm, rushed away. At the City Hall in Wall Street they tore down
the painting of King George III. and trampled it under foot. On again
they went to the Bowling Green, and there they dragged down the statue
of the same royal person which had been erected only a few years before.
The scattered fragments of the leaden statue were afterward gathered up
and moulded into bullets.
This same month General William Howe, commander of the British army, had
landed on Staten Island, with his brother, Admiral Howe of the British
navy, and with the soldiers and sailors of their commands, made up a
fine, well-drilled army of 35,000 men, who had come to fight a force of
20,000 recruits; men not at all well-versed in war, and nearly half of
whom were ill and not able to be on duty.
But Washington calmly watched the British on Staten Island, and the
British ships, more than 400 of them, in the bay, and was not at all
dismayed. Once General Howe wrote to Washington suggesting measures that
would lead to peace, but nothing came of it.
Late in the month of August the fighting commenced. General Howe led his
forces to Long Island--led 21,000 men, for he thought that the best way
to capture New York was to first vanquish the army on Long Island by an
overwhelming force. Then the subduing of the city across the river would
be easy.
Washington hurried what men he could across to Long Island to assist
those already there. But even then the Americans were outnumbered as two
to one. The patriots fought long and well, but they were defeated. Two
hundred or more were killed, and three times as many, including three
generals, were made prisoners. But more than 300 of the British were
also killed.
The day after the battle, the American army was in Brooklyn, penned in
on the land side by the British troops and on the other by the wide,
swift-running river. It was raining in torrents. Washington was there.
He planned a retreat that was to save his army. All the boats to be
found along the shores of the Island of Manhattan were taken to Brooklyn
in the dead of night. Silently the soldiers were put aboard, so silently
that, although the British were almost within speaking distance, no
sound of the departing army reached them. The point where they embarked
was close by where the East River Bridge now touches the Brooklyn shore.
It was daylight before the last of the troops got aboard, but a heavy
fog shielded them as well as had the darkness.
When the sun swept the fog away, General Howe gazed in wonder at the
spot where the American forces had been the night before. But they
were gone, with the swiftness and silence of magic! The magician was
Washington, who had not slept from the hour of defeat until his men were
safe again in New York. But they were not to remain there long, as more
exciting work was before them.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BRITISH OCCUPY NEW YORK
Miles and miles above the little city of New York, on a road which led
up through the Island of Manhattan, there was a stately house in a
stretch of country and forest land overlooking the Hudson River. This
was the house of Charles Ward Apthorpe and was known as the Apthorpe
mansion. Here General Washington went after the retreat from Long
Island, to devise a plan for the battles that were to come.
The city was well fortified, but Washington understood full well that
it could not be held long against a British attack. For the British
soldiers were already on the islands of the East River, and the British
ships held possession of the harbor and of both rivers. So Washington
sent the main body of his army to Harlem Heights at the northern end of
the Island of Manhattan, and left only a force of 4,000 men, under
General Putnam, in New York.
Washington desiring to learn the plans of the enemy, called for someone
who would be willing to go into the British lines. This was a dangerous
undertaking, for capture meant certain death. But there was a young
officer who was anxious to undertake the mission, and the arrangements
were made. This was Nathan Hale. In disguise he made his way, learned
the number of the enemy, and learned, too, all about the plan of attack.
With this information he was hurrying back to General Washington, when
he was recognized as belonging to the American army, and was arrested.
In a few days, when he was tried, he freely admitted that he had acted
as Washington's spy. He died as he had lived--bravely. A moment before
he was hanged he was asked if he wished to say any word. "Yes," he
answered; and looking firmly into the faces of those who stood about
him, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,"
No wonder that the memory of the Martyr Spy has lived through the
passing years!
Sixteen days after Washington and his men retreated from Long Island,
the British sailed up the East River and anchored opposite a little
inlet called Kip's Bay (at the foot of what is now Thirty-sixth Street).
They fired upon those who defended the bay, and under cover of this fire
landed; and the American soldiers scurried away up the island toward the
north.
General Howe led his men on for half a mile, until they reached a large
country house. This was the home, and all about it was the farm, of a
family named Murray (who gave their name to Murray Hill). These Murrays
were friendly to the patriots, but they were also well acquainted with
Governor Tryon, who was with the British army. So the army rested close
by the house, and Howe, Tryon, and the other officers were given a fine
dinner by Mrs. Murray.
[Illustration: Mrs. Murray's Dinner to British Officers.]
Now although the Americans had retreated north up the island from Kip's
Bay, and were safely on their way to the main army on Harlem Heights,
you must remember there were 4,000 soldiers still in the city. So the
British were in the centre of the island with a very large force; the
main body of the Americans was to the north; while to the south was this
little band of 4,000, far away from their army and in a position to be
trapped by the British. Had the British officers at once decided to
stretch their men across the island, the 4,000 would have been penned
up on the lower part and would have been made prisoners. It therefore
seemed to Putnam's men that there was but one way for them to escape
capture, and that was by slipping past the British who rested at Murray
house and joining the main army on Harlem Heights.
The Murrays understood the condition of affairs, so they were
particularly cordial to their British guests and detained them as long
as they could at dinner. They were still feasting when General Putnam
started his 4,000 men marching toward the north.
[Illustration: Howe's Head-Quarters, Beekman House.]
He galloped far in advance, for the country was rough and his soldiers
could walk but slowly. He galloped north, and Washington, hanging to the
rear of the retreating troops from Kip's Bay, the generals met where two
roads crossed, close by where Broadway now crosses Forty-third Street.
Washington instructed Putnam to hurry his 4,000 on before they were
irretrievably cut off from the main army. They did hurry on. They drew
near the Murray house; they formed a line two miles long that moved
silently over the road that led them to within half a mile of where the
British soldiers were feasting. The line passed this point. Scarcely had
the last man gone by when the British were on the move, half an hour too
late for the capture of 4,000 prisoners.
Now the American forces were all together in a solid mass, moving toward
the upper end of the island; plodding through pouring rain, almost
dropping from the exhaustion of their long march--but safe.
This same night a division of the British soldiers occupied New York.
The others, close on the heels of the American army, waited for the
morning.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE BATTLE of HARLEM HEIGHTS
When the sun rose next morning (it was September 16th), the American
army and the British army lay encamped each on a highland close beside
one another separated by a valley.
The ground occupied by the British soldiers was then Vandewater Heights.
Much of this high ground still remains and is now called Columbia
Heights, and Columbia University and Grant's Tomb are upon it. The
American forces were scattered over what was then Harlem Heights, as far
as Washington's head-quarters in the country mansion overlooking the
Harlem River above Harlem Plains. It was the house of Roger Morris, a
royalist who had fled at the approach of the American soldiers, and it
still stands at 160th Street close by St. Nicholas Avenue. On the
heights and in the valley a battle was fought, beginning with a light
engagement quite early in the day, with more and more men of both armies
gradually joining in until there were 5,000 Americans against 6,000
British, with several thousand of each side held in reserve.
[Illustration: Map of Manhattan Island in 1776, Showing the American
Defences &c.]
The battle ended in the afternoon with the defeat of the British, who
lost 200 of their number.
This was a great victory for the Americans, who fought against superior
numbers--great because the men had lost heart after the defeat on Long
Island, and the forced retreat from the city. There was sorrow for the
dead, for even victories have a sad side. Every one of the 100 American
soldiers who were killed that day were brave men, and though all their
names are not written in history, the manner of their death urged on
their companions in the days that followed.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE BRITISH FAIL to SWEEP EVERYTHING BEFORE THEM
On the fourth day after the battle of Harlem Heights the soldiers of
England were making themselves comfortable in New York when a great
fire broke out. It swept over the city and 500 houses crumbled and fell
in ashes before it was controlled. Almost the entire western part of
the city was consumed, St. Paul's Chapel being the only building of
importance that was saved. Almost all who favored the American cause had
fled. But a few remained, and there was a hint that these had started
the fire. The British soldiers were angered when they saw the city they
had just entered burning, and while the flames roared and the houses
fell they rushed about and in their rage dashed out the brains of the
citizens who sought to beat back the flames from their homes. But it
was afterward learned that the fire had started in quite an accidental
manner.
A little while after this General Howe moved with the greater part of
the British army up the East River, and sailing on past the Island of
Manhattan, landed on the mainland beyond in Westchester. In this way the
British were in the rear of the Americans, and within a few days the two
armies coming together a battle was fought, in which the Americans were
defeated. Washington and his men then retreated into New Jersey.
General Howe next attacked Fort Washington, a high and rocky point on
the banks of the Hudson River (on a line with the present 178th Street).
There were 3,000 men here, all the American soldiers who were now on the
island, and they held such a high and well-fortified position that they
thought themselves quite safe. They doubtless would have been had not
one of their number, William Demont, turned traitor. He told the British
just how many men there were, and just how the fortress should be
attacked. And the British stormed the fort as the traitor directed, and
took it, and every one of the soldiers who had not been killed was made
prisoner. This ended the actual fight for liberty in New York.
[Illustration: View from the Bowling Green in the Revolution, from an
Old Print]
But outside of New York the war went bravely on. Washington in New
Jersey kept up the fight, but the winter came on and his army suffered
exceedingly. It had come to be a very small army by this time, for they
were poorly fed and ill clothed and seldom had any sort of shelter.
Nevertheless, Washington gained many victories in New Jersey and
manoeuvred his little army so well that the whole world, hearing of his
achievements, was forced to recognize him as a great general.
New York was the head-quarters of the British army in America, and the
residence of its chief officers. The city was as thoroughly British as
it had before been American, and it was as much as life was worth even
to hint of an interest in the American cause.
Early in the next year, 1777, those who had the making of the laws for
the new State of New York, met in secret, and chose George Clinton as
their first Governor. The other colonies had formed themselves into
States, and the new nation grew stronger day by day.
Commissioners were sent to the European courts to ask aid for the United
States. Many young French noblemen, thrilled at the idea of fighting for
liberty, came to America as volunteers, and by their knowledge of war
gave valuable assistance to the American officers. The name of the
Marquis de Lafayette stands out prominently as the chief of these
volunteers. He was not yet twenty years old, but fitted out a vessel at
his own expense and crossed the ocean to offer his services. He asked to
be enlisted as a volunteer and to serve without pay, but he was soon
appointed a major-general.
When it had come to be July of this year, there was some fighting in
the North, for the British General Burgoyne came down from Canada. He
intended to meet the army under Howe which was marching northward, and
the two armies were to sweep everything before them. Burgoyne defeated
the Americans led by General Philip Schuyler, in several battles. Just
at this time General Schuyler's command was given to General Gates. Now
Gates followed the plans that had been made by Schuyler, with the result
that Burgoyne and his entire force of 6,000 men surrendered at Saratoga.
This settled one branch of the British army. The other branch, under
General Howe, took possession of Philadelphia, but the defeat of
Burgoyne at Saratoga put an end to their hopes of sweeping everything
before them.
In the last month of the year, Washington and his army took up winter
quarters at Valley Forge so as to keep a close watch upon the British
in Philadelphia.
CHAPTER XXIX
NEW YORK a PRISON-HOUSE
The winter passed, and when the spring came the British army moved
from Philadelphia to New York City, but not without great trouble, for
Washington's army fought them every step of the way across New Jersey.
The city was now quite different from the flourishing town it had been
before the war. Held possession of by the British, it was a military
camp. No improvements were made. Many of the citizens who were loyal to
the American cause had fled. Those who were too poor to leave pretended
to favor the British, but as little business could be done, they could
find no work, and their condition became worse daily. Thousands of
American prisoners were brought here, making it a British prison-house,
and every building of any size was a guard-house, every cellar a
dungeon.
[Illustration: Old Sugar-House in Liberty Street, the Prison-House of
the Revolution.]
One of the gloomiest of these prisons was an old sugar-house close by
the Middle Dutch Church. It was built in the days of Jacob Leisler,
with thick stone walls five stories high, pierced with small windows.
The ceilings were so low and the windows so small that the air could
scarcely find entrance. Underneath was a black and dismal cellar. The
pale and shrunken faces of prisoners filled the openings at the windows
by day and by night, seeking a breath of air. They were so jammed
together that there was by no means room at the windows for all. So
these wretched men divided themselves into groups, each group crowding
close to the windows for ten minutes, then giving place to another
group. They slept on straw that was never changed, and the food given
them was scarcely enough to keep them alive. Those who suffered this
living death might have been free at any time had they been willing to
go over to the British, but few of the patriots, even in this dread
hour, deserted their cause. To while away the hours of their captivity,
they carved their names upon the walls with rusty nails. Fevers raged
constantly and they died by scores, leaving their half-finished initials
on the walls as their only relics. Their bodies were thrown out of
doors, and every morning gathered up in carts and carried to the
outskirts of the city to be buried in a trench without ceremony.
This was only one of a dozen such prison-houses. There was one other
that, if anything, was worse. It was the New Jail, and it still
stands in City Hall Park and is now the Hall of Records. During the
war it was known as The Provost, because it was the head quarters of a
provost-marshal named Cunningham. It was his custom at the conclusion
of his drunken revels to parade his weak, ill, half-fed prisoners
before his guests, as fine specimens of the rebel army. It is said
of him, too, that he poisoned those who died too slowly of cold and
starvation, and then went right on drawing money to feed them. This gave
rise to the saying that he starved the living and fed the dead. He took
a great delight in being as cruel and merciless as he could, and very
often boasted that he had caused the death of more rebels than had been
killed by all of the King's forces.
Many American sailors were also captured (for the Revolution was
fought on the sea as well as on land) and all these were placed aboard
prison-ships--useless hulks, worn-out freight-boats, and abandoned
men-of-war. For a time these hulks were anchored close by the Battery,
but afterward they were taken to the Brooklyn shore. There was misery
and suffering on all of them, but the worst was called the "Jersey,"
where captives were crowded into the hold, the sick and the well, poorly
fed and scarcely clothed, so many of them as hardly to permit space to
lie down, watched over by a guard of merciless soldiers. Disease in a
dozen forms was always present, and every morning the living were forced
to carry out those who had died over night.
During this year 1778, and for several years after, the war was carried
on for the most part in the South, in Georgia and South Carolina, while
the British soldiers in the city made trips into the surrounding country
and laid it waste. Washington and his army in New Jersey could do little
more than watch.
In the year 1780 the American cause came very near receiving a serious
check, when an officer high in rank turned traitor. This man was
Benedict Arnold, and had been a vigorous fighter. But now he bargained
with the British to turn over to them West Point, where he was chief in
command. Major John André, a brilliant young officer under the British
General Clinton, was sent to make the final arrangements. André was
returning to New York when he was captured with the plans of West Point
concealed in his boots. He was hanged as a spy, and Arnold, escaping to
the British in New York, fought with them, despised by the Americans and
mistrusted by the English; for a traitor can never be truly liked or
respected even by those who benefit by his treachery.
The War of the Revolution went on until the fall of the year 1781, when
General Washington made a sudden move that drew his men away from the
vicinity of New York before the British army could foresee it. Then he
hurried to the South. There, at Yorktown, in Virginia, the combined
American army hemmed in, and after a battle forced to surrender, Lord
Cornwallis, the British commander in the South, and all his men.
This victory was so great that it really ended the war. Great Britain
gave up the struggle, and a treaty of peace was signed.
And now you will see how the British army left the city of New York.
CHAPTER XXX
AFTER the WAR
On a crisp, cold day, late in the fall, a tall, mild-faced man on a
spirited horse passed down the Bowery Road, followed by a long train
of soldiers whose shabby clothes and worn faces told of days of trial
and hardship. This was General George Washington with a portion of the
Continental army. They were entering New York on this same day when the
British troops were leaving it.
But although the British were leaving under the terms of the treaty of
peace, and had gone on board ships that were to take them to England,
there were many who were filled with rage at this enforced departure.
At the fort by the river-side they had knocked the cleats _off_ the
flag-pole, and had greased the pole so that no one could climb it
to put up the United States flag and thus flaunt it in the face of the
departing troops. But the soldiers of Washington who reached the fort
just as the last British company was leaving, set to work with hammer
and saw. They made new cleats for the pole. Then a young sailor--his
name was John Van Arsdale--filling his pockets with the cleats and
nailing them above him as he climbed the pole step by step, was able to
put the flag in position. And as it floated to the breeze a salute of
thirteen guns sounded while the British troops were still within
hearing.
So now the city of New York, which for seven years the British had
occupied, was again in possession of the citizens.
General Washington only remained here a few days. He made his
head-quarters in Fraunces's Tavern, in Broad Street, and there at noon
on December 4th, his officers assembled to hear his words of farewell.
It was an affectionate parting of men who had suffered danger and
privations together. There were tears in Washington's eyes.
[Illustration: North Side of Wall Street East of William Street, Taken
a Few Years after the Revolutionary War.]
"With a heart full of love and gratitude," said he, "I now take my 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."
It was not a time for much talking, and Washington was soon gone,
leaving real sorrow behind him. Within a few weeks he had resigned his
commission as commander-in-chief, and had retired as a private citizen
to his home at Mount Vernon.
The city of New York was in quite a deplorable state. The wide tract
swept by the fire of 1776 still lay in blackened ruins. No effort had
been made to rebuild except where temporary wooden huts had been set
up by the soldiers. The churches, all of which had been used for one
purpose or another, were dismantled, blackened, and marred. There was
scarcely a house in all the little town that had not been ill-used
by the soldiers. Fences were down, and the streets were filled with
rubbish. It was a city stricken with premature decay. Business life
was dead, and would have to be begun all over again. The citizens were
divided against themselves. Feuds existed everywhere. Patriots who had
fled and had now come back felt a deep bitterness against those who had
adopted the royal cause for the purpose of keeping possession of their
property. These, however, complained just as bitterly because now their
homes were taken from them in the adjustment.
King's College, of which you have been told, had been closed all during
the war, and had been used as a hospital. It was opened now, but was
called Columbia College, as the King no longer had any claims on the
city or its institutions.
During the next few years business slowly revived, and day by day the
city was rebuilt, growing into something like its old self.
Some little distance above the Common was the City Hospital. There came
rumors at this time that the bodies of the dead were being stolen from
the graveyards and used by the students for dissecting purposes. There
was no truth in these stories, yet many persons became alarmed. They
gathered, broke into the hospital and destroyed everything of value.
The doctors fled to the jail on the Common for protection. The mob
determined to seize them, and tore down the fences about the jail. Then
the Mayor gathered a body of citizens to oppose the mob. As night came
on, the rioters, becoming more and more destructive, were fired upon and
five were killed. After this they scampered away, the trouble was over,
and that was the last of the Doctors' Mob.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE FIRST PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES
Rebuilding a city and forming a new nation is such a great task that you
can readily believe it was not accomplished without some difficulty. The
colonies were free from the rule of the English King, but it was
necessary for them to learn to govern themselves.
Each of the new States now had its own government. It was thought by
many that there should be some powerful central government to control
all the States. So after a great deal of deliberation a convention was
held in Philadelphia over which George Washington presided. After four
months of hard work the present Constitution of the United States was
given to each State to be approved.
There was strong need for this step to be taken, but there were a
great many who did not want it, because they thought it would give the
President as much power as a king, and as they had gone to some cost to
rid themselves of a king, they did not wish another. Those who wanted a
central government were called Federalists. Those who did not want it
were called Anti-Federalists.
In New York there was one man who did everything that man could do
to convince others that the central government was the best thing for
the good of the new nation. His name was Alexander Hamilton. He was
a young man who had been, ever since he was a boy, a friend of George
Washington; who had lived in Washington's family and had fought as an
officer side by side with Washington, and was a man of much power and
deep learning.
This Constitution of the United States had been approved by nine of the
States, when, in June, 1788, a convention was held to determine whether
New York was to approve it or not. At this convention Alexander Hamilton
spoke eloquently, in an effort to have the Constitution approved.
The convention was still meeting in July, having come to no decision,
when the followers of Hamilton, the Federalists, had a great parade
through the streets of New York. It was the first big parade in the
city, and the grandest spectacle that had ever been seen in America
up to this time.
[Illustration: Celebration of the Adoption of the Constitution.]
The most imposing part of it was a great wooden ship on wheels, made to
represent the Ship of State, and called the "Federal Ship Hamilton."
The parade was a mile and a half long and there were five thousand men
in it. It passed along the streets of the city, past the fort, and on
up Broadway over the tree-covered hill above the Common, and on to the
Bayard Farm beyond the Collect Pond. There a halt was made and the
thousands of people sat down on the grass to a dinner.
Three days after this the convention approved of the Constitution for
the State of New York. And so the majority of the States having agreed
to it, in the next year George Washington was chosen as the first
President of the United States, and the city of New York was selected
as the temporary seat of the general government.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE WELCOME to GEORGE WASHINGTON
Now that New York was the seat of the national government, the old City
Hall in Wall Street was made larger and fitted up in grand style and was
called Federal Hall.
In April George Washington came to this city from his home at Mount
Vernon. Every step of his way, by carriage and on horseback, was a march
of triumph. The people in towns and villages and countryside greeted him
with shouts and signs of affection. But it was in New York that the
greatest welcome was given him.
The city had taken on a most picturesque appearance. Every house was
decorated with colors, and when Washington landed from a barge at the
foot of Wall Street, he walked up a stairway strewn with flowers. The
streets were so thronged that way could scarcely be made. Not only were
the streets filled, but every window and every house-top. The people
waited for hours, and when Washington arrived a wild hubbub commenced
that kept up all the day long.
[Illustration: View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad Street, 1796.]
Washington was escorted to the house that had been prepared for him, a
little way out of town at the top of a hill.
If in the days that you read this you walk along Pearl Street until you
come to the East River bridge at Franklin Square, a part of the city
crowded with tenements and factories, you will stand close by where the
house was. On the abutment of the bridge you will find a tablet that has
been riveted to the stone, so that all who pass may know that Washington
once lived there. The house was built by Walter Franklin, a rich
merchant, and was therefore called the Franklin House. The square,
however, does not take its name from this man, but from the renowned
Benjamin Franklin.
Very soon, on a bright, sunshiny day, Washington stood on the balcony of
Federal Hall, surrounded by the members of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, with the citizens thronging every inch of the nearby
streets. And there he took the oath of office, and having taken it the
cry was raised, "Long Live George Washington, First President of the
United States," a cry that was echoed from street to street, and went on
echoing out into the country beyond.
[Illustration: The John Street Theatre, 1781.]
The life of the First President was a simple and a busy one. He rose at
four o'clock each morning and went to bed at nine in the evening. Many
hours a day he worked at matters of state, receiving all who called, so
that there was quite a stream of people going to and from the Franklin
House at all times. Sometimes during the day he took a long drive with
Mrs. Washington, which he called the "Fourteen Miles 'round," going up
one side of the island above the city and coming down the other.
Sometimes of an evening he attended a performance at the little John
Street Theatre. Always on Sunday he and all his family went to St.
Paul's Chapel. And the pew in which they sat you can sit in if you go
to that old chapel, for it has been preserved all these years.
By this time the fort by the Bowling Green, which had stood since the
days of the Dutch, was torn down to make room for a mansion that was
to be called the Government House and be occupied by the President.
The mansion was built, but you shall see presently why no President ever
occupied it.
CHAPTER XXXIII
CONCERNING the TAMMANY SOCIETY and BURR'S BANK
There was formed just about this time, in fact the very month after
Washington's inauguration, an organization which was called the Tammany
Society. And out of this society grew the great political body--Tammany
Hall. The Tammany Society took its name from a celebrated Indian chief,
and at first had as its central purpose the effort to keep a love of
country strong in every heart. The best men in the city belonged to the
Tammany Society, which held meetings and transacted business under all
sorts of odd and peculiar forms. It divided the seasons of the year into
the Season of Blossoms, the Season of Fruits, the Season of Moons, and
the Season of Snows, instead of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. And
the head of the order was called the Grand Sachem or Chief.
New York now became a very active and a very brilliant city indeed,
and all manner of improvements were made. The first sidewalks were laid
along Broadway, just above St. Paul's Chapel. They were pavements of
brick, so narrow that two persons could scarcely walk along side by
side. Then the high hill crossed by Broadway just above the Common was
cut away so that the street stretched away as broad and as straight as
you see it to-day. Numbers were put on the houses and streets were cut
through the waste lands about the Collect Pond, and the barracks which
were built for the British soldiers were torn away as unsightly
structures. These barracks were log huts a story high, enclosed by a
high wall. The gate at one end, called Tryon's Gate, gave the name to
Tryon's Row as it now exists. Trinity Church, which had been in ruins
since the fire, was rebuilt, as well as many, many other houses.
Now the fact that the city was the seat of the national government and
was the home of Washington had much to do with its improvement. But New
York had only been fixed upon as the capital temporarily, and a dozen
States were anxious for that honor. Finally, in the second year that
Washington was President, it was decided to build a city which should
be the seat of the general government, on land given by the States
of Maryland and Virginia for that purpose and called the District of
Columbia. While the city (which was given the name of Washington) was
being built, the seat of government was to be in Philadelphia, and
Washington went there to live. A great many of the gay and brilliant
company that had been attracted to the capital followed him there, and
for a time New York languished in neglect.
It now began to look as though the United States would be drawn into
another war with Great Britain. For the French Revolution was in
progress and the French people were at war with the English, and thought
that the Americans should help them as they had helped the Americans in
Revolutionary times. But President Washington and some of the very wise
and good people about him thought it best to have nothing to do with it.
So a treaty was made between England and the United States, and the
French did not get the help they asked.
Some of the citizens of New York, quite a large number of them, were
very angry when they heard of this treaty and burned a copy of it on the
Bowling Green, with all sorts of threats. But after a time those who had
shouted against it changed their minds. They had something more serious
to think of nearer home before many years, for the small-pox broke out
in the city and thousands upon thousands hurried away to escape the
dread disease. All business was at a standstill, and even the churches
were closed. When the scourge had spent its force, it was found that
more than 2,000 had died of it.
There was one man who took advantage of the small-pox scare to his own
profit. This was Aaron Burr. You will remember him as a boy fighting
by the side of Montgomery in Canada. He was now a lawyer known for his
great skill the country over; a man of education and deep learning.
He was the leader of a political party, a party which contended with,
fought with, disagreed with at every turn the party of which Alexander
Hamilton was one of the chief leaders.
Now there were two banks in the city, both of which were under the
control of the party to which Alexander Hamilton belonged. Aaron Burr
determined that his party should have a bank, too. The citizens were
prejudiced against banks, and did not want a new one. But Burr
determined to establish one, and set about it in a most peculiar way.
All at once the report got about that the small-pox had been caused by
the well-water. This was about all there was to drink in the city,
except that which came from a few springs and was said to be very impure
indeed. So Aaron Burr and his friends secured a charter for a company
that was to supply clear, pure water. This pleased the citizens very
much. But there was a clause in the charter to the effect that as all
the money might not be needed for the bringing of water into the city,
that which remained could be used for _any_ purpose the company saw fit.
Only those in the secret understood that the money was to be used to
start a bank. So the company dug deep wells not far from the Collect
Pond, and pumped water from them into a reservoir which was built close
by the Common on Chambers Street, and then sent it through the city by
means of curious wooden pipes. This water was really just as impure as
that which had before been taken from the wells, and it was not long
before the new water-works were known to be a failure. Then the company
gave all their attention to the bank, which had in the meanwhile been
started.
[Illustration: Reservoir of Manhattan Water-Works in Chambers Street.]
This company of Aaron Burr's was called the Manhattan Company, and their
Manhattan Bank has been kept going ever since and is still in existence
in a fine large building in Wall Street.
So you see Aaron Burr this time got the better of Alexander Hamilton and
his friends.
If you turn the page you will read more of Hamilton and Burr.
CHAPTER XXXIV
MORE about HAMILTON and BURR
The dawn of the nineteenth century saw 60,000 people in the city of New
York and the town extending a mile up the island. Above the city were
farms and orchards and the country homes of the wealthy. Where Broadway
ended there was a patch of country called Lispenard's Meadow, and about
this time a canal was cut through it from the Collect Pond to the
Hudson River. This was the canal which long years afterward was filled
in and gave its name to Canal Street.
[Illustration: The Collect Pond.]
From time to time there were projects for setting out a handsome park
about the shores of the Collect Pond, but the townspeople thought it was
too far away from the city. But in a few years the city grew up to the
Collect Pond, which was then filled in, and to-day a gloomy prison (The
Tombs) is built upon the spot.
One of the new undertakings was the building of a new City Hall, as the
old one in Wall Street was no longer large enough. So the present City
Hall was begun on what was then the Common, but it was not finished for
a good ten years. The front and sides were of white marble, and the rear
of cheaper red sandstone, as it was thought that it would be many years
before anyone would live far enough uptown to notice the difference.
How odd this seems in these days, when the City Hall is quite at the
beginning of the city.
Aaron Burr had by this time been elected Vice-President of the United
States. But he soon lost the confidence of the people, and when, in the
year 1803, he hoped to be made Governor of the State of New York, he was
defeated.
[Illustration: The Grange, Kingsbridge Road, the Residence of Alexander
Hamilton.]
Now at this time Alexander Hamilton was still a leader in the party
opposed to Aaron Burr, and did everything possible to defeat him. And
Burr, angered because of this, and believing that Hamilton had sought to
bring dishonor upon him, challenged Hamilton to a duel--the popular way
of settling such serious grievances. So Hamilton accepted the challenge
and on a morning in the middle of the summer of 1804, just after
sunrise, the duel took place on the heights of the shore of New Jersey,
just above Weehawken. Hamilton fell at the first fire mortally wounded.
The next day he died.
There was great sorrow throughout the entire country, for he was a brave
and good man, and had been a leader since the War of the Revolution. All
the citizens followed him to his rest in Trinity Churchyard, and in the
churchyard to-day you can see his tomb carefully taken care of and
decorated, year by year.
After the death of Hamilton the feeling against Burr in the city was
bitter indeed, and he soon went away.
A few years later, when a project was formed for establishing a great
empire in the southwest and overthrowing the United States, this same
Aaron Burr was thought to be concerned in the plot. When, after a trial,
he was acquitted, he went to live in Europe. But he returned after a
time, and the last years of his life were passed in New York.
CHAPTER XXXV
ROBERT FULTON BUILDS a STEAM-BOAT
There had come to be a great need for schools. There were private
schools and there were school-rooms attached to some of the churches,
but it was in this year, 1805, that the first steps were taken to have
free schools for all.
A kindly man named De Witt Clinton was Mayor of the city, and he, with
some other citizens, organized the Free School Society that was to
provide an education for every child. The following year the first free
school was opened. The society continued in force for forty-eight years,
each year the number of its schools increasing, until finally all its
property was turned over to the city.
In the days when De Witt Clinton was Mayor the first steam-boat was
built to be used on the Hudson River. For many a year there had been
men who felt sure that steam could be applied to boats and made to
propel them against the wind and the tide. They had tried very hard to
build such a boat but none had succeeded. Sometimes the boilers burst.
Sometimes the paddle-wheels refused to revolve. For one reason or
another the boats were failures.
A man named John Fitch had built a little steam-boat and had tried it
on the Collect Pond, where it had steamed around much to the surprise
of the good people of the city who went to look at it. But it was
considered more as a toy than anything else. Nothing came of the
experiment, and the boat itself was neglected after a time and dragged
up on the bank beside the lake, where it lay until it rotted away.
Then Robert Livingston, who was chancellor of the city, felt sure he
could build a steam-boat that would be of use. As he was a wealthy man
he spent a great deal of money trying to make such a boat; and as he was
a very learned man he gave much thought to it.
Chancellor Livingston was in France when he met another American, named
Robert Fulton, who was an artist and a civil engineer, and who also
hoped to build a boat that could be moved by steam. Livingston and
Fulton decided that they would together build such a boat.
[Illustration: The Clermont, Fulton's First Steam-Boat.]
So Fulton came back to New York and with the money given him by
Livingston began to build a steam-boat which he called the Clermont--the
name of Chancellor Livingston's country home. The citizens laughed a
good deal at the idea and called the boat "Fulton's Folly." In August,
1807, the Clermont was finished, and a crowd gathered to see it launched
and to laugh at its failure. But the boat moved out into the stream and
up the Hudson River, while the people gazed in wonder at the marvellous
thing gliding through the water, moved apparently by some more than
human force. It went all the way to Albany, and from that day on
continued to make trips up and down the river. This was the first
successful steam-boat in the world. Soon steam ferry-boats took the
place of those which had been driven by horse-power. Quickly, too, after
the success of the Clermont, steam navigation went rapidly forward on
both sides of the ocean. Fulton made other and much better boats. Other
men followed in his footsteps, and the great ocean liners of to-day are
one of the results.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE CITY PLAN
It is interesting at this time to read how the streets came to be just
where they are. The city was growing more rapidly than ever and the
streets and byways met one another at every sort of angle, forming a
tangled maze. To remedy this, a commission was formed of several of the
prominent citizens to determine just what course the streets should
take. Now this commission decided not to interfere with those that
existed, but to map out the island above the city and plan for those
that were to be. They worked for four years and then submitted, in the
year 1811, what they called the City Plan. If you will look at a map,
you will see at the lower part of the Island of Manhattan that the
streets cross and recross each other in the most bewildering manner. And
you will also see that above this jumble the streets and avenues extend
through the island in a regular and uniform way. This change was the
result of the City Plan.
While the commission was making its plan, there came threatenings of
war. Again England was at war with France, and those two countries in
fighting one another very often injured the American ships. Besides, the
British war-ships had a disagreeable way of searching American ships and
taking charge of any Englishmen they found on them, even those who had
become American citizens. These same British war-ships often fired upon
those American vessels whose captains objected to their being searched.
So it came about that American ships carrying merchandise to other
countries and bringing merchandise to American ports were interfered
with more and more, and American commerce was thus ruined, for no
American ship was safe. The end came early in the year 1812, when the
United States declared war against Great Britain.
[Illustration: Castle Garden.]
As soon as war was declared, the citizens of New York united for
defence, and when news came that the city was to be attacked, a great
meeting was held in City Hall Park, and everybody decided, then and
there, to support their country with their fortunes, their honor, and
their lives. Then they went to work, stopping all other employment, and
night and day they built forts and defences. They built forts on the
islands in the bay to defend the approach to the city from the ocean,
and they built forts in the Hell Gate to defend the approach by way of
Long Island Sound, and they built batteries on the Island of Manhattan
itself. One fort built at this time was on a little island close by the
Battery, and was called Fort Clinton. This afterward became Castle
Garden.
But though the British had sent soldiers and ships to fight the forces
in America, they made no effort to capture the city of New York.
The war went on for two years; there were battles, many of them, on the
land and on the sea. Very often the British had the best of it, and then
again the Americans would have the best of it. But in the end, although
the British fought hard, the Americans fought harder, and in the first
month of the year 1815 the war ended with a great battle in New Orleans,
which the Americans won.
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE STORY of the ERIE CANAL
Everything was going along smoothly when all at once the yellow fever
broke out on the west side, far downtown. It raged with even more
violence than had the small-pox. Citizens fled, and the stricken
district was fenced off so that no one might enter it. It was like a
place of the dead, silent and deserted. Many people went far out of town
to Greenwich Village, and many business houses opened offices in this
little settlement; with the result that Greenwich Village started on a
new life, and it was not long before it grew to be an important part
of New York instead of a suburb. For many who had transferred their
business also went to live there, not returning to the city even after
the fever had passed away.
[Illustration: Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden.]
In the year after the fever (it was by this time 1824) General Lafayette
came again to America and was warmly received. Landing first at
Staten Island, he was, on the following day, escorted by a naval
procession and conducted to Castle Garden. A multitude came to voice
their welcome and follow him to the City Hall, where he was greeted by
the Mayor and all of the officials. During his stay he held daily
receptions in the City Hall, and afterward visited the public
institutions and buildings. On leaving for a tour of the country he was
accompanied all the way to Kingsbridge by a detachment of troops. For
thirteen months he travelled through the country, and when he returned
to New York in the autumn of the next year, the citizens gave a banquet
in his honor, at Castle Garden, which surpassed anything of the kind
that had ever been seen.
Then General Lafayette sailed away to France again. In the month after
he had gone, with all the city cheering him and making such a din that
you would have thought that there never could be a greater, in the very
next month the city was again all decorated, and more shouts rent the
air, for a grand undertaking had just been completed, which you shall
now hear of.
Ever since the days of the Revolution there had been talk of digging a
canal from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean; for you must know that
in these days there being no railroads, most of the traffic and travel
were done by water. This canal had been long talked of, but no step had
been taken toward building it.
Now you will remember that De Witt Clinton, while he was Mayor, took a
great deal of interest in everything that was for the good of the city.
Well, after he had been Mayor for some years, he became Governor of the
State, and it was he who came to think that although the building of the
canal would be a great undertaking, for it would have to be more than
300 miles long, it might after all be accomplished. For years he worked,
with some others, while many said that it was a foolish idea, and too
much of a task even to think of. But still Clinton worked at his plans,
and finally, the money having been given by the State, the digging of
the canal was begun. The work went on for eight years, and in the month
of October, 1825, was finished.
The canal was a water-way that stretched across the State of New York
from Buffalo to Albany and there joined the Hudson River, which leads
straight to the city of New York, and so on to the ocean.
The people in the city and in the State were delighted at the
completion of the work, and on the day of the opening of the canal they
expressed their joy as loudly as they could. Governor De Witt Clinton
was at the Buffalo end, and he, with the State officers, started in a
boat decorated with flags and bunting and was towed through the canal.
As the boat set out from Buffalo, a cannon was fired, and many more
cannon having been placed each within hearing distance of the other by
the side of the canal, in turn took up the sound and carried it along,
mile after mile, until the last one, stationed in the city of New York,
was fired, one hour and twenty-five minutes after the first had been
fired at Buffalo. By this the people all across the State knew that the
canal had been opened.
For ten days the boats crept along the canal, and at each town bands
played, and speeches were made, until on the tenth day the Governor and
his party reached New York--the first to make the journey across the
State by water. They were taken to Sandy Hook, the Mayor of New York,
with many others, attending, and surrounded by all the ships in the bay,
with their colors flying and their whistles blowing. And there at Sandy
Hook, Governor Clinton poured a keg of water which he had brought from
Lake Erie into the waters of the ocean.
Thus were the waters of the Great Lakes and the waters of the Atlantic
Ocean united, and the city was illuminated as it had never been before,
and great bonfires burned all night, in honor of the wedding.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE BUILDING of the CROTON AQUEDUCT
It really seemed now as though some fairy wand had been turned toward
New York. Blocks of houses of brick and stone sprang up, and buildings
of every sort crept up the Island of Manhattan and were occupied by more
than 200,000 people. The city was the centre of art and literature and
science in America. The streets were lighted by gas; there were fine
theatres; and the first street railroad in the world was in
operation--the first step toward crowding out the lumbering stages.
Newspapers were multiplying, and there were now fifty various sorts,
daily, weekly, and monthly. The dailies cost six cents, and were
delivered to regular subscribers. In the year 1833 the _Sun_, the first
penny paper to be published in the city, was issued. It was a success.
Boys sold it on the streets in all parts of the town. This was the
beginning of the work of the news-boys, and after this they were to be
found all over the country.
But now there came another great fire. On a December night, a night so
cold that it was said there had not been such another in fifty years,
flames broke out in the lower part of town near the river. The citizens
battled with it as best they could, but it burned for three days,
destroying almost all of the business end of the city. For years
afterward it was called the "Great Fire," and was remembered with dread.
To-day there is a marble tablet on a house in Pearl Street near Coenties
Slip, which was the centre of the burned district, where you can read of
how fearful the fire was and how thankful the people were that the
entire city was not destroyed. But the houses were quickly rebuilt, and
New York prospered more than ever before.
[Illustration: View of Park Row, 1825.]
Destructive as the fire was, however, it called attention to the fact
that there was a woful lack of water in the city. Most of the water was
still supplied by the wells and springs which had been sufficient for
a small town, but were by no means so for a city of the present size. It
was now that the idea of bringing a large supply of water from without
the city was conceived. The plan was to build an artificial course, or
aqueduct, for water, from the Croton River, forty miles and more above
the city. Many thought that this was not possible, but then other
seemingly impossible things had been accomplished, so they pushed ahead
and commenced the building of this work. A dam was thrown across the
Croton River, forming a lake five miles long. The aqueduct extended from
this dam to the city. Sometimes it had to be cut through the solid rock;
sometimes it was continued underground by tunnel; sometimes over valleys
by embankments, until at last it reached the Harlem River where a stone
bridge, called the High Bridge, was built to support it. Through this
channel of solid masonry the water was brought into the city, and when
it reached the Island of Manhattan was distributed in pipes over the
entire city. This wonderful work cost $9,000,000, and took seven years
to build. When the water was first released from Croton River and flowed
into the new channel, rushing along for forty miles to the city, the
citizens rejoiced greatly. There was a celebration with parades and
illuminations.
[Illustration: High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct.]
It now looked as though there would be enough water to last no matter
how large the city should become, for there were now 95,000,000 gallons
a day available. But before another fifty years had passed there was a
cry for more water, But this time the people knew just what to do, and
another aqueduct was built from the Croton River. This one was carried
under the Harlem River instead of over it, supplying so much water that
it will doubtless be many a long year indeed before another will be
needed.
CHAPTER XXXIX
PROFESSOR MORSE and the TELEGRAPH
There lived in New York at this time a man whose name was Samuel F.B.
Morse. He was an artist and was interested in many branches of science.
He had founded the National Academy of Design and was Professor of the
Literature of the Arts of Design at the University of the City of New
York. This man believed that an electric current could be transmitted
through a wire and so make it possible to convey a message from one
point to another. One night, after having worked on his idea for years,
he invited a few friends to the University building, which overlooked
Washington Square, and showed them the result of his labors. It was the
first telegraph in the world. This was a crude affair, but Professor
Morse proved that he could send a message over a wire. In the year 1845
he had advanced so far that a telegraph line was built between New York
City and Philadelphia. Then all the world recognized the genius of
Morse. The people of New York especially honored him, and even in his
lifetime they erected a statue of him which you can see to-day in
Central Park.
By this time the city had crept up to both Greenwich Village and Bowery
Village, and had engulfed them. On every side were houses, some of them
five and six stories high, where before they had been but two stories.
An open space nearby Bowery Village was called Astor Place. This was the
scene in 1849 of a famous riot, which came about in this wise: Edwin
Forrest, an American actor, and William Charles Macready, an English
actor, had quarrelled about some fancied slight. So when Macready came
to the city to play at the Astor Place Opera House, some friends of
Forrest's gathered and sought to prevent his acting by shouting their
disapproval. This was the excuse for an unruly mob to gather outside the
theatre and storm the house with stones. Macready escaped by leaving
the theatre by a rear door. Then a regiment of soldiers came and after
using all peaceful measures to quell the disturbance, fired upon the mob
and killed many of them before the space was cleared and quiet restored.
[Illustration: Crystal Palace.]
Castle Garden, which had once been Fort Clinton, had become a place of
amusement. Here Jenny Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale," sang, and many
another artist of rare ability was seen and heard.
Now, too, a World's Fair was opened on Murray Hill. Held in a
fairy-like building of glass, made in the form of a Greek cross, with
graceful dome and arches, it was a Crystal Palace in fact as in name,
where all the products of the world were shown. But, unfortunately, a
few years later it was burned to the ground.
There are always some wise and thoughtful people who think of the
comfort of others, and some of these realized that it would not be long
before the Island of Manhattan would be so covered with houses that
there would be no open places where one might enjoy fresh air and
recreation. They said it would be well to have a garden laid out for
this purpose, with walks and drives as needed. This was done and an
immense tract of woodland and forest, almost as large as the city itself
at the time, was set apart. As this was in the centre of the island it
was called the Central Park. Millions of people have been thankful for
it, although they have not put their gratitude into words.
We have now come to the days of the Great Civil War, when many men
left the city to join the army. Now there were those who did not see
the necessity for war and had no desire to be soldiers, so when more
men were called for there was a riot; a terrible and destructive one.
A mob swept over the city, a murderous, plundering mob that left a trail
of horror wherever it touched; and before it was put down a thousand
persons had been killed or injured, and $2,000,000 damage had been done.
This was the Draft Riot. The Civil War ended, the city prospered,
growing greater and greater, until in the year 1878 the stages and
horse-cars could no longer carry all the people. Then railroads elevated
above the streets were built that could carry great numbers swiftly to
all parts of the city.
New York, already become one of the great cities of the world, advanced
with giant strides.
CHAPTER XL
THE GREATER NEW YORK
The time came when the city of New York grew beyond the limits of the
Island of Manhattan, though the island had seemed such a boundless tract
of land, that it had been thought laughable for the City Plan to provide
for streets over its entire length. The city grew larger and larger. It
stretched up to the Harlem River, leaped over it and went branching out
into the country beyond. Great libraries were built; hospitals for the
sick; prisons for the wrong-doer, markets, churches, public institutions
of every kind. Buildings grew taller and taller until they came to be
twenty and twenty-five stories high. Even then there were so many people
that there were not houses enough to hold them all. So they swarmed over
into the already large city of Brooklyn, on Long Island. And the
ferry-boats being no longer able to carry the vast crowds in comfort, a
great suspension bridge was built over the East River from New York to
Brooklyn. At last the city of New York and the city of Brooklyn had so
much in common, that they, with some of their suburbs, were united into
one great city in the year 1898.
Then the Island of Manhattan became simply the Borough of Manhattan, one
of the five boroughs of Greater New York.
So the story of the Island of Manhattan is ended.
TABLE of EVENTS
Year
1609. Hudson discovers the island of Manhattan
1613. Ship Tiger burned
1614. United New Netherland Company organized
1614. Fort Manhattan built
1621. West India Company organized
1626. Peter Minuit Governor
Fort Amsterdam built
1629. Charter adopted under which the Manors were established
1633. Van Twillier Governor
1636. Annetje Jans' Farm laid out
1638. William Kieft appointed Governor
1641. First Cattle Fair held on Bowling Green
1642. Stadt Huys built
Church built in the Fort
1643. Beginning of the Indian wars
1644. Fence erected, which was later replaced by a wall, and still
later by Wall Street
1646. Peter Stuyvesant appointed Governor
1647. Kieft and Dominie Bogardus drowned in the wreck of the Princess
while returning to Holland
1652. City of New Amsterdam incorporated
1653. New Amsterdam made a walled city by the building of a wall
across the island
1655. Stuyvesant subdues the Swedes on the Delaware
Indian war breaks out again
1664. English capture New Amsterdam and it becomes New York
Richard Nicolls Governor
1667. Francis Lovelace appointed Governor
1670. Lovelace establishes the first Exchange
1673. First mail route established
The Dutch retake New York
1674. English again in possession of New York
Sir Edmund Andros Governor
Captain Manning disgraced for surrendering New York to the Dutch
1678. Bolting Act created
1681. Andros recalled
1682. Thomas Dongan Governor
1686. Dongan Charter granted to the city
1688. New York and New England united, and Sir Edmund Andros Governor
1689. William III. becomes King of England
Jacob Leisler assumes title of Lieutenant-Governor
and takes charge of New York
1691. Henry Sloughter Governor
Leisler and Milborne executed
Governor Sloughter dies
1692. Benjamin Fletcher Governor
1693. Bradford establishes first printing press in the colony
1696. Trinity Church built
Bolting Act repealed
Lord Bellomont appointed Governor
Captain Kidd sails to search for pirates
1697. Streets first lighted at night
1699. City wall demolished and Wall Street laid out
City Hall built in Wall Street
1700. First library opened
1701. Captain Kidd executed in England
Lord Bellomont dies
1702. Lord Cornbury Governor
1705. Queen's Farm granted to Trinity Church by Queen Anne
1708. Lord Lovelace Governor
1710. Robert Hunter Governor
1711. Public slave market established
1714. First public clock set on City Hall in Wall Street
1715. Lewis Morris appointed Chief-Justice
1720. William Burnet Governor
1725. Bradford prints first newspaper in city
1728. John Montgomery Governor
1729. First Jewish cemetery established
1731. First Fire Department organized
Montgomery dies
1732. William Cosby Governor
1733. James De Lancey made Chief-Justice
1735. Peter Zenger tried for libel
1736. Governor Cosby dies
1741. Negro Plot
1743. George Clinton Governor
1745. Louisburg captured
1752. Walton House built
1753. Sir Danvers Osborne Governor
1755. Sir Charles Hardy Governor
1756. Corner-stone of King's College laid
Lord Loudoun appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces
in America
1759. General Jeffrey Amherst appointed Commander-in-Chief in place
of Lord Loudoun
1760. Montreal captured
Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey dies
George II. of England dies
George III. becomes King
1761. Robert Monckton Governor
1763. Monckton resigns as Governor
1765. Stamp Act passed
First Colonial Congress held in New York
Sir Henry Moore Governor
1766. Stamp Act repealed
Liberty Pole set up on the Common
1770. Statues of William Pitt and George III. erected
Tax removed on all articles except tea
Battle of Golden Hill
1771. Sir William Tryon Governor
1773. Tax on tea reduced
1774. Taxed Tea dumped into the river
First Continental Congress held
1775. Lexington massacre
Second Continental Congress
Turtle Bay stores seized
Marinus Willett seizes the British ammunition wagons
Battle of Bunker Hill
Governor Tryon returns from England
General Montgomery killed at Quebec
1776. April.--General Washington comes to New York after the success
of the Continental army at Boston
July.--Independence declared
August.--Battle of Long Island
1776. September.--British occupy New York
Battle of Harlem Heights
A Great Fire
Nathan Hale executed
November.--Fort Washington captured
1777. George Clinton, Governor of New York State
Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga
Washington at Valley Forge
1780. Benedict Arnold's treason
1781. Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
1783. September.--Treaty of Peace, between Great Britain and the
United States, signed
November.--British troops depart from New York
December.--Washington bids farewell to his officers at
Fraunces's Tavern
1788. The Doctors' Mob
1789. New York the seat of the National Government
Washington becomes First President of the United States and
comes to live in New York
The Government House built
Tammany Society organized
1790. Trinity Church rebuilt
1798. Small-pox epidemic
Manhattan Company established
1803. New City Hall begun
1804. Alexander Hamilton killed by Aaron Burr
1805. Free School Society organized
1807. The Clermont launched
1811. City Plan completed
1812. United States at war with Great Britain
1814. Fort Clinton (afterward called Castle Garden) built
War with Great Britain ended
1823. Yellow fever epidemic
1824. General Lafayette comes again to America
1825. Erie Canal celebration
Gas introduced into city
1833. First penny newspaper started
1835. The "Great Fire" destroys six hundred houses
Work commenced on the Croton Aqueduct
1842. Water admitted through the Croton Aqueduct
1845. First telegraph recording apparatus publicly tested by
Samuel F.B. Morse
1849. Forrest-Macready riots
1853. World's Fair in the Crystal Palace
1856. Ground bought by the city for the Central Park
1863. The Draft Riot
1870. Brooklyn Bridge started
1878. Elevated roads built
1883. Brooklyn Bridge completed
1898. The island of Manhattan becomes the Borough of Manhattan
of Greater New York
INDEX
Adventure Galley, 82, 83
Amherst, General Jeffrey, 123
Amsterdam, 2, 14
Andre, Major John, 177, 178
Andros, Edmund, 61, 62, 64, 66, 68
Anne, Queen, 28, 91-93
Annetje Jans's farm, 27, 28
Anti-Federalists, 187
Anti-Leislerian Party, 68
Apthorpe, Charles Ward, 156
Apthorpe mansion, 156
Aqueduct, Croton, 227-229
Army, Continental, 144, 148, 151, 179
Arnold, Benedict, 177, 178
Astor Place riot, 231, 232
Astor Place, 231
Bank, Manhattan, 203
Banks, 201-203
Battery, 10, 68, 176
Battle of Bunker Hill, 148
Battle of Golden Hill, 136-138
Battle of Harlem Heights, 164, 165, 166
Battle of Long Island, 154, 155
Bayard Farm, 189
Bayard, Nicholas, 69, 72, 89
Bellomont, Lord, 82, 83, 86-88
Block, Adrian, 10-12
Bogardus, Everardus, 26, 37, 42
Bolting Act, 62, 63
Boston, 66, 84, 140, 141, 143
Boston Port closed, 141
Bouweries laid out, 21
Bouwerie Lane, 21
Bouwerie Village, 54, 76, 231
Bowery Road, 179
Bowery, the, 21, 35
Bowling Green, 12, 35, 93, 105, 131, 134, 152, 200
Bradford, William, 79, 108
Bridge, East River, 236
Bridge, High, 227
British occupy New York City, 163
Broad Street, 57, 148
Broadway, 12, 58, 93, 162, 198, 204
Bunker Hill, Battle of, 148
Burgomasters, 46
Burgoyne, General, 171, 172
Burnet, William, 101-103
Burns's Coffee-House, 129, 130
Burr, Aaron, 150, 201, 203-207
Burton, Mary, 112-114
Buttermilk Channel, 30
Cabot, John, 23, 50
Cabot, Sebastian, 23, 50
Canal, Erie, 220-222
Canal Street, 205
Cape of Good Hope, 3
Castle Garden, 215, 232
Cemetery, first Jewish, 104
Central Park, 233
Chambers, Captain, 139, 140
Charles I., 23
Charles II., 62
Church in the Fort, 36, 37
Church, St. Mark's, 54
Church, St. Paul's, 150, 167, 195, 198
Church, Trinity, 28, 79, 129, 198
City Hall (first), 36, 47, 75, 87, 122
City Hall (in Wall Street), 87-89, 94, 99, 128, 133, 152, 190
City Hall (present), 152, 205
City Hall Park, 50, 175, 176, 214
City Hospital, 184
City Plan, 212, 213
City Wall, 48, 87
Clarke, George, 111, 115, 116
Clermont, the, 210, 211
Clinton, Admiral George, 116-118
Clinton, De Witt, 208, 220-222
Clinton, Governor George, 171
Clock, first public, 99
Colden, Cadwallader, 102, 131, 133
Collect Pond, 50, 114, 189, 198, 202, 204, 205, 209
College, Columbia, 184
College, King's, 121, 184
Colonial Congress, the, 129
Columbia College, 184
Columbia Heights, 164
Columbia University, 121, 164
Colve, Captain Anthony, 58, 59
Committee of Safety, 68
Common, the, 50, 137, 152, 184, 198, 205
Congress, Colonial, 129
Congress, First Continental, 141-143
Congress, Second Continental, 144, 147
Constitution of the United States, 186-188
Continental Army, 148-149, 151, 179
Continental Congress, First, 141-143
Continental Congress, Second, 144, 147
Cornbury, Lord, 89-94
Cornwallis, Lord, 178
Corporation Library, 87
Cosby, William, 105-110
Council of Twelve, 39
Croton Aqueduct, 223, 227-229
Crystal Palace, 233
Cunningham, Provost-Marshal, 176
Declaration of Independence, 152
De Lancey, James, 107-109, 117-121, 123-125
De Lancey, Stephen, 99
De Lancey, Susannah, 116
Demont, William, 168
De Vries, Captain David Pietersen, 28, 39, 40
District of Columbia, 199
Doctors' Mob, 185
Dongan Charter, 65
Dongan, Thomas, 64, 65
Draft Riot, 234
Duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 206, 207
Duke of York, 50-54, 55, 60, 61, 64, 65
Dutch Netherlands, 2
East India Company, 2-5, 13
East Indies, 2-5, 13
East River Bridge, 236
Elevated railways, 234
English claim New Netherland, 23, 53
Erie Canal, 220-222
Exchange Place, 57
Fairs on Bowling Green, 35, 36
Federal Hall, 190-194
Federalists, 187, 188
"Federal Ship Hamilton," 188
Ferry-boats, 211
Fire Department, first, 105
Fire of 1776, 167
Fire, "the Great," 224
First City Hall, 36, 47, 75, 87, 122
First Continental Congress, 141-143
First Fire Department, 105
First houses of white men, 12
First Jewish cemetery, 104
First mail route, 57
First minister, 26, 36, 42, 43
First newspaper, 79
First night-watch, 87
First pavements, 93
First printing press, 79
First public clock, 99
First roads, 35
First schoolmaster, 26
First sidewalks, 198
First soldiers in New Netherland, 26
First steamboat, 208-211
First street lamps, 87
First street numbers, 198
First telegraph, 230, 231
First vessel built, 12
Fitch, John, 209
Fitzroy, Lord Augustus, 109, 110
Fletcher, Benjamin, 77-81
Forrest, Edwin, 231
Fort Amsterdam, 19, 27, 53
Fort Clinton, 215, 232
Fort James, 54
Fort Manhattan, 13
Fort Washington, 168
"Fourteen Miles 'round," 195
Franklin House, 193
Franklin Square, 193
Franklin, Walter, 193
Fraunces's Tavern, 99, 100, 180
Frederick, Kryn, 19
Free School Society, 208
French Revolution, 199
"Fulton's Folly," 211
Fulton, Robert, 210, 211
Gage, General Thomas, 141
Gardiner's Island, 84
Gates, General, 172
_Gazette, New York_, 108
George II., 104, 116, 125
George III., 125, 134, 136, 142, 152
Golden Hill, Battle of, 136, 137, 138
Golden Hill Inn, 137
Government House, 196
Governor's Island, 30
Grant's Tomb, 164
"Great Fire," the, 224
Greenwich Village, 216, 231
Hale, Nathan, 157, 158
Half Moon, 2, 3, 4
Hall of Records, 176
Hamilton, Alexander, 187, 188, 201-203, 206, 207
Hamilton, Andrew, 109
Hardy, Sir Charles, 121
Harlem Heights, 161
Harlem Heights, Battle of, 164-166
Harlem River, 229
Heights, Columbia, 164
Heights, Harlem, 161
Heights, Vandewater, 164
High Bridge, 227
Holland, 2
Holland, States-General of, 15, 16
Houses, first, of white men, 12
Howe, Admiral, 153
Howe, General William, 153, 155, 158, 168, 171
Hudson's Bay, 7
Hudson, Henry, 3-8, 10
Hudson's River, 8
Hunter, Robert, 96, 97, 99, 100
Hyde, Edward (Lord Cornbury), 91.
India, 4
Indians, 1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 16, 33, 34, 37-41
Indian War, 38-43, 49
Ingoldsby, Richard, 71
Island, Gardiner's, 84
Island, Governor's, 30
Island, Long, 30, 31, 84
Island of Manhattan bought from Indians, 18
Island, Nut, 30
Island, Randall's, 31
Island, Staten, 10, 28, 39
Island, Ward's, 31
Jail, New, 175, 176
Jamaica, Long Island, 92
James, Duke of York, 50-54, 60, 61, 64, 65
James II., 64, 66, 67
Jans, Annetje, 28, 42
Jans's farm, 27, 28
Jersey, the, 176, 177
Jewish cemetery, the first, 104
John Street Theatre, 195
_Journal, New York Weekly_, 108
Kidd, Captain William, 83-85
Kieft, William, 33-43
King's College, 121, 184
Kip's Bay, 158, 161, 162
Koopman, the, 19, 34
Lafayette, Marquis de, 171, 217-219
Leisler, Jacob, 67-76, 86, 89
Leislerian Party, 68, 89
Lexington massacre, 143
Liberty Pole, 134, 136
Lind, Jenny, 232
Lispenard's Meadow, 204
Livingston, Robert, 209, 210
Lockyer, Captain, 138, 139
Long Island, 30, 31, 84
Long Island, Battle of, 154-155
Lords of the Manors, 21, 22
Loudoun, Lord, 123
Louisburg, 117
Lovelace, Francis, 55-58
Lovelace, Lord John, 95, 96
Macready, William Charles, 231, 232
Mail route, the first, 57
Manhattan Bank, 203
Manhattan Company, 203
Manhattan Island, 8, 10
Manhattans, 8
Manning, Captain John, 58, 59, 61, 62
Manors, 21, 22
May, Cornelius Jacobsen, 16
Milborne, Jacob, 68, 69, 72-74
Minister, first, 26, 36, 42, 43
Minuit, Peter, 17-24
Mohawks, 40
Monckton, Robert, 125, 126
Money used by Indians, 37
Montgomery, General Richard, 150
Montgomery, John, 103-105
Montreal, capture of, 123
Moore, Sir Henry, 133
Morris, Lewis, 96, 101, 107
Morris Mansion, 164
Morris, Richard, 96
Morris, Roger, 164
Morrisania, 96
Morse, Samuel F.B., 230, 231
Murray Family, 158-161
Murray Hill, 158
Mutiny Bill, 134, 135
Nanfan, John, 89
National Academy of Design, 230
Negro Plot, 111-115
Negro slaves, 27, 98, 99, 111-115
Netherlands, 2
Netherlands, Dutch, 2
New England, 48, 64-67
New Jail, 175, 176
New Jersey, 40
New Netherland, 12-14, 16-18, 24, 50, 60
New Orange, 59
Newspaper, first, 79
Newspapers, 223, 224
_New York Gazette_, 108
_New York Weekly Journal_, 108
Nicholson, Francis, 66, 68-70
Nicolls, Colonel Richard, 55
Night watch, first, 87
Non-Importation Agreement, 130, 136
Non-Importation Association, 130
North Pole, 7
Northwest Passage, 7
Nut Island, 30
Orange, Prince of, 60
Osborne, Sir Danvers, 116-120
Park, City Hall, 50, 175, 176, 214
Patriots, 143
Patroons, 21, 22, 34
Pavements, first, 93
Pearl Street, 16, 36, 193
Permanent revenue, the, 95, 97, 119
Pirates, 80-84
Pitt, William, 134
Plot, Negro, 111-115
Prince of Orange, 60
Printing press, the first, 79
Prisons, 173-177
Prison ships, 176, 177
Prison, Tombs, 205
Privateers, 80, 83
Provisional Assembly, the, 144, 147, 149
Provost, the, 176
Putnam, General, 157, 161
Quebec, 149, 150
Queen Street, 122
Railroad, elevated, 234
Randall's Island, 31
Rebels, 143
Restless, the, 12
Revolution, French, 199
Revolutionary War, 143, 144, 146, 152, 177, 178
Riot, Astor Place, 231, 232
Riot, Doctors', 185
Riot, Draft, 234
River of the Mountains, 4, 8
Roads, the first, 35
Rolandsen, Adam, 26
Royalists, 143
St. Mark's Church, 54
St. Paul's Chapel, 150, 167, 195, 198
Schepens, the, 46
Schoolmaster, the first, 26
Schools, 208
School Society, Free, 208
Schout, the, 46
Schout-fiscal, the, 19
Schuyler, General Philip, 172
Schuyler, Peter, 99
Seal of New York, 63
Second Continental Congress, 144, 147
Ship Adventure Galley, 82, 83
Ship Clermont, 210, 211
Ship, the first built, 12
Ship Half Moon, 2-4
Ship Restless, 12
Ship Tiger, 10, 12
Ships, prison, 176, 177
Ships, tea, 138, 139, 140
Sidewalks, the first, 198
Slave Market, 98
Slaves, 26, 27, 98, 99, 111-115
Sloughter, Henry, 70-73, 75, 76
Small-pox, 200
Smugglers, 34, 39
Soldiers, first, 25, 26
Sons of Liberty, 128, 136, 137, 145-147
Spain, 13
Stadt Huys, 36, 47, 75, 87, 122
Stamp Act, 127-136
Staten Island, 10, 28, 39
States-General of Holland, 15, 16
Steamboat, first, 208-211
Steam ferry-boats, 211
Street lamps, first, 87
Street numbers, first, 198
Street railways, elevated, 234
Streets, how laid out, 212
Stuyvesant, Peter, 44-49, 53, 54, 76
Sugar-house, 174, 175
Tammany Hall, 197
Tammany Society, 197
Taxed tea, 135, 139-141
Tea ships, 138, 139, 140
Tea taxed, 135, 139-141
Telegraph, first, 230, 231
Theatre, John Street, 195
Third City Hall, 152, 205
Tiger, 10, 12
Tombs Prison, 152, 205
Tories, 143
Trading Stations, 103
Trinity Church, 28, 79, 129, 198
Trinity Churchyard, 207
Tryon's Gate, 198
Tryon's Row, 198
Tryon, William, 149, 158
Turtle Bay, 145, 146
"Tyrant of New England," 64
United New Netherland Company, 12
University of the City of New York, 230
Valley Forge, 172
Van Arsdale, John, 180
Van Dam, Rip, 105-108, 110, 111
Vandewater Heights, 164
Van Dincklagen, the schout-fiscal, 31
Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen, 25
Van Twiller buys Governor's Island, 30
Van Twiller's tobacco plantation, 27
Van Twiller, Walter, 25-32
Vauxhall, 132
Verhulst, William, 17
Wall Street, 41, 87, 190
Wall Street, City Hall in, 87-89, 94, 99, 128, 133, 152, 190
Wall, the city's, 48, 87
Walton House, 122
Walton, William, 122
Ward's Island, 31
War, Indian, 38-43, 49
War of the Revolution, 143, 144, 146, 152, 177, 178
War of 1812, 213-215
Warren, Admiral Peter, 116, 117
Washington, City of, 199
Washington, George, 123, 145, 148, 149, 151-158, 162, 164, 168, 170,
172, 173,178-183, 186, 189, 190, 193-195, 199, 200
Weehawken, 207
Westchester, 168
West India Company, 13-16, 18, 21-23, 25, 32, 42, 46, 53, 67
West Indies, 14
West Point, 177
Whigs, 143
Willett, Marinus, 147, 148
Willett, Thomas, 55
William III., 60, 67, 68, 70, 82
"William the Testy," 33
Windmills, 27, 34
World's Fair, 233
Yellow fever, 216
York, James, Duke of, 50-54. 55, 60, 61, 64, 65
Zenger, Peter, 108-110
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