Lights and Shadows of New York Life

J >> James D. McCabe >> Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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[Picture: OFFICES OF THE TRIBUNE, TIMES, AND WORLD.]

I. THE CITY OF NEW YORK

I. HISTORICAL.

On the morning of the 1st of May, 1607, there knelt at the chancel of the
old church of St. Ethelburge, in Bishopsgate street, London, to receive
the sacrament, a man of noble and commanding presence, with a broad
intellectual forehead, short, close hair, and a countenance full of the
dignity and courtly bearing of an honorable gentleman. His dress bespoke
him a sailor, and such he was. Immediately upon receiving the sacrament,
he hastened from the church to the Thames, where a boat was in waiting to
convey him to a vessel lying in the stream. But little time was lost
after his arrival on board, and soon the ship was gliding down the river.
The man was an Englishman by birth and training, a seaman by education,
and one of those daring explorers of the time who yearned to win fame by
discovering the new route to India. His name was HENRY HUDSON, and he
had been employed by "certain worshipful merchants of London" to go in
search of a North-_east_ passage to India, around the Arctic shores of
Europe, between Lapland and Nova Zembla, and frozen Spitzbergen. These
worthy gentlemen were convinced that since the effort to find a
North-_west_ passage had failed, nothing remained but to search for a
North-_east_ passage, and they were sure that if human skill or energy
could find it, Hudson would succeed in his mission. They were not
mistaken in their man, for in two successive voyages he did all that
mortal could do to penetrate the ice fields beyond the North Cape, but
without success. An impassable barrier of ice held him back, and he was
forced to return to London to confess his failure. With unconquerable
hope, he suggested new means of overcoming the difficulties; but while
his employers praised his zeal and skill, they declined to go to further
expense in an undertaking which promised so little, and the "bold
Englishman, the expert pilot, and the famous navigator" found himself out
of employment. Every effort to secure aid in England failed him, and,
thoroughly disheartened, he passed over to Holland, whither his fame had
preceded him.

The Dutch, who were more enterprising, and more hopeful than his own
countrymen, lent a ready ear to his statement of his plans, and the Dutch
East India Company at once employed him, and placed him in command of a
yacht of ninety tons, called the _Half Moon_, manned by a picked crew.
On the 25th of March, 1609, Hudson set sail in this vessel from
Amsterdam, and steered directly for the coast of Nova Zembla. He
succeeded in reaching the meridian of Spitzbergen; but here the ice, the
fogs, and the fierce tempests of the North drove him back, and turning to
the westward, he sailed past the capes of Greenland, and on the 2nd of
July was on the banks of Newfoundland. He passed down the coast as far
as Charleston Harbor, vainly hoping to find the North-_west_ passage, and
then in despair turned to the northward, discovering Delaware Bay on his
voyage. On the 3rd of September he arrived off a large bay to the north
of the Delaware, and passing into it, dropped anchor "at two cables'
length from the shore," within Sandy Hook. Devoting some days to rest,
and to the exploration of the bay, he passed through The Narrows on the
11th of September, and then the broad and beautiful "inner bay" burst
upon him in all its splendor, and from the deck of his ship he watched
the swift current of the mighty river rolling from the north to the sea.
He was full of hope now, and the next day continued his progress up the
river, and at nightfall cast anchor at Yonkers. During the night the
current of the river turned his ship around, placing her head down
stream; and this fact, coupled with the assurances of the natives who
came out to the _Half Moon_ in their canoes, that the river flowed from
far beyond the mountains, convinced him that the stream flowed from ocean
to ocean, and that by sailing on he would at length reach India--the
golden land of his dreams.

Thus encouraged, he pursued his way up the river, gazing with wondering
delight upon its glorious scenery, and listening with gradually fading
hope to the stories of the natives who flocked to the water to greet him.
The stream narrowed, and the water grew fresh, and long before he
anchored below Albany, Hudson had abandoned the belief that he was in the
Northwest passage. From the anchorage, a boat's crew continued the
voyage to the mouth of the Mohawk. Hudson was satisfied that he had made
a great discovery--one that was worth fully as much as finding the new
route to India. He was in a region upon which the white man's eye had
never rested before, and which offered the richest returns to commercial
ventures. He hastened back to New York Bay, took possession of the
country in the name of Holland, and then set sail for Europe. He put
into Dartmouth in England, on his way back, where he told the story of
his discovery. King James I. prevented his continuing his voyage, hoping
to deprive the Dutch of its fruits; but Hudson took care to send his
log-book and all the ship's papers over to Holland, and thus placed his
employers in full possession of the knowledge he had gained. The English
at length released the _Half Moon_, and she continued her voyage to the
Texel.

The discovery of Hudson was particularly acceptable to the Dutch, for the
new country was rich in fur-bearing animals, and Russia offered a ready
market for all the furs that could be sent there. The East India
Company, therefore, refitted the _Half Moon_ after her return to Holland,
and despatched her to the region discovered by Hudson on a fur trading
expedition, which was highly successful. Private persons also embarked
in similar enterprises, and within two years a prosperous and important
fur trade was established between Holland and the country along the
Mauritius, as the great river discovered by Hudson had been named, in
honor of the Stadtholder of Holland. No government took any notice of
the trade for a while, and all persons were free to engage in it.

Among the adventurers employed in this trade was one Adrian Block, noted
as one of the boldest navigators of his time. He made a voyage to
Manhattan Island in 1614, then the site of a Dutch trading post, and had
secured a cargo of skins with which he was about to return to Holland,
when a fire consumed both his vessel and her cargo, and obliged him to
pass the winter with his crew on the island. They built them log huts on
the site of the present Beaver street, the first houses erected in New
York, and during the winter constructed a yacht of sixteen tons, which
Block called the _Onrust_--the "Restless." In this yacht Block made many
voyages of discovery, exploring the coasts of Long Island Sound, and
giving his name to the island near the eastern end of the sound. He soon
after went back to Europe.

Meanwhile, a small settlement had clustered about the trading post and
the huts built by Block's shipwrecked crew, and had taken the name of New
Amsterdam. The inhabitants were well suited to become the ancestors of a
great nation. They were mainly Dutch citizens of a European Republic,
"composed of seven free, sovereign States"--made so by a struggle with
despotism for forty years, and occupying a territory which their
ancestors had reclaimed from the ocean and morass by indomitable labor.
It was a republic where freedom of conscience, speech, and the press were
complete and universal. The effect of this freedom had been the internal
development of social beauty and strength, and vast increment of
substantial wealth and power by immigration. Wars and despotisms in
other parts of Europe sent thousands of intelligent exiles thither, and
those free provinces were crowded with ingenious mechanics, and artists,
and learned men, because conscience was there undisturbed, and the hand
and brain were free to win and use the rewards of their industry and
skill. Beautiful cities, towns, and villages were strewn over the whole
country, and nowhere in Europe did society present an aspect half as
pleasing as that of Holland. Every religious sect there found an asylum
from persecution and encouragement to manly effort, by the kind respect
of all. And at the very time when the charter of the West India Company
was under consideration, that band of English Puritans who afterward set
up the ensign of free institutions on the shores of Massachusetts Bay,
were being nurtured in the bosom of that republic, and instructed in
those principles of civil liberty that became a salutary leaven in the
bigotry which they brought with them.

[Picture: First settlement of New York]

"Such were the people who laid the foundations of the Commonwealth of New
York. They were men of expanded views, liberal feelings, and never
dreamed of questioning any man's inalienable right to 'life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness' among them, whether he first inspired the
common air in Holland, England, Abyssinia, or Kamtschatka. And as the
population increased and became heterogeneous, that very toleration
became a reproach; and their Puritan neighbors on the east, and Churchmen
and Romanists on the south, called New Amsterdam 'a cage of unclean
birds.'"

The English, now awake to the importance of Hudson's discoveries, warned
the Dutch Government to refrain from making further settlements on
"Hudson's River," as they called the Mauritius; but the latter, relying
upon the justice of their claim, which was based upon Hudson's discovery,
paid no attention to these warnings, and in the spring of 1623 the Dutch
West India Company sent over thirty families of Walloons, or 110 persons
in all, to found a permanent colony at New Amsterdam, which, until now,
had been inhabited only by fur traders. These Walloons were Protestants,
from the frontier between France and Flanders, and had fled to Amsterdam
to escape religious persecution in France. They were sound, healthy,
vigorous, and pious people, and could be relied upon to make homes in the
New World. The majority of them settled in New Amsterdam. Others went
to Long Island, where Sarah de Rapelje, the first white child born in the
province of New Netherlands, saw the light.

In 1626, Peter Minuit, the first regular Governor, was sent over from
Holland. He brought with him a _Koopman_ or general commissary, who was
also secretary of the province, and a _Schout_, or sheriff, to assist him
in his government. The only laws to which he was subject were the
instructions of the West India Company. The colonists, on their part,
were to regard his will as their law. He set to work with great vigor to
lay the foundations of the colony. He called a council of the Indian
chiefs, and purchased the Island of Manhattan from them for presents
valued at about twenty dollars, United States coin. He thus secured an
equitable title to the island, and won the friendship of the Indians.
Under his vigorous administration, the colony prospered; houses were
built, farms laid off; the population was largely increased by new
arrivals from Europe; and New Amsterdam fairly entered upon its career as
one of the most important places in America. It was a happy settlement,
as well; the rights of the people were respected, and they were as free
as they had been in Holland. Troubles with the Indians marked the close
of Minuit's administration. The latter were provoked by the murder of
some of their number by the whites, and by the aid rendered by the
commander at Fort Orange (Albany) to the Mohegans, in one of their forays
upon the Mohawks. Many of the families at Fort Orange, and from the
region between the Hudson and the Delaware, abandoned their settlements,
and came to New Amsterdam for safety, thus adding to the population of
that place. Minuit was recalled in 1632, and he left the province in a
highly prosperous condition. During the last year of his government New
Amsterdam sent over $60,000 worth of furs to Holland.

His successor was the redoubtable Wouter Van Twiller, a clerk in the
company's warehouse at Amsterdam, who owed his appointment to his being
the husband of the niece of Killian Van Rensselaer, the patroon of
Albany. Irving has given us the following admirable portrait of him:

"He was exactly five feet six inches in height, and six feet five inches
in circumference. His head was a perfect sphere, and of such stupendous
dimensions, that dame Nature, with all her sex's ingenuity, would have
been puzzled to construct a neck capable of supporting it; wherefore she
wisely declined the attempt, and settled it firmly on the top of his back
bone, just between the shoulders. His body was oblong, and particularly
capacious at bottom; which was wisely ordered by Providence, seeing that
he was a man of sedentary habits, and very averse to the idle labor of
walking. His legs were very short, but sturdy in proportion to the
weight they had to sustain: so that, when erect, he had not a little the
appearance of a beer barrel on skids. His face, that infallible index of
the mind, presented a vast expanse, unfurrowed by any of those lines and
angles which disfigure the human countenance with what is termed
expression. Two small gray eyes twinkled feebly in the midst, like two
stars of lesser magnitude in a hazy firmament; and his full-fed cheeks,
which seemed to have taken toll of everything that went into his mouth,
were curiously mottled and streaked with dusky red, like a Spitzenberg
apple. His habits were as regular as his person. He daily took his four
stated meals, appropriating exactly an hour to each; he smoked and
doubted eight hours, and he slept the remaining twelve of the
four-and-twenty."

Van Twiller ruled the province seven years, and, in spite of his
stupidity, it prospered. In 1633, Adam Roelantsen, the first
school-master, arrived--for the fruitful Walloons had opened the way by
this time for his labors--and in the same year a wooden church was built
in the present Bridge street, and placed in charge of the famous Dominie
Everardus Bogardus. In 1635, the fort, which marked the site of the
present Bowling Green, and which had been begun in 1614, was finished,
and in the same year the first English settlers at New Amsterdam came
into the town. The English in New England also began to give the Dutch
trouble during this administration, and even sent a ship into "Hudson's
River" to trade with the Indians. Influenced by De Vries, the commander
of the fort, the Governor sent an expedition up the river after the
audacious English vessel, seized her, brought her back to New York, and
sent her to sea with a warning not to repeat her attempt. The disputes
between the English and the Dutch about the Connecticut settlements, also
began to make trouble for New Amsterdam. Van Twiller possessed no
influence in the colony, was laughed at and snubbed on every side, and
was at length recalled by the company in 1638. The only memorial of Van
Twiller left to us is the Isle of Nuts, which lies in the bay between New
York and Brooklyn, and which he purchased as his private domain. It is
still called the "Governor's Island."

Van Twiller's successor in the government of the province was William
Kieft. He was as energetic as he was spiteful, and as spiteful as he was
rapacious. His chief pleasure lay in quarrelling. He and his council
made some useful reforms, but as a rule they greatly oppressed the
people. During this administration agriculture was encouraged, the
growing of fruit was undertaken, and several other things done to
increase the material prosperity of the town. The fort was repaired and
strengthened, new warehouses were built, and police ordinances were
framed and strictly executed. The old wooden church was made a barrack
for troops, and a new and larger edifice of stone was constructed by
Kuyter and Dam within the walls of the fort. Within the little tower
were hung the bells captured from the Spanish by the Dutch at Porto Rico.
The church cost $1000, and was considered a grand edifice. In 1642 a
stone tavern was built at the head of Coenties Slip, and in the same
year, the first "city lots" with valid titles were granted to the
settlers.

The latter part of Kieft's administration was marked by contests with the
citizens, who compelled him, in 1641, to grant them a municipal council,
composed of twelve of the most prominent residents of New Amsterdam,
which council he arbitrarily dissolved at the first opportunity. He also
stirred up a war with the Indians, in which he was the principal
aggressor. This war brought great loss and suffering upon the province,
and came near ruining it. Kieft, alarmed at the results of his folly,
appointed a new municipal council of eight members, and this council at
once demanded of the States General of Holland the removal of Kieft.
Their demand was complied with, and in 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was made
Governor of New Netherlands, and reached New Amsterdam in the same year.

Stuyvesant was essentially a strong man. A soldier by education and of
long experience, he was accustomed to regard rigid discipline as the one
thing needful in every relation of life, and he was not slow to introduce
that system into his government of New Amsterdam. He had served
gallantly in the wars against the Portuguese, and had lost a leg in one
of his numerous encounters with them. He was as vain as a peacock, as
fond of display as a child, and thoroughly imbued with the most
aristocratic ideas--qualities not exactly the best for a Governor of New
Amsterdam. Yet, he was, with all his faults, an honest man, he had
deeply at heart the interests of the colony, and his administration was
mainly a prosperous one.

He energetically opposed from the first all manifestations in favor of
popular government. His will was to be the law of the province. "If any
one," said he, "during my administration shall appeal, I will make him a
foot shorter, and send the pieces to Holland, and let him appeal in that
way." He went to work with vigor to reform matters in the colony,
extending his efforts to even the morals and domestic affairs of the
people. He soon brought about a reign of material prosperity greater
than had ever been known before, and exerted himself to check the
encroachments of the English, on the East, and the Swedes, on the South.
He inaugurated a policy of kindness and justice toward the Indians, and
soon changed their enmity to sincere friendship. One thing, however, he
dared not do--he could not levy taxes upon the people without their
consent, for fear of offending the States General of Holland. This
forced him to appoint a council of nine prominent citizens, and, although
he endeavored to hedge round their powers by numerous conditions, the
nine ever afterwards served as a salutary check upon the action of the
Governor. He succeeded, in the autumn of 1650, in settling the boundary
disputes with the English in New England, and then turned his attention
to the Swedes on the Delaware, whom he conquered in 1654. His politic
course towards them had the effect of converting them into warm friends
of the Dutch. During his absence on this expedition, the Indians ravaged
the Jersey shore and Staten Island, and even made an attack on New
Amsterdam itself. They were defeated by the citizens, and Stuyvesant's
speedy return compelled them to make peace. This was the last blow
struck by the savages at the infant metropolis.

In 1652, the States General, much to the disgust of Stuyvesant, granted
to New Amsterdam a municipal government similar to that of the free
cities of Holland. A Schout, or Sheriff, two Burgomasters, and five
Schepens, were to constitute a municipal court of justice. The people,
however, were denied the selection of these officers, who were appointed
by the Governor. In February, 1653, these officers were formally
installed. They were, Schout Van Tienhoven, Burgomasters Hattem and
Kregier, and Schepens Van der Grist, Van Gheel, Anthony, Beeckman, and
Couwenhoven, with Jacob Kip as clerk.

During Stuyvesant's administration, the colony received large accessions
from the English in New England. "Numbers, nay whole towns," says De
Laet, "to escape from the insupportable government of New England,
removed to New Netherlands, to enjoy that liberty denied to them by their
own countrymen." They settled in New Amsterdam, on Long Island, and in
Westchester county. Being admitted to the rights of citizenship, they
exercised considerable influence in the affairs of the colony, and
towards the close of his administration gave the Governor considerable
trouble by their opposition to his despotic acts.

In 1647, the streets of New Amsterdam were cleared of the shanties and
pig-pens which obstructed them. In 1648, every Monday was declared a
market-day. In 1650, Dirk Van Schellyne, the first lawyer, "put up his
shingle" in New Amsterdam. In 1652, a wall or palisade was erected along
the upper boundary of the city, in apprehension of an invasion by the
English. This defence ran from river to river, and to it Wall street,
which occupies its site east of Trinity Church, owes its name. In 1656,
the first survey of the city was made, and seventeen streets were laid
down on the map; and, in the same year, the first census showed a "city"
of 120 houses, and 1000 inhabitants. In 1657, a terrible blow fell upon
New Amsterdam--the public treasury being empty, the salary of the town
drummer could not be paid. In that year the average price of the best
city lots was $50. In 1658, the custom of "bundling" received its death
blow by an edict of the Governor, which forbade men and women to live
together until legally married. In that year the streets were first
paved with stone, and the first "night watch" was organized and duly
provided with rattles. A fire department, supplied with buckets and
ladders, was also established, and the first public well was dug in
Broadway. In 1660, it was made the duty of the Sheriff to go round the
city by night to assure himself of its peace and safety. This worthy
official complained that the dogs, having no respect for his august
person, attacked him in his rounds, and that certain evil-minded
individuals "frightened" him by calling out "Indians" in the darkness,
and that even the boys cut _Koeckies_. The city grew steadily, its
suburbs began to smile with boweries, or farms, and in 1658 a palisaded
village called New Harlem was founded at the eastern end of Manhattan
Island for the purpose of "promoting agriculture, and affording a place
of amusement for the citizens of New Amsterdam." "Homes, genuine, happy
Dutch homes, in abundance, were found within and without the city, where
uncultured minds and affectionate hearts enjoyed life in dreamy, quiet
blissfulness, unknown in these bustling times. The city people then rose
at dawn, dined at eleven, and went to bed at sunset, except on
extraordinary occasions, such as Christmas Eve, a tea party, or a
wedding. Then those who attended the fashionable soirees of the 'upper
ten' assembled at three o'clock in the afternoon, and went away at six,
so that daughter Maritchie might have the pewter plates and delf teapot
cleaned and cupboarded in time for evening prayer at seven. Knitting and
spinning held the places of whist and flirting in these 'degenerate
days;' and _utility_ was as plainly stamped on all their pleasures as the
maker's name on our silver spoons."

But the period of Dutch supremacy on Manhattan was approaching its close.
Charles II. had just regained the English throne. In 1664, with
characteristic disregard of right and justice, he granted to his brother
James, Duke of York and Albany, the whole territory of New Netherlands,
including all of Long Island and a part of Connecticut--lands to which he
had not the shadow of a claim. In the same year, a force of four ships
and 450 soldiers, under the command of Colonel Richard Nicholls, was sent
to New Amsterdam to take possession of that city. It arrived at the
Narrows about the 29th of August, and on the 30th, Nicholls demanded the
surrender of the town. Stuyvesant, who had made preparations for
defending the place, endeavored to resist the demand, but the people
refused to sustain him, and he was obliged to submit. On the 8th of
September, 1664, he withdrew the Dutch garrison from the fort, and
embarked at the foot of Beaver street for Holland. The English at once
took possession of the town and province, changing the name of both to
New York, in honor of the new proprietor.

[Picture: New York in 1664]

The English set themselves to work to conciliate the Dutch residents, a
task not very difficult, inasmuch as the English settlers already in the
province had to a great degree prepared the way for the change. In 1665,
the year after the conquest, the city was given a Mayor, a Sheriff, and a
board of Aldermen, who were charged with the administration of municipal
affairs, and in the same year jury trials were formally established. In
July, 1673, the Dutch fleet recaptured the town, drove out the English,
and named it New Orange. The peace between Great Britain and Holland,
which closed the war, restored the town to the English, November 10th,
1674, and the name of New York was resumed. The Dutch Government was
replaced by the English system under a liberal charter, and during the
remainder of the seventeenth century the town grew rapidly in population
and size. In 1689 there was a brief disturbance known as Leislers'
Rebellion. In 1700 New York contained 750 dwellings and 4500 white and
750 black inhabitants. In 1693 William Bradford established the first
printing press in the city. In 1696 Trinity Church was begun, and in
1697, the streets were first lighted, a lamp being hung out upon a pole
extending from the window of every seventh house. In 1702 a terrible
fever was brought from St. Thomas', and carried off 600 persons,
one-tenth of the whole population. In 1711, a slave market was
established. In 1719 the first Presbyterian Church was built; in 1725
the New York _Gazette_, the fifth of the colonial newspapers, was
established; and in 1730 stages ran to Philadelphia once a fortnight, and
in 1732 to Boston, the latter journey occupying fourteen days. In 1731
the first public library, the bequest of the Rev. Dr. Wellington, of
England, was opened in the city. It contained 1622 volumes. In 1734 a
workhouse was erected in the present City Hall Park. In 1735 the people
made their first manifestation of hostility to Great Britain, which was
drawn forth by the infamous prosecution by the officers of the crown, of
Rip Van Dam, who had been the acting Governor of the town. The winter of
1740-41 was memorable for its severity. The Hudson was frozen over at
New York, and the snow lay six feet on a level. In 1741, a severe fire
in the lower part of the city destroyed among other things the old Dutch
Church and fort, and in the same year the yellow fever raged with great
violence. The principal event of the year, however, was the so-called
negro plot for the destruction of the town. Though the reality of the
plot was never proved, the greatest alarm prevailed; the fire in the fort
was declared to be the work of the negroes, many of whom were arrested;
and upon the sole evidence of a servant girl a number of the poor
wretches were convicted and hanged. Several whites were charged with
being the accomplices of the negroes. One of these, John Ury, a Roman
Catholic priest, and, as is now believed, an innocent man, was hanged, in
August. In the space of six months 154 negroes and twenty whites were
arrested, twenty negroes were hanged, thirteen were burned at the stake,
and seventy-eight were transported. The rest were released. In 1750 a
theatre was opened, and in 1755 St. Paul's Church was erected. In 1754
the "Walton House," in Pearl street (still standing), was built by
William Walton, a merchant. It was long known as the finest private
residence in the city. In 1755 the Staten Island ferry, served by means
of row boats, was established, and in the same year Peck Slip was opened
and paved. In 1756 the first lottery ever seen in the city was opened in
behalf of King's (now Columbia) College.