Lieutenant-Governor Colden, explanatory of their appointment,
and assuring him that they should use every effort to preserve
the public peace; yet ominous precautions were taken to put
the arms of the city in a serviceable condition, and to survey
the neighboring grounds with a view to erecting
fortifications. … On the 25th of June, Washington entered
New York on his way from Mount Vernon to Cambridge to take
command of the army assembled there. The Provincial Congress
received him with a cautious address. Despite their
patriotism, they still clung to the shadow of loyalty; fearing
to go too far, they acted constantly under protest that they
desired nothing more than to secure to themselves the rights
of true-born British subjects. The next morning Washington
quitted the city, escorted on his way by the provincial
militia. Tryon [Governor Tryon, who had been absent, in England
since the spring of 1774, leaving the government in the hands
of Lieutenant-Governor Colden, and who now returned to resume
it] had entered it the night before, and thus had been brought
almost face to face with the rebel who was destined to work
such a transformation in his majesty's colonies of America.
The mayor and corporation received the returning governor with
expressions of joy, and even the patriot party were glad of
the change which relieved them from the government of Colden.
… Meanwhile, the colony of New York had been ordered by the
Continental Congress to contribute her quota of 3,000 men to
the general defence, and four regiments were accordingly
raised. … The city now presented a curious spectacle, as the
seat of two governments, each issuing its own edicts, and
denouncing those of the other as illegal authority. It was not
long before the two powers came into collision." This was
brought about by an order from the Provincial Congress,
directing the removal of guns from the Battery. Shots were
exchanged between the party executing this order and a boat
from the ship of war "Asia"; whereupon the "Asia" cannonaded
the town, riddling houses and wounding three citizens.
"Hitherto, the governor had remained firm at his post; but
finding his position daily growing more perilous, despite the
pledges of the corporation for his personal safety, he
determined to abandon the city, and took refuge on board the
'Asia.'"
Mary L. Booth,
History of the City of New York,
chapter 16.
ALSO IN:
I. Q. Leake,
Life and Times of General John Lamb,
chapter 7.
{2339}
NEW YORK: A. D. 1776 (January-August).
Flight of Governor Tryon.
New York City occupied by Washington.
Battle of Long Island.
Defeat of the American army.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (AUGUST).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1776 (September-November).
The struggle for the city.
Washington's retreat.
The British in possession.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1776-1777.
The Jersey Prison-ship and the Sugar-house Prisons.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776-1777 PRISONERS AND EXCHANGES.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1776-1777.
The campaigns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776-1777. WASHINGTON'S RETREAT;
and 1777 (JANUARY-DECEMBER).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1777.
Adoption of a Constitution and
organization of a State government.
Religious freedom established.
"After the Declaration of Independence, the several colonies
proceeded to form State governments, by adopting
constitutions. In that business New York moved early. On the
1st of August, 1776, a committee of the 'Convention of the
Representatives of New York,' as the provisional government
was called, sitting at White Plains, in Westchester County,
were appointed to draw up and report a constitution. The
committee consisted of the following named gentlemen: John
Jay, John Sloss Hobart, William Smith, William Duer,
Gouverneur Morris, Robert R. Livingston, John Broome, John
Morin Scott, Abraham Yates, Jr., Henry Wisner, Sen., Samuel
Townsend, Charles De Witt and Robert Yates. John Jay was the
chairman, and to him was assigned the duty of drafting the
Constitution. The Convention was made migratory by the
stirring events of the war during the ensuing autumn and
winter. First they held their sessions at Harlem Heights; then
at White Plains; afterward at Fishkill, in Dutchess County,
and finally at Kingston, in Ulster County, where they
continued from February till May, 1777. There undisturbed the
committee on the Constitution pursued their labors, and on the
12th of March, 1777, reported a draft of that instrument. It
was under consideration in the Convention for more than a
month after that, and was finally adopted on the 20th of
April. Under it a State government was established by an
ordinance of the Convention, passed in May, and the first
session of the Legislature was appointed to meet at Kingston
in July." The election of State officers was held in June. Jay
and others issued a circular recommending General Schuyler for
Governor and General George Clinton for Lieutenant Governor.
But Schuyler "declined the honor, because he considered the
situation of affairs in his Department too critical to be
neglected by dividing his duties. The elections were held in
all the Counties excepting New York, Kings, Queens, and
Suffolk, then occupied by the British, and Brigadier General
George Clinton was elected Governor, which office he held, by
successive elections, for eighteen years, and afterward for
three years. Pierre Van Courtlandt, the President of the
Senate, became Lieutenant Governor. Robert R. Livingston was
appointed Chancellor; John Jay Chief Justice; Robert Yates and
John Sloss Hobart judges of the Supreme Court, and Egbert
Benson attorney-general. So it was that the great State of New
York was organized and put into operation at a time when it
was disturbed by formidable invasions on its northern,
southern, and western frontiers."
B. J. Lossing,
Life and Times of Philip Schuyler,
volume 2, chapter 9.
The framers of this first constitution of the State of New
York "proceeded at the outset to do away with the established
church, repealing all such parts of the common law and all
such statutes of the province 'as may be construed to
establish or maintain any particular denomination of
Christians or their ministers.' Then followed a section …
which, it is believed, entitles New York to the honor of being
the first organized government of the world to assert by
constitutional provision the principle of perfect religious
freedom. It reads as follows: 'And whereas, we are required by
the benevolent principles of rational liberty, not only to
expel civil tyranny, but also to guard against that spiritual
oppression and intolerance wherewith the bigotry and ambition
of weak and wicked priests and princes have scourged mankind,
this convention doth further, in the name and by the authority
of the good people of this state, ordain, determine, and
declare that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious
profession and worship, without discrimination or preference,
shall forever hereafter be allowed within this state to all
mankind.' Thomas Jefferson, to whom Virginia is chiefly
indebted for her religious liberty [embodied in her
Declaration of Rights, in 1776] derived his religious as well
as his political ideas from the philosophers of France. But
the men who framed this constitutional provision for New York,
which has since spread over most of the United States, and
lies at the base of American religious liberty, were not
freethinkers, although they believed in freedom of thought.
Their Dutch ancestors had practised religious toleration, they
expanded toleration into liberty, and in this form transmitted
to posterity the heritage which Holland had sent across the
sea a century and a half before."
D. Campbell,
The Puritan in Holland, England and America,
volume 2, pages 251-252.
ALSO IN:
W. Jay,
Life of John Jay,
chapter 3 (volume 1).
T. Roosevelt,
Gouverneur Morris,
chapter 3.
B. F. Butler,
Outline of Constitutional History of New York
(New York Historical Society Collections,
series 2, volume 2).
See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776-1779.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1777.
Opposition to the recognition of
the State independence of Vermont.
See VERMONT: A. D. 1777-1778.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1777-1778.
Burgoyne's invasion from Canada and his surrender.
The Articles of Confederation.
The alliance with France.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1777(JULY-OCTOBER), to 1778 (FEBRUARY).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1778.
Fortifying West Point.
See WEST POINT.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1778.
The war on the Indian Border.
Activity of Tories and Savages.
The Massacre at Cherry Valley.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1778 (JUNE-NOVEMBER), and (JULY).
{2340}
NEW YORK: A. D. 1778-1779.
Washington's ceaseless guard upon the Hudson.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D.1778-1779 WASHINGTON GUARDING THE HUDSON.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1779.
Sullivan's expedition against the Senecas.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1779 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1780.
Arnold's attempted betrayal of West Point.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1780 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1780-1783.
The war in the South.
The surrender of Cornwallis.
Peace with Great Britain.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780, to 1783.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1781.
Western territorial claims and
their cession to the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1783.
Flight of the Tories, or Loyalists.
See TORIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1783.
Evacuation of New York City by the British.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1783 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1784.
Founding of the Bank of New York.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1780-1784.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1786.
Rejection of proposed amendments
to the Articles of Confederation.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783-1787.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1786-1799.
Land-fee of Western New York ceded to Massachusetts.
The Phelps and Gorham Purchase.
The Holland Purchase.
The founding of Buffalo.
The conflicting territorial claims of New York and
Massachusetts, caused by the overlapping grants of the English
crown, were not all settled by the cession of western claims
to the United States which New York made in 1781 and
Massachusetts in 1785 (see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.
1781-1786). "Although the nominal amount in controversy, by
these acts, was much diminished, it still left some 19,000
square miles of territory in dispute, but this controversy was
finally settled by a convention of Commissioners appointed by
the parties, held at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 16th day of
December, 1786. According to the stipulations entered into by
the convention, Massachusetts ceded to the state of New York
all her claim to the government, sovereignty, and jurisdiction
of all the territory lying west of the present east line of
the state of New York; and New York ceded to Massachusetts the
pre-emption right or fee of the land subject to the title of
the natives, of all that part of the state of New York lying
west of a line beginning at a point in the north line of
Pennsylvania, 82 miles west of the north-east corner of said
state, and running from thence due north through Seneca lake
to lake Ontario; excepting and reserving to the state of New
York a strip of land east of and adjoining the eastern bank of
Niagara river, one mile wide and extending its whole length.
The land, the pre-emption right of which was thus ceded,
amounted to about 6,000,000 of acres. In April, 1788,
Massachusetts contracted to sell to Nathaniel Gorham of
Charlestown, Middlesex county, and Oliver Phelps of Granville,
Hampshire county, of said state, their pre-emption right to
all the lands in Western New York, amounting to about
6,000,000 acres, for the sum of $1,000,000, to be paid in
three annual instalments, for which a kind of scrip
Massachusetts had issued, called consolidated securities, was
to be received, which was then in market much below par. In
July, 1788, Messrs. Gorham and Phelps purchased of the Indians
by treaty, at a convention held at Buffalo, the Indian title
to about 2,600,000 acres of the eastern part of their purchase
from Massachusetts. This purchase of the Indians being bounded
west by a line beginning at a point in the north line of the
state of Pennsylvania, due south of the corner or point of
land made by the confluence of the Kanahasgwaicon
(Cannnseraga) creek with the waters of Genesee river; thence
north on said meridian line to the corner or point at the
confluence aforesaid; thence northwardly along the waters of
said Genesee river to a point two miles north of Kanawageras
(Cannewagus) village; thence running due west 12 miles; thence
running northwardly, so as to be 12 miles distant from the
westward bounds of said river, to the shore of lake Ontario.
On the 21st day of November, 1788, the state of Massachusetts
conveyed and forever quitclaimed to N. Gorham and O. Phelps,
their heirs and assigns forever, all the right and title of
said state to all that tract of country of which Messrs.
Phelps and Gorham had extinguished the Indian title. This
tract, and this only, has since been designated as the Phelps
and Gorham Purchase. … So rapid were the sales of the
proprietors that before the 18th day of November, 1790, they
had disposed of about 50 townships [each six miles square],
which were mostly sold by whole townships or large portions of
townships, to sundry individuals and companies of farmers and
others, formed for that purpose. On the 18th day of November,
1790, they sold the residue of their tract (reserving two
townships only), amounting to upwards of a million and a
quarter acres of land, to Robert Morris of Philadelphia, who
soon sold the same to Sir William Pultney, an English
gentleman. … This property, or such part of it as was unsold
at the time of the decease of Sir William, together with other
property which he purchased in his lifetime in its vicinity,
is now [1849] called the Pultney Estate. … Messrs. Phelps
and Gorham, who had paid about one third of the purchase money
of the whole tract purchased of Massachusetts, in consequence
of the rise of the value of Massachusetts consolidated stock
(in which the payments for the land were to be received) from
20 per cent. to par, were unable further to comply with their
engagements." After long negotiations they were permitted to
relinquish to the state of Massachusetts all that western
section of their purchase of which they had not acquired the
Indian title, and this was resold in March, 1791, by
Massachusetts, to Samuel Ogden, acting for Robert Morris.
Morris made several sales from the eastern portion of his
purchase, to the state of Connecticut (investing its school
fund) and to others, in large blocks known subsequently as the
Ogden Tract, the Cragie Tract, the Connecticut Tract, etc. The
remainder or most of it, covering the greater part of western
New York, was disposed of to certain gentlemen in Holland, and
came to be generally known as the Holland Purchase.
O. Turner,
Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase,
pages 325 and 396-424.
{2341}
"Much has been written and more has been said about the
'Holland Company.' When people wished to be especially
precise, they called it the 'Holland Land Company.' … Yet
there never was any such thing as the Holland Company or the
Holland Land Company. Certain merchants and others of the city
of Amsterdam placed funds in the hands of friends who were
citizens of America to purchase several tracts of land in the
United States, which, being aliens, the Hollanders could not
hold in their own name at that time. One of these tracts,
comprising what was afterwards known as the Holland Purchase,
was bought from Robert Morris. … In the forepart of 1798 the
legislature of New York authorized those aliens to hold land
within the State, and in the latter part of that year the
American trustees conveyed the Holland Purchase to the real
owners." The great territory covered by the Purchase
surrounded several Indian "Reservations"—large blocks of
land, that is, which the aboriginal Seneca proprietors
reserved for their own occupancy when they parted with their
title to the rest, which they did at a council held in 1797.
One of these Reservations embraced the site now occupied by
the city of Buffalo. Joseph Ellicott, the agent of the Holland
proprietors, quickly discerned its prospective importance, and
made an arrangement with his Indian neighbors by which he
secured possession of the ground at the foot of Lake Erie and
the head of Niagara River, in exchange for another piece of
land six miles away. Here, in 1799, Ellicott began the
founding of a town which he called New Amsterdam, but which
subsequently took the name of the small stream, Buffalo Creek,
on which it grew up, and which, by deepening and enlargement,
became its harbor.
C. Johnson,
Centennial History of Erie Company, New York,
chapter 13.
ALSO IN:
O. Turner,
History of the Pioneer Settlement
of Phelps' and Gorham's Purchase,
part 2.
O. Turner,
Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase,
pages 401-424.
H. L. Osgood,
The Title of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase
(Rochester Historical Society Publications, volume 1).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1787-1788.
The formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution.
The chief battle ground of the contest.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787; and 1787-1789.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1789.
Inauguration of President Washington in New York City.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789-1792.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1789.
The beginnings of Tammany.
See TAMMANY SOCIETY.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1790.
Renunciation of claims to Vermont.
See VERMONT: A. D. 1790-1791.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1799.
Gradual emancipation of Slaves enacted.
During the session of the legislature in April, 1799,
"emancipation was at last enacted. It was provided that all
children born of slave parents after the ensuing 4th of July
should be free, subject to apprenticeship, in the case of
males till the age of 28, in the case of females till the age
of 25, and the exportation of slaves was forbidden. By this
process of gradual emancipation there was avoided that
question of compensation which had been the secret of the
failure of earlier bills. At that time the number of slaves
was only 22,000, small in proportion to the total population
of nearly a million. So the change was effected peacefully and
without excitement."
G. Pellew,
John Jay,
page 328.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1805.
The Free School Society in New York City.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1880.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1807.
Fulton's first steamboat on the Hudson.
See STEAM NAVIGATION: THE BEGINNINGS.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1812-1815.
The war on the Canadian frontier.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1812 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER);
1813 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER);
1813 (DECEMBER);
1814 (JULY-SEPTEMBER);
1814 (SEPTEMBER).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1817-1819.
The Clintonians and Bucktails.
During the first term of De Witt Clinton as governor of the
State, the feud in the Democratic Republican party, between
his supporters and his opponents, which began in 1812 when he
audaciously sought to attain the Presidency, against Madison,
assumed a fixed and definite form. "Clinton's Republican
adversaries were dubbed 'Bucktails,' from the ornaments worn
on ceremonial occasions by the Tammany men, who had long been
Clinton's enemies. The Bucktails and their successors were the
'regular' Republicans, or the Democrats as they were later
called; and they kept their regularity until, long afterwards,
the younger and greater Bucktail leader [Martin Van Buren],
when venerable and laden with honors, became the titular head
of the Barn-burner defection. The merits of the feud between
Bucktails and Clintonians it is now difficult to find. Each
accused the other of coquetting with the Federalists; and the
accusation of one of them was nearly always true."
E. M. Shepard,
Martin Van Buren,
page 56.
ALSO IN:
J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
volume 3, page 227.
J. D. Hammond,
History of Political Parties in the State of New York,
volume 1, page 450.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1817-1825.
Construction of the Erie Canal.
"History will assign to Gouverneur Morris the merit of first
suggesting a direct and continuous communication from Lake
Erie to the Hudson. In 1800, he announced this idea from the
shore of the Niagara river to a friend in Europe. … The
praise awarded to Gouverneur Morris must be qualified by the
fact, that the scheme he conceived was that of a canal with a
uniform declination, and without locks, from Lake Erie to the
Hudson. Morris communicated his project to Simeon De Witt in
1803, by whom it was made known to James Geddes in 1804. It
afterward became the subject of conversation between Mr.
Geddes and Jesse Hawley, and this communication is supposed to
have given rise to the series of essays written by Mr. Hawley,
under the signature of 'Hercules,' in the 'Genesee Messenger,'
continued from October, 1807, until March, 1808, which first
brought the public mind into familiarity with the subject.
These essays, written in a jail, were the grateful return, by
a patriot, to a country which punished him with imprisonment
for being unable to pay debts owed to another citizen, and
displayed deep research, with singular vigor and
comprehensiveness of thought, and traced with prophetic
accuracy a large portion of the outline of the Erie canal. In
1807, Albert Gallatin, then secretary of the treasury, in
pursuance of a recommendation made by Thomas Jefferson,
president of the United States, reported a plan for
appropriating all the surplus revenues of the general
government to the construction of canals and turnpike roads;
and it embraced in one grand and comprehensive view, nearly
without exception, all the works which have since been
executed or attempted by the several states in the Union. …
{2342}
In 1808, Joshua Forman, a representative in the assembly from
Onondaga county, submitted his memorable resolution,"
referring to the recommendation made by President Jefferson to
the federal congress, and directing that "'a joint committee
be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of
exploring and causing an accurate survey to be made of the
most eligible and direct route for a canal, to open a
communication between the tide waters of the Hudson river and
Lake Erie, to the end that Congress may be enabled to
appropriate such sums as may be necessary to the
accomplishment of that great national object.'" The committee
was appointed, its report was favorable, and the survey was
directed to be made. "There was then no civil engineer in the
state. James Geddes, a land surveyor, who afterward became one
of our most distinguished engineers, by the force of native
genius and application in mature years, levelled and surveyed,
under instructions from the surveyor-general," several routes
to Lake Ontario and to Lake Erie. "Mr. Geddes' report showed
that a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson was practicable, and
could be made without serious difficulty. In 1810, on motion
of Jonas Platt, of the senate, who was distinguished
throughout a pure and well-spent life by his zealous efforts
to promote this great undertaking, Gouverneur Morris, De Witt
Clinton, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Simeon De Witt, William
North, Thomas Eddy, and Peter B. Porter, were appointed
commissioners 'to explore the whole route for inland
navigation from the Hudson river to Lake Ontario and to Lake
Erie.' Cadwallader D. Colden, a contemporary historian,
himself one of the earliest and ablest advocates of the
canals, awards to Thomas Eddy the merit of having suggested
this motion to Mr. Platt, and to both these gentlemen that of
engaging De Witt Clinton's support, he being at that time a
member of the senate. … The commissioners in March, 1811,
submitted their report written by Gouverneur Morris, in which
they showed the practicability and advantages of a continuous
canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson, and stated their estimate
of the cost at $5,000,000. … On the presentation of this
report, De Witt Clinton introduced a bill, which became a law
on the 8th of April, 1811, under the title of 'An act to
provide for the improvement of the internal navigation of this
state.' … The act added Robert R. Livingston and Robert
Fulton to the board of commissioners, and authorized them to
consider all matters relating to such inland navigation, with
powers to make application in behalf of the state to Congress,
or to any state or territory, to cooperate and aid in the
undertaking. … Two of the commissioners, Mr. Morris and Mr.
Clinton, repaired to the federal capital, and submitted the
subject to the consideration of the President (Mr. Madison)
and of Congress. In 1812, the commissioners reported that,
although it was uncertain whether the national government
would do anything, it certainly would do nothing which would
afford immediate aid to the enterprise. … The commissioners
then submitted that, having offered the canal to the national
government, and that offer having virtually been declined,
the state was now at liberty to consult and pursue the maxims
of policy, and these seemed to demand imperatively that the
canal should be made by herself, and for her own account, as
soon as the circumstances would permit. … On the 19th of
June, 1812, a law was enacted, reappointing the commissioners
and authorizing them to borrow money and deposite it in the
treasury, and to take cessions of land, but prohibiting any
measures to construct the canals. … From 1812 to 1815, the
country suffered the calamities of war, and projects of
internal improvement necessarily gave place to the patriotic
efforts required to maintain the national security and honor."
But after peace had returned, the advocates of the enterprise
prevailed with considerable difficulty over its opponents, and
"ground was broken for the construction of the Erie canal on
the 4th day of July, 1817, at Rome, with ceremonies marking
the public estimation of that great event. De Witt Clinton,
having just before been elected to the chief magistracy of the
state, and being president of the board of canal
commissioners, enjoyed the high satisfaction of attending,
with his associates, on the auspicious occasion. … On the
26th of October, 1825, the Erie canal was in a navigable
condition throughout its entire length, affording an
uninterrupted passage from Lake Erie to tidewater in the
Hudson. … This auspicious consummation was celebrated by a
telegraphic discharge of cannon, commencing at Lake Erie [at
Buffalo], and continued along the banks of the canal and of
the Hudson, announcing to the city of New York the entrance on
the bosom of the canal of the first barge [bearing Governor
Clinton and his coadjutors] that was to arrive at the
commercial emporium from the American Mediterraneans."
W. H. Seward,
Notes on New York
(Works, volume 2), pages 88-117.
ALSO IN:
D. Hosack,
Memoir of De Witt Clinton,
pages 82-119 and 245-504.
J. Renwick,
Life of De Witt Clinton,
chapters 10-19.
C. D. Colden,
Memoir: Celebration of the
Completion of the New York Canals.
M. S. Hawley,
Origin of the Erie Canal.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1821.
Revision of the Constitution.
"The Constitution did not meet the expectations of its
framers. The cumbrous machinery by which it was sought to
insure the control of the People, through the supremacy of the
Assembly, had only resulted in fortifying power practically
beyond their reach. The Council of Revision was objected to
because it had exercised the veto power contrary to the spirit
of the Constitution, which was in harmony with the traditions
of the Colony from the earliest conflict with the executive
power; and because the officers who thus interposed their
objections to the will of the Legislature, holding office for
good behavior (except the Governor), were beyond the reach of
the People. It was seen that this power was a dangerous one,
in a Council so constituted; but it was thought that it could
be safely intrusted to the Governor alone, as he was directly
responsible to the People. The Council of Appointment,
although not vested with any judicial authority, and in fact
disclaiming it, nevertheless at an early day summoned its
appointees before it, for the purpose of hearing accusations
against them, and proving their truth or falsity. At a later
day, more summary proceedings were resorted to. The office
thus became very unpopular. Nearly every civil, military, and
judicial officer of the commonwealth was appointed by this
Council.
{2343}
In 1821, 8,287 military and 6,663 civil officers held their
commissions from it, and this vast system of centralized power
was naturally very obnoxious. The Legislature, in 1820, passed
'an act recommending a Convention of the People of this
State,' which came up for action in the Council of Revision,
on November 20th of the same year; present, Governor Clinton,
Chancellor Kent, Chief Justice Spencer, and Justices Yates and
Woodworth, on which day the Council, by the casting vote of
the Governor, adopted two objections to it; first, because it
did not provide for taking the sense of the People on the
question; and second, because it submitted the new
Constitution to the People in toto, instead of by sections.
These objections were referred to a select committee, Michael
Ulshoeffer, chairman, who submitted their report January 9,
1821, in opposition to the opinion of the Council, which was
adopted by the Assembly. The bill, however, failed to pass,
not receiving a two-third vote. Immediately thereupon a
committee was appointed to draft a new bill. The committee
subsequently introduced a bill for submitting the question to
the people, which passed both Houses; received the sanction of
the Council of Revision on the 13th of March, and was
subsequently amended, the amendments receiving the sanction of
the Council on the third of April. The popular vote on holding
the Convention was had in April, and resulted as follows: 'For
Convention' 109,346. 'For No Convention' 34,901. The
Convention assembled in Albany, August 28, and adjourned
November 10, 1821. The Council of Revision was abolished, and
its powers transferred to the Governor. The Council of
Appointment was abolished without a dissenting voice. The
principal department officers were directed to be appointed on
an open separate nomination by the two Houses, and subsequent
joint ballot. Of the remaining officers not made elective, the
power of appointment was conferred upon the Governor, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate. In 1846, two
hundred and eighty-nine offices were thus filled. The elective
franchise was extended. The Constitution was adopted at an
election held in February, 1822, by the following vote:
Constitution—For, 74,732: Against, 41,402. … The People
took to themselves a large portion of the power they had felt
it necessary, in the exercise of a natural conservatism, to
intrust to the Assembly. They had learned that an elective
Governor and an elective Senate are equally their agents, and
interests which they thought ought to be conserved, they
intrusted to them, subject to their responsibility to the
People. The entire Senate were substituted in the place of the
members who chanced to be the favorites with a majority in the
Assembly, as a Council to the Governor, and thus the People of
all the State were given a voice in appointments. The Supreme
Judicial Tribunal remained the same. The direct sovereignty of
the People was thus rendered far more effective, and popular
government took the place of parliamentary administration."
E. A. Werner,
Civil List and Constitutional History of New York, 1887,
pages 126-128.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1823.
The rise of the Albany Regency.
"The adoption of the new constitution in 1822 placed the
political power of the State in the hands of Mr. Van Buren,
the recognized representative leader of the Democratic party.
Governor Clinton, as the end of his term of service
approached, became as powerless as he was in 1816. … William
L. Marcy was then State Comptroller, Samuel L. Talcott,
Attorney-General; Benjamin Knower, Treasurer; and Edwin
Crosswell, editor of the 'Argus' and state printer. These
gentlemen, with Mr. Van Buren as their chief, constituted the
nucleus of what became the Albany Regency. After adding Silas
Wright, Azariah C. Flagg, John A. Dix, James Porter, Thomas W.
Olcott, and Charles E. Dudley to their number, I do not
believe that a stronger political combination ever existed at
any state capital. … Their influence and power for nearly
twenty years was almost as potential in national as in state
politics."
T. Weed,
Autobiography,
volume 1, chapter 11.
"Even to our own day, the Albany Regency has been a strong and
generally a sagacious influence in its party. John A. Dix,
Horatio Seymour, Dean Richmond and Samuel J. Tilden long
directed its policy, and from the chief seat in its councils
the late secretary of the treasury, Daniel Manning, was chosen
in 1885."
E. M. Shepard,
Martin Van Buren,
page 96.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1826-1832.
Anti-Masonic excitement.
The abduction of Morgan.
"The society of free-masons included a large number of the
foremost citizens in all walks of life, and the belief existed
that they used their secret ties to advance their ambitions.
… This belief was used to create prejudice among those who
were not members, and it added fuel to the fires of faction.
At this juncture, September 11, 1826, William Morgan, of
Batavia, a free-mason, who had announced his intention to
print a pamphlet exposing the secrets of masonry, was arrested
on a charge of larceny, made by the master of a masonic lodge,
but found not guilty, and then arrested for debt, and
imprisoned in jail at Canandaigua. He was taken secretly from
that jail and conveyed to Fort Niagara, where he was kept
until September, when he disappeared. The masons were charged
with his abduction, and a body found in the Niagara River was
produced as proof that he was drowned to put him out of the
way. Thurlow Weed, then an editor in Rochester, was aggressive
in charging that Morgan was murdered by the masons, and as
late as 1882 he published an affidavit rehearsing a confession
made to him by John Whitney, that the drowning was in fact
perpetrated by himself and four other persons whom he named,
after a conference in a masonic lodge. In 1827, Weed, who was
active in identifying the drowned body, was charged with
mutilating it, to make it resemble Morgan, and the imputation
was often repeated; and the abduction and murder were in turn
laid at the door of the anti-masons. The disappearance became
the chief topic of partisan discussion. De Witt Clinton was
one of the highest officers in the masonic order, and it was
alleged that he commanded that Morgan's book should be
'suppressed at all hazards,' thus instigating the murder; but
the slander was soon exposed. The state was flooded with
volumes portraying masonry as a monstrous conspiracy, and the
literature of the period was as harrowing as a series of
sensational novels."
E. H. Roberts,
New York,
volume 2, chapter 33.
{2344}
"A party soon grew up in Western New York pledged to oppose
the election of any Free Mason to public office. The
Anti-Masonic Party acquired influence in other States, and
began to claim rank as a national political party. On most
points its principles were those of the National Republicans.
But Clay, as well as Jackson, was a Free Mason, and
consequently to be opposed by this party. … In 1832 it even
nominated a Presidential ticket of its own, but, having no
national principle of controlling importance, it soon after
declined."
A. Johnston,
History of American Politics,
chapter 12, section 3, with foot-note.
ALSO IN:
T. Weed,
Autobiography,
chapters 20-30, 36, and 40.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1827.
The last of Slavery in the state.
"On the 28th of January, 1817, the governor sent a message to
the legislature recommending the entire abolition of slavery
in the State of New York, to take place on the fourth day of
July, 1827. By an act passed some years before, all persons
born of parents who were slaves after July 1799, were to be
free; males at twenty-eight and females at twenty-five years
of age. The present legislature adopted the recommendation of
the governor. This great measure in behalf of human rights,
which was to obliterate forever the black and foul stain of
slavery from the escutcheon of our own favored state, was
produced by the energetic action of Cadwallader D. Colden,
Peter A. Jay, William Jay, Daniel D. Tompkins and other
distinguished philanthropists, chiefly residing in the city of
New York. The Society of Friends, who never slumber when the
principles of benevolence and a just regard to equal rights
call for their action, were zealously engaged in this great
enterprise."
J. D. Hammond,
History of Political Parties in the State of New York,
volume 1, chapter 22.
ALSO IN:
E. H. Roberts,
New York,
volume 2, page 565.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1835-1837.
The Loco-focos.
"The Van Buren party began to be called the Loco-focos, in
derision of the fancied extravagance of their financial
doctrines. The Loco-foco or Equal Rights party proper was
originally a division of the Democrats, strongly
anti-monopolist in their opinions, and especially hostile to
banks,—not only government banks but all banks,—which
enjoyed the privileges then long conferred by special and
exclusive charters. In the fall of 1835 some of the Democratic
candidates in New York were especially obnoxious to the
anti-monopolists of the party. When the meeting to regularly
confirm the nominations made in committee was called at
Tammany Hall, the anti-monopolist Democrats sought to capture
the meeting by a rush up the main stairs. The regulars,
however, showed themselves worthy of their regularity by
reaching the room up the back stairs. In a general scrimmage
the gas was put out. The anti-monopolists, perhaps used to the
devices to prevent meetings which might be hostile, were ready
with candles and loco-foco matches. The hall was quickly
illuminated; and the anti-monopolists claimed that they had
defeated the nominations. The regulars were successful,
however, at the election; and they and the Whigs dubbed the
anti-monopolists the Loco-foco men. … The hatred which Van
Buren after his message of September, 1837, received from the
banks commended him to the Loco-focos; and in October, 1837,
Tammany Hall witnessed their reconciliation with the regular
Democrats upon a moderate declaration for equal rights."
E. M. Shepard,
Martin Van Buren,
pages 293-295.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1838.
Passage of the Free Banking Act.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1838.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1839-1846.
The Anti-rent disturbances.
See LIVINGSTON MANOR.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1840-1841.
The McLeod Case.
See CANADA: A. D. 1840-1841.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1845-1846.
Schism in the Democratic party over Slavery extension.
Hunkers and Barnburners.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1845-1846.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1846.
Constitutional revision.
During the twenty-five years of the existence of the
constitution of 1821, "ten different proposals for amendments
were submitted to the electors, who decided against choosing
presidential electors by districts, but in favor of extending
the franchise, in favor of electing mayors by the people, and
in 1846 for no license except in the city of New York. The
commonwealth grew not only in population, but in all the
elements of progress and prosperity and power, and by the
census of 1845 was shown to contain 2,604,495 inhabitants.
Legislation had tended to the substitution of rights for
privileges granted as favors. The tenure of land, especially
under the claims of the patroons, had caused difficulties for
which remedies were sought; and the large expenditures for
internal improvements, involving heavy indebtedness, prompted
demands for safe-guards for the creditor and the taxpayer. The
judiciary system had confessedly become independent, and
required radical reformation. When, therefore, in 1845, the
electors were called upon to decide whether a convention
should be held to amend the State constitution, 213,257 voted
in the affirmative, against 33,860 in the negative. The
convention met June 1, 1846, but soon adjourned until October
9, when it proceeded with its task. John Tracy of Chenango
presided; and among the members were Ira Harris of Albany,
George 'V. Patterson of Chautauqua, Michael Hoffman and
Arphaxed Loomis of Herkimer, Samuel J. Tilden of New York,
Samuel Nelson of Otsego, and others eminent at home and in
State affairs. The convention dealt radically with the
principles of government. The new constitution gave to the
people the election of many officers before appointed at
Albany. It provided for the election of members of both houses
of the legislature by separate districts. Instead of the
cumbrous court for the correction of errors, it established an
independent court of appeals. It abolished the court of
chancery and the circuit courts, and merged both into the
supreme court, and defined the jurisdiction of county courts.
All judges were to be elected by the people. Feudal tenures
were abolished, and no leases on agricultural lands for a
longer period than twelve years were to be valid, if any rent
or service were reserved. The financial articles established
sinking funds for both the canal and general fund debt,
forbade the loan of the credit of the State, and limited
rigidly the power of the legislature to create debts, except
to repel invasion or suppress insurrection, and declared the
school and literature funds inviolate. Provision was made for
general laws for the formation of corporations. The
constitution required the submission to the people once every
twenty years of the question whether a convention shall be
called or not."
E. H. Roberts,
New York,
volume 2, pages 567-569.
{2345}
NEW YORK: A. D. 1848.
The Free Soil movement.
The Buffalo Convention.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1848.
Legal Emancipation of Women.
See LAW, COMMON; A. D. 1839-1848.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1848.
Adoption of the Code of Civil Procedure.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1848-1883.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1861 (April).
The speeding of the Seventh Regiment
to the defense of Washington.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (APRIL-MAY: MARYLAND).
NEW YORK: A. D. 1862-1886.
The founding and growth of Cornell University.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1862-1886.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1863.
The Draft Riots in New York City.
"A new levy of 300,000 men was called for in April, 1863, with
the alternative of a draft if the quotas were not filled by
volunteering. The quota of the city of New York was not
filled, and a draft was begun there on Saturday, the 11th of
July. There had been premonitions of trouble when it was
attempted to take the names and addresses of those subject to
call, and in the tenement-house districts some of the marshals
had narrowly escaped with their lives. On the morning when the
draft was to begin, several of the most widely read Democratic
journals contained editorials that appeared to be written for
the very purpose of inciting a riot. They asserted that any
draft at all was unconstitutional and despotic, and that in
this case the quota demanded from the city was excessive, and
denounced the war as a 'mere abolition crusade.' It is
doubtful if there was any well-formed conspiracy, including
any large number of persons, to get up a riot; but the excited
state of the public mind, especially among the laboring
population, inflammatory handbills displayed in the
grog-shops, the presence of the dangerous classes, whose best
opportunity for plunder was in time of riot, and the absence
of the militia that had been called away to meet the invasion
of Pennsylvania, all favored an outbreak. It was unfortunate
that the draft was begun on Saturday, and the Sunday papers
published long lists of the names that were drawn—an instance
of the occasional mischievous results of journalistic
enterprise. … When the draft was resumed on Monday, the
serious work began. One provost-marshal's office was at the
corner of Third Avenue and Forty-Sixth street. It was guarded
by sixty policemen, and the wheel was set in motion at ten
o'clock. The building was surrounded by a dense, angry crowd,
who were freely cursing the draft, the police, the National
Government, and 'the nigger.' The drawing had been in progress
but a few minutes when there was a shout of 'stop the cars!'
and at once the cars were stopped, the horses released, the
conductors and passengers driven out, and a tumult created.
Then a great human wave was set in motion, which bore down
everything before it and rolled into the marshal's office,
driving out at the back windows the officials and the
policemen, whose clubs, though plied rapidly and knocking down
a rioter at every blow, could not dispose of them as fast as
they came on. The mob destroyed everything in the office, and
then set the building on fire. The firemen came promptly, but
were not permitted to throw any water upon the flames. At this
moment Superintendent John A. Kennedy, of the police,
approaching incautiously and unarmed, was recognized and set
upon by the crowd, who gave him half a hundred blows with
clubs and stones, and finally threw him face downward into a
mud-puddle, with the intention of drowning him. When rescued,
he was bruised beyond recognition, and was lifted into a wagon
and carried to the police headquarters. The command of the
force now devolved upon Commissioner Thomas C. Acton and
Inspector Daniel Carpenter, whose management during three
fearful days was worthy of the highest praise. Another
marshal's office, where the draft was in progress, was at
Broadway and Twenty-Ninth street, and here the mob burned the
whole block of stores on Broadway between Twenty-Eighth and
Twenty-Ninth streets. … In the afternoon a small police
force held possession of a gun-factory in Second Avenue for
four hours, and was then compelled to retire before the
persistent attacks of the rioters, who hurled stones through
the windows and beat in the doors. Toward evening a riotous
procession passed down Broadway, with drums, banners, muskets,
pistols, pitchforks, clubs, and boards inscribed 'No Draft!'
Inspector Carpenter, at the head of two hundred policemen,
marched up to meet it. His orders were, 'Take no prisoners,
but strike quick and hard.' The mob was met at the corner of
Amity (or West Third) street. The police charged at once in a
compact body, Carpenter knocking down the foremost rioter with
a blow that cracked his skull, and in a few moments the mob
scattered and fled, leaving Broadway strewn with their wounded
and dying. From this time, the police were victorious in every
encounter. During the next two days there was almost constant
rioting, mobs appearing at various points, both up-town and
down-town. The rioters set upon every negro that
appeared—whether man, woman, or child—and succeeded in
murdering eleven of them. … This phase of the outbreak found
its worst expression in the sacking and burning of the Colored
Orphan Asylum, at Fifth Avenue and Forty-Fourth street. The
two hundred helpless children were with great difficulty taken
away by the rear doors while the mob were battering at the
front. … One of the saddest incidents of the riot was the
murder of Colonel Henry J. O'Brien of the 11th New York
Volunteers, whose men had dispersed one mob with a deadly
volley. An hour or two later the Colonel returned to the spot
alone, when he was set upon and beaten and mangled and
tortured horribly for several hours, being at last killed by
some frenzied women. … Three days of this vigorous work by
the police and the soldiers brought the disturbance to an end.
About fifty policemen had been injured, three of whom died;
and the whole number of lives destroyed by the rioters was
eighteen. The exact number of rioters killed is unknown, but
it was more than 1,200. The mobs burned about 50 buildings,
destroying altogether between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 worth
of property. Governor Seymour incurred odium by a speech to
the rioters, in which he addressed them as his friends, and
promised to have the draft stopped; and by his communications
to the President, in which he complained of the draft, and
asked to have it suspended till the question of its
constitutionality could be tested in the courts."
R. Johnson,
Short History of the War of Secession,
chapter 18.
ALSO IN:
J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 7, chapter 1.
H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 21.
D. M. Barnes,
The Draft Riots in New York.
{2346}
NEW YORK: A. D. 1863-1871.
The Tweed Ring.
Between 1863 and 1871 the city of New York, and, to a
considerable extent, the state at large, fell under the
control and into the power of a combination of corrupt
politicians commonly known as the Tweed Ring. Its chief was
one William Marcy Tweed, of Scotch parentage, who first
appeared in public life as an alderman of the city, in 1850.
Working himself upward, in the Democratic party, to which he
adhered, he attained in 1863 the powerful dignity of Grand
Sachem of the Tammany Society and chairman or "Boss" of the
general committee of Tammany Hall. "At this time, however, the
Tammany 'Ring,' as it afterwards was called, was not
completely formed, and Tammany Hall, though by far the most
important political organization in the city, was not absolute
even in the Democratic party. It had a bitter enemy in Mozart
Hall, a political organization led by Fernando Wood, a former
mayor of the city. The claims of Mozart Hall were satisfied in
this same year, 1863, by granting to its leader the Democratic
nomination to Congress. … Soon afterwards Tweed was
appointed deputy-commissioner of streets. The 'Ring' was now
fast consolidating. The enormous patronage possessed by its
members enabled them to control almost all the nominations of
the Democratic party to positions in the city. They provided
their adherents with places in the city government, and when
the supply of places became inadequate, they enlarged the city
pay-roll to create new places. By means of the political
influence they exerted over the Democratic party in the State,
they packed the State legislature with their followers, and
placed upon the bench judges on whom they could rely. … In
1865 the Ring obtained control of the mayoralty. Its