Class _JE1L2^ 
 
 ,17 
 
 Book. 
 
 GopYiightFygV,^ 
 
 CQPiRlGHT DEPOSm 
 
THE ASSAY OFFICE OX WALL STREET 
 
 From the Report of the Director of the Mint, 1920. 
 
THE SITE OF THE ASSAY OFFICE 
 
 ON 
 
 WALL STREET 
 
 AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 THE SUCCESSIVE PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND 
 
 MEN IN PUBLIC LIFE CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 site; INTERSPERSED WITH SOME 
 
 FAMILY HISTORY 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM E. VERPLANCK 
 
 1921 
 

 Copyright 1921 by 
 William E. Verplanck 
 
 DEC237I 
 
 0^A03O936 
 
 ^v/v 
 
This iicarrative is inscribed to the Honorable 
 Verne ^I. Bovie, Superintendent of the Assay 
 Office during the period of construction of the 
 new building, 1917-21, and the renovation after 
 the disastrous bomb explosion on September 
 16th, 1920, and to Messrs. York and Sa^vj^er, 
 architects of the new building, the narrative is 
 also inscribed. 
 
 William E. Verplanck. 
 
 Mount Gulian, Fishkill N. Y. 
 November 1921. 
 
THE SITE OF THE ASSAY OFFICE 
 ON WALL STREET 
 
 The land on which the Assay Office stands has 
 been devoted to pubhc use or been the home of 
 men in pubhc service for nearly three centuries. 
 
 During the latter part of the Dutch Govern- 
 ment a wall or cingel ran along the northern 
 boundary of New Amsterdam from river to 
 river, as a protection against the Indians, and 
 also as some historians contend, against the 
 aggressions of the Yankees of Connecticut of 
 whom the burghers were equally apprehensive. 
 The term cingel was also applied to the passage- 
 way along the inside of the wall, details of which 
 are shown in Stokes Iconography of Manhattan 
 Island (published in 1918), particularly volume 
 II, plate 87. 
 
 The wall was removed soon after British rule 
 was established by the cession of New Nether- 
 land in 1673; for the Dutch had recaptured New 
 Amsterdam a few years before and the little 
 town had spread northward. Along the south 
 
side of the wall a street was laid out which came 
 to be known as Wall Street, much as another 
 new street of this period became New Street. 
 This part of Wall Street, however, was a some- 
 what shabby one for some time. Frederick 
 Trevor Hill has written an excellent history of 
 this street (pubhshed 1908) : "The Story of a 
 Street." 
 
 The new City Hall which the English built, 
 under the Earl of Bellomont, Governor-General* 
 in 1700, in place of the former one of the Dutch 
 at Coenties Slip, was followed by the new 
 church of the Presbyterians where the Bankers 
 Trust Company now stands, with a belfry tower- 
 ing over the City Hall. All this made for a gen- 
 eral improvement of the neighborhood, but it 
 had few private houses of importance. The 
 
 * He was a reformer, and among other abuses in the Province, 
 he took measures to suppress piracy which had greatly increased 
 owing to the complicity of merchants and the countenance, as it 
 was charged, of Benjamin Fletcher who had preceded him as 
 governor. Whereupon Bellomont induced William Kidd, a man of 
 excellent repute in New York, to head the project. Kldd, how- 
 ever, turned pirate, having accomplices in prominent men. Al- 
 though Kidd was eventually captured and hung at London, an 
 inquiry into the profits and other phases of the affair was voted 
 down in the House of Commons, and, soon after, Bellomont died. 
 His successor was Viscount Cornbury, own cousin to Queen 
 Anne, and he had no zeal for reform. The Memorial History of 
 the City of New York (1892, 3 vols, illustrated) contains full 
 and fair reviews of the colonial governors, Dutch and British. 
 
 8 
 
fashionable part of the town then, and for some 
 time later, was upper Queen Street, as Pearl 
 Street was then called, particularly what is now 
 Franklin Square. It was at the corner of Cheriy 
 and Queen Streets that President Washington 
 lived during his first administration. 
 
 In 17(51 Samuel Yerplanck, on completing his 
 education in Holland returned home to New 
 York, bringing with him a rich wife from Am- 
 sterdam. He built his house on this site; land 
 which his father had devised to him by will. The 
 lot extended about 75 feet along the north side 
 of Wall Street. In the rear was the stable on a 
 tongue of land which extended to King, now 
 Pine, Street. On the west was a garden adja- 
 cent to the Citv Hall. One of the bastions of the 
 old wall had stood on the lot. 
 
 Samuel's house was a large one for those days, 
 occupying about forty feet of the front. Other 
 prominent people now began to move into the 
 neighborhood, Alexander Hamilton among them 
 and Wall Street became a rival of Queen Street. 
 
 Old prints exist showing the site, with the old 
 City Hall, later Federal Hall and its colonnade 
 over the sidewalk, where Washington was inau- 
 gurated in 1789 (now site of the Sub-Treasury) .* 
 
 * New York Mirror, 1830, vol. VII. Also Stokes Iconography 
 of Manhattan Ishmd, plates in vol. I. 
 
 11 
 
Samuel Verplanck had held office under the 
 British government and was one of the Gover- 
 nors of Kings, now Columbia College, where he 
 took his degree in 17.58 with seven other students 
 in the first graduating class. He was also one 
 of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce. 
 When the Revolution opened, and, by the way, 
 open resistance to British rule began in Xew 
 York before the Battle of Lexington, in the en- 
 gagement at Golden Hill in 1774, (site of Gold 
 and John Streets), Samuel Verplanck espoused 
 the cause of the colonists and was a member of 
 the Committee of Safety, a body of citizens 
 chosen to take charge of the city government 
 upon the seizure of the public buildings in 1775. 
 His wife, on the other hand, leaned to the Brit- 
 ish side, and during its occupation of New York, 
 Sir William Howe, then in command, with other 
 officers were often entertained at the Verplanck 
 mansion. As souvenirs of the visits Mrs. Ver- 
 planck was given a tea-set of fine china and two 
 paintings* which are still preserved by her de- 
 scendants. Sir William Howe was relieved early 
 in the war by Sir Henry Clinton who prosecuted 
 the campaign against us with great vigor. Sir 
 
 * By Angelica Kaufifmann, a native of Switeerland who went to 
 I-ondon in 1766 and became distinguished as an historical and 
 portrait painter. 
 
 12 
 
D ==• 
 
William was quite a different man from his able 
 and energetic elder brother, Admiral Lord Howe, 
 who had made an attempt to effect a reconcilia- 
 tion with the colonies before hostilities began. A 
 portrait of Samuel Verplanck by Copley is owned 
 by Matilda C. Verplanck at Fishkill, N. Y. 
 
 In 1822 Daniel C. Verplanck, only son and 
 heir of Samuel, reluctantly sold the Wall Street 
 front of the property to the Bank of the United 
 States. The price, $40,000, was deemed a large 
 one at that time. He had been a member of 
 Congress, and later judge of Dutchess County, 
 where, after the sale, he went to live at Fishkill 
 on the Hudson River in a house known as Mount 
 Gulian, built a century earlier. The adjacent 
 land, several thousand acres in extent, had been 
 bought of the Wappinger Indians in 1683 by his 
 ancestor jointly with Francis Rombout, the In- 
 dian deed having been confirmed by patent of 
 James II. A portrait of D. C. Verplanck by 
 Copley, Boy tvith a Squirrel, is owned by the 
 author. 
 
 In the next year, 1823,* the Branch Bank of 
 the United States was built upon the site, and 
 this building in 1853 became the Assay Office, 
 and property of the United States, after the char- 
 ter of the Bank had expired under the veto by 
 
 * The year of President Monroe's famous "Doctrine." 
 
 15 
 
President Jackson of the bill renewing it. The 
 building was recently removed to make room for 
 the present building. The Bank of the State of 
 New York and Bank of Commerce had owned 
 the property" in turn between 1836 and 1853. 
 The corner-stone of the bank was laid April 17, 
 1823, and is now a mural tablet in the new build- 
 ing. The inscription is: 
 
 The Corner Stone of the Branch Bank or 
 
 THE United States was laid this 17th day of 
 
 April 1823. 
 
 Isaac Lawrence. President. 
 Robert Lenox. 
 David Gelston. 
 Cornelius Ray. 
 Isaac Wright. 
 James Bogert Jun". 
 Edward H. Xicoll. 
 Walter Bowne. 
 Campbell P. White. 
 William B. Astor. 
 Henry Kneel and. 
 John Haggerty. 
 Peter Harmony. 
 
 Morris Robinson. Cashier. 
 
 >- Directors. 
 
 16 
 
GULIAX C. VERPLANCK 
 Born 1786. Died 1870 
 From a drawinj: by Paul Dusgan at tlie Century Club. 
 
The fa9ade of the former building is also pre- 
 served at the Metropolitan Museum. 
 
 The Bank of the United States was then in a 
 flourishing state under the second charter of 1816 
 of a twenty-year term, with Nicholas Biddle of 
 Philadelphia its president, elected in 1823; but 
 dark days came in 1829 in President Jackson's 
 first administration. At that time D. C. Ver- 
 planck's son, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck was 
 a member of Congress. He had been born on 
 this site and spent his youth there. On the death 
 of his wife in Paris, soon after his marriage, he 
 returned to New York after a sojourn in Eu- 
 rope and entered politics, and was soon sent to 
 the Assembly for several terms. In 1825 he was 
 sent to Congress by the Democratic party as the 
 former Republican party of Jefferson had now 
 become known. He never remarried, and his 
 two sons were brought up by his sister. He re- 
 mained in public service for more than fifty years 
 of his life. 
 
 Jackson, taking advantage of some abuses in 
 the management of the bank called for the repeal 
 of the charter. Its advocates retorted by passing 
 a bill renewing it for twenty years. Verplanck, 
 who favored the bank, urged delay, pointing out 
 that the charter would not expire until 1836. 
 
 19 
 
Nevertheless the bill was passed, sent to the 
 President in 1832, and received his veto. All ef- 
 forts to override it failed. The Bank War was 
 on. 
 
 Another source of bitter contention at this per- 
 iod w\is the attitude of South Carolina toward 
 the tariff. Verplanck, as chairman of the Com- 
 mittee of Ways and Means, had brought in a bill 
 for a substantial reduction of duties which had 
 the support of the President and of the Demo- 
 cratic party, except the Calhoun faction, who 
 threatened on the part of South Carolina, open 
 resistance to the Federal Government unless the 
 whole principle of a protective tariff was dis- 
 avowed. They became known as Nullifiers. 
 Whereupon Jackson dispatched General Scott 
 to Charleston to support the collector in the 
 event of obstacles being put in the way of col- 
 lecting the revenue. It looked like war. A com- 
 promise was at length effected under the leader- 
 ship of Henry Clay and other Whigs and an ex- 
 cuse was thus afforded for not proceeding to 
 extremities. 
 
 Another controversy which caused even more 
 rancor in Jackson's administration was due to 
 Mrs. Eaton, wife of his Secretary of War. Now 
 tlie Democratic party, outside of South Carolina, 
 
 20 
 

 
 S)c^^li^v/ir^^^i€.^^^^Z^ 
 
 DEWITT CLINTON 
 Born 1769. Died 1828 
 From a silhouette at the University Club. 
 
.'T-1 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON 
 Born 1767. Died 1845 
 From a silhouette at the University Club. 
 
as a rule supported the President, yet changes in 
 the Cabinet were frequent. Taney became At- 
 torney-General in place of Berrien, and Van 
 Buren gave up the State Department to Living- 
 ston to become Minister to Great Britain. These 
 were some of the changes which had excited com- 
 ment and which scandal attributed to Mrs. 
 Eaton.* The wives of the Calhoun faction as 
 well as some other ladies refused to associate 
 with her. The President, however, zealously 
 espoused her side, for her husband was an old 
 and intimate friend, and the storm raged. Old 
 Hickory triumphed in the end and preserved his 
 popularity notwithstanding the new enemies 
 which were made by the removal of deposits from 
 the Bank of the United States, after his reelec- 
 tion. 
 
 Jackson's administration was marked by main- 
 tenance of friendly relations with Great Britain, 
 and the settlement of long-standing disputes with 
 France, Portugal, and Kingdom of Naples. He 
 had the satisfaction of seeing the election of his 
 friend Van Buren to the Presidency in 1836 over 
 Harrison, White and Webster. 
 
 Verplanck, with others of his party, became 
 
 * In Martin Van Buren, by Edward M. Shepard (Houghton, 
 Mifflin & Co., 1899), this episode is treated at some length. Vide 
 pp. 181-184. 
 
 25 
 
alienated from the Jackson wing of their party 
 over the affair of the United States Bank, an in- 
 stitution which he had consistently favored. Ac- 
 cordingly, at the end of his fourth term he retired 
 from Congress. The enactment of a law greatly 
 enlarging the copyright of authors, secured 
 through his efforts while in Congress, was the oc- 
 casion of a public dinner given him by the citi- 
 zens of New York, at which Washington Irving 
 presided. 
 
 In 1834 the citizens of New York were per- 
 mitted for the first time to choose their mayor. 
 While under both Dutch and English rule the 
 mayors of cities were elected by the citizens, the 
 Constitution of 1777, by which the Province of 
 New York became a State, deprived them of that 
 privilege and conferred the power upon the Coun- 
 cil of Appointment, a body of State officers, cre- 
 ated in 1801, when the governor was stripped of 
 that and other powers. This body soon fell under 
 the domination of a small group known as the 
 Albany Regency. Among its early members 
 were Martin Van Buren, Benjamin F. Butler, 
 William L. Marcy and Silas Wright. 
 
 The Society of Tammany, or the Columbian 
 Order, to give the corporate name by its charter 
 of 1805, put in the field as candidate for mayor, 
 Cornelius Lawrence, while Gulian C. Verplanck, 
 
 26 
 
DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
 Born 178:3. Died 1852 
 From a silliouette at the University Club. 
 
also associated with that bodj^ but fallen out with 
 it over the United States Bank affair, was nom- 
 inated on a sort of non-partisan, or citizens 
 ticket, as it would be called today. 
 
 The campaign was conducted with vigor and 
 excitement and resulted in the election of Law- 
 rence by a very close vote — some counts made it 
 less than a dozen ballots. 
 
 About the end of the eighteenth century this 
 country was torn by strife between the partizans 
 of France and of Great Britain, and it was to 
 allay such rancor that in 1789 the Society of 
 Tammany was formed, besides its fraternal ob- 
 jects. The founders of the Order, with branches 
 in other states, took as an emblem a chief of the 
 Delaware Indian tribe, who was a sage rather 
 than a warrior. The nomenclature of the Amer- 
 ican Indian was also followed for the officers, 
 such as Sachem and Sagamore; meetings were 
 called so many hours "after the setting of the 
 sun," etc. The society soon became a power in 
 local politics as an American party, disclaiming 
 both France and England during their prolonged 
 warfare which had a disturbing effect upon us. 
 
 A few years later Verplanck became recon- 
 ciled to his former party associates and was sent 
 to the State Senate for several terms. While 
 
 29 
 
there he took a prominent part in the Court for 
 the Corrections of Errors and Appeals. This 
 body was modelled upon the judicial powers of 
 the House of Lords and consisted of the Chan- 
 cellor, the Senators and certain designated judges 
 of the Supreme Court. It sat in final review of 
 causes in law and equity. In 1846 it was abol- 
 ished by the radical constitution of that year. 
 New Jersey still finds valuable her similarly con- 
 stituted court. 
 
 The disturbed state of Europe at this period 
 and particularly the great famine in Ireland 
 brought hordes of aliens into the port of Xew 
 York, which not only increased destitution and 
 crime but thronged the town with people who 
 had come to the country to settle. The Federal 
 Government having failed to take any action, 
 the State of New York in 1847 created the Com- 
 mission of Emigration, with Gulian C. Verplanck 
 as president. In this work of seeing to the wel- 
 fare of aliens and finding them homes in the 
 West he spent upwards of fifteen years, a ser- 
 vice which continued until the work was assumed 
 by the Federal Government. He was also a 
 member of boards of charity, of education, a di- 
 rector in banks and other corporations. Besides 
 editing an illustrated edition of Shakespeare's 
 
 30 
 
JOHX C. CALHOUN 
 Born 1782. Died 1850 
 From a silhouette at tLe T'niversity Club. 
 
plays, he made many addresses throughout the 
 country at college commencements and elsewhere. 
 A man of strong convictions, yet whose wisdom, 
 tolerance and simplicity aroused universal re- 
 spect. Nevertheless, about 1860 the general es- 
 teem in which he was held suffered an eclipse. He 
 had refused to join the new Republican party. 
 While opposed to slavery and its extension into 
 the Territories, yet he believed that its abolition 
 was a problem for each State to solve ; much pro- 
 gress in that way having been accomplished. He 
 preferred to stand with Seymour, Hoffman, 
 Tilden and others. They were one and all gross- 
 ly misrepresented by the press during the decade 
 1860-1870. 
 
 The rancor and partisan enmity engendered 
 by the Civil War seem to have increased on the 
 death of Lincoln, and the fact forgotten that the 
 men with whom Verplanck stood at that time sup- 
 ported the administration after Fort Sumter had 
 been fired on, that Tammany had sent many vol- 
 unteers to fill the armies of the north throughout 
 the war, several of whom became officers, distin- 
 guished for bravery and ability. Yet such has 
 been the effect of the partisan writing of this per- 
 iod that the men mentioned stand in a false light 
 in what passes for history, and so strong was the 
 feeling against them that they often suffered 
 
social ostracism. The truth concerning Ameri- 
 can history is gradually emerging from the mists 
 of prejudice and pro^^ncialism. 
 
 What will the future historians say of the 
 measures which the United States took to abol- 
 ish slavery, to mention one of several evils which 
 called for reform? Great Britain heeded her 
 able and temperate minded statesmen and abol- 
 ished the institution in 1834 without bloodshed, 
 and so did France and Brazil. The United 
 States had such moral material in both parties 
 and in the North and in the South, but it was 
 without a leader. The sinister alliance of the cot- 
 ton growers of the South with the cotton spin- 
 ners of the North stifled the conscience of the 
 Nation during the fateful years between the Mis- 
 souri Compromise of 1820 and its repeal. Even 
 Webster had voted for the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 When at length the national conscience was 
 aroused by William Lloyd Garrison and others, 
 it was too late ; civil war ensued and many of its 
 evil consequences are still with us. We may pre- 
 dict that the critics of the next generation will as- 
 sert that our reforms, for the most part both state 
 and national, have been effected through violent 
 methods; that we have forgotten the words of 
 Edmund Burke in the House of Commons when 
 prime minister: "If I cannot reform with equity 
 
 34. 
 
HENRY CLAY 
 Born 1777. Died 1853 
 From a silliouette at tlip I'liiversity Club. 
 
I shall not reform at all." The history of this 
 State affords many illustrations. As "^Ir. 
 Dooley" once remarked, "We Americans clean 
 house with an axe." The Volstead Law under 
 the 18th Amendment of the Federal Constitution 
 is the latest example. 
 
 The last notable public appearance of Gulian 
 Verplanck was on July 4th, 1867, when he made 
 an address and laid the corner-stone of the Wig- 
 wam of Tammany Hall on Fourteenth Street. 
 He died March 18th, 1870, in his 84th year. 
 
 His career began in the "Era of Good-feeling," 
 with the "Clintonians"* and "Bucktails," on whom 
 he wrote a satire in verse called "Bucktail 
 Bards," published in 1819. Then came "Loco- 
 focos," "Barn-Burners," "Hunkers" and "Know- 
 nothings," to mention some of the factional or 
 party epithets of those days, and so on down to 
 the "Copperheads" and "Black Republicans" of 
 the Sixties. 
 
 During his life the Republican party of Jeffer- 
 son finally adopted the name Democratic which 
 formerly had a sinister connotation. At one time 
 that party was known as Democratic-Republi- 
 can — a fomi which Tammany Hall clung to. 
 "Doughfaces," as John Randolph of Roanoke 
 
 * A faction headed by De Witt Clinton, opposed by the Buck- 
 tails. 
 
 37 
 
stigmatized the northern members of Congress 
 who favored the Missouri Compromise in 1820, 
 was also often used in the political strife of the 
 State. Soon after the death of Randolph, a dis- 
 course on his career was delivered by request in 
 the House of Representatives by Gulian Ver- 
 planck. They had been fellow-members for 
 years. 
 
 A few other facts about the Bank of the 
 United States should be noted. The main 
 bank was at Philadelphia, which was long the 
 financial center of the country. The first bank 
 of Hamilton's efforts was chartered in 1791 with 
 a capital of ten milhon dollars. The New York 
 Branch was in Queen Street, now Pearl. In 
 1811 when its charter was about to expire it 
 failed of renewal in Congress by one vote — that 
 of the vice-president, George Clinton of New 
 York. The financial troubles caused by the War 
 of 1812 resulted in the recharter of the Bank in 
 1816, with a capital of thirty-five million dollars. 
 On the expiration of its charter in 1836, as men- 
 tioned, the directors obtained a charter from 
 Pennsylvania, but the bank suspended in 1837, 
 in the widespread crash of that year, and not 
 long after, the bank was wound up with a total 
 loss to its shareholders. A few years later the 
 banking house on Wall Street became the Assay 
 Office, as stated. 
 
/y / ^^^^c^t^^^^^^-t:^^^ 
 
 MARTIN VAX BUREX 
 Born 1782. Died 186;? 
 From a silhouette at the University Club. 
 
It is a cause of gratification to the writer that 
 the site of the family homestead is embelHshed 
 by a commodious and substantial building which 
 does credit to the architects, Messrs. York and 
 Sawyer, and which insures the continuance of the 
 public character of the site, evidenced as it is by 
 the public buildings which have stood upon it, as 
 well as by its having been the home of a family 
 which for three successive generations gave mem- 
 bers to the public service. The corner stone is in- 
 scribed as follows : 
 
 Building Erected 1919 
 
 William G. McAdoo 
 
 Carter Glass 
 
 secretaries of the treasury. 
 
 Raymond T. Baker 
 director of the mint. 
 
 Verne M. Bovie 
 superintendent of the assay office 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 James A. Wetmore 
 acting supervising architect 
 
 York & Sawyer — Architects 
 Chas. T. Wills, Inc. — Builders 
 
 41 
 
The Assay Office, with the Mint, may be con- 
 sidered an arm of the Federal Reserve Banking 
 System, that long stejD which we have recently 
 taken towards the restoration of the Hamilton 
 bank scheme; and thus there is cause for our 
 taking a favorable view of national politics 
 when one considers the changed attitude of the 
 Democratic party toward Federal Banking. 
 We have seen President Wilson with the able as- 
 sistance of Congressman Glass building up where 
 President Jackson and his party tore down 
 eighty years earlier. 
 
 42 
 
iS^-^t^..^^ ,.i/Z^.C^,^_y:Z^ 
 
 JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE 
 Born 1773. Died 1833 
 From a silhouette at the University Club. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 220 553 1