0' . o > *;-.^^ ^•^<#-, <^ • o , ' ^^' ,^^^■ •n^-o^ o ^ „'^■ ^^ 0- > r^^ W ■Wt: ..-^•^■: •*t-r^< C" -:^^,'^ ^^;WT/ v;> % ^o .0' ■>^ « O ^-^^ .mc^;» '\ ;y^^^-. ^v-^^^ .5^".. ■■^■% A^-t. ^V ^^ J>^-^<*.. M o H o ^ <^ ^ o;;h I: . THE STATHK OF LlHEinV, .MOW VOIiR HAKliOH. STORIES OF* THE STATES THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE BY JACQUES WARDLAW REDWAY, F. R. G. S. AUTHOR OF "A SERIES OF GEOGRAPHIES," "THE NEW BASIS OF GEOGRAPHY," " AN ELEMENTARY PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY," "A COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY," ETC. ILLUSTRATED SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Comes f?Rr»>ived JUL 7 1904 Oooyrleht Entry CLASS ^ XXc. No. Copyright, 1904, by JACQUES \V. REDWAY aNtu JOHN KARST PREFACE The chapters of this book consist, in the main, of the narration of epochal events in the growth of New York State. They do not constitute a connected history; indeed, it is doubtful if such a history has an}^ place whatever in juvenile literature. The things told, however, are events with which both young and old are expected to be familiar. In the preparation of the book I am indebted for information to the late Dr. Isaac Stout, of the Department of Public Instruction, and to Principal B. E. Hicks, of Painted Post. To my wife, Lilian Burnham Pedway, I owe much for faithful and painstaking help. J. W. K. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I.— A Survey of New York . • .13 XL— The Discoverers of New York Bay 19 III._Henry Hudson Comes Foravard . 23 IY._HuDSON Explores New York Bay . 28 v.— The West India Company and the Patroons '^1 YI._Beginnings of New Netherland . 37 YII._Half-a-Dozen Dutch Governors . 42 VIII.— Dominie Bogardus and Church Rule 48 XX.— The Fall of New Netherland . .53 X.— Why Dutch Rule Failed in New Netherland ^'^ XL— The Beginning of English Rule . 03 XIL-The First Schools in New York . 07 XIIL— A King, a Count, and a Pirate . 71 XIV.— Half a Century of English Rule 77 XV.— What William Penn Lost and Sir William Johnson Gained . . 83 XVI.— The Iroquois People . . . -89 XVII.— The Indians and the Iroquois Con- or FEDERACY . CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XVIII. —The French and Indian War — The Beginning of the Struggle . . 102 XIX.— The French and Indian War — How THE English AVon .... 107 XX. — The French and Indian War — What New York Gained in the Struggle 113 XXI. — The Massacre of Schenectady . 117 XXII. — The Eevolt of the Colonies — The Campaign against Canada . . 122 XXIII. — The Beginning of the War for In- dependence in New York . . 127 XXIV.— The War in New York— The King's Plan Which Was Not Carried Out 133 XXV.— The King's Plan— What St. Leger Tried to Do and Howe Didn't Do 137 XXVI. — Cherry Valley — The Story of a Massacre 142 XXVII.— How A Man Betrayed His Country IN Revenge 147 XXVIII. — Life in N^ew York City After the Revolution 154 XXIX.— Slavery in New York and How it Came to an End .... 161 XXX. — How QuEENSTON Was Not Taken — A Comic Opera Campaign . . 166 XXXI. — Lieutenant McDonough and the Battle on Lake Champlain . . 174 CONTENTS i CHAPTER PAGE XXXII.— The Erie Canal .... .179 XXXIII. — Robert Fulton and the Steamboat 184 XXXIY. — How the Helderbergers Declared War— The Story of the Anti- Rent Riots . . . . .188 XXXV.— Making Good Citizens— The Schools OF New York 192 XXXVI.— How the Great Railway Systems OF THE State Were Formed . . 109 XXXVIL— How A Yankee Cheese Box on a Raft Saved Xew York City . 207 XXXVIII.— A Demagogue and His Policy— The New York Draft Riots . . . 213 XXXIX. — Thirty Y^ears of Prosperity and Progress — Greater New York City 218 XL.— The Lesson of the Spanish-Ameri- can War --3 Appendix.— The Counties of New York . . 229 I ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Statue of Liberty, New York Harl)or . . Frontispiece The Palisades of the Hud- son I^iver 14 Washington's Headquar- ters at Newburg . . . 16 The Port of Buffah) in 1815 18 Giovanni Da Verrazano. . 20 The Narrows from Staten Island 21 Henry Hudson .... 24 The Landing of Hudson . 27 An Indian in War Cos- tume 29 The Van Rensselaer Man- sion 33 The Van Cortlandt Manor House at Croton, N. Y. 35 Looking Toward Albany from Van Rensselaer's Island 38 A Group of Old Dutch Houses 41 The Autograph of Van Twiller 43 The Dutch Staadt Huys (State House) .... 45 PAGE Peter Stuyvesant .... 47 A View of the First Re- formed Church in New York 49 The Old Dutch Church at Tarrytown 51 New Amsterdam in 1676 . 54 The Autograph of Stuy- vesant 55 Stuyvesant Destroys the Demand for Surrender . 58 An Old Farmhouse on Long Island .... 60 Cottages on Boston Road . 64 Exchange Place, Looking to Hanover Street . . 66 The Autograph of Dominie Bogardus 68 The Old Schoolhouse at Tappan 70 King William III. ... 74 Sir Edmund Andros ... 77 Governor Thomas Dongan 78 Cadwallader Colden ... 81 Lewis Morris 82 The Indian Hunter ... 85 Sir William Johnson . . 86 10 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE King Hendrick .... 87 An Indian Long House , . 90 Symbols of the Clans — The Tribes of the Wolf, Bear and Turtle 91 The Indian Village on Mun- liattan Island .... 93 A Chief of the Six Nations 100 Frenchmen Attacking a Spanish Fort .... 103 Fort Niagara as it Ap- peared in 1814 . . . .112 The South View of Oswego on Lake Ontario . . .115 Towns on the Sites of Old Forts 116 A Distant View of Old Schenectady . . . .119 Frenclimen Attacking an Indian Fort 121 Colonists Burning the Stamp Seller in Effigy . 123 The Capture of Fort Ticon- deroga 125 Fraunces's Tavern, New York City 130 The Washington Arch, New York City 132 General Burgoyne . . . 135 Joseph Brant 138 Peter Gansevoort .... 141 Tlie Autograpli of Peter Gansevoort 141 Lading Battoes on the Mo- hawk River . . . • . 144 TAGE Colonel Marinus Willett . 145 The Residence of Colonel Marinus Willett . . .146 The Capture of Major Andre 150 The Monument to Andr6 at Tarry town . . . .153 Old Canal Street and Broad- way 155 Contoit's New York Tea Garden, 1828 .... 156 A Fire Engine Used in 1732 163 A Fire Engine Used in 1842 163 The Old Jail in New York City 165 The Heights of Queenston 167 Stephen Van Rensselaer . 169 The Autograph of Stephen Van Rensselaer . . . 169 John E. Wool 171 Perry Transferring His Flag at the Battle of Lake Erie 175 McDonough's Victory on Lake Champlain . . .177 The Canal in Old Broad Street, New York City . 180 The Western End of the Erie Canal 182 Fireworks Celebrating the Opening of the Erie Canal 183 The Clermont on Her Trial Trip 186 Robert R. Livinijston . .187 ILLUSTRATIONS 11 The Autograph of Robert R. Livingston . . . .187 Specimens of Early Copper Currency in New York State 190 Alexander Hamilton . .193 Governor De Witt Clinton 195 An Old-style Railway Train 200 Horseslioe Bend, Niagara Falls 204 A Curve in the Elevated Railroad, New York City 205 Rapid Transit Subway, City Hall Station, New York ........ 20G PAOK John Ericsson 210 The Battle Between the Virginia and the Moni- tor 212 The Negro Orphan Asy- lum 21G The Old Croton Aqueduct at Harlem River . . . 220 "Sky Scrapers" of New York City 221 A View in Central Park, New York City . . . 222 Shipping in New York Har- bor 224 The Capitol of the Empire State at Albanv . . . 220 MAPS PAGE The MaioUo Map, 1527 12 A Map of the Five Nations 98 The English Colonial Territory in 1750 105 Early Trading Posts in New York State 109 Towns on the Sites of Old Forts 116 The Campaigns about New York and New Jersey .... 128 The Counties of New York State 230 Grer.ter New York City and Vicinity 242 ? o 1^ ™ o THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE I. A SURVEY OF NEW YORK STATE No other state in the Union has a surface more pic- turesque than that of New York, and certainly no state is more interesting. North or south, east or west, the landscape is an ever-changing picture. IJln the north are the rugged peaks of the Adirondack Mountains, some of them so lofty that the little Alpine flowers escaped destruction Avhen all the rest of the state was buried under the ice that covered it during the long glacial winter.] [Farther south, lying on the west side of the Hudson, are the Catskills where, so the legends tell us, Henry Hudson's sailors even nowadays bowl at tenpins. And whenever a summer's thunder shower hovers over the mountain tops, there are people who shake their heads and aver that they hear the rolling of the balls and the crash of the tenpins. Then, too, there are the Helderberg and the Shawangunk Mountains, with 14 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE their wonderful caves and more wonderful Dutch legends! All these belong to the great Appalachian family of mountain ranges that were ploughed through and through, when the ice-field covered the country ahnost beyond the Ohio Kiver. That same long winter and its moving ice-sheets not only smoothed off the rugged surface of the state, but it likewise scoured out a great many long hollows and left them in such shape that they are filled with clear, fresh water to this day. Look at the lakes of the northern and the central part of the state; you can tell by them in just what directions the ice-sheets flowed. Moreover, the ice dragged along at its bottom A SURVEY OF NEW YORK STATE 15 a great deal of rock, which was ground so fiue that the water spread it over all the surface, here and there leaving great heaps of rounded bowlders strewn in long ridges. But the best thing of all that happened in that ice age was the making of the great valleys. Perhaps the valleys were already there, but certain it is that they were scored deeper by the rocks carried at the bottom of the moving ice-streams, and then filled with the rock waste afterwards brought there by the rivers. Not only were the valleys filled with the fine rock waste that became rich soil^ but they were so nicely leveled that they became easy routes for travel- ing from one part of the state to another. One of these valleys reaches from New York Bay to the St. Lawrence Kiver. The Hudson flows in the southern part of it and Lake Champlain nearly fills the northern part. It is almost a level pathway from New York City to Montreal and Quebec. Another, the famous Mohawk, stretches westward from the Hudson to the fertile prairie lands in the western part of the state. Of all the rivers the Hudson is the most important. The lower part is an arm of the sea up which the tides flow as far as Albany. The lower part widens into a broad lake which the Dutch Patroons called Tappan Sea; and from this point to the mouth of New York 16 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Bay probably a greater number of vessels ply than can be found on any other river in the world. ^On the east side of Tappan Sea, near Tarrytown, is Sleepy Hollow, where that jolly Dutchman, Brom Bones, used to play his pranks on the poor Connecticut schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane. Near by, just across the Tappan, Major Andre paid with his life the penalty WASHINGTON S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURG of Arnold's treason. A little farther up stream, hard by West Point, the rebels, as Admiral Howe called them, stretched a huge iron chain across the river, stopping the British ships long enough to get a few volleys from the battery at the Point. Just above West Point is Kewburg, where Gen- eral Washington had his headquarters; and the build- ing that he occupied is still almost as he left it. At Catskill, a sleepy little village at the foot of the A SURVEY OF NEW YORK STATE 17 mountains, Rip Yan Winkle is said to have meekly endured the tongue-lashing of his shrewish wife until, out of sheer desperation, he climbed the highest crag and took a twenty -years' nap. At the foot of Kings- ton there flows the Esopus, whose waters were once thought to be the only liquid fit to make the far-famed 'Sopus ale, many a butt of which found its way across the sea and into the cellars of the old Dutch burghers. Beyond Kingston the river loses its bold scenery and is bordered by dairy farms. At Albany, where once Fort Orange stood, it begins to grow narrower, and finally its waters are divided among the streams and tarns of the Adirondacks, where also are the head- waters of the Mohawk, the Black, and a hundred other rivers. Not far west of Albany, where the two great high- ways of the continent meet, is a broad plateau that is highest in Otsego county, from which flow the streams that form the Susquehanna and the Delaware. The wise old Iroquois chiefs knew well what a wonderful situation it had, for the valleys that led from it were just as important pathways to them as they are to the white man to-day; and long before the snort of the iron horse was ever heard, these red men were passing back and forth through the valleys, holding them against the intrusions of other tribes. 18 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE From the great Council House near where the city of Syracuse now stands, the tribes could go northward down Oswego Eiver to Lake Ontario; eastvvard to the Hudson E-iver; southward to Chesapeake Bay, and southwestward to the Ohio River. It would be hard to find a situation better adapted to make a great people, and only a few generations after these same From an old })riut. THE PORT OF BUFFALO IN 1815. Iroquois came to the region, they were the most powerful Indian nation on the continent. The western part of the state is so level that it may be called a part of the prairie region. The name of its chief city is a hint that at one time the bison, the animal we call the buffalo, used to thrive on the rich prairie grass that once grew there. And the white man still finds it a wonderfully rich country, producing dairy THE DISCOVERERS OF NEW YORK BAY 19 cattle instead of bisons and Avheat in the place of prairie grass. We almost always call New York the Empire State, because it is first in wealth, in commerce, and in the value of its products. "When we study its history we shall be pretty apt to conclude that its geography has not a little to do with its high place in the rank of states. We shall see that the splendid harbor at the mouth of the Hudson Eiver has made it the best place on the continent for commerce; that the rich soil may be made to produce food stuffs for twice as many mill- ion people as the state now contains, and that the broad valleys from Buffalo to the Hudson, and then down the Hudson, are the great highways over which all this trade can pass with the least of difficulty. II. THE DISCOVERERS OF NEW YORK BAY If one were to ask the first school boy he might meet, '* Who discovered Kew York Bay ? " the answer would most likely be —Henry Hudson. In a way this is right, because the history of what is now called New York begins with Hudson's visit. But Hudson was not the first white man to sail upon the waters of New York Bay, nor to enter the river that bears Hudson's name. Indeed, no one can say positively who was the 20 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE very first white man to explore the bay, but one of the very first was an Italian sailor named Yerrazano. Yerrazano, it seems, was in the employ of some French mernhants, for late in 1523 he left Dieppe, a seaport on the north coast of France, vriih four vessels. The ships were disabled by a heavy storm and put back into port. Yerrazano started again with two vessels and got as far as Madeira, w^here he left one of them. With his remaining ship he sailed from Madeira sometime in the middle of January following, and reached the coast of Korth Caro- lina, which he spoke of as "a new land, never before seen by men." Keeping northeasterly along the coast, he entered about every bay or estuary he saw, and among them was New York Bay. That he cruised about the latter there is but very little doubt, for in his description one can fairly see Sandy Hook, the Narrows, Staten Island and East River; indeed, there is hardly a chance for mistake on this score. After a few days, however, he turned about and, coasting the south shore of Long Island, visited Kar- GIOVANNl DA YERRAZANO. THE DISCOVERERS OF :NEW YORK BAY 21 ragansett and Cape Cod bays, then Penobscot Bay, finally sailing back to Narragansett Bay, which he called his '' refuge." I3y this time summer was at hand, and his food supplies were low; so he set sail for Dieppe, reaching port safely in July, 152i, and happily ending an eio^ht months' cruise. Invni an u, THE NARROWS FROM STATEN ISLAND. According to a letter that he wrote to the King of France, Yerrazano seems merely to have sailed into each of the various bays and then sailed out again; he made but very few landings, and he did not go inland at any time more than a few miles. Of course there must have been a reason for this: let us see why. 22 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE When the American continent was discovered, there was no suspicion that it was a great body of land hitherto unknown. At that time the energy of all Europe was bent towards finding an all-water trade route to India, because the Turks had blocked tight all the routes to the East. At first it was supposed that the east coast of the American continent was the coast of India, but less than twenty years sufficed to show that India must be still a long way to the west. There was a strong belief, however, that the new land was a very narrow strip. A few years before Yerrazano sailed (1511), Balboa had crossed it at what proved to be the narrowest part, the Isthmus of Pan- ama; and two or three years before Magellan be- gan his cruise, he had sailed through the strait now bearing his name, and had crossed the Pacific, one of his ships making a journey around the Avorld. Now, inasmuch as the distance through the strait is but little more than 150 miles, and that across the isthmns less than one-fourth as much, there was good reason for believing the continent to be very narrow. That Yerrazano still had this notion after he had returned is shown by the map which his brother made. ]S"orth America is represented in shape abnost like an hour glass; in the latitude of Eichmond, Yirginia, it is not more than ten miles wide! Yerrazano came honestly by this belief, for his HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD 23 second landing-place was either at the southern, part of the peninsula now called Eastern Shores, or else on the reef that encloses Pamlico Sound. In either case a very short journey would have brought him to Ches- apeake Bay or else to the Sound. And inasmuch as he could not see across either body of water, he was justi- fied in believing what Balboa had said — namely, that the ''new land" was very narrow, and that a water passage through it might be found. A year or two later Yerrazano again sailed from France in search of this passage way, but his voyage came to a sad end. At that time France was on bad terms with her neighbor, Spain, with regard to this new land, because each country wanted the entire coast. So Avhen Yerrazano's vessel was sighted by a Spanish squadron, the latter made very short work of it. They captured the vessel and put Yerrazano in chains. He was at once taken to Cadiz, where he was hanged as a pirate. Though only thirty years old, he had proved himself one of the best sailors that had ever lived. III. HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD During the eighty years following Yerrazano's death a great many vessels entered New York Bay. One or two of them were Spanish, but most of them 24 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE were French. Of the white people who came in con- tact with the Indians, the French were about the only ones to get along with them peaceably. The French were reasonably just to the Indians in the business of buying and selling goods. French traders supplied them with iron for mak- ing arrow heads, .material that a was vastly better for the purpose than the flint formerly used; still better, from the French trader the Indians could pur- chase the very best weapon of all — a gun. The French and the Indians, there- fore, were usually on friendly terms, and it is not surprising that French traders Avent very frequently up the Hudson as far as the mouth of the Mohawk. They even built a stock- ade and trading-post on one of the islands now included in the City of Albany. They made no perma- nent settlements, however, nor did they try to make good the title to the land which Yerrazano had claimed for them. As a result, they were destined to lose it. HENRY HUDSON. HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD 25 Among the enterprising tradesmen in England there was a family that for four generations had been held in great public esteem. Henry Hudson had been an Al- derman, and more than once had been an adviser of Queen Elizabeth. Hudson's nephew was a famous sailor and had been on two or three voyages of ex- ploration in. the arctic regions of North America. Moreover, several of his sons had been apprenticed to a trading company that had sent out many vessels in search of a northern passage to India shorter than the one around Africa. Henry Hudson, a grandson of the Alderman, was employed by this same company. In 1007 he cruised about between Greenland and Spitzbergen, trying to find a short route across to India by way of the North Pole, which so many others were seeking, and the year following he made another voyage by way of Nova Zembla. He did not find the northeast passage, but he succeeded in going farther north than any one be- fore him had done. He therefore had become famous as a sailor and explorer. In the meantime the Dutch East India Company had been learning about Hudson and his voyages, and de- cided that he was too valuable a man to be kept in the employ of their English rivals in trade. Indeed, Hud- son's fame had become so great that Henry IV., of France, offered to put him at the head of a great trad- 26 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE ino" company which the French merchants at that time were organizing. Anyway, after a little hesitation, Hudson signed a contract that put him in the service of the Dutch, and he was forthwith ordered to resume his former duty, namely, to search for a passage to India. So, in April, 1609, he sailed out of the Zuyder Zee, or '' South Sea," as it would be called in English, in the Half Moon, a little vessel not much larger than an ordinary pleasure yacht. His crew numbered not more than eighteen men all told. After reaching the north coast of Russia, Hudson cruised about for some time, trying to get beyond Nova Zembla. There was much ice, however, and sail whichever way he might, there was no passage for the Half Moon; the Avhole region was sa beset with pack and floe that the sailors began to get ugly and rebel- lious; the vessel therefore turned back — apparently to return to port, but really to give Hudson a chance to carry out a much bolder plan. Hudson did not sail homeward. He had been or- dered to return to Amsterdam if he could not find the passage through to India by way of the north- east, but he did what many another great man has done under the circumstances; he put his instruct'ions into his pocket and acted upon his best nidgment. Turn- ing the H( (If Moon about, he concluded that he would make a search for a norihwest passage. But before he HENRY HUDSON COMES FORWARD 27 had gone very far, he got to thinking about Yerrazano Sea and the narrow waist of land the Italian sailor had discovered eighty odd years before. Moreover, Hud- son had in his possession a letter from John Smith, the famous explorer and the hero of the Pocahontas story. Ii'rom ihe pairiiing by Weii THE LAKDING OF HUDSON. In this letter he was told that although there was no passage across to the Pacific at the head of Chesapeake Bay, where Yerrazano had looked for it, there might be one leading from a bay farther north. To think was to act, and Hudson again changed the- course of the Half Moon, determined to look for a southwest passage. Seven weeks later he stopped at 28 THt: MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Penobscot Bay to put in a new mast and repair his sails; a little while afterward he was at Cape Cod, and then he got into Delaware Bay. He soon found that no strait led from that bay into Yerrazano Sea, and so, turning about, he crept along the Jersey coast until he found another opening — the largest he had yet seen. The opening was New York Bay, and on the third of September he dropped anchor somewhere near Staten Island, the present Borough of Eichmond. IV. HUDSON EXPLORES NEW YORK BAY Hudson spent a month exploring New York Bay and the river flowing into it. Doubtless there were many things that at first led him to believe he could sail through the bay into the Pacific Ocean; but be- fore he had sailed up the river as far as the present site of Albany, he must have realized that no such passage between the two oceans could exist. Beyond West Point, and even at the head of Tappan Sea, the bay begins to take the form of a river, and a man as shrewd as Hudson could not well be deceived. The Indians whom the sailors saw at first were frightened, but very quickly their fright gave way to curiosity. While the Half Moon was at anchor near Manna-hatta — now called Manhattan Island — HUDSON EXPLORES KEW YORK BAY '29 many of them Avent aboard the vessel. The men, Hudson tells us, were well dressed. They had head- dresses and mantles of feathers. The women wore ornaments of copper around their necks and wrists; some of them had clothing made of hemp cloth. Both men and women wore clothes made of deer skin. The Indians seemed to think that their white visitors were fond of tobacco, for they brought much of it to the ship to trade for kniv^es, beads and other trinkets. Most likely they had learned this sort of trading from the French traders years before. Certain it is that they were acquainted with fire- arms, for on one occasion several Indians made a very shrewd plan to steal some muskets from the ship. While the Half Moon was an- chored near the Catskills, Hudson and his crew visited the chief of a friendly tribe and supped with him. The food was served in red, wooden bowls and included dishes both of corn and beans; for meat some pigeons were shot and a dog was killed. Mats were spread upon the ground on which to sit. In a laro-e round-shaded house made of oak bark there were stores of maize, or Indian corn, and beans — enough AN INDIAN IN WAR COSTUME. 30 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE to load three shi})s; moreover, maize and beans, to- gether Avitli squashes, were growing in cultivated fields. After Hudson found that E'ew York Bay and the Hudson River estuary were not a strait leading into the Pacific Ocean, he turned about. In October he sailed out past Sandy Hook, headed for Europe; a month later he called at a port in England to leave some English sailors, and then sent word to Amster- dam, whither he intended to report and also to fit out another expedition. By this time, however, King James of England had made up his mind that so good a sailor as Hudson would better be in the employ of England than Hol- land, and so the king sent w^ord forbidding him to leave England, and ordering him to report again to his old employers, the Muscovy Company. With the coming of spring Hudson was in command of another vessel — this time one that flew the English flag — and was on his way agaiu in search of a route to India by way of the norihtvest. Entering Davis Strait, he discovered the great sea now called after him — Hudson Bay. His vessel was caught in the ice in the southern part, which is now called James Bay, and he remained there during the winter of 1010. When the ice pack had parted and there was open sailing, it was late in June. Hudson wished to keep on and continue the search, but his THE WEST INDIA COMPANY 31 crew, suffering from the hardships of an artic winter, had become rebellious; and so they set him adrift with his son and several sick men in an open boat. The ves- sel and its mutinous crew set sail for England; but on their way they made a landing where several, includ- ing the chief mutineers, were slain by savages. The vessel reached England safely and the rest of the crew were very rightly thrown into prison. A relief ves- sel was immediately sent out to rescue Hudson and his son, but no more was ever seen or heard of them. The news that the vessel brought back, however, was not forgotten. It set all England a-thinking, and only a few years elapsed before these thoughts took shape. V. THE WEST INDIA COMPANY AND THE PATROONS In time the Dutch began the settlement of the ter- ritory which Henry Hudson had opened for them, and in order to do this to the best advantage the affair was put in the hands of an association of business men. This association was called the West India Company. The West India Company desired to get as many settlers as possible into the territory it controlled, be- cause each family added to the income of the company. As a matter of fact man}^ people did go there, but, at 82 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE the same time, very few seemed willing to stay. In- deed, it Vv'as much like going to California during the gold-mining excitement of 1849; every one who under- took the journey went with the intent to get rich as quickly as possible and to return to the ' ' States ' ' to enjoy his fortune. So, after fifteen years from the time that Manhattan Island was made a settlement, less than three hundred people were living there. More- over, neither a church nor a school had been organized. The Company must depend for its profits, not on the people who became adventurers, but on those who went there to live. So in 1629 a very liberal offer was made. Any member who within four years might induce fifty people, not including children, to form a com- munity and settle in the Company's territory, .should receive a grant or gift of land. The land might be chosen along the Hudson or any other navigable river in the prescribed territory. The estate was to have a frontage on the Hudson of not more than sixteen miles on one side, or eight miles on both sides, as the owner might choose ; it could extend as far back from the river as circumstances might permit. The one to whom such a grant was made, was styled a Patroon, and the estate itself was called a manor. The Patroon was pretty nearly an absolute monarch on his manor. He could require the colonists to buy all their supplies of him, and could also forbid the sale THE WEST INDIA COMPANY 33 of crops or cattle to any one but himself. The Patroon at first furnished his tenants with seed, farming uten- sils, stock, houses, and barns, and in return took for his own rent a certain part of the crop and increase of the stock. In addition, a certain fixed rent, also to be paid in produce, was exacted. For the first ten years THE VAN RENSSELAER MANSION. a tenant paid no taxes to the Company, but during this time he was not permitted to move from one manor to another. The company likewise agreed to furnish the tenants with Xegro slaves when necessary, but these were to be owned not by the tenant but by the Com- pany, and the slaves could be withdrawn at the Com- pany's will. The tenant might be a tradesman or a skilled workman with the permission of the Patroon, 84 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE but to make cloth of any kind, or to deal in furs was forbidden under severe punishment. Cloth manu- facture was to be kept in Holland; fur-trading in New Netherland was an exclusive right of the Compan}^ The first manor was established on Delaware River, and included Cape May. It was not successful. The next was attempted by one De Pauw. and included the present sites of Jersey City, Iloboken and all Staten Island; it was named Pavonia, and most likely the name of the town Baijonne has grown from it. Per- haps the most prosperous manor of the time was that founded by Kilian Yan Pensselaer, a jeweler and dia- mond cutter of Amsterdam. When Yan Pensselaer became a Patroon lie selected the land that includes the sites of Albany, Troy and Hudson; furthermore, he paid the Indians for it, as well. Instead of taking any- one who might want a free passage, Yan Pensselaer was careful to select only farmers of thrifty habits and good character. As a result, Rensselaer wyck, as the colony was called, came to have a great value. There were a number of other manors that were equally suc- cessful, among them the well known names of Yan Cortlandt, Livingston and Schuyler. Most of these manors were on the Hudson; a few bordered Long Island Sound or the upper Delaware. On the whole tlie tenants were fairly well treated both by the Patroons and the Company. Each Pa- THE WEST INDIA COMPANY 35 troon was a magistrate very much after the manner of the English "Squire." He held court, punished of- fenses against the peace of the community, settled dis- putes, and expelled or imprisoned persons of bad char- acter. Any one feeling aggrieved at his decision might appeal to the Council of the Company — but the Patroon THE V.1.N COUTLAXDT MANOR HOUSE AT CROTON, NEW YORK. took such measures that the appeal was never made! Twice a year the tenants gathered at the house of the Patroon to pay their rent and settle scores, and always the business ended with a great feast in which 'Sopus ale and s(!hnapps had a part. On the successful man- ors the tenants probably lived better, earned more and saved more than would have been possible in the mother country. 36 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE In spite of all this, the manor system certainly hastened the end of the Dutch rule. To organize a colony in Holland, carry the colonists to New Nether- land, buy the land from Indian owners, and supply the tenants with tools, shelter and provisions, required more capital than even a very rich fariner could com- mand. So but few farmers ever becaine Patroons; the latter almost always were traders or, as we should now say, ''promoters." In the second place, the Patroons found fur-trading not only much more to their liking, but far more profitable. But the business of fur-trading was a sole privilege of the Company, and it is not hard to understand that much quarreling resulted. The manor system was organized for the purpose of bringing farmers to New Netherland ; for the greater part it brought nothing but trouble. The Patroons and the Company quarreled; the people having practically no voice in their government, man- aged to do about as they pleased, provided that no one found out their misdeeds. Such a condition, however, was demoralizing, and so when the English fleet ap- peared before New Amsterdam the settlers were quite willing to exchange Dutch for English rule. They may have lost some of their liberties by the exchange, but they certainly gained a better government. BEGINNINGS OF NEW NETHERLAND 37 VI. BEGINNINGS OF NEW NETHERLAND In 1614, or not more than five or six years after Henry Hudson sailed the Half Moon to the shallows and bars of the Hudson Eiver, an agent of the Xew ]N"etherland Company named Christiansen went up the river nearly to the present site of Albany. Christiansen was a sea captain and also a trader; moreover, he was equally clever in either calling. His chief reason for establishing a trading-post at this particular place was the fact that French traders had had one there about seventy-five years before. The old French strong-house was not in very good condition, but Christiansen's men repaired it, put a ditch around it, and mounted some cannon within its walls. One Jacob Elkins remained as commander of the post. Christiansen did not count on the floods that come booming down the river every spring, however, and after the garrison had been half-drowned two or three times, the post was moved to the mouth of l^ormans Kill, near the place where South Pearl Street enters the pretty suburb of Albany, now named Kenwood. This place was called by the Indians, Tawasentha, " the abode of the dead," and it will always be noted for the treaty by which the Dutch agreed to give the 88 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Iroquois powder and fire-arms ia exchange for furs and skins. The new location did not prove a good place for trade. It was also thought to be insecure in case of an attack, so the trading-post was moved within the present limits of Albany.^ The post or strong- house was built on a hill, well fortified, and was named Fiij)n (in old }ii int. LOOKING TOWARD ALBANY FROM VAN RENSSELAEr's ISLAND. Fort Orange, after the Prince of Orange, the Stadt- h older of Holland. As a trading-center Fort Orange became a place of much hnportance. Besides the garrison there were always traders, hunters and officers of the Company, and many of tliese liad their families with tliem. After * Fort Orange Hotel, destroyed by fire more than half a century ago, occupied the site of the old fort. BEGINNINGS OF NEW NETHERLAND 39 a few years, when the Eensselaer manor had brought many other families thither, the village of Eensselaer- wyck became one of the most thriv- ing places in 'New I^etherland. Then came the English conquest, and when E"ew Amsterdam became ISTew York, Fort Orange became Albany, receiving its name as a compliment to the Duke of Albany. Even at the close of the AVar of the Eevolution, Al- bany was scarcely more than a country village of two or three business streets. Most of the shops were on Pearl Street, but there were some on "Water Street. Many, if not most of the signs, were in Dutch, and the Obverse. Reverse. (Size of the original.) A DUTCH STUYVER. WAMPUM. shops themselves had assortments of furnishing-goods the names of Avhich are now unknown. Not a little of the trade was carried on in Avampum and suckhannock, as the Indian money was called. For three pieces of 40 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE suckhannock or six pieces of wampum one could buy stuff to the amount of a stay ver, Dutch money— or about the value of two cents in modern coin. The houses Avere each built, as a rule, in the front of a cultivated field, on three sides constructed of squared logs, the front being of brick. The bricks were of yellow clay and were imported from Holland. Gutters of tin or of tile projected from the eaves just far enough to send a deluge of water over the side of the street w^hen there was rain. The unfortunate pe- destrian who tried to get along the streets during a shower had a choice of two evils: he could wade ankle-deep in mud if he kept the middle of the street, or he could have hiinself soused with the streams from the eave-gutters, if he chose to go on the side- walk. The people of that time, both Dutch and English, boasted of the greatness of their town. It was the largest in the Hudson valley. The City of Hudson, even now a quaint-looking hamlet, was a half-culti- vated farm. Tarry town was a sleepy village, where dwelt '' Brom Bones," and where for a time sojourned Ichabod Crane. JSTewburg was a ^' cross-roads " Dutch village. Poughkeepsie was a thrifty town that thrived on its desire to surpass Mbany. But Albany had al- most four thousand people and imagined itself a rival of Boston and Philadelphia. BEGINNING OF NEW NETHERLAND 41 Nevertheless, there were fault-finding travelers who used to poke fun at Albany. They called the merchants close-fisted skinflints, and added that the people were about as hospitable to strangers as were storks to frogs. One sarcastic traveler said that the only thing in Albany worth having was the price of a passage to ]S"ew York. The building of the Erie Canal gave Albany great From Valtuline's Manuul. A GROUP OF OLD DUTCH HOUSES. commercial advantages, and the city has steadily grown in importance. It may still be called a " cross-roads " town, but the cross-roads in question are two of the most important highways of the continent. One, an open and almost level route between the Mississippi Yalley and the Atlantic seaboard, is the chief route of com- merce of the continent. The other, a low pass from the Hudson to the St. Lawrence rivers, along Lake Cham- 42 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE plain, is the open door between New York City and Canada. Albany is at the crossing of the routes. Fort Orange is long since gone and the thrifty Dutch burghers are sleeping their long sleep, but the spirit of progress still hovers about the cross-roads. VII. HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVERNORS The charter of the West India Company gave to it the right to trade on the '' barbarous coasts of America and Africa," everywhere between Is^ewfoundland and the Strait of Magellan on the one side of the Atlan- tic, and from the Tropic of Cancer to Cape of Good Hope on the other side. It was necessary for a con- cern having such great privileges and such an enor- mous business to have many trading-posts. Manhattan Island was the first one to be established. It was also necessary that the trading-post should have a governor — Director-General, he was called — and of governors there were several. The first was Cor- nelius May (1024), and the next William Yerhulst. Neither counted for much, and it is not certain that either one ever visited New Netherland. In 1626 Peter Minuit came, and he was every inch a gov- ernor. One of his first acts was to purchase Manhat- tan from the Indians to whom it belonged. This trans- HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVERNORS 43 action cost him sixty guilders — a sum equal to about twenty-four dollars— and the payment was made in ribbons, beads and similar trinkets. jVrinuit was a very sensible man, and (piickly learned how to get along with the Indians. Although both the Manhatanis and Mohegans were hostile to the Mo- hawks, he had the friendship of all three tribes. He likewise had the esteem of Governor Bradford of the ^^A^^r^t^y^fTCcK&Jh THE AUTOGRAPH OF VAN TWILLER. Plymouth colony. But after five years of service the Company thought he was too indulgent with the Patroons, who were secretly dealing in furs, and so he was recalled. There was a clerk in the Company's employ in Amsterdam, who had married a niece of Ivilian Yan Eensselaer, the wealthy Patroon, and Yan Rensse- laer was shrewd enough to have him appointed governor in Minuit's place. This clerk was Wouter Yan T wilier, and of him Father Knickerbocker says, '^He was exactly five feet six inches in height, 44 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE and six feet Ave inches in circumference. His head was a perfect sphere, and of such stupen- dous dimensions, that Dame Xature, with all her sex's ingenuity, Avould have been puzzled to con- struct a neck capable of supporting it; wherefore she wisely declined the attempt and settled it firmly on the top of his backbone, just between the shoulders." But however '' stupendous in dimensions" he may have been, Yan Twiller was lacking in the material that stiffens backbone, and as a result he was in all sorts of quarrels out of which he usually came second best. But he was a good man, and both he and Xew Netherland prospered greatly; indeed, it was often noted that his farms were the best on Manhattan or in Flatbush. Finally the Company was compelled to recall him, and so William Kieft came to succeed him. Black and white are not more unlike than were Kieft and A^an Twiller. Kieft found fault with every- thing, upset pretty nearly everything, and quarreled with every one. He offended the Indians near New Amsterdam, by refusing to sell them firearms, yet sell- ing great numbers to their mortal enemies, the Iro- quois; he angered them still more by trying to tax them. This, together with the murder of a Karitan, led to the massacre of more than seven hundred Indians and thirty or forty white people, among them the HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVEilNOKS 45 famous Ann Hutchinson, "^^ who had been banished from Massachusetts. Kieft grew more and more waspish as lie began to realize that he was very cordially hated. Finally he quarreled with Dominie Bogardus. The Dominie, how- ever, was a pretty good fighter himself, and the two went at it, hammer and tongs, the one from the State House, the other from tlie meeting-house, Bogardus B.^I^L^ THE STAADT HUY.S (STATE HOUSE). from his pulpit used to thunder against the governor, and the governor's guard would try to drown the Dominie's voice with the noise of their drums and trumpets. Even the air got lurid with the lashings they gave each other. "When they had tired them- selves out — as well as everybody else — they started to Amsterdam to finish the quarrel before the Company's * Her cabin was on Prospect Hill, Pelbam, between Split Rock and Boston Road. Her child, eight years of age, was captured and for three years lived with the Indians. When rescued she was un- willing to leave the tribe that had adopted her. 46 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Council, but the ship was wrecked and both perished. Bogardus met death on the shores not far from his home. In one of his matchless fables ^sop tells us about certain frogs who clamored for a king ; and so Jupiter cast a Log, which was to be their king, into the swamp. In a very short time the frogs had so far lost all respect for their monarch as to pray Jupiter for a real, live king. Thereupon Jupiter sent them a stork, which forthwith began to gobble them up without so much as saying ''by your leave." In comparing Wouter Yan Twiller with William Kieft, Mr. John Fiske speaks of them as '' King Log and King Stork " — and it would not be easy to find a better comparison. After Yan Twiller, the grand, old w^ooden-legged hero, Peter Stuy vesant, became governor. Stuyvesant had a temper somewhat like tabasco sauce, but he w^as honest, fair and sensible. He let the people elect the Council to assist him, as did Kieft, though he was careful not to call upon the Council unless he was sure that they were of his own mind. But he was, never- theless, so considerate of the rights of the people that none but evil-doers feared him. Stuyvesant did not take much stock in popular gov- ernment and there was a very decided belief that he was not a man with whom one could safely trifle. Once he declared to a Councilman who disputed him, HALF A DOZEN DUTCH GOVERNORS 47 '^If anyone, during my administration, shall appeal, I will make him a foot shorter and send the pieces back to Holland" — and most likely he would have been as good as his word. In spite of his occasional explosions of temper, he was at heart kind and sincere. Even his bitter enemies ad- mired his sincerity and absolute hon- esty — and what bet- ter commendation could any man ask than to have a re- putation of that sort? After the English occupation of New Netherland, Stuyve- sant retired to his farm, or bouwerie, on East River, where he spent the rest of his life. Colonel Nichols, the English governor who succeeded him, became one of his best friends and the two were almost like brothers. Stuyvesant died at the age of eighty, and a vault in St. Mark's Church in New York City still bears the name PETEUS STUYYESANT. PETER STUYVESANT. 48 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE VIII. DOMINIE BOGARDUS AND CHURCH RULE The times during which the first settlements were made in the 'Ne\Y World were not very peaceful years to people who had their own ideas about religion. In the Old World, Catholics and Protestants behaved toward each other more like savages than Christians, and both sects were equally brutal in punishing people whom they considered heretics. As a result, several of the early settlements of the ^ew World ^vere made by people who had been persecuted for their religious beliefs. Massachusetts was the early home of the Puri- tans, and Maryland that of the Catholics. At first, New York was free from all religious trou- bles. The early comers to New Ketherland were troubled rather more about their pocketbooks than their religious beliefs. Indeed, Ne^Y Netherland being strictly a commercial venture was a trading commu- nity. Perhaps it might have been different had the Mayflower landed her colony of Pilgrims at New Amsterdam instead of Plymouth, as was at one time planned; but certain it was that for several years there was not even a preaclier of the Gospel in Ne^Y !N"etherland, much less a church. It was not until Wouter Yan T wilier came, that a minister appeared in the colony. Governor Yan DOMINIE BOGARDUS AND CHURCH RULE 49 T wilier brought with hhii the very picturesque char- acter, Dominie Bogardus. That the Dominie was a very learned and an able man no one could deny. He likewise had a temper — and no one cared to deny that. The governor himself was one of the first tar- gets of the peppery Bogardus, and the latter denounced him from the pulpit as a "child of Satan." The governor was a tactful man, however, and as he knew that the Dominie could tell some rather un- A VIEW OF THE FIRST REFORMED CHURCH IX NEW YORK. A reproduction from tiles. This was called " The Church in the Fort," now the Collegiate Church of New York; organized 1628, building erected 1647. pleasant things which the Company ought to know, but did not know, he decided to be forgiving. It happened once that a ship having among her pas- sengers the master of Pavonia Manor had stopped for repairs in East Eiv^er. Yan Twiller invited the Dom- inie to go over to make a call. Just what they had for entertainment does not appear, but it must have been stronger than buttermilk, for both the Dominie and his host got very drunk and managed to set the 50 THE MAKING OF THE KMPIEE STATE house afire. From that time they agreed to tell noth- ing about each other. Dominie Megapolensis, another clergyman, was quite as strong a character as Bogardus, and a much better man, but he would not tolerate anything that seemed to him like heresy. So when he learned that a number of German Lutherans were meeting at private houses for Avorship, he caused several of them to be imprisoned. The people of Kew Amster- dam were angry at this, and made Governor Kief t re- lease the prisoners. A few years later, when Ernestus Goetwater was sent from Holland as pastor of the Lutheran Church, Megapolensis had him arrested and caused him to be sent back to Amsterdam. The Baptists who had come into New Netherland also had a hard time of it. They were not very many in number, but they used to meet for worship at a jirivate house in Flushing, or sometimes in Brooklyn. When it was learned that these meetings were taking place, there was trouble. The man in whose house the meetings were held happened to be the sheriff; he Av^as removed from office and fined 500 guilders, a sum equal to about two hundred dollars. The preacher was fined 1,000 guilders and driven out of the colony. For several years there Avas comparative peace, but Avhile Peter Stuyvesant Avas governor, in 1057, a number of the Society of Friends— Quakers, they Avere DOMINIE BOGARDUS AND CHURCH RULE 51 called — were driven out of Massachusetts and took refuge in New Amsterdam. Some of them were im- prisoned, some were banished, and a few fled to Long Island. One of the latter, Robert Hodshone by name, ap- pealed to the people in Hempstead. He was imme- THE OLD DUTCH CHURCH AT TARRYTOWN. diately arrested. His Bible and papers were seized and he was bound and dragged behind a wagon across Brooklyn. At l^ew x\msterdam he was thrown into a filthy dungeon, where he was confined until he was brought before the Council. The Council had no right to try him; nevertheless, he was sentenced to be fined GOO o;uilders or to labor for two years chained to a wheelbarrow. 52 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Hodsbone had not a single stuyver in the world, and so he Avas bound to a wheelbarrow and dragged to w^ork in the streets. He refused to load the barrow and for that was flogged at the whipping post until he fell to the ground in a faint. For several days in succession he was repeatedly flogged; then for two days he was starved; finally he was hung from the ceiling by his wrists and again beaten into insensi- bility. By this time the people had become so furious that the Council did not dare carry the brutal treat- ment further. Then the governor's sister pleaded Ilodshone's case very effectively and he was released, after which he was cared for by the best people of the town. A few weeks later a Quaker was arrested in Flushing, fined, and ordered to be banished. But the people would have none of it, and the town officers refused to execute the sentence. They said, ''The law of love, peace and liberty, extending to Jews, Turks and Egyptians, forms the true glory of Holland. Should any of these people come in love among us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them. ^Ve shall give them free ingress and egress as God shall persuade our consciences." There was no more religious persecution in ]S"ew Amsterdam, and the sermon of the good men of Flush- ing is the law of the land to this day. THE FALL OF NEW NETHERLAND 53 IX. THE FALL OF NEW NETHERLAND From the time that the first cabins were built on Manhattan Island, New Netherland had a steady growth. In IGGI there were about ten thousand peo- ple. 'New Amsterdam had become a city with a special charter. Brooklyn, then a mile back from the river, Flatbush and Flushing were thriving villages on Long Island. Bayonne, then called Pavonia, lay on the opposite side, across K^orth Eiver. Eensselaerwyck, the center of the fur trade, overlooked by Fort Orange, liked to imagine- itself the peer of New Amsterdam; and Esopus, now Kingston, had become a very thrifty town. With such a good beginning and steady growth one might think that there was a great future for New Netherland. As a matter of fact, however, the col- ony was soon to have its existence as a Dutch posses- sion snuffed out, Avhile the loyal old governor, Peter Stuvvesant, was rubbing his eyes in angry amazement. The longer the Dutch thought about the freedom of the English merchants and farmers in Westchester and on Long Island, the more dissatisfied they be- came. Their English neighbors could send their prod- uce to Boston or even sell it in New xVmsterdam, but not even a pound of cheese could go out of New Neth- 5-i THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE THE FALL OF NEW NETHEKLAND 55 erland unless it went to Holland or paid a tax to the Company. Now the Dutch settlers began to consider the ad- vantages that would come about if only Kew Xether- land were a colony of England instead of Holland. At one time there had been an agreement that no set- tlement of the Connecticut colonies should be made within ten miles of the Hudson Eiver, but promises between nations never amount to much when there are no armies and battleships in the background. In 1655 a Colonel Pell went leisurely into the place west of Anne's Hook, near the mouth of Hutchinson Creek, and bought a large tract of land of the Indians. It Avas then the home of the unfortunate Ann Hutch- inson, who bad settled there in order to get away from the Eng- lish colonies ; it is now Pel- ham Manor. THE AUTOGRAPH OF STUYVESANT. Governor Stuyvesant ordered Pell to leave and take with him all of his goods and cattle; but Pell merely smiled and said — nothing. Instead of driving Pell away, as he should have done, Governor Stuyvesant appealed to Winthrop, the governor of Connecticut, sending a committee selected from the leading men of the colon v. At Hartford 56 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE they were coolly told that Pell had a perfect right to the land, inasmuch as the western boundary of Con- necticut was the Pacific Ocean. '' Then where is Xew J^etherland ? " said the committee. "That we do not know,'' replied Winthrop's advisers, shrugging their shoulders. When the committee unrolled the charter of the West India Company, Winthrop politely informed them that it was nothing but waste paper, and that a charter to be good must be granted by His Majesty King Charles II., of England. 'Now the only claim to North America that England could make was based on the voyages of John and Se- bastian Cabot. But in Queen Elizabeth's time England had twice said that the discovery of a land did not give a nation the right to own it, unless the discovery was followed by taking possession and establishing colonies or military posts there. To the argument that the Dutch had taken actual possession and had established a permanent settlement long before the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth, the English would not listen. The only satisfaction the Dutch could get was that what was law in Queen Elizabeth's time did not apply in the reign of Charles II. Put while all this argument was going on Charles II. was not idle. He had made up his mind to have New Netherland at any cost. At that time England and Holland were at peace with each other, and the THE FALL OF NEW NJ:TnERLAND 57 king knew that if his plans were discovered, the Dutch fleet — and it was a splendid one — would give his ships a very hot welcome. So four ships were fitted out with great secrecy and, under command of Colonel Kichols, were despatched to seize ]S"ew Amsterdam. Even when the squadron reached Boston, Governor Stiiyvesant did not suspect what was to come. At that moment he and all his troops were away guarding the settlements along Hudson River from some mis- chievous Mohegans Avho had gone on the warpath. Indeed, it was not till a messenger brought him word that Nichols's fleet was in Lower Bay that he realized the situation of affairs. Before the governor had reached 'New Amsterdam, however, the vessels had passed through the Narrows and were landing sol- diers at Brooklyn, and these were joined l)y men from the Connecticut colony. The troops gathered at the place now occupied b}^ the slips of Fulton Ferry. A few days later Nichols sent Governor Winthrop of Connecticut to demand the surrender of the city. Stuyvesant stormed about and pounded the floor with his wooden leg. He swore that he would never sur- render, and tore Nichols's letter into pieces. But Nichols was anxious to avoid bloodshed, and he tact- fully let Governor Winthrop manage the matter. Winthrop first won the Council to his side, and the Council argued the case with Stuyvesant. When the 58 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIEE STATE latter discovered that no one sided with him, he yielded gracefully, and so New Netherland became the colony of J^ew York. Connecticut did not fare very well by the change, and Gov^ernor Winthrop learned too late what was to From the iin'mfnig hij I',, STUYVESANT DESTROYS THE DEMAND FOR SURRENDER. be his reward for serving as a cat's-paw. AYhen he had boasted that Connecticut reached westward to the WHY DUTCH RULE FAILED IN NEW NETHERLAND 59 Pacific he had relied on the charter given him by the king. Later he learned to his chagrin that about every- thing west of Bridgeport had been given a second time to the Duke of York! '^A king can do no wrong"; he may therefore break his promises if he so chooses. X. WHY DUTCH RULE FAILED IN NEW NETHER- LAND Many of the settlers of New Netherland, and es- pecially those in New Amsterdam, were very poor. There were many whose passage money had beea paid to the Xew World, and many who had been helped by the West India Company. They had afterwards be- come well-to-do and even rich; yet they were found complaining very bitterly against both the Company and the mother country. Almost always there are reasons for complaint when so many people are dis- satisfied, and there were very good reasons in this case. In the first place, people do not relish anything that seems like military rule, and the government of the West India Company was very miich <^ that sort. There were no soldiers, it is true, but there was the one-man power which was quite as effective as a file of men with their bayonets fixed. It is sometimes said that the Company was harsh, greedy and avaricious, 60 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE but this charge is true only in part. It is true that the taxes were high and that scarcely anything carried bet\yeen the mother country and the colony was not taxed; yet it is also true that while the people were growing wealthy, the Company was not. More- over, though the colonists Avere forbidden by their From Vakhfiiie's Manual. AN OLD FARMHOUSE ON LONG ISLAND. contract to trade in furs, they were secretly doing a great deal of fur- trading all the time. There was one other matter that was very galling. The English settlers who lived on the eastern end of Long Island were not within the boundaries of ]^ew Netherland; neither were those who had settled on the Connecticut shore. Some of these settlers had come directly from England, but most of them were WHY DUTCH RULE FAILED IN NEW NETHERLAND 61 people who were dissatisfied with the Puritan rule in ^lassachusetts. These people were under no foreign rule. They Avere orderly and broad-minded; they elected their own rulers and made their own laws, and paid no taxes except the trifling sums they themselves voted. They were prosperous and free; therefore they were contented and fairly happy. Now, although the Dutch colonists were much bet- ter off than ever they had been in their own conntry, they were not so well off as their English neighbors, and the latter were not at all backward in talkino^ about this fact; indeed, they never tired of poking fun at their Dutch neighbors who paid all the taxes and had nothing to say about the government of the colony. There were no natural boundaries between the Xew N^etherland and the English settlements of Connecti- cut and Long Island. Consequently a great deal of trade sprang up between the two peoples. Some of this was contrary to the rules of the West India Company, but in most cases the Company could not help itself and, as a result, was very apt to be the loser. As time went on matters kept going from bad to worse. All the time, too, the officers of the Company were striving harder and harder to keep the people in obedience. This was not so difficult with the common people, for they were inclined to be orderly and well- behaved. But the Patroons were a troublesome lot. 62 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE They knew how weak the Company really was, and they also knew that the governor's threats were little better than bluster. During his administration, Governor Kieft allowed the people to select a committee of twelve to ad- vise with him about the welfare of the colony. The committee was made up of Patroons and freeholders — that is, heads of families who were not under con- tract with the Patroons. In the course of a very short time, however, the committee learned something they did not know before. They found that so long as they agreed with the governor and voted for higher taxes, they w^ere good fellows enough ; when they disagreed, on the contrary, they were promptly sent home. Governor Stuyvesant also thought to gain a little respite from the complaints of the people by allowing them to elect a sort of common council. The towns of N^ew Amsterdam, Brooklyn, Gravesend and Flat- lands — then called Amersfooet — chose eighteen mem- bers among them, and from these the governor ap- pointed nine magistrates or justices. But the first time the Council attempted to pass a law for the betterment of the people, the governor quickly put it aside. For this the Company commended him. The "privileges" of the people had much of shadow and little of substance. When the contest between England and Holland THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH RULE 63 came, and it was to be determined who should be the ruler of New Netherland, the people were all of one mind. ^'Anj rule," they said, "is preferable to that of the West India Company." The love for liberty and the desire for self-govern- ment might not grow in Holland, but it could not be crushed out in New Netherland. It was in the air and all the people breathed it. "Taxation without rep- resentation " was just as hateful to the Dutch as it became later to the English ; in another hundred years England was to learn the same lesson in the same place, and the people were again to be the teachers. XI. THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH RULE In spite of the way in which New Netherland was taken by Charles 11. , it was a direct benefit to all con- cerned. Holland learned a much-needed lesson, and ever afterward treated her colonies with more con- sideration. The people were in every way better off; they were relieved of burdensome taxes, and they got the protection from the Indians which the West India Company was always promising but never gave them. Moreover, all the colonies from Lake Champlain to Florida were now English, and were therefore better able to stand united against any enemy. 64 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Colonel Nichols, the new governor, was not only a scrupulously honest man in all his dealings, but he was wise and kind-hearted as well, putting forth every effort in his power to improve the con- dition of the people and that of the commonwealth. The people were permitted to make most of the COTTAGES ON BOSTON ROAD. laws that governed them; cases that came before the courts could be tried by jury, and it was especially provided that no Christian should be persecuted on account of his religious belief. Colonel Nichols did not have quite so large a territory to govern as he had expected, for King Charles gave about all that is now included in Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley. The whole of Long Island was given THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH RULE 65 to New York. It is true that the king had promised these lands to other people, but one must remember that he was very generous — with promises. It was in this manner that Kew York got the boundaries which, north, east, and south, are pretty nearly the same as those the state has to-day. Colonel ]S"ichols remained in Xew York three or four years. Then he returned to England, and Francis Lovelace was sent in his place. Lovelace did one very good thing: he established a letter-post between New York and Boston. The mail carrier set out from New York on the first Monday of the month. His route lay along the Bowery to the street still called Boston road, and thence to Greenwich, Stamford, New Haven, Hartford and Springfield. From Springfield to Bos- ton it followed a route that is now that of the Boston and Albany Kailway. Lovelace also established the Merchants' Exchange, and the street on which it first met is called Exchange Street to this day. But great things were about to happen. War had again broken the friendship between England and Holland, and in August, 1673, a fleet of seven Dutch ships enteied New York Bay and came up through the Narrows. Governor Lovelace was away, and be- fore the people could learn what had happened the guns of the fleet were thundering away at the fort in the Upper Bay. Before two days had gone by, the Q6 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Dutch flag was again flying over the city, and New York was once more Xew Netherland. The people did not take kindly to the change and it was neces- sary to keep the fleet in the Bay for some time. Peace came again ahnost as unexpectedly as had the war, and Holland agreed to give New York back to (iniii ! I'lOin V((Uittint's j\l(iiuial. EXCHANGE PLACE, LOOKIXG TO HANOVER STREET. the EnHish. The chief sufferer by the change was Governor Lovelace. He had bought a great deal of land on credit, and w^hen the Dutch governor learned about it, he demanded that Lovelace should at once pay for it in full. This of course Lovelace could not do; so the new governor not only threw him into a debt- ors' prison, but seized the land as well. When the col- ony was turned over to England again, Lovelace ap- THE FIKST SCHOOLS IN NEW YORK 67 pealed to the king; but Charles, seeing a chance to get a snug fortune for himself, suddenly remembered that Lovelace owed him seven thousand pounds; so the king took the land himself. Poor Lovelace died with- out getting a shadow of justice, and another governor was sent— Major Edmund Andros, a man whose name will long be remembered in America. XII. THE FIRST SCHOOLS IN NEW YORK Although there were free public schools in Holland —and excellent ones, too — long before the West India Company established N^ew E'etherland, yet for many years there was neither a church nor a free school in the colony. There was possibly one good reason for having no school at first; there were no children. The people who came to l^ew Amsterdam, as a rule, did not expect to stay. It is true that the officers of the Com- pany and a few well-to-do people had their families with them, but for these there were almost always private tutors; for the greater part, however, there were few families and fewer children. The second governor of the colony, the doughty ''Doubter," Wouter Yan T wilier, brought with him in April, 1633, the first clergyman, Dominie Bogardus, and the first schoolmaster, Adam Roelandson. 68 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE The Dominie, as we have seen, quickly made him- self a thorn in the side of Governor Yan T wilier; as for the schoolmaster, he soon made himself a thorn in the side of about everybody else. When he came to 'New Amsterdam he had a house somewhere THE AUTOGRAPH OF DOMINIE BOGARDUS. near Bleeker street, but that was so far out in the country that everyone complained. Then he moved into town and built himself a schoolhouse and dwell- ing all under one roof. This cost him nearly one hun- dred and fifty dollars. Whether or not the schoolmaster was over generous with his applications of birch, the chronicles of ]S"ew Amsterdam do not say. Be that as it may, it is in history that "people did not speak Avell of him," and in a short time nearly all his pupils had left the school. Now, Roelandson's school was not supported as public schools are now-a-days; each parent paid for the instruction of his children. When there were no pupils Roelandson was compelled to look elsewhere for his living. 80 he became a washerman, and at this THE FIRST SCHOOLS IX NEW YORK 69 trade he prospered. He did not escape trouble, how- ever. Among his customers was one Giles van Yoocht. Now Koelandson had agreed to do van Yoocht's laund- ering for a year at a certain sum. In the course of a few months Koelandson tried to collect the money then due, but van Yoocht refused to pay. Koelandson forthwith went to law about it, but the court decided that he must wash for van Yoocht for the full year be- fore he could collect his pay. In many ways Koe- landson was not a good man, and he was afterward driven from the colony in disgrace. In 1645, Arien Jansen van Olfendam opened a school, and about the same time Jan Stevenson established an- other. Both schools seemed to prosper. Compared with the tuition charged at a collegiate school in New York City at the present time, the fees were not ex- orbitant; for two dried beaver skins a boy or a girl could have a whole year's schooling! When Peter Stuyvesant was made governor of the colony, he became very much in earnest about having better schools. He appealed to the directors of the Company, and he likewise scolded the people, for up to that time, he said, they ''had built the schoolhouse with words." His rebuke Avas deserved, for all the mone}^ that had ever been set aside for a public school had been used for other purposes. At first the Company tried to smooth matters over 70 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE with vague promises, but Governor Stuyvesant was a very determined man. At heart the Company knew he was right, for he had pointed out many heavy losses that they had suffered as the results of ignorance and idleness. The sharp, clear logic of the plucky gov- ernor had the desired effect, and in April, 1652, the From ///' ixtn.lln'l I,, J \V,n- THE UJ.D SCHOOLHOUSE AT TAPPAN. first public school in America was opened in a building on Pearl Street. A very able and highly educated gentleman. Doctor La Montague, was the first teacher, and he gave his services without pay. One of his suc- cessors received a salary of fourteen and one-half dol- lars a month, with an extra allowance of fifty dollars a year for his board. In a very few years the people learned the value of schools and decided that they wanted better ones. So A KING, A COUNT, AND A PIRATE 71 the city agreed to build a house suitable for a Latin school, and the Company sent Doctor Cur tins from Holland as principal. A few years later Dominie Luyck, the governor's chaplain, became principal. The two public schools really formed a grammar and a high school, each having two teachers, and these re- mained in existence so long as Xew Amsterdam was controlled by the Dutch. It was the beginning of a school system that now enrolls more than a million pupils and thirty thousand teachers, at a cost of thirty million dollars each year. XIII. A KING, A COUNT, AND A PIRATE Nowadays one never hears of pirates unless a junk of the China Sea, or an Arab felucca, loots some small coast village or other. But in these days, between swift steamships and people who Avill not tolerate any interference with commerce, piracy would be a very poor business. About two hundred years ago, how- ever, pirate vessels numbering thousands roved the high seas. Many of them were the finest and swiftest ships afloat, and as a rule they were about as well armed as a man-o'-war of that period. There may have been a few tender-hearted fellows, who, like the '' Pirates of Penzance," never touched a 72 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE ship that had an orphan aboard, but in the main they were about the worst cutthroats and desperadoes in existence. Rather strangely, too, many of the masters of these vessels were men of good social position and education, but they had "gone wrong." In some instances the pirate captain was a well-behaved, repu- table citizen at home, who was careful to talk but little about his sea business, which he carried on in the name of some one else. Some were good men who had com- mitted political misdeeds for which their lives were forfeited; still others were just plain, all-around bad men whose necks were fit for nothing but the hang- man's noose. Just after the Spanish conquest, much of the piracy of the Kew World centered about the West Indies. At that time the Spanish were the bullies of the West India seas and they were in the habit of guessing that a foreign vessel was engaged in illegal traffic, and de- stroying it without asking any questions. So the for- eign vessels used to go heavily armed, and in case of attack would help themselves to the cargo and gold the Spaniard carried, if the latter was worsted in the fight. In the course of tune it was considered quite the proper thing to loot and scuttle a Spanish vessel, and many pirates touched none but Spanish ships. Just about this time, too, England was imposing some very unpopular laws on her colonies. She would A KING, A C0U:NT, AND A PIRATE 73 not let the colonies buy goods of any but English mer- chants, nor could colonists sell to any country but Eng- land unless the goods were of a kind not wanted in that country. As a consequence there Avas a great deal of illegal trading or " smuggling." Now the pirates of the West India seas, when they were not too busy scuttling Spanish merchantmen, put two and two together in a way that made a very desira- ble and convenient four. They needed provisions, med- icine, clothing, and many other things which it would not be safe to ask for in an English or a Spanish port; they likewise had a great deal of merchandise to sell which they were quite anxious to dispose of at bargain- counter prices. What more natural than that they slip into Kew York Bay, the Sound, or some other con- venient place along the coast and attend to these matters! If a merchant bought goods at less than one-quarter of the pirice charged by the English mer- chant, he was not given to asking many questions about the transaction; moreover, the seller of the goods was not in the habit of telling ev^ery thing he knew, for fear that he might tell more than he knew — or at least more than was good for him. Thus the pirates prospered for many years, earning a very comfortable living at smuggling, when they were not looting Spanish ships. Many a colonist was drawn into the business, and more than one high officer 74 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE stood in with sea-robbers and smugglers, secretly pro- tecting them in the illicit business. Finally the oily-tongued Governor Fletcher per- suaded King William III. to fit out a vessel to put a stop to the growing piracy. The vessel, named the Adventure, was procured jointly by the king, the Earl of Bellomont and Fletcher. William Ividd, a well-to-do sailor and merchant of good family, was made master of the ship. Kidd was to cap- ture every pirate vessel he might overhaul, and for his pay he was to have one-tenth of all that he captured. Such a scheme nowadays would be considered but little better than piracy it- self, but at that time it was thought to be perfectly lawful and proper. But somehow or other, Kidd was not very successful at running down pirate vessels, and his one-tenth of the plunder did not pay the expenses of his ship. He there- fore sailed for the island of Madagascar, which at that time was a famous resort for pirates. He found noth- ing there, and soon left that part of the coast to cruise KING WILLIAM III. A KING, A COUNT, AND A PIRATE 75 in the iDdiau Ocean. By this time his money and pro- v^isions were about gone, and the crew had become very ugly. Ividd was of course expected to devote his attention chiefly to the capture of pirates; he was permitted by the rules of war, however, to seize French vessels. But days and A^eeks passed by and neither pirates nor Frenchmen appeared. Finally a rich Turkish ship came in sight and Kidd's crew, in a state of despair, re- solved to capture it. At first Kidd refused to permit such an act, and in an altercation with his chief gun- ner, William Moore, he struck the latter a hard blow with a bucket, mortally wounding him. They cap- tured the Turk, however, and so Kidd himself became a pirate. It is not likely that King William would have made much ado over a Turkish ship or two, but by this time Kidd had fallen from grace to the extent that, after looting the Turkish vessel, he fought and captured about everything he sighted. Unfortunately one of his captures, the Qued ah Merchant, had an English captain, and the latter, boiling over with rage, went to London to lodge a complaint. At that time there Avere two political parties in England, the Tories and the Whigs. The men who fitted out Kidd's vessel were Whigs, and so the Tories raised a tremendous hue and cry, even accusing the king of piracy. 76 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE In the meantime Kidd burned his own ship, which was nearly worthless, put his treasure aboard the Que- dah Merchant and sailed for Madagascar. lie sold his cargo and returned to the West Indies, more than half a million dollars richer. There he heard that the king had made him an outlaw, so he took Avdiat gold he had in a small vessel and made for Long Island Sound. At Oyster Bay he engaged a lawyer, and at Gardiners Island he is said to have buried his treasure. He sent the lawyer to the Earl of I>ellomont, Avho had just been made governor of Massachusetts, in order to find whether or not he would be safe if he visited Boston. No one knows what reply Gk)vernor Bellomont returned, but Kidd must have thought that he would be safe, for he immediately went to Boston, and Avhile there made no effort to conceal himself. He even called upon Governor Bellomont and made Lady Bellomont a present of some beauti- ful je'vvels. Within a few weeks, however, an order for his arrest came from England. He was seized, sent to England, and tried — not for piracy, but for the murder of Moore. After the sentence he was im- mediately hanged. That Kidd had turned pirate there is no doubt, but as his trial on this charo;e would have brouci^ht the king as well as the Earl of Bellomont into an unpleas- HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE 77 ant situation, lie was tried for the killing of Moore in- stead. Doubtless he deserved severe punishment, but the act of putting him to death was a case of politics and not one of justice. XIV. HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE In November, 1074, Xew York began a century of English rule. The Duke of York did not forget tliat he had a colony in the New World, and Sir Edmund Andros, his right-hand man, was very careful that the people should not forget it. Indeed, Andros seemed to think that it was his chief duty to strut around in his uniform and make the people constantly aware that he was His Majesty's royal representative, and that not to be al- ways thinking of the great York was nigh to treason. That Andros was an honest, well- mean in o^ man of sir edmund andros. 78 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE irreproachable character no one will deny. In his 3^outh, however, he was a badlj-spoiled boy and when he had grown to manhood he became a pompous, fussy individual, who might always be counted upon to irri- tate the people with Avhom he came in contact and to keep himself in hot water. During the ten years of his stay he was never out of difficulty. He was con- stantly meddling with affairs in Connecticut, or in XcAV Jersey, and as often getting the worst of it. He afterwards tried to interfere with matters in Massachusetts and was promptly put into prison. Finally he was made royal gov- ernor of Virginia; there, to the surprise of every one, he made a most excellent magistrate. One of the very best governors was Thomas Dongan. He not only iiad good common sense, but he was a statesman as well. He was the first governor to take the people into his confidence; so an assembly for bettering the interests of the colony was called, and the result was a ^'charter," or constitution. The assem- GOVERNOR THOMAS DONGAN. HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE 79 bly bad representatives from IS'ew York, Long Island, Albany, Staten Island, 'Esopus and Rensselaer wick.* There were also delegates from Marthas Vineyard and Pemaquid, the former a part of Massachusetts, the latter of Maine. When the Duke of York became James II., he tried to join all the colonies except Pennsylvania into one; but before he had succeeded he was driven from the throne of England (1688), and William of Orange was proclaimed king. Just before this, however, King James had removed Dongan and had made a rather weak man, Nicholson by name, governor of the colony. The people were much in doubt whether Nicholson should be considered governor or not, and things began to drift in a dangerous way ; for a time no one seemed to know what to do. But trying times almost always bring out the man of the hour, and the man was Jacob Leisler. It is true that Leisler had no right to take things into his own hands, but he did it nevertheless. He drove the French out of the Mohawk Yalley; he overtook and punished some of the marauders who burned Schenec- * The Assembly divided the colony into the following counties: Albany, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Suffolk, Kings, Queens, Rich- mond, New York, Westchester. The first four have been sub- divided. The parts of Kings and Queens not taken into New York City form Nassau County. Richmond and a part of Westchester have also been annexed to New York City. 80 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE tady; he fortified Kew York City at the site of Bat- tery Park, ami he governed 'for two years about as wisely as Dongan had done. lie also called a congress of the colonies to arrange an attack on Canada daring the French and Indian War then going on. When William of Orange appointed Slough ter as governor, the latter did not go to Xew York at once, but sent some troops under Captain Ingoldsby to pre- cede him. Ingoldsby, as lieutenant governor, de- manded the control of the colony and possession of the fort at Battery Park. Leisler unwisely refused and held it against the guns of the fleet until the arrival of Sloughter. When Sloughter reached N^ew York, Leisler imme- diately turned over the command of the colony to him; he was, of course, put under arrest and tried on a charge of treason. At first it was thought that he would receive a merely nominal sentence, but his ene- mies plotted against him so bitterly that he was sen- tenced to be hanged. Governor Sloughter at first re- fused to sanction so unjust a sentence, but Leisler's enemies were not to be baffled ; they plied the governor Avith liquor, and while in a drunken condition got him to sign the death warrant. So Leisler and his son- in-law, Milburn, were hanged. The place of execu- tion was near the east side of City Hall Park. Leisler certainly was tyrannical in his ways, and he HALF A CENTURY OF ENGLISH RULE 81 did many unwise things, but the circumstances of his death were only a little w^ay from murder. Before the end of the century, however, his family received tardy justice; the Parliament of England restored the property that had been seized and honored the acts for which he was responsible. For years afterwards the colony was fairly w^ell ruled. There was one exception, Lord Coenbury, who was thoroughly bad. He was despotic in his actions and insolent to those w4th whom he came in contact. He was also dishonest in business and dis- gusting in private life. The Assembly had learned the art of managing bumptious magistrates, and having the funds of the colony under their control, they tied the governor's hands so that he was obliged to do a great many things that he did not want to do; still better, he could not do very much mis- chief. After a w^hile the gov- ernors — and there were about thirty of them, all told — remained in Eng- land. This was fortunate. CADWALLADER COLDEN. 82 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE for it left the lieutenant governor at the head of af- fairs; and during the last thirty-five years, for the greater part of the time, there were but two men, James de Lacey and Cadwallader Colden, at the head of affairs. The governors were content to draw their salaries and stay at home. One well- meaning but weak- willed man came over to revolutionize affairs, but he found himself checked at every turn, and so in despair and chagrin he hanged himself. The secret of the matter was the action of the As- sembly. This body was made up of men elected by the people, and when the charter was given to the colony there was a seemingly innocent paragraph which gave the Assembly the control of the funds. In order to conduct affairs, the governor must have money, and if the Assembly would not vote it for him, what could he do ? Usually he did about the best LEWIS MORRIS. WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST 83 thing that could be done; he remained in England, and the Assembly was quite willing to pay him his salary so long as he stayed there. The real governors of New York were Peter Schuy- ler, William Smith, Eobert Livingston, Sir AVilliam J ohnson and Lewis Morris. Each one was a self-made man and each became a great power because of his ability and integrity. Each was loyal to the king, but he did not forget the rights of the people. And that is the reason why New York was so well governed during the last half century of its existence as a col- ony of England. Doubtless there were other men quite as wise and just as shrewd, but these men were valued because of their honesty and uprightness of character. In their public life they were always on the side that was for the right. XV. WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST AND WILLIAM JOHNSON GAINED Yery few of the colonial governors bothered them- selves about the region between Albany and the "finger" lakes — and for a very good reason. The Iroquois Indians held it, and although the eastern part was rather vaguely claimed by the colony, yet neither the King of England nor the colony had any title to 84 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE the land either by treaty or by purchase from the Indians. In spite of this, many large tracts of land were given to settlers — sometimes to a single person, sometimes to a company — as "patents"; that is, the king or the West India Company, or perhaps the colonial gov- ernment, would convey the land to the settler for a nominal sum of money, leaving the buyer to bargain with the Indians for it. Even the manor lands along the Hudson River were usually acquired in this way. There was a very large tract of land along the upper part of the Susquehanna River which was clearly the property of the Cayuga and Onondaga Indians. It embraced the fertile valleys of the Chenango, Che- mung, Unadilla and Charlotte rivers, as well as the valley of Otsego Lake. A large part of the land east of the Unadilla was to become the property of the settlers. Now, the lower part of the Susquehanna had been purchased from the Indians by William Penn and was therefore a part of Pennsylvania. The upper part was a wonderfully fine region for furs and pelts, and the traders in Albany were aware that the trade which was making them rich Avas coming from that same region. One morning, late in 1083, the merchants of Albany were frightened nearly out of their wits; had a body WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST 85 of Mohawks on the warpath souucled their whoop it would not have made greater consternation. The cause of it all Avas the arrival of two agents of William Penn from Philadelphia, who innocently said that they were about to purchase these lands from the Indians. Penn had discovered the value of the lands, and in one winter had pur- chased there two hun- dred packs of beaver skins. The Albany mer- chants made a discovery, too, and it took them about three minutes in Avhich to make it. They discovered that if Penn got the upper Susque- hanna, their trade would be gone. Governor Dongan at once went to Albany, got into communication with the Cayuga and Onondaga sachems, and in three weeks had purchased the lands in question. It might not be well to inquire into the transaction too closely, but at all events the title was held s^ood. The Indians them- selves afterwards claimed that they had given only tlie use of the lands and not the title to them, and doubt- (From the Statue by J. Q. A. Ward in Central Park, New York City.) THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE less they were honest in their claim, for the early set- tlers were not always as upright as they were shrewd in their transactions with the Indians. Two men were bitterly disappointed. Governor Howard of Yir- ginia went to Al- bany to protest against the sale, but the Indian sachems would not listen to him. William Penn was also very angry and, in revenge, plotted against Governor Dongan until King James deprived the latter of his office. In re- taliation, William of Orange, who succeeded James II., removed Penn from the governor- ship of Pennsylvania. But the purchase had been made, and the land obtained extended nearly as far south as the town of Wyaliising, Pennsylvania; the latter colony, therefore, profited by the bargain in time. SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. WHAT WILLIAM PENN LOST 87 There was a large area in the Mohawk Yalle}^, how- ever, that belonged to the Mohawks, which was not included in the colony and did not belong to it for more than sixty-five years. It finally came into the possession of the settlers through Sir William Johnson. Sir William came to _ Xew York in 1738. He quickly learned the In- dian languages, and be- gan trading with the Indians on his own ac- count. Being a very shrewd young man, he conformed to Indian customs, and as he was honest in his trading with the Indians, he be- came very much liked by them. In time he mar- ried a sister of Joseph Brant, the Mohawk war chief. In time, too, he bought, large tracts of land and, like many other men, the more he had the more he wanted. There is a story"^ that once when King Hendrick, the head sachem of the Mohawks, was visiting Sir * The same story is told of several otlier peoi)le, covering: a period of fifty years. It may or may not be true of Sir William Johnson. KINC 88 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE William, he spied a coat richly embroidered with gold lace. A day or two afterward he called upon him and said, ''Brother, I dreamed you gave me your coat of gold. ' ' Now, among the Iroquois, a dream was an inspiration from the Great Spirit. The hint was not lost upon Sir William, and without a moment's hes- itation he gave King Hendrick the coat; about the same time, too, he did a lot of thinking. A few days later, when King Hendrick was again Johnson's guest, Sir William said, ''Brother, I dreamed you gave me all the land between the East and the West Canada Creek." It took all the stoicism of a great and wise sachem to be calm at such an audacious demand, but without showing his feelings. Kino: Hendrick told Sir William to take the land. "But," he said, "Brother, we will quit dreaming." Sir William was too upright a man to take such an advantage, and he therefore made the Mohawks a present of about twelve thousand dollars.* * This has also been denied, but in a letter, written in 1764, Sir William says: "Their [the Mohawks] friendship induced them at different periods to give me deeds of several large tracts, signed in public meetings of the whole, for which, as they always expect a return, I at times paid them large sums, more than they received from many strangers." THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE 89 XVI. THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE The Indians of the Iroquoian tribes had probably reached a higher stage of enlightenment than any other Korth American Indians except the Aztecs and the Toltecs, whom Cortez found in Mexico. These In- dians had almost reached civilization. They lived in "pueblos," — a name given to large tenements of cut stone or unburned brick.- Some of the pueblos were square in shape; others were half circles. In about every instance they consisted of rooms ranged in tiers, the highest on the outside. Many of these pueblos were large enough to hold two or even three thousand people. Montezuma, the '' King," or war chief of the Aztecs, lived in rooms that were ornamented with gold, and the pueblo itself had well paved courtyards. The Indians of New York were not so near civiliza- tion; still they were far ahead of any of the tribes one finds in the west to-day. The latter, for the greater part, have no fixed place of living; their houses or wig- wams, in many instances, are made of skins stretched over poles, so that they can be quickly pulled to pieces and moved away. Other tribes live even more Avretch- edly ; their tepees or wickiups consist of a brush frame * Xowadays these bricks, eacli about the size of four conuuou bricks, are made of a sticky clav. They are sun-dried, not baketl. 90 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE stuffed with grass, and they are so poorly built that they offer but very little protection against the weather. The Senecas and some of the other tribes in New York lived in the famous long houses. Some of these were a hundred feet in length. The frame consisted of poles set in the ground, to which horizontal poles were fastened AN INDIAN LONG HOUSE. %^a^^- ^- with Vine or birch twigs. The roof was ■ usually pointed i like that of an ordinary cottage. Both the sides and the roof i were covered with strips of elm bark tied in place by twigs or by strips of twisted bark. A hall extended [ clear through the house from end to end, and on each ; side there were the compartments or rooms in which the families lived. The rooms were not untidy, and they were kept warm in winter by fires built in the hallway — one for every four families. Bunks fastened ; to the wall in tiers of two or three answered for beds. I Long strings of maize braided together by their husks dangled from the rafters, while piles of dried squash : and beans were stored away in convenient places. '■■ All of these food stuffs were grown and gathered by j THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE 91 the women ; indeed the latter did all Avork of that sort. The men scorned to do anything except hunt for game, or go on the warpath. Stores of smoked meat, usually bear-meat or venison, were laid in for winter use; but the food kept in a long house was the property of all the families. The reason for common ownership was the fact that all the families in a long house usually were related to one another. There was but one meal cooked each day. One of the elder women had the cooking in charge, and she divided the food among the families. The only cradle in which the baby ever slept was a shoe-shaped, fur-lined case into which its little body just fitted, and this swung at the mother's back. AVhen the child grew older, if a boy, he belonged — not to the parents, but to the whole clan. A village usually had several long houses, and the people of one or more villages formed a clan. In each SYMBOLS OF THE CLANS THE TRIBES OF THE WOLF, BEAR AND TURTLE. of the Iroquoian tribes in New York there was a Wolf, a Bear and a Turtle clan ; and in later times there were others— sometimes eight or ten in all, and always named after animals. 92 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Each clan had one or more officers called sachems, who were elected by both the men and the women; for in every council the women had as much to say as the men. There was also a head sachem of each tribe. The sachems were not war chiefs; they were much more like village trustees or justices of the peace. The Avar chiefs were also chosen by the people, and in addi- tion to the head war chief of the tribe, or military com- mander, there were at times a great many under chiefs — one for about every fifty or more warriors. The laws by which they governed themselves have never been well understood by white men. The tribes and clans themselves demanded strict obedience, how- ever, and severe punishment was visited on any one so unfortunate as to break the laws. Some of the laws were made by the clans and the tribes, but in other instances they were made in the Great Council, when sachems from all the tribes met to talk over the affairs of the nation. There was a President of the Council, and the government in many respects was like that of any modern republic. It was a very easy route from the Mohawk Yalley across to the Susquehanna, and the trails across the divide to Cherry Yalley and Unadilla Yalley were worn deep long before the first white man came to the New World. Indeed, the railways leading south from central New York have been built along those THE IROQUOIS PEOPLE 98 same trails. The present road from Sydney to Unadilla was made by widening the old trail. In one or two places the trails are said still to be seen. So as the Iroquoian clans and tribes grew in num- ber, the Indians pushed southward through these val- leys into the fertile lands of the Susquehanna,* or "river From an old print. THE INDIAN VILLAGE ON MANHATTAN ISLAND. of long reaches." In time there were many villages along not only the river valleys leading into the Sus- quehanna, but all along the valley of that river itself. Fortunately many of the old Indian names — Unadilla, Oswego, Tioga, Towanda, Chemung, Oneonta, Che- * The name "Susquehanna" is not an Iroquois word ; the name of the river was " Gawanowanana," or river of the great islands. It is more than likely that Delawares (of the Algonquian family) gave it the name it now bears, they having been driven from the valley by Iroquoian peoples. 94 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE nango— are still retained to designate the modern town, and these are mixed with names that could have come nowhere except from England. There was a large village on the present site of Coop- erstown that had been there for more than one hundred years before the settlement by the whites was begun. At the mouth of Schenevus Creek there was another, known to have been built as the frontier of the Mo- hawks. At both places there are old burying grounds. By far the most important village, however, was Ogh- waga, now Onaquaga, about five miles from the town of Windsor. It was a great trading-place where the Delawares from the south met friendly Mohawk In- dians from the north. After a while Dutch traders from Fort Orange and Schenectady began going there, and then the missionary followed. So in 1750 there were trading-posts, a castle^ or fort, a church, a school and several hundred people. The Indians of these villages seemed to have been peaceable and thrifty. They encouraged trade with the whites, probably from a desire to get firearms. They cultivated large crops of maize, beans, and squash ; what is still more surprising, they had an abundance of apple orchards and vineyards. Less is known about the villages of the Indians in the Mohawk Yalley, but * In most instances tlie word "castle," as a part of a place name, signifies that the place was an Indian village guarded by a fort. THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 95 all that has been learned shows that the Iroquois were gradually reaching a condition of civilization. The coming of the white man ended their upward progress. In contact with him they could not reach further in their own civdization, nor could they adapt themselves to his. They could learn his vices, how- ever, and this they did only too well. And this in the long run was their undoing. There may be, and prob- ably are, nearly as many Iroquois as were living two hundred and fifty years ago, but their power and their wonderful organization is gone forever. XVII. THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY One who sees the Indians on the reservations to-day would be apt to get very wrong ideas of the Red Men,* as they are sometimes called, whom the early settlers of New York and New England found. The Indians one finds on the reservations have long since lost the spirit that used to make them admired, even when feared and hated. We almost alwa3^s call them sav- ages, and indeed they were savage and bloodthirsty to their enemies, but the Indians of New York and New * They were called Red Men for two reasons. The color of the skin in most families inclines to copper-brown; this was heightened by the free use of red paint with which they ornamented their faces. 96 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE England were learning the art and the benefits of or- ganized government when tlie wliite men came to the New World. Along the Hudson Eiver, below Albany, were the Mohegans."^ They belonged to the Algonquian fam- ily and were close of kin to the Delaware tribes. The Mohegans were not friendly with the Indians to the northward and had but little to do with them. There were many Mohegans in Long Island and also in Connecticut, where they were called Pequods. Many of the Moheo^ans of New York moved to Connecticut and but very few of them escaped after the Pequod war. Most of the Indians whom the earlier settlers found in the state belonged to the Iroquoian famih^ Long before the white man came to America, tribes of this family had left their former home somewhere in the west and pushed eastward. Some followed the St. Lawrence River; some settled in the southern states, about North Carolina, Avhere they were called Chero- kees ; many of the former finally reached the central part of New York. There were the Onondagas in the * " Mohegan " and " Mohawk" are probably different forms of the same word, which means "wolf." The Indians did not call them- selves by these names, nor were the tribes related to each other. Most likely they bore names so similar because each tribe belonged to the wolf clan of their respective families. In Canada the Mohawks were called " Loups," a French word also meaning " wolf." THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 97 region of Avhich Syracuse is now the center, and the Mohawks in the valley which still bears their name; there were also the Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Eries, each in the neighborhood of the lake that has been named for them. There were also the tribes called the St. Eegis, now in the northern part of the state, and the Susquehannocks, or Conestogas in the basin of the Susquehanna River. When the Iroquoian tribes first migrated eastward, those who followed the St. Lawrence Yalley found a very stubborn foe in the Algonquian Indians who were there before them. Indeed, most of them who were not killed in the constant wars had become so reduced in numbers that they were glad to leave; so they crossed Lake Ontario and made a settlement at the mouth of the Oswego River. There were then only three tribes— the Senecas, Onondagas, and Mohawks. From this time on they had pretty nearly everything their own way. At first they found a few straggling tribes of other Indians, but in a short time there were none left. They increased rapidly in numbers and strength, and in time two new tribes, the Oneidas and Cayugas, were formed, so they occupied all of the central part of the State— the great level highway from Albany to Rochester and beyond. Of all the Iroquoian tribes, the Mohawks were the fiercest. They kept up such relentless w^ar upon the 98 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 99 Indians of the Adirondack Mountains that in time those who were not killed fled for safety to the St. Lawrence Valley . They drove the Mohegans into Connecticut, or else to the vicinity of Kew York Bay. The very siglit of a Mohawk would cause a Mohegan, or even a number of them, to flee in terror. The latter never for a moment thought of fighting a Mohawk. Half a century, perhaps, before the first voyage of Columbus, the Iroquoian tribes, listening, as Mr. Long- fellow tells us, to the voice of the sky-god Hiawatha,* formed themselves into a confederacy or brotherhood. The plan could not have been better. The country about them abounded with game, and from it open valleys led north, south, east and west. Indeed, they were merely taking advantage of what in later years made this region one of the most important highways of traffic in the world. Thus Avas formed the Five Nations. Years after- wards the Tuscaroras, who found life among their Al- gonquian neighbors in the north pretty full of hard knocks, moved to New York and joined the confeder- acy; and so the latter became the Six Xations. It was a wonderful brotherhood and tliey prospered as a * The legend of Hiawatha belongs not to the Iroquois but to the Chippewas. If a Hiawatha ever existed, he was probably a great chief whose memory was greatly beloved. The advice given by the sky-god was most wise, but it was never spoken to the Iroquois. 100 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE result. The Eries and other kindred tribes refused to join, and because of their refusal they were either killed or driven out of the country. When the Dutch built their trading-posts in and about Albany, they had an eye to the fur trade that was to fol- low ; a million or more pelts were needed every year, to be made into wraps, coats, caps and muffs, and this part of America was the chief source from which Europeans o-ot their furs. Xow the Indians were the very best of hunters and trappers, and so the Dutch Com- pany furnished them Avith traps, muskets, and pow- der. They also paid for the skins with ])lankets, tobacco, trinkets, jewelry, and sometimes witli li(jUor. Thus the Six Nations grew in power until it seemed as though they were to have no rivals among Red Men. A CHIEK OF T]IE SIX NATION.^ THE INDIANS AND THE IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY 101 Then their career received a hard blow. The French began to build their forts all along the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes in order to hold ]^ew France against the English. The Indians resented the intru- sion upon their lands, but they were no match for the French. Moreover, the French made friends with the Algonquian tribes, v/ho were the mortal foes of the Six Nations. So finally the Six Katiofis cast their lot with the English. At the time of the War of the Eevolution most of them remained loyal to the English, for they looked upon their treaties with the king as something sacred. But because of their loyalty they incurred the hatred of the colonists. And when peace was declared the king forgot all about them; their names were not even written in the treaty. The}" had sacrificed everything that was dear to them in order to be faithful to an unwritten promise, and this was their reward. A few years afterwards Joseph Brant, a famous chief, persuaded the king to grant the Six Nations lands near Montreal, and thus many of them moved to Canada, where their descendants are living. Wash- ington also urged the people of New York not to molest those who remained. A large tract of land was given to them, but it was purchased from them only a few years afterward. About five thousand 102 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE of their descendants are living on reservations* in the state. XVIII. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE While the English were making settlements along the middle Atlantic coast of ISTorth America, the Span- ish and the French were both planting trading-posts here and there in their own possessions. The Span- ish claimed Florida and Mexico, and for a long time thej held the territory in which they had established their settlements, but they made no material progress. The French had built trading posts on the St. Law- rence and had also made a stockade. Fort St. Louis, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. They gradually ex- tended their trading-posts and forts along the Great Lakes, and then down the Mississippi River to its mouth. Finally they concluded to organize the whole domain into a great empire. That part of the conti- nent drained by the Mississippi River was called * The reservations are as follows: Tuscarora, in Niagara county; Cattaragus, in Erie and adjoining counties ; Tonawanda, in Niagara and adjoining counties ; Allegany, in Cattaragus county; Onandaga, in Onandaga county ; St. Regis, in Franklin county; and Shinnecock, on Long Island. Most of the Indians are Iroquois, but their tribtil organization is about gone. ]\Iritish lines in safety. But one of his captors, John Paulding, AA^ore a Hessian soldier's jacket, and Andre, deceived by this fact, declared frankly that he Avas a British officer on an important mission. Then he learned to his dis- may that his captors Avere Americans. He Avas imme- diately searched, and the papers that Avere found in his stockings made it apparent that he Avas a spy. He Avas at once sent to tlie American outpost at North Castle. The commander of this post Avas about to send him to Arnold, for the hitter's treason had not then been discovered. As a matter of fact, the letter concerning THE MAN WHO BETRAYED HIS COUNTRY 153 him was sent to Arnold, and to this circumstance Arnold owed his life. By it he learned that his treason had been discovered. He mounted his horse, rode to a barge not far away, and per- suaded the oarsmen to take him to the Vulture, a few miles down the river. The vessel with the name of ill omen carried him to the British lines in Xew York. West Point, however, Avas saved through Andre's mistake. The rest of the sad story is quickly told. Andre was tried, con- victed, and hanged as ™e monumexxt to andke at TAina- TOWN. a spy. It was the fate of war. Strong efforts were made to exchange Andre for Arnold, but neither Washington nor Clinton would listen to such a proposition. About forty years afterwai'd (1821) Andre's remains were taken from their place of burial and placed in Westminster Abbey. Marking the Place of his Capture. 154 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Arnold remained in the British service until the end of the war. British officers refused to serve with him, however, and he carried on a bushwhacking campaign with irregular troops. In London he was publicly snubbed and derided; he finally went to ISlew Bruns- wick, where he resided for many ^^ears, shunned and hated by all. He died in London in 1801. That Arnold was most shamefully and outrageously treated by the clique of Philadelphians, and that he suffered at the hands of the Congress, no one will deny. He had good right to vent his wrath on them, but this fact cannot be made to excuse the betrayal of his com- rades and his friends. There was one other officer who suffered quite as much from the malignity of that same corrupt ring, and that was none other than General Washington. But Washington did not betray his country to get revenge for his grievances. XXVIII. LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY AFTER THE REVOLUTION In the large cities of Europe, many of them more than a thousand years old, a period of one hundred years does not seem a very long time, and the changes that take place are so few that they do not cause very much alteration. Indeed, in many cities there are LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY 15/ buildings begun more than a hundred years ago that are still unfinished. In a young city like New York, however, a hundred years makes a wonderful difference, and in that time pretty nearly all of New York has been rebuilt, while the business part has been torn down and rebuilt several times. From V(d<; lit bit's Man mil. OLD CANAL STREET AND BROADWAY. Less than one hundred years ago " up-town " in New York City meant the vicinity of Bleecker street. Canal street was a sluggish, open sewer, draining the marshes near by; the Bowery was the chief business street; and cattle pastured along Boston road anywhere above the present site of Fourteenth street. There Avere then but few buildings along the Hudson, and nearly all the ships were tied up at the docks along East River, near the Battery. The tea gardens at which the people 156 THE MAKING OP THE EMPIEE STATE I ^ ^J: used to congregate were not far away, and fashionable people used to spend their evenings and Sunday after- noons sipping tea or drinking liquor. l^evertheless, there were many church-goers among the people. Governor Stuyvesant gave one hundred dollars a year for the support of the church in which Dominie Megapolensis preached, and his wife, Judith, settled the same amount on the Dutch R e - formed Church, which stood where Saint Mark's Churcli now stands. Xot long after the English began coming to Xew York the parish that is now Trinity was organized, and a church has stood on the present site for about two hundred and fifty years. Just before. the War of the Revolution, more than a hundred armed men marched up the aisle of the church and persuaded the minister to forego praying for King George. St. Paul's, however, was the real Tory church, and was considered rather more exclusive and aristocratic than CONTOIT's new YORK TEA GARDEN, 1828. LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY 157 Trinity. Washington's inaugural address was de- livered frojn this church. For many years there was a public market, or -^Strand," at the head of AVhitehall Street that once had been a parade ground in front of the old fort that is now the Battery. In 1T32 a considerable part of this ground was leased to John Chambers, Freder- ick Philipse and John Koosevelt for a bowling green. The annual rental was one peppercorn ! It is still Bowling Green, and a great '^skyscraper" now casts its shadow npon the spot where the leaden statue of King George stood. The cow ]mth that once led from the market-place to the common pasture has become Pearl Street. In Kevolutionary times a tavern stood at the corner of Broad and Pearl streets, where eatables (and much that was drinkable) were dispensed by one Sam Fraunces.''^ The building still exists. Kearby was the earthwork of sod, surmounted by a palisade of heavy, pointed sticks ; it was then the wall that enclosed the parade ground ; it is now Wall Street. Even in 1800 there were very few paved streets, and it is needless to say there was no street-cleaning depart- ment. Every householder and every owner of a vacant lot Avas required to keep the street before his property well cleaned at least twice a week, and was also re- * See page 130. 158 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE quired to have the sweepings and the rubbish from his premises piled up to be carted away. In winter, how- ever, the only street cleaners were the hogs that were turned loose in the city for that purpose. There was no gas and no electricity with which to light the streets; in the thickly settled part, oil lamps fixed to posts were the only means of lighting. These were trimmed and lighted by the night watchmen. There was no fire department, but every householder was required to keep from one to four fire buckets on his premises. At any alarm of fire these were set out on the sidewalk and were taken by the first fireman who might come along. Sunday was rigorously kept in some ways and ridicu- lously in others. One could not go fishing on that day, but he could go to the tea gardens. He could get roaring drunk if he were afoot, but he was for- bidden to drive in his carriage on that day during the hours of church service, or after nine o'clock in the morning; he was not permitted to cross either river under any circumstances that day in a carriage, but he could go to Gravesend and carouse till Monday. A church congregation could require chains to be put across the street leading to the church during the time of services, and this frequently was done. There was a great deal of ''class distinction" in those days. The ''upper crust," or "four hundred," LIFE IX XEW YORK CITY 159 included the descendants of the Patroons, the owners of large estates and the rich merchants. The artisans, small shop-keepers and wage-earners, no matter how well-behaved or educated they might be, were con- sidered socially inferior and their rights were not al- ways respected. In a city to which so many were coming, housekeep- ing vv^as not always at first convenient or even possible. Very aristocratic people had apartments at a man- sion on the lower end of Broadway, where they were lodged and entertained for the sum of seven dollars per week. Elsewhere one might get board for from two to four dollars a week. House rent in the dwell- ing part of the city was sometimes as high as three hundred dollars a year, l)ut rarely more than half that sum. House leases were usuallv for one year, beginning with the first day of May. Consequently it was well- nigh impossible to find the means for removal, so many wished to move on that day. jS"ot infrequently there w^ould be several hundred families without an\' way of carrying their household goods. The latter were stored in the City Hall Square ; the people themselves were lodged in the city jails until they could move into their houses. Wages varied according to the times. Occasionally, after there had been an inflow of people from Europe, 160 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE men and women were willing to work during the win- ter for their keeping. Field labor on the farms was rarely paid more than eight or ten dollars a month, be- cause of slave labor. In brisk times, carpenters, ma- sons, and blacksmiths received about one dollar and fifty cents for a day's labor of twelve or more hours. Hatters were paid as high as two dollars a day ; sailors got twenty-four dollars a month and their keeping, a sum greater than many receive at the present time. Servants received about eight dollars a month and their keeping if they were free, but in the earlier his- tory of the colony not many were free. There were really three kinds of unskilled labor in Kew York, and the conditions were the same in most of the southern colonies. There were convicts that were quietly put aboard the vessels sailing from European ports for New York. They shipped as sail- ors, but received no pay except their passage; and it was understood that the shipmaster would promptly discharge them at the end of the voyage. Each one, moreover, got a hint that he would better stay away ; and the most of them stayed. There were also many poor people, both men and women, who had been kid- napped and sold into service. Kidnapping was done only at times when there was a very great demand for laborers. Both the home and the colonial govern- ment permitted it secretly, although it was illegal. SLAVERY IX NEW YORK 161 There was a class of peo])le — men and women and children — known as "■ redem|)tioners/' For their j)as- sage money they agreed to be sold into service for a term of years, varying from one to seven. This ar- rangement was lawful and other colonies practised it as well. At the end of the term of service, if not in debt, the servant received his discharge or "'redemp- tion" papers. All told, the lot of the poor man in colonial times was not a pleasant one; it is certainly far better now, for the law knovrs no distinction be- tween the employer and the laborer. IS'owadays there is no leisure class; all are lal)orers — except the loafers. XXIX. SLAVERY IN NEW YORK AND HOW IT CAME TO AN END It seems to be a fact that the first African slaves brought to the colonies were landed in Virginia in 1619, and probably the next to follow were brought to New Amsterdam in 1625. During the entire colonial period, negro slavery was one of the institutions of New York as well as of the other colonies. For a long time the English government encouraged the capture of African negroes to be sold into slavery, and the traffic in slaves was a regular business in Boston, Salem, Medford, Providence, and other New 162 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE England towns, as well as in the southern colonies. The business was carried on in a roundabout man- ner. One fleet of vessels fetched molasses from Ja- maica; the molasses was made into rum,* and the rum was sent by other vessels, usually slavers, to be exchanged for negroes. The negroes were then sold in the colonies or perhaps in the West Indies. If the voyage was long or stormy, as many as one-third of the number perished on account of the horrible treatment they received. In New York, both before and after it became an English colony, the buying and selling of slaves was as common as the traffic in grain or furs. Able- bodied men and women brought from $150 to $250. They were emplo3^ed in about every kind of work, not only in the country on the farms and manors, but in the cities and towns as well. They Avere the cooks, household servants, gardeners, coachmen, drivers and all-around laborers. Marketmen employed them to peddle fruit and vegetables ; business men used them as messengers, and by them people were carried around the city in sedan chairs. One hundred years after the settlement of ^N'ew York, nearly one-quarter of the population was composed of African slaves. On the whole the slaves were well treated and they * Much of the rum was made at Medford, and the name still has a certain commercial use. SLAVERY IN NEW YORK 163 were far bet- ter off than in their former savage state in Africa. In very many in- stances they were allowed to buy their freedom, and not inf re- A FIRE ENGINE USED IN 1732. quently a slave Avas permitted to go around searching for some one to buy him. Now and then, however, a slave would run away, and in such a large slave popu- lation it is not surprising that there were desperate A FIRE ENGINE TTHED IN 1842. men and women. There was always more or less fear of outbreaks among them, and in New York City they 164 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE were forbidden to assemble in cro\Yds of more than four. They were not allowed to carry weapons of any kind, and after dark a slave could not go about the street without a lighted lantern. At times there was good cause for these fears. Once, in 1712, some negroes set fire to a building in an orchard, and the people who came to the fire were shot down until nine were killed and many others wounded. The punishment inflicted on the murderers was even more horrible than the plot; some were burned alive, and one poor wretch was torn limb from limb; in all twenty or more were put to death. About thirty years afterward (1741), there was an- other outbreak, not by the negroes, but against them. A number of fires had taken place and in consequence there was much alarm. By and by the people be- came so excited that they seemed to lose their wits. Up to this time there was nothing that led to belief that the negroes had anything to do with the fires. The city council, however, offered a reward of one hundred pounas and free pardon to anyone Avho would give evidence of a })lot. So a drunken Avoman, Mary Burton by name, told the councibnen that a white man, Hughson, and a slave owned by Colonel Philipse Avere planning to overthrow the government and nuike ITuolison kino-. The more the Burton woman Avas questioned the SLAVERY IN NEW YORK 165 more people she accused. Chief among them was a school teacher named Urij. In the course of a few days about twenty-five white people and more than one hundred and fifty negroes were cast into prison. Hughson, his wife, another woman, and Urij were promptlv hanged. Eighteen negroes were also hanged THE OLD JAIL IN NEW YORK CITY. Subsequently known as the Hall of Records. and fourteen were burned ab've. Then the Burton woman began to accuse others who could not possibly have had anything to do with a plot, and so the au- thorities discovered that they had been duped and that there was no plot at all. The dreadful affair had one good result: there grew up a sentiment in favor of the negroes. Within ten 166 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE years the rights of citizenship were given to free negroes, and shortly afterwards New York became foremost among the states that were trying to put a stop to the slave-trade. Much if not most of this healthful condition was brought about by the Society of Friends, or ''Quakers," as they are often called. The Methodists were also very active in the abolition of human slavery. The year 1785 is one that the people of New York may be proud of, for in that year an act was passed making every child born of slave parents free. In 1817 another was passed making every slave free who might be in the state, July 4, 1827. That was a blessed thing lor the few slaves remaining, and it was also a thrice blessed thing for New York. XXX. HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN— A COMIC-OPERA CAMPAIGN In 1803, when Napoleon sold to the United States the great territory of Louisiana, which comprises about one-third of our national domain, he declared ver}^ candidly that he was doing so, not so much to help the United States as to hurt England. In this trans- action Napoleon was wiser than he dreamed, for with this vast fertile area the United States was to become HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN' 167 not only a world power, but the world power. Napo- leon also brought about what jn^obably he had hoped for, namely — a war between France and England. The war, however, got the United States into a great deal of trouble, and after about nine years of distress we also declared war against England. While THE HEIGHTS OF QUK the Avar between England and France was in progress, the Parliament of the former country forbade our vessels carrying any goods whatever between French colonies and France, or Spanish colonies and Spain, or Dutch colonies and Holland; though we could carry produce from our own ports to anyone of these coun- tries. So the masters of American vessels took their 168 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE cargoes to a i)ort of the United States first, and then cleared for a foreign country, without even touching their cargoes. In order to prevent this, the English government began to station men-of-war and fast cruisers near the various ports of the United States, so as to capture the cargoes of the vessels going to foreign ports. Not only did the warships seize the cargoes, but they took American sailors and forced them into British service as sailors. Napoleon also ordered French men-of-war to capture any vessel whose master allowed her to be searched by a British ship. Then the United States refused to allow any of the vessels fiying its flag to trade either Avith France or England. By this act we succeeded in cutting off our national nose to spite our national face. But we got no relief whatever, and in 1812 we declared war against England. At first everything w^ent against us. To oar ever- lasting disgrace, General Hull, then a very feeble old man, surrendered Detroit to the British without a struofD^le. What made the matter still worse, in two or three instances the soldiers themselves Avould not fight. One such affair happened in New York. When the war was begun, Daniel D. Tompkins was governor of New York and, like many other gov- ernors who have filled the office, he was very desirous of having the office a second time. There was a bright HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN 169 young man, Stephen Van Ee'nsselaer by name, a de- scendant of the Patroon Kilian Van Rensselaer, whom the people favored for the office, much to the dislike of Governor Tomp- kins. The latter was a shreAvd poli- tician, however, and when N'ew York was called upon to furnish troops for the war. Governor Tompkins made Van Rensselaer thei r. commander. The wily governor knew that if Van Rens- selaer took the com- mand he could not very well make a canvass for the coveted office; if he refused the com- mand it would cer- tainly injure his chances of election. But Van Rensselaer was not the kind of man to shirk a duty, even though he was imposed upon. He ac- cepted the call and at once took command. When STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. 170 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE he reached jS'iagara, where his troops had been col- lected, he found less than one thousand men without arms or uniforms. Many were even without shoes and proper clothing. Yan Rensselaer at once set to work getting additional men and providing them with arms and clothing. He drilled them in all the duties re- quired of soldiers and, still better, used his own money for their long overdue pay. With the coming of fall General Yan Rensselaer had his troops in fair condition, and when they saw the American soldiers captured at Detroit, as pris- oners, only a stone's throw across Niagara River, they clamored to be led into battle. Just at that time, however, about 1,700 soldiers of the regular army un- der General Smyth came to the camp at Lewiston. When Smyth had looked over Yan Rensselaer's plans, and found that the latter intended to cross the river to Queenston, he said that Buffalo was a better place in which to stay, and taking his troops, he left Yan Rensselaer to fight the battle alone. Yan Rensselaer went on with his preparations, and early on the morning of the 11th of October, the first boat-load of troops pushed across the river. But as some one had treacherously hidden the oars of the other boats, this one was compelled to return. The next morning before daybreak three hundred men crossed and drove the British from the river front HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN 171 into Queenston. In this part of the battle Yan Rens- selaer was wounded four times before he would give up the command. In order to take Queenston, more troops were needed, but when the men on the American side of the river saw the dead and wounded bodies of their comrades brought back, all the spirit of fight oozed out of them. In vain did their officers tr}^ to force them into the boats, and in vain did the wounded Van Rensselaer implore them; they skulked along the shore and not a man of them would cross. In the meantime the British rallied, and forcing the New York militia back to the river bank captured the greater number. Among the prisoners were two men who afterwards became famous, Winfield Scott and John E. Wool. In the meantime, too, General Smyth came up with his regulars, but he refused to help the plucky men who had done the fighting. So, in disgust, as well as in bodily distress from his wounds, Yan Rensselaer threw up his command and JOHN E. W (K)L. 172 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE returned home to recover. The conceited Sm3^th then took command. He issued a very bombastic procla- mation partly deriding Van Rensselaer and partly boasting what a regular army officer could do. Then he sat down and waited. He waited until his own soldiers began to berate him, but finally he gave the orders to cross the river. Several boat-loads actually crossed on the following morning, but while some of the men were spiking the cannon, those in charge of the boats got frightened and returned, leaving their comrades to be captured. The troops who were waiting under arms begged Smyth to lead them across so that they might recap- ture their fellow-soldiers, but Smyth said that it would not be prudent at that time. In ugly mood, there- fore, the men returned to their quarters, Smyth hav- ing promised that an attack should be made on the morrow. When morning came, the boats and men were ready, but just as they were starting, a bugle signal was sounded from the British camp. There- upon Smyth ordered the attack given up. By this time the troops had become so angry that Smyth was jeered and taunted whenever he appeared in sight. One soldier told him that had some one spiked the bugle instead of the cannon they might have taken Queenston. Another order for crossing the river was given, and when the troops had been drawn HOW QUEENSTON WAS NOT TAKEN 173 up in readiness, Smyth's heart again failed and the troops were a third time sent back. By this time Smyth was in danger of being lynched by his regular army troops, and he camped with some of the despised militia for protection. One oificer tried to shoot hhn, and in Buffalo a militiaman fired at him on the street. By this time, too, all the troops were in a muti- nous condition. Many of the regular soldiers deserted; some of the militia, in despair, broke their inuskets and went home. Smyth issued another proclama- tion — a tirade in which he tried to blame the soldiers for his own cowardice — and then in disgrace he aban- doned his command and returned to Virginia. And so ended the campaign in Xew York. Smyth blamed the soldiers for all his troubles, and called them a lot of cowardly whelps. Certain it is that they had acted in a cowardly manner, but for this he alone was to blame. The troops needed training, but more than anything else they needed a good soldierly leader. With a good leader almost any sort of men will become soldiers; without a leader the best troops are of little worth. And that is a lesson we have had to learn in every war we have had. 174 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE XXXI. LIEUTENANT McDONOUGH AND THE BAT- TLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN In 1813, just after the reverses that began when General Hull surrendered Detroit, the flag of the United States disappeared from Lake Erie. Presi- dent Madison was urged to defend the frontier along the lakes and so he sent a shipbuilder and some house carpenters to build a sloop or two. Then he did a very wdse thing; he put the whole matter in the hands of a young man named Perry. That Perry was a most able man became at once apparent. Out of growing timber, in less than nine months, he built a fleet of nine small vessels, armed and manned them, ran down the British fleet and captured it. He sent the famous despatch " We have met the enemy and he is ours — two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." This victory opened the way to another invasion of Canada. Along the New York frontier the troops un- der General Dearborn crossed Lake Ontario and cap- tured the town of York; to their shame and disgrace they also burnt it. The British made an attack upon Sacketts Harbor, but were driven off. An expedition was sent to take Montreal, but the leaders were too badly frightened to get there. There was much fight- THE BATTLE OF LAKE CIIAMPLAIN 175 ing around Xiagara, in which Win field Scott took part. The British finally crossed the river and burned Buffalo. The campaigns on land, however, were more than offset by the work of the navy, and to the latter the country owed the successful result of the war. As in the French and Indian, and the Revolutionai'v F^'om the paiiitirig in me Xatloucd Vupitol. PERRY TRANSFERRING HIS FLAG AT THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. war, there was a considerable amount of fighting and skirmishing along the boundary between Canada and I^ew York. During the years of 1812-1813, troops had been concentrating about Lake Champlain, and in 1814, eleven thousand of the best troops of England were waitino^ at the lower end of the lake for a con- venient time to invade the lower lake and Hudson val- 176 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE leys. At that time the troops, it is said, were living on meat and other provisions smuggled across the border from 'New York and Yermont, all of which were sold to them by the people of those states. The British, too, had built a fleet of vessels to convey the army to the head of the lake. Against this force there were about fifteen hundred men at Plattsburg. So the British General Prevost gradually brought his army to Plattsburg intending to take the town at his leisure — then he stopped and waited. He discovered something that disturbed him, and that something was a fleet of four small ships and ten gunboats. All these months, while the British troopers had been growing stout on Yermont beef and New York bread and potatoes, a young lieutenant, Thomas McDonough by name, had been building some vessels which a member of the Parliament had called "" those fir-built things." Prevost well knew that if he at- tacked the forts at Plattsburg, McDonough would turn the guns of the ships upon his troops, which would then be between two fires; so he waited until the British fleet came. A few days later the fleet rounded Cumberland Head, the eastern shore of the bay in which Plattsburg is situated. There were tw^elve gunboats and four large ships, one of which, the Confance, her captain THE BATTLE OF LAKE CIIAMPLAIN 177 said, could sink the whole of McDonoiigh's fleet. The Confiance made at once for the Saratofja, McDon- ough^s flagship. The first broadside killed and wounded forty men. The next cut down one of the ship's masts, at the same time killing the chief gunner. The head From the painting by Cluqipel. Mcdonough's victory on lake champlain. of the unfortunate man struck McDonough such a hard blow that he fell to the deck stunned and sense- less. In a few minutes he had recovered, however, and was ready for action. He manned one of the guns himself, and for fif- teen minutes was his own chief gunner. By that time 178 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE the last gun on that side of the ship was disabled ; then he wore the ship about and used the guns on the other side, with such effect that the Conjiance^ after her masts had been torn away and one hundred and five shots had pierced her, surrendered. McDonough was then in o^ood fiohtino: mood and turned to the next largest ship, the Linnet. In twenty minutes her flag came down. The F'mch, another British ship, was dis- abled and captured after she had drifted ashore. The Chiibh^ next to the Confiance 1\\q largest of the fleet, was disabled by the Eagle, and surrendered after a shot from the Saratoga had made her helpless. Finally the surviving ships of the British fleet turned about and moved off. McDonough 's ships were all badly injured, the masts and rigging of most of them being shot into splinters. To follow the retreating British was therefore out of the question. On land there was but little fighting. General Pre- vost did not even make an attack on the forts. The defeat of the fleet, on which they so much depended, put an end to all his plans for invading the state. McDonough was promoted ; he received a medal from the Congress for his gallant fight; he received also a grant of ten thousand acres of land overlooking Cum- berland Bay. THE ERIE CANAL 179 XXXII. THE ERIE CANAL A big farm of level, fertile land is an excellent thing if one can find a market for the crops. But if a farmer cannot sell the crops that he grows, a large farm is no better than a small one, and not so very much better than none at all. 'Now this was the condition in which many New York farmers found themselves when peace had come upon the land. There were farmers in the western part of the state who had the very best land in the country for wheat growing. Moreover, it cost less than forty cents a bushel to grow the wheat, Avhich fetched one dollar and fifty cents a bushel at New York City. There w^as only one drawback to the business. The farmer got only fifty cents a bushel for his wheat and sometimes only forty cents; all the rest he must pay to have the wheat hauled to market. The merchants were just as badly off as the farm- ers. The goods for the western part of the state were sent to Albany by steamboat or perhaps by slow sailing vessels; thence they were hauled overland to the Mohawk River at Schenectady. There they were loaded into Schenectady boats or battoes, dragged u\) the Mohaw^k Eiver, and thence through a canal that connected Little Falls and Utica. 180 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIEE STATE At Utica the merchandise was again hauled over- land to Kome; thence battoes carried it along a shal- low canal to Wood Creek ; then it was floated down the creek through Oneida Lake, and down Seneca and Os- wego rivers to Lake Ontario. At Oswego sailing vessels took the goods to the head of the lake, and if the goods were for Pittsburg they must be again hauled overland to the Allegheny River. i %M.^_ \\ -'I'i '7.' -r:/y'' THE CANAL IN OLD BROAD STREET, NEW YORK CITY Now all this was not only very trying, it was very expensive. In these days one gives a package of mer- chandise to the express company in New York at six o'clock in the afternoon, and it is delivered in Buffalo by nine the next morning. But at that time it re- quired at least ten days for shipment and delivery. In the early part of the century just ended, no one THE ERIE CANAL 181 thought seriously about a railway; indeed but few people had ever heard of one. Every one knew about canals, however, for as early as 1812 there were sev- eral very short ones. Just after the close of the War of the Revolution there was a company formed for the making of a canal between Albany and Lake Ontario, but the plan was thought a trifle crazy and nothing came of it. In the course of a few years it was proposed to build a caual from Albany to Buffalo! — and no one thought the idea crazy at all. The reason was not hard to find; the people of Pennsylvania had waked up to the fact that the trade of the rapidly grow- ing West was worth a great deal, and they were ask- ing the Congress to build canals that should con- nect Chesapeake, or else Delaware, Bay with the Ohio River* in order to get that trade, ^ew York was greatly afraid of losing her share of this trade, and her leading men were also asking the Congress for help in making the canal between Albany and Lake Erie. Indeed, one historian has said: "Of all beg- gars, the sturdiest and most unblushing was the State of New York." But New York got not one cent! The Congress was willing, but the President was not, * Canals and portages were actually built for this purpose, but they were temporary affairs, and were not long in use. Tlie Chesa- peake and Ohio Canal, by way of the Potomac River through Cumber- land Gap, was never completed. 182 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE and he vetoed the bill which was to give both New York and Pennsylvania aid. This was in 1815. Four months after the refusal, the first shovelful of earth was turned at lionie, and work on the Erie Canal w^as pushed as hard as men and money could make it go. When the President refused to give the aid of the gov- i Klv STATE. The Keverse Shows the Crest of the State Aims. covered that there were many years' back rent due, and when they began to take steps to collect it, the proprietor of Livingston Manor endeavored also to collect the long unpaid rent due him. Now had there been only a small area of land in dispute, probably there would have been no war of the Ilelderbergers (so called from the Helderberg HOW THE HELDERBERGERS DECLARED WAR 191 hills west of Albany). But in this case almost all of Greene, Delaware, Albany, Rensselaer, and Columbia counties were involved. The trouble be- gan when the owners of the land refused to pay rent. When the owner of the manor could not cajole or frighten a farmer into paying the rent he would send the sheriff to emct or force him to leave the property. This succeeded in a few instances. Then the farmers began the plan of disguising themselves as Indians, and when a sheriff's officer came around to evict an owner he was apt to get a very hot reception. And so matters went on very badly for several years. In Columbia county one Dr. Boughton, disguised as a chief, ''Big Thunder," shot and wounded a deputy sheriff, for doing which he was sent to prison. In another county a deputy sheriff was set upon and murdered in open daylight. Governor Wright then ordered out the militia, and sent companies of soldiers into Schoharie and Delaware counties. But even this did not help matters any, for the farmers accomplished by cunning what they could not by force. They organized a political party called the ^'Anti-Renters," and that brought the question to a political issue. The Anti-Renters numbered about five thousand voters, and each political party was badly in need of just about that number of votes. Then Governor Wright did a very wise thing; he 192 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE had a suit brought before the court to determine whether or not the proprietor of Livingston Manor had a right to collect the rents. The court decided that the law was on the side of the proprietors. It there- fore looked as though the farmers were beaten; but they were not. Public opinion is always on the side of justice, and if the real facts of the case are known, an honest public is always on the right side. Although the farmers were worsted in the trial suit they were really victorious, for when the proprietors saw that the people of the state were against them, they at once sold the lands to the farmers on very easy terms. And thus the famous Anti-Rent and the Helder- berg War came to an end. XXXV. MAKING GOOD CITIZENS— THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK Just before the Spanish- American War, it is said that a gunner trained one of the heavy guns of a fort upon a target between six and seven miles away. His first shot fell a few feet short of the target; the second smashed it into splinters. When some one asked the young artilleryman how he became such a -wonderfully accurate marksman, he replied: " Oh, I suppose I learned it at school; for a teacher of whom THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK 193 I was very fond always insisted that we boys should be precise about everything we did." It is safe to say that the young man was quite right. Indeed the best lesson that one ever learns is learnino- to do things, not only well, but in the very best man- ner. And Avhere shall young people learn how to do things in the very best possible wa}^ if not at school? The great Empire State has learned this lesson, and so has every other state in the Union ; and at about half-past eight every day except Saturday and Sunday, sixteen millions of chil- dren are on their way to school. At nine o'clock they are in their seats, and until three or four o'clock in the afternoon they are learning how to do things well, and that is learning to become good citizens of the Republic. It is well-nigh three hundred years since Adam Roe- landson, then the solitary schoolmaster in all Kew York, eked out a rather scanty living b}^ digging graves, sweeping the church and training the choir, in addi- tion to his more unthankful task of teaching the three ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 194 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE K's. Perhaps he neglected some of the E,'s when duties in the churchyard were pressing, but certainly the dignity of the first pedagogical office was his. A hundred years later when New York was an English colony there were two or three grammar schools in Avhich Latin, Greek and geometry were taught. About this time, too, there began to be a great many complaints. Many of the well-to-do people were loud in their demands that a college should be established. There was a very vigorous institution at Princeton, I^ew Jersey, and another, Yale College, in Connecticut. Quite a number of New York boys had been sent to these colleges, and when they came back there was trouble. The boys were full of ideas about popular government and '^ peoples' rights " — just as if the peo- ple had any rights when there was a king and an aristocracy to govern them ! So King's College was founded in 1754, and the founders took great care that none but good, sound royalist teachers should be employed, and that sub- mission to the king should be the watchword. Never- theless there were two boys who did a little thinking for themselves; these boys were Gouverneur Morris and Alexander Hamilton. And less than thirty years was to elapse before New York should be a sov^ereign state and King's College should become Columbia Col- lege. Hamilton and Morris were both heard from. THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK 195 The one became a statesman who largely shaped the policy of the Republic; the other, the financier who found the money to tide the country through the war of the Revolution. It was not until ]^ew York had been a state for nearly twenty years that the state itself began to pay for the education of its young people. In 1795, for the first time, the legislature gave a small sum of money; a few years later a permanent fund was set aside for the support of the schools; in 1813 the state itself deter- mined to take charge of the schools and a State Superinten- dent of Public In- struction was appointed. During his lifetime there was one man above all the others that stood as the champion of the boys and girls of New York. From the time that he GOVEliXOK DE WITT CLINTON. ^-^^"^^5-2-^ 196 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE became a public officer he was always appealing for free schools, for better schools, for well-educated teachers, and well- trained, broad-minded boys and girls. That man was Gov^ernor De Witt Clinton. For a great many years it was a question Avhether or not there should be schools provided by the state and free to all children. A wealthy tax-payer who had no children could not see why he should be re- quired to pay for the education of other peoples' chil- dren; and so only the patrons of a school paid their shares or "rate bills" for the support of the school. Under such conditions there could be but very few good schools; and the poorest schools were in places where good instruction was most needed.^ It was not until after the Civil War, in 1867, that free schools finally were provided. After that time there were no longer any troublesome rate bills. The war taught the people a lesson that they needed to learn — namely, that both men and ^vomen must be educated if they are to be good citizens. The war also taught the people that ignorant voters, no matter how honest they may be, can do just as much harm as though they were rascals bent on doing mischief. It was a costly lesson, but it was well learned. Every succeeding year since the schools became * A free-school law was enacted in 1849, but was repealed the next year. THE SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK 197 free, the people have been doing something or other to better them. Kormal schools have been provided for the training of young men and women who in turn are to train the pupils ; and a great many training schools and classes have been established for those whom the normal schools could not reach. High schools, colleges, and universities have been founded for the higher branches of learning ; and manual training schools have been established all over the state. And why? — because experience has taught that the best business investment which the country can undertake is the making of intelligent, law-abid- ing citizens. Fifty years ago the idea of compelling children to attend school would have been scouted. People would have said that it was going back to the time when New York was a Crown colony and existed only that the king might have something to govern. Nowadays the people would not have it any other way, for they have learned that the enemy most of all to be feared is ignorance. Fifty years ago if any one had proposed to carry pupils to school in carriages, or to provide them with car-fare, every one would have thought it a great joke. At the beginning of the twentieth century this is being done in nearly every county in the state. And it was a great thing when this plan was brought 198 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE about — not that it gave the pupils line drives, but because it gave them better schools. Before this plan was adopted there were a great many small districts that could not possibly support a good school; they could ill afford to have even a poor one. But in many instances it so happened that two adjoining districts could have one very good school for less than two poor ones would cost, provided that the children living at a distance were carried to school. And the plan proved to be a most wise one in almost every way. For training the young people of l^ew York to good citizenship it costs the state about thirty-live millions of dollars every year — and that is a great deal of money. If one Avere to take that amount in half dollars, loaded into twenty freight cars, and lay a line of coins touching one another all around the borders of the state there would be something like half a car load remaining. Does it pay to spend so much money as that for education ? Here is what a celebrated English general says of some American volunteer soldiers, who doffed their business suits to put on Uncle Sam's uniform to go into battle within two weeks thereafter. "It is not that American soldiers are braver, or that American rifles are better than those of European armies. But the American soldier is well educated ; he quickly sees THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 199 what is to be done and immediately takes it upon him- self to do it." If it pays to have good citizens, then it certainly pays to educate them, for education is the training that makes good citizens. XXXVI. HOW THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS OF THE STATE WERE FORMED After the Erie Canal had been finished and the cost of carrying a bushel of grain from Buffalo to New York City was only about one-third as much as before, the people thought that they could enjoy no greater prosperity. Nevertheless there was certain gossip that soon became a matter of general talk. A man named John Stevens, who lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, Avent before the Congress at Washington and said that he had a way by which he could move carriages by steam power on level rails at a speed of a mile in three minutes. Moreover, he claimed that the carriages could be made large enough so that twenty or thirty passengers could be seated in one of them. The Congress was too busy to trifle with such a dreamer and he was sent about his business. Stevens then went to the Council of the city of Philadelphia ; the Council laughed at him, too. The business men of Philadelphia, however, did not laugh, because they 200 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE were in a state of consternation. The Erie Canal, which meant success and prosperity to the people of New York, meant trouble and adversity to Philadel- phia. Stevens therefore got a cliarter for a railroad, because the business men forced it from the legislature of Pennsylvania, but the road was not built, inasmuch as no one would loan the money for it. This, was in the winter of 1822 and 1823. The talk about a railroad soon became a general topic of conv^ersation, and the legislature of New York feared that the old route from Philadel- phia to Harris- l)urg and Pitts- burg might get AN OLD STYLE RAILWAY TRAIN. |^ ^^ ^ ] , ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^^ the trade it had lost. So, in 1825, a charter was given for the Mohawk and Hudson Kailroad, between Al- bany and Schenectady. This was the first chartered railroad to be built in America, but a short section of the Baltimore and Ohio had been opened for traffic before the Mohawk and Hudson was finished. Work on the latter was rather slow and, indeed, about as much track and roadbed can now be built in a month as was then built in a year. For a wliile the cars and coaches on both roads were drawn by horses ; then the -is 'i3''.4^«i=< THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 201 Mohawk and Hudson, in order to get the better of its rival, the Baltimore and Ohio, ordered a steam-driven locomotive from the foundry at West Point. The locomotive, named the DeWitt Clinton, made its first- regular trip from Albany to Schenectady, August 9, 1831. The success of the steam railway was no longer a matter of doubt, and the people began to demand quicker and better means of getting about from one part of the state to another. They clamored for rail- roads — and they got them. In less than twenty years there were eleven lines in the central part of the state, not one of which was more than one hundred miles long. There were two between New York and Al- bany; the others formed links that connected Albany and Buffalo. In 1843 a passenger on a fast train left Albany at six o'clock in the morning and reached Buffalo, after changing several times from one train to another, at seven o'clock the next morning — twenty- five hours for a trip that noAV takes but little more than live hours ! In 1851 another important railway was built to the west and, rather strangely, it at first touched neither New York City nor Buffalo. This was the New York, Lake Erie and Western — now called the Erie Railroad. About twenty miles north of New York City, a short distance south of Nyack, a long pier was built out 202 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE from the west shore of Hudson Kiver, and this was the eastern end of the Erie Railroad — the site of the present village of Piermont. Tlie Avestern end of the road was at Dunkirk, on the shore of Lake Erie. In time, however, New York and Buffalo were made terminals of the road. While the farmers and coal miners in Pennsylvania were trying to find a means of getting their produce to market, a canal was built from Honesdale on the Dela- ware River to Kingston on the Hudson. It was called the Delaware and Hudson Canal. The makers of the canal, however, were shrewd enough to include in their charter the right to build a railway. This they did in very short order, and the road, afterward ex- tended up the Champlain Yalley to Montreal and southward from Albany into the coal mines of Penn- sylvania, has become a very important route. For a long time there was a great deal of trouble among the short railways that connected New York and Buffalo. None of them were good paying invest- ments, and some were bankrupt. By and by the right man came along. His name was Cornelius Yan- derbilt and he had been a very successful steamboat manager. He bouglit the various roads between New York and Albany and then combined them to make the New York and Hudson River Railroad. At the same time he combined the short roads in THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 208 central New York to form the New York Central Eailway. Finally the ' ' Commodore, ' ' as Yanderbilt was called, HORSESHOE BEND, NIAGARA FALLS. consolidated the two lines to make one of the greatest roads in the world, the New York Central and Hud- son Kiver Kailroad. This road now has more than eleven thousand miles of track and its trains reach 204 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE most of the large cities east of the Mississippi Eiver, and along the Great Lakes. Some of the shares of stock in the road that the old Commodore bouo-ht at three cents each are now worth more than four hun- dred dollars each. In time, other roads were built. The Eome, Water- town and Ogdensburg lay along the south shore of Lake Ontario from Magara Falls, its eastern end being a net- work of roads that reach almost every town and city in the northern part of the state; this road after- wards was made a part of the New York Central. Then the famous West Shore road was built from ]^ew York to Buffalo, and it, too, was joined to the Xew York Central. But because of the grain and meat coming from the great prairie farms of the west, and the coal from Pennsylvania, there was need of more railways, and so the Lehigh A^alley, the Lackawanna, and the JN'ew York, Ontario and Western roads were built. And even now it is almost impossible for these great rail- ways to carry the foodstuffs that they, in turn, must deliver to the big freighters to be transported across the ocean to the people in Europe. Only one of the great railways reaches Kew York City; the others must land their passengers and goods on the New Jersey side of the Hudson to be carried across in ferry boats. All this is very wasteful both THE GREAT RAILWAY SYSTEMS 205 of time and of money. So the railways ending at Jersey City determined upon a very bold thing, namely — to construct two great tunnels under the river in order to land their freight and passengers in New York instead .^. CITUVE IX THE L1.E\.\IED UAlLltOAD, NEW YOKK V\T\ . of in ]N"ew Jersey. One of these tunnels was finished in 1904; the other, the Pennsylvania tunnel, planned to cross both Hudson and East Rivers, and passing under New York and out at Brooklyn, was begun in that year. More than twenty years ago it was found that both the surface street railways and the elevated railway, or "L Koad" as it is called, could not move the great 206 THE MAKIXG OF THE EMPIRE STATE army of men and Avomen from their homes to their places of business and back again at night. Horse cars gave place to cars pulled by an underground cable, and these were supplanted b}' large and swift-moving CopijrhjIiJid hij A. Lo>Jki . THE RAPID TRANSIT SUBWAY, CITY HALL STATION, NEW YORK CITY. electric cars. Between 1890 and 1900 the various city railways were improved so that they could carry al- most three times as many passengers in the same length of time as previously. But because the number of passengers increased about threefold during that period, the trouble increased each succeeding year. A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX ON A RAFT 207 Then there came along another genius, McDonald, who did for Kew York City what Commodore Van- derbilt had done for the state. McDonakl built an underground railway, one branch going on the east side, and the other on the west side of the city. There Avere hundreds of miles of great sewer-pipes, water mains, gas mains, steam-pipes, and electric- wire conduits to be moved, but the work was done with very little disturbance of the business going on in the streets above. The "Rapid Transit Subway," as it is called, is one of the o^reatest feats of eno^ineerino- ever devised, and by means of it very nearly two million passengers may be carried every day of twenty- four hours. XXXVII. HOW A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX ON A RAFT SAVED NEW YORK CITY In 1861 the long-strained link in the relations be- tween Is"orthern and Southern states snapped, and the whole country faced a civil war. The Southern states wished to withdraw from the Union and establish a Confederacy; the ISTorthern states were determined that the Union of states should not be broken. During that terrible war of four years every state, :N"orth and South, put forth most tremendous efforts, 208 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE for on each side men knew that it was to be a strug- gle to the death for one side or the other. How they fought can best be judged by the fact that when peace was finally made, almost one million men lay in their graves, to be called only when the last trumpet shall summon both the quick and the dead. To that great struggle there went from the State of Kew York very nearly five hundred thousand brave men, many thou- sand of whom were never to return. At no time was any part of the state a battle ground between Union and Confederate troops; but during the month of March, 1862, it seemed that the destruction of New York City was very near at hand, and for several days, so far as human knowledge could foresee, the doom of the city was almost certain. At the beginning of the war, among the United States war vessels that fell into the hands of the Con- federates, was the wooden steamshij) Merrhnac, a 40-gun frigate. The torch was applied to her as she lay at her anchorage in IN'orfolk Navy Yard, and she burned to the water's edge and sank. A short time afterwards, however, it was found that her hull and engines were not injured, and she was raised and put in the dock. Then a very clever naval constructor in the Confederate service began his part of the work. On her berth-deck he built a bulwark in shape very much like a chicken coop, except that it sloped to a A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX ON A RAFT *2<)9 peak on all four sides instead of on two. This bul- wark, made of very heavy timbers, Avas two feet in thickness. A part of the timber was pitch pine, but the outer four inches were of the hardest oak that could be found. On the outside of the timber were two layers of rolled iron plates each two inches thick. The vessel thus rebuilt was named the Virgnua. When the Virginia was completed, she was thought to be the most formidable war vessel afloat. She was practically the first ironclad war vessel, and prob- ably the first armored ship to engage in battle. She could ram and sink any wooden vessel without fear of their guns; she .could leisurely pass any fort or earth- Avork on the coast of the United States, for the shot from their guns would harm her scarcely more than would so many pebbles. Before such a fighting terror Xcav York City was absolutely helpless. It happened, hoAvever, that sev- eral United States men-of-war were at Hampton Eoads, in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Before starting for the northern seaports, the Virginia turned aside to destroy these, and her doing this proved in the end her own undoing. It is true that she shot and battered the Cumlerlancl and the Congress lo pieces, but having done this her day of reckoning was at hand. Succor came from Kew York City, for the destruction of which the Virginia was built. 21U THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE For some years before the Civil AVar, there had been living in New York Citj a famous engineer named John Ericsson. Ericsson had designed an armored vessel, the chief feature of which was a revolving turret in which the guns were to be mounted. More- over, he had laid his plans before naval authorities, who had not only scoffed at his ideas but snubbed the author as well. But the need of an armored vessel had become very ur- gent, for it was well known in New York City and in Washing- ton what the Vir- g{?iia was to be, and where her lirst attack was likely to be made. So, because of the pleading of almost the whole city, the government signed a contract with Ericsson for the famous '^Yankee cheese-box on a raft" — a strange looking vessel with hardly anything but a turret and conning tower in sight, her hull being so low in the water that her deck was constantly awash by the waves. The government had so little confidence in Ericsson's JOHN ERICSSON. A YANKEE CHEESE-BOX OX A RAFT 211 plans that no nionej^ was to be paid for the vessel if she proved a failure. Nevertheless, this same vessel was destined to save New York City and to change the navies of the entire world as well. On the 25 th of October, 1861, the keel of the new vessel w^as laid in the shipyard at Greenpoint, Long- Island; and in just one hundred days afterward the vessel was launched. A great many naval officers said that such a crazy craft would never float ; only one man had full confidence in her, and he was her builder. Ericsson named the vessel the Monitor. The Monitor w^as very simply constructed. On her heavily-plated deck w^as the low turret containing two eleven-inch guns. With such an arrangement it was not necessary to turn the vessel in order to get a range with the guns; the turning of the turret would bring them into range in a verj^ few seconds. There Avas a short smokestack and a conning tower forward for the steersman. So low did the Monitor sit in the water that, a mile away, her turret was about the only thing visible. It was not until after the Virginia was about com- pleted and ready for her murderous work that the Monitor was ordered to Hampton Eoads. Even after she had started on the trip, so little was the confi- dence of the government in her ability for service, that a fast tug was sent to overtake her and call her 212 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE back to Xew York. It was a matter of sheer good fortune that the tug could not overhaul her. In the terrible voyage from New York Bay to Hampton Eoads, officers and crew were fighting for dear life to keep the Monitor afloat, and for one hundred and THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE VlUalSL 111-; MnMToi;. thirty hours they scarcely slept or ate. When the vessel reached Hampton Eoads, however, the chief task was still ahead of them, and hungry and drenched the men went to the guns. The Congress and tlie Cuml>erla7id\Yeve already at the bottom, half their men killed or drowned. In a few more hours the Minnesota, Boariohe, and St. Lawrence would have shared the same fate. On the morning A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY 213 of the 9th of March, Lieutenant John Worclen, the commander of the Monitor, received his orders to re- turn immediately to Xew York — and he put the same into his pocket. How the Monitor, scarcely one-quarter the size of her adversary, went into the fight, steamed round and round the Virginia, pounded her with eleven-inch shot, rammed her, and finally drove her in flight to Nor- folk, are facts well known to every reader of history. The Virginia had been mistress of the seas for twenty- four short hours; then the sceptre passed to the Mon- itor. And in less than twenty-five years the war ships of the entire world were made of steel instead of Avood. Ericsson's vessel was trulv a Monitor. XXXVIII. A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY— THE NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS It is a great misfortune that the foremost city of the American continent should ever have been con- trolled by an organized gang of thieves, rascals, and blacklegs, and that the great mass of law-abiding peo- ple should be for years at their mercy. Yet this has more than once happened; doubtless it has happened at some time or other to pretty nearly every large city in the world. 214 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Early in the '50's a man named Fernando Wood be- came a great political power in ^ew York City. Wood was an exceedingly able man, and as unscrupu- lous as he was brilliant. He organized political clubs all over the city, and at the head of each club was a trusted political servant upon whom Wood could rely to do his bidding. Wood had learned a secret that not all law-abiding people have yet learned, namely — that success in politics depends upon good organization. Wood was bold and lawless. At one time, while he was mayor of the city, he defied the authority of the state and it was necessary to call out the 7th regiment of state militia to teach him the much -needed lesson that the laws of the state apply to mayors as well as to private citizens. His mob of thugs slunk away be- fore the uniforms of the national guard, and he per- mitted himself to be arrested without further resist- ance. Because of his wonderful ability as a leader, however, he succeeded by the votes of his mob in get- ting himself elected mayor a second time, and he was in office when the Civil War began. Wood's first message to the common council showed the character of the man. He said that the union of the states was broken and proposed that New York City, with Long and Staten Islands, should form a free and independent city to be called " Tri-Insula. " The only answer to this act of disloyalty was the tramp A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY 215 of one hundred and twenty thousand men who in a very few months marched through Kew York City on their way to the front. The immediate effect of Wood's action was twofold. It created a belief that Xew York City was disloyal and therefore brought a great many disunionists to the city. It also encouraged the great mob of idle loafers to gather around the slums and plague spots of the city. Sowing the wind ma}^ be a very pleasant pastime, but reaping whirlwinds is quite another matter. Wood had planted and watered his crop well; he left the reaping of it to his successor, Mayor Opdyke. The great need for more troops had impelled the Congress of the United States to draft soldiers. That is, lists of the names of able-bodied men were made in the various states; the names were put into covered boxes, and officers appointed for the purpose drew the required number of names. The men whose names were thus drawn were then compelled to serve as soldiers — that is, they were ''drafted" into service. It is hardly necessary to say that this method of get- ting soldiers was not popular. In this case there was a very unwise ])rovision which allowed a man who had been drafted to escape by a payment of the sum of three hundred dollars to the United States Treasury. This method of purchasing a substitute, if one happened to 21(7 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE be drafted, the street-corner politicians declared to be an imposition on the poor man. The latter must serve in the ranks of the army, while his rich neigh- bor might go scot free. On the first day of the draft, July 11, 1863, there was no trouble, but two days later, on Monday, a mob amd^l i^ THE NEGRO ORPHAN ASYLUM, attacked a United States marshal's office at the corner of Third Avenue and Forty- Sixth Street and wrecked it. The Negro Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue near Forty-Fourth Street was next looted and burned; then the mob started for another marshal's office on Broad- v/ay near Tvventy-Eiglith Street. By this time the mob numbered about five thousand. They demolished the marshal's office, and having looted most of the stores nearby, began a rapid march towards Mulberry A DEMAGOGUE AND HIS POLICY 217 Street, shouting, ''Kill the police! Kill the police!" But they found one policeman, it seems, who did not reckon on being killed— Sergeant Daniel Carpenter. Carpenter assembled two hundred policemen and met the mob. ''Hit for their heads, men, and hit hard," was the only order Carpenter gave. It took but a few minutes to dispose of the mob, and in very short order Broadway was cleared of all except the rioters who lay around the street with battered and broken heads. In the evening, however, the mob gathered again and made a desperate attempt to wreck and burn the JSTew York Tribune building, on Park Row. This time they were met by Inspector George Dilks with about one hundred men. Dilks made up his mind that sterner means ought to be employed and so he armed his men with revolvers. The mob was in a very ugly mood and when Dilks had disposed of it about thirty rioters lay dead in the street. By Tuesday morning riots had broken out in a dozen parts of the city, and although the police could dispose of the mob at any one place, the whole force could not check the riots that were going on in a score of other places. Small bands were patrolling the streets mur- dering every Xegro upon whom they could lay hands ; larger bands were looting stores and burning houses. Mayor Opdyke's house was badly damaged, and the 21b THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE residence of Henry J. Kaymond, editor of the Times, was gutted. Thie rioting continued Wednesday morning, but during the afternoon the troops that had been sum- moned to Pennsylvania to beat back General liobert E. Lee's army began to arrive, and in a very short time they were at work on the rioters ; in a very short time, moreover, there were no rioters, for well dis- ciplined troops make quick work with such stuff. Mayor Opdyke finally announced that order had been restored. It was a costly lesson to New York City, for more than two million dollars' Avorth of property had been destroyed. Incidentally, more than twelve hundred rioters had been slain. Mayor Wood had sown the wind; the riots were the crop of cyclones that was to be harvested. XXXIX. THIRTY YEARS OF PROSPERITY AND PROGRESS— GREATER NEW YORK CITY. After the Civil War was at an end and peace had come, the years that followed were years of pros- perity. Many thousand miles of railway were built through the fertile prairies of the west, and millions of acres of land that had never produced anything but wild grass and prairie wolves were turned under by the GREATER XEW YORK CITY 219 plough and became IB elds of grain. Railroad sidings became villages and the villages grew into cities. Our trade with Europe grew by leaps and bounds; our in- dustries at home grew even faster. All this was a shower of gold upon New York State. The produce of the west that was destined for Europe entered the state at Buffalo and left it at Kew York City. These two cities therefore became great gate- w^ays of commerce. Buffalo received the grain and produce from the w^est; J^ew York City sent it to Europe. The fact that one of the great trade routes of the world lay through the state still continued to make it the Empire State. The increase of business affected both the state and the city in many w^ays. It brought more people into both because there was more business. It helped the farmer and the dairymen because there were more people to be fed, and it helped all of the various trades because there were more people to be housed and to be clothed. It compelled Kew York City to build the new Croton Aqueduct because the old aqueduct could not bring enough water for so many people. But the means for getting from the home of the busi- ness man to his office were very poor — 'busses and horse cars being about the only way. And so the grain and meat growing on the prairie farms of the west com- pelled New York City to build better and larger 2:^0 THE MAKIN^G OF THE EMPIRE STATE buildings for manufacture and for the transaction of business. Then the floor space of the business part of the cit}^ became so crowded that there Avas nowhere room enough; so, one after another, the three and four story buildings of brick or stone were pulled down and great ''skyscrapers" ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five stories built of steel frames and stone fill- ing were put in their places. TUF. OLD (KOTOX AQUEDI^f'T AT HAHLE:\I HHEIJ. We all know about the great captains that led the soldiers and sailors to victory in the Civil War; but there are other great captains — captains of industry whose names ought never to be forgotten. Among them are the names of some who have finished their great work. These are Cornelius Yanderbilt, the founder of one of the greatest railway systems in the world, and Engineer John Roebling, who tied Brooklyn to New York with the magnificent steel suspension GREATER NEW YORK CITY 221 OF NEW YORK CITY. bridge. There are also in the list men now engaged in making the world move. There is Thomas Edison, best known as the AVizard of. Electricity; tbere is Alexan- der Graham Bell, the organizer of the first telephone S3^stem; there is Engineer John B. McDonald, who built the wonderful rapid transit tunnels underneath 'New York City, and there is John Pierpont Morgan, Jr., one of the greatest organizers of industry that has ever lived. During the period of prosperity the Empire State did not forget the welfare of her people in the way of recreation and amusement. Xew York City, a long time ago, set the example by giving more than one thousand acres of the most valuable land in the city to be used as recreation and playgrounds ; and on two of these, Central Park and Battery Park, many millions of dollars have been spent in order to make them beautiful and attractive. Long years of experience have 222 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE shown til at the parks have paid for themselves many times over in making the people healthier and happier — and therefore better. Only a few years ago the state followed the example set by New York City in tearing out the obstruc- tions and manv swindlino: devices that so lono: liad dis- graced Magara Falls. Now a wide strip of land has A VIEW IN CENTRAL TAKK, NEW YORK CITY. been set apart on each side of the river, and made into a beautiful park free to all. And having done this the state did even a more generous thing; it made most of the Adirondack highland a great forest reserve to be enjoyed by the people. Almost from the time of the founding of New Am- sterdam, the cities that afterwards became New York and Brooklyn grew side by side, with only the narrow ribbon of water called East Kiver between them. In time other cities and villages grew about them — Flushing, Long Island City, East Chester, Westches- THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 22'6 ter, Wakefield and many other younger villages. In 1890 it was agreed to find a way by which to join all these centers of population in one great city. So a commission was appointed with Judge Andrew H. Green at its head. Four years later the people voted on the matter and, as a result, the cities were finally consolidated. Manhattan Island became Bor- ough of Manhattan ; the city of Brooklyn became Bor- ough of Brooklyn; Flushing and Long Island City, with a few outlying villages, became Borough of Queens; Staten Island, the Borough of Richmond; and everything north of Harlem River, the Borough of the Bronx. Thus Greater New York City came into existence.^ XL. THE LESSON OF THE SPANISH-AMERI- CAN WAR. We are apt to look upon war as a great horror, as indeed it is. But war is less horrible than ignorance; lack of patriotism and widespread dishonesty are vices that are even more deadly to a nation than war. If a people become forgetful of the debt they owe their country — if they forget that self-government requires intelligent thought, asbolute honesty, and the sacri- * See map on page 243. 224 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIEE STATE fice of self, they need to be promptly shaken into a sense of their duty. And if a war is the only thing to stimulate them to dut}^, the quicker it comes the better. Indeed, there is one warfare that should always keep the people of a nation in arms, — the war- fare against ignorance, dishonesty, and vice. For many years there had been trouble between SHIPPING IN NEW YORK HAKBOR. Showing the Brooklyn Bridge in the baclvground. Spain and her West Indian colony, the island of Cuba. For the greater part of the time during the last thirty years of the century, Cuba had been in a condition of civil war ; her industries were almost throttled and THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 'I'l^ some of the great plantations had been abandoned be- cause there was no security of government. There has always been a great deal of trade be- tween the United States and Cuba, the most of which came through the port of New York. Americans, too, had large interests in the sugar and the tobacco planta- tions on the island; and the long-continued rebellion and civil war had injured these in a great many ways. It was not until General Weyler became the military governor of the island, however, that the people of the United States were aroused, and a general feeling of indignation prevailed. Among the plans made by Weyler, one was most horrible. He gathered the defenseless people of the smaller villages into great camps called '' camps of con- centration." If they went to these camps they were slowly starved to death; if they refused they were murdered. For a long time the United States govern- ment took no notice of these horrors; on the other hand the people did and their feelings soon reached a fever heat. Finally, the battleship Maine, while at anchor in Havana harbor, was blown up by a torpedo and most of her crew were killed. After that, the demand that the United States should force Spain to give the Cubans a good government be- came stronger and stronger every day. Finally, President Mclvinley with the authority of the Con- 226 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE gress sent a demand that Spain Avitbdraw from the West Indies altogether. Of course such a message meant war; but the war was of very short duration, and, when it ended, the Spanish flag had left the American continent forever. The effect upon the people was most wholesome. THE CAPITOL OF THE E.MPIKE STATE AT ALliAXY. At the first call to arms men from every part imme- diately responded. Rich and poor, old and young, they fought side by side on the steep slope of San Juan Hill, and in the trenches before Santiago. New York gave up her most priceless treasures — her patri- otic sons. For the time self was wholly forgotten and duty to our country was the only thought. The les- THE spanish-amp:rican war 227 son, therefore, to the young men and women of the state was a most beneficial one. Many of tliem for the first time had been taught to think of their country. And when the war was at its close, they Avere better men and women because of the experience. One man, more than any other, came to be beloved by the whole nation because of the Spanish-American war, and that one was William McKinley, the Presi- dent of the United States, whose clear mind and great wisdom carried the country through the struo-o-le. For years it was his desire to draw the states of All- America into closer commercial union. The Pan- American Exposition, held at Bufi"alo, in 1901, was intended to make the South American States better acquainted with each other and with the United States. To this idea President McKinley gave the whole strength of his character. It was while he was shaking hands Avith the people that had gathered at the Exposition grounds to meet their Chief Magis- trate that he fell, mortally hurt by the bullet of a foul wretch, an anarchist, who had come there in order to assassinate him. Sometimes people say that the world is growing worse, and that men and women are not so upright now-a-days as they were years ago. This is not true. People are becoming better instead of worse. Every boy and every girl who has the pluck to do the right 228 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE and honest thing is building on the foundations of a good character. And if the State of New York is to remain the Empire State in years to come, it will be, not because of her great wealth and wonderful re- sources, but because of the industry and integrity of the men and women who are now boys and girls in her schools. APPENDIX THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK. The area now comprised in the State of Ne^Y York was acquired gradually. For the greater part the lands were granted to companies, who then disposed of them in small tracts to other companies or to indi- viduals Some of the lands were purchased outright by treaty from Indians ; some were simply taken with- out any deed. Thus Manhattan Island was purchased ; the lands along the Hudson were seized by the Dutch West India Company and divided into manors. The Patroon receiving the manor settled with the Indians as best he could. After the English occupation, large tracts of land Vv^ere sold or granted by James II (who had received them while Duke of York) to various companies or corporations. The deed conveying the land was called a ' ' patent ' ' and this name was also applied to the tract of land itself. Thus, after the Fort Stanwix treaty had given the central part of the state to the English, large tracts were granted in this manner, and Morris's, Middleton's, Upton's, Clotworthy's, and the 230 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE f: '5b O U ^ -3 1-4 IC o S THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 231 Otego patents were granted in and about the valley of Unadilla and the adjacent rivers; among them, Sir William Johnson^s in the Charlotte Yalley, and a great number of others along the Susquehanna. In order to encourage settlement, in many cases tracts of one thousand acres were given to communities of people if only they would remove to the lands and make their homes upon them. After the close of the French and Indian wars the English acquired all the remaining lands now included in the state, and after the colonists had won their inde- pendence, all this territory finally became the State of JS"ew York. Little by little the Indians sold their lands to the white people; in some instances, how- ever, they were deprived of them in a manner that did not reflect much honor on the state. One large tract of land comprising all the western part of the state was claimed by Massachusetts. JSTew York acknowledged the justice of the claim and in 1786 gave it to Massachusetts, retaining the right to govern it. Massachusetts sold it four years later to ]S"athaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps. They disposed of a part of it in small farms, and then sold the rest to Eobert Morris of Philadelphia for sixteen cents an acre. Morris became bankrupt and sold all that he had not already disposed of to a company in Amsterdam known as the Holland Land Company. In this man- 232 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE ner it again became a part of the State of New York. In 1863, when the colony of New York was first per- mitted to elect an assembly, what now is the eastern part of the state was divided into ten counties: New York, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Richmond, Westchester, Ulster, Dutchess, and Albany. In time the last three named were divided. New counties were formed in the western part of the state as the population increased. Albany. — An original county, formerly a part of Eensselaerwick. From the original county nearly all the counties of the northeastern part of the state were set off. A charter to the city of Albany was granted by Governor Dongan in 1686. Albany is the county seat and capital of the state. Allegany. — Formerly a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. It was set off from Genesee county in 1806. It was first settled by Philip Church in 1804. County seat, Belmont. Broome. — Set off from Tioga county in 1806. It was a part of a patent purchased in 1Y86 by William Bing- ham from the Massachusetts claim, and named for Lieu- tenant-Governor John Broome. It was probably first settled in 1787 by Joseph L6onard from Wyoming, Pa. County seat, Binghamton. Cattaraugus. — Set off from Genesee county in THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 233 1808, and therefore is part of the HoUand Land Com- pany's patent. It was first settled about 1802 at Olean by Mayor Hoops of Albany, who named the settlement Hamilton after General Hamilton. County seat, Lit- tle Yalley. Cayuga. —Set off from Onondaga county and named from the Indian tribe in 1799. It was settled at Aure- lius, Genoa, and Scipio about 1789. The present name was given in 1805. Moravia was settled in 1791-. Salt springs occur at Montezuma. Auburn, the county seat, was settled in 1793 by Colonel John Harden- burg and called Hardenburg's Corners. Chautauqua. — Set off from Genesee county in 1808, though attached to it until 1811, and therefore a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. Probably a French trading post was established at Portland before and during the French and Indian wars. An Indian village existed near Frewsburg, on Connewango Creek, in 1790. A British and Indian fort was established at Chautauqua Lake in 1782 to threaten Fort Du Quesne. The first permanent settlement was made in the town of Kipley, 1801-1802, by General John McMahon. In 1836 a number of people seized and destroyed the books and records of the Holland Land Company in order to prevent the latter from imposing unjust claims for pay- ment of lands. Dunkirk was formerly the western terminus of the Erie Railroad. County seat, IMay ville. 234 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Chemung. — Set off from Tioga county in 1836. The settlement of the county resulted from General Sulli- van's campaign in 1779, in which he defeated 1,000 Indians and Tories under Colonel Butler and Chief Joseph Brant. Settlements were made at Elmira, Big Flats and Southport, 1786-1792, mainly from Pennsyl- vania. Horseheads is said to have received its name from the heads of cavalry horses that General Sullivan killed to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. Chemung was the first organized town in the county. Elmira, the county seat, was probably first settled by Colonel John Hardy. In 1790 a treaty was made between the Indians and the United States. A few years later the town was visited by Louis Philippe, afterward King of France, who, with his suite, walked from Canandaigua. Chenango. — Set off from Herkimer and Tioga coun- ties in 1798. There were settlements at Oxford in 1790, and at Bainbridge in 1791. Bainbridge is a part of a grant of land made by New York to Vermont before the settlement of the boundaries. Greene was first settled by French emigrants, who afterward re- moved to Pennsylvania. Near the village is an old Indian burial mound. In Oxford are the remains of an old fort, probably used by Indians. County seat, Norwich. Clinton. — Set off from Washington county in 1788, THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 235 aad named after the first governor of the state, George Clmton. This region was visited and explored by the French prior to the French and Indian wars. Perma- nent settlements were made at Plattsburg and Peru, 1765-1766, by Zephaniah Piatt. Piatt purchased large tracts of land around Cumberland Bay, the scene of the battle won by Lieutenant McDonough, and for him the county seat was named Plattsburg. Columbia. — Set off from Albany county in 1786. It comprised a part of Rensselaer and Livingston man- ors. Among the early settlements were Germantown or East Camp, made by seventy families sent over by Queen Anne; Kinderhook, the birthplace of Martin Yan Buren, and Yalatie. Hudson, the county seat, was at one time an important center for the Avhale- fishing industry. Cortland. — Set off from Onondaga county in 1808. It was named after General Peter Yan Cortlandt, and comprised a part of the '' Military Tract," or land given to the soldiers of the Revolutionary War. Homer, the oldest town, was settled in 1794. County seat, Cort- land. Delaware. — Set off from Ulster and Otsego counties in 1797, mainly from lands included in the Hardenburg and Harper patents. It was named from Delaware River. A settlement was made at Harpersfield in 1768-1770, which, with Deposit (formerly Cookose), 236 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE was destroyed, 1780, by Chief Joseph Brant. County seat, Delhi. Dutchess. — One of the ten original counties, organ- ized in 1683 and named for the Duchess of York. A settlement was made at Fishkill by the Dutch before 1664. About 1700 a tract including most of the towns of Hyde Park, Amenia, Pleasant Valley and Washing- ton was granted to a company called the Great Xine Partners. The "Oblong," a long, narrow strip, was deeded by Connecticut, 1731, in return for a coast area on Long Island Sound; this was afterwards called HaAvley's Patent. The first house in Poughkeepsie, the county seat, was built by Myndert Yan Kleek in 1702. Erie. — Set off from Niagara county in 1821, and therefore (except a strip one mile wide on the river front) a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. The city of Buffalo was laid out in 1801, though settled a few years before that date. Grand Island was claimed by Canadian settlers as a tract neither within the United States nor Canada. They formed an independent settlement in 1816, but were after- wards dispossessed. A Jewish city of refuge was es- tablished, but it failed in its purpose. Buffalo and Black Kock were burned by the British in 1813. County seat, Buffalo. Essex. — Set off from Clinton county in 1799. It THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 237 was named from a county in England, but was occu- pied by the Frencli before the French and Indian wars. A fort, St. Frederick, was built on Crown Point pro- montory in 1731, blown up, rebuilt, and named for the promontory. Fort Carillon, afterwards named Fort Ticonderoga, was built about three miles from the village of Ticonderoga. The county was settled mainly by immigrants from Vermont. County seat, Elizabeth town. Fkanklin.— Set off from Clinton county in 1808, and named for Benjamin Franklin. It belonged to the French until the close of the French and Indian wars, and is now the home of the St. Eegis Indians. Settlements were made by French at French Mills, now- Fort Covington, in 1800, and at Chateauguay in 1804. County seat, Malone. Fulton. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1838 and named for Robert Fulton. The first settlements were made by Germans, probably at Oppenheim and Ephrata. Other settlements Avere made through Sir William Johnson about 1T6I:-1765 in the vicinity of Johnstown. The house in which Sir William lived is still standing, but his estates, then owned by his son, Sir John Johnson, were confiscated at the close of the Eevolutionary War. In 1780, Sir John Johnson at- tacked the town, killing and wounding a score or more of citizens, and burning many houses; the fol- 238 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE lowing year, in a skirmish at the Hall Farm, Colonel Marinus Willett routed seven hundred Tories. County seat, Johnstown. Genesee. — Set off from Ontario county in 1802. It was named for the Genesee River and was a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. A settle- ment was made at Batavia, the county seat, about 1800-1801. The county originally comprised all that part of the state west of and including a part of Monroe county. Greene. — Set off from Albany and Ulster in 1800, and named for General Nathaniel Greene. The Hard- enburg patent comprised the western part. Settle- ments were made by the Dutch in the latter part of the seventeenth century — probably at Cairo and Cox- sackie. Athens was incorporated in 1805; Catskill, the county seat, in 1806. Hamilton. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1816 and named after Alexander Hamilton. It was explored by French traders before the French and In- dian wars. The first English settlements were made about 1800. County seat, Sageville. Herkimer. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1791 and named for General Herkimer. It includes the grants made by King Hendrick to Sir William Johnson, the Jerseyfield patent, and the German Flatts tract. The battle of Oriskany was fought in this THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 239 county, and in 1778 the village of Herkimer was burned by Chief Joseph Brant. Two years later Little Falls was destroyed. German Flatts, settled by German Lutherans, 1725, was destroyed by the French in 1757, forty being slain, and more than one hundred made captives of war. County seat, Herkimer. Jefferson. — Set off from Oneida county in 1805 and named for Thomas Jefferson. Settlements were made at Ellisburg in 1793 by Lyman Ellis, at Champion a year or two later, and at AYatertown in 1800 by Henry Coffin. Old Indian burial mounds and forts occur at several places in the county. Sacketts Harbor, the chief naval station during the War of 1812, was at- tacked by the British May 28, 1813, and again. May 30, 1814, but each time the attack was repelled. County seat, Watertown. Kings. — An original county organized in 1013, and named for King Charles II. Merged into Greater New York City, 1898. Lewis. — Set off from Oneida county in 1805 and named for General Morgan Lewis, at that time gov- ernor of the state. The area included in the county belonged to Alexander Macomb and was sold by him to a company formed in New York City, with which Cornelius Low Avas connected. It was first settled probably at Lowville in 1797, by families from IJtica and Fort Stanwix (Kome). County seat, Lowville. 240 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE Livingston.— Set off from Genesee and Ontario counties in 1821. The Genesee Valley was the home of the Seneca Indians. In 1687, de ^"onville, the gov- ernor of Canada, attempted to exterminate them on account of their fidelity to the English, but failed after heavy losses. In 1789, General Sullivan ended his cam- paign in this county. Among the first white settlers was the infamous "Indian" Allen. The real history of the county began with the Wads worth (William and James) patents, which threw the land open to settle- ment. At Avon are the mineral springs, once the re- sort of the Seneca chief, Red Jacket. County seat, Geneseo. Madison. — Set off from Chenango county in 1806 and named for James Madison. It includes a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. Settlements were made in 1790 at Eaton by Joseph Morse, and at Caze- novia in 1793 by Colonel John Linklaen. Most of the early settlers were from JSTew England. County seat, Morrisville. Monroe. — Set off from Genesee and Ontario coun- ties in 1821 and named for James Monroe. A military station and Indian trading post was established at Iron- dequoit Bay in 1726. A permanent white settlement, probably the first, was made at Ilenfords Landing, where was built the first house west of Genesee River. Early settlements were made at Scottsville (1800), THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK Ml Pittsford and Port Genesee, now Charlotte. Kochester was laid out in 1812 and named for its chief promoter, JS'athaniel Kochester. A grist and saw mill was built on the river near the site of Main Street by '' Indian " Allen in 1789. County seat, Kochester. Montgomery. — Set off from Albany county in 1772. It was first named Tryon county for the royal gov- ernor; the present name is in honor of General Mont- gomery, who fell at Quebec. The country of which this county is a part was the home of the Mohawks, and the three Mohawk '" castles " or strong houses were destroyed by the French in 1693. The Church of Eng- land established missions for the Indians in 1702. Set- tlements were made about 1713 by German emigrants, and Fort Hunter Avas erected about the same time at the junction of Mohawk and Schoharie Kivers. A chapel was built by Queen Anne near by, and after- wards became the fort itself; the latter was torn down to make room for the Erie Canal. The first settlement in Amsterdam was made by the widow of Philip Groat of Kotterdam, the latter having been drowned in the Mohawk on his way. Palatine, Stone Arabia, Fort Plain and Canajoharie were partly destroyed by Tories and Indians during the Revolutionary AVar. Scarcely a settlement within the limits of the county escaped injury or destruction. County seat, Fonda. Kassau. — Created in 1898 from the parts of Kings 242 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE and Queens counties not taken into Greater New York City. New York. — Organized 1683. The former city and GREATER NEW YORK CITY AND VICINITY. county were identical. In 1898 the city of Brooklyn, together with parts of Kings, Queens, Westchester, and all of Richmond, Avere incorporated with the city, making ''Greater" New York. The city is now di- THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 243 vided into Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Richmond boroughs. Niagara. — Set off from Genesee county in 1808, and therefore a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. In 1697 La Salle built a strong house, or stock- ade, which became Fort Niagara, after having been rebuilt by the French in 1725. In 1712 the Tuscarora Indians removed to the county from North Carolina. In 1759 Fort Niagara was captured from the French by Sir William Johnson, and in 1796, after the War of the Eevolution, it was surrendered to the United States. During the War of 1812, Lewiston, Manchester (now Niagara Falls) and Tuscarora Avere burned. County seat, Lockport. Oneida. — Set off from Herkimer county in 1798 and named for the Indian tribe — the only one friendly to the colonists during the Revolutionary War. During the French and Indian wars in 1758, Fort Stanwix was built on the present site of Rome, and Fort Schuyler at Utica. In 1766 the Rev. Samuel Kirkland established a mission among the Oneidas; about the same time Judge Dean was made Indian Agent. These were among the first white settlers. In 1777 the battle of Oriskany was fought and Colonel St. Leger, the British com- mander, failed in the conquest of the central part of the state. In 1788 AVhitestown was founded by John White. The present area of the town of Steuben was 244 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE given to Baron Steuben for his services during the Revolutionary War. At Oneida Castle the Councils of the Six ]S"ations Avere held. County seat, Utica. Onondaga. — Set off from Herkimer county in 1794 and named for the Indian tribe who lived there. In 1655, Father Dablon, a French Jesuit, established a mission at an Indian village in the present town of Salina, and in the following year a French colony under Sieur Dupuys was established at Onondaga Lake. The Indians were hostile and the colony abandoned the set- tlement after having made the Indians stupid at a drunken feast. In 1666 a French settlement was made in the town of Pompey, probably on Butternut Creek. A party of Spanish explorers finding the settlement, hired the Indians to murder the French. The Indians, in order to make the work thorough, killed the Span- iards as well. At Onondaga Hollow was the " castle " or chief council house of the tribe, which Avas destroyed by the French about 1697, but was rebuilt after the French had been driven out. The first Avhite settlers in the county Avere the Websters, Avho received lands in the Military Tract. In 1790 the village of Manlius Avas settled. The village of Syracuse was incorporated in 1825. County seat, Syracuse. Ontario. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1789 and therefore a part of the Holland Land Company's patent. In 1788, Oliver Phelps, who, Avith Nathaniel THE COUXTIES OF NEW YORK 245 Gorhain, had purchased this tract from Massachusetts, made a settlement at Canandaigua. He purchased the land also from the Indians, thus receiving- a full deed for the pro])erty. The system of surveys in townships and sections, originated by Phelps, was afterwards adopted by the United States government. County seat, Canandaigua. Okange. — One of the original counties organized in 1613 and named for the Prince of Orange, son of the Duke of York. Long before this, however, Dutch farmers had settled at Esopus (now Kingston), and it had become a flourishing village. As early as 1659, copper ore was exported to Holland. In 1669 the bat- tle of the Nimisink nearly exterminated the Indians of that region. During the War of the Kevolution a chain^ was stretched across the river by General Put- nam to prevent the British ships from ascending it. Sir Henry Clinton, then intending to relieve Burgoyne, broke the chain and captured Forts Clinton and Mont- gomery. In July, 1779, Chief Joseph Brant burned Ximisink. Troops gathered at Goshen started in pur- suit, but were ambushed by Brant and 180 were killed. Newburg was settled in 1701 by Germans. West Point was made the site of the United States Military Acad- emy in 1802. County seats, Goshen and Newburg. * Another was stretched from West Point to the opposite side in Putnam county. This one resisted an attack. 246 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Orleans. — Set off from Genesee county in 1824. It is situated in the Massachusetts Purchase, nearly the whole county being included in the Holland Land Company's patent. A settlement was made at Murra}^ in 1808 by people from New England. County seat, Albion. Oswego. — Set off from Oneid and Onondaga coun- ties in 1816 and named from the fort and Indian stock- ade. In 1722 a trading post Avas built on the east side of the river, and four years later the old fort was erected on the west side by Governor Burnet. Fort Ontario was built on the east side in 1755 by Governor Shirley. In the following year both forts together with 1,600 men were surrendered to the French under Montcalm after a stubborn siege. The new Fort Oswego was given to the United States after the close of the Eevolutionary "War by the treaty of 1794. Most of the land on the east side of the river was granted to Nicholas Roose- velt, but owing to his failure the tract was sold to George Scriba, a German merchant, and formed Scriba's patent. A part of the county once belonged to Alexander Hamilton. The county was first settled at Oswego, the county seat. Otsego. — Set off from Montgomery county in 1791 and named for Otsego Lake. Cooperstown, the county seat, was named for the family of which James Feni- more Cooper was a descendant. THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 247 Putnam. — Set off from Dutchess in 1812 and named for General Israel Putnam. Settlements were made by the Dutch probably between 1650 and 1660, though possibly later. The Beverly House, the home of a noted Tory, Colonel Beverly Robinson, was the head- quarters of General Putnam, and likewise of Benedict Arnold at the time his treason was made known. He made his escape therefrom on the British sloop Vidtiore. County seat, Carmel. Queens. — One of the original counties organized in 1683 and named for the Queen of England. Settle- ments were made at Hempstead (then written Hem- steede) in 1641: by families from Connecticut. One year later a company of English families who had been living in Holland settled not far from Hempstead, call- ing the settlement Ylissingen — now Flushing. Both companies received patents from Governor Kieft. Within about ten years settlements were made at Oys- ter Bay, Newtown and Jamaica. Under Governor Stuyvesant the Friends, or "Quakers" as they were called, were shamefully persecuted until the people interfered in their behalf. Under the vicious English governor, Lord Coenbury, several Presbyterian min- isters were imprisoned or driven from their pulpits, and the Lutherans were banished. During the War of the Revolution many of the people Avere loyal to the King of England. In 1898 a part of the county 248 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE was merged into Greater 'New York City; the re- mainder was named Nassau county. County seat, Mineola. Rensselaer. — Set off from Albany county in 1791 and named for Patroon Killian Yan Rensselaer. The greater part of the county was a part of Rensselaer Manor. The first settlements were made probably in Pittstown in 1650. The first settler in the present City of Troy was Derick Yanderhuyden, who, in 1720, leased about 500 acres in what is now the heart of the city. The resulting settlement was called Yander- huyden's Ferry until after the close of the Revolution- ary War. The town of Hoosick, in the eastern part of the county, was a portion of the battlefield of Ben- nington. County seat, Troy. Richmond. — One of the original counties, organized in 1683, and named for the Duke of Richmond, but commonly known as Staten Island. The island, to- gether with a part of New Jersey on the nearby shore, was purchased in 1630 by Wouter Yan Twilleras agent for Michael Pauw. The latter named the patent " Pa- vonia," but soon after sold it to David Pieterszen de Yries, who established a colony in 1639. The settle- ment was broken up by Governor Kieft. Two years later the island was seized by an adventurer, Cornelius Melyn, who attempted to colonize it, but the colonists were driven off by the Indians. The Indians twice THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 249 again sold the island to different promoters, but only a few people cared to dwell there. In 1655 the Indians murdered nearly every one who remained. The island reverted to the West India Company shortly afterward and passed into the possession of the English in 166-1, the Indians again selling it to Governor Lovelace. During the War of the Revolution it was occupied by the British, although several attempts to capture it were made by the Continental troops. Not until 1833 was the compromise made with New Jersey that gave New York State possession of the island. Sailors' Snug Harbor, a home for aged seamen, was founded in 1801, by Robert R. Randall. Richmond was annexed to New York City in 1898. Rockland. — Set off from Orange county in 1798 and named for the picturesque scenery that diversifies it. During the War of the Revolution, Fort Stony Point was abandoned and Fort Fayette at Yerj^lancks Point was captured by the British. General Wash- ington ordered their recapture and sent General Wayne to effect it. AYayne captured Stony Point by a bay- onet charge, but failed to take Fort Fayette. The trial of Major Andre took place in the old Dutch church at Nyack and he was confined in an old stone farm house that was standing in 1900. After the execution of his sentence, his remains were buried near the Jersey line, but were removed to England in 1831. Piermont 250 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE was formerly the terminus of the Erie Kailroad. County seat, I^ew City. St. Lawrence. — Set off from Clinton, Montgomery and Herkimer counties in 1802 and named for the river. The French erected Fort Presentation at Os- wegatchie about 1740. Settlements were made at Os- wegatchie in 1796 by Nathan Ford, and at Canton in 1799 by Stillman Foote. During the War of 1812 the British crossed the St. Lawrence in boats and at- tacked Ogdensburg, but were repelled by a small force. The following year they entered the village and burned a part of the village. County seat, Canton. Saratoga. — Set off from Albany county in 1791. The famous Kayaderosseras patent, granted, 1702, to David Schuyler and Robert Livingston, covered a large part of the county, but Yan Schaik's and Saratoga patents were granted two years before. Settlements were made on the Kayaderosseras patent as early as 1715, but probably others were made within the limits of the county at least five years before that date. In 1747 the Indians burned the settlement at Fish Creek (now Schuyler ville) and killed fifty or more people. Thirty years later General Burgoyne surrendered to General Gates near the village of Schuylerville. Schenectady. — Set oflF from Albany county in 1809. In 1665 Governor Nichols granted a patent to Alex- ander Glen. A patent for tract now including Nes- THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 251 kayuna township was granted to Harmon Yedder in 1664-1665, though a settlement, probably a trading post, had been made at the Indian village twenty or more years before. In ITIS Canadian Indians am- bushed a company of militia and killed thirty-two. County seat, Schenectady. Schoharie. — Set off from Albany and Otsego coun- ties in 1795. Settlements were made in Schoharie Valley in 1711 by the families of German soldiers who had served in English wars, the lands being given them by Queen Anne. During the Kevolutionary War the county was overrun by Tories and Indians under Sir John Johnson, Colonel Butler, and Chief Joseph Brant. Many lives and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. In 1775 a sharp conflict occurred between fift}^ Con- tinental troops and more than three hundred Indians under Brant. In 1780, Sir John Johnson, with eight hundred Tories and Indians, attacked the old fort at Middleburg village, but was beaten off by Colonel Yrooman. County seat, Schoharie. Schuyler. — Set off from Steuben, Chemung and Tompkins counties in 1851 and named for General Philip Schuyler. The early history of the county has been included in the counties bearing the foregoing names. County seat, Watkins. Steuben. — Set off from Ontario county in 1796 and named for Baron Steuben, the Prussian General. The 252 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE first settlement within the present limits of the county was made probably at Bath in 1792 by Charles Wil- liamson on the Pultney patent. Emigrants from New England settled in the town of Prattsburg a few years later. The village of Painted Post in the town of Er- win received its name from a post stained or decorated, and erected as a burial monument to the Indian Chief Montour, a son of Queen Catherine. This remarkable chief died of wounds received in a skirmish at Freelings Fort on West Branch (of the Susquehanna River). ^ The monument was stored in a hotel for several years, but was thrown into the river by a hotel employee about 1805-1810. County seat, Bath. Suffolk. — One of the ten original counties organized in 1683, and named for the county of the same name in England. The first settlement was made at South old about 1630 by people from Connecticut, and the county itself was included in the Connecticut colony of l^ew Haven. Gardiners Island was settled by Lyon Gard- iner in 1635; Shelter Island in 1652; Brookhaven in 1655, by emigrants from Massachusetts, and Smith- town in 1677, by Richard Smythe, who obtained a pat- ent from Rhode Island. The people of this part of Long Island never acknowledged the claims of the Dutch, and only one governor. Calve, ever attempted * According to another authority he was killed at the battle of Newtown (Elniira). THE COUKTIES OF NEW YORK 253 to force Dutch rule upon the people. William Kidd, the pirate, secreted a part of his treasure on Gardiners Island, but it is thought that the treasure was seized by the Earl of Bellomont, the royal governor, a short time afterward. During the A\^ar of the devolution the British collected military stores and provisions at Sag Harbor. In May, 1777, Lieutenant Colonel Meigs, witli 170 men, went in whale boats from Guilford, Conn., across the sound to Southold, dragged the boats over land to the bay, rowed to Sag Harbor and destroyed the stores— including twelve small ves- sels, one of which was a schooner manned by seventy- nine men. In twenty-five hours from the time of leav- ing they were back in Guilford. County seat, Eiver- head. Sullivan. — Set off from Ulster county in 1809 and named for General Sullivan. Most of the county is included in the Ximisink and Hardenburg patents. The first settlements were probably made by the Dutch in the township of Mamakeating before 1700. Dur- ing the Eevolutionary War, Lieutenant Grahams and twenty men were ambushed and killed near Nave- sink. Monticello, the county seat, was settled in 1804. Tioga.— Set off from Montgomery county in 1701 and named from an Indian word probably meaning " water gap." A part of the county, including Rich- ford, Newark and Berkshire townships, was included 254 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE in the Massachusetts Purchase before it became the Holland patent; most of the southern part was in- cluded in the Military Tract granted to soldiers. A settlement was made at Oswego in 1785 by James Mc- Master and William Taylor. The famine year, which was due to the arrival of many emigrants unprovided with food, occurred a few years later. County seat, Oswego. Tompkins. Set off from Cayuga and Seneca counties in 1817 and named for Governor Daniel Tompkins. A small part of the county belonged to the Massachu- setts Purchase, but the greater part formed a portion of the Military Tract. County seat, Ithaca. Ulster, — One of the original counties organized in 1683 and named for the Irish title (Earl of Ulster) of the Duke of York. A trading post and fort was built near the site of Kingston in 1615, and a settlement was made at the mouth of Esopus Creek soon after. In 1657 a Dutch officer killed an Indian whom he caught stealing from his orchard, and so much ill-feeling re- sulted that, six years later, the Indians fell upon the settlement and killed or captured sixty-five people. Warwarsing was settled about 1800 by Huguenots, but in 1779, and again in 1781, it was destroyed by Indians. In 1777, during the progress of the expedition to relieve General Burgoyne, Kingston was burned, only one house escaping destruction. County seat, Kingston. THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 255 Warren. Set off from Washington county in 1813 and named for General Josej)!! Warren. Settlements were made at Luzerne, Queensburg and Jolinsburg in 1790, but military posts Avere established forty years before that date. In 1755, during the French and In- dian War, Sir William Johnson led 5,000 troops, in- cluding 1,000 Indians under King Hendrick, the Mo- hawk Chief, against Crown Point. He sent Colonel Williams to the foot of Lake George to intercept, a French force under General Dieskau, but the latter surrounded him. Williams and King Hendrick were killed, but Colonel Whiting conducted a very orderly retreat. When the two armies came together the fighting was of the most stubborn kind, but the English won. Sir William Johnson was wounded; General Dieskau was captured, mortally wounded, and about one thousand of his army were slain. It is said that most of the bodies were buried in Bloody Pond. John- son did not go on to Crown Point, but built Fort Wil- liam Henry at the head of the lake. This fort was cap- tured by Montcalm in 1757. Piersons Island was a camp for English prisoners. County seat, Caldwell. Washington. — Set off from Albany county in 1770 and named for George Washim^ton. The first settlement within the present limits of the county was probably at Argyle. A patent covering 30,000 acres was granted in 1742 to Laughlin Campbell, who brought from Scot- 256 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE land eighty-three families. The colony was not suc- cessful and most of the people abandoned it. Fort Ed- ward was built in 1755; six years later the town of Salem was founded; Kingsbury was settled about the same time. A battle took place near this village in 1758, in which Israel Putnam was captured by the French. During the War of the Revolution, Whitehall (then called Skenesborough for its founder, Major Skene) was partly destroyed by the Continental troops in order to prevent it from being fortified by the British. County seat, Argyle. Wayne. — Set off from Ontario and Seneca counties in 1823, and named for General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Most of the county is included in that part of the Massachusetts Purchase which formed the Pulte- ney estate. The settlements within the present limits of the county practically began after the War of the Revolution. During the War of 1812 the villages of Pulteneyville and Sodus were burned by the British. The religious sect known as the Mormons originated in Palmyra. Some clumsily marked metal plates were conveniently " found," and near by two crystals, which enabled the markings to be read, were also '^discov- ered." Through the instrumentality of these a school teacher named Joseph Smith, sitting behind a screen in order to hide the plates from profane eyes, read what purported to be a ncAV bible, the ''Book of Mormu." THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 257 This book was printed and published b}^ the aid of funds furnished by Martin Harris, a weli-to-do farmer. It was written, however, by an irresponsible clergy- man, Solomon Spaulding, of Cherry Valley, of whom it was purchased by Smith. The latter associated him- self with Rigdon, the printer of the book. They went to Kirtland, Ohio, with their converts, wliere Smith was killed by a mob. They afterwards went to Xauvoo, Illinois, and thence to Salt Lake City. County seat, Lyons. Westchester. — An original county, organized in 1683, derived from an old English name meaning- " Avest camp." The first settlement was made in the village of Westchester (now included in New York City) by one Throgmorton, with thirty-five families. They came from New England in 1642-1€)'13. A grant to Adrien Yan der Donk in 1648 was the beginning of Yonkers; it was so called from the proprietor's title " Jonge Ileer," or ''young sir." Colonel Thomas Pell seized the land, including the villages of Pelham and New Rochelle, and the latter Avas purchased by Governor Leisler in 1689 for the Huguenots Avho had fled from France. The patent known as Cortlandt Manor was granted to Stephen Yan Cortlandt in 1697. A settlement Avas made at Bedford, now included in NeAV York City, in 1681, but it Avas afterwards included in the Philii)s patent, a tract containing about 400 square 268 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIKE STATE miles south of Croton River. During the Revolution- ary War, Washington's retreat, after the British had entered the city, extended from Washington Heights and Harlem to White Plains; more or less fighting occurred all along this line. A part of the British forces landed at Pell's Point, near the mouth of Hutch- inson Creek. Colonel John Glover was sent with his regiment to delay their advance as long as possible. ]S^ot far from the place where the Eastern Boulevard crosses the City Island Road, Glover deployed his men, Y50 in number, behind' the stone walls, and held the whole British force at bay. Most of the fighting oc- curred near a huge bowlder now called Glover's Rock. Glover withdrew in good order; he was afterwards complimented by General Lee. During the war this part of the county, known as the ''neutral ground," was overrun and plundered by " cowboys " and " skin- ners." The former were camp followers of the British, the latter of the Continental army; both were ma- rauders and were but little better than thieves and robbers. While encamped at Peekskill, General Put- nam captured two spies, who were tried and con- demned to be hanged. The British Governor Tyron desired to save the life of one of them and wrote a very urgent letter to General Putnam in his be- half. The latter replied in his characteristic way as follows: THE COUNTIES OF NEW YORK 259 Headquarters, 7th August, 1777. Sir : Nathan Pahiier, a lieutenant in your king's service, was taken in my camp as a spy, he was tried as a spy, he was condemned as a spy, and you may rest assured, sir, he shall be hanged as a spy. I have the honor to be, &c., Israel Putnam. His Excellency Governor Tryon. P. S. Afternoon : he is hanged. Major Andre, the unfortunate victim of Arnold's treason, was captured near the village of Tarrytown. His captors, Yan Wart, Paulding and Williams, were each rewarded by the Congress with a farm and pensioned with an annuity of $200 for life. County seat, White Plains. Wyomino. — Set off from Genesee county in 1841. The towns of Eagle, Pike and a part of Genesee Falls (formerly Portage) were added in 1846. Most of the county was included in the Holland Land Company's patent. The part formerly known as the Gardeau Flats was reserved by a treaty as a gift to Mary Jemison, a white woman who was captured when a child by the Senecas, and who afterwards was twice married to Seneca chiefs. The first settlement was made ])ro])- ably at Warsaw in 1803 by Elizur Webster; most of the early settlers were from Vermont. County seat, Warsaw. 260 THE MAKING OF THE EMPIRE STATE Yates. — Set off from Ontario County in 1823 and named for Joseph C. Yates, then governor of the state. The county was a part of the Puiteney estate and there- fore a part of the Massachusetts Purchase. Penn Yan, the county seat, received its peculiar name for having been settled by P^^i^isylvanians and Yankees. INDEX Albany, beginning of, 37, 39. Albany county divided, 142, Andros, Edmund, Governor, 67, 77. Arnold, Benedict, 126, 136 ; treason of, 147. Baptists in New York, 50. Battoes of Mohawk, 143, 179. Bayonne, 34. Bellomont, Earl of, 74, ^6. Bogardus, Dominie, 45, 46. Boston Post Road, 65, Bradstreet, Capt., captures Fort Oswego, 111. Brandt, Joseph, 101, 139. Burgoyne, surrender of, 136. Butlers Ford, 147. Canal, Erie, 182 ; Delaware and Hudson, 202. Carpenter, Sergeant, 217, Cherry Valley, 142. Christiansen, 37. Clermont^ the, 188. Clinton, De Witt, Governor, 196. Colden, Cadwallader, Gov- ernor, 82, Colonies resist taxation, 124. Columbia University, 194. "Crossroads," the, 42. Crown Point, 108. De Lacey, James, Governor, 82. Delaware divide, 17. Dongan, Thomas, Governor, 78, 85. English capture New Nether- land, 56 ; in Long Island, 53, 60 ; recapture New Nether- land, 65. Ericsson, John, 210. Five Nations, tlie, 90. Flushing, town officers decree, 52. Fort, Crown Point, 108 ; Ed- ward, 113 ; Orange, 38 ; Os- wego, 113; Ticonderoga, 108, 124. French, forts of the, 102; trad- ing-posts, 24, 37, 103. Frontenac, Count, 118. Fulton, Robert, 184, 185. Fur-trading, 36. Greater New York City, 223. 262 INDEX Hamilton, Alexander, 194. Helderberg war, 190. Herkimer, General, 138, 139 ; monument to, 142. Hodshone, Robert, 51. Howe, General, 127, 130. Hudson, Henry, death of, 31 ; explorations of, 23 ; in New York Bay, 28. Hudson Valley, French traders in, 24. Hutchinson, Ann, 45. Ice-age in New York, 14. Indian, clans, 91 ; council, 92 ; long houses, 90; villages, 93. Indians, origin of Iroquoian, 97 ; reservations for, 102. Johnson, Sir William, 87, 110, 114. Kidd, Captain, 74. Kieft, William, 44. King George's war, 104. King William's war, 104. King's College, 194. Leisler, Jacob, 79. Livingston, Robert, 187. Lovelace, Governor, 65, 66 ; establishes Boston letter post, 65. McKinley, William, 227. Manhattan Island, purchase of, 49. Manors, 34, 189. Megapolensis, Dominie, 50. Minuit, Peter, 43. Mohawk Valley, 143. Monitor, the, 210. Montcalm, General, 110. Montgomery, Richard, 126. Morris, Gouverneur, 194. New York riots, 216. Nichols, Governor, 64. Patroons, the, 32, 35, 36, 61, 62. Pell defies Stuyvesant, 55. Penn, William, seeks to obtain Susquehanna Valley, 84. Piracy in New World, 72. Prairies of New York, 18. Quakers in New York, 50, 166, Queen Anne's war, 104. Railroad, Delaware and Hud- son, 202 ; Delaware, Lacka- wanna and Western, 204 ; Elevated, 205 ; Erie, 201 ; first, 200 ; Lehigh Valley, 204; New York Central, 202; Subway, 207 ; West Shore,. 204. Roelandson, Adam, establishes first school, 67. St. Leger. Colonel, 137, 140. Schenectady, founding of, 117, SqhoolSj free, 196, INDEX 263 Schuyler, Philip, 126. Six Nations, the, 1)9, 101. Stuyvesant Peter, 46, 55, 57, 62, 69. Tappan Sea, 16. Tarrytown, 40. Ticonderoga, 108, 124. Tories, 127, 188, 147. Trade routes, 15, 18, 42, 92, 108. Unadilla Valley, 144. Yallevs of New York, 15. Van Curler, Arendt, 118. Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 202. Van Rensselaer, Kilian, 84 ; Stephen, 169. Van Twiller, Wouter, 48, 48, 49. Verrazano's exploration, 19 ; map, 22. Washington, George, 106, 112, 127, 129. West India Company, the, 31. William of Orange, 80. Willet, Colonel, 140, 147. Wood, Fernando, 214. H 99 78 I ^ a\ N^