Sketch of the resources of the City of New York. With a view of its municipal government, population, etc

Front matter

SKETCH OF THE RESOURCES OF THE oinro wr ira^TroBHR. WITH A VIEW OF ITS MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT, POPULATION, fee. &c. FHOM THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITV TO THE DATE OF THE X/ATEST STATISTICAL ACCOUNTS NEW-YORK : G. & C. CARVILL, BROADWAY. 1827. Southern District of New-York, ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 14th day os July, A. D. 1827, in the 52d year of the Independence of the United Slates of America, G. & C. Carvill, of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit : " Sketch of the Resources of the City of New-York. With a view of its municipal government, population, &c. &c. from the foundation of the City, to the date of the latest statistical accounts." In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled " An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned."

And also to an Act, entitled " An Act sup plementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extend ing the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." FREDERICK I. BETTS, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. Vanderpool & Cole, Printer*.

Preface

. In the following brief sketch of a City, the progress of which during the last thirty-five years has been almost without example in the history of society, many material circumstances con nected with its general prosperity have been una voidably omitted. The limits, which the author has assigned to himself, and the want of statistical information have prevented him from giving many subjects even a cursory examination, and ren dered it impracticable to enter minutely into the details of any. His aim has, therefore, been to present a general view of the resources of the city, unincumbered, as far as possible without impairing its accuracy, with particular facts. MOTUIKk

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Chapter I

»®-«- COMMERCIAL ORIGIN AND CHARACTER. The origin of every city may be traced either to commercial or manufacturing interests. It is the effect of agricultural pursuits, before the existence of trade and manufactures, to scatter mankind in a distribution, regulated by attractions of soil and climate, over the face of the earth. While the wants of life are supplied by the direct productions of the soil, and while the mechanical arts and the business of exchange art unknown, it results from the regular and irre sistible operation of a natural law, that large cities cannot exist. The condition of society would furnish neither the elements of their growth nor of their preservation. It is not until the mechanical arts are cultivated, and the operations of traffic and exchange become a part of the practical system of men, that towns and cities spring into life, and communicate to society a new and more complex character.

In extending the view to the growth and pro gress of cities, it is obvious that their prosperity depends upon the continued operation of the causes, from which they derive their existence. Isa city has risen to opulence and greatness from the success of a particular manufacture, it will decline to a certain extent when that manufacture can no longer find a demand in the market. If a city has risen from the success of a particular branch of commerce, it will, in like manner, decline as soon as that branch of commerce is at an end. But a total decline of a city rarely follows the extinction of the cause, in which it has its origin. The accumulation of capital and the divisions of industry, incident to every pros perous city, become secondary principles of preservation, which continue to operate when the original principles, to which we have adverted, have passed away.

Thus, a large manufacturing town in the interior of a country may, after the decline of its manufacturing interests, remain important as a depot for the prosecution of inland trade, in consequence of the commercial habits which it has acquired. On the other hand, a commercial town may, after the decline of-its trade, continue important from the mechanical arts, which have grown up under the influence and protection of commerce. But this cannot happen where manufacturing pursuits in the one case, or commercial pursuits in the other, constitute the whole business of the citizens ; and the security of every city from the influence of those fluctuations, which naturally accompany the pro gress of society, will be in precise ratio of its dependance on a variety of interests. These observations have been deemed necessary, in order to illustrate conclusions, which will be drawn in the sequel.

The city of New-York had its origin in com mercial interests. The first permanent establishment had a view to trade, and was made by the Dutch West India Company in 1609,* soon after the discovery of the country, the title to which is said to have been sold to that Company by the discoverer, Henry Hudson.f This establishment was forcibly broken up in 1618, by the English South Virginia Company, who claimed title on the part of the English government, by virtue of the discoveries of the Cabots ; but the Dutch were peaceably reinstated in possession, in * The date of the discovery of Hudson's River, at the mouth of which the city of New-York is situate, was long disputed, being assigned by some to the year 1608, and by others to the year 1609 ; but it is now settled that the discovery was made on the 3d September, 1609.

See Chalmers' Political Annals, Chap. XIX. Yates and Moulton'a New-York, Vol. I. Part I. Sec. 49. t Chalmers, in the 19th Chapter of his Political Annals, disputes the sale of the territory, on which New-York now stands, by Hudson, on the ground that he could not sell it as a discovery, because it was previously discovered by Cabot, and that he could not sell it on the principle of occu pancy, because he had never occupied the land. 1620, by a permission from James I, under which some temporary establishments were made, for the purpose of supplying with water and provisions the vessels engaged in trade between Hol land and Brazil. The growing importance of the establishment induced the government of Holland to take it under their protection, and in 1629 a province was erected under the name of the Province of New Netherlands, which re tained its form until 1664, when its government was dissolved by Charles II of England, who took forcible possession of the settlement, and transferred it by letters-patent to his brother, the Duke of York, (afterward James II,) from whom it received the name of New-York.

In 1673, the country again passed into the hands of the Dutch by conquest, and in 1674 was restored to England by treaty. During all these changes the settlement retained its commercial character and habits. From this statement of facts connected with the foundation and early history of New-York, it is apparent that the causes, to which its origin is to be traced, have little analogy with those, to which the other settlements of the United States owe their existence. The first settlers of New- England, Pennsylvania, and the Southern States were, with few exceptions, refugees from religious and political persecution, and their abodes in the wilderness were selected — not as fixtures, with a view to the general business of life, but — as asylums to screen them from the oppression, which had expelled them from their homes.

These settlements may, therefore, be considered as con secrated by the presence of a great moral principle. The first settlement of New-York was without the benefit of any moral impulse of this nature : her shores were occupied by a commercial company, with a view to trade ; and every subsequent addition to her wealth and industry is to be traced to the operation of the same cause. The records of the city during its colonial dependence are so imperfect, that neither the amount, nor the distribution of her wealth, can be ascertained with precision. But every historical account of her early transactions ascribes them all to the impulse of commercial interests. From some statistical details of the year 1678* it ap pears that, with a population of less than 3500 souls, she was solely occupied with trade, in which she employed between 15 and 20 vessels of different classes belonging to herself, and rather a less number, the property of the mother country.

A similar account of the year 1756 exhibits the same progress from the operation of the same causes.! At this time she was the market for * Chalmers' Polit. Annals, chap. xix. t Smith's History of New-York, Part 6, Chap. Connecticut and New-Jersey, and was extensive ly engaged in trade with the West-Indies and the mother country. Besides 80,000 barrels of flour. annually shipped to the West-Indies, large quan tities of bread-stuffs, fruit, lumber, animals, and salt provisions were exchanged with those isl ands for rum, sugar, molasses, &c. There was also a considerable trade in logwood with Hon duras, and in furs with the mother country. In little more than two months from the 9th Dec. 1755, 12,528 hogsheads of flax-seed were shipped to Ireland. Cotton was also imported in large quantities from St. Thomas and Surinam, for re-exportation to the mother country.

Thus it appears that as early as the year 1756, New- York was considered as the mart for the ex change of the agricultural produce of Connecti cut and New-Jersey with the manufactures of England ; and that a large portion of her com merce consisted in a similar system of exchanges of these manufactures with the natural productions of the West-India islands and the territories bordering on the gulf of Mexico, all of which passed through her as the medium of communication between the commercial parties. In neither of the accounts above cited is any mention made of manufactures as ministering to her prosperity. The island of Manhattan, on which the city lies, has no facilities for manufacturing pursuits, and the great natural advantages of New-Jersey and Connecticut with regard to manufactures, will for ever confirm the direc tion, which her capital and industry assumed from the first stage of her existence.

For agricultural industry the island has as little natural attraction. It is broken and sterile, and this con stitutional disability is confirmed by the superior productiveness of contiguous soils. With these obstacles in the adjacent country to manufac turing and agricultural industry, and with extraordinary advantages for commerce, it was natural that the character of the city of New-York should at a very early day assume a fixedness, with regard to the nature of her pursuits, from which, in the whole course of her progress, it has never for a moment departed. In a subsequent chapter we shall have occasion to speak of a few manufac tures, which have grown up within the city ; but they are such as are independent of natural facili ties, and therefore are likely to arise wherever there are large accumulations of capital and labour.

From the year 1756 to the year 1790 the gene ral progress of the city in population and resources was nearly the same as that of most other cities in the United States ; but from about this last epoch it was apparent, from the rapid exten sion of her commercial relations, that she was destined to take the lead and gradually acquire the character of a general mart tor the ex change of foreign and domestic productions. As we shall hereafter see, the causes of her greatness as a trading city are yet but imperfectly develo ped. She has grown to her present magnitude and importance almost solely by the force of natural advantages ; and it will not be until her facili ties for artificial communication are fully disclos ed, that all the principles of her future prosperity will be brought into operation.

From a review of the foregoing observations and facts, it appears that the establishment of the city of New-York received its impulse from com mercial causes ; and that she has for more than two centuries maintained a steady progress from the developement and growth of the particular interests, in which her foundations were laid. It is also apparent from a consideration of her local peculiarities, that she can never flourish by the force of any other interests than those of trade. Manufactures are precluded by physical disabilities. So long as her commercial importance is preserved, her increase in wealth and resources will be rapid and progressive ; but a stagnation of her commerce will involve a stagnation of her prosperity, and inevitably lead to the dissolution and decay of that industry, which, by the variety and spirit of its operations, excites and vivifies every section of the country.

Chapter II Municipal Government And Police

In the early constitutions and laws of the pre vinces and towns of the present United States. framed during their colonial dependance, there are striking points of diversity, arising from the different nature of the sources, in which they had their origin. Those which originated with the sovereign authority of the mother country, are marked with the vigorous spirit of her institutions : those, on the other hand, which grew out of the deliberations of the colonists, are indued with the milder and more cautious temper of democracy. Under the charters of the British kings energetic systems of authority were built up and enforced ; while the enactments, fundamental as well as administrative, of the colonial assemblies were carefully guarded against the admission of arbitrary principles. The preservation, for a long time after the establishment of our national independence, of many of the original charters, under which the cities and prov inces were first organized, has given an air of incongruity to portions of the local jurisprudence and government of the United States, which would not readily be accounted for by those, who do not trace these diversities back to their source.

These monuments of arbitrary rule seem to rise up in the broad field of liberal government in order to mark the career of free principles, and to illustrate the authority of opinion, by the force of which their influence is counteracted and subdued. The first charter of the city of New-York was granted by James II. and bears date the 22d April 1686, about fourteen months subsequent to the commencement of his reign. The following detail contains some of the principal features of the charter, and is all that is necessary to under stand the general scope of its operation. The corporation was designated by the name of the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New-York. They were empowered to purchase, hold and dispose of property to the amount of the yearly value of £1000. The royalties of fishing, hunting, fowling and mines (except gold and silver) were granted to them.

The mayor, recorder and three or more aldermen and assistants were to compose a common council. with power to make, alter and repeal laws, which were not to remain in force more than three months, unless confirmed by the governor and council. Discretionary fines and amerciaments might be levied by the common council for the violation of their own ordinances: the remedy, by distress and sale of the offender's goods. The mayor and sheriff were to be appointed yearly by the governor and council. The recorder, town-clerk and clerk of the market were to be appointed by the king, or, in default thereof, by the governor or commander in chief. The mayor. recorder, and three or more aldermen, to be justices of the peace for the determination of all matters, civil and criminal, arising within the limits ofthe city.

Aldermen, assistant aldermen and petty constables to be chosen yearly by a ma jority of votes of the inhabitants of each ward. The mayor to appoint the high constable ; and the chamberlain to be chosen by the mayor and three or more of the aldermen with three or more of the assistant aldermen. Mayor, aldermen and com monalty authorized to hold a court of common pleas every Tuesday. They were authorized to lay out streets Sec. but not to interfere with vested rights of property, except by consent of the owners. In 1708, Queen Anne, by letters patent, con firmed the above charter, and granted some further powers, principally relative to the establishment of ferries. On the 4th Oct. 1732 an act was passed under George II. confirming previous grants of power with some important modifications. The following is an analysis of the charter of the city, as modified by this act, into its principal details.

The city was made a free city. The municipal government to be administered by one mayor, one recorder, seven aldermen, seven assistant aldermen, one sheriff, one coroner, one common clerk, one chamberlain, one high constable, sixteen assessors, seven collectors, sixteen consta bles, and one marshal. The governor to appoint the mayor, sheriff and coroner annually. The mayor to appoint one of the aldermen his deputy to act in his place in case of sickness, absence or death. Freemen and freeholders to choose the al dermen, assistant aldermen, collectors and con stables annually. The mayor and four or more aldermen and assistants to appoint a chamberlain yearly in common council. The mayor to appoint the high constable. The mayor and recorder and four or more aldermen with four or more assistants, to be a common council, with power to make laws, which were to remain in force twelve months from their date and no lon ger, unless confirmed by the governor and council.

The corporation had power to inflict penal ties by fines and amerciaments, or by disfranchise ment for disobedience of their own laws. The common council had power to lay out streets and make city improvements at their discretion. The mayor, deputy mayor, recorder and aldermen to be justices of the peace with power to hold a court of sessions ; to be justices of oyer and ter miner and of the goal delivery ; to have power to hold a court every week to try all actions, real, personal, and mixed. The mayor, recorder and aldermen to have a several power to try all causes with or without jury, where the thing in demand did not exceed 40 shillings in value. The corporation empowered to purchase, hold and dispose of property to the value of £3000 per annum. In these different grants of power, it will be perceived that very little essential difference pre vails.

The manner in which the principal mu nicipal officers were created, was such as to de prive the people of much of their proper influence in the affairs of their own government. From James to Anne, they were for the most part appointed directly by the sovereign ; and by the act of George II. they were indirectly appoint ed by him through the intervention of the provin cial authority. The dependance of the corpora tion was, during the whole of this time, secured by the negative exercised by the governor and council over their enactments. The general mass of municipal power remained nearly the same. The most remarkable point of difference was between the power conferred by the charter of James II. on the common council to make city improvements limited in its operation by rights of private property, and the power conferred by George to make similar improvements without any such limitation.

The fiscal powers of the corporation were nominally trebled ; but the real increase will be obtained by deducting from the amount of this difference the amount of the diminished value of money from the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth cen tury.* The following changes by acts of the state legis lature and by the constitution of 1821, are modi fications of tiie charter as confirmed by George II. In the view here presented the minor fea tures have not been considered, the object being to give merely a general idea of the municipal powers. By the act of 9th April, 1813, the city was di vided into ten wards. The electors of each ward to choose one alderman, one assistant alderman. two assessors, one collector and two constables. The mayor, recorder, and not less than five aldermen and five assistant aldermen to be a quorum of the common council.

A register appointed for registering mortgages, recording deeds, conveyances, Sec. Office of the com- * See IV. Hume's England, Chap. 71st. mon clerk abolished and clerk of the Common Council created. Office of Clerk of the market granted to the corporation. Laws of the Common Council to remain in force three years, unless en acted for a shorter period or unless repealed by themselves, and renewable at their pleasure; sub ject, however, to be repealed by the state legisla ture. Corporation authorized to alter and lay out streets, Sec. and for this purpose, empowered to take private property upon paying to the owners the value thereof, to be ascertained by commissioners appointed by the Supreme Court ofthe State. The Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen have the power of police judges, empowered to act as conservators of the peace.

The Common Council are authorized to pass and provide for the execution of ordinances for the prevention and extinction of fires: this embraces a large class of powers. The Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen to be supervisors of the city. The Corporation to cause sewers to be made, streets paved and cleansed, and vacant lots filled in — the expenses to be estimated and assessed by individuals appointed by themselves. The Corporation to be commissioners of high ways 5 — authorized to build bridges, make ditches, construct causeways, Sec. to make wells and pumps. Sec. to lay out wharves, piers and slips. i Common Council to make regulations for wharves, piers and slips. — Convicts to be employed at the discretion of the Corporation. By the seventh section of the fourth article of the constitution of the state, the sheriff, register and clerk of the city and county are to be chosen by the electors once in three years, and as often as vacancies happen.

They are removable by the governor at any time within the three years for which they are elected. By the tenth section of the same article, the mayor is annually chosen by the Common Council. By the eleventh section of the same article, coroners are elected in the same manner as sheriffs, with the same tenure of office, and subject to the same power of removal. By the fourteenth section of the same article, the special justices and the assistant justices and their clerks are to be appointed by the Common Council, to hold their offices for four years, unless removed by the county court for causes specially assigned by the judges thereof. By the sixth section of the fifth article, the recorder holds his office for five years, unless removed by the senate, on the recommendation of the governor.

The charter of the city, as it now stands, is a singular illustration of the changes, which have been wrought in the government of the United States, by their transition from colonial subjection to national independence, and by the general progress of opinion throughout the country. It is a fabric of arbitrary powers, resting upon a popular basis. Almost all the grants of the English kings are retained, and many important additions have been made to the powers of the Corporation by acts of the legislature. But, in confirming and extending the authority of the municipal government, its organization has been subjected to the popular principle of representa tion, and the citizens have directly or indirectly a voice in the election of most of their officers. The following instances may serve to illustrate the foregoing remarks : — In addition to the powers above recited, and many others not mentioned, comprehending almost all the relations, which belong to the business transactions of society, the Corporation have a general power to make city improvements at their discretion, to appropriate to this object private property, upon paying its value, and to tax the property of the citizens to an unlimited extent, in order to carry their plans of improve ment into effect.* Under this power, property * The preservation of this power is the more remakable, as in the first charter of the city granted by James II. it was expressly provided, that private property should not be taken by the Corporation but by consent of the owner. has sometimes been taxed, by the commissioners appointed for that purpose, beyond its value in the market, and the proprietors have offered to surrender the whole subject of taxation, to satisfy the tax assessed upon it.

A tax professes to be a sum equal to the rated proportion of a given amount of property ; and a tax, which exceeds the whole value of that amount, is without a prece dent in any country. These impositions cannot, by any collection of facts or chain of reasoning, It may be said that the appeal, which lies to the Supreme Court of the State, from the assessments of the commissioners, is a security against tbe abuse of this power. But the process of redress is often expensive and always troublesome ; and it is only in aggravated cases of abuse that it will be resorted to. The case reported in 20 Johnson 430, with others, to which it is unnecessary to refer, indicates the propriety at least of guarding the exercise of this power by additional restrictions. It is not alone in the occasional injury done to individuals that the evil consists, nor in the example of an arbitrary power under a system, which should be popular in its operation as well as in its forms — but it is a universal evil, which, by connecting with the tenure of real estate a liability of this sort, is a posi tive diminution of its pecuniary value; and in this diminution, every holder of real estate is virtually taxed on account of the insecurity of his possession.

By the law of Massachusetts of 22d February, 1822, incorporating the city of Boston, no other powers are conferred on the Corporation with regard to these objects, than those which belong to the selectmen of the towns throughout the state. The law of Pennsylvania, 25th March, 1805, regulating the powers of the Corporation of Philadelphia with regard to certain improvements, deprives them of all control over private property. Commissioners are appointed by the Court of Quarter Sessions, on petition, from individuals who are neither residents nor landholders in the city, for the purpose of viewing and laying out the improvement. If their report is confirmed by the court at its next session, other commissioners are appointed in the same manner, and with the same restrictions, to make assessments of damages, &c. &c. and their report is submitted in like manner for confirmation.— By the force of these guards, abuse is utterly precluded. be made to appear just : they have been submitted to, because they have been made with all the prescribed forms of popular sanction; but they are far more arbitrary and oppressive than many impositions, which, in the absence of these forms, have led to insurrection and revolution in govern ment.

By the fourteenth section of the third article of the state constitution, the special justices and assistant justices are to be appointed by the Corporation, who have also the power of altering their salaries. The pecuniary limits of their judicial authority are such as to give them juris diction in almost all cases, in which the Cor poration is a party to suits for the recovery of penalties incurred by a violation of the municipal laws. The tribunal to decide these cases be tween the Corporation and the citizen is, there fore, created by one of the parties to the con troversy, and the fundamental rule of natural justice, that no party shall be a judge in his own cause, is violated. This defect in the organiza tion of a judicial authority, which has an imme diate control over the persons and property of the citizens, has, perhaps, produced no inconvenience whatever; but in less virtuous times a corrupt influence might be acquired and exercised to the detriment of the public and of individuals ; and against the possibility of such abuses it is the business of legislation to guard, by every possible precaution.

In fundamental provisions, which are less liable to change than the ordinary legislation of government, these precautions are the more necessary ; and in the case under consideration, the limited tenure of office affords facilities for management and influence, which should be counteracted by the conditions of the office itself. Under the law of 9th April, 1813, a police office is established, and the police judges, (other wise called special justices,) are authorized to exercise certain powers, which belong to alder men when out of sessions. By an act of 9th February, 1788, justices of the peace are au thorized to commit, for sixty days, any vagrant, disorderly person, Sec. on their own view, without a trial by jury. By an act of 3d March, 1820, the term of commitment is extended to six months.

Thus, the police justices have the power of taking up and imprisoning any individual at their discretion, without the form of trial by jury. The constitution of the state of New- York* provides for the exercise of this power, by subjecting to trial by jury, those cases only in which that form of trial "has been heretofore used." The powers conferred by previously existing laws are, therefore, confirmed by this Article 7th specification of cases. This provision is in direct collision with the constitution of the United States,* which declares that "the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury-" That so arbitrary a power has been retained even by legislative provision, and that its exercise has been tolerated by those who are subject to its operation, can only be accounted for by the supposition that it has not been abused, and that the authority of opinion has been such as to restrict it to cases, wherein the rules of justice have been rigidly observed.