NEW YORK STATE
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               General Historical Information Prior to 1901


HISTORY.....New York Bay was discovered by Verrazano in 1524, but though
Portuguese, French and Spanish navigators, in all probability, visited the
harbor during the sixteenth century, no important explorations were made
before 1609, when almost simultaneously Samuel de Champlain, the founder of
Quebec, in August, and Henry Hudson, sailing in the half moon under the
Dutch flag, in September, entered the limits of the present State.
Champlain's action in lending the Huron Indians aid against the Iroquois
imbued the Five Nations with an implacable hatred for the French, and to a
great extent determined in advance the fate of their colonizing schemes in
America. Hudson's account of New Netherland, as he named the region, and of
the great river, called at first Mauritius and then North, and finally
Hudson, which he had ascended to the highest navigable point, led Dutch
merchants, eager for furs, to dispatch trading vessels to the new country in
1610 and subsequent years. Just below Albany, Captain Christiaensen built
Fort Nassau in 1613 (abandoned in 1617), and about the same time a number of
traders built their posts on Manhattan Island. A trading company , organized
in 1615, concluded two years later at Tawasantha, near Albany, a treaty with
the Iroquois, who remained to the last friends of the Dutch. With the
foundling of the West India Company in 1621 a fairly active immigration
began. A number of Walloons brought over by Captain May in 1623 were settled
on Manhattan Island, on Long Island, and up the Hudson at Fort Orange (later
Albany), founded in 1622. In 1626 Peter Minuit was made director-general of
the company, and bought Manhattan Island from the Indians. (See NEW YORK
CITY, section on HISTORY). The greater part of the population of New
Netherland  200 in number in 1625, were agents of the company, whose object
in the main was trade and not colonization: and as it guarded its monopoly
jealously and offered few inducements to permanent settlers, progress for a
few years was slow. Quickly, however, individual directors discovered the
advantageous facility with which the Indians might be brought to part with
their lands, and in 1629 the patroon system, a system of feudal tenure on an
extensive scale, was established. Kilan Van Rensselaer purchased a large
tract of land in the neighborhood of Albany, and Michael Pauw bought Staten
Island and Pavonia. Ships from Holland stocked these great estates with
colonists, tools, and animals.The acquisition of land continued under Wouter
Van Twiller (q.v.), who came over in 1633, and under Kieft (q.v.), who
succeeded Van Twiller in 1638. The abandonment of the company's trade
monopoly was followed by a large influx of colonists, among whom were many
English Puritans and French Huguenots. The population was cosmopolitan even
in 1643, when , according to Father Jogues, 400 or 500 inhabitants spoke
eighteen different languages and were divided into Calvinists, Lutherans
Catholics, Puritans, Baptists, and other more minute denominations. War with
the Algonquins Indians, caused by the greed of Kieft, brought the colony
near to destruction. The settlements around New Amsterdam were wiped out and
the town itself was threatened. In the moment of highest danger Kieft was
forced by popular demand to appoint a council of eight to assist him in
carrying on the war. This was the beginning of representative government in
New York. Peter Stuyvesant (1647-64) appointed a council of nine to advise
him and acted in systematic opposition to it. Sincerely solicitous for the
welfare of the colony, he reserved it for himself to determine in what that
welfare consisted and how it was to be attained. Defying alike the popular
will and the orders of the States-General in Holland, he ruled, arrested,
confiscated, silenced public speech, and dictated the outline for the Sunday
sermon. New Amsterdam received a burgher government in 1653, but Stuyvesant
had the appointment of the magistrates. He upheld bravely the rights of the
company against the Swedes on the Delaware, whom he dispossessed, and the
English in Connecticut and Long Island, but the citizens grew weary of him
and yielded in 1664 to an English fleet under Colonel Nicolls, which had
come to enforce the Duke of York's title to the region. New Netherland
became New York, and was ruled by the Duke's Governors (a legislature was
refused), and the" Duke's laws.". Taken by the Dutch in 1673, it was
returned to England in the following year. At the time of the English
occupation New Netherland had a population of about 8000, comprising many
nationalities, with the Dutch predominant.
       Life in the colony had not that deep spiritual tinge which it bore in
New England,  but it was more gracious and more free. The churches were well
supported, and the school system was excellent, but breweries and drinking
shops found their place in the order of things. In religion a broad
toleration, in social life a hearty gayety and timely hospitality marked the
cosmopolitan colony of well-fed traders and farmers.  The Dutch did not take
kindly to the English rule in the beginning. The desire of the people for
some share in the government remained unsatisfied. Complaints against the
arbitrary imposition of taxes and customs culminated in a  demand, expressed
in the form of petitions, for a popular assembly, and this was finally
granted in 1683, when a provincial assembly summoned by Governor Dongan
passed the Charter of Liberties, granting freedom of religion to all
Christians, and the suffrage to all freeholders. An important treaty with
the Iroquois in 1684 confirmed the alliance between them and the English and
made them definitely the enemies of the French, who retaliated with punitive
expeditions into the country, in 1687 under Denonville, and later,
repeatedly, under Frontenac. In 1686 New York and Albany obtained new
charters, but in the following year the provincial assembly was dissolved,
absolute rule was restored, and New York became a part of the Dominion of
New England, under Governor Andros. The Revolution of 1688 in England found
two parties in the colony, the richer classes who were loyal to James II.,
the popular majority in favor of William of Orange. Exaggerated reports of
Catholic intrigues caused Jacob Leisler (q.v.) to seize the fort at New
Amsterdam in the name of William and Mary. A committee
of safety made him commander-in-chief, and the popular assembly in 1689 gave
him autocratic power. He held the fort against a force of troops from
England, but willingly laid down his authority when Governor Sloughter, the
King's appointee, arrived. The clergy and the wealthy merchants hated
Leisler as the champion of popular ideas, and brought about his death on a
charge of treason in 1691.
         The period from 1690 to the Revolution was marked by almost
continuous disputes between the Governor and the Assembly on the questions
of the Governor's salary, the collection and the disposal of the revenue,
the control of the courts, and the establishment of an endowed church. Of
the Governors the larger number were impecunious peers sent to America to
grow fat as best they might.  They bargained with the Assembly for an
increase in salary, participated in gigantic land frauds in common with
minor officials and prominent citizens, and in one instance, the notable
case of Governor Fletcher (1692-98), shared in the profits of piracy. There
were, however, Governors of a far higher character, men like Bellomont
(1698-1701), to whom the rehabilitation of Leisler's memory is due, Robert
Hunter (1710-19), or William Burnet (1720-28), who was an ardent champion of
the royal power, but nevertheless an honest man, and zealous for the welfare
of the province, but in spite of political turmoil the growth of the colony
was rapid and uninterrupted. In 1720 the population consisted of 31,000
whites and 4000 negroes; in 1756 it comprised 83,000 whites and 13,000
negroes, and in 1771 168,000 whites and negroes. The first newspaper, the
GAZETTE, a Government organ, was published in 1725, and the second, the
WEEKLY JOURNAL, an opposition sheet, appeared in 1733. For his criticism of
the Governor's conduct the editor of the WEEKLY JOURNAL, John Peter Zenger
(q.v.), was brought to trial for libel in 1734, but, supported by the people
and the Assembly, he won his case and vindicated the freedom of the press in
New York. In 1746 the Assembly appropriated f250 toward the foundation of
King's College. The people who fought for the freedom of the press and
established King's College were the same who in 1741, thrown into a paroxysm
of fear by the baseless rumors of a negro insurrection, murdered 31 negroes
and drove out 71 others by due process of the law. In the early French and
Indian wars New York suffered heavily, for, owing to the factious disputes
between the Governor and the Assembly, the border was left without any
troops and the frontier settlements were swept clean by the French and their
Indian allies. In 1690 Schenectady was destroyed. Sir William Johnson kept
the Iroquois friendly to the English, and the alliance with them was
strengthened at the Albany Convention of 1754 (q.v.). By the Treaty of Fort
Stanwix in 1768 a definite line of delimitation between the English and the
Indian territory was traced.
        As early as 1762 petitions and remonstrances against the oppresive
commercial laws had been submitted to Parliament and the King. In 1764 the
Assembly appointed a committee to correspond with the other provinces
concerning the common cause, and in October, 1765, a colonial Congress
assembled at New York. The imposition of the stamp duty was followed by the
outbreak of disorder, in which the Sons of Liberty (q.v.) were prominent,
and non-importation agreements were entered into by the people.Though the
commercial interests of the colony suffered greatly, the Assembly refused to
vote supplies for the troops, and on January 18,1770, the Sons of Liberty,
and the British soldiers fought the battle of Golden Hill on John Street in
the city of New York. There was peace till 1773, when the arrival of tea
ships aroused the Sons of Liberty to renewed activity. By 1775 the
Provincial Assembly had become devotedly Tory, and unrepresentative of
popular opinion. Its last session occured on April 3d. On April 20th a
Provincial Congress, comprising representatives of seven counties outside of
New York City, met at New York, and elected delegates to the Continental
Congress. Upon the news of the battle of Lexington a committee of 100, in
which the more conservative element among the revolutionists predominated
took possession of he Government, and issued a call for a provincial
convention, which assembled July 10, 1776, at White Plains, and subsequently
removed to Kingston, where it adjourned April 20, 1777, after drawing up a
constitution for the State of New York.
      The Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1778. Two
years later New York ceded its public lands in the West to Congress, and in
1786 it terminated its dispute with Massachusetts by granting it the right
of preemption to about 6,000,000 acres of land in the western part of the
State. Of this vast tract more than 3,500,000 acres came by purchase into
the possession of Robert Morris (q.v.), who disposed of a large area,
embracing a considerable part of that section of the State, to a number of
citizens of Amsterdam, who in 1798 were authorized by the Legislature to
hold land within the State. This tract came to be popularly known as the
Holland Purchase. Land speculation was entered into on an extensive scale,
and the region filled up rapidly with immigrants from New England. The
dispute regarding the possession of Vermont, to which New York laid claim,
was settled by the erection of an independent State, Vermont being admitted
into the Union in 1791. The fear of too strong a central government and the
desire to retain possession of its rich custom-house made New York
ill-inclined toward the newly framed Federal Constitution. Two of its three
delegates withdrew from the Federal convention, and only after ten States
had adopted the Constitution did a State convention ratify it by 30 votes to
27 (July 26, 1788). From the very outset party lines were sharply drawn in
the State. The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and
General Schuyler. Among the leaders of the various factions of the
Republicans were the two Clintons--George, and after him De Witt--the
Livingstons, and Aaron Burr. Federalist from 1795 to 1800, the State became
Republican after that year, and passed under the domination of DeWitt
Clinton, who remained in power till 1822 except for a brief period of
eclipse between 1815 and 1817. Politics during this period were venal, and
personal ambitions determined the attitude of factions. The followers of the
ascendent faction were rewarded with the grant of bank charters and valuable
franchises, and, favored by the provisions of the Constitution, which gave
the power of appointment to office and removal to a council of appointment
 in 1821 there were 15,000 offices, military and civil, at its disposal),
the spoils system was developed to perfection and was introduced later by
Van Buren into national politics. To De Witt Clinton is due the rise of the
canal system which brought such prosperity to the State. The project of an
Erie Canal had been discussed by Gouverneur Morris in 1777; it was revived
by Clinton in 1810, and work on the Erie Canal was begun in 1817 and
terminated in 1825. The success of the Undertaking brought about Clinton's
election to the Governorship in 1824 and 1826, though his political
following had really been shattered.
   Clinton was succeeded in power by the Albany Regency (q.v.), a group of
men headed by Martin Van Buren, Silas Wright, William L. Marcy, and John A.
Dix, who made machine politics an exact science. Personal rivalries and
short-lived popular movements determined the general course of events. From
1836 to 1842 the anti-Masonic agitation (see ANTI-MASONS), assiduously
fanned into life by Thurlow Weed, was powerful enough to decide the outcome
of State elections. The anti-rent troubles originating in the grievances of
the farmers against their landlords---the successors of the patroons and the
great land companies--lasted from 1836 to 1846, when feudal tenure was
abolished by the new Constitution. The attitude of the Democrats toward such
questions as anti-Masonry, State and national banks, and the canal system,
was not uniform. Dissensions between the Conservatives (see Hunkers) and the
Radicals ( see Barnburners) enabled the Whigs to carry the State in 1838.
After 1840, when the Liberty Party arose, the anti-slavery feeling was
strong in the agricultural parts of the State, and in 1848 the Barnburner
Democrats led by Van Buren, broke away to aid in forming the free-Soil
Party. The Whigs and Know-Nothings gained and lost power in swift succession
before the Civil War broke out. The mercantile and manufacturing classes in
1860 advocated peace at any price, but the mass of the people were Unionist.
The reaction following upon the disasters of the first year and a half of
the war put the Democrats into power. In July 1863, occured the draft riots
in New York City. (see DRAFT RIOTS IN NEW YORK.) The war measures of
President Lincoln were denounced violently by the State authorities, and the
election of 1864 was bitterly fought, the outcome being decided in favor of
the Republicans by the votes of the men at the front.
      The economic development of New York has continued
uninterrupted after the war, and has fully justified its title of Empire
State." Its history, however, has been characterized by much of that
corruption which has marked the post-bellum politics of many States. The
period in general presents a dead level of partisan rule relieved by
occasional spasmodic upheavals of civic virtue. The gubernatorial power,
nevertheless, has been repeatedly in the hands of able men, several of whom
attained national eminence. From 1863 to 1871 New York City was ruled by the
notorious William M. Tweed (q.v.). In 1875, and again in 1899, frauds in
connection with the management of the State canals, involving high officials
and others, together known as the Canal Ring, were discovered. In the
assignment of public contracts much dishonesty was displayed. The State
Capitol at Albany and the county court house at New York are monuments of
what patient industry may accomplish in the way of nursing a modest estimate
into an enormous defalcation. Many attempts, however, were made to remedy
political evils by legislation. Laws were passed to check lobbying, to
insure honest party primaries, and to reform the civil service. The question
of tax reform was an important subject of legislation after 1880, and
brought the State into conflict with the powerful railway, gas and insurance
corporations upon the question whether their capital stock and the value of
their franchises were subject to taxation or not. The rise of the Labor
Party in 1886 was the cause of much important labor legislation. Laws
limiting the hours of daily work and protecting women and children in
factories and shops were passed in 1892 and subsequently. Much attention has
been devoted to the preservation of the Adirondack forests. In 1867 the
public schools of the State were made entirely free, and in 1875 primary
education was made compulsory.    The Constitution of 1777 was revised in
1821; the councils of revision and appointment were abolished, and the
Governor received the veto power. Many offices formerly filled by
appointment were made elective, and, in general, the new Constitution
represented  a great advance toward democracy. This tendency was continued
in the Constitution of 1846, which put an end to feudal tenure in lands,
abolished the court of chancery, established a court of appeals, and made
all the judges of the higher courts elective. By amendments adopted in 1869
(when a new Constitution framed in 1867 was rejected by the people), 1874,
and 1882, further reforms in the judiciary
were carried out, negro voters were freed from the property qualification
hitherto imposed upon them, penalties for bribery and corruption in office
were established, and the canals were freed from toll. Of the thirty-four
amendments submitted to the people by the Constitutional Convention of 1894,
the most important among those adopted were concerned with the reform of the
judiciary, the shortening of the Governor's term to two years, and the
reapportionment of the legislative districts of the State.
       New York is an uncertain State both in national and State
elections, and the influence exerted by its large electoral vote on the
outcome of Presidential contests has given it the well-earned name of the
"pivotal State." Notable cases were the elections of 1844, 1848, and 1884.
In the Presidential election of 1844 James K. Polk, the Democratic
candidate, received 170 votes in the electoral college as against 105 votes
cast for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate. The 36 electoral votes of New York,
which Polk carried by a small plurality, were sufficient to decide the
election. In 1848 the dissensions in the Democratic Party in the State
enabled Taylor to secure the Presidency. In 1884 Cleveland , the Democratic
candidate, carried the State by a plurality of 1149 and secured the
Presidency. New York voted for the Republican candidates from 1796 to 1808.
In 1812 it cast its vote for De Witt Clinton, who had been nominated by the
section of the Republican Party opposed to the domination of the
Congressional caucus, and had been indorsed by the Federalists. It voted for
Monroe in 1816 and 1820, divided its vote among Adams, Crawford, Clay, and
Jackson in 1824 (26 out of 36 for Adams) and between  Adams and Jackson in
1828 (20 out of 36 for Adams).  It was Democratic in 1832, 1836, 1844, and
1852, and Whig in 1840 and 1848. From 1856 to 1864 it was Republican, and
then entered on a course of vacillation. It voted for Seymour (Democrat) in
1868, Grant (Republican) in 1872, Tilden (Democrat) in 1876, Garfield
(Republican) in 1880, Cleveland (Democrat) in 1884, Harrison (Republican) in
1888, and Cleveland (Democrat) in 1892. The State went decidedly Republican
on the money question in 1896 and 1900.


Source:    The New International Encyclopaedia
Publisher:  Dodd, Mead and Company--New York
Copyright:  1902-1905  Total of 21 Volumes


                     Transcribed by Miriam Medina
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