JAMES RENWICK, LL.D.

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CHAPTER VII.

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Clinton is elected a Member of the State Senate. – Incorporation of the Sailor’s Snug Harbour. – Law removing the Incapacities of Roman Catholics. – Charter of the Manumission Society; of the Cincinnati. – Grant for an Insane Hospital. – Charter of the Eagle Fire Insurance Company. – Grant for the Defence of the Harbour of New-York. – Academy of Fine Arts Incorporated. – Clinton is named a Director, and subsequently President of the Academy. – Charter of the American Fur Company. – Burial of the Remains of the Prisoners in the Jersey Hulk.

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At the election held in 1805, Clinton was chosen a Senator of the state for the Southern District, which office he held along with that of mayor of the city of New-York. The Legislature, as usual, was not convened until 1806, when he took his seat. We have already had occasion to speak of his acts in this capacity in reference to the Public School Society of New-York. This was far from being the only important object which engaged his attention and received his support. From the first moment of his entering that body, he took a decided lead in its deliberations, and furnished the draught of many of the laws which originated in the upper house. Some of these are even yet of interest, and require a notice from us, which we shall give in order.

A benevolent individual of the name of Randall, had, by will, bequeathed a property, which has now become of immense value, to trustees, for the purpose of establishing a hospital for seamen, under the name of the "Sailors’ Snug Harbour." His heirs, if any could be found, were certainly foreigners; and thus, if the will were void, the real estate conveyed in it must have escheated to the state. It appeared possible that the bequest might be rendered null, from the fact that the will had the air of creating a corporation, by vesting the estate in a permanent body, composed of certain official personages, and not in individual trustees. Other legal difficulties stood in the way, which also required legislative action. Under the conviction that the bequest would be of great public benefit, Clinton introduced a bill conferring corporate powers on the trustees named in the will, and thus removing all doubts as to the title to the property. This corporation, after having carefully nursed its property for several years, has at last been enabled to carry into effect the intentions of its founder; and the name of Clinton might, with propriety, be placed alongside that of Randall, as having secured the application of his legacy to its intended object.

Under the royal government of the colony of New-York, certain laws had been passed intended to prevent the settlement of Roman Catholics, or, at least, debarring them from the privilege of voting. These disqualifications still existed; for the forms of abjuration intended to operate against Jesuit missionaries were retained at the revolution as a security against those who were unwilling to disavow their allegiance to the King of England. By the exertions of Clinton, a law drawn by himself was passed, which repealed the provision offensive to the conscience of Roman Catholics.

An association for promoting the manumission of slaves had existed for several years in the city of New-York, but had not obtained a charter. An act of incorporation was now introduced by Clinton and passed. He also drew and introduced a bill to charter the Society of Cincinnati. This association of the officers of the revolutionary army had been held together by the mere consent of its members, and is still prevented, from fulfilling, in a beneficial manner, the charitable objects of its institution. It had at one time been held up to the public as an attempt to found an order of nobility, and had been stigmatized as aristocratic; although, in fact, no more than an association for social and benevolent purposes. So great was the prejudice which had been excited against it by these gratuitous attacks, that it does not appear probable that any member of the democratic party, except Clinton, would have had the courage to propose that it should be incorporated.

The attempt to obtain a charter for this honourable and praiseworthy association failed; for even the influence of Clinton, and his entire possession of the confidence of the democratic party, were insufficient to overcome the feelings of distrust with which it was regarded.

It is thus a curious feature in the records of our legislative proceedings, that, while the natives of every European country which has furnished any large number of settlers have been incorporated by charter for mutual relief and for keeping up the recollections of their fatherlands, with the provision for continuing the privilege to their children, the officers of that army by which the independence of our country had been achieved should be denied a charter. Those who opposed the association at its beginning feared that the feelings of gratitude so justly due to those who had spent their blood, their fortunes, and the prime of their life in the revolutionary contest, might have invested them and their descendents with the influence of an order of nobility; but they did not foresee that in this case, at least, America was to furnish no exception to the proverbial ingratitude of republics.

Up to the year 1806, the State of New-York had possessed no hospital for the treatment of insane patients. The severest infliction with which the human race is visited had its victims thus exposed to unnecessary restraints and cruel inflictions. The trustees of the Hospital in the city of New-York now applied to the Legislature for aid in effecting the humane object of providing an asylum for the lunatic. The petition was referred by the Senate to a committee, of which Clinton was chairman. He made a report, in which the necessity of legislative assistance was forcibly set forth, and, in conformity with the report, grants were made, which enabled the trustees of the Hospital to erect and support an asylum for the insane. By means of this grant, a splendid and commodious building has been erected at Bloomingdale, where it stands as a monument of the wise beneficence of the Legislature.

Among the scourges to which the City of New-York has been exposed, one of the most destructive is fire. The inflammable nature of the materials employed in building, together with the necessity of providing against the severity of our winter climate, has made conflagrations of frequent occurrence and destructive violence. The system of mutual assurance had been adopted as a partial remedy, but the more economic mode of ensuring at a fixed premium could at that time be only effected through the agency of a company established in London. The public convenience called loudly for a local institution, which should undertake this important and useful business. The main difficulty was to find persons of sufficient capital who would be willing to become liable to the full extent of their property in a business of so great a risk; and there was, as yet, no instance of the business having been conducted by a charter, under which the associates would be liable only to the extent of their subscriptions. To meet the case, Clinton, at the request of a number of respectable inhabitants of New-York, drew, and procured the passage of, the charter of the Eagle Insurance Company. This has since served as the model for the incorporation of a number of other companies, which have been of great benefit to the community, and yielded good profit to their stockholders, until, after the lapse of 30 years from the establishment of the first, their capitals were swept away by the great conflagration of December, 1836. Even then they were the means of preserving many of the mercantile community from entire destruction.

The difficulties of which we have spoken, which arose from the acts of British and French cruisers, were in a great measure owing to the exposed condition of the Bay of New-York. The only work of any consequence provided by the general government for its defence was Fort Jay, on Governor’s Island. The city was in a measure safe from aggression, except by a strong force, by batteries on the water’s edge, but the safe anchorage at the Watering-place was wholly exposed. Here the British actually impressed seamen, and the French broke by force the sanitary regulations of the quarantine; while, as we have seen, fears were entertained that an attack would have been made on vessels under the very guns of Fort Jay. The general government showed a culpable negligence in respect to this question. The importance of New-York in a military and commercial light has, in general, rather excited the jealousy of other states than led to liberal measures for its protection. It was obvious that it was only by fortifications at the Narrows that security from the unpunished violation of our interior waters could be obtained. To this object Clinton turned his attention, and drew up an able report on the defence of the harbour of New-York. This was presented by him to the Senate, and led to the passage, in 1808, of an act containing an appropriation of $100,000 for the defence of that important pass.

Military critics have since found fault with the selection of the position where this fortification was erected. In this criticism they have forgotten the object for which it was erected, which was to command and cover the Watering-place and Quarantine ground, not to attempt the much more difficult task of closing the Narrows to the entrance of a foreign fleet. For the first of these objects, the position chosen is sufficient, and the only one that is so; while, in the second, it forms an essential and all-important feature. The occupation of Staten Island in such a manner that it cannot be easily seized by an enemy, is, besides, a most important object in the defence of the City of New-York. It formed, in 1776, a species of tête de pont, in which the British forces were quietly collected as they dropped in from a long voyage, and where they were organized and recruited in health for their final attack through Long Island.

In the commission named for fortifying the Narrows, Clinton’s name appears, and he filled an important place in its deliberations, although the details of the fortifications themselves necessarily fell to the charge of the chief-engineer of the United States, General Williams.

As early as 1801, an association had been formed in the City of New-York for the encouragement of the fine arts. Liberal contributions had been made by individuals, and a fine collection of casts from the antique had been procured. In addition, Vanderlyn had been employed to make copies of some of the best pictures in the Louvre, while Napoleon, at that time First Consul of France, had presented, through Chancellor Livingston, a splendid collection of engravings. The institution had languished for want of a local habitation, and its administration was impeded by the want of legal facilities. Clinton now took this institution under his protection. He obtained a charter for it, and a grant of apartments in the Government House. This building had been erected on the site of Fort George, for the residence of the chief magistrate of the state, but had become useless in consequence of the removal of the seat of government. In the apartments thus granted, the casts and pictures were arranged and opened to the public; and, although they excited but little notice at the time, their influence was felt in the formation of public taste, and gradually extended itself, until the City of New-York has assumed a high rank both for the patronage and the practice of the fine arts.

Clinton was named a director of the Academy in the charter, and continued to hold that office by annual election until the death of Chancellor Livingston, who was the founder and the first president. He was then elected president of the Academy, which office he held for several years, but, with great judgment, permitted the active duties of that station to be performed by Colonel Trumbull, who was so well fitted, from his reputation as an artist, to hold the first rank in such an institution. This institution, after fulfilling its object, has given way to an association of artists formed in its schools.

The Fur-trade of the West had been monopolized in a great degree by British subjects. These had spread their posts far to the south into the American territory, and could not be met on fair terms of competition for want of united action on the part of the American traders. Mr. Astor, so celebrated for his extended and comprehensive views of commerce, was willing to apply his own capital and talents to the important object of recovering this valuable trade from a rival, and soon to be a hostile nation. From the general government, however, under a strict construction of the constitution, he could not obtain the necessary powers wherewith to found a company; but as New-York would be the place of shipment and the necessary centre of operations, a charter from this state was considered by him as adequate to the purpose. He therefore petitioned the Legislature for an act of incorporation. This was drawn by Clinton, and by his exertions it became a law. Since that time the American Fur Company has not only been a profitable concern to its stockholders, and thus added to the general wealth, but has been of great value to the country. It has excluded the foreign influence, which had extended itself over the savages within our own borders, and has done more than arms to preserve the peace of an exposed frontier, and render the pioneers of civilization safe in their adventurous pursuits.

During the Revolutionary war, the prisoners taken by the British army, as well as many persons seized under a charge of treason, had been confined in a hulk anchored in the Wallabout Bay. The miseries of these floating prisons have been a fruitful theme of complaint on the part of all nations who have been engaged in war with Great Britain. Security seems to have been the only object in view, unless the demoniac pleasure of lessening the number of enemies by a lingering death can be believed to have existed. The sufferings which have in all cases attended confinement in British prison-ships, were aggravated on this occasion by the nature of the contest, and the fact that the jailers were in most instances rather political opponents of the prisoners, who sought to compel them to abandon their principles, than public and honourable enemies. Whatever may have been the cause, the mortality in that vessel was unexampled, and the corses of the unfortunate sufferers were hardly treated with the ceremony of a handful of earth to protect their putrefying remains from the public gaze. For nearly a quarter of a century, the unburied bones of these martyrs to their principles remained the reproach of their tyrannical destroyers and the disgrace of their ungrateful countrymen. Clinton felt the latter in no small degree; and, to remove the blot on the national fame, proposed a law for giving burial honours to the remains. This was passed, and was carried into effect. Unluckily, in its execution, an attempt was made to give it a party character, and to employ it in arousing or perpetuating a feeling of hostility to Great Britain. All those who doubted the policy of entering into a war with that country, were therefore debarred from uniting in the ceremony; and, by a want of ordinary good taste in the committee of arrangements, what was meant to honour the worthy dead overpassed the step which separates the sublime from the ridiculous. No error of management, however, can do away the merit of the sufferers, or detract from the feeling which influenced Clinton in proposing due honours to their unburied remains.

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Transcribed from the original text and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 12/10/99.