1858.

can, with truth, be thus designated, is the one to the memory of the late General William J. Worth, of the United States army, erected by the corporation of the city of New York in 1858. It is of Quincy granite, the apex is fifty-one feet from the ground, and the smooth surface of the shaft is broken by raised bands, on which are the names of the battles in which General Worth had distinguished himself in the War of 1812 and the war with Mexico. On the lower section of the shaft are representations of military trophies in bronze relief. The entire execution and designing of the work is due to Mr. James G. Batterson, who deserves great praise for the admirable manner in which his task was performed. The site of the monument-which is inclosed in a plain iron railing, and surrounded by green turf-is most happily chosen; and, in addition to being a worthy tribute to a beloved and gallant soldier of the Empire State, is a handsome ornament to the brilliant and fashionable locality.

In the same year (1845) the Post-office was removed from the Rotunda in the City Hall Park to the Middle Dutch Church, where it still (1872) remains. Harper's Magazine for October, 1871, in giving a reliable and minute sketch of the New York Post-office and its traditions, says:

1845.

"Immediately after the destruction of the Post-office in the great fire of 1835, it had been removed temporarily to the brick stores in Pine, near Nassau Street; the destruction of such an enormous number of buildings making it impossible to obtain a suitable building in the vicinity of the burned district. In this strait, the city authorities offered the Rotunda in the City Hall Park, erected in 1818, by Vandelyn, the artist, for a studio and the exhibition of panoramic pictures. When it was understood the Government proposed to accept the Rotunda, busy as the merchants were in re-establishing themselves and counting up their losses, they found time to get up very demonstrative indignation meetings and protests against locating a post-office so far up town.

"The Post-office was, however, installed in the Rotunda, and the commercial pressure of 1837, which followed the great fire, diverted the public mind from the location of the Post-office. Illustrative of the pecuniary disaster of the period may be mentioned that, in the collapse,' many of the merchants of the day owed the letter-carriers various sums, ranging from fifty to one hundred and

fifty dollars, much of which money was never paid, the debtors being irretrieva bly ruined. This year the mail time between New York and New Orleans was reduced to six days and six hours. But the people, nevertheless, were impatient for more rapid communication, for we find in a Chicago paper of the time this notice:

"HIGHLY IMPORTANT.-By a foot passenger from the South we learn that the longexpected mail may be looked for in a week.'

"Fortunately for the interests of commerce and the unity of the country, rapid transit of news, cheap postage, and facilities for traveling, were approaching consummation in the erection of railroad lines, with which private enterprise was threading every section of the country. One triumph announced seemed only to create a demand for another, and when Amos Kendall carried

THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH DURING THE REVOLUTION.

out the idea of connecting the non-continuous lines of railways by pony expresses, there was added a new value to the Post-office of New York. It began to assume its present central importance, and the promise of its brilliant future was almost realized, when the firing of guns from our national forts and vessels, with the ringing of bells, and cheers of thousands of exultant men, all joined in welcoming the first appearance of steam merchantmen in our harbor -the ever-to-be-remembered Sirius and Great Western.

"The inconvenience of having the Post-office so far from the center of busi ness was still complained of, and, to quiet dissatisfaction as far as possible, a letter-delivery was established in the new Merchants' Exchange, where the

Custom-house is now located, and placed in charge of Jameson Cox, an alderman and ex-chief-engineer. For letters two cents, for papers one cent, extra, was charged, which sums were paid without complaint by the merchants, and the amount thus collected paid to letter-carriers' charges.

'In the year 1826, Mr. Gouverneur had been removed, and James Page, Esq., postmaster of Philadelphia, commissioned to take charge, which supervision was maintained for six weeks, when Jonathan J. Coddington was commissioned postmaster. When the latter assumed the duties of his position the Post-office was in the Rotunda building and in the house of a hook-and-ladder company adjoining, and a hose-house on the opposite side of the way.' Nothing could have been more inconvenient, contrary to good discipline, and injurious to expeditious business operations. To remedy these evils, Mr. Coddington built a handsome extension facing toward Wall Street. With this important addition, and other improvements, he brought the entire business (now constantly increasing) under one roof. The mails were received in Chambers Street, the box delivery was on Center Street, while the interior of the Rotunda was devoted to the general delivery.

"The location of the Post-office in the Rotunda seemed to be unsatisfactory to citizens living in every part of the city. An application was therefore made for the establishment of a branch post-office for the receipt and delivery of the mails in the upper part of the city. The reply was, that such an office could only be a branch of the one already existing, and that no compensation could be allowed for services beyond the two cents per letter paid the carriers. It was also doubted if the extent of New York demanded such an addition to its postal facilities. The proposition was also submitted to Mr. Coddington, and was opposed by him and his clerks. The subject was finally referred to the Chamber of Commerce, which recommended that there be established a subpost-office for the reception of letters at Chatham Square, but not any place for the delivery of letters other than the existing arrangements at the Post-office and by the penny post. Such was the origin of the Chatham Square postoffice, which maintained its popularity and usefulness until its occupation was destroyed by the present iron boxes now so familiar on the street corners.

"So much esteemed was Mr. Coddington by the officials at Washington, that the Postmaster-General, under General Harrison's administration, informed him that, though a political opponent of the administration, he might retain his position. One week after this notice President Harrison died, and his successor, John Tyler, promptly requested Mr. Coddington to renew his bonds. On this hint, after some hesitation, he did as requested, and forwarded them to Washington in June. The reply was promptly returned in the form of a commission creating 'John Lorimer Graham postmaster of New York, in place of Jonathan Coddington removed.'

"Mr. Coddington is still remembered among the old clerks of the Postoffice, and the old merchants of the city, as one of the best of officers. He tried to learn the details of his position, and took pride in making every improvement that would render his department efficient. He was a man of great personal independence, and, though a decided politician, he would not allow his bias that way to affect his official conduct. On one occasion a committee of ward politicians called upon him, and stated, through their chairman, that he had been assessed fifty dollars for partisan purposes. Mr. Coddington heard the proposition with patience, and then rising from his chair said:

“'I refuse to pay any such assessment as this you speak of. I'd have you understand that I am postmaster of New York City, and not postmaster of a ward committee.'

"The pressure to get the Post-office down town' still continued, and advantage was taken of the fact that the Middle Dutch Church' was for sale to procure it for a Post office. There was nothing in the world so unsuited as the building for such a purpose; but the location was desirable, and the merchants went to work to press the matter upon the Government. The property was offered for $350,000, but the Postmaster-General decided not to give more than $400,000. Lest the purchase might not be consummated, the merchants in a few hours raised by voluntary contributions the additional $50,000, and the old church was secured for secular purposes.

"The extravagance and folly of the Federal Government in buying property erected for a church, and attempting to alter it to accommodate a post-office, or in leasing any kind of private property and fitting it up for public service, finds an illustration, but not an exceptionable one, in this 'high old Dutch Church Postoffice of New York city.' It may not be out of place to mention to the general reader that this old church was dedicated, in 1732, as a house of Christian worship. Until the close of the century its services were carried on in the 'Holland language;' after that it was alternated with the English language. In the year 1776 the British tore out its pews, and (with the adjoining building, the old Sugar-house) used it as a prison for American patriots, taken and treated as rebels. When no longer needed for this purpose, it served in rainy weather as a school-house for cavalry. When the British evacuated New York the congregation again took possession, removed the pulpit and altar from the eastern side to the northern end, and erected the heavy, formidable galleries, destined eventually to become so conspicuous in the economy of the Post-office. Perhaps no building could be invented more unsuited for the purposes to which it has been appropriated. John Lorimer Graham, who had the responsible and difficult task of making it available, commenced by expending on the attempt what was then the large sum of $80,000. He then issued a printed circular, surmounted by a picture of the old church, dated New York, January 2d, 1845, which read:

"The postmaster has great pleasure in announcing to his fellow-citizens that the new Post-office building (112 years old) in Nassau Street, will be ready for occupation in a few days, and respectfully invites, &c., &c., to view the interior arrangements of the establish

ment.'

"It was a grand time when the citizens crowded into this old church to look for the Post-office. The eighty thousand dollars had made no material change; to be sure, the altar railing was gone, but the pulpit remained, and the galleries, left intact, resembled great overhanging amphitheaters. But the Postoffice was finally installed; and then commenced that era in its business his. tory that has made it a sort of visible standard, or gauge, of the mighty growth of old Manhatta.

The inconvenience, the necessarily miserable arrangements, the total unfit ness of the place-inherently so by the main design of the building-have been a source of constant discomfort and annoyance, and made the labors of the clerks and the supervision of the executive officers onerous to the last degree During the first year of the occupation, the space immediately around the build.

ing was still covered with the tablets of what should have been the truly honored dead; for there lay the representatives of a large part of our ancient and best population. The vaults under and around the church gave up their dead when the profane feet of the busy multitude pressed forward toward the church, not for prayer, but from the absorbing interest in the living, bustling world. For a long year the strange spectacle was presented of coffins and mail-bags, of carts and extemporized hearses, jostling each other while engaged in their allotted work; but at last this incongruous mingling of the dead population and the living ended; but the forbidding look of that old castellated church remained.

"The tower, bountifully made of stone, continued, and still continues, to look down sullenly on the bustle beneath, while the strong walls of the church inside, announcing, in Dutch, that 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' and the rough plastered walls outside, speaking of the wasting storms of nearly a hundred and fifty years, repudiate all harmonious minglings and sympathies with the secular business of distributing the mails.

“But the place is not without its living defenders of old traditionary possession. The mynheers are gone; the Knickerbockers know the place no more; but the rats, descendants of the original stock, keep high revel still, and continue to dispute possession with Uncle Sam and his salaried cohorts."*

It was while Caleb S. Woodhull was Mayor that a terrible riot occurred in Astor Place. It was at this time that the Native American Party was all-powerful 1849. in the city, and the greatest prejudice existed among the populace against any one of foreign birth. Such was the state of popular feeling when, in the autumn of 1848, William C. Macready, a well-known and eminent English tragedian, came to this country to play a farewell engagement. Some hostility existed between him and Edwin Forrest, an equally well-known and eminent American tragedian, arising, as Macready assumed, from the unfriendly course of Forrest toward him while Macready was playing in this country in 1844, and, as Forrest claimed, from the course pursued toward him by Macready while the latter was playing in England, which hostility was greatly augmented by Forrest having hissed Macready, in Edinburgh, for introducing something of his 'own in the play of Hamlet, in which he was performing the principal character. When Macready was announced

* For a more detailed account, taken from the same source, see Appendix No. IV.