abundance of game; and it was no unusual thing in the gaming season to see
well known men with guns on their shoulders and followed by their dogs,
making their way up Broadway or Greenwich Street to the open country. In
the Bowery Lane, at the second mile stone, was the Dog and Duck Tavern,
which was frequented by those who chose to visit the salt meadows which
were covered in the autumn with water-fowl. Further up the island, near
the five mile stone, was the Dove Tavern, where those had their quarters
who sought the woodcock and quail in the fields and glades, or the wild
pigeon in the woods which covered a large part of the land.
XIII
THE SHAKESPEARE TAVERN
[Sidenote: War]
On June 19, 1812, President Madison issued his formal proclamation of war
with Great Britain. The news reached New York at nine o'clock on the
morning of Saturday, June 20th. On the same day orders came to Commodore
Rodgers to sail on a cruise against the enemy. He was in entire readiness
and put to sea within an hour after receiving his instructions. He passed
Sandy Hook on the afternoon of June 21st, with his squadron consisting of
the President, 44; the United States, 44; the Congress, 38; the Hornet,
18; and the Argus, 16--in all, five vessels, carrying 160 guns. The
British force cruising off the coast consisted of eight men-of-war,
carrying 312 guns, with a number of corvettes and sloops. In a few months
the victories of the American ships thrilled the country with satisfaction
and delight and fairly stunned the English who had regarded the American
navy as beneath contempt.
[Illustration: THE GREAT NAVAL DINNER AT THE CITY HOTEL]
[Sidenote: Dinner to Naval Heroes]
On Tuesday, December 29, 1812, a magnificent banquet was given by the
corporation and citizens of New York at the City Hotel, then kept by
Gibson, in honor of Captain Decatur, Captain Hull and Captain Jones, to
celebrate their recent victories. The dinner was served at five o'clock in
the afternoon and five hundred gentlemen sat down to table. It was a naval
dinner and marine decorations prevailed. The large dining-room "was
colonaded round with the masts of ships entwined with laurels and bearing
the flags of all the world." Each table had on it a ship in miniature
flying the American flag. At the head of the room, at a long table raised
about three feet above the others, sat the mayor of the city, DeWitt
Clinton, the president of the feast, with Decatur upon his right and Hull
upon his left. In front of this, in a space covered with green grass was
a lake of real water, on which floated a miniature frigate. Across the end
of the room, back of all, hung on the wall the large main sail of a ship.
At the toast, "To our Navy," the main-sail was furled, exposing to view
two large transparent paintings, one representing the battles between the
Constitution and the Guerriere, the United States and the Macedonian and
the Wasp and the Frolic, and the other representing the American Eagle
holding in his beak three civic crowns, on which were the following
inscriptions: "Hull and the Guerriere"--"Jones and the Frolic"--"Decatur
and the Macedonian," which produced great enthusiasm among the guests. The
dinner was a great success. At the very time it was being served,
Commodore Bainbridge, in the Constitution, was engaged with the British
frigate, Java, in a hot action, lasting nearly two hours, in which he
silenced all her guns and made of her a riddled and dismantled hulk, not
worth bringing to port. In this same banquet room, the decorations having
been retained, the crew of the United States were entertained on Thursday,
January 7, 1813, by the corporation. Alderman Vanderbilt delivered the
address of welcome to the sailors, of whom there were about four hundred
present. After dinner, by invitation, they attended the Park Theatre,
where the drop-curtain had on it a painting representing the fight of the
United States and the Macedonian.
[Illustration: Stephen Decatur]
[Sidenote: Dinner to Captain Lawrence]
On the 13th of May, 1813, by a vote of the common council, a dinner was
given to Captain Lawrence, of the Hornet, and his gallant crew at
Washington Hall. The seamen landed at Whitehall Slip about half-past two
o'clock in the afternoon, attended by the band of the Eleventh Regiment
and marched through Pearl Street, Wall Street and Broadway to Washington
Hall. At half-past three o'clock the petty officers, seamen and marines
sat down to a bountiful repast. Paintings representing the victories of
Hull, Decatur, Jones and Bainbridge decorated the walls of the room, and
over the chair of the boatswain of the Hornet, who was the presiding
officer, was an elegant view by Holland of the action of the Hornet with
the Peacock. The table was decorated with a great variety of flags and
with emblems appropriate to the occasion. After the meats were removed a
visit to the room was made by the common council, accompanied by Captain
Lawrence. At the sight of their commander the sailors rose from their
seats and heartily cheered him with three times three. Perfect order and
decorum were preserved and the bottle, the toast and the song went round
with hilarity and glee.
[Illustration: Isaac Hull]
[Illustration: J. Lawrence]
In another room a dinner was served to the corporation and its guests,
among whom were Captain Lawrence and all his officers, the commanders of
all the ships of war on the New York Station, many of the judges of the
courts and Colonel Joseph G. Swift, the commander of the corps of
engineers. This room was decorated by many emblematic paintings by Mr.
Holland, descriptive of our naval victories; some of them had been used at
the great naval dinner given to Decatur, Hull and Jones at the City Hotel
in the previous December.
The crew were invited to attend the performance at the theater that
evening, the front of the theater being illuminated and the pit set apart
for their accommodation. They marched in a body from the dinner table to
the theater at six o'clock.
[Sidenote: Dinner to General Harrison]
A dinner was given to General Harrison in the afternoon of December 1,
1813, at Tammany Hall under the direction of the State Republican
(Democratic) general committee of New York. Besides the distinguished
guest, there were Governor Tompkins, Major-Generals Dearborn and Hampton,
Judge Brockholst Livingston, of the United States Supreme Court, and a
great number of officers of the army and navy and of the volunteer corps
of the city. The dining hall was handsomely decorated under the direction
of Mr. Holland. There were five tables, containing sixty covers each,
ornamented by representations of castles, pyramids, etc., provided by
Martling and Cozzens, the proprietors, in their usual elegant and liberal
manner.
[Sidenote: Dinner to Commodore Bainbridge]
The Federalists, in their turn, on the 8th of the same month, in the
afternoon, gave a splendid dinner to Commodore Bainbridge at Washington
Hall, at which John B. Coles presided. Notwithstanding the unpleasant
weather there were nearly three hundred persons present. Among the number
were Governor Tompkins, Mayor Clinton, Major-Generals Dearborn and
Stevens, Judges Brockholst Livingston, Van Ness and Benson and the
officers of the navy on the New York Station. The room was handsomely
decorated and the dinner was provided by Captain Crocker and served up in
a very correct and elegant style.
[Sidenote: Dinner to Commodore Perry]
The next public dinner during the winter season was given to Commodore
Perry on the afternoon of the 11th of January, 1814, at Tammany Hall, at
which about three hundred and fifty persons were present. Major James
Fairlie presided. There were seven tables; one of these, on an elevated
platform, at which the honored guests were seated, crossed the eastern end
of the room, the others led from it to the lower end, and all were
beautifully embellished with numerous ornaments. The pillars of the hall
were surrounded with clusters of American flags, and the decorations of
the hall were arranged under the gratuitous direction of Mr. Holland. Five
transparent paintings from his pencil adorned the walls. One of these,
covering about one hundred and fifty square feet, represented a large
eagle bearing in his beak and talons a scroll inscribed in large capitals:
"We have Met the Enemy and they are Ours." In the evening Commodore Perry
attended a ball at Washington Hall which followed a concert given at that
place.
[Sidenote: Patriotic Demonstrations by the Two Parties]
As before the war, the people were divided into two great parties, one for
war, the other for peace, but both claiming to be acting for the good of
the general government and the welfare of the people, while the fear of
disunion of the states hung heavily over the country. At the anniversary
dinner at Washington Hall on the 4th of July, 1813, one of the volunteer
toasts was: "Our Country--Disgraced by the folly of democracy, may its
character soon be retrieved by the virtue and talents of federalism." The
war made the celebration of the Fourth of July particularly important, and
the two parties vied with each other in patriotic demonstrations. The
celebration of Independence Day, 1814, was made by two grand processions;
one was led by the Tammany Society, which was joined and followed by
several other societies; the other was led by the Washington Benevolent
Society, joined by the Hamilton Society. The military parade, headed by
the governor, was made entirely independent of any procession. After the
procession the members of the Tammany Society sat down to a repast
prepared by Martling and Cozzens, proprietors of Tammany Hall Hotel, and
the members of the Washington Benevolent Society and of the Hamilton
Society dined in the afternoon at Washington Hall, but in separate rooms.
The State Society of the Cincinnati held their annual meeting at the City
Hall, after which they retired to the Tontine Coffee House where a dinner
was served to them at four o'clock. Commodore Decatur, lately elected an
honorary member, dined with the Society. After dinner, eighteen toasts
were drunk, each followed by an appropriate piece of music by Moffit's
military band. At Vauxhall the celebration in the evening surpassed in
display and grandeur any previous exhibitions of the kind.
[Sidenote: News of Peace]
At the close of the war of 1812 the news of peace was received in New York
with the greatest joy. Mr. Carroll, the bearer of the treaty, on his
arrival in the British sloop-of-war Favorite, about eight o'clock in the
evening of Saturday, February 15, 1815, went directly to the City Hotel,
which he made his quarters; and in less than twenty minutes after he
entered the house most of the windows in the lower part of Broadway and
the adjoining streets were illuminated, and the streets were densely
filled with people who came forth to see and to hear and to rejoice.
Samuel G. Goodrich, who was at a concert in the City Hotel, writes: "While
listening to the music the door of the concert-room was thrown open and in
rushed a man breathless with excitement. He mounted on a table and,
swinging a white handkerchief aloft, cried out: "Peace! Peace! Peace!" The
music ceased, the hall was speedily vacated, I rushed into the street, and
oh, what a scene! In a few minutes thousands and tens of thousands of
people were marching about with candles, lamps, torches, making the
jubilant street appear like a gay and gorgeous procession. The whole night
Broadway sang its song of peace." Swift expresses were sent out to
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Boston, Providence and Albany, and
when the news was received from Washington of the ratification, which, by
a combination of four newspapers was brought to New York in twenty-three
hours, extensive preparations were made for a grand celebration and
illumination on February 22, which on account of unfavorable weather was
deferred and took place on the 27th. Fire works were gotten up and
exhibited on a stage in front of the Government House under the
superintendence of Joseph Delacroix, of Vauxhall Garden, which is said to
have exceeded any former exhibition. The descriptions of the illuminations
filled column after column of the newspapers. Among many others, lengthy
descriptions were given of the illuminations of Tammany Hall, Washington
Hall and the City Hotel.
[Sidenote: The Grand Ball]
Great preparations were soon made for a "superb ball" in honor of the
joyful peace, which was given on March 16 at Washington Hall. The company
consisted of upwards of six hundred ladies and gentlemen. The dancing
room, eighty feet by sixty, was arranged to present the appearance of a
beautiful elliptical pavilion, formed by eighteen pillars, on each of
which was inscribed the name of a state, connected with the center of the
lofty ceiling by garlands or festoons of laurel, and between the garlands,
suspended from the ceiling, chandeliers composed of verdant and flowery
wreaths. The garlands extending from the pillars were attached to a light
central canopy, beneath which was a golden sun made to revolve rapidly, by
means of machinery above the ceiling, so as to diffuse from its dazzling
surface the reflected radiance of eight hundred lights. This was styled
the Temple of Concord. On one side of the room, on a raised platform under
a canopy of flags and surrounded with orange and lemon trees loaded with
fruit, was the Bower of Peace, furnished with seats from which a good view
of the cotillion parties could be had. The seats in each end of the room
were also shaded with a profusion of orange trees and various rarer plants
brought from the gardens and greenhouses of the vicinity. "The supper
tables at which all the ladies were accommodated with seats at one time,
though in two different apartments, were arranged and decorated in the
most brilliant style; being lighted from above by illuminated arches
entwined with flowers and supported by grouped columns from the center of
the tables, and forming a line of arches from one extremity to the other.
In short, the whole scene was one of the most splendid ever exhibited in
this city; reflecting the highest credit on the managers and displaying a
picture of female beauty, fashion and elegance not to be surpassed in any
city of the union."[5] The landlord of Washington Hall at this time was
Peter McIntyre, who had in February succeeded Daniel W. Crocker. He had
formerly kept a porter house at 33 Nassau Street.
[Sidenote: The Shakespeare Tavern]
In the description of the grand illumination on the evening of February
27, the decorations of the Shakespeare Tavern are particularly mentioned
by the newspapers. This tavern had been for some years and continued to be
for many years after, the resort of actors, poets and critics, as well as
the rendezvous of the wits and literary men of the period. It stood on the
southwest corner of Fulton and Nassau Streets, a low, old-fashioned, solid
structure of small, yellow brick, two stories high, with dormer windows
in the roof. Thomas Hodgkinson, brother of John Hodgkinson of the Park
Theatre, became its landlord in 1808, and continued in it for sixteen
years. He had formerly been the proprietor of a porter house at 17 Fair
(Fulton) Street. In its early days the entrance to the house was by a
green baize-covered door on Nassau Street, opening into a small hall with
rooms on either side, the tap-room being the south front room on Nassau
Street, in which was a circular bar of the old English pattern. It had
been built many years before the Revolution, and in 1822 a modern
extension was added on Fulton Street, three stories high. On the second
floor was a large room for public meetings and military drills, and on the
third floor another large room with arched ceiling for concerts and balls
and for the accommodation of the political, literary and musical patrons
of the house. The Euterpian Society met here once a month and once a year
gave a public concert at the City Hotel, followed by a ball; while the
older members of the society had a supper below. This was one of the
events of the season, and the Assembly Room was crowded.
[Illustration: THE SHAKESPEARE TAVERN]
For many years the Shakespeare Tavern was closely connected with the
military history of the city. The Veteran Corps of Artillery usually had
their dinners here. A dinner was served here to Captain Swain's Company of
the Third Regiment of Artillery on Evacuation Day, 1813. A few years ago a
bronze tablet might have been seen on the corner of Fulton and Nassau
Streets on which was the following inscription:
On this site in the
Old Shakespeare Tavern
Was organized
The Seventh Regiment
National Guards S. N. Y.
August 25, 1824.
[Illustration: "AS CHOICE SPIRITS AS EVER SUPPED AT THE TURK'S HEAD"]
The Old Shakespeare Tavern has been compared to the "Mermaid" of London in
the days of Johnson and Shakespeare and to the "Turk's Head" in the time
of Reynolds, Garrick and Goldsmith. To what degree this comparison may
extend is left to individual opinion, but there is no doubt that the best
talent of the city in many departments were at times to be found within
its walls. Fitz-Greene Halleck and Robert C. Sands, James G. Percival,
James K. Paulding and Willis Gaylord Clark were frequent visitors and
passed here in each other's company many a merry evening. Here Sands first
recited to his friends, William L. Stone, Gulian C. Verplanck and John
Inman, his last and most remarkable poem, "The Dead of 1832." Here DeWitt
Clinton discussed with his friends his pet project, the Erie Canal, and
demonstrated the feasibility of that great undertaking. Here some of the
liveliest of the "Croakers" were conceived and brought forth. William L.
Stone, a frequent visitor, says: "The Old Shakespeare has entertained
coteries composed of as choice spirits as ever supped at the Turk's Head."
[Sidenote: The Krout Club]
Under the management of Hodgkinson the Shakespeare became noted for the
excellence of its wines and for the quaint style and quiet comfort of its
suppers. About 1825 he was succeeded by James C. Stoneall, his son-in-law,
who was an exceedingly courteous man and an attentive and obliging
landlord. Before and after Stoneall became proprietor of the house it was
the meeting place of the Krout Club, a social institution of the period,
most of the members of which were supposed to be descendants of the early
Dutch settlers. When the Grand Krout, as the presiding officer of the
society was called, each year nodded his assent to a meeting and dinner,
the announcement was made by piercing a cabbage and displaying it on the
end of a long pole projected from an upper window of the place of meeting.
It was customary, immediately after his election to his exalted position,
to crown the newly-elected King of the Krouts with a cabbage head nicely
hollowed out to fit his head and, at the same time, to throw over his
shoulders a mantle of cabbage leaves. While thus arrayed as master of the
feast, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill delivered a very amusing address on the
cabbage, the closing words of which were: "Thy name has been abused as if
'to cabbage' were to pilfer or steal. I repel with indignation the attempt
to sully thy fame."
The annual meeting of the Krouts was opened at nine o'clock in the morning
and the fun and frolic was kept up until late at night. Just before the
dinner the secretary read his annual report, which consisted of a humorous
relation of some things that had occurred, but more especially of many
things that had not occurred. At dinner were served smoked geese, ringlets
(sausages), sauerkraut and cabbage in a great variety of dishes.
Pleasant memories of the old vine-clad tavern were cherished by many who
only a few years ago passed over to the Great Beyond.
[Sidenote: Dinner to the Peace Commissioners]
Two of the five American Commissioners who had negociated the Treaty of
Peace at Ghent and the Commercial Treaty at London, Messrs. Albert
Gallatin and Henry Clay, arrived in New York on September 1, 1815, and on
the afternoon of the 5th a complimentary dinner was given them at Tammany
Hall. Judge Brockholst Livingston presided. William Bayard, James
Fairlie, John Hone, Thomas Farmer and Gilbert Aspinwall were
vice-presidents and among the distinguished guests were the Hon. Rufus
King, the Hon. A. J. Dallas, the Mayor, General Macomb, General Swift,
etc. The Evening Post, a Federal paper, expressed surprise and regret that
the dinner, instead of appearing to be given as it ought to have been, by
the respectable citizens of New York without distinction of party, should
have been "made to wear an invidious complexion by being brought forward
in the public papers as having been gotten up by 17 gentlemen, all of
whom, with a single exception are considered to be of the Democratic
party."
[Sidenote: President Monroe's Visit]
From the time of Washington no President of the United States, while in
office, had visited New York city until President James Monroe, in June,
1817, made his tour of inspection. On the morning of June 11th he came up
from Staten Island, where he had been the guest of Vice President
Tompkins, in the steamboat Richmond, escorted by the sloop of war Saranac,
Captain Elton, and the Revenue Cutter, Captain Cahoone. He landed on the
Battery about twelve o'clock from Commodore Evans' elegant barge,
accompanied by the Vice President, General Swift and secretary, Captains
Evans and Biddle of the United States navy, Major-General Morton and
suite, Major-General Mapes and suite and the Committee of the
Corporation, who had gone to Staten Island for that purpose, and was
welcomed by a salute from a division of General Morton's artillery, under
the command of Brigadier-General Scott, of the United States army.
The President, after reviewing the line of troops, was escorted up
Broadway to the City Hall, where, in the audience chamber, the Mayor, in
the presence of the Governor and other prominent officials, presented him
with an address. The State Society of the Cincinnati, headed by their
Vice-President, General Stevens, also presented him a short address. After
these ceremonies were concluded the President was escorted by a squadron
of cavalry to the quarters provided for him at Gibson's elegant
establishment, the Merchants' Hotel in Wall Street. After visiting the
United States Arsenal, the President returned to the hotel at five o'clock
and sat down to a sumptuous dinner prepared for the occasion. Among the
guests were the Vice President of the United States, Governor Clinton,
Hon. Rufus King, General Swift, General Scott, Mr. Mason, secretary to the
President, General Stevens, General Morton, Col. Willett, Col. Platt,
Major Fairlie, the President of the United States Bank and the Committee
of the Corporation. The Merchants' Hotel at 41 and 43 Wall Street had been
established there some years, and when Solomon D. Gibson, a landlord of
experience and reputation, had taken charge of it and it had been selected
as a proper place to lodge and entertain the President of the United
States, there is hardly a doubt that it was considered second to none in
the city. In the evening the City Hall and other public buildings were
illuminated.
[Sidenote: General Jackson at the Ball]