and standing on a half-enclosed, open-air bal­ cony on the second floor, took the oath of office and became the first President of the . Wall Street and Broad Street were packed with citizens. All the windows and roof­ tops of every building with any view of the ceremony were filled with excited spectators. Washington and Robert R. Livingston, Chancel­ lor of the State of , who was to ad­ minister the oath, stood close to the delicately wrought iron railing of the balcony, so that a maximum number of onlookers could see. Samuel Otis, the small, short Secretary of the Senate, stood between the two men, holding a leather-covered Bible on a crimson velvet cushion. Behind them, as a kind of backdrop, were the Vice President, John Adams; the Governor of New York State, George Clinton; the Secretary of War, Henry Knox; the Gover­ nor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair; The weight of history resting on this corner of and perhaps a dozen other dignitaries. Wash­ Wall Street and Nassau Street is incalculable. ington put his right hand on the book. "Do you Luckily, there is solid rock below—nothing solemnly swear," asked Livingston, "that you less could support such a burden of memory. will faithfully execute the office of President of Throughout the 18th century, this was the vital the United States, and will, to the best of your center—the very site, more often than not— ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Con­ of New York's greatest events. One was sig­ stitution of the United States?" "I solemnly nificant beyond all others. At this place, the swear," said Washington—and he repeated the government of the United States of America, oath affirmatively. under our present Constitution, began to func­ tion on Wednesday, March 4, 1789. New York "It is done," Livingston said. He turned to the City was the first capital of the United States, crowd and shouted, "Long live George Wash­ and New York's City Hall—remodelled, enlarged, ington, President of the United States!" The and renamed Federal Hall in honor of its new, crowd roared back its approval. national importance—was the first Capitol, the building in which Congress met for its first ses­ It roared not only for President Washington and sion, with the first Senate in one wing and the the new Republic, but for the hero of the Amer­ first House of Representatives in the other. ican Revolution, General Washington, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Here, 8 weeks later, on April 30, George Wash­ Army from June 1775 to December 1783. The ington of Virginia, wearing a suit of brown cloth crowd believed—it was probably true—that manufactured in Connecticut (which he had Washington's astonishing strength of character, bought to encourage American industry), with his courage, and his excellent judgment, had silver buttons decorated with spread eagles, won the unlikely military victory over Great

Hiustfaied Dy Alan E CoOe, National Memorial, powder, fortifying the Highlands of the Hudson however, that the British expeditionary force River, issuing money, trying to control inflation, would arrive in overwhelming strength—32,000 and, above all, attempting to prepare the city soldiers, including Hessian mercenaries, and and the farmlands around it on and more than 200 naval vessels. (Washington was as a "disputable" field of battle. And lucky, on any given day, to have 10,000 men there, in City Hall, New York men had present and fit for duty and, except for a hand­ arrived slowly at the conclusion that reconcilia­ ful of converted merchant ships and fishing ves­ tion with Great Britain was hopeless, and had sels, he had no navy.) The feverish efforts to instructed the New York delegation to the Con­ fortify New York were in vain. The Provincial tinental Congress in Philadelphia how to vote Congress left City Hall and moved to White on the crucial issue of Independence. Plains. Gen. William Howe's well-trained, well- equipped regiments moved from It was in Federal Hall, moreover, that General to the south shore of Brooklyn; fought their way Washington had made one of his most famous across Brooklyn to Brooklyn Heights; and, on speeches, on June 26, 1775. The Commander- September 15, 1776, crossed the East River to in-Chief, newly elected first-ranking general of Manhattan. From late that afternoon until after the army by the Second Continental Congress, the Treaty of Paris in September 1783, New had stopped in New York City on his way from York City was in British hands. And City Hall Philadelphia to Cambridge, Mass., to take up was one of the several important British head­ his command. Some New Yorkers feared that quarters buildings. Washington had secret ambitions to make him­ self a military dictator after the war. The Pro­ * In 1703, when City Hall was built, the Royal vincial Congress prevailed upon the general to Governor of New York Province was Lord Corn- delay his departure half a day in order to de­ bury, and New York City was a modest port town liver a formal, testimonial address to him, which on a great natural harbor at the mouth of a tucked in a nervous reference to the perils of splendid river. The city's population was less military government. In accepting New York's than 5,000, including 1,000 Indians and slaves. compliments, Washington replied to the New Wall Street, which ran from river to river, was the Yorkers' foolish fears with a sentence that was northern boundary of the thickly built up area. quoted repeatedly thereafter: "When we as­ Except for City Hall, Trinity Church, and a hand­ sumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the ful of houses, everything had been built south of citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with a protective wall, which had only recently been you in that happy hour when the establishment torn down. Broad Street, formerly divided by a of American liberty, upon the most firm and canal, made a handsome, slightly curved ap­ solid foundations, shall enable us to return to proach to the new building. New York was at least as much Dutch as English in architectural Britain. Many of New York's Revolutionary War and his Council were compelled to meet, there­ our private stations in the bosom of a free, peaceful, and happy country." style—it had been entirely Dutch, and named leaders were present for the inauguration cere­ after, on British ships in New York harbor. The New Amsterdam, only 40 years earlier. The new monies, and they remembered that Federal Hall, New York Assembly, the Province's legislative City Hall, like all the other new buildings, would before remodelling, had housed New York's im­ body under British rule, discreetly decided not Washington returned to New York in April 1776, not have looked out of place in London: it was a provised revolutionary government, the Provin­ to meet at all. after the British had left Boston and gone to two-story, red-brick structure, with wings at both cial Congress, for nearly 16 months, from shortly Halifax, Nova Scotia. He brought almost his ends, tall chimneys, and a cupola on top of the before the battles of Lexington and Concord In the crucial time between the outbreak of entire army with him, correctly anticipating that roof. It had rooms for the Governor's Council, the until the British arrived off Staten Island at the fighting in Massachusetts and the Declaration of the next British attack would be directed against New York Assembly, courtrooms, a library, of­ end of June 1776. The Provincial Congress had Independence, those Provincial Congress ses­ New York—the ideal headquarters and naval fices, a dungeon in the cellar, and a jail in the moved into City Hall without asking permission sions had shaped New York's part in the Revo­ base, from a British point of view, for King garret. from the Royal Governor, William Tryon, and he lution: raising troops, gathering guns and gun­ George's forces. Washington did not foresee, In August 1735, City Hall was the scene of John that Americans had the same rights and liber­ less of size or population. The Congress was By 1812, when the new building was finished, Peter Zenger's precedent-setting libel trial. ties as Englishmen in England, and could not an association of sovereign States rather than a old Federal Hall was crumbling, and it was sold Zenger, a German by birth, was a printer and be taxed without their consent. national government—and that was not enough. for salvage. (No one thought that it ought to the publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, The Congress, recognizing that fact, called for have been restored, brick by brick; but until a lively newspaper that was outspoken in its The first shipment of the despised stamps ar­ a convention to revise the Articles of Confed­ recently, New Yorkers have been too much con­ criticism of the Royal Governor, William Cosby, rived while the Stamp Act Congress was still eration, and it met in Philadelphia, starting in cerned with today and tomorrow to pay appro­ his Council, and his New York friends, the po­ deliberating, and the Royal Governor, Henry May 1787. priate attention to their great historic places.) litical faction led by Chief Justice James De Moore, never tried to have his agents sell them. The handsome U.S. Customs building, which Lancey. The Governor's Council, incensed in He kept them locked up in City Hall, and 5 While the Founding Fathers were devising a now occupies the Federal Hall site, was com­ particular by some "scandalous" anti-Cosby months later, in March 1766, Parliament repealed new form of government for the unprecedented pleted in 1842. It is a fine example of the Greek songs the newspaper had printed, ordered the the offensive law. Meanwhile, mass meetings experiment, writing a constitution that would revival period in American architecture. The specific issues of the Weekly Journal burned— had been held on the Commons (now City Hall embody it, and submitting that document to the eight Doric columns at each end of the build­ and so they were, on Wall Street, in front of Park); a reasonably effective boycott of British States for approval, Congress passed a most ing, and the low, triangular pediment, recall the City Hall. A few days later Zenger, formally ac­ significant act, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Parthenon, the temple to the goddess Athena cused of "seditious libel," was locked up in the which organized the Northwest Territory (the re­ on the Acropolis in Athens. In 1862, the Cus­ City Hall jail where he waited 9 months for his gion northwest of the Ohio River), provided that toms House was converted into a branch of the trial to begin. Since the presiding judge was its inhabitants had the same civil rights as the Independent Treasury System—the most impor­ Cosby's friend, De Lancey, who began by dis­ citizens of the 13 States, and established the tant of six subtreasuries because it was the barring Zenger's lawyers, Zenger's chances for machinery for achieving future statehood. It repository for 70 percent of the Federal Govern­ acquittal seemed poor. But the Weekly Journal's also guaranteed the future inhabitants religious ment's revenues. After 1920, when the Independ­ backers, including William Smith, James Alex­ freedom and prohibited slavery. ent Treasury System was discarded, several ander, and a former Chief Justice of the colony, governmental organizations used the building. Lewis Morris, arranged for Andrew Hamilton of In late 1787, as the public debate over the pro­ The wide bank of steps on the Wall Street side Philadelphia to assist Zenger's court-appointed posed Constitution began, the New York City has always been a favorite place for public lawyers. Hamilton, one of the country's most newspapers were filled with denunciations of rallies, political oratory, war-bond sales, and distinguished lawyers, introduced a daring new the plan. There were five papers by then, in­ patriotic observances. (Those steps, dominated argument. He told the jury that what Zenger had cluding a daily and a semi-weekly. Alexander by the statue of Washington, must be among printed was true, and that truthful criticism of a Hamilton, the future Secretary of the Treasury, the most photographed stairs in the world.) government was not seditious libel. The jury and no relation to Andrew, the lawyer, was dis­ was persuaded. Its verdict, "not guilty," freed tressed by the fact that New Yorkers were read­ In 1939, the building and the land was desig­ Zenger, and was a great first step toward free­ ing mostly the negative side of the argument. nated a national historic site. In 1955, it was dom of the press—as it was to be established, He persuaded his fellow New Yorker, John Jay, established as a national memorial—the Federal 56 years later, in the first of the first ten amend­ and the Virginian, James Madison, to help him Hall National Memorial, administered by the Na­ ments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. write a series of articles defending the Consti­ tional Park Service of the U.S. Department of tution, explaining each of its provisions in detail, the Interior. There is something at once bold and arguing that a strong central govern­ and dignified in that stately facade, and the ment, like the one the Constitution provided, great rotunda within. Perhaps the old Customs was necessary. ("A nation without a national House is a bit too solemn, considering the ir­ government," Hamilton wrote, "is in my view reverence, rebelliousness, and passions of the an awful spectacle.") In ail, there were 85 essays men who made history at this place. And yet, in the series. Hamilton wrote the first one in the boldness and dignity are eminently fitting—for cabin of his sloop, sailing down the Hudson those men were indubitably brave and earnest. from Albany. Four of the New York papers—The Independent Journal, the Packet, the Journal, - Bruce Bliven, Jr. and the Daily Advertiser—took turns printing them, and they were reprinted throughout the States. The three authors used the pen-name "Publius" to conceal their identity. Collected How to Reach the Site and published as a book, the articles were en­ Federal Hall is at the corner of Wall and Nassau titled "The Federalist," and were one of this streets, just off . It is within convenient country's greai contributions to poiiticai walking distance of South Ferry, the landing thought. place for ferries from Staten Island, Governor's goods had been organized; and the manufacture Island, and the . By subway, take and sale of all sorts of American goods had Even after the Constitution had been ratified by the Lexington Avenue number 4 or 5 to Wall St.; been encouraged. A special market all the States except North Carolina and Rhode the R to Rector St.; the M or J to Broad St.; the for made-at-home products was Island, many Americans feared the power of 7th Ave. Number 2 or 3 to Wall St.; or the 8th opened on Broad Street. the new government they had created. They Ave. A or E to Fulton St. By bus, take the 2nd Instead of imported tea, New wished that the document included explicit Ave. M 15 bus to Wall St. Or the M 1 or 6 South Yorkers were urged to drink a guarantees of personal liberties. The first Con­ Ferry bus to Broadway and Wall. Various exhibits brew of sassafras bark mixed gress moved promptly to correct the omission. in the building depict the part this site played in with sage. On June 8, 1789, Madison arose in the House the history of our nation. of Representatives, assembled in Federal Hall, New York rejoiced over the and proposed a number of amendments to the news of the Stamp Act's repeal, Constitution. Twelve of them passed both Federal Hall National Memorial isa unit of the not realizing, of course, Houses, and were submitted to the States on National Park System, which consists of more * New Yorkers were that the King and his September 25, 1789. Ten of the twelve—two than 370 parks representing important examples leaders in the Ministry would were rejected—were ratified by mid-December of our nation's natural and cultural heritage. For protest against continue to make 1791. Those first ten amendments, known ever more information, write the Superintendent, 26 the Stamp Act, similar mistakes since as the Bill of Rights, protect everyone, Wall Street, New York, NY 10005, or call (212) which Parliament -and worse ones- citizens and non-citizens, subject to the author­ 825-6990. passed in March 1765. for the decade to ity of the United States. They guarantee the It was a money-raising come. The King rights of free speech, a free press, and free Five other areas of the National Park System are scheme, designed to and his Ministry, worship; the rights to assemble peaceably, to also in New York City: defray the cost of main­ on the other hand, petition the Government for a redress of griev­ National Monument, in Battery taining a British army in did not realize that ances, and to bear arms; and the right to be Park at the lower end of Broadway. the American colonies, the Stamp Act secure against unreasonable searches and sei­ Statue of Liberty National Monument, on Liberty but it backfired badly. The protest had taught zures. They guarantee the legal rights the Amer­ Island in New York Harbor. law required Americans to the colonies to act icans had inherited from English common law: General Grant National Memorial, in Riverside buy large blue paper stamps, together politically, trial by jury, the right to bail, the right to indict­ Park at West 122nd Street. costing from twopence to £10 and had forced ment by a grand jury, the right to a speedy and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic apiece, and attach them to them to improvise public trial, and many others. Site, at 28 East 20th Street. newspapers, handbills, legal most of the devices Hamilton Grange National Memorial, on Con­ documents, business agree­ the Continental Madison had pointed out that a Bill of Rights vent Avenue between 141 st and 142nd streets. ments, marriage licenses, Congress might make it easier for North Carolina and playing cards, and many more would use, on Rhode Island to join the United States, and he National Park Service necessities and luxuries. a larger scale, was right. North Carolina joined in November U.S. Department of the Interior (One was even supposed to to sustain the 1789, and Rhode Island followed in May 1790. buy a stamp before buying War for