New York Mourns the Death of Washington: Editorial Note
New York Mourns the Death of Washington
Reports of Washington’s passing first appeared in the New York City press on 19 December, five days after his death.1 As news of this unfortunate event circulated throughout the state, an outpouring of newspaper tributes, poems, and testimonials also recounted Washington’s years of service as the young nation’s premier military and civic leader.
Jay learned that Washington was near death from a letter sent to him by Robert Troup dated 17 December.2 The news came to Jay as a double blow—national tragedy and personal loss—as he and Washington had worked closely together during the revolutionary, confederation, and federalist eras, and had developed a relationship over the decades based on friendship, mutual esteem, and appreciation of one another’s talents.
With the state legislature on hiatus, municipal authorities and local voluntary societies took the lead in adopting measures and organizing events for publicly mourning and commemorating the death of Washington in a solemn and befitting manner.3 New York City’s Common Council passed three resolutions requesting that religious congregations muffle their bells and toll them an hour each day through 24 December, that ship masters and owners hoist their flags at half-mast until the same date, and that members and officers of the city corporation wear black crepe for six weeks.4
New Yorkers assembled at City Hall on 25 Dec. for the purpose of planning events to commemorate Washington’s death. At the meeting chaired by Mayor Varick, a five-person committee (James M. Hughes, Ebenezer Stevens, Jacob Morton, James Fairlie, and John Stagg Jr.) was chosen to coordinate with local societies and finalize arrangements. The committee organized an elaborate funeral procession that took place on 31 Dec., in which numerous civic, militia, fraternal, and trade delegations, along with diplomats and statesmen, marched to St. Paul’s Church where Gouverneur Morris delivered an address for the occasion. The city government secured the copyright on Morris’s oration and turned it over to John Furman (c. 1777–1813), a local printer, in exchange for his providing the Common Council with two hundred copies of the publication.5
When the state legislature reconvened in Albany in late January, Jay opened his annual address with a brief notice of Washington’s passing and acknowledgement of his model leadership.6 Lawmakers in both houses responded to the occasion of Washington’s death with an order that all members should wear black crepe, and that the chairs of the leading senate and assembly members should be shrouded in black cloth.7
State legislators took the additional step of adopting the recommendation proposed in late December by a joint committee in Congress that 22 February (George Washington’s birthday) be designated as a day for people across the country “to testify their grief for the death of General George Washington, by suitable eulogies, orations, and discourses or by public prayers.8 The state legislature formed its own joint committee9 which recommended that the day should be observed in a “religious manner,” including a procession and exercises, and that New York’s “executive and judicial officers” should be invited to attend the proceedings in Albany.10 John B. Johnson, one of the ministers for the state legislature, was selected to deliver the sermon at the North Dutch Reformed Church.11
Jay approved that New York would set aside a day in order to commemorate the life of Washington. As he observed to Robert Troup, “we should transmit to posterity the most honourable Proofs of the veneration in which we hold the character and memory of that singularly virtuous and great, man whose Death we lament.”12 Jay thereby recognized that the formal remembrance of Washington served as an occasion for fortifying the civic and moral fiber of current and future generations of New York citizenry.13
The occasion of Washington’s passing and subsequent public commemorations also provided Jay with an opportunity for reflection on the significance of key events for the creation of the American republic. Such was the case when the Presbyterian minister, Samuel Miller, sent Jay a copy of the sermon that he preached in the weeks following Washington’s death. Whereas Jay found that Miller’s writing both “abounds in excellent sentiments,” and was “well arranged and expressed,” he went on to critique Miller for positing that American colonists exhibited a subservient mentality in the 1760s and mid-1770s, and further took issue with Miller’s claim that the policies implemented by Washington’s presidential administration did not enjoy over-whelming public support.14
1. Commercial Advertiser (New York), 19 Dec. 1799.
2. See Troup to JJ, 23 Dec. 1799, below.
3. For the federal government’s response to GW’s death in the days following it, see JA’s message to the House of Representatives of 19 Dec., the resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives of the same date, and the joint congressional resolutions of 23 Dec. 1799, all in Journal of the House, 3: 540, 542. The joint resolutions included the following three provisions: the construction of a “Marble Monument” in Washington, D.C., for the interment of GW’s body, the holding of a funeral procession from Congress Hall to the German Lutheran Church on 26 Dec., and the recommendation that U.S. citizens wear black crepe as a symbol of mourning.
4. Mercantile Advertiser (New York), and Philadelphia Gazette, 23 Dec.; Daily Advertiser (New York), 24 Dec.; Spectator (New York), and Telegraphe and Daily Advertiser (Baltimore), 25 Dec. 1799; MCCNYC, 20 Dec. 1799, 2: 588–89.
5. Commercial Advertiser (New York), 27 Dec.; New-York Gazette, and Mercantile Advertiser (both New York), 27 and 31 Dec.; Spectator (New York), 28 Dec. 1799, 1 and 4 Jan. 1800; Daily Advertiser (New York), 3 Jan.; Argus, Greenleaf’s Daily Advertiser (New York), 4 Jan. 1800; MCCNYC, 20 Dec. 1799, 2: 600.
GM’s address was published as An oration, upon the death of General Washington, by Gouverneur Morris. Delivered at the request of the Corporation of the City of New-York, on the 31st Day of December 1799. And published by their request (New York, 1800; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, no. 38002).
For the ceremonies in Albany observing GW’s death, see Albany Gazette, 23, 26, and 30 Dec.; Albany Centinel, and Albany Register, 24 Dec.; and Otsego Herald (Cooperstown), 26 Dec. 1799.
6. See JJ’s Address to the New York State Legislature, 28 Jan. 1800, below.
7. N.Y. Assembly Journal, 23rd sess. (1800) [28 Jan. 1800], 7; N.Y. Senate Journal, 23rd sess. (1800) [28 Jan. 1800], 4.
8. For the congressional decision to set aside 22 Feb. as a day to commemorate GW, and JA’s proclamation of 6 Jan. issued for the same purpose, see Journal of the House, 30 Dec. 1799, 3: 547; Annals, 10: 22, 223; and Stat., 2: 87.
9. The assembly members of the joint committee consisted of Ezekiel Gilbert of Columbia County, John Herkimer (Herkemer) (1773–1848) of Montgomery County, Edward Savage (c. 1745–1833) of Washington County, Rensselaer Williams (possibly d. 1802) of Otsego County, and Silas Wood (1769–1847) of Suffolk County; the senate members were Ezra L’Hommedieu (1734–1811) of the Southern District, either Jacob (1755–1844) or Thomas Morris both of the Western District, and Isaac Bloom of the Middle District.
10. N.Y. Assembly Journal, 23rd sess. (1800) [28 Jan., 1, 20, and 24 Feb.], 8, 40, 104, 109; N.Y. Senate Journal, 23rd sess. (1800) [29 Jan., 1, 20, and 25 Feb. 1800], 14, 19, 37, 42.
The Corporation of New York City also encouraged local residents to observe 22 Feb. as a day for commemorating GW. MCCNYC, 17 Feb. 1800, 2: 610.
11. See the Albany Gazette, 10 Feb., and Commercial Advertiser (New York) (supplement), 17 Feb. 1800.
John B. Johnson (1769–1803) was ordained in 1796 as a minister of the Reformed Dutch Church, and accepted a position that same year as pastor of the Reformed Protestant Church of Albany.
Johnson’s sermon was published as Eulogy on General George Washington. A sermon, delivered February 22d, 1800, in the North Dutch Church, Albany, before the legislature of the state of New-York, at their request (Albany, 1800; Early Am. Imprints, series 1, no. 37709).
12. JJ to Troup, 28 Dec. 1799, below.
Not all New Yorkers, however, shared JJ’s sentiments regarding the greatness of GW. Some political opponents of the Federalists were vocally critical of GW during his life and death. One such individual was Ebenezer Purdy, a Democratic-Republican magistrate and politician from Salem, N.Y. (see PAJ to JJ, 16 Mar. 1799, note 3, above, for identification). In the weeks prior to the public commemoration of GW’s death on 22 Feb., two individuals testified before Enoch Mead (1756–1807), of South Salem, a justice of the peace for Westchester County, that Purdy disparaged this observance, stating that “it was better for the people to keep a day of thanksgiving than a day of mourning.” Affidavit of John Delavan, 20 Feb. 1800, ALS, NNC (EJ: 08685); Affidavit of Caleb Smith, 20 Feb. 1800, ALS, NNC (EJ: 08675).
13. JJ’s family including PAJ, and colleagues, including JT, participated in activities honoring GW on 22 Feb., a decade after Congress recommended that it be designated as a day of commemoration in 1800. See Admission Ticket for Washington’s Birthday Commemoration, 22 Feb., AD and printed text, in John Trumbull’s hand, CtY-BR (EJ: 05219); PAJ to JJ, 23 Feb. 1810, below; and Account of GW Birthday Celebration, 26 Feb. 1810, New-York Evening Post, 1 May 1810.
14. Miller to JJ, 20 Jan., and JJ to Miller, 28 Feb. 1800, both below. Miller, Sermon on the Death of Washington.
Jedidiah Morse also sent JJ a printed copy of his sermon that he delivered in Charlestown, Mass., on 31 Dec. 1799 on the occasion of GW’s death. See Morse, Prayer and Sermon on the Death of Washington, and his letter to JJ, 21 Jan. 1800, ALS, NNC (EJ: 09551).