propriate discourse from the rector. From there they proceeded down Wall Street in solemn state to the City Hall, where the bell was ringing. Mayor Noell published his commission and took the chair. The retiring mayor, De Reimer, gracefully presented to him the city charter and seal. So far all went well. Abraham Gouveneur, the city recorder, took his seat by the mayor, who told the clerk to proceed with the ceremony of swearing in the members elect. As their names were called, several
shouted that they had been sworn in already by the old mayor. Others cried "it cannot be done," and "it is unlawful"—all talking together, until the hubbub was deafening. Not only voices but fists were raised, and the uproar assumed such alarming proportions that the mayor dissolved the meeting. Noell naturally declined to sit with aldermen as a common council who refused to be sworn by him. And as the common council was the only legal authority for scrutinizing disputed elections, the city was in danger of being without a government. The urgency of
