was the famous naval commander, hero of the capture of Mason and Slidell in the late Civil War.
Many pages might be written touching upon events in the early part of the present century which should properly have a place in these chronicles if space permitted. On one occasion (in 1804) Wall Street was heavily draped in the deepest and blackest of mourning, as never before or since. Business was entirely suspended, and men walked to and fro aimlessly and tearfully. Hamilton was dead. The great financier, who had practically established the public credit of the country, had perished in a duel. The bankers met, pallid and grief-stricken, passed resolutions, and closed their doors. The merchants, the bar, the Cincinnati, the Tammany Society, the St. Andrews Society, the General Society of Mechanics, the students of Columbia College, the Corporation of the City, with the mayor, De Witt Clinton, at its head, and, indeed, nearly every body of men that had a corporate existence, solemnly agreed to wear mourning for six weeks. The funeral ceremonies in Trinity Church brought the largest concourse of people into Wall Street that had been seen there since the inauguration of Washington. The final resting-place of the statesman was chosen under the sycamore shades of the sacred inclosure at the head of Wall Street, but a step from where his achievements had been concentrated, and an amount of difficult and laborious service compressed into a short, busy life, affecting all the future of this great monetary center—such service as few men ever rendered to any nation in the longest term of human existence.
Some of the most important institutions of New York, other than those of finance, began in Wall Street. The University of the State, for instance, was here created by an act of the Legislature, in 1784; an educational institution similar to that of Oxford, in England, with broader scope and greater powers (and less comprehended by the general public) than any other on this continent. It was the corner-stone of New York's grand scheme of public instruction, yet it is constantly being confounded, even by men and women of intelligence, with the University of the City, which had no existence in our annals until the University of the State was nearly fifty years old. A concise and scholarly sketch of the rise and progress of this influential institution will be found in the June Magazine of American History, from the pen of Dr. David Murray.
It was in the picture-room of the City Hall in Wall Street that the New York Historical Society was organized, in 1804. The founders of this time-honored institution represented the highest eminence and culture of New York, and were veritable educators of the public taste. And they were instrumental in directing public attention throughout the land to the
