Paradise bronx, p.57
Paradise Bronx, page 57
Chapter 10
But Lafayette, from whom he had originally withheld permission even to go to America: See A Diary of the French Revolution, by Gouverneur Morris 1752–1816, ed. Beatrix Cary Davenport (1939), p. xxxix.
The missive came in a package with triple seals: Mintz, p. 104. “The women of this country don’t like my whiskers”: De Lauzun is quoted in TMP, p. 403.
After his death, some of his admirers in Paris circulated copies of his handwritten memoirs: See Memoirs of the Duc de Lauzun, tr., with an Appendix, by C. K. Scott Moncrieff; introduction by Richard Aldington; notes by G. Rutherford (1928), p. x. Some French troops wore white coats with pink collars, crimson lapels: Hufeland, p. 388.
“I was struck, not by its smart appearance, but by its destitution”: This observation, by Jean François Louis, Comte de Clermont Crèvecoeur, is quoted in The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, ed. Rice, vol. I, p. 33.
In de Lauzun’s memoirs General Rochambeau is described as so in love with military matters that he talked of nothing else: de Lauzun writes (p. 187), “M. de Rochambeau, Brigadier-General commanding the vanguard, spoke of nothing but deeds of military prowess, maneüvered and took up military positions in the open, indoors, on the table, on your snuffbox if you took it out of your pocket; entirely absorbed in his profession, he had marvellous knowledge of it.”
He disembarked with five thousand troops at Newport: Hufeland, p. 384.
This decision began a series of moves known as the Grand Reconnaissance: For a summary of this action, see Ultan, Northern Borough, pp. 97 ff.
“Nothing, certainly, could be more alarming as well as mortifying than my situation at the present crisis”: See Rice, ed., vol. I, p. 36. Instead of sending reinforcements to Cornwallis, Clinton ended up asking for reinforcements from him: Hufeland, p. 401.
“Die, you dog of a Frenchman!”: Rice, ibid., pp. 252–53.
“When I recounted the incident, I was laughed at”: See von Closen, p. 100. The women and children of West Farms had fled to Manhattan: Ultan, Northern Borough, p. 97.
“We had a fine chase in the fields”: TMP, Andrew Corsa interview, p. 915.
“All went over safe”: TMP, Samuel Oakley interview, p. 31. Some officers and staff stayed at the farm of the Valentine family: It was von Closen who called it a “wretched house”; see von Closen, p. 100; see also Ultan, Northern Borough, p. 100.
Some of the shots hit close enough that the riders were “covered all over with sand”: TMP, Samuel Oakley interview, p. 36. While that was going on, Washington and Rochambeau found a place under a hedge to take a nap: See Memoirs of the Marshal Count de Rochambeau, relative to the War of Independence of the United States; extracted and translated from the French by M. W. E. Wright, Esq. (1838), pp. 57–59.
“I must confess that I was astonished”: von Closen, p. 101.
“I admire the American troops tremendously!”: ibid., p. 102. “This manoeuvre consumed less than an hour”: Hufeland, p. 400; Rochambeau, p. 59.
Instead, de Lauzun only came close to capturing him: de Lauzun, pp. 208, 249 (in a footnote, Moncrief describes Tarleton as “a magnificent cavalry officer, but less estimable in private life”).
And they loaned it to him!: See The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, ed. Rice, vol. I, p. 64: “Lord Cornwallis needed 100,000 écus to pay his troops. The French generals and colonels lent him this sum. When he arrived in New York, the General returned this money together with 100 bottles of porter to express his appreciation to those who had rendered him this service.”
This was when one of the worst atrocities of the war occurred: Accounts of this murder, or mention of it, are in TMP interviews with Samuel Chadeayne (p. 244), Zabud June (p. 559), Nathaniel Montross (pp. 772–73), and Mrs. Cynthia Hobby (p. 968). McDonald, the interviewer, adds that relatives of James Totten are threatening to sue (c. 1845) a man who spread this story.
After Cornwallis surrendered, General Rochambeau chose de Lauzun to tell King Louis that the Americans had won the war: See de Lauzun, p. 209.
Louis-Alexandre Berthier, the aide who killed a DeLancey man at Morrisania: The later career of this officer is described in Rice, ed., vol. I, pp. 196 ff.
Raids and counterraids continued in the Neutral Ground, and the British Army remained a threat: See Jenkins, pp. 174 ff.; also Heath, p. 353.
the largest fireworks display ever seen in the country: Heath, p. 387. Afterward, November 25 became a holiday, known as Evacuation Day: See The Encyclopedia of New York City, ed. Kenneth T. Jackson (1991), p. 385: “For more than a century Evacuation Day was marked by martial parades, patriotic oratory, and banquets; its one hundredth anniversary was one of the great civic events of the nineteenth century in New York City. The holiday ceased to be observed after the First World War because of its proximity to Thanksgiving and the decline of anti-English sentiment, except for a brief revival on the occasion of its bicentenary in 1983.”
With the British gone, the property of local Tories was confiscated: See Horne, pp. 26 ff. Gouverneur Morris’s mother held on to her mansion and estate, thanks to her son: Ultan, Northern Borough, p. 104. saved from confiscation the property of Isaac Wilkins: Hufeland, p. 46.
The DeLanceys lost their mills: See McNamara, p. 32. six barrels full of silver dollars: TMP, interview with Mrs. Daniel Edwards, p. 105. “Peace, Hunt! You are better off than I am”: TMP, ibid., p. 111.
Chapter 11
Gouverneur made his first visit to Morrisania in seven years on May 31, 1783: Mintz, p. 162. Morris celebrated by drinking a bottle of wine: Sparks, vol. I, p. 164. Staats lived in England, and he agreed to sell the part of Morrisania he’d inherited: Details of Staats Long Morris’s sale of Morrisania to Gouverneur Morris are in Mintz, pp. 172–75; and in Sparks, vol. I, p. 281.
He took the floor 173 times: Mintz, p. 181.
Nine of the states had their own navies: Swiggett, p. 113. He was attending the Convention, he said, as “a Representative of America”: See The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, ed. Max Farrand (1911), vol. I, p. 529. Morris also said, “We had better take a supreme government now, than a despot twenty years hence—for come he must,” ibid., p. 43.
Having helped set things on track, Morris then disappeared: On May 31, the day after he said that about the “despot twenty years hence,” he left for Morrisania, and did not return to the Convention until July 2.
In the 1980s, the Landmarks Preservation Commission awarded landmark status to a sewage treatment plant: See “Panel Declares Treatment Plant City Landmark,” The New York Times, June 9, 1982, p. B6. Interesting as this building may be, the fact remains that the city has always put far too much waste-related infrastructure—incinerators, waste transfer stations, etc.—in the South Bronx.
Morris returned to Philadelphia on July 2 and found the Convention at an impasse: See The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, vol. III, pp. 499–500. “We are sent here to consult not to contend, with each other”: Records of the Federal Convention, vol. I, p. 197. “we shall disappoint not only America, but the whole world”: ibid., p. 515.
Morris said the delegates should do more than “truck and bargain”: ibid., p. 529. Madison told Morris’s first biographer that he doubted Morris’s return had made a difference: Madison qualified that by saying Morris himself was an example of flexibility, persuadable to “a candid surrender of his opinions” when he decided they were wrong—see Records of the Federal Convention, vol. III, p. 499. “The Rich will strive to establish their dominion”: Morris’s statement about the danger of the tyranny of the rich is one of his two most famous quotations from the Convention (the other is his speech against slavery; see below). It is in Records of the Federal Convention, vol. I, p. 512.
Washington made only a single proposal of his own: ibid., vol. II, p. 644.
On certain evenings the great man invited delegates to receptions at his lodgings: This anecdote is in Records of the Federal Convention, vol. III, p. 85. the two even took a break to go fishing in the Delaware River: Swiggett, p. 124.
“an irreligious and profane man”: Miller, p. 94. However one judged his character, Morris proposed thirty-nine resolutions at the Convention: See “The Case of the Dishonest Scrivener: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of the Federalist Constitution,” by William M. Treanor (a paper at Georgetown University Law Center, 2019), p. 9.
“Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be computed in the representation?”: See Records of the Federal Convention, vol. II, p. 222.
Theodore Roosevelt, in his biography of Morris, described the compromise the Constitution made with slavery: Roosevelt, p. 105.
“That instrument was written by the fingers which write this letter”: See Records of the Federal Convention, vol. III, p. 420. “We the people of the States of New Hampshire”: ibid., vol. II, p. 163.
One delegate did notice an unauthorized change: The observations of Morris’s sneaky changes are from Treanor’s excellent paper, “The Case of the Dishonest Scrivener” (see note for p. 131, above).
Collectively they showed a surreptitious will to strengthen central government and elevate men of substance and property above the democratic throng: See ibid., pp. 2 ff. Perhaps Morris’s most significant single-word change appeared in the cause about runaway slaves: ibid., p. 83.
Washington, Gouverneur Morris, and Robert Morris had dinner together afterward at the City Tavern in Philadelphia: Mintz, p. 203; also, Records of the Federal Convention, vol. III, p. 84. In the evening, Washington wrote in his diary: ibid.
They saw each other again the following year: Miller, p. 6. where he met Randolph’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Nancy: Adams, pp. 166 ff.
Chapter 12
like the watch Jefferson had bought for Madison: Miller, p. 10. (On April 29, 1779, Morris wrote to Washington, “I am almost at the bottom of my paper, without mentioning what I had first intended. Six days ago I got from the maker your watch, with two copper keys, and one golden one, and a box containing a spare spring and glasses, all which I have delivered to Mr. Jefferson, who takes charge of them for you.”—see Sparks, vol. II, p. 69.)
Morris began to keep his European diary on March 1, 1789: See Morris, A Diary of the French Revolution (Davenport, ed.), p. 1. “cette Espèce de Plaisanterie”: ibid., p. 23.
On March 21, on a visit to Versailles, he met a twenty-eight-year-old countess: ibid. (hereinafter, Diary), p. 17.
The Count de Flahaut superintended the king’s gardens: In this job he succeeded Buffon, the famous naturalist (Diary, p. 24).
American biographers mention his fluent French, but she made fun of it: See Diary, where he says she “plays the Mocqueuse upon my bad French” (p. 268).
Mme. de La Fayette, wife of the marquis, disliked him from the start: Miller, p. 18. though he considered Louis “small beer”: ibid., p. 19. the hurt on her face pained him: Sparks, p. 303. “I never lost my Respect for those who consented to make me happy”: Diary, p. 119. he could never be “only a Friend”: Diary, p. 157.
On an outing in the city, Gouverneur and Adèle made a visit to the ruined Bastille: Diary, p. 158.
A question Washington particularly wanted Morris to look into: Roosevelt, 145; also Swiggett, p. 203, and Miller, pp. 48–50.
“charming Sex [i.e., the female sex], you are capable of every Thing!”: Diary, p. 225. “a sly, cool, cunning, ambitious, and malicious Man”: Sparks, p. 312. “merde in a silk stocking”: Swiggett, p. 394.
Jefferson, an ardent booster of the Revolution, thought it would be bloodless: Adams, p. 176. “The Current is setting so strong against the Noblesse”: Sparks, p. 315. Later, Jefferson would accuse Morris of poisoning Washington’s mind against the Revolution: Swiggett, p. 227. He blamed it all on Marie Antoinette: See Adams, pp. 180, 245. rubbed with butter: Diary, p. 205. “he is sensible his party are mad”: Roosevelt, p. 115.
“This man’s mind is so elated by power”: Swiggett, pp. 193–94. a “canine appetite” for fame: Miller, p. 19.
one day he told her he did not love her, which surprised her, and “wounded [her] to the Soul”: Diary, p. 251. She asked Gouverneur if he would promise to marry her: ibid., p. 244.
He offered to counsel Lafayette as Jefferson had done, but the marquis demurred: Miller, p. 39.
a look similar to “what Sir John Falstaff calls the Leer of Invitation”: Sparks, p. 327. Back at Morrisania, Gouverneur’s half brother Lewis Morris had an inspiration: Jenkins, pp. 3–4. Ultan (Northern Borough, p. 104) says that Lewis Morris first made this proposal in 1783, in the hope that selling the government the land on which to build the new capital would not only make him some money but get his war damages repaired for free.
Chapter 13
Morris bought a 550-ton ship in England, the Goliah: See Diary, p. 543. Morris tried to start a war between Britain and France: Miller, pp. 50, 64. he met a disagreeable surprise: Adams, p. 123.
she had determined to be sage: Miller, p. 74.
Morris communicated with the king and queen regularly: Adams, p. 230; see also Roosevelt, p. 159. About a week after the unsuccessful escape, a ceremonial procession honoring Voltaire made its way through the city: Diary, p. 215.
At the British ambassador’s, Morris met Banastre Tarleton: Roosevelt, p. 157. In addition to his exploits, some of them murderous, in the American war, Banastre Tarleton was afterward rumored to be the person on whom Baroness Orczy based Sir Percival Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, in her play and novel of that name (Diary, p. 223). Tarleton came from a slave-trading family and remained a strong pro-slavery advocate during his later career in Parliament. Washington informed Morris about some of the negatives: Miller, p. 71.
Morris wrote back, promising to show “Circumspection of Conduct”: Mintz, p. 223. Before Morris received this news, he and Mme. de Flahaut had been considering going to America: Swiggett, p. 228.
He set up his embassy at 488 Rue de la Planche: Sparks, vol. II, p. 195. Theodore Roosevelt ascribed Morris’s ill-advised participation to his natural gallantry: Miller, Envoy to the Terror, p. 132.
Morris predicted that the radicals would take over completely in six weeks: Miller, p. 146.
She followed soon after: ibid., p. 161. When she turned to him, he said he could not help her: See Son of Talleyrand: The Life of Comte Charles de Flahaut 1785–1870, by Françoise de Bernardy (Lucy Norton, tr., 1965), p. 25. Morris later explained that he had no orders to leave: Sparks, p. 414.
Morris found a house in Seine-Port: Miller, p. 182. One day Thomas Paine was helping the French write their new constitution; the next he had landed in jail: Swiggett, pp. 255, 269.
He petitioned Morris to declare him an American citizen: Miller, p. 117. In Paris, one of the governments of the moment threw Mme. de La Fayette in prison: Morris’s efforts on behalf of the Lafayettes are a theme that runs throughout his time in France (and after). See Roosevelt, p. 175 (a letter to Morris in which Mme. de La Fayette thanks him for lending her 100,000 livres, and for saving her from the guillotine); see also Adams, p. 261; and The Diaries of Gouverneur Morris: European Travels 1794–1798, ed. Melanie Randolph Miller (2011), p. xxx, which mentions that Mme. de La Fayette’s grandmother, mother, and sister were executed.
Flahaut returned, exchanged himself for his friend, and went to the guillotine: This story is found in several sources. See Swiggett, pp. 261–62; Miller, p. 236; and Bernardy, pp. 25, 33 ff.
Morris found bargains: He bought “paintings, furniture, art objects, telescopes, wine”—see Miller, Envoy to the Terror, p. 234. He also bought silver from Versailles (Adams, p. 244). His descendants drank the last of Marie Antoinette’s wine at a reunion in 1848. At some point he sold Mme. de Staël 23,000 acres: Sparks, pp. 489–93. At the end of July 1794, James Monroe arrived in France as his ambassadorial replacement: Adams, p. 249; Roosevelt, pp. 191, 193. Between April 17 and June 10, a total of 3,607 people had died: Swiggett, p. 284. The authorities gave him a passport on the condition that he never return to France: Miller, p. 235.
In his papers is a letter he wrote to Jonathan Dayton: Swiggett, pp. 377–78. (The footnote cites “Misc Mss. (Morris) New York Historical Society.”)
He dispatched them to Morrisania on a vessel called the Superb: Adams, p. 244.
They included several cases of Imperial Tokay: See Adams, pp. 244–45; see also Miller, p. 234. Soon after arriving in Lausanne, Morris experienced symptoms: Diaries of Gouverneur Morris, Miller, ed., p. 25; see also Mintz, p. 240.
He said that if he went back, he would again be called to public service: Sparks, vol. II, p. 75.
Wycombe seems to have become a victim of her success: See Miller, ed., Diaries of Gouverneur Morris, p. 480. the count had first sought her out because he admired her writing: ibid., p. 274.
When Charles was fifteen, he wrote a letter to Napoleon offering to serve as his aide-de-camp: See de Bernardy, Son of Talleyrand, pp. 32–33.
if Charles had been raised by old Flahaut he would have stuck with Napoleon all the way: ibid., pp. 112–15.
This ingenious piece of engineering made him think again of the wealth of the American interior: See Diaries of Gouverneur Morris, Miller, ed., p. 184. he attended the small ceremony when they were finally released: ibid., pp. 497 ff.; see also Sparks, pp. 457–58. In the summer of 1798, he made plans to return to America: For details of Morris’s return, see Diaries of Gouverneur Morris, pp. xxxi–xxxiii, 654–64.
Chapter 14
The very name struggles with prejudice: In Italy, the bad part of a city is sometimes called “la Bronx.” See also The New York Times, “C’est le Bronx? Ou Sont les Maisons Abandonnes?” Nov. 16, 1990, p. B3; see also The Bronx, by Evelyn Diaz Gonzalez (2004), p. 129: “English tabloids dubbed a drug-torn neighborhood in Manchester, England, ‘the Bronx.’”
