American Eden
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105Charlton sent for DH: DH to John Church Hamilton, 1 January 1833, LC-AHP, Reel 30. See also PAH, vol. 21, 294–95.
105“overwhelmed with distress”: DH to John Church Hamilton, 1 January 1833, LC-AHP, Reel 30.
105letter to James Monroe: AH to Monroe, PAH, vol. 21, 200.
105resurfaced in the press: Chernow 2004, 529–32.
106AH statement: AH 1800 [1797]. On content and AH motivations, see Chernow 2004, 532–42.
106“great distress”: DH to JCH, 1 January 1833, LC-AHP, Reel 30.
106reworked his lectures: Minturn Post, quoted by AEH 1861, 308. DH states in his 1833 letter to John Church Hamilton that he was still “personally unknown” to AH when AH came to his room to thank him for saving Philip, but this claim conflicts with DH’s 1826 recollection to Thomas James (letter of 9 July 1826, DH Collection, N-YHS) that he was in AH’s presence when the latter received Washington’s draft of the Farewell Address, which would have been in the spring of 1796. Also conflicting with this claim is AH’s payment of 1 February 1797 to “Doctors Bard & Hosack in full for accounts 95 & 96” (LPAH, vol. 5, 474), as noted above.
106Aedes aegypti: Porter 1997, 300.
107“it is impossible for Hosack”: entry for 13 October 1797, in Elihu Hubbard Smith 1973, 376.
107“Parke & I are bleeders”: entry for 13 October 1797, in Elihu Hubbard Smith 1973, 376.
107medical board of New York recommended: Langstaff 1940, 194.
107“mentioned with horror in some companies”: quoted by Brodsky 2004, 334.
107Columbia trustee: Langstaff 1940, 194; CU-CC TM, vol. 2, part 1, 250.
107“the opposition to my appointment”: BR to John R. R. Rodgers, 6 November 1797, quoted by Brodsky 2004, 335.
107“brother in the republic of medicine”: BR to DH, 7 June 1809, Robbins Mss. B.H.78, APS.
107AH with his family: DH to John Church Hamilton, 1 January 1833, LC-AHP, Reel 30.
107“highly endowed and cultivated mind”: DH to John Church Hamilton, 1 January 1833, LC-AHP, Reel 30.
108“great regret”: reprinted in Hosack 1811a, 7; see also minutes for 3 November 1797, CU-CC TM, vol. 2, part 1, 250.
108“effectual remedy”: reprinted in DH 1811d, 8.
108“Hosack has been some time at Phila.”: Elihu Hubbard Smith to Levi Wheaton, 20 December 1797, Elihu Hubbard Smith 1973, 406.
108Mary Eddy, the Wistars, and Franklin: Robbins 1964, 151.
108Wisteria: Nuttall 1818; Ewan and Ewan 2007, 540.
109“only lady here”: John Torrey quoted by Rodgers 1942, 23.
109neighbors of DH: Longworth 1797, various pages.
109DH’s cow: New York Daily Advertiser, 19 July 1803.
109DH father and slaves: “United States Census, 1790,” 77; slave population in NY: Harris (2003, 56) notes: “By 1790, the free black population in New York City had grown to an unprecedented 1,036 out of a total black population of 3,092.” On slaveholding in eighteenth-century New York, see Lepore 2005.
109antislavery advocates: DH was friendly with members of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded in 1785 by Jay, Hamilton, and others (Harris 2003, 56). Some of the society’s founding members owned slaves themselves but hoped to achieve gradual emancipation in New York. Other members were Quakers whose New York congregation had already banned slavery (Harris 2003, 56).
109DH and slaveholding: see United States Census, 1800: United States Census, 1800. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRZN-FF3?cc=1804228&wc=3V1X-9TB%3A1585148702%2C1585148902%2C1585149561: 10 June 2015), New York > New York > New York Ward 1 > image 16 of 22; citing NARA microfilm publication M32 (Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
For DH’s slaveholding as of 1810, see United States Census, 1810: United States Census, 1810. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBQ-9MXV?cc=1803765&wc=QZZZ-M4T%3A1588180303%2C1588181204%2C1588181203: 1 December 2015), New York > New York > New York Ward 1 > image 12 of 27; citing NARA microfilm publication M252 (Washington DC: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
On slaveholding among DH and his Columbia colleagues, see Foner 2016 and Wilder 2013. DH freed a twenty-eight-year-old slave named Nelly in 1805 (Yoshpe 1941, 84).
109warm, clear evening: Laight 1795–1803, entry for 14 September 1798.
110DH ill: entry for 14 September 1798, in Elihu Hubbard Smith 1973, 464.
110Dozens had died: see, e.g., Laight 1795–1803, various entries for September 1798.
110“perpetual tears”: entry for 6 September 1798, in Elihu Hubbard Smith 1973, 463.
110conspiratorial silence: Companion, and Commercial Centinel, 1 September 1798.
110“three feet high”: New-York Gazette, 24 August 1798.
110“North and East River”: New-York Gazette, 24 August 1798.
110“If they do not”: Greenleaf’s New York Journal, 4 September 1798.
110Greenleaf died: Laight 1795–1803, entry for 14 September 1798.
110Titian Peale died: SPCWP, vol. 2, 226.
110“this cankerworm”: CWP to A. M. F. J. Palisot de Beauvois, 16 June 1799, SPCWP, vol. 2, 244.
110true Peale fashion: SPCWP, vol. 2, 232–33.
110Smith died: editor’s note in Elihu Hubbard Smith 1973, 464.
110deserted properties: Common Council Minutes, 24 September 1798, vol. 2, 469.
111“Sampson of the materia medica”: Hosack 1824a, vol. 3, 431.
111good results: Hosack 1824a, vol. 3, 427.
111“without whose aid”: quoted by Langstaff 1940, 196.
112“trodden under foot”: DH to Eaton, 30 August 1810, quoted by Robbins 1964, 69.
112“My little boy”: MH to CWB, 19 November 1799, APS-CWB. 112 named him Titian: SPCWP, vol. 2, 273, note 1.
112bled him half-dry: Chernow 2010, 807.
112“painful duty”: Alexandria Times, 16 December 1799.
112“behold the HERO”: Weekly Museum, 21 December 1799.
113bells rang daily: by order of the Common Council “from 12 to 1 every day for five days in a row,” New York Daily Advertiser, 24 December 1799.
113“drooping wings”: Spectator, 4 January 1800.
113“my heart sad”: AH to Charles C. Pinckney, 22 December 1799, quoted by Chernow 2004, 600–601.
113Clinton had gone to work: on Clinton’s political career, see Cornog 1998.
113Clinton back at Columbia: Cornog 1998, 32.
114“formidable and dangerous diseases”: DH to DC, 18 February 1800, CU-DC.
114“cheerfully lend”: DH to DC, 18 February 1800, CU-DC.
114three assemblymen: Journal of the Assembly (23rd Session, 1800), 115–16.
115endorsed SLM: New York Daily Advertiser, 19 April 1800.
115mobilize voters: Chernow 2004, 607–8.
115“destroy the Constitution”: Spectator, 23 April 1800.
115bribery or fraud: New York Daily Advertiser, 19 April 1800.
115“prostitute”: New York Daily Advertiser, 25 April 1800.
115end of the French Revolution: Burrows and Wallace 1998, 328.
116Hamilton’s land and architect: Chernow 2004, 641–42.
116“wicked enough”: quoted by Chernow 2004, 633.
CHAPTER SIX: “Doctor, I Despair”
117scarlet fever: Robbins 1964, 163.
117“animal of uncommon magnitude”: quoted by Sellers 1980, 113.
117Jefferson and moose: Dugatkin 2009.
118“true political carriages”: Brissot de Warville 1792, 108.
118“boy” and “pison the minds”: quoted by Sellers 1980, 125.
118“sullen as any hog”: quoted by Sellers 1980, 125.
118“wild fire”: SPCWP, vol. 2, 334.
118“Every body seemed rejoiced”: SPCWP, vol. 2, 334.
119“bones togather”: SPCWP, vol. 2, 334.
119Peale recounted: CWP to James G. Graham, 30 June 1801, SPCWP, vol. 2,
339.
119“contrary sentiment”: SPCWP, vol. 2, 334.
119did not mention Hosack: CWP to TJ, 29 June 1801, LC-TJ; SPCWP, vol. 2, 338.
119“bloody Panther”: Broadside reproduced in Semonin 2000, 328, and see chapter 13 for an analysis of this episode.
121Sale of confiscated land: Burrows and Wallace 1998, 267. On the departure of Loyalists from the American colonies, see Jasanoff 2011.
121Absentee landlords: On the rise of rental markets in late eighteenth-century Manhattan, see Blackmar 1989.
121“put a stop to your improvements”: quoted by Hartog 1983, 93.
121“sufficient quantity of ground”: quoted by Hartog 1983, 93–94.
121Lispenard’s Meadow: called by contemporaries variously Lispenard Meadows, Lispenard’s Meadow, or Lispenard Meadow.
121“two majestic rivers”: Brissot de Warville 1792, 152.
121deep forests: New York was not alone in this; see Cronon 1983 on the widespread colonial and early Republic deforestation in the Northeast, especially in New England.
122blue skies: Laight 1795–1803, entries for September 1801.
122“fields of Long-Island”: Hosack 1810a, 1.
122viburnum and violets on Hosack’s property: see notations of collection by CWE in copy of Hosack 1806 held by Mertz Library, NYBG.
123“exceedingly rough”: Hosack 1811d, 16.
123sunshine: Laight 1795–1803, 12 September 1801.
123DH signed a bill of lading: Entry of Merchandise, 12 September 1801, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
123DH lent books to Bard: DH-MB, 12 (medical section).
123chilly, overcast: Laight 1795–1803, weather entry for 23 November 1801, N-YHS.
123reportedly fainted: Chernow 2004, 653. My account of this episode is based on Chernow 2004 and DH to John Church Hamilton, 1 January 1833, LC-AHP, Reel 30; the latter document is partially reproduced in PAH, vol. 25, 437.
123“little impertinences”: New-York Evening Post, 10 December 1802.
124smoking: Mercantile Advertiser, 19 November 1801.
124“Republican Young Men”: American Citizen, 19 June 1801.
124“man of the people”: quoted in American Citizen, 24 July 1801.
124“persecuted patriot”: quoted in American Citizen, 24 July 1801.
124less stringently prosecuted in New Jersey: Chernow 2004, 700.
125“agony of grief”: DH to John Church Hamilton, 1 January 1833, PAH, vol. 25, 437, and partially quoted by Chernow 2004, 653.
125lay down: Chernow 2004, 654.
125“grave of his hopes”: PAH, vol. 25, 436, note 1.
125“much agitated”: Robert Troup to Rufus King, 5 December 1801, quoted in PAH, vol. 25, 437, note 1.
125“many tears”: BR to AH, 26 November 1801, PAH, vol. 25, 435.
126“precious to me”: AH to BR, 29 March 1802, PAH, vol. 25, 584.
126“Hamilton is more composed”: Robert Troup to Rufus King, 5 December 1801, PAH, vol. 25, 437, note 1.
CHAPTER SEVEN: “There Are No Informed People Here”
127“Amer’can Farmer”: New York Commercial Advertiser, 21 October 1805.
128stark inequality: see esp. Wilentz 2004 [1984]. Burrows and Wallace (1998, 351) note that “by 1800 the richest 20 percent owned almost 80 percent of the city’s wealth. The bottom half owned under 5 percent.”
128“other than medical subjects”: DH-MB, 26 (medical section).
128docked their pay: DH-MB, 24 (garden section).
129porter’s lodge: Columbian, 3 October 1810.
129Curtis’s epitaph: quoted by Thornton in Curtis 1805, vol. 3, 33.
129Clinton and botany: Hosack 1829, 35.
130FAM’s injury: Savage and Savage 1986, 104.
130France had been sapped: Savage and Savage 1986, 33. On the relation of Michaux’s mission to the French political context, see Hyde 2012, 2013. On the Jardin du Roi before and during the Revolution, see Spary 2000.
130“I imagine myself”: quoted by Savage and Savage 1986, 41.
130a dollar: Robbins and Howson 1958, 353.
130“no informed people”: AM to Louis Guillaume Lemonnier, 26 January 1786, quoted by Fry 2011, 81.
131“majestic” and “magnificent”: e.g., François André Michaux 1819, vol. 1, 41 and 152.
131“Cramberrie”: quoted by Robbins and Howson 1958, 354.
131“romantic” and “awful”: New-Jersey Journal, 27 June 1787, quoted by Robbins and Howson 1958, 357–58.
132offers for its purchase: Robbins and Howson 1958, 362.
132DH reputation: François André Michaux 1805, 126.
132DH on medicinal species: Hosack 1801, 42–43.
132Linnaeus and Jussieu: Hosack 1806, 5.
133size of Brompton: about ten and a half acres, according to W. Hugh Curtis 1941, 86.
133“naturalize as soon as possible”: DH to TJ, 10 September 1806, FO-TJ.
133native to Africa: on American efforts to naturalize cotton species, see Beckert 2015.
133Aconitum napellus and Nicandra physalodes: Hosack 1806.
134“evergreen foliage”: François André Michaux 1819, vol. 1, 297. See also Fraser and Leone, eds., 2017.
134plea for conservation: Savage and Savage 1986, 357. Thoreau and FAM: Thoreau 2004 [1854], 241, note 60; Walls (2017, 308) notes that Thoreau consulted works by André Michaux.
135FAM’s opinion of DH’s land: François André Michaux 1804, 15, and 1805, 11.
135prison: Hosack was an “inspector” and physician at the state prison from as early as 1799 (Longworth 1799, 95).
135nails for Hosack’s garden: DH-MB, 8 (garden section).
135old assembly room: Commercial Advertiser, 29 March 1802.
135Rembrandt had raked in $340: Rembrandt Peale to CWP, 7 April 1802, SPCWP, vol. 2, 425; Semonin 2000, 331.
135“exact counterpart”: American Citizen, 20 May 1802.
135he announced: American Citizen, 20 May 1802.
135Banks: Sellers 1980, 156.
136lost macaw: Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 10 September 1802.
136Randall’s will: PAH, vol. 25, 389.
136“merciless and unfeeling quacks”: New York Daily Advertiser, 30 August 1790.
136Bellevue: Oshinsky 2016, 14–37. See also INPS, vol. 1, 388.
137Livingston and Monroe’s mission to Paris: Wood 2009, 367–69.
137“climate will not be”: Morning Chronicle, 22 January 1803.
137DH founding member: American Academy of Fine Arts 1817, 3.
137Laocoön, the Apollo Belvedere, and the Dying Gaul: Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 1 November 1802; Spectator, 3 July 1802.
137City Hall: Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 1 November 1802; Bender 1987, 62.
138elected Napoleon: Academy of Fine Arts 1817, 33.
138lavish volumes: Mitchill 1807, 158.
138Livingston sent seeds: Hosack 1806, 7.
138“Philips funeral”: PAH, vol. 25, 437.
138Philip born 2 June 1802: Chernow 2004, 654.
138completed by the summer of 1802: Chernow 2004, 642.
138goldenrod: CWE collected Solidago canadensis on Manhattan, noted in NYBG copy of Hosack 1806.
138tomes on trees and soil: on AH at the Grange, see Chernow 2004, 641–44.
138“chapel in this grove”: AH quoted by John Church Hamilton, “Chapter 168,” n.p., Box 20, John Church Hamilton Papers, CU.
138“refuge in a Garden”: AH to Richard Peters, 29 December 1802, PAH, vol. 26, 69.
138“horticultural or rural Persuits”: Richard Peters to AH, 8 January 1803, PAH, vol. 26, 74.
138“helm of the UStates”: quoted by Wulf 2011, 70n.
139AH stops at Elgin: James A. Hamilton 1869, 3; Chernow 2004, 642–43.
139sketch inspired by Hosack: Chernow 2004, 643; AH, “Plan for a Garden,” PAH, vol. 26, 182.
139“a few waggon loads”: AH, “Plan for a Garden,”
PAH, vol. 26, 182.
139ha-ha: see O’Malley 2010, 343.
139“a few dogwood trees”: AH, “Plan for a Garden,” PAH, vol. 26, 182, quoted by Chernow 2004, 643.
139“interfere with the hot bed”: AH, “Plan for a Garden,” PAH, vol. 26, 183.
139AH support of Pinckney: Chernow 2004, 616–18.
139watermelon and muskmelon: AH to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 29 December 1802, PAH, vol. 26, 71; Pinckney to AH, 6 March 1803, PAH, vol. 26, 92.
140Erythrina herbacea: Pinckney called it “coral shrub”; see Pinckney to AH, 6 March 1803, PAH, vol. 26, 92.
140planted thirteen sweetgums: Chernow 2004, 643; the last tree was cut down in the early twentieth century (American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society 1909, 81).
141“Flora does not receive”: DH to Vahl, 1 March 1804, University of Copenhagen, Botanical Garden Library.
141plants collected and locations: see annotations in copy of Hosack 1806, NYBG.
142“an artificial alphabet”: DH to Vahl, 1 March 1804, University of Copenhagen, Botanical Garden Library.
143Anemone quinquefolia and other plants: DH-MB, 1–2 (garden section).
143“very astonishing progress” and “delight in Botanic pursuits”: DH to Vahl, 1 March 1804.
143when he needed help: Beginning around 1798, DH made notations in his copy of Systema Naturae (held by NYBG), keying them to plants he found in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine.
144“quarters of the globe”: New-York Evening Post, 29 June 1803.
144“first attempt of the kind”: New-York Evening Post, 29 June 1803.
144description of greenhouse: DH to Thomas Parke, 25 July 1803, Ch.C.11.76.77, Boston Public Library, Rare Books and Manuscripts.
145William Hamilton: on The Woodlands, see esp. O’Malley 1992[b], 1998, 2010, and 2011, and Chesney 2014. TJ on The Woodlands: Wulf 2011, 43.
145FAM shot: Savage and Savage 1986, 104.
145DH greenhouse nearly identical to Woodlands: DH to Parke, 25 July 1803.
145“miniature hill”: quoted by O’Malley 2010, 359.
145“catalogue”: on Bartram’s catalogues, see Fry 1996.
146new City Hall: the cornerstone was laid on 26 May 1803 by Mayor Livingston (INPS, vol. 1, 397).
146McComb and Mangin: Morning Chronicle, 6 October 1802.
146Clinton returns: Burrows and Wallace 1998, 330; Cornog 1998, 49–50.