650

MEMOIR OF THE HON. JAMES DUANE.

not done so before, acceded to the Articles of Confederation . Those two matters had speciallydetained Mr. Duane at Philadelphia , and they being completed he announced his intention ofreturning home. He could not leave Congress until the beginning of May, and lie remained absentuntil the 31st of July when he resumed his seat. While in the State on this occasion, lie appearedbefore the Legislature for the puropose of giving that body information with respect to publicbusiness. This done, he called its attention to certain slanderous charges published anonymouslyin the newspapers and requested some action of the Legislature thereon. This occasioned a jointresolution to be passed, the 27th June, expressing its continued confidence in him and Gen. Scottand requesting them to return to Congress as soon as they conveniently could. At the same time,Genls. McDougall, Schuyler and Scott, Col. Floyd, Chancellor Livingston, Mr. Wisner and GovernorClinton, who had been his colleagues in Congress at different times, came forward with strong andfull certificates in his vindication. He returned home on the 18th October, and although he wasthe same month re-appointed delegate, he does not appear to have attended Congress until the 24thof June, 1782. On the 22d July following he was re-appointed delegate for one year from thefirst Monday of November then next, which was his last appointment to that office. He was, atthe same time, chosen by the Assembly (as was then allowed) a Senator from the Southern Districtin place of Sir James Jay, whose seat was declared vacant. In November, 1782, Mr. Duaneobtained leave of absence from Congress, returned home and on the meeting of the Legislature inJanuary, 1783, attended as a Senator, and continued so until the adjournment of that body onthe 28th March following. On the 16th July, he took his seat for tire last term in Congress ,remained there until the adjournment thereof to Annapolis , in the beginning of November, whenhe was called home to act as one of the Council for the Government of the Southern District of NewYork, of which body the Legislature had some time before elected him a member. Before he leftCongress he had the pleasure of drawing, reporting and helping to pass the resolution of thanks ofthe brave army which more than eight years before he had voted to raise.

The council above mentioned had been vested with almost dictatorial power to continue untilthe government could be re-established over that part of the State so long possessed by he enemy,and now about to be evacuated. Mr. Duane joined the other members of this body, and withGeneral Washington, Governor Clinton, and hundreds of his fellow exiles, entered on the 25thNovember, 1783, his native city, when he took possession of his dilapidated property. He foundhis houses in King (now Pine) street, and at the corner of Water street and Fly market, almostentirely destroyed. His farm, as he calls it, consisting of about twenty acres, at what is now r calledGramercie park 1 and its vicinity, was in pretty good order, the house having been occupied by oneof the British generals.

The council took possession of the property of Trinity church, set aside an election of vestrymenthat had been held just before the Americans regained New-York , and ordered a new election, inwhich Mr. Duane w'as chosen one of the church wardens, and other w'liigs vestrymen. This electionwas afterwards confirmed by act of Legislature , and the persons elected chose as rector of the

1 In 1831, Samuel B. Rugglcs became possessed of a portion of the old Duane Farm. This farm had a front of about 400 feet on thoBowery-road, and ran thence easterly almost to the river, with some upland, but much morass, overgrown with cat-tails, and throughwhich wandered a stream known as Crummassie-Vly or Winding Creek. * * * He planted on the edge of the morass, in December,1831, Gramercy park, by gratuitously giving the whole of the 66 lots it comprises—now worth two hundred thousand dollars—and attachingto the grant a condition that ten dollars a lot should be annually paid forever by the residents around the square as a fund out of whichto plant, preserve, and adorn it. Disdaining too, the personal vanity of entailing his own name upon this creation of his own energyand property, he preserved the name by which the old Duane estate was known, the Gramercy Seat—corrupted, probably, from theCrooked Creek, or Crommo-see, which meandered through it a meadows .—President King's Progress of New-York during the lastFifty Yearf.