The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-03-18
AN OLD LANDMARK.

The New York papers give an account OF
the sale Of the New York Hotel on Broad
way. with all its furniture and belongings.
Thus passes away an institution which has
substantial claims 10 be ranked as his
torical.
The New York Hotel dates from the
period when The South began TO figure in
politics as having interests different from
and antagonistic to the North. Slavery
may be said TO have become factor in
Am erican politics Mt The time of the first
plots for the annexation of Texas. say fifty
to ffty-fve years ago. Far-seeing South
erners then felt that they had affinities Of
their own which were more potent than
their afinities with Northern men. The
irrepreSsibe conflict between slavery and
freedom was clearly visible to those who
would look beyond the horizon of the hour.
Southern statesmen felt that the time was
coming when they would have TO stand
together. Long before the masses on either
side Of Mason and Dixon's line dreamed
that division was going to arise between
the sections the leaders tOuk stock OF two
facts-the growing profits OF negro labor.
and the growing Northern loathing of
human slavery-and discovered that sooner
the leaders of the South realized that they
must have a rendezvous at the North. and
they pitched upon the New York Hotel.
There were hotels at New Orleans and
Charleston and Richmond. where they
could meet in the privacy Of home. But
from the balconies of those well-appointed
taverns II was impossible TO overlook the
Northern mind and 10 watch the growth of
anti slavery opinion. The New Y ork Hotel
was in the heart Of the enemy's camp there
they could entertain distinguished Northern
statesmen who were ready TO swallow slay-
cry for fear. If their gorge turned at the
meal the Southern gentlemen would grow
angry; and there they could watch the pa
tent labor of Seward, and Greeley, and
Chase, in educating the North to the duty
of making some sacrifice for freedom. From
lS45 TO 1860 nearly every Southern man of
note srent few days OF each year at the
New Y ork Hotel. They stot ped there witt,
their families on their way to and from
Saratoga. They journeyed up from their
plantations for the purpose of meeting the
gentlemen who they knew made that Motel
their headquarters. Those who wanted the
latest and most reliable Information regard
ing the purposes of the South could get il
there better than anywhere else.
Il was in those days a delightful place Of
soj0urn. These old planters were genial
gentlemen, who led generous lives. Jared on
the fat of the land, and were always hos
pitable, kindly and courteous; they took
their wine at dinner while the Northern
men generally adhered to ice-water, and
the wine was good Of its kind. Their wives
aud daughter were charming; pretty, pi-
quante, mellowed with the soft radiance OF
The South, and enhancing the ear with the
most melodious of voices. Many a young
Northerner who had no sympathy with
slavery thought himself fortunate TO be on
visiting terms at the New York Hotel
1t WAS under the roof of the New YORK
Hotel that secession WAS planned. II was
i there that Lord Lyons acquired bis curious
Information that the South which contained
the true chiyalry of the country. was ready
to accept sou of Victoria as king. and that
Fernando Wood assured his Southern
friends that as many Noriherners would
fight against the black Republicans as
under their flag. The merchants Of New
York, who sold dry goods and groceries &c
the South, left their cards regularly at the
hotel and assured the planters that the
metropolis on the Hudson might safely be
counted on their side. which afterw ard
rather shook southern faith in chambers Of
commerce as repositories OF wisdom. During
the war mine host Cranston's hospiiabie
chambers contained many a Southern spy
II John Kennedy had not taken the precau-
ton to secure rooms for two or three of hi:
brightest detectives there is no saying what
plots might not have been Matched. 1t wa,
at one time proposed TO close the hotel. bur
Kennedy, who knew his business, asked the
author of this silly proposition what better
he could want than TO corral all his game in
one small wood?
And now it is gone. 1t lost its vocation
when the death of slavery effaeed the an
tagonism between North and South
Southern gentlemen now frequent thu
same hotels as Northern gentlemen, an(
except for an occasional touch OF dialect j
is difficult to distinguish the one from thu
other.