page_title: Richard Varick
section_title: Mayor of New York City (1789 - 1801)
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Varick / Political career / Mayor of New York City (1789 - 1801)
caption_attribution_description: English: 1796 signature of Richard Varick, Mayor of New York (1791-1801) The Cooper Collection of U.S. Historical Documents Photograph by uploader
context_page_description: Richard Varick was an American lawyer, military officer, and politician. A major figure in the development of post-Independence New York City and State, Varick became the 45th Mayor of New York City in 1789 and served eleven consecutive one-year terms until 1801.
  Previous to his terms as mayor, Varick served as the 14th Recorder of New York City from 1784 to 1789. An office that no longer exists, it is equatable to 'Chief Legal Officer'. Along with Samuel Jones, Varick codified New York State's first statutes after Revolution in the Laws of New York. This body of work laid legal groundwork for Varick to institute the Law of New York, the New York City Administrative Code, and the Rules of New York City during his terms as mayor. Additionally, under his leadership, the progenitors of the New York City Department of Health, the New York Stock Exchange, and many others would be created establishing the foundation of modern New York City.
  During the Revolutionary War, he served as George Washington's aide-de-camp and private secretary. Varick's body of work from this era would lead to the Varick Transcripts which now live in the Library of Congress.
context_section_description: Varick would peak politically as the Mayor of New York City for twelve years during the formative post-Independence era from 1789 to 1801. While Mayor, he would continue his establishment of the technocratic structure that would ensure New York City’s place as the commercial capital of the United States, despite the political capital moving to Philadelphia, then Washington D.C. At this time in history, there was no precedent of commercial and political leadership between split between two cities.
  In 1791, the major financial crisis would hit the United States in New York due to a scheme to manipulate the financial markets, which had no formal structure of any kind. Varick would have to increase officers to protect the guilty parties from mobs gathering outside the prison. This would lead to a group of merchants making the "Buttonwood Agreement” in 1792 which was the seed of the New York Stock Exchange.
  In the summer of 1793 a yellow fever epidemic sent New Yorkers "fleeing north" to nearby healthful Greenwich Village. This epidemic would lead to the creation of what would become the New York City Department of Health. This was timely as there were further epidemics in 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799, and 1800.
  In 1794, public anger at Federalist political ideals spilled into the streets with Varick’s support of the Jay Treaty. An angry mob would almost physically run him out of the city.
  Varick ran int moe trouble when he tried to pressure the city’s 1,000 or so licensed workers — tavern keepers, grocers, butchers and cartmen, all of whom had licenses to work for the city — to vote for Federalist candidates. “This went completely contrary to the egalitarian sentiment of the time,” Dr. Hodges said. 
  Varick’s heavy-handed ways, Dr. Hodges said, pushed many of the workers away from the Federalists, represented by Alexander Hamilton, and into the opposing Democratic-Republican faction, represented by Thomas Jefferson. In 1797, after losing his seat representing New York State in the U.S. Senate, Aaron Burr took control of Tammany Hall and used it to assail Varick for his use of marketing and tax-licensing fees. Burr would win the state's electoral vote in the 1800 presidential election leading to a wide sweeping rout of Federalist politicians across New York, including Varick in 1801.
caption: Signature of Richard Varick while Mayor of New York (1798)
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