H2                         New York
 

CHAPTEE XL

THE FEDERALIST CITY.    1783-1800.

New York was indeed a dreary city when the king's
troops left it after their sojourn of seven years. The
spaces desolated by the great fires had never been built
up, but still remained covered with the charred, melan¬
choly ruins; the churches had been dismantled, the houses
rifled. Business was gone, and the channels in which it
had run were filled up. The Americans on taking pos¬
session once more had to begin all over again. They
set busily to work to rebuild the fallen fortunes of the
town; but the destruction had been so complete, and
the difficulties in the way of getting a fair start were so
great, that for four years very little progress was made.
Then affairs took a turn for the better; the city began
to flourish as it never had flourished before, and grew in
wealth and population at a steadily increasing pace.

The dismantled churches were put in order; and
Trinity, which had been burnt down in the fire of 1776,
was entirely rebuilt. King's College had its name
changed to Columbia, and was again started, the first
scholar being De Witt Clinton, a nephew of George
Clinton, at the time governor of the State. The free
public library — the New York Society Library — was
revived on a very much larger scale, and a good build¬
ing erected, wherein to house the books. The new
constitution of the independent State of New York