Frederick Law Olmsted Subject File Parks New York N.Y. 17 (Esp Central Park) 1861 Jan.790113 15270 77550 300 61,350 12563 7 1861. 350 539.490 January 600.840 2000 712.533 Res. Equs Bels. 61.350 3000 14.435 1 no return. 539.490 750 629.915 2 1000 60 350 750 ---------------- 3 no return. 70 1,896.403 4 2500 80 1200 250 1,528.421 5 1200 60 1000 2250 ------------------- 6 5500 20 80 900 367.882 7 no return. ------------------- 8 1500 70 600 116275 3 9 ------------------------- 10 150 10 30 7 581353 11 450 7 150 300 12 7000 20 150 350 6 day [?]ating 13 25000 17 150 2000 14 80000 5 375 3000 15 3000 120 750 16 1500 70 750 468 050 153.75 523 17 no return. 855 ------------------- 18 250 16 150 70 77875 77.875 19 12000 35 750 546780 20 12000 35 750 58135 21 50000 25 1300 604915 22 55000 90 1700 225000 23 70000 90 2500 13 62.915 24 70000 110 3000 14 day Rating 10 25 26 no return. 27 10000 40 100 250 5 5 5 28 25000 50 450 2250 2 7 5 29 1' 30 15000 15 300 900 31 0 468p50 855155751860 July Day Pedestrians Eques Vehicles 1 1,000 500 750 2 10,000 150 500 3 750 150 500 4 1,000 200 750 5 5,000 50 500 6 250 25 25 7 1,200 125 700 8 2500 150 750 9 10,000 50 500 10 1200 175 750 11 500 75 250 12 750 150 300 13 750 175 300 14 750 75 250 15 1,250 50 275 16 10,000 50 450 17 750 50 150 18 500 75 350 19 500 60 400 20 1,200 78 750 21 700 50 500 22 750 75 300 23 15,000 25 1200 24 750 25 300 25 1,000 60 500 26 1,200 75 450 27 350 40 150 28 1,200 75 600 29 750 70 520 30 5,000 50 1,200 31 1,000 75 350 77550 3033 15270 August Ped: Eques. Veh: 1000 100 375 1500 75 450 1500 90 600 1,000 75 350 750 75 400 7,000 25 450 800 75 350 750 50 250 700 75 250 500 50 350 750 75 250 20000 75 1200 350 30 200 no return 1200 75 750 1100 60 450 1500 120 600 1000 80 450 1000 20 700 600 30 400 200 25 150 300 60 200 800 40 300 1500 70 350 4000 70 1200 8000 20 700 1200 60 450 500 25 130 1200 70 750 1500 70 400 1800 80 500 62200 1815 13455 September Ped: Eques: Veh: 1800 80 500 10,000 II concert. 125 800 15000 20 1,200 1500 75 450 1200 60 500 700 75 400 800 60 500 750 50 450 7,000 III concert. 125 1,500 15,000 25 750 1200 250 700 600 70 250 750 60 400 1500 125 700 1500 125 700 12,000 IIII concert. 275 2250 25,000 70 1200 450 20 275 1,200 128 500 2,500 175 700 900 63 507 2,500 92 568 13,000 V. concert. 225 4650 23,000 60 1900 3,250 105 817 912 87 246 3,025 188 911 1,650 167 655 2500 114 718 9,000 VI. concert. 180 2,560 ----- ----- ----- 160187 3274 29127 October Ped: Eques: Veh: 14,500 167 1061 1,037 60 263 2,131 128 621 1200 70 600 2,176 167 590 1100 240 675 11,500 VII. concert. 590 2205 13,000 160 1500 600 25 250 1300 60 750 1500 80 800 6250 275 3400 7500 320 2850 740 18 216 470 18 216 1100 170 650 800 70 1100 1,050 85 900 1,200 110 800 1500 80 1100 375 40 240 175 7 60 350 30 200 850 74 360 2576 240 1040 3,000 275 1200 3700 266 1312 8750 IX concert. 375 3217 8000 30 750 700 60 275 1200 60 575 100330 4350 29776 November Ped: Eques: Veh: 550 15 225 1200 60 575 900 75 600 no return 7000 60 1200 900 120 450 750 80 400 1100 85 750 900 80 475 no return. no return. 2500 30 1200 1500 90 600 1200 75 850 900 80 700 1200 110 450 900 80 375 6500 X concert. 315 984 500 20 225 1600 100 700 1000 85 750 1500 75 800 1200 70 550 no return. no return. 600 40 250 600 40 250 no return 450 40 300 8500 110 2500 43950 1935 16139 December Ped: Eques. Veh: no return 1000 70 350 2000 49 300 700 600 450 no return 150 20 175 650 50 sleighs 299 1000 102 457 250 28 10 101 5000 17 42 300 500 20 3 45 750 52 55 255 750 78 221 3000 39 217 9000 70 450 9000 70 450 75000 118 1218 12000 110 1200 28000 150 1800 6000 50 750 no return do. do. 381 43 108 30000 140 1000 56211 370 1826 56211 370 1826 10987 97 573 15000 130 530 10856 86 333 9000 62 347 2500 70 800 345896 3061 16381Estimate of Visitors for 6 mos. ending January 1, 1861 Office of "Mechanical Reel Oven" PATENTED September 23d, 1856. 27 Park Road, New York, January 30, 1861 Fred. Law Olmsted Esq - Dear Sir: Yesterday P.M. Capt Rennick, in company with Mr. Butler, called on me with an order from you, requiring me to accept 50 cents as damages on a pair of skates which he - Butler - had rendered useless. You are familiar with the facts, and I need not refer to that point again. I did not comply with your instructions for the reason that I had no such claim against him. Mr. Butler, either justly owed me $2.75 the cost of the skates, or nothing. I therefore returned him his $3 - which he had the cheek to take. That you may understand the character of the man in whose form you throw your official power and that to my pecuniary injury; On my handing him back his money, the fellow had not the decency to pay for the two hours use the time he had them. As Capt Rennick, retained the order for refunding the money, I should be glad to have one from you. together with your reasons for your decision in the matterWill you please inform me whether or not I shall be allowed to charge in any manner for damages done to skates, and if so, in what manner, and who shall decide the difference, provided one should occur. While addressing you, I beg leave to call your attention to the manner in which the Calceum Lights are placed. The one in the Circle is located in such a manner as to throw the Light directly in front of Mr. Radford's Tent - and I wish he had a half doz more around him - and thence across to Cemad's. Thus located, we are thus completely into the shade, and the result of the matter is it works unqually and greatly to my disadvantage. The Lights ought to be placed midway between us thus throwing the light over the center of the Pond, or else another light should be erected on the West Bank and its light thrown in our direction or so as to light the passage [near] under the Bridge leading around to the Terrace, which is now very dark and is a matter of much complaint. Another light thus placed would add very much to the pleasures of the Pond. Yours very truly J.W. KnappJ H. Knapp referring to the matter of Mr Bulter Office of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park, Bank of Commerce Building, 31 Nassau Street. New York, Jany 7 1861 D Sr I started for the Park & your home yesterday. got diverted on the way. I do want the plan for the [?] plan of extension very much the one you sent can't be found Yours tly, AHGA. H. Green Jan. 7. 1861 New York Jany. 9. 1861 My d Sir Yours of 8th. inst. is recd. Mr. Glass is quite correct in anything respecting the parapet. Mr. Vaux never had any authority from me in any form whatever for cutting the plan of the parapet upon which Mr. Glass is engaged. If he [ad?ed] it. he did so without any authority and he should be required to take the consequences of it. It is in direct violation of the role of the Com onStatuary & Fountains & upon which there was a direct issue between that Com and the Ex. Com. This is now placed in such a way as to require explanations all round to the committees and probably to delay the bridge for the summer. Mr. Glass must not proceed with it and the facts must be laid before the Committees, which cannot be done without a reflection upon those who are not in any degree censurable. It is of course apparent that the work done will be wasted if the same [?te] is not continued but why it was allowed to get in that position perhaps Mr Vaux may be able to explain. I very much regret it. The plan of the new [?] will be wanted as soon as it can be got ready. I learn that there is tile draining going on at the Park. This shd not be permitted except perhaps in very special cases - it cant be done witheconomy and without desiring to be very absolute in the matter. I shd say it would be well to have it suspended till Spring except where in some instances it may be deemed better to do it now preparatory to spring [?ll]. Your respy And H. Green Compt CP F L Olmsted A in C & Supt CP A.H. Green Jan. 9. 1861 Mt. St. Vincent Jany 10th 1861 F. L. Olmsted, Esq My dear Sir As you are aware, in the month of April 1860 I was (through your everlasting Kindness toward me) re appointed as M. Clerk at $1 less per day than I had before. I had to accept what was offered to me, although the work was, and is, if a nature that requires ability, and great attention. I have tried to get my salary increased ever since, and it has been actually promised to me by Mr. Green, in the presence of Mr. Gray, one week before his departure; but since he went to Europe Mr Green (although I have in many ways remembered it to him) has always put me off saying: I have no time now", I think your duties are light but I will consider it. This has been going onfor the last two months, and I suppose that to obtain a decision in my favor I need your support. I have hesitated so long to apply to you, because I did not like to importune you with my private affairs, until the last. When I was appointed M. Clerk I was told that if I wanted an asst, to apply for one; but through hard work, I managed to do all the business alone. In the month of September last, I was applied to examine Engineers acct and make forms for keeping their books in shape, which I did. Subsequently I was applied to for checking Foreman's time in the Field, which I did at an additional expense to me, for which I have not been paid as yet, although I represented to Mr. Green at the time, that if I was to do that business, my expenses ought to be paid, or my salary increased. Now I have been applied to for helping to make up Pay Rolls, and assisting to pay off the men, which I have done and all besides my own accts: [*He states how duties have been gradually accumulating upon him & then"*] I dont mean by this to complain about having too much work, as work is never too much for me, when I am fairly compensated therefor. I beg you to believe that I dont make the statement of these facts in the shape of grievances, but to submit them to your sound considerationso as you may be able to direct [*what*] my course to pursue, to attain my object, without endangering my position, from which I derive the daily bread for my children. [*text*] I hope you will be so Kind as to excuse my trespassing upon your valuable time, and waiting an answer at your convenience, Believe me My dear Sir Your Most Obdt Sert Francis Petrarchi F. Petrarchi Pay Jan. 20 1860 Janry 10 61 Dr Sir Mr. Crane said you were talking of coming down. I write to say that I may be out of town to-morrow. I may not get off, but now expect to be away. Yrs tly And. H. Green F.L. Olmsted EsqA. H. Green Jan 10. 1861 On the 12th day of January 1861 I hired a pair of skates for a Lady, of Mr. Knapp at the Central Park; depositing three dollars as security for the safe return thereof. On returning the skates, a strap was discovered to be broken for which Mr Knapp refused to receive a proper compensation but retained the Three Dollars which was fully double the value of the skates even when new. Against such imposition upon the Public, I ask the protection of the proper Authorities. Henry M. Butler 121 Broad St Jan 17 1861Henry M Butler Complaining of conduct of Tent-Keeper Knapp. Jan 17, 1861 Central Park Jan 17 1861 [Friend Dallas?], Will you please send me an inventory of all property in the office of [Archt in chief?] belonging to the Com of [CRen?] at your earliest convenience And oblige [?]B. F. Crane Asks for Inventory of property in Arch-in-Chiefs Office &c Jany 17, 1861 My d Sir Will you have these maps continued to date. I do not want new maps made but these continued to Jany 1. intact & returned to me at your earliest convenience Yours And. H. Green C CP Jany 18/61 F L Olmsted A in C CPA. H. Green Jan 18, 1861 Office of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park, Bank of Commerce Building, 31 Nassau Street. New York, January 18, 1861 Dr Sir I am asked to sign over for powder & fuse. I should like to know whether the well work work progressing is of that indispensable character that would justify proceeding with it. I am disposed to limit the well work to the least possible amount & not to be diverted into merely desirable expenditures. It would be desirable for me to get a daily report of what the forces are at & what each foreman & genl. foreman, engineers &c are engaged in. The calls for stationeryare too large. I should be glad to know what number of persons are engaged in the drainage of the Park. I speak of tile drainage & who they are. You are aware that the most vigorous economy is now absolutely essential & I feel that it is necessary that information should be here to prove of what is daily going on Yours [?] F.L. Olmsted [?] Is the map ready for annual report if not when will it be? Will you have it prepared without delay & so that when it goes to the lithographer if it does go there will be no occasion for [?][*A. W. Green. Jan 18. 1861*] Dear Sir At the request of my esteemed friend, Mr. W. D. Cuthbertson, I have the pleasure of making you acquainted with Mr. R. W. [Eckes?], a friend of the gentleman named, who wishes to be introduced to you in his capacity of surveyor -- Very truly yours A[?] [Milmont?] New York Jany 21, 1861 F. L. Olmstead, EsqAugust Belmont introducing Mr. R. W. Gedes Jany 21, 1861. "Central Park Saloon" Central Park, N. Y. Jany 21/61 Fred. Law Olmsted Esq. Dear Sir - Yours of the 20th inst covering complaint of Mr. Butler came duly to hand. In reply would state that on the afternoon of the 12th inst I did let to a Mr. Butler a pair of Ladies' Skates - Dble runners designed for the inexperienced - for which he deposited $3. On reference to the Book, it appears that he took the skates at 3.30 and returned them at 5.30 P.M. having had them two hours. On returning them, I observed the wood of the heel to which are secured the leather mountings & metal band was split and in such a manner as to render the skate worthless. I called Mr. Butler's attention to the damage, and he expressed his willingness to allow 12 or 15 cts damages, and stated he could get the skates repaired for that amt. I proposed to him that he should do so, which he declined. I thenI then stated to him that the skates cost us $2.75, and if satisfactory to him would be willing to accept half price, thus losing half the cost of them for the sake of settlement. Mr. Butler declined to do so. There was no strap broken, at least to my knowledge. The above are the simple facts as to the skates and what passed between us. I would state, that the skates are the best, being regarded as the strongest that are made for Ladies' use. As to the value of them, we pay for them to the Manufacturer [?] have, by the quantity - $2.75 per pair. The same are retailed at all the Skates Stores for $3.75 & $4- per pair. The skating that afternoon was very bad, owing to the numerous seams & cracks in the ice. We had a great deal of damage done to our skates that P.M. & evening, some 7 or 8 pairs were broken, and all fairly admitted that the accidents were in consequence of getting into the seams or cracks of the ice, and we had no difficulty in settling with any of them except Mr. Butler. We aim to present a [liberal?] course one which will justify the expectation of the Commissioners & Superintendent and which will induce their visiting our place may to call again. Trusting my course will meet your approbation, I Remain Yours Very Truly J. W. KnappI. H. Knapp referring to skates alleged to have been broken by Mr Butler Jany 21. 1861.Board of Commissioners of the Central Park, Office---Bank of Commerce Building, 31 Nassau Street. New York, Jany 21st 1861 Fred. Law Olmsted Esq Arch in Chf & Supt C.P. My dear Sir In giving you the amount of funds remaining unexpended, as authorized provenant to the act of 1860. I should have informed you that by a report of the Treasurer made to the Board on the 3rd inst. there were outstanding liabilities to the amount of $252. 331.36 which includes cost of improvement around the new Reservoir as per contract__balances due on various contracts etc. Knowing that you wished those figures for the use of future operations I thought it best that you should be advised of the above -- Very truly Yours Geo. M Van Nort ClerkGeo. M. Van Nort sending amt further of outstanding liabilities Jan. 21. 1861 Lower Office Clk to Board &c &c letters Look at back of bundle & aboveDraft -- imperfect 1 Central Park, January 22nd 1861 To the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park. Gentlemen; I cannot without a sacrifice of self respect any longer allow myself to be held responsible for the duties implied by the designation, Architect-in-chief and Superintendent of the Central Park. I must apologize for the tardiness of this acknowledgement. It has been owing to the reluctance with which under any circumstances I should leave the Central Park. If I could be charged with any specific duties of design or of superintendence, or of both, being responsible directly to you and having sole control, the necessary means for a true and honorable performance of those duties, I could no where in the world put to better use such talent as I possess or live with more satisfaction to my tasksand inclinations than on the Central Park. I have no right to claim nor would it become to request from you a position more agreeable to myself than that which by your kindness and your perhaps too favorable judgement of my abilities I now occupy. I am prepared, therefore, to withdraw entirely from your service, and shall do so, whenever it may be convenient for you to permit me, with sentiments of gratitude to each of you personally for which I have never more felt the occasion than at the moment of the writing. I present my resignation of the office of Architect in Chief and Superintendent, to take effect from the date of your next regular meeting, holding myself in your service, however, until further orders, for such of the duties of my present office as I am able to execute satisfactorily to myself. 2 From the commencement of the work to this time there has been a difference of opinion between myself and the Board - between myself and so far as I know, every member of the Board. There have been various reasons why I have not clearly defined this difference and thrown the responsibility of my acting contrary to my own convictions [of wise policy] more distinctly upon the Board. I was called suddenly and unexpected to the duties of my office. [I stood before you gentlemen as a young man who had thought much about such matters as you wished to save you about & studied much & observed much & [who] had been for many years [profoundly] deeply, closely interested in work of the character of that which you appointed me to take charge of. But [gentlemen] I lacked practical experience in the duties of [a commander] the personal control of such a work. [It was my first command.] I did not lack confidence in myself [on the contrary,] I knew & felt that the [very] varied experience of my life had given me an eclectic power & prudence & presence of mind in matters of action [not with] in which I had great confidence and I knew that I could trust to that quality of my nature from which earliest childhood had given me a delight and satisfaction in landscape beauty, in picturesque beauty, which other children, other men [had not, or] rarely had in the degree in which I was endowed with it.] I was not lacking in the [proper] necessary confidence in myself for my duties, but I knew that [in] I was inexperienced in dealing with a great enterprise, and I evoked with deep respect upon all of you, gentlemen of the Commission I have always looked upon upon you not only as my elders, [as] my employers, my official superiors, but as men of experience in dealing with large enterprises, as statesmen - bankers, directors of Rail Roads and other great works, and although with reference 3 [for] to matters of organization & discipline, and in matters of taste, I have always acted confidently on my own convictions, always expressed my convictions distinctly [p?ly], confidently, upon proper occasion, I have [never ? confidence enough in myself] had too great respect for your several judgments to be willing to express - to urge - [hardly] almost to hold fast in my own mind, to, an opinion upon any broad question of general policy in which I differed with you - with any of you, unless there was a very distinct difference of opinion among you. X ¶ I have always nevertheless felt inclined to think that in one respect your general policy was inadequate to the [occasion] business you have had in hand. I have felt that in certain directions were more unwilling to go far enough4 Recent experience, [gentlemen,] has confirmed and strengthened [my] this latent conviction, [has made me feel], has in my judgment, demonstrated, that at least where I am concerned, [where I myself am concerned], in the way that I am, here, that your policy is a wrong one, [is one] [I mean merely that it is wrong one for me] or rather I mean, and it was this conviction & this only which led to my resignation that I am not able, that I have not the ability to succeed, to accomplish what is right, what is demanded by the public, what is demanded of my own conscience of a man in my position, [under] [without a certain change in your policy] - under certain conditions which in your good judgment have been necessary. My own short coming - my own inability, [gentlemen] was [all that] what I most distinctly felt, when I determined to send you my resignation. I had still a feeling that I might have succeeded. That I might still succeed if [it had been] you had thought it right [for you] to [have] place[d] certain matters on a different footing, but I did not feel disposed nor did I feel able to analyze, and lay before you, and argue with you, that you had been wrong - that was not & that is not my disposition. I considered that I had accepted & undertaken a certain duty from you, and upon your own terms, and [upon] in that duty I had failed, and under those circumstances, [I have it is not at all in accordance with my character to] I could not expostulate, or complain. [I resolved to ascribe my failing to my state of health & to other circumstances] The President's request, however, has led me to analyze [more carefully the ground of my convictions] the impulses of my action, and I can not avoid the [judgment] conclusion that there has been an error on your part, as well as a failure on mine, and in now endeavoring to show you [wherein] with entire frankness the causes & grounds of the conviction that led me to offer you my resignation, I shall at the same time freely assert my own judgment in this matter [I beg for this a patient & uninterrupted hearing]. 5X [not suffctly explicit, but it appears clearly that I feel myself wrongly used, that I make a vague charge of being interfered with, that I hv not suffct. power, that I imply tht someone is to blame beside myself & am requested to state fully & frankly & distly what were the causes to show what I deem wrong.] [No chges, no statement clear intimat of wrong - that these are pure surmises not [warranted] justly deducible from the case- I distinctly acknowledge my own error & I intimate in no way blame to the Bd or any member of it. If I did it was unintentionally. It was the reverse of my intention. It offends my sense of propriety to do so. I think it [would] be ungrateful to do so. To have done so wd be an act of disrespect. [If] I hope not to do so in the results of our work] [That the concern is not explicit with regard to the causes is true. It was so because I believe [the causes] myself not to be able to clearly state them. They were many & complex. [Any] An attempt to state them would have taken a long time & would have prevented what I deemed an immediate duty. I do not yet think it possible for me to state them fairly, & I believe an attempt to do so will be unsuccesful, because incomplete & will be unjust in some measure to a member of the Board, will lead you [the] Bd to be unjust to me. Having already said this to the Pres. & it being nonetheless his decided judgmt & wish that I shd undertake it, I consider myself not at liberty to refuse.] April 7th 1860 [The Board] You instructed me to present at the earliest possible moment, a detailed statement to you of the work [to be] proposed to be done [office][within][this year] within the year with full estimates & explanations and reasons. The office [the] force I had was inadequate to the duty. It was wrong for me to undertake to prepare such a statement and estimate with the other duties I had [& with the force I [com] could command.] [I did] Having undertaken it, [but] I was [necessarily] obliged to depend on the judgment of the engineers more than it was just to myself to do, and was necessarily much longer about it than the Commissn had supposed that I should be. Feeling this & seeing also that much important business was delayed pending the report, I was desirous to hasten its preparation by any possible means. I at length under took to have it ready at a certain date when a meeting of the Board was called. [To have it ready the] To do so the engineers & clerks worked night & day doing two days wk in one. When the calculations were complete I had no time to give [it] them a proper review. [To keep my agreement I had to work with others thro' the whole of the last 24 hrs witht rest] [*over*]6x ¶The Bd approved [my] the plan and I was asked to go on with the work [as I had] proposed. [I felt myself] Thus I would seem to have under taken [a] that certain work should be done within a certain time at a certain cost. [I knew or ought to have known that to accomplish this] [to safely undertake this] To be safe in doing so I unquestionably I should have [had] had a clear book account with every section of the work balanced & compared monthly or often with the estimate. [I planned a method for this purpose. It would require the services of no additional clerks & probably involved some addition to the engineers force. I proposed to the Comptroller] so that where we have allowed 200 dollars for the space of an acre $400 should not be spent on it. This was simply impossible without an immediate increase of the office force. Much work had been sadly delayed by the necessity of urging the estimates. Work that could be no longer postponed required all hands. I did propose that the book-keeper of the Maintenance Acct should have two [assistant] clerks at $1 a day and be required to keep [such an acct] an acct of the expense of labor at certain points which with this assistance he had informed me that he believed he could. [The Compr did] but the suggestion was not received [proposition] favorably [the suggestion.] [*A*][favorably.] [I was] The immediate necessities of the work which had been most inopportunely delayed for the orders [just] of the Bd. - the Bd waiting for the estimates - required my constant & entire attention the engineers employed on the Reservoir estimates question of supplies and of tools & other pressing matters, the settlement with the Reservoir contractors &c excluded any questions not [pres] immediately pressing from discussions when I saw the Comptr I did not [pressure] long press it [in] or apply to the Board because I had good reason for believing that [an] if I did I should be unsuccessful. [Why so I will state hereafter] I had repeatedly during the previous winter urged the necessity. The commercial necessity of an increased staff of Superintendence, without the slightest good effect I did state to the Comptr. that I considered that the whole work of the estimates would have been wasted, except as a means of getting the Board to act, unless [an account of] we could be [posted] kept constantly informed with some approach to accuracy of the manner in which the cost of the work as it progressed, corresponded with the [plan and] estimates. I believe that we were both too much occupied with matters of pressing necessity to give much attention to anything which could be delayed and this statement is true, in my judgment, with regard to the Comptr & myself, for almost any, [a] and every, day since November 1857. It was however especially the case at the period to which I now refer [and I may add] [*[Back A]*] [I may add that at this time illness in my family had added to [the] my anxiety & occupation of mind] January 22d last [Thursda] Tuesday, I [stood] found myself standing in this position. The [year] period to which the estimates referred had been some weeks ended There was no book account, no means of [estimating] stating accurately how the work stood. But evidence palpable enough & not to be longer doubted that my [promises to the Board had] undertaking had failed [not been kept.] not nearly the progress of the work which 7 [had been promised] [undertaken] you had reason to expect and not nearly enough of the $820,000 appropriated for that work, left, to complete what was left undone of the work. So far was the work behind and so much had it cost beyond the estimates that it was clear to me that unless the detail of expenditure could be more closely measured in future and the superintendence could be more thorough, the park would not be completed within the amount which the Commission had pledged itself [not to exceed] confiding in my statements and trusting to my honesty and efficiency, not to exceed. [*X*] You will at once ask In what particulars have we exceeded in estimates & why? Have the bridges & arch ways taken more money than you voted for them? Those we built ourselves have not [Sir]. The cost of those built by contract we don't yet know. Have the roads cost more than we reckoned? They have, [Sir] - a small percentage. Has the embankment material from outside cost more than we estimated? It has not, [Sir]. What is it that has cost so much more & why? That is what I can not tell you. That is what I want to know. That is what I have no means of knowing, and can only after some time, form a trustworthy and accurate judgment [upon] about, after a long series of laborious calculations. I had not the slightest idea of withholding a knowledge of this from the Comsn or of shirking the duty of making any revisions of the plans or of withholding my advice, when it should be [*though I certainly should have advised with the Comptr. if there had been opportunity, after I had taken this view of my duty clearly enought to [be] express it to him. I did not feel inclined to delay for that purpose what I deemed a proper official action. [for that purpose.]7 [had been promised] [undertaken] You had had reason to expect, and not nearly enough of $820,000 appropriated for that work, left to complete what was left undone of that work. So far was the work behind and so much had it cost beyond the estimates that it was clear to me that unless the detail of expenditure could be more closely measured in future and the superintendence could be more thorough, the park would not be completed within the amount which the Commission had pledged itself [not to exceed] confiding in my statements and trusting to my honesty and efficiency, not to exceed. X I had not the slightest idea of witholding a knowledge of this from the Comsn or of shirking the duty of making any revision of the plans [of making any] or of witholding my advice when it should be needed or of refusing any duty which the Commission might still be [depended to] have confidence to call upon me for, but I considered that I stood convinced [of] on prima facie evidence either of incompetence or neglect of duty. I was unable to lay the whole matter at once clearly, before [the Commission] you [?] exact calculating but to at once decline [to hold] holding any longer than was necessary [the a position which I felt myself the duties - or what must] a position, the very title of which implied duties, which I considered [I considered] that I had not performed, which I was not performing and which, as matters stood, I [should not be able] felt sure that I was not going to perform, I felt to be unjust to [the Commission] you and dishonorable to myself. I was impelled to relieve myself from it without a single day's delay if that was possible. I am blamed for not advising the Comptr or the President of my intention - and taking their advice. knew very well what the C's advice would be. It would be to meet. I think in a case such as this my business lay with the Board & the whole Board I though I certainly should have advised with the Comptr. if there had been opportunity, after I had taken this view of my duty clearly enough to [be] express it to him. I did not feel inclined to delay for that purpose what I desired a proper official action. 7 [for that purpose] [I have said that I was impelled not only by an intense mortification for what occurred, but also by the [c?] [Pro?ed] to [sl?m] why. So much for the immediate future - but I look beyond that. I have always looked beyond it. What I have aspd to - no one but myself sees the full plan and mission of the park. I know in my imagination intentions in planting this trees - this group - in this 1 that [?] why else. My design has thus extended to the future [?] hope [has from] to nurse & train & keep. I have seen this year that this was well nigh out of the question. The circumstances which most produced this [con?] are not be be described & cited -evidence that I must to obtain the necessary means for my purpose manage in some way to show & demonstrate the value of a[n idea] matters which are in my imagination which depend in what I see with my minds eye & which I have not the talent to produce in the necessary manner to convince half a dozen or for the matter one gentleman - Instances - grass, trees, gate keeps uniforms, Bow-bridge barricade countermanding orders, fence in ice, [delays] partnership of Comp & Supdt - not admitted? refer to minutes, ordinance- worryy for I subordinate & my instinct of order - friendship ¶ question the policy. Treas2 & Exec. should check each other - frdsp for Mr G. prevents my eternally enging & quanty with him - I cant do it - wont - quit. not appear to be imposing conditions on the Commission]8 I have said that I was moved to resign not more by the mortification of [feeling that I must stand you before you to the position of having deceived you than by] having failed in my undertaking than because I was sure that I was not going to do my duty as generally understood [by] By despair of being able to retrieve my position, [dsp] despair of being able to do what ought to be the [duty] duty of a man occupying a position such as mine before the public. I saw that inevitably I [was about] was to continue a struggle [giving every day more difficult] under difficulties which had already mastered me, and I felt that with whatever courage I continued it I had not the necessary [bodily] strength for success. The way business has been conducted in [system of the park is in fact, [one] a way which, in some respects I do not at all approve, which I have no heart in, which I do not myself harmonize with, and in which I feel myself unable to succeed with.] To look at the matter immediately before me. Even before I can let the Board know clearly and definitely, how [we] the work stands, [how I have failed in my engagements a careful] what has been wrong how far wrong, why wrong a laborious series of measurements & calculations must be made, and that before I could, if I [sh] then, should, be allowed to again undertake the responsibility of another years work, with the now unquestionable need of a very much more thorough Superintendence - greater directness & efficiency of management - before this, I must have another set of calculations like that of last year, only more full, more detailed, more accurate, an enormous deal of work in them - and here was the winter to which so much had been deferred because our office force had been inadequate for it hitherto already half gone. [What was my prospect of] It must needs be got at immediately [not] to be of any good, not to be again a sham and a deceit to the Board and to myself. What was my prospect of getting through with it satisfactorilly to myself - honorably - honestly? [I will tell you of some circumstances which no doubt afflicting depressing my spirit discged me just before I decided to resign] [I had just been down to attend a meeting of the Board. There had been no quorum - When it was settled that there was to be no meeting I waited to go. It was the fourth time I had been in town]9 Why, gentlemen, I was under peremptory instructions, at that moment, to reduce my force of Superintendence in every department. I had been [sharply] taken to task, only two days [before, for keeping so expensive a staff] before and this for the 500th time at least for keeping so many engineers, so many draftsmen, so many clerks, so many gardeners. [as I did]. In every direction I was told that I had too many and that I must get rid of them, and when I replied that in my own judgment I had much too little assistance that I needed more, and that I could not go on with less, [the Comptroller had said] I had been told [that] decisively that I must get on with less. [and that he thought it a pretty business [I was blamed for restoring a man] that I had restored a gardener man whose services I decried essential but whom he had discharged without consulting me - whose services I found to be essential.] And when I said that in my judgment the work was a great deal too much for the force I had, that [they] all [the] hands were, in fact, over-worked, very much over-worked [the Comptroller had replied ] it was answered that that was a matter of opinion [perhaps my opinion, that it was his opinion that there was but one man in the park who did a good days work and he no more than that - only a fair day's work] and that [at all events, whatever I thought about it, I should have to do with less, that I must get rid of some of them] [ I had altogether too many] [Well Sir.] [At the very moment that I found myself in the position that I have described to you, feeling that I had, through lack of [sufficient assistance] [profession] an adequate staff of superintendence, allowed myself to drift into a position of humiliation, feeling the I had a severe [and] duty before me, for which I was insufficiently equipped, feeling that I needed and must have more and better assistance feeling that I had been asking too much of my [assistants] engineers, yet under a necessity of asking more, of working them harder, at this moment, and after the conversation I have reffed to with the Comptroller]a[ meet that I [learned] felt as an engagement with the Board, but also by despair of being able [to perform the duties which] in the future to do what my own sense of duty, my own tastes, my own judgment of the fitness of things required of me. The designation A in C. & Supt. implies to my mind a responsibility with the public, if not [formally with] a charge from the Commission, which I despaired of being able to meet. I felt that as I then stood I was responsible for many things which I thought wrong [but] and which I should not be able to remedy. I think so still, and I feel & I say as I felt & sued then, I will not live thus humiliated in my own conscience a single day. I know I shall fail to adequately set [this] forth to you [but I must indicate how it was brought home to me on the day when I wrote my resignation.] why this is so but I must try to show you how has been lately brought home to me. There is a note which I recd lately from [a book-keeper] the Maintenance clerk* here is another from the same person written last sprg. * I think, I always have tht, this man most unjustly & cruelly treated because chgd with a crime on perfectly worthless & frivolous testimony - testimony which would hardly warrant an enquiry of the truth of the chg. I would have seen the park sunk in the ocean before I would have so treated any man. I expressed this feelg to the C. but I never expresd it to P. & I never replied or acted in anyway on the letter of last [spg.] July [* letters] From that time to this I have not spoken ten sentences to the man- have had but the most necessary & formal of [?] intercourse with him. Please remember the date of the last letter. I made no reply to it. A day or two after its rcpt. I [was overlookg the work of] sent for the acting head of the architect dept. Mr. Vaux's princpal assist. to report to me the condition & progress of his work - after doing so, he begged me to excuse him for enqring if Mr Vaux had remembered to speak to me [of] about his salary - Mr Vaux's wish often expressed to me - & as I knew to Mr G. I replied not forgotten - that I considd he deservd it - but it was impracticable to [obtain] it at prest. I shd hope to do so in the spg. [I know from other source] I have evidence that he needs it - is a man of talent & has served the pk most faithfully & modestly. I came the next day to the Com office to attend a meetg of the Bd. no quorum - Mr. G. desird me to remain - 4th time in town & much to do - kept me near 4 hours - convsn to the effect - You must reduce yr engineers & clks- ¶ Don't see how I can - more than they can do - all overworked - ¶ Laughed & said - only one man that [works] does much work thats P. he does a fair day's wk - not more but a tolerable days wk - ¶ By the way couldnt you allow him a little more pay? Thought he was well enough paid - ¶ [And] And there's Miller said I he has asked me & I really think he deserves it. His services have been & are valuable & should be acknowlgd & encouraged/ ¶ We dont want him (severely & reprovingly) - he must be dischgd? Too many archts & Engineers & clks altogether I argued as well as I could or within stated my own opinion. Mr. G. replied to all. Must be reduced] OVER [work - actually at work intellectual work - exclusive[ly] of meals & going & coming - more than eleven hours a day -usually more than eleven - Have been often, very often, much more than that - have been [often] usually kept from home. 14 hours a day - usually 14 - on an average much more than that, 15 or 16 - for often they have been kept at their work 14 or 15 - Sometimes 16 hours. Men with families educated men, with family duties, social duties personal duties the same as yourselves - and for all these, and for their rest and sleep all, we have allowed them not more than eight hours in twenty four.]11 I had the knowledge that the force was deemed too large already and I was at that moment under instructions to reduce it. I ask you again, how could I hope to have the work which I saw looming up before me, even go through with in a manner which would be creditable to me, which would allow me to trust with confidence the results, to lay those results before you under my hand with a good conscience. I could not do it. This is the last case, Sir - but I repeat Sir it has been practically the same from the beginning of the work - from the beginning of the work to this day. I have never made a suggestion looking to an increase of my authority in this respect. I have never intimated my real need, my personal [need] judgment as to my needs - as to the needs of the work, in this respect [that I] to the Board, or to any single member of the Board, that I have not seen evidence that my statements were regarded with incredulity. I have never returned to urge my own wishes that I have not found myself in shoal-water, and seen plainly enough that if I persisted I should soon touch [botto] the bottom of the Board's confidence. [[I am giving it , Sirs, now, because] I have told you honestly under what feeling I was influenced to resign my office last week. It was the conviction of my own inability to do justice to the work, that led me to that step. I was not successful and I had no confidence that I should be successful. [I was] I stood confessed as one derelict of duty. And in such a position I am not the man to stand one day. That was my position, Sir, and that was all I had to say. But the duty which you Mr President suggested to me, the task you gave me has involved [a course of] much reflection upon the causes of my failure, of my [prima facie] apparent neglect of duty. If I had answered off hand what was the difficulty I should have said [as] perhaps my broken thigh, the weakness of nerve consequent thereon, or anything else. But upon reflect I see that the particular12 difficulties under which I have succumbed are not merely temporary & occasional. They are normal & constant - they have existed from beginning of the work. I have been overwhelmed by them before. They drifted me once close on the edge of a brain fever and you were good enough to send me upon advice of my physician to Europe on account of the [fever] [real] serious illness into which through the anxiety which they caused me, I [had fallen] once fell. But that did not remedy them. More than once or twice [Sir] I have fainted from nervous exhaustion and been carried to my bed, and it was in the same way Sir, from sheer weakness & exhaustion arising from anxiety and doubt & trouble - in matters upon which it was unnecessary & wrong that I should have had my doubt trouble or anxiety at all, that I fainted in my carriage & was [suna?] with last summer, & so damaged as you know - I would have gone on Sir, if I could, but its as plain to me as possible that if have got to have such a responsibility on my mind next year - with the same obstacles to my meeting it successfully satisfactorily by myself that another summer will finish me - and I had better at once before we begin upon the preliminary work for the next season - [take a subordinate place or quit altogether] [quit the] take - an entirely different position - or - quit the park, altogether13 ¶ [I am going to] [I will say nothing more at present about the [appcu] danger of attempting to carry on the work with means which I know to be totally inadequate to systematically control it. I can hardly perhaps make [it so important] the difficulties of my position appear too important on this score - but there is danger that I may give them too much relative importance in trying to show the motives of my resignation. Therefore I will say nothing more about them. I will say nothing of the practical difficulties of the work of construction which I saw before me, and which had their influence upon me. There is one other and perhaps was the most important element of the conviction [that] under which I acted, which I must endeavor to explain to you. I really dont think I can succeed, fully, in explaining it to you and I dont think you will be able to appreciate its force with me because it is partly dependent [of] on my personal character, but as I am conscious that it really affects my conviction of my duty more than every thing else, I must try, and you will I hope excuse my poor ability to handle a matter of this kind.] At the bottom of the most important function of my office, Mr President, there must be something which you can not buy in any market, of good quality, merely for money. It is a natural, spontaneous, individual action of [the] imagination - of creative fancy. I mean that the best conceptions of scenery, the best plans, details of plans -intentions - the best, are not contrived by effort, but are spontaneous and instinctive and no man would be worthy of my office, who did not know that he must depend for his best success less upon any strong effort, than upon a good instinct. There are circumstances favorable to the action of this good instinct, and there are circumstances unfavorable to it. There are circumstances under which no amount of good intention & hard labor will produce good design. What would you think of a landscape painter who staid in town all summer ever so industriously dabbling at his canvass? But what is most necessary to really good design, is a satisfaction in the work for itself and not merely in what it may buy or purchase.14 brings or purchases - I say then I can not do my duty as it ought to be done, without having some enjoyment in it, and its wrong for me to pretend to be doing it when I am conscious that my ability to do it well is in any considerable degree impaired. [X salary & family] [I have been working the last year under some undefined sense of disapointment and discouragement. Precisely what, I have more clearly realized since I determined not to go on so, but rather to resign, than I did before.] The work of design necessarilly supposes a the designer to have & be carrying about with him a gallery of mental pictures, and in all parts of the park I constantly have before me, more or less distinctly more or less vaguely, a picture, which as [?] Supdt I am constantly laboring to realize. Necessarilly the crude maps which are laid before [the Commission] you are but the merest hints of the more rigid outlines of these pictures, of these plans- ¶I shall venture to assume to myself the title of artist and to add that no sculptor, painter or architect can have anything like the difficulty in sketching and [display] conveying a knowledge of his design to those who employ him which must attend upon an artist employed for such a kind of designing as is required of me. The design must be almost exclusively in my imagination. No one but myself can feel and without feeling no one can understand at the present time the true value or purport of much that [I do] is done in the park. [Consequently] much that needs to be done. Consequently except under my guidance these pictures can never be perfectly [dl] realized, and if I am [interfered] interrupted and another had takes up the tools, the [p] interior purpose which has actuated me will be very liable to be thwarted, and confusion and a vague discord result. Does the work which has thus far been done accomplish my design? No more than stretching the canvass & chalking a few outlines, realizes the painter's. Why, the work has been thus far wholly & entirely with dead, inert materials, my picture is all alive - its very essence is life, human & vegetable. The work which has been done has had no interest to me except as a basis, as a canvass, as a block. On this foundation16x [15] experience during the last year. I never once have [ds] been in the lower part of the park that I have not experienced shame, dissapointment, discouragment. [It is so today on the ice. Shall] I have found it today, and I can point out to you to say [half] a dozen things which I cant see without feeling myself disgraced by them. [and] I will refer to one which in the last month must have been remarked [by] must have been considered and discussed to my disgrace, by thousands & thousands of people. There is the beautiful bow bridge across the lake. It is the direct central avenue of communication through the park. It is one of the best if not the best point from which to observe the lake & the Ramble & at this season the skating multitude. [It was last year crowded with visitors for this purpose, being then temporarilly floored with loose boards.] The planking of the floor was delayed until near winter this year. When the ice formed in the lake it was still, with many other matters incomplete. Remarking to the property clk that it would cost no more to employ two men one day than one man two days, I directed [McC] the employment of more carpenters to hasten its completion before skating commenced. The Comptroller the next morning countermanded this order & at the same time. dismissed several men who were in the midst of jobs [equally] also important as I thought to be immediately completed. At length however the planking was done, but it still needed caulking. [Mr G] The Comptr was applied to [for permission] by the Suptg Engineer to employ a caulker, no caulker came. The Suptg Engineer & the Carpenter both came to me to say that it was important the caulking should be done immediately, and I wrote myself to the Comptr. requesting him to give an immediate order for the caulker; I have since then sent him several [messages] verbal requests to the same effect. I [have] never recd a reply from him but an understanding that he said [that he doubted] to one who urged it upon him that he was not sure that it was necessary that it should be caulked, I [accordingly] wrote him again, explaining [why this was necessary] the necessity & saying that the bridge must be closed till caulked and there it is to this day, that beautiful bridge - with great crowds on both [sides] ends of it every day, looking through the barricade, seeing everything apparently clear, seeing no reason why they should not use it. but prevented by barricades and all the time a necessity for two officers to watch these barricades because people under such circumstances will try if they have a chance to remove them or to get over them. I should remove the barricades if I were ordered to do so by the Comptroller, but I think it would be wrong to do so, would be to the injury of the bridge & I dont want to provoke [hm to give me] such an order, I prefer to have the caulking delayed to the chance of provoking it. I mean that the bridge, which is more needed to prevent injury to the banks at this season than any other, has been closed for nearly three months, [and] when it ought not to have been closed three days. I can point to instances far more disheartening in their character than this far more mortifying to me, and will do so now if you wish. [over]15' X [tion I have no to build; [or] this canvass [to] I have to paint, [on this blick, to this rudely] this rough hewn head to chisel and rub out the delicacy and crispness of life. These [suede?] brown & grey slopes [and] poles and sticks, to nurse and tend and train and direct toward that ideal for which & for which alone they have been shaped and planted in these three years. The work upon them will much of it have been vainly directed, wastefully expended, if they miss of just such nuture, training, [direct] directing, coaxing as I [should give them had from the first designed for them] wanted to give them. ¶ [I shall not be understood in talking thus to be [merely] desirous to magnify my office or argue my own importance in it. It is as far as possible from my intention to do so. What I want to get at is [what I feel] to convey to you the [feeling that I] consciousness which I have that the chief value of my personal services to you [depends] rests upon [a sort] a sort of [instructive] artistic perception of what is necessary to be done on the park, this [instinct] perception being dependent on a source of propriety & the fitness of things, dependent in a measure upon the possession of an ideal, of my personal ideal which ideal & which sense if propriety, consequently even a man of much great talent in expressing [of thought] himself, would be unable, in all cases, [is] instantly in call, to fully convey and make clear to others. That is to say, I would do so & so, tomorrow on the park, I knew as well as I know [that I ought] when I ought to eat or sleep, that this ought to be done; that it ought to be done to-morrow and not next week, and in this manner & not another, but why it ought to be done to-morrow; & why it ought to be done at all, I cannot demonstrate at all events, I can not without [?ing] matters still more important go to town, find the comptroller, wait his leisure & then so fully demonstrate it that he can not have the shadow of a doubt of its immediate & peremptory & unquestionable necessity. But I have 9 times in 10 I must do this or let it go. [I can not undertake to convince you (the Board) and if before it can be done I must convince you, it will not be done] and I let it go. [but I shall be] But I can none the less certain that it ought to have been done. I [shall be] am discouraged & disheartened if I am unable to do it. And this has been my daily & hourly] Over 17 Years ago, Mr President, more than twenty years ago, before I had ever seen a park, tho' not before I had dreamed of one a good many times, I was [a sort of country] merchant's clerk in a respectable French Importing house in this city. [That of ? Bankd & ?] I believe they have the reputation of being rather close dealers - they are supposed to look rather sharp after the pennies, & if this is their reputation I think it is a just one. I thought so when I left them, & if I hadn't thought so I should have remained with them [and doubtless been a partner & a rich man long before this as my father intended.] Well Sir, I had not been with them long when [old ? Bankard] the senior partner sent for me to come into his [awful] private office. [I] and I went trembling, and he said to me in effect, "You know, Fredrik that I pay [Biolle] $1500 a year and you I pay $150 a year - so his time is [worth] costs ten times as much as yours - and you know that Biolle is my cashier and pays you your salary, monthly, and all the rest. He also pays the carman [and the letter] and he pays the portage &c. He has to look sharp after all this and its costs too much for him to do it. Now here is a book and here is a hundred dollars. Hereafter you pay [for] the cartmen, and the postage and buy twine & pins and ink and marking pots and all such things, and you will put down on one page here what money I give you and on the other what you spend - and when you have spent the hundred dollars bring the book to me. I know that I can trust you not to pay anything that you think you ought not to, and if you have any doubt whether you might, you can consult [Biolle]." Well, gentlemen I took this Petty cash business, I spent my hundred dollars, just as I thought right and I handed my book back to [Mr Hon Piper Bankard] the senior partner, and he looked it over, and once he questioned me about a charge for a supper which I had thought it right to pay for when we boys were kept at the store [well near midnight] three or four hours later than usual but that was all - and after that he never disputed an item, but gave me a check for another 18 hundred dollars, and so on till I quit [and went to sea] his service. I was a mere boy then, Sir, & the youngest boy in the establishment, with wages of $150 a year. Well Sir, now, I find myself [at] being 40 years of age, the responsible executive head - or the associate executive head, of an enterprise in which seven million dollars and a half have been invested, of which somewhere about two million have [been used and my immediate direction] practically passed through my [hands] own hands; [and] my services are valued at $4000 a year [and can you conceive it possible, gentlemen the] and yet, Sir, I find myself forced to resume [practically] the same duties which the old merchant [deman for] thought he could not afford to leave with a clerk of $1500 a year [which he gave to me as a strippling - that very duty [the same business] I am here in effect called upon and obliged to take upon myself - but at an expenditure of tenfold times the of times and thought which it then required] only Sir that instead of $100 being put in my hands and my being required afterwards to account for it, using it at my discretion, I find myself obliged to advance out of my private means the money and when after three or four months I send my [bill] bill for it, I [have to] send vouchers for items of 12 1/2 cts and then Sir [these items] I [wait for my money for a month or more and under go] can not be reimbursed until I have undergone a cross-examination for an hour, it may be as to the necessity under which I had been constrained to pay the said 12 1/2 cts and the matter is brought very likely before your honorable Board, Sir, and is discussed & I am called to account again & again and I am required to consider it as a favor, an act of grace that I am reimbursed at all. I [say it is] [but as if it more] [I think, Sir, I am just as well] a farce, gentlemen, a perfect farce, to [dignify me with the title of Archt in Chf & Supdt and to have no more confidence in my judgment & my honesty - to allow me to exercise no more confidence in the honesty & judgment of my subordinates than you do. The keeper of a corner grocery would think it a waste to spend the time that I do in the conservation of stationary.] and I verily believe that for every dollar thus [advanced] spent, the Commission pays $10, [in] in salaries to [clerks] myself & my clerks and for the necessary stationary [The frag] consumed in the correspondence about it. I dont think that I am less honest or that I have less common sense than I had 25 years ago, and it is humiliating to me Sir, to be dealt with in this way. I dont want to spend my time in discussions of such matters. [I think] I am perfectly able to judge for myself [the propriety of paying the car fare of a messenger whom I send into town whether it is proper that I should] whether a messenger whom I send to town should be paid his car-fare by the park or not, & if I am not, I have no business to be placed in charge of such work as this. [Here is] I will show you the flag [Sir] which I have been flying at my mast head the last month - the flag of the Commission, under which we do our work. It is more than a month since a call was made for a new one, and it [is] has been called for three or four times since. [a fl] A torn and ragged flag is an honorable and interesting object, when its rags represent bravery and resolution, but when its rags represent [a bad system of administration, Sir, represent] improvidence and [shabbiness] beggary, then it is a shameful object, [and you to] ought [not] you to [oblige me to] subject me to the shame of living & working under such a banner and that Sir - [Who is to blame for it? [Sir] [I dont] to whom was the request for a new flag sent. I dont know Sir, and I dont care - I know to whom it ought to have been sent long before this, cash in hand, & that is to the flag-makers, [direct from my office]19 Who is to blame in such a case as that of the bridge? myself undoubtedly, before the public. What is the meaning of Superintendent if not that - And if the public did not blame me by name, the pleasure of the public in the park is by so much lessened, and my design by so much injured. Is the Comptroller to blame? He is not, for the Board holds him responsible that no expenditure is made in the park which is unnecessary. He has got to be satisfied of its necessity before he can authorize it, and with the [question of] difficulties about the extension, to 110th St which is yet to be no trifle and a fight in hand in the Common Council & another in the legislature, [and the] and another with Mr Clancey and the responsibility of deciding whether the ride round the Reservoir shall or shall not be elevated four feet at a cost of 10,000 dollars, and the question of the cabs, Sir, and a dozen other matters, all invoking questions of general policy vital to the park and questions of expenditure of thousands of dollars, I can not insist on boring him for as many hours [m] as would be necessary to remove the last lingering doubt from his mind, about [little] picayune details. I cant insist on his letting me bore him. ¶ and I [cant and] 9 [I can not & will not any longer undertake to do the necessary amount boring to accomplish everything which I consider it necessary for my good name's sake should be [done] accomplished in the park.] [Appeal to Board - delay of Bd - but if not so - what does the Bd. - refers to Com & Ex Com refer to] can not myself wait his leisure to give them all the consideration which in his mind is necessary to a decision upon them. But why [not] have you not in such cases come directly to the Board? asks the President [when I intimate something of this kind.] To do so would be in the nature of a complaint against the Comptr because the Comptr is appted to relieve the Board from the consideration of such small matters. The Comptroller is my superior officer - dont speak technically - legally - Sir - He is practically my superior officer, my Supt, and is so regarded & so used by you, by the Board, Sir- I am obliged - Sir to so regard him, & it is entirely contrary to my habits of [my] mind to my instincts of discipline & subordination to ever make an appeal against his judgment. The Comptr is a Commissioner of the park, I am a servant of the Commissioners and it is not my business to report [to the Board of] of him to the Board. it is his business to report of me. [it is no] There would be neither policy nor propriety in my doing so. [But] As I said before about the employment of clerks it would be useless for me to do so. There were [a] certain matters about which I had been applying to the Comptroller for six months, matters not of grand importance, but just those little matters which when all as they ought to be make the park delightful and which if not as they ought to be, will altogether leave the park - people don't know why - but some20 how so that it dont seem as if it were well managed. and is just tolerable - tolerable instead of delightful. I had been [boring] applying, to the Comptlr about certain of such things for six months, [and at length I] In this time I had written him I suppose a dozen letters and I had tried to get his attention to them in conversation two or three score of time. At length I so far got his assent to my intentions that I felt it safe to address the Board. and sometime, I think, in October or early in November I [address] sent, under cover to the President, a communication [f] for the Board about them. The Board met & met again, and again, and I heard nothing on the subject & when I asked [the Comptlr he said] about it I was told that the Board was too busy with more necessary & pressing [things] matters to take it up. It was hard to hold a quorum together long enough to vote the money necessary to carry on the work. And it went on so til Dec 21st [when the Comtr I urged in an] when, having, in the mean time addressed the Comptlr several more letters on the subject, I [saw him at the lower office] came to town to see him about [them] it, and he finally said that he did not think it necessary that I should trouble the Board about it [them] [these matters and that] he could [now attend to them.] manage the business. But he wasnt yet perfectly satisfied about the last detail and at his request I wrote him again that night a letter of six or eight pages & which with attendant calculation occupied me till 2 o'cl in the mg. I had several further conversations with him and addressed him further notes and [the m matter] Well I have within a week been able to obtain about one half of what I asked and [am] was glad enough to get that and willing to let the rest go for another six months. ¶ But suppose I succeed in getting such matters before the Board what course do the take? [*X Plank walk*] Suppose for instance I want [a ladder] half a dozen hand ladders for pruning trees. The regular course is [to put] make a requisition on the Board for them. The are placed with other things on a requisition. The standing rules of the Board require that before any requisition is acted on by21 the Board it shall be endorsed by the Comptroller. Before the Comptroller will endorse the requisition [I must find him at his] he will not unlikely wished to be informed for what the ladders are wanted, he will doubt if the trees need pruning or if the pruning can not be done without ladders; or if it would not be cheaper to make up some stuff already in the park into ladders, and finally if the estimate of cost which is required to be given with the requisition is not too high. Suppose he does not object or his objections are overcome, & he countersigns & presents the requisition to you & you will refer the matter with [power?] to your Exec. Com - and your Exec. Com will most likely refer with [power?] back to your comptlr at best will merely authorize the Comptroller to purchase. And then if not before [there must be a discussion] the duty you impose on the Comptroller a conviction of the necessity for obtaining the article perhaps discussed of the kind best to be got, [of] the price proper to be paid &c &c &c &c and it is not at all unlikely that [six] months pass[es] before I get the ladders, and then that I get but three instead of six. It is not always so - it is not general so I dont mean to overstate it. You see exactly how it is. I only have to show you its effects on me - on my duty. It is so often enough to make all the difference [necessary] between a good [management] and a bad [management] keeping of [the] your park. Between my being a good Superintendent and my being a very poor Superintendent, between [the] a true & perfect realization of my conceptions and an abortion of my conceptions, [between my having a satisfaction in my work and my being very miserable in my work] between my engaging satisfactorilly, confidantly & energetically at my work and going about it wearilly [miserably and in such a way as is sure to suppress exercise of healthy creative imagination] [have an oppressive effect on the creative imagination.] disheartened [like] [little a ? not like an artist feeling & knowing that it is too much for me.] ¶ Hard as it has been, I love the park I rejoice in it and am too much fastened to it in every fibre of my character to give up, if I [say] did not see that go on so was [death to me] out of the question for me. Before 22 [Now, gentlemen] To come back to the grand question of the cost of the work and the estimates. Am I responsible for the cost of the work, for the errors of estimates; for false information under which you have acted- Am I sir? [Am I] Why then Sir, I am [a swindler] an imposter - I am not [a swindler] an imposter Sir, I am not responsible in those particulars. I am not a Superintendent, I an not a Chief Architect. And if I sail under false colors, it is because you who have commanded the ship [Sir] [& you] have hoisted them over me. [I say] [If you send a ship to sea in a hurry, half provisioned to you without a chronometer or sextant or log that you do hold the Captain to blame if he fetches up at Halifax instead of LIverpool?] Now, [gentlemen] with regard to the [proper expenditure for] staff of Superintendence. As I have said, I never have indicated what I feel to be necessary in this respect that I have not seen that you thought me extravagant. I do not believe, Sir, that since [I] my appointment a month has passed that I have not been told that it appeared as if I had too large a number of engineers and clerks and so on, and that I had better get rid of some of them. Now, gentlemen, who is the proper judge of what I need in this way? - You or I - I say, if you hold me responsible for errors of estimate, for excess of expenditure, I am and no one else. and if you constrain me in this respect, you relieve me of that responsibility. I am no longer architect, no longer Superintendent. You have taken the duties which those titles imply away from me You have assumed them. 23 Your Board had it once under consideration [a proposition] to employ M. Alphand, or Mr Kemp, or Sir Joseph Paxton for the duties which subsequently devolved on me. If either one of those gentlemen had undertaken [to be] the laying out and general supervision of the park he would undoubtedly have brought [a profes] some portion of his professional staff with him - because such assistants as those gentlemen are accustomed to employ are not to be had here. I know I say, gentlemen, I have been in their offices and I know what sort of assistance they have - but you have the evidence in your own hands - look at the paper sent you by M. Alphand - or that from Mr Austin of London. I saw the [young] man who drew up the latter in London & obtained much information from him direct. He occupies a very subordinate position in Mr Austin's office, but you have [not] but one man in your employment, but one man who is able to prepare for you such a paper as that, and that man is myself. There is not another man in the park to whom I could hand over such a duty (except Grant) who has the necessary education & training for [any such work.] it. Why Sir, so far as I know, I have had but two men at any time who had ever been on work like ours before. of my [?] office assistants, there is not one who had even seen a park. I say gentlemen that if you had employed Alphand or Kemp or Paxton, or Sir William Hooker, or any of the men to whom such a work as this would have been assigned in Europe any man of established reputation for such work here, if they had even any, they would have had their own staff of practiced professional assistants, [they] [who] would have undertaken the whole business of Superintendence [into their own hands fixing their compensation themselves] in their own way, with their own men - and then in the usual course of such a business, they would after a time have brought in their bill for Superintendence & travelling & incidental expenses - the Superintendence being a certain fair percentage on the outlay for which they had been responsible. That is the usual way Sir. I want to say that it is the only way in which men of established reputation would have served you, that it is the usual proper & [?] the best way.24 [penses say at the end of last year.] very likely the cheapest way for good work. Well, gentlemen, if such a bill were presented to you at this time and footed up say $100,000 [what would you do say to it?] Would you refuse to pay it as an exhorbitant charge? Indeed you would not gentlemen - for a little investigation would satisfy you that it was a very moderate, a very moderate professional charge; that in the absence of a contract your Supertendt might recover much more than that from you by a suit at law. A suit of this kind brought by our friend Mr Hunt, against Dr Parmly, was decided last week in the Supreme Court. Dr. Parmly being order to pay 5 pr ct & costs, for Hunt's superintendence of [ an ? dwelling] the buildg of Rossiters house. A similar case, (I think it was Dalitz against the city) [for Supin] was decided a year or two ago, in the same way. These were purely archi'tecl. cases it is true but there is no reason why the quality and cost of superintendence of [the] such work as you have entrusted to me should be less - there is good reason why it should be more than ordinary, every day architect superintendence. But what does your own architect superintendence - purely architectl. superintendence cost [you?] think you gentlemen? It is much more difficult, requires much more professional ability than the kind of work to which these decisions refer - but do you think it has cost you more for superintendence - more than 5 pr ct? No, gntlmen, it has not cost you 2 pr ct - I dont believe it has [not] cost you 1 pr ct. Is there any good reason why you should pay less than private individuals? you have better work - more substantial - bett considered. I happen to know what Mr Vaux' professional earnings were last year - [entirely by accident, for I have had no talk with him about this] [There were close upon] He was paid over $10,000 entirely for plans & superintendence of buildings and grounds. Of this you paid him a quarter. Do you think you only took from a quarter of his [time] expenditure of time, thought, study, anxiety. I know that you took a good deal more than half. [We] & yet I have had more than one intimation that M. Vaux should give more time to the park. Mr Barreda paid Mr Vaux $5000 for his services last year you paid him half this, but I assure you M.V. gave you more than double the amount of his personal service that he gave Mr Barreda. [We employ Mr [Mould?], occasionally in the park at $4 a day - Mr Vaux employs him in precisely the same way - for]25 [actly similar duty in his private business [&] requires less hours, gives him better accomodations & pays him $5 a day. It has been the same with others.] Now, gentlemen, if you had employed M. Alphand or Mr Kemp or Sir Jas Paxton [& had paid them] Sir Wm Hobson in the usual manner of employing [such] professional supervision of [your] work of this kind, how differently would [that] they have been situated from what I have been, how much safer, how much better able to [distinguish] do credit to themselves, to have satisfied you & the public. They would have employed such assistance as they required - selecting their own men, making their own arrangements with them entirely - I refer to their professional staff not to the laboring force - paying them according to their various talents, holding & dismissing them as they saw fit, and taking advice of no common councilman or Senator in the matter. They would have employed a much larger staff than I have had, a better equipped staff, a more talented staff, [they would have been able to treat them like gentlemen, if such they were] & would have paid them altogether better than you have done since. [and aft] They would not have had a [moity?] of the annoyances, the embarrasments, the anxieties the humiliations that I have had, and after all they would have had for their own personal emolument from 5 to 10 times as much as I have received. M Alphand is scarcely an older man than I. I venture to say that he has studied this profession less than I. Neither Mr Kemp nor Sir Jas. Paxton are men of as good education for this duty as myself & they have neither of them been entrusted with a work of this kind of one tenth the magnitude of this, or demanding anything like the26 amount of talent, of anxiety, of engrossing, harrasing responsibility which this should have given it, which this had given it, gentlemen, [which this has had given it] and I say, Sir, that neither of those [g] men, neither are of them, would have would have [contracted] agreed to provide adequate [sef] superintendence for such a work as this, for double, no Sir, not for double what [I] with constant difficulty I succeed in persuading you to pay - and you could not today get a man of established reputation in duties of this kind to undertake to finish your work, being responsible for estimates & expenditures [as you] for double your present rate of expenditure for Superintendence. Why, gentlemen the commonest engineering [operations] duty - merely forming earth embankments on mathematical lines and grades, invariably cost more than you have been willing to pay for [all] the superintendence of all the [con] nice & complicated esthetic duties and unusual engineering duties - the grading to undefinable courses, the hydraulic engineering of forty miles of subterranean channels laid at every possible inclination and angle - the staking & [?ting] of 50000 trees & shrubs. ¶ The throwing up of a common law earth bank for a rail road or plank road or canal, cost more Sir for Superintendence than do all these [nice] complicated & delicate operations for which I have been responsible, or have been supposed to be responsible on the Central Park. Our engineering duties proper have not been of an ordinary character. Where [is] the engineer in this country Sir, who [has] is familiar with the construction of such roads as ours, Sir; with such a drainage system as ours - [Nay not] Nay Sir, not only not in [Europ] America but not in Europe - not in the world, is there precedent, example for such work as our engineers have been called upon to superintend there on the park. Tisn't common work Sir, & tis n't easy work, & tis n't 27 cheap work - not cheap for the Superintendent and Sir I [assure your] believe that you have paid less for [it] your superintendence than any rail-road company [bus] in the United States [has paid for the Superintendence of its work] - less than the simplest superintendence upon which the commonest engineers are employed - [A copy of the Albany E. Joul fell into my hands] I can give you all the proof you want Sir of what I say. Not to [aclaim?] you - there's the A.E. Joul with an abstract of the State Engineers Report in which is shown the cost of superintendence of the enlargement of the State Canals - simpler work there couldn't well be - all marked out to there hands - but the cost of suptndce has varied [from] during the last eight years from 6 to 16 prct per annum and it is estimated for the future at [8p] 10 prct on the cost of construction - & what is meant is carefully defined & means it is the same for all practical purposes with what was meant by your own Finance Committee who July 1859 reported to you that the cost of Supintendence had been up to that time 3 1/3 percent on the total construction cost of the park - 3 1/3 prct Sir for the [Superintendence of] the park work [and your Committee distinctly recognize the fact that the p? suptnce] 10 pr ct Sir for the widening of an old canal and your Committee distinctly recognize & acknowledge, as a self-evident proposition that it was to have been supposed that the cost of suptende should be larger for the park than for ordinary, public works You may consult whom you will - Mr McAlpine - Mr Craven I notice that McAlpine [estimates] demands $6000 per annum for himself & $2500 for his first assistant for superintending a very common out of stone bridge - nothing [more] half as difficult in it [than] Sir as in our transverse roads - Why Sir, when we were about to begin the 2d Transverse Road, with its tunnel along under the Reservoir, a member of your board quoted one of the most distinguished engineers in the city, as having given his professional opinion that [it could not] the obstacles & difficulties to the successful completion of that work accordg to the plan were in sur- 28 insurmountable. It would undermine the reservoir, It would shatter the foundations of the reservoir, it would drain the reservoir, there was not head room enough for the tunnell; the heading would break down. [It could never be] It would fill with water & could never be drained [itself]. It encountered more professional opposition - or rather professional [doubt] distrust - (honest professional [doubt] distrust Sir which I always respected because it was legitimately based upon & gave careful consideration to the fact that I had no name or standing as an engineer.) more Sir, than the [Thames Tunnell] High level Sewer [Sup] or the Menai bridge. It could not be safely done. That was a commonly expressed professional opinion. It could be done. It is done, Sir, and it [has been] was so carefully superintended that [every] not one of those difficulties & obstacles [have long since] so much as checked the progress of work upon it for [an] a single hour. There was a providence Sir, & you were startled by an expense from the Croton Board. But it only carefully proved that we knew what we were about & that they did it. What do you think that Superintendence cost you - [Why] About as much as the usual cost of superintendence in [on] digging a mile of canal through a meadow. I cant get at it exactly but in my opinion it was not more than 1 prct on the work. Why Sir if Stevenson was paid £150,000 for his personal superintendence of the Menai bridge - and that by a private company - not a government job. The Metropolitan Board of Works pay their Chief Superintendent, I am told [$] £15,000 per annum, for his personal services, and Barry was paid £90,000 for a partial superintendence of the building of Parliament house - Brown who laid out St James' Park, I dont know how he was paid, but I know that he made a fine fortune & put his son in Paliament. He was [a] bred a kitchen gardener, was but a common man and never in his life had a work which compared with this, in magnitude, or in the amount of study & talent required to do it justice.29 I am not [re?ing] you of these cases] calling your attention to these examples because I want you to pay me better - You know I would not do that - I never did such a thing in my life - I dont care a copper for myself Sir, or for what becomes of me - but I do [want your work to be] care for the park, which will last after I'm dead and give years & years, I hope, I want to have the work well done upon it - and I tell you that it can not be well done honestly and surely and carefully and certainly well done without a [more careful] better superintendence, a more liberal superintendence and I want to show you that in this respect, you have been following an unusual, and it is therefor to be presumed, an unsafe and an uneconomical policy. [in restricting me as you [do] have done in the free exercise of my judgment in regard to my professional staff] I want to show you Sir, that whatever you may think about it - you have no reason to be surprised that I can not sustain the responsibility which you wish to put upon me [without] on the terms you have hithertoo required. I want to show you that it is not safe for me, who care a great deal more for my reputation, who care a great deal more for the consciousness, of being an honest, capable, trustworthy God fearing man, than I do for any artistic or professional reputation - a thousand fold more than I do for personal emolument, I want to show you that it is not safe for me to go on without being at [perfectly] liberty to [enp] employ as many aids as I like -I must be the best judge of what I need in that respect. And if you can not trust me upon such a question of that - so purely and entirely a professional question - even more than the planting of a tree or the grading of a bank - I say Sir, if you 30 you are not able to trust me for that - then for what do you employ me? for what supposed capacity, knowledge, discretion, skill or art and I receiving $4000 a year - and dubbed Architect in Chief & Superintendent? I [say] ask you gentlemen if you can not trust me in that, [then] does it not look as if you [were] swindling the city and playing the fool with me. I know that some people think so, Sir, I conceive that it no more [complistay?] to yourself than to me that they do so. It was a different thing Sir, when we commenced. That is true Sir, I [was] had no professional reputation, no professional standing, except what you had given - or rather given me the means of gaining myself. It was natural -perhaps wise to distrust my judgment, to distrust my talent - to distrust somewhat even my honesty perhaps [but (found)] [But it is otherwise now. Now two years - during which] ¶You could not even then Sir doubt my ability to organize and control efficiently & economically control [a work force] your work for I had sin then already brought out of a mob of lazy, reckless, turbulent [& violet] & violent loafers a well organized, punctual, sober [and] industrious and disciplined body of 1000 men. I had quelled a mutiny, [Sir], I had [forced] made the idle, incompetent paupers, Sir, whom you [were] forced [to] me to employ, because it was necessary to do so to get money to go on at all. I had [forced] made them - lots of them, [to] take 30 or 40 [cts] cents a day, that being the exact value of their services in the open market, instead of a dollar a day & a quarter day which the demanded, and this against the judgment of [every] nearly every member of your board as to its possibility. I [did it Sir, to its last] had arranged that business to its last detail - even making the [hammer] models of the tools required with my own hands. I had done all this alone sir, not without the kindest support, assistance, advice & encouragement from the Treasurer, but in the park alone Sir, with every possible obstacle & difficulty in my way, as he will tell you. 31 But, however, it might have been then, I can [admit] not assest to myself that I stand any longer in the least degree in the position of an unknown man [in my profession] an untried man - a [doubtful] man of doubtful prudence. For two years I was denominated, and I was, your sole executive officer. I selected, I engaged, and I fixed the pay of every officer [and] man & boy employed in any department on the park. You gave me limits [Sir,] for the different grades. Sometimes you refused to enlarge the limit or to allow me an increase when I thought it desirable in my professional staff, but even in that [Sir,] and through the whole work, for every such case there were a hundred where I refused to pay as much as you authorized. It was [?ch] indeed [Sir] that I reached the limit of the discretion which you then allowed me. Look at the history of those two years, [Sir when this matter was exclusively in my hands. and I defy any man to detect] and detect if you can the slightest indication on my part of a [desire] disposition to carry sail imprudently to be extravagant or careless in details, to be lax in discipline, to be blind [or n] to or neglectful of small leaks. Look [to the na] at the various checks & precautions [to insure honest] to make sure of true & good measure of service being rendered you for your payments on the work and you will find them all. I dont now think of a single exception - all devised by me - devised, invested, and put into operation by myself voluntarilly, without [suggestio] requirement or suggestion, generally without any assistance, often against the judgment of others - of some of yourselves. Take the whole series of such checks and precautions which the Senate Committee of Investigation enumerate as peculiar to this work, and which lead them to speak of it as the best [considered] managed public work in the country - as far as I recollect Sir, there is not one of all of them - pertaining to the field - (not the Book-keeper's work - with that I never meddled) all of them, pertaining to the field service are mine. Some of them [Sir] I was months getting your Board to allow me to use because they were unusual, new untested & therefore assumed to be of doubtful expe- 32 expediency. [in your judgment] Some, which I put into operation, were reported upon unfavorably by your Committees & I was reproved for them, but they were forgotten & stood on and [but] they have stood the test of time, they are vindicated in experience. Some, Sir, which were greatly ridiculed, and which it required hand-spike discipline [to en] for many months to enforce, are now [matters of] so well established & so well justified by results that you make honorable mention of them, to your own credit, in every report. I have been under the harrow, Sir, of from Investigating Committees. Is there a scar upon me? Have you heard any one call me a careless, an inefficient, a lazy or neglectful officer? I believe the most that has been said of me, Sir, is that I am a [mil] mild enthusiast. But for what have I been enthusiastic Sir, but for the objects - for every object which you have had in view - which you have committed to my trust. And now, I say, [gentlemen], after three years [experience] trial of me [of my character and abilities] I feel that if you are, now, unwilling to [and I feel gentlemen, that if now, you are unwilling to] trust my judgment - to trust confidently and implicitly to my judgment, in such matters as I have referred to, that it is time you were rid of me altogether. I feel this Sir, I feel it, & I have felt it and spite of my sincere respect for you, spite of my real love for the park and in spite of my personal habit of discipline and loyalty, which is a very strong and inherent element of my character feeling this as I have done, it [is] has been impossible for me to give you the true and good service continue to receive your pay and to wear the title of Architect in Chief & Suptdt, or anything like it- 34 [Now, Sir,] Let me ask then, Sir, if you will not think it [impertinent] improper for me to take up an old question of your own - let me ask, what is the proper business of your Commission I mean, Sir, what business with advantage, economically, efficiently, can your Commission undertake to perform directly - [directly], [within itself] - In 1858 Mr Dillon Mr Belmont & Mr Dallas took the ground that the Commisn having adopted the plan, appointed their executive officer and assumed to give him powers necessary to carry out the plan, had no longer any function to perform with reference to the park, but that [of ch] cashiers and accountants. Those were the words of Mr Dillon's report, Sir, "cashiers & accountants." Manifestly the fact was [resolved?] that the Commission was a legislative body, [and it was impracticable [to] from considerations of policy] the mistake was also made [too] Sir, (and [has been constantly made since, by some members of the Board] the [se?e] error has since occasionally led to some confusion of words in the debates of your Board) the error of considering that the plan of the park was at that time complete. Speaking technically the Commission had seen nothing & acted on nothing but a study [for a plan] - had adopted nothing but the outline of a plan. I know Sir that some of the competitors pretended to furnish a working plan for the park but that was an [a professional] absurdity. Working plans for the park could not have been formed fully and usefully in a years hard labor of a dozen [first class designers] engineers. Although the Commission had in common parlance adopted a plan - there was much yet remaining, as there still is, to be determined about the plan much which it was not right & is yet not right to leave wholly to the judgment of the architect & Supt. and there were considerations of general policy Sir, an account of the relations of the Commission with the Common Council & the State Legislature 35 [1861] and on other grounds - which rendered it inexpedient for the Commission to hand over to its [Executive a] Superintendent that entire general control in all respects which a commercial body, an independent & self-sustaining corporation, having the same purposes in view, would have done - would have done Sir, for the sake of economy efficiency and success. But, theoretically Mr Dillon and his associates were right - and still right- practically right, if [the] his proposition is limited by a reservation of [such powers] of the exercise of functions from the Executive such as -- not as ordinary prudence requires - for ordinary prudence requires none - but of such [powers] functions as the special and unusual relations of your body required that it should sometimes exercise itself & directly. I say that ordinary prudence required the reservation of no functions from your chief executive except those of [cho] cashiers & accountants - only so far as I have made exception - because, Sir, when ordinary prudence requires [you to res] a corporation to interpose and interfere with its executive, in a work of this character, then Sir, ordinary prudence [shoul] goes further, it requires that they should supercede him altogether. He is the [?] round man in the [place he] square hole Sir and they made a mistake when they got him to lay out, plan and carry on the work of this character. Why a work of this character? Because Sir this work is eminently one of design, and Congress might as well engage a [great painter] clerk draftsman like Mr [E?gen] or Mr Darly to sketch a historical cartoon for a panel of the rotunda of the Capitol, and then get a good colorist like Mr. [Guinoux?] or Mr Page to paint it. Mr Guinoux or Mr Page wouldn't do it. Wh? 36 some Western Committee [did] once actually proposed something of that kind to Mr Page as I [now] recollect he told me when I was in Rome - but he laughed at them and declined to serve them, as any [fit] man fit for your work would refuse to serve you on such terms. All comparisons Sir, are imperfect, and involve some error on close scrutiny. I don't say that this does not, or that the inference is to be perfect and unqualified. To be strictly accurate there is a good deal of qualification to be allowed to this view of your business, and of the business proper to be devolved in me. But the general conclusion from the practice of other bodies having similar duties, and from your own experience seems to me to confirm and establish the theoretical proposition that - having fixed upon certain prudential limits and holding your designer most rigidly to account within those limits, you should trust as largely as is by any means compatible with your duty as [cha] cashiers & accountants, to his prudence to his judgment and not to your own, or to that of any committee, or any man of you - but to his judgment and his prudence as to details. So long as you employ him at all Sir, it is absolutely necessary to [his] your success that - fixing for your own safety's sake certain general limits - in details of his duty you should deal with him confidently - generously - even generously - even over-looking [so far] unless very distinctly offensive to you, or largely wasteful, largely wasteful, Sir, overlooking what may appear to you in such details, errors of judgment or taste - whims, fancies, [& ideas] which you can only regard as personal idiosyncracies because, Sir, in all works of art, in a crude37 & incomplete state these appear always unaccountable touches, which when [brou] finished - completed and brought into a good light - are suddenly recognized as [w] strokes of genius. If your designer has any genius in him, Sir, it will show itself in that way, in little details where he acts as it were instinctively, where at all counts, he could no more explain and demonstrate beforehand, the absolute necessity if the expenditure of the last six pence that does the business, than [he] a graceful woman could give an anatomical demonstration and explanation of her every graceful movement.38 [Mr G pardon so long - life & death - on thin air - or Mr G. looked at him - Why- Why- for as freds. cant doubt that - fellow called - supercede - Avery] The President required of me, [Sir] gentm, perfect frankness tonight. If I am too frank, he is responsible for it. I promised [at the outset, gentlemen,] that I would be frank with you. You very well know that up to this moment I have not been entirely frank with you - and if I said nothing more you would not believe that I had been perfectly honest. [with] [*Transfer to last page- 41*] When Mr Green, came up to see me, after your meeting at which my resignation was [read] presented, he [he told me] said, that when it was read, every [one of your] body looked at him. Why did you look at him gentlemen? The President, when we met, the following night [too] assumed [that] almost as if it were a matter of course that my supposed hasty [action] proceeding had been provoked by some action of Mr. Green. Why Mr Green? [What could have led to that conjecture?] [And yet gentlemen] I told you, in my letter of resignation that I never felt a more keen gratitude to you all - (including Mr Green, of course,) than at the moment of that writing. and yet three of those who were present have told me that you thought that [I ha] I must have had a quarrel with Mr Green - & that this was the cause of my resignation. [*Transfer to page 41*] A few weeks ago, a man came to my office, wishing to see me "on private business". What do you suppose he wanted gentlemen? He wanted to know how I got on with Mr Green? [He also wanted to know whether I intended to go to Albany?] I replied by demanding what business he had to ask me that question? It was not the first time, nor any where in the first hundred times that it had been asked me, and I was getting tired of it - and this man certainly had no right to ask [of] it of me [in] as a matter of private business confidentially. He answered that he supposed I knew that Green was [intending] trying to supercede me. [I did not kick him out of my office for I am not in kicking condition nor have I a kicking habit but] I gave him very clearly to understand that if his business was in that direction - as it no doubt was - he had come to the wrong shop & he left with a flea in his ear. Well, Sir, I suppose that a dozen persons have been to me since - one, and a good friend of you all, it was,39 only yesterday asking the same question. It has been asked 50 times in the last three weeks. and I have found it difficult to make these people believe that I am not at sword's points with Mr Green - and that I have not the slightest need of [their] assistance in fighting him. Now, gentlemen, do you believe that I have ever done anything to create this impression, which is apparently universal & which you evidently know to be universsal? I have not, gentlemen - I will not say that I have never been provoked into uttering a hasty word - a word of impatience, toward, or in regard to Mr. Green. I am a patient man Sir, but I am human. Well, Sir, for every impatient word which I have uttered with regard to Mr Green, I have rebuked fifty. I have contradicted fifty lies, I have said a thousand words in his honor and for his advantage. Your associate Mr Gray, came to see me within these [t?] months, came clear out to Mt. St. Vincent Sir, for the especial purpose, to warn me against this dreadful conspirator Green - to solemnly warn me. And this was not the first nor was it the last time I have been in like manner warned against that man by Commissioner of the park. Well gentlemen, my good friend Comn Gray was a little annoyed that I should smile at his warning. He said that Green was laying a deep plot to supercede me. He certainly was; I might smile, but the time would come and finally Mr Gray got really angry [with me as well as with Mr. Green.] [and you know that when Mr Gray gets really angry [his tongue is not always quite clean] he uses language to which ladies and clergymen are supposed to be unaccustomed to hear. He got so much excited that he spoke of my friend Mr Green as a damned rascal. He finally told me he knew from what Green had said himself, the [las] last time they had been friends, that he wanted to be & meant to be the Superintendent of the park, and he asked [why] how I could have so much confidence in [him] that felow. And I answered because, if [Mr Green is a damned rascal he certainly is not a damned fool.] Mr Gray if you do think Mr Green, a damned rascal, you surely dont believe him to be a ---fool - not being a fool, he has no more idea of being Superintendent than I have of being Treasurer & Comptroller. That's my opinion. 40 and Mr Gray departed - [not exactly with a flea in his ear but] with very decided conviction, I've no doubt, that if Mr Green was not a fool, he knew who was one. Well, Sir, I have an appointment with a certain [ex Republican] ex-commissioner of the park and another gentleman, and a Tammany chieftn I believe to-morrow - it is a special appointment, gentlemen - private & confidential; the nature of the business is not divulged to me, gentlemen, but I would bet large odds, that the first question [after they have got through with my leg and the skating pond will be,] "How do you and Green, get on, these days? And I [will] would bet that if we could [or he] overhear the first word that is spoken after they drive out of the gate it would be - "Olmsted is a [damned] fool." Now gentlemen, what is the reason of this universal suspicion that I am a poor, helpless, victim of that deep, rogue Green? Why I should judge, Sir, that there were [hundreds of men] fifty men in the city at this time actively engaged in trying to countermine Green's [mines against] under-mining of my office - against my will - with, in fact, my profound contempt as a general rule for their assistance [my freely expressed at every opportunity.] Not at all disguised from them. In fact they all believe me, as I have said to be a - fool. [It's not my good they are after] Now, Sir, what does all this mean? It does not mean any good to me, Sir, I know that; and it its [not] means [the] no good of the park. [I am sure & that Mr Green's more necessary to the park than I am Sir. If these people should succeed in their purpose with him, it would be the worst thing that can happen to the park, in my opinion - in my sincere opinion, Sir.] [Now, what does all this mean?][What then does it mean what's the cause of it?] [It means, Sir, that there is something wrong in the official relations of Mr Green & myself, which is not compatible with harmony. In spite of the best good will - in spite of the best good will, Sir, on both sides, we do not work together [without obvious creaking and jarring.] Where is the fault, Sir? Where is the friction? It is in the machinery, Sir, not in us.] It is impossible, Sir, that two men could work together better, with more natural confidence with a better understanding, I can not say Sir [in all] in better temper always in better temper but I can say, I believe Sir, with truth, with more cordial common purpose and general mutual friendly interaction than Mr Green & myself. He is my superior officer Sir, and it does not become me to say more than this of him; to tell you how carefully, with what excessive care he has served your interests, Sir, [it] [but he] He can tell you Sir whether he has ever seen a symptom of a disposition, a symptom of a disposition, [to] on my part, to be unfaithful to my duty to him, [either as an officer, Sir, or as a friend] from the first day I set foot on the park, to this day. Sir,41 [Where is the difficulty then? that you all [are so quick to] take for granted to exist between us] [I repeat, gentlemen, it is in the machinery - and the mending of the machinery is your business, not mine.] Now, gentlemen, you know all this as well as I do - You knew it last week as well as now. back p. 38 [Transfer?] What does this mean? I suppose it to mean gentlemen that it is evident to all of you on the face of the matter, that with such an arrangement as you have made of the relative associated duties of myself and Mr Green, no two men [could work to] who have much self-respect, could work [well] long together without quarrelling. [But] I have not quarrelled with Mr Green [gentlemen] and I am not going to quarrel with Mr Green [gentlemen] But I repeat, gentlemen that [you it is evident that] all this shows me that you yourselves recognize something wrong in your machinery. And the mending of the machinery, gentlemen is your business, not mine. 1861 Draft of remarks addressed to Executive Committee @ Central Park giving reasons for my resignation. January, 1861. [*Copied A 1861*] [*draft 1861 Letter of resig.*]Office of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park, Bank of Commerce Building, 31 Nassau Street, New York, Jany 22 1861 My Dr Sir I shall try to go to Mt. St. Vincent to-morrow either morning or afternoon. I send the map back sent to me by Mr Grant this a.m. to have an indication across it of the addition from 106 to 110 streets. I should like to put it in hands of the lithographers to-morrow if you can have it sent down. Yours very trly And. H. Green C F.L. Olmsted Esq A .in C. & S There might be added to the reference the statement that the part above 106th St. is not yet part of the Park.A. H. Green Jan 22. 1861 New York Jany 24th 1861 F.L. Olmsted, Arch in Chief & Supt B.C.C.P. Dr Sir The bearer Christina Hecker, my sister in law, is desirous of employment on the C.P. as Ladies Maid. Having heard that a new Cottage is in course of erection I take the liberty to make an application for her. She speaks English and German and is in every way qualified for the situation. The reason that she applies for a place is in order to help her widow mother to support the younger portion of the family. If you should be so kind as to grant her application I would consider it as a great special favour which I would never forget. Respectfully yours Most Obdt Sevt Francis PetrarchiFrancis Petrarchi recommends his sister-in-law as Ladies Maid. Jan. 24th 1861 Office of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park, Bank of Commerce Building, 31 Nassau Street. New York, Jany 24 1861 My dr Sir You did not give me last night the number of the swans now living. Will you pleas to do so. Will it not be practicable to take on economically about as many stone cutters as we now have [?] them all 1/2 time. What do you think of it? Yours And H Green C FL Olmsted Esq A in C & S. A. H. Green Jan. 24th 1861. [*19487*] Brooks' Printing Establishment, 3 Division & 5 Catharine Streets New York, Jan. 28th 1861 Mr. Olmsted Dr Sir Will you favor me with a note to Mr. Green in reference to the Bill of Central Park Printing (Programmes). I have called and sent to him several times in reference to the same and he appears to know but little about the matter. BY complying as above you would oblige me, as I have had a great deal of trouble in attending to the same, not considering the loss of time. Truly, yrs J W BrooksJ.W. Brooks about payment for programmes Jan. 28th /61 New York Jany 29. 1861 Dr Sir Applications are made here for appointment as gate keeper is there any existing vacancy? Word is sent here that there are but 53 swans remaining. Can you find out when the remainder departed. Will you have the kindness to have a statement made of the precise duties that engrossed 4 genl. foremen 5 foremen 5 assistants 54 laborers 1 Blaster 32 stone cutters 1 hand-soiler 20 carpenters 14 blacksmiths 2 double timely 2 carts onThursday Jan 24, 1861 Oblige Yours resly And H Green C F.L. Olmsted Esq A in C & S.And. H. Green Asks information Relation to Swan - & [numb] duties of certain men employd on certain day- Jan. 29. 1861 Board of Commissioners of the Central Park, Office - Bank of Commerce Building, 31 Nassau Street. New York, Jan: 31 1861 My dear Mr: Olmsted I have your note I am glad you propose just what you do - Now as to the time - I would like to have you present your views to the members of the Board who were present when your resignation was read (6 of them) Mr: Green is in Albany today - I go to Phil: this evening to return Sat: evening - I am obliged to go to Albany Monday morning to return Tuesday evening - I propose therefore that we get all together at my Houseon Wed: evening next say at 8 o.c. when we can talk as long as we choose without interruption, & if you will stay with me all night I shall be too happy Yours Very truly R.M. BlatchfordJan. 31 /61 R.M. Blatchford to F.L.O. -