On the brow of that declivity, where Tammany Hall now stands, Jacob Leisler, "the people's governor," when James II. left the

FEANKLIN SQUAEE.

English throne and William of Orange ascended it, was hanged, having been convicted on the false accusation of being a disloyal usurper. He was the victim of a jealous and corrupt aristocracy, and was the first and last man ever put to death for treason alone within the domain of the United States down to the close of the Civil War in 18G5.

THE HUDSON.

"When the war for independence was kindling, the Field became the theatre of many stirring scenes. There the inhabitants assembled to hear the harangues of political leaders and pass resolves: there "liberty poles" were erected and prostrated ; and there soldiers and people had collisions. There obnoxious men were hung in effigy ; and there at six o'clock in the

'if

BROADWAY AT ST. PAUL'S.

evening of a sultry day in July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read to one of the brigades of the Continental Army, then in the city under the command of Washington.

The vicinity of the lower or southern end of the park has ever been a

THE HUDSON.

point of much interest. On the site of Barnum's Museum,^' the " Sons of Liberty" in New York -- the ultra-republicans before the revolution -- had a meeting-place, called " Hampden Hall." Opposite was St. Paul's Church, a chapel of Trinity Church ; where, in after years, when the objects for which the "Sons of Liberty" had been organised were accomplished, namely, the independence of the colonies, the Te Deum Laudamus was sung by a vast multitude, on the occasion of the inauguration of Washington (who was present), as the first chief magistrate of the United States. There it yet stands, on the most crowded portion of Broadway (where various omnibus lines meet), a venerable relic of the past, clustered with important and interesting associations.