CHART SHOWING EAST RIVER SOUNDINGS AND PIER LINES
In the reign of Queen Anne the Corporation of New York induced that infamous trickster and reprobate, Governor Cornbury, to give New York a charter, by which it was to be entitled to all "vacant and unappropriated land" below high water mark from the Wallabout to Red Hook. The charter was really void, for there was no unappropriated land in the region named, previous patents and charters having given them to Brooklyn as a town. In 1721 the colonial legislature confirmed Brooklyn's rights, but New York's politicians bought for a specific sum ($5000) a new charter from Governor Montgomerie confirming the pretended right of New York to ownership in land to high-water mark on the Brooklyn shore. New York secured a charter ownership in 400 feet of land under water around the whole lower part of the city, and step by step, with money and unfaltering political trickery, the city set itself against the development and independence of Brooklyn. By Section 37 of the Montgomerie charter, the ferry franchise was confirmed "forever," with a provision that no other person or persons whomsoever should have the right to establish a ferry or ferries in the premises. Legislative acts and legal decisions have been piled up around a pretense, the fallacy and injustice of which appear upon examination of the early records.
New York was not satisfied with the crafty legislation by which it sought to overawe the village across the river. It began to question the right of Brooklyn people to cross to New York in their own boats. The result was that a Brooklyn man, Hendrick Remsen, sued the New York Corporation. He won his case; the Corporation appealed to the King, and the matter remained undecided in consequence of the Revolution. Although the Constitution of the State confirms all grants of land within the State made by authority of the King of Great Britain or his predecessors, prior to August 14, 1775, New York afterward adhered to its false claims to the river rights. However, by State rulings within the present century, Brooklyn was permitted to exercise jurisdiction to low-water mark. A Supreme Court decision in 1821 declares that the City and County of New York includes the whole of the rivers and harbor adjoining to actual low-water mark on the opposite shores. It was only in 1824 that Brooklyn was able to secure from the Legislature concurrent jurisdiction with New York in the service of process, in actions civil and criminal, on board of vessels attached to its own wharves.
When Brooklyn sought to erect itself into a city, New York met the proposition with the same spirit of unwillingness to recognize in the sister town any right to individual existence. Every step that Brooklyn took toward securing municipal rights was hampered by the opposition of New York politicians. Brooklyn became a city in 1834, in spite of New York's opposition. New York retired from the fight with its fraudulent ownership of the river and the "ferry rights," by which it was and still is able to levy a continuous tax upon Brooklyn.
IV
STATISTICS FROM THE FEDERAL CENSUS OF 1890
BROOKLYN MANUFACTURES[56]
Federal Census of 1890
The tabulated statements presented herewith include only establishments which reported a product of $500 or more in value during the census year, and, so far as practicable, only those establishments operating works located within the corporate limits of the city.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF TOTALS
| Industries | Industries Reported | Establishments Reporting | Capital[57] | Hands Employed | Wages Paid | Cost of Materials Used | ||
| All Industries | { | 1880 | 180 | 5,201 | $61,646,749 | 47,587 | 22,487,457 | $129,085,091 |
| 1890 | 229 | 10,561 | 125,849,052 | 103,683 | 61,975,702 | 137,325,749 | ||