years, at a total annual rental of $269 a year, a
stretch of land comprising 465 lots in what is now the vicinity bounded
by Greenwich, Spring and Hudson streets. Mortier used it as a country
place until 1797 when the New York Legislature, upon the initiative of
Burr, developed a consuming curiosity as to how Trinity Church was
expending its income. This was a very ticklish question with the pious
vestrymen of Trinity, as it was generally suspected that they were
commingling business and piety in a way that might, if known, cause them
some trouble. The law, at that time, restricted the annual income of
Trinity Church from its property to $12,000 a year. A committee of
investigation was appointed; of this committee Burr was made chairman.

HOW ASTOR SECURED A LEASE.

Burr never really made any investigation. Why? The reason soon came out,
when Burr turned up with a transfer of the Mortier lease to himself. He
at once obtained from the Manhattan Bank a $38,000 loan, pledging the
lease as security. When his duel with Hamilton forced Burr to flee the
country, Astor promptly came along and took the lease off his hands.
Astor, it was said, paid him $32,000 for it, subject to the Manhattan
Bank's mortgage. At any rate, Astor now held this extraordinarily
valuable lease.[119] He immediately released it in lots; and as the city
fast grew, covering the whole stretch with population and buildings, the
lease was a source of great revenue to him and to his heirs.[120] As a
Lutheran, Astor could not be a vestryman of Trinity Church. Anthony
Lispenard, however, it may be passingly noted, was a vestryman, and, as
such, mixed piety and business so well, that his heirs became possessed
of millions of dollars by the mere fact that in 1779, when a vestryman,
he got a lease, for eighty-three years of eighty-one Trinity lots
adjacent to the Astor leased land, at a total annual rental of
$177.50.[121]

It was by the aid of the banking system that the trading class was
greatly enabled to manipulate the existing and potential resources of
the country and to extend invaluable favors to themselves. In this
system Astor was a chief participant. For many years the banks,
especially in New York State, were empowered by law to issue paper money
to the extent of three times the amount of their capital. The actual
specie was seized hold of by the shippers, and either hoarded, or
exported in quantities to Asia or Europe which, of course, would not