200 The Story of The Bronx 



then a young man, was chosen as the leader of the enterprise. 

 The intention was to bring the matter into the United States 

 courts and to show that neither the State nor the city had any 

 power to grant the privileges secured by Macomb and his 

 successors in the obstruction of a navigable stream, a power 

 vested in the United States alone; and there was sufficient 

 evidence to prove that the Harlem River had been a navigable 

 stream from time immemorial. 



In furtherance of the plan, Morris Dock was built about a 

 mile above the site of the present High Bridge, and a periauger, 

 named the Nonpareil, was chartered to take a cargo of coal for 

 delivery at the dock. On the evening of September fourteenth, 

 Mr. Morris arrived with his cargo of coal at the dam at full 

 tide and demanded a passage up stream. The bridge- 

 keeper could not comply with the demand to open the lock, 

 as none was provided. A party of nearly a hundred men 

 accompanied the periauger on flatboats ; and upon the refusal 

 of the bridge-tender to let the boat pass, they forcibly removed 

 a sufficient length of the dam to allow the Nonpareil to float 

 across. From that time forth a draw was always kept in the 

 bridge and an opening in the dam ; but the latter was so insuf- 

 ficient that the tides swept through with such fearful rapidity 

 as to make it impossible for boats to pass through except at 

 slack water. 



The owners of the bridge and dam at this time were the 

 Renwicks, and they at first attempted to have Morris indicted 

 as a disturber of the public peace ; but the recorder and district 

 attorney both said that Morris had a right to demand passage 

 for his vessel, and refused to allow the grand jury to consider 

 the matter. Suit for damages was then brought against 

 Morris in the Superior Court, but the judge charged the jury 

 that the dam as constructed was a public nuisance, and that 



