ABSTRACT
Hone should have known. His own life reflected the city’s rapid expansion as he rose above modest origins and acquired enough wealth in the auction business to retire in 1821 at age forty. After serving one term as mayor in 1826, he chaired numerous civic commissions, supported countless philanthropies, and became New York’s most prominent citizen. Nonetheless, he was ruined by the Panic of 1837, forced to return to work, only to be ruined again by the fire of 1845. Depressions, crimes, epidemics, strikes, fires, and riots taught Hone that change was a mixed blessing. Despite his elite status and his contempt for poor immigrants, he worried about a society increasingly based on “two extremes of costly luxury and. . .hopeless destitution.” Hone understood that although change brought progress, it also could cause conflict.2
