Ashbel P. Fitch: Champion of Old New York

13. Passage

243 13 Passage Controller Fitch is known as extremely resolute in the enforcement of the civil service laws. . . . The present excellent regulations requiring the payrolls of all departments of the city government to be certified by the Civil Service Board before they are transmitted to the Finance Department for payment is due to Mr. Fitch’s efforts to prevent evasions of the law. —New York Tribune, September 24, 1897 Fitch was surely disappointed, probably annoyed, perhaps puzzled, but not surprised by his defeat. He had wanted to be Greater New York’s first controller and he knew he deserved it, but again Goethe’s philosophical influence showed through. He was beaten by events that were beyond his control. He was sadly disappointed, but rather than suffer in defeat as Viele had done eleven years before, he faced facts and moved on. At police headquarters on Mulberry Street, where the official returns were tallied , the mayor and the controller, who despite their daily jousting had become warm friends, arrived at about 8:15 p.m. “The mayor looked the reverse of pleasant .” A New York Telegraph reporter asked him what he thought of the election. “‘I’ll not concede the election to Van Wyck till every ballot is counted,’ growled his honor and he passed on. . . . ‘Want to ask me the same question?’ said the controller with a benign smile. ‘Yes.’ ‘Well,’ announced Mr. Fitch, still smiling, ‘give my love to the people of New York.’”1 This undoubted ironic expression was as close as he came to revealing his enormous disappointment. The following day he was back on an even keel, “bright and smiling and nobody would have imagined”2 that he had lost. He said, “I feel very grateful to the many friends who stood by me so nobly when success seemed more than doubtful.” And then, “certainly I have no complaints to make as to the action of either friend or foe.” Further postmortems were left to others. The New York Times said Fitch “was a good deal put out over his defeat.”3 The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the combined vote for Fitch, Fairchild, and Dayton would have defeated Coler handily.4 A few days after the election Fitch hosted a breakfast at the Manhattan Club for 244 | Ashbel P. Fitch the candidates for controller, to follow up on an earlier dinner in which they had placed their predicted vote totals in sealed envelopes. At breakfast they opened the envelopes “amid much laughter.”5 The complex work of consolidation proceeded apace as Coler visited the controller ’s office to begin learning the duties of his office. “Combining the Finance Departments of all the parts of the new city,” Fitch said, “will be much harder than combining other departments,”6 and he volunteered his assistance. A month later he budgeted an additional thirty thousand dollars for clerks’ salaries in the coming year, and Coler announced that he would “retain nearly all of the present employees.”7 In December, Fitch advertised for bids for over $6 million of 3½ percent gold bonds for the final time.8 One week later he opened nine bids for the bonds, totaling $21.5 million, which came in at substantial premiums ranging between 103 and 108.47.9 It was old New York’s final bond sale. The Bond Buyer, ever generous to Fitch said, “We may congratulate the city on the administration of Comptroller Fitch. He goes out in a blaze of glory and leaves to his successor an unimpaired credit for the new metropolis.”10 Fitch owed his life’s opportunity to New York, and it was never far from his mind. When in March of 1898 he spoke to the Sons of Oneida County, he told them, “New York always was the place for the man from somewhere else. It attracts to itself the brightest men in our state and from all the states, in every calling and profession, because here is the fairest chance for recognition, and the greatest reward for success. There is always ready here a gold box and the freedom of the city for any man from anywhere who can earn them. The question the city asks of the latest comer is not ‘where do you come from?’ but ‘where are you going?’ If you are going ahead in your profession or in your business or in the arts, and can lead the way, the city will welcome and reward you, as will no other place...