national debt at the
time of the resumption of specie payments, and the London house
were fiscal agents of the U.S. government in 1873-1884, and as
such received the $15,500,000 awarded by the Geneva Arbitration
court in settlement of the "Alabama Claims" against Great
Britain. In 1899 Morton became president of the Morton Trust Co.
of N.Y.C. He was a Republican representative in Congress from
1879 to 1881, U.S. minister to France (1881-1885), vice-president
of the U.S. during the administration of Benjamin Harrison
(1889-1893) and governor of N.Y. state (1895-1896) signing in
that capacity the "Greater New York" bill and the liquor-tax
measure known as the "Raines law." In 1896 he was a candidate for
the presidential nomination in the Republican national
convention.

88 M. RHINECLIFF, Pop. 1,300. (Train 51 passes at 10:32a; No. 3, 10:56a;
No. 41, 3:07p; No. 25, 4:46p; No. 19, 9:39p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes
7:13a; No. 26, 7:31a; No. 16, 1:37p; No. 22, 3:09p.)

Across the river from Rhinecliff is Kingston (Pop. 26,688), most of
which lies on a plateau 150 ft. above the river. Rondout, once a
separate town, is now a part of the city of Kingston, the center of
which lies 3 M. inland. To the northwest is the noble scenery of the
Catskills, to the southwest are the Shawangunk Mts. and Lake Mohonk, and
in the distance on our right (that is, on the Rhinecliff side) are the
Berkshire Hills.

Kingston is one of the oldest towns in the state. In 1658 a stockade was
built here by order of Gov. Peter Stuyvesant, and although the Dutch had
built a fort here as early as 1614, it is from this event that the
founding of the city is generally dated. The town suffered a number of
murderous Indian attacks before it was taken over by the British in
1664.

[Illustration: The "Senate House" (1676), Kingston, N.Y.

Erected in 1676 as a private residence, the "Senate House" was one
of the few buildings left standing when the British sacked the
town of Kingston in October, 1777. It had been the meeting place
of the first State Senate in the earlier part of that year. The
house is now maintained as a colonial museum.]

The early history of Kingston reached a climax during the Revolution,
when the British under Sir John Vaughan sacked the town and burned the
buildings Oct. 17, 1777. The "Senate House"* erected in 1676, was the
meeting-place of the first State S