Career
Stephanus Van Cortland was the first mayor New York City who had been born in America, the date of his birth being 7th May, 1643. His first role in public life occurred in 1668, when he was appointed ensign of one of the militia companies of the city. In 1671 he married Geertruyd Schuyler, of Albany, and established his residence at the "Waterside," on the present line of Pearl street, near Broad, where he engaged in business as a merchant. His appointment as mayor, in 1677, at the age of thirty-four years, was a high compliment to his intelligence, and social position in the community, coming, as it did, from the English Governor. This favor, however, he returned, by remaining an adherent of the aristocratic party, in the time of the Leisler affair. When Delanoy, the Leisler candidate, was elected to the mayoralty, in place of Van Cortland, the latter refused to deliver up the city seal. A committee waited on him at his residence, but his wife shut the door in their faces.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)