New York lawyer Shupe reports on the slow progress of the Harlem Commons Syndicate, which was expected to eventually number 1,000 “claimants”, though many, out of “fear or distrust” or “pure negligence” had not yet returned their power of attorney authorizing him to act as their agent. A group of opponents who had shown “warlike demonstration” were now “scattered around in piles of pulverized nastiness”. A “coal property” was being developed under the “care of Lieutenant P. F. Fremont”, which had orders for 2,000 tons of coal, to be sold at $ 10 a ton, etc. Dock and basin construction would also begin soon, and Shupe felt certain that Syndicate stockholders would “proceed to reduce our claim to cash.”

The Syndicate and all its grandiose plans was a legal fantasy based on the contention that hundreds of acres of land, marshes and embankments along the Harlem River did not belong to the City of New York, but rather to the descendants of five Englishman who, in the late 17th century, had received a large grant of “New Haarlem” marsh land stretching from present-day 74th to 128th Streets. Assuming that legal claim could be proven, the Syndicate planned to build and operate 14 miles of stone wharves and basins on the River. Shupe, who complained of being under “terrible and unrelaxed strain” since he had incorporated the Syndicate in 1883, was later accused of misrepresenting the investors. Years of court battles apparently continued until 1911, that being the last date of Syndicate Correspondence held by the New York Public Library. The cheap printing and paper of this small “Report” suggests that few Syndicate publications have survived outside of institutional collections.