USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume III > Part 10
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Michigan; one a slave, the other a free State. This did not change the political status of the upper house of Con- gress. Nevertheless, in the North, West, and East, some determined advocates of anti-slavery principles gathered around them devoted followers, and the rumblings of that mighty movement that was to draw the line between the peo- ple of the North and South, were thus early developing.
The leading Southern Democrats, wishing to placate the members of that party in the North, deemed it wise to resign what they had so far during the life of the nation strongly insisted upon,-that the candidate for President should be from a slaveholding State; and therefore favored Martin Van Buren as the successor of President Jackson. Van Buren was an astute politician, one of the chief creators of the efficient political "machine" in New York State and the coun- try at large. Unlike his successors in its operation he had genuine political principles, and is entitled to the name of statesman, though also a supple and not too scrupulous poli- tician. He combined some of the broader views of the old school with the crafty self-seeking of the new; he was the political heir of Jefferson, as well as the pliant supporter of Jackson and the dominating figure of the Albany Regency,- a group of New York political managers who for many years distributed offices among themselves and their adherents.
Van Buren, not being of pronounced pro-slavery views, was not obnoxious to a majority of the freemen of Connecticut. They also saw danger in the financial condition of the country, and feared that a change of administration would hasten mat- ters. They chose an electoral college consisting of Lorain T. Pease, Luther Warren, Alfred Bassett, Seth P. Beers, Julius Clark, R. P. Williams, Moses Gregory, and Carlos Chapman, who cast the vote of the State for the Democratic
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nominee for President. The eight votes for Vice-President were given for Richard M. Johnson. There being no choice for Vice-President, the election went to the United States Senate. Of the sitting members from Connecticut, John M. Niles cast his ballot for Richard M. Johnson, while Gideon Tomlinson supported Francis Granger, the Whig nominee.
The spring election in 1837 for Governor, like its two pre- decessors, yielded a majority for the Democratic nominee; but the money panic in the fall of that year, and the conse- quent hard times, was to prove in the spring of 1838 disas- trous to the party then in power. The Whig party presented as their nominee their defeated candidate of the previous year, the descendant of one of Connecticut's immortal names. His Democratic opponent was Seth P. Beers, a citizen of Litchfield, the incumbent of the office of Commissioner of the Public School Fund, which by his untiring zeal and energy had been largely augmented.
But the wave of financial distress was to the Democratic party a herald of defeat. They deserved it, for they had put its chief cause where he could do most mischief. In a total vote of 50, 101, William W. Ellsworth received 27, 115. The newly elected Governor was the third son, and one of boy twins, of Oliver Ellsworth. He was born at Windsor, Nov. 10, 1791; graduating from Yale College in 1810, he entered the Litchfield Law School, where he was a close student, ambitious to become master of his chosen profession. He was admitted to the bar in 1813, and soon afterwards married the eldest daughter of the lexicographer Noah Webster. Young Ellsworth removed to Hartford, which became his home, and at the age of twenty-six we find him a partner of his brother- in-law Thomas S. Williams. On the election of the latter to Congress, he assumed the entire management of what was
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then the largest law practice in the State. His fame as a legal authority was recognized at home and abroad. In 1827 he was appointed professor of law at Washington-now Trinity -College, which position he held until his death.
Mr. Ellsworth was a member of the twenty-second and twenty-third Congresses, serving on the committee that car- ried into effect Jackson's proclamation against nullification by South Carolina. He also helped to investigate the affairs of the United States Bank at Philadelphia. After his Congres- sional career, he returned to his law practice. It was with unwillingness that he accepted the nomination for Governor, in which office he served for four terms. On retiring from the gubernatorial chair, Governor Ellsworth again began the active practice of law, and from 1847 to 1861-when he was retired on account of his age limit-was a member of the State judiciary. The last years of his life were spent at Hart- ford, where he passed away Jan. 15, 1868. The encomiums of Rufus Choate, the leader of the American bar, are the best evidences of Governor Ellsworth's worth and character. That eloquent pleader said "he was a man of hereditary capacity, purity, learning, and love of law. If the land of Shermans, Griswolds, Daggetts, and Williamses, rich as she is in learning and virtue, has a sounder lawyer, a more upright magistrate, or an honester man in her public service, I know not his name."
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The Democratic opponent of Governor Ellsworth in 1839- 40 was John M. Niles, a native of the same town. His natal day was Aug. 20, 1787. Mr. Niles established in 1817 the Hartford Times, and was for several years its exclusive editor. In May 1840 he accepted the appointment from President Van Buren as a member of his Cabinet, and served as Postmaster-General, resigning the office March 1, 1841.
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Mr. Niles was elected to the United States Senate in 1842, having previously served in that body from 1835 to 1839, when he was chosen to fill a vacancy. At the completion of his term of office he retired from the Senate, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. Besides contributing to the peri- odical press, he edited a Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and wrote a history of South America. On the organ- ization of the new Republican Party in 1856, Mr. Niles be- came identified with it, and in the interest of its prinicples he established the Hartford Press. His death occurred in the city of his adoption, May 3, 1857. He bequeathed the bulk of his property to the poor of Hartford, and his library to the Connecticut Historical Society.
At the Presidential election in the fall of 1840, the Demo- crats presented as their candidate the occupant of the execu- tive chair. The Whigs, with a ticket consisting of General William Henry Harrison and John Tyler, carried on a cam- paign indignantly characterized by the Democrats as one of "Noise, Numbers, and Nonsense," or in other words the same tactics by which the Democrats had "whooped it up" for Jack- son. But they carried them much futher. This campaign was the real birth of "hurrah" political argument; of the trans- parency and the campaign song as the chief methods of con- vincing an intelligent electorate; of spouting, screaming, drinking, "buncombe," and appeals to everything but reason. There was no end to mass-meetings and processions, log-cab- ins, barrels of hard cider, and coon-skins. The use of these primitive articles, not obviously connected with qualifications for the highest executive office of a great country, was sup- posed to indicate Harrison's sympathy with "plain men" and "sturdy American citizens," as distinguished from the "aris- tocrats" who had always lived in clapboarded dwellings,
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worn broadcloth, and sometimes drunk unrepublican wine: These methods, so honorable to the rationality and intelli- gence of American citizens, combined with the opprobrium heaped on the Democratic party for the hard times, were successful. Van Buren had come into office with a very large electoral vote, but the people denied him a re-election by an equally large adverse vote.
: Connecticut joined the tidal wave of her sister States in giving a large majority for the Whig candidates, and elect- ing Hezekiah Spencer, Reuben Booth, James Brewster, Philip Pearl, Adam Larabee, Peter Bierce, Timothy Green, and John S. Peters as Presidential electors. These cast the vote of the State for William Henry Harrison for President, and John Tyler for Vice-President.
General Harrison extended to Francis Granger an invita- tion to become a member of his Cabinet; he was appointed Postmaster-General March 6, 1841. He was the fourth out of the ten incumbents who had filled the position since the inauguration of the national government, that claimed Con- necticut as the place of their nativity. He was the son of Gideon Granger, who was Postmaster-General from 1802 to 1814. Born at Suffield, Dec. 1, 1792, he graduated from Yale in 1811; in 1814 he removed to Canandaigua, New York, where he practiced law. Mr. Granger was a prom- inent leader in the Anti-Masonic movement, and on the organization of the Whig party he took an active part in politics, being their candidate for Vice-President in 1836. He was a member of the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth Con- gresses, but resigned from the latter to accept the Cabinet appointment tendered him. He resigned this office, however, shortly after the death of President Harrison. His last appearance in political life was as a member of the "silver-
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gray" Whigs, who were opposed to active opposition against slavery. He died at Canandaigua, Aug, 28, 1868.
In the spring election of 1841 the Whigs were triumphant, and Governor Ellsworth was again elected, receiving 26,078 votes to 20,458 cast for his Democratic opponent. Middlesex was the only county in the State which did not give a Whig majority. The following year, however, though the Whigs still headed their ticket with the incumbent of the guberna- torial chair, they were subjected to a crushing defeat, every county with the exception of Hartford (which gave a plural- ity of but forty for the Whig nominee) being carried by the Democrats. There had been four tickets in the field.
The candidate of the latter party was Chauncey F. Cleve- land, Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1835-6. He was one of the most popular men in the eastern part of the State; this locality had not had a repre- sentative in the executive chair for nearly a score of years. Mr. Cleveland was born at Canterbury, Feb. 16, 1799; he received only a district-school education, but in 1819 was admitted a member of the Windham County bar. He was eminently successful in his chosen profession, but early in life became identified with politics, and was an acknowledged leader of the State Democracy. He served two terms as Governor, and in 1849 was elected Member of Congress, filling that position with ability and distinction for four years. Foreseeing that the attitude of the South would engender a civil war, he finally severed his sixty-years' connection with the Democratic party and became an unflinching supporter of the Union. He was a Presidential elector on the Republi- can ticket; and afterwards a member of the Peace Congress. This was practically his last appearance in public life; he afterwards quietly practiced his profession in his native town
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until his death, June 6, 1887. Governor Cleveland's personal appearance was of a commanding nature, though he was of gentle and courteous manner. He was better known in political than professional life, his ambitions tending in that direction.
The Whigs in the spring of 1843 presented as their candi- date, the most talented man of his day in Connecticut. There were three tickets in the field: the Democratic, headed by Governor Cleveland; the Whig, by Roger Sherman Bald- win; and the Liberty, by Francis Gillette. The contest was exciting and close: in a total vote of 54,738, Cleveland received 27,416, which gave him a majority of 94. The election would have been carried to the Legislature, but for the fact that 196 votes cast in the town of Salisbury for Roger Baldwin were thrown out as defective. None of the nominees for State officials on the Democratic ticket were elected but the Governor; and the Legislature chose those whose names appeared on the Whig ticket.
In the spring of the following year, the political parties presented the same nominees. The Whig ticket did not receive a majority of the votes, but the Legislature chose Roger Sherman Baldwin for Governor. The successful can- didate was born in New Haven Jan. 4, 1793. On his father's side he was descended from one of the original founders of his native city; his mother was a daughter of Roger Sher- man. Young Baldwin's precocity is shown by the fact that at the age of ten, he had read a large portion of Virgil. Entering Yale before reaching his fourteenth year, he gradu- ated in 18II. He then attended the famous Litchfield Law School, and became a member of tre New Haven County bar. He was chosen to fill civic positions in New Haven; in 1837 was elected to the State Senate, where he became an early
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member of the Whig party, also an advocate of anti-slavery principles.
In 1839 he was counsel for the "Amistad Captives." Associated with Mr. Baldwin in the case was the vener- able ex-President John Quincy Adams. The plea of the former, however, was so profound that Chancellor Kent has rated the pleader "with the leading jurists of the day." Gov- ernor Baldwin served with distinction as chief magistrate for two terms, having received in the spring of 1845 a majority of over 1,000 votes. In 1847 he was appointed United States Senator, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jabez W. Huntington. On the expiration of his term the Democratic party was in power in the State, which debarred him from re-election. Governor Baldwin returned to the practice of his profession, declining all further political hon- ors. His last public service was as a member of the Peace Congress. His death occurred Feb. 19, 1863.
The fifteenth Presidential election was in the fall of 1844. The national issues are familiar. Harrison had died after a month's occupancy of his position; and Vice-President Tyler, who had been put on the ticket to catch Southern votes with no idea that he would have any power, promptly locked horns with Congress, creating an administrative deadlock for the remainder of the term. Neither party cared to con- tinue his service. The issue of 1844 was the annexation of Texas, to enable the South to gain an enormous accession of territory, the very object with which it had been colonized and revolutionized. Henry Clay was put forward by the Whigs, but was too ambiguous in his promises to please the Southerners, who preferred the ardent annexationist James K. Polk of Tennessee. Clay nevertheless would have had a majority but for the anti-slavery party, which nominated
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James G. Birney and diverted enough votes from Clay in New York and Michigan to give those States to Polk. It has since been discovered that this party acted with great sagacity and utility; but neither they nor others thought so at the time, and they never nominated another President.
Connecticut's popular vote was for Henry Clay 32,832, James K. Polk 29,841, James G. Birney 1,943. Her Presi- dential electors, Clark Bissell, N. O. Kellogg, Charles W. Rockwell, Joseph L. Gladding, Samuel A. Foot, and Free- man Smith, cast the six votes of the State for Henry Clay for President, and Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice-President.
The retiring President left to his successor a legal state of war. This status belli was produced by the admission of Texas, whose independence had never been conceded by Mexico.
The people of Connecticut were utterly opposed to any open hostilities, resulting from the admission of a slavehold- ing State as a member of the Union. The General Assembly passed resolutions deploring the necessity of war, and recom- mending philanthropic efforts to secure peace instead. They also censured their State delegation in the House of Repre- sentatives, as well as John M. Niles, one of their Senators, for voting for the admission of Texas as a slave State, it being in opposition to the wishes of the majority of the free- men of the commonwealth. The body was specially severe in passing judgment on their delinquent Senator, claiming that his vote was the deciding one in the admission of Texas. The yeas and nays were 27 to 25. Had he cast his vote against the bill, he would have voiced the wishes of his con- stituents and it would have tied the ballot.
At the spring election in 1846, though the Whig nominee, Clark Bissell, had a plurality of the votes, the Legislature
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chose Isaac Toucey for chief magistrate. He was born at Newtown, Nov. 5, 1796; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1818. He removed about this time to Hart- ford. By an untiring interest in his clients' affairs, he secured a large and lucrative practice. Mr. Toucey was from 1835 to 1839 a member of the lower house of Congress. Retir- ing from the gubernatorial chair at the end of his term of office, Governor Toucey was appointed by President Polk, on June 21, 1848, Attorney-General of the United States; he served until March 3, 1849, and during a portion of this period he was acting Secretary of State. In 1851 he was elected to the United States Senate; on the completion of his full term he accepted the portfolio of Secretary of the Navy in President Buchanan's Cabinet, serving until the close of his administration, and sharing in the discredit with which the latter as a whole was loaded by the party which suc- ceeded it.
Returning to Hartford, Governor Toucey resumed the practice of his profession. He declined several official posi- tions tendered him, among which was a place on the bench of the United States Supreme Court. It has been justly said that Governer Toucey was one of the most able lawyers in Connecticut; his fame reached beyond the limits of the State. He was tall in person, with fine features, and of com- manding presence. He was firm in his convictions, possessing strength and tenacity of will. His private character was without stain, and on all occasions he exhibited the bearing of a high-toned gentleman. He died July 13, 1869.
It was on May 20, 1846, that Governor Toucey notified the General Assembly that war with Mexico had begun; also that the President had called for 50,000 volunteers. The Governor's message was referred to a joint select committee,
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and on the 29th of May a resolution was unanimously passed, upholding the general government in their preparation for war, also authorizing the enrollment of three regiments of volunteers.
At the election held in the spring of 1847, though there were three tickets in the field, the Whigs elected their nom- inee by a majority of six hundred votes. Clark Bissell, the newly-elected chief executive, was born in Lebanon, Sept. 7, 1782. His father was a man of very limited means, who was able to give his boy only the advantages of a district- school education. Young Bissell in his leisure moments studied his Latin and Greek grammars, and was prepared for college by a resident clergyman. He entered Yale Col- lege in 1802, and supported himself during his collegiate course by teaching in the public schools of New Haven. Graduating in 1806, he became tutor in a private family in Maryland. Afterwards returning to his native State, he taught a public school for one year at Saugatuck (now Westport). He then studied law, and after his admittance to the bar in 1809, removed to Norwalk. The next twenty years were spent in building up an extensive law practice. He was elected in 1829 to the General Assembly, and was after- wards chosen on the judicial bench, where his fame as an able lawyer and noted jurist was universally acknowledged. Resigning from the bench in 1839, he became a member of the State Senate, and when elected Governor was recog- nized as one of the ablest men in the State. Governor Bis- sell was re-elected, and at the expiration of his second term of office retired from public life, with the exception of serving one term in the Legislature. His death occurred at Nor- walk, Sept. 15, 1857.
A treaty of peace was signed with Mexico on Feb. 2, 1848.
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Although the people of Connecticut were greatly adverse to the war during its continuance, the national government was supported with loyalty and patriotism. The commonwealth furnished over seven hundred officers and enlisted men for the regular army. Among the former, who afterwards gained honor and renown in the Civil War, were Joseph K. F. Mansfield, John Sedgwick, Nathaniel Lyon, Horatio G. Wright, Alfred H. Terry, Henry W. Wessells, Henry W. Benham, and others.
Connecticut had two other sons in the Mexican War whose services were of incalculable value. Joseph Gilbert Totten and George Talcott. The former was born at New Haven, Aug. 23, 1788. He spent his childhood in the home of his maternal uncle, General Jared Mansfield. He entered West Point as a cadet in 1805, and served with distinction in the engineer corps during the war of 1812. When hostili- ties began with Mexico, General Totten was assigned the engineering operations of General Scott's army of invasion ; in that capacity he directed the siege of Vera Cruz. At the close of the war he returned to his official duties at Wash- ington. On the breaking out of the Civil War he was com- missioned brigadier-general, and afterwards brevetted major- general. He died at Washington, D. C., April 22, 1864.
George Talcott was born at Glastonbury Dec. 6, 1786. He served during the War of 1812 as deputy commissioner of ordinance, ranking as captain. He was brevetted briga- dier-general May 30, 1848, for faithful performance of his duties during the Mexican War. Through some misconstruc- tion of an order for a large amount of shot and shells, given by a subordinate officer, for which General Talcott did not have the ratification of the War Department, he was court-mar- tialed July 8, 1851, and dismissed from the army. Though
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General Talcott's honesty was not impeached, his faithful disbursements of millions of government moneys during his thirty-eight years of official life did not weigh in the judg- ment of the court. A misunderstanding that might have been amicably settled without loss of honor, ended in a public dis- grace. General Talcott died at Albany, New York, April 25, 1862.
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CHAPTER XIII AFTER THE MEXICAN WAR
T HE close of the Mexican War caused a vehe- ment agitation of that sectional topic of con- troversy, the restriction of the extension of slavery. The slaveholding States, after the admission of Texas to the Union, with an area sufficient for the formation of four or five new States, were counterbalanced by the great Northwest, which was rapidly being populated by settlers who demanded recognition as members of an integral Union. The admission of Wisconsin in 1848 as the thirtieth State, equalized the representation of the free and slave States in the upper house of Congress. The Southern politicians, regarding the Great West as a field for the creating of new States, sought to extend the line of division established by the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific Ocean; this was in direct violation of the privileges granted to the inhabitants of that country by the Mexican government, from whom it was acquired.
The passage of compromise measures in 1850, while it admitted California as a free State, left the question of slavery in the territories of New Mexico and Utah for future decision. A fugitive-slave law was established, while slave traffic was suppressed in the District of Columbia. Connec- ticut in her own conservative way awaited the development of events ; in 1847, by a vote of 19,495 to 5,616, she refused to amend her constitution by eliminating the word "white" before the words "male citizen," in the article relating to the qualifications of electors.
Nevertheless, a strong anti-slavery feeling was gradually growing among her citizens, as it became evident that the slavocracy would not remain content with anything short of permission to hold slaves in every newly admitted State of the Union. Among her sons were Henry B. Stanton, John Pier-
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pont, and others, co-laborers with William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Theodore Parker, for the emancipation of the slaves, primarily because the Union must be all slave or all free, as Lincoln afterwards said.
The Whig nominating convention which met in the sum- mer of 1848, setting aside, in favor of the military popularity of Buena Vista, Monterey, Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma, the claims of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, selected as their candidate General Zachary Taylor.
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