USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume III > Part 11
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At a convention held by the Democratic party two sets of delegates appeared from New York. The opponents of the old "Albany Regency," which had so long held the reins of power in the State, had turned its own guns against it and ousted it; but the Regency sent a contesting delegation. The convention dared not take sides with either faction, and excluded both; whereupon the Regency party held a conven- tion of its own and nominated Martin Van Buren for Presi- dent. To gain popular sympathy and strengthen their moral claim, as well as to furnish a basis for future bargains, they adopted the principles of the Liberty Party, which had twice nominated James G. Birney for President, and controlled some 20,000 votes in New York State; favored the Wilmot Proviso; and established as their watchwords "Free Soil"- "Free Speech"-"Free Labor"-"Free Men." The new combination was called the Free Soil Party, and polled about a quarter of a million votes in the next election; whereupon the Regency made terms with the opposing New York fac- tion and dropped its anti-slavery allies overboard.
The popular vote of Connecticut in the sixteenth Presi- dential election was for Zachary Taylor 30,314, for Lewis Cass 27,046, and for Martin Van Buren 5,005. In accord- ance with this decision of her freemen, the Presidential elec-
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tors-T. W. Williams, Solomon Olmstead, E. Jackson, J. McClellan, J. B. Ferris-cast the six votes of the State for Zachary Taylor for President and Millard Fillmore for Vice-President.
At the spring election in 1849, the Whigs presented as their candidate a grandson of Connecticut's Revolutionary War Governor; the Democratic candidate was Thomas H. Seymour, who had gained honor and distinction in the Mexi- can War by his successful leading of the assault on Chapul- tepec, the Gibraltar of Mexico, and scaling its heights. The Democratic party was weakened by disaffection in its ranks; and a third ticket, with John M. Niles as nominee, receiving 3,520 votes, caused the Whig candidate to receive a plu- rality. The Legislature, by a vote of 122 to IIO, chose Jonathan Trumbull for chief magistrate.
The successful candidate was born at Lebanon, Dec. 7, 1782. Entering Yale in 1797, he graduated four years later. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1803, but the fol- lowing year he removed to Hartford, where he spent the remainder of his life. Governor Trumbull, after serving in the General Assembly, was selected to fill an unexpired term in the National House of Representatives, serving through the session of 1834-5. He was elected to the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses. Besides attending to his legal practice, he was engaged in various business enterprises, and was also connected with the directory board of several charitable institutions. He died Aug. 4, 1861.
At the next election, the Democratic party presented their defeated candidate of the previous year. The Whig ticket was headed by Lafayette S. Foster. Though the former had a plurality of the more than seven hundred votes, the elec- tion devolved on the Legislature, where Seymour received
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I22 votes to 108 for his opponent. Thomas H. Seymour was born at Hartford in 1808; in his youth he displayed the traits of leadership that he afterwards exemplified. After obtain- ing a public school education in his native city, he attended Captain Alden Partridge's institution in Middletown, where he pursued a military course of study, graduating in 1837. On his return to Hartford he was elected commanding officer of the Light Guards of that city. He studied law and was admitted to the bar; but before he gained a lucrative practice he became interested in politics, and became editor of The Jeffersonian, a democratic organ. This, coupled with an attractive and pleasing address, soon made him the acknow- ledged leader of the Hartford Democracy. Governor Sey- mour was elected member of Congress in 1843; at the expir- ation of his term he declined a renomination. On the break- ing out of the Mexican War he was commissioned major; at the close of hostilities he returned to Hartford, and again interested himself in political affairs.
At the election for Governor in 185 1, no candidate received a majority of the votes; the Legislature after an exciting contest declared Seymour elected, the ballot being Seymour 122; Foster 121. The nominee on the Whig ticket, Green Kendrick, was chosen Lieutenant-Governor by a vote of 124 to 120. The following year Seymour's opponent was the successful occupant of the second position in the executive department of the State; for the first time Seymour received a majority of the votes, and the following year he was again elected by an increased majority. He was elected four guber- natorial terms; but in April 1853, having received the appointment of United States Minister to Russia, he resigned his position as Governor. Governor Seymour was the Amer- ican representative at the Court of Russia for four years; he
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then spent a year in European travel before returning to Hartford. During the Civil War he was the leader of the Connecticut Peace Democracy. Among the old-time Demo- crats he still retained his popularity, but on his re-entrance into political life in 1863, as the nominee of that party for Gov- ernor, he was defeated after an exciting canvass. At the Democratic National Convention held in 1864, Governor Seymour received thirty-eight votes on the first ballot for candidate for President. His latter years were passed peace- fully at Hartford, where he died Sept. 3, 1868.
The retirement of Governor Seymour from the executive chair, a month after the beginning of his fourth term of office, called to the position the then Lieutenant-Governor, Charles H. Pond, who was born in Milford April 26, 1781. At the age of seventeen he entered Yale College, where he became noted for an inexhaustible vein of wit, also for unusual mus- cular strength. Graduating in 1802, he studied law under the guidance of Roger Minot Sherman; he continued his legal studies two years, and was admitted to Fairfield County bar, but he never practiced his profession. This was partially owing to the failure of his health; for several years he fol- lowed the sea, but in 1819 again took up his residence on land. Governor Pond filled judicial positions in New Haven County, and was its sheriff for fifteen years. He was Gov- ernor Seymour's associate in 1850; the following year he was defeated by the Legislature, but was re-elected to the same office in 1852-3. On his retirement from the Gover- nor's chair, he never again entered public life. He died April 28, 1861.
President Fillmore in 1852 called to his Cabinet Samuel D. Hubbard, to take the portfolio of Postmaster-General. The new Cabinet official was born in Middletown, Aug. 10,
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1799. Graduating from Yale College at the age of twenty, he studied law, but abandoned its practice to engage in manu- facturing. Mr. Hubbard was a member of the Twenty- ninth and Thirtieth Congresses; at the close of Fillmore's administration he retired to private life. He died in his native town Oct. 8, 1855.
The one absorbing question before the country now was whether the Compromise of 1850, fugitive-slave law and all, should be carried out in good faith. Despite the shock which that law had given to the moral sense of the North, and which ultimately killed the Whig Party, the great majority even of Northerners wished it. On business grounds alone, the North, which annually sold a thousand million dollars' worth of goods to the South, shrank from a disturbance which would imperil that trade. Lovers of the Union were willing to make large sacrifices to prevent its continuance being men- aced. It is fair to say, also, that great numbers thought the South had much right on its side, and could not do otherwise than protect its great vested interest at all hazards. For all these reasons, conventions of both parties professed the. utmost sincerity in upholding the Compromise, and the ques- tion of success would be largely determined by the candidates. In this light, it seems grotesque that the successful one was a Northern man and the vanquished a Southerner. But the matter is less strange than it appears.
The Democratic convention of June 1852, unable to decide among the conflicting claims of first-rate leaders-Douglas, Marcy, Cass, etc .- and not daring to nominate a slave- holder, chose on the forty-ninth ballot a representative of the pro-slavery Northerners, afterwards contemptously nick- named "dough-faces," and who were "more Southern than the Southerners." This was Franklin Pierce, a New Hamp-
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shire lawyer and public man, of good repute from the Mexi- can War and service in Congress, an excellent speaker and of captivating manners. He aroused no animosities, and not even the Southern fire-eaters doubted that he would do every- thing they asked; as he proved afterwards by his course regarding Kansas.
The Whigs had still greater leaders to choose from, but equally turned them down for a "dark horse." The mighty Webster had in vain turned his coat (as the Northern anti- slavery men considered) in his seventh of March speech : the South remembered his lifelong contest against its aggressions and not his late recantation. So the Whigs played the aged (and in general most discreditably successful) military card. On the forty-eighth ballot they nominated Winfield Scott, certainly one of the greatest soldiers America has ever pro- duced, but of no civil experience. For some reason he was thought to be much influenced by Seward; it was believed that this would insure him votes in the North, and his Vir- ginian birth and residence votes in the South. It worked exactly the other way : the South was set against any taint of abolitionism, and the North preferred its own conservative if it were to have any. Pierce was elected by a heavy major- ity, which fairly represented the anguished resolve of the majority of people to stop agitation; but the Whig party instantly perished, because the settlement was against natural possibility of maintenance. Connecticut's vote, for a con- servative community, was so close in itself as to presage a speedy revolution. Its vote was Pierce 33,249, Scott 30,359, John P. Hale (Free Soil candidate) 3,161 : a slight major- ity against Pierce; but as plurality ruled, the Presidential electors-Thomas H. Seymour, N. Belcher, A. P. Hyde, Charles Parker, S. Bingham, and William F. Taylor-cast
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their votes for Franklin Pierce for President, and William R. King for Vice-President.
At the spring election for State officials in 1854, the Dem- ocrats presented as their candidate Samuel Ingham. The disintegration of the Whig party placed three opposing tick- ets in the field; and though Ingham had a plurality of almost 9,000, the Legislature by 140 to 93 chose Henry Dutton for chief magistrate. The successful competitor was born in Watertown, Feb. 12, 1796. In early life he was engaged in agricultural pursuits; but through the assistance and advice of a kinsman he was enabled to enter Yale College. Young Dutton graduated in 1818, and became a law student with Roger M. Sherman, supplementing his studies by teaching in the public schools. After acting as tutor for two years and a half at his Alma Mater, he began the practice of law in Newtown. In 1837 he removed to Bridgeport, wishing a larger field for his professional career. Governor Dutton was called upon to fill legislative and judicial positions. Upon his retiring after his one term as Governor, he was appointed in 1861 to the bench of the Supreme Court of Errors, from which he resigned upon reaching the age of seventy. He then devoted himself to his law practice, also to his work as Kent professor of law at Yale, continuing these duties until his death at New Haven, April 28, 1869.
At the spring election in 1855 the candidate of the "Know- Nothing" (American) party for Governor, William T. Minor, obtained a plurality over the Democratic nominee, Samuel Ingham, and the choice of the Whigs, Henry Dutton; there being no majority by the popular vote, by a union of the Know-Nothing and Whig members of the Legislature Minor received 177 to 70 for Ingham. William T. Minor was born in Stamford Oct. 31, 1815. At the age of fifteen he entered
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Yale College; afterwards studying law with his father, he was admitted in 1841 to the bar of Fairfield County. Gov- ernor Minor represented his native town eight times in the General Assembly, and was also a State Senator, besides hold- ing several judicial positions. After serving two terms as Governor he continued his law practice.
At the spring election in 1856, Governor Minor's Demo- cratic opponent, Samuel Ingham, received a plurality of nearly 6,700, and lacked only about 1,300 votes of having a major- ity, there being four tickets. The Legislature, however, gave Governor Minor 135, to 116 votes for Samuel Ingham, and the former thereby became Governor for the ensuing year. At the breaking out of the Civil War, Governor Minor was an outspoken adherent of the Federal cause. In 1864 he was appointed by President Lincoln Consul General to Havana, Cuba; he resigned this office in the spring of 1867, and resumed the practice of law at Stamford. He was later elected Judge of the Superior Court; but after serving five years he resigned. His latter years were spent at Stamford, where he died Oct. 13, 1889.
The Whig party-which never had much of definite prin- ciples, except a general preference for a powerful and liber- ally spending government, and a dislike of the swelling mob of ignorance poured in and naturalized from foreign shores- was killed by the election of 1852, which showed that the Northern and Southern wings could no longer act together. But the members still shrank from arraying them against each other in a open fight on the slavery question; and tried to dodge the issue by making one on restricting the naturaliza- tion of foreigners. There was much temporary warrant for this, and for a while the perplexed ex-Whigs took refuge under that banner and gave the American ("Know-Noth-
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ing") party many notable State victories; but it could not in any event have become the basis of a national party, and shortly the Kansas-Nebraska Bill sent Northern feeling in one mighty surge into the anti-slavery ranks.
It was evident that a new party must be formed on the issue of resisting Southern attempts to slaveryize all free ter- ritory; and the Republican Party came into being. It was practically a spontaneous generation from a vast and obvious necessity; sprang into life in many quarters almost at once, and the scattered branches coalesced. The bulk of the mem- bers were from the Whigs, a large section from the Free-Soil Democrats, and a highly important element from the Aboli- tion party.
Connecticut was among the foremost in the movement. It had been one of the earliest seats of resistance to slavery- of course by a small minority, as in all reforms. There one of the first Northern negro schools was taught; there fugitive- slave cases had been obstinately fought in the courts and won; thence John Brown and the Beechers sprung, and from its greatest daughter "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had emanated to set the world on fire. There the colonization movement had been strongly supported, when it was still thought a scheme in good faith to benefit the negroes. Thence went forth colonization companies to balk the Southern scheme for making Kansas a slave State. The time had come for its majority to range themselves openly on the side of free- dom, and they did so.
At the Presidential election in 1856, Connecticut's popular vote was for Fremont 42,715, Buchanan 34,495, Fillmore 2,615. The Presidential electors were Henry Dutton, Julius Catlin, Thomas Clark, E. Spencer, William A. Buckingham, and S. W. Gold; they cast the vote of the State for John C.
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Fremont for President, and William L. Dayton for Vice- President.
The Republican candidates in the election secured the entire electoral vote of New England. This had not occurred since 1824, when there was no majority obtained for any candidate in the Electoral College, and John Quincy Adams was elected by the House.
At the election for State officials held in the spring of 1857, there were but two political parties represented. The Demo- crats presented as their candidate for Governor the many times defeated Samuel Ingham, who was opposed on the Republican ticket by Alexander H. Holley, the Lieutenant- Governor of 1854-5, that being his first public office. The latter was elected by a majority of 550, in a total vote of 62,908.
Alexander H. Holley was born in Salisbury, Aug. 12, 1804. His education was limited to that received at public and private schools; for although he fitted for college, he was obliged to abandon his studies owing to ill health. Governor Holley started in a business career at sixteen, and later in life became identified with the manufacture of cutlery at Salis- bury. His one-term administration was uneventful. On his retirement from public life, he spent his time in European travel when not in his native town. He died in the latter place Oct. 2, 1887.
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CHAPTER XIV THE FINANCIAL PANIC OF 1857
T HE unsettled financial condition of the country prior to the panic of 1837 precluded the incorporation of any new moneyed institu- tions. The General Assembly from 1834 to 1847 granted no bank charters, excepting that in 1844 the Danbury Bank was created by dividing the Fair- field County Bank into two equal parts, making each a sep- arate corporation. The restoration of the people's confidence in the business prosperity of the country was the signal for the formation of new financial institutions. The Iron Bank of Canaan received a charter from the Legislature of 1847; the following year articles of incorporation were granted to the Manufactures' Bank at Derby, the Saybrook Bank at Essex, the Waterbury Bank at Waterbury, and the Winsted Bank at Winsted. There were five banks chartered in 1849: the State at Hartford, the Citizens' at Norwich, the Farmers' at Bridgeport, and the Pawcatuck and Deep River in the vil- lages of the same names.
The bank fever about this time reached a period of stag- nation, as no charters were granted by the Legislature of 1850. The following year, however, it broke out with renewed vigor, and the following banks were incorporated : the Hatters' at Bethel, the Pequonock at Bridgeport, the Eastern at Killingly, the Bank of North America at Seymour, the Central at Middletown, the Merchants' at New Haven, the Mystic River at Mystic, the Ocean at Stonington, the City at Hartford, and the Woodbury at Woodbury. Besides these, the capital stock of the Connecticut Bank at Bridge- port was divided, and one-third of it was taken to organize the Southport Bank, which heretofore had been a branch of the Bridgeport institution.
The extension of the banking interests of the State turned
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the attention of the Legislature to the passing of laws for the protection, not only of the private interests of their own citi- zens, but also those of the country. This caused in 1852 the passage of the Free General Banking Law. The important specific provisions of this law were, that it required at least twenty-four persons to form a bank; also one-half of the cap- ital stock subscribed must be paid into the State treasury before business could be commenced, and the balance within one year. The funds thus arising were to be invested in bonds of indebtedness of the United States, or any one of the New England States, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, or of any of the cities of New York and Bos- ton, or any incorporated city in Connecticut. On the deposit- ing of these bonds with the State Treasurer, he was empow- ered to issue circulating notes of equal amount, stamped across the face with the words "Secured by the pledge of Pub- lic Stocks"; a failure on the part of the bank to liquidate these notes rendered them liable to protest, when the securities were to be sold and payment made pro rata to the holders of the same.
The main object of this law was to establish a circulating medium equal to gold and silver, and the issuing of bills acceptable for their face value throughout the United States. The difference of incorporating banks under the old and new law was, that by the former, one-fifth of the capital stock was taken to pay the expenses attendant on organization and to retain the legal amount of reserve specie; they were also authorized to issue in circulating currency one and one-half times the amount of their capital stock. Under the new law the bank's issue of bills was confined to an equal amount of public securities, deposited with the State Treasurer, and an organization could not be effected unless one-half of the pro-
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posed capital stock was paid into the State's financial deposi- tory.
The following banks were organized under the Free Bank- ing Law from 1852 to 1855 inclusive : the Bank of Commerce of New London, the Bank of Hartford County, the Charter Oak and Mercantile at Hartford, Bank of Litchfield County at New Milford, Bank of New England at East Haddam, the Bridgeport City at Bridgeport, the Citizens' at Water- bury, the Hurlburt at West Winsted, the Pahquioque at Dan- bury, the Quinnipiac at New Haven, the Saugatuck at West- port, and the Shetucket and Uncas at Norwich.
This new system, which in some respects was not unlike that adopted in after years by the United States government in the National Currency Act, did not secure abiding favor; the statute was repealed in 1855, the institutions chartered under it being allowed to take charters in the old form by paying a bonus of ten per cent. upon their capital stock into the State treasury. Under the old law the Legislature in 1854 incorporated the Elm City and Tradesmens' Banks at New Haven, the Home at Meriden, the Mattatuck at Water- bury, and the Stafford at Stafford. In 1855 the Rockville Bank was chartered by the General Assembly to carry on busi- ness at that place.
The following banks were incorporated by the Legislature of 1856 : the Clinton, Colchester, Norfolk, and Litchfield in the towns of the same name, and the Merchants' Exchange at Bridgeport. The latter, owing to the financial disturbance of the country, was never organized. The Colchester Bank, the year after its incorporation, had its charter repealed for an unwarrantable issue of bills.
The Legislature, in the year in which was to occur the great- est money crisis that the United States had as yet experienced,
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granted charters to nine banks: of these the Pequot of Nor- wich, the Putnam of Putnam, the Clifton of North Stoning- ton, the Old Lyme of Old Lyme, and the Mohegan of Paw- catuck, were organized. The others were the Merchants' and Manufacturers' and the Aetna of Hartford, the Norwalk of Norwalk, and the Granite of Voluntown.
The latter institution was a fair example of the wild-cat banking system prevalent in the country at this period. Six days after the payment into the State treasury of the first ten per cent. of its capital stock, its officials began issuing circu- lating bills, while the balance of its subscriptions required by law was deposited in bills of insolvent banks and worthless checks drawn on banks outside of the State. Upon investiga- tion by the bank commissioners, no evidence of a fixed place of business was found, nor did the bank have a vault or safe, or even books. It was undoubtedly a most deliberate attempt by non-residents to perpetrate a fraud, and would have had a most disastrous effect, if it had not been overthrown in its incipiency by the vigilance and energy of the State officials. The location was enough to excite suspicion : a bank in one of the smallest country towns in the State, with no trade establishments and very little manufacturing, was almost prima facie a fraud.
There were other cases of a like nature in the State, less obvious on their face. The Mattatuck Bank of Waterbury was chartered with a capital of $500,000; this was reduced to $150,000; on payment of the stipulated ten per cent. the bank was organized. Owing to suspicious circumstances, the bank commissioners were led to believe that a large por- tion of the stock subscriptions were not bona fide, nor were the directors chosen in conformity with the law. An examination was made, and it was found that New York parties had fur-
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nished the cash for the first payment on the capital stock; and that certain well-known citizens of the State had been induced through the blandishments of a resident agent to allow the use of their names as stockholders. Of the board of direc- tors elected, only one was a legitimate stockholder; the resi- dent agent, a Hartford citizen, was chosen president, and as the managing official he did not deposit in a State bank the moneys collected, but turned them over at once to the inter- ested New York parties, taking simply their receipt. After holding his office a few weeks he resigned, receiving $2,500 for effecting the organization of the bank. The courts declared the bank insolvent and appointed a receiver.
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