USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume III > Part 9
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Trade became buoyant in 1825, particularly in woolen goods; but the following year a reaction took place, owing
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to a panic in England which caused wool to drop to a penny a pound, and the English manufacturers flooded the American market. An attempt to increase the duties on woolen impor- tations was in 1827 defeated. in the Senate, by the vote of the Vice-President.
The defeat of this bill caused the assembling of a conven- tion at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which was largely attended by the woolen manufacturers of New England; and a memo- rial was prepared, asking relief from Congress by the estab- lishment of an ad valorem rate of forty per cent. on woolen goods, to be gradually increased, with a minimum valua- tion of fifty cents on two dollars and a half, four dollars, and six dollars a yard. It was asked that the duty on wool be placed at twenty cents a pound, and raised annually two and a half cents a pound until it reached fifty cents. These discussions and conventions occasioned the formation of polit- ical organizations, which were first known as Adams and Jackson parties, afterwards as National Republicans and Democrats.
On the assembling of the Twentieth Congress, the polit- ical trend of the House of Representatives was doubtful; but the election of a Democratic Speaker placed that party in control of the management of the body. The presiding officer placed five supporters of Jackson and two of Adams on the committee for the tariff revision. A bill was reported which was thought an ingenious solution of existing difficul- ties between the different sections of the country; but while the Southern members of the committee favored it, their intention was on the passage of the bill to vote in the nega- tive, thus throwing the obloquy of defeat on the Adams wing of the party, and enabling themselves to pose as the "true friends of domestic industry." To the great surprise of the
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authors, the bill passed both houses and became the tariff act of 1828. The New England Representatives voted in the negative, 23 to 39; her Senators, six ayes to five nays. Of the Connecticut delegation in the House, there was but one member in favor of the bills; both the Senators, however, supported the measure.
In the last year of Adams' administration, he honored Con- necticut by selecting one of her sons, General Peter Buel Por- ter, for the portfolio of Secretary of War. General Porter was born in Salisbury, Aug. 14, 1773. After studying law, he settled at Canandaigua, New York, for the practice of his profession. He subsequently removed to the neighborhood of Buffalo, where he made extensive land purchases along the Niagara River. During the war of 1812, General Porter was offered the position of Commander-in-Chief of the army, but he declined. He shared, however, in the best victory of the war, that of Chippawa. He was one of the early pro- jectors and members of the first Board of Commissioners of the Erie Canal. He died at Niagara Falls, March 20, 1844.
The standard-bearer of the Toleration party had filled the executive chair of the State for a decade of years; having nearly reached man's allotment of life, threescore years and ten, he was defeated for re-election. His successor, Gideon Tomlinson, was born in Stratford on the last day of the year 1780; graduating from Yale in 1798, he secured a position as tutor, but later he turned his attention to the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1807. His political career was inaugurated ten years later, when he was elected Representative to the General Assembly from the town of Fairfield; he afterwards became a Member of Con- gress. Mr. Tomlinson was first elected to the gubernatorial chair in 1827; he served four years, but resigned before the
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expiration of his last term of office, to accept the position of United States Senator. After serving one term in that body, he retired from public life, and passed his remaining days in the practice of his profession. He died Oct. 8, 1854.
The electoral college of the eleventh Presidential election was composed of Sylvester Norton, Roger Taintor, Rufus Hitchcock, Homer Boardman, Moses Warren, George Pratt, Charles Hawley, and W. R. Kibbee. The vote of the State was cast for John Quincy Adams for President and Benja- min Rush for Vice-President.
Among the historical events that occurred in the decade between 1810 and 1820, in which Connecticut was either directly or indirectly interested, the following are worthy of mention. One of her sons, Moses Austin, headed the move- ment which made Texas ultimately an integral part of the United States. He was born about 1764, in the town of Durham. In the latter part of the eighteenth century he emigrated to what is now West Virginia, locating near the present town of Lewisburg, having in view the prospecting for lead mines. After spending three years in this part of the country, in the summer of 1796 he descended the Great Kanawha River, also the Ohio; on reaching the Mississippi he ascended it, and landed in New Spain near the present village of St. Genevieve, Missouri. Three months was con- sumed in the trip.
Austin obtained a grant of land about sixty miles south of the present city of St. Louis. This was located in the iron and lead district, not far from the present city of Potosi, Washington County. Here he accumulated wealth, but reverses caused by the panic of 1819 turned his attention to the country lying south of his location. The following year
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he obtained from the Mexican government a grant of land, with the privilege of colonizing three hundred American families. He returned to Missouri for emigrants, and some authorities say he was waylaid and robbed, experiencing such hardships as to cause his death. Others say he arrived home safely, and while making arrangements to remove his fam- ily, was taken ill, and died June 10, 1821.
The enterprise thus started was taken up by his son, Ste- phen Fuller Austin, who obtained a confirmation of his father's grant; in 1833 the American settlers were so power- ful that they became uneasy under the Mexican government. Stephen F. did not live to see the independence of Texas, which was mainly due to his labors; the capital city of the State was named in honor of this pioneer family.
The designer of the present American flag was Captain Samuel Chester Reid, who was born at Norwich Aug. 25, 1783. During the war of 1812 he commanded the privateer General Armstrong. A Congressional committee was appointed to revise the national flag, and they invited Cap- tain Reid to make a design. The flag originally had thirteen stripes; these had been increased to fifteen. Reid restored the original number, and placed in the blue field a star for every State then in the Union. This has been the device ever since.
The ermine of the Chief Justice of New York State from 1810 to 1823 was worn by Ambrose Spencer, a native of Salisbury. He was born Dec. 13, 1765, and graduated from Harvard University in 1783; studied law, and settled in the State of New York.
Connecticut abandoned her Newgate prison at Simsbury in 1827, when the new prison at Wethersfield took its place.
Two philanthropic enterprises that were inaugurated at
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this period are deserving of mention. The establishment of an asylum for the insane was agitated in 1812, at this time there were only three institutions of the kind in the United States. It was ten years, however, before the Retreat for the Insane at Hartford was incorporated. A few years later, the Con- necticut General Hospital at New Haven was chartered; it is the oldest hospital in the State. The establishment of these monuments of philanthropy, with the organization of the Yale Medical College, form a triplicate for the benefit of the State, for which her citizens are indebted to the Connecticut Medical Society.
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CHAPTER XI THE POLITICAL STATUS OF CONNECTICUT DURING JACK- SON'S TWO TERMS
T HE inauguration of Andrew Jackson as Presi- dent of the United States marked an epoch in national history. Self-willed and aggressive, he was the one great dominant figure in the Presidential succession between Thomas Jef- ferson and Abraham Lincoln. In a masterful way he asserted those principles that unquestionably represent a self-assertive democracy. As with his Irish forefathers, a gathering word was adopted for his clan; though not he but W. L. Marcy invented it; the slogan cry of this American Napoleon, "to the victor belongs the spoils," has been indelibly stamped on his administrations.
On President Jackson's accession to office, a wholesale dis- missal of officeholders commenced, over seven hundred changes taking place in the first administrative year. The six Presidents preceding Jackson only made seventy-four remov- als, and most of these for sufficient cause; even this small number including Jefferson's removal of the "midnight" appointees.
It is a noticeable fact that General Jackson, during the first session of Congress held in his presidential term, used his veto power four times, which exceeded, save in one instance, his predecessors' use of the privilege during their entire term of office. This amply evidenced that the executive power in Jackson's hands meant his own will; but it was the will of his party also. This policy in public life was the same as his counsel to President Monroe, to discard party lines and prin- ciples, and to act in all respects as the President of the United States. Perhaps it was not so very unlike the spirit of George III.'s mother to her son, "George, be King."
The Twenty-first Congress was made historic by the ora- torical debates in the upper house, between Senators Hayne
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and Webster; in one of which the latter uttered the never- to-be-forgotten sentence, "Liberty and Union, now and for- ever, one and inseparable," which struck a responsive chord in the hearts of millions of his countrymen. The debates were occasioned by Mr. Foot of Connecticut presenting to the Senate a resolution on the expediency of limiting the sale of public lands.
The decline and fall of Federalism as such, and the upbuilding of the essentially similar doctrine of the Whigs, naturally caused but slight changes in political parties in Connecticut. The Toleration party, with its intermingling of the former adherents of Federalist and Democratic prin- ciples since the adoption of the Constitution, elected its nominee for governor; while the Presidential vote was cast, with only one exception, for those who were believers in the precepts of the first organized political party of the country, and were closely linked with it. That there was an apathy among the citizens, is shown by the vote given for Governor at the first election after the adoption of the new State Con- stitution. There was no organized opposition to Oliver Wol- cott, who out of a total vote of 25,975, received 22,539. For the five succeeding elections, Governor Wolcott was still the successful competitor, but the total vote steadily diminished, and in 1824 he received 6,892 out of 7,777.
The following year a Federalist ticket appeared, with David Daggett as the nominee; also in 1826 with the same candidate, which was the last appearance of the Federalists as a party in a political campaign. They polled 4,310 votes, while Wolcott received 6,780.
The two candidates for the position of Governor in 1827 were original members of the Toleration party: Oliver Wol- cott, under whose leadership for ten successive years the
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party (which in public use had gradually dropped its last name and adopted that of Democrat, though still officially entitled Democratic-Republican) had marshalled its forces, met with opposition in the folds of the party of which he had been one of the organizers. In opposition to his re-election Gideon Tomlinson was placed in nomination; he had been for eight years a Member of Congress. During "the era of good feeling," when party lines were entirely obliterated, he was a firm supporter of the administration, and had at various times, in the absence of the Speaker of the House, been called upon to perform the duties of that office.
The campaign was conducted with more spirit than any previous one for a decade : out of a total vote of 13,857, Tomlinson received 7,626. For the next three years there was but little opposition to Governor Tomlinson's re-election; upon his tendering his resignation in March 1831, in order to accept the position of United States Senator, the office was filled in the interim by Dr. John S. Peters, who had been Lieutenant-Governor during Tomlinson's entire gubernato- rial term.
In 1831 a new element presented itself in the political field. There had been a rapid growth of the Masonic order in the State from the time of the mysterious disappearance of Wil- liam Morgan, after his announcement of a forthcoming book purporting to reveal the secrets of that organization. Not only in Connecticut, but throughout the New England and Middle States, a decided opposition had arisen against (to use a term of the day) these "organized aristocrats." So universal was the feeling that in 1831 a national convention was held, and Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates were nominated. In this year the Democratic State ticket was headed by Dr. John S. Peters, who received 12,819 out
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of 18,866 votes cast; the nominee of the Anti-Masonic party polled 4,778 votes. The paternal ancestors of the successful candidate were Englishmen of note, and of whom some had acquired fame; among these were Hugh Peters the Cromwel- lian, and Rev. Dr. Samuel Peters the Royalist historian.
John S. Peters was born in Hebron Sept. 21, 1772. His early days were spent in agricultural pursuits, but on attaining the age of eighteen he decided to become a school-teacher. While engaged in this occupation he studied medicine, and in 1796 completed his education at Philadelphia. The fol- lowing year he returned to Connecticut, and after traveling throughout Vermont and New Hampshire, to find a town in which to locate for the practice of his profession, he returned disheartened, and finally settled in his native town.
Here he quickly found a use for his abilities, and became one of the most skillful and successfulmembers of the medical fraternity in the State. Early in life, Dr. Peters became inter- ested in politics, and served his townsmen both in a legislative and judiciary capacity. After his retirement from the guber- natorial chair he never practiced his profession. He lived to be eighty-five years of age, and died in his native town, March 30, 1858.
Governor Peters was re-elected in 1832; in the fall of that year occurred the Presidential election. Andrew Jack- son was a candidate for re-election; his opponent was Henry Clay; and notwithstanding that Connecticut for almost a score of years had elected for her State officials those who were opposed to Federalist principles, her citizens were still opposed to General Jackson, whose self-will and self-asser- tiveness constituted a one-man power which was foreign to her conservatism.
The State electoral college, consisting of Morris Woodruff,
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John D. Reynolds, John Baldwin, Chester Smith, Eli Todd, Oliver H. King, Erastus Sturges, and E. Jackson, Jr., cast the vote of the State for Henry Clay for President and John Sergeant for Vice-President.
In the spring election of 1833, Governor Peters identified himself with the wing of the Democratic party that was opposed to President Jackson, which styled itself the National Party. He was opposed by Henry W. Edwards, who was the nominee of the Jackson party. Though Governor Peters received a plurality of the votes cast, he lacked fifty-three of a majority; according to the Constitution (for the first time since its adoption) the choice devolved on the Legislature, and his competitor Henry W. Edwards was selected to fill the office.
The newly chosen governor was a grandson of the famous metaphysician Jonathan Edwards, and a son of Pierrepont Edwards the founder of the Toleration party. Henry W. was born in New Haven, October -, 1779; he was a mem- ber of Princeton's class of 1797. After studying law at the Litchfield Law School, he began to practice in his native city ; eminently successful in his profession, he obtained the confi- dence of his fellow townsmen. At the age of forty he was elected as a Democrat to the National House of Representa- tives; he resigned this position to accept an appointment to the Senate. He was afterwards elected for the unexpired term. Retiring from national politics, he became interested in those of the State, serving in both houses of the Legisla- ture. Governor Edwards was a candidate for re-election, but did not receive the full Democratic vote, on account of their being an anti-Masonic ticket in the field. Neither of the nominees receiving a majority of the popular vote, the Legis- lature was again called upon to make the selection, and the
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National Party candidate, Samuel A. Foot, was chosen to fill the office of Governor.
The first appearance of the Whig party in State politics was in 1835, when their standard-bearer, the occupant of the gubernatorial chair, in a total vote of 42,788, was defeated by Mr. Edwards, the Democratic nominee.
The elections of 1836 and 1837 were but repetitions of that of 1835; though the Whig party placed in nomination their strongest candidate, Mr. Edwards maintained his usual majority. While Governor, he suggested that a thorough geological survey of the State should be made, which was done in accordance with his desire. After his retirement from public life, Governor Edwards spent the remainder of his days in the city of New Haven, where he died July 22, 1847.
Samuel Foot, the second Governor to be chosen by the Legislature, was born at Cheshire, Nov. 8, 1780. His pre- cocity was such that he entered Yale College at the age of thirteen. He was of delicate constitution, which proved a hindrance in his collegiate course; but defying all obstacles, he graduated with honors at the age of seventeen. Young Foot attended the famous Litchfield Law School; but owing to illness he was obliged to relinquish his chosen profession for one that would provide him with more active occupation. He engaged in the shipping trade at New Haven, and made several voyages to the West Indies; suffering heavy financial losses during the War of 1812, he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. Mr. Foot settled in his native town, occupying his time in farming and the politics of the day. His Democratic opinions being in accord with those of a majority of his townsmen, he was elected to the State Legis-
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lature, subsequently to both houses of Congress, and was. Governor for one year, 1834-5.
After his retirement from this office, he was never again actively engaged in politics; his domestic and private affairs. engrossed his attention the remaining years of his life. He died in Cheshire Sept. 15, 1846. Governor Foot's natural characteristics were integrity, industry, perseverance, and decision.
Two important factors at this period were adjuncts in shaping the political status of the State. The use of alcoholic stimulants was universal. Following the customs that were: transmitted to them, the people of the State indulged in these beverages very generally. In all walks of life the use of liquors was habitual; in the minister's accounts with the country store, the charge for a gallon of rum often appears; in the harvest field, a jug of liquor was a constant companion ; while at the numerous hostelries which had sprung up along the different stage routes, the landlord's flowing bowl always. awaited the tired traveler.
That Connecticut should be a leader in an organized attempt to mitigate this evil, was to be expected, as her rec- ord teems with pioneer efforts in all reform movements. The: first modern temperance society was founded in 1789 by two hundred farmers of Litchfield County, who agreed not to use "any distilled liquor during their farm work the ensuing year."
The progress of the temperance movement was slow; it: was not until 1826 that the first public society was organ- ized. Three years later, an association for the promotion. of temperance was started in the town of Brooklyn; the fol- lowing year a State temperance society was formed, which soon had subordinate organizations in each county; but grad-
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ually the endeavor became united in one State association. While the movement in Connecticut did not predominate in politics to as great an extent as in some of the other New Eng- land States, it had its influence upon the trend of affairs both in State and local government.
The abolition of slavery-the other important factor-was favored by the founders of the nation, both on economic and moral grounds. The invention of the cotton gin, however, had solved the mooted question for the Southern people, as to the successful raising of cotton as a staple product; the plant- ers considered slave labor essential for its successful pro- duction. Congress in 1807 prohibited, under heavy penal- ties, the further importation of slaves into the United States; this in a measure enhanced the value of those already held in bondage, and the people of the South were ever ready to defend their human property from any interference of their Northern neighbors.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, societies were formed advocating the abolition of the evil; the first effectual. attempt towards that end, however, was made in 1815 by a zealous citizen of Ohio, who issued the first abolitionist news- paper, called The Appeal Devoted to the Cause. Nearly a score of years later, the subject was vehemently revived, by the publication of the Liberator in Boston. The movement rapidly gained adherents throughout the Northern section of the United States; societies were formed in cities and vil- lages, having their accessories of "underground railways" for the rescue of fugitive slaves. This, coupled with the deci- sions of the Supreme Court, in favor of slave owners, aug- mented opposition, until it became not only a part of national but of State and local politics.
The Abolitionists, seeking to unite against the dominant
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Democratic party, which was the advocate of pro-slavery doctrines, joined the then nearly organized Whigs. Con- necticut, as a State whose sons had been instrumental in forming colonization societies, with refuges for the negro in the land of their nativity, early placed herself on record as opposed to slaveholding, and welcomed the general uprising to wipe out the blot on the escutcheon of a free country.
The doctrines of anti-slavery were universally promul- gated by her eloquent sons and daughters; and she offered as a martyr to the cause, one whose "body lies moldering in the grave," and whose natal day is honored by the citizens of his native town of Torrington.
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CHAPTER XII
A DECADE OF NATIONAL AND STATE POLITICS
T HE thirteenth Presidential election found the country on the verge of a commercial panic. Jackson's transfer of the national moneys from the United States Bank to a number of private banks, with no requirement of sound- ness or guaranty of management, had started a whirlwind of speculation, "wild-cat" banking, and unsecured "rag" money ; then his discovery of his mistake and requirement of specie payments suddenly brought down the whole fabric with a crash, which however did not come till he was out of office and his successor got the blame. Professor Sumner's remark that "he regulated the finances as a monkey regulates a watch: he simply smashed things and left his successor to repair the damages," though much criticised, does not seem too severe. No more ignorant and reckless hand ever under- took the dictation of a people's financial methods, and con- sequently its livelihood. Jackson's qualifications for this deli- cate task were those of any other backwoods Indian fighter. That he should have understood it would have been a mira- cle ; but he should not have undertaken it. The main respon- sibility, however, belongs to those who put him there. The Democratic party presented as its candidate Martin Van Buren, who had been Secretary of State during Jackson's first administration. Though his appointment as the representa- tive of the United States to the Court of St. James was not confirmed by the Senate, he was afterwards elected to pre- side over the latter body. It was the first time the Demo- cratic party had selected a candidate from a northern State for the head of their ticket.
There were other issues at stake besides the financial con- dition of the country. Since the last Presidential election, two new States had been admitted to the Union, Arkansas and
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