USA > New York > Ontario County > A history of Ontario County, New York and its people, Volume I > Part 10
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103
MYRON H. CLARK ELECTED GOVERNOR.
The political pot had boiled furiously in 1854. While party leaders clung to the old names, they participated in coalition movements. The party voters divided into antagonistic and openly recognized factions-the Democrats into Hard Shells and Soft Shells, as they resisted or acquiesed in the disposition manifested by their party organization to yield to the demands of the Southern slave power-the Whigs into Woolly Heads and Silver Grays, the former being the appellation derisively given those who sympathized with William H. Seward in his opposition to slave power aggressions, and the latter that which was applied to those who, following the lead of Francis Granger of Canandaigua, from whose beautiful silver gray hair the faction derived its name, deprecated any reopening of agitation over slavery ques- tions. The masses of the people, thoroughly aroused by the heated discussions in Congress and in the press over the passage of the Fug- itive Slave law and that admitting slavery to the territories of Kan- sas and Nebraska, had learned to exercise the right of bolting the "regular" party nominations. But, as we have seen, the men who in New York State opposed the ag- gressions of the slave power, and who in 1854 had united to elect Myron H. Clark to the governor- ship on a Free Soil and Free WILLIAM H. LAMPORT. Labor platform, had not as yet been willing to admit that they were anything but Whigs or Democrats or Prohibitionists.
William H. Lamport was born in Bruns- wick, Rensselaer county, in May, 1818. Moved with his parents to Gorham in 1826. Served as Supervisor in 1845 and 1846, and as Sheriff of the county for the term be- ginning January 1, 1850. Mr. Lamport, originally a Whig, identified himself with the Republican party upon its organization ; in 1854, he was elected on the Whig ticket as Became a resident of Canandaigua in 1864; Member of Congress, 1871-75. Died July 21. 1891.
The year 1855 was to see . . Member of Assembly for the Eastern district.
another step in advance taken by the New York State Free Soilers -a step already taken, as we have seen, in several other Northern States. Mr. Clark, for political reasons, did not resign the office of Senator until the close of the year, and then a county "People's Convention" of electors who were "in favor of restricting slavery"
104.
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
was called to elect delegates to a district convention which would nominate his successor. It will be noted that the Free Soilers had reached a point where they were ready to stand up and be counted independent of former party affiliations.
This "People's Convention" was held in Canandaigua, January 20, 1855. Officers were elected as follows: President, Charles H. Loomis ; vice presidents. Dr. Webster, of East Bloomfield; George Dunkle, of Hopewell: Elnathan W. Simmons, of Bristol; E. Blodgett, of Gorham; and E. S. Gregory, of Canandaigua ; secre- taries, Harvey Stone, Charles B. Johnson, and Sereno French. Eighteen delegates were elected "to confer with a like number from Livingston county," as follows: First district-Staats Green, of Hopewell; Lebbeus Knapp, of Hopewell; Harry Gregory, of Hope- well; Thomas J. McLouth, of Farmington; Cornelius Horton, of Phelps; Dr. J. H. Howell, of Phelps; E. Dickinson, of Seneca ; Samuel Morrison, of Seneca; Hiram Axtell, of Manchester. Sec- ond district-Nathan J. Milliken, of Canandaigua ; Henry Wilson, of Canandaigua ; Ira R. Peck, of East Bloomfield; Lyman Hawes, of Richmond ; Francis Mason, of Bristol: Asahel Gooding, of Bristol; William C. Dryer, of Victor; Emory B. Pottle, of Naples; Silas C. Brown, of West Bloomfield.
This county convention was held on Saturday. On the follow- ing Monday, January 22, the Twenty-ninth district convention to nominate a candidate to the vacancy was held, this also in Canandaigua. Owing to a misunderstanding, the other county of the district, Livingston, was not represented by delegates, but S. C. Brown, William Carter, and Ira Godfrey, of that county, present as spectators, were invited to take seats in the convention. Lyman Hawes, of Richmond, was elected chairman, and J. Q. Howe, of Phelps, and Ira R. Peck, of East Bloomfield, officiated as secretaries.
An informal vote for candidates for the State senatorship resulted as follows: Chester Loomis received 7 votes; S. Foote, 2; E. W. Simmons, 4; Charles J. Folger, 1; blank, 1. On a second ballot, Judge Loomis received 11 votes, Dr. Simmons 3, and Judge Folger 1.
Judge Loomis was thereupon declared the nominee, and upon motion the following resolution was adopted :
Resolved, That we regard all secret political organizations as anti-Republi- can in their tendency and dangerous to the institutions of our country, and that we will not hold political fellowship with those whom we have reason to believe are connected in any way with such orders; nor will we support for office any candidate who holds any connection with such organization.
105
MYRON H. CLARK ELECTED GOVERNOR.
The resolution thus adopted by the People's convention was an indication of the local revulsion against the secret methods of the American or Know Nothing party, which had then reached the culmination of its strength as a National political organization. This party had its origin in 1852, under the name of "The Sons of '76," or "The Order of the Star Spangled Banner," and was an oath-bound society designed to exclude Roman Catholics and all foreigners from public office. Its real name and object were not revealed to a member until he took the higher degrees, and as a result when asked questions regarding the order he naturally and invariably replied, "I don't know." So in common parlance the members of the organization were called Know Nothings. The order increased with wonderful rapidity. The general political unrest, the widespread disgust with the management of the Whig and Democratic parties, and the innate love of man for ELBRIDGE G. LAPHAM. the mysterious, contributed to its Elbridge Gerry Lapham was born in the town of Farmington, Ontario county, Octo- ber 18, 1814; educated in the Canandaigua Academy. Was admitted to the bar in 1844, and early won distinction as an advocate : originally a Democrat in politics, belonging to the Barn Burner or Anti-Slavery wing of that party, but in 1856 identified himself with the recently organized Republican party. Elected to the Constitutional Convention of 1867, to Congress in 1874, 1876, 1878, and 1880, and in 1881 was chosen by the Legis- lature to the seat in the United States Sen- ate from which Roscoe Conkling had resigned. Died at his summer home on the shore of Canandaigua lake, January 8, 1890. growth. It became a power in 1854 in local and State elections, a fact that was evidenced by the 122,282 votes cast for Daniel Ull- man, its candidate for Governor of New York, in that year. But the slave power was destined to be the cause of its disruption, as it had been that of other parties. When its National council at Philadelphia, June 5, 1855, adopted resolutions supporting the Fugitive Slave law and the Southern contentions generally, its fate was sealed.
The council thereupon split, and though the order lived to embarrass Republican candidates in the National campaign of the
106
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
next year and at various local elections intervening, it rapidly disin- tegrated.
As before stated, the election of a successor to Senator Clark in the Ontario-Livingston district took place at the time when the Americans, Know Nothings, or Hindoos, as they were variously known, were at the height of their power. Elisha .W. Gardner, of Canandaigua, who was an active participant in the exciting political events of that year and assisted in the organization of the bogus lodges that were instituted to break the strength of that most un-American of parties and to disclose to the people the true inwardness of its promoters, states that the convention or "coun- cil" at which it nominated a candidate in opposition to Judge Loomis was held in secret, the Saturday before the Tuesday on which election was held. He recalls that this council, as was the case with all meetings of the party, was called, not by public notice, but by means of pieces of paper, cut in cabalistic forms, whose meaning was known only to members of the order, and posted or scattered on the streets.
Judge Loomis, the People's candidate, had already served one four-years' term, 1835-1838, in the State Senate, as one of the rep- resentatives of the old Seventh district, under the constitution of 1821, and was a well known and highly respected citizen.
The Know Nothing candidate was Rev. William H. Goodwin, a Methodist Episcopal clergyman then living at Geneva, and though the Ontario Messenger, the Democratic organ, and The Times, speaking for the Seward Whigs, united in hurling hot shot at his candidacy, he was elected over Judge Loomis. The Reposi- tory, as the local organ of the Silver Grays, supported the Know Nothing candidate, and it is manifest that most of that wing of what had been the Whig party voted for him. In Ontario county, Mr. Goodwin received 3,337 votes as against 2,257 for Judge Loomis.
This special election was held on Tuesday, January 30, 1855, and under authority of a special act of the Legislature the vote was canvassed and Senator Goodwin took his seat in time to vote against the reelection of William H. Seward to the United States ยท Senate.
On the night preceding this election, at a public meeting in the court house in Canandaigua, Elbridge G. Lapham, then a prominent Democrat, but destined to rise to prominence in the
107
MYRON H. CLARK ELECTED GOVERNOR.
Republican party, made a strong speech in support of the People's candidate, the beginning, if we are correctly informed, of the cus- tom that he afterward followed as a Republican campaigner in making the closing speech of each succeeding campaign to his own. townspeople.
In the town elections held in this county in April of that year, the issue presented by the surprising growth of Know Nothingism united with the ever insistent question of slavery extension to make an extremely exciting campaign. As an indication of the trend of public sentiment at that time, it is interesting to note that the call for the Cheshire, or No. 9, caucus, to be held at the home of N. R. Boswell, March 28, was for a meeting of "all citizens opposed to the violation of solemn compromises to the extension of slavery, and to all secret and irresponsible societies."
The calls for caucuses to nominate candidates for town offices in other towns were couched in equally significant language. The Know Nothing's won out in Canandaigua, their nominee, Ebenezer Hale, being elected, but the "Antis" carried eight of the towns of the county as compared with a Know Nothing, or Hindoo, list of six. In Bristol the vote on supervisor was a tie, and Francis Mason, the Whig incumbent, held over.
The county board of supervisors of that year was as follows :
Anti-Hindoos -- Thomas R. Peck, West Bloomfield; Henry W. Hamlin, East Bloomfield; Francis Mason, Bristol; David A. Pier- pont, Richmond ; Nathaniel G. Austin, Canadice : David Coye, South Bristol; David Pickett, Gorham ; Daniel Arnold, Farmington : N. K. Cole, Manchester.
Know Nothings-Ebenezer Hale, Canandaigua; William S. Clark, Victor; A. T. Nelson, Naples; Robert Chapin, Hopewell ; S. B. Pond, Phelps; James M. Soverhill, Seneca.
108
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
XI
THE FIRST FREE SOIL CONVENTIONS.
The New Coalition of Free Soilers Adopt the Name Republican -Men Identified with the Movement-A Tangled Local Cam- paign-Union Ticket Put in the Field by Republicans and Democrats-Opposing Know Nothing Candidates for County Offices Win at the Election.
With the opening of the State campaign of 1855, the Free Soil coalitionists became a distinct political organization. The names with which they had been popularly christened, in entire disregard of their old-time party affiliations as Whigs or Democrats, were dropped. Barnburners, Hard Shells, Woolly Heads, Sewardites, and Anti-Hindoos became Republicans.
The work of party organization under the Republican name, begun the year before in the West and in Maine, extended rapidly throughout the North during 1855. The struggle in which the emigrants from the Free States had engaged to save Kansas from slavery, the fight which the obscure rail splitter of Illinois was making against Douglas and squatter sovereignty, his proclama- tion of the truth that this Nation could not exist one-half slave and one-half free, and the success of the Anti-Nebraskans at the open- ing of the Thirty-fourth Congress in electing Nathaniel P. Banks, Speaker of the House of Representatives, were under the Repub- lican banner.
In New York State, steps were taken early in the summer to organize the new party. The first Republican State convention was called to meet in Syracuse, September 26, to nominate a ticket for State offices to be filled at the November election. Each Assembly district was to be represented by two delegates. The Whig party, dominated by its Seward or Free Soil wing, called its convention for the same date and city.
In the Ontario county districts, the same plan was pursued-
109
THE FIRST FREE SOIL CONVENTIONS.
the Republican and Whig conventions being called for the same date, with the evident intention of merging one in the other.
The calls for the Republican district conventions read as fol- lows :
First District Republican Convention.
The electors of the Eastern Assembly District of Ontario county, who are in favor of the Republican organization, will meet at the Town Hall in the Village of Phelps, on Saturday, September 8th, at 2 o'clock p. m., for the pur- pose of selecting two delegates to represent said district in the Republican State Convention, to be held at Syracuse on the 26th September next, and to transact such other business as may legitimately come before the convention .- August 25, 1855.
Chauncey Musselman, J. A. Wader,
H. K. Connell,
Harry Robison,
Lyman Catlin,
H. H. Hopkins,
James Robison,
W. W. Woodworth,
James Brown,
Joseph Jane,
Caleb Bannister,
Levi Case,
Thomas Smith,
Elihu Stone,
Rial V. Wheeler.
George Mack,
Wm. Whiting,
Jonathan Burt,
V. V. Draper,
M. B. Bannister,
Second District Republican Convention.
The Independent Electors of the several towns, in the Second Assembly District of Ontario county, who are opposed to the further subjugation of our government to the interests of Slave Power, to the extension of Slavery into our National domain, and to any further strengthening of the Slave Power by the admission of Slave States into the Confederacy, are requested to meet in their several towns, irrespective of former party associations, and select twice the usual number of Delegates to a District Convention, to meet at Hicks's Hotel in Bristol on Saturday, the 22d of September, for the purpose of select- ing two Delegates to the State Republican Convention. to meet at Syracuse on the 26th inst., and to transact such other business as may be found necessary. September 6, 1855. By Order of the Committee.
The calls of three Republican town caucuses appeared in the September 13 issue of the local Free Soil organ. That for Canan- daigua was called to meet in the town hall and to it were invited "all citizens who are opposed to the aggressions of the slave power, and in favor of political action with reference to that question." That for Bristol was held at the house of S. C. Hicks and included electors who were "in favor of the Republican organization." That for Richmond was held at Hazen's tavern in Honeoye, and included all who were "in favor of forming a Republican party, in opposition
110
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
to the extension of slavery on free soil and also opposed to secret societies for political purposes."
The only report we have of these first gatherings of men who were willing to be known as Republicans is the following from The Times of September 20, 1855 :
Town Convention.
At a meeting of the Republicans of the Town of Canandaigua, announced at the Town Hall on Monday, the 17th inst., according to previous notice, Stephen Parrish, 2nd, was elected chairman, and J. C. Fairchild, secretary.
The following gentlemen were elected Delegates to the district convention to be held at Bristol on the 22d inst .:
Evander Sly, Edwin Hicks,
W. W. McClure,
R. B. Johnson,
Charles Hall, Joel M. Howey,
Stephen Parrish, 2d,
E. W. Gardner,
Henry Willson,
E. S. Gregory,
Stephen Saxton,
C. Remington.
H. C. Lucas,
M. Remington,
On motion, Resolved that the delegates be authorized to appoint substi- tutes, in case of their inability to attend.
On motion, Col. W. Millor, E. W. Gardner, and Joel M. Howey were appointed Town Committee for the ensuing year.
It is a matter to be much regretted that the reporter did not give more of the details of this first Republican caucus in the town of Canandaigua, that we have no list of the voters present, or record of the speeches made. We have been informed by one of those who was present that there was a very small attendance, barely enough for officers of the meeting and to forward its business. Not all of those elected delegates to the district convention were pres- ent at the caucus, but it is fair to presume it was known that they were in sympathy with the movement. Perhaps no speeches were made. Not always do the men who meet to initiate a movement of such far-reaching significance make much noise. They act rather than talk.
The only survivor of the delegates elected at this historic gather- ing is Elisha W. Gardner, of Canandaigua. Joel M. Howey, an honored agriculturist, survived until 1909, when he died at the ripe age of 91 years. Evander Sly, who headed the delegation, was then and for many years afterward one of the most prominent business men of the village. Stephen Parrish was superintendent of the Canan- daigua Gas Light Company and later became a resident of Jersey City. Edwin Hicks, who had only been a resident of the village since the
111
THE FIRST FREE SOIL CONVENTIONS.
preceding January, was a young attorney, whose anti-slavery senti- ments, imbibed as a boy among the Bristol hills, naturally led to his identification with the new party at its very beginning. E. S. Gregory had been the partner of Myron H. Clark in the hardware business and later engaged in banking. H. C. Lucas was for many years prominently identified with the produce business. Stephen Saxton was a lumber merchant. R. B. Johnson was a farmer living at Centerfield. Henry Willson, son of Jared Willson, later met his death as a soldier while fighting in support of the principles which he espoused at this caucus. Charles Hall was a prominent farmer of Cheshire, and the father of Lorenzo C. and John B. Hall. Chauncey Remington was a lead- ing druggist and M. Remington, his nephew, was a farmer. W. W. McClure was for a long time a leading stone mason. Willson Mil- lor was the man to whom "in an evil hour," as Mr. Milliken later told readers of the paper, the latter sold The Times in the summer of JOEL M. HOWEY. 1854. and who remained its pro- prietor until February of the next year, when the office was burned out. The paper was reestablished by Mr. Milliken in May, 1856.
Joel M. Howey, elected a delegate at first Republican caucus in Canandaigua, Septem- ber 17, 1855, and a member of the first Republican town committee, was born in Canandaigua, January 30, 1819. Commis- sioner of Excise of the town for a number of years; a member of Board of Supervisors, 1887. Died in Canandaigua, October 1, 1909.
The first "Republican" convention in the county was that called as above noted for the First or Eastern Assembly district and held at Phelps on September 8. E. W. Frisbie acted as its chairman, and Edward W. Henderson, and B. H. Bartlett as its secretaries. Thomas McLouth, formerly a Whig, and Lyman Catlin, an ex-Democrat of the Hard Shell school, were elected delgates to the State convention. Delegates to district conventions were elected as follows :
Senatorial-Robert Royce, of Hopewell; Thomas M. Terry, of
112
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
Farmington ; John McKay, of Seneca ; R. N. Ferguson, of Phelps ; J. Dewey, Jr., of Manchester, and H. Metcalf, of Gorham ; C. Bannister, A. J. Shannon, and T. Pomeroy, at large.
Judicial-G. W. Duesbury, Jacob Wader, and Jonathan Pratt.
The Whig convention for the First district elected J. M. Bradford, of Geneva, as its representative to the Whig State convention.
The Republican convention for the Second Assembly district was held, pursuant to the call, at the home of S. C. Hicks in Bristol, on the 22nd of September, 1855.
The convention organized by the election of Josiah Porter, of East Bloomfield, as chairman, and Zoroaster Paul, of Richmond, and Edwin Hicks, of Canandaigua, as secretaries.
The towns were represented by these delegates :
Canandaigua-Edwin Hicks, Stephen Parrish, 2nd., M. Rem -. ington, Charles Hall, Joel M. Howey, and Willson Millor (not all those elected at the caucus above reported being present).
Richmond-Zoroaster Paul, D. L. Hamilton, Hiram Ashley, W. A. Reed, Willard Doolittle, Alfred Franklin.
Victor-B. B. Trask, L. Dewey.
East Bloomfield -- J. Porter, Myron Adams, C. W. Higby, H. Gains, Thayer Gauss.
West Bloomfield-O. Wade, Silas C. Brown, E. F. Leech, G. A. Wendell, Henry L. Taft, Sireno French.
Bristol -- John Mason, W. S. Hicks, Stephen A. Codding, Aru- nah Jones, W. Scott Hicks, Orestus Case.
South Bristol-S. Collins, C. L. Crandall, O. H. Sheldon, S. Powell, L. Lincoln, Isaac Trembly.
A committee, consisting of Messrs. Brown, Ashley, Jones, Hamilton, Higby, Codding, and French, reported resolutions declaring that "we have to require of public servants only intelli- gence, honesty and fidelity in the discharge of the duties confided to their care, without reference to the stars predominating at their birth, or the distance between their own and the natal place of their neighbors ;" that "to proscribe any of our fellow citizens on account of their religious faith and make a polemical doctrine the test of citizenship, is to attack the fundamental elements of our Republican form of government," and that the members of the convention, as Republicans, asserted unequivocally: "1st, That no more slave states shall be admitted into the Union; 2nd, That no slavery shall
113
THE FIRST FREE SOIL CONVENTIONS.
be permitted under any pretence in any territory in the United States; 3d, That slavery shall be abolished in all places within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government ; 4th, That the Fugitive Slave law shall be repealed; 5th, That the influence of the general government shall, under all circumstances, be exerted to discounte-
nance and restrain slavery, and to extend and promote the blessings of Freedom."
The resolutions were adopt- ed, and Willson Millor and Zo- roaster Paul were elected dele- gates to the State convention, and Edwin Hicks, Elnathan W. Sim- mons, and Hiram Ashley delegates to the Judicial convention. Colo- nel Millor, Sireno French, and Orestus Case were appointed as the central committee.
The Republican and Whig conventions at Syracuse, Septem- ber 26, through conference com- mittees, united upon resolutions and upon a ticket of candidates for State offices, and the Whig con- vention dissolved and repaired in a body to the hall where the Re- publicans held their meeting. The Republican ticket thus nominated was headed by Preston King, of St. Lawrence county, as a candi- date for Secretary of State.
THOMAS M. HOWELL.
Thomas Morris Howell, second son of Judge Nathaniel W. Howell, was born in Canandaigua, December 7, 1811; graduated from Amherst College in 1831; admitted to the bar in 1834; District Attorney for On- tario courty from 1840 to 1847 inclusive; unsuccessful as the Democratic nominee for Justice of the Supreme Court, Representative in Congress, and Member of Assembly ; Police Justice of the Village of Canandaigua from 1871 to 1874. Died in Canandaigua, October 27, 1892.
But not all of those identified with the Free Soil movement had yet enrolled themselves in the new party. Not all of those who expressed themselves as in sympathy with its purposes cared yet to commit their political fortunes to its keeping. Not all of those who were destined to engage in its cause and participate in its early triumphs were yet fighting under its banner. Old party ties were then, as they are now, difficult to throw off. It was not until the next year that party lines finally adjusted themselves to the new
114
HISTORY OF ONTARIO COUNTY.
conditions. It required the hot fires of a Presidential contest to bring the men, who believed that the time for temporizing with the monstrous evil of human slavery had passed, to see that they must make open profession of the faith that was in them, and, sinking personal differences, pushing aside considerations of selfish interest, and forgetting past political associations, give to the cause of Freedom, as represented by the Republican party, the support of their names and votes as well as of their consciences.
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