USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 16
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By 1821 the rampant use of the spoils system led many to believe that the Council of Appointments should be dissolved. But the Council of Appointments was only one of several features of the Constitution of
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
1777 which either prevented efficient administration or checked the popular will. Gradually the transplanted Yankees of upstate and the common people in New York City rebelled against restricted suffrage and the Council of Revision, which frequently vetoed popular legis- lation. The upsurge of democratic feeling in New York State was a part of the tidal wave sweeping the northern and western states.
During a period of some forty years the Council of Revision, which was composed of the five judges of the Supreme Court, the chancellor, and the governor, disallowed 118 laws. Some of these were repassed over its veto by a two-thirds vote of the legislature. The Council was intended to check hasty and foolish laws, but unfortunately it tended at times to reflect Federalist thinking of a purely partisan nature. The Council checked the legislature's attempt to change the charter of Columbia College, a citadel of Federalism, and during the War of 1812 it curbed Tompkins' efforts to enact conscription and drastic property taxes. When the Council in 1820 rejected a popular bill calling for a con- stitutional convention, the public was aroused and the Republicans demanded the Council be abolished.
On August 28, 1821, a constitutional convention finally assembled at Albany. It was a body of distinguished men and included practically all the outstanding political figures of the time. Among the small group of remaining Federalists were such able men as Chancellor James Kent, the most determined defender of the status quo; Peter Augustus Jay, gifted son of the principal author of the first constitution; Jonas Platt; Abraham Van Vechten; Elisha Williams; and Stephen Van Rensselaer, III, scion of the old and wealthy landholding family. They tried to salvage as much as was possible in face of the Bucktail demand for reform, but their cause was hopeless. Out of 126 seats the Bucktails controlled 110. These Republicans were not men of limited experience and ability. Among their ranks were Daniel D. Tompkins, who presided over the convention, the astute Martin Van Buren, the distinguished Peter R. Livingston, and Erastus Root, a master of sarcasm.
The convention quickly abolished both the Council of Appointments and the Council of Revision, despite the somewhat perfunctory protests of the Federalists. It gave the governor the veto power, but a two-thirds vote in each house could override his veto. The appointing power was distributed in a fashion more democratic but not necessarily wiser from the standpoint of improved administration. The chief officers of the state, such as the secretary of state, the attorney general, and the comptroller, were to be elected by the legislature, whereas lesser officials were to be appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate. The convention also revised the judiciary system by creating a new Supreme Court consisting of a chief justice and two associate justices and by
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THE RISE OF THE COMMONWEALTH
providing for the establishment of from four to eight judicial districts, in each of which would be a district judge.
The changes in the suffrage, however, aroused much more controversy and proved far more significant. The old constitution prescribed the possession of a twenty-pound freehold or the payment of a yearly rent of forty shillings as qualifications of voters for assemblymen. To vote for senator and governor the citizen had to possess still more property. To the dismay of the Federalists, the Republicans advocated clauses per- mitting voters to qualify by payment of taxes, by service in the militia, by work on the roads, or by established residence. In short, the Re- publicans were proposing the equivalent of universal manhood suffrage for white voters.
Abraham Van Vechten stated the Federalist case succinctly. "Life and liberty are common to all, but the possession of property is not. Hence the owners of property have rights which, in relation to those who are destitute, are separate and exclusive." The most eloquent defense of the old order came from Chancellor James Kent, who warned of the dangers in extending the suffrage:
The growth of the city of New-York is enough to startle and awaken those who are pursuing the ignis fatuus of universal suffrage. In 1773 it had 21,000 souls, in 1801 it had 60,000 souls, in 1806 it had 76,000 souls, in 1820 it had 123,000 souls.
It is rapidly swelling into the unwieldy population, and with the burden- some pauperism, of an European metropolis. New-York is destined to become the future London of America; and in less than a century, that city, with the operation of universal suffrage, and under skilful direction, will govern this state.
Nor was it safe to adopt universal suffrage as an experimental measure, said the chancellor:
Universal suffrage once granted, is granted forever, and never can be re- called. There is no retrograde step in the rear of democracy. However mis- chievous the precedent may be in its consequences, or however fatal in its effects, universal suffrage never can be recalled or checked, but by the strength of the bayonet.
The Federalist appeal was dashed aside by Erastus Root, who replied: "We have no different estates, having different interests, necessary to be guarded from encroachments by the watchful eye of jealousy- We are all of the same estate-all commoners; nor, until we have privileged orders, and aristocratic estates to defend, can this argument apply." The Federalists were inundated by the democratic tide. Although property qualifications were retained for Negroes virtual universal suffrage was established for white males. A few other minor changes
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
were made. The governor could no longer prorogue the legislature, and his term was reduced to two years. The date for state elections was shifted from April to November.
On November 10 the constitutional convention closed. Sixteen mem- bers, including Abraham Van Vechten and Peter Augustus Jay, refused to sign the finished document. The voters overwhelmingly approved the new constitution, which went into effect December 31, 1822.
During the early 1820's the political situation in New York was con- fused. The conservative forces were searching for a new party as they hurriedly gave up the Federalist label. Most regarded Clinton as their champion, partly because of his cultural attainments but largely because of his canal policy. Moreover, the conservatives were adding to their natural strength. Not only could they command the support of the old creditor, commercial, and landed classes but they were also begin- ning to enlist the aid of the growing manufacturing class as well as the substantial farmers along the route of the Erie Canal. The liberal elements, whose strength was augmented by the widened suffrage, fol- lowed the leadership of the Albany Regency. The Bucktails preached economy and low taxes while they continued to denounce the old aristocracy. In general, they were lukewarm in their support of internal improvements. In 1822 Clinton did not dare to run for re-election because his political organization had vanished. Robert Yates, the Bucktail candidate for governor, was swept into office by virtually a unanimous vote.
Early in 1823 the Regency threw its support to William H. Crawford, the hand-picked candidate of the Virginia dynasty, in his quest for the presidency, although many important Bucktails preferred John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, or John C. Calhoun. The Clintonians favored Andrew Jackson. Realizing that party machinery enabled the Regency to control the legislature, the anti-Crawford men used northern op- position to Virginian dictation of presidential candidates to lend force to their demands that nomination by legislative caucus be abandoned for a nominating convention and that presidential electors be chosen directly by the people rather than the legislature. When the Albany Regency refused to accede, the People's party was organized to seek the desired reforms. In this delicate situation the Regency made a fatal blunder by removing De Witt Clinton from the Canal Commission where he had long served with distinction and without pay. The citizenry was enraged, and Van Buren, who was at his post in the United States Senate, professed to be astonished.
When the convention called by the People's party met in Utica during September 1824, it was dominated by De Witt Clinton's friends, who secured his endorsement for the governorship. The Regency obtained the nomination of Samuel Young-the last nomination made by legislative
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caucus in New York State. When Van Buren appeared at the polls, derisive cries of "Regency! Regency!" greeted him. Clinton was elected by a sizable majority-rising for the second time from political oblivion to the highest office in the state. After witnessing this event, Van Buren remarked to Roger Skinner, a member of the Regency who had been a prime mover in recalling Clinton from the Canal Commission, "I hope, Judge, you are now satisfied that there is such a thing in politics as killing a man too dead!"
The replacement of the legislative caucus as the nominating agency by party conventions did not seriously hamper political machines. Party leaders controlled conventions by seeing to it that convention delegates were men of their own choice. A vastly more important change was the modification of the electoral law which followed the decisive Clintonian victory. Henceforth presidential electors were chosen by district and selected by the people. The presidential election of 1824 marked, therefore, the last time presidential electors were picked by the state legislature. Since the legislators elected at the same time as Clinton would not take office until after the first of the year, it was presumed that the Regency would remain in control and would place New York be- hind Crawford. In a surprising turn of events New York's vote was split: Adams 26, Crawford 5, Clay 4, and Jackson 1. This amazing upset was the result of the backstage work of Thurlow Weed, a twenty- seven-year-old journalist, who made a deal with the backers of Henry Clay whereby they agreed to support Adams in exchange for seven Clay votes under certain conditions. To facilitate voting Weed printed a split ticket including both Clay and Adams supporters. Weed became one of the ablest political managers in the history of the nation. The national election failed to produce a majority, and the issue went to the United States House of Representatives, where Adams needed the vote of New York to win. After some wavering, Congressman Stephen Van Rensselaer, III, cast the deciding vote which swung the state to Adams.
During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, politics in New York were unusually bitter, because personalities rather than issues were dominant. The disintegration of the Federalists accentuated the fac- tionalism so characteristic of the Republicans. At times the government, cursed with the spoils system, the restrictive vetoes of the Council of Revision, outrageous lobbying, and petty squabbles, seemed to work badly. Yet out of this welter of faction emerged a new concept of equality and democracy-well exemplified in the Common School Law of 1812, which greatly widened opportunities for education-and revealed in the Constitution of 1822, which virtually banished property qualifications for white male voters. The last political strongholds of the conservative landholding class which had dominated New York for over 150 years were swept away. A bloodless political revolution had been effected.
Chapter 13
Heyday of the Land Speculator
Could you not introduce a few good inhabitants in each town- ship by exchanging new lands for old or improved farms? . . . Twenty good families will by their connections soon fill up a township, and by still holding on about one- quarter of your lands you will be able to sell for the price of cleared land .- JAMES WADSWORTH to David B. Ogden, 1817
INDEPENDENCE seemed to sharpen the interest of New Yorkers in land acquisition. To land-hungry Americans no state offered a more varied or richer bill of fare than New York: choice lots in Manhattan, townsites along the Hudson and at inland crossroads, improved lands confiscated from the Tories, and-greatest prize of all-millions of acres of wild lands north and west of Fort Stanwix ( Rome). As a result, a saturnalia of speculation took place, with a relatively few master pro- moters gorging themselves on raw lands. Nevertheless, land monopoly did not eventuate, for within a generation many of the great land jobbers had disposed of most of their holdings to tens of thousands of freehold farmers. This turn of events had important political implications, for the freeholders joined forces with the yeomen followers of George Clinton and Martin Van Buren and forced the landed aristocracy to accept manhood suffrage in the constitutional convention of 1821.
The New York back country attracted the attention of speculators throughout the eastern seaboard and piqued the curiosity of capitalists in Europe. Cautious Dutch bankers, titled English gentlemen, and refugee French noblemen jostled native Americans in the rush for lands. Yankees plunged heavily in New York lands, as did practically every merchant in Albany and New York. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton dabbled in central New York real estate.
During colonial times the British officials had handed out large tracts
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HEYDAY OF THE LAND SPECULATOR
to men with political influence. The New York state legislature continued the practice of disposing of public land in large lots at nominal prices, and in 1786 it created a board of land commissioners empowered to dis- pose of unsold land. Within the next five years this board sold over 5,500,000 acres of land in northern and central New York, chiefly in large tracts. It laid out townships of approximately 64,000 acres, set aside one- twentieth of the area for the support of highway building, and gave lots to endow "the gospel and schools." Purchasers received tax exemptions for seven years if they developed their tracts during that time. The home- stead idea, that is, the granting of land in small parcels to actual settlers rather than to absentee speculators, won little support in New York un- til well along in the nineteenth century. The major exception to the policy of sale was the grant of approximately 1,500,000 acres to veterans of the Revolution, who were given the right to select land within the Military Tract of central New York.1
Land speculation was no "open sesame" to fortune. Alexander Macomb and Robert Morris, both of whom acquired millions of acres of New York lands, became bankrupts. Other speculators, however, notably the Wads- worth family, William Cooper, and Peter Smith, laid the foundations of family fortunes. But speculation in land was a hazardous business. Sharp setbacks in the long-term upswing of land values often ruined those op- erating on limited financial resources. The costs of carrying land-taxes, interest on capital, agent's commissions, and capital investments such as roads, schools, and mills-sometimes outstripped the increase in land values. The price of any particular parcel was influenced by many factors, including climate, soil, nearness to market, degree of improvement, density of population, and, perhaps most important of all, expectation of further increase in value.
The land jobber performed a function which the state was not yet pre- pared to assume. He surveyed and subdivided large tracts. He attracted settlers by advertisements and by agents. He extended credit during the crucial years of pioneering. Sometimes he helped build roads, mills, and schools. In short, he was a sort of middleman between the state and the frontier farmer, with his profits kept in line by the competition of other landholders in New York and surrounding states. The speculator, therefore, shares some of the credit for developing the New York frontier, since he risked his capital and often personally braved the rigors of the wilderness.
After the Revolution, the Iroquois still held title to "new" New York, the territory west of the Property Line of 1768 running from Fort Stanwix to the head of the Unadilla River. But six thousand Indians could not hold back tens of thousands of land-hungry whites. The
1 Veterans showed no interest in the "old" Military Tract, located in modern Clin- ton and Franklin counties in northern New York.
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
federal and state governments made peace treaties with the Iroquois, who had been weakened by the war. In the second Treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1784, the Iroquois surrendered to the United States all their traditional claims to land west of Buffalo Creek. In addition, the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas agreed to cede to New York State large tracts west of the Property Line. This cession was the first of a series negotiated between 1784 and 1790 in which the various tribes of the Six Nations signed away most of their lands east of the Genesee River. Before the century closed, practically all their claims to land in New York State had been surrendered. The members of the once- powerful Iroquois Confederacy had retreated to Canada or to a few small reservations.2
1800
1800
1790
1790
1800
1800
Mohawk River
1754
/1727
...
1690
1800
1790
PROCLAMATION LINE OF 1763
Unadilla R.
1800
1800
NEW PREEMPTION
FORT STANWIX TREATY LINE
1754
1727
Hudson River
LINE
1690
Map 6. Frontier map of New York. Frontier lines are based on dates for first settlement of towns west of the Hudson River. (Adapted from Ruth Higgins, Expansion in New York.)
Meanwhile, commissioners for New York and Massachusetts met at Hartford in 1786 to work out a compromise of their rival claims to west-
2 Today more than six thousand Indians live on eight reservations: Onondaga near Syracuse; Allegheny; Cattaraugas near Gowanda; Tuscarora near Niagara Falls; Tona- wanda near Akron; the St. Regis near Hogansburg; and the Poosepatuck and the Shinnecock on Long Island.
HEYDAY OF THE LAND SPECULATOR
153
ern New York. They drew a Pre-emption Line south from Sodus Bay through Seneca Lake to the Pennsylvania border. Massachusetts received the lands west of Seneca Lake and ten townships lying between the Owego and Chenango Rivers. New York won title to all land east of the line and political sovereignty over all the area in dispute.
During the Revolutionary War the state government had pledged to each soldier a bounty of 600 acres. Officers received proportionately larger grants. In 1782 the legislature set aside a tract of over 1,500,000 acres, which was divided into twenty-eight townships six miles square. This tract in the Finger Lakes district, readily identified today by the sprinkling of classical names such as Cato and Sempronius, included the present counties of Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Cortland, and por- tions of Oswego, Wayne, Schuyler, and Tompkins counties. Soldiers, however, represented only a minority of the settlers since many veterans sold their land warrants to speculators.
Oswego
Ft. Niagara
Onoida L.
TONAWANDA RES
MILL YARD TRACT
· Rochester
0
Syracuse"}
CAYUGA RES.
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Batavia
BUFFALO CREEK ** XXXXXXX RES.
Canandaigua
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ONONDAGA BES.
HOLLAND
CATTARAUGUS LAND _RES.
ENGARDEAU IORES.
MILITARY TRACT
COMPANY
MORRIS
Bath
WATKINS & FLINT PURCHASE
BOSTON TEN TOWNSHIPS
ALLEGHENY RES.
E RESERVE
Geneseo
@ Liney
Auburn
ERES
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HOLLAND
PHELPS & GORHAM , PURCHASE
New Preemption
. Ithaca
R.
eran
Map 7. Western New York land pattern, 1790-1812.
Speculators also got control of several large tracts between the Property Line and the Military Tract. In 1789 the surveyor-general laid out the Chenango Twenty Townships covering the southern half of present-day Madison and the northern half of Chenango counties. A group of specu-
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
lators bought the 230,400 acres in the Boston Ten Townships from Massa- chusetts for twelve and a half cents an acre. Other speculators bought up the Watkins and Flint Purchase and the Chemung Township. William Bingham, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant, acquired the site of Bing- hamton, which his agents laid out and developed. The Holland Land Company bought 100,000 acres south of Cazenovia. Peter Smith, the father of the reformer Gerrit Smith, acquired from the Oneida tribe several thousand acres south of Oneida Lake. Settlers followed close on the heels of the speculators and soon acquired title to farms.
Massachusetts officials also adopted the policy of selling their huge tract of 6,000,000 acres west of Seneca Lake to land jobbers. Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham headed a syndicate of capitalists and politicians who agreed to pay the state approximately $175,000 in gold for the land. Phelps hastened west to clear the Indian title and to run surveys. The sachems and chiefs of the Iroquois assembled about the council fire at Buffalo Creek in July 1788 and sold about 2,500,000 acres lying east of the Genesee River for $5,000 and an annuity of $500. Phelps laid off townships six miles square and opened one of the first land offices in the United States at Canandaigua.
Financial troubles soon caught up with Phelps and Gorham. They could get little hard cash out of the settlers, and some of their fellow capitalists backed out of the venture. Most disheartening of all was the upsurge in the price of Massachusetts securities, which they had expected to buy at depreciated levels and to turn over to the state at par. In 1790 they turned back the western two-thirds of the tract in order to retain full title to the eastern section.
Their ill luck did not deter Robert Morris from buying 1,000,000 acres from Phelps and Gorham in the region lying between Seneca Lake and the Genesee River. A few months later Morris paid Massachusetts $333,333 for approximately 4,000,000 acres west of the Genesee River. Morris was basically a wholesaler who expected that his reputation as secretary of finance during the Revolution would enable him to unload his holdings on bankers in Amsterdam, London, and Paris.
At first Morris enjoyed great success. A syndicate of English capitalists headed by Sir William Pulteney, the greatest landed capitalist in Great Britain, paid him £75,000 in 1791 for the tract he had acquired for only £45,000 from Phelps and Gorham. A tract twelve miles wide which em- braced most of the lush bottom land in the Genesee Valley was kept by Morris for price appreciation. His greatest coup was the sale for over $1,000,000 of some 2,500,000 acres west of the Genesee River to four Amsterdam banking houses speculating in American securities. Theophile Cazenove, their agent in America, had already purchased for them two townships near Cazenovia and two patents near Rome. The Dutch capi-
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HEYDAY OF THE LAND SPECULATOR
talists organized the Holland Land Company to administer their large holdings in New York and Pennsylvania.
Despite these spectacular deals, Morris found his debts climbing faster than his income. A sheriff's sale stripped him of his special reserve of 500,000 acres, which passed to several creditors. Among the purchasers was Jeremiah Wadsworth, who placed his tracts under the supervision of his nephews, James and William. James Wadsworth secured the agencies for several tracts, including tens of thousands of acres located in the upper Genesee Valley. With the money he made as agent, Wads- worth gradually built up a family estate still famous in western New York.
What effect did the entrance of the European capitalists have upon the development of New York apart from sprinkling the countryside with Old World place names? The permanent effect was negligible, although the immediate result was the acceleration of settlement. The London and Amsterdam bankers had ample capital to improve their holdings by adding buildings, roads, taverns, gristmills, and sawmills. In general, foreign investors found it necessary to abandon preconceived ideas of developing their holdings and found it wise to follow rather closely the practices of native Americans in disposing of their tracts.
Charles Williamson, the agent for the Pulteney estates, was a sanguine Scot who introduced the "hothouse" method of developing the country. Williamson built miles of roads, laid out towns, erected stores, taverns, gristmills, and extended credit to settlers. He selected sites for export centers on the Genesee River ( Williamsburg), Lake Erie (Sodus), Co- hocton River (Bath), and Seneca River (Lyons). Within ten years Wil- liamson had spent over $1,000,000, against which he had collected only $146,000. Such meager returns alarmed his English sponsors, who re- placed him with Robert Troup in 1801. Troup was a cautious Federalist lawyer who cut back on expenditures and stepped up debt collection. Within ten years he recovered the investment of his principals, but the Pulteney interests never got out much more than their original investment. The liquidation of their holdings was a painful process lasting until well after the Civil War.
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