USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 24
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The balloting in that year marked the climax of a tragic drama with Silas Wright in the central role. Two years before, he had resigned reluctantly from a promising career in the United States Senate to run for governor, thus using his personal popularity to win victory for his
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
party in a difficult campaign which restored the federal administration to Democratic control. His firm handling of the Antirent Rebellion had preserved order but cost him the undying animosity of thousands of tenants who forgot he also had sponsored the laws taxing income from long-term leases and abolishing the forced sale of the property of de- faulting tenants. The latter law was not forgotten, however, by the large number of men of moderate means who had invested in tenements and small houses in the cities. These persons, fearful of their ability to collect rent because of the new law, turned their backs on the governor.
In this critical situation Silas Wright was abandoned by the Hunker faction of his own party. For months the conservative group had shown an increasingly reckless attitude. As early as May 1845, they had been far enough estranged to co-operate with the Whigs in passing a bill calling for the resumption of canal construction on a limited scale. Wright had vetoed the bill. It was not until shortly before the election that President Polk, who owed his high office to Wright's sacrifices on the altar of party loyalty, realized that the Hunkers had used national patronage to undercut the governor. The president attempted to swing the support of the federal administration behind Wright, but the effort came too late. John Young, the Whig candidate, made overtures to the Antirenters and won the election. Polk, who had too long denied his fellow Democrat the support he richly deserved, confided to his diary: "The Hunkers seem to have been guilty of disloyalty to Mr. Wright." Less than a year later Silas Wright died at the age of fifty-two.
Chapter 19
New York Supports the Union, 1847-1861
Weed is Seward and Seward is Weed; each approves what the other says and does .- WILLIAM H. SEWARD
PETER AUGUSTUS JAY, the distinguished son of the first chief justice of the United States, speaking on the floor of the constitutional conven- tion of 1821, said, "Some philosophers have held that the intellect of a black man, is naturally inferior to that of a white one; but this idea has been so completely refuted, and is now so universally exploded, that I did not expect to have heard of it in an assembly so enlightened as this, nor do I now think it necessary to disprove it." Jay overestimated his fellow New Yorkers. Although the first steps toward equality had been taken more than twenty years earlier, the Negro had, and for many decades continued to have, inferior status socially, politically, and economically.
Strangely enough, it was the aristocratic Federalist party which had struck the first blows against slavery. John Jay and Alexander Hamilton were active in the Manumission Society. In their battle against human bondage they were aided by many other Federalists, including Gouver- neur Morris and Rufus King. Indeed, the latter was chiefly responsible for excluding slavery from the Northwest Territory. In 1799 the Federal- ists on almost a straight party vote passed a law gradually abolishing slavery in New York, but it was not until 1818 that July 4, 1827, was designated as the date of emancipation for all slaves. Actually an im- pressive number of Negroes were liberated by 1812, and probably very few had to wait until 1827 for freedom.
After emancipation had been achieved within the state, many New Yorkers, among them nationally known abolitionists like Gerrit Smith and the Tappan brothers, continued to agitate for the elimination of slavery throughout the nation. In March 1833 Arthur Tappan began to
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
publish the Emancipator, an antislavery journal, in New York City, and in October the New York City Abolition Society was established. In December a group of abolitionists held a convention in Philadelphia and founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. New Yorkers played an important role: Arthur Tappan was elected president of the new or- ganization, and the Emancipator became its official organ. Two years later, under the leadership of Gerrit Smith, Alvan Stuart, and Lewis Tappan, the New York State Anti-Slavery Society was established at Peterboro.
These agitators kept the evil of slavery constantly before New Yorkers. They printed handbills such as one issued in 1841 which proclaimed, "The slave is still clanking his chains on our soil-the captive is still sighing for freedom as he toils the live-long day for naught-tyranny still riots and fattens on human hopes and happiness in our boasted Republic." Ceaseless propaganda, coupled with a succession of crises involving slavery on the national scene, forced the citizenry to take a position on the issue. So important did the question become that party leaders could not ignore it and party loyalty could not withstand it. Consequently, during the decade and a half before 1860 New Yorkers frequently abandoned their political parties for the sake of a principle. The result was political turmoil.
The Democrats were the first to suffer. When President Polk asked Congress to appropriate funds for the purchase of territory from Mexico, David Wilmot, an antislavery congressman from Pennsylvania, intro- duced his famous proviso that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory." The Democratic state convention which met at Syracuse in September 1847 was firmly under Hunker control. When the majority refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso, the Barnburners, already stung by the betrayal of Silas Wright in 1846 and of Martin Van Buren in 1844, walked out. Later the seceders met to listen to the excellent oratory of "Prince" John, Martin Van Buren's son, who had won his sobriquet by dancing with Princess Vic- toria at a court ball in London. The Barnburners refused to accept the actions of the Hunker-dominated convention and called a meeting of their own in February 1848 to select delegates for the national conven- tion of the Democratic party. The Hunkers also sent a delegation. The Barnburners withdrew in a rage when the party managers offered each of the New York factions half of the votes to which their state was entitled.
Although both the presidency and the governorship were at stake in 1848, the Barnburners would not compromise with the Hunkers to keep the Whigs out of office. Soon after the Democratic national convention,
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Samuel J. Tilden issued a denunciation of the national platform and called for a convention at Utica on June 22. In response to this call an unusually able group assembled. Present were personal followers of Martin Van Buren: Samuel J. Tilden, John A. Dix, Churchill C. Cam- breling, Sanford E. Church, Dean Richmond, Benjamin F. Butler, and "Prince" John. Some leaders were motivated principally by opposition to slavery: Preston King, David Dudley Field, James S. Wadsworth, and William Cullen Bryant-all of whom would later take an active part in the formation of the Republican party. Many others were more interested in getting revenge on Polk and Marcy, who had used federal patronage chiefly for the benefit of the Hunkers. After listening to forceful speeches by Butler, King, and John Van Buren which upheld the Wilmot Proviso and the principle of "free soil," the group brought Van Buren out of retirement and nominated him for president. Dix was nominated for governor. Daniel Webster gibed that the leader of the "Free-Spoil"party was now the leader of the Free Soil party.
In August the Barnburners again met under a monster tent at a na- tional convention in Buffalo. Represented also were "Proviso" Demo- crats; Conscience Whigs, so-called because they could not tolerate slavery; enemies of Lewis Cass; a few Henry Clay Whigs disgusted at the nomination of Taylor; Land Reformers; Abolitionists; and other minor parties. Van Buren was again endorsed for the presidency. The group took the title Free Soil party. The last plank in their platform had a crusading ring: "Resolved, That we shall inscribe on our banner, 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labour, and Free Men,' and under it we will fight on, and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions." To the horror of the Hunkers, a new national party, headed by a distinguished Democrat, had sprung into being-a party which de- manded the western territories be closed to the slaveholder and opened to the free farmer who dominated the northern voting booth.
The Whig party in this election year was still under the suzerainty of its Dictator, Thurlow Weed, who won the presidential nomination for Zachary Taylor and succeeded in naming Hamilton Fish for governor. Millard Fillmore, a New Yorker, became the Whig nominee for vice- president. Although Weed had supported Fillmore for this very office four years earlier, he did not favor the nomination. The growing coolness be- tween Weed and Fillmore later disrupted party ranks. Interestingly enough, both Weed and Seward were sympathetic to the views of the Free Soilers and were destined to join hands with many leaders of that group to organize the Republican party in New York. In 1848 Whigs elected their candidates on both state and national levels. The Free Soil candidates demonstrated the strength of their party by drawing more
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
votes than their Democratic rivals, but despite its strong showing and its pledge "to fight on, and fight ever" the Free Soil party disintegrated fol- lowing its failure to win the election.
Hamilton Fish proved to be a good governor. Under his administration the tax laws were overhauled and the criminal code was improved. He initiated the first of a series of reforms in the public schools which con- tinued throughout the decade of the 1850's. During this ten-year period supervision of the schools was taken from the secretary of state and placed in the hands of a superintendent of public instruction, an independent Department of Public Instruction was created, a number of secondary schools came into being, and state financial aid was greatly increased, although it was not until 1867 that all public schools were free of tuition charges.
The political issues of the day, however, did not hinge on state affairs. The burning question was whether slavery should be permitted to ex- pand into the territories. Congress under the leadership of Henry Clay worked out a compromise to admit California as a free state, create the territories of Utah and New Mexico without reference to the Wilmot Pro- viso, eliminate slave trade in the District of Columbia, and provide a strin- gent fugitive slave law. During the debate on the compromise, William H. Seward spoke these prophetic words:
It will then appear that the question of dissolving the Union is a complex question; that it embraces the fearful issue whether the Union shall stand and slavery be removed by gradual, voluntary effort, and with compensation, or whether the Union shall be dissolved and civil war ensue, bringing on violent but complete and immediate emancipation. We are now arrived at that stage of our national progress when that crisis can be foreseen-when we must foresee it.
The position of Weed's principal lieutenant was clear. Slavery could not survive. The Compromise of 1850 was no final solution. In July 1850 Zachary Taylor died and Fillmore became president-the second New Yorker to attain that office. Fillmore threw his influence behind the work of Henry Clay, and the Compromise became law. The president was clearly at odds with Weed and Seward, who felt that endorsement of the Compromise would cause the antislavery men to desert the Whigs, thus ruining the party and upsetting its high tariff policy and plans for internal improvements. The growing rancor between Fillmore on one side and Weed and Seward on the other resulted in the president's attempt to get control of the Whig party in New York State. The first trial of strength came at the Whig state convention which met in Utica on September 26. When the delegates endorsed the principles of the Wilmot Proviso and commended Seward for the position he had taken on the Compromise,
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Francis Granger, the old Anti-Mason president of the convention, walked out followed by the cohorts of President Fillmore. As Granger left the hall, the attention of the delegates was caught by his silver-gray hair. As a result, the Whig faction which followed him became known as "Silver- Grays."
Although the Silver-Grays and the Sewardites (known as Woolly Heads) disagreed on national policy, they both endorsed Washington Hunt for governor, and he was elected to office. Under Weed's direction, Governor Hunt in 1851 pushed through a $9,000,000 appropriation to enlarge the canal. The act was ruled unconstitutional the following year, and it was not until 1854 that a constitutional amendment made possible the improvements Weed desired. The Whigs could agree on internal im- provements, and their policies on them won the party much popular support. On the slavery issue they were divided hopelessly. Weed, Greeley, and Seward kept denouncing the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, while the "Cotton Whigs," drawn chiefly from among the export merchants of New York City, condemned all agitation of the slavery issue.
The prestige of the presidency and federal patronage were not sufficient to enable the Silver-Grays to wrest control of the Whig party from Weed and Seward. At the national convention in Baltimore in June 1852, the New York delegation refused to endorse the Compromise and supported Gen- eral Winfield Scott. Unable to control his own state, Fillmore lost his bid for nomination, and Scott became the Whig candidate for president. After this crushing defeat the Silver-Grays ceased to exist as a political force.
The Compromise of 1850 was approved by the Democratic party on both the state and national level. For the most part, the Barnburners who had defected to form the Free Soil party temporarily rejoined the Demo- crats. Because people were frightened by the latent dangers of the slavery controversy and were willing to bury it under the Compromise, the Demo- cratic canvass was successful-Franklin Pierce was elected to the presi- dency and Horatio Seymour to the governorship. A hint of the future lay in the election of Gerrit Smith, the ardent New York abolitionist, to Con- gress from a district which had given Pierce and Seymour a majority of over one thousand votes.
The coalition of Hunkers and Barnburners which enabled the Demo- crats to regain control of New York was not on firm ground. At this time the party was divided into three main groups: the Barnburners, led by John Van Buren and John A. Dix; the moderate Hunkers or, as they were beginning to be known, Softshells, led by Governor Seymour, William L. Marcy, and the youthful Samuel J. Tilden; and the conservative Hunkers or Hardshells, generaled by Daniel S. Dickinson. When President Pierce appointed Marcy secretary of state, the Hardshells were deeply affronted. During a state convention in September 1853 the quarreling broke into
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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
the open. The Whigs had an easy time winning the fall elections. All Democratic factions blamed Pierce for meddling in state politics.
The feuds within the Democratic party hamstrung Seymour's adminis- tration and enabled the Whigs to capture the legislature. The governor's suggestion that action be taken to combat intemperance marks the emer- gence of prohibition as a political issue of importance. Ever since 1851, when Maine had abolished the sale of alcoholic liquors, some reformers in New York, led by Horace Greeley, had urged similar legislation. In 1853 Myron H. Clark won election to the state Senate as an advocate of a "Maine law." Clark skillfully maneuvered a bill through the legislature, but Governor Seymour sent it back with a resounding veto. Seymour pointed out that New York towns had in practice the right to adopt local option, since liquor could only be sold by licensed tavern keepers and grocers. Therefore the friends of prohibition could prevent the sale of liquor by electing supervisors and justices of the peace who would refuse to grant licenses. The governor also claimed that the Clark bill was uncon- stitutional, a position later affirmed by the courts when they ruled on an antiliquor act passed in 1855.
National events brought the attention of New Yorkers back to the slavery question early in 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska bill came up for debate in Congress. The proposed legislation would repeal the Mis- souri Compromise of 1820, which, except for the state of Missouri, limited slavery to the area south of 36° 30' in the Louisiana Purchase. Once again Seward became the principal spokesman in the cause of antislavery. Dur- ing the debate in the Senate he said: "You may legislate, and abrogate, and abnegate, as you will, but there is a Superior Power that overrules all; that overrules not only all your actions and all your refusals to act, but all human events, to the distant but inevitable result of the equal and universal liberty of all men." Seward's doctrine of "higher law" caused widespread comment. Many men of conservative leanings feared that the acknowledgment of the nebulous laws of a "Superior Power" which override the Constitution would result in chaos.
Congress enacted the Kansas-Nebraska bill and in so doing set in mo- tion forces that were to result in Civil War. Prior to this time the major political parties had been able to work out platforms and policies which were acceptable to both proslave and antislave factions. By the summer of 1854 the Republican party had come into being. Its major purpose was to prevent the spread of slavery into the territories, and it was in no mood for compromise. Most Democrats of the Barnburner school joined it, and in the North the Whig party crumbled as many Whigs flocked to the Republican banner. New York Whigs, however, did not join the Republi- cans, for although Seward and Weed were in sympathy with Republican
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NEW YORK SUPPORTS THE UNION
views, Seward's term in the Senate expired in March 1855, and it seemed wise to preserve the Whig party as an instrument for Seward's re-election. Consequently, Weed held the party together and won a Republican en- dorsement of its candidates. His efforts were rewarded. The Whigs won, placing Myron H. Clark in the governor's chair and returning Seward to the Senate. The Dictator's strategy was sound, but the plan prevented Seward and Weed from seizing undisputed national leadership of the Republican party at the time of its formation.
Few elections have been more confusing or more bitterly contested than that of 1854, when four candidates sought the gubernatorial chair. The controversies aroused by such issues as temperance, free soil, and nativism split both the Whig and Democratic parties and intensified the smoldering quarrels among party leaders. The victor, Myron Clark, was a Whig with temperance and antislavery sentiments. Daniel Ullman, a Fillmore man, was the advocate of nativism. Horatio Seymour, who se- cured the support of the Softshell and Barnburner factions of the Demo- cratic party, might well have won the prize had not the implacable Hardshells run Greene Bronson. Clark's margin of victory was a mere three hundred votes. In New York City, Fernando Wood, a Democrat, was elected mayor.
Mayor Wood immediately made his presence felt by demanding federal curtailment of the immigration of paupers and felons, the reorganization of the municipal government, and an end to the practice of driving cattle through the streets of the city. Under the existent charter the mayor had no voice in the selection of the heads of executive departments and thus they felt no responsibility to him. Wood believed that department heads should be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the Board of Aldermen. The chaotic condition of the city government underscored the need for reforms. Fernando Wood's aggressive instincts were revealed in his inaugural message to the Common Council: "I shall not hesitate to exercise even doubtful powers when the honor and the interests of the people are abused."
A surprising thing about the election of 1854 was the strong showing made by the Native American party. For a long time it had been a secret society. When its adherents were questioned, they invariably replied, "I know nothing." Naturally enough, the members of the party came to be called "Know-Nothings." This cult was dedicated to the suppression of the foreign born, of whom there were more than 650,000 in New York in 1850-more than one-fifth the total population of the state. Hard times led the native born to fear the competition of the immigrant for jobs, which partially accounted for the rising strength of the American party. Other important factors were the fear that democratic institutions would
Table 3. Major political parties in New York, 1776-1860.
1776 Loyalist (Tories) -> died 1783 (Ex-Tories usually became Federalists) Federalist- Anti-Federalist (Clintonians) -> c. 1800 Republican-
- 1776 Patriot (Whigs)- - - - >1787-
- - Federalist- - - - > died c. 1821
Democratic Republican- - > National Republican- - - >
1827 Anti-Masonic- -> 1829 Working Men's - - - - > died c. 1830
Democratic Republican-> c. 1834 Democratic-> c. 1839-
- T -1834 Whig - -
1839 Liberty c. 1844 Native American (Know Nothing)- 1 1
1
1
c. 1844 Antirent- -
Whig- - - 1850-
Woolly Heads (Whig faction) Silver-Grays (Whig faction
-1852 Whig - - - 1
Hunkers -
- - - > c. 1853 Hardshell Democrats (Hards) - -> Barnburner (Democratic faction)- -> c. 1853 Softshell Democrats (Softs) ->
Liberty- - T
Liberty-
- Native American-
-> died after 1855
Antirent -
-> died c. 1850
Hardshell-
- - Democratic- - -
Softshell
Whig
-1855 Republican
T Liberty-
Note: The rapidly shifting political alliances in New York during this period do not lend themselves to a schematic diagram. While this illus- tration seemingly demonstrates the complexity of the political history of the state, the reader is warned that it is really an oversimplification.
Sizable groups of voters did not follow the major shifts of alliance which are indicated above. For example, many Softshell Democrats refused to join the Republican party.
Republican -> c. 1817-
Bucktails (Republican faction: Albany Regency) Clintonians (Republican faction: De Witt Clinton) 1 -1826 Republican -> 1828-
1 Conservative Democrats-> c. 1845 Hunkers (Democratic faction) Radical Democrats- c. 1845 Barnburners (Democratic faction) 1 1 National Republican- Anti-Masonic -
1 T
Barnburners- - -1848 Free Soil 1848-
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NEW YORK SUPPORTS THE UNION
be overthrown by the hordes from alien soil and the misgivings of Protestants who saw the number of Roman Catholic communicants in- crease from about 1,300 in 1800 to approximately 300,000 in 1856.
The Know-Nothings won the state elections in 1856, but although immigration continued on a major scale and over a million foreign born were living in New York by 1860, the issue of nativism was swallowed by the slavery question and the Native American party failed to continue as a significant political force. Following the enactment of the Kansas- Nebraska bill, New Yorkers became increasingly active in their opposi- tion to slavery. The Emigrant Aid Society, dedicated to facilitate the settlement of antislavery men in Kansas, had strong support, and, in spite of the stringent Fugitive Slave Law, the Underground Railroad continued to transport Negroes across the state to freedom in Canada.
The activities of the Emigrant Aid Society and the continuing function of the Underground Railroad were but two of many signs indicating that the chief interest of New Yorkers was retained by the slave question. Weed and Seward, who had long opposed the spread of slavery, read the signs correctly. Having successfully returned his alter ego, Seward, to the Senate, the Dictator devoted his efforts to uniting the Whig and Re- publican parties in New York into a single organization to which all men who desired to check the spread of slavery could be rallied. By agreement the Whig and Republican state conventions met in Syracuse on Septem- ber 26, 1855, and both groups nominated the same men for office and adopted the same resolutions. Thereupon the Whigs marched in a body to the hall where the Republicans were meeting. The Republicans rose and cheered them as they entered and took the seats reserved for them, and unification was complete. Although not all who supported the new party were necessarily attracted by its policy on slavery-among others, there were businessmen tired of southern agrarian leadership and its insistence on low tariffs-the issue which called the Republican party into being was slavery, and its major purpose was to prevent the spread of that institution into the western territories of the United States.
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