USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 25
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Besides Seward and Weed, the Republicans enjoyed the support of other able politicians. John A. King, the son of Rufus King, and who had been in turn Federalist, Anti-Mason, and Whig, cast his lot with the new party. From the Democratic ranks came young Reuben E. Fenton and the venerable Preston King, an experienced hand at politics. Also a mem- ber of the inner circle was Edwin D. Morgan, who in later years dis- tinguished himself as governor of the state, as a Union general, and as a United States senator. An eminent group of literary minds supported the party. In New York City no less than three prominent editors-Horace Greeley of the Tribune, Henry J. Raymond of the Times, and William Cullen Bryant of the Evening Post-devoted themselves to the cause, as
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did George William Curtis, a young author of considerable fame. Not the least of the impressive group of intellectuals endorsing the party was the noted divine, Henry Ward Beecher, pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, who was perhaps the most outspoken of all the clergy in his denunciation of slavery.
Late in 1855, while the Republicans worked to improve their party organization, fighting broke out between the slave and antislave factions in Kansas. Henry Ward Beecher, fearing the worst, urged the purchase of Sharps rifles for Kansas settlers. The people responded and many "sol- diers" of the Emigrant Aid Society trekked westward equipped with one of "Beecher's Bibles." In the Senate, Seward urged the admission of Kansas as a free state while his southern colleagues demanded Kansas be ad- mitted as a slave state. In the midst of this vehement debate both Republicans and Democrats prepared for the election of 1856 in which the presidency and governorship were at stake.
Historically the Softshell Democrats (including the former Barnburn- ers ) had displayed antislavery sentiments. On a nation-wide basis the party was conciliatory to the southern viewpoint. The New York dele- gation to the national Democratic convention was comprised of both Hards and Softs. The Hardshells looked on with ironic amusement when the convention forced their colleagues from the Empire State to declare that slavery could not be outlawed in any territory of the United States. When James Buchanan was named for president over the protests of the Softs, the Hardshell Democrats seemed to have won a complete victory. Their triumph was short lived, for at the state convention, which nom- inated Amasa J. Parker for governor, Horatio Seymour, a Softshell, as- sumed the leadership of the party-a post he was to retain for over a decade. Notwithstanding Seymour's return to power, the New York Democrats endorsed the national party platform. The issue was clear. The Republicans opposed the spread of slavery, the Democrats did not.
The Republican national convention revealed malaise in the political partnership of Seward, Weed, and Greeley. Because of his powerful speeches in the Senate, Seward was the darling of the convention and unquestionably could have had the nomination for the asking. Weed, wise in the ways of politics, knew that the Republican chances for success in 1856 were slight and kept Seward from becoming a candidate, antici- pating that Seward's prospect for the presidency would be much better four years later. Although he followed Weed's advice, Seward was vexed, and for a time the relations between the two were strained. Greeley, irritated at the failure of his two partners to help him realize his own ambition to occupy important political office, threw his support to John C. Frémont, who won the nomination.
The Republicans named John A. King for governor at the state con-
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vention and conducted a lively campaign. Seward, Beecher, Greeley, and Bryant spoke forcefully for their party. "Bleeding Kansas" furnished an excellent opportunity for emotional appeal. George William Curtis, a gifted young orator and novelist, knew how to capitalize on it:
And yet no victim of those [Revolutionary] days, sleeping under the green sod, is more truly a martyr of Liberty than every murdered man whose bones lie bleaching in this summer sun upon the silent plains of Kansas. And so long as Liberty has one martyr, so long as one drop of blood is poured out for her, so long from that single drop of bloody sweat of the agony of humanity shall spring hosts as countless as the forest leaves and mighty as the sea.
As Weed had predicted, Buchanan won the presidency. New Yorkers, however, responded to the Republican plea. In the Empire State, Frémont ran eighty thousand votes ahead of his Democratic rival, and King easily defeated Parker to become the first Republican governor of the common- wealth. In New York City, Fernando Wood, who had placed the munici- pal police in uniform for the first time and reorganized the force into a semimilitary body, retained his hold on the local Democratic party despite strong opposition within Tammany Hall and won re-election as mayor. The balloting in the city was marked by riots. Fists, feet, clubs, knives, and revolvers were used with impunity. In the first ward a voter who had his nose shot off was informed he looked better without it. Hoodlums arrested and brought before Mayor Wood were promptly freed. Unques- tionably many fraudulent votes were cast during this disgraceful hubbub.
Although the Democrats controlled New York City, the Republicans were well pleased by their success in the contest for state offices. Still, the party's course did not run smoothly following the victory. Many Republi- cans of Democratic antecedents and some of Whig background resented the control Weed exercised over the party. In 1857 the Dictator sponsored Preston King, a former Democrat, for a vacancy in the United States Senate. King was chosen, but the alienation of James S. Wadsworth and David Dudley Field, who had aspirations for the office, helped to bring about the political disaster suffered by Seward and Weed three years later. The Dred Scott decision, which went against the abolitionists, caused much emotional turmoil favorable to the Republican cause. How- ever, the sharp financial panic of 1857 which offset the natural Republican sentiments of the populace and the quarreling among former Whigs en- abled the Democrats to succeed at the polls.
It was in 1857 that the state legislature amended the charter of New York City along the lines suggested by Mayor Wood. The aldermen were reduced from twenty-two in number to seventeen, the number of councilmen was reduced from sixty to twenty-four, and provision was made for the appointment of executive department heads by the mayor
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with the advice and consent of the Board of Aldermen. These actions were not the result of a desire on the part of the state legislature to with- draw from city affairs. On the contrary, the legislature took over direct control of Central Park and reorganized the city police. These actions in- creased the political patronage at the disposal of the political leaders controlling the state government. Continued meddling in the affairs of New York City was resented not only by Wood but by many urban dwellers who believed local matters ought to be handled by the city government.
The amended charter called for a new municipal election in December 1857, thus cutting Wood's term in half. Finding himself strongly op- posed for re-election by Daniel Tiemann, who had the support of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and Tammany Democrats, Mayor Wood marshaled all his forces. He probably gained three or four thousand ballots by hurriedly naturalizing aliens in time to vote. After promising to support the proper candidate, aliens were given a little red ticket reading:
Common Pleas: Please naturalize the bearer. Nicholas Seagrist, Chairman
Wood's efforts were unsuccessful, however, and Tiemann won the election by a narrow margin. When Wood's forces were defeated in a Tammany Hall election the following spring, he withdrew and set up his own organization at Mozart Hall on the corner of Bleecker Street and Broadway. Mozart Hall was to exercise powerful political influence in New York City for two decades. Its beginnings were not auspicious, however, for the Democratic state convention in 1858 seated Tammany in preference to Mozart, and in the municipal elections of that year Wood's candidates were defeated overwhelmingly.
When the Republican state convention met in Syracuse in 1858 it was divided into Weed and anti-Weed factions. Edwin D. Morgan, the Dic- tator's candidate, was nominated for governor, but the opposition mus- tered considerable strength-even Horace Greeley received three votes for nomination. Weed resolutely refused to permit any alliance with the Know-Nothings.
During the course of the campaign the attention of the citizenry was focused on the issue of slavery. In Illinois Abraham Lincoln, already recognized in his home state as a gifted orator and sagacious politician, accepted Republican support for a seat in the United States Senate say- ing: "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this govern-
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ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free." His famous debate with Stephen A. Douglas followed, winning him national recog- nition. Actually Lincoln said little in the campaign of 1858 that Seward had not said years earlier. During the debate over the Compromise of 1850 Seward had warned that slavery would be liquidated either by peaceful or violent means. For a decade he had been recognized as the most powerful spokesman of the forces resisting the spread of slavery; now his established position was threatened by Lincoln. Seward rose to the occasion. Speaking at Rochester on October 25, he warned that the slave- holding system and the system of free labor were in collision:
Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think it is accidental, un- necessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephem- eral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between op- posing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free labour nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimately be tilled by free labour, and Charleston and New Orleans will become marts for legitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye fields and wheat fields of Massachusetts and New York must again be surrendered by their farmers to slave culture and to the pro- duction of slaves, and Boston and New York become once more markets for trade in the bodies and souls of men.
The words "irrepressible conflict" caught the public imagination. The radical elements of the Republican party, including Greeley, claimed Seward as their own. The more moderate elements thought that he went too far and by taking so extreme a stand weakened the position of his party. The Democrats proclaimed him downright dangerous, an arch agitator, whose purpose was to precipitate a civil war. The Republicans won a victory, the gubernatorial office passed into the capable hands of Morgan, and Seward again was recognized as the foremost spokesman of the party.
On October 17, 1859, John Brown, who had massacred proslavery set- tlers in Kansas, seized the national arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Colonel Robert E. Lee and a detachment of United States Marines restored order, but not until the severely wounded Brown was captured and ten of his eighteen men were slain. John Brown's plan was to raid plantations and free slaves, who would be added to his forces. He anticipated that the size of his band would grow rapidly and that the slave power would crumble before it. The evidence is clear that Gerrit Smith and other New York abolitionists aided and encouraged Brown. After the collapse of Brown's raid, some of these gentlemen found the time propitious for a visit to Canada. Smith went into an insane asylum in Utica, where he remained
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until after Brown rode on his own coffin to the gallows. When the self- appointed liberator was hanged, one hundred guns were fired in Albany to mourn the martyr's death.
Many thinking persons were alarmed at the implications of the attack on Harper's Ferry. The "irrepressible conflict" referred to by Seward weighed uneasily on their minds. The Democrats lost no opportunity to claim that the episode was the natural reaction to the preaching of the Republican party. Fernando Wood, who in 1859 was again elected mayor of New York City in a smashing victory over his Republican and Tam- many Hall opponents, denounced the Republican party as a "fiend which stalks within the narrow barrier of its Northern cage." He went on to point out that much northern wealth was invested in the South and that New York trade depended on the prosperity of slave owners.
Seward, Governor Morgan, and other responsible leaders were quick to denounce Brown and his raiders. In February 1860 Abraham Lincoln addressed a large audience in New York City. In his talk, which was received enthusiastically, he set aside Brown as a foolish fanatic and pictured the Republican party as a conservative rather than a radical organization. Two days later Seward, in a major speech in the United States Senate, also called the raid on Harper's Ferry an act of folly. Seward's oration was conciliatory; he did not mention the doctrine of "higher law" or the theory of an "irrepressible conflict," nor did he call for the abolition of slavery. The speech was well received by the mod- erate elements of the Republican party, but it lacked the emotional fire of his earlier utterances. Radical elements were disappointed, and many questioned whether Seward's moderation was a result of his desire for the presidency rather than of his own conviction.
The New York legislature of 1859-1860 was outrageously corrupt. A corps of self-seeking lobbyists attached itself to the lawmakers with the tenacity of bloodsucking leeches. Among the most vigorously represented groups were the New York City transit interests. Thurlow Weed admit- tedly agreed to support them in return for their contribution-estimated at $50,000-$1,000,000-to Seward's campaign for the presidency. Whether any part of the contribution was actually paid is unknown, and it is also unknown whether Weed personally profited from the venture. In any case, iniquitous franchises, aided by bribery and the influence of the Dictator, passed the legislature over the veto of Governor Morgan, in spite of forceful opposition from Bryant, Greeley, and Raymond. The New York Evening Post broke with Weed and Seward, declaring, "our city has been driven nearly to the point of revolution by the daring and corrupt schemes contemplated at Albany."
The New York delegation to the Republican national convention which met in Chicago on May 16, 1860, was liberally provided with money and
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talent. Behind the deputation was Thurlow Weed, master political strate- gist. Aiding him were Governor Morgan and Henry J. Raymond, both men of high repute and both skilled in the art of politics. William M. Evarts served as floor manager, and in George William Curtis the Seward supporters had the most talented orator in the assemblage. When the convention, eager to avoid a radical platform which might weaken the party at the polls, refused to accept a resolution to the effect that "all men are created free and equal," Curtis called upon the delegates "to think well before, upon the free prairies of the West, in the summer of 1860, you dare to shrink from repeating the words of the great men of 1776." The audience was swept away and the motion carried. On May 17, Greeley, who was present as a delegate from Oregon, telegraphed his paper in New York City, "The conviction is that the opposition to Gov- ernor Seward cannot be concentrated on any other candidate, and that he will be nominated."
Vigorous and able men were working in opposition to Seward's candi- dacy, some openly and others beneath the surface. Greeley, who was highly regarded in the West and in New England, actively sought his de- feat. Other important New Yorkers, including James S. Wadsworth and David Dudley Field, who remembered that the Dictator had overlooked their own aspirations when Preston King was selected for the Senate three years earlier, and William Cullen Bryant, who resented the intimacy between Seward and "Boss" Weed, strongly supported Lincoln. A well- organized group was active at the convention in behalf of the candidate from Illinois. In their zeal Lincoln's supporters exceeded the authority given to them by their candidate. During the small hours of Friday morn- ing, May 18, cabinet posts were offered in return for support. Deals were made. Some hours later the first vote was taken: Seward, 1731/2; Lincoln, 102. The next trial failed to produce the swing to the New Yorker his friends had anticipated: Seward 1841/2; Lincoln, 181. On the third ballot Lincoln received enough votes for nomination, and Evarts moved to make it unanimous. Seated amid the Oregon delegation, Horace Greeley beamed a smile of triumph. Thurlow Weed sat huddled, his face hidden in his hands, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Only by the narrowest of margins was the Civil War president from Illinois rather than from New York. Unquestionably the New York senator deserves much credit for his years of battle against the evil institution of slavery. Probably his active efforts in the struggle weakened him as a candidate. The doctrine of "higher law" offended many men of conserva- tive leanings; others feared the "irrepressible conflict" he saw as inevitable. The stigma many attached to Weed probably was merited and certainly weakened Seward. Yet it was Weed's practical politics which did much to make Seward a statesman of influence and to build the Republican
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party on both state and national levels into an effective instrument. While the issue of slavery was the clarion call which brought the Republican party into existence, other issues involving tariffs and canals could not be ignored if the party was to endure. Thurlow Weed was one of the master minds who brought the party through the pitfalls of infancy to the strength of maturity in 1860.
In this year of crisis most New York Democrats and their northern colleagues supported Stephen A. Douglas for president. The southern faction of the party could not tolerate the Douglas doctrine of "popular sovereignty," which held that the citizens of a territory had the right to de- termine whether slavery should or should not be legal within their dis- trict. Consequently, the Democrats divided into northern and southern factions, the former nominating Douglas, the latter nominating John C. Breckinridge. Some New York Democrats of Hardshell antecedents and led by Daniel S. Dickinson, Fernando Wood, Charles O'Conor, and John A. Dix also supported Breckinridge, but they had little hope of carrying the state for their candidate. For all practical purposes there was no truly national party in the field. Douglas and Lincoln could expect sig- nificant support only in the North, Breckinridge could expect it only in the South. Throughout the nation, and especially in the border states, thoughtful conservatives recognized that sectional parties meant dis- union. These men established the Constitutional Union party, hoping to build a new political organization on a truly nation-wide basis. They selected John Bell of Tennessee as their presidential candidate.
It was recognized that the capture of New York's electoral vote would be decisive. In an effort to secure New York against Lincoln, Washington Hunt and Horatio Seymour arranged for a fusion of the Douglas and Bell electoral tickets. This maneuver was known as the "Syracuse juggle." Later the Breckinridge forces were brought into the fold and a Fusion Ticket was established which proposed to divide the electoral votes: Douglas, 18; Bell, 10; Breckinridge, 7. The Fusion Ticket, which Greeley dubbed the "Confusion Ticket," was a real threat to Republican aspira- tions.
Several groups in New York opposed Lincoln. A sizable number were unwilling to grant the Negro equal status and were not morally opposed to slavery. Others feared that the election of Lincoln would mean civil war or disunion, either of which meant serious economic losses to the industrial and commercial interests of the state. Most of the great mer- chants of New York City were in the latter group and opposed Lincoln as a threat to business. The gifted group of Republican leaders in New York were equal to the occasion. Pointing to the moral issues involved and picturing the advantages to commerce and industry which would accrue from protective tariffs, free homesteads, and land grants to rail-
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roads, the Republicans turned the campaign into a crusade. Lincoln car- ried New York and won the presidency. Governor Morgan was returned safely to office.
Thurlow Weed had controlled first the Whig party and then the Re- publican party in New York since their formation. The nomination of Lincoln over Seward at Chicago made it almost inevitable that the Dic- tator's authority would be challenged following the election campaign. When Seward agreed to become Lincoln's secretary of state-a difficult post which he filled with distinction-the anti-Weed faction headed by William Cullen Bryant, Charles A. Dana, George Opdyke, and David Dudley Field put forth Horace Greeley to succeed him in the United States Senate. Weed's candidate was William M. Evarts, who had la- bored hard for the cause at Chicago. The Dictator soon discovered that Ira Harris, the old Antirenter, held the balance of power between Greeley and Evarts, and he negotiated with Harris, who placed himself in Weed's hands. As the balloting began in the Republican caucus, Greeley and Evarts were neck and neck, with Harris a poor third. The eighth ballot showed a marked trend to Greeley. When the news reached Weed, he thrust a cigar in his mouth, completely unaware that he already had one between his lips, lighted it, and said excitedly to the messenger, "Tell the Evarts men to go right over to Harris-to Harris-to Harris!" On the tenth ballot Ira Harris was selected and ultimately replaced Seward in the Senate. Once again the Dictator had averted disaster.
While Weed attended to political fence building in New York, Seward was engaged in a more desperate task in Washington, where he was regarded as the principal spokesman for the newly elected administra- tion which would take office on March 4, 1861. Secession was in the air. Southerners plainly were unwilling to accept Republican rule, and Presi- dent Buchanan made no resolute effort to compromise differences and preserve the Union. The work of congressional committees failed to find solutions acceptable to the Republican party and southern slaveholders. Seward's objective was to preserve as effective a government as possible for Lincoln to take over, but since he could not modify the policies of his party it was impossible for him to reconcile the opposing interests. Consequently, the New York senator made a strong emotional appeal for preservation of the Union, hoping to rally the entire nation around the flag without thought to sectional differences.
Seward's efforts probably won the moderate elements in the northern and middle states to the support of the Republican viewpoint, but he could not prevent secession. By February 1 seven states-South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas-had with- drawn from the Union. On February 8 the Confederate States of America was created. New Yorkers were of two minds-some favored permitting
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the secession to take place peacefully, while others desired to maintain the Union even at the cost of civil war.
On January 7 Mayor Fernando Wood of New York City proposed that the metropolis withdraw from the Union and establish itself as a free city. This startling proposal was based on Wood's belief that the dissolu- tion of the federal Union was inevitable and that the city ought not to jeopardize its profitable trade relations with the South by taking an anti- southern stand. The mayor believed that such a scheme would free the city from domination by the state legislature, and he proposed a modest tariff to provide the city with revenue. The scheme was cleverly cal- culated to draw support from the great merchants and from the immigrant groups who feared the competition of free Negro labor.
In reply to Wood's proposal for a free city, Greeley let loose a blast: "Fernando Wood evidently wants to be a traitor; it is lack of courage only that makes him content with being a blackguard." Late in January, John A. Dix, the venerable New York Democrat who was Buchanan's secretary of the treasury, issued his historic dispatch: "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." A few days later, at the state Democratic convention, Horatio Seymour and other leaders called for peaceful secession. George W. Clinton, the son of De Witt Clinton, disagreed. Said he, "There is no such thing as legal secession. The Constitution of these United States was intended to form a firm and perpetual Union. If secession be not lawful, then, what is it? I use the term reluctantly but truly-it is rebellion!"
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