Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 6

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > New York > Jefferson County > Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894 > Part 6

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President Johnson had given these amendments his full support while in Congress, and it was nat- urally supposed that he would faithfully carry them out when he became the chief executive officer of the restored government. But soon after he was sworn into office his attitude underwent a marked change, perhaps influenced by promises of high social position in the South as the price of his treachery, that section having always denied him any other status than that which belonged to an average " poor white" who had come to the front in defiance of their ancient traditions. He appointed

provisional governors for the secession States, who summoned conventions to draft constitutions for reorganizing those States. Thus reconstructed, with the political condition of the freedmen wholly ig- nored, except that in some he was excluded alto- gether from voting, these States chose representa- tives in Congress; but as there was not the least authority for Johnson's attempt to thus reorganize State governments in the South, the whole scheme was rejected by Congress, and the representatives thus chosen were not recognized. An attempt to impeach Johnson soon followed, but it was not suc- cessful.

We will follow a little further the record made by the Democracy, mainly for the benefit of those who shall peruse this history in the years which are to come. The National Democratic Convention which met in New York on the 4th of July, 1868, placed Horatio Seymour in nomination for the Presidency, upon a platform denouncing the mili- tary usurpations of the Republicans in the South, hostility to the enfranchisement of the freedmen, and a declaration that the bonds which had been issued during the war, when not actually naming " gold " as the coin demanded in their redemption, should be paid in "lawful money," which, of course, meant greenbacks or any paper obligations of the government that the exigencies of the war had made a legal tender in payment of all debts, pub- lic or private. Thus the Democrats abandoned their ancient "hard-money " principles, so ably advocated by Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hart Benton. General Grant defeated Seymour, carry- ing twenty-six of the States, with 212 electoral votes.

In this contest Tammany Hall carried the State of New York for Seymour. Only three of the se- ceded States were excluded from a share in the election, and the reconstruction era was practically ended, at least so far as the national government made any attempt in that direction, and all the seceded States were soon back in the Union, with the same general rights as were enjoyed by those which had remained loyal.

In 1872, what were designated as the "Liberal Republicans," put Horace Greeley in nomination for the Presidency in opposition to Grant. He had been the most conspicuous antagonist the Democratic party had ever encountered, yet he received their support in the North, such was their party fealty and the coherence of their organiza- tion; but their support was unavailing, that vet- eran Whig and celebrated newspaper editor and political writer was badly beaten, carrying but sixty-six of the electoral votes. He died before those votes were cast.

The country was now confronted with a "solid South," and it was Democratic, needing but New

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York and one or two minor States in the North to give that party the control of the government. More than ever this condition forced the Democracy to become a party of expedients, in one part of the country advocating certain doctrines that were re- pudiated in another portion. Yet in the fall of 1874 they had gained control of the National House of Representatives, and, with the exception of two Congresses, have held it continuously since, and from 1879 to 1881 it had a narrow majority in the Senate.

In 1876 the nomination of the veteran Democrat, Samuel J. Tilden, came very near, through its affiliation with the "solid South," restoring that party to a full control of the government. Hayes was the Republican nominee, and if the disputed States of South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana were counted for him he would have a majority of one in the Electoral College. Tilden's friends claimed, and it is now generally conceded that they were right in so claiming, that the popular votes in those States were in Tilden's favor, and should have been counted for him. After a winter of anxiety, when a resort to an armed collision of the opposing parties was much discussed, the matter was settled by an electoral commission, which seated Hayes. Thus, after sixteen years of exclusion from the White House, Tilden had led his party back to its old traditions, and on the popular vote he had 157,037 majority over all his competitors combined. His efforts in New York in driving from power the infamous Tweed ring had much to do with his pop- ularity, and though defeated for the Presidency, Governor Tilden had the satisfaction in 1878 of see- ing both houses of Congress Democratic. His life- long labors in his native State had this satisfactory result : it restored the Democratic party to a position of respectability, and rescued it from the fate it had invited by its stolid opposition to the attempts of patriotism in suppressing the rebellion.

We come now to a date when even the young men of the country can trace in their recollection the issues between the Republican and Democratic organizations. There was but little actual antagon- ism between them, when, in 1880, the Democrats put General Hancock in nomination for the Presi- dency. Although he carried nineteen States, their united votes were but 155, and Garfield, his com- petitor, was triumphantly elected. Hancock's de- feat could be traced directly to the tariff, the same issue that now in 1894 is the main contention be- tween the two leading parties in the country.

THE STALWARTS.

Under the Hayes administration there arose the "stalwart " faction in the Republican party, under the domination of Roscoe Conkling of New York, who, with his fellow senator, Thomas H. Platt, had resigned his seat in Congress in umbrage because the

President had appointed an opponent of Conkling to the position of collector of the port of New York, the attachés of which office had for over ten years been Conkling's chief dependence in maintaining his hold upon the Republican "ma- chine" in that great State. These men appealed to the New York legislature for re-election, which would be looked upon as a vindication of their course and a sort of expression of renewed confidence in Conkling as the party leader. But in this they were sadly disappointed, and the well-laid plan of Conkling, by which he had hoped to weaken Garfield's influence with his party by his own vindication in New York, proved a boomerang for that once power- ful leader whose popularity had been wholly based upon his ability to keep his henchmen in salaried positions under the government. When these were withdrawn his political prestige came abruptly to an end : thenceforward he was of no account as a party leader. Indeed, he had never been a safe counsellor for any party, his egotism and aggressive personality unfitting him for high rank as a states- man.

The defeat of Folger (who had been put forward as the stalwart candidate for Governor in New York, by the enormous majority of nearly 200,000 votes, utterly squelched the Conkling stalwarts and brought into prominence the successful candidate against Folger, Grover Cleveland, who was thenceforward to become the Democratic leader of his party, which had, after many vicissitudes and several deliberate attempts at suicide, survived through war and peace, and at last was again dominant.

But the stalwarts, as a fitting testimonial of their desperation and general lack of principle in politics, deliberately defeated Blaine (as was evidenced in the vote of Oneida County, the home of Conkling), when he ran against Cleveland in 1884, and lost New York and the Presidency by less than 1200 votes-giving the Democrats entire control of all the national offices.

"LAWFUL MONEY."

For several years there was much discussion as to the policy of paying all the bonds of the govern- ment in gold coin, many of these bonds reading upon their face that they were to be paid in "law- ful money," which included silver as well as green- backs. The bankers and bondholders throughout the country insisted that gold coin was the "lawful money " they ought to receive, and the masses of the people felt that "greenbacks," being also "law- ful money," were good enough to pay off the bonds with. This discussion brought into existence what was called the " Greenback " party, which, affiliating with the various labor unions throughont the North, at one time had quite a following. But as the sev- eral classes of bonds fell due, or were extended at a

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

much lower rate of interest, and as the banks themselves were obliged to hold large blocks of these bonds as security for their circulation, the actual question as to what kind of money should be used in paying them off was never definitely passed upon. By 1888 the Greenback party had no stand- ing in the country, save as it was manipulated by certain politicians to further some individual end at organization are noted here more as a matter of perfecting our political record, than because the party was ever a national one. But the questions they brought forward for discussion are important and remain unsettled, and will probably remain so, since the United States government has never yet- 1st January, 1894-failed to pay off any of its bonds, issued to put down the rebellion, in gold, when the yellow metal was demanded.

We have digressed a little, and again take up the main thread of our sketch.

THE TARIFF.

In the various mutations of its career the Democ- racy had been upon both sides of the tariff' ques- tion. The high protective tariff of 1846 was the work of Mr. Hungerford, from Jefferson county, and it stood for many years as the policy of the Democratic party ; but different views began to be entertained by many Democratic leaders, among them Mr. Cleveland, until the party drift appeared to tend towards an entire abandonment of a protec- tive system, as one which taxed the people without equally replenishing the public treasury, and en- riched manufacturers and fostered monopolies by an unjustifiable tax on the consumer. The National Convention of that party in 1892 finally threw down the gauntlet by declaring " protection to be robbery of the many for the benefit of the few," and de- manded that " taxes be limited to the necessities of the government when honestly and economically administered." That is the position of the party to-day ; but, true to its traditions, it is " solid " on both sides of this important question, according to the varied interests of its adherents in different locali- ties.

THE SILVER QUESTION.

Another question became prominent. In 1873 the coinage of the silver dollar was discontinued by Act of Congress. Its value relative to gold had begun to decline, a process which has gone continuously on with the opening of new mines, its elimination in Europe from international exchange, and the im- provement of processes for reducing the ore. In 1878 Mr. Bland brought forward a bill in Congress to restore this coinage on the old ratio of silver to gold, and to make it a legal tender for all debts.

The bill was passed over the veto of President Hayes. Provision was made for the purchase and coinage by the treasury of $2,000,000 per month, with discretion granted to the Secretary of the Treasury to increase the amount to $4,000,000, or in fact to make the government the buyer of nearly all the average annual silver production of the country. Against this coinage the treasury was instructed to the time of an election. The rise and decline of this . issue silver certificates, or current notes payable in silver coin, and in fifteen years the government had accumulated in such coin and in silver bullion over $300,000,000, and the fund was constantly in- creasing. The seigniorage went to increase the public revenue.

Perhaps no two questions have ever been pre- sented to the people that admitted of such earnest discussion and such diversity of views as the tariff and the silver questions. Neither of them ought to be looked upon as partisan questions, for they are both practical matters and should have been kept outside of politics. But they were both unsettled in June, 1888, when Cleveland was nominated at St. Louis, and the Republicans opposed him with Ben- jamin Harrison, of Indiana, who was elected, hav- ing a majority of sixty-five in the electoral college. The defeat of Cleveland was generally attributed to David Bennett Hill, then Governor of New York, who controlled Tammany Hall, which was said to be solidly opposed to Cleveland. In the 51st Con- gress the Republicans had a fair working majority, and they passed the revenue measure known as the Mckinley bill, which was moderately protective.

In June, 1892, the National Conventions of the two parties were held, and Cleveland and Harrison were again nominated. In the Republican conven- tion there was evinced much personal feeling be- tween delegates who favored Harrison or Blaine. Harrison secured the nomination, but was defeated by Cleveland at the polls.

The condition of business, having very rapidly deteriorated early in 1893, or almost as soon as Cleveland was inaugurated, he called Congress to- gether in extra session. After nearly three months spent in discussion that body repealed what was known as the purchasing clause of the " Sherman Silver Bill," and the monthly purchase of silver immediately ceased, but the Secreta. y of the Treas- ury was empowered to coin the silver on hand into silver dollars at his discretion.

Having brought this political record down to 1894, and having shown, as we think, whence the two leading parties, Republican and Democratic, have sprung, as well as chronicled their varying fortunes, each having intelligently borne rule for many years, and each having been represented by the ablest men the country has produced, we may now pause and leave for those who follow us to complete the fur-

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

ther record. It may be that our delineation of the workings of the Democratic party will be consid- ered by some as partisan or unfair. The writer of this chapter is a Democrat who voted for Cleveland and while he has tried to be entirely impartial he has been everywhere confronted by the record Democracy has left behind it, and those records, from 1859 to 1865, prove that party to have been lacking in the patriotism and dignified statesmanship which its earlier and later record seemed to demand.

It will be observed that this chapter has made no allusion to the position of the two parties upon the subject of pensioning worthy soldiers who went to the front and fought for the Union. After careful search the writer has been unable to dis- cover any essential difference between the two leading parties upon this question, though it has been charged that President Cleveland has not favored the later pension legislation. But Congress makes the laws; the President's duty is merely to see that they are faithfully executed.

GETTING NEAR TOGETHER.

After nearly half a century of strife between the Republicans and Democrats there is, in the begin- ning of the year 1894-the one hundredth since the Black River country began to be settled- actually only one divergent question which keeps these two great parties separate, that of the tariff -whether the government expenses shall be col- lected mainly through a tariff upon imports high enough to really amount to protection for the American manufacturer-and this is the Republi- can contention-or whether, as is desired by the Democrats, a lighter tariff shall be imposed upon imports and the balance needed to carry on the government be raised by a slight tax upon incomes above $4000 a year, and perhaps an increased tax upon some article of domestic production, say whis- key or tobacco, or both.

And since so slight a difference separates these two veteran organizations, it is not improbable that the future will develop new questions of a more engrossing character, and then we shall perhaps see both of these parties disintegrate, and become merged into new organizations, whose rallying cries are yet unspoken, and springing from exigencies and needs as yet undeveloped.

THE POPULISTS.

In this chapter I have made no direct allusion to the Populists, who have had an organization in a part of the West, particularly in Kansas and the Dakotas, and now count at least two Senators and two or three Representatives in Congress. As an organization, the Populists appear to have been un- fortunate in their selection of the few officers whom they have pushed to prominence, for from

none of these has there ever come an intelligent setting forth of the principles or the demands of that organization. They have limited their efforts to a mere obstruction of most of the legislation proposed by either of the older parties. It is true that Senator Peffer, of Kansas, solemnly proposed that the government should issue $300,000,000 of lawful money and loan it to farmers in the West at 2 per cent. interest, and another of these office- holding Populists advocated the establishment of depots by the government into which the farmers would be allowed to empty their wheat and receive ready cash for it at an established rate. But these propositions, and others which might be named, appear so childish as not to demand serious con- sideration from any one. That organization is not likely to send any further representatives to Congress.

JEFFERSON COUNTY'S LOCAL POLITICS.

The strictly local political history of Jefferson County for the years between 1860 and 1894 may be divided into three general periods: the war period; the reconstruction epoch, embracing the modifications of the constitutions of the returned seceding States so as to adapt them to the abolition of slavery ; the amendments to the United States Constitution and their ratification by the requisite number of States. Then followed twenty or more years of great prosperity and continued growth of the country under the system of protection to American industries. In all this period Jefferson county was in full accord with the East and North, and bore an heroic part in all the great crises of that eventful period. She sent her full quota of volunteers to the defense of the Union, and for the whole of the politically tumultuous period of actual conflict and reconstruction, sent clear-headed and patriotic representatives to Congress, whose voices and votes were uniformly on the side of the largest liberty, the cleanest politics and the great- est reasonable economy.

From the time of the organization of the Republi- can party in 1856, beginning with the Fremont campaign, Jefferson county has not failed to sus- tain the Republican candidates for President and Governor and Members of Congress. During that long and very prosperous period she, once elected a Democratic sheriff, and on another occasion a Democratic county judge. These occasions were wholly due to internal strife between local Repub- lican leaders. In 1878 Leonard Seaton, the Demo- cratic nominee, was elected sheriff over Dewitt C. Wheeler, by 642 plurality ; and in 1889 a similar event occurred in the election of a county judge, when John C. McCartin, Democrat, was elected to that office over Elon R. Brown, Republican, by 176 plurality. These events, however, were only tem-

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

porary eddies in the steady current of Republican- ism in the county.

During the War of the Rebellion, from the time Fort Sumter was fired upon and the first call for 75,000 men till the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, the thought and heart of the great body of the people were with President Lincoln, and heartily aiding the Union cause. After it be- came fully evident that a prolonged war was in- evitable, most of the Democrats in the county called themselves War Democrats, and eminent men of that party spoke side by side with Repub- licans at recruiting meetings, but their distinct party organization was kept up, and in the cam- paign of 1864 they generally voted for General Mc- Clelland, though their platform declared the war to be a failure. The organization of the Democratic party was kept up with the prophetic belief that it would most likely be needed some day. Then, as now, War Democrats and Anti-war Democrats voted together the same as Protection Democrats and Free Trade Democrats now vote together, with- out rhyme or reason. The era of reconstruction brought no marked changes in the strength and membership of the Republican party in Jefferson county. Its majorities may have diminished some- what owing to a lack of the all-absorbing interest felt during the war period.

Passing from the reconstruction epoch to the quieter period of the past twenty years, the ques- tions of temperance and protection to American industries have taken the place of the slavery ques- tion, war and reconstruction, the Republican organi- zation appearing to manifest more interest in the progress of temperance and industrial protection than the Democratic. This has served to keep up party divisions about where they were during the slavery agitation. At this writing the threatening effort to repeal the protective principle has un- doubtedly given the " bulge" to the Republican side of politics.

For nearly twenty years there has existed in Jef- ferson county, as elsewhere, a Prohibition party, which has cast from 500 to 1000 votes. It reached its highest vote six years ago, since when it has de- clined to about 600, where it has remained rather stationary for some years past.

We append a tabulated statement showing the pluralities given for Representatives in Congress from 1820 to 1893, and with this table and the lengthy note relating to Silas Wright we close this political chapter in which we have steadfastly striven to be impartial, confining ourselves to relating facts and incidents, but seldom venturing any opinion of our own; but when that has occurred, we have only drifted with the current of political events, never antagonizing or indulging in argument or special pleading. Parties must be prepared to go

into history like individuals, upon their undis- puted record and the general trend of their influ- ence.

REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS, 1820-94.

Yrs. Representatives. Plur.

1820 Micah Sterling, D.

1822 Ela Collins, D. ..

1824 Egbert Ten Eyck, D. 14

1826 Silas Wright,*D. . 30

1830-6 Daniel Wardwell, D.

'36-40 Isaac H. Bronson, D.

1016

1840 Thomas C. Chittenden, W.

461

'42-44 Orville Hungerford, D. 769

1846 Joseph Mullin, W. 44

1848 Charles E. Clarke, W. 209

1850 Willard Ives, Ind. D., 419

1852 Caleb Lyon, Ind. . 1083

1854 William A. Gilbert, R. 644

'56-60 Charles B. Hoard, R.

3503

'60-64 Ambrose W. Clark, R.

3478

'64-70 Addison H. Laflin, R. . 2607

'70-74 Clinton L. Merriam, R.

883

* The fact that (in 1826) the distinguished Silas Wright represented the Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis district in Congress, is now recalled by but very few of our peo- ple. He was without question the ablest statesman the northern part of the State has ever produced.

Mr. Wright came of humble parentage, but rose by un- interrupted growth to become a member of the State leg- islature, a Member of Congress, and then a U. S. Senator from the great State of New York. While Senator he be- came the popular Governor of his State, and refused the nomination to the Vice-Presidency at a time when it was considered the almost sure stepping-stone to the Presi- dency itself-a position he could certainly have reached, for he was the idol of his party in the free States, and that party (the Democratic) had for many years ruled the country, for its doctrines appealed to the judgment of the common people.

He was of sturdy build, above medium height, of a se- rious deportment, easily approached by plain people (for he came of such), and maintained a quiet dignity that seemed exactly to fit him. I first heard him in a political speech at Watertown, during the Polk campaign of 1844. His audience was composed largely of farmers and other toilers-just the kind of people he loved to address. He spoke for nearly two hours, but not a man left while he wasspeaking. His mind was judicial in its character, his diction pure and spontaneous, never halting for a word, and never repeating. He addressed the understanding, and would have been embarrassed if any one had laughed or applauded what he said. Pure in life, a poor man when he might have made himself rich in office, it is not strange that he was held in such high esteem by his party and the people. It was justly said of him that he spent as much time in declining office as others did in seeking it. His manner, his language, his every public action, indicated the sincere, earnest, able man. Had he been willing to pledge to the Southern Democrats what Mr. Polk had been constrained to promise as the price of their favor, Mr. Wright could have been nominated and elected instead of Polk-but Silas Wright was not a man to tie his hands by any such agreement, for he doubtless apprehended the speedy coming of a time when of ne- cessity the country would become all slave or all free- and he wanted it free. He was fortunate in passing on to join the "silent majority " before the civil war-and his loving neighbors in Canton, St. Lawrence county, so long his honored home, have placed a modest memorial stone over his early grave, where rests all that was mortal of one who was surely the foremost of his time.

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Growth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894, Part 6

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823- Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Haddock, John A. 1823-
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman
Number of Pages: 1094