USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Historical fallacies regarding colonial New York : an address delivered before the Oneida Historical Society, Utica, N.Y., at its second annual meeting, January 14, 1879 > Part 3
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Now, look at some of the other events in the days which followed the French and Indian War. That conflict doubled England's debt. The men who paid the taxes naturally sought to shift the burden on some one else, and concluded to tax America. In 1764 the Stamp Act was agreed on by the Ministry, but postponed for a single year. In 1765 it. was introduced and became a law ; four months thereafter, the House of Burgesses of Virginia, led by Patrick Henry, passed a set of resolutions against the act, asserting their right of self taxation. Mr. Wirt, in that fascinating romance, entitled the Life of Patrick Henry, quotes the great Virginian orator as authority for the statement that this was the first colonial opposition to the act, that the other colonies had remained silent, and that, by these resolutions, Mr. Henry gave the first impulse to the ball of the revolution. I would be the last person to detract from Patrick Henry's fame, for I
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believe that he thought his resolutions led the colonial pro- tests ; but Mr. Wirt, and others who have copied him, should have known the truth. In fact, New York had done all this a year before. In October, 1764, hearing of the pro- posal to pass the act, the New York Assembly sent a petition to Parliament so bold and revolutionary that no one dared to introduce it with the petitions from the other colonies. They claimed for their constituents " that great badge of English liberty, the being taxed only with their own consent." They disdained the thought of claiming this exemption as & privilege. "They found it on a basis more honorable, solid and stable ; they challenge it, and glory in it as their right." No wonder that Massachusetts was chagrined when she com- pared these sentiments with the diffidence and want of spirit shown in her petition. No wonder that Bancroft, in dis- tributing his honors, says : "Massachusetts entreated to union ; New York pointed to independence."
But New York did more than to pass resolutions by the Assembly. On the 31st of October, 1765, her merchants united in the famous agreement to import no more goods from Great Britain until the Stamp Act should be repealed. Her example was followed by the merchants of Philadelphia on the 7th of November, and by those of Boston on December 9th. This measure first conceived and carried out by New York, put an end to all British trade with the colonies. The London merchants dealing with America saw ruin staring them in the face. They appealed to Parliament, and under their appeal the odious act was formally rescinded.
The repeal of the Stamp Act was received in the colonies with unbounded joy. But this feeling was of short duration, for the people soon learned that it was only the measure, not the principle, which had been abandoned. As part of the general system adopted for the establishment of a standing army in the country. several regiments were sent to America, and an act was passed requiring the colonies, where they were quartered, to provide for their support. New York led the
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resistance to this measure, and, in consequence of her action, Parliament, by a special statute, suspended her Legislature from its functions.
About the same time was passed the law imposing a duty on glass, paper and tea, and another act established.a Board of Customs for America, which was located at Boston, then a great seaport of the colonies. This shifted the scene of active resistance to Massachusetts, and explains why Boston afterward became so prominent. Against sturdy New York the Ministry had fought in vain ; under her blows the pre- rogative had been shattered forever ; before the policy of her merchants, the Stamp Act had suffered an ignominious defeat; it was now purposed to seek a new battle ground, and select another method of attack.
I have no time to even sketch the subsequent events down to the revolution, but at the risk of wearying your patience must mention a few of the more important facts which history has misrepresented.
The first collision between the citizens and soldiers, and the first bloodshed of the revolution, occurred in 1770, but not in Boston, as the school books tell us. The Boston massacre-as it is called-took place on the 5th of March, but the first struggle, with loss of life, occurred six weeks earlier, on the 19th of January, in the City of New York. We call it the battle of Golden Hill. This, however, was but a chance event -- like the arrival of the first cargo of tea in Boston, while the ves- sel intended for New York was driven off by adverse winds. Here the people stood ready to make a tea-pot of their har- bor, but Boston got the first drawing by an accident.
But two other matters of which I wish to speak are of a different character ; they illustrate the falsity of history in a more serious phase.
The Act of 1767, imposing a duty on glass, paper, and tea, was followed by another non-importation agreement like its predecessor initiated by New York, and subsequently adopted by the other colonies. In March, 1770, all the obnoxious
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duties were removed except that on tea. Four months there- after, the people of New York, by a popular vote, resolved to modify their agreement to import no goods from England, so that it should apply to tea alone.
The announcement of this resolve was greeted through the colonies with a strain of real or affected indignation : " Send us your old Liberty Pole," said Philadelphia, " as you can have no further use for it." The Bostonians tore the let- ter to shreds and threw it to the winds, while South Carolina read it with disdainful anger. History has reiterated that New York was becoming lukewarm; and no wonder, if writ- ers like Mr. Wirt told the facts in describing the fidelity with which the other colonies adhered to the agreement. But what shall we say of the historic muse when we have examined the records? All the colonies had signed the agreement to import no goods from England. Yet South Carolina, whichwas so in- dignant, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia had imported more than they had done before, while Pennsylvania and New Eng- land had imported nearly half as much. New York alone --- and Bancroft sustains the statement made by Lord North in Parliament-had been perfectly true to her engagements, and had not imported the value of a penny. In consequence her trade had fallen to less than one-sixth of its former volume, and the grass was literally growing in her streets. Is there in all history a nobler instance of the honor which keeps its. promise to its own hurt? Now, what did this honor still re- quire? The agreement was useless when kept by only one member of the confederacy-it ruined herself, and was with- out effect on England. Instead, therefore, of evading it by secret violations as the other colonies had done, the mer- chants of New York came out openly, and withdrew from the unequal compact.
The other event occurred four years later. In 1774, Par- liament passed the bill closing the port of Boston to all trade. The Bostonians then proposed that the non-importation agreement should be revived. To this measure New York
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expressed a dissent, and here again she has been accused of being lukewarm. This charge is as unfounded as the other. New York saw the futility of such separate agreements. Their day was past ; it was but fighting the British people with wisps of straw that the winds would scatter. New York had a wiser and a broader plan. She proposed a Congress of all the colonies to devise measures for the public defence. This was acceded to ; the Congress met ; it bound the thir- teen colonies into one people ; two years thereafter its sue- cessor put forth the Declaration of Independence.
This is the legacy that New York has given to America.
Of New York's part in the revolution I have no time to speak. On another occasion I attempted to tell something of that story. But you here who have studied with the in- tensity of a personal interest the campaign of 1777, and the Battle of Oriskany, comparing the facts with the accounts given in the common histories, can judge whether Walpole was far wrong in saying " anything but history, that must be false."
In nothing which I have said this evening have I intended a reflection upon the other colonies. I would lift New York to her proper level ; but not, if I could, by dragging down her sisters. The fame of each is the common heritage of all. We are not New Yorkers, nor Virginians, nor New En- glanders ; the history of a hundred years has given us a prouder title-we are all Americans.
But aside from this there is another bond of union ; we are united by the ties of a common ancestry. Most of the American colonies were settled by Englishmen, who pride themselves on their Anglo-Saxon blood. The Normans gave to society but a thin veneer upon the surface. The blood of the Anglo-Saxon gave the muscle and the brawn. This is the blood which gave to England, Milton, and Bacon and Shakespeare, Cromwell and Hampden and Pitt ; which gave to America, Washington, Jefferson and Adams, Webster, Clay and Lincola. But the Dutchmen who founded New
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Čná,“
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York were of the same descent ; they, too, were Anglo-Saxons of the bluest unmixed blood. Their cousins crossed the En- glish Channel. They remained on the land which their fathers conquered. They were the Batavians of ancient his- tory, on whom the Roman tax gatherer never levied tribute. The other tribes became subjects of Rome, they were never aught but allies ; Cæsar called them the bravest of his sol- diers, and well he might, for they turned the tide of battle at Pharsalia. They were the tribe which worshipped but one God, and established universal suffrage. There is nothing, therefore, in their history, there is nothing in the history of New York, when truly written, which should cause surprise. The Dutch revolution of the sixteenth century, the English revolution of the seventeenth, and the American revolution of the eighteenth century, are but chapters in one history, battles in one campaign ; the great contest of the Anglo- Saxon race for a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, my task is done, the fur- ther elaboration of this subject remains with your society, and, as a New Yorker, I feel happy to entrust it to such hands.
Your society has a great work before it, but it sets out with advantages possessed by none other in the State. You are fortunate in a President who, with eloquent tongue and classic pen, has done more to make the greatness of New York's history familiar than any man now living. About you every foot of soil is historic ground. Here has ever been the seat of empire of the continent.
Before you is the task of rescuing from oblivion the fleeting memorials of the past, which to the future historian will be priceless treasures. Of this I need not speak, for the paper read by your able Secretary a few weeks ago upon this sub- ject leaves nothing to be said. But you have another duty, to my mind, even more important than that of gathering materials for history. It is that of making the rising gener-
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ation appreciate the grandeur of the past. Almost servile in following European systems of education, our youths can give you the names of the Roman emperors, can trace the dynasties of France, or tell you how constitutional govern- ment arose in England ; but the growth of liberty at home; or the genesis of our written constitutions, the greatest poli- tical discovery of modern times, is to them as much of a sealed book as to a graduate of Oxford or Berlin. This should not be, and societies like yours can correct the evil: We owe this duty not alone to the scholar, but to every citi- zen of our native State. " History," says Bacon, " makes men wise ;" but it does much more, it makes them patriotic. The Greeks fought more bravely as they thought of Ther- mopylæ and Marathon. We shall live more nobly as we think of our heroic ancestors, who, by a contest extending over nearly two centuries, laid broad and deep the founda- tions of our freedom.
ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
. 1879 €
Men of Early Rome.
BY
D. E. WAGER.
-
B
ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
MEN, EVENTS, LAWYERS,
POLITICS AND POLITICIANS
OF EARLY ROME.
ابونه بخصوبة
BY D. E. WAGER.
+
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ONEIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AT UTICA, N. Y., JANUARY 28, 1879.
UTICA, N. Y. ELLIS H. ROBERTS & CO., PRINTERS, 60 GENESEE STREET,
1879.
At a regular meeting of the Oneida Historical Society, held January 28, 1879, after the transaction of business, Mr. D. E. Wager, of Rome, one of the Councilors of the Society, read an address upon "The Men, Events, Lawyers, Politics and Politicians of Early Rome." At the conclusion of the address, on motion of M. M. Jones, it was
.
Resolced, That the Oneida Historical Society extends its hearty thanks to . Mr. D. E. Wager for his address upon the Men and Events of Early Rome, which it regards as one of the most valuable additions to the History of Oncida County ;
Resolved, That Mr. Wager be requested to furnish a copy of his address for publication.
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MEN, EVENTS, LAWYERS, POLITICS AND POLITICIANS OF EARLY ROME."
BY D. E. WAGER.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, and at the time of the adoption of the United States Constitution, the State of New York was considerably less democratic than any other State in the Union. There was more of aristocracy in this State than in any other. The wealthy and influential families of the Coldens, the Morrises, the Schuylers, the Livingstons, the Van Cortlands, the Van Rensse- laers and Sir William Johnson, with their large landed possessions, and deriving a princely support from a numerous tenantry, had infused into a large class of the people different manners and cur- rents of thought, and made an impress upon the age and condition of things which required years to eradicate. The great mass of the people were looked upon by that landed gentry with distrust, and as incapable of self-government ; and hence, the State Consti- tution in force in this State, down to 1822, gave to the people the rights of suffrage in a gingerly manner, and to a very limited extent. Aside from certain town officers the people elected by ballot only Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, State Senators, mem- bers of Assembly, and Congressmen; and to vote for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Senators a person must, for six months before election, have possessed a freehold of the value of $250, over and above all debts charged thereon ; and to vote for Con- gressmen and Assemblymen he must for the same period of time, possess a freehold of the value of $50, or have rented a tenement of the yearly value of $5, and actually paid taxes to the State. All of the other officers in county or State were appointed. The
* This address had been previously delivered by Mr. Wager before the Young Men's Christian Association of Rome, January 13, 1879, and was read by him before the Utica Young Men's Christian Association February 4, 1879.
ch 4
MEN OF EARLY ROME.
State appointing body was called "The Council of Appointment," and was constituted as follows: The State was divided into four Senatorial districts, called the eastern, western, southern and mid- dle districts, and each year the Assembly selected a Senator from cach of those districts, and the four Senators thus selected (with the Governor) made such "Council of Appointment.". The Gov- ernor had no vote, except in case of a tie. The journals of that body, still preserved in the Secretary of State's office, at Albany, showing its appointments, removals and doings, fill fourteen manu- script volumes. In addition to some eight thousand military officers, that body appointed about seven thousand civil and judicial officers, consisting of the Secretary of State, Attorney General, Surveyor General, Comptroller, Chancellor, Masters and Examiners in Chancery, Judges of the Supreme Court, Judges of the Common Pleas in each of the counties, Sheriff's, County Clerks, Surrogates, District Attorneys, Coroners, Mayors and Recorders of cities, and Justices of the Peace.
Yes, so jealous or mistrustful were the constitution and law makers of the people, as to their capacity and intelligence in regard to the elective franchise, that even down to 1821, when the State Constitution was framed in that year, that instru- ment did not allow Justices of the Peace to be elected; but instead thereof, bestowed the power of their appointment upon the Board of Supervisors and Judges of the Common Pleas. It was not until 1826 that the people obtained a sufficient recognition of their claim to elect their own town officers, to wring from the Legislature a constitutional amendment to be submitted to the people, as to whether Justices of the Peace should be elected. In a poll of one hundred and thirty thousand votes, cast that year on that submitted question, the majority in its favor in the State was over one hundred and twenty-eight thousand. Oneida County gave three thousand six hundred and ninety-one for, to only six votes against it. The State Treasurer was appointed by a legis- lative enactment, naming the appointee in the act, and passed
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
expressly for the purpose, each time the office was filled. County Treasurers and Loan Commissioners were appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
As a further evidence of the distrust entertained of the people, and the small voice they had in the nomination even, of those officers for whom they could vote, and as showing the self- perpetuating power of the office-holders, it may be stated that the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor were not nominated as now, by a State Convention of delegates from each county in the State, but by a caucus of their political friends in the Legislature; or by a public meeting of the citizens, friendly to the nominee, in Albany or New York, just as it happened, and no one else but those citi- zens taking part therein. State Senators, down to 1811, were nominated by a caucus held at Albany of the members of Assem- bly from the Senatorial districts; and if a political party in a Senatorial district was unrepresented in the Assembly, it had to get its candidate for Senator in the field as best it could. Assem- blymen were nominated and elected by the county at large, and not as now, by districts. The President and Vice President of the United States were nominated by a caucus of their friends in Congress, and not as now, by National Conventions. The Presi- dential Electors were appointed by the State Legislature, and not as now, elected by the people.
The appointment of such a host of officials gave an immense power and influence to the appointing body, and tended to make a strong government, and to keep political power in the hands of the few. The Chancellor, Supreme Court Judges, and First Judges of the Common Pleas, were appointed during good behavior, or until the appointee reached the age of sixty years. Sheriff's and Coroners were annually appointed; Surrogates for an unlimited time. The number of side Judges of the Common Pleas, and of Justices of the Peace, was unlimited, and sometimes as many as a dozen side Judges in a county were holding office at a time.
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MEN OF EARLY ROME.
This process enabled the dominant party to provide places for its friends.
This state of things continued from the commencement of the Revolutionary War down to the adoption of the State Constitu- tion in January, 1822. That instrument received a majority in the State of nearly thirty-four thousand, although there were forty-one thousand persons who voted against it. Oneida County, strongly federal as she ever had been, yet gave one thousand majority in its favor. Rome gave two hundred and twenty four votes for, to forty-four against that constitution.
Under that constitution radical changes were made (and since then greater) in the system and management of the goverment. It was also the means of producing great changes in the politics, and in the power and influence of the politicians in the county and State. Although but a few if any more officers were made elective, yet the mode of the nomination of those who were elected, as well as the manner of the appointment of the others, was changed. The civil and political year was altered from July to January; new Senatorial and Assembly districts were formed ; the right of suffrage was extended; the judiciary system was remodeled, resulting in taking from the Supreme Court Judges the political power which they had long exercised, and of breaking up the practice which had prevailed, of taking from the bench of that court nominees for Governor ; and the time of holding State elections was changed from April to November. These various changes virtually annihilated a power which, for nearly half a cen- tury, had distributed the fruits of victory and the spoils of office in almost every school district in the State, and made the central power at the Capital the controlling one, in the selection of officers, from the highest to the lowest. The power of the few was, by that constitution of 1821, broken into fragments, aud thereafter the voice of the people was to be heard and respected in the several and respective localities. It was a revolution almost as
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
great as that of the Colonies, yet it was accomplished only after the most violent discussion and agitation of the questions involved.
From the foregoing, it will be seen, that the political system in vogue in New York, from the close of the Revolutionary War down to the going into effect of the Constitution of 1821, was well calculated to have a depressing influence upon the great mass of the people, and to keep in the back ground, all except those who by their eminent talents and ability, towered head and shoulders above their fellows. The system was one out. of which "regencies," "rings" and self perpetuating "cliques" would naturally be formed, and when a few prominent leaders could dictate or control the appointments to office, and thereby manipu- late and control the political affairs of the whole State. The two political parties in this State, when Oneida County was formed, were known as Republicans and Federalists. At the head of the former was George Clinton, Governor of the State of New York from 1777 to 1795. The leaders of the Federalists were Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and the most of the aristocratic families be- fore named. The election in 1800 of Thomas Jefferson, President, if it did not destroy, it broke the backbone of that party, so that it did not after that year, elect a Governor of its own in this State, nor did it even run one of its own distinctive notions, but two or three times. The political struggle was mainly between the leaders in the Republican ranks, as to who should be master, nor was there any particular principle involved, except those made by the war of 1812, the Erie canal, the convention and constitution of 1821. In the various contests from the organization of Oneida County, until after adoption of the. constitution of 1821, the county almost invariably voted for the Federal ticket or its sympathizers, while Rome just as uniformly votel the other way.
Starting then, with the organization of Rome as a town in 1796 at a time when the country was new, the population scattered, and
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MEN OF EARLY ROME.
the number of residents in the county eminent for their talents and abilities very few indeed, I intend to mention and to briefly sketch those who have resided in Rome, and have made their im- press upon the times in which they have lived, or who have other- wise arisen to prominence in the history of the county within the first thirty or forty years of Rome's existence as a town.
I shall endeavor to give the names in the order of the time the persons came to Rome, as near as may be, or else in the order each came into prominence in the county. And as I progress, it will be observed that most of the persons named are the common property of Rome and Utica, and that both cities are entitled to be proud of and to claim them.
MAJOR WILLIAM COLBRATII.
Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, a jolly Irish- man, who had rendered service to the Colonies in that struggle, pushed his way westwardly, from what is now the village of Herkimer, into what was then called "the Whitestown country." As early as in April 1790, Major William Colbrath was living in the town of Whitestown, which then included all of the State west of what is now the Herkimer County line. The town records show, that at the town meeting held April 6, 1790, in Captain Needham Maynard's barn, in the town of Whitestown, William Colbrath received fifty votes for the office of Supervisor, and Jedediah Sanger' thirty-four, and a full town meeting ticket was then and there chosen and declared elected. The records further state "that as many people being deprived of the privilege of voting for Supervisor, it was moved to have the proceedings of the day made null and void, which passed in the affirmative." The meeting was then adjourned to the next day at 10 A. M. The town meet- ing was held on such next day, the polls held open until 5 p. M., and on counting the votes it was found that one hundred and
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