History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 90

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 90

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In October, 1827, a convention of Anti-Masons was held in Mayville. Abiran Orton was chairman. A well written address by a committee appointed for that purpose against secret societies was published in the Fredonia "Gazette." As able an address upon the other side, evidently from the pen of Thomas A. Osborne, was also published in the same paper. At the election held in 1827, Nathaniel Fenton and Nathan Mixer, esteemed citizens of the county, Anti-Masonic candi- dates for the Assembly, received respectively 2,192 and 2,332 votes. James Mullett and Thomas A. Osborne, the candidates of the Bucktail or Jackson party, two of t'se most distinguished and prominent citizens, received

but 1,232 and 1,101 votes. The Adams or Administra- tion party had no candidate. Nearly two-thirds of the votes of the county, it will be seen, were given to a party that had not been in existence a year.

In the State of New York the National Republicans, chiefly recruited from the Old Federal, the Adams and Clintonian parties, in a convention held at Utica in 1832, adopted the Anti-Masonic State and National ticket. The union between these parties was finally consummated, and the Whig party organized. Jackson was elected President. In Chautauqua county the Na- tional Republicans and Anti-Masons received a majority of 1,716 over Jackson, and elected Abner Hazeltine, of Jamestown, member of Congress, and Orris Crosby presidential elector. He was the first chosen from Chautauqua county.

The National Republican party now acquired the name of Whig. The Anti-Masons disbanded and amalga- mated with the National Republicans under the name of Whig. The collapse of the Anti-Masonic party and the existence of a saner public sentiment twenty years later, permitted the revival of Free Masonry in the county. Old lodges began to renew their charters, and new ones to be established. At the election of 1834, William L. Marcy was elected governor by the Demo- crats over William H. Seward, who had received in Chautauqua county a majority of 1.591.

By the State census of 1825, the population of the county was 20,639. By the census of 1835 it had in- creased to 44,869, having more than doubled in ten years, which was chiefly due to the completion of the Erie canal.

At the presidential election in 1836, resulting in the election of Martin Van Buren, the Whigs obtained 775 majority in Chautauqua. Richard P. Marvin of James- town, Whig, was elected to Congress. William H. Sew- ard was elected governor in 1838, over William L. Marcy. Seward, in his early life, by reason of his large interest in lands in Chautauqua, his close and familiar relations and fair treatment of the early set- tlers, was popular, and received a majority of 1,909, in the county.

The presidential campaign of 1840 was the most memorable that had occurred in the history of the coun- ty. Gen. William Henry Harrison was the candidate of the Whigs, Martin Van Buren of the Democrats, and James G. Birney of the Abolitionists. The cam- paign was sometimes called "the log cabin and hard cider campaign," in allusion to and complementary of Gen. Harrison, whose life had been spent mostly among the pioneers and in the surroundings of the West. Large and enthusiastic meetings were held throughout the county. New and novel features were introduced in the campaign by the Whigs. All classes of people participated. Wives and daughters gave countenance to and attended these meetings. The Whigs gained a complete triumph in the State and Nation, and carried Chautauqua county by a majority of 2,640, much more than two-thirds of the whole vote polled. James G. Birney received 23 votes in the county. This was the first expression of an anti-slavery sentiment at an elec- tion there, resulting later in the organization of the Republican party. The county had not always been a land of liberty. In the year 1817, eight slaves and their masters were residing in the county.

The presidential election in 1844 was nearly as stir- ring and as memorable as that in 1840. The Whigs nominated their great leader and orator, Henry Clay, and the Democrats James K. Polk. Large mass meet- ings were held in the county. The campaign was con- ducted in many respects like that in 1840. Barbecues

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POLITICAL CHAUTAUQUA

were held and campaign songs were sung. To show how the political enthusiasm of the people was stirred in the campaigns of 1840 and 1844, we copy the follow- ing song, that was sung by the Sinclairville Clay Club when it went down to the great Whig barbecue in Fre- donia in 1844, by which it will be seen that the political song writers of those days were in no respect behind the modern campaign poet, in stirring the popular heart, or in finding the jolly side of human nature. The tariff was the overriding question of the day, as by the song appears :

TUNE-"ROSIN THE BOW."

Ye jolly true Whigs of Sinclairville And all ye sick Democrats too. Come out from among the Polk party, And go to the Whig barbecue.

October the 15th is coming And the Polkats begin to look blue; They know that the coons will be gaining, At the feast of the great barbecue.

We therefore will give you a warning. To abandon that Polk and his crew, For hundreds of thousands are going To vote for our Harry the true.

Then let us he up and a-doing. And hurrah for the Whig barbecue! That Polk! We know we can beat him With Harry, the honest and true.

Good men from the locos are flying, Which makes them look kinder askew, They see us all go for protection, And Harry, the honest and true.

Then let us go down to Fredonia, And sing this song on the way, And when we get out to Laona We'll give them a hurrah for Clay.

We'll give them the hurrahs so hearty, For Fillmore and Wilkin will say, And "three times three" for the party That goes for protection and Clay.

The songs and banquets of the Whigs availed them not, for James K. Polk was elected President, but Clay carried the county by a majority of 2.185. The slavery vote increased to 314. At this election, Ahner Lewis, a Whig, of Chautauqua, was elected to Congress.

In 1846, the Code of Procedure went into effect, and marked the close of an era in the history of the Chau- tauqua county bar. For four years after the organiza- tion of the county, its courts had been held at John Scott's log tavern at Mayville, and afterwards in the old brick court house there. Among the early lawyers of the county were Ansalem Potter; James Brackett, killed in the War of 1812 at Buffalo; James H. Price, James Mullett, Dudley Marvin, Sheldon Smith, Abner Hazeltine, David Mann, Richard P. Marvin and Madi- son Burnell. The old Court of Common Pleas had been the court most familiar to the people. Court week to the old settler was a week of recreation, and the court a school of instruction. There they. obtained their ideas of the law, and learned the principles of our government. This old court ceased to exist in 1847. When it expired it was composed of Thomas B. Campbell, first judge; John M. Edson, Caleb O. Daughaday, Niram Sackett and Franklin H. Wait, judges.

At the election in 1846, Dudley Marvin was elected to Congress, and Madison Burnell to the Assembly. They were able lawyers and popular speakers, and both distinguished in the history of the county. That year, Richard P. Marvin, Justice of the Supreme Court. and George W. Patterson, twice Speaker of the As-

sembly, having been elected, served as delegates to the State convention to form a new constitution for the State. Both were citizens of the county. Now a dif- ference of opinion began to divide the members of both political parties. Those of the Whig party, who favor- ed free soil in the States soon to be admitted, were in the vulgar phrase of the time called "Woolies," and those in the Democratic party "Barnburners ;" while the conservative members of the Whig party were known as "Silver Greys," and in the Democratic party as "Hunkers."

At the election in 1848, Chautauqua county gave 4,207 votes for Taylor, 1,911 votes for Cass, Democrat, and 1,648 for Van Buren, Free Soil. George W. Pat- terson was elected lieutenant-governor, and Elijah Ris- ley of Chautauqua, member of Congress. In 1850 James Mullett was elected for a second time Justice of the Supreme Court.

In 1850 the population of the county had increased to 50,144. At that time a much greater portion of the population were inhabitants of the country parts of the county. The town of Pomfret, which then included Fredonia and the present city of Dunkirk, had but 4,483 inhabitants. The town of Ellicott, which included the city of Jamestown, had but 3,523. This increase was chiefly due to the prospect of an immediate comple- tion of the New York & Erie railroad from New York City to Dunkirk, on Lake Erie.

At the general election in 1852, Franklin Pierce was elected President; 10,524 votes were cast in Chautau- qua county, of which Winfield Scott received 5.612, Pierce, 3,703, and John P. Hale, Abolitionist, 1,209. Reu- ben E. Fenton, then a Democrat, but thirty-three years of age, was elected for the first time to Congress over George A. S. Crooker, Whig, by 56 majority. The slavery question was rapidly dividing both parties. Mr. Fenton had succeeded in holding the vote of his party, and also the abolition vote. Walter L. Sessions was for the first time elected to the Assembly, and now Fen- ton and Sessions commenced to take a leading part in the party to which they both belonged. The Democrats temporarily united under the respective names of "Hard" and "Soft." These names indicated their dif- ferent sentiments upon the slavery question.

In 1854, the "Know Nothing" party, which had for its motto "America for the Americans," sprang into life and assisted in disintegrating the Whig party. Not many years before, the Anti-Masonic party had as sud- denly sprang into being and helped to create that party. The Know-Nothing or American, like the Anti-Masonic party, after a short perod of existence disappeared as suddenly as it came into existence, and the Republican party arose from its aslies.

Among the causes for the growth of the Republican party in the county, was the passage of the Fugitive Slave law. Secret combinations were formed by some citizens of the North opposed to slavery, to assist slaves to escape from their masters in the South, to Canada, by means of what was called the "Underground Rail- road." Jamestown for several years was one of the underground railroad stopping places, or stations. There a colony of about one hundred colored people lived, some born free, and some were fugitive slaves. They and some of the white citizens of Jamestown as- sisted fugitives from slavery on their way to gain their freedom. In one instance, a runaway slave was taken from the county under the Fugitive Slave law and car- ried back into captivity. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was also offensive to many citizens of the North, and caused much excitement in Chautauqua county. Large meetings in opposition were held, ably addressed by

378

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

leading and influential citizens, among them Madison Burnell, Richard P. Marvin, Orsell Cook and George W. Patterson.

The Republican party was soon organized, and rapid- ly divided the Whig party, some of its members join- ed the Know-Nothings, later called the American party. Madison Burnell in 1854 was the logical candidate of the Whigs for Congress. At a convention of that party held in Forestville in October of that year, he received a majority of its delegates. Conscious that a political revolution was impending, he declined the nomination, and George W. Patterson was nominated by the Whigs in his place. At the Democratic (Soft) convention, held in the Congressional district, Reuben E. Fenton was nominated by acclamation ; he however, aware of the unsettled state of the public mind, de- clined, as Burnell had done before in the Whig conven- tion. Thereupon Hon. William Pitt Angel, of Cat- taraugus county, was nominated by the Democrats in his stead. On the Wednesday preceding the election, at a secret and irregular meeting of some of the Ameri- cans held at Dunkirk, the unsolicited nomination was conferred upon Francis S. Edwards, an able and well known lawyer of Dunkirk. During the few days that remained of the canvass, great doubt and uncertainty existed as to the result, for the Americans were an un- certain quantity. Each of the old parties preferred the success of their old enemy, to that of their new foe. Lieutenant Governor Patterson and Hon. William Pitt Angel, the respective candidates of the old parties, re- paired on the Sunday before election to the residence of Win. Fenton in Frewsburgh, and withdrew their names as candidates, in favor of Reuben E. Fenton as the People's candidate for Congress. Now the rank and file of both of the old parties found to their astonishment, but a few days before election, that they were without candidates, and instead, Edwards and Fenton, neither of whom had obtained their nomina- tion through a regular delegated convention represent- ing a party, were the only candidates before the people. A few days later ended the campaign, with the re- markable result that Edwards was elected by the ex- traordinary majority of 1,328 in Chautauqua county, and 634 in Cattaraugus county. None were more surprised at the result than were Edwards and Fenton themselves, unless it was the people who accomplished it.

At the town meetings held in the following March, twenty-two of the twenty-five supervisors elected in the county were Americans, and nearly all of the lesser town officers also, and in the fall election of 1855, Sam- uel A. Whalon of Mayville, the candidate of the Americans for Canal Commissioner, was elected, and Richard P. Marvin was again elected Justice of the Supreme Court.

In 1856, that the strength of the Americans was waning began to appear. At the presidential election of that year, 7,030 votes were cast for Fremont, 2,017 for Fillmore, and 1,847 for Buchanan. Renben E. Fen- ton, who had now become a Republican, was elected to Congress over Francis S. Edwards, American, and Caleb J. Allen, Democrat. In the election of 1858, Fen- ton was again elected to Congress.

Up to the year 1859, the name of the county had been spelled Chautauque, that year the spelling was changed by the Board of Supervisors to Chantanqua.

The important presidential election of 1860 was now approaching. The campaign was pushed in the county with vigor by all parties. Great mass meetings were held in the principal places, addressed by famous speak- ers from abroad belonging to all political parties. Among those from within the county were: Madison

Burnell, Reuben E. Fenton, Austin Smith, John F. Smith and George Barker. In Chautauqua county, Lin- coln received 8,481 votes ; the Union presidential candi- dates, 3,670. James Parker, editor of the Jamestown "Democrat," a Republican, was chosen elector. Reuben E. Fenton was again elected to Congress.

And now came the Civil War, the story of which is told on other pages of this work.

Lincoln, when on his way to assume the duties of President, on the 10th of February, 1861, passed over the Lake Shore railroad through the Northern towns of Chautauqua county, made a short stop just east of the center of Lion street, in Dunkirk, and in a brief, simple and impressive speech to the citizens assembled, pledged himself and the people there, to support the flag of the nation in its great peril. It was a strange fatality, that while the black clouds of war were pass- ing away, and his promise nearly fulfilled, a funeral car with his corpse passed over the same spot in the village of Dunkirk, there to receive a sorrowful tribute from the same people, to whom four years before, he had made the promise. Thus did the shadows of war come to the county, and thus did they pass away. So it was that Lincoln made his entrance and his exit there.

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits, and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts."

The Republican and Democratic parties preserved their respective organizations in the county during the Civil War. In 1862, James S. Wadsworth, Republican, received in Chautauqua 4,777 majority over Horatio Seymour, the successful candidate for Governor. Ren- ben E. Fenton was then again elected to Congress. The election in 1864 was of unusual interest. Lincoln polled 8,700 votes in Chautauqua county, and George B. Mc- Clellan 3,952. This election was of especial importance in Chautauqua. Reuben E. Fenton, a native of the county, was the Republican candidate for Governor, against Horatio Seymour, and was elected. At this election, Walter L. Sessions was for the first time elected to the State Senate.

The Republican majority had now become so great in Chautauqua county and in the Congressional dis- trict, and in nearly all of the towns of the county, that it was seldom that a member of the opposing party was elected to office. Consequently public attention nat- urally turned to the contests affecting the Republicans, and which divided them into two wings. This in- testinal struggle lasted many years, and may be called "The Fenton, Allen and Sessions Feud," from the names of the leading persons taking a part in it. It was of such local political importance as to be entitled to par- ticular mention here.

From the time of the union between Free Soil Dem- ocrats, and Anti-Slavery Whigs, forming the Republi- can party, there was not an entirely cordial feeling ex- isting between its two wings. Reuben E. Fenton had been often chosen to high and important offices, and had become the most influential member of the Re- publican party in the county. He had led many Demo- crats into the Republican fold. He was a skilful tac- tician and a shrewd politician, and had brought in political methods that were new to his county and Congressional district. Although he had at this time ostensibly withdrawn from practical politics, his hand was felt in the many conventions that were held there afterwards.

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the old Whig element of the party. Both had sagacity and force of character. The younger, Loren, had a ready skill and a keen knowledge of human nature. The Sessions brothers always acted in concert.

Among the friends of Governor Fenton was Col. Augustus F. Allen, a Democrat before the war, an upright energetic citizen who had been many times supervisor of his town, which included the city of Jamestown, and had been twice chairman of the board.

The strained relations that had long existed between Governor Fenton and the Sessions brothers had now grown into a struggle for the control of the party in this congressional and senatorial district. So when Walter Sessions sought a reelection to the State Senate for a second term, he found strong opposition inspired, as he claimed, hy Governor Fenton, and now began a memorable political contest between the two factions which long continued and developed keen practical politicians whose influence was not confined to the limits of the congressional district, but was felt in State con- ventions.

The Democrats in the district were largely in the minority. In Chautauqua, they were unable to poll half the number of votes that the Republican party could command, and the Republican fend therefore could exist without the danger of its resulting in Democratic suc- cess. At the Republican senatorial convention held in 1867, Walter L. Sessions was nominated for Senator by a majority of two delegates over Col. Augustus F. Allen, the opposing candidate, who claimed the result to have been unfair, and he was consequently given an independent nomination for Senator.

The Democrats now saw their opportunity, and nominated their best man, Col. Lorenzo Morris, an able lawyer and an old-time Democrat, and he was elected by two hundred majority over each of the two Re- publican candidates. A long remembered triumph for the Democrats. Later, Col. Allen succeeded better. He and George Barker of Fredonia were elected dele- gates to the State Constitutional Convention. Mr. Barker was also elected Justice of the Supreme Court.

The defeat of Walter L. Sessions would have dis- couraged a less determined and skillful politician. Neither he nor his brother Loren thought for a mo- ment of giving up the contest. The congressional cam- paign of 1868 was now approaching, and Walter L. Sessions was preparing to he the candidate. Sharp preliminary contests took place in the several assembly districts for delegates to the Congressional Convention which was held in August, 1868, at Dunkirk. The twenty delegates from Chautauqua and Cattaraugus representing the districts, were equally divided between Allen and Sessions. Besides the delegates present, more influential citizens attended it than on any occasion before. One hundred and fifty ballots were taken without result. The Allen wing now cast its vote for Porter Sheldon, who on the one hundred second in- formal ballot received the most votes. On the third day, the Sessions wing cast their ballots for Norman Allen, a well known lawyer and leading citizen of Cattaraugus county, a delegate who had been warmly supporting the candidacy of Augustus F. Allen. The Allen wing now cast their vote for Norman M. Allen, and he had all of the votes. He, however, preemptorily declined the nomination, and Porter Sheldon was nom- inated by a clear majority of the votes, and at the election that followed was elected. This was presi- dential year, and Grant carried Chautauqua county over Seymour by nearly 5.000 majority.

The incidents of the Congressional Convention re- mained long in the memory of old-time politicians, and was typical of others that followed.

The convention held in 1869 at Little Valley in Chau- tanqua county, was the most turbulent ever held in the senatorial district. This convention soon became di- vided into two antagonistic bodies. Their proceedings were conducted in great confusion, in the same hall, at the same time, each with a different chairman. The only orderly and proper act of these conventions was when they took themselves off by adjournment. No nomination was made by either. The Sessions fac- tion at a later date nominated A. D. Scott for Senator, and he was elected in the election that followed.

These irregular proceedings were not to be charged to the presence of disorderly persons, for the conven- tion was made up of what were ordinarily peaceable and lawabiding citizens. Its disorders were partly due to the fact that there was then no law regulating pri- maries, and that the rules governing conventions were inadequate for the purposes for which they were de- signed.

As soon as the campaign of 1870 commenced, it was evident that this local dissension was to continue. The seats of the delegates to the Republican Congressional Convention were contested, and the State Convention was called upon to settle some of the differences, which were decided favorably to the Sessions wing, and re- sulted in the nomination of Walter L. Sessions to Con- gress, and he was elected over Charles D. Murray, Democrat, by a greatly reduced majority.

In 1871, the senatorial contest waged in the Republi- can party was as bitter as before. The senatorial con- vention held in Dunkirk, after repeated adjournments, on the fourth adjourned day, and on the 260th ballot, nominated Norman M. Allen, of the Fenton wing, over A. D. Scott, of the Sessions wing, senator, and at the ensuing election he was elected. The withdrawal of many of the Fenton and Allen Republicans, including Reuben E. Fenton and Augustus F. Allen in support of Horace Greeley for President in the year 1872, made the way clear for the nomination of Walter L. Sessions for Congress, and he was again elected over Charles D. Murray by a still greatly reduced vote.

At the general election held in 1874, Republicans who had voted for Greeley in 1872 generally returned to their party, but Walter L. Sessions was able to dominate the Congressional Convention, and was nominated for Con- gress. The Democrats nominated a ticket composed of Democrats and Republicans. A strenuous campaign followed, pushed with vigor by the leaders. It was the most memorable of its character ever waged in the Congressional district. Augustus F. Allen was elected to Congress upon the ticket supported by the Dem- ocrats, over Sessions, by a large majority. Obed Edson, Democrat, was elected in the Second Assem- bly District of Chautauqua county. In the First Dis- trict Theodore S. Moss, Democrat, was defeated by only seventeen majority. The victory was celebrated at a public meeting held in Jamestown. Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat, at this election was elected governor.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 90

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc. Number of Pages: 649

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649