USA > New York > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 13
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This occasion seems to have marked the commencement of the system of bribery (to use a plain term) which has since that time grown to such alarming proportions. In the marking out of the scheme, and before the petition was presented, the members of the company had agreed on an allotment of stock among themselves, and had reserved a
surplus to be placed where it would do the most good to the project, -- among the members of the Legislature. Two differing statements have been made of the manner in which this stock fund was used. Both agree that it was distributed among Republican members exclusively, and that it was guaranteed that its price would be above par ; but they differ, in that by one account it is made to appear that the distribution was only made among such Republi - cans as voted for the charter, and by the other, that it was placed with all Republican members, without regard to the manner of their voting. It is most probable that the latter was the course actually pursued, but in either case the intent and the result would be the same, for any member who would accept the more direct proposal would not fail to see that the value of his stock depended wholly on the granting of the charter, and would then vote in accordance with his own interest.
Bills to incorporate the Merchants' Bank of New York and the Mercantile Company of Albany failed to pass. It was alleged by the friends of those projects that it had been agrecd between them and the promoters of the State Bank that mutual support should be given to secure the passage of the three bills, but that when the State Bank had secured their own object they forget the agreement, and not only failed to assist but secretly opposed them.
The Merchants' Bank was again before the Legislature in 1804, but with no better result. In 1805 they made a third and determined effort for a charter. It was regarded as a Federal measure, and was strongly opposed by the Re- publicans, under lead of De Witt Clinton and Judge Spen- cer. Its most powerful champion in the Assembly was William W. Van Ness, of Columbia, who, although he had then just made his first appearance in that body, was the recognized Federal leader. The opposition was overcome, and the bank received its charter.
These matters are referred to more at length, as show- ing the commanding political position held by Columbia county, by reason of the eminent abilities of her public men.
The political power possessed by Judge Spencer, not only while he remained a member of the council of appointment, but for years afterwards, seems most remarkable, as well in the great influence which he wielded in the making of ap- pointments as in the control which he habitually exercised over men and measures within the lines of his party. In explaining this, Hammond says, " It must be borne in mind that all officers, including sheriffs, clerks of counties, and justices of the peace, were appointed by the council at Al- bany. The appointment of justices conferred a more effect- ual means on the central power of influencing the mass of the community than all the other patronage within the gift of the government. The control over these officers carried the influence of the central power into every town and even the most obscure neighborhood in the State. . . . By some such means Judge Spencer acquired and possessed great power in creating yearly the appointing power, and the ability to create generally carries with it the ability to con- trol the thing created. I must not be understood as in- tending to represent or even to insinuate that Judge Spencer yielded his assent to any measure or the support of any
# Vide Hammond, vol. i. p. 329.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
man when he believed or suspected that such assent would prejudice substantially the great interests of the public. Far from it. On the contrary, I believe him to have been honest and patriotie in his views ; but I believe he looked on these matters as mere personal questions, and thought he had a right to pursue a course calculated to advance his own views and interest when that interest was not ineom- patible with the public good. . . . Judge Spencer was truly a great man ; but he was not only fond of power, but of exercising it. He was industrious, bold, enterprising, and persevering. To these qualities it may be added that he was a man of commanding intelleet, and one of the ablest judges, if not the ablest judge, in the United States."
He was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court Feb. 3, 1804, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resigna- tion of Judge Radcliff. In reference to that appointment Hammond remarks, " It is a somewhat singular coincidence that William W. Van Ness, then a young lawyer and a zealous Federalist, of Columbia county, afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court, was removed from the office of sur- rogate of the county of Columbia for political reasons by the same council and at the same time that Mr. Spencer was appointed a judge. Did either one or the other antiei- pate what would be their official, social, and political rela- tions for several years succeeding the year 1818 ?"
Upon his elevation to the supreme bench, Judge Spencer removed his residence to Albany, and ceased to be a citizen of Columbia county.
In 1804 the county gave a majority for the defeated gubernatorial candidate, Colenel Burr, the vote being as follows : Aaron Burr, twelve hundred and ninety-one; Morgan Lewis, eleven hundred and sixty-two; plurality for Burr, one hundred and twenty-nine.
In this year William W. Van Ness, Monerief Livingston, Peter Silvester, and Jason Warner, Federalists, were elected to the Assembly by an average plurality of two hundred and eighty votes over their opponents ; Mr. Van Ness, who had three months previously been removed from the office of surrogate, running considerably ahead of his ticket. He made his first appearance in the Legislature at the special session called in November, 1804, for the election of United States senator and presidential eleetors. At the regular session, convened in January, 1805, he at once, and by general assent, assumed the leadership of the Federalist party in the Assem- bly, and, as we have seen, achieved a notable success in his advocacy of the charter of the Merchants' Bank. This may be regarded as the commencement of his short but surpass- ingly brilliant public career.
The vote of the county in 1807 for governor was as fol- lows : for Daniel D. Tompkins, thirteen hundred and six ; for Morgan Lewis, fifteen hundred and six; being a plurality of two hundred in favor of the unsuccessful candidate. The city of Hudson gave Lewis one hundred and eighty, and Tompkins one hundred and eighty-six votes.
In this year Hon. W. W. Van Ness was elevated to the supreme bench, and Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer soon after became one of the Federalist leaders in the lower house. In 1808 the Federalists achieved a triumph in the State, the first in a period of ten years. Upon the result
of this election being known, William W. Van Ness wrote to his friend, Solomon Van Rensselaer, at Albany, in a ju- bilant strain, as follows :
" CLAVERACK, 30th April, 1808.
"DEAN SIR,-Federalism has triumphed most gloriously in this county. We have at least 600 majority ; 200 more than we ever had. If Rensselaer Connty is faithful we shall carry both our members of Congress. Hasten to communicate this to our friend, Abraham Van Vechten. Let somebody write ns ahont members of Congress, &c., &c., in Reossclaer and Washington counties as soon as possible."
In 1810 the county again gave a majority against the successful candidate for governor, viz. : for D. D. Tomp- kins, sixteen hundred and fourteen ; for Jonas Platt, twenty-one hundred and thirty-four ; Platt's plurality, five hundred and twenty. The vote of Hudson stood-Tomp- kins, two hundred and thirty-nine; Platt, three hundred and three. The gubernatorial contest in the county in 1813 resulted in a vote of seventeen hundred and seventy- nine for Stephen Van Rensselaer, against twelve hun- dred and sixty-four for Governor Tompkins, who was re- eleeted.
In 1812, Columbia's most distinguished son, Martin Van Buren, was elected to the Senate, and made his first appear- anee in the New York political arena at the November sessiou in that year.
Hostilities against Great Britain had been declared by Congress on the 20th of the preceding June, and the war question had now become almost the only one which di- vided political parties. The Federals opposed the war on the ground that we had no cause for deelaring it, or at any rate that there was much greater cause for war against France than against England, and that had war been de- elared against the former country, all our difficulties with the latter would have been removed. Others believed that the government had rushed into hostilities prematurely, and before the nation was prepared for their proper prose- ention ; but a large majority of the Republican party be- lieved that the war was a just one, and that the proper time had arrived for its declaration.
Mr. Van Buren supported the war, and measures for its vigorous prosecution were warmly and powerfully advocated by him in the Senate, but were no less vigorously and ably opposed by Elisha Williams and Jacob Van Rutsen Rens- selaer in the Assembly. Frequent conferences became necessary on account of the collisions which constantly oc- curred between the Federalist House and the Republican Senate. "In these conferences," says Holland, in his life of the statesman, " the measures in dispute were publicly discussed, and the discussion embraced the general policy of the administration and the expedieney of the war. The exciting nature of the questions thus debated, the solemnity of the occasion, the discussions being conducted in the presence of the two houses, and the brilliant talents of the parties to the controversy, drew vast audiences, and pre- sented a field for the display of eloquence unsurpassed in dignity and interest by the assemblies of ancient Greece. Mr. Van Buren was always the leading speaker on the part of the Senate, and by the vigor of his logie, his acuteness and dexterity in debate, and the patriotic spirit of his senti- ments, commanded great applause."
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Mr. Van Buren was appointed attorney-general in 1815, and in the following year was re-elected to the Senate for a term of four years. In the election of 1816 the county again gave a majority to the unsuccessful candidate for governor, the number received by Governor Tompkins being twelve hundred and eighty-nine against fifteen hun- dred and sixty-one for Rufus King,-a plurality of two hundred and seventy-two votes.
Upon the question of the nomination for governor in 1817, the Republican (or Democratie) party seemed hope- lessly divided, one faction favoring and the other opposing the nomination of De Witt Clinton. A large majority of the Federalists, having little hope for the success of a ean- didate of their own, desired and labored for the nomination of Clinton. " Among those most active in their endeavors to produce this determination of the party," says Ham- mond, " were Judges Van Ness and Platt, Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, Elisha Williams, and generally the lead- iug Federalists of the city of New York. The ardent temperament of Judge Van Ness and some other Federal- ists would not permit them to remain neutral on the ques- tion respecting the nomination then agitated among the Republicans."
The opposition to Clinton within the ranks of the Re- publican party came chiefly from the Tammany Hall branch, which Mr. Clinton himself, in derision, named the Bucktail party, from the fact that a leading order of the Tammany society upon certain occasions wore a part of the tail of a deer in their hats .* This designation came to be generally applied to their adherents throughont the State, as well as in New York city, and thus originated the name of a party which flourished for a number of years, and which was celebrated by Fitz-Greene Halleck in verse, of which the following is a specimen :
" That beer and those Buektails I'll never forget, But oft, when alone and unnoticed by all,
I think-is the porter-eask foaming there yet ? Are the Bucktails still swigging at Tammany Hall?"
One of the principal leaders of the party was Mr. Van Buren, and Columbia became known as one of the Bucktail counties of the State as regarded general political questions. The Clintonians, however, polled nearly the entire vote of the county for governor in 1817,; the figures being, for
Clinton, thirteen hundred and thirty-one; for all others, thirty-four. This result merely showed that the Bucktails permitted the election to go for Clinton by default, as, not- withstanding the apparent unanimity, the number of votes received by him was considerably less than one-half the number polled for King and Tompkins in the preceding year.
In 1820 the county went with the majority in the State, giving Clinton sixteen hundred and eighty-nine votes, against twelve hundred and sixty-four east for his oppo- nent, D. D. Tompkins.
On the question of calling the convention of 1821 for revising the State constitution, the vote of the county was as follows : for the convention, two thousand two hundred and thirty-five ; against the convention, two thousand and twenty-five. The county delegates in that body were Eli- sha Williams, William W. Van Ness, Francis Silvester, and Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer .¿ On the question of the adoption of the revised constitution, the vote of the county (given in January, 1822,) was: for adoption, seventeen hundred and eighty-eight; against adoption, two thousand three hundred and forty-four. Germantown gave four votes for, and one hundred and seven against, adoption. The majority in the State for the constitution was thirty-three thousand nine hundred and twenty-five.
In the election of 1824 the vote of Columbia for gover- nor was as follows: for De Witt Clinton, three thousand and eighty-three; for Samuel Young, two thousand and ninety-five. The county now stood politically with the State, Clinton being elected by a majority of sixteen thou- sand nine hundred and six.
In this campaign, the anti-Clintonians were divided into two factions or parties, the division being mainly on the question of the electoral law and the presidential succession ; one favoring, and the other opposing, the election of Mr. Crawford. The latter styled themselves the People's party, being in favor of the election of presidential electors by the people; and they designated their Democratie oppo- nents as the Regency party. The People's party was repre- sented-though not strongly-in Columbia county, and Hon. Joseph D. Monell, Hon. Ambrose L. Jordan, and Captain Alexander Coffin were among its recognized leaders. Its vote was given chiefly to Mr. Clinton, though many declined to vote at all.
" The People's party, in the winter of 1824, had deter- mined to support Colonel Young as their candidate for governor. Several caucuses were held by the members of the Legislature belonging to that party. In these caucuses John Cramer, Henry Wheaton, and Joseph D. Monell, of Columbia county, were the most active. It was finally agreed that a State convention should be called for the pur- pose of nominating a governor. The person who should draw the address to be signed by the members of the Legis- lature making the call was appointed, and it was well un- derstood that Mr. Young was to be put in nomination for governor. They also agreed to establish a newspaper in Albany in opposition to the regency, and Allen Jordan, afterwards mayor of the city of Hudson, was to have been
# This is what the Indian missionary, Heckewelder (most excellent authority in all Indian matters), says of the chief Tamanend, or Tammany, and the origin of the society which bears his name:
" He was a Delaware chief who never had his equal. The fame of this great man extended even among the whites, who fabricated vari- ous legends respecting him, which I never heard, however, from the mouth of an Indian, and therefore believe them to be fabulous. In the Revolutionary war his enthusiastie admirers dubbed him a saint, and he was established under the name of St. Tammany, the pafron saint of America. His name was inserted in some calendars, and his festival celebrated on the first day of May in every year. On that day a numerons society of his votaries walked together in procession through the streets of Philadelphia, their hats decorated with buek- tails, and proceeded to a handsome rural place out of town, which they called the wigwam ; where, after a long talk or Indian speech had been delivered, and the calumet of peace and friendship had been duly smoked, they spent the day in festivity and mirth."
t A gubernatorial election was held in 1817, on account of Gover- nor Tompkins having been elected vice-president of the United States.
Į Mr. Van Buren was a leading member of that convention, as a delegate from Otsego.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
the editor. In case the party should be successful, he was to be made State printer. So ardent were the mem- bers of this association, that some part of the printing ap- paratus for the new paper was actually purchased, when the nomination of Colonel Young by the Regeney party disconcerted their schemes, and, for a time, paralyzed their exertions." ( Vide Hammond, vol. ii. p. 156.)
Upon popular questions submitted to the people in the two succeeding years the vote of Columbia was given as follows :
1825 .- For election of presidential eleetors by districts, sixteen hundred and seventy-seven ; for their election on general ticket by plurality, two thousand eight hundred and seventy.
1826 .- For election of justices of the peace, and for the extension of the elective franchise, three thousand nine hundred and twenty-three; for election of justices, and against extending the franchise, eight ; against both propo- sitions, nine ; against the election of justices, and in favor of extension of franchise, three.
The county vote of 1826 stood-for governor, De Witt Clinton, two thousand five hundred and fifty-two; William B. Rochester, two thousand four hundred and ten ; the lat- ter being the Bucktail candidate. That party was then in a state of splendid discipline, and carried both branches of the Legislature, though Mr. Clinton's great personal popu- larity made him governor. In this year Aaron Vanderpoel made his first appearance in the Assembly, to which he had been elected in the fall of 1825, as a Clintonian.
On the 17th of July, 1827, a convention of protectionists was held at Albany. This convention asserted in strong terms the power and the duty of Congress to pass laws for the protection of home manufactures, and for the encourage- ment of the wool-growing industry of the country. Among the prominent men who composed this body were Elisha Williams, James Vanderpoel, and Jacob Rutsen Van Rens- selaer, delegates from Columbia county.
The Anti-Masonic party, which had its origin in the mysterious incident of the abduction or disappearance of William Morgan from Genesee county in September, 1826, first appeared as a political power in 1827, when it devel- oped sufficient strength to carry the elections in the eoun- ties of Genesee, Monroe, Livingston, Orleans, and Niagara in the face of the Bucktail and Adams organizations,-a result which astonished even its own adherents. Its opera- tion, however, was as yet confined chiefly to the western portion of the State.
The Clintonian party ceased to exist in 1828, in conse- quenee of the death of their leader, Governor Clinton, February 11 in that year.
The "Jaekson party," which first became generally known as such in 1828, was made up from the old Bucktail party, a portion of the Clintonians, and a majority of the adher- ing Masons, who sought this shelter from the unsparing proseription of the Anti-Masonie party. And at the head of the Jackson party in New York stood Martin Van Buren, its candidate for governor.
Its antagonist was the National Republican or Adams party, whose candidate in 1828 was Smith Thompson. Eu this party were found the greater portion of the former
Federalists. Its most prominent member in Columbia county was Elisha Williams, who, with Killian Miller, were then among its leaders in the Assembly. Ambrose L. Jor- dan was a supporter of this party, and was known as an Adams Demoerat. So also was Captain Alexander Coffin, of IIudson, who was made president of the Adams State convention, held at Albany on the 10th of June in that year. Aaron Vanderpoel, who had been elected to the Assembly ås a Clintonian in 1825, was now an adherent of the Jackson party.
The result of the election of 1828 was a plurality of one hundred and thirty-six votes against Mr. Van Buren in his native county,-viz., for Thompson, three thousand five hundred and sixty-one; for Van Buren, three thousand four hundred and twenty-five; and for Solomon Southwick (Anti-Mason), eighty. This seems like rather a remarkable result, except that it placed Columbia again in her old position on the side of the defeated candidates.
In 1829 the county again became Democratic, eleeting to the Assembly Messrs. A. Vanderpoel (formerly Clinto- nian), Oliver Wiswall, and Jonathan Lapham by an average plurality of seven hundred and seventy-seven over the opposing tieket.
In the election of 1830, Columbia gave to Enos T. Throop, the Democratie candidate for governor, three thousand three hundred and eighty-four votes, against two thousand five hundred and eleven for Francis Granger, the Anti- Masonie candidate. John W. Edmonds (Jaeksonian) was at this time first elected to the Assembly, and in the follow- ing year was raised to the Senate, by a plurality of eight hundred and fifty-one votes over the opposing candidate.
The Anti-Masonic vote of the county was largely increased in the election of 1832, Franeis Granger receiving three thousand six hundred and eighty-eight votes for governor, against three thousand nine hundred and fifty-three given for Wm. L. Marcy, the Democratic candidate. The Jackson presidential eleetors received three thousand nine hundred and sixty-five votes, against three thousand six hundred and eighty-two given for the opposing ticket,-a majority of two hundred and eighty-tliree.
About this time the Anti-Masonie party went out of existence, having accomplished its object, the overthrow of Freemasonry, or at least the extinction of nearly every Masonie lodge in the State. Upon the ruins of this and the National Republican party arose the Whig party, whose first gubernatorial candidate was William II. Seward,* in the election of 1834. In that election Columbia gave him three thousand eight hundred and sixty-four votes, against four thousand one hundred and fifty for W. L. Marey, Demoerat. Among the seattering votes given in that year were one for Henry Clay for governor, and one for John C. Calhouu for lieutenant-governor. In 1833 one vote had been given for Andrew Jackson for member of Assembly.
In 1836, Mr. Van Buren received in his own county three thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven votes for the office of President, the vote given for the Harrison eleetors being three thousand aud fifty-one. For governor, Marey
* Mr. Seward had been first elected to the Senate, in 1830, by the Anti-Masonic party in the seventh district.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
received three thousand seven hundred and forty-three, against three thousand and eighty-six for Jesse Buel, Whig. In 1838 the vote of the county for governor stood four thousand and sixty-eight for Marey, and four thousand and eleven for Seward, the successful candidate.
It was during the exciting campaign of that year that a name which has since become as familiar as a household word-the name of Samuel J. Tilden-was first heard as that of a champion in the political arena. He was at that time a law-student, and but twenty-four years of age. The circumstances of his appearance upon the rostrum in the neighborhood of his birthplace were as follows: Nathaniel P. Talmadge, then a member of the United States Senate, having separated himself from the Democratic party and joined the Whigs, had been announced to speak in Colum- bia county upon the issues of the day and in opposition to the financial policy of President Van Buren, and it was the hope of the Whig projectors of the meeting that many of the wavering voters in this county might be converted to Whig principles by the powerful reasoning of the senator. It was especially for the benefit of these doubtful ones that the meeting was held; but although the attendance of pronounced Democrats was not desired, yet the word of notification had been passed along their line, and they were present in large numbers.
The address of Mr. Talmadge was a most forcible and eloquent one, and during its progress he particularly empha- sized the assertion that it was not he nor the Whig party who had changed their position and principles, but that it was the Democratic party who had abandoned their political faith and traditions. The address and the argument were most able, and, when the speaker closed, one of the Whig leaders offered a resolution, which passed without opposi- tion, inviting a reply from any Democratic speaker present who might be so disposed. The young Democrats, who were mostly gathered in the rear of the hall, regarded this as a challenge, and shouted loudly for Tilden, who, per- haps by premeditation, was near at hand, and promptly took the stand just vacated by the senator.
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