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 27
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These sixteen months of sacrifice of every private interest or occupation of his own, and of strenuous absorbed devo- tion to the public welfare, led him to make a brief trip to Europe in the summer of 1873 for rest and recreation.
But the lawyer, the statesman, the patriot, was not suf- fered to return to the courts and the council-chamber. In the fall of 1874 he was summoned to lead the party of
Reform in its contest for power in the State. Unwilling to leave it possible for the enemies of reform to say that he could not safely submit his work as a reformer to the perils of party strife and the judgment of the people, he accepted the Democratic nomination, and was elected governor of New York by overwhelming majorities, many Republicans contributing their votes to swell this moral triumph. Two years before, General Dix had been elected by a plurality of 53,000. Governor Tilden's plurality over Dix, his com- petitor, was 53,000.
Not long was Mr. Tilden seated in the governor's chair ere the people discovered that besides being occupied it was filled. His first message, in January, proclaimed his policy of thorough-going administrative reform, revision of laws, so as to provide criminal punishment and civil remedies for the frauds of public officers and their accomplices, and reduction of taxation. Mr. Tilden also took advantage of his high position to restore, in this message, to the Demo- cratic party the authority of its most honorable traditions in finance, and to the country the only policy which ever had insured or can insure its substantial, enduring prosperity. But this was only the beginning. In less than ninety days he had investigated, and in a message to the Legislature exposed, the fraudulent processes of the Canal Ring, by which for years the State had been plundered, its agents debauched, its politics demoralized, and its credit imperilled. The political courage of this declaration of war to the death against a caste claiming the balance of power in both the great political parties can hardly be overstated. In a similar struggle with the baser elements, forty years before, Silas Wright had been struck down as he was rising to the zenith of his fame, and exiled from public life. But Mr. Tilden preferred to fall like him rather than not attempt the reform so necessary. Again he put his trust in the virtue of the people, and again it was not betrayed. He appointed a commission, with John Bigelow at its head, under autho- rity extorted from a Legislature containing many notorious canal-jobbers and organized in theirinterest. The commission brought out to the light of day the whole system of fraud- ulent expenditure on the canals, which he had denounced at the bar of public opinion. Nor was even this all. By arresting completely such expenditures, by the recommen- dation and adoption of various other financial measures, and by the discreet but vigorous exercise of the veto power, Governor Tilden effected a reduction of the State taxation by one-half its sum, before laying down his trust.
By this time throughout the whole Union it was perceived that precisely such as these were the labors and achieve- ments needed in a reformed administration of the federal government at Washington. War had left its usual lega- cies,-departments honeycombed with corruption, a vast debt and habits of unbounded extravagance. Between 1850 and 1870 town, city, county, and State expenditures had increased nearly seven-fold, and federal expenditures ten-fold, whilst the population had not even doubled. Taxes were crushing the nation, and Tweeds were swarming at its capital. It was natural that the eyes of discerning men in all the States, and the hearts of the masses of the people, should be turned towards Governor Tilden. The belief that the reformer of New York was the reformer for Washington inspired a decisive choice among the Democrats
BIOGRAPHY OF SAMUEL JONES TILDEN.
from Maine to Texas. It came up from the people like a tidal-wave, and lifting the political leaders of many a State who had other preferences, bore them onward to an inevitable decision.
On the first balloting of the Democratic National Con- vention, which assembled at St. Louis, June 27, 1876, Mr. Tilden's name led all the rest. He had received 417 out of 739 ballots cast. On the second ballot he received 535 out of 744, more than the two-thirds required, and was at once nominated unanimously. His letter accepting the nomination was looked for with keen interest, and read more widely than any other such document. It betrays in every line its author's mastery of the art and business of statesmanship. The profoundest problems of finance, the causes of commercial and industrial depression, the con- ditions of a revival of national prosperity, are there dis- cussed with the precision of science and the ease of power.
The contest which followed was one of the most des- perate and hard-fought in all the annals of popular elections. Much more than the preference of a majority of the people was needful to Democratic success. Sixteen years of con- tinuous rule had given the Republican party every advan- tage. It wielded the vast influence of $164,000,000 an- nual expenditures. Its followers were mustercd and drilled by 100,000 office-holders.
But Governor Tilden's character, career, and letter of acceptance had completely determined and defined the battle-field and the aggressive quality of the Democratic campaign. It was an appeal to the conscience and the power of the American people from the standpoint of Democratic principles and traditions. War issues were displaced. Reform was the watchword.
The people rebuked his calumniators, and rewarded with the laurels of victory his faith in their purpose to restore the government to the principles and the purity of the founders of the Republic. They gave him, in a vote vastly the largest ever polled, great popular majorities,-in New York State, eighty thousand more suffrages than made Grant's fifty-four thousand majority in 1872, and in the Union thirteen hundred thousand more than Grant had re- ceived in his first election, and seven hundred thousand more than he had received in his second election.
The electors chosen in the Presidential election of 1876 numbered three hundred and sixty-nine. Of these the Tilden electors indisputably chosen numbered one hundred and eighty-four. The Tilden electors in Florida (four), and in Louisiana (eight), also received, indisputably, a ma- jority of the votes cast and returned. It was claimed, too, that Tilden electors (seven) had the majority in South Carolina. The Hayes electors thus numbered, at most, 173; the Tilden electors numbered at least 196. By what means the casting of these twelve (if not nineteen) electoral votes was transferred from the Tilden electors to the Hayes electors history will yet write in burning letters upon the pages of its abiding record.
Every Republican member of the Electoral Commission voted (eight to seven) to give effectual validity to the re- versal, by the State Returning Boards, of the people's choice of Tilden electors,-voted to receive the vote of every dis- qualified elector. All were necessary to enable them to seat Hayes by a majority of one.
We cannot more fitly close this too brief sketch of an unexampled private and public career than by quoting Governor Tilden's own words, on the 12th of June, 1877, upon this, "the most portentous event in our political history" :
" Everybody knows that after the recent election the men who were elected by the people President and Vice-Presi- dent of the United States were 'counted out,' and men who were not elected were 'counted in' and seated. I disclaim any thought of the personal wrong involved in this transaction. Not by any act or word of mine shall that be dwarfed or degraded into a personal grievance, which is, in truth, the greatest wrong that has stained our national an- nals. To every man of the four and a quarter millions who were defrauded of the fruits of their elective franchise it is as great a wrong as it is to me. And no less to every man of the minority will the ultimate consequences extend. Evils in government grow by success and by impunity. They do not arrest their own progress. They can never be limited except by external forces. If the men in possession of the government can in one instance maintain themselves in power against an adverse decision at the elections, such an example will be imitated. Temptation exists always. Devices to give the color of law, and false pretenses on which to found fraudulent decisions, will not be wanting. The wrong will grow into a practice if condoncd-if once con- doned. In the world's history changes in the succession of governments have usually been the result of fraud or force. It has been our faith and our pride that we had established a mode of peaceful change, to be worked out by the agency of the ballot-box.
" The question now is whether our elective system, in its substance as well as its form, is to be maintained. This is the question of questions. Until it is finally settled there can be no politics founded on inferior questions of administrative policy. It involves the fundamental right of the people. It involves the elective principle. It in- volves the whole system of popular government. The people must signally condemn the great wrong which has been done to them. They must strip the example of every- thing that can attract imitators. They must refuse a pros- perous immunity to crime. This is not all. The people will not be able to trust the authors or beneficiaries of the wrong to devise remedies. But when those who condemn the wrong shall have the power they must devise the meas- ure which shall render a repetition of the wrong forever impossible. If my voice could reach throughout our country and be heard in its remotest hamlet, I would say : ' Be of good cheer. The republic will live. "The institu- tions of our fathers are not to expire in shame. The sov- ereignty of the people shall be rescued from this peril and re-established.' Successful wrong never appears so tri- umphant as on the very eve of its fall. Seven years ago a corrupt dynasty culminated in its power over the one mil- lion of people who live in the city of New York. It had conquered or bribed, or flattered and won, almost every- body into acquiescence. It appeared to be invincible. A year or two later its members were in the penitentiaries or in exile. History abounds in similar examples. We must believe in the right and in the future. A great and noble nation will not sever its political from its moral life."
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
JOHN VAN NESS PHILIP.
Lieutenant-Commander John Van Ness Philip was the son of the late Colonel Henry G. Philip and Catharine D. Hoffman, and was born in the town of Claverack, Columbia Co., N. Y., on March 14, 1823. He received in early life a classical education, attending the academies at Claverack and Lenox, Mass., and graduating with high honors at the Van Rensselaer Institute, in Troy, then under the care of Professor Eaton.
With his education thus attained, and standing on the threshold of young manhood, he looked around with youthful eagerness for some useful and honorable occupa- tion in which to spend the manly energies which he felt growing within him. Nor did he look in-vain. On a visit to his uncle, the late General John P. Van Ness, he was offered a midshipman's warrant in the United States navy. The offer being congenial to his own spirit of cour- age, enterprise, and pa- triotism, he aceepted it with alacrity, and thus devoted his life specifi- cally to the service of his country. As an officer in the navy he served faithfully and with honor in various parts of the world, both in peace and in war.
During the Mexican war he was stationed on the coast of California, and for gallant conduct in the action of San Ga- briel was specially men- tioned, not only in the report of Commodore Stockton, but also in that of General Kearney, eom- mander of the forces on land.
JOHN VAN NESS PHILIP.
After his return from the Pacific coast, Mr. Philip sailed as lieuten- ant on board the steam frigate " Mississippi," which was sent to Turkey by our government for the purpose of convey- ing to the United States the exiled patriot, Louis Kossuth. While Kossuth was still guarded by Turkish soldiers, and was in imminent peril of being given up to the Austrian authorities, Lieutenant Philip, in connection with some English officers, devised a plan for his rescue; which, however, was delayed in its execution, and finally abandoned when the Turkish government voluntarily allowed Kossuth and his companions to place themselves under the protection of the American flag.
On his return from the cruise in the " Mississippi," Lieu- tenant Philip was withdrawn from sea service and appointed to the honorable post of assistant professor of mathematics in the naval school at Annapolis. While there he was united in marriage with the daughter of the late Chancellor
Johnson, of Maryland. He performed the duties of his professorship for five years; but, meanwhile, his thoughts and desires were reverting to the beautiful scenes of his childhood. The country, too, was at peace with itself and with all other nations, and did not imperatively demand his continuanee in the service. He therefore resigned his com- mission in the navy, returned to his native town, and made it his home thenceforward till the time of his decease.
Ilere old friendships were revived and new ones formed. With characteristic earnestness, yet with becoming modesty, he applied himself to every good work which his hands found to do. The circle of his popularity and influence widened and continued to extend until there was no one in the community more widely or highly esteemed than John Van Ness Philip. This esteem and affection he highly prized, but more precious to him were the delights of his home.
For such a man to tear himself away from such a home was a sacrifice in- deed ; but at the call of duty the sacrifice was made when his country again needed his services. Keenly alive to her honor, an ardent lover of her free and noble institutions, chivalric in his admira- tion and love for the flag of his country, his heart leaped with indignation when the news first broke upon the land of the un- justifiable revolt of the southern States ; and, al- though by marriage con- nected with the best blood of the south, he was among the very first to fly to the standard of his country when it was insulted by the wanton attack upon Fort Sum- ter. His offer was accep- ted, and during the latter part of May, 1861, he left the navy-yard at Brooklyn as the lieutenant and executive officer of the steamship " R. R. Cuyler," connected with the blockading squadron in the Gulf of Mexico. Ilow honorably and faithfully he dis- charged the duties of that position the records of the navy department and the history of the times fully attest. Ile returned in the month of June, 1862, making a brief visit at home, and was again off to join his squadron. The steamer had been ordered to touch at Key West for eval, and, although the officers were aware that the terrible scourge of that climate, yellow fever, was prevailing at that port, the order was obeyed. The ship became infected with the deadly disease; the captain soon died ; the surgeon and Lieutenant Philip were taken sick ; the latter, on his sick bed, took command of the steamer, and directed her return to New York. They reached Sandy Hook and were placed
14
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
in lower quarantine, where Lieutenant Philip died on the hospital ship on the night of Sept. 2, 1862, but not until he had looked once more upon the faces of his wife and brother, who had hastened to meet him.
As an officer, Lieutenant Philip was brave, vigilant, and self-sacrificing ; as a citizen, patriotic and public-spirited ; as a man, he was both just and generous ; as a friend, warm- hearted and faithful. At his death the military committee of Columbia county, through their chairman, the late Judge Henry Hogeboom, presented a series of suitable resolutions of high appreciation of his character, respect for his public services, and sincere grief at his loss. The Agricultural and Horticultural Association, of which he had been unani- tously elected the first president, and to which he had de- voted his untiring energy and zeal as an executive officer, also passed resolutions of respect and condolence.
We cannot better close this brief sketch than by quoting a few of the heart-felt words of his friend, the late Stephen Burrell, in an obituary notice contributed to the New York Journal of Commerce :
" The respect of the aged, the honor of the good and wise, the love of the purest and best, shall hallow his grave. It shall be wet with the tears of the poor and lowly, and his memory in the hearts of us all shall blossom all the year and keep green forever."
JOHN W. EDMONDS.#
John Worth Edmonds, son of General Samuel Edmonds, was born March 13, 1799, in the city of Hudson. His carly education was obtained at private schools and at the academy at Hudson, where he prepared for college. In October, 1814, he entered the sophomore class of Williams College, Mas- sachusetts, but in 1815 he solicited his dismissal from that institution, and entered Union College, at Schenectady, where he graduated in July, 1816. On leaving college he began the study of the law at Cooperstown with George Monell, Esq., afterwards chief justice of Michigan. After remaining at that place about six months he returned to Hudson, where he studied two years in the office of Monell & Van Buren.
In the fall of 1819 he entered the office of Martin Van Buren, in Albany. He continued with the ex-President, residing in his family, until May, 1820, when he returned to Iludson and entered upon the practice of the law. He continued at Hudson until his removal to New York, in November, 1837.
At the age of nineteen he was appointed a lieutenant in the militia, which commission he held for about fifteen years, when he obtained the command of his regiment. This office he resigned in 1828, on being appointed, by De Witt Clinton, recorder of Hudson.
At an early age he took an active part in politics as a Democrat, and the first vote he ever gave was for Daniel D. Tompkins, who ran for governor against De Witt Clinton
In 1830 he was elected by the Democrats of Columbia
# Compiled from a notice of Judge Edmonds in the " American Biographical Sketch-Book."
to the Assembly, in which body he soon became a leading and influential member.
In the fall of 1831 he was elected to the State Senate, receiving in his district the large majority of over seven thousand five hundred votes.
In the Senate he served four years, during the whole of which time, in addition to other duties, he was a member of the judiciary committee, and for the last three years was chairman of the bank committee.
It was also during his senatorial term that the subject of nullification, arising out of the forcible resistance of South Carolina to the tariff laws, occupied the public mind. A joint committee of the two houses was raised on the matter, and Mr. Edmonds was a member on the part of the Senate. An elaborate report, drawn up by Mr. Van Buren, then Vice-President of the United States, was made by Nathanich P. Tallmadge, the chairman of the committee. About that time Mr. Tallmadge was elected to the United States Senate, and opposition to his report on nullification unexpectedly arising, the defense of it fell upon Mr. Ed- monds. The debate lasted more than a week, during which time the judge stood alone against six of the most promi- nent senators on the other side. The result was the adoption of the report by an overwhelming majority.
In the summer of 1836 he was appointed by General Jackson to carry into effect the treaty with the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes of Indians. This business took him during the summer to Michilimackinac, where for nearly two months he was encamped with over six hundred natives. In the ensuing year he received appointments in relation to other tribes ; but in the fall of 1837 he re- linquished them, and removed from Hudson to New York, where he resumed the practice of law, and almost imme- diately found himself in an extensive and profitable business.
In April, 1843, without any solicitation on his part, he was appointed by Governor Bouck an inspector of the State prison at Sing Sing. It was with much hesitation that he accepted this unthankful task. The labor was indeed her- culean, as scarcely any discipline was maintained in the prison, and the earnings fell short of the expenses by over $40,000. But within eighteen months a great change was effected ; strict discipline was introduced and maintained among the prisoners, and the annual deficiency in the reve- nue was reduced to less than a tenth part of the former sum.
This task, however, was casy in comparison with a reform of a different character which he sought to introduce. He found that for more than fifteen years the system of gov- ernment which had prevailed in our State prisons was one purely of force, and where no sentiment was sought to be awakened in the breast of the prisoner but that of fear, and no duty exacted from him but that of implicit obedi- ence. No instrument of punishment was used but the whip, which had the effect of arousing only the worst passions of both convicts and officers, -- a practice of abomi- nable cruelty, long engrafted upon our penitentiary system, revolting to humanity, and destructive to all hope of re- forming the prisoner. So thoroughly had it become engrafted that the most experienced officers insisted that there was no other mode by which order could be kept.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Passion, prejudice, and selfishness all combined to place obstacles in the way of this proposed reform, and its pro- gress was very slow. Yet it steadily advanced, and when, in 1845, Mr. Edmonds resigned the office of inspector, his system was in the full tide of success, and has been con- tinned by his successors to the present time.
On the 18th of February, 1845, Mr. Edmonds received the appointment of circuit judge of the first cirenit, in the place of Judge Kent, who had resigned. That office he held until June, 1847, when he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court.
Upon the organization of the judiciary, under the new State constitution, Judge Edmonds was nominated for justice of the Supreme Court by the bar of New York and by the Tammany party, and was elected by a majority ex- cceding any of his colleagues. This result was gratifying, not only to him, but to the public, inasmuch as during his judgeship he had made several decisions that warred upon popular prejudice, and immediately before his election he had, with others of the Demoeratie party, protested against the admission of Texas into the Union, as eminently calen- lated to lead to a war with Mexico, and to perpetuate the extension of slavery. His course was justified by his triumphant election by the public, who honored him for his independence of character. In the discharge of his judicial duties Judge Edmonds was always fearless and independ- ent, in which particular he was often compared to the celebrated Sir Matthew Hale. He was especially gifted in the art of communicating to others what he himself knew or felt; and, altogether, he was a man of rare though somewhat eccentric talents.
WILLIAM A. PORTER
was born at Catskill, N. Y., in the year 1827. He was grandson to the late Rev. David Porter, of that place. He was nephew also on his maternal side to Judge Henry Hogeboom, of the Supreme Court of New York, lately de- ceased. Both he and his brothers were distinguished in their respective callings in life, his brother John A. Porter, now deceased, having become a leading professor at Yale College, his brother Henry C. Porter, also now deceased, an influential merchant at Sheffield, Ill., and his brother Charles H. Porter a prominent physician at Albany, N. Y. In his youth he lost both parents, and was thus thrown early in life upon his own personal efforts and resources. He began the study of law in the office of Judge Hoge- boom, at Hudson, Columbia Co., N. Y., and in 1846 was admitted to the bar. At the age of twenty-seven he was advanced to the position of district attorney of Columbia county, and won the respect of all for inflexible integrity and marked ability in office. In 1856 he established him- self in Chicago, which was thenceforward his home, where, after some ten years' practice of law in that city, he was elevated to the bench of the Superior Court of Cook Co., Ill., and continued judge of that court the remainder of his life, being at the time of his death its chief-justice. In 1859 he married the youngest daughter of Justus Boies, Esq., of Northampton, Mass., by whom he had one son, who survives them both, Mrs. Porter having died in 1871. Judge Porter's death, which occurred Oct. 27, 1873, was
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