USA > New York > History of the state of New York, for the use of common schools, academies, normal and high schools, and other seminaries of instruction > Part 21
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
Meeting of the Legislature. - Governor's message. - Election by the House of Representatives of John Quincy Adams as President, and of John C. Calhoun as Vice-President, by the electors. - Appointment of com- missioners for survey of State road through the southern tier of counties. - Appointment of Minister to England. - Tour of Governor Clinton through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky.
217
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1821.
gentlemen, visited Ohio and Kentucky for the purpose of in- specting the public works in progress in those States. He was everywhere received on his route with the highest demonstra- tions of respect.
17. The ERIE AND CHAMPLAIN CANAL having, after eight years' incessant labor, been completed, a grand and imposing celebra- tion of the great event took place at the city of New York in the fall of this year. On the morning of the 26th of October the first flotilla of canal-boats left Buffalo, on Lake Erie, for New York, where intelligence of its departure was, in an hour and twenty minutes thereafter, received by the discharge of cannon posted at intervals on the entire route, and again com- municated to Buffalo by the same signals.
18. On the arrival of the fleet at Albany, with the Governor, Canal Commissioners, State officers, and distinguished citizens from every part of the State, they were received by a vast crowd and, amid the acclamations of the multitude, the roar of artillery, and, the ringing of the bells of the city, escorted to the Capitol, where they were cordially welcomed by Philip Hone, Mayor of the city of New York, in behalf of its citizens.
19. At five o'clock in the morning of the 4th of November, the fleet, consisting of the Chancellor Livingston, -in which were Governor Clinton and his party, - the Seneca Chief, the Young Lion of the West, and a long line of canal packets, arrived at New York, where they were met by the steamship Washington, with a deputation from the Common Council, and conducted around the Battery and up the East River to the Navy-Yard opposite Brooklyn. Here, amid the ringing of bells and the continued discharge of cannon, they were met by a grand naval procession, consisting of nearly all the vessels in the harbor, gayly festooned with the flags of all nations, and escorted to the schooner Dolphin, moored at Sandy Hook.
20. Arrived at their destination, the Governor, the State and city officers, and distinguished guests, entered the Dolphin ; and, the convoy of vessels having formed an immense circle around the schooner, Governor CLINTON poured a keg of fresh water from Lake Erie into the waves, thus signalizing the marriage of
Celebration at Albany and New York of the completion of the canal. - Imposing ceremonies on the ocean.
218
SEVENTH PERIOD.
the inland seas with the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Samuel L. Mitch- ell then made an oblation into the same element of the waters of the Ganges, the Indus, the Gambia, the Nile, the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine, the Danube, the Mississippi, Columbia, Orinoco, La Plata, and the Amazon, gathered by him from every quarter of the civilized world, in token of that commercial reciprocity prefigured by this great and successful enterprise.
21. On their return to the city, they were met at the Battery by an iminense procession of four and a half miles in length, numbering nearly seven thousand persons, which paraded the principal streets with banners and music until a late hour, when the city was brilliantly illuminated, and the festivities were closed with a magnificent display of fireworks. Thus termi- nated, without an accident to mar its success, the most gorgeous and splendid celebration ever witnessed in the city.
22. The November elections terminated adversely to the friends of Governor Clinton, by a small majority in the Assembly, although a majority in the Senate still consisted of supporters of his administration. The People's party were virtually dis- banded, and the lines appeared to have been again drawn between the Clintonians and the Democracy.
CHAPTER II.
THIRD ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR CLINTON. - COMMON SCHOOLS. - ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. - ANTI-MASONIC EXCITEMENT. - Po- LITICAL ORGANIZATIONS. - PROSCRIPTION OF MASONS.
1. THE Legislature again met on the third day of January, 1826. Governor CLINTON, in his message, urged the im- 1826. portance of an improvement of the Common-School System of the State by the establishment of seminaries for the special preparation of teachers, and repeated his recommendation for
Grand procession, illumination, and fireworks in New York. - The No- vember elections. - Extinction of the People's party. - Meeting of the Legis- Jature. - Message of the Governor. - The Common-School System. - Semi- naries for the education of teachers. - State road.
219
CLINTON'S THIRD ADMINISTRATION.
the construction of a State road through the southern tier of counties. NATHAN SANFORD was elected United States Senator in the place of Rufus King, and Samuel Jones appointed Chan- cellor in place of Mr. Sanford. AZARIAH C. FLAGG, of Clinton, was appointed Secretary of State and Superintendent of Com- mon Schools.
2. On the 4th of February, Mr. JOHN C. SPENCER, from the Literature Committee of the Senate, to whom was referred that portion of the Governor's message relating to the improve- ment of the Common-School System, submitted an able report, . suggesting the expediency of a plan of county supervision, con- curring with the recommendations of the Governor for the estab- lishment of institutions for the training of teachers, and directing the attention of the Legislature to the propriety of employing the various academics of the State for that purpose, and ap- propriating a specific portion of the public funds to the per- formance of this duty.
3. Resolutions recommending an amendment of the Constitu- tion, extending the right of suffrage and providing for the elec- tion of Justices of the Peace by the people, in accordance with the recommendations of the Governor, were introduced during this session and passed both Houses. The bill for the construc- tion of the State road through the southern counties, in accord- ance with the report of the commissioners appointed for its ex- ploration and survey, was defeated by a close vote in the As- sembly.
4. During the summer of this year, WILLIAM MORGAN, a Royal Arch Freemason, and a printer of Batavia, Genesee Co., had determined on publishing a pamphlet purporting to reveal the secrets of Masonry. His intentions having become known to the society, on the 11th of September, a Mr. Cheesebrough, Master of a Masonic lodge at Canandaigua, procured a warrant at Batavia for his arrest for some petty theft, and conveyed him to Canandaigua, where he was discharged for want of proof of the alleged offence. He was then immediately rearrested for a
Election of United States Senator, and appointment of Chancellor and Secretary of State. - Report of John C. Spencer on the Common-School System. - Resolutions for amendment of the Constitution. - Defeat of the State Road Bill.
220
SEVENTH PERIOD.
debt of two dollars to one Ashley, which had been assigned to Cheesebrough, judgment rendered, and execution instantly sworn out by the latter, and Morgan committed to close confinement in the Canandaigua jail.
5. On the night of the 12th he was clandestinely taken from the jail by a number of members of the Masonic fraternity, thrown into a covered carriage, gagged, and conveyed, on the evening of the 14th, to the Canada side of the Niagara River, thence returned to the American shore, and confined in the mag- azine of Fort Niagara, where he remained until the 29th, in charge of Colonel King of Niagara, and one Elisha Adams, when he disappeared, and was never afterwards seen, or his fate discovered. A thorough investigation of the circumstances was immediately commenced, the results of which will hereafter be presented.
6. At the November election, Governor CLINTON was re-elected by a majority of between three and four thousand votes, and General NATHANIEL PITCHER, of Washington County, elected Lieutenant-Governor by about a similar vote, owing, in the case of the latter, to the popular excitement growing out of the State-road controversy in the southern counties. The Demo- crats carried a large majority in both branches of the Legislature.
1827. 7. On the assembling of the Legislature in the ensuing year, Governor CLINTON, in his message, after congratulat- ing that body on the adoption by the people, at the late elec- tion, of the proposed amendments to the Constitution, removing all restrictions, except citizenship and residence, from the right of voting, and providing for the election by the people of Justices of the Peace in the several towns, renewed his recom- mendation for the construction of a State road from the Hud- son River to Lake Erie.
8. After stating that the balance due from the State for the construction of the Eric and Champlain Canals was about eight millions of dollars, and the annual income of those works, in conjunction with the public funds set apart for their support,
Abduction and probable murder of William Morgan. - Re-election of Governor Clinton and election of General Pitcher as Lieutenant-Governor. - Democratic majority in the Legislature. - Governor's message. - The canals. - State road.
221
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1821.
more than one million, he urged the payment of the debt still due at the earliest practicable period, and the investment of the surplus funds of the State in other similar and auxiliary enterprises.
9. The number of common schools in the State was esti- mated at eight thousand,. with four hundred and thirty thousand pupils, taught at an annual expenditure of two hundred thou- sand dollars. The Governor, in connection with this topic, recommended the elevation and extension of the system by the establishment of institutions for the preparation of teachers, periodical examinations, and small libraries to be attached to the several schools.
10. The bill providing for the construction of a State road through the southern tier of counties, in accordance with the recommendation of the commissioners, was again defeated in the Legislature, as was also the bill for the construction of a canal from the Mohawk River at Utica to the Susquehanna at Binghamton, through the valley of the Chenango. The income from the Literature Fund of the State, increased by the transfer of other available funds, was directed to be apportioned among the several academies and colleges according to the number of pupils pursuing the classical and higher English branches of study.
11. On the 17th of April the Legislature adjourned to the second Tuesday of September, with a view to the contemplated revision of the law, in pursuance of the report of the revisers, Messrs. JOHN DUER, BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, and JOHN C. SPENCER, the latter gentleman having been appointed in place of Mr. Henry Wheaton, of New York, who had succeeded General Root, originally nominated. The two Houses accordingly assembled on the designated day, and remained in session nearly three months, exclusively occupied in the special business for which they were convened.
12. The November elections resulted in the complete triumph of the Democratic friends of General JACKSON, who had now entered the lists as a candidate for the Presidency. On the 16th of November, THOMAS ADDIS EMMETT, the eminent New York
Common schools. - Chenango Canal - Literature Fund. - Revision of the laws. - Results of the November elections. - Death of Thomas Addis Emmett
222
SEVENTH PERIOD.
advocate, suddenly expired while engaged in the trial of an important cause. Suitable public honors were paid to his memory throughout the State.
13. The excitement during the whole of the present year in the western counties of the State, on the subject of the ab- duction and probable murder of William Morgan, increased in intensity, and began rapidly to assume a prominent political as well as social importance. Immediately after the occurrence of the event, public meetings were convened at Batavia and other western cities and towns, and committees of prominent citizens appointed, who entered upon a thorough and searching investi- gation of all the circumstances connected with it. Ample proofs were obtained of a daring and extensive conspiracy among members of the Masonic fraternity for the commission of a great crime, but beyond the facts of the abduction and subsequent unlawful imprisonment of Morgan, no clew to his fate was found.
14. Numerous arrests of parties implicated as principals and agents of the conspiracy were made ; and, upon their own ad- mission of guilt, several of the leading perpetrators were con- victed and sentenced to a long imprisonment. Bruce, the Sheriff of Niagara County, was promptly removed by the Governor ; but, in the utter absence of proof of the death of their unfortunate victim, no severer penalties could be inflicted. Public sentiment ran violently against the Masonic institution, whose oaths and obligations, it was supposed, countenanced and encouraged the crime ; and its innocent as well as guilty members were denounced as justifying and conniving at, if not openly participating in, its commission.
15. At the annual town meetings in the spring, decided in- dications were manifested of a disposition to carry the con- troversy into the elections, and through the agency of the ballot-box to give expression to the popular indignation against the members of the Masonic fraternity and all those who en- deavored to institute a discrimination between those of their number who were actually concerned in, or openly justified, the
Anti-Masonic excitement. - l'ublic meetings. - Arrests, trials, and convictions. - Public indignation against Masons. - Political organiza- tion.
223
DEATH OF GOVERNOR CLINTON.
abduction and subsequent imprisonment, and those who de- nounced and repudiated these violent proceedings.
16. An Anti-Masonic party was soon organized in all the principal towns and cities of the West, whose principal object was the exclusion from all official trusts of the adherents and supporters of Masonry ; and at the fall elections a majority was obtained in several counties on this, without regard to any other political issue. All Masons, without distinction of party, were systematically proscribed, and the great mass of the elec- tors in this section of the State speedily ranged themselves on one side or the other of the new organization.
CHAPTER III.
DEATH AND CHARACTER OF GOVERNOR CLINTON. - ADMINISTRATION OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR PITCHER. - THE MORGAN CONSPIRACY. - PUBLIC PROSECUTOR. - CHENANGO AND CHEMUNG CANALS. - ELEC- TION OF MARTIN VAN BUREN AS GOVERNOR. - SAFETY-FUND BANKS. - RESIGNATION OF GOVERNOR VAN BUREN. - SUCCESSION OF LIEU- TENANT-GOVERNOR THROOP. - DEATH OF GOVERNOR JAY.
1. Ox the Ist of January, 1828, the Legislature again 1828. convened. Governor CLINTON, in his annual message, re- newed his recommendation for the prosecution of the system of internal improvements by the construction of the State road and the Chenango and other lateral canals in different sections of the State, adverted to its prominent agricultural interests, and again urged suitable legislation for the improvement of the common schools and the preparation of qualified teachers, through the agency of seminaries to be established for that special purpose.
2. In the midst of the session the melancholy intelligence was received of the sudden death of Governor CLINTON, while sitting in his chair and conversing with two of his sons, at his
Anti- Masonic party. - Meeting of the Legislature. - Governor's mes- sage. - Death of Governor Clinton.
1
224
SEVENTH PERIOD.
residence, on the evening of the 11th of February. The shock produced by this unexpected and painful event was deeply and universally felt throughout the State and nation. In the Legislature, the principal cities and towns of the State, and at the national Capital, the most imposing demonstrations of sorrow and grief were evinced, without distinction of party. All men felt that a great statesman and a good man had departed from the scene of his usefulness, in the maturity of his powers and the fulness of his fame.
3. For more than thirty years Governor CLINTON had occu- pied a prominent and commanding position as a public officer. As private secretary to his uncle, George Clinton, as Mayor of the city of New York, as United States and State Senator, Canal Commissioner, and Governor, he had left the impress of his intellectual ability and moral greatness on all the leading interests of the State and nation. The ERIE CANAL was the crowning triumph of his active and energetic career; but the cause of common-school education, the agricultural, manufactur- ing, and commercial interests of the State, and its political su- premacy as the most important member of the Union, were all identified with his long administration of its affairs.
4. His ambition was not of that vulgar order which seeks only success and the possession of station and power, and shrinks from encountering popular obloquy, discouraging cir- cumstances, and imbittered persecution, in the pursuit of the right. No man saw clearer the path of public duty, or more fully appreciated the means and ends of the great enterprises which presented themselves to his comprehensive mind. No opposition deterred him, no sacrifices or labors were deemed too great, no political or personal hostility for a moment swayed him from his onward course, and no disappointments or dis- couragements influenced his steady and stately progress. In all the long and varied annals of the Empire State, no greater or more illustrious name than that of DE WITT CLINTON has yet been found.
.
5. On the death of Governor CLINTON, Lieutenant-Governor PITCHER assumed the administration of the executive depart-
Proceedings of public bodies. - Character of Governor Clinton. - Suc- cession of Lieutenant-Governor Pitcher.
225
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1821.
ment for the remainder of the term. In his first message to the Legislature be recommended the appointment of a special Public Prosecutor for the detection and punishment of the per- petrators of the outrage ou William Morgan. DANIEL MOSELY, of Onondaga, was accordingly appointed for this purpose, and entered at once upon the active discharge of its duties. The bills for the construction of the Chenango and Chemung Canals, after passing the Assembly, were again defeated in the Senate.
6. An act was passed for the organization, in the city of New York, of a Superior Court of Common Pleas for the trial of civil actions, Chancellor JONES being appointed Chief-Justice, and JOSIAH OGDEN HOFFMAN and THOMAS J. OAKLEY Associate Justices.
7. The political contest for State offices and the Presidency was now actively commenced between the friends of the two rival candidates, -- JOHN QUINCY ADAMS and ANDREW JACKSON. A third element had also taken the field in the interest of the Anti-Masonic organization, which had already assumed a promi- nent importance in the State. The candidates of the Adams party were, for Governor of New York, SMITH THOMPSON, Associ- ate Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and FRANCIS GRANGER, of Ontario, for Lieutenant-Governor ; MAR- TIN VAN BUREN, of Columbia, United States Senator, and Exos T. THROOP, of Cayuga, one of the circuit judges, were the Jack- son candidates, and SOLOMON SOUTHWICK, of Albany, and JOHN CRARY, of Washington, the Anti-Masonic candidates for those offi- ces respectively.
8. After an excited and animated contest, MARTIN VAN BUREN was elected Governor and ENos T. THROOP Lieutenant-Governor at the November elections, by a plurality of about thirty thou- sand votes over Thompson and Granger, the Anti-Masonic can- didates receiving upwards of thirty-three thousand votes. The Legislature was about equally divided between the friends of Adams and Jackson respectively, with a liberal infusion of the
Appointment of Public Prosecutor of the Morgan outrage. - Defeat of the Chenango and Chemung Canals. - Superior Court in the city of New York - Appointments of judges. - Presidential campaign of 1828. - Nomina- tions for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. - Election of Governor Van Buren, Lieutenant-Governor Throop, and President Jacksou.
226
SEVENTH PERIOD.
Anti-Masonic element. Twenty electors in favor of Gener ... JACKSON and sixteen in favor of Mr. ADAMS were chosen. ( ... eral ANDREW JACKSON, of Tennessee, was elected President, and JOHN C. CALHOUN, of South Carolina, Vice-President, by an inn mense majority in the electoral colleges over Mr. ADAMS and RICHARD RUSH, of Pennsylvania.
9. During the year many secessions from the Masonic fra. ternity occurred, and numerous revelations of its mysteries wer- made, strengthening the force and augmenting the numbers ot the opponents of the institution. Its complete overthrow was now aimed at, and conventions for the organization of a plan of operations for the accomplishment of this object were held at Lewiston, Le Roy, Utica, and other places. At the general elections in 1827 and 1828, several of the western counties were carried by overwhelming majorities, and the public excite- ment continued to increase.
10. On the meeting of the Legislature at the com- 1829. mencement of the ensuing year, Governor VAN BUREN, in his message, recommended the application of the surplus funds of the State and a judicious use of its credit to the extension of the system of internal improvements, the establishment of a safety-fund for the ultimate redemption of the notes of the several banks of the State, the choice of presidential electors by general ticket, and the promotion of the interests of general education.
11. The bill for the establishment of a safety-fund banking system, in accordance with the Governor's recommendation and a plan submitted by Joshua Forman, of Onondaga, became a law, and thirty-one banks, exclusive of those in the city of New York, were rechartered under its provisions. CHARLES F. DUDLEY, of Albany, was appointed United States Senator to fill the vacancy occasioned by the election of Governor Van Buren ; GREENE C. BRONSON, of Oneida, was appointed Attorney-General : SILAS WRIGHT, Jr., of St. Lawrence, Comptroller, and JOHN C. SPENCER, of Ontario, Public Prosecutor of the Morgan outrage,
Progress of the Anti-Masonic excitement. - Meeting of the Legislature. -- Governor's message. - Internal improvements. - Safety-fund law and renewal of bank charters. - Appointment of State officers. - Presidential electors to be chosen by general ticket.
227
VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION.
in place of Judge Mosely. Presidential electors were directed hereafter to be chosen by general ticket, instead of by districts, as heretofore.
12. Governor VAN BUREN, having immediately, on the inau- guration of President JACKSON, received the appointment of Secretary of State of the United States, on the 12th of March tendered his resignation as Governor ; the duties of which office now devolved on Lieutenant-Governor THIROOP. The bill for the construction of the CHENANGO CANAL was passed in a modified form, subject to a resurvey of the route by the Canal Com- missioners, and their report to the next Legislature that the cost of the work would not exceed $ 1,000,000, and that within ten years thereafter its receipts would annually exceed its ex- penditures. The CHEMUNG CANAL BILL also became a law. The Legislature adjourned on the 5th of May.
13. On the 17th of May the venerable JOHN JAY expired at his residence in Westchester County, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Having successively filled the offices of Chief-Justice of New York and of the United States, Minister to England, and Governor of the State, he had achieved a high reputation as a statesman, diplomatist, and jurist, and appropri- ate marks of respect were paid to his memory by the various judicial and civil tribunals of the State.
14. The November elections resulted in a very large majority, in both branches of the Legislature, of the Democratic friends of President JACKSON. The Anti-Masonic party was now re- stricted chiefly to the western counties comprised within the Seventh and Eighth Senatorial Districts. They carried fifteen counties - about one fourth of the whole number -and polled sixty-seven thousand votes. No new developments were, how- ever, made of the Morgan conspiracy, notwithstanding the spe- cial investigation instituted by the Legislature, and which was still in progress,
Governor Van Buren appointed Secretary of State. - His resignation as Governor. - Succession of Lieutenant-Governor Throop. - Passage of the Chenango and Chemung Canal Bills. - Death of Governor John Jay. - Result of the November elections.
228
SEVENTH PERIOD.
CHAPTER IV.
ELECTION AND ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR ENOS T. THROOP. - CHENANGO CANAL. - PROGRESS OF THE ANTI-MASONIC PARTY. - ITS FINAL EXTINCTION AND RESULTS. - ELECTION OF GOVERNOR MARCY AND LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR TRACY.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.