USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. II 1822-1864 > Part 17
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The chief Whig leader to whom Glentworth made his nefarious proposal pretended to be interested in it and inclined toward putting it into practice, until he had secured from him documentary evidence of his knavery. Then he denounced him to the Governor, putting the incriminating documents for safe keeping in the hands of a trustworthy citizen. Seward removed
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Glentworth from his tobacco inspectorship and had a proceeding against him begun before the Recorder of New York, Robert H. Morris. Thereupon Morris went, late at night, with a police officer, to the citizen who had the documents in the case and compelled him, under threats of force, to surrender them. For this arbitrary act it was purposed to seek Morris's indict- ment, but Morris himself delivered the charge to the grand jury at the beginning of its inquest and of course influenced it as strongly as possible in his own favor. On account of such extraordinary conduct the Gover- nor recommended to the State Senate that Morris be removed from the Recordership and that Frederick A. Tallmadge, formerly State Senator, be appointed in his place. A long discussion of the matter followed in secret sessions of the Senate, which ended in the action that Seward had recommended. That was in February, 1841. In May following Morris was elected Mayor of New York by a large majority.
Despite the unfavorable reception of his suggestion of the year before concerning the education of the chil- dren of immigrants, Seward returned to the subject in his message of 1841, calling attention to the vast in- flow of immigrants, to the illiteracy which prevailed among them, and to the urgent need of making ampler provision for the education of their children. But he emphasized the point that all such education should be in the English language. Much of his message was given to the subject of the canals and to a defense of his policy of lavish expenditures for them and for other public works. He called attention to the enormous
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area of unimproved land in the possession of the national government and strongly urged that proceeds from the sale of such lands, together with the surplus Federal revenues, be divided among the States to enable their construction of much needed public works.
The controversy with Virginia over the extradition of men charged by that State with "nigger stealing," meaning assistance of fugitive slaves to escape, formed the subject of a special message to the Senate on March 26. Seward reported that he had asked for the ex- tradition from Virginia of a New York man guilty of forgery, and that the Governor of Virginia, while ad- mitting that he had the fugitive in custody, refused to surrender him unless New York would give up the men demanded by Virginia and would also repeal the law granting jury trials in the cases of fugitive slaves. He added that he purposed to stand firm in his refusal to surrender the men and strongly urged the Legisla- ture not to repeal the law in question, which of course it did not do. A little later the Governor of Virginia resigned his place, and the Lieutenant-Governor, who succeeded him, promptly surrendered the forger for whom New York had asked, at the same time bitterly reproaching the government of New York for not do- ing likewise by surrendering the men for whom Vir- ginia had made requisition. Seward replied with a long and forceful letter strongly pointing out the radi- cal difference between the two cases and maintaining his own ground.
Another special message in May called attention to vigorous remonstrances which mechanics were making
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against the competition of State prison labor with their industries. The Governor recognized the legitimacy of the protests and the gravity of the grievance com- plained of, but at the same time strongly deprecated dooming the prisoners to idleness. He recommended that there be introduced into the prison workshops other industries, which would not come into competi- tion with the free labor of the State.
As usual, much attention was given in the message to the public school system. John C. Spencer, who was Secretary of State and therefore also Superintend- ent of Schools, presented a most interesting report, in which it was urged that there be constituted for each county in the State a Deputy Superintendent. Favor- able action was taken by the Legislature, the law pro- viding that the Deputy Superintendents should be ap- pointed by the Boards of Supervisors of the respective counties. The system proved to be of immense benefit to the schools by bringing them more immediately under local directors.
Another question discussed by the Governor in his message was that of capital punishment, for the aboli- tion of which there had been some agitation. The Leg- islature appointed a select committee to investigate and consider the matter, and the result was the drafting of a measure providing for the abolition of capital pun- ishment and the substitution of imprisonment for life, with abolition also, in such cases, of the pardoning power of the Governor. Although this measure was supposed to be favored by a majority of the Legisla- ture, as also of the people of the State, it was finally
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rejected by a narrow margin. The Legislature ad- journed without day on May 26.
An important episode of this year was an aftermath of the rebellion in Canada and the Canadian seizure of the American steamer "Caroline" in the Niagara River, as hitherto recounted. Alexander McLeod, a British subject, visited New York and boasted that he had been one of the party that seized the "Caroline" and had himself fired the shot which killed a man in the encounter. He was arrested and put on trial for mur- der. The British government through its Minister at Washington intervened with a protest, on the ground that if McLeod had really done as he boasted he had, he had been a member of the organized and armed forces of the British crown and had acted under the direction of superior officers. The British Foreign Minister, Lord Palmerston, intimated that McLeod's conviction and execution might prove to be a cause of war between Great Britain and the United States, and Daniel Webster, Secretary of State at Washington, argued that if McLeod was to be tried at all he should be brought before a Federal and not a State court, and urged Seward to stop the proceedings.
Seward replied that he had no power to interfere with the work of the courts, though he promised to pardon McLeod if he should be convicted. When an attempt was made to secure McLeod's release on a writ of habeas corpus the courts held that as there was no state of war between Great Britain and the United States at the time of the "Caroline" affair, and as Mc- Leod held no commission in the British military serv-
DEAN RICHMOND
Dean Richmond, business man; born, Barnard, Va., March 31, 1804; settled at Salina and sold salt at the age of 15; was a bank director at 20; went into the shipping business at Buffalo, 1842; chairman of the democratic state committee for many years but never an aspirant for office of any kind; died, New York City, August 27, 1866.
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ice, British assumption of responsibility for his acts could not be recognized as taking him out of the juris- diction of the New York courts.
But just as the case was thus beginning to look most ominous and tragic, it was turned into a farce by Mc- Leod's confession that he had been lying and that in fact he had not been anywhere near the "Caroline" at the time of her seizure and destruction, and he produced witnesses who satisfactorily proved an alibi for him. Of course the matter was at once dropped. The refusal of Seward to intervene led, however, to a complete rup- ture of relations between him and Webster, and that in turn had an unfavorable effect upon the fortunes of the Whig party in New York.
Those fortunes steadily ebbed all through the year 1841, for a number of causes. President Harrison died a few weeks after his inauguration, and John Tyler, becoming President in his place, went over to the Dem- ocrats, and thus the Whigs of New York were deprived of whatever advantage they might have derived from Federal patronage. John C. Spencer, Secretary of State of New York, followed the fortunes of Tyler, carrying with him a number of Albany Whigs, and thus severed his political relations with Weed and Seward. Many other Whigs, while they would not go with Tyler into the Democratic camp, regarded Seward as too radical and grew lukewarm in their support of him and of the party under his leadership. His course toward Virginia made many whose political principles were subordinated to their pecuniary inter- ests fearful lest business should suffer from suspension
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of trade with the slave States. Above all, there was widespread disapproval of his reckless expenditures for canals. As the State debt rose by millions the Whig vote decreased by thousands.
In the legislative elections of the fall of 1841 the Whigs were badly beaten, the Democrats securing a majority not only in the Assembly but in the Senate as well. Among those for the first time called to public service in the Legislature were Erastus Corn- ing, Senator from the Third district; and in the As- sembly John A. Dix of Albany county, Horatio Sey- mour of Oneida, Lemuel Stetson of Clinton, Theron R. Strong of Wayne, and Sanford E. Church of Orleans. Mr. Church was the first Democrat elected from the so-called "infected region" (dominated by the Anti-Masonic movement) since the abduction of Morgan.
The Sixty-fifth Legislature, thus chosen, met on January 4, 1842. In the Senate the Democrats elected Isaac R. Elwood, of Rochester, Clerk; and in the As- sembly they elected Levi S. Chatfield, of Otsego county, Speaker, and John O. Cole, of Albany, Clerk. Gov- ernor Seward's message, perhaps because it was ad- dressed to a politically hostile body, was even more scholarly, statesmanlike, and elevated in tone than any of his former state papers, and was throughout instinct with indomitable courage. He reported the enact- ment of a law by the State of Virginia calculated to embarrass the commerce of New York, but which was not to go into effect until the next May (1842) and which might be indefinitely postponed or suspended at
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any time by the Governor of Virginia if New York would surrender the three men charged with stealing slaves and would repeal the law giving fugitive slaves the benefit of trial by jury. He reaffirmed his reso- lution not to surrender the men, and left it to the Leg- islature to decide whether it should repeal a law of justice and equality at the dictation of another State. He also submitted to the Legislature correspondence that had passed between himself and the Governor of Georgia relative to the latter's request for the extradi- tion of a man charged with stealing a slave. The case was closely similar to that of Virginia, and was treated by Seward accordingly. On January 8 he reported in a special message that the Legislature of Delaware had adopted resolutions disapproving his course in the Virginia controversy, and on February 11 he reported that South Carolina had enacted a measure calculated to embarrass and injure New York commerce, similar to that adopted by Virginia.
The question of dealing with fugitive slaves was promptly taken up in the Legislature. On general political grounds the Democratic majority was of course hostile to the Governor, and was also strongly inclined to maintain cordial relations with the slave States for both political and commercial reasons. Ac- cordingly the Senate, after much debate, passed a bill repealing the law granting jury trials in fugitive slave cases. This was the action that the southern States had desired, and it was of course a very direct and severe slap at Seward. The Assembly, however, failed to pass the bill. Both houses then joined in adopting
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a concurrent resolution, referring to the demand of Virginia for the surrender of three men charged with slave-stealing and to Seward's refusal to give them up on the ground that the act with which they were charged did not constitute a crime within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and declar- ing it to be the sense of the Legislature that the act referred to did constitute a crime within the mean- ing of the Constitution. This resolution, flatly declaring that it did not agree with him in his controversy, the Legislature requested Seward to transmit to the Governor of Virginia. In a courteous but forceful message on April 12 he declined to do so. He did not dispute the right of the Legislature thus to express its opinion, but he did deny his obligation to be the agent of transmission to another State of anything but an act to which he was a party; and he expressed his strong dissent from the views of the Legislature.
In his message of January 4 Seward resolutely main- tained his former policies, even those which had brought upon him most unfavorable criticism and which had alienated many of his supporters. He re- newed his recommendation concerning the education of children of immigrants, and declared that he could bear with him in his retirement from public service no recollection more worthy of being cherished through life than that of having effected such an arrangement. Much attention was necessarily given to the canals and other public works and to the State debt. The aggre- gate debt, including temporary loans, was $17,395,530. But it was not, he said, a dead weight, as though it
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had been contracted in war or for improvident expendi- tures. It had been created in constructing a vast system of public works, which not only was to yield a return when finished but which was so productive at every stage that its profits furnished all the means neces- sary for its completion. "The debt," he said, "is large because the enterprise is great." Against a debt of less than seventeen and a half millions he reminded the Leg- islature of an aggregate of taxable property in the State of seven hundred millions.
He therefore urged continuance in the construction of canals and railroads and other public works, adher- ing to the rule long before laid down that the debt should not be increased beyond an amount the interest on which could be paid out of the current surplus revenues of the canals, and pledging as a sinking fund for the ultimate amortization of the debt all receipts from the national domain. Even if it were necessary to incur twice the then existing indebtedness, he reck- oned that the system which he suggested would in fif- teen years discharge the entire obligation and leave the State free of debt and with a large unencumbered yearly income. The Legislature did not accept his optimistic views, and in March enacted a bill provid- ing for the suspension of all canal work except that already actually contracted for; and in order to meet the expenses of such work, instead of further increas- ing the debt it revived the direct State tax, which had not been levied since 1827, the legislation in this con- nection providing for the imposition of a tax, for gen- , eral public purposes, of one mill on each dollar of prop-
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erty. Beginning with the next year, 1843, one-half of this tax was to be devoted to canal purposes.
An unpleasant controversy arose between the Gover- nor and the Senate over his comments on a bill that had been passed. In 1841 a measure had been adopted transferring from the Chancellor to the Bank Com- missioners the appointment of receivers of insolvent corporations. Early in the session of 1842 a bill re- pealing this law was rushed through the Legislature. The Governor signed it, but appended a memorandum saying that the law in question contained a salutary and useful provision, that it had been in force too short a time to permit the public to realize its benefits, and that in his judgment it should not have been repealed. Nevertheless, he signed the repeal measure, leaving the responsibility with the Legislature and confiding in its superior wisdom.
When his memorandum reached the Senate a storm arose. It was at once moved to strike the Governor's message from the minutes, on the ground that he had no business to offer it. It was, Senators insisted, his duty to state his objections to a bill if he refused to sign it, but if he signed it he had no right to have his rea- sons for doing so entered in the Senate's journal. This motion was adopted by a strict party vote of fourteen to thirteen. A little later Seward addressed another message to the Senate vigorously defending his right to file such a memorandum, condemning the action of that body in suppressing it, and declaring that he re- garded such action as "a dangerous invasion of the rights of the executive department, unwarranted by
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any precedent in the history of the government and without any justification in the circumstances of the transaction." This message caused a still more violent storm, and after an acrimonious debate the Senate, by a partisan vote of fifteen to eleven, ordered it to be returned to the Governor as unacceptable.
One of the first acts of this Legislature was to repeal the law requiring registry of voters in New York City. In its place a law was enacted providing for the for- mation of election districts generally throughout the State. The repeal was a purely partisan act, dictated by the Tammany Democrats of the metropolis; but the Electoral District law was undoubtedly of great utility both in facilitating the conduct of elections and in pro- tecting them from fraud.
John C. Spencer, who had been Secretary of State of New York, was made Secretary of War in Tyler's cabinet as a reward for his abandonment of the Whig party, and the Legislature elected Samuel Young to succeed him at Albany. For Comptroller, Azariah C. Flagg was chosen, a selection particularly unwel- come to the Governor since he and Mr. Flagg differed radically in fiscal policy. George P. Barker, of Buf- falo, was elected Attorney-General; Thomas Farring- ton, of Owego, State Treasurer; Nathaniel Jones, of Orange county, Surveyor-General; and Henry Storms, of New York, Adjutant-General. These were all, of course, Democrats. There were thus left to the Whigs only the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor; and in order to reduce the latter to the status of chairman of the Senate and nothing more, the Democratic majority
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of that body forced through a resolution depriving him of the power of appointing the standing committees and making them instead elective. An attempt was made to remove Thurlow Weed from his place as State Printer, and by a strict party vote a bill was passed by both houses to that end. The Governor vetoed it on the ground that the Secretary of State and Comptroller had, under the law, made a four years' contract with Mr. Weed, which could not constitution- ally be abrogated without the consent of Mr. Weed as well as of the State. The Assembly voted to repass the bill over the veto, but the Senate declined to follow its example, and the veto was accordingly sustained.
The election of Azariah C. Flagg as Comptroller was highly acceptable to the banking and other finan- cial interests of the State, and, coupled with the legis- lation checking all further increase of the debt for canal construction and providing for a State tax, had a favorable effect upon the value of State securities and upon the money market, which in turn strengthened the forces of the Democracy and added to the depres- sion of the Whigs; so that long before the adjournment of the Legislature it was pretty generally expected that the Democrats would carry the State at the fall elec- tion and thus regain the Governorship. On April 12 the Legislature adjourned to August 16, when it met to redistrict the State under the new Congressional apportionment, which gave New York only thirty-four Representatives. The Governor submitted a general message, in which he expressed strong dissent from the policy of the Legislature in abandoning so large
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a share of the proposed public works. He also de- livered, in impressive terms, the valedictory of his ad- ministration. "It may be," he said, "that in seeking to perfect the diffusion of knowledge, or in desiring to raise from degradation or wretchedness less favored classes, unjustly oppressed by the operation of unequal laws or adventitious circumstances, or in aiming to carry into remote and sequestered regions the physical and commercial advantages already afforded to more fortunate and prosperous districts, I have urged too earnestly what seemed to me the claims of humanity, justice, and equity ; yet, remembering the generous ap- preciation which those efforts have met, I shall carry with me into retirement a profound sense of obligation and a spirit of enduring gratitude."
Meantime political activity increased in anticipa- tion of the November election, which was to give the State a new Governor. During the winter and spring a distinct line of cleavage appeared in both the parties between their conservative and radical elements. In the Whig party the conservatives were cold toward Seward and disinclined to accept him as a candidate for a third term, while the radicals were loyal and en- thusiastic in his support and more and more inclined to sympathize with the anti-slavery party. The con- servative Democrats, afterward called Hunkers (be- cause they hankered after the annexation of Texas and all the other territory that could be taken from Mexico) aimed to renominate for Governor William C. Bouck, who had made so fine a run two years before; while the radical wing of the party, afterward called Barn-
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burners (because in favoring the Wilmot Proviso they were likened to a farmer who would burn his barn to get rid of the rats) inclined toward Silas Wright, Samuel Young, or Michael Hoffman.
The conventions of the two political parties met on the same day, September 7, at Syracuse. The Whigs gathered under a cloud of depression and gloom. Seward had definitely and irrevocably declined re- nomination. Millard Fillmore was regarded as a can- didate and had many supporters; and John A. Collier, of Binghamton, lately Comptroller, was also in the field. But with little hestitation the convention selected Luther Bradish, the Lieutenant-Governor, a man of spotless character, fine ability, and much personal popu- larity. For Lieutenant-Governor, Gabriel Furman, of Brooklyn, was chosen-an able lawyer and accom- plished historian, who had been Judge of a Munici- pal Court and was just closing a term in the State Sen- ate. The only real enthusiasm was over a resolution calling for the nomination of Henry Clay for Presi- dent in 1844. A resolution was also adopted approv- ing Seward's administration as Governor.
A far different spirit prevailed at the Democratic convention, which met flushed with confident expecta- tion of victory. All differences of opinion had been composed in advance. Silas Wright, who was wor- shipped by his followers as few political leaders in New York have been, had written a letter positively declining to be a candidate. The radicals were re- minded that all the State officers elected by the Leg- islature had been chosen from their faction, and were
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thus persuaded to accept conservative candidates for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. Accordingly, with absolute unanimity on the first and only ballot, and without so much as the mention of any other name, William C. Bouck was nominated for Governor, and Daniel S. Dickinson, of Binghamton, for Lieutenant- Governor. They were probably the strongest possible candidates-both men of high character and ability, the one much identified with the canal system and the other with the railroad system of the State. Reso- lutions strongly commending President Tyler's admin- istration and the doctrines of the national Democratic party were adopted.
The Abolition party nominated Alvan Stewart for Governor.
The campaign was largely apathetic, its result be- ing regarded on both sides as a foregone conclusion. The Whigs busied themselves chiefly with promoting the cause of Henry Clay for the Presidency two years later. Bouck received 208,072 votes; Bradish, 186,091; and Stewart 7,263. But that was not the full measure of the Democracy's victory. They elected seven of the eight Senators and ninety-three members of the Assembly. It was a political revolution as complete as that of 1840 had been, in the opposite direction.
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