USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. II 1822-1864 > Part 19
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were driven back by Deputy Marshals and United States marines. Finally, after a Federal Judge had remanded Burns to his southern owner, the unfortunate captive was escorted by a considerable military force through Boston streets that were lined by scores of thousands of howling and hissing citizens, and a United States revenue cutter carried him back to slavery.
Nearly three years earlier Syracuse was the scene of an Underground drama which had a radically different ending. The rescue of Jerry McHenry in the autumn of 1851 is still among the salient and cherished traditions of the central New York city. We have already seen that soon after the enactment of the Fugitive Slave law, Syracuse not only registered its protest but created a vigilance committee for giving aid to fugitive bondmen. A little more than a year later the citizens had a striking opportunity to prove their sincerity and determination, and they did it in a way that aroused nation-wide interest.
In the winter of 1849-50, while the old Fugitive Slave law was still in effect, a colored passenger arrived at Syracuse on the Underground Railroad. His name was Jerry McHenry, and he had escaped from a Mississippi plantation. He was bound for Canada via the St. Lawrence River, but he found so much sympathy and apparent security in Syracuse that he decided to remain there and take his chances. Being an intelligent man, he soon secured employment with a local cabinet-maker ; and later he opened a little shop of his own. In time, however, Jerry's former owner
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learned of his whereabouts, probably through some treacherous informant in Syracuse. On October 1, 1851, Jerry was taken into custody by a southern officer and confined in a building located near the bank of the Erie canal at the junction of West Genesee and Clinton streets. The captive's improvised cell was the office of the Syracuse Police Justice. After a brief interval Jerry was arraigned before the United States Commissioner, who had his office nearby. The news of the seizure had quickly spread, and a wave of indignation swept over the city. The Commissioner's office was filled with angry citizens whose looks por- tended serious trouble.
The initial climax came quickly. While a Federal attorney was presenting the case the prisoner made a sudden break for liberty through a little throng of spectators, who were glad enough to facilitate his flight. He gained the street, dashing eastward. But athletic pursuers were at his heels; and he was retaken within a few blocks, brought back in a cart, and locked up in the Police Justice's office.
As it happened, Syracuse had a goodly number of transient guests on that October day, who had assembled to attend a convention of Gerrit Smith's Liberty party and the annual Fair of the Onondaga County Agricultural Society. Among the visitors, therefore, was a strong contingent of militant Aboli- tionists, who were not at all backward in the heroic counter-offensive that followed Jerry's recapture. Gerrit Smith was there, and he and the Rev. Samuel J. May and the members of the Syracuse vigilance
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committee, including Elder Loguen, took quick counsel and decided on a violent line of action. Word was passed around that Jerry should, and would, be released by force. Scarcely had night fallen when a crowd, armed with rude implements as if for the storming of a fortress, assembled before the building in which the manacled and trembling fugitive was imprisoned. Showers of stones crashed against the brick walls and windows, and a battering ram was soon in vigorous play at the main door. Inside the building the prisoner's guards at first thought of resisting, but as the mob of besiegers swelled and the uproar increased, they decided upon a more prudent course and made such desperate exits as were left to them. One of them broke his arm in jumping from the building. Even Jerry's southern captor perceived that discretion was the better part of valor, and when the crowd had forced an entrance and was mounting the stairs he thrust the negro into the arms of his rescuers, exclaiming, as was reported: "Get out of here, you nigger, if you are making all this muss!" The rest of the story is soon told. Willing hands struck off Jerry's fetters, and he was hurried to a hiding-place, where he was secretly guarded for several days. He was then furnished with money and sped upon a northward journey in a wagon owned by one Jason C. Woodruff, who was soon to be elected Mayor of Syracuse. In Canada Jerry found permanent safety.
It is to be added that, although the rescuers of Jerry McHenry, unlike their Boston imitators, accomplished their purpose with an audacity equal to their success,
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not a single one of them was ever punished by the law. Eighteen indictments were found, but the prosecution went no farther. Such was the record, despite the fact that there were no signs of repentance in Syracuse. Indeed, the Liberty convention, in its session of October 2, adopted a resolution in which, referring to a speech of Webster's delivered in Syracuse in the preceding spring in defense of the Clay Compromises and the Fugitive Slave law, congratulated "the glorious city of Syracuse" upon still remaining "undisgraced by the satanic prediction of the satanic Daniel Webster." The anniversary of the Jerry rescue was celebrated in Syracuse for several years after the event.
Oft-told tales like that of the Jerry rescue related to Underground accidents, happy or the reverse, which were but the rare exceptions to the railroad's rule of quiet, methodical service. Its secrets were so well kept that ambitious New York politicians who hated slavery did not hesitate to give it their confidential encouragement and aid. Perhaps the best-known New Yorker of this political class was Thurlow Weed. In the standard biography of Weed by Thurlow Weed Barnes it is related that on one occasion, when promi- nent political callers were waiting patiently at the famous journalist's home, to be admitted in their turn to his presence, they were both surprised and vexed to see a negro arrival promptly ushered into the great man's council room. The negro soon returned and hastily left the house; and it was then that they learned that he was a runaway slave who had come to solicit
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and to receive from Thurlow Weed financial aid in his flight to Canada.
The historic name of Jay was also associated with this work. John Jay, author of New York's first Constitution and second Governor of the State, was one of the first outspoken enemies of human slavery and advocates of emancipation, though he died before the conflict became intense. His son, William Jay, inherited his sentiments and convictions, and during his distinguished career as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in New York City was a tower of strength to the cause of equal justice for men of all races. In 1843, after twenty-five years' service, he was dropped from the bench because of his pronounced anti-slavery attitude. His son, John Jay the second, who later was American Minister to Austria and one of the foremost publicists of his time, was a leading member of the bar of New York, and might justly have been regarded as the general counsel to the Underground Railroad. For years he was always ready to serve, without charge, as counsel for fugitive slaves, for those who were aiding them in their flight, and for all who came into conflict with the Fugitive Slave law. He became in 1834 the active manager of the Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society of New York.
A single incident in which John Jay was concerned, which was only one of many of the kind, may be related as a reminder that New York City more than once or twice paralleled the "Jerry rescue" of Syracuse, already narrated. It is here related in the words of one of the chief participants, namely, the father of the
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writer of this history-William Johnson, then a busi- ness man of New York and an active operator of the Underground Railroad. The present writer recalls it fom his father's memoirs, not as a matter of mere filial pride but as a vivid picture of some characteristic scenes in the "irrepressible conflict."
"One morning," wrote Mr. Johnson, "on my way to my office, near the City Hall, I saw a negro running as for his life across the Park, with a crowd in pursuit. I recognized him as the man who had been claimed by an alleged owner from the south and arrested a few days before. That very morning Judge Edmonds in his court in the City Hall had discharged him from custody. But as was the custom in those days, his alleged owner at once trumped up some new charge against him-theft, I think it was-and sought to have him arrested as soon as he left the courtroom. Hence the flight and pursuit. I joined in the chase, with a Mr. Smith, of the Tribune staff, hoping to be of aid to the man if he was overtaken. He ran across the City Hall Park, through Beekman Street to Nassau Street, and then turned into Ann Street. By this time the pursuers were at his heels, and he bolted into a base- ment pie bakery and disappeared. We all rushed in after him, Smith and myself at the van, but he was nowhere to be seen. But there was a door at the farther end of the room, which we knew opened into the engine-room of the Anti-Slavery Standard printing house. When the crowd made a rush for it, Smith and I led the way in. There was nobody visible but a brawny giant of an engineer, with a two-foot iron
F
GERRIT SMITH
Gerrit Smith, abolitionist; born in Utica, March 6, 1797; graduated from Hamilton college, 1818; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1853; elected as an ultra-abolitionist to the 33d congress and served from March 4, 1853, until his resignation in 1854; opened a tract of 1,000 acres near Peter- boro, N. Y., to be given to those who would shield and protect fugitive slaves; used his home as principal station of the famous "underground railroad" through which fugitive slaves were transported into Canada; died in New York City, Decem- ber 28, 1874.
JOHN BROWN
John Brown, abolitionist; born, Torrington, Conn., May 9, 1800; farmer but studied surveying and engineering; took an active part in the contest for Kansas between the friends of freedom and of slavery in 1855-1856; obtained a farm from Gerritt Smith to be used as a refuge for fugitive slaves, 1848- 1849; attempted the establishment of a defensible establishment for fugitive slaves on the soil of Virginia, 1859; attacked Harper's Ferry, Va., and took a number of persons prisoner; could have escaped when the soldiers came down on the invaders but made no effort to do so; was tried and condemned to death and executed at Charlestown, Va., December 2, 1859. His body is buried at North Elba, Essex county, N. Y., where the monument raised to his memory may be seen when driving between Westport and Lake Placid.
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wrench in his hand. 'Where's that nigger?' roared the crowd. 'Nigger? I don't know anything about any nigger!' replied the engineer, 'and if you haven't any business with me, you'd better get out. This engine room's private!' He was not the kind of man that even a New York crowd cared to trifle with, and they got out. But Smith exchanged glances with him, and when we were outside whispered to me, 'He's up-stairs, under a floor.'
"The fugitive was kept hidden between floor and ceiling for a few days, and then an attempt was made to remove him to the big sugar refinery of Dennis Harris, on Duane Street, which was a sort of Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad. He was nailed up in a packing-box which, with two or three other boxes of papers and books, was carried out of the Anti-Slavery Standard office and placed upon a dray, which Harris had sent for the purpose. I per- sonally directed the loading of the boxes, and then, as the ostensible owner, told the driver to take them to the sugar house, and myself started thither afoot. Two policemen had been watching the building, day and night, to catch the negro if he came out, and one of them eyed the boxes suspiciously, followed the truck, and as soon as it reached Broadway halted it and demanded to know what was in the boxes. The driver replied that he did not know. Then the policeman said, 'I smell a nigger!' summoned a crowd, and broke the box open; and the negro was dragged to the Tombs prison.
"Next day he was brought into court. John Jay was
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his counsel, and John McKeon, afterward Corporation Counsel of the city, was for the prosecution. Many prominent Abolitionists were in the courtroom, among them Lydia Maria Child and other ladies. The charge of theft could not be sustained, and the prisoner was promptly discharged. Then the Underground Railroad got to work. We knew that another attempt would be made to arrest the man as soon as he left the building. So we got a closed carriage, with a swift team of horses, and two brawny and resolute men on the driver's seat. I had it quietly brought to the pri- vate entrance to the Tombs, on the north side. A great crowd gathered at the main entrance, on the east front, to intercept the negro as he came out. He started from the courtroom for that exit, accompanied by John Jay, Lydia Maria Child, and other friends. These friends clustered about him so closely that he was able, unseen by his foes, to drop upon hands and knees and crawl back and reach the private door, where I waited with the carriage. I thrust him into it, closed the door, and in a moment the horses were on a gallop, headed for Kingsbridge. They were a mile away before the crowd at the main door learned what had happened. There were no telephones in those days, and it was impossible to send word ahead for the stopping of the fugitive; and in a few days more he was safe in Canada."
CHAPTER XVIII
GOVERNOR BOUCK
N EW YORK'S first "Farmer Governor" pre- sented in intellectual equipment and expression a marked contrast to his predecessors. Wil- liam C. Bouck was the great-grandson of a German Lutheran who had fled from persecution in the Palat- inate with many of his fellow-religionists, and had settled before the Revolution in the Schoharie valley. The son of a hard-working farmer, he himself grew up a tiller of the soil. "Until I was twenty-two years of age," he wrote to a friend, "no common laborer on my father's farm did more work than myself. Often have I gone to the plough before daylight, and from it after dark." His father was a man of ample means, and intended the son to have a liberal education. But thrift and industry kept the boy on the farm, so that his educational training never extended beyond that af- forded by the district school. Fine native intelligence and keen observation made, however, a good substitute for pedagogical instruction, and he grew to manhood fully competent for the public duties to which he was called. From an early age his inclinations led him to take an active interest in public affairs, and he soon found opportunities for political preferment.
A Democrat of the school of Jefferson and Madison,
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he became a follower of Governor Tompkins, in whose administration he was made Sheriff of Schoharie county ; in 1813 he was sent to the Assembly; in 1820 he was elected a State Senator; and in 1821 he entered upon the duties of Canal Commissioner, an office which he filled for nineteen years with notable efficiency and always the highest integrity. After his early attach- ment to the fortunes of Tompkins he supported Van Buren, and was the chief organizer of the Bucktails in Schoharie county. He was removed from the Canal Commissionership in 1840 by the Whigs, on purely partisan grounds.
The Sixty-sixth Legislature met on January 3, 1843. Isaac R. Elwood, of Rochester, was elected Clerk of the Senate, and George R. Davis, of Troy, was elected Speaker of the Assembly, a place that he had filled in the Fifty-fourth Legislature. Henry N. Wales was chosen Clerk of the Assembly after a vigorous contest between the two factions of the Democratic party. Governor Bouck's message, for reasons already sug- gested, was very different from the productions of most of his predecessors. It was much shorter, made no pretension to literary style, and indulged in fewer "glittering generalities" on the philosophy of govern- ment, but was notably direct and lucid in expression and instinct with shrewd sense. Strong partisanship was apparent also, particularly in his treatment of some of the issues of the previous administration.
The first important topic of the message was that of interstate and State and Federal relations. He strongly condemned what he regarded as the unwar-
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ranted assumption of power by the Federal govern- ment, beyond the prescriptions of the Constitution and to the detriment of the rights of the States and of the people. Conspicuous among the resulting abuses, he said, was the collection of money from the people, in any form, for purposes of redistribution among the States. Such collection he condemned whether the money was derived from the sale of public lands, from imposts, or from direct taxation. Another abuse he perceived in a law of Congress which was ostensibly for the purpose of regulating the election of Repre- sentatives but which in fact practically dictated special enactments to the Legislatures of the States. A third was in the national Bankruptcy law which, he held, was not a bankruptcy law in the sense of the Consti- tution but a law providing for the discharge of insol- vents from their debts without the consent of their creditors. He urged resistance to all such measures, and also a scrupulous care that the State should not in any way infringe upon the province of the national government.
The Governor added that he had been led to make his remarks by observation of certain laws dealing with human slavery. He found on the statute-books of New York laws which conflicted with the consti- tutional obligations of this State to other States. The principles of such laws had been declared unconstitu- tional by the Supreme Court of the United States, and he therefore questioned the propriety of retaining them. Especially he referred to the controversy with the State of Virginia over the extradition of men charged with
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aiding fugitive slaves to escape, and he declared him- self strongly in accord with the resolutions on that sub- ject which the Legislature had adopted and which Gov- ernor Seward had declined to transmit to the Gover- nor of Virginia. In brief, he took exactly the oppo- site view from that entertained by Seward.
The subject of the canals, the railroads, and the finances of the State received much expert attention. No radical recommendations were made, but he urged strict economy in all directions. Although he called attention to the fact that he was the first farmer ever elected Governor, he had little to say about the agri- cultural interests. He suggested that it would be well to have all laws of general interest published in full in at least one newspaper in each county, so as to acquaint the people generally with their purport.
Early in the session there occurred a great fight in the Legislature over the State Printer. The Demo- crats were resolved to get rid of Thurlow Weed and put one of their own men in the profitable and influ- ential office. But they so strongly disagreed as to ways and means and candidates that the net result was to widen the breach in their own ranks. The conserva- tives, or Hunkers, wanted a State Printer to be ap- pointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, a process which would result, they felt sure, in the selection of Edwin Croswell, the forceful and formid- able editor of the Albany Argus and former State Printer. The radicals, or Barnburners, led by the Comptroller, Azariah C. Flagg, desired that the State Printer should be elected by the votes of the two houses,
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expecting thus to secure the choice of Mr. Croswell's partner, H. H. Van Dyck. The Senate voted for the former plan, and the Assembly for the latter. In con- ference the Senate ultimately acquiesced in the will of the Assembly. Then Van Dyck withdrew from the contest for the sake of harmony, and on January 21 the Democratic caucus nominated Croswell by 66 votes to 40 cast for William Cullen Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post. Croswell was accord- ingly elected State Printer.
The term of Silas Wright as United States Senator was drawing to a close, and on February 7 he was reelected, having received the unanimous vote of the Democratic caucus. The Whigs chiefly voted for Mil- lard Fillmore.
There followed another curious controversy which still further exacerbated the animosity between the Hunkers and Barnburners, though it should have in- volved no partisan or factional issue. Some years be- fore an elaborate geological survey of the State had been authorized, and the results had been printed by the State in six large, sumptuous, and expensive volumes. The Legislature of 1842, by a simple majority vote, had placed this work under the custody of the Secretary of State and had directed him to deliver one set of the volumes to each of its own members. Late in that year, however, the Secretary, Samuel Young, declined to as- sume the responsibility of making such a disposal of State property. He expressed the opinion that under the State Constitution the act could have been author- ized only by a two-thirds vote of the entire membership
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of both houses, and that as it was not passed by such a vote, but by a mere majority of those present, the resolu- tion authorizing the distribution was null and void.
That in itself would have excited controversy. But there was more, and worse. The Secretary proceeded to point out that some of the acts of the Legislature issu- ing millions of dollars of State bonds had similarly been passed by nothing but majority votes. Therefore, he argued, they were invalid, and the State was not com- pelled to pay the bonds thus issued. A tremendous storm was raised, and after violent discussion two reso- lutions were offered in the Senate, both of them affirm- ing in the strongest possible manner that, regardless of the manner of their issue, all the bonds of the State should be and must be honored in full. One of the resolutions, presented by Erastus Root, in addition de- clared that the State government had no right whatever to express any opinion that the bonds were invalid. This resolution, with its unpleasant reflection upon the Sec- retary of State and the Governor himself, was supported by the Barnburners and most of the Whigs, while the other resolution was favored by the Hunkers. The vote was a tie, whereupon the Lieutenant-Governor de- cided it in favor of the Hunkers.
The factional fight was continued in the matter of Bank Commissioners. There were three of these offi- cers, well paid, of whom one was appointed by the Gov- ernor and two by the banks. In the interest of economy it was proposed by the Hunkers to reduce the commis- sion to a single member, appointed by the Governor. The Barnburners countered with a proposal to abolish
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the commission altogether and turn its power and duties over to the Comptroller, and this plan was approved by the Assembly, 56 to 23. The measure did not come up in the Senate until the last day of the session, when it was forced through under suspension of the rules by a vote of 12 to 11, the yeas being cast by Barnburners and five Whigs, the nays by Hunkers and two Whigs. Dur- ing the session several nominations to office. by the Governor were rejected in the Senate as the result of the alliance of the Barnburners and Whigs.
The Legislature at last adjourned without day on April 18, the Democrats of both factions uniting in an apparently harmonious caucus, at which Governor Bouck's administration was approved and the candidacy of Van Buren for the Presidency in 1844 was heartily supported. The Democrats carried the spring charter elections in Albany and New York by overwhelming majorities.
A Democratic State convention was held on Septem- ber 5, to select delegates to the forthcoming Democratic national convention at Baltimore; William L. Marcy was chairman of the body, the delegates were instructed to vote for Van Buren, and a resolution was adopted heartily commending Governor Bouck's administration.
The November election resulted in another over- whelming Democratic victory, the Hunkers and Barn- burners generally holding their differences in abeyance and working together for party success. The Demo- crats secured seven of the eight Senators and nearly three-fourths of the Assemblymen. Erastus Root was replaced in the Senate by Stephen C. Johnson. In the
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