USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. II 1822-1864 > Part 22
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The Legislature adjourned without day on May 13, just after the beginning of the war with Mexico. Al- most its last act was to adopt, without a division, a reso-
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lution authorizing the Governor to enroll 50,000 volun- teers for the defense of the State or for the aid of the national army at the seat of war. This was supported, as a matter of loyalty, by those who had most strongly deprecated the policy which led to the war.
A Democratic caucus-attended by only two Hunk- ers-was held just before adjournment, which did nothing but exhort the party to unity. Later five Sena- tors and nine Assemblymen, Hunkers, issued an address on behalf of "a portion of the Democratic members" bitterly attacking the Barnburners and the State officers, and treating Governor Wright with marked coldness.
The Democratic State convention met in Syracuse on October 1, with almost a two-thirds majority of Barn- burners. There were several contesting delegations. From Oneida county came four Hunkers led by Hora- tio Seymour, and four Barnburners led by Ward Hunt. From Albany came Rufus W. Peckham and three other Hunkers, and John Van Buren (son of the ex-Presi- dent) and three other Barnburners. A brief considera- tion was sufficient to give the Oneida seats to Mr. Sey- mour and his colleagues; and a long and at times acrimonious discussion ended in the seating of Mr. Van Buren and his fellow-radicals.
There was no great enthusiasm for the renomination of Governor Wright, but it was generally recognized as the logical thing, and indeed the only thing, if the party was not hopelessly to stultify itself. On the first ballot 112 votes were cast for him; 7 for Amasa J. Parker, despite that gentleman's refusal to be consid- ered a candidate and his advocacy of Governor
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Wright's renomination; and 6 for Heman J. Redfield. The renomination of Wright was, on motion of Horatio Seymour, made unanimous ; and Addison Gardiner was unanimously nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. The convention adopted a platform approving the Oregon settlement with Great Britain, the Independent Treas- ury system, and the new Constitution of the State which the convention had just framed, and expressing a desire for a speedy and honorable peace with Mexico. Gov- ernor Wright was of course highly-and deservedly- eulogized.
The Whig State convention met at Utica on Septem- ber 23, and although that party was not so badly rent asunder as the Democratic, it did not so easily and promptly agree upon a ticket. In fact, the Whigs were divided into two factions and had been ever since the election of Seward as Governor under the dictatorship of Thurlow Weed. The conservative wing of the party was led by Millard Fillmore, John A. Collier, Hamil- ton Fish, and James Watson Webb with his Courier and Enquirer; while the radical wing followed the "firm of Seward, Weed, and Greeley" with the Albany Evening Journal and the New York Tribune, though by this time Greeley was becoming dissatisfied with his partners, particularly because of their disapproval of his office-seeking proclivities.
At the Utica convention Philip Hone, the diarist and former Mayor of New York, was chairman. On the first ballot fifty-five votes were cast for Fillmore, although he had requested not to be considered a candidate. These were, of course, conservative votes. Twenty-one
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were cast by radicals for Ira Harris, who had been elected to the Assembly by the Whigs and Anti-Renters and who was already giving earnest of his subsequent distinguished career. Thirty-six were cast for John Young, by men who strove to pursue a middle course between conservatism and radicalism. Young had great prestige because of his masterful tactics in the Legis- lature, although he was regarded with disfavor by the leaders of both wings. Thurlow Weed especially dis- liked him, perhaps because of Young's practical as- sumption of that leadership of the party which Weed had long considered his own private prerogative, and deliberately walked out of the convention when it be- came evident that Young was to be nominated. He was nominated on the third ballot, the votes which at first had been cast for Harris being turned to him. For Lieutenant-Governor the wise choice of Hamilton Fish was made without contest. He was a leader of the con- servatives, and was manifestly destined for an eminent career.
The Abolitionists, or Liberty party, nominated Henry Bradley for Governor and William L. Chaplin for Lieutenant-Governor. The Native Americans put forward for Governor the eminent jurist, Ogden Ed- wards. The Anti-Renters held a little convention at Albany after they had sounded both the Democratic and Whig candidates as to their willingness to pardon the men who had been convicted of murder in the Anti- Rent war. Governor Wright had responded with a direct and positive refusal, while Mr. Young was said to have indicated a readiness to grant the desired par-
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dons, though positive proof of his having done so was not forthcoming. In consequence the convention de- cided to support a mixed ticket composed of Mr. Young, Whig, for Governor, and Mr. Gardiner, Demo- crat, for Lieutenant-Governor.
This action of the Anti-Renters had a decisive effect upon the outcome of the campaign, for Young, whom they supported, was elected by a majority of 11,572, while his Whig colleague, Fish, whom they opposed, was beaten by 13,357 by the Democratic candidate, Gardiner. The vote for Governor was: John Young, Whig, 198,878; Silas Wright, Democrat, 187,306; Henry Bradley, Liberty, 12,844; Ogden Edwards, Native American, 6,306. In the Legislature the Whigs elected five of the eight Senators, and 68 Assemblymen to 50 Democrats and 10 Anti-Renters. Of Representa- tives in Congress the Whigs secured 23 and the Demo- crats 11. The new Constitution was adopted by a ma- jority of about 130,000.
This defeat ended the public career of Silas Wright. Never did the intrinsic nobility of the man display itself more admirably, though unostentatiously, than at this trying time. No word of resentment or disappoint- ment escaped his lips. He was as serene and self- possessed in defeat as ever he had been in victory. "I have neither time nor disposition to speak of the causes of our overthrow," he wrote. So he served out the remaining weeks of his term with the same fidelity that marked his entire administration, and then retired that had marked his entire administration, and then retired to his home on his loved farm at Canton, to re-
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sume what were to him the genuine pleasures of rustic life and labor. His home became forthwith a Mecca for political pilgrims, including many who had in mind the next Presidential election and his preëmi- nent qualifications for candidacy. But such further preferment was not to come to him. He died at Canton on August 27, 1847, scarcely eight months after the close of his administration ; to be mourned by the people as not more than two or three other men had been in the history of the State.
It must be said that great as was his statesmanship, spotless his integrity, and lovable his character, he was not successful as Governor of New York. That was because he had not practiced or would not assume the arts of a "practical politician," because he could not or would not take tactical advantage of opportunities, and because he would never sacrifice or compromise prin- ciple for expediency. Few men in the history of New York were more loved and trusted, few were so much mourned in their death, and perhaps no other of com- parable worth, ability, and rank left so slight a mark of tangible achievement.
CHAPTER XX THE THIRD CONSTITUTION
P ROPOSED by the Whigs but organized and dominated by the Democrats, the third Constitu- tional convention of the State of New York was ordered by the people at the November election of 1845, was created at the election of April, 1846, and was in session from June 1 to October 9, 1846. Party politics had been conspicuous in the incidents and pro- cesses leading to its creation, and the election of dele- gates to it was in most of the counties made a paritsan matter. The result was that the Democrats secured a narrow majority of the one hundred and twenty-eight delegates. John Tracy, formerly Lieutenant-Governor, was the presiding officer. The sixty-nine votes cast for him indicated the strength of the Democrats in the con- vention. Counting the convention of 1801 it was the fourth body to deal with the fundamental law of the State, but its work is known as the Third Constitution.
If it was perhaps not quite the peer of the convention of 1821, it was still a notable body of men, though some of the foremost characters of the State were conspicuous by their absence. Most notable of the absentees were William H. Seward and Horace Greeley, both of whom earnestly desired to be members. But Seward had pride of residence and would accept election from
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no constituency save his own Auburn, and at that time Auburn was Democratic. Greeley could not be elected from Democratic New York and sought to be chosen from some other county, but was too late in his efforts. Among them all there were only two who had been members of the convention in 1821, the eloquent James Tallmadge, of Dutchess county, and Samuel Nelson, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Conspicuous names on the roll were those of the former Governor, William C. Bouck; Michael Hoffman, the leader of the radicals; Samuel J. Tilden, afterward Governor of the State; and Charles O'Conor, who became one of the foremost jurists of the world.
Dr. Jabez D. Hammond in his unique personal nar- rative of those times gives us an interesting and sug- gestive analysis of the personnel of the Convention. Among the 128 there were 45 lawyers, 43 farmers, 12 merchants, 8 physicians, 6 mechanics, 2 surveyors, and 1 each of a number of businesses, trades, and professions. There were 75 natives of this State, 13 of Connecticut, 12 of Massachusetts, 6 each of New Hampshire and Vermont, 3 each of Rhode Island and New Jersey, 2 of Pennsylvania, 1 each of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, 3 of Ireland, and 1 of Scotland. Of such composition was the convention which framed what has not inaptly been called the "People's Constitution" be- cause of the great recognition of popular authority which it displays.
The work of the convention was distributed among eighteen standing committees, and of these the fifth, dealing with the election, powers, and duties of the
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Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, precipitated the first great debate in the body. The existing Constitu- tion required the Governor to be a native citizen of the United States and a freeholder, at least thirty years old and for five years a resident of the State. After a long and powerful discussion this was modified by striking out the nativity and freehold requirements. Next came the questions of the veto power-whether it should con- tinue to be vested in the Governor, and whether a two- thirds vote should be required for passing a measure over his veto. Both these questions were finally de- cided in the affirmative, and the passage of the two- thirds rule suggested another, which was adopted, that the vote of a majority of all the members of the Legisla- ture elected should be necessary for the enactment of any measure.
The organization of the State Senate was a much dis- cussed matter. It was finally voted to retain the num- ber of Senators at thirty-two and to elect them for two- year terms, each from a single-member district. It was also voted that Assemblymen should be elected from single-member districts. There was much debate over the provision that no member of the Legislature should during his term of office receive any civil appointment within the State or to the Senate of the United States. A strong attempt was made to strike out the prohibition against appointment or election to the Senate of the United States, but it was retained.
The greatest fight of all in the convention was over the reorganization of the judiciary. The committee that had been appointed to consider that subject was
JOHN YOUNG
John Young, 17th governor (1847-8) ; born at Chelsea, Vt., June 12, 1802; lawyer; member of assembly from Livingston county, 1832, 1845 and 1846; member of congress, 1836-7; declined re-nomination but was again elected for term, 1841-3; governor, 1847-8; assistant treasurer of the United States at New York City, where he died April 23, 1852.
FREEBORN G. JEWETT
Freeborn G. Jewett, jurist; born at Skaneateles, Onondaga county, N. Y., in 1791; admitted to the bar in 1814 and in 1817 as counsellor; appointed master in chancery by Governor Tompkins and held the office until 1823; justice of the peace in the town of Marcellus, 1822; appointed examiner in chancery by Governor George Clinton and reappointed by Governors Yates and Throop; appointed by Dewitt Clinton surrogate of Onondaga county in February, 1824 and held office until 1831; member of assembly, 1825; presidential elector in 1828 and cast his ballot for Andrew Jackson; was elected to congress in 1831, declined a renomination; appointed by Governor Marcy as supreme court commissioner for Onondaga county in 1836, which position he held until 1839; district attorney of Onon- daga county; in 1845 was appointed by Governor Wright as justice of the supreme court; upon the organization of the court of appeals was one of the first four men named and held office from 1847 to 1853, when he resigned on account of ill health; died at Skaneateles, N. Y., June 15, 1858.
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notably able, and it presented a strong report. But it was merely a majority report. Several dissenting re- ports were presented, especially by Charles O'Conor, of New York, who was already recognized as one of the ablest lawyers in the State. After much debate the con- vention decided to accept most of the majority report. It made Judges elective instead of appointive; abolished the Court of Chancery or merged it with the courts of law; created the Court of Appeals, of eight members; provided for a Supreme Court of thirty-two members- four to be elected from each of eight Judicial districts ; and created inferior courts of both civil and criminal jurisdiction for the cities. It would have abolished County Courts had it not been for the strenuous opposi- tion of Charles O'Conor.
The Anti-Rent war had been so recent an incident that its lessons and its influence were strong in the con- vention, and the old feudal system of land ownership and landlordism was swept away. The elective fran- chise was made universal and not at all dependent upon the owning of property, excepting in the case of negroes. The banking monopoly was abolished by taking from the Legislature the power of granting special charters and of suspending specie payments. The Legislature was restrained from running the State into debt without permission of the people expressed at the polls. Pro- vision was made for the enlargement of the Erie canal and the completion of the other canals which had been begun, and also for the prompt extinction of the State debt.
It was preëminently a people's convention. Although
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its members were chiefly elected on strict party lines, never was there such a convention in which so little political partisanship was displayed. The whole body seemed to be animated by a spirit of sincere devotion to the welfare of the whole people, and to be aiming at the enlargement and vindication of popular rights. It was a people's convention and it framed a people's Con- stitution, which, as we have already seen, the people of the State accepted by an overwhelming majority, and which, with few changes, they have ever since retained as the basic law of the Empire State. Adopted by the people at the general election of November, 1846, the Constitution went into effect chiefly on January 1, 1847. The new Judges, of the Court of Appeals, of the Supreme Court, and of the County Courts, were to be elected in the spring of 1847 and to begin their terms of office on July 1 of that year. The Chancellor and the existing Justices of the Supreme Court were to go out of office on July 1, 1848. The first Legislature under the new Constitution was to be elected in November, 1847, and the first Governor in November, 1848.
. It will be fitting at this point to observe what manner of State it was that thus revised its Constitution. We have already noted its population, which made it easily the foremost State of the Union. Its growth in com- ponent parts and in complexity of organization had been comparable with that in the number of its in- habitants. Originally it had consisted of twelve coun- ties : Albany, Charlotte, Dutchess, Kings, New York, Orange, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Tryon, Ulster, and Westchester. Charlotte was changed to Washing-
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ton and Tryon to Montgomery in 1784. Subsequent additions were made by these creations of new counties : -1786, Columbia from Albany; 1788, Clinton from Washington, and Ontario from Montgomery; 1791, Herkimer, Otsego, and Tioga from Montgomery, and Rensselaer and Saratoga from Albany; 1794, Onondaga from Herkimer; 1795, Schoharie from Albany and Ot- sego; 1796, Steuben from Ontario; 1797, Delaware from Otsego and Ulster; 1798, Rockland from Orange, Oneida from Herkimer, and Chenango from Herkimer and Tioga; 1799, Cayuga from Onondaga, and Essex from Clinton; 1800, Greene from Albany and Ulster; 1802, Genesee from Ontario, and St. Lawrence from Clinton; 1804, Seneca from Cayuga; 1805, Jefferson and Lewis from Oneida; 1806, Madison from Che- nango, Allegany from Genesee, and Broome from Tioga; 1808, Cortland from Onondaga, Cattaraugus, Chautauque (changed to Chautauqua in 1859), and Ni- agara from Genesee, and Franklin from Clinton; 1809, Schenectady from Albany, and Sullivan from Ulster; 1812, Putnam from Dutchess; 1813, Warren from Washington; 1816, Hamilton from Montgomery, and Oswego from Oneida and Onondaga; 1817, Tompkins from Cayuga and Seneca; 1821, Erie from Niagara, and Livingston and Monroe from Genesee and Ontario; 1823, Yates from Ontario, and Wayne from Ontario and Seneca; 1824, Orleans from Genesee; 1836, Che- mung from Tioga; 1838, Fulton from Montgomery; 1841, Wyoming from Genesee. Thus at the Constitu- tional convention of 1846 the roll of counties was al- most complete as it is to-day. The only creations since
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that time have been those of Schuyler from Chemung, Steuben, and Tompkins; Bronx from Westchester ; and Nassau from Queens.
New York county (and city) had not yet attained its present size in proportion to the entire State. To-day that county-not the entire city, which comprises five counties-contains about twenty per cent. of the popu- lation of the whole State. In 1845 it had 371,102 inhab- itants, or less than fifteen per cent. of the whole. But its growth was so rapid, largely under the stimulus of the commerce of the Erie canal, as clearly to fore- shadow its rise to dominance of the State. In 1830 its population was 202,589; in 1835, 270,089; in 1840, 312,710. No other county was at that time comparable with it. Oneida had 84,776; Kings, Erie, and Albany came next, with between 77,000 and 79,000 each ; Mon- roe and Onondaga had just under 71,000 each ; Jefferson had 64,999; St. Lawrence, 62,354; Rensselaer, 62,338; Dutchess, 55,124; Orange, 52,227; Steuben, 51,679; Otsego, 50,509; and no other as many as fifty thousand.
CHAPTER XXI
THE WOMAN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT
A LTHOUGH the Nineteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, giving the electoral franchise to women as well as to men, was not adopted until the end of the second decade of the Twentieth century, the movement which cul- minated in that achievement began in the first half of the Nineteenth century, and had its origin in the State of New York. That measure has often been called the "Susan B. Anthony amendment," and with much pro- priety. It is true that nearly thirty-four years before its ratification in 1920, a resolution for the submission of the same amendment was introduced in the United States Senate by Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire. But the Senate was then far from ready for a declara- tion that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by a State on account of sex." The Blair resolution was rejected by a vote of 34 to 16. While the original sponsor of the resolution was the New Hampshire Senator, the main driving power behind it was the New York State woman whose name is linked with the amendment. Subsequent measures were zeal- ously and diligently promoted by others, but all of them, like the Blair resolution, derived their original
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inspiration from Miss Anthony. She did not live to witness the triumph of the cause to which her eloquence and energy were devoted for more than half a century, but she has gone into history as the foremost champion of Woman Suffrage in the days of its slow progress.
Miss Anthony was of Quaker stock and adhered to that faith. Born in Massachusetts in 1820, she came to Washington county, New York, with her parents in 1826; and in 1846 the family removed to Rochester, which remained her city home until her death. In the years of her early womanhood she taught school. Before she had reached her thirtieth year three current crusades aroused her deep interest. One was against slavery, the second was for temperance, and the third, and to her the most appealing, was for Woman's Rights. Miss Anthony was not, strictly speaking, the first pioneer in the Woman's Rights movement. But that distinction fairly belonged to another New York woman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a native as well as a resident of the State. Elizabeth Cady was the daughter of Judge Daniel Cady. She was thirty-five years old when she married Henry Brewster Stanton, a leading journalist and Abolitionist, in 1840. While the couple were on their wedding tour in Europe, Mrs. Stanton attended the World's Anti-Slavery convention in London, and there she met for the first time Lucretia Mott, who afterward was her distinguished associate at the van of both the Abolition and Woman's Rights mnovements.
In Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony New York State supplied to the Woman's Rights crusade a pair of
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leaders who, taken together, could not be matched in zeal, eloquence, and influence while their partnership was unbroken by death. As between the two, however, the primacy belonged to Miss Anthony, who remained a spinster and who had no domestic cares to divert her from the mission to which she was passionately devoted. In a spirit of unselfish comradeship each of the two women proclaimed the other's superior service to the cause. In an article on "Woman's Half-Century of Revolution" contributed to the North American Review a few years before her death, Miss Anthony spoke of Mrs. Stanton as "a leader of women," and "the central figure through two generations" in the Equal Rights campaign. But Mrs. Stanton herself told another story. At a critical stage of their common undertaking, when Mrs. Stanton was particularly en- grossed in her domestic burdens, she said: "Through all these years Miss Anthony was the connecting link between me and the outer world-the reform scout, who went to see what was going on in the enemy's camp, returning with maps and observations to plan the mode of attack." This candid tribute explains the chief reason why impartial historians have rated Miss Anthony as the overtopping figure in the earlier battles for Woman Suffrage, namely, her exemption from home obligations that could hamper the free play of her extraordinary talents for leadership.
But Mrs. Stanton enjoyed one honor that was denied to her sister worker. She was present at the first Woman's Rights convention ever held. The scene of that event was Seneca Falls, and the dates were July
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19 and 20, 1848. The village was at that time the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stanton. Lucretia Mott was a visitor at the nearby village of Waterloo, where she was joined in conference by Mrs. Stanton and a few other sympa- thizers, mostly Quakers. The party then and there decided to summon a convention, and the call for it was accordingly inserted in the Seneca County Courier. The manager and directors of the gathering were Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Stanton, and three kindred spirits of their sex. The place selected for the meeting was the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls-a modest little structure which long ago disappeared as a house of worship. In her memoirs Mrs. Stanton tells us the church was crowded at every session, and that "a religious earnestness dignified all the proceedings." For- ward-looking as the uncredentialed women delegates were, they deemed it wise to bow to current prejudices by selecting a man to preside over the convention- James Mott, the husband of Lucretia. Only one sen- tence from the resolutions adopted at Seneca Falls need be quoted here. "It is the duty of the women of the country," it read, "to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise."
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