USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. II 1822-1864 > Part 25
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While thus the Whig party was rent and weakened by intestine rivalries and feuds, the Democratic factions sought reunion. Their leaders were encouraged by the fact that while the party had been badly beaten at the election of 1848, the combined vote of the two wings considerably exceeded that of the Whigs- showing that if they were reunited they could control the State. The task of effecting such reunion was undertaken by Horatio Seymour, than whom there could have been no one more fit. He addressed him- self to John Van Buren as the leader of the Barn- burners, and urged a reconciliation, pointing out that if this should be ecected the Democrats could control the State offices and gain the advantages of victory.
Van Buren eventually gave his assent to the proposal. The two factions got together and nominated candidates for the seven States offices that fell vacant. Some Abolitionists were placed on the ticket with the result
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1849-50]
that most of that party joined with the Free Soilers and Barnburners in supporting several of the Demo- cratic candidates. The Democrats and their allies elected four of the seven State officers, while the Whigs elected the most important three, namely, the Secretary of State, the Comptroller, and the Treasurer. The Democrats carried the Assembly by two majority, but the Whigs had so large a preponderance in the Senate that they easily controlled the Legislature on joint ballot. Washington Hunt received the highest ma- jority of all the Whig candidates, being elected Comp- troller by nearly 6,000 and thus being placed in the forefront of candidates for promotion at the next election.
At the beginning of 1850 Henry Clay opened his memorable Compromise fight, which was not finished until September. Webster delivered his famous-and fatal-seventh-of-March speech. President Taylor died and Millard Fillmore succeeded him and made Nathan F. Hall, of New York, his Postmaster-General. President Fillmore favored the Compromise policy, and on September 18 signed the Fugitive Slave bill. During all these proceedings Senator Seward was the object of peculiarly venomous animosity on the part of his southern colleagues, who had not forgotten nor for- given his stand against Virginia's demand for the sur- render of men "guilty" of aiding fugitive slaves to escape. Personal attacks and insults almost innumer- able were directed against him, all of which he ignored with marvellous imperturability. When he spoke they deserted the Senate chamber, though competent
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[1850
critics declared some of his speeches to be superior in thought and logic to those of Webster and Clay.
It was during that memorable session that he re- ferred to the "higher law" in words that attracted nation-wide attention and were much misrepresented. He was speaking of the national domain, the territory owned by, but not yet an organized part of, the United States. "We hold," he said, "no arbitrary power over it. The Constitution regulates our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the domain to Union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain and devotes it to the same noble purposes." 'The essence of his thought was, obvi- ously, that the "higher law"-to-wit, divine law-was not contrary to but in exact accord with the Constitu- tion, and that the "higher law" conduced to respect for and maintenance of the Constitution. Yet the charge was widely made, and the impression widely prevailed, that he had advocated a "higher law" at variance with and in violation of the Constitution. Seward's senior colleague, Daniel S. Dickinson, favored the Compro- mise measures.
The death of President Taylor made a great differ- ence in Seward's status. Close relations had subsisted between the two, and indeed Seward was recognized as little less than Taylor's official spokesman in the Senate. But toward Fillmore Seward was antago- nistic, especially after the latter as President committed himself in favor of the Compromise policy, and this fact quickly led to a schism in the Whig party in New
*
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York comparable with that produced by the Free Soil Barnburners in the Democratic party. Fillmore util- ized all the influence of the Federal administration to control the Whig State convention of 1850, at any rate to such an extent as to prevent it from adopting any resolution approving Seward's course in the Senate.
That convention met at Utica on September 26. Thurlow Weed was present as the protagonist of Seward and the radicals. John Young, the former Governor and then United States Sub-Treasurer at New York, and Hugh Maxwell, Collector of the Port, were there as leaders of the Federal administration forces and the conservative Whigs. The radicals were in the majority, having 68 delegates to 41 of the con- servatives. In the interest of harmony the former as- sented to the unanimous choice of the veteran Francis Granger as chairman. Mr. Granger was a man of high character and conscientious spirit, but conserva- tive and a strong partisan of Fillmore's, and he ap- pointed a committee on resolutions that would not per- mit any commendation of Seward to be reported. The radicals thereupon decided to take the matter out of the hands of the committee. They waited until Wash- ington Hunt had been nominated for Governor and George J. Cornwall for Lieutenant-Governor, and then began the fight.
The crux was a proposed resolution declaring that the thanks of the Whig party were especially due to Senator Seward "for the signal ability and fidelity with which he sustained those beloved principles of public policy so long cherished by the Whigs of the
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Empire State." This was bitterly opposed by the con- servatives, who demanded a roll-call so that each dele- gate would have to put himself on record; and on the division the resolution was adopted by a vote of 75 to 40. When the result was announced the conservative members, obediently to instructions from Fillmore to bolt any approval of Seward, rose in a body and marched out of the hall. The last of them to pass out was the chairman, Francis Granger, whose ample shock of silvery gray hair made him conspicious to the eye and caused the leave-takers to be popularly styled the Silver Grays.
The seceders held a convention of their own at Utica on October 17, which ignored Seward, strongly sup- ported and commended Fillmore for signing the Fugi- tive Slave bill, and accepted Washington Hunt as its candidate for Governor.
The Democrats met at Syracuse on September 11, in a spirit of marked conciliation and compromise. Al- though the Hunkers were in control the Barnburners were welcomed to seats and received their share of the offices, and John Van Buren was permitted practically to dictate the whole policy and proceedings of the gathering. Horatio Seymour was nominated for Gov- ernor and Sanford E. Church for Lieutenant-Gover- nor-two of the ablest men in the party and the State.
The outright Abolitionists, who a year before had been chiefly merged with the Barnburners, nominated William L. Chaplin and Joseph Plumb.
Seward took no active part in the campaign. In most of the counties the friends of Fillmore joined
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1850]
with those Seward in supporting Hunt. But in New York City there was an open bolt of the Silver Grays. A large mass-meeting was held at which an attempt was made to swing all the followers of Fillmore over to Seymour. The cry was raised that Seward and his radical supporters preferred civil war to the Fugitive Slave law. Against this Weed inveighed in the Albany Evening Journal with extreme bitterness, while Greeley in the Tribune raged at the miserable blunder- ing of the Fillmore administration.
The result of the election was so close that several weeks elapsed before it was positively known who had won. At last the official figures were reported, giving Washington Hunt, for Governor, 214,614 to 214,352 for Horatio Seymour. The Democrats elected, how- ever, the other candidates on the State ticket. It was only Hunt's great personal popularity that saved him. The Whigs secured a safe majority in the Legislature and a majority of the Representatives in Congress.
To recur to the Seventy-third Legislature, which sat from January 1 to April 10, 1850. Its Senate, of which William H. Bogart was made Clerk, contained only two men who had served in the preceding Senate; among the new members were Clarkson Crolius, James W. Beekman, Edwin D. Morgan, and Henry B. Stan- ton. The Assembly also was filled with new men. Noble S. Elderkin, of St. Lawrence county, was chosen Speaker, to be replaced in that office during the ses- sion by Robert H. Pruyn, of Albany, and the latter in turn by Ferral C. Dinniny, of Steuben county. James R. Rose was restored to his old position of Clerk.
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[1850
A new member from New York City, then barely thirty, destined to figure conspicuously in the politics and public life of the State and nation, was the journal- ist, Henry Jarvis Raymond, at first a protege and employe, and afterward a rival, of Horace Greeley.
Governor Fish's second annual message was a notably detailed review of the varied interests of the State, con- taining many recommendations which unfortunately, because of the changed political complexion of the Leg- islature, were not as generally acted on as they deserved to be. One of those adopted-though not until the very last day of the session-was that the State should secure and forever preserve the "Washington's Headquarters" house and grounds at Newburgh. An act of the Legis- lature gave to the State permanent possession and con- trol of that venerable relic of the heroic past.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FALL OF THE WHIGS
W ASHINGTON HUNT became Governor in the shadow of the impending ruin and end of the party that had elected him. It was not his fault. Indeed, he did his best to maintain party integ- rity and steer a course that would be approved by the people. But it was beyond human power to preserve a party that contained within itself the elements of dis- solution ; yet Governor Hunt, like many other eminent Whig leaders, clung to the old traditions of his party and believed in its high destiny.
He perceived the signs of the times, and if he had not the heroic courage to do other than temporize he stood in the same category with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. It is problematic whether just at that time New York was quite ready to sustain him in any other atti- tude than that which he assumed in arguing that since the Fugitive Slave law was in fact law, it must be en- forced even though it was repugnant to every moral sense and was obviously peculiarly liable to gross abuse. He expressed detestation of the measure, and sounded a warning against the use of it for dragooning free negroes into slavery. But it was the law, and so must be enforced. In his message he also reviewed the whole course and attitude of New York toward the extension
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[1851
of slavery, vigorously upheld the policy of Seward and Fish, and referred to the threatened disruption of the Union with earnest protest against so mad a course.
The Seventy-fourth Legislature met on January 7, 1851, with the Senate holding over unchanged from 1850, and with Henry J. Raymond, of New York, elected Speaker of the Assembly-a place which later in the session was filled by Joseph B. Varnum, Jr., also of New York. Richard U. Sherman was Clerk of the Assembly. Among the new Assembly members was William A. Wheeler, of Franklin county, who many years afterward became Vice-President of the United States. The Governor in his message, in addition to the expressions already cited, referred to the serious appre- hensions felt by some that trade on the Erie canal would soon be much affected by the rivalry of the railroads. (It will be recalled that a few years before it was thought necessary to protect the railroads which were being built against the rivalry of the canals.) While he did not share the apprehension, he recommended that improvements be made on the canals that would enable them to meet such competition by reducing their tolls, and urged prompt completion of the works ordered in 1835, declaring that the delay in achieving them had cost the State already between ten and fifteen millions. Various ways and means were discussed by the Gover- nor for providing the money needed for that purpose, and as a result of his suggestions the Legislature pres- ently enacted a measure authorizing the Comptroller to borrow nine million dollars on canal certificates which were to depend for payment exclusively upon the re-
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ceipts from the canals and were not to be otherwise a lien on the State. Work was begun under the legisla- tion, but after a little the act was declared by the Court of Appeals to be unconstitutional, and the net outcome, as we shall see later, was the adoption of the Canal amendment to the Constitution in 1854.
Another highly important recommendation of the Governor's was for better supervision and control of the banking interests of the State, to which the Legislature responded by creating the State Department of Bank- ing. He made some reference to national affairs as they affected the interests of New York, especially deploring the abandonment of the protective tariff system and the refusal of Congress to make appropriations for river and harbor improvements.
Two extraordinary political conflicts marked this stormy session of the Legislature. One was over the election of a United States Senator to succeed Daniel S. Dickinson. The candidate of the majority of the Whigs was Hamilton Fish, doubtless the fittest man of his party for the place. But General James Watson Webb, the editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer, put himself forward as an aspirant. Webb was then one of the most picturesque and redoubtable figures in Amer- ican journalism. Though endowed with intellectual abilities, he had the serious failing of a belligerent and rancorous disposition. Physically he was remarkable- gigantic in stature and of almost herculean strength. He figured in many libel suits and several duels, one of the latter being with the celebrated Tom Marshall, of Ken- tucky. In that "affair" Webb was wounded in the leg;
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[1851
and for infraction of the New York law against duelling he incurred the penalty of a prison term, from which he was saved by the clemency of Governor Seward. He challenged Jonathan Cilley, a Representative in Con- gress from Maine, who, however, declined on the ground that Webb was "not a gentleman." Thereupon Webb's friend, William J. Graves, took up the quarrel and fought a duel with Cilley at Bladensburg, Mary- land, rifles being used at a distance of eighty yards, with the result that Cilley was killed at the third round of shots. Some years later, in one of his many newspaper controversies with Horace Greeley, Webb offered some sarcastic and contemptuous observations about Greeley's rather careless and eccentric dress; to which Greeley made the stinging retort that however odd the clothes complained of might be, they were not to be compared to those which Webb would have been wear- ing had.it not been for Governor Seward's intervention in his behalf.
Henry J. Raymond was at this time Webb's chief aid on his newspaper. He had begun work under Greeley at first on the New-Yorker and then, in 1841, on the Tribune. Going over to Webb on the Courier and En- quirer in 1843, he might have remained with that news- paper indefinitely had he been willing to do its propri- etor's bidding. The breach came in 1851, when Webb demanded that Raymond, as Speaker of the Assembly, should use the influence of that office in behalf of his (Webb's) campaign for the Senatorship. Raymond refused, left Webb's employ, and became the editor of his own paper, the New York Times, which soon far
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WASHINGTON HUNT
Washington Hunt, 19th governor (1851-52) ; born at Wind- ham, Greene county, August 5, 1811; lawyer; judge of the court of common pleas of Niagara county, 1836-41; member of congress, 1843-49 ; state comptroller, 1849-50; governor, 1851-52; defeated for reelection; died in New York City, February 2, 1867.
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1851]
overshadowed the Courier and Enquirer and ultimately obliged it to go out of existence by merging with the World when the latter paper was started a few years subsequently.
The fight over the Senatorship was complicated by the circumstance that the Whigs had but a narrow mar- gin over the Democrats in the State Senate, 17 to 15, while the Lieutenant-Governor, who presided, was a Democrat. When the time came for electing a Senator sixteen Whigs voted for Hamilton Fish, while one, James W. Beekman, of New York, objecting to Fish as too much under Thurlow Weed's influence, voted for the venerable Francis Granger, leader of the Silver Grays, and the fifteen Democrats voted for fifteen dif- ferent men. There was no choice, and a motion was made to adjourn. Sixteen Whigs opposed it, but Beek- man voted with the Democrats, making a tie, and the Lieutenant-Governor gave the deciding vote in the affirmative. No election could be had for several weeks. Then, taking advantage of the absence of two Democrats, in New York City, the Whigs forced through a resolution to proceed with the election, and after a continuous struggle of fourteen hours they suc- ceeded in electing Fish.
The other great fight arose over the canal legislation already mentioned. The Democrats steadfastly re- sisted the bill providing for the nine millions loan, holding that it was unconstitutional. In this they turned out to be right, though the Whigs had the opinion of some of the greatest lawyers in America, including Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate, that the bill was
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POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1851
constitutional. As a last means to defeat the bill, twelve Democratic Senators resigned their seats. That act, unique in the history of the State, compelled the Leg- islature abruptly to adjourn, on April 17, because it was impossible to get the necessary two-thirds and three- fifths votes which some essential measures required for enactment. Special elections were held to fill the vacancies, in which six of the resigning Democrats failed of reelection, their places being filled with Whigs; and the latter party was consequently so strengthened when the Legislature reassembled at the call of the Governor on June 10, that the disputed measure was speedily enacted. The Legislature finally adjourned without day on July 11.
In the electoral campaign of 1851 the issue which was supreme in the popular mind was almost entirely ignored by the party leaders. That was the Fugitive Slave law. There was no mistaking public sentiment. President Fillmore had signed the act, and his follow- ers in the Whig party upheld it. Seward, Weed, and Greeley openly raged against it before the State con- vention was held. The conventions of both the Demo- crats and Whigs met in Syracuse in September, and both of them ignored the obnoxious law so far as pos- sible. Whig extravagance in canal expenditures was the chief issue raised by the Democrats, who nominated a ticket composed of both Barnburners and Hunkers. The Whigs pledged themselves to complete the enlarge- ment of the Erie canal, and nominated followers of Fill- more together with Seward men holding Fillmore principles. During the campaign Seward devoted his
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1851-2]
attention to law practice, Weed wrote about the canals, and Greeley pushed his protective tariff propaganda.
The result was the beginning of the end for the Whigs. In one of the closest elections on record they were beaten for all the important State offices. George W. Patterson, for Comptroller, got 200,532 votes to 200,790 for Mr. Wright, his Democratic opponent. The Democrats elected six of the eight State officers and got control of the Canal board. The Senate was a tie-the total Democratic vote for Senators having been 199,885, and the Whig vote 199,540. A majority of two was se- cured by the Whigs in the Assembly. Hamilton Fish correctly summed up the situation in declaring that the Whig party had been destroyed by its own leaders. "I pity Fillmore," he said. "Timid, vacillating, credulous, unjustly suspicious, he has allowed the sacrifice of that confiding party which had no honors too high to confer upon him. It cannot be long before he will realize the tremendous mistake he has made." These words well expressed the views of the majority of the New York Whigs-views which soon after were put into effect by repudiation of what was left of the Whig party.
The census of 1850, published in 1851, showed the population of the State to be 3,097,394. Of the counties, New York had 515,547, Kings 138,882, Erie 100,993, Oneida 99,566, Albany 93,279, and no other as many as 90,000.
The Seventy-fifth Legislature assembled on January 6, 1852. In the Senate Ira P. Barnes was chosen Clerk, and among the members was Myron H. Clark, after- ward Governor of the State. In the Assembly Jonas C.
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POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1852
Heartt, of Rensselaer county, was Speaker, and R. U. Sherman was Clerk. Governor Hunt's message had much to say about national affairs-arguing in favor of a protective tariff, condemning the extension of slavery, and commending the work of the American Coloniza- tion Society in sending negroes to Liberia. He con- gratulated the Legislature upon the fine start that had been made in work on the canals under its enactment of the year before. But on April 8 he was obliged to an- nounce in a special message that canal work had unfor- tunately been stopped by litigation concerning the con- stitutionality of the statute authorizing a loan. The Governor expressed confidence of winning the case, an expectation that was not realized.
The political campaign of 1852 was of peculiar inter- est to the State. There was a Governor to be elected, and there was the ambition of a New York Presidential candidate to engage attention. Fillmore sought a re- nomination, and he used the Federal patronage in the State unsparingly for the promotion of his object, prac- tically proscribing all Whigs but the Silver Grays. He consequently overreached himself and compassed his own defeat. When the New York delegates to the na- tional nominating convention were chosen only seven were for Fillmore, two were for Daniel Webster, and twenty-four were for General Winfield Scott. The body met in Baltimore on June 16, with Fillmore in the lead and Scott a close second. The crucial question was, however, not so much who should be the candidate as what the platform should say about the Fugitive Slave law and the other Compromise measures. Upon that
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1852]
depended, indeed, whether Fillmore could be a candi- date: For he had signed and vigorously striven to en- force the law, and it would be stultifying to be the nom- inee on a platform that did not sustain his course. The southern delegates were unanimously in favor of ap- proving the law, and so were some from the north, in- cluding Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts, who employed his persuasive eloquence in its favor. After a spirited debate a resolution was adopted declaring that the Fugitive Slave law and the other Compromise acts were "received and acquiesced in by the Whig party" as a settlement in principle and substance of the slavery questions. This declaration proved to be the death- warrant of the Whig party. It was adopted by 227 ayes to only 66 nays. Of the 66 votes in the negative it is interesting to recall that just one-third were cast by the New York delegation.
The platform with its endorsement of the Fugitive Slave law was favorable to Fillmore. On the first bal- lot he had 133 votes to 131 for Scott and 29 for Webster -147 being necessary to a choice. A strong effort was made to get the Webster men to vote for Fillmore, but in vain, and endeavors to throw the Fillmore votes to Webster were also unsuccessful. The southern dele- gates would not accept the Massachusetts man. In the end a number of Fillmore's supporters from the south went over to Scott, and he was nominated on the fifty- third ballot with 159 votes to 112 for Fillmore and 21 for Webster. Fillmore accepted the result philosophic- ally and served out the remainder of his term with cheerful optimism, convinced that by the enactment of
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