USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. II 1822-1864 > Part 28
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POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1857
States had "impaired the confidence and respect of the people of this State."
One of the most important duties of the Legislature of 1857 was to elect a United States Senator to suc- ceed Hamilton Fish, whose term was to expire on the fourth of March, 1857. There was no thought of re- electing Fish, who personally did not desire another term. He had been an excellent Senator, with unfail- ing sanity of judgment, perfect integrity, inflexible courage, and a broader scope of statesmanship than many of his colleagues could boast; but he was more a statesman than a politician and was a lover of peace, and therefore he was considered to be too little aggres- sive for the strenuous times upon which the nation was then obviously entering. He was glad to retire, des- tined at a later day to serve the nation nobly in one of its very highest places; and in failing to offer him reëlection there was no reflection upon his splendid worth.
There was in the newly-formed Republican party a certain jealousy between those who had been Demo- crats and those who had been Whigs. The not un- natural notion that Thurlow Weed would instinctively favor former Whigs above former Democrats led some of the latter to regard him with a certain degree of distrust. It was in order to allay that feeling that in the convention of 1856, when he "turned down" the former fighting Democrat, James S. Wadsworth, in favor of the old-line Whig, John A. King, Weed promised that the next United States Senator should be a former Democrat.
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1857]
He had his choice among at least four such candi- dates. One was James S. Wadsworth. A second was Ward Hunt, who afterward served in the Court of Appeals and in the Supreme Court of the United States. A third was David Dudley Field, the eminent lawyer who had prepared the Code of Civil Procedure for the Legislature of 1848. The fourth was Preston King, the distinguished St. Lawrence county lawyer who in former years had been one of the most unspar- ing antagonists of the Whigs, but who had been in 1855 the first Republican candidate for Secretary of State. Wadsworth and Field withdrew in favor of Hunt, but Weed insisted that King ought to be chosen, and in order to avoid suspicion of any ulterior motives he suggested that the choice between King and Hunt be left to those Republican members of the Legisla- ture who were formerly Democrats. That was a diplo- matic move, but it was logical and just, and it resulted in the choice of Preston King for Senator. The Leg- islature adjourned without day on April 18.
The summer of 1857 was not a good time for the Republican party in New York. In August there sud- denly came upon the State and nation one of the most disastrous financial and business panics in history, the failures representing a much larger amount of capital than even the panic of 1837. It did not appear that the Republican party was in any measure responsible for this state of affairs. But it is the inclination of voters always to hold the party in power responsible for any harm that happens. In addition, dissolution of the American party set in and tens of thousands of
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[1857-8
its members who had formerly been Democrats re- turned to their old allegiance, while those of Whig antecedents continued in the third party. The result was that in the fall elections of 1857 the Democrats were generally successful. They elected Gideon J. Tucker to be Secretary of State by 195,482 votes to 177,425 for Clapp, Republican, and 66,882 for Put- nam, American. By similar votes they elected San- ford E. Church to be Comptroller, Isaac V. Vander- poel to be Treasurer, Lyman Tremain to be Attorney- General, and Van Rensselaer Richmond to be State Engineer. In the Legislature the Republicans held their control by a narrow margin, though with the Americans holding the balance of power. In the new Senate there were 15 Republicans, 14 Democrats, 2 Americans, and 1 Independent-Democrat. In the As- sembly there were 61 Republicans, 58 Democrats, and 9 Americans. To the Senate were elected Samuel Sloan, Francis B. Spinola, Smith Ely, Jr., and Wil- liam A. Wheeler, while in the Assembly Moses S. Beach, of Kings county, made his appearance.
This Eighty-first Legislature met on January 5, 1858. The Senate chose Samuel P. Allen to be its Clerk. In the Assembly, owing to the close division of parties, a prolonged contest occurred over the Speakership, which lasted until January 26, when on the fifty-third ballot Thomas G. Alvord, of Onondaga county, was chosen-a Democrat.
Governor King's message of 1858, like his previous one, was shorter than the average of such documents. It discussed the causes and character of the panic of
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THE FIRST REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR
1858]
1857, and recommended as a safeguard against such oc- currences that banks be required to keep on hand in coin an amount equal to at least 25 per cent. of their liabili- ties, exclusive of banknotes. Such a system had pre- vailed in New Orleans, and the banks of that city were the only ones that successfully weathered the storm. The increasing abuse of the practice of injunctions issued by the courts commanded the Governor's atten- tion. He pointed out that injunctions were unknown to the common law and were particularly susceptible to abuse, and suggested various rules and regulations for the abatement of the evil. Concerning affairs in Kansas he had vigorous words, and he made some scathing reflections on President Buchanan. The Leg- islature adjourned without day on April 19.
During the spring and summer of the momentous year 1858 all the events seemed to shape themselves for the Republican party. Stephen A. Douglas openly opposed the Lecompton policy of President Buchanan in respect to Kansas, and thus caused an irreparable breach in the Democratic party. Douglas's "popular sovereignty" doctrine seemed certain, if maintained, to settle the controversy in the Territories in favor of free soil, and accordingly many of the New York Repub- licans began to consider the practicability of a union between themselves and the Democrats who followed Douglas. Both Greeley and Raymond in their papers advocated letting Douglas be reëlected to the Senate from Illinois without Republican opposition, and were displeased when Abraham Lincoln entered the contest against him and challenged him to the famous de-
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bates. It was even hinted that Greeley would be pleased to see Douglas taken up as the Republican candidate for the Presidency in 1860, since that would mean the elimination of Seward, for whom Greeley's antagonism was steadily increasing. But all such ideas were dissipated by the time the Lincoln-Douglas debates were ended, through Lincoln's convincing ex- posure of the radical difference between Douglas's policy and the principles of the Republican party.
The Republicans were the first to meet that year, their State convention being held at Syracuse on Sep- tember 8. There were still marks of the division be- tween previous Democrats and previous Whigs. The former were opposed to Thurlow Weed's domination and wanted to nominate, against his wishes, Timothy Jenkins, of Oneida county, for Governor. Mr. Jen- kins was an adroit politician, who had been for three terms in the House of Representatives. Weed had selected as his first choice Simeon Draper, of New York, who had been a candidate two years before. But Draper fell into serious business difficulties, and for that cause seemed unavailable. Weed then turned to James H. Cook, of Saratoga, but was unable to make headway for him against Jenkins, and so was com- pelled to change again. This time he selected Edwin D. Morgan, of New York, the most felicitous choice, as the event proved, that could have been made.
Mr. Morgan was of Connecticut stock and birth. For many years he had been one of the most influential and most universally respected citizens of the metropo- lis. He had served as Alderman, and as State Senator
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THE FIRST REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR
1858]
in 1850-53. A merchant and railroad president, he was of spotless character both public and private, of commanding intellectual power, and of entire disin- terestedness in his service to the city and State. He was now approaching middle age, stalwart, handsome, urbane, and possessed exceptional charm of speech and manner. So ideal a candidate should apparently have been nominated without a contest.
But there was a contest, and so strong did it prove that Weed, who personally took charge of Morgan's candidacy on the floor of the convention, was put to his utmost efforts to win. Other candidates than Jen- kins appeared. Horace Greeley was pursuing his hopeless quest. George W. Patterson had some sup- porters. Alexander S. Diven, of Elmira, then a State Senator and afterward a Representative in the Thirty- seventh Congress, was in the field. John A. King may not have cared for renomination, but some of his friends urged that he should have it. Moreover, the Know- Nothings were generally hostile to Morgan because of his willingness to recognize the equality of naturalized citizens. Weed fought one of the great fights of his life, and won. On the first ballot Morgan had 116 votes of the 128 needed, Jenkins receiving 51 and the remainder being scattered among various candi- dates; only three were for Greeley. On the next bal- lot Morgan had 165 and was nominated. Robert Campbell, Jr., of Steuben county, was nominated without opposition for Lieutenant-Governor. He had been a delegate to the Constitutional convention of 1846, but had not otherwise held office. The platform
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[1858
strongly approved Seward's course in the United States Senate.
The Americans or Know-Nothings, who on most issues were in accord with the Republicans, held their convention at the same time as the latter, and in an adjacent hall,-their intention being to go into fusion with the Republicans as the Whigs had done the year before. But Weed knew that such a fusion would be impossible with Morgan as the candidate for Gover- nor, and he wisely reckoned it more important to have Morgan than the dwindling remnant of the Know- Nothing party. So the Republican convention made its nominations without regard to the Americans, and the "deal" was "off." The Americans then nominated for Governor Lorenzo Burrows, of Albion. Like Morgan he was of Connecticut birth-a man of ability and character, who had been for two terms a Whig Representative in Congress and in 1855 had been elected State Comptroller by the Know-Nothings.
The Democratic convention met a week later, open- ing with a vigorous contest between two rival delega- tions from New York City. The Softs, from Tam- many Hall, were led by Daniel E. Sickles, and the Hards, comprising the Federal office-holders and their friends, were led by Fernando Wood. The former faction demanded to have its entire delegation seated and the Hards excluded, and this was done. Wood and his followers then withdrew from the convention. The Softs made Horatio Seymour temporary chair- man and would have nominated him for Governor, but he refused to stand. The convention then turned
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1858]
again to Amasa J. Parker, who had been defeated two years before, and chose him to lead another hopeless battle. For Lieutenant-Governor it named John J. Taylor, of Oswego, who had served a single term in Congress and had then been retired because of the resentment of his constituents at his vote for the Kansas- Nebraska bill. The platform was non-committal, expressing merely a willingness to let Buchanan's administration be judged by the people and satisfaction at the apparent settlement of the Kansas question.
The campaign was marked with the powerful activi- ties of three of the most commanding New York figures of the time. One of these was John Van Buren, the protagonist of the Democratic side, who in a strong series of speeches extolled Douglas for the part he had played in the Kansas settlement and won the Demo- crats of the State to support him for the Presidency in 1860.
The second was Roscoe Conkling, who this year was for the first time a candidate for Congress, and who displayed already a large measure of the eloquence, learning, wit, resolution, and authoritative personality that for many years made him one of the most formid- able members of the United States Senate and one of the most masterful political leaders of his time.
The third and greatest was Seward, with his fa- mous speech at Rochester in the closing days of the campaign. Strangely enough there had existed some doubt as to his course. In that speech he dispelled the last traces of uncertainty. Taking his keynote from Lincoln's memorable declaration of a few months be-
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[1858
fore, that a house divided against itself could not stand and that he did not believe this government could per- manently endure half slave and half free, Seward con- demned as erroneous the pretense that the conflict over slavery was the accidental work of interested or fanati- cal agitators. "It is," he said, "an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation or en- tirely a free labor nation." He had expressed the same idea before, but never so tersely nor on an occasion when it commanded so much attention. His phrase "irrepressible conflict" was in a twinkling taken up as one of the watchwords of the Republican party. "Few speeches from the stump," says the historian James F. Rhodes, "have attracted so great attention or exerted so great an influence. The eminence of the man combined with the startling character of the doc- trine to make it engross the public mind." The Dem- ocratic press condemned Seward for the speech in most aggressive and denunciatory terms. He was railed against as a vile, wicked, malicious arch-agitator, more dangerous than William Lloyd Garrison or Theodore Parker. Even some of the Republican papers deplored his speech as injudicious and impolitic, and as likely to do his own party harm. But Greeley in the Tri- bune and Webb in the Courier and Enquirer for once in their lives agreed, commending it in the strongest possible words.
The result of the election was variously interpreted. It is probable that some votes were lost through
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Seward's utterance ; so Greeley believed, though he de- nounced the clamor against the speech as "knavish." About half of the Know-Nothings voted for the Demo- cratic ticket, while the remainder supported their own candidate, all of them being lost to the Republicans. Still Morgan was handsomely elected, by more than 17,000 plurality. He had 247,953 votes; Parker had 230,513; Burrows had 60,880; and Gerrit Smith, who had been nominated by the Abolitionists, had 5,470. All the other State officers were elected by the Re- publicans with similar pluralities. The State Senate was holding over for another year, but a new Assem- bly was elected, in which the Republicans secured 99 members to the Democrats' 29. The Republicans also elected an overwhelming majority of the Representa- tives in Congress. The net result was a great victory for Seward, who thus was made one of the two out- standing leaders of the Republican party in the nation and one of its chief candidates for the Presidency in 1860.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE EVE OF WAR
S EWARD was right. The conflict was irrepressi- ble, as was recognized even by those who most severely censured him for stating the obvious fact. It was, moreover, morally certain that it would be pre- cipitated at the beginning of the next Presidential term. Bold and plain the sign of the times was written in 1858 that the storm would break in 1861, as the great question that convulsed the country imperatively demanded a settlement at the forthcoming national election. Very much depended, then, upon the choice of the next President; and during the ensuing two years that matter absorbed attention to the exclusion of almost everything else. State issues were held in abeyance and State interests subordinated to those of the nation.
The administration of Governor Morgan began in a calm, business-like manner. The Eighty-second Leg- islature assembled on January 4, 1859, with the same Senate as at the previous session. In the Assembly DeWitt C. Littlejohn was made Speaker and William Richardson Clerk; and among the new members were George Opdyke, of New York, and Henry W. Slo- cum, of Onondaga. The Governor's message was of moderate length and was the practical business docu- ment that was to be expected from such a man. He
432
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JOHN ALSOP KING
John Alsop King, 22nd governor (1857-58) ; born in New York City, January 3, 1788; lawyer; member of assembly from Queens county, 1819-1821; state senator, 1823; resigned to accept appointment as secretary of legation to the court of St. James; charge d' affairs, June 15 to August 2, 1826; again elected a state legislator in 1832, 1838 and 1840; member of congress, 1849-51; governor, 1857-1858; delegate from New York to the peace conference in 1861; died at Jamaica, L. I., July 7, 1867.
SAMUEL LEE SELDEN
Samuel Lee Selden; born, Lyme, Conn., October 12, 1800; lawyer; chancery clerk and first judge of the court of common pleas, Monroe county; court of appeals, 1856-1862; died in Rochester, N. Y., September 20, 1876.
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THE EVE OF WAR
1859]
recommended better supervision of the insurance busi- ness, and the Legislature responded by creating a State Insurance department, under a Superintendent. An- other recommendation was for the creation of a Super- intendent of Prisons, but this was not fully carried out until 1876, when such an officer was provided for in the Constitution. He referred in vigorous terms to the war in Kansas and to the slavery question. Reso- lutions were adopted by the Legislature expressing "surprise, mortification, and detestation" at the virtual reopening of the slave trade within the boundaries of the United States. During the session the Governor vetoed an unusually large number of bills, all of which failed of repassage.
The Republicans were first in the field with their State convention of 1859, which was held on Septem- ber 7 and was controlled by Weed to the particular end of advancing Seward's Presidential aspirations. Mindful of the still lingering jealousy between the Whig and Democratic elements of the party, Weed was careful to have candidates selected in equal num- bers from each. Elias W. Leavenworth was named for Secretary of State, the place to which he had been elected in 1853; Robert Denniston for Comptroller, Philip Dorsheimer for Treasurer, and Charles G. Myers for Attorney-General.
The Democratic convention met a week later, with Daniel S. Dickinson endeavoring to direct it in the in- terest of his own candidacy for the Presidency. Al- though he was a leader of the Hards he entered into negotiations with the Softs of Tammany Hall, who
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[1859
had carried the primaries in New York City against Fernando Wood and his followers, and secured assur- ance of their support-it being his expectation that this would result in a practically unanimous endorse- ment of him by the Democracy of the State for the Presidential nomination the next year.
There were, in fact, two conventions. Fernando Wood and his supporters went to the meeting-place in Syracuse an hour before the time set for the opening of the convention, took possession of the hall, and organ- ized a body of their own. When Dickinson and his followers arrived they were not permitted to organize, but were driven from the hall. In the melee some men were knocked down and pistols were drawn; and Wood incurred much popular odium from the presence among his following of John C. Heenan, the champion prizefighter, and other professional "bruisers" from New York. It was commonly charged that he had brought these men to Syracuse with the intent of raising violence, if necessary, to attain his ends. After Dick- inson's party had been driven from the hall Wood's convention renominated the Democratic State officers who had been elected in 1857 and then adjourned.
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As soon as they were out of the hall the regulars re- turned and harmoniously organized their convention. Dickinson made a tactful speech, which united both Hards and Softs in his support; the State officials were renominated, as they already had been by Wood; dele- gates to the national convention were chosen and in- structed to vote as a unit; the administration of Bu- chanan was approved; Seward's "Irrepressible con-
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THE EVE OF WAR
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flict" speech was denounced as revolutionary; and the proposal to deepen the Erie canal to seven feet was opposed.
A week later the remainder of the American party met, apparently for the object of making what trouble they could, particularly for Seward. They adopted as their own five of the Republican candidates and four of the Democratic. On what principle such selections were made did not appear, but it seemed probable that the aim was to show that Seward could not carry New York without their aid.
During the campaign occurred the memorable raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, the effect of which was not of any apparent advantage or disadvantage to either side. Owing to the action of the Know-Nothings there was a mixed result at the polls. The Democrats, with their aid, elected David R. Floyd Jones Secretary of State over E. W. Leavenworth, by a vote of 252,589 to 251,139; and also elected the State Engineer and Canal Commissioner. The Republicans elected the Comptroller, Robert Denniston, over Sanford E. Church, by 275,952 to 227,304 ; and their candidates for Treasurer, Attorney-General, Judge of Appeals, and Clerk of Appeals also won. In the State Senate the Republicans secured 23 to the Democrats' 9, and in the Assembly 91 to the Democrats' 37. It was thus a net Republican victory of marked proportions. Likewise it registered the end of the American or Know-Nothing party, which had been able to muster but little more than 20,000 votes, and which never appeared in a cam- paign again.
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POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
The Senate thus chosen contained among its members Richard B. Connolly, afterward conspicuous in the no- torious Tweed ring; Francis B. Spinola, Benjamin F. Manierre, John H. Ketcham, and Andrew J. Colvin. In the Assembly were Lucius Robinson, of Chemung county; David R. Jaques, of New York; and E. A. Merritt, of St. Lawrence.
The Eighty-third Legislature met on January 3, 1860. James Terwilliger was chosen Clerk of the Senate. Mr. Littlejohn was reëlected Speaker of the Assembly, and William Richardson Clerk. Governor Morgan submitted another business-like message. Much space was devoted to discussion of the election frauds for which New York City had become notorious, and the recommendation was made, as one means of guarding against them, that election day be declared a legal holiday so that all good citizens would be free to watch the polls. This was not done, however, until 1872. In the regular message and in a long special message the Governor discussed the relations of railroads and canals and the system of restricting the carrying of freight on railroads, or the imposition of tolls thereon, with a view to the protection of the canals. In early times, it will be recalled, railroads paralleling canals were forbidden to carry freight excepting when the canals were closed. Later they were permitted to do so at cost of paying tolls. The last of these railroad tolls were abolished in 1851, and it was complained that since that time the competition of the railroads was ruining the canals. The Governor suggested reimposi- tion of moderate tolls on railroad traffic during the
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THE EVE OF WAR
1860]
canal navigation season, or else payment of a gross sum annually by the railroads; but the Legislature failed to take any action on the matter. As before, his veto mes- sages in 1860 were numerous, and were generally effective. The Legislature adjourned without day on April 17.
Seward had spent most of 1859 in Europe, and on re- turning home at the end of the year he received one of the greatest public welcomes that had ever been given any man. Proceeding to Washington he found the southern fire-eaters openly declaring that if he or any other Republican were elected President the south would refuse to accept the result and would secede from the Union. After resuming his duties in the Senate he introduced a bill for the admission of Kansas as a free State and announced that he would speak on that meas- ure on February 29.
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