USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. II 1822-1864 > Part 8
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Another important recommendation, which we may assume to have been inspired through resentment at the result of the voting for Presidential Electors, was that a law be made requiring the election of Electors by the State at large on a general. ticket instead of by districts. Under the district plan, as we have seen, Jackson had secured only eighteen to Adams's sixteen, while if election had been on a general ticket Jackson would have got them all. The Legislature complied with this suggestion and passed the required act on April 15. ,
Still another recommendation was for some meas- ures of reform in election methods. Too much money was being spent, and there was reason to think that some was being corruptly applied. He therefore sug- gested the enactment of a law prohibiting under severe penalty the expenditure of any money by individuals
ENOS THOMPSON THROOP
Enos Thompson Throop, 12th governor (1829-32; born in Johnstown, Montgomery county, August 21, 1784; lawyer; clerk of Cayuga county; member of congress, 1815-16; circuit judge of New York, 1823-27; elected lieutenant governor, 1828; became acting governor when Martin Van Buren became secre- tary of state of the United States, March 12, 1829; elected governor, 1830, serving 1831-32; naval officer of the port of New York, 1833-38; United States minister to Naples, 1838-42: died at Auburn, N. Y., November 1, 1874.
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for any purposes connected with elections, except the single one of printing. He also regarded it as un- fortunate to choose State and national officers at the same election, since there was danger that interest in the one result would overshadow that in the other, and he recommended that the two sets of officers be voted for at different times, as was then being done in other States. The Legislature did not act upon these suggestions.
The message contained Mr. Van Buren's resigna- tion of the Senatorship, made necessary by his election as Governor, and the Legislature thereupon elected Charles E. Dudley to take his place. Mr. Dud- ley was an amiable Albanian, wholly devoted to Van Buren, who as a Senator was vox et praeterea nihil. Then on March 12 the Governor sent in a special message resigning the Governorship in order that he might become President Jackson's Secretary of State. He was thus Governor only seventy-one days. His one general message must always rank as a state paper of exceptional power and value despite its obvious and grave blemishes. We have already referred to its affectation of humility. On some important topics, such as that of the canals, it was so non-committal as to give the impression of either cowardice or duplicity. In certain respects it was almost cynical, as for ex- ample in the austere inveighment against the use of money in elections and the recommendation of heavy penalties for the practice; for he himself in the cam- paign that resulted in his election had made a far more flagrant use of money, for purposes which to say the
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least were suspicious, than any of his predecessors. There was a touch of the same insincerity, too, in the recommendation for choice of Electors on a general ticket, since he knew, as all knew, that that was an old proposition which would have been put into effect long before had it not been for the opposition of De Witt Clinton. It was the message of a really able statesman who was not able to rise in all respects above the arts of a politician.
This session of the Legislature was notable for the appointment of Greene C. Bronson as Attorney-Gen- eral to succeed Samuel A. Talcott, and Silas Wright, Jr., as Comptroller to succeed William L. Marcy, who had been appointed to the bench. The former appoint- ment was an admirable one in all respects, though its occasion was so melancholy as to be tragic. There had been few abler or more brilliant men in the public life of New York than Mr. Talcott, and few with so high a degree of personal charm. But his convivial habits led him irredeemably into intemperance so habitual as to render his resignation of office imperative. Mr. Bronson worthily succeeded him as Attorney-General and was a tower of strength to the Regency until he was transferred to the bench, where he became successively Associate-Justice and Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court and Judge of the Court of Appeals.
The appointment of Mr. Wright was also the best that could be made to fill the place of William L. Marcy. A man of real genius, he had a hold upon popular affection and confidence to which few of his contemporaries approximated. He had been one of
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the State Senators who voted against letting the people choose the Presidential Electors; but while nearly all his colleagues in that discreditable performance were retired to private life he was forgiven and was presently sent to Congress, where he distinguished himself in tariff legislation and gave evidence of the ability that in later years was to command national admiration in the United States Senate in its golden days.
It should be recalled that during his brief adminis- tration Governor Van Buren renewed the appointment of Daniel Moseley to the bench, which had been made by Acting-Governor Pitcher and which the Senate had contemptuously ignored, apparently to punish Mr. Pitcher for resenting the refusal of Van Buren to per- mit his renomination. On this occasion the appoint- ment was at once approved. Then Van Buren made the remarkable appointment of John C. Spencer to suc- ceed Mr. Moseley as special prosecutor in the Morgan case. Mr. Spencer was one of Van Buren's strongest political opponents, and the State was left to wonder whether for once Van Buren had risen above partisan considerations to make an admirable appointment, or whether he thus acted because the place was really most undesirable since it was practically certain that its holder, whatever he did, would incur the displeasure and condemnation of either the Masons or the Anti- Masons.
Enos T. Throop, Lieutenant-Governor, became Act- ing-Governor by virtue of the resignation of Governor Van Buren on March 12, 1829. He did not take the oath of office as Governor, and was not known by that
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title, but was described in the journal of the Senate as as the Acting-Governor-thus following the examples of Tayler and Pitcher. On taking leave of the Sen- ate, over which he had presided for seventy-one days, he made a somewhat elaborate speech. It was general, if not vague, in tone, philosophizing upon abstract principles rather than discussing issues of the day. Charles E. Stebbins was elected President of the Senate.
The Legislature enacted a large number of bills, re- newed the charters of many banks, chartered eleven new ones, and finally, after the longest session ever held to that time, adjourned on May 5 without day.
The State was bereaved in 1829 by the deaths of two of its foremost citizens. John Jay, who more than any other man was entitled to be regarded as the Father of the State, died at his home at Bedford on May 17, aged eighty-three; an appropriate memorial in his honor was adopted by the Supreme Court. John V. Henry, who had been appointed Comptroller of the State by Governor Jay and had filled that office with distinction for a number of years, died in October at Albany, while on his way from the Supreme Court.
The fall elections of 1829 showed a decided waning of the Anti-Masonic movement and a marked increase in the strength of the Regency. No fewer than seven of the eight Senatorial districts elected Regency can- didates, some of them by very large majorities. The one exception was the Eighth district, which had been the immediate scene of the Morgan outrage.
CHAPTER VII
THE RISE OF NEW FORCES
T HE Fifty-third Legislature met on January 5, 1830, and as the Lieutenant-Governor was Acting-Governor of the State William M. Oliver, of the Seventh district, was chosen President pro tem- pore of the Senate. In the Assembly Erastus Root was returned to his former place as Speaker. Among the members from Monroe county came young Thurlow Weed, who had served in the Forty-eighth Legislature. This second term was to be his last, after which he was to assume an immeasurably more influential position. Millard Fillmore, who had sat in the preceding Legis- lature, again came, from Erie county, for the second of his three consecutive terms.
The message of the Acting-Governor was long, elaborate, and scholarly. It evidenced ,the judicial training and experience of Mr. Throop, for the para- mount theme was that of jurisprudence. The revised criminal code was analyzed, discussed, and recom- mended for further revision. This code prescribed the death penalty for arson in the first degree, and life imprisonment for seven or eight offenses, punishments which Mr. Throop held to be too severe, and he recom- mended that the death penalty be imposed for only treason and murder, and that there be no sentences of
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life imprisonment except in cases of second conviction. Ten years, he believed, was a long enough sentence; that period spent in a well-managed State prison, he said, was "sufficient to subdue the moral, mental, or physical faculties of the most obdurate man"; refor- mation of the criminal, and not mere vindictive inflic- tion of suffering, was the supreme object to be sought. Radical reformation of the county jails, especially for the segregation of young prisoners from hardened offenders, was urged. Nor were other reforma- tory and charitable institutions neglected. Houses of refuge, asylums for the insane, county poor-houses and farms, and other establishments were discussed at length in a fine spirit of enlightened humanity. In- deed, it would be difficult to find among public docu- ments of the State in equal compass a more thorough and useful consideration of the charities and correc- tions of the commonwealth. After a comparatively uneventful session the Legislature adjourned on April 20 without day.
Meantime an event had occurred of vastly greater significance to the State than any mere act of the Legis- lature. The various factions opposed to the Demo- cratic Regency, including both anti-Jackson Masons and Anti-Masons, as well as National Republicans and followers of Adams and Clay, had observed with interest the immense power that was exerted by the newspaper organ of the Regency, the Albany Argus, under the powerful and brilliant editorship of Edwin Croswell, and had come to the wise conclusion that they must have an organ too to combat it and counter-
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act its influence. Accordingly a company was formed, capital was subscribed, and a newspaper was started.
March 22, 1830, was the date of the appearance of the first number of the Albany Evening Journal, edited by Thurlow Weed. It was regarded with scorn and contempt by the Regency and its organ. But within ten years it outranked in circulation all other political newspapers in the United States, and for twenty years Thurlow Weed was recognized as the most trenchant and formidable of all political editorial writers. It is interesting to recall that Weed and Croswell had been schoolmates in their early boyhood. Schoolmates they were, but not playmates or chums, for their stations in life were then too far apart. Croswell was the child of rich parents, who clad him handsomely and sup- plied his every wish, while Weed was inured to poverty. Kid boots and bare feet might tread the same play- ground and the same floor, but they did not much go together in comradeship.
About a score of years after parting at school the two met again, at Albany, as rival politicians and jour- nalists ; met, clashed, and parted again for many more years. It was very soon after the first appearance of the Evening Journal that Croswell directed against it in the Argus an acrimonious fling tinged with contemp- tuous personality. Instantly Weed retorted in kind, with a vigor and a pungency which made every news- paper reader in Albany "sit up and take notice." Thereafter personal intercourse and even business re- lationships between the two men were impossible. The only contact between them was that of flint and
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steel. Nor need we wonder at it, for such was the spirit of those times in American journalism. It was almost precisely a year later that Philip Hone, at home in New York City, made this entry in his Diary concerning two of the most famous editors of the metropolis :
"While I was shaving this morning at eight o'clock I witnessed from the front window an encounter in the street nearly opposite between William C. Bryant and William L. Stone, the former one of the editors of the Evening Post and the latter editor of the Com- mercial Advertiser. The former commenced the attack by striking Stone over the head with a cowskin; after a few blows the men closed, and the whip was wrested from Bryant and carried off by Stone."
The spectacle of the author of "Thanatopsis" cow- hiding the historian of "The Border Wars of the American Revolution" in a New York thoroughfare makes the verbal clash between Weed and Croswell seem temperate indeed. The personal estrangement endured until many years later, when Croswell was ruined in purse and reputation by the collapse of the Canal Bank of Albany and went as a suppliant to Weed, who was all-powerful, to beg for mercy and salvation from criminal indictment.
From the establishment of the Evening Journal and Weed's assumption of leadership of the factions op- posed to the Regency, we may date a new era in the partisan politics of New York.
There was not time for Weed to organize victory that year, but he did exert an influence upon the cam- paign which was auspicious of coming triumph. It was a year of flux and reorganization. As early as
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mid-April an effort was made to establish a new Work- ingmen's party. This had its origin in New York City. It was a time of rapid growth of that community, and numerous buildings for residences, business and public offices, were in course of construction. The master- builders had for some time been trying in vain to secure the enactment of a law that would give them greater security, in the form of liens upon both buildings and land, and for the material and labor which they pro- vided in building operations. For this demand there seems to have been much cause. They also complained, probably with less ground, that workingmen were not sufficiently represented among the holders of public offices. Accordingly on April 16 a mass-meeting con- vention was held at Albany, at which Erastus Root was nominated for Governor. A committee from the meeting informed him of that action but did not secure from him either acceptance or rejection of it. He pru- dently wished to wait and see what further develop- ments there would be in the campaign.
The Anti-Masons and the National Republicans held conventions in August, and practically agreed to fuse; and they nominated Francis Granger for Gover- nor and Samuel Stevens, an Albany lawyer of high standing and distinguished ancestry, for Lieutenant- Governor. A little later, on September 8, the Regency Democrats met in a stormy convention. Erastus Root aspired to the Governorship, and his friends urged that Mr. Throop should be satisfied with one term as Act- ing-Governor and should stand aside in favor of a more experienced and undoubtedly abler man. But
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[1830
Mr. Throop had no mind to stand aside, and the Re- gency had no mind to let him be forced to do so. He was invariably most loyal, not to say subservient, to the Regency, and he was not to be exchanged for Erastus Root, who was ready to kick over the party traces on the slightest provocation. So the word was sent forth to the faithful that Mr. Throop must be nominated, and it was done, by a vote of 78 for Throop to 40 for Root. Thereupon Silas Wright, who was rapidly rising to supreme leadership, asked that the nomination be declared unanimous. Over this there was a great fight in the convention, ending in, the adoption of Mr. Wright's motion in a modified form. For Lieutenant-Governor Edward P. Livingston was named with less controversy.
It was expected by many that this result would cause Erastus Root to accept the Workingmen's nomination. Had he done so the result of the election would prob- ably have been different, for he would have commanded a considerable vote largely drawn from supporters of the Regency. There were many Freemasons who were opposed to the Regency but who could not bring them- selves to support Granger, the Anti-Masonic candidate, and who would have been glad to vote for Mr. Root. But Mr. Root still delayed to give any indication of his purpose, until in October he received a nomination for Representative in Congress. Thereupon he made it known that he was not a candidate for the Gover- norship on any ticket. The Workingmen then held another convention, in New York, and nominated Ezekiel Williams, of Cayuga county, for Governor.
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The result of the election was surprising to both sides. Mr. Throop carried the first five districts, sev- eral of them by remarkably large majorities. There can be little doubt that this was largely due to the Masonic vote in the Hudson River counties. There were thousands of Freemasons who were opposed to President Jackson and to the Regency but who were still more hostile to the secrecy and proscriptive spirit of the Anti-Masons and who therefore voted for Throop as the lesser of two evils. On the other hand, in the other three districts Granger ran far ahead, carrying the Eighth district by practically two to one. The com- plete result was: Throop, 128,842; Granger, 120,361; Williams, 2,332. Mr. Throop thus had a clear major- ity over all.
Another result of this election, of greater signficance to the State and the nation than the election of Mr. Throop-though its significance was not yet recognized, -was the election of William Henry Seward as a State Senator from the Seventh district. He was successful largely by Anti-Masonic votes. He had thitherto been a Democrat, though not actively engaged in politics, and he was so young as just to be eligible, and no more, to the Senatorship.
Still another famous name appeared this year in New York public life when, late in the summer, Nicholas F. Beck, Adjutant-General of the State, died, and the Acting-Governor appointed John A. Dix to succeed him.
The Fifty-fourth Legislature met on January 4, 1831, with a strong Regency Democratic majority in
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each house. General George R. Davis, of Rensselaer county, was chosen Speaker of the Assembly. Mr. Throop's message as Governor was long and statesman- like. It was largely devoted to consideration of the finances of the State and to canals and other public works, though there was scarcely a phase of public interests upon which it did not touch. The Governor referred to the experiments with railroads that were being made in England, between Liverpool and Man- chester, and reported that they had resulted more fav- orably than had been anticipated. Loaded cars were being regularly drawn between those two cities at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, while light cars had been "moved with a rapidity which almost exceeds belief." This latter statement was not exaggerated, seeing that an engine and tender had been run at the rate of fifty- eight miles an hour. The Governor reported that an enterprising company was building a railroad between Albany and Schenectady, which would probably be completed during the year; and he added the predic- tion that "railroads will no doubt in future times be extensively distributed throughout the State." It should be recalled that the Albany-Schenectady rail- road was not the first in this country. The Baltimore & Ohio had preceded it by more than a year, and ten months before this message was delivered Philip Hone had written of having traveled on it, in a car pro- pelled by sails !
The Governor paid much attention to the public schools, and to the penal and charitable institutions which he had discussed the year before. He also
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urged the abolition of imprisonment for debt, which the Legislature effected in a bill passed on the last day of the session. His attitude of hostility toward the Chenango canal project was maintained and was supported by the Democratic majority in the Senate. That important enterprise had been undertaken, tenta- tively, in 1827, and in 1828 Van Buren's supposed friendship for it had been an influential factor in the election. Van Buren, as hitherto noted, appeared to favor the scheme in his message as Governor, and the Legislature took action apparently looking to its pro- motion. But it was presently reported by the Canal Commissioners that its cost would be far too great for the State to incur at that time, and accordingly Mr. Throop, both as Acting-Governor and as Governor, opposed it.
Not the least important act of the Legislature of 1831 was the election of a United States Senator to succeed Nathan Sanford, whose term of office was approaching its close. There was little hesitancy or dispute over the choice, which was suggested by Van Buren and unanimously acquiesced in by the Demo- cratic majority of the Legislature. Indeed, there was but slight opposition manifested in any quarter. For it was William L. Marcy who had been selected, and despite his intense partisanship as a member of the Albany Regency, his great gifts and high character had strongly commended him to the citizens of the State regardless of party. He had been a singularly competent State Comptroller and an upright and worthy Justice of the Supreme Court, and was univer-
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sally recognized as a fitting candidate for Senatorial honors. The choice was, however, unfortunate, for Mr. Marcy's brief service as Senator proved to be the least creditable part of his career.
Samuel Nelson, then a Circuit Judge, was appointed to fill Marcy's place on the Supreme bench, and the Governor nominated John Tracy, of Chenango, to be Circuit Judge in Mr. Nelson's place. This choice was probably made in the hope of pleasing the people of the Chenango valley and allaying their resentment at the refusal to construct their canal; for Mr. Tracy not only came from that region but had been put for- ward by the friends of the canal scheme as their can- didate for Lieutenant-Governor at the last State con- vention. Indeed, the appointment was generally rec- ognized as an attempt to appease the canal people, and because of that interpretation Mr. Tracy declined to accept it. The Governor thereupon appointed Robert Monell, of Chenango county, then a Representative in Congress. Charles H. Ruggles was appointed Judge of the Second circuit to succeed James Emott, who had resigned.
During this session of the Legislature loud echoes of President Jackson's opposition to the United States Bank were heard at Albany. It was at the beginning of February that Thomas H. Benton proposed in the Senate of the United States a joint resolution to the effect that the Bank charter ought not to be renewed, thus following the policy suggested by the President in his preceding message. The resolution was vigorously fought and defeated, Daniel Webster leading the oppo-
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sition, but the controversy was continued and was carried from Washington to various State capitals. Special interest was felt in New York because of the number and magnitude of the banks of this State. It was assumed that if the United States Bank went out of existence through refusal to renew its charter, the vast deposits of government money would be trans- ferred to the various State banks, chiefly to those of New York, and the circulation of United States bank- notes, which was enormously profitable, would also be transferred. On this account New York bankers and owners of bank stock, though largely opposed to President Jackson politically, approved his hostility to the Bank.
The matter was brought into the Legislature early in March in the form of a concurrent resolution prac- tically reviving and repeating that which Senator Ben- ton had failed to have adopted at Washington. Shortly before adjournment it was debated with great anima- tion and force and was adopted by the Assembly by the vote of 73 to 33. In the Senate the measure gave William H. Seward an opportunity to attain state- wide prominence by his powerful speech in opposition, but it was finally adopted by the vote of 17 to 13. The Legislature then, on April 20, adjourned without day.
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