USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. II 1822-1864 > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
In the November elections of 1831 the Democrats were generally successful, excepting in the counties where the Anti-Masonic party held sway. The Demo- crats elected seven of the eight Senators chosen and carried the Assembly by a strong majority.
CHAPTER VIII A DIPLOMATIC INTERLUDE
W E must now retrace our steps a little way for an incursion into national politics, and even into international diplomacy, in order to ap- preciate acurately the status and the course of the leader of the New York Democracy and the conditions and circumstances of the political campaign of 1832.
It will be recalled that John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, had been a prominent candidate for the Pres- idency in 1824, but had voluntarily withdrawn from the preliminary contest and given his support to Jackson. The result was that John Quincy Adams was elected President by the House of Representatives, and Cal- houn was chosen Vice-President by the Electoral Col- lege. In 1828 Jackson was elected President and Calhoun for the second time was made Vice- President. At this time Jackson declared himself strongly in favor of a single Presidential term. He practically pledged himself not to seek or to accept a second term, and recommended a constitutional amend- ment limiting the Presidency. We may assume him to have been sincere, and may believe that he would have fulfilled his promise had it not been for the contest and intrigues which arose for the sucession and which were chiefly promoted by Martin Van Buren or his friends.
128
GREENE C. BRONSON
Greene C. Bronson. jurist; born, Oneida, N. Y., 1789; lawyer; surrogate Oneida county, 1819; member of assembly, 1822; attorney general of the State of New York, 1830-1835; puisne judge of the supreme court of judicature, 1836-1845; chief justice of the supreme court, 1845; judge of the court of appeals, 1847; left the bench and practiced law in New York and lost nearly all his fortune in speculation; appointed col- lector of the port of New York in 1853 until removed for political reasons in 1854; corporation counsel City of New York from 1859 to 1863; was the democratic candidate for governor in 1855; died at Saratoga, September 3, 1863.
129
A DIPLOMATIC INTERLUDE
For it did not suit Van Buren to have Jackson limit himself to a single term. Had Jackson insisted upon doing so there was every reason to expect Calhoun to be his successor, and that would mean the defeat of Van Buren's Presidential ambition. Indeed, in 1832 it would be "now or never" for Calhoun. He was in his second term as Vice-President. The unwritten law forbade him a third term in that office. Therefore he must win the Presidency or fall back into some lesser place from which his chances of emerging to gain the Presidency at a later date, four or eight years after- ward, would be poor indeed. Calhoun therefore staked all on holding Jackson to the single term principle and securing the nomination to the succession for himself.
On the other hand, Van Buren felt that it would be fatal to him to have Calhoun elected. He was not yet himself strong enough to run for the nomination and beat Calhoun. His only hope was, then, in getting Jackson to take a second term. That would kill off Calhoun and leave Van Buren the sure successor of Jackson in 1836. But if Calhoun won in 1832 Van Buren would be retired from the cabinet-since Cal- houn was his political foe,-and would fall into an ob- scurity from which he might not be able to emerge four or eight years later.
Meantime the Jacksonian cabinet had from the be- ginning been the scene of one of the most extraordinary social scandals in the history of the government. It consisted of Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State; S. D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury ; John H. Eaton, Secretary of War; John Branch, Secretary of the Navy;
-
130
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
John M. Berrien, Attorney-General; and William T. Barry, Postmaster-General. Calhoun, it may be ob- served, had opposed Jackson's selection of Van Buren and Eaton for cabinet places, and a decided animosity existed between him and them.
Now, Mr. Eaton had, at about the time of his enter- ing the cabinet, married a widow, Mrs. Timberlake. She was a woman of much personal beauty and charm. But some gross imputations had been made against her character. It was intimated that her infidelity had been the cause of her first husband's death, which occurred from suicide. For these aspersions there was probably not the slightest ground. They had their origin in malice or in jealousy, and were exploited because of the prevalence of the latter detestable passion among less attractive women in official life. They infuriated Jack- son to an extreme degree, partly because of his natural chivalry, partly because his own wife, at this time de- ceased, had also been slandered, and partly because both Mr. and Mrs. Eaton were neighbors of his in Tennes- see ; and he determined to stake the very existence of his administration upon the vindication of the injured lady.
A conflict arose that rent official society asunder. Mrs. Calhoun declined to visit or to receive Mrs. Eaton, and in that course she was followed and supported by Mrs. Ingham, Mrs. Branch, and Mrs. Berrien-all the ladies of the cabinet circle, since Van Buren was a widower with no daughters and Barry was a bachelor. Van Buren, however, took pains to call upon Mrs. Eaton and to treat her with the most marked courtesy and atten- tion, and presented to her the British and French Min-
131
A DIPLOMATIC INTERLUDE
1831]
isters-who, luckily for themselves, happened to have no wives. In this we may assume Van Buren to have been moved by highly creditable motives of chivalry and justice, though it is impossible to avoid also sus- pecting that policy had something to do with it. He was thus showing his loyalty to Jackson and to Jack- son's friend Eaton, and was opposing Jackson's-and his own-foe, Calhoun. It may be added that Eaton stood with Van Buren in desiring and urging Jackson to run for a second term, while Ingham, Branch, and Berrien all sought to hold him to his one-term policy and to put Calhoun forward as his successor. The out- come of the matter was that the entire cabinet, except- ing Mr. Barry, resigned in the early summer of 1831.
In addition to these things Jackson had a bitter per- sonal grudge against Calhoun, with which Van Buren was not in the slightest degree concerned. Away back in Monroe's administration Calhoun, as Secretary of War, had strongly urged that some of Jackson's acts as commander of the army in Florida should be made the subject of strict military investigation, if indeed Jack- son should not be brought before a court martial for trial for his putting to death Arbuthnot and Ambrister. The proposed action was successfully opposed by John Quincy Adams and William H. Crawford. It was the irony of fate that Jackson was falsely told, and for many years believed, that Adams and Crawford had wanted to investigate and prosecute him and that Cal- houn had been his only friend in the cabinet. There can be no supposition that Calhoun was in any way re- sponsible for the false impression, though unfortunately
132
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1830
it must be recorded that he made no attempt to correct it. From that circumstance arose much of Jackson's fierce hatred of Adams, and, naturally, of his enmity toward Calhoun when he found out the truth of the matter.
It was not until November, 1829, that Jackson learned he facts, and indeed it was not until May, 1830, that they were fully verified by Calhoun's own admis- sion. Of course that made a complete and final breach between Jackson and Calhoun, and open war between them for the Presidential nomination in 1832. Indeed, that war became open as early as March, 1830, when a convention of Calhoun's friends and supporters in Pennsylvania formally declared against a second term for Jackson. A fortnight later came that famous Jeffer- son's birthday dinner in Washington, at which it was meant to identify Jefferson with the Democratic party as it had been reorganized by Jackson, and at which three significant toasts were offered by the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State.
Jackson spoke first. "Our Federal Union," he said; "it must be preserved." That was recognized as a direct thrust at Calhoun, whose extreme State rights and po- tentially secessionist principles were already well known. Calhoun followed, boldly putting himself for- ward as the protagonist of sectionalism. "The Union," he said; "next to our Liberty the most dear. May we all remember that it can be preserved only by respecting the rights of the States and distributing equally the benefits and burdens of union." That was an equally direct counterthrust at Jackson, or at least a vigorous
133
A DIPLOMATIC INTERLUDE
1830-1]
and defiant parrying of his thrust. Van Buren came third, as if a peacemaker-not so epigrammatic and forceful as the others, but politic and sufficiently ex- plicit. "Mutual forbearance and reciprocal conces- sions," he said. "Through their agency the Union was established; the patriotic spirit from which they ema- nated will forever sustain it." That was not offensive to Calhoun, while it was quite satisfactory to Jackson.
At this time Van Buren was a recognized and acknowledged candidate for the succession to Jackson, in 1832 if Jackson adhered to his one-term policy, other- wise in 1836. Moreover, Jackson was practically com- mitted to his support; and it is not inconceivable that it was in some slight measure for Van Buren's sake that Jackson finally decided to run for a second term. He felt entirely confident of his own ability to beat Cal- houn and thus put him permanently out of the running, while he was by no means sure of the same result if Van Buren were put forward.
The election was not to take place until November, 1832, but the campaign began a year and a half before that date. Early in 1831 a vigorous newspaper war was started in Washington. Duff Green in his Telegraph, which had thitherto been an organ of the administra- tion, began a savage attack on Jackson and Van Buren and an equally vigorous championship of Calhoun. Francis P. Blair, in his Globe, replied with spirited defense of the President. There is no reason to suppose that Van Buren had anything to do with it. Yet-prob- ably because of knowledge of the way in which he had employed the Argus at Albany in behalf of the Regency
134
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1831
-there were many who charged that he had founded the Globe and was responsible for its course.
It was largely because of these unfounded charges that Van Buren resigned from the cabinet and thus led the way to a complete reorganization of that body. On April 11, 1831, he wrote to the President a letter obvi- ously designed for publication and for the political ef- fect which its publication would produce. He declared that he had from the beginning of the administration tried to prevent and to suppress all premature agitation of the question of the succession to the next term, and especially to keep his own name aloof from "that dis- turbing topic." But it had all been vain. In spite of himself he had been exhibited in the light of a candi- date for the Presidency, and the acts of the administra- tion were likely to be attributed to his political manipu- lation. This would be unjust and injurious to the Pres- ident. The proper way out of the complications thus presented was, then, for him to resign his place in the cabinet, which he did. Jackson accepted the resigna- tion, recognizing the force of the reasons given by Van Buren and paying high tribute to his worth. On that same day Mr. Eaton also resigned from the cabinet, and a few days later Messrs. Ingham, Branch, and Berrien did so-at the request of the President.
Van Buren was a little later appointed Minister to Great Britain and hastened to his post, where there was much important work to be done, particularly in rela- tion to American trade with the British possessions in the West Indies and Central and South America. He was well received, made an admirable impression, and
135
A DIPLOMATIC INTERLUDE
1831]
would probably have had a successful and useful career had he been permitted to remain at his post. But he was not. He had been appointed during a Congres- sional recess and had gone abroad without waiting for confirmation, which he never received. As soon as the Senate met and his name was sent to it the storm broke. Van Buren as Secretary of State had written to Louis McLane, then Minister to Great Britain, one of the most amazingly improper letters that ever proceeded from such a source. Referring to the negotiations con- cerning commerce with the British possessions, which had been begun by the preceding administration and which he wished McLane to press to a conclusion, he said: "You will be able to tell the British Minister that you and I, and the leading persons in this administra- tion, have opposed the course heretofore pursued by the government and the country on the subject of the colonial trade. Be sure to let him know that on that subject we have held with England and not with our own government." Then he added that McLane should remind the British Minister for Foreign Affairs that at the last election the nation had repudiated the policy of the preceding administration.
When Van Buren's appointment came before the Senate for ratification Daniel Webster took the lead in opposing it, on the ground of that letter to McLane. "I cannot," said Webster, "be of the opinion that the author of those instructions is a proper representative of the United States at that court. I think those instruc- tions derogatory in a high degree to the character and the honor of the country. I think they show a manifest
136
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1831
disposition in the writer of them to establish a distinc- tion between his country and his party, to place that party above the country, to make interest at a foreign court for that party rather than for the country." There can be no question that the letter fully merited this scathing condemnation, though we must think that had he been permitted to serve as Minister Van Buren would have comported himself much better than he had instructed his predecessor to do.
But he could not remain. Webster and his great an- tagonist Hayne were in complete accord in refusing him confirmation. Henry Clay took the same ground. Twelve of the foremost Senators spoke against him, and only four for him. Chief of these was Marcy, and in that act that fine statesman and patriot showed how unhappy a misfit he was in the Senate. It was the opportunity of a lifetime to make a great speech. Lamentable as Van Buren's lapse had been, there were not lacking materials for a brilliant and perhaps suc- cessful defense. But Marcy, for some inexplicable reason, ignored his opportunity and contented himself with making a feeble defense of the Jackson adminis- tration against the charge that it had turned out many office-holders for political reasons in order to fill their places with its own partisans ; in which speech he coined and uttered one historic epigram. Leaders of both parties, he declared, had practiced such proscription ; for "they saw nothing wrong in the rule that to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy."
Van Buren was not confirmed, and accordingly re- turned home. His foes exulted greatly, reckoning
137
A DIPLOMATIC INTERLUDE
1831]
that the incident had ended his political career. "It will kill him, kill him dead; he will never even kick!" exclaimed Calhoun. But others took the opposite view, among them Thomas H. Benton in the Senate, whose comment was an epigram: "You have spoiled a Minister, and made a Vice-President." Another was Thurlow Weed, who was the leader of Van Buren's political foes in New York. He warned the. Senate in advance not to reject Van Buren's nomination. To do so, he said, "would change the complexion of his prospects from despair to hope. He would return home a persecuted man, throw himself upon the sympathy of the party, be nominated for Vice-Presi- dent, and huzzahed into office at the heels of General Jackson." The event showed how shrewd a prophet Weed was. Van Buren returned from England, reach- ing New York on July 5, 1831, and was received by the city as though he were a conquering hero. And when in May, 1832, the Democratic national conven- tion met at Baltimore and renominated Jackson for President, Van Buren was named for Vice-President on the first ballot.
CHAPTER IX MARCY BECOMES GOVERNOR
F OLLOWING the momentous doings of 1831 in national politics the Fifty-fifth Legislature met at Albany on January 3, 1832, with a safe majority in each house for Jacksonian Democracy, Van Buren, and the Regency. The Senate reelected John F. Bacon as its Clerk for his nineteenth consecutive year, an office in which he was destined to remain seven years more. The Assembly with little contest chose Charles L. Liv- ingston, of New York City, for its Speaker, and for the fifth time elected Francis Seger to be its Clerk.
Governor Throop's message was given more to rhet- oric than to practical statesmanship. He indulged in what Rufus Choate called "resounding and glittering generalities" on abstract subjects. Nevertheless, the practical interests of the State were not altogether ignored. He had much to say about the development of railroads, which, for great thoroughfares, he be- lieved might be expected to supersede all other kinds of roads and even to enter successfully into competi- tion with canals. How they were to be built was, how- ever, an important question. There would be pre- sented to the Legislature numerous applications for charters for the building of railroads by corporations. It would be for the Legislature to decide whether to
138
139
MARCY BECOMES GOVERNOR
1832]
authorize and to create joint stock companies for that purpose, or to check the construction of railroads until the State itself should be able to do the work. He pointed out the obvious fact that it would be a long time, generations if not centuries, before the State would be able out of public funds to provide all the improve- ments which were needed. It would be intolerable to have to wait so long, and therefore he recommended that private corporations should be chartered for the purpose.
In response to the Governor's recommendations con- cerning railroads a committee of the Assembly made an interesting report on the subject, recommending that corporations for building such roads should be created but that also the State itself should be a stock- holder in each one, "not so much for the gain which may be made to the revenue as for the equalization of benefits." During the session no fewer than twenty- seven railroad companies were incorporated, but in none of them did the State take a single share of stock; though in each case it reserved for itself the right to acquire the entire property by purchase after a cer- tain number of years. It is of suggestive interest to recall that thus, almost a century ago, grave doubts were felt as to the propriety of private ownership of railroads and there was an inclination to regard them as essentially public property to be constructed and maintained by the State after the manner of ordinary highways.
The question of renewing the charter of the United States Bank was this year perhaps foremost in national
140
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1832
politics, and it intruded itself into State politics as well. Early in the session a joint resolution was introduced by a Democratic member requesting the Senators and Representatives in Congress from New York to op- pose and to vote against such renewal. It was vigor- ously opposed by William H. Seward in the State Sen- ate, but eventually passed that body by a vote of 20 to 10. In the Assembly it was opposed by the Speaker and by the leading members from New York City, but was passed by a vote of 75 to 37. A bill for im- posing for three years a direct State tax of one mill on every dollar of valuation of real and personal prop- erty was introduced, and its passage was desired by the Governor, but it was overwhelmingly rejected. A bill for the construction of the Chenango canal, on terms which would scarcely have been satisfactory to the advocates of that enterprise, was very sharply de- bated and was finally rejected. The Legislature ad- journed without day on April 26.
A special session was called to meet on June 21 for the purpose of redistricting the State for Representa- tives in Congress, the Reapportionment act, which gave to New York forty Representatives, not having been passed at Washington before the close of the regular session. The Governor called attention to the neces- sity of taking also some action for the protection of the State from the ravages of Asiatic cholera, of which a virulent epidemic was then raging, and the Legis- lature accordingly enacted various quarantine regu- istration of Boards of Health at various points through- lations and provided for the organization and admin-
141
MARCY BECOMES GOVERNOR
1832]
out the State. The special session then adjourned on July 2.
Meantime the Presidential and Gubernatorial cam- paign was in animated progress. The Anti-Masonic party held a State convention at Utica on June 21, and nominated Francis Granger for Governor and Samuel Stevens for Lieutenant-Governor. It also named a complete ticket of Presidential Electors, with the distinguished Chancellor Kent at the head. Wil- liam Wirt, formerly Attorney-General of the United States, had been put forward as the Presidential can- didate of the Anti-Masons, and Henry Clay had been nominated by the National Republicans. These pros- pective Electors were not committed by the Utica con- vention to Mr. Wirt but were left free to vote for Clay in their own discretion, and it was commonly understood that they would do so in case the vote of New York would give him the election.
This course of the Anti-Masons gave rise to the sup- position that a coalition had been formed between them and the National Republicans, and Croswell in the Albany Argus severely arraigned them. The National Republicans, however, held a State convention of their own, at Utica on July 26, at which they nominated the same candidates whom the Anti-Masons had named but practically directed the Electors to cast their votes for Clay and John Sergeant for President and Vice- President.
Finally the Democrats held their convention, at Her- kimer on September 19. It met in something of the spirit of a council of war in a desperate plight. The
142
POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
[1832
outlook for the election was regarded as uncertain. There had been many important defections from the Jacksonian ranks, some of them over the question of the Bank. James Watson Webb with his New York Courier and Enquirer had become hostile. Erastus Root, then a Representative in Congress, and still pos- sessed of much personal influence, had also gone over to the opposition. Samuel Young, however, whose en- trancing oratory was a popular power to be reckoned with, and who had long been opposed to Jackson, was brought back into the fold. He had supported Clay in 1824 and Adams in 1828, and at first was inclined to support Clay again in 1832, but at the last moment turned to Jackson, and in expression of the great joy and comfort which he thus gave the Democracy he was made chairman of the State convention of the party at Herkimer.
It was of course a foregone conclusion that the con- vention would instruct its Electors to vote for Jack- son for President and Van Buren for Vice-President. The course as to the Governorship was not so clear. Throop was naturally desirous of another term, but he felt little confidence in his ability to carry the State and was too good a party man to resist the will of the leaders. So at the word of the Regency he sent to the convention a dignified note announcing that he was not a candidate for renomination. In reward for this self-abnegation Van Buren secured his appoint- ment, three days before the expiration of his term, as Naval Officer of the Port of New York. For the Gov- ernorship the Regency selected one of its own most
143
MARCY BECOMES GOVERNOR
1832]
formidable and most capable members, William L. Marcy.
A better choice could not have been made. He was a man of unimpeachable character, commanding abil- ity, and engaging personality. He had made an admi- rable record as State Comptroller and as a Justice of the Supreme Court. If as United States Senator he had in some respects been a disappointment, as in his ineffectual defense of Van Buren, that merely indi- cated that he was not as well adapted to Senatorial as to other forms of service. He was reluctant to accept the nomination, preferring to remain in the Senate, though he was willing to waive that personal prefer- ence at the party's wish. But he had grave doubts of his ability to carry the State, and those doubts were well founded. The Chenango canal was the lion in the way. He had opposed that enterprise and thus had incurred the disfavor of the Democrats, as well as men of other parties, in the Chenango valley, a con- stituency numerous enough in ordinary times to turn the result of an election.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.