USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. III 1865-1896 > Part 11
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in coin, and commended the President's veto of the Inflation act.
The drift against the Republicans, which had been apparent in more than one State in the election of 1873, convinced Tilden that the time had come to capitalize for the Democracy the reform sentiment that had mani- fested itself, but failed of fruition, in the Liberal movement. He had become the dominant figure of his party in the State, both through his championship of financial probity in office and through his skill as a political manager trained in the schools of Van Buren and Silas Wright. Without the charm or eloquence of Seymour, and without the boldness or the vision requi- site to the broadest statesmanship, he had an incompa- rable talent for organization and for leadership behind the scenes. He also had an instinct for practicality in political movement that saved him from wasting his influence in futile and untimely actions. The astute self-restraint that kept him when an obscure youth in a New York boarding-house from forming any ties with his fellow-lodgers, that he might have no inconvenient friends to abandon as he rose in the social scale, made him a patient politician who led no forlorn hopes, broke no lances on windmills. He had been complai- sant toward the equivocal war attitude of his party, he had stayed his hand against Tweed till Tweed's over- throw was possible, he had checked his own ambitions till the way for them was smoothed and safe. Now at last was his opportunity. Early in the summer he allowed himself to be talked of as a candidate for Gov- ernor. The idea met with a hearty response in many
1
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counties of the State. Besides, he had Tammany Hall, under the leadership of John Kelly, solidly behind him. The old Tweed element in the rural counties, as well as the canal ring, were dismayed at the prospect of his nomination, and sought to force him from the field. Seymour, though friendly, was discouraging, remind- ing Tilden that if nominated he must expect the mar- tyr's crown, and that "our people want men in office who will not steal, but who will not interfere with those who do."4
The opposition tried to arouse enthusiasm for Sena- tor John Ganson of Buffalo, Judge William F. Allen of the Court of Appeals, or Chief-Judge Church. Church had at first declined to be a candidate, but, according to John Bigelow, he "was poor, he was ambitious, he was not content with his place on the bench, and was only too ready at all times to combine with anybody on any terms to secure wealth and power." Bigelow also says of Church: "Tilden knew the canal ring had no more servile instrument in the State than the candidate they were urging."5 Church had repeatedly written Tilden saying he wanted to make some money and ask- ing if there was not some speculation by which he could do so,6 and when he became Chief-Judge he accepted with the protest: "I shall of course object to being regarded as shelved."7 Church, indeed, was a politician,
4Bigelow, Life of Samuel J. Tilden, I, p. 221.
5Bigelow, Life of Samuel J. Tilden, I, p. 226.
6Letters of June 27, 1869, and January 27, 1870. Bigelow, Letters and Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden, I, p. 257.
7Letter of April 20, 1870. Bigelow, Letters and Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden, I, p. 265.
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more than a jurist, by nature. Yet as a Judge his geniality made him popular and he commanded the respect of the bar. At his death Judge Folger, his suc- cessor, said: "He went through many stirring can- vasses and many times of strong temptation, but when party strife was hottest, and aspersions were the usual utterances of partisans, not a breath that he was not upright ever settled on the mirror of his fame."
Joseph Warren, of the Buffalo Courier, visited Church on September 5 and got from him a memo- randum saying that he was not a candidate, but adding : "If, notwithstanding, the convention, with the cordial concurrence of all the candidates of the party, demands that he change his present position to that of Governor, we do not see that he can refuse."8 Armed with this, Warren obtained the withdrawal of both Allen and Ganson, and then arranged a meeting with Tilden on September 8 at the Delavan House in Albany, in the rooms of Senator Jarvis Lord of Monroe, one of the leaders of the canal ring. With Warren were Lord, Delos DeWolf, and other canal men. Tilden, however, refused to withdraw.
Meanwhile the opposition to Tilden sought the aid of the Liberal State convention, which met at Albany on September 9. There a noisy minority wanted to nomi- nate Church, holding Frederick A. Conkling, a brother of the Senator but an original Liberal, or Henry R. Selden, in reserve if he declined. The majority, how- ever, refused to tie themselves up to one faction and that the probably unsuccessful faction in the coming
8New York World, September 10, 1874. !
1874]
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Democratic convention, and the Liberals adjourned to meet again in Albany on September 29, after the lead- ing parties had nominated. The scheme to nominate Church was by some attributed to Fenton,9 and perhaps it may have been his plan, if Tilden withdrew, to antici- pate what would then have been the inevitable action of the Democrats. On the other hand, both the Troy Times and the New York Tribune10 suggested that the Liberal adjournment was a part of a Fenton plan to make a combination with the Democratic nominees involving his own reelection to the Senate in case of Democratic victory.
A few days before the Democratic State convention, which met at Syracuse on September 16, John Kelly published a pointed attack11 on DeWolf, Warren, and Lord, saying that their policy had been to control a majority of the Canal board for the purpose of enabling them to get hold of contracts given out on the canals, and that they had "always been friendly to Judge Church and of great assistance to him' personally." They had likewise sustained Judge Allen. He also commented on the "friendship existing between the old Tammany ring and this canal ring." William Purcell, the influential and belligerent Rochester editor, aroused by attacks on Church, declared against a nomination favored by Tammany, saying: "In the average Repub- lican and no-party mind Tammany Hall under honest
9New York Herald, September 9, 1874.
10New York Tribune, September 14, 1874.
11New York World, September 10, 1874.
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John Kelly is exactly the same as Tammany Hall under dishonest William M. Tweed."12
Mayor Havemeyer also attacked Kelly, for other reasons. Charges had been preferred to the Governor against Havemeyer by Kelly, Oswald Ottendorfer, and William H. Wickman, who was about to be Kelly's candidate for Mayor, alleging neglect of duty and misconduct in the reappointment of officials who, hav- ing been convicted of misdemeanor, were ineligible. The Governor on September 14 handed down an opinion sustaining the charges but refusing to exercise his discretion to remove, on the ground that no public good was to be served thereby. A new Mayor was to be elected within two months and a change would cause confusion in the city affairs. As soon as the proceedings for removal were dismissed, Havemeyer accused Kelly of having, during his six years' term in the Sheriff's office, cheated the county out of $88,844 by unauthor- ized charges for prisoners convicted in the police courts and vagrants committed to the workhouse, and by col- lecting double rates for conveying prisoners to and from Blackwell's Island.13 The Mayor said: "I think you are worse than Tweed, who made no pretense to purity, while you avow your honesty and wrap yourself in the mantle of purity." Kelly sued Havemeyer for libel, but on November 30, the day the case was to come to trial, the Mayor died suddenly of apoplexy, and no decision as to the truth of the charges was reached.
12Rochester Union and Advertiser, quoted in the New York Herald, Sep- tember 9, 1874.
13New York Tribune, September 18, 1874; and New York Times, Septem- ber 18 and 20, 1874.
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Impartial observers reported that the Democratic convention, much against its will, was on good behavior.14 It had no sympathy with reform, but the canal ring had no means of blocking Tilden, although for a time there was talk that Church had gone a step farther toward being a candidate than in his statement to Warren, and that the ring would vote for him. Finally the opposition concentrated on Amasa J. Parker, who allowed himself to be used by those who were indignant at Kelly's personal attacks on Church. Seymour, in reporting the platform, poured oil on the troubled waters and paid a tribute to Church, saying that he knew he would not run and that all talk of divi- sions was false. Jarvis Lord voiced the resentment of Church's friends in a resolution denouncing the World for its attacks on "honored Democrats," but he was suppressed. Tilden was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 252 votes to 126 for Parker, with 10 votes scattered. For Lieutenant-Governor the leaders deter- mined upon a Liberal, although the partisans who argued that they had no assurance of Liberal support proposed Smith M. Weed of Clinton. DeWitt C. Littlejohn, on behalf of the Liberals, nominated Wil- liam Dorsheimer of Buffalo, who had given up a Federal District Attorneyship to join the Liberal move- ment. Dorsheimer was nominated by a vote of 193 to 155 for Weed. Thirty-four votes were cast for Stephen T. Hayt, 15 for Edward F. Jones, and 11 for George W. Schuyler, all Liberal Republicans.15
14New York Tribune, September 17, 1874.
15The ticket was: Governor, Samuel J. Tilden, New York; Lieutenant-
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The platform appealed for the support of the Liberal Republicans and declared for gold and silver as the only legal tender, with no inconvertible money. Its other demands were: progress to specie payment, honest payment of the public debt, taxation for revenue only, home rule, equal and exact justice with no partial legislation or taxation, a free press, uniform excise and no sumptuary laws, official accountability, State super- vision of corporations, party responsibility for all legis- lation, the treatment of the Presidency as a public trust, and general economy.
At the adjourned convention of the Liberals at Albany on September 29, E. A. Merritt brought before the State committee a resolution that, without indorsing either ticket, urged Liberals to support only men of approved honesty who most fitly represented the Cin- cinnati platform and who stood committed by the plat- form of the convention nominating them against the third term. This resolution was offered to the conven- tion by General Jones of Binghamton and favored by Cochrane. Frederick A. Conkling attacked Dix, who had been president of the Union Pacific, on account of the Credit-Mobilier scandals, and proposed to indorse the Syracuse ticket. He believed that the defeat of the Republicans would end the third term danger.16 The Merritt resolution, however, was adopted.
The Republicans entered the campaign with confi- dence. The New York Times predicted : "The
Governor, William Dorsheimer, Erie; Canal Commissioner, Adin Thayer, Rensselaer; Prison Inspector, George Wagner, Yates; Judge of the Court of Appeals, Theodore Miller, Columbia.
16New York Tribune, September 29 and 30, 1874.
JOHN ADAMS DIX
John Adams Dix, 27th governor (1873-1874) ; born at Bos- cawen, N. H., July 24, 1798; served through the war of 1812; studied law and after having made a European tour was ad- mitted to the bar and practiced at Cooperstown, N. Y .; adjutant general of New York, 1831-1833; secretary of the democratic national convention in Baltimore in 1828; secretary of state of New York, 1833-1839; regent of the university; member of the council and canal commissioner; member of the state assembly in 1842; Free-Soil candidate for governor in 1848; elected as a democrat to the United States senate to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of Silas Wright and served from January 18, 1845 to March 3, 1849; appointed postmaster of the City of New York in 1860; secretary of the treasury from January 11, 1861 to March 3, 1861; served in the union army as major general, 1861-1865; United States minister to France from September 24, 1866 to May 23, 1869; governor of New York state, 1873-1874; defeated as the republican candidate for governor in 1874 and as the republican candidate for mayor of New York City in 1876; died in New York City, April 21, 1879.
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Tweedites will labor hard to render Mr. Tilden's inevitable defeat as ignominious as they can."17 The Tribune, which maintained an independent attitude, pointed out to Tilden that he was running against a man "who as Governor of New York has achieved more renown than any of his predecessors within the memory of this generation," and on the eve of the election it declared that the part of honest Republicans was to decide whether they wanted to encourage a third term or stimulate the revival of the old rebel and Tweed Democracy.18 The Democrats charged Dix with nepotism and extravagance in the Executive office, where he had six aides, though two had sufficed for Morgan in war time, and where he had increased the secretary's salary and given the place to his son.19 They also took up the Credit-Mobilier charge, although Dix had been in no way connected with the construction company. The third term issue also was a trouble to the Republicans and Dix was publicly urged to declare against Grant's renomination. Thurlow Weed was especially indignant against the administration's course in this matter. He thought the record of Grant's second term, with the exception of his anti-inflation veto, bad, and "his refusal to disclaim the 'third term' accusation unendurable."20
Thus handicapped, with party managers apathetic and Conkling almost ignoring him in his speeches, while Tilden kindled the imagination as the reformer
17New York Times, September 18, 1874.
18New York Tribune, October 2, 1874.
19 Horatio Seymour to Tilden, Bigelow, Life of Samuel J. Tilden, I, p. 233. 20Letter to Dix, November 7, 1874, Barnes, Life of Weed, II, p. 506.
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who had broken down the Tweed ring, Dix went down to defeat. Tilden received 416,391 votes to 366,074 for Dix, or a plurality of 50,317. Clark polled 11,768 votes. Dorsheimer was elected by a plurality of 51,488. The Democrats carried the Assembly, winning 75 seats to the Republicans' 53. The hold-over Senate stood : Democrats, 12; Republicans, 18; Independents, 2. This gave the Democrats control on joint ballot for the election of Fenton's successor. They also won 18 of the 33 Congressmen. Tammany elected its Mayor, Wick- ham, who received 70,071 votes to 36,953 for Salem H. Wales, Republican, and 24,226 for Oswald Otten- dorfer, the candidate of the Germans who would not act with Tammany.
CHAPTER XIII TILDEN OVERTHROWS THE CANAL RING 1875
I F Fenton had any hopes of reelection as the result of the administration's defeat, they were quickly dissipated. Tilden selected for the Senate Francis Kernan, his staunchest coworker in his fight to domi- nate the party, but he carefully refrained from open dictation. Kernan had once beaten Conkling for Con- gress, and had been the Liberal-Democratic candidate for Governor in 1872. Henry C. Murphy had aspira- tions, which Kelly's enemies, especially Church's friends who resented his attacks on the Chief-Judge, encouraged. The Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage at- tempted to inject a religious issue into the contest by op- posing Kernan in the Christian at Work and urging the cooperation of all Protestants against him. Murphy's friends thought that if the nomination could be made by secret ballot they would have a large vote among the countrymen who disliked Tammany, and in the caucus on January 15 John C. Jacobs, Murphy's manager, bitterly attacked Kelly for dictation, but his pleas were overridden and a viva voce vote ordered. This ended Murphy's hopes; for the weak-kneed malcontents did not care to be counted openly against the new Governor
171
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and Tammany. Kernan received 77 votes in the caucus and Murphy 9, while a single vote was cast for John T. Hoffman by Assemblyman Scudder of Cattaraugus, a brother-in-law of Fenton. The Republicans had talked of nominating Dix, and two days before the caucus the New York Times1 said that he would receive the compliment beyond doubt, but after having also talked of supporting William A. Wheeler they finally cast their votes for Edwin D. Morgan. There had been some fear that the anti-Tammany Democrats might fuse with the Republicans to reëlect Fenton, and unwelcome as the combination would have been to the Republicans they might have preferred him to a Dem- ocrat intent on promoting Tilden's ambition. Kernan's overwhelming victory in the caucus, however, made any such scheme futile, and he was elected Senator on joint ballot by 87 votes to 68 for Morgan and 1 (Scud- der's) for Hoffman. Jeremiah McGuire of Chemung was made Speaker.
In his annual message Tilden presented a masterly review of the State's affairs and made many recom- mendations for reform, especially for the protection of the treasury, for the punishment of frauds, and the recovery of stolen money, and the Legislature responded to his demands in the main but failed to carry out his plan for an expert examination into the disposition of the unprofitable canals.
Proceedings of General Sheridan in the Kellogg- McEnery fight for control of the Louisiana State gov-
1January 13, 1875.
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ernment, which culminated in the invasion of the legislative chamber and the removal of Democratic members by Federal troops, aroused intense indignation in the north, which was not confined to Democrats. A great public meeting, held in New York on January 11 to protest against Sheridan's acts, was presided over by August Belmont, and Mayor Wickham, William Cullen Bryant and William M. Evarts spoke. Tilden took advantage of the situation to place before the Legislature a message on the southern question, which helped to crystallize Democratic sentiment and make him its national exponent.
The Governor meanwhile was studying the canal contracts. The canal ring, like the Tweed ring, had been the subject of much denunciation and many charges. Some proceedings had been taken from time to time, but specific proofs sufficient to break up the whole combination had not yet been forthcoming. As in the case of Tammany, Tilden did not strike till wea- pons that assured victory had been placed in his hands. They were placed there by Horatio Seymour.2 State Treasurer Raines had already shown that millions of dollars were squandered on repairs. The expenditures were, he declared, such as "must have covered a towing path of marble, a canal bottomed in cement, lock-gates of steel, and a Commissioner in brass." 13 Early in 1875 Horatio Seymour sought his aid to get the proofs of fraud from the records, and these, when obtained, he
2Editorial of Joseph O'Connor in Rochester Post-Express, October 5, 1885. Statements of Thomas Raines to the writer.
3Before the canal committee of the Assembly, March 20, 1873.
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submitted to the Governor. Tilden thought first of letting the movement start in the Legislature or through Raines in the Canal board, but at the latter's suggestion the Governor was led himself to put the subject before the State in a special message. This message of March 19 contained the results of a thorough study of more than one hundred contracts with comparisons made by Elnathan Sweet, afterward State Engineer, whom the Governor employed, of the work paid for with that actually done. Tilden showed that in the five years ending September 30, 1874, the canal receipts were $15,058,361.75, while the ordinary repairs and opera- ting expenses were $9,202,434.23, leaving an apparent surplus of $5,855,927.52. The extraordinary disburse- ments, however, amounted to $10,960,624.84, leaving a real deficit of $5,104,697.32, which, added to the State's payments on the canal debt, made the total burden on the taxpayer in the five years over $11,000,000. He also showed that on ten contracts the State had paid $1,560,- 769.84, though the contracts, according to the specifi- cations on which they were originally let, would have come to only $424,735.90. The Governor exposed the method by which this fraud was accomplished.
The engineer, for instance, specified 100 cubic yards of vertical wall and 3,855 cubic yards of slope wall. A bid $3.00 a yard for the vertical and $1.50 a yard for the slope wall, making his total bid $6,082.50. B, the favored bidder with advance knowledge, offered to build the vertical wall at $6.00 and the slope at 30 cents a yard, making his total bid $1,756.50, apparently the lower offer. After he had received the contract the
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quantities were changed, all the slope wall was cut out, and he received $6.00 a yard for 3,955 cubic yards of vertical wall, or $23,730.4 This scheme of specifying small quantities, for which favored contractors made excessively high bids, and then increasing the high- priced work, had been systematically employed.
The Governor asked that a new letting of contract be required by law on any change of plan or specifica- tions, that the Canal board receive power to discard any bids showing bad faith, that steps be taken to enforce accountability of officers, and that the frauds be investigated. The investigation was authorized and for it he appointed John Bigelow, Daniel Magone, Alexander E. Orr, and John D. Van Buren. As a result of their reports, H. D. Denison and James J. Belden, the bipartisan contracting firm of Syracuse, were sued to recover fraudulent payments amounting to $150,337.02 for work never done, and were arrested on an attach- ment; ex-Canal Commissioner Alexander Barkley, Canal Appraiser Thaddeus C. Davis, George D. Lord (a son of Jarvis), Lewis J. Bennett, and William H. Bowman were arrested for conspiracy to defraud the people out of $36,855, and George D. Lord was indicted for bribery in connection with canal claims while a member of the Legislature. Other minor indictments were found and Francis S. Thayer, auditor of the Canal department, was suspended for holding up drafts and then purchasing them at a discount from the despairing holders.5 He subsequently resigned.
4Charles Z. Lincoln, Messages from the Governors, VI, p. 788 et seq. 5Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia, 1875.
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All but two of the principal persons indicted were Democrats, a fact which greatly strengthened faith in the sincerity of the campaign.6 In December, 1877, the State obtained judgment against Belden, Denison & Company for $387,000, but in December, 1879, this judgment was reversed. Belden meantime had been elected Mayor of Syracuse and for many years was active and successful in politics and business. George D. Lord was convicted of bribery, but in October, 1877, his conviction was reversed under the statute of limitations. Nevertheless, though the efforts at recov- ery and punishment came to little, the canal ring was broken and its operations stayed.
These revelations gave Tilden great prestige with cities along the line of the canal. The Republicans were divided between the impulse to treat the whole matter as a political game or to seek credit by cooperating in the reforms. Some represented Tilden as a self-seeker who did not attend at the formation of the Committee of Seventy, or come out against Tammany until others had made sure of its downfall, or proceed against the canal ring until political capital was certain to be gained. Wiser Republicans, however, whatever they thought of Tilden, saw that the tide had turned and that the party could no longer defy the reform sentiment either on State or national issues.
Conkling was in Europe and did not attend the State convention at Saratoga on September 8. It fell to George William Curtis, who presided, to lead the party into the paths of conciliation. The platform was in
6Bigelow's Life of Samuel J. Tilden, II, p. 263.
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many respects a reversal of the Conkling attitude. It favored a forbearing policy toward the south and sought to allay the feeling aroused over Sheridan's invasion of the Louisiana Legislature by declaring for a firm refusal to use the military power except for clear constitutional purposes. It commended honest efforts to correct abuses, and urged that the canal offenders be punished and that the Governor should remove all delinquent officials. "Recognizing as conclusive the President's public declaration that he is not a candidate for renomination," the convention took strong grounds on the principle of no third term, perhaps without stopping to think that its principle would have been just as sound if the President's declaration had not opened the way for it. The convention also sought to make a reform ticket and offered the nomination for Comptroller to John Bigelow, the Republican member of the Canal Investigation commission, but he declined as did William H. Robertson and George R. Babcock of Buffalo. Then Francis E. Spinner, ex-Treasurer of the United States, was drafted. Frederick W. Seward, the son and trusted assistant of the great Republican leader, was nominated for Secretary of State, and Edwin A. Merritt, a Liberal Republican, for Treas- urer.7
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