USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. III 1865-1896 > Part 15
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A few days later Kelly showed his control of the organization by electing as chairman of the State com- mittee William Purcell, editor of the Rochester Union and Advertiser, a sturdy, hard-hitting controversi- alist, who was afterward to show an opposition to Cleveland even more bitter and personal than that which he displayed to Tilden and Robinson. Kelly also chose for secretary of the State committee Henry A. Gumbleton, County Clerk of New York, whose removal from office in the next March was to make irreparable the breach between Tammany and Robinson. But Kelly found his local domination undermined by the union of the Republicans and the anti-Tammany Democratic organizations in the support for Mayor of Edward Cooper, a Democrat, a son of Peter Cooper the philanthropist, and brother-in-law of Abram S. Hewitt, one of Tilden's trusted lieutenants. Tammany nominated Augustus Schell for Mayor, but Cooper was successful.
The chief issue of the campaign was the financial question, and as it proceeded it was clear that the differ-
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ences between the Republicans and Democrats were greater than the wording of their platforms might indicate. New York Democrats were less tolerant of inflation than was the party as a whole. Yet their plat- form was construed to leave a loophole for inflation in the demand for silver as well as gold. Paper convert- ible into coin might mean convertible into silver, which was not at par with gold. The Republicans were com- mitted to "honest coin," and it was argued they could be trusted better than the Democrats to resume specie payments without taking advantage of the law to inflate the currency indefinitely by reissues.
The Tribune's publication in October of the cipher dispatches also damaged the Democrats and spoiled their plan to lay a foundation for the next Presidential campaign. Some of the managers had even hoped to get the question into the courts5 by taking some private claim bill passed by the Senate, putting it through the House, and sending it to Tilden instead of Hayes. If signed, or left unsigned for ten days, the claimant might then be in a position to sue. The courts were expected to hold the title to the Presidency a political question and refuse to rule on it. Yet a failure to declare absolutely for Hayes as de jure as well as de facto President, would have been a most effective factor in the campaign. But the revelations of the cipher dis- patches made impossible any clear-cut and one-sided issue of fraud.
5Statement of Dr. Talcott Williams, at that time a member of the New York Sun staff, associated with the Tilden managers in the Potter investiga- tion. See also Samuel W. McCall, Life of Thomas Brackett Reed, pp.65-74.
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The October elections showed that courage was worth while in dealing with the financial question. Republican speakers emphasized the issue in New York. Though Dorsheimer and Kelly talked the hard money doctrine to Democrats, many of their followers had been charmed by the Greenback idea, and the elec- tion returns showed a vote of 75,133 for Tucker, the Greenback Labor Reform candidate. This was drawn much more largely from the Democrats than from the Republicans. Danforth was elected, receiving 34,661 plurality. The election for Assemblymen resulted in the choice of 98 Republicans, 27 Democrats, and 3 Greenbackers. In the Senate, which held over, there were 19 Republicans, 12 Democrats, and 1 Green- backer. Conkling's harmony program, with its unwonted curb on his own antipathies, had borne fruit in a Republican majority on joint ballot and a third Senatorial term for himself.
CHAPTER XVIII KELLY DEFEATS ROBINSON
1879
T HE Legislature assembled for the first time in the new Capitol in January, 1879, the Assembly meeting in the chamber designed for it while the Senate used the chamber of the Court of Appeals. Thomas G. Alvord was Speaker for the third time. The Governor continued to occupy his old quarters, and because of the pressure of business and eye trouble, which forbade him to endure the strong light, did not attend the ceremonies that marked the transfer of the houses to the new building. It fell to Lieutenant- Governor Dorsheimer to make the principal address. Conkling was reelected to the Senate on January 21 without Republican opposition, by 114 votes to 35 cast by the Democrats for Dorsheimer and 2 for Peter Cooper.
A movement was started in the Democratic caucus to protest the election of a Senator on the ground that there was no de jure Legislature because of failure to reapportion the State. The caucus refused to adopt this course, but issued an address asserting that under the census New York and Kings were entitled to three more Senators and ten more Assemblymen than they
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had.1 The Republicans so far heeded the demand as to make a new apportionment, giving New York and Kings counties three new Assemblymen each and taking an Assemblyman each away from Columbia, Delaware, Madison, Oneida, Ontario, and Oswego. They did not give the metropolitan district any greater representa- tion in the Senate, however, though one district in Kings had 292,000 inhabitants and one in New York 235,000, while the population of the Herkimer-Otsego district was only about 89,000 and the Jefferson-Lewis district 90,000. The Governor permitted this measure to become a law without his signature. At this session the legal interest rate was decreased from 7 to 6 per cent. The Governor renewed his charges against John F. Smyth, Superintendent of Insurance, without accomplishing his removal.
Having secured his reelection, Conkling returned to his fight with the President over the appointment of Merritt to succeed Arthur. The vote on confirmation hung fire until February, when an array of documents was before the Senate setting forth on the one side Secretary Sherman's allegations that Arthur had been neither efficient nor economical, and on the other Arthur's answer denying that he had been neglectful, or that the government had suffered any loss, and show- ing that he had suggested reforms that had not been adopted.2 Conkling saw that some of the support that he had had against Roosevelt's confirmation was falling away, and on February 3 moved to recommit
1Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia, 1879.
2New York Tribune, January 28, 1879.
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the nominations, expecting to throw them over to the next Senate, which was Democratic. This was appar- ently carried, but when the yeas and nays were demanded Conkling took the floor under the impulse to have in this moment of his success a last fling at Hayes.
He traversed the whole case, riddled the adminis- tration's profession of reform, and showed that Arthur had received requests for places from a cabinet officer and even from the staff of the White House itself. He went to such extremes as to lose the sympathy of the Senate, and on the roll-call the motion to recommit was lost and Merritt was confirmed by 33 to 24 and Burt by 31 to 19.3 Conkling's friends asserted that Demo- cratic Senators had been brought over by hints that appointments that they sought could not be made while the Merritt matter was pending.4 A correspondent of the New York Times thought that if Conkling's speech had been public, its arraignment and ridicule of the administration would have been demolishing to his enemies.5 Conkling misjudged the effect of such a speech in executive session and unnecessarily invited his own discomfiture.
As the fall campaign approached, the Republican organization showed its determination to nominate Cornell for Governor if possible. Conkling had tried before to nominate him, but without success, and now was more than ever anxious to vindicate him and
3New York Tribune, February 4, 1879.
4New York Times, February 4, 1879. i
5New York Times, February 4, 1879. 1
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reward his faithfulness after his displacement from the custom house. The war between Kelly and Robinson encouraged the Republicans to ignore the elements to whom Cornell was distasteful.6 Nevertheless, the opening of the Republican State convention at Saratoga on September 3 was harmonious. Conkling was tem- porary and Vice-President Wheeler permanent chair- man. The Democratic attempts in Congress to evade Presidential vetoes by forcing through as riders on appropriation bills various measures aimed against enforcement of the Federal election laws, had aroused Republican wrath. In the Senate Conkling supported the President against such undermining of his preroga- tive. Before the convention he made a strong speech along the same line, which called forth cordial praise from Curtis and other reformers.
No dispute was aroused by the platform, which was perfunctory in its presentation of State issues but strong in denunciation of the Democratic course in Congress -a course that touched the political situation in New York City closely, because it was intended to deprive the United States Marshals of funds and therefore would operate against the exercise of Federal supervi- sion of elections in the city.
The principal candidates for Governor besides Cornell were William H. Robertson, Theodore M. Pomeroy, Frank Hiscock, and John H. Starin. It was the field against Cornell, who was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 234 votes. Robertson had 136, Pomeroy 35, Hiscock 24, Starin 40, and George B.
6New York Times, September 1, 1879. !
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Sloan 1. As 226 votes were necessary to a choice, Cornell's margin was narrow; nothing but clever management by the Conkling forces and the lack of generalship in the opposition carried him to success. The opposition candidates for Governor stood ready to unite on any one of their number who could succeed, but they were all afraid that in attempting to transfer their strength some of their delegates would be picked by Cornell. Moreover, ambition for minor places on the ticket in districts that the opposition expected to control carried votes to Cornell. John F. Smyth, the Albany county leader, had been saved from removal from the Insurance department through the powerful aid of Senator William B. Woodin of Cayuga, who expected him to support Pomeroy; but Albany went for Cornell. A. Barton Hepburn of St. Lawrence was a candidate for Secretary of State, and, in spite of the traditional anti-Conkling attitude of St. Lawrence and Franklin and the efforts of Vice-President Wheeler, who voted for Robertson, the weight of those delega- tions was thrown to Cornell. But the most surprising desertion was that of George B. Sloan, one of the trusted leaders of the independents and a pledged sup- porter of Pomeroy. John C. Churchill, of his county, was a candidate for Comptroller, and Sloan, apparently feeling that Cornell's nomination was certain any way, and desiring in his friend's interest to conciliate the majority, sought release from Pomeroy; failing to get it he voted for Cornell without carrying any of his delegation with him. Conkling and Smyth had pre- vented his election to the Speakership in January, but
G Ca ure All
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1879]
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KELLY DEFEATS ROBINSON
Sloan was a personal admirer of Conkling and had eulogized him in the Senatorial caucus.7 That personal tie and the desire for party harmony may explain an action that greatly reduced the future influence of an able, honest man.
In selecting the rest of the ticket, Conkling made small concession to the converts. George G. Hoskins was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. Churchill was passed over for James W. Wadsworth, son of the distinguished General James S. Wadsworth who, after being the Union candidate for Governor in 1862, fell in the battle of the Wilderness; while under the plea of giving representation to the old soldiers Hep- burn was forced to stand aside for General Joseph B. Carr. Conkling himself made a speech in behalf of Hamilton Ward for Attorney-General, and he was nominated over Colonel Henry E. Tremain of New York.8
Although Tammany had overwhelmed the last State convention and seized control of the Democratic State committee, the Tilden forces, under the able general- ship of Daniel Manning, the chief owner of the Albany Argus, made an effective campaign against Kelly, invaded the State committee, and controlled the tem- porary organization of the State convention, which met in Syracuse on September 10.
7New York Tribune, September 5, 1879.
8The ticket was: Governor, Alonzo B. Cornell, New York; Lieutenant- Governor, George G. Hoskins, Wyoming; Secretary of State, Joseph B. Carr, Rensselaer; Comptroller, James W. Wadsworth, Livingston; Treas- urer, Nathan D. Wendell, Albany; Attorney-General, Hamilton Ward, Allegany; State Engineer, Howard Soule, Onondaga.
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Robinson had promised not to seek a second term and was understood to favor Frederic P. Olcott, but when Kelly took the position that Robinson was the one man who must not be nominated the Tilden forces made renomination the issue. Kelly at first had been friendly to Robinson, who signed some of his bills, and had hoped to detach him from Tilden. But when Robinson refused to bring pressure to bear on Attorney-General Fairchild to induce him to release Tweed in return for testimony against Sweeney, which was put aside for what was widely considered a shamefully inadequate compromise with Sweeney, Kelly was disgruntled.9 Finally in March, 1879, Robinson removed County Clerk Gumbleton for taking illegal fees, though he failed to remove the anti-Tammany Register, Frederick W. Loew, for the same offense, on the ground that he was ignorant of the illegality of the fee schedule fixed by his subordinates. This was considered a distinct avowal of hostility by Kelly, who on August 11 had resolutions adopted in Tammany denouncing Robinson as opposed to the true principles of Democracy. He charged that Robinson had attempted to dictate nomi- nations, had been swayed by personal friendship in dismissing charges against officials, and had sanctioned the removal by Mayor Cooper of a Tammany Police Commissioner and held up similar charges against an anti-Tammany Commissioner. On September 6 a formal manifesto against Robinson followed. At the same time a meeting of anti-Tammany Democrats indorsed Robinson and denounced Tammany for a deal
9Hudson, Random Recollections of an Old Political Reporter, p. 89.
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WILLIAM MAXWELL EVARTS
William Maxwell Evarts, senator; born in Boston, Mass., February 6, 1818; was graduated from Yale college in 1837; studied in Harvard Law school and was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1841; was assistant United States district attorney, 1849-1853; chairman of the New York delegation to the republican national convention of 1860; member of the state constitutional convention of 1867-1868; attorney general of the United States from July 15, 1868 to March 3, 1869; counsel for President Andrew Johnson upon his trial for im- peachment in 1868; counsel for the United States upon the tribunal of arbitration upon the Alabama claims at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1872; counsel for President Hayes in behalf of the republican party before the electoral commission in 1876; secretary of state for the United States from March 12, 1877 to March 3, 1881; elected as a republican to the United States senate and served from March 4, 1885 to March 3, 1891; died in New York City, February 28, 1901.
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD
David Dudley Field; born in Haddam, Conn., February 13, 1805; graduated from Williams college, 1825; admitted to the bar in New York City, 1828; member of the committee on legal practice and procedure, 1847-1850; member of a committee to prepare a political, penal and civil code, 1857-1865; was elected to the forty-fourth congress as a democrat to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Smith Ely, jr., and served from January 11, 1877 to March 3, 1877; died in New York City, April 13, 1894.
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that, it was charged, gave the Republicans four Assembly districts in New York.
Although Kelly hired Shakespeare Hall in Syracuse for a convention of his own in case Robinson was nominated, he entered the convention and robbed his bolt of every pretense of principle. John C. Jacobs was made chairman. Tammany, which had deprived Hill in 1877 of the right to name committees, reversed itself and sought Jacobs's favor by insisting that he should make the appointments. The Irving Hall delegation from New York withdrew its contest in the interest of harmony and in order to deprive Kelly of any ground of complaint. The platform, dealing mainly with State issues, reviewing and indorsing the Democratic State administration, keeping before the people the charge of fraud in the Presidential election, advocating hard money and upholding the Democratic methods in Congress, was adopted without dissent.
Not until nominations for Governor were in order did Tammany show its hand. Samuel Hand of Albany nominated Robinson, whose name was seconded by Samuel D. Morris of Kings, greatly to the chagrin of Tammany, which had hoped that Kings under Hugh McLaughlin's influence could be detached from Robin- son, especially as up to that point Mclaughlin had refused to declare himself. Rufus W. Peckham also spoke for Robinson. The first attempt to break the Tilden forces was through the candidacy of General Henry W. Slocum. In seconding his name. ex-Speaker Jeremiah McGuire of Elmira, who sat with the Tam- many delegation, denounced Robinson for "overawing
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the working classes" by calling out the National Guard in the railroad riots, and Thomas F. Grady first attracted attention by a speech of extreme hostility to the Tilden people. Dorsheimer, who had gone over to Tammany after his estrangement from Tilden, also exerted his unquestioned oratorical powers to break through the Tilden line. But it was evident that the appeal to local pride in Slocum had no effect on Kings.
The vote was about to be taken when a Saratoga del- egate named Cowen, a son of the distinguished Judge of the 'thirties, Esek Cowen, proposed the nomination of Jacobs by acclamation and asked the secretary to put the question. Tammany started a noisy demonstra- tion for Jacobs and called on the Brooklyn men to rise and cheer for him, but Mclaughlin sat unmoved. Amid the din, Tammany's secretary, William H. Quincy, put the motion and declared Jacobs nominated. So far the chairman had taken no part. If he had been tempted by the dazzling honor thus thrust upon him, the imper- turbable face of Mclaughlin, with his silent delegation about him, was to all an indication of warning, and as soon as he could recover from his surprise he declined the nomination and rebuked the secretary for putting the motion without his order.
Foiled in this attempt, Tammany sought adjourn- ment, and its tellers counted a vote in the affirmative, but on a second roll-call a recess was defeated by 217 to 166. It was clear now to Kelly that he could not block Robinson, and Augustus Schell declared: "Under no circumstances will the Democracy of New York sup- port the nomination of Lucius Robinson, but the rest of
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the ticket will receive its warm and hearty support." He then announced : "The delegation from New York will now retire from the hall," and went out with the whole Tammany body.1ยบ Robinson was nominated by 243 votes to 56 for Slocum, and Clarkson N. Potter of New York was named for Lieutenant-Governor.11
The Tammany delegation went to the place prepared for it in Shakespeare Hall and held a conven- tion, over which David Dudley Field, one of Tilden's counsel before the Electoral commission, presided. Dorsheimer presented the name of Kelly, who was nominated for Governor.12 Kelly accepted with the prophecy of Robinson's defeat.
The campaign was filled with charges of a Kelly- Conkling bargain, but they had no real basis beyond the perfectly natural readiness of the Republicans to encourage a Democratic split that promised them success. Kelly in his speeches applied to Tilden the phrase that had become current in the Tribune, the "humbug of Cipher Alley."
Curtis, who had voted "No" to the usual motion in convention to make Cornell's nomination unanimous, started a movement to scratch the head of the Republi- can ticket, 18 which led his followers to be called "Scratchers." On the other hand, the administration,
10New York Tribune, September 12, 1879.
11The ticket was: Governor, Lucius Robinson, Chemung; Lieutenant- Governor, Clarkson N. Potter, New York; Secretary of State, Allen C. Beach, Jefferson; Comptroller, Frederic P. Olcott, Albany; Treasurer, James Mackin, Dutchess; Attorney-General, Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr., Ulster; State Engineer, Horatio Seymour, Jr., Oneida.
12New York Tribune, September 12, 1879.
13Harper's Weekly, October 4, 1879.
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which had removed Cornell, found itself obliged to support him lest the Republicans lose a pivotal State on the eve of a Presidential election. So Secretaries Evarts and Sherman both spoke in the State.
The vote on November 4 resulted in the election of Cornell by 42,777 plurality. But his victory was solely due to Kelly's bolt, for the "Scratchers" put him 18,000 behind his ticket. The vote was: Cornell, 418,567; Robinson, 375,790; Kelly, 77,566; Harris Lewis (National Greenback), 20,286; John W. Mears (Pro- hibitionist), 4,437. Kelly had supported the rest of the Democratic ticket and expected to elect it, but all the Republican candidates pulled through by a narrow margin excepting Soule, who had been nominated for State Engineer by the canal ring influence and had been charged with complicity in frauds by Tilden's Canal Investigating commission. He ran 2,441 votes behind Horatio Seymour, Jr., a nephew of the ex-Governor. A constitutional amendment was adopted adding one Justice to the Supreme Court bench in the second district. The Republicans won the Legislature, which stood : Republicans 25, Democrats 6, Republican and Independent-Democrat 1, in the Senate; Republicans 92, Democrats 35, National Greenback 1, in the Assem- bly, which chose George H. Sharpe of Ulster Speaker.
CHAPTER XIX THE THIRD TERM MOVEMENT DEFEATED
1880
O NE of Governor Cornell's first acts was the reappointment of John F. Smyth to the Insur- ance department, notwithstanding the charges and demands for removal that Governor Robinson had made. At this time Senator Woodin, who had been powerful in preventing his removal, was on the other side and successfully fought confirmation. The Gov- ernor, finding himself thus unable to pay his private political debt, finally withdrew the nomination and appointed Charles G. Fairman. Chief-Judge Church died at Albion on May 14, and the Governor filled the vacancy by the advancement of Associate-Judge Charles J. Folger, and in Folger's place appointed Francis M. Finch, who was known far beyond legal circles as the author of the popular poem, "The Blue and the Gray."
The Governor in his message gave great attention to taxation and railroad regulation. He asked for another commission to study taxation, but the Legislature instead appointed a joint committee, which proposed a sweeping scheme of taxing all forms of wealth includ- ing credits and stocks. It retreated in the face of
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[1880
opposition and abandoned its plan for deductions for debt and the establishment of a listing system. Finally, instead of a comprehensive scheme, a few minor amendments were made, the chief of which placed a State tax on the capital of corporations, excepting those engaged in manufacture. The Governor's plea for a State Railroad commission and the prohibition of railroad rate discrimination also failed. The idea that a public service corporation was really a public servant owing equal treatment to all was just taking root, and the railroads frankly combated it. A system under which a favored merchant in Syracuse, for instance, could receive groceries, break their bulk, and reship them to various retailers at the wholesale rate as from the original point of shipment, though obviously unfair, was so profitable to established business interests that strenuous attempts were made to prevent disturbing inquiries.
To the committee appointed in 1879 to investigate railroads, headed by A. Barton Hepburn, the railroad presidents in a joint letter virtually declared that the public had no right to further information than that given in their meager annual reports. They held that the rights vested in the railroads as private concerns so far overshadowed their character as public corpora- tions that the rights of the public in them virtually ceased to exist.1 The committee repudiated this theory, and its report, made on January 27, 1880, created a profound impression by its showing of the abuses of the railroads to the detriment of the State's commerce, and
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