USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. III 1865-1896 > Part 23
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The Republicans won 19 of the 34 Congressmen and 79 of the 128 Assemblymen. The death of Henry R. Low, Republican Senator from the Thirteenth district,
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necessitated a special election in January, 1889, to fill the vacancy. Peter Ward of Newburgh, a Democrat, was elected, defeating Benjamin B. Odell, Jr., by the narrow margin of 166 plurality. The hold-over Senate then consisted of 20 Republicans and 12 Democrats. A constitutional amendment establishing temporarily a second division of the Court of Appeals to be designated by the Governor from among the Supreme Court Jus- tices was carried by a vote of 498,114 to 55,822. In New York City Tammany had repented of its choice of Mayor Hewitt, who proved over-independent for Croker, and it elected Hugh J. Grant Mayor, polling for him 114,111 votes. The Republicans gave 73,037 votes to Joel B. Erhardt and the County Democracy 71,979 votes to Hewitt.
CHAPTER XXIX HILL'S SWAY UNSHAKEN BY SCANDALS
1889-1890
T HOMAS C. PLATT played an influential part in nominating Harrison and demanded his reward. He wanted the Treasury department and, indeed, said he had what he regarded as a binding promise of the office.1 But when Harrison came to make up his cabinet he declined to honor Platt's draft and Platt had to be content with the privilege of naming his friend and supporter, Benjamin F. Tracy, for Secretary of the Navy, after Depew had declined an offer of any cabinet office except Secretary
of State, already allotted to Blaine.2 Nevertheless Platt and Hiscock were more influential with the administration than Miller or than Evarts, who, although his intellectual abilities were everywhere admired, had ceased to be a potent political figure. Miller's defeat left Platt the scarcely disputed leader of the organization. He made J. Sloat Fassett President pro tem. of the Senate in place of Henry R. Low, who had recently died. Cole became Speaker once more without opposition. The Republicans again passed
1Platt, Autobiography, p. 206.
2Statement of Mr. Depew to the writer, June 15, 1917.
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excise and election bills for the Governor to veto. The session was enlivened by a scandal growing out of the repairs to the Assembly ceiling. The great stone vault of that chamber had threatened to bury the legislators. Repairs io it and the Assembly staircase cost $350,000, of which $100,000 had, according to the special com- mittee on appropriations, gone into the pockets of the contractor through the neglect of the Assembly committee on construction. A special investigating committee reported that Charles B. Andrews, Superin- tendent of Public Buildings, and the contractor had conspired to rob the State. Attorney-General Tabor's legal opinion prevented the Capitol trustees from suspending Andrews. The committee found that Comptroller Wemple had, without examination of the work, paid the contractors over $13,000 more than they were entitled to, even if the work were good. Hill sustained his lieutenants and vetoed a bill to pay Stanford White and other experts who reported that the work was badly done.3
When the Democratic State convention was held at Syracuse on October 1, with Lieutenant-Governor Jones presiding, demands were made by the New York delegation for the retirement of both Wemple and Tabor, on the ground that the party must nominate men who had not been involved in any scandals and who could command public confidence. The New Yorkers rallied almost one-third of the convention in favor of Mayor Edward A. Maher of Albany for Comptroller
. 3New York Tribune, October 25, 1889.
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and John Foley of Saratoga for Attorney-General.4 But Hill renominated his two associates and put through the rest of his ticket without opposition.5 By changes in the State committee wherever he could seize control of a local organization, Hill had brought under his domination twenty-six of the thirty-four State com- mitteemen and was consolidating his power with a view to the next Presidential election. The convention adopted a platform arraigning the Republicans for defeating anti-monopoly laws and for imposing heavy taxes, and praising Hill for his economies. On the liquor question the platform said: "We do not favor unrestricted sale of intoxicating liquors on the one hand, nor prohibition on the other," and declared that the traffic should be regulated by laws substantially uniform throughout the State. The taxation of corpo- rations and personal property, so that they should bear their full share of the burdens of government, was also demanded.
"Ballot and Temperance reform" was the watchword of the Republican State convention held at Saratoga on September 25. Depew and George B. Sloan presided over its sessions. The gathering was entirely har- monious and the ticket was made up after conference among the leaders. The only rivalry displayed on the floor of the convention was that between Albert Haight of Buffalo and Alfred C. Coxe of Utica-a nephew of
4New York Tribune, October 2, 1889.
5The ticket was: Secretary of State, Frank Rice, Ontario; Comptroller, Edward Wemple, Montgomery; Treasurer, Elliot Danforth, Chenango; Attorney-General, Charles F. Tabor, Erie; State Engineer, John Bogart, New York; Judge of the Court of Appeals, Denis O'Brien, Jefferson.
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Conkling, who had died in the preceding year-for Judge of the Court of Appeals,6 and the nomination went to Haight, largely for geographical reasons.7 The platform repeated the former arraignment of Hill for his vetoes and commended Republican legislative poli- cies, including the taxing of collateral inheritances and corporations.
Hill again demonstrated the effectiveness of his political machinery by electing his entire State ticket by pluralities varying from 10,000 to 20,000. Rice polled 505,965 votes, Gilbert 485,545, Jesse H. Griffin (Prohibition) 26,788, Thomas K. Beecher (Labor) 753. Wemple and Tabor, who suffered from the ceiling scandal, had the smallest pluralities. The new Senate stood, Republicans, 19; Democrats, 13. In the Assembly the Republicans had 71 and Democrats 57 votes, and Husted became Speaker. The Democratic gain of one Senator and eight Assemblymen was of great importance to Hill as a sign of progress with his plan to win the Legislature by 1891 and succeed Evarts in the United States Senate.
In the session of 1890 the Governor and the Repub- lican Legislature finally agreed upon a compromise Ballot law. Hill suggested an informal reference of the constitutionality of an official ballot to the Court of Appeals and drew from the Senate judiciary committee
6New York Tribune, September 26, 1889.
7The ticket was: Secretary of State, John I. Gilbert, Franklin; Comp- troller, Martin W. Cooke, Monroe; Treasurer, Ira M. Hedges, Rockland ; Attorney-General, James M. Varnum, New York; State Engineer, William V. Van Rensselaer, Seneca; Judge of the Court of Appeals, Albert Haight, Erie.
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an exhaustive historical review of the evils of such con- fusion of legislative and judicial functions.8 He con- ceded the use of an official ballot, but gained a substantial victory in the provision for separate official ballots for each party with the privilege of using pasters on them.9 This relieved the parties from the expense of printing ballots, safeguarded the secrecy of the vote except so far as it might be revealed by the pasters, but still left the illiterate or subservient voter full opportunity to take into the booth the ticket furnished to him beforehand.
Requirement of personal registry was extended to all cities of the State, and registry without personal attendance was prescribed for all villages and rural districts. On the recommendation of the State Com- mission in Lunacy, which had been created in 1889, the Legislature ordered the removal of all insane persons from the rural county asylums and their care in State institutions. The Legislature for the second time passed a Prohibition amendment and ordered its sub- mission at a special election in April, 1891. But the Legislature of that year failed to make the necessary provision for the election and the amendment was never submitted.10 The long campaign that Andrew H. Green had been carrying on for the creation of Greater New York achieved its initial success in the appoint- ment of a special commission to consider the expediency of consolidating the municipalities about New York harbor, and Green became chairman of it.
8Lincoln, Messages from the Governors, VIII, p. 1044. 9Lincoln, Messages from the Governors, VIII, p. 1005. 10Lincoln, Messages from the Governors, VIII, p. 923.
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The project of holding the World's Columbian Exposition in New York City provoked a bitter political wrangle, which turned the fire of a large part of the New York press on the rising power of Platt and fixed the public mind on him more sharply than ever before as a political leader. The Republicans objected to giving all power over the projected affair to a committee of 104 citizens, alleging that it would be used by Tammany to obtain patronage and contracts. Finally on the suggestion of Depew, a compromise was effected requiring a two-thirds vote of the committee for any important action. Platt and Hiscock and the Democrats accepted this and the Governor signed the bill for the fair,11 but Congress gave preference to the claims of Chicago.
The Senate cities committee, under J. Sloat Fassett, spent many weeks investigating the affairs of New York City. Mayor Grant and other officials were subjected to examination in the efforts to show abuses by the Tam- many government. The most important political revelation was that of Patrick H. McCann, a brother- in-law of Richard Croker. McCann, who had been closely associated with Croker and Grant but had broken with them, testified that Croker made Grant Sheriff in 1885 on the understanding that he was to have $25,000 of the receipts of the office and that Grant in 1886 and 1887 had paid this sum in $5,000 installments, placed in envelopes and handed to Croker's daughter Flossie, a child of between one and three years old.
11New York Tribune, February 18, 1890; Lincoln, Messages from the Governors, VIII, pp. 933, 996.
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Croker had taken this money and used it to pay off a mortgage on his house. After evasive interviews to the newspapers, Grant admitted to the committee that he had given $10,000 in the manner described to Flossie, who was his godchild. He took the obligation of this relationship very seriously, and the gifts were in no way a political payment or intended for Croker. Yet he knew nothing of what this child had done with the money after he had handed it to her.12
As the only State officer to be chosen at the fall election was a Judge of the Court of Appeals, neither of the leading parties held a State convention. The Republican State committee on September 2 in New York nominated Robert Earl, a Democrat, to succeed himself, and adopted resolutions commending the administration of President Harrison and the actions of Speaker Reed, whose "czar rules" to overcome legis- lative obstruction were the object of strenuous attack by the Democrats.13 The resolutions also approved the then pending Mckinley bill, the reciprocity project, and the proposal for Federal control of Federal elec- tions. On September 23 the Democratic State com- mittee met in New York and also renominated Earl. It urged the union of the Democratic factions in New York City on Congress, Assembly, and city candidates, and attacked the Republican program in Congress, especially with reference to Federal elections and customs administration.14
12Senate Documents, 1891, Vol. IX, No. 8, p. 662 et seq. and p. 732 et seq .; also New York Tribune, April 27 and May 4, 1890.
13New York Tribune, September 3, 1390.
14New York Tribune, September 24, 1890.
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1890]
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A decided reaction against the Republican party set in throughout the country. The McKinley bill became a law in October. Its extreme provisions alienated many moderate Republican protectionists, and its unpopularity was promoted by allegations that the marked rises of price on many articles of general con- sumption were due to the increased duties. Harrison was not personally popular with his party, and the pro- test against Speaker Reed's rules was at its height, though when the Democrats came into control of the House the next year they were forced to pay the tribute of imitating them. The tidal wave swept over New York, giving the Democrats 23 of the 34 Congressmen, a gain of 7, and 68 out of the 128 Assemblymen. For Judge, Earl polled 927,243 votes, Silas W. Mason (Prohibition) 33,621, and Francis Gerau (Socialist Labor) 13,337. The revelations of the Fassett com- mittee aroused a movement for municipal reform, in which the Republicans and County Democracy joined. They indorsed the nomination made by the People's Municipal League of Francis M. Scott, a Democrat, for Mayor. Tammany renominated Grant, and not- withstanding the criticisms of his administrative course both as Sheriff and Mayor he won by 23,199 plurality.
CHAPTER XXX THE STOLEN SENATE
1891-1892
T HE Democratic majority of eight in the Assem- bly gave to the party a preponderance of two on joint ballot, as the hold-over Senate stood 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats. The Speakership, agreeably to Governor Hill's wish, went to William F. Sheehan, and Hill was elected to the United States Senate to succeed Evarts, for whom the complimentary vote of the minority was cast. But Hill had no intention of loosening the grip on the Democratic organization that the Governorship gave him. He was a candidate for President, and his followers were already in newspaper controversy with the friends of Cleveland, who, although deprived of patronage and organization influence, were active in advocating the ex-President's third nomination. So Hill continued in the Governor's office, but it was expected that he would resign when Congress met in December, 1891, and actual service was required of him in the Senate. But even then, after his own chosen successor as Governor had been elected, he left his seat in the Senate vacant and, much to the disappointment of Lieutenant- Governor Jones, who wanted the honor of sitting even
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for a few days in the Governor's chair, held the reins to the end of his term. He would take no chance on what the Lieutenant-Governor might do with the briefest lease of power.
In two of his best written messages,1 which reviewed the development of English parliamentary procedure, Hill recommended a constitutional amendment trans- ferring to the courts jurisdiction over disputed elections to the Legislature. Our law making legislative bodies sole judges of the election of their own members was taken from the English merely as a matter of tradition. It originated in England as one of the bulwarks of popular freedom against encroachments of the crown. But even before it was adopted into our Constitutions, decisions had been made practically judicial in England by reference of cases to committees chosen by lot, and subsequently Parliamentary elections cases were trans- ferred to the courts. Both the Republican Senate and the Democratic Assembly adopted the Governor's view and passed a resolution for an amendment, which was passed for the second time the next year, but voted down by the people.
Looking out in the summer for an available candi- date for Governor, Platt fixed upon Andrew D. White. After carefully considering the objections that White himself modestly urged to the nomination, especially the objection that some of his early philosophical writings were disliked by orthodox church people, Platt fully determined on the nomination and it was
1Message of May 5, 1890, and annual message of 1891; Lincoln, Messages from the Governors, VIII, pp. 982, 1074.
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[1891
generally accepted in the newspapers as a settled thing.2 But the idea was not popular with the rank and file of the party. Nobody questioned White's ability or char- acter, but he was one of the "intellectuals" who created no enthusiasm with the party workers and from whom they expected no rewards. J. Sloat Fassett aspired to the nomination, though Platt advised against it. Fassett had been his closest representative in the Senate and had just been appointed Collector of the Port of New York, succeeding Joel B. Erhardt, who had been forced out for unwillingness to use the office in the interest of the Platt organization. He would, Platt felt, have to carry into the campaign the whole weight of the personal opposition to Platt.3 Though Fassett did not declare himself a candidate, his name was kept under discussion. He had a large number of enthusiastic friends in the Legislature, where he was deservedly popular, and among politicians not allied with Platt.
When the State convention met at Rochester on September 9, objections to White were showered on Platt by politicians of both factions. White himself relieved Platt by a letter, dated September 8, refusing to allow his name to be presented in view of the situation that had developed.4 Beside Fassett, who had the support of the entire New York delegation and that of Warner Miller's county of Herkimer, James W. Wadsworth appeared as a candidate and had the support of James J. Belden, James S. Sherman,
2White, Autobiography, I, p. 230 et seq.
3White, Autobiography, I, p. 232; Platt, Autobiography, pp. 215, 216. 4New York Tribune, September 10, 1891.
FRANK HISCOCK
Frank Hiscock; born in Pompey, New York, September 6, 1834; pursued academic studies; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1855 and began practice in Tully, Onondaga county ; elected district attorney of Onondaga county and served from 1860 to 1863; delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1867; elected as a republican to the 45th congress and to the five succeeding congresses, serving from March 4, 1877 to March 3, 1889; elected to the United States senate and served from March 4, 1887 to March 3, 1893; died, Syracuse, N. Y.,
S
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THE STOLEN SENATE
1891]
Edmund L. Pitts, and Leslie W. Russell. Kings county had not taken kindly to White, and had sent its 81 delegates with a boom for General Woodford. Buffalo presented ex-Mayor Philip Becker, and General Carr had a small but enthusiastic following. W. W. Good- rich was temporary and James M. Varnum permanent chairman of the convention. Much to the disgust of Belden, who remained in his hotel and would not enter the convention,5 Platt accepted the suggestion of Fassett when he found White unavailable. Before the first ballot had been finished the rules were suspended and Fassett was nominated by acclamation. Up to the time when the ballot was discontinued, the vote had been : Fassett, 514; Wadsworth, 85; Woodford, 83 (all but 2 from Kings county) ; Carr, 37; Becker, 52; White, 1. There was no need to conciliate the Miller men, some of whom had helped to force Fassett on Platt. But the swing of Herkimer into his column was recognized by the nomination of John W. Vrooman for Lieutenant- Governor.6 The platform commended the Harrison administration and the Mckinley tariff, including its provisions for reciprocity. It met the growing western demand for silver by declaring that every dollar must be kept as good as every other dollar. It urged the enforcement of the Alien Contract Labor law and favored a blanket ballot in place of the separate
5New York Times, September 10, 1891.
6The ticket was: Governor, J. Sloat Fassett, Chemung; Lieutenant- Governor, John W. Vrooman, Herkimer; Secretary of State, Eugene F. O'Connor, Kings; Comptroller, Arthur C. Wade, Chautauqua; Treasurer, Ira M. Hedges, Rockland; Attorney-General, William A. Sutherland, Mon- roe; State Engineer, Verplanck Colvin, Albany.
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party ballots that the Republicans had been forced by Hill to adopt.
Fassett's nomination was generally well received. On the morning after it was made the New York Times, one of Cleveland's staunchest supporters, said : "Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans of New York have never, in recent years, nominated for the Governorship a man who in respect to ability and character was unworthy to hold the office. Mr. Fassett sustains and even advances the standard of that honorable tradition." Attempts were made to represent the nomination as a betrayal of White by Platt. On the other hand, it was said that Platt's initial selection of White was based on expectation of defeat and readiness to sacrifice an eminent reformer, but that his enemies had forced him to be, himself, the issue in the person of one of his closest friends. Both charges were probably unjust. White himself acquitted Platt of all blame. Platt, who certainly wanted to win, realized his own unpopularity as leader of the political machine and doubtless picked in good faith the candidate who seemed to him most available in a difficult situation.
Hill's problem was scarcely less difficult. Roswell P. Flower entered the lists with the support of Tammany Hall. Alfred C. Chapin, Mayor of Brooklyn, was also ambitious for the Governorship and saw in it his only political future, because the popular feeling over his attempt to purchase for the city a private water com- pany, largely owned by members of the Mclaughlin ring, had made him unavailable as a candidate for reelection. The court proceedings that defeated this
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water purchase were conducted by William J. Gaynor and brought him the popularity that helped him to the Supreme Court bench and afterward to the New York Mayor's chair. In the interest of harmony St. Clair McKelway of the Brooklyn Eagle elaborately advocated a Democratic program of Cleveland as President, Hill as Senator, and Chapin as Governor.7 But Hill did not take to it. He meant to be President himself, and every move in the game was to keep the Albany machinery working in his interests. Flower was not one of his coterie, but he hesitated to antagonize Tammany, and moreover he had no available candidate himself. He could not trust Chapin and Mclaughlin to support him through thick and thin against Cleve- land. Chapin's friends thought Hill was promised to them, but the water scandal gave him a chance to persuade Mclaughlin that he could not deliver the nomination and to throw his strength for Flower.
The State convention was held at Saratoga on Sep- tember 16. George Raines presided and Tammany received recognition as the sole representative of Democracy in New York City. Flower's nomination was a foregone conclusion, but Mclaughlin gave his about-to-be discarded Mayor the compliment of the delegation and a vociferously warlike spokesman, William C. DeWitt. DeWitt in presenting Chapin's name defended his course as Mayor, which had been attacked as ring-ridden and corrupt. Then he broke forth in an attack upon Flower's candidacy, which astonished and angered Chapin's opponents and dis-
7Brooklyn Eagle, March 10, 1890; June 21, 1891.
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[1891
mayed his friends. "I cannot understand," he said, "why men always want to be something they are not, and why some politicians always want to fill offices for which they are not fitted. . The jackass when he got into the lion's skin did not become a lion." "Kings county has come here with a face of iron, set against the money power," he added, with reference to Flower's wealth as the well understood basis of his political consideration ; and, turning to threats, he declared that Kings county would support the ticket, but if defeated would retire "in a sullen and surly temper."8 This astonishing outbreak did not change the program, and Flower received 334 votes to 43 for Chapin, all of which came from Kings, Queens, and Richmond.9
The platform, like the Republican, was square in its declaration against the coinage of silver dollars not of the intrinsic value of any other dollar of the United States. It denounced the Sherman Silver and the Mckinley Tariff bills, blamed the Republicans once more for the failure to take a census, hold a Constitu- tional convention, or make a reapportionment of Congress districts, and proposed a revision of the tax laws so as to reach personal property.
The Democratic campaign was largely devoted to an attack upon Platt and on Fassett as his representative, while Fassett, who was best known throughout the State for his investigation into New York abuses,
8New York Times, September 17, 1891.
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