USA > New York > Oneida County > Utica > Memorial history of Utica, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 53
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561
ROSCOE CONKLING.
He was re-elected in 1873 and again in 1879. During the two terms of President Grant Mr. Conkling was his trusted adviser and friend. He was an earnest supporter of Mr. Lincoln's administration during the war of the Rebellion, and of that of General Grant during the recon- struction period that followed. His voice was always raised and his votes were always given upon the side of freedom and in behalf of Re- publican principles. In the legislation necessary for the preservation and reconstruction of the Union his is one of the most distinguished figures in our political history. He opposed the restoration of secession leaders to power in national affairs, was among the foremost advocates of the civil rights bill, and an unwavering champion of specie resump- tion. Perhaps the most important service he rendered his country dur - ing his public career was in the framing and the passage of the electoral commission bill under which the disputed presidential election of 1876 was determined, and but for which the nation would most certainly have been plunged into civil war. In the advocacy of this bill Mr. Conkling made a speech of two days' duration, and the array of facts and details it contained regarding the practice and precedents of the nation in the counting of electoral votes affords a fair insight into the thor- oughness and completeness of all his work. Still it cannot be said that he was a constructive statesman in the larger sense. His skill was dis- played in the correct and judicious management of current affairs. As a political chieftain Mr. Conkling was the embodied supremacy of or- ganization in politics. He understood it thoroughly and he realized its full capacity as an agent for control. But his were not the methods that seek a following through familiarity or sacrifice of dignity. His recognized genius commanded confidence and admiration without re- sort to the acts of smaller-minded politicians, and he disdained victories that could be won only at the sacrifice of dignity and self-respect. There was an imperialism about his nature which forbade him to parley. He compelled obedience and swept to his purpose with an impetuosity that brooked no restraint. A man was either for him or against him, and it apparently made little difference which ; but there was no middle ground. To his friends he was ever generous and loyal ; to his enemy he was either indifferent or implacable. More than any other man he possessed the quality of leadership. He had the gift of choosing able
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
lieutenants, and he infused among his followers an intensity of personal devotion that bound them to him through good report and evil report. But Mr. Conkling could not conciliate ; concession was repugnant to his reason. This weakness, while it made him many enemies, was in the estimation of his adherents more than counterbalanced by his consum- mate ability, his matchless courage, his sublime faith in the justice of the cause he espoused, his spotless integrity, and his unswerving loyalty to country and friends.
Mr. Conkling made very few speeches which will live in literature as models of the oratorical presentation of general principles, or be read by coming generations as the speeches of Burke are read. And yet there is no living American with capacity for so powerfully impressing and influencing an audience as he possessed, and there has been none to compare with him in his day and generation. There was a master- ful eloquence in his simple appearance on the rostrum, and when to that was added his voice, his intonation, his gesture, and his rugged, plain and penetrating Saxon, the sense of power was complete. It was so in the practice of his profession, on the floor of Congress, in his plat- form addresses, and in his individual contact with men. Always there was a sense of mastery present in his presence and radiating in his ut- terance. He was a graceful orator, a finished rhetorician, and a keenly logical, if not always a profound debater.
The last few years of Mr. Conkling's life were spent in the practice of his profession in the city of New York. Going there in 1881, broken in health and struggling under a load of debt contracted through the demands of friendship, he advanced almost at a single bound to the first rank at a bar perhaps the ablest in the world. When it is remembered that during his long and exacting Senatorial service he had practically abandoned the law, that when he opened his office anew he was alone, without business connection or clientage, and that he had to compete with a host of able practitioners entrenched in popular favor and jealous of any new aspirant for the emoluments and honors they had so long enjoyed, his success at the bar may be said to be almost unparalleled. As the result of six years incessant toil he not only discharged every obligation but amassed a princely fortune. He was employed in many difficult and important causes and received a larger professional income
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ROSCOE CONKLING.
than was ever paid in the same length of time to any lawyer of this country. Something, doubtless, is to be credited to personal admira- tion and devotion, but in the main his unprecedented success was due to the fact that he was deemed by those having great interests at stake to be as much a power at the bar as he had been in public life. Not- withstanding Mr. Conkling's long career in Congress, during which he was in the midst of the Pacific road and Credit Mobilier scandal, no suspicion ever attached to his name. The tone of public morality was undoubtedly lowered in consequence of the enormous expenditure made necessary by the Civil war, but our Senator's standard of virtue never fell. Mean and petty things he despised ; dishonesty he abhorred.
He was a man of great application and he gave nights as well as days to his labors. He had the capacity to master almost any subject how- ever abstruse or complicated, and it was his delight to conquer knotty problems in law or in politics. He read much and his power of mem- ory was phenomenal. He could recite long poems and passages from the writers in whom he delighted. His capacity to recall on the mo- ment historical facts and reminiscences, both political and literary, for argument and illustration, was a gift which afforded equipment for fo- rensic effort that few of any time have possessed. He enjoyed the society of his friends, and while at Washington his dinners were fre- quent and his hospitality lavish. He appeared well as a host, and as a guest was a favorite wherever society was congregated. To those he liked he was as gentle and winning as a child. His likes and dislikes were not confined to party or faction. Among his most sincere friends in the United States Senate, among his warmest admirers of the denizens of Oneida County were many of the most ardent Democrats. General Grant admired Mr. Conkling for sterling qualities manifested by the young senator during a time when duplicity and dishonesty were the rule and not the exception in public life. Mr. Conkling on his side was attracted to the simple and rugged character of Grant. The latter - offered him in 1873 the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court of the United States, and also the mission to the Court of St. James. In 1882 he was appointed associate justice of the same Court by President Arthur. These positions he declined. In nearly all of the numerous articles of the press evoked by his death he was recognized as one of
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
the great figures which have appeared on our political stage. Nor was he unknown or unnoticed abroad; even the Continental press, as far remote as Austria, treated his death as an important event. Utica and Central New York took a large degree of pride in Senator Conkling. In spite of partisan and factional warfare his distinction was regarded as a possession in which the community had a share. So it was that when in the summer of 1877 his ill-health led him to seek recovery abroad a public reception was, on his return, accorded him by the cit- izens generally. A committee met him on the train which was bearing him homeward, and a procession of military and civic organizations formed an escort to his residence, while decorations were displayed from private houses and places of business. The address of welcome was pronounced by Senator Kernan, professionally and politically the fre- quent rival of the guest. Speaking for neighbors and friends of all par- ties he testified their respect and regard and bade him welcome home. The response of Mr. Conkling was felicitous and graceful. His rare intellectual gifts, his imposing figure, his stately air and manner were familiar to all. Yet it is not easy to accurately describe him. He was what we may call a unique and formidable personality. He had great but ill- regulated powers, made some grave mistakes, and was not with- out peculiar weaknesses. There is reason to believe that with a sterner and more rigorous self-control he would have wielded his great abilities with more uniform and happier effect. He died in the city of New York on the 18th of April, 1888. He was many years united with the youngest sister of the late Gov. Horatio Seymour, who, with their only child, Mrs. Oakman, survive him.
John Thomas Spriggs, a prominent criminal lawyer, was born in Northamptonshire, England, May 5, 1820, and came with his parents to this country in 1836, locating at Whitestown. After a period in school he spent two years in Hamilton College, following with a term of study of the law at Holland Patent, after which he entered Union College and graduated from it in 1848. He then resumed the study of the law and soon after graduation was admitted to the bar. He practiced first with Thomas Flandrau in Utica; removed to Rome where he joined with Thomas G. Frost, a connection which continued until 1859, when Mr. Spriggs took up his residence in Utica. In 1862
565
f. THOMAS SPRIGGS.
he was a partner of Richard W. McIncrow, continuing thus until 1870. Still later he was associated with E. D. Matthews, and lastly with his son, Fred. B. Spriggs. While still quite young Mr. Spriggs showed evidence of that ability which afterwards distinguished him in his pro- fession. Keen and quick in examining into a case and ready with an opinion, he was much sought and trusted as a legal adviser. Though never reaching the heights occupied by profound expounders of consti- tutional law, he had a strong grasp of the intent and meaning of the penal statutes of New York State and his interpretation of them was rarely wrong. It was this faculty that helped to place him among the foremost criminal lawyers of the State. Back of this was his advan- tageous gift of power as a pleader. There were not many who were superior to him in those qualities which go so far toward persuasion of a jury. His style was direct and earnest and full of convincing ex- pression, and he could hold for hours the close attention of a crowded audience without the aid of notes. He was identified with many of the most important criminal trials in this part of the State, and for twenty- five years his reputation as a criminal lawyer was very high. In poli- tics Mr. Spriggs was an ardent Democrat. His first public office was that of district attorney, to which he was appointed by Governor Sey- mour in 1853, to fill a vacancy. In 1854 he carried the county for the office of county treasurer, and in 1868 was elected mayor of Utica. In the fall of that year he was induced to accept the nomination for Con- gress and was defeated. In 1878 he was again a candidate and although he ran ahead of his ticket he was again defeated. Three other times he ran for this office and was elected in 1882 and 1884; in 1886 he was defeated. In Congress he occupied a high position and was placed on important committees. He was a delegate to the National Conven- tion at Baltimore in 1860, also to the convention which nomin- ated Greely in 1872, and to Cincinnati in 1880. He was re- peatedly sent to State Conventions as delegate, and was a power in Democratic politics. Mr. Spriggs was married in 1852 to Helen, daughter of Dr. Henderson, of Whitestown. They had four children, of whom two are living : Fred B., and the wife of Dr. Blumer, of Utica.
In the year 1870 there came to live in Utica a most worthy repre- sentative of our judiciary, who had already in another county filled a
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
large measure of usefulness. This was Judge Charles Mason of Ham- ilton. Born in Plattsburgh on July 18, 1810, a law student and then a partner at Watertown with the late Judge William Ruger, he succeeded at Hamilton to the business and the offices of Philo Gridley, on the re- moval of the latter to this city. Like him he was a successful prac- tioner, district attorney of Madison County and long a justice of the Supreme Court of the State. As an advocate he is described as a for- cible and effective speaker, clear and logical in argument and often brilliant in illustration. His legal ability and personal worth were so well recognized that before he had reached his thirty-seventh year he was nominated by the Democrats and was elected a justice of the Su- preme Court for the Sixth District. Lot gave him the term of six years ; at its close he was re-elected for eight years, and again in 1861 for a like period. In January, 1868, a vacancy was created on the bench of Appeals, and Governor Fenton naturally chose Judge Mason who had been the unsuccessful candidate of the preceding elec- tion. In 1870, under the amended judiciary article of the constitution, Judge Mason was one of the Republican candidates for judge of the Court of Appeals, but was not successful. The same year the appoint- ment of clerk of the United States Circuit Court was conferred upon him, and he took up his abode in Utica to attend to the duties of that office. As a judge he was careful and conscientious, with perceptions sure and grappling rather than rapid, and with wide knowledge, un- wearying application and great precision in stating and deciding the exact points. His mind was singularly free from prejudice or from caprice. He could hear and decide with perfect impartiality. His memory was remarkable. He could recite off-hand volume and page of the reports where decisions could be found bearing on the case in point. Yet he was no blind worshiper of precedents. His strong sense, his intuitive knowledge of right and wrong were his ultimate guide, and these strengthened by his knowledge enabled him to reach decisions which are remembered as among the best that were rendered in the high Court of Appeals. Judge Mason was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was prominent in its councils and faith- ful to his religious obligations. Through and through he was a man of sterling excellence. Modest in his estimate of himself, not demonstra-
567
OBSTACLES TO BUSINESS SUCCESS.
tive, but in every relation fulfilling his obligations manfully, cheerfully, and with exemplary fidelity. He was twice married. His last wife with two daughters still survive him. His death occurred in 1879.
CHAPTER XVII.
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.
IT is an acknowledged fact that the city of Utica of today rests upon a - financial foundation more stable and sound than those of the major- ity of the large communities of the country. This position has not been reached, however, without bitter lessons of experience, struggles to avert disaster, and periods of monetary stringency that threatened to overwhelm the business of the place. From the consequences of the well known financial "panics," as they are called, which have afflicted the country, Utica has suffered more than many of her sister cities. There are good reasons for this, and they lie chiefly in the facts that apart from her location in the midst of a rich agricultural region, she possesses no natural sources of wealth, and that she has no large water power, from which in early years might have been cheaply developed a large manufacturing industry. While Syracuse, for example, could pass through a financial revulsion supported by her wealth creating salt production, Rochester by the great manufacturing establishments made possible and profitable by her immense water power, and other cities by distinct advantages, Utica and places similarly situated have had, at least down to the era of the extensive adoption of steam as a motive power and the concentration of many railroads at large commercial cen- ters, little else than the ordinary gains of trade and the energy and determination of their citizens to carry them through a period of finan- cial stringency.1 Undoubtedly well situated for a commercial center
1 NOTE .- Until after about 1845 there were almost no manufacturing operations in Utica, while Whitestown, New Hartford, Clinton, Paris, Oriskany, and Waterville were the sites of flourish- ing establishments.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
thus making a good market for products of the land, which are in one sense the creator of wealth, yet mere commercial activity-the ex- change of necessaries or luxuries for money-does not serve as a secure anchor in time of great shrinkage and scarcity of money, as does a heavy manufacturing element; this approaches nearer to the creation of wealth, or of something that can be exchanged for wealth, and has ex- tensively employed labor in its production.
In consequence of these facts Utica has suffered deeply in the sev- eral periods of financial distress which have prevailed throughout the country. But she has grown (possibly through the lessons of those troubled times) to a present condition of financial soundness and good repute, not so rapidly perhaps as many cities, but no less surely, and has outstripped most cities in the character of her business citizens, as far as relates to their business standing, conservatism, prudence, and average wealth. This conservatism and prudence may at times have operated as a check upon public enterprise and to delay or wholly pre- vent the consummation of undertakings that might have conserved the public welfare and given additional impetus to the growth and prosperity of the community ; but it may be safely argued that it is better to draw the line in all business operations far on the safe side of rashness, than to overstep that line ever so little. It is generally understood that the business men of Utica have, as a rule, pursued this conservative, prudent course, have conducted their various operations with good judgment and foresight, and thus gained them the reputation for finan- cial soundness to which we have referred. Unfortunately it has not always been so, and in years long past when financial upheavals have swept over the country leaving ruin in their tracks, the fever of specu- lation and false theories as to the principles of wealth-making and the values of various kinds of property, found proportionately as many credulous victims in Utica as elsewhere. It may be astonishing, but it is nevertheless doubtless true, that lots of land in what are now the sub- urbs of the city, were sold fifty years ago or more for higher prices than they would command today. When the fever of speculation runs high true values are lost sight of; and when reason asserts itself on the subject, ruin must follow.
Down to about the year 1810 the money in use was chiefly silver,
THE MANHATTAN BANK - H. B. GIBSON. 569
and for the most part the Spanish milled coinage. Bank bills were few and consisted of notes of eastern banks. For loans Utica business men were dependent on Albany. The beginning of banking operations in Utica dates from the arrival of Montgomery Hunt in 1809, he having been sent hither by the Manhattan Bank of New York to organize a branch of that institution. Mr. Hunt was well qualified for the task, and he located his institution in a small building that stood back from the west line of Hotel street, a little south of Whitesboro. In July, 1809, the lot on the corner of these streets was bought and a brick building erected thereon for the bank. Mr. Hunt's only associate was Henry B. Gibson, who acted as teller and bookkeeper. The directors for the year 1810 were as follows : William Floyd, of Westernville, James S. Kip, Francis A. Bloodgood, Solomon Wolcott, John Bellin- ger, Thomas Walker, Apollos Cooper, Marcus Hitchcock, Henry Hunt- ington, of Rome, Nathan Smith, Ephraim Hart, as yet of Clinton, and Nathan Williams, who was the president. With one exception all of these gentlemen seem to have left the Manhattan in 1812 and taken part in the Utica Bank. The institution continued in existence until 1818 and appears to have prospered. Among those who were on its board of directors were Morris S. Miller (who was president in 1816), Nathan Williams, James Van Rensselaer, jr., John C. Devereux, John C. Hoyt, John H. Handy, James Dana, James S. Kissam (who was for a short time its manager after the retirement of Mr. Hunt), Mr. Gibson and James Nazro.
Henry B. Gibson was born in Reading, Pa., April 13, 1783, and when nine years old went with his father to Saratoga, N. Y., where he re- ceived his principal education. Determining to become a merchant he began as a clerk at Cooperstown, and from there located in Utica as clerk for Hugh Cunningham. He was afterward employed as writer in the clerk's office under Francis A. Bloodgood, and in 1812 was made teller in the Bank of Utica. Owing to disagreement with Mr. Hunt as to loaning money from his private purse, Mr. Gibson resigned his posi- tion and went with Watts Sherman to New York in the spring of 1813. There as merchants they carried on a successful business, having Alex- ander Seymour as their associate and representative at Utica. In this firm, and after the death of Mr. Sherman, in other connections, he re-
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF UTICA.
mained in the city until 1820, when he was called to the position of cashier of the Ontario Bank at Canandaigua. That position he filled until the expiration of the charter of the bank in 1856, retrieving its affairs and gaining the reputation of being a uniformly successful banker. In February, 1811, a newspaper call was published asking all who were interested in the establishment of a bank in Utica to meet at the hotel. The result was the incorporation of the Bank of Utica on the Ist of June, 1812, and it began business on the 8th of December following. The capital stock was placed at $1,000,000, but it did not really exceed $600,000, and on the renewal of its charter in 1832 it was fixed at the latter sum. The second charter extended to 1850, since which time the business has been carried on by an association under the general banking law of the State. For a short time after its estab- lishment the business was conducted on the west side of Genesee street not far from Bleecker, and in 1813 was removed to the brick building on the north side of Whitesboro street next east of the hotel. Here it remained until February, 1854, when it was removed to its present loca- tion on Genesee street. The directors named in the charter of the bank were James S. Kip, Thomas Walker, Samuel Stocking, David W. Childs, Marcus Hitchcock, Apollos Cooper, Henry Huntington, Nathan Smith, Solomon Wolcott, Jedediah Sanger, John Bellinger, Francis A. Bloodgood, and John Stewart, jr. Its first president was James S. Kip ; Montgomery Hunt, cashier; Henry B. Gibson, teller; and Thomas Coll- ing, book-keeper. Mr. Kip held his office only to the first annual elec- tion, when he retired and was succeeded by Abraham Van Santvoord as director, and by Henry Huntington of Rome, as president. The lat- ter held the office of president by repeated elections until 1845, when he declined a re election and was succeeded by Thomas Walker. In June, 1863, Benjamin N. Huntington was elected president in place of Mr. Walker, deceased. In 1876 P. V. Rogers, then cashier, was elected president and still holds that office. William B. Welles succeeded Mont- gomery Hunt as cashier at the beginning of 1835, and continued in the office until July, 1863, a period of nearly thirty years, and was then suc- ceeded by P. V. Rogers. When Mr. Rogers was elected president John A. Goodale was made cashier and still holds the office.
The directorship of this old and stable institution has included many
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UTICA BANK - MONTGOMERY HUNT.
of the leading business men of Utica, and the bank has from the first been managed with prudence and good judgment. In times of embar- rassment the directors first cut down the measure of their own per- sonal discounts before reducing those of the other stockholders. The bank liberally supplied funds to the government for the payment of troops in the war of 1812. Less than a year after this bank began bus- iness application was made to the directors for a branch at Canandai- gua, and after it was several times repeated the directors decided to concur with the petitioners in an application to the legislature for a charter which was granted in 1815, and in January of the following year the branch was opened. It continued in existence until 1850, the direc- tors and officers being chosen by the parent bank from which it re- ceived its working capital.
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