USA > New York > New York : the planting and the growth of the Empire state, Vol. II > Part 7
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nor in senatorial action on his cabinet nomina- tions. The congressional districts chose as their first representatives Egbert Benson, admirable in many qualities ; William Floyd, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence ; John Hathorn and Jeremiah van Rensselaer, of the family of the patroons; and Peter Syl- vester.
The first test of parties before the people occurred in April, 1789, in the election for gov- ernor. Governor Clinton was a candidate to succeed himself, while the federalists nominated Robert Yates, at the time chief justice, and the same who had withdrawn from the constitu- tional convention on account of his hostility to its action. Mr. Jay had declined to enter the contest, and devoted himself to national affairs. At the meeting in New York which presented the nomination, Hamilton was a leading spirit, and with Aaron Burr was designated a member of a committee to promote the election of Yates. Burr, after his graduation from the College of New Jersey, entered the army and served with moderate distinction, and became a student of law in Albany. Going thence to New York, he was chosen to the assembly in 1784. and in his second session was active in debate and leg- islation on important measures. He had not been an ardent friend of the national constitu-
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tion, although his first active part in politics was with its friends. The natural candidate against Clinton in this canvass would have been Schuyler, the father-in-law of Hamilton, but he was reserving himself for the senate ; while it may have been assumed that Yates would avoid the rivalries between, and the prejudices against " the great families." He had ren- dered himself acceptable to the federalists by declaring, in a charge to a grand jury, that it was "every man's duty to support" the con- stitution, since it had been ratified. Governor Clinton was reelected by a majority of four hundred and twenty-nine, which was secured for him by an unexpectedly large vote in his home county of Ulster. The legislature chosen at the same time was federal in both branches ; it was summoned in extra session, when it chose State officers, and in July, by joint resolution, elected Philip Schuyler and Rufus King senators in congress. The former was, in military and civil life, one of the foremost citizens of the State, and he was at. this time a State senator, and a member of the council of appointment. The choice of King was a remarkable honor to award, in a State so rich in able men, to a re- cent immigrant from Massachusetts, as he was. Graduated at Harvard College, and serving in the legislature of his State, he was sent in
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1784 to the continental congress, where he moved that slavery should not be suffered to exist in the northwest territory. He was a member of the convention which adopted the national constitution, and in 1788 he took up his home in New York, where he had married a daughter of John Alsop, himself prominent in the events which led to independence. Mr. King became eminent in the senate, and was for a generation a prominent figure in national affairs. General Schuyler, in drawing lots, ob- tained the short term of two years, and at its close was beaten for reelection by Aaron Burr, who had already become attorney general. Burr was known to be opposed to some of the plans of Hamilton, now greatly discussed, and was developing the remarkable qualities of intrigue and popularity which marked his later career. Although he opposed Clinton for governor, he now secured the support of that gentleman's friends in the legislature, with enough federal- ists to secure a majority, and so won a place on the stage of national politics.
At the election of April, 1792, Governor Clinton and John Jay were the opposing candi- dates ; and the returns as canvassed gave the former 8,440 votes to 8,332 for the latter, while the ballots cast in the counties of Clinton, Ot- sego, and Tioga were not counted for either.
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These counties cast a majority of about four hundred in favor of Jay. The canvassers ruled out the returns on the ground of irregularities. The controversy was referred to the senators from the State in congress, whereupon Senator King decided that the ballots cast should be counted, although the law had not been tech- nically observed in the returns ; while Sena- tor Burr justified the course of the canvassers on the plea that the irregularities were fatal. Clinton was inaugurated amidst a storm of ob- loquy and denunciation as a "usurper," and, as a public meeting in New York declared, " in contempt of the sacred voice of the people, in defiance of the constitution, and in viola- tion of the uniform practice and settled prin- ciples of law." By the clear intent of the elec- tion, the popular majority was cast for Jay; and the technical irregularities neither obscured that fact, nor afforded reasonable suspicion that the figures had been tampered with. By pre- cedents since established, if the like case were now to arise, a decision in behalf of Clinton could not be rendered, and certainly would not be sustained. Mr. Jay, however, promptly and decidedly checked the protests of his zealous friends, and urged submission to the constituted authorities, and in a response to the New York meeting, appealed to " that natural good-hu-
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mor which harmonizes society, and softens the asperities incidental to human affairs." Gov- ernor Clinton bore himself calmly under the excitement of the people, and was sustained by the party of which he was at this moment the unchallenged leader.
Certainly, when, in November, the legisla- ture was called to choose presidential electors, his friends received a majority in each house on the first ballot. In the electoral college, while Washington was elected president unan- imously, George Clinton received fifty votes, and Aaron Burr one vote for vice-president ; Thomas Jefferson four votes ; and the success- ful candidate, John Adams, seventy-seven votes. Clinton's support was that of all the electors from New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.
A change in the political tendencies of the State began at this time. The aggravating con- duct of Genet, the minister from France, and the growing disapproval of the management of affairs in that country, weakened the republi- cans, who in general sympathized with it ; while the administration of Washington, triumphing over the difficulties of starting the new govern- ment, commanded increased confidence, and gave strength to the party of which leading members of his cabinet were the chiefs. In
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New York, the dispute over the election for governor, and sharp controversies in the council of appointment over offices, gave advantages to the federalists, and led Mr. Clinton to decline to be a candidate for reelection. Both Ham- ilton and Burr were considered for the position by the opposing parties ; but John Jay was selected as their candidate by the federalists, although he was absent in England, engaged in negotiating the treaty, which it was foreseen would be the subject of severe criticism ; and Robert Yates, then chief justice, was taken up by the party which he had opposed, as candidate for the same office, only six years before. The federalists had been masters in the legislature since 1793, and Mr. Jay's election in 1795 was no surprise.
The election occurred in April, and the newly chosen governor arrived home from England with his treaty May 28, and became at once the object of virulent assault, which, however, soon spent its force. For the moment, it threat- ened to carry all before it. His brother-in-law, Brockholst Livingston, joined Aaron Burr, in opposition to the treaty, at a public meeting in Wall Street, New York, where Alexander Ham- ilton was its champion, and the contest degen- erated into a mob. Hamilton, seeking to speak, was personally maltreated. The opponents of
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the treaty withdrew to the Bowling Green, to burn the offensive paper, and to exhibit their sympathy with France. The chamber of com- merce more formally declared its support of the measure, and after it was ratified by the senate, popular passion lost its virulence.
This was the first open diversion of the Liv- ingston family from the federal party, against which, with individual exceptions, it thereafter acted. The chancellor had not approved of Hamilton's financial recommendations, and cer- tainly had not received the consideration to which his abilities and following entitled him. He was credited with an ambition for the posi- tion of chief justice of the United States, and he was worthy of the position. Probably min- gled influences contributed to the turning of this one of the " great families " from the party in power to the opposition.
When Governor Jay met the legislature, in 1796, he was welcomed with profuse expres- sions of esteem and confidence, and the elec- tion in the ensuing April showed his party still in the ascendant. The legislature chose federal presidential electors, who in the col- lege cast their votes for John Adams for presi- dent, and Thomas Pinckney for vice-president. Yet in that body Aaron Burr received thirty votes, and George Clinton four votes. The
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federalists were able also, in place o place of Rufus King, who was sent as minister to Great Brit- ain, to elect John Lawrence as senator in con- gress. He was an Englishman by birth, a law- yer by vocation, and had served in the Revolu- tionary war, when he conducted the court martial in the case of Major Andre. He had served in the State senate, and was for three terms a rep- resentative in congress, and, when chosen senator, was judge of the United States district court for New York. When the term of Aaron Burr ex- pired, in 1797, the friends of General Schuyler. who had been supplanted, determined to return the latter to the senate, and he was chosen by a strong majority. He did not care to serve, however, and the next year his seat was filled by John Sloss Hobart, who resigned very soon to become United States district judge ; and then, by appointment of the governor, William North became senator, who had been speaker of the assembly, and for whom the legislature substituted James Watson, also an ex-speaker ; so that four senators followed Burr within a year and seven months. In 1800, Gouverneur Morris was chosen to the position, and in the same year John Armstrong, afterward secretary of war, succeeded Lawrence.
Of the representatives in congress from the State, Egbert Benson is first named in the origi-
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nal lists as member from the first district. He belongs at the head also as a scholar and stu- dent of political philosophy. He had served in the continental congress, and under the con- stitution represented his district for two terms. He became attorney-general of the State, and justice of the supreme court, and was called again to congress in 1813. Theodorus Bailey, as well as John Lawrence, earned a reputation which led to his transfer to the senate. Othì- ers, like William Floyd, Philip van Cortlandt, and Edward Livingston, were eminent at home and in national affairs, while several of their colleagues in these years exerted their full share of influence in committee and in debate.
The relations of the United States with France were nowhere more discussed, and no- where gave rise to more intense controversy, than in New York. French vessels came into port, and their officers were received with excess of courtesy by the anti-federalists. Taunted to imprudence, Captain Courtney, of the Brit- ish ship Boston, challenged the French frigate L'Ambuscade to single combat ; and the pop- ular sympathy went out upon the waters, where the French won a victory and the British cap- tain was killed. Genet, the French minister, was the hero of the hour in social circles, and with republican politicians. The insolence of
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the government in Paris aroused hostility even among those whose sympathies were naturally with it; while the federalists, who always pre- ferred the British side of questions, found com- plete justification for their criticisms against " the Gallican party." War seemed imminent, because our country could not put up with the positions assumed by France ; and preparations for the defense of our ports, and for the reor- ganization of the army, were promoted by the wisest of our statesmen. New York was prompt in the provisions which her position demanded at her hands. In 1798 her legislature appro- priated $1,200,000 for the defense of the har- bor, to be paid out of the balance found to be due in adjustment of the accounts of the Revo- lution. In the designation of major generals, Washington, who had been placed in chief command, nominated Hamilton, three years since retired from the treasury, as the first on the list. President Adams tried to give the precedence to General Knox, contrary to the understanding with Washington, and only upon the positive demand of the general-in-chief did he assent that Hamilton should stand first in rank. Hamilton devoted himself with energy to the tasks which the position imposed upon him, and for which he was preeminently fitted, and he gave direction to the fortifications of New
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York harbor. The hostility of Adams, and his injustice in this case, were the immediate oc- casion for Hamilton's hostility to him in the ensuing canvass for the presidency, and intro- duced, or at least aggravated and perpetuated, disastrous feuds in the federal party, not only in New York, but in the nation.
When the candidacy of Robert R. Livings- ton, the chancellor, against Jay for governor, in 1798, resulted in a majority for the latter of nearly one-twelfth of the total vote cast, the result was accepted quite as much as a personal as a political triumph ; for the choice of mem- bers of the legislature showed considerable gains, although not a majority for the anti-fed- eralists. Aaron Burr returned in 1798 from the United States senate to the assembly of New York ; and De Witt Clinton appeared in that body twelve years after graduation from Columbia College. He had served as private secretary to his uncle, Governor Clinton, whose views he shared, without sympathy with the feverish admiration for France which carried away some anti-federalists. His scholarship, his social graces, his power as an orator, his zeal for public improvements, and his high per- sonal character, gave and held in public affairs a position which was, in the first quarter of the new century. not second to that of any other citizen of the commonwealth.
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The position of the legislature was tested upon the resolutions drawn by Mr. Madison, and adopted by Kentucky and Virginia, which denounced as unconstitutional the alien and se- dition laws, and were aimed at the administra- tion of President Adams. Upon a motion dis- charging the committee of the whole, because the right of deciding upon the constitutionality of laws belongs to the courts, the assembly dis- missed the matter, and the senate followed its example. But the attempt to enforce those laws by arresting Judge Peck of Otsego, a member of assembly, for circulating a petition for their re- peal, stirred up popular hostility, and assisted in the impending change of parties.
Aaron Burr was defeated for the assembly in 1799, largely on account of the scandal con- nected with getting a charter for the Manhat- tan Company, ostensibly to furnish New York city with pure water, but really for banking purposes, which were hidden in the act. The federalists controlled the banks of the city, - the Bank of New York, chartered in 1791 through the influence of Hamilton, and the branch of the United States Bank. Burr sought to break the power wielded through these institutions, and, as he knew the federal majority in the legislature would obstruct his scheme, he carried out his plan by this strat-
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agem. While it cost him defeat at one election, it did not repress his vaulting ambition.
The year 1800 was full of excitement throughout the country, and in largest measure in New York. Hamilton was, while standing at the summit of the bar in a very lucrative practice, the active and recognized leader of the federalists. Aaron Burr, his superior in the arts of politics, as he was inferior in the higher qualities of the statesman, was the real leader of the opposition, moulding to his own designs its elements, not always voluntarily obe- dient. On these two men hung the election of the next president and the decision of national policy ; for New York then, as so often since, was looked upon as holding the balance of pow- er ; and the legislature, which was to choose the' electors, would depend, for its majority for one party or the other, on the members of assem- bly from New York city. Burr succeeded in inducing ex-Governor Clinton, Brockholst Liv- ingston, and General Horatio Gates, who super- seded General Schuyler at Saratoga, to head the ticket, which was advocated in the name of Jefferson for president, and Burr for vice-presi- dent, and against John Adams. The canvass was conducted with great vigor, and Hamilton and Burr appeared on the same platform in discussion. The combination effected by Burr
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was successful, and insured a unanimous dele- gation from New York in the assembly. Ham- ilton appealed to Jay to call the legislature in extra session, to provide for the choice of elec- tors by districts, and thus secure for the fed- eralists a share of the number before the new legislature could be organized. The governor refused, and republican electors were chosen on joint ballot by a majority of twenty-two.
New York became at once, in the election of president, a factor more significant than was expected. Under the provisions then existing, the candidate receiving the highest vote in the electoral college was to be president, and the next in order vice-president ; but Jefferson and Burr received each seventy-three votes, and no choice was effected. The house of representa- tives was, under the constitution, to decide the tie. Burr remained in Albany during the con- test, willing to accept the office for which he was not nominated, and over the head of the person clearly designated by the popular and electoral votes. His confidential friend, Van Ness, in constant intercourse with him, wrote that "it was the sense of the republicans in this State that, after some trials in the house, Mr. Jefferson should be given up for Mr. Barr." The counsel was not justified by republican sentiment, but it may justly be taken to pro- ceed from Burr himself.
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His election as president was possible, and thirty-six ballots, occupying seven days, were taken before a majority was recorded. Some federalists were inclined to favor Burr over Jefferson ; but Hamilton, with zeal and energy, opposed the former with bitter language and convincing arguments. Jefferson pronounced Burr's conduct during the crisis " honorable and decisive, and greatly embarrassing" to those who tried to " debauch him from his good faith." The federalists concluded that he would not accept their principles even if they gave him their votes. Subsequent events have colored the judgment pronounced on this inci- dent. While Burr took no steps to prevent his promotion over the head of Jefferson, he did not enter into any bargain to secure that end.
New York was to furnish the vice-president. The number of leaders or aspirants for leader- ship, the sharp personal rivalries, and the divi- sions within parties, in the commonwealth, have become a striking feature in its politics. Ham- ilton, as he had bitterly denounced John Adams, alienated men who should, by their general tendencies, have cooperated with his party. He was a philosophical statesman, lack- ing the tact and temper of a political leader. The federalists were not a compact body, and they lost, one after another, elements essential
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to their strength, - the Livingstons, Ambrose Spencer, a man of note, and in 1800 a large body of its former adherents in the interior districts. Aaron Burr, with all his suavity and seductive arts, and his skill in using men on single occasions, managed a party for selfish schemes, and treated all its prominent mem- bers as rivals to be checked. They were both men aloof from their followers, and Burr was a character such as in modern phrase would be styled a " boss," relying on stratagem and in- trigue for success. He thrust aside the Clin- tons and the Livingstons, to find in them re- morseless antagonists. If he had been wise enough to make them his allies and friends, he would have been irresistible. If Hamilton, on the other hand, had possessed the faculty of combination and the arts of popularity, his career would not have closed as secretary of the treasury.
Burr became vice-president, and his State was to elect his successors to that office for thirty- two out of eighty-four years to follow. The commonwealth grew soon to a magnitude such that its parties were divided within themselves, and their leaders indulged in rivalries so in- tense that each would not permit the other to attain to the first eminence; while the vice- presidency has been conceded by national con-
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ventions, with a desire to heal the local dissen- sions, sometimes with the effect to intensify them.
It was not due to a lack of men of ability or desert, but to the conflicts at home, that, after the retirement of Hamilton, New York had no cabinet minister, appointed at the beginning of an administration, until Martin Van Buren be- came secretary of state, in 1829, and none at all until John Armstrong was called to fill a vacancy as secretary of war in January, 1813, and served until September, 1814. In foreign appoint- ments, the commonwealth was treated with more consideration at this period. John Jay, who had been minister to Spain and one of the signers of the treaty of peace with Britain, re- signed the office of chief justice of the United States to go to England to settle grave difficul- ties, and he was succeeded at that court by Ru- fus King, who, in the trying years from 1796 to 1803, sustained the honor of the young nation. Gouverneur Morris, in France, exposed the venality of Talleyrand, and the bad faith of the greedy government ; and Robert R. Livingston, nine years later, represented our country during the sway of Napoleon as consul, and negotiated with him the purchase of Louisiana. John Arm- strong, a brother-in-law by marriage, succeeded Livingston in this desirable mission. Brockholst
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Livingston, appointed November, 1806, to be associate justice of the supreme court of the United States, completes the list of New York's contributions to the federal service at this pe- riod in places of high rank.
Within the State, the complaints were loud that the federalists monopolized all the offices while Washington and Adams were at the head of the national administration. It is equally true that Governor Clinton took good care of his friends, although he was checked, at some times, by the council of appointment, whose members claimed that the governor had but a single vote in a board of five in making nomi- nations. Governor Jay, as his biographer de- clares, during the six years of his administra- tion never dismissed a single individual from office on account of his politics; and when a candidate was once pressed upon him because he was a federalist, the governor responded : " That is not the question. Is he fit for the office ?" Mr. Jay was certainly nice in his sense of honor and purity in the civil service, and in his unwillingness to swerve from the strictest integrity for party purposes.
To him the State owes the abolition of slavery within its borders. Although a slaveholder, manumitting the faithful and deserving of his own slaves, he had long been enlisted in a move-
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ment for abolition, and in his third attempt be- fore the legislature secured the passage of an act, April, 1799, providing that all children born of slave parents after July 4, ensuing, should be free, subject to apprenticeship in the case of males until the age of twenty-eight, and of fe- males until the age of twenty-five, while the ex- portation of slaves was forbidden. Slavery had gradually been mitigated in its severity, and the number of slaves, 21,903, was so small in its ratio to the total population, now nearly a million, that the institution had lost much of its commercial and social significance. Thence- forth the statutes gave guaranty that birth on the soil of New York was a charter of freedom.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
A TRAGEDY. - LOSS OF THE PRESIDENCY.
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