USA > New York > Niagara County > Outpost of empires; a short history of Niagara County > Part 13
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At nine-thirty the parade moved smartly toward the canal, drums rolling and bugles piercing the frosty October morning. With flags billowing in a gentle wind, they marched proudly down streets lined with cheering crowds. Excited children ran alongside brightly dressed militia and ragged ranks of canal workers. Wives, families, and friends shouted and waved happily to marching men.
The parade halted at the canal head. In the canal basin gaily painted canal boats, jammed with villagers, rocked gently on the water. The crowds fell silent as DeWitt Clinton, Governor and canal builder, arose to speak. Standing bareheaded on the swaying deck of the Seneca Chief, he addressed congratulations to the crowd.
After the speech ended, the Governor and other officials re- mained standing and waved to wildly cheering villagers. Horses on the tow-path strained in harness and boats glided forward. As the Seneca Chief and two other boats moved slowly eastward, cannons roared farewell. And one after another, cannons along the entire waterway thundered news of the Governor's departure from Buf- falo. Villagers yelled and cheered themselves hoarse as the boats passed from sight.
Nosing toward Pendleton, the boats slipped through an autumn countryside splashed with red, yellow, and orange. At points along the canal, people gathered to cheer the small fleet. Some had waited hours in the chilly dawn to make sure they saw the historic trip. Sometimes a ragged frontier family standing on the canal edge watched in awe as the procession passed. Children broke from the groups and ran along the canal bank, waving to officials on the horse-drawn boats.
Traveling along the Erie Canal, speed limit 4 miles per hour.
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NFT
October 26, 1825, the official opening of the Erie Canal.
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Lockport celebrated the opening of the canal locks Meanwhile, in the grey light of early dawn, Lockport also bustled like a Saturday after- noon. Ladies in satin and lace sat in open carriages driven by men in top hats and long coats. Militiamen, their belt-buckles and muskets glittering, formed ranks in dusty streets. Horsemen made their way through crowds of merchants, canal workers, and pioneers.
When the sun pushed shadows from doorways and alleys, the parade stood ready to march. Then drums and bugles rolled on the October air as the parade swung forward to the beat of the music. Villagers crowding the streets shouted and cheered as the parade marched by. The parade halted in the canal basin below the locks. The crowds, rimming the high edge of the canal basin and swarm- ing about the canal locks, watched the opening ceremony. Aboard the brightly decorated William C. Bouck, village leaders praised the canal and the men who built it. On the nearby Albany two hundred women, in gay bonnets and fine dresses, added a touch of elegance.
Cannons booming from Buffalo announced the Governor's de- parture. Then Lockport's cannon flashed and thundered in the morning sun. Crowds cheered as Lockport's boats entered the locks. Water gushed into one lock after another and lifted the boats over the escarpment. There the boats halted. And with heads bowed; a hushed crowd listened to a few words of prayer. Then the boats glided south toward Pendleton, hauled by horses on the tow-path.
At Pendleton, the Lockport boats joined the Governor's fleet and escorted it back to Lockport. Lockport exploded again with cheering, shouting, and cannon fire when the crowds sighted the procession. Later, the Governor waved to the yelling and excited villagers as he rode through the streets to the Washington House. The celebra- tion and elaborate dinner at the hotel ended with a few words from Governor Clinton.
The Governor's fleet reached the ocean
At night, with passengers sleeping quietly, the Governor's fleet slipped eastward toward New York City. Along the way other press- ing throngs in other canal towns welcomed the Governor. Finally, in New York harbor, DeWitt Clinton poured a keg of Lake Erie water into the Atlantic Ocean in a "wedding of waters."
Niagara County gives birth to a new political party
Excitement over the Erie Canal had hardly quieted before a larger storm shook Niagara County. In 1826 one of the strangest
affairs in Western New York took place. It soon reached into the Governor's mansion and even into the White House. It led to public meetings, state and local investigations, and violent community arguments. Finally from the confusion arose a new political party and a new way of choosing candidates for president.
Why did feelings against the Masons develop?
William Morgan threatened to reveal masonic secrets The tale began with William Morgan, a stone mason always in debt. Morgan, hounded by bill collectors, plotted to make a fortune by publishing the secrets of the Masonic brotherhood. Some worried Masons, without approval of the Masonic Order, moved swiftly to block his plans.
On September 11, 1826, a Canandaigua constable, a Mason him- self, seized Morgan in Batavia for stealing a shirt and tie. The constable and several other men then hurried him to Canandaigua for trial, away from his friends. Because of lack of evidence, he was released from this charge. However, he was rearrested and jailed for failure to pay a debt. With Morgan in their grasp, the men hoped to frighten him into silence. But he did not frighten easily. So they took a bold step to silence him.
At nine o'clock on the evening of September 12, Morgan was sleeping in his cell. Dim light from a flickering lantern cast gloomy shadows on the walls. His jailer was strangely absent, leaving his wife in charge of the jail. The outside door suddenly swung open. Several men tramped into the jail. They paid Morgan's debt and talked the jailor's wife into releasing Morgan. She unlocked the cell door. The three men ordered Morgan to dress, saying they had paid his debt and were taking him on a trip.
As he stepped into the night, from the blackness men grabbed hold of him. He yelled murder twice before the men calmed him down. He was forced into the carriage and several men scrambled in beside him. The driver whipped the horses to a gallop, and the carriage sped down the dark road toward Rochester.
The strange group moved on west, rocking and jolting over the Ridge Road. They halted several times along the way and switched horses and carriages. At Wrights Corners they stopped for about two hours. Then they continued West. In Lewiston they put Morgan into a stagecoach and they rolled north to Fort Niagara.
Inside Niagara, the coach came to a stop at the 1812 graveyard. The men took Morgan from the coach and then ferried him across the Niagara River to Canada. But Canadian Masons were not ready to take him. So Morgan was brought back to Fort Niagara and locked in the French powder magazine. Here Colonel Ezekiel
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Jewett, commander of the fort, and other men talked with him about where he had hidden his papers exposing the secrets of the Masons. Sometime between September fourteenth and nineteenth, Morgan vanished forever.
Some weeks later, when Morgan had not returned and nothing could be learned of his whereabouts, there was a wave of indigna- tion throughout Western New York. Morgan's friends called a pub- lic meeting in Batavia and a committee to investigate his disappear- ance was appointed. At meetings in Lewiston, Lockport, and other villages indignant citizens blamed the Masons for Morgan's dis- appearance and demanded action against all Masons.
Politicians made matters much worse by stirring up anti-Mason feelings to gain office. In anti-Masonic newspapers, Masons were described as cutthroats, murderers, and traitors. Anti-Masons said Masons held judges and juries and sheriffs in their clutches. Anti- Masonic politicians, riding high on a wave of hate, were swept into office. In the 1828 election, a few Masons were elected to public office.
John Spencer inves- tigated Morgan's disappearance
Anti-Masons demanded that New York State look into Morgan's disappearance. State lawmakers appointed John Spencer to dig out the truth. Notes threatening his life failed to frighten Spencer from investigating Morgan's dis- appearance. Spencer's investigations led to charges against Colonel Jewett and other Masons. Jewett stood trial in Lockport. The vil- lage was jammed with people flocking to the trial. Crowds gathered at taverns, homes, and street corners. Some paraded through the streets yelling and threatening to harm Masons. Few stopped. to reason that the Masonic Order could not be held responsible for the actions of a few members who acted on their own, and without authority.
The trial came to a climax when Orsamus Turner, Mason and newspaper owner, walked through the packed courtroom to the witness stand. Looking worn and tired, Turner placed his hand on the Bible and repeated the oath. Then he lowered himself into the witness chair. He leaned forward a bit and waited for the question he knew was coming. John Spencer, his rugged face calm and his voice reaching every corner, asked about Col. Jewett's part in Mor- gan's disappearance. Turner's lips tightened to a firm line and re- mained closed. Spencer asked again. The crowd listened in strained silence. No answer. Judge William Marcy warned Turner to speak. Again Spencer's voice carried about the packed courtroom. Again Turner refused to answer. Finally Judge Marcy pounded the gavel
and ordered Turner imprisoned for contempt of court. The crowd let out an angry breath. The sheriff's deputies led Turner through a mob to the jail. In later days anti-Masonic feeling almost burst into violence and bloodshed.
How did anti-Masonic feeling find expression in
national politics? The Anti-Masonic party was formed and a new way of choosing candidates was adopted
Although the trials ended without a legal murder or kidnapping conviction against the Masons, anti-Masonic feeling spread swiftly. The case of the missing William Morgan became a national issue. Anti- Masons formed a political party and in 1832 sent state delegates to a national convention in Baltimore to choose a candidate for president. The Anti-Masonic party's convention system replaced the old way of having party leaders choose candi- dates. Soon other parties used the convention system of choosing candidates. Thus Morgan's disappearance brought a more democra- tic way of choosing candidates for president.
Plague and panic visit Niagara County
What effect did Asiatic cholera have on people?
People sickened and died
In the hot summer of 1832, while the Anti- Masonic party held its Baltimore conven- tion, terror and death swept across the Niagara Frontier. Cholera, a deadly disease carried by travelers from Asia, raced through Europe. And in May and June cholera- stricken immigrants brought the disease to Canada. From Quebec and Montreal it swept along the northern shore of Lake Ontario southwest through Ontario, leaving a wake of dead and dying. In July, cholera leaped the Niagara River and struck hard at Niagara County and the Niagara frontier. Cholera also reached Niagara from the east. Immigrants carried the disease to New York City. It sped north along the Hudson River and then westward along the canal hitting hard at most canal towns.
Summer came early in 1832, hot and rainy. Ground steamed under the burning sun and soaring temperatures. Heat turned backyard garbage heaps into possible breeding grounds for cholera and death. Flies could carry Asiatic cholera from sewage to water, milk, and food.
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Early in July, a worker complained of headache and blamed it on the heat. Elsewhere a scattered handful of people also blamed heat and humidity for throbbing headaches. But stomach cramps, vomiting, and collapse swiftly followed headches. Within twenty- four hours, the sick took their last breath, and died. At first doctors called it food poisoning. But as it struck more and more frequently, frightened people knew a strange plague had come. What caused it, or how to fight it, no one knew. Not all villages on the Niagara Frontier were equally hard hit. A look at Buffalo and Lockport during the plague will bear this out.
Fear paralyzed Niagara County and the whole Niagara Frontier
Citizens panicked in Buffalo. Some packed up and fled at the first out-break, spreading the plague. Others locked themselves in their houses. Stores, shops, and businesses closed.
The few people walking the silent streets eyed each other for signs of the plague, afraid to draw near. Star- vation threatened as farmers refused to haul food into villages and drove off those coming to buy it. Armed villagers halted boats, stage- coaches, and strangers, driving off the sick. Buffalo was especially hard hit by cholera.
Cholera hit rich and poor alike, leaving many broken families. It raged in the crowded, dirty shanties of the poor. Some sick lay uncared for. Village leaders, worried about spreading panic, kept the number of dead a secret. At night men with wagons went through "shanty town" collecting the dead. A sickening stench hung about the shacks where the sick lay dying, unable to move. Through the hot summer nights, coffin-makers and grave diggers sweated to bury the dead before morning.
Lockport also suffered from the plague, but nowhere as badly as Buffalo. About seventy-five cases of cholera were reported in July, August, and September, and about a dozen deaths resulted. But as soon as village officials realized the extent of the plague, they took steps to control it. Health officials halted all canal boats and refused to allow them to enter or leave until they were sure no passengers carried cholera. Health officials also had lime spread about the village to counteract the disease-breeding spots. For a time that hot summer, it looked like a light snowfall had hit the village.
Unlike Buffalo, cholera did not produce a great panic in Lock- port. Almost from the beginning health officials were able to control the plague, largely by quarantine, even if they were not sure what caused it.
But much of the Niagara Frontier suffered as Buffalo did. In spite of what people did, cholera stormed through the countryside. Some people stayed drunk, hoping to prevent or cure the disease. Others took a mixture of whiskey and gunpowder, or sulphur and molasses. Nothing helped. At last the plague ran its course, dis- appearing with cold weather. Then the saddened countryside counted up the loss of life. Of all the larger villages, only Niagara Falls escaped the plague of 1832.
Cholera struck again very lightly in 1834, in 1854, and very rarely in later years, but it never produced the terror of that first time. People gradually overcame their fears and learned how to control the spread of the disease.
What caused the Panic of 1837?
Easy credit led to over-expansion The cholera epidemic had not long passed before a new panic hit Niagara County. The Erie Canal, choked with boats and cargoes heading east and west, brought a boom to Western New York. Land prices soared, and businessmen scrambled for choice village lots. Money for more land was easy to borrow. President Andrew Jackson added to the boom by placing some United States money in state banks in Buffalo. With more money to lend, banks gave credit to people who might not be able to pay it back. The banks loaned money freely to many of these poor risks.
Benjamin Rathbun set an example Some land buyers and builders rose rapidly to power and wealth. Benjamin Rathbun, a Buffalo land speculator, interested many people in his schemes for quick money. In Buffalo seventeen build- ings sprouted in ninety days under his magic touch. Public faith in him soared. Everywhere people hounded him to invest their money.
Rathbun took their money and continued building. To supply his vast projects he contracted with brickyards, stone quarries, sawmills, and a stagecoach line. He even started his own bank and printed paper money to pay his debts.
Niagara Falls joined the spending spree Citizens of Niagara Falls, Lockport, and other villages, dazzled by what he had done in Buffalo, fell under the spell of his plans to make everyone rich. They eagerly handed over their savings to the money-maker from Buffalo. Niagara Falls gave heavily, espe- cially after Rathbun laid foundations for several hotels and other buildings in the village.
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Banks were ordered to call in loans
But suddenly the boom collapsed. Dreams of quick money came tumbling down. Presi- dent Jackson ordered state banks to pay debts in gold and silver. Banks had loaned Federal money to poor risks, and when they had to call in these loans, people could not pay. Unable to raise money, banks collapsed and so did many of their clients, including Rathbun. The glitter surrounding Rathbun dimmed quickly. Caught in a web of forgery, he was later im- prisoned in a jail he had built.
Meanwhile people tried to save a few of the pieces. Some tried to sell land, but they had paid too much and could not get their money back. They panicked. Banks and businesses folded, throwing men out of work. Without help of any sort, workers faced hunger and misery.
Unable to understand what had happened, many willingly fol- lowed anyone who might put bread into the mouths of their families. In Canada there was such a man who promised land to Americans who followed him. His activities were daring and dangerous and would soon involve Niagara County. His name was William Lyons Mackenzie.
William Mackenzie recruited Americans to fight in Canada
Rebellion flares up in Canada
How did the rebellion bring trouble to Niagara County?
Taking advantage of the smoldering hate French Canadians felt for British rule, Mackenzie led them in an attempt to drive the British from Canada. In a battle with the British he was defeated and fled to Buffalo. There he made the Eagle Tavern his headquarters, and began recruiting Americans for his army.
Americans welcomed Mackenzie as a hero. Many saw Canada's Patriot's War as the American Revolution all over again. And they viewed Mackenzie as another George Washington, hard pressed by the British. Americans gladly gave men, money, and munitions to the rebel cause. Mackenzie's promise of Canadian farms to fol- lowers also drew many Americans without jobs because of the Panic of 1837. Other Americans saw a chance to annex Canada. Flocking to his rebel banner, they marched through streets singing the French national anthem, the "Marseillaise."
December 29, 1837, the Caroline having been set afire by the British begins to break up in the rapids above Horseshoe Fall.
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The Caroline sup- plied the rebels With American aid, Mackenzie moved his headquarters to Navy Island, up river from the Falls. The rebels used a small steamship, the Caroline, to supply forces on Navy Island. On December 29, 1837, the little steamer chugged across the river to Navy Island, unloading men and supplies. That evening a cheering crowd greeted the Caroline when it docked at Fort Schlosser. Later that evening, more men tramped aboard, ready to leave at dawn for Navy Island.
For a good part of the night, the Caroline was in an uproar. In the main cabin a lantern swayed gently overhead, casting a dull light on men sprawled in bunks and on the deck around a pot-bellied stove. The odors of tobacco, whiskey, damp wool, and sweat filled the hot cabin; heavy moisture on the cold windows dripped onto the deck. With New Year's a few days away, men celebrated by passing a whiskey jug and playing cards. Heat and whiskey loosened tongues, and loud talk filled the cabin.
As the men aboard the Caroline loafed, the British in Canada put into action plans of their own. On this night of December 29, 1837, they jammed into boats and pushed out onto the moonlit Niagara River, gliding silently toward Niagara County. They neared shore above Fort Schlosser. Keeping close to the dark, wooded bank, they drifted down river. Finally they bumped gently against the side of the Caroline. Swiftly they clambered aboard the steamer and smashed into cabins, guns ready. Cursing and yelling men, forced on deck at gun point, stumbled down the gang-plank to shore. Once on shore, they turned on their guards. Muskets flamed in the blackness. A rebel, Amos Durfee, dropped dying to the ground. Several others pressed their hands to wounds trying to check the bleeding.
Burning of the Caroline brought war talk Aboard the Caroline, a match sputtered, outlining the cupped hands of a British soldier. The tiny flame touched a pile of trash. Soon flames raced up cabin walls and along the deck. The blazing Caroline lighted the dark river. The British then towed the steamship to mid-river. They cut it loose and watched it drift toward the rapids and Horseshoe Fall. Then they rowed back to Canada.
The burning of the Caroline sent waves of war talk up and down the frontier. Amos Durfee, his coffin draped with flags, had a public funeral in Buffalo. In Lewiston, Niagara Falls, Lockport, and other villages, meetings, newspapers, and parades expressed American rage at the British for burning the Caroline.
Hotheaded Americans planned revenge. In May, 1838, Ameri- cans, yelling, "Remember the Caroline," burned the Canadian ship
Sir Robert Peel on the St. Lawrence. In Lewiston angry citizens held a public meeting and burned books of a novelist who defended the burning of the Caroline. In June, two hundred men gathered near Lewiston to invade Canada. But at the last minute only twenty-three men would enter the boats. The invasion collapsed.
What action did the United States Government take?
Seeking to avoid war, the United States Government sent an army to check hot-heads along the border. Mackenzie's forces on Navy Island gave up plans to invade Canada and gradually the frontier quieted down.
Prejudice helps create the American party What conditions in Niagara County spread prejudice?
Immigrants com- peted successfully for jobs Once the war threat passed, a more sinister issue cast its shadow across Niagara County. During the 1840's and 1850's a flood of Irish and German immigrants crowded cities in the eastern United States. The potato famine in Ireland and the failure of the 1849 revolution in Germany turned the thoughts of thousands to America. Ship after ship, jammed with immigrants, sailed for the United States. Penniless and home- less foreigners gratefully worked long hours for low wages. Com- plaining bitterly, American workmen watched the foreign-born newcomers replace them in mills and work gangs.
Like thousands before them, the immigrants quickly adjusted to American life. In a short time, many entered business and poli- tics. American-born businessmen resented the loss of their customers to German and Irish shopkeepers, and joined the growing clamor against immigrants. Leading "old" families, long holders of public office, felt the press of immigrants. Pushed from office by immigrant politicians, they threw their support behind groups opposing foreigners.
Competition between foreign-born and native-born Americans led to bitterness and strife. In troubled times, people glancing around for someone to blame found the foreign-born easy targets. The thick accent of hardworking Germans and the pleasant brogue of Irish laborers became targets for hatred. The religion of new immigrants was another thing some people disliked. Many people refused to hire German and Irish workers. American-born workers especially disliked the Irish Catholics who snapped up unskilled jobs. Many Americans hummed and whistled a hit tune of the time, "No Irish Need Apply."
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Many feared foreigners would As the immigrant tide rose, many Ameri- cans honestly believed the foreign-born take over the country would soon swamp the "native" Americans. As they saw it, it was only a matter of time before immigrants took over the country, changed the Consti- tution, and forced a new religion upon them.
How did politicians take advantage of the situation?
The Know-Nothings appeared
Quick to catch the drift of public prejudice, politicians hammered away at foreign-born
Americans, especially the Irish. Fearful "native" Americans formed the Know-Nothing party, later known as the American party. When asked who their members were American party followers replied, "I don't know." The tag "Know- Nothings" stuck to them.
The Know-Nothings wanted to hold down immigrants under harsh laws. They hoped to elect "native" Americans to office, and to require twenty-one years for immigrants to gain citizenship. They also demanded laws forbidding immigrants from holding public office.
Some people in Niagara County eagerly hailed the Know- Nothing party. Much of the population here had come west from New England and their families had lived in America for genera- tions. They had opened up Niagara County to settlement, fighting hunger, disease, and Indians. Forgetting that their ancestors had been immigrants also, they resented the "pushiness" of newcomers.
Many leading men rallied round the banner of the American party. Isaac Cooke of Lewiston, Parkhurst Whitney and Theodore Hulett of Niagara Falls, and later ex-governor Washington Hunt of Lockport supported the American party. Rallies and torchlight parades whipped up excitement for the Know-Nothings. Party members and supporters wore hats and buttons with mottoes attacking immigrants. And they bought Know-Nothing candy, tea, and toothpicks. They tried to buy only goods with an American party mark showing it was made by "native" Americans.
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