USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 45
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It was in the year 1812 that Martin Van Buren, * who so long held a
* Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States, was born in Kinder- hook, N. Y., December 5th, 1782 ; died there July 24th, 1862. He was admitted to the bar in 1803. Fond of politics, he took an active part in elections while yet a youth. At the age of twenty-four he was appointed Surrogate of Columbia County, and in 1812 was
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conspicuous position in the politics of the State and nation, made his first appearance in a legislative capacity as a senator from the Middle District of New York. His mental abilities, tact, and capacity for adroit management of men speedily gave him the position of leader of the Democratic members of the Legislature. He was a zealous " Clin- tonian" then, and an earnest advocate of the war.
It was at this period that the Legislature took a step which was of vast benefit to the cause of popu- lar education. At the middle of January, 1812, they appointed Gide- on Hawley, an energetic, hard-work- ing, benevolent-minded and modest young lawyer of Albany, Super- intendent of Public Schools, under the provisions of an act passed at the previous session. He perfected a system for the management of the school fund and for its equitable dis- tribution into every school district in the State, which he had organized in every neighborhood. He devised a plan of operations by which this MARTIN VAN BUREN. vast machinery might be moved and managed by a single individual. For these important services, with others, the State paid Mr. Hawley $300 a year ! Posterity has rewarded this fine scholar and public benefactor with full appreciation and unstinted praise when contemplating the result of his benevolent labors. Mr. Hawley died in 1870 at the age of eighty- five years, having served as a Regent of the University twenty-seven years, and a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution twenty-four years .*
sent to the State Senate. From 1815 to 1819 he was Attorney-General of the State. In 1819 he began a reorganization of the Democratic Party, and became the leader of the politicians known as the " Albany Regency." In 1821 he became a member of the United States Senate, and again in 1827 ; was chosen Governor of New York in 1828 ; entered President Jackson's Cabinet as Secretary of State in 1829, and was sent Minister to England in 1831. The Senate refused to ratify his appointment, and he was chosen Vice-President of the United States. Hle was elected President in 1836. His adminis- tration was marked by great commercial troubles. In 1848 he was an unsuccessful candidate of the "Free Soil " Party for President. He visited Europe in 1853-55. When the Civil War broke out Mr. Van Buren took decided grounds against the enemies of the Republic.
* Gideon Hawley was born in Huntington, Conn., in 1785 ; died at Albany, N. Y., in August, 1870. He was a graduate of Union College. In 1794 he took up his abode at
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CIVIL AFFAIRS IN THE STATE.
In the session of the Legislature early in 1813 sharp collisions began to occur between the two houses on all questions which related to the prosecution of the war. The militia which had been called out the pre- vious autumn by the governor had returned dissatisfied with the service. The Federal politicians took advantage of this dissatisfaction, and pro- moted it so as to increase their own power and influence.
The National Government had already become embarrassed by lack of money to carry on the war ; and this, too, was used as a weapon of attack by the Federalists. A resolution which was adopted by the State Senate to loan to the National Government $500,000 was defeated by the Federalists in the Assembly. During the same year Solomon South- wick,* the able editor of the Albany Register, the organ of the Demo- cratic Party, showed lukewarmness in support of the war, and lost the confidence of the party leaders. They made the Argus, just established by Jesse Buel, t their organ.
The next session of the Legislature (1814) was marked by liberal appropriations of money to be raised by lottery for the benefit of Union,
Saratoga. In 1813 he was admitted to the bar in Albany, and the next year became secretary to the Regents of the University. He was a regent of the University from 1814 to 1841, and of the Smithsonian Institution from 1846 until his death. Mr. Hawley wrote and printed for private distribution Essays on Truth and Knowledge.
* Solomon Southwick was for some years a brilliant journalist in Albany. He was a son of Solomon Southwick, a journalist of Newport, R. I., where this son was born in 1774. He learned the trade of a baker, but became a practical printer in Albany. About the year 1800 he was the assistant editor of the Albany Register, which finally became the accredited organ of the Democratic Party. Southwick became sole editor in 1807, and conducted it with great ability. He was personally popular, with a handsome face and pleasing deportment. He was a firm supporter of De Witt Clinton and his friends. In 1809 he was appointed Sheriff of Albany, and in 1811 was a bank president there. He was printer to the State ; also a regent of the University. He quarrelled with his party leaders, when the Register was abandoned by them, and in 1818 it died. He had been superseded as State printer, and he lost the office of postmaster at Albany in 1822. Vari- ous speculations of his were unsuccessful. In 1821 he established The Ploughboy, and then the National Democrat. Both were short-lived. He became a candidate for gov- ernor of the State in 1822, when he was defeated by an overwhelming vote. He was again a candidate for the same office in 1828, representing the Anti-Masonic Party, aud at the same time became the editor of the National Observer, an Anti-Masonic journal. Mr. Southwick died in 1839.
+ Jesse Buel was born in Coventry, Conn., in 1778, and died in Danbury, 1839. He was educated a printer. He published the Ulster Republican, and in 1813 went to Albany, where he established the Argus, which, on the party defection of Solomon Southwick, be- came the organ of the Democratic Party. He was soon chosen State printer. He left the Argus in 1821, having acquired a competency. Buel was Whig candidate for governor in 1836. Two years before, he established The Cultivator, a periodical devoted to agricul- ture, which for years exerted a wide and salutary influence among farmers. At the time of his death Mr. Buel was a regent of the University.
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Columbia, and Hamilton colleges ; an African church ; the New York Historical Society, and various medical colleges. At the same session James Kent was appointed Chancellor of the State of New York, and Smith Thompson Chief-Justice of its Supreme Court. They were both natives of Duchess County.
The Legislature put forth the most vigorous exertions to place and maintain the State in an attitude of secure defence against invasion, and to aid the general Government against the enemy. They increased the pay of the militia, and passed an act to encourage privateering by authorizing associations for that purpose. This was done in spite of a very learned protest from Chancellor Kent* and others. The chancellor was answered, and a controversy in the newspapers oc- curred, in which Judge Kent, Colonel Samnel Young, and Martin Van Buren participated. A law JAMES KENT. was passed for enlisting twelve thousand men for two years ; and another was adopted for raising a corps of " sea fencibles," a sort of minute-men ; and still another for raising a regiment of colored men, among whom slaves might be enlisted by consent of their masters, and who were to be manumitted when honorably discharged.
Intelligence of the prompt passage of these several laws by the Legis- lature of New York at the short session in the fall of 1814 was received by President Madison with great joy and satisfaction, for the event
* James Kent, an eminent jurist, was born at Phillipstown, Putnam (then Duchess) County, N. Y., in July, 1763 ; died in New York City in December, 1847. He studied law with Egbert Benson, and began its practice at Poughkeepsie in 1787. From 1790 to 1793 he was a member of the New York Assembly. In the latter year he became pro- fessor of law in Columbia College ; in 1796 he was made Master in Chancery ; Recorder of New York City in 1797 ; Judge of the Supreme Court of New York in 1798 ; Chief Justice in 1804, and was Chancellor of the State from 1814 to 1823. He took an active part in the State Constitutional Convention in 1821, and soon afterward again became law professor in Columbia College. The lectures he delivered there form the basis of his famous Commentaries on the United States Constitution, published in four volumes. Judge Kent was one of the clearest legal writers of his time. In 1828 he was chosen President of the New York Historical Society. In his later years he revised his Com- mentaries.
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VIRGINIA THE " MOTHER OF PRESIDENTS."
added much strength to the then exceedingly weak Government. Oppressed by painful apprehensions, the President gratefully tendered to Governor Tompkins the important position in his Cabinet of Secretary of War, which General John Armstrong, of New York, had lately resigned. The governor declined.
The Federalists gained political ascendancy in New York in 1815, and the Council of Appointment, influenced by the many political enemies of De Witt Clinton, proceeded to deprive him of the lucrative office of Mayor of New York. This left him in straitened pecuniary circum- stances with a large family, but he maintained his dignity of deportment and his cheerfulness of spirits. He engaged in literary pursuits, and increased his efforts to induce the State to construct the great Erie Canal. Ile was successful, as we have observed.
Governor Tompkins was now one of the most popular men in the State, and was an aspirant for the office of President of the United States. At the close of the war Mr. Madison began to give tokens that he expected Mr. Monroe to be his successor. Already the President of the republic had been taken from Virginia twenty-four out of twenty- eight years of the existence of the National Government. This continu- ation of the " Virginia dynasty," as it was called, had become distaste- ful, especially to New Yorkers. At the same time the Virginians were evidently jealous of New York because of her rapid growth in popula- tion, commerce, wealth, and political influence.
When the congressional caucus assembled to nominate a candidate for the presidency, it was found that nearly the whole delegation from New York were for Governor Tompkins. The majority of other Democratic members were from the South, and were opposed to him ; while the New England delegates were all Federalists. Monroe was nominated and elected in 1816, and Tompkins was chosen Vice-President.
Great was the rejoicing in the legislative halls and among the people all over the State when the news of peace and of the victory at New Orleans was spread over the commonwealth. Then the thoughts of all were directed to the pursuits of peace, the readjustment of business rela- tions, and the development of the resources of the State, especially to the importance of a speedy construction of the projected great canal. The friends of that project moved with vigor. A most important meet- ing held in New York City in the autumn adopted strong resolutions in its favor, and a powerful memorial to the Legislature was drawn up by De Witt Clinton, and widely circulated and signed, commending the project.
This movement in New York City was followed by a large gathering
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at Canandaigua, Ontario County, of leading gentlemen in Western New York. At that meeting Myron Holley, one of the canal commissioners and one of the brightest and wisest men in the State, was the chief actor .* Governor Tompkins, in his message at the opening of the session of the Legislature in 1816, expatiated upon the vast importance of such a work not only to the State of New York, but to the nation ; and at a large meeting of citizens at Albany earnest resolutions in favor of the project were adopted.
Notwithstanding the treasury of the commonwealth had been nearly exhausted by the efforts to sustain the National Government in its prose- cution of the war, and all aid from that Government in carrying out the project had been withheld ; notwithstanding the resources of private enterprise had been crippled by the financial embarrassments of the erisis and the prevalence of an impression that the scheme was altogether visionary, the leaders of sober thought and opinion in the State were strong enough to induce the Legislature to authorize the prosecution of all necessary surveys for the great work ; to appropriate $20,000 for the purpose, and to appoint a new Board of Canal Commissioners. +
The most powerful advocates of the measure at that time were De Witt Clinton, Martin Van Buren, and Samuel Young. It was observed that most of the leaders of the opposition to the canal project were political enemies of Mr. Clinton ; and so strong was this partisan enmity that it formed the chief constituent of their motives in opposing the scheme.
At the opening of the session of 1817 Governor Tompkins, as we have
The meeting in New York City was assembled through the instrumentality of Thomas Eddy, Judge Jonas Platt, De Witt Clinton, John Pintard, and a few others, the zealous, persistent, and earlier friends of the project. They sent cards of invitation to about one hundred gentlemen of that city, to meet at the City Hotel, to consult concern- ing the Canal. William Bayard presided at the meeting, and John Pintard was the secre- tary. Judge Platt made a convincing address to the meeting. A resolution was passed approving the scheme, and a committee, composed of De Witt Clinton, Thomas Eddy, Cadwallader D. Colden, and John Swartwout, was appointed to prepare and circulate a memorial to the Legislature in favor of the canal. That memorial-a masterpiece-was drawn by Mr. Clinton.
The meeting at Canandaigua was held on January 8th, 1817. Gideon Granger, after- ward Postmaster-General, was the chief speaker on that occasion. Important resolutions, drawn by Myron Holley, were adopted. These resolutions, it was observed, "both in matter and style may be justly denominated a near relation of Mr. Clinton's memorial." The proceedings of this meeting made a deep impression on the public mind, and pow. erfully contributed to the enlightened policy which the Legislature subsequently pursued.
+ Stephen van Rensselaer, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Young, Joseph Ellicott, and Myron Holley.
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ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE SYSTEM.
observed, recommended the unconditional and entire abolition of the slave system in the State of New York after July 4th, 1827. The recommendation was concurred in by the unanimous voice of the Legis- lature. Thus were the persistent benevolent efforts of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, to erase from the escutcheon of the State of New York the dark stain of human slavery given encouragement and final success. In bringing about this act of the Legislature in 1817 they were powerfully aided by Cadwallader D. Colden (grandson of Governor Colden), Peter A. Jay, William Jay, " Governor Tompkins, and other earnest labor- ers in the canse.
On March 10th, 1817, the canal commissioners presented to the Legislature an elaborate report. Most strenuous opposition to the WILLIAM JAY. canal scheme was then manifested in and ont of the Legislature. It was ridiculed as the conception of Innaties ; condemned as a project which, if attempted, would ruin the State financially ; and its advocates were declared to be enemies of the commonwealth. The excitement throughout the State was intense. But common-sense and sagacity prevailed in the Legislature, and on April
* William Jay, LL.D., was an eminent jurist and earnest philanthropist, son of Gov- ernor John Jay. He was born in New York City in 1789, and died at Bedford, West- chester County, N. Y., in October, 1858
He was a graduate of Yale College. On ac- count of weak eyes he was compelled to abandon the practice of law, for which he was prepared. He was one of the founders of the American Bible Society, in 1815, and was ever an active member of it. He was one of the earliest advocates of the temperance reform, and founded a temperance society in 1815. He was active in founding and pro- moting the work of tract, missionary, and educational societies. In 1818 he was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Westchester County, and was first judge from 1820 to 1842, when he was superseded on account of his radical anti-slavery sentiments. He was one of the founders and most efficient supporters of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1843 Judge Jay visited Europe, and with the eminent Egyptologist, Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, investigated the subject of slavery in Egypt. Judge Jay held a vigorous pen, and wrote much on the subject of temperance, slavery, and peace. He was for several years President of the American Peace Society. His numerous publica- tions were widely circulated, and exercised great and good influence. Judge Jay prepared a biography of his father, John Jay, and a collection of his writings, in two volumes, which was published in 1833.
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17th it passed an act authorizing the construction of the great work of internal improvement. The work upon it was begun less than three months afterward.
With kaleidoscope rapidity and variety were the changes in the posi- tion of the leaders of political parties and factions in New York at that time. They were then in a sort of transition state. Each faction was controlled by a few men. Personal polities was the rule. It was at this time that a small clique of shrewd politicians known as the " Albany Regency" came into power and ruled the State, in a degree, for almost twenty years. The leader of the " Regency" was Martin Van Buren, and his chief associates were Benjamin F. Butler, Edwin Croswell, and William L. Marcy.
We have seen De Witt Clinton, in 1815, " shelved " by the Council of Appointment, which was composed chiefly of men of his own party, and he was relegated to the class of political fossils. Judge Spencer,* between whom and Clinton there had long been maintained bitter polit- ical and personal animosity, and who had been a power in the politics of the State and puissant in the annual creation of the Council of Appointment, had been the chief instrument in destroying the confidence of the Democratic Party in Mr. Clinton. Now Spencer was menaced with a similar fate, and sought to avert it. The popularity of Tompkins and the talents and fascination of Van Buren made them exceedingly influential among the members of the Legislature, with whom they were in constant intercourse. They were now the political antagonists of Clinton, and disposed to give the cold shoulder to Spencer. The latter well knew that there was no man who could neutralize the influence of these rivals more effectually than Mr. Clinton, and Spencer sought and obtained a reconciliation with his old friend and kinsman. Mrs. Spencer was a sister of Clinton.
In February, 1817, Governor Tompkins resigned his seat to occupy
* Ambrose Spencer, LL.D., was the son of a farmer and mechanic, and was born in Salisbury, Conn., in 1765. Hedied at Lyons, N. Y., in March, 1848. He was graduated at Harvard, and studied law with John Canfield, of Sharon, Conn., whose daughter he married before he was nineteen years of age. After her death he married a sister of De Witt Clinton. They settled in Hudson, N. Y. In 1793 he was elected to the Assembly, and was State senator from 1795 to 1802. He was the author of a bill which abolished the penalty of death excepting for the crimes of treason and murder ; also for the erection of a State prison near New York, and for the amelioration of the condition of prisoners. In 1802 he was appointed attorney-general, and in 1804 was made Chief-Justice of the State Supreme Court. Judge Spencer was always an active politician. He was a mem- ber of the State Constitutional Convention in 1821 ; was Mayor of Albany, and from 1829 to 1831 a member of Congress. In 1839 he removed to the village of Lyons, where he died.
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THE FIRST BOAT ON THE ERIE CANAL.
that of Vice-President of the United States. There appeared a strong disposition in the Legislature to nominate Mr. Clinton for governor. Mr. Van Buren and his friends opposed it. Spencer worked valiantly for it. Clinton was nominated, and in April was elected by an almost unanimous vote. The Federalists did not make any nomination, and they generally voted for Clinton.
How " the whirligig of time brings about its revenges "! Only two years before, Mr. Clinton had been expelled by his party from the office of Mayor of New York, denounced by the leading Democrats in his native State and the nation as utterly unworthy of their confidence, and consigned to political perdition ; now we see him elevated to the highest official position in his State by a majority of the Democratic Party and of the opposing party as their best man !
A formidable political faction opposed to Governor Clinton soon appeared, and gave origin to two distinctly marked parties known as " Bucktails," or Democrats, and "Clintonians." *
Little of special importance outside of the political arena occurred in the State of New York during the remainder of Governor Clinton's administration. The construction of the great water highway across the State was pushed on with vigor, and on October 22d, 1819, the first boat on the Erie Canal floated between Rome and Utica, with the governor and other distinguished citizens on board.
In the spring of 1820 a hot contest for the governorship of the State occurred. The Bucktails nominated Vice-President Tompkins for that position, and the Clintonians renominated Mr. Clinton. The canvass was very spirited, and resulted in the re-election of Mr. Clinton by about fourteen hundred majority.
Just before the election a most singular movement took place among the politicians of the State, designed to "put down Mr. Clinton at all hazards." On April 14th fifty professed Federalists, representing the intelligence and wealth of the State (among them sons of the late General Hamilton and also of Rufus King), issued an address to the people, in which they affirmed that the Federal Party no longer existed, and avowed their intention to support Mr. Tompkins for governor and to attach themselves to the great Democratic Party of the nation-the
* There was an order in the Tammany Society who, on certain occasions, wore a por- tion of the tail of a deer in their hats. The Tammanyites were all opposed to Clinton, and had a controlling influence in the Democratic Party in the State. The friends of Clinton gave to them the name of " Bucktails," as the order that wore that insignia was a leading one in the society. Hence the party opposed to Mr. Clinton was called, for a long time, the Bucktail Party.
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Buektails in New York. They did not objeet to Mr. Clinton's capacity, his morals, or his public measures, but opposed him solely because, they alleged, he was attempting to form a " personal party." At the same « time Mr. Van Buren and his friends were as strenuously opposing Mr. Clinton, solely on the professed ground that the Federal Party did exist in the State, and that he was secretly inclined to favor it. They, too, admitted the talents and virtues of Mr. Clinton, and did not object to his publie measures, but they suspected him of political coquetry ! The common-sense of the better people of the State perceived the absurdity of the actions of the intriguing politicians, and gave Mr. Clinton a triumphant majority vote. Governor Clinton's success at this time was largely due to his popularity as the leading champion of the canal interest.
At a session of the Legislature held in November (1820) Governor Clinton recommended the passage of a law for the choice of presidential electors directly by the people ; also another for the calling of a conven- tion for the consideration of amendments to the State Constitution. A bill for the latter purpose was passed by both houses in January follow- ing, but was rejected by the Council of Revision # by the casting vote of the governor, who did not approve of some of its provisions.
Early in the session of 1821 another bill providing for a convention was passed, and became a law. The Legislature and the Council of Appointment were politically opposed to the governor, and the latter body soon set the work of official decapitation in motion. One of the victims was Gideon Hawley, the wise and able Superintendent of Com- mon Schools, whose removal was without excuse. They proceeded to fill his place by appointing to the position a young lawyer who was utterly incompetent to perform the duties. The removal of Hawley was regarded as so gross an outrage against the best interests of society that the political friends of the Council in the Legislature would not submit to it. By an almost unanimous vote the Legislature abolished the office
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