USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 48
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It was at this time that Silas Wright," who beeame conspicuous in the State and nation, appeared very prominent in public affairs in New York. He had been State Senator and mem- ber of Congress ; he was now made . comptroller -- the manager of the complicated financial operations of the State. He proved himself com- petent and trustworthy. After con- ducting that office with signal abil- ity for some years, he was transferred to the Senate of the United States.
Early in 1830 the Anti-Masons established at the seat of the State government the Albany Evening Journal, with Thurlow Weed + as editor. It took a eonspicnous place in journalism from the start, and for a generation, under the manage- SILAS WRIGHT. ment of Mr. Weed, it exerted mar- vellons power over the politics and politicians of the State. Mr. Weed, wrote Hammond, # was " one of the most shrewd and sagacious political
* Silas Wright was born at Amherst, Mass., in May, 1795 ; died at Canton, N. Y., in August, 1847. He was admitted to the bar in 1819, and began the practice of law at Canton. He was appointed surrogate of the county (St. Lawrence) in 1820. In 1823 he became State Senator, and a member of Congress 1827-29. In 1829 he was made Comptroller of the State of New York ; United States Senator in 1833 ; defended Jack- son's course in his warfare on the United States Bank ; voted for the annexation of Texas ; declined to be made a justice of the Supreme Court, and in 1844 declined the nomination for the vice-presidency. The same year he was elected Governor of New York. The next year he was offered the place of Secretary of the Treasury in President Polk's Cabinet. He retired to private life on leaving the chair of Governor of New York, and died soon afterward.
t Thurlow Weed was born in Cairo, N. Y., in November, 1797. He was a cabin-boy on a North River sloop at ten years of age ; learned the printer's trade at Catskill, and in 1812 was a volunteer in the military service on the northern frontier of New York. He unsuccessfully attempted the establishment of a newspaper in Central New York, and in 1826-27 he edited the Anti-Masonic Enquirer. He was twice elected to the Assembly. In 1830 he became the editor of the Albany Evening Journal, and very soon became a prominent leader of the Whig and then the Republican Party, but he would never accept public office of any kind. In 1861 President Lincoln sent him to Europe in a semi-diplomatic capacity. He returned home in June, 1862. Then for a while he was editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser. In 1865 he took up his permanent abode in the city of New York with his family, and died at his home there on November 22d, 1882. He had visited Europe several times, the last in 1871.
# Political History of New York, by Jabez D. Hammond, LL.D., vol. ii., p. 339.
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editors and eagle-eyed politicians the State of New York ever pro- duced."
A " Workingmen's Party" was formed in the State of New York in 1830, but was short-lived. It was complained that workingmen did not receive a fair share of the publie offices and emoluments. Others besides workingmen flocked to the new standard. General Erastus Root was nominated by the party for governor. It was professedly opposed to banks and paper money. It was soon controlled by others than working- men-aspiring politicians-and, like all organizations effeeted and ruled by demagogues, it flourished awhile and then disappeared.
The rapid influx of population into the eity and State of New York, especially from the New England States, after the completion of the Erie Canal, speedily put an end to the reign of the Knickerbocker ele- ment on society. Fashions, enstoms, and the general aspects of social life were modified by this immigration, and New York soon became largely, what it is to-day, a cosmopolitan eity."
It was at this period that William H. Seward, then a very young man, was sent to the State Senate. He took his seat in January, 1831, when only thirty years of age. He had been elected by the Anti-Masonic Party, who at the same time chose thirty members of the Assembly. That party nominated Francis Granger for governor and Samuel Stevens for lieutenant-governor in 1832, with an electoral ticket led by Chan- cellor Kent and John C. Spencer. The " National Republicans," as the adherents of Henry Clay called themselves, adopted the Anti- Masonic ticket ; but the Democratic majority in the State at the election was thirteen thousand. General Jackson was re-elected President and Martin Van Buren Vice-President. With this contest the existence of the political Anti-Masonic Party, State and National, was virtually terminated. The institution of Free Masonry soon recovered from the shock and regained its good reputation and influence.
* The older reader will remember the fashions of the ladies about 1832. They were generally rather plain, but rich in material and colors. The walking-dress was lavender gray in color. The sleeves were tight from the elbow to the wrist, and very full above. They were called " mutton-leg sleeves." A ruche trimmed the corsage and extended straight down the front of the dress, which was short, showing the whole of the black prunella gaiter-shoes. The bonnet was Leghorn straw, with square brim lined with green satin. The crown was trimmed with three bands of green ribbon and a full cockade in the centre. The neck-knot was a green ribbon. The evening-dress was of Chinese green faced with dark green velvet and " mutton-leg" sleeves with velvet cuffs. The trimming of the skirt was a velvet band from which depended large leaves. The hair was dressed in full curls on the forehead, and in bows of moderate height on the top of the head. A wreath of roses and bluebells surrounded the base of the bows. Delicate morocco or satin slippers covered the feet.
477
THE NAMING OF THE WHIG PARTY.
In 1832 the Whig Party was formed in this wise : James Watson Webb, the editor and proprietor of the New York Courier and Enquirer, who attended as a spectator the Anti-Masonic Convention at Philadelphia
NEW YORK COSTUMES ABOUT 1832.
which nominated William Wirt for President, wrote a letter to his journal, in which he pointed out the folly of the different parties wasting their energies in separately opposing General Jackson. He proposed a
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coalition of the general's opponents under one rallying name to " fight the dangerous democracy." He claimed that these parties were contend- ing for the Constitution against executive usurpation, while their oppo- nents were battling to sustain such an usurpation. "We, therefore, are Whigs," he said, " while they are Tories. Why not, then, take to our- selves the name of Whig, which represents our principles, and give to our opponents the name of Tories ?"
This letter was read to a very large meeting assembled at Masonic Hall, Broadway near Pearl Street, New York, by Philip Hone, who presided, and who suggested the adoption of the name of " Whig." It was done. The press and the people all over the country acquiesced. Thus it was that the great historic " Whig Party" received its name.
At this period the State of New York took the lead in a most important measure of re- form, marked by justice and humanity. Enos T. Throop " took his seat as Governor of the State early in 1831. In his message to the Legislature he recommended the passage of a law for the abolition of imprison- ENOS T. THROOP. (From a painting by Charles L. Elliott.) ment for debt ; also for restrict- ing the death penalty to only one specific crime. A law for the abolition of imprisonment for debt was passed at that session, and so New York acquired the honor of being the pioneer among the States in the work of abolishing from its statutes that absurd and barbarons law.
The embittered opponents of Anti-Masonry had joined in the support of Mr. Throop, and his election by over eight thousand majority gave to
Enos T. Throop was born at Johnstown, N. Y., in August, 1784 ; died at Auburn, N. Y., November 1st, 1875. He acquired by hard study a classical and legal education, while performing the duties of an attorney's clerk. He settled in Auburn, N. Y., rose to eminence in his profession and as an acute politician, and was appointed circuit judge in 1823. He was a member of Congress, 1815-17, and in 1828 was elected Lieutenant- Governor of the State of New York. In 1830 he was elected governor. In 1838 Gov- ernor Throop was appointed charge d'affaires to the two Sicilies.
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RENEWAL OF TIIE U. S. BANK CHARTER OPPOSED.
the Jackson party a large and permanent accession of voters in the State of New York William L. Marcy," a distinguished jurist, ripe scholar, and expert politician, was elected governor by that strengthened party, and took his seat early in Jannary, 1833. He was a member of the United States Senate at the time of his election, and in that body he had frankly promulgated the maxim that " to the vietor belong the spoils." His seat there was filled by Silas Wright, and the vacant seat of another New York Senator was given to Nathaniel P. Talhnadge, of Duchess County.
The State of New York became very early a party to the vehement discussion, which took a national range, concerning the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank, for the destruction of which President Jackson was then waging an uncompromising war. Its char- ter would expire in 1836. In the winter of 1832 the bank applied to Congress for a renewal of its char- ter. During the sitting of the WILLIAM L. MARCY. Legislature of New York the same winter a joint resolution was passed, after a warm debate, instructing the senators and requesting the members of the House of Representatives to resist such renewal. The resolution received an overwhelming major- ity of votes.
Mr. Van Buren, then designated the " Favorite Son of New York," felt the effects of this vote. He was known also as the " court favorite"
* William Learned Marcy was born in Southbridge, Mass., in December, 1786 ; died at Balston Spa, N. Y., July 4th, 1857. He was graduated at Brown University in 1808 ; taught school in Newport, R. I., awhile ; studied law and began its practice at Troy, N. Y. He joined the army as a volunteer in 1812, and assisted in the capture of Canadian militia at St. Regis, the first prisoners taken on land. In 1816 he was Recorder of Troy. He edited the Troy Budget for a time as the leading Democratic organ in Rensselaer County, and was made Adjutant-General of the State in 1821. In 1823 he was State Comptroller, and in 1829 justice of the State Supreme Court. In 1831 he was chosen United States Senator, and was elected Governor of the State in 1833. He held that office by re-election until 1839. He was Secretary of War in Polk's Cabinet from 1845 to 1849, during the war with Mexico. He was United States Secretary of State, 1853-57. Governor Marcy was the author of several important State papers.
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-the pet of the President, who desired him to be his successor in the presidential chair. Jackson appointed him Minister to England during the recess of the Senate. He sailed to that country, and was installed as accredited Minister of the United States. Henry Clay was a candidate for the presidency. By his taet and talent he succeeded in formning a party in the Senate opposed to the President. It consisted of a majority of the members of that body. The Senate was induced to refuse to ratify the appointment of Van Buren, and the unconfirmed minister was compelled to return home a private citizen.
The rejection of Mr. Van Buren produced intense indignation, espe- cially in the State of New York. Indignation meetings denounced the act in no measured terms. Van Buren was considered by a large propor- tion of the American people a victim of persecution, and their love of fair play and their admiration for his ability caused them to elect him President of the United States as the successor of General Jackson.
It was at this period that the country was violently agitated by a movement in South Carolina to carry into practical effect the doctrine of supreme State sovereignty by an attempt to nullify or to defy laws of the United States. President Jackson promptly met this revolutionary movement by issuing a proclamation, * in which he denied the right of any State to nullify a law of the National Government, and commanded immediate obedience to all the laws. The proclamation was followed by prompt action, and very soon the country was relieved from menaces of civil war. The President was sustained by the loyal and patriotic men of both parties.
The most effective blow given to the United States Bank by the Presi- dent in his warfare upon that institution was the removal from its custody of the deposits of the national funds, amounting to about $10,000,000, and placing the money on deposit in the State banks in the fall of 1833.
The Legislature of New York, then strongly Democratic, passed a resolution early in 1834, by a large majority, approving of the action of the President in ordering the removal of the deposits. It was believed that the deposit of the funds in the State banks would be of great benefit to the business community by affording facilities for acquiring loans from the banks. So it did ; but the final result was anything but salutary. It led to the creation of a vast and dangerous credit system and wild speculations, which ultimately caused widespread disaster, as we shall perceive presently.
* This proclamation was written by the able Secretary of State, Louis McLane.
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FIRST POPULAR ELECTION OF MAYOR OF NEW YORK.
The managers of the United States Bank " got even" with the New Yorkers by bringing to bear upon them with peculiar severity, because of that resolution, the system they had adopted at the time of the removal of the deposits, of a great and sudden curtailment of discounts, and making forced collections from debtors. Their loans then amounted to 860,000,000. This severity brought the banks of New York to the verge of suspension of specie payments. To avert this calamity the Legislature, on the recommendation of the governor, tendered a loan to the banks of the credit of the State to the amount of $5,000,000, should relief become necessary. There was widespread commercial distress and a panic for a while. Very soon the great bank afforded relief by a sudden enlargement of discounts and a great expansion of its circulation, allowing the State deposit banks to loan freely. This revelation of the inherent power of the bank for working mischief attested the wisdom of the President in making war upon it.
By an act of the Legislature passed in March, 1834, the people of New York City were empowered for the first time to elect their own mayor. Hitherto that officer had been chosen by the Council of Appointment or by the Governor and Senate of the State. The first mayor elected by a popular vote was Cornelius W. Lawrence.
At that time a feud in the ranks of the Democratic Party in the city was disturbing its harmony, distracting its organization, and weakening its power. There had been formed, under the teachings of Fanny Wright and others of communistic proclivities, a " Radical"' or " Equal Rights" faction, which appealed to the sympathies of the workingnien. It occasioned a split in the Democratic Party and the application to it of a nickname that adhered for several years. At a meeting in Tammany Hall just before the election in the fall of 1835, both sections of the party zealously claimed the right to the chair and the management of the proceedings. Violence ensued, and a grand row was the consequence. In the midst of the affray the gas was turned off and the room was left in darkness. One of the Equal Rights Party having some "loco- foco " matches in his pocket, relighted the lamps, and the business of the meeting proceeded. "I was one of the vice-presidents," wrote an actor in the scene, " and the next day I was compelled to buy a suit of new clothes. In a short time the whole Democratic Party were known as ' Loco-focos.' "
In January, 1836, the Equal Rights Party organized as distinct from the Democratic Party, and adopted a Declaration of Rights, which condemned all monopolies and the issuing of a paper currency by banks. They declared no man eligible for nomination for office by this party
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unless he had signed the Declaration. One of the active members- John Windt, a printer-issued a journal called The Democrat as the organ of the new party. They nominated a candidate for Mayor of New York in the spring ; proposed to nominate Colonel Samuel Young for governor, and attempted to form a State Equal Rights Party at a convention held at Utica in September, when they nominated Isaac S. Smith, of Buffalo, for governor, Robert Townsend, of New York, for lieutenant-governor, Frederick A. Tallmadge for State Senator, and a full Assembly ticket. They appointed a State Corresponding Com- mittee. At the municipal election in the spring of 1837 their candidate for mayor received over four thousand votes. At a convention held at Utica in September they devised a State Constitution
The days of the Equal Rights Party were few. In the fall of 1837, finding very few adherents to the party outside of the city of New York, they effected a reunion with the Tammany party, or the old Demno- crats. Probably no political party in the State ever received more severe attacks and scathing animadversions than this. All the banks and the whole influence of chartered corporations and associated wealth were against them. Also the press of both parties, excepting the Even- ing Post, conducted by William C. Bryant and William Leggett." The Post did not approve of a separate party organization, but warmly advo- cated its principles.
This was also a period of a radical revolution in journalism, which was inaugurated in the city of New York by James Watson Webb, + Benja-
* William Leggett was a powerful writer and a radical reformer in his proclivities. He was born in the city of New York in 1802 ; died at New Rochelle, N. Y., in May, 1839. He was a graduate of Georgetown (Roman Catholic) College, and was a midship- man in the United States Navy, 1822-26. Then he devoted himself to literary pursuits chiefly. He was a constant contributor to Morris's New York Mirror and other publica- tions for years, under the title of "Tales by a Country Schoolmaster." In the autumn of 1828 he established in New York City a weekly literary periodical called The Critic. It was soon united with the Mirror. In 1829 he became associated with William Cullen Bryant in the management of the New York Evening Post, and was its chief editor in 1834-35. He sympathized with the anti-slavery movements of that day, and ably defended the right of free speech and discussion. In 1836 he established The Plain Dealer, devoted to politics and literature, but failing health soon compelled him to relin- quish literary labor. Appointed diplomatic agent to the republic of Guatemala, he was preparing for a voyage thither when he suddenly died at his home.
+ James Watson Webb, son of General Samuel B. Webb, of the Revolution, was born at Claverack, N. Y., in February, 1802. He entered the army as second lieutenant in August, 1819 ; was first lieutenant in 1823 ; resigned in 1827, and entered the arena of journalism in the city of New York, in which he wrought with power for thirty-six years -1827-61. IIe formed a conspicuous part of the social and political history of the city of New York. He was the publisher and chief editor of the Morning Courier and Enquirer
483
A REVOLUTION IN JOURNALISM.
min H. Day, and James Gordon Bennett. Colonel Webb initiated the enterprise of collecting news by sending a fast-sailing clipper-built schooner many miles at sea to meet vessels from foreign ports. gather the latest news from abroad, and speedily publish it to the world. Ilis contemporaries soon followed his example.
On September 3d, 1833, Mr. Day issued the first number of the Sun, the first one-cent daily newspaper ever published. Imitations soon
followed. On May 6th, 1835, Mr. Bennett issued the first number of the permanently established Herald on a nominal capital of 8500, and introduced a new feature in jour- nalism - the " Money Article." His contemporaries followed his lead. At that time (1835), of the fifteen daily newspapers published in the city of New York, then having a population of two hundred and seventy thousand, only the Sun had a circulation of over six thou- sand daily.
This was also a period of riots in the city of New York. Emigration JAMES WATSON WEBB. had recently given to the city a large population of ignorant, excitable, and often vicious foreigners, and these were speedily transformed, by unwise naturalization laws, into citizens and legal voters. This elass of voters was ont in full force at the first popular election of a mayor of the city in the spring of 1834. They generally affiliated with the Democratie Party, and were always the pliant tools of demagogues.
Early in the morning of the first day of the election (the polls were then opened three days in succession) riotous symptoms appeared. The
from 1830. In 1842 he was wounded in the leg in a duel with Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky-an affair which was the result of gross misrepresentations. In 1846 he was made military engineer-in-chief of the State, and ever after he bore the title of " general." In 1861, after declining a mission to Constantinople, he was appointed by President Lincoln Minister to Brazil, where he performed efficient services, and returned home in 1861, when he retired from public life. General Webb died at his residence in New York on June 7th, 1884.
The above portrait represents him when over eighty years of age. General Webb, through his personal intimacy with the Emperor Napoleon III., was instrumental in pro- curing the withdrawal of the French troops from Mexico during our Civil War.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Democratic leaders were exasperated by the opprobrious name of Tories applied to their party by their opponents, and seemed determined to win the victory at all hazards. The Whigs were numerous and strong ; the Democrats had been weakened by discord.
In the Sixth Ward, where there was a large foreign population, a mob was soon gathered, and, led by an ex-alderman, rushed into the Whig committee-room, tore down the political banners, destroyed the ballots, and made a wreck of everything. They had felled to the floor, bruised and bleeding, about twenty of the inmates. The remainder escaped with bruises and torn garments. Clubs and even knives had been used, and one man was carried out in a dying condition. This occurrence gave the ward the title of the " Bloody Sixth."
This outrage aroused the opposite party to vigorous action, and under the lead of Colonel Webb an organized force of Whigs preserved com- parative order, especially at the polls, the next day ; but at night an enormous mob assembled in the City Hall Park. A cross had been set up near by bearing the words, " DOWN WITH THE COURIER AND ENQUIRER BUILDING," a five-story structure in Wall Street. Colonel Webb, the editor and proprietor of that journal, was the chief object of the wrath of the assembled multitude, who were required to march by and touch the cross. Then speakers in the park urged the excited populace to pro- ceed to Wall Street. They did so with shouts and yells, which sent a thrill of alarm throughout the city. They found Colonel Webb's castle so strongly fortified, with him at the head of a well-armed and deter- mined garrison, that they not only refrained from attack, but, cowards as they were, scampered away as fast as their legs could carry them.
On the following day there was a fierce collision in Broadway in front of Masonic Hall, where Mayor Gideon Lee, who attempted to quell the disturbance, was severely beaten. The rioters prepared to seize the Arsenal, when the mayor called out the (now) Seventh Regiment, National Guards, when order was soon restored by then ; but the city was kept in a state of excitement for nearly two days longer. The Democrats had elected their candidate for mayor, Mr. Lawrence.
The election riots of 1834 and the increasing numbers and influence of foreign-born citizens finally alarmed thoughtful men. It was found that these adopted citizens held the balance of power between the Whig and Democratic parties, and that whichever party gained a victory they claimed an unreasonable share of the " spoils." The best citizens of New York, believing it to be their duty to check this influence, so menacing to our free institutions through the instrumentality of the ballot- box, combined, in the winter of 1842-43, in forming a new political
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ABOLITION RIOTS IN NEW YORK CITY.
organization for the purpose, which was called the Native American Party. They elected James Harper,* of the publishing house of Harper & Brothers, Mayor of New York in the spring of 1844, by a majority of over four thousand. From this auspicious beginning the party spread over the State and the republic, but its policy became so narrow and so really anti-American in character that after the presi- dential election in 1856, when its candidate for President of the United States was Millard Fillmore, it was dissolved.
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