USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 54
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The governor's " demand " was not complied with. The exigency was too vitally important and the danger was too pressing to safely admit of delay. To save the Republic the army must be strengthened. The draft was resumed. General Dix asked Governor Seymour for military aid to enforce the measure. It was refused, when the Secretary of War ordered many regiments and batteries of artillery to the assist- ance of the commander of the Department of the East. An enrolment of the militia in New York, which was completed in September, showed
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THE NATIONAL CURRENCY ESTABLISHED.
that there were five hundred and thirty-nine thousand five hundred and thirty-nine men in the State subject to the draft.
Early in 1863 a powerful association was formed in the city of New York for the special purpose of giving support, moral and physical, to the National Government in its struggles with its foes, secret and open. It was organized on March 30th, 1863, with the title of the " Union League Club," and did noble service to the good cause during the re- mainder of the war. This club was essentially the child of the United States Sanitary Commission.
The Union League Club asked Governor Seymour to give them au- thority to recruit a regiment of colored troops. Ile refused, on the ground that he had not the power to do so. That authority was imme- diately given by the Secretary of War, and within a month a full regi- ment was recruited and placed in camp, for which duty the Club con- tributed $18,000. The regiment received their colors (presented by the loyal women of the city) in front of the club house. Six months after the riot, when no colored man dared to be seen in the streets of New York, this regiment marched down Broadway on its journey to the field, receiving tokens of respect and honor at every step.
In February, 1863, Congress passed an act for the establishment of a national paper currency that should circulate at par in all parts of the Union ; also for the creation of national banking institutions. The author of this admirable scheme, which has worked so beneficently for the peo- ple and the nation, is the venerable John Thompson, then as now (1887) an eminent financier in the city of New York. He and Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, were intimate personal friends. So early as June, 1861, Mr. Thompson, in a letter to the Secretary, proposed the plan, which Congress substantially adopted. When the law was passed Mr. Thompson showed his " faith by his works." He established in the city of New York the first bank under the law, and called it the " Chase National Bank."
As the war went on the State of New York continued to make strik- ing displays of its vast military strength and other resources. The year 1864 was a memorable one in its history. General prosperity prevailed. The people bore the enormous burdens laid upon them with cheerfulness and alacrity. Careful of the credit and honor of the commonwealth, the Legislature early in the year adopted a joint resolution that no dis- tinction should be made between the foreign and domestic creditors of the State in the payment of interest on the State debt. It was done, and the interest was paid to all alike in gold or its equivalent. At the same session provision was made to secure at the general election the votes of
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
the soldiers and seamen who might be absent on actual duty at the time. At the Presidential election in the fall thousands of electors engaged in the naval and military service voted by proxy.
President Lincoln was renominated for the Chief Magistracy by the Republicans. General George B. McClellan, who had left the army, was the Democratic opponent, and received the solid vote of the Peace Fac- tion. But Mr. Lincoln was elected by an overwhelming majority of the votes of the loyal people.
The National Government, having information that Confederates in Canada, acting as agents of the rebel government, had formed a con- spiracy to interfere with the Presidential election and endeavor to inau- gurate a counter-revolution in the Northern States, by sending refugees, deserters from the Union armies, aliens, and others to vote, precautionary measures were taken. General Dix, commander of the Department of the East, provided for the arrest and summary punishment of such offenders against the purity and freedom of the ballot and of social. order. He was seconded by Governor Seymour. On November 2d the Mayor of New York City (Gunther) received a telegram from the Secretary of State (Seward) warning him that a conspiracy among the Confederate agents in Canada was on foot to burn the principal cities in the Northern States on the day of the Presidential election.
To protect the city of New York at that election about seven thousand troops were sent to the vicinity and placed on steamboats which were anchored in the surrounding waters, ready for prompt action at any mo- ment. General B. F. Butler was sent from Fortress Monroe to take the chief command.
The Confederates and their Northern friends were foiled by this prompt and energetic action, and peace and good order were maintained at the elections throughout the State. Butler left the command of the troops with General Hawley on November 15th, when all danger seemed to be overpast. But ten days afterward the execution of a part of the con- spiracy was attempted in the city of New York bysetting on fire, at the same hour at night, of a large number of hotels and Barnum's Museum. One of the culprits, who was caught and hanged, confessed that he and several others had been sent by Confederates in Canada to lay the city of New York in ashes. They intended to start the conflagration on the night of ' the election, but some of their inflammable material was not then ready. At the fall election in 1864 Reuben E. Fenton* was chosen Governor
Reuben E. Fenton was born July 4th, 1819, in Chautauqua County, N. Y. ; a descendant of one of the noted early settlers of Connecticut. He worked on his father's farm in the warm season and studied in a log school-house in winter until he was fifteen
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PROSPECTS OF PEACE.
of the State of New York by the Republicans, by a majority of over eight thousand votes. During that year the commonwealth had put forth its might in a surprising manner. It sent into the field from its farms and workshops and mercantile life 161,604 men. From April, 1861, to December, 1864, the State had given to the military service 437,701 men, of which number 409,426 had entered the army and 28,275 the navy. To preserve a record of every man sent from New York to the field, and for a depository of battle-flags and other trophies of the war, a Bureau of Military Statistics was established at the State capital, and for its use a fire-proof build- ing was subsequently erected. Out of the enrolled militia of the State a National Guard was formed, con- sisting of about forty-six thousand men.
At the beginning of 1865 there was a glowing promise of a speedy REUBEN E. FENTON. termination of the war and the re-establishment of a Union strengthened and powerful. Brilliant vic- tories had been won by the great armies led by Generals Grant and Sherman. The latter had marched triumphantly through Georgia-the "Empire State of the South"-from Atlanta to the sea, and discovered
years old, when he received a little academic education. In early life he became exten- sively engaged in the lumber business. At the age of twenty-three he was elected super- visor of his town, and held the office eight years. In 1840 he became a member of the Assembly, and in 1849 he was elected to Congress. He was a Democrat, but he firmly opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and fought against the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which effected it. With the passage of that act by the joint action of the Democrats and slaveholders, Mr. Fenton abandoned the Democratic Party, and became an active member of the Republican Party at its organization in 1854. He presided at the first Republican State Convention in New York. In 1856 the Republican Party elected him to Congress, wherein he served four terms successively. In 1864 he was elected Governor of his native State. Horatio Seymour was his opponent. An active war governor, he won the affection of all soldiers by the warm interest he always manifested in their welfare in or out of the army. His general poliey during his administration was gener- ally approved by the best men of both parties. He was engaged in the business of bank- ing at the time of his death, which occurred very suddenly, from heart disease, in his private office at his banking-house at Jamestown, N. Y., on August 25th, 1885. In person Governor Fenton was tall and slender, and graceful in figure and movements.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
the fatal weakness of the Confederacy ; the former, at Petersburg, was destroying the props of the Confederate capital, Richmond, which even then was tottering to its fall.
In his message to the Legislature (January, 1865) Governor Fenton congratulated the people of New York becanse of abounding prosperity in every part of the commonwealth, and the bright outlook of the future for the nation. He submitted to them the Thirteenth Amendment to the National Constitution proposed by Congress for the abolition of slavery, with an earnest recommendation for its prompt adoption. It was done.
The congratulations of the governor were justified by events. On April 9th the main Confederate Army under General Robert E. Lee was surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court-House, in Virginia ; and the next larger Confederate force, under General Joseph E. John- ston, surrendered to General Sherman near Raleigh, in North Carolina, on the 14th. These two events caused the speedy ending of the war.
The telegraph had thrilled the loyal people with the glad tidings of these auspicions events, when it checked the exuberance of that joy by imparting the sad news of the assassination of the President of the United States at a theatre in Washington, on the evening of the 14th of April. He expired the next morning. The Vice-President (Andrew Johnson) immediately assumed the functions of the exalted office, and the integrity and strength of the Government experienced no shock from the dreadful blow.
At the close of the war, in May, 1865, the State of New York had furnished for the conflict 473,443 men, including 16,000 militiamen mustered for a less term of service than three months. Of this number the city of New York gave 116,382 men for terms of one, two, three, and four years' service. The average cost for each man, including bounties, expenditures for the relief of their families, etc., was $150.47.
So rapidly did the great armies dissolve and become a part of the civil life of the nation, " that at the beginning of 1866 only seven regiments of infantry and two of cavalry of the New York troops remained in the service of the United States. In addition to other enormous expendi-
* The disbanding of the victorious armies of the republic began in June, 1865, and the soldiers returned to their homes. It was a most interesting-and rare spectacle for the contemplation of the nations. In the space of one hundred and fifty days the vast multi- tude of defenders of the Union were transformed into peaceful citizens, and resumed the varied and blessed avocations of peace. There had been enrolled for duty 2,656,591 men, of whom 1,490,000 were in actual service. By mid-winter of 1866, 750,000 men had been mustered out of the service.
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IMPORTANT LEGISLATIVE ACTION.
tures for the war, the State of New York disbursed over $35,000,000 to its soldiers in bounties alone from July 17th, 1861, to January 1st, 1866.
The population of the State diminished during the war. There were nearly forty-nine thousand less inhabitants in 1865 than in 1860. There were eighty thousand less in the city of New York than there were five years before. This diminution may be attributed to various canses directly or indirectly connected with the war. The total population of the State at the close of 1865 was abont four millions.
Little of special historie importance occurred in the State after the close of the war until the meeting of the Constitutional Conven- tion, in 1867. The Legislature, early in 1866, passed resolutions, by a large majority in both branches : (1) That no State in which rebel- lion had existed should be admitted to share in the national legislation until it should be presented in the attitude of loyalty and harmony in the person of representatives whose loyalty could not be questioned ; (2) that the nation, by its professions and acts from the beginning of the war, and especially by accepting the President's proclamation of emancipation, and an amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery, stands pledged to the world, to humanity, and, above all, to the freed- men, that in all lawful ways the liberty and civil rights of every human being subject to the Government of the United States shall be protected and enforced, regardless of race, color, or condition, against every wrongful opposing law, ordinance, custom, or prejudice ; and " that the spirit which formed and organized and developed to the present strengtli that policy has not fulfilled its allotted work until every subject of that Government stands not only free, but equal before the law."
The Legislature of 1867 adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to the National Constitution proposed by Congress, which guaranteed equal rights to every citizen of whatever hue or social condition ; defined the status in regard to public offices of men who had engaged in the rebel- lion ; declared the validity of the national debt, and forbade the pay- ment of any part of the Confederate debt by the nation or a State.
An act was passed for increasing the State tax for the support of common schools, declaring that all the schools of the State, including normal schools, should be " free," and providing for the establishment of additional normal schools in different parts of the State.
The Legislature also passed an act making eight hours' labor a legal day's work. This did not apply to farm laborers or men hired by the week, month, or year, nor did it prevent the making of contracts for any length of time.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
In March (1867) a convention to consider a revision of the State Constitution was authorized. Delegates were chosen in April. The convention assembled in the State Capitol on June 4th. William A. Wheeler, of Franklin County (afterward Vice-President of the United States), was appointed President, and Luther Caldwell, of Chemung, Secretary. The number of delegates was one hundred and sixty, of whom ninety-seven were Republicans and sixty-three were Democrats. In September the Convention took a recess. It reassembled on Novem- ber 12th, and continued its sessions into 1868, holding the meetings after January 1st in the City Hall, at Albany.
Various amendments were discussed. Some were adopted, by the provisions of which the right of suffrage was conferred on all male in- habitants of the age of twenty-one years and upward, without distinction of color ; the payment of the canal and other State debts was secured ; the time of office of Senators was extended to four years ; the Assembly was increased to one hundred and thirty-nine members ; the Court of. Appeals was organized with a chief-justice and six associate justices ; the existing Supreme Court organization was retained, with certain additional provisions for the despatch of business-the judges to be chosen by the people, and to hold their offices for fourteen years, or until they attain the age of seventy years. Provision was also made for submitting to the people in 1873 the question whether such judges should continue to be elected, or whether the position should be filled by appointment. The remaining provisions were substantially the same as the Constitution of 1846.
The amended Constitution was submitted to the people at the general election in the fall of 1869. The portions concerning the judiciary, taxation, and Negro suffrage were voted upon separately. The whole amended Constitution was rejected by the people by a negative majority of 66,521 votes, excepting the judiciary portion. That received an affirmative majority of 6798 votes. The amendment in favor of Negro suffrage was rejected by a negative majority of 32,601 votes.
During the autumn of 1867 Cornell University, one of the most use- ful of the literary and scientific institutions in the State of New York, was opened, under favorable auspices, at Ithaca. It was founded by Ezra Cornell, with the leading object in view of promoting instruction in agricultural science and the mechanic arts, and the literal and prac- tical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and pro- fessions in life, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, including military tactics. The State endowed the institution with the proceeds of nine hundred and ninety thousand acres of public lands, its
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY ENDOWMENTS.
share of the domain given by Congress for such a purpose. The founder gave $500,000, and he and others afterward added $1,000,000 to the endowment funds. The institution is thoroughly equipped with build- ings and apparatus, and a library of about forty-six thousand volumes.
At the November election, in 1868, the Democrats elected their can- didate for Governor of New York, John T. Hoffman, by a majority of twenty-eight thousand votes, while the Republicans elected a majority of the members of the Legislature. At the same time General Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican candidate, was elected President of the United States by a large majority over Horatio Seymour, the Democratie ean- didate, with Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President. Mr. Seymour received a majority of ten thousand votes in his own State, while a majority of the Congressmen to represent New York were chosen by the Republicans.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE first administration of Governor Hoffman * (1869-71) was dis- tinguished by few important events in the history of New York. The Republican Legislature by concur- rent resolution (1869) adopted the Fifteenth Amendment to the Na- tional Constitution proposed by Con- gress in the following words :
" ARTICLE XV. Section 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
" Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
JOHN T. HOFFMAN. This resolution was vehemently opposed by the Democratic members of the Legislature, and was carried by a strict party vote of 17 to 15 in the Senate and 72 to 47 in the Assembly. The governor did not com-
* John Thompson Hoffman descended from Martin Hoffman, who came to New York from Holland in 1671. His grandfather was Philip Livingston Hoffman, a grandson of Philip Livingston, of Livingston Manor. His father, Adrian Kissam Hoffman, after brief service in the navy, took up his residence at Sing Sing, N. Y., where his only son, John T., was born January 10th, 1828. At the age of eighteen he was graduated with honors at Union College, N. Y. He studied law with the late General Aaron Ward, and was admitted to the bar on his twenty-first birthday. A year before, he was a member of the State Central Committee of a wing of the Democratic Party. In 1849 he removed to the city of New York and formed a law partnership, soon rising to distinction in his pro- fession. In 1854 he became a member of the Tammany Society, and was prominent in local politics. In 1860 he was elected Recorder of New York-the principal judge of criminal jurisdiction ; and in 1865 he was elected mayor of the city over several opposing candidates. In 1868 he was elected Governor of the State of New York by the Demo- cratic Party by a majority of over twenty-seven thousand votes, and was re-elected in 1870 by a majority of thirty-three thousand. In 1873 he retired from public life. Gov- ernor Hoffman's administration was conspicuous for the creation of the Constitutional Commission of 1872, which was his own device. The Legislature authorized it, and
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A REACTIONARY MOVEMENT.
municate this action to the proper authority at Washington until re- quested to do so by the Assistant-Secretary of State.
At the general election in November the political aspect of the State was entirely changed. At the opening of the sessions of the Legislature in 1870, the Democrats had the ascendancy in both Houses. There were eighteen Democrats and fourteen Republicans in the Senate, and seventy-two Democrats and fifty-six Republicans in the Assembly. On the first day of the session the notorious William M. Tweed, soon to be convicted as a plunderer of the public treasury in New York City and to be imprisoned for his crimes, offered in the Senate a series of resolu- tions withdrawing the assent of the State to the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. After reciting in the preamble the proposed Amendment, it was
" Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of New York refuses to ratify the above-recited proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and withdraws absolutely any expression of consent heretofore given thereto, or ratification thereof.
" Resolved, That the governor be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions and preamble to the Secretary of State of the United States at Washington, and to every member of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, and the governors of the several States."
The Legislature of 1872 rescinded these resolutions by an overwhelm- ing majority.
During the session of 1870, the charters of the cities of Albany and New York were amended. That of the latter ostensibly restored self- government to the people of the city. Thenceforward the Mayor, Com- mon Councilmen, Corporation Council, and the Comptroller were elected by the people. A Department of Public Works was created, which embraced the Street and Aqueduct Departments ; also a Department of Docks. The heads of these departments, as well as of a Department of Public Parks, a Fire, Health, and Police Department, were appointed by the mayor under the new charter, an instrument obtained for a sin- ister purpose, as we shall perceive presently.
During this session an important change was made in the public-
Governor Hoffman appointed thirty-two citizens, composed of an equal number of Demo- crats and Republicans, to revise the State Constitution. The labors of that commission were of vital importance, rendering subsequent reforms in the administration of public affairs practicable. It was during his administration that the exposures of the " Tweed Ring" were made. For his veto of the City Charter presented by the Committee of Seventy the governor gave satisfactory constitutional reasons.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
school system in the city of New York. The Board of twenty-one School Commissioners was dissolved and a new Board was created, con- sisting of twelve members appointed by the mayor, who were to hold office until 1871, after which their successors were to be elected by the people. As usual, the subject of common schools occupied a large space in the governor's annual message. He reported that the receipts of the Common School Fund in 1868 amounted to $10,500,000, of which amount $5,500,000 had been applied to the payment of teachers' wages during that year. There had been expended for the libraries, $26, 726 ; for school apparatus, $234,432 ; for the support of schools for colored children, $64,765, and $2,000,000 for school-houses. In 11,731 school districts, 971,500 children had been taught by 27,000 teachers. The libraries contained an aggregate of 1,000,000 volumes. The National Census for 1870 gave to the State a population of 4,374,703, or an in- crease of nearly half a million in ten years.
The elections in the State of New York in the fall of 1870 resulted in the success of the Democratic ticket by a majority of about thirty thou- sand. Governor Hoffman was re-elected. The Democrats secured a little more than one half of the representatives of the State in Congress. The two branches of the Legislature were respectively almost equally divided politically, and a tie was produced in the Assembly by the compulsory resignation of a member from New York City because of his misconduct in the Legislative Chamber.
At midsummer (1871) a serious riot occurred in the city of New York between two Irish religious factions-namely, the " Orangemen" (Protestants) and the " Ribbon Men" (Roman Catholics). As the annual parade of the former was usually an incentive to personal col- lisions, the police authorities had forbidden it, but at the request of Governor Hoffman the order was revoked. The parade took place. A large body of both police and military turned out to protect the proces- sion. At one point a mob attacked the marching line, and before order was restored several persons were killed.
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