USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 30
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 30
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 30
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 30
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 30
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As a result of all this, there flamed up in this state the strange movement which culminated in the Anti-Masonic party. At first there was nothing of a political nature about the movement but soon
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the statement became frequently heard that the slayers of Morgan would never be brought to justice because most of the judges of the state were Masons. It was then that the movement became political and the Anti-Masonic party was born, a party which had but one plank and that was that no Mason should be elected to public office. It is hard for us of the present day to appreciate the tremendous force of this movement of the latter twenties and the early thirties. Masons by the scores renounced their Masonic affiliations. Some made public announcement of their "renuncia- tions," as they were called. Others simply withdrew from their lodges because they considered that the advisable course in view of the public excitement. Two Anti-Masonic papers came into exist- ence in Jefferson county and one in Oswego county. Churches were torn assunder in the excitement. From many a pulpit preachers thundered out against the Masons. The Universalist church in Watertown was a center of the Anti-Masonic feeling and in Adams the whole town went over to the Anti-Masonic doctrine.
Something of the intensity of the movement may be appreciated when it is known that only two Masonic lodges in all Northern New York remained in any way active during the period of the excite- ment. Sackets Harbor lodge, formed in 1805 and the earliest lodge in the North Country, suspended in 1827. Watertown Lodge, No. 289, forfeited its charter in 1832, but it was restored in 1835. Champion Lodge, No. 146, seems to have continued in existence all through the Anti-Masonic excitement, but it was inactive for sev- eral years. Rising Sun Lodge at Adams was one of the first to "go down," as they said in those days, and private papers belonging to the lodge were stolen and published in all the Anti-Masonic papers. Washington Lodge, No. 256, of Henderson, went out of existence in 1832. Orion Lodge, No. 286, of Woodville, was abandoned in 1827. Brownville Lodge, No. 318, was inactive from 1827 to 1839. Cape Vincent Lodge, No. 344, was abandoned about 1828. Union Lodge, No. 397, of Rodman, was dissolved in 1827. Alexandria Bay Lodge, No. 383, passed out of existence at this same time as did the Queen of Sheba Lodge of Antwerp. Hermon Lodge of Evans Mills surrendered its charter in 1827. Scotch Lodge, No. 500, of Ox Bow, forfeited its charter in 1833, and Depauville Lodge passed out of existence about this same time.
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Rainbow Lodge of Chateaugay, established in 1809, went out of existence in 1827, the year after Morgan disappeared. Northern Constellation Lodge, No. 148, of Malone, the earliest Masonic lodge in Franklin county, made its last return to the grand lodge in 1827 and forfeited its charter in 1833. Jefferson Lodge, No. 64, of Low- ville, formed at Martinsburg in 1806, surrendered its charter in 1831. Orient Lodge of Denmark was suspended about this same time. Northern Light Lodge of Stockholm is said to be the only Masonic lodge in St. Lawrence county which lived through the Anti- Masonic excitement. Among the lodges which "went down" at that time were Lodge of Benevolence at Hopkinton, Columbia Lodge at Madrid, Hamilton Lodge at Hamilton, now Waddington, Harmony Lodge of Potsdam and Olive Branch Lodge at Massena.
The Adams Censor, an Anti-Masonic publication, was established in 1828, and the Watertown Censor, another Anti-Masonic publica- tion, soon afterwards. About this same time, too, the Oswego Free Press, another Anti-Masonic newspaper, came into existence with Richard Oliphant as editor. On September 12, 1828, the anniver- sary of Morgan's disappearance, a great Anti-Masonic meeting was held at the Universalist church in Watertown, addressed by the Rev. Mr. Freeman. The Anti-Masonic press teemed with "renuncia- tions" of Masons. Included among them was Abner Morton of Adams, who became a well known Anti-Masonic editor, and the Rev. Joshua Freeman of Adams, who later addressed the Anti- Masonic meeting at Watertown. Every "renunciation" was hailed by the Anti-Masonic press as if a brand had been plucked from the fire. E. E. Camp of Sackets Harbor traveled all over the north with a troupe putting on Masonic degrees for the edification of the peo- ple, until an action was brought against him and his associates in Champion, always a strong Masonic center, for putting on a theat- ical performance without a license. That ended the Anti-Masonic show.
So intense was the feeling at this time that when Henry D. Sewall, Whig candidate for congress, was charged with being a Mason by the Democrats, a Whig editor of Watertown waxed in- dignant and wrote: "What would be the most suitable employment for a postmaster of a populous village, to stay at home and mind the business of his office, for which he received $1,000 a year of
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the people's money, or to trust the same to a clerk both stupid and saucy and hurry to travel around the county retailing poor Editor Smith's lies, particularly that most bare-faced of all lies, that H. D. Sewall is a Free Mason." And later when the Adams Censor alleged Silas Wright was a Free Mason, Wright's friends forced the editor to retract his statement on threat of a libel suit.
All over Northern New York the Anti-Masons prepared for a test of strength in the election of 1828. The Jefferson county Anti- Masons nominated Jonathan Gillingham of Brownville, Titus Ives of Watertown and Aaron Brown of Lorraine for members of the assembly, but the ticket was decisively defeated, much to the glee of the Democrats. The Anti-Masonic leaders were clearly disgusted and scolded their followers for voting as Perley Keyes (the Demo- cratic leader of Jefferson county) directed. As the Adams Censor puts it: "They know not what, they know not whom, but as Perley Keyes and his followers direct." But Franklin county sent Luther Bradish to the assembly as an Anti-Mason and there he began the political career which was later to make him speaker of the assem- bly, lieutenant governor of the state and a candidate for governor.
Leading Anti-Masons in Northern New York, besides Mr. Bradish in Franklin county, were Chester Buck, James McVicker, Thomas L. Conkin, H. B. Carpenter and Edward Bancroft, all of Lewis county, Liberty Knowles and Harvey D. Smith of St. Law- rence county, George Fisher of Oswego county and Loveland Pad- dock, E. E. Camp, William C. Pierrepont, Daniel Lee and Reuben Goodale of Jefferson county. In the state elections of 1830 and 1832, the Anti-Masons showed strong strength all through the North. In 1832 Granger, who was supported by the Anti-Masons for gov- ernor, carried Jefferson county by fifty-five and Franklin county by 191.
But the leaven was at work. A party founded on passion and prejudice could not long endure. In 1830 the Masons of Jefferson county came out in a striking public appeal. "It is alleged among other things," they said, "that we take upon ourselves obligations and oaths which bind us to assist a Mason, when in difficulty, right or wrong, to vote for a Mason in preference to any other person, and, what is still worse, to keep the secrets of a Mason, murder and treason not excepted. And we say to you we have taken no
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such obligations as those above mentioned." The venerable Hart Massey of Watertown, one of the first four men to settle on the site of Watertown, headed the list of signers. Others who signed were Perley Keys, the Democratic leader, Orville Hungerford, his principal lieutenant, A. S. Greene, the postmaster, George C. Sher- man, and N. M. Flower of Alexandria. The Anti-Masonic papers tried to belittle the appeal by calling it a Democratic trick, but it had a tremendous influence, nevertheless. Gradually the Anti-Masonic movement declined. It was no longer a formidable, political force. Anti-Masonic papers passed out of existence. Anti-Masonry like a violent flame had burnt itself out. Members of the party drifted gradually into the new Whig party. But it was ten years or more before the Masonic lodges began to be re-established in Northern New York.
WRIGHT LOCATES IN CANTON
While all these things were going on a young lawyer in the little village of Canton, St. Lawrence county, was quietly rising to a position of political power, and more and more the name of Silas Wright was appearing in the political journals of the state. Silas Wright was a native of Vermont like so many of his St. Lawrence county neighbors. He was born in 1795 and graduated in 1815 from Middlebury College. He inherited his Democratic political beliefs from his father, who had served for ten years in the state legisla- ture. Vermont was a Federalist state in those days and Democrats were not numerous there. After graduation from college Silas Wright started the study of law and in 1819 was admitted to the bar. His health being poor his friends proposed a horseback trip and he set out with a companion on an extended trip which event- ually brought him to the little St. Lawrence county village of Canton. Here he found old friends and they offered to build him a law office provided he would locate among them.
Captain Medad Moody was a deciding factor in influencing the young lawyer to locate in Canton, and at that time began the friend- ship between Wright and Clarissa Moody which resulted many years later in the marriage of the two. Young Silas was not long in getting into politics. Largely through the influence of his friends he was appointed surrogate of St. Lawrence county in 1820 by Governor
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DeWitt Clinton, although the young lawyer was then but twenty- five years of age. A year later he was not only surrogate but also postmaster of Canton, justice of the peace and commissioner of deeds. Silas Wright never had much time to practice law. He held public office from almost the time he appeared at Canton until a comparatively short time before he died.
In the year 1823 Silas Wright was elected to the state senate in a district which had before been strongly Federalist. He was now twenty-eight years old with his first opportunity for public service in a larger field than that afforded by county office. He was inex- perienced but he was already showing those qualities which were later to make him famous. At the time of his election to the state senate he wrote his life-long friend, A. C. Flagg of Plattsburgh: "This elevation of myself to the office of senator, you may rest as- sured, sir, is premature; but it is too late for me to back out. Want of experience and of proper qualifications will be conspicuous, but want of proper democratic principles will not be felt."
It is regrettable that there is not a modern biography of Silas Wright. The Ramson, the Gillette and the Hammond biographies were written too soon after their subject's death. None of the illuminating correspondence now preserved in the State Library at Albany was then available. The brief life of Silas Wright written by William Estabrook Chancellor, while containing some of the corre- spondence, was little more than a campaign document for William Sulzer. Irving Bachellor gives the most graphic picture in his novel, "The Light in the Clearing." The "Autobiography of Martin Van Buren," published several years ago by the American Historical Society, throws much light on the relationship between Martin Van Buren and his premier lieutenant, while Dr. Herbert D. A. Dono- van's "The Barnburners" gives the best picture of the political life of the times. It is to the Northern New York newspapers of that period, however, that one must go if he would appreciate the affec- tion in which Silas Wright was held by his own people of the North Country. The files of such papers as the Oswego Palladium, the Watertown Jeffersonian and the St. Lawrence Republican during the period of the 1830s and the 1840s are the best kind of source mate- rial on Silas Wright in his relationship to Northern New York.
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In 1826 Silas Wright was elected a member of congress from the district composed of Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and St. Lawrence counties. It was a double district and Rudolph Bunner of Oswego was elected with him. The two defeated candidates were Nichol Fosdick of Herkimer and Elisha Camp of Sackets Harbor. The majority of Wright and Bunner was more than 500. By this time Wright and his leader, Martin Van Buren, were definitely in that faction of the Democratic party, known as "Bucktails." The op- posing faction was the Clintonians, or followers of DeWitt Clinton, of whom Elisha Camp of Sackets Harbor, who ran against Wright for congress, was one.
Silas Wright's service in the lower house of congress was not conspicuous, but his friends began to entertain a high respect for his political judgment. Especially was this so in the case of Martin Van Buren, now a United States senator. In 1828 Wright was again a candidate for congress but so sharp was the opposition he encountered from the Anti-Masons that he was nearly defeated. His colleague in the double district was defeated. When Silas Wright was engaged in his routine duties in Washington, his friend, Martin Van Buren, now governor of the state and firmly entrenched in power as head of one of the greatest political machines of all time, the Albany Regency, had him appointed comptroller of the state.
The office of comptroller was then a very important one. The confidence that Van Buren had in Wright's ability is best exempli- fied by the fact that he selected him for this important place. Per- haps, too, he wanted his adviser near at hand during his adminis- tration as governor. As comptroller Wright was able to demonstrate again his courage to meet public questions in a well-balanced, un- biased way. He rapidly gained influence in Democratic councils. He was now a full-fledged member of the Albany Regency, and in 1833 the legislature elected him to the United States senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the election of Marcy as governor of the state.
SILAS WRIGHT IN THE SENATE
Wright was thirty-eight years of age when he became a United States senator. Even now that would be considered unusually young for one to be a member of the senate. But at that time the senate
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was composed of as eminent men as the country has ever produced. There sat Henry Clay, already the idol of the Whigs, eloquent, ardent and chivalrous. There, too, was the great Calhoun, then at the height of his powers, Daniel Webster, whose oratory resounds down through the pages of history, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, who spoke for the new west, White of Tennessee, the polished Rives of Virginia, and the impetuous but courteous Preston. To this gal- axy of the great came young Silas Wright, unskilled in the art of debate, still bearing the earmarks of a country lawyer, but a better politician than any of them.
Andrew Jackson was president of the United States and if Old Hickory ever needed a champion in the United States senate, it was then. Thomas Hart Benton was a Jackson man but Benton spoke for the west. Calhoun was a Democrat but no one more cordially hated Jackson than he. Across the aisle sat the two giants of the Whig party, Webster and Clay, and upon the modest shoulders of Silas Wright, plain "Farmer Wright" from Canton, fell the respon- sibility of speaking for the administration in the senate. It was a responsibility which Wright felt keenly, but fortunately the always suave and diplomatic Martin Van Buren was vice-president and under Van Buren's magic hand Wright progressed rapidly.
It was a hard schooling which Wright received at the hands of his friend Van Buren. One incident which Van Buren relates in his autobiography indicates this. The Little Magician, feeling that Wright's modesty was preventing him from making full use of his powers, did not hesitate to go to the Canton man and tell him frankly that he was not coming up to the expectations of his friends. Wright pleaded guilty but said that his friends had exaggerated his ability. To this Van Buren replied :
"That is a point in respect to which all your friends differ from you. I, for one, know that in thinking so, you do yourself a rank injustice. Having reference to a clear and strong intellect, a sound judgment, reasoning powers of a high order, and perfect sincerity, integrity and disinterestedness in your purposes, the proper qual- ities for the leader of such an administration as the present, you have not your superior in the senate. That is the opinion of all your friends, and you are yourself only prevented from taking the
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position its general truth assigns to you, by an excess of modesty, the existence of which we all deplore."
Van Buren then went on to say that the president felt that his real views had not thus far been sufficiently developed on the floor of either house of congress, and was anxious that Wright should present the administration case. But Wright was reluctant. He suggested several other administration senators whom he felt were much better qualified than himself. Van Buren insisted, however, and finally Wright agreed to deliver the speech if Van Buren would prepare it for him. This Van Buren agreed to do. A few days later Senator Wright of New York arose in his seat and prepared to deliver his address, an address which, it must be said, was de- livered verbatum as Van Buren had written it out.
Says Van Buren: "He had not spoken ten minutes before Mr. Webster exchanged his own for a vacant seat near him and scarcely took his eyes from him until he had finished. Other prominent sen- ators, of whom Mr. Clay was one, also gathered around him and bestowed very unusual attention upon what fell from him. Web- ster replied instantly and gave notice at the close of his remarks that he would call for further consideration of the New York resolutions on the morrow; which he did, and thereupon made another vigorous effort in answer to Mr. Wright's speech."
In 1836 Van Buren was elected president and Silas Wright who had followed his leadership from the days when he helped carry St. Lawrence county for the "regency" candidates, was now Democratic leader of the United States senate and chairman of the finance com- mittee. Under the leadership of Wright and Benton the senate now passed the famous resolution expunging from its record the censure of Jackson secured by Clay a few years before. Wright was no longer the senate novice, asking someone else to write his speeches. He was beginning to find himself, to have confidence in his own judgment and with the tremendous power of Van Buren behind him his name began to be known nationally. Probably Wright was the real originator of the Independence Treasury plan. Upon this subject he wrote many letters and delivered many speeches. Several of his letters on this subject appeared in the St. Lawrence Repub- lican, which was now coming to be looked upon as the newspaper
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spokesman for Silas Wright. In 1840 President Martin Van Buren joyfully signed the Independent Treasury bill and Senator Wright had won his greatest fight.
POLITICS IN THE NORTH COUNTRY
While Silas Wright as the right-hand man of President Van Buren was becoming a national idol of the Democratic party, poli- tics were waxing warm in Wright's home constituency of Northern New York. The Whig party had come into being on the issue of the United States bank and internal improvements. But many drifted into the Whig party simply because they were opposed to Andrew Jackson. The Whig might dislike Martin Van Buren and Silas Wright and the Albany Regency but it was upon Andrew Jackson that he poured forth the vials of his hatred. A familiar toast at Whig banquets in the North Country in the early thirties was: "Andrew Jackson, the hero of three wars, the war against the constitution, the war against the senate and the war against the currency."
But it was the panic of 1837 which gave the Whigs the ammuni- tion they needed. Something has already been said about the effect of that panic in the North Country. A wave of speculation had struck the country. Everyone thought they were going to be rich. Paper money was plentiful and vast fortunes were made in buying and selling city lots. For some reason the idea seemed to prevail that every little harbor from Sackets to Green Bay on the Great Lakes was destined to be a place of great commercial importance. There were several places where cities were laid out, city govern- ments organized and newspapers established which today do not even have a place upon the map. As increditable as it may seem now the village of Port Ontario in Oswego county, three miles from Pulaski, had at that time a city government and proposed to rival Oswego.
Everyone wanted to borrow money and was willing to pay a startling sum in interest to get it. It is hard to believe today that in 1834 money was being advanced in Watertown at seventy percent per annum with plenty of takers. The Watertown Register, a Whig paper, purports to shudder at the blasphemy of a Jackson man, who, exhibiting some money, said : "This money is from the bank of
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Heaven of which All Mighty God is president, Jesus Christ is cash- ier and Andrew Jackson, first teller."
Of course the crash came and the Democratic party and its fiscal policy were given the blame. The 1837 panic was perhaps the most disastrous that the country has ever experienced. In May practically all the banks suspended. Both Oswego banks went down in the panic. In some places everyone was bankrupt. The currency, which con- sisted entirely of paper, was of uncertain value. No one receiving a five dollar bill could tell what he could get for it. Stores in Water- town and Oswego and Ogdensburg refused to accept notes on western banks. General gloom prevailed everywhere. The Whigs charged that the panic was the result of Jackson refusing to charter the United States bank. Even many of the Democrats had begun to feel that the administration's bank policy was a failure. Mr. Tallmadge, one of the Democratic senators from New York, gave the administra- tion a cold shoulder. Among the Democratic members of the House who acted with him were Isaac H. Bronson of Watertown, Henry A. Foster of Oneida and A. P. Grant of Oswego.
The Democratic party sustained a decisive defeat in the state in 1837. Of the 128 members of the assembly, the Democrats elected barely twenty-seven, but six of these twenty-seven were from North- ern New York. Jefferson county elected the following Democrats : Daniel Wardwell, Richard Hulbert and Charles B. Hoard. Lewis elected William Dominick, a Democrat, and St. Lawrence elected Preston King and Myron G. Peck. Franklin and Oswego county were carried by the Whigs, but Avery Skinner of Mexico, Oswego county, was elected to the state senate as a Democrat. Luther Bradish, Whig, of Franklin county, was returned to the assembly for the third time and was chosen speaker. The great influence of Silas Wright had been sufficient to stem the Whig tide in the North Country. Three out of the five counties remained in the Democratic column, and Avery Skinner, one of Wright's most ardent supporters in Oswego county, was now a member of the state senate.
LUTHER BRADISH AND PRESTON KING
Something should be said at this point of two of the Northern New York men who were sent to the legislature in the election of 1837. Luther Bradish of Moria, Franklin county, was now rapidly
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coming into prominence as one of the most eminent Whig leaders in the state. It will be recalled that Bradish was one of the organizers of the Anti-Mason party along with Thurlow Weed. Both went into the Whig party and were accepted leaders from the first. Mr. Bradish was fifty-four years of age when he was elected speaker of the assembly in 1837. He first became identified with Franklin county in 1815 when he made a large land purchase there, but does not seem to have taken up his residence there until 1826 when he located him- self on a farm in Moira, about two and a half miles north of the pres- ent village. Here he maintained a pretentious establishment. He was elected to the assembly first as an Anti-Mason and served there in 1828, 1829 and 1830. In 1830 he was the candidate of the Anti- Mason party for congress but was defeated by William Hogan of Hogansburg, Democrat. Seaver, the historian of Franklin county, attributes Mr. Bradish's defeat largely to the influence of Silas Wright.
In 1835 Mr. Bradish was again elected to the assembly, this time as a Whig. For three years in succession Franklin county returned him to the assembly and when the election of 1837 gave the Whigs control of the assembly, Mr. Bradish was the natural candidate for speaker. In 1838 Bradish was elected lieutenant governor, William H. Seward being elected governor. Two years later, both were re- elected, and in 1842 Bradish was the Whig candidate for governor, but was defeated. From that time on he retired from active politics. He was, however, made vice-chancellor of the regents of the Univer- sity of New York and about ten years later was appointed assistant treasurer of the United States at New York. He died in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1863.
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