USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 32
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 32
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 32
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 32
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 32
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Then came the Adams delegation, headed by a band and display- ing a banner representing a coon in a "Polk." Brownville was repre- sented by a procession nearly a mile long, headed by the Brownville band. A feature of their parade was "Polk's buggy," an immense platform mounted on wheels and supporting a pole fifty feet high from which streamed the stars and stripes. A field piece was also mounted on the platform and thundered forth a salute at every provocation. The Sackets Harbor delegation had a banner inscribed "Jefferson county is all Wright." The Lyme delegation was headed by a banner bearing the inscription, "Lyme never turns to Clay." As each delegation drew near Watertown, a reception committee of sixty mounted men with a band met them at the village limits and escorted them to the Democratic headquarters. By noon, it was esti- mated that there were 10,000 visitors in town.
Then the great parade moved to the field appointed for the meet- ing near the present Orchard street. N. M. Woodruff, who later built the Woodruff House at Watertown, called the meeting to order from a platform draped with banners labeled "Polk and Dallas." One who was on that platform said that as far as he could see was closely packed humanity. Seated on the platform with the speakers were Watertown's few remaining veterans of the Revolution, some of them in the faded buff and blue in which they had served in the Continental line. Dr. A. S. Greene was called upon to preside. Pres- ton King, his round, good-natured face lighted with enthusiasm, made the first speech. Speaker after speaker followed until Silas Wright arose to address the meeting. He spoke for nearly two hours. Prac- tically his entire speech was devoted to national problems and to lauding Polk and Dallas. The speeches started at 12:30 and did not end until 6:30, but most of those present remained until the bitter
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end. Wright's speech was carried to Albany by relays of fast horses. In a day or two it was printed in the Albany and New York papers. Within a week it was being read by the whole nation. The Demo- crats were jubilant. Polk was as good as elected.
The Democrats held a large meeting in Lowville October 8th which was addressed by Preston King and Gen. Dix. A feature of the parade which preceded the meeting was a great wagon, drawn by sixteen oxen, in which were seated thirty naturalized Germans from Croghan. A banner flying from the wagon bore this rather strange slogan: "The naturalized citizens of Croghan-Have we not the same rights as natives?" The largest Democratic meeting in Oswego county during that campaign was at Mexico, when there were 7,000 present and Silas Wright delivered the main address. The Whigs made little effort that year in Northern New York outside of Franklin county, although William H. Seward did speak at a mass meeting of Whigs at Carthage on October 4. When the vote was counted it was found that every county in Northern New York had gone for Polk with the exception of Franklin which Henry Clay carried by exactly fifty votes. Jefferson gave Polk 787 majority, Lewis gave him 400, Oswego gave him 600 and St. Lawrence county, Silas Wright's home county, rolled up the handsome Democratic ma- pority of 1,463. Wright had played the game squarely. New York state went into the Democratic column and Polk was elected by the electoral votes for this state.
SILAS WRIGHT AS GOVERNOR
But scarcely had Silas Wright been inaugurated governor of New York than trouble started in the New York state Democratic ranks. Martin Van Buren's star was fading. From one end of the country to the other the followers of the Little Magician were now looking to Silas Wright. In the words of Dr. Herbert D. A. Donovan, he "brought to his unsought-for post of the governorship a reputation for spotless integrity which afforded no vulnerable point for his enemies to attack; a record of statesmanship at which none might cavil; and a native ability and force of character which rendered it certain that he would handle the delicate problems of the state ad- ministration in accordance with sound principles of economics and government." Nevertheless, it was evident that there were two fac-
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tions within the Democratic party in the state. One was the radical faction of which Flagg, the comptroller, "Prince John" Van Buren, son of the former president, and James W. Wadsworth were leading lights. This faction was commonly known as the "Barnburners." The other was the conservative, of which Orville E. Hungerford of Watertown was becoming recognized as one of the leaders. The conservatives were commonly known as the "Hunkers."
Polk was grateful to Wright and on December 7, 1844, wrote to him offering him the post of secretary of the treasury. But Wright replied that he had been selected to replace Governor Bouck in an effort to create harmony in the state and he felt it his duty to serve out his term as governor. Polk then offered the post of secretary of war to Butler upon Van Buren's advice and upon Butler refusing it apparently considered that he had paid his debt to Van Buren, Wright and their friends. He then proceeded to confer the post of secretary of war upon William L. Marcy, who was allied with the "Hunkers" and therefore obnoxious to both Van Buren and Wright.
The "Hunkers" watched the governor with jealous eyes. They saw in every move he made an effort to benefit his friends, the "Barnburners." Probably Polk made every effort to keep out of the New York state factional fight. It is true that he appointed several of Silas Wright's friends to federal places, making William F. Allen of Oswego United States attorney for the Northern district of New York. But the Van Buren-Wright wing of the party soon came to the conclusion that the president was playing with their enemies. Feel- ing in New York became more bitter when through opposition on the part of the "Barnburners," the name of Henry D. Foster, "Hunker" of Utica, was withdrawn as a candidate for United States senator. Finally a compromise was reached which resulted in the legislature electing John A. Dix, "Barnburner," and Lieut. Gov. Dickinson, "Hunker," for the two vacancies in the senate. In the election of 1845 the breach that existed between the two wings of the Democratic party in the state became more evident, and resulted in the Whigs electing a state senator in the district including Jeffer- son county. The Jefferson County Democrat definitely blamed the result on the "Hunkers." Said the Democrat : "Oneida, conservative, bargaining, self-seeking Oneida, has under the influence of the cor- rupt clique which controls that county, gone over to the enemy."
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THE "HUNKERS" DEFEAT WRIGHT
Despite all these alarming signs of division in the Democratic ranks, Silas Wright presented himself as a candidate for re-nomina- tion in the Democratic state convention in 1846. Earlier the Demo- cratic county convention of Jefferson county had gone on record as favoring the renomination of Wright and most of the other northern counties had followed suit. Nevertheless such strong "Hunker" papers as the Utica Observer strenuously opposed him. But Wright was renominated by a vote of 112 to fourteen and not one of the fourteen who voted against him was from Northern New York.
It was apparent from the first that the Democrats were not going to have an easy time. The "Hunkers" were openly hostile to Wright, whom they looked upon as a leader of the "Barnburners." The Whigs were strongly united and had nominated their resourceful leader, John Young, for the governorship. Even Wright was doubtful. He wrote to Van Buren that "from all I can see, I incline to think that the leading conservatives are determined to make such opposition as they can. I infer this from the fact that they all predict defeat."
But even though there had been predictions aplenty, when the news came that Silas Wright had been defeated, the whole state was shocked. Particularly was this so in Northern New York which did not get the news until two weeks after the election. Wright had carried Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties in good shape, but he had lost Oswego and Lewis counties where the "Hunker" vote was strong. Examination of the election returns showed that the "Hunkers" generally had "cut" Wright. Wright, himself, attributed his defeat to the "Hunkers." Of course the result of the election caused the factional fight in the Democratic party to rage all the more bitterly. The Albany Atlas, the leading organ of the "Barn- burners," in definitely putting the responsibility for Wright's defeat on the shoulders of the "Hunkers," named Senator Scovil of Lewis county as one of the "Hunker" senators who had been lukewarm in his support of the governor.
Most of the Northern New York newspapers were "Barnburner" organs. Particularly was this so of the Oswego Palladium, of which the energetic Beman Brockway was editor, the Jefferson County Democrat and the St. Lawrence Republican of Ogdensburg. But there
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were "Hunker" papers, too, notably among them the Watertown Jef- fersonian, the organ of Orville Hungerford, the "Hunker" leader, the Lewis County Republican and the Fulton Times. These papers en- gaged in bitter charges and counter-charges. The "Barnburners," to support their allegation of treason, pointed to the vote in the town of Western, Oneida county, a strong "Hunker" center, where Wright had received but thirty-seven votes to 306 cast for the Democratic candidate for congress from that district. But the "Barnburners" were not above approach. In Jefferson county Orville Hungerford had been renominated for congress by the narrow majority of six over Lysander H. Brown, "Barnburner." Therefore enough "Barn- burners" united with the whigs to send Joseph Mullen, whig, to con- gress and to defeat Hungerford by forty-four votes. As a result of "Barnburner" opposition, Hungerford ran nearly 500 votes behind his ticket.
THE DEATH OF SILAS WRIGHT
Then suddenly in the midst of all this quarreling came the shock- ing news from St. Lawrence county, announced first in an extra edi- tion of the St. Lawrence Republican, that Silas Wright was dead. Wright, who had retired quietly to his home in Canton at the expira- tion of his term, devoting himself to his farm, suffered a stroke of apoplexy. He died two hours later, August 27th, 1847. The sorrow of the "Barnburners" was intense. Said the Albany Atlas in announc- ing his death: "Though rejecting with that striking disinterestedness that was his chief characteristic the posts of justice of the supreme court and secretary of the treasury and the nominations for the presi- dency and the vice-presidency, when offered to him under peculiar circumstances, the mass of the people of the north, the east and the west fondly hoped that the hour was approaching when no motives of delicacy not personal repugnance to public station would be allowed to defeat the high expectations they had formed for him, nor to pre- vent the bestowal of that honor which no one would feel at liberty to decline, when spontaneously tendered by a free people."
In other words, in the opinion of The Atlas, Silas Wright, had he lived, would have been the Democratic nominee for president in 1848, nor was The Atlas alone in its opinion since many Democratic papers
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already carried at their "mastheads" the words, "Silas Wright for president."
In Northern New York the death of Silas Wright was viewed as a national calamnity. Here was the idol of the whole section struck down by death in the prime of his usefulness. Said the Oswego Pal- ladium in commenting editorially upon his death: "Silas Wright never forgot he was one of the people. The humblest citizen in the land had his sympathies, for he felt humble himself."
The "Barnburners" all over the state fastened the responsibility for the death of Silas Wright directly upon the "Hunkers" who had defeated him for re-election. The "Barnburners" declared that Wright's heart had been broken by the treachery of members of his own party. From that time on the "Barnburners" referred to the Hunkers as "Silas Wright's assassins." Patiently they waited for their chance for revenge.
THE "BARNBURNERS' " REVENGE
That chance was not long in coming. The Democratic state con- vention of 1847 was held in Syracuse. Silas Wright had been dead only a few months. The "Barnburner" delegates from Northern New York swarmed down to the convention in an ugly mood. They were there to get revenge upon the "Hunkers" for their defeat of Silas Wright and they made no secret of their purpose. The floor leader of the "Barnburners" was Congressman Preston King of Ogdensburg, the close friend and chief lieutenant of Silas Wright. The floor leader of the "Hunkers" was Robert H. Morris of New York.
It became apparent from the first that the "Hunkers" had control of the convention. A "Hunker" growing tired of the "Barnburner" references to Silas Wright said it was a little late to talk of doing justice to Silas Wright, since his remains were reposing peacefully in the soil of St. Lawrence county, whereupon General Wadsworth, a "Barnburner" leader, leaped to his feet and pointing a long finger at the "Hunkers," cried, "It may be too late to do justice to Silas Wright, but, thank God, it is not to his assassins." And so the fight went on. The "Barnburners" were opposed to the extension of slavery into ter- ritory which was free or "which may hereafter be acquired by any action of the government of the United States." This was substan-
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PUBLIC LIBRARY, CARTHAGE, N. Y.
STATE STREET BRIDGE ACROSS BLACK RIVER, CARTHAGE, N. Y.
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tially the famous Wilmott Proviso for which Preston King had fought so hard on the floor of the House of Representatives. The "Hunkers" rejected the resolution preferring to remain silent on the question of slavery. Most of the "Barnburner" newspapers of the state therefore put the resolution at the head of their editorial col- umns with these significant words, "The stone which the builders rejected ; the same shall become the head of the column."
The "Hunkers" were successful in naming their full ticket, headed by Orville E. Hungerford of Watertown for comptroller. Then came the election. A great snow storm swept Northern New York on elec- tion, it is recorded, blocking all the country roads, but the sturdy "Barnburners" of the north cut their way through the great drifts to drive to the polling places. The Democratic ticket was overwhelm- ingly defeated. The "Barnburners" of Northern New York, as well as those of the rest of the state, had all voted Whig.
Consider the vote in Northern New York that year if one would get a picture of the effect of the death of Silas Wright upon the poli- tical situation. Every Northern New York county, with the excep- tion of Jefferson, where the strength of Orville Hungerford was suffi- cient to pull the ticket through, went into the whig column. Here were counties which had been Democratic for a generation. Yet Franklin county went Whig. Lewis County went Whig by 300 ma- jority. Oswego county went Whig by 400 majority, and rock-ribbed, iron-clad, Democratic St. Lawrence county, rolled up the tremendous Whig majority of 2,400. Eleven towns in St. Lawrence county which had given 2,584 Democratic votes in 1844, had but thirty-eight Demo- cratic votes in 1847. Rossie, Madrid and Pitcairn did not cast a single Democratic vote. Parishville and Stockholm gave one each. Canton, which in 1844 had given 543 Democratic votes, cast but eleven in 1847. So Northern New York took its revenge for the defeat of Silas Wright.
Thus the man who during his life had done more than any other to build up the Democratic party in the State of New York and es- pecially in Northern New York, through his death almost destroyed it. The "Barnburners" never returned permanently to the Demo- cratic ranks. They supported their old leader, Martin Van Buren, when he was the Free Soil candidate for president, and when in the
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mid-fifties the Republican party was organized, they followed, almost to a man, Silas Wright's old lieutenant, Preston King, into the Re- publican ranks.
For nearly a century now Silas Wright has been sleeping under a plain, marble shaft in the little cemetery at Canton. The house in which he died still stands, now the Silas Wright Tearoom. There may be Northern New Yorkers today who have never heard of Silas Wright, but the political complexion of the North Country is due in no small measure to the fact that Silas Wright lived-and died.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE ACADEMIES
THE OLD ACADEMIES, LOWVILLE, UNION ACADEMY AT BELLEVILLE, ST. LAWRENCE ACADEMY AT POTSDAM, MEXICO ACADEMY, GOUVERNEUR WESLEYAN, THE BLACK RIVER LITERARY AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE AND FRANKLIN ACADEMY AT MALONE-OSWEGO AND POTSDAM STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS-ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY-NEW YORK SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE.
Today when nearly every village and town in Northern New York is served by a modern high school with modern equipment and a trained teaching staff, it is hard to visionalize the time, a century ago, when a half dozen academies, built not through taxation or bond issues but by the voluntary subscriptions of a poor people, kept the light of learning burning in the North Country. The pre- Civil War era, particularly the thirties and the forties, was the golden age of the academies in Northern New York. They are in no sense to be compared with the modern high school. To the vil- lagers of Northern New York they were institutions of higher edu- cation. One who graduated from St. Lawrence Academy at Pots- dam or Lowville Academy at Lowville, or Union Academy at Belle- ville, was respected by his neighbors and friends as an educated person. Such a graduate was eagerly sought to teach in the elemen- tary schools and if he chose to remain on the home farm he bore an enviable reputation among his neighbors as a man of learning and substance. Or if he chose to enter a law office to study for admission to the bar, his preparation was considered adequate in every way.
The academy was of course not a public institution in the sense that the modern high school is. One who attended an academy paid
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tuition. If he came from out of town, as was often the case, many of the academies drawing from a wide territory, he roomed at the academy and often boarded himself. Most of those who attended the academies did so at a great sacrifice. One boy who attended Mexico Academy in Oswego county in the early days kept track of his expenditures and found that his grocery and meat bill averaged thirty-eight cents a week. A dormitory connected with the old Jefferson County Institute at Watertown was called Pancake Hall, because pancakes constituted the principal item on the menu. The boys brought salt pork and potatoes from their homes and no one but the son of well to do parents would think of spending the dollar or dollar and a half a week which was ordinarily demanded for board at the boarding houses.
It is hard to conceive today of the sacrific that went into the building of the sturdy limestone structures which housed the first academies in Northern New York. In order to build the first Frank- lin Academy at Malone seventy-three men executed mortgages on their homes, their only asset, these mortgages ranging all the way from $15 to $225. Union Academy at Belleville was made possible through the sacrifice of neighboring farmers determined that their children should have a chance for education. The first motto of Gouverneur Union Academy, later to be known as Gouverneur Wes- leyan, was "Brighter Hours Will Come," signifying the confidence of the subscribers that some day they would be able to pay off the debt on the building.
Under such circumstances it is strange to find many people looking upon the academies with suspicion. They were centers of aristocracy, they held, which should have no place in a democratic country. How anyone could look upon the half-starved boys, going to school for a few weeks and then getting a job teaching for a few weeks more so they could buy more salt pork and potatoes and go back to the academy, as aristocrats, is hard to comprehend today but such was the case nevertheless. Writes Alvin Hunt, early Watertown editor, in his weekly publication of the thirties: "If the votes cast by the professors and students of the Black River Literary and Religious Institute may be taken as evidence, that institution bids fair to be one of the most prolific hotbeds of aristocratic federal- ism in the county."
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Strange as it might appear most of the early academies in Northern New York were started as community enterprises and had no connection with any religious denomination. Later during the forties and the fifties a number of these institutions passed under the influence of the Black River Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, chiefly because the conference was ready to as- sume the financial responsibility for operating the academies in re- turn for the privilege of naming the principals and listing the academies as seminaries of the church. Thus the Gouverneur Union Academy became Gouverneur Wesleyan when it passed under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Conference. Mexico Academy sim- ilarly passed under the jurisdiction of the Methodist church for a time and Fulton Female Academy at Fulton. Ives Seminary, a later institution at Antwerp, was from the beginning a Methodist institution, and the Black River Literary and Religious Institute at Watertown, Presbyterian, but several of the old Northern acade- mies, notably Lowville and Union Academy at Belleville, always re- mained independent of any denomination influence and do to this day.
It is amazing to think of how early some of these Northern New York academies were established. Cazenovia Seminary was not established until 1825 and Rome Academy not until 1835, yet Malone had an academy of sorts, the old Harison Academy, probably prior to 1808, and Lowville Academy was established that year, the oldest institution with academy standing to be established in all Northern New York. St. Lawrence Academy at Postdam, which in the course of time became probably the best known of all the Northern New York academies, was incorporated by the state in 1816, but a school of academy standing had been operated there prior to the War of 1812. Union Academy at Belleville was established in 1826 and that same year Rensselaer-Oswego Academy at Mexico, later to be known simply as Mexico Academy, came into being. That year was a good one for academies since it was in 1826 that the Water- town Female Academy, in its day a well known institution, was dedicated. Gouverneur Union Academy opened in 1828 and the state granted a charter for Franklin Academy in 1831.
These were the earliest academies and in their day the most famous ones. It is of interest to note that none of them was located
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at one of the large centers of population. Neither Watertown, Ogdensburg nor Oswego sponsored one of the earlier academies. Instead they were erected in the smaller communities where the people were in general poorer than in the larger villages. It would be hard to over-estimate the influence of these old academies upon the sections which they served. The influence of Union Academy, Belleville, upon the village and the neighboring territory has been so pronounced that it was made the subject of a special study by the United States department of agriculture. This academy still pre- serves its century-old name and its organization even though it has been long since a public high school. St. Lawrence Academy at Potsdam was one of the first schools in the state to effectively train teachers for elementary school work. In its day it had a wide influence, attracting students from as far away as Lower Canada. Its trustees still function even though St. Lawrence Academy has long since been the Potsdam State Normal School. Until a few years ago old Mexico Academy with its great, colonial, three-story columns was a lankmark on the Watertown-Oswego highway, but now a modern building stands on the site.
Tuition charges in these early academies were not excessive. At the Watertown Female Academy, for example, tuition in the juve- nile class was $3 a term, in the preparatory class $5, in the junior class $6 and in the senior class $10. For an additional fee drawing, music and French were taught. Board and tuition combined were $100 a year but it was specified that "each young lady must be furnished with bed and bedding, napkins, a silver spoon and a tumbler." At the old Black River Literary and Religious Institute tutition for the ordinary branches was $16 a year, for the higher branches $25 a year and for Latin, Greek and the high mathematics $30 a year. Board, including washing, was from ten to twelve shillings a week. Later this tuition was reduced to $12 a year for the ordinary branches, $20 a year for the higher branches, but the charge of $30 was still maintained for Greek and Latin.
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