USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester county in history; manual and civil list, past and present. County history: towns, hamlets, villages and cities, Volume II > Part 17
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"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: A very pleasant duty was allotted to me when I was given the honor, that many would covet, of naming to this assembly the man whom we all believe is worthy of being named in connection with a nomination we have been called here to make.
" The Republican party, represented in judicial convention, pays to-day its highest tribute to an honored Judge.
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" Three years ago the Ninth Judicial District held its first convention in this place. Justice Mills, Justice Tompkins and Justice Morschauser were then enthusiastically nominated and a few weeks later triumphantly elected and are now serving the people of this district with ability, respect and honored by all.
" It was demonstrated then, and I think is generally con- ceded, that this district is a Republican district and that a nomi- nation upon that ticket will generally insure election.
" Furthermore, it is apparent that at the bar of the coun- ties comprising this district there are many eminent and learned lawyers, fully qualified for judicial positions.
" Yet under these circumstances we, Republican lawyers, are met here to-day with a purpose of nominating for Judge of the Supreme Court a man in political faith opposed to us.
" In doing this, we bestow a high honor upon our choice and at the same time ennoble and enrich the party to which we belong.
" It is said that the Republican party can be depended upon to do the right thing at the right time, and this, I believe, is because of the fact that it is generally the endeavor of that party to do what is right.
" I believe that what we are about to do here to-day is being done because no other course would be right, politically or otherwise.
" The man here to be nominated has served as our Judge for fourteen years, and during all that time has held the scales even, never stooping to see or stopping to inquire as to the political affiliations of those before him. Even-handed justice has always been his watchword, and to-day, in making this unanimous nomination, we are simply obeying the rule as laid down by him during the past fourteen years.
" But, beyond the fact that Judge Keogh deserves a renomi- nation and that any other course on our part would be wrong, we find this duty in his case most delightful.
" There are no party lines among the people of this district in their love and affection for the Judge. His many qualities of head and heart have endeared him to us all. We admire his ability, we honor his character, but we love the man.
" The young lawyer has been encouraged and helped by his patience and kindness. His humor has enlivened many a dull case. His knowledge of human nature has made the course of
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justice plain. We have often been beaten before him, but have usually gone home contented, instead of to the nearest tavern to ' cuss ' the Judge.
" As was said of Charles James Fox-' His intellect is all feeling and his feeling all intellect.'
" To-day everything that can make life honorable, every- thing that can make life happy-respect, success, the con- sciousness of usefulness, the regard of his fellow-men-all are his.
" The promise of the Hebrew prophet is again fulfilled. 'If thou wilt walk in my way, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou also shalt judge my house and shall keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among those that stand high.'
" As Judge Keogh's neighbor and friend, I am honored in presenting his name as the Republican candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court."
Hon. Frank V. Millard, Surrogate of Westchester County, recognized among his political associates as " the instigator " of Justice Keogh's nomination by the Republican party, was called upon, unexpectedly to him, to second the nomination made by the former District-Attorney.
The young jurist, on rising to comply with requests for a speech, was greeted with hearty applause by his fellow delegates.
The Surrogate delivered his offhand, impromptu address in his usual happy, jocular vein, in keeping with the joyous spirit That prevailed in the Convention.
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: I was, until now, uninformed as to my being regularly assigned to appear on either side of this action; therefore, I am caught without preparation or opportunity to prepare a brief. How- ever, I will attempt in talking to make necessary brief.
" In fact, I will not endeavor to give evidence of 'a big spoke and a long tire to the waggin' of my tongue,' as some poet has said.
" As I understand it, this action is brought in the name of the people, demanding the retention within certain ' limits ' of a certain man, for a term of fourteen years.
" That this is not a 'John Doe ' proceeding is manifest, owing to the fact that the name of the man we are seeking is .
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well known to all of us. He has had a fair trial and on his own motion secured many adjournments, running through years; therefore, this body, sitting as a ' Court of Last Appeal,' can, without hesitation, be asked to confirm the action of the Court ' below,' which, this morning, heard the case on behalf of the People and passed judgment.
" It may, your honor, Mr. Chairman, be an unusual pro- ceeding, but I make motion that, first, a sentence of fourteen years be passed, and, second, that the sentenced one be brought here before us and be required to answer whether or not he will, kindly, accept and serve so long a term of retention, and on his decision rests the confirmation of sentence.
" Mr. Chairman, I beg that you will pardon me if I appear given to more levity than the occasion warrants. My excuse is that I am full to overflowing with the extraordinary good feeling displayed in connection with this joint nomination of the able jurist who has so many years honored our County, and the judicial district, while serving as a Supreme Court Justice.
" It is a pleasure to me at this time to stand up and second the nomination of Judge Keogh; and it was just as much pleasure to me, nearly two years ago, when presiding at the Bar Association dinner of this county, to suggest that which is happening now should take place; indeed I went further and said that the fact that Judge Keogh would succeed himself was a foregone conclusion.
" We like Judge Keogh for many reasons. First, because of the fact that he was just the same when he got on the bench as he was when we used to sit here practicing law together. He never forgot that he himself was once in that position. We like him because of the fact that he could beat any one of us and make us feel very much as if we had won. You have often heard him say to some one in the court room after he had decided against him, ' that was a great victory, young man, that you had this morning;' and we like him for that sentence which he often uttered from the Bench, and which it has been our pleasure to listen to: 'Yes, we will go on with this case; we will give speedy and exact justice.'
" I can't help it, Mr. Chairman; you must pardon, if not me, the happy spirit which compels me to relate stories in illustrating points in my brief.
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" I am convinced that you gentlemen, who have for years associated with our brilliant Justice, and been made satisfied by his good-natured jests and ready wit, even if he finally decided against you, and you have gone off with his admoni- tion, 'Don't take life too seriously, young man,' ringing in your ears, will recognize this occasion to be one of unusual mutual rejoicing, when even my jokes, though you have heard them before, are admissible. This is certainly a joyous time, similar, perhaps, to that when even the Constitution was not permitted to stand between friends.
" On this occasion we are endeavoring to reflect that good nature and happy disposition of which our proposed nominee is so richly endowed.
" Some one may, in the hereafter, refer to this joint action of two warring political bodies as an illustration of the sacred story of the lion and lamb getting together and an innocent child leading them. Again I give hearty accord to this nomination."
The committee, consisting of one from each party, appointed to notify the nominee and escort him before the joint conven- tion, waited upon Justice Keogh, who was in the Judges' room, off the old Court Room, where the convention had been held.
When Justice Keogh entered the room, escorted by the com- mittee, he was greeted by hearty hand-clappings, the many in the crowded room vieing with each other in attempts to manifest their pleasure in being permitted to take part in so unusual a ceremony, the like of which was never before witnessed in this judicial district, if anywhere else in the State. Political party lines were eliminated for the time being; Democrats and Republicans were so intermingled that it was almost impossible to distinguish one from the other. It was a spontaneous out- pouring of good feeling expressed in honor of the worthy jurist who had inspired it.
Justice Keogh took his place upon the Bench before which he had appeared in years gone by as a most successful pleader, and where he had sat at different periods during nearly four- teen years past. He spoke in a tone usually used by him when addressing a jury ; several times he paused during the delivery, as if the grandeur and sentiment of the occasion were over- coming him, and he had difficulty in controlling his emotions.
Chairman Hunt in presenting him to the Convention said :
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"Gentlemen of the Judicial Convention: It is with the greatest pleasure that I shall present to you presently, your candidate for the office of Justice of the Supreme Court for the Ninth Judicial District. Some of us used to meet him before he was elected to the bench, and then we met him at the bar and our meetings were not always pleasant to us, but during the last fourteen years, we have all of us met him while he has been upon the bench, and those meetings have always been most pleasant.
"Gentlemen of the Convention, I present to you your nominee by unanimous choice, for Justice of the Supreme Court of the Ninth Judicial District."
After the plaudits of greeting had subsided sufficiently to permit his being heard, the Justice said :
" Fourteen years ago I was named by the Democratic Judi- ciary Convention as its candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court in the old Second Department. I was elected to that office.
" To-day another Democratic Judiciary Convention renomi- nated me for the same office, and a Republican Judiciary Con- vention, representing my Republican fellow-citizens, have united in making that nomination unanimous. By so doing you have sounded a note in favor of a non-partisan judiciary which will re-echo throughout the Ninth Judicial District for all time. You have plucked the high office of Justice of the Supreme Court out of the maelstrom of partisan politics.
" How can I in meager words tell you how highly I value this honor? It has every element that makes it dear to me. It comes from my professional brethren. It comes from political allies and from generous political adversaries. Personal vanity could desire no more. It is a public servant's fullest measure of compensation.
" It is a great pleasure to me to see the friends and neigh- bors who were my friends and supporters fourteen years ago with me to-day. A man who loses old friends is unworthy of new ones. To the members of the bar of Putnam, Dutchess, Orange and Rockland Counties I am profoundly grateful for their unanimous commendation, and these gentlemen will par- don me if I say I am specially pleased with the support I received from the members of the bar of my own County of Westchester, with whom I have lived and labored from my earliest manhood.
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" Together we tried cases in this old court room. They were delightful colleagues and honorable adversaries. Together we toiled to build our homes in this beautiful County, and together we have reaped the fruit of our labors, if not in great, at least in sufficient plenty.
" To find them all with me to-day is a great reward and a great happiness. Nothing that may come to me in life's mys- terious changes will I ever value half as much as I do this.
" I must not forget to thank the editors of all the papers in the Ninth District who, without one note of discord, have advocated my re-election.
" I confess I am proud of all this, yet what can I say or what can I do but give you my word that during my new term I will strive as I did during the old to prove myself worthy of the people's trust-that I will be a Justice of the Supreme Court for the whole people, upholding justice and mercy, no matter how feebly they may be defended, opposing injustice and cruelty no matter how powerfully they may be advocated and regardless of who or what the suitor may be or under what sun he may have been born.
" I have no enemies to punish, no enmities to gratify, no reprisals to make, and if the roll of the lawyers of the Ninth Judicial District were called I would not find a man upon it whom I have not trusted and not one who has shown himself unworthy of my confidence.
" I hope in the years to come the mutual confidence and respect which have always honorably distinguished the rela- tions between the bench and the bar of the Second Department will grow stronger and closer and warmer as the years go by, that when my work is done your judgment of me may be as generous and charitable as it is to-day and that I may be rich, happy and blessed in the possession of your respect, confidence and affection."
At the polls in November, 1909, the people approved his joint nomination by giving Justice Keogh a unanimous re-election.
IN THE JOURNALISTIC FIELD.
In the United States and Canada there are, in round numbers, 3,000 or more daily newspapers, not to mention those published weekly. It is estimated that there are 65,000 newspapers and other periodicals in the world; 25,000 or more as published in the United States. The newspaper however is an Italian inven- tion, the first newspaper was edited by Julius Caesar; he used the dead walls of Rome to display bulletins of the news-news carefully colored to suit the political views of J. Caesar. Yet the first regular publication of a newspaper was Italian, called "Gazetta," from which comes the English newspaper title "'Gazette."
The first newspaper venture in America was a tragic failure. Mr. Richard Pierce, of Boston, in 1690, began the publication of "Publick Occurrences." He declared in his salutatory that there were too many unfounded and baseless rumors floating about Boston, and that the mission of his paper was to record them, and then trace them to their source. Mr. Pierce appears to be entitled to the honor of being the first journalistic muck- raker. But those were cruel times, and the Legislature sup- pressed the sheet after its first issue, solemnly declaring it to be "a pamphlet which came out contrary to law, and contained reflections of a very high nature."
A generation later Benjamin Franklin confided to his mother his intention to start a newspaper. The worthy woman ex- claimed: "What can you be thinking of, there are two news- papers in America now!" As a matter of fact there were five, but three of them were so far away that Mrs. Franklin had not heard of them.
The first daily newspaper in the United States, "The American Daily Advertiser," appeared in Philadelphia in 1784.
The New York "Herald," founded by James Gordon Bennett in 1835, was the first of the modern school of newspapers. In December of that year a great fire in New York destroyed prop- erty worth $20,000,000. Mr. Bennett wrote a report of the fire, with "human interest" embellishments. The people were astounded, and the story was repeated in the "Herald" the
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second day in response to popular demand. Before that time newspapers had devoted practically all their attention to politics and political news, and to news from other cities. Local news was ignored. If a fire occurred, it was supposed that everybody knew about it already, and that it would be silly to print any- thing about it. That attitude toward local news is responsible for the fact that the first voyage of Robert Fulton's "Cler- mont" was considered to be worth only seven lines in the New York "Evening Post," and not until after an advertisement of the rates of passage to Albany was inserted. Mr. Bennett wrote all about the great fire, and made the great discovery that the people who see a thing are the very people who most want to read about it. He made another discovery at the same time, that "human interest" is quite as much a feature of the news as is "importance."
These beginnings of the newspaper business were small and insignificant compared with the journalism of to-day. The invention of the locomotive and the telegraph, each in turn, aided enormously in the development of the press. But the Civil War in America was the most potent factor in the evolu- tion of the newspaper of to-day. During that conflict the American newspapers began the use of the telegraph for gath- ering news, they illustrated their despatches with drawings and maps, and they learned how to write headlines and turn out extras.
The next great event in the development of the American press was the Spanish-American War. It wasn't much of a war, as we see it now, but it seemed to be the biggest thing in the world just then. And the newspapers did seemingly impossible things every day, which they have continued to do every day since. The close of the war didn't end the war journalism at all. For the past decade there has been little change in Ameri- can newspapers except that they have shared in the wonderful growth of the nation.
COUNTY NEWSPAPERS OF EARLY DATE.
" The art preservative " and the Journalistic spirit invaded the County at an early period. The earliest Journal of which we have date was the one which appeared in 1817; previous to that time residents had to depend for record of happenings upon newspapers published in New York city.
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The first specimen of Westchester County journalism was the Westchester Herald, established in 1817, in Mount Pleasant, which at that date contained the locality now known as Ossining. The next newspaper started in hopes of meeting public favor, and necessary support to keep alive its circulation, was the Hudson River Chronicle, launched in about the same locality as its predecessor, in Ossining, in 1836. The Herald held its own for a considerable number of years and both papers were edited by men of recognized ability.
The fact that the north section of the County monopolized the local field of journalism, is explained by the fact that the north section was more thickly populated than other portions of the County.
The Westchester Herald was published by Caleb Ruscoe, to whom is related George I. Ruscoe who has been Supervisor of the town of Poundridge since the year 1893.
The Hudson River Chronicle displayed at the head of its col- umns the names of A. H. Wells as editor and M. L. Cobb as printer; together with the motto: " Pledged to no party's arbitrary sway, we follow the truth where'er it leads the way."
The Eastern State Journal, established in 1845, by E. G. Sutherland, is still being issued; the present editor being Charles D. Horton.
The next newspaper, and the first to appear in the town of Yonkers, was the Yonkers Herald, in 1852, and published by Thomas Smith, who in later years published the first Daily Newspaper published in the County. On the first page of the Yonkers Herald, directly under and part of the head-lines, was the motto: "Independent in all things, neutral in nothing." Mr. Smith's three sons are now editors and publishers of County newspapers.
CAPTORS OF ANDRE.
ALL HONOR TO PAULDING, WILLIAMS AND VAN WART.
Perhaps no event in the Revolutionary period of our country bears a more conspicuous place in history than that of the capture of Major John André, the British spy, at Tarrytown, in Westchester County, on September 23, 1780, by John Pauld- ing, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart, honest yeomen, resi- dents of this county. No history of Westchester County can be complete without mentioning this event so closely identified with the county and with the patriotic action of residents.
There is no incident of the American Revolution, so often told, so widely known, and so fraught with romance, with patriotism, and with pathos, as the story of the capture of Major André. Into that story enters all the elements that survive, in poetic shape, the prosaic sufferings and the puny passions of war. It is conspicuous among the many adventures and exploits of the seven years' conflict. First of all for the magnificent and pictorial exhibit it makes of the staunch, inflex- ible loyalty of our county yeomen during the Revolutionary struggle.
Time has commended the virtue and patriotism of Paulding, Williams and Van Wart, who, in capturing André, and in spurning his golden bribes, proved themselves worthy com- panions of the noble men who fought and bled in " the days that tried men's souls."
When we read this story, and consider all its startling details, we are impressed by the stern, patriotic dignity of Gen. Wash- ington, the grace and accomplishments of the unfortunate André, and the daring boldness and vindictive treachery of Arnold-of that Arnold whose skill and courage shone so con- spicuously when conducting the expedition against Canada, through the forests of Maine; overcoming difficulties and dan- gers that were deemed insurmountable; and whose frantic bravery, on the plains of Saratoga, made him the favorite warrior of the people, and rendered more striking the treachery
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that cast him down from the height of American regard to the lowest depths of scorn and detestation.
At no period during the American struggle for independence was Westchester County exempt from the evils of war. The close proximity to New York city and the British army head- quarters, and easy accessibility for purposes of raiding by the enemy, kept residents in constant anxiety. The Highlands of the Hudson constituted the strongholds of the American Army. While other portions of the country were occasionally invaded, here the contest was unceasing. The British Government at all times saw that the full possession of the valley of the Hud- son, on their part would divide and weaken the power of the colonists, and would destroy all hopes of their maintaining the freedom of our country. The greatest effort put forth by England was confined in its operations to our own territories, from New York up along through the Hudson Valley; and she selected for the march of her combining armies the same avenues through which commerce now pours its full tide, where the savage made his war path, and where she had struggled with her ancient foe during the French War. New York was invaded simultaneously through the valley of the Upper Hud- son by her disciplined troops under Burgoyne, by her fleets ascending the river, under Clinton, and by her savage allies under Saint Leger, who were to exert all their forms of warfare, and to combine their strength at Albany; thus to separate the New England States from the rest of the Colonies.
The British power, of twenty thousand well-appointed troops, held in New York, desired, above all things, first, free com- munication with its army in Canada; second, to obstruct inter- course between the American forces in New England, and those in New Jersey ; the third, to gain possession of those large stores, provisions and munitions of war which the Americans had collected, and without which all further resistance against the British must apparently cease. All these ends would be attained by possession of the Hudson River, guarded solely by the cannon that bristled upon Fort Putnam, and the brave hearts who, under Arnold's orders, manned the fortress, perched upon the West Point hills. To wrest that fortress from Ameri- can hands by superior valor, or by superior power, the British troops had proved unequal. And John André was commissioned to buy with gold what steel could not conquer; to drive a bargain with one ready for a price to become a traitor; to count
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out the " thirty pieces of silver," by which British Generals and British gentlemen were not ashamed to purchase the betrayal of a cause, whose shining virtue repelled their power, and dimmed the glory of their arms.
It was no evidence of commendable valor on the part of André this undertaking of a mission which he believed to be an easy task. André, who had known before her marriage the wife of General Arnold in Philadelphia-in which city, at the time, André was a leader in society-entered into correspondence with Arnold and was the agent through whom Arnold bar- gained, for the price of £6,000 and a commission in the British Army, not only to surrender West Point, but also to turn over to the enemy the person of Gen. Washington, of Gen. LaFayette and all other American Generals he could persuade to be his guests in the Robinson house, his quarters, on the night of Sep- tember 26, when the British, it was arranged, would make the attack. Gen. Washington and other officers were to be sur- prised in the dead hour of night, while they slept. Following these important captures, the garrison of West Point was to be given up. Thus the end of the war was to be secured.
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