of all parties the sentiment appeared current that it mattered little what men filled the City offices-that whatever was the political complexion of the office-holder, they were all involved in a system of public plunder.' 2 Apropos of the City elections the World complacently remarked, "Our citizens are sure of an able, honest and economical administration of the Comptrollership." Greeley assured himself that "The lesson of defeat, if well studied, may be applied at some future time to a contest in earnest and a victory therefore assured."3 Of the nine aldermen elected, three were Republicans and the rest Democrats. Although in a hopeless minority, Don Alonzo Cushman, a wealthy and respected merchant, with William B. White and Eugene Ward, both prominent anti-fraud men, gave the Board of Aldermen "an element of intelligence to which it has been almost a stranger." 'New York Times, Dec. 3, 1866. 4 Ibid. CHAPTER VI THE SENATORIAL ELECTION OF 1867. 1 THE Chicago Times of November 12, 1866, asks the question: "Shall the Democratic Party Die or Live?" Subsequent events have proved that there was never a question of the permanent disruption of the Democratic Party. But, to the Democrats throughout the nation, and especially in New York State, the question as to their solidity was a serious one, as it has been at later times. The fact that a Republican legislature had been returned, immediately centered public eyes upon the campaign for a successor to Ira Harris in the United States Senate. The political pot among the various factions of the Republican Party was soon boiling. The field narrowed down to six contestants. The editor of the Tribune, ever a candidate for office, was among the first to announce his candidacy. In the Newburg Journal one finds a letter from Horace Greeley dated November 14, 1866, in which he says: "I shall certainly accept the Senatorship, and endeavor to discharge its duties should I be elected. And I shall be gratified to learn that our newly chosen Legislature shall judge me the man for the place.' Foremost among the Republican candidates was Charles 'Quoted in New York Times, Nov. 15, 1866. 2 He had just been badly defeated for Congress in the Fourth district by Mr. John Fox. However, it is no more than fair to Greeley to state that he did not expect an election, nor did anyone else, for the district was overwhelmingly Democratic. Newburg Journal, Nov. 15, 1866. Dated from the office of the Tribune, on Nov. 14, 1867. 144 [144 J. Folger formerly a county judge and at that time the president and leader of the State Senate where he had served for a number of years. Folger was an excellent lawyer, and impressive speaker, earnestly devoted to the proper discharge of his duties, and of extraordinarily fine personal appearance. . . . He was greatly beloved and admired, yet, with all his fine and attractive qualities, modest, and even diffident, to a fault." 1 Senator Ira Harris was graduated from Union College with first honors in 1824. He was elected to the State legislature in 1844 and was a member of the constitutional convention in 1846. In the fall of 1846, he was sent to the New York senate, but in the spring resigned his place for a seat on the bench of the State Supreme Court. He was re-elected for eight years in 1851. Beating such worthy competitors as William M. Evarts and Horace Greeley, he was elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1861, where he became a close personal friend of President Lincoln. While his service in the United States Senate was not conspicuous, he was noted for his industry.2 Roscoe Conkling grew up in an atmosphere of law and politics. He had great mental capacity but small desire for 'S. R. Harlow, S. C. Hutchins, Life Sketches of State Officers, Senators and Assemblymen of New York in 1868, pp. 81-4. Folger later became Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals and Secretary of the Treasury under President Arthur. 'History of the Bench and Bar New York, (New York, 1897), vol. i, p. 354. The World, after appreciating Senator Harris for the integrity of his private character and upright citizenship, says: "But he has little energy either of mind or character, no breadth, no capacity for leadership, no strong grasp of any great subject, nor even any of that stirring, inquisitive activity by which mediocre talents are sometimes enabled to act a prominent, though not a great part in public transactions." New York World, Jan. 10, 1867. Alfred R. Conkling, Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling, pp. 7-12. Conkling's father had been United States District Judge for twentyseven years. the academic halls. His desire for college was ever topped by an anxiety for real endeavor. He followed his father's profession, and was admitted to the bar before he was quite twenty-one.1 Shortly after he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of district attorney of Oneida County, and was renominated as his own successor in the fall. Under protest his friends nominated and elected him mayor of Utica in 1858. The following autumn, without solicitations on his part, he was offered the nomination for Congress. He was renominated four times for the same position, twice successfully.2 Noah Davis, after his admission to the bar in 1841, formed a partnership with Sanford E. Church at Albion, New York. In 1857 he was appointed by Governor King to the Supreme Court of New York, an office to which he was twice re-elected." While the World accredited him with being a "jurist of more than ordinary ability", still it prejudiced his cause by urging that he was "a Judge who, while in office, with all before him of theory and example to advise to the contrary, has attended political conventions and has been active as a politician." 4 Lyman Tremaine had held local offices and in 1847 was elected county judge but refused the certificate of election because of fraud in the voting. In 1857 he was elected attorney-general on the Democratic ticket. Joining the Unionist ranks at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was nominated by them for lieutenant-governor in 1862, and was elected to the assembly in 1865. The conviction of 1 Alfred R. Conkling, op. cit., p. 644. 'Ibid., pp. 644-5. The World, Jan. 9, 1867, placed Roscoe Conkling and Charles J. Folger in an intellectual class beyond all others named in the Senatorial race. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol. i, p. 236. New York World, Jan. 9, 1867. Tweed was largely due to his ability as a lawyer.1 When Mr. Tremaine withdrew from the Senatorial race he gave Conkling his support.2 A seventh candidate was suggested by a number of papers-George William Curtis, editor of Putnam's Magazine and of Harper's Weekly. Curtis was a distinguished student and littérateur. As a delegate to the national conventions of 1860 and 1864, he had been in active connection with national movements in politics. In the latter year he had failed of an election to Congress upon the Union ticket. Although expecting defeat, he had used his candidacy in 1864 to strengthen Lincoln. In the election of 1866, he was chosen as a delegate-at-large to the New York State Constitutional Convention. 3 The above gentlemen formed the nucleus for one of the most intense and interesting Senatorial campaigns in the history of our State. It should be stated in passing that the candidacies of Supreme Court Justice Ransom Balcom, of Binghamton: Mr. Calvin T. Hulburd, of St. Lawrence County, a politician of some local note; and Mr. Thomas G. Alvord, the Onondaga Chief, were not seriously considered outside of a few respective friends. The suggested services and abilities of the several candidates were sufficient to insure a contest worthy of the name. It was the death grapple between the old and the new elements in the Republican Party. 5 Mr. Greeley's early position of vantage in the Senatorial The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, op. cit., pp. 236, et seq. 'New York Herald, Jan. 8, 1867. Cary, George William Curtis (New York, 1894), pp. 183-5. 'New York World, Jan. 5, 1867. The New York Herald, Jan. 10, 1867, mentions that Alvord is still in the fight with ten or twelve votes pledged. |