CHAPTER XVIII.

More about the Syracuse Convention-An Array of Strong Men-The Writer Acts with the Barnburners-The Herkimer Convention-Who Were There and What Was Done.

There was an extraordinary amount of talent in the democratic state convention held in 1847. Horatio Seymour was there, afterwards governor of the state; Rufus W. Peckham, subsequently a justice of the supreme court and judge of the court of appeals; C. C. Cambreleng, a distinguished member of congress; J. R. Doolittle, afterwards U. S. Senator from Wisconsin ; Martin Grover, for many years judge of the court of appeals; E. G. Lapham, late U. S. Senator from New York; James C. Smith, now and for a long time a justice of the supreme court; David S. Broderick, afterwards U. S. senator from California; George Rathbun, of Auburn, for several terms a leading member of congress; James S. Wadsworth, a distinguished general in the late war, who lost his life in the battle of the Wilderness; Preston King, afterwards U. S. senator from New York; David Dudley Field, the well-known New York lawyer; Eugene Casserly, subsequently U. S. senator from California; besides Judge Monell, from one of the river counties; James T. Brady, one of the most brilliant lawyers of the city of New York; George P. Barker, of Buffalo, fifty years ago the finest speaker in western New York; Peter Cagger, a distinguished lawyer and politician in Albany; John Cramer, the old democratic war horse of Saratoga; John Stryker, who died at Rome a few years ago, and who for years was one of the most influential democratic politicians in the state;

Darius A. Ogden, of Yates county, afterwards canal commissioner, canal appraiser, &c. John Van Buren was elected to the convention, but his seat was contested and he was excluded. It will be seen that there was an array of strong men such as do not often get together in a single convention. Nor is it at all likely that the list given embraces the names of all who might properly be placed there. I mention such as I happen to recollect as acting conspicuous parts in the convention.

I was present as a spectator and reporter; was there through the greater part of the performance, which lasted full four days, of twelve hours each, counting the sessions held in the evening, some of which lasted till 12 o'clock at night. I remember all the persons named about as well as if the convention had been held a week ago. A feeling akin to sadness comes over me when I reflect that almost all the actors in that memorable assemblage are sleeping in their graves; at least, the bodies of most of them were consigned to earth long ago. I visited the monument erected to the memory of poor Broderick, who was shot in a duel which he unwisely allowed himself to be engaged in, in the cemetery overlooking the Golden Gate, a couple of miles outside San Francisco, when I was in California in 1882. It was one of the conspicuous objects in the beautiful grounds. Broderick was a stone-cutter by trade, if I remember right, large and awkward in person, a hard, harsh speaker, but possessed of much natural ability and good impulses.

Mr. Barker, of Buffalo, was one of the finest looking men in the convention, as he was perhaps the most charming speaker. He was tall and erect, and a captivating talker. This was his last appearance in any convention. He died the following January. Next to him was Mr. Brady, a somewhat smaller man, but a very graceful and easy speaker. He has been dead a good many years.

Caucuses were held by both factions when the convention was not in session. I attended those of the barnburners, and of course became acquainted with all the leaders. In fact, I was considered one of them. I remember inquiring at one of these gatherings what course the democratic editors were expected to pursue during the campaign, in case the barnburners should all be thrown overboard and an out-and-out hunker ticket nominated? John Van Buren replied, saying the barnburner papers should be devoted to literary reading. He assumed there would be no bolting the ticket; but he thought that news and miscellany should receive more attention than politics for a few weeks. Spoken in John's inimitable way, there was little room for mistaking the position he expected the organs of the barnburners to occupy with reference to the ticket which was likely to be nominated.

Up to this date I had been an intense and bitter partisan-as much so as can be found to-day in the ranks of either the present political parties. I considered the meanest, most disreputable democrat as being altogether preferable to any kind of a whig, for whigs were all alike in my estimation, thoroughly dishonest and unspeakably bad. So my party was to be upheld whatever it did, and the other was to be condemned and denounced, let it do what it would. But just now the democratic party had got by the ears. It was split asunder. It was composed of two factions. I could not go with both, but gave my adhesion to the one which appeared to me to be nearest right. I never was the friend of African slavery or any other. I was always in favor of equal rights to all. I never could see any reason why one man was not as good as another if he deported himself as well. I used to quarrel with the democrats, and tell them that they did not live up to their professions; that there was a good deal of aristocracy among them, based

upon the fact that some of them had enjoyed better advantages than others.

It came like pulling teeth to fight democrats; but there appeared to be no alternative. To justify the acts of the barnburners, it became necessary to criticise, condemn and denounce the unreasonable conduct of the hunkers; and I did it. I spread before my readers the proceedings of the Syracuse convention. I told them just how everything was done as well as I was able. I told the truth as I understood it; and the result was that the great body of my readers went with me. I think the political press exerted an influence forty and fifty years ago that it does not wield today. Since the telegraph came into use newspapers publish the news to a much greater extent than formerly; hence people see a good deal of both sides and form their own conclusions. They read what the editor has to say, and weigh it in the light of known facts, and sometimes reach conclusions exactly opposite to those he arrives at. People are more enlightened than they once were. There is less difference between the editorial writer and the ordinary reader than formerly existed. I am led to these observations by an occurrence happening that fall. Meeting a hunker friend from one of the eastern towns the day after the election, he expressed his opinion of me, and it was not at all complimentary, either. "Among your subscribers at our postoffice," said he, "there was scarcely one that would touch the democratic ticket when they came to the polls yesterday. In fact, we could tell who took the paper by their treatment of the ballot. Nearly all cut it." With the great body of the barnburners I left the democratic camp at that time, and I have never found any good opportunity to return. Many of the notions of old-time democracy I heartily subscribe to, and I am unable to see how they conflict with the sentiments of the modern republican party. Jefferson was as much op

posed to the extension of slavery to free territory as any member of the present republican organization ever was, and General Jackson was as strongly devoted to the preservation of the Union as Abraham Lincoln.

After the adjournment of the convention a democratic mass meeting was called at Herkimer the 26th of October. It was understood that the notice was smuggled into the columns of the Albany Atlas by Peter Cagger without the knowledge of the publishers. Nevertheless the meeting was held, and was well attended. It was addressed by David Wilmot, author of the Wilmot Proviso, by John Van Buren, Mr. Cambreleng of Suffolk, J. W. Taylor of Ohio, Mr. Kilbern of Albany, E. G. Lapham of Ontario, John Cochrane of New York, General Nye of Madison and Mr. Davis of Erie. John Van Buren made a speech which kept the audience in a roar of laughter from the beginning to the close. His opening words were, "Fellow citizens and-fellow traitors!" John could beat the world in ridicule and withering sarcasm, and on this occasion he was in his happiest mood. The speech was a side-splitter. David Dudley Field was there, and introduced a string of resolutions, which are very good reading today. They of course embraced the one which the hunkers had voted down at Syracuse, against the extension of slavery.

The meeting wound up by calling another at Utica on the 22d of February, 1848, which was held and was presided over by General Dix, if I remember right, when a regular organization of the barnburner forces was effected.

The democrats were badly beaten at the election. The senate stood 24 whigs to 8 democrats, and the assembly 95 whigs to 33 democrats.

Among the senators chosen was the late John W. Tamblin in this district, John Fine in St Lawrence, and Thomas H. Bond in Oswego.